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Hi, i'm going to be playing my first ever full game vs my friend who has an army of Nids, I'm wondering if there is anything I need to be aware of playing the eldar, he says im going to get wrecked because of something to do with my phyic ability's? I got a second hand army for dirt cheap consisting of:
-16 guardians
-5 swooping hawks
-5 warp spiders
-An Eldar warlock with singing spear
-An Eldar warlock with witch blade
-7 rangers
-3 jetbikes
-7 fire dragons
-5 howling banshees
-5 dark reapers
-Eldar Farseer

Thanks in advance!

Tyranids can do quite well in the psychic phase due to being able to field a decent number of psykers with ML2 Hive Tyrants and Zoanthropes. And Tervigons if people still field them much in competetive play.

Your army seems rather...ramshackle? It's got a very battle force style feel in that there's a bit of everything in it without any real focus. And yes, that list isn't really competetive.

Luckily, generally a Tyranid army is only really capable of high level play with a small handful of builds, most of them focused on skyblight swarms.

But without an idea of your enemy's Tyranid army I can't really help you beyond giving you general anti-tyranid tactics with the disclaimer that I don't play small games much and have spent a lot of my time playing with fandexes or highly customized reboots of 40k.

Perhaps your biggest problem that I can see right off the bat is that you don't have any transport for those Fire Dragons or Howling Banshees. Neither is going to survive the trek to get into range (well, maybe the Fire dragons can do a bit better since they don't need to get into half-range). And even those guardians are all too vulnerable to anti-infantry shooting, though luckily the Tyranids usually play within a range that the Guardians can fire at without taking shots to get there.

Bikes should be used to take objectives at the last moment, and you'd preferably want your HQs on bikes too as it substantially increases their durability, firepower, and speed.

But really, your list just isn't optimised to be good at well...anything. I'd expand that whenever you have the time, will, and money.

It would help to know your points level and if you have any idea what you are up against. With what you have, you are best off in a small point game.

Against bugs, you need mass dakka for the little ones, and high S low AP for the big ones. Generally you want to avoid melee unless you absolutely have to. If your on foot, mawlocs, flyrants and bioviores are your top priority of things to kill.

Guardians bring lots of dakka that can kill hordes and rend the big nasties. I would take all that you have and a heavy weapon platform if you have one. With the new psychic rules, warlocks get conceal/reveal off the bat, plus another power from the table. They add significant buffing and a witchblade for emergency melee.

Your only HQ is the farseer, but farseers are solid choices. If you go for broke rolling on telepathy and score invisibility your golden, but divination and runes of fate have good stuff as well. Can't really go wrong here. Anchor your seer with the guardians for leadership and to keep em safe.

Rangers are fantastic at killing MC's, so I would take them as well. As said above, jetbikes are great for scoring.

Hawks are your go to for horde control between grenade packs, plasma grenades and lasblasters. You really want six to unlock the large blast from the grenade pack, so if you could proxy or get another that would be a good idea. An exarch with a sunrifle is good but not required.

Spiders are good against...basically everything so I would take them too.

Reapers can threaten MC's if you take starshot missiles, but the starswarm is decent ROF if you need to kill the little ones. Always take an exarch with night vision and fast shot.

All that above, I would take a list like this for a 1k.

Farseer: Spirit stone
Warlock w/spear

7 dragons

16 guardians w/scatter laser
7 rangers
3 bikes

5 spiders
5 hawks

5 reapers w/starshot, exarch w/starshot, fast shot&night vision.

 Kain wrote:
Tyranids can do quite well in the psychic phase due to being able to field a decent number of psykers with ML2 Hive Tyrants and Zoanthropes. And Tervigons if people still field them much in competetive play.

Your army seems rather...ramshackle? It's got a very battle force style feel in that there's a bit of everything in it without any real focus. And yes, that list isn't really competetive.

Luckily, generally a Tyranid army is only really capable of high level play with a small handful of builds, most of them focused on skyblight swarms.

But without an idea of your enemy's Tyranid army I can't really help you beyond giving you general anti-tyranid tactics with the disclaimer that I don't play small games much and have spent a lot of my time playing with fandexes or highly customized reboots of 40k.

