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Hey guys i'm a returning 2nd edition player and am having some trouble in 8th. Loving 8th edition but need to get up to speed. Im down 1/3 against my brothers Tyranids.

1500 point games.

His army

3 units of genestealers. I think 30 in size.

3 brood lords

3 flyrants.

He deploys in a mass swarm on the front edge of deployment zone. His low unit count gives him first turn. He rushing the fast flyrants near anything that can shoot. They tie me up for a turn then his genestealer swarm charges on turn 2. (move 8 plus advance plus charge).

I think my army build is wrong and I need some deployment advice.

My army, Blood Angles.

Lemartes and sanguinary priest with plas pistol and power maul. Both with jump packs.

30 DC with chainswords and jump packs in 2 units

10 tac marines with 2 storm bolters in 2 units.

5 Rievers just cause they are so Blood Angel. Pistol and sword no grav chute. I think I may need to drop these guys for this match up.

1 basic Dreadnaught with Assault cannon and dual auto cannon. I did try him with heavy flamer and power fist also.

1 razorback with dual assualt cannon, storm bolter and HK missle.

10 Devastators in 5 man teams. 2xLascannon 2xHeavy Bolter with Cherub.

Want to keep the DC if possible for fluff reasons, everything else is up for grabs. Would really appreciate some build tips and deployment tips. Need to get some wins on the table!

Just to clarify, he's putting 90 genestealers on the table? Daaamn.

Personally, the main idea is to starve him of easy wounds. In terms of strats, this means screening, flamers, and spacing to avoid consolidation into units. The other half of this is just putting out firepower that is as close to enough dakka as is physically possible, along with some meaningful stuff for a few targets. So:

-Aggressors could be super good. I know they're overpriced, but damn are they sexy and look pretty good here. Lots of dakka, and flame for overwatch, could be devastating
-Dunno about devs. If it's 4 heavy weapons I'm a bit ambivalent, if it's 8 then that could be pretty solid, so may work out ok? Playtest it.
-See if you can squeeze in some counts as combi flamers, and maybe some heavy flamers. Super blood angels, and pretty solid for screening/overwatch.
-Chuck some thunderhammers on the DC. You may need to cut numbers of something, but I do think being able to put some hurt onto the flyrants would be good? Plasma pistols are cheap and could also do the job.
-Dakka dread is nice, defs keep him
-If you can proxy it, another razor would be good but idk if you have the points available?

Yeah I have lots of Blood angles so for a 1500 point game I can pick and choose most things. Devastators were pretty good back in second I think. I basically use them for the lascannons to hit the Monster units and vehicles. With the cherub and signum you get 2 shots hitting on 2s for round one plus 1 hitting on 3s. I'm bringing the 2 heavy bolters just because they are cheap. With flying units though the devastators seem very vulnerable. I could swap them for a razorback its 140 points per squad. I was thinking I might need a storm raven.

You need flyers and vehicles. Genestealers and brood lords cant attack flyers. Also flyers can only be attacked by flyers in CC, and they cant be tied up, they can simply move away and still shoot. Drop the 10 tac marines and the reivers. Infantry is squishy. Reduce your units until you have less than he has, this will give you first turn. Drop the assault cannon on the dread against something that has 48" range. Use lascannons on the devastators to take out any anti air he might have. Once you have eliminated all his anti air you can safely kill him from the air.

Right okay if you've got the collection for it, stormraven all the way. The sheer amount of hurt that can put out, combined with MC hurt from missiles is absolutely mental. Completely agree with p5freak, just assumed you were working with limited resources?

Well, as said, you need more dakka.
Storm Ravens or Baal Predators and Razorbacks have decent firepower vs infantry.

Baal preds are way to expensive. A razorback with twin assault cannon is 40 pts. cheaper and can do the same. A captain next to the razorback(s) let's you reroll 1s.