Perhaps your biggest problem that I can see right off the bat is that you don't have any transport for those Fire Dragons or Howling Banshees. Neither is going to survive the trek to get into range (well, maybe the Fire dragons can do a bit better since they don't need to get into half-range). And even those guardians are all too vulnerable to anti-infantry shooting, though luckily the Tyranids usually play within a range that the Guardians can fire at without taking shots to get there.

Bikes should be used to take objectives at the last moment, and you'd preferably want your HQs on bikes too as it substantially increases their durability, firepower, and speed.

But really, your list just isn't optimised to be good at well...anything. I'd expand that whenever you have the time, will, and money.

Yeah, Like i said I got it second hand for dirt cheap so I will be adding to it for sure. My codex is in the mail so I have no idea the point values sadly but Im looking for basic anti Nid tatics. My friend said something like I die if I get within "synaps range"?

Ehh. The 'Shadow in the Warp' rule is what he's referencing, which reduces LD by 3 when in 12" range. It's not that amazing.

If you kill his synapse creatures, however, he will not be able to control many of his LD6-7 little bugs - shoot the synapse away and you'll likely have no issues.

SBG wrote:
Ehh. The 'Shadow in the Warp' rule is what he's referencing, which reduces LD by 3 when in 12" range. It's not that amazing.

If you kill his synapse creatures, however, he will not be able to control many of his LD6-7 little bugs - shoot the synapse away and you'll likely have no issues.

Word, and several of the main Synapse critters are T4, so its a worthwhile task to grab S8 weapons where you can find them. Eldar in general, have no use for missles, but vs Nids they can be useful.

SBG wrote:
Ehh. The 'Shadow in the Warp' rule is what he's referencing, which reduces LD by 3 when in 12" range. It's not that amazing.

If you kill his synapse creatures, however, he will not be able to control many of his LD6-7 little bugs - shoot the synapse away and you'll likely have no issues.

Ah, alright. Hes saying that nids are anti phykers, is this true, and if it is, HOW are they?

cosmicsoybean wrote:

SBG wrote:
Ehh. The 'Shadow in the Warp' rule is what he's referencing, which reduces LD by 3 when in 12" range. It's not that amazing.

If you kill his synapse creatures, however, he will not be able to control many of his LD6-7 little bugs - shoot the synapse away and you'll likely have no issues.

Ah, alright. Hes saying that nids are anti phykers, is this true, and if it is, HOW are they?

Tyranids used to be awesome at anti-psyker. Many of their units create a 12" bubble, in which psykers are always at -3 Leadership. However, this did not get FAQd and so has very little impact on the new psychic phase. It does mean that perils sucks if you're near Tyranids, but it doesn't make powers any harder to cast than normal.

Suffice to say, Tyranid players are unhappy with this.

 jifel wrote:

cosmicsoybean wrote:

SBG wrote:
Ehh. The 'Shadow in the Warp' rule is what he's referencing, which reduces LD by 3 when in 12" range. It's not that amazing.

If you kill his synapse creatures, however, he will not be able to control many of his LD6-7 little bugs - shoot the synapse away and you'll likely have no issues.

Ah, alright. Hes saying that nids are anti phykers, is this true, and if it is, HOW are they?

Tyranids used to be awesome at anti-psyker. Many of their units create a 12" bubble, in which psykers are always at -3 Leadership. However, this did not get FAQd and so has very little impact on the new psychic phase. It does mean that perils sucks if you're near Tyranids, but it doesn't make powers any harder to cast than normal.

Suffice to say, Tyranid players are unhappy with this.

Ah okay. Me and my friend are both very new and hes not telling me anything about nids so im pretty worried about fighting him with his "counter" to eldar. I might play my Necrons though (who im much more experienced with):
20 warriors
5 Deathmarks
5 Canoptek Scarab swarms
1 doomsday arc
1 anniliation barge
1 Monolyth
1 (i forget the name) "the walker"
1 Necron overlord

Okay guys, I found out what list of troops he has, he will be using:
1 Swarmlord
1 Tyrannofex
7 Genestealers
24 Homagaunts
10 Gargoyles

If that is all your opponent is bringing then he is pretty screwed. The Swarlord is strong but slow and only has a 3+ save with no invul until melee. If swarmy gets into melee he probably won't be stopped by anything you have, but shooting should drop him pretty easy. After he goes down Synapse is toast. Then his hormagaunts have a pretty good chance of literally eating themselves. The hormagaunts are a significant threat if they get close. on the charge those 24 could put out alot of hurt to about anything. but they are fragile at T 3 and only a 6+ save. Something needs to focus fire on them early because horms move across the table quickly.
The Gargoyles are in much too small of a brood to be effective. They will only put out a single S4 AP 5 shot at 12". Even if they get close it should be very easy to shoot them off the board or assault an win pretty quickly. Don't focus alot of attention on them.
The Genestealers are very scary. . . once in melee. they are relatively fast but there isn't a reliable way to get them where they need to be. Avoid CC with them like the plague. Shoot them until they are gone. Shouldn't take much only a 5+ save.
The Tyrannofex is a very hard unit to kill. The only 2+ save in the book and T 6 W6 as well. Depending on the weapons load out he has, it could be even worse. Possibly a really scary torrent flamer. Once he is in range your fire dragons should put a pretty good hole in him.

Most importantly focus your targets. There are multiple strong threats here so you need to drop them one at a time. If you can put down the Swarmlord, then everything but the Genestealers should have troubles operating as normal. Anything that can't fire at the swarmlord should focus and the next closest significant threat. . . probably not the Gargoyles. If you can shoot the genestealers and hormagaunts off the board then the board is yours.

On a different note that list would have to be fully upgrade maxed out to reach 1000pts. This is far from a winning list at that pt level.

cosmicsoybean wrote:
Okay guys, I found out what list of troops he has, he will be using:
1 Swarmlord
1 Tyrannofex
7 Genestealers
24 Homagaunts
10 Gargoyles

Here are your tactics:

1 Swarmlord - Stay out of range of him. Remember that you have the "Battle Focus" rule that lets you shoot, and then run. So shoot at it, then move away from it. Make sure he won't be able to assault you during his turn. Don't bother shooting at it unless you don't have another target, or everything else is dead. When you're ready to start shooting at it, use your Dark Reapers and Warp Spiders, or your Fire Dragons.

1 Tyrannofex - This really depends on which version he takes. There is a devastating close range version, or a long range anti-tank version. If he takes the close-range version, try to kill it with Fire Dragons. It has a 2+ save, so anything else you shoot at it will just bounce off. If he takes the long range version, just stay away from it. It's mostly for anti-vehicle, so it won't be doing too much to you.

7 Genestealers - Kill them as soon as possible. Make sure to keep any troops near them in Difficult Terrain, so they will have to charge through Difficult Terrain to get to you. Then your Eldar will go first. The Guardians will do best against them. Keep the Genestealers away from your Dark Reapers. Dark Reapers would be a very juicy Genestealer target.

24 Homagaunts - This many hormagaunts will definitely bog you down if they assault. Use your Battle Focus to shoot and then move away from them. Your Warp Spiders will do well against them because they have Hit and Run, so if they get assaulted, you can escape, and then shoot them. 24 of them might overwhelm you though, so shoot as many as you can.

10 Gargoyles - Compared to the Genestealers and the Hormogaunts these aren't much to be concerned about. Shoot them out of the sky with your Rangers and Dark Reapers after you've dealt with the Hormagaunts and Genestealers.

 dmthomas7 wrote:
If that is all your opponent is bringing then he is pretty screwed. The Swarlord is strong but slow and only has a 3+ save with no invul until melee. If swarmy gets into melee he probably won't be stopped by anything you have, but shooting should drop him pretty easy. After he goes down Synapse is toast. Then his hormagaunts have a pretty good chance of literally eating themselves. The hormagaunts are a significant threat if they get close. on the charge those 24 could put out alot of hurt to about anything. but they are fragile at T 3 and only a 6+ save. Something needs to focus fire on them early because horms move across the table quickly.
The Gargoyles are in much too small of a brood to be effective. They will only put out a single S4 AP 5 shot at 12". Even if they get close it should be very easy to shoot them off the board or assault an win pretty quickly. Don't focus alot of attention on them.
The Genestealers are very scary. . . once in melee. they are relatively fast but there isn't a reliable way to get them where they need to be. Avoid CC with them like the plague. Shoot them until they are gone. Shouldn't take much only a 5+ save.
The Tyrannofex is a very hard unit to kill. The only 2+ save in the book and T 6 W6 as well. Depending on the weapons load out he has, it could be even worse. Possibly a really scary torrent flamer. Once he is in range your fire dragons should put a pretty good hole in him.

Most importantly focus your targets. There are multiple strong threats here so you need to drop them one at a time. If you can put down the Swarmlord, then everything but the Genestealers should have troubles operating as normal. Anything that can't fire at the swarmlord should focus and the next closest significant threat. . . probably not the Gargoyles. If you can shoot the genestealers and hormagaunts off the board then the board is yours.

On a different note that list would have to be fully upgrade maxed out to reach 1000pts. This is far from a winning list at that pt level.

Alright thanks for the info! What about for my necron army i listed awhile ago, or is it the same base tactics?

I'm not sure where you are coming from.

Murrdox wrote:
1 Swarmlord - Stay out of range of him. Remember that you have the "Battle Focus" rule that lets you shoot, and then run. So shoot at it, then move away from it. Make sure he won't be able to assault you during his turn. Don't bother shooting at it unless you don't have another target, or everything else is dead. When you're ready to start shooting at it, use your Dark Reapers and Warp Spiders, or your Fire Dragons.

Kill the Swarmlord and the entire army crumples. The Hormagaunts eat themselves, the Gargoyles run Away, and the Tyrranofex runs for cover. The only unit that works without the Swarmlord are the Genesteelers.

Murrdox wrote:
1 Tyrannofex - This really depends on which version he takes. There is a devastating close range version, or a long range anti-tank version. If he takes the close-range version, try to kill it with Fire Dragons. It has a 2+ save, so anything else you shoot at it will just bounce off. If he takes the long range version, just stay away from it. It's mostly for anti-vehicle, so it won't be doing too much to you.

Tell me of this close range powerhouse the Tyrannofex. His 3 attacks are truly legendary. I guess you fear the acid spray. S6 AP:4 Torrent. That doesn't give you an excuse to ever shoot at this thing before everything else is dead.

Murrdox wrote:
7 Genestealers - Kill them as soon as possible. Make sure to keep any troops near them in Difficult Terrain, so they will have to charge through Difficult Terrain to get to you. Then your Eldar will go first. The Guardians will do best against them. Keep the Genestealers away from your Dark Reapers. Dark Reapers would be a very juicy Genestealer target.

If he can't handle 7 wounds with a 5+ save, he is in trouble. 7 Genesteelers is a joke. Sure, kill them first I guess, but they die to a stiff wind, so that won't be hard.

Murrdox wrote:
24 Homagaunts - This many hormagaunts will definitely bog you down if they assault. Use your Battle Focus to shoot and then move away from them. Your Warp Spiders will do well against them because they have Hit and Run, so if they get assaulted, you can escape, and then shoot them. 24 of them might overwhelm you though, so shoot as many as you can.

How good are you at rolling 3+ saves? Hitting on 4's, Wounding on 4's with 72 attacks on the charge, that is 18 saves. Are you going to make enough of those for hit an run to matter?

Kill the Genesteelers, then the swarmlord. Keep your distance from the TFex and Hormagaunts. Ignore the Tfex until the Swarmlord is dead.

cosmicsoybean wrote:

 dmthomas7 wrote:
If that is all your opponent is bringing then he is pretty screwed. The Swarlord is strong but slow and only has a 3+ save with no invul until melee. If swarmy gets into melee he probably won't be stopped by anything you have, but shooting should drop him pretty easy. After he goes down Synapse is toast. Then his hormagaunts have a pretty good chance of literally eating themselves. The hormagaunts are a significant threat if they get close. on the charge those 24 could put out alot of hurt to about anything. but they are fragile at T 3 and only a 6+ save. Something needs to focus fire on them early because horms move across the table quickly.
The Gargoyles are in much too small of a brood to be effective. They will only put out a single S4 AP 5 shot at 12". Even if they get close it should be very easy to shoot them off the board or assault an win pretty quickly. Don't focus alot of attention on them.
The Genestealers are very scary. . . once in melee. they are relatively fast but there isn't a reliable way to get them where they need to be. Avoid CC with them like the plague. Shoot them until they are gone. Shouldn't take much only a 5+ save.
The Tyrannofex is a very hard unit to kill. The only 2+ save in the book and T 6 W6 as well. Depending on the weapons load out he has, it could be even worse. Possibly a really scary torrent flamer. Once he is in range your fire dragons should put a pretty good hole in him.

Most importantly focus your targets. There are multiple strong threats here so you need to drop them one at a time. If