Im a nid player and i can see why you have problems, your trying to beat it the wrong way.The 30 DC are just to much of something you don't need in a small battle. but if you take them you should go for the bolt gun because your never getting the charge on those stealers.... they have 6 sorcerers giving feel no pain and giving units extra movement.
just deep strike behind the stealers and bolter them in the back your going to kill about 5 of them per unit (i did the math your brother has 29 stealers not 30 ) after you shoot them from the back you can bolter them from the front in a cross fire there will not be any left and poef only characters are left
now just pick them off 1 by one .
So getting back to dealing with nids ignore the tyrants and see what happens

On the other side of the table don't take expensive stuff
just bog standard tactical marines or devastators full squads brake them up in combat squads .. so they can only target 1/2 a squad at a time does help if you have bad luck on the saves
If you want and sprinkel with few weapons like heavy bolter and plasma guns These have more range then nid weapons . believe me enough bolter fire will bring down all nids.

if it was up to me i drop down steun guard in a pod and shoot with combi plasma getting 4 shots per model @ bs4+ 2S7 2S4

any way i made a list with your wishes with death guard
+++ New Roster (WH40k 8th Mobile) [1488 Pts, 48 Pwr] +++
++ Vanguard (CP +1) (Space Marines) ++
+ Elites +
10 x Death Company with Jump Packs: 10x Boltgun
10 x Death Company with Jump Packs: 10x Boltgun,
10 x Death Company with Jump Packs: 10x Boltgun
+ HQ +
Lemartes
++ Battalion (CP +3) (Space Marines) ++
+ Troops +
10 x Tactical Marines, Heavy Bolter, Plasma Gun
10 x Tactical Marines, Heavy Bolter, Plasma Gun
10 x Tactical Marines, Heavy Bolter, Plasma Gun
7 x Tactical Marines, Heavy Bolter, Plasma Gun
+ HQ +
Captain with Jump Pack: Chainsword, Master-crafted Boltgun
Chaplain with Jump Pack: Boltgun

Created with BattleScribe

Thanks guys. My collection is bit old but I can add to it. This is a list i've drummed up from what I have plus getting a storm raven. Storm Ravens are fierce!

Here is a list I can field trying to use your advice.

Lemartes

Sanguinary priest with power axe

16 DC. Bolt pistol/chainsword, 10 in the Stormraven with the HQ and 6 in razorback. 1 thunder hammer in the razorback for Flyrant swatting.

20 Devastators in 4 squads. 2 squads have 1 lascannon and a cherub. 2 squads have a heavy bolter and 2/3 storm
bolters. (Turns out devastators cost the same as Tac marines?)

2 Razorbacks with dual assault cannons and storm bolters.

1 StormRaven with twin assualt cannon, twin heavy bolter, 2 hurricane bolters and 2 stomstrike launchers

3 Inceptors with dual Assualt bolters.

1499pts.

I make this as 8 units to deploy which is under his 9. First turn Dakka!


The Inceptors are pretty unique. Move 10" jump infantry with dual assault heavy bolters. But for 180pts (Much debate on this number), this is from Codex Space marine. My thoughts were they could drop in behind like you had recommended with the Botler DC and pull him in 2 directions. I could drop them for another Razorback, I have 3, and some points left over.

You need more vehicles and less infantry. Drop some devastators for the third razorback. Adding a captain lets you reroll any 1s on to hit rolls. I have a captain around my twin assault cannon razorbacks and i average about 10 hits per razorback.

p5freak wrote:
You need more vehicles and less infantry. Drop some devastators for the third razorback. Adding a captain lets you reroll any 1s on to hit rolls. I have a captain around my twin assault cannon razorbacks and i average about 10 hits per razorback.

A Captain is a great add-on to a shooty army.
Razorbacks are indeed more efficient that Baal Predators. However, I dont understand why both have the same profile. Predators had a better front armor in the past.

These are great tips guys. I know vehicles are probably the more competitive option at the moment. But I like to have some space marines in my space marine army. Ill cut 5 devs with 1 HB and 1 SB. Swap the Priest to a power maul and drop the HK missle on the razorback and drop the Thunder hammer from the DC trooper. That lets me have the Captain with a Thunder hammer and storm bolter hanging out with the 2 razorbacks and 6 DC marines. Get those re rolls plus some decent counter punch to the inevitable Flyrant attack. Also comes to 1500pts on the nose which is nice Plus the Captain can deploy in the Razorback with no disadvantage so down to 7 drops for deployment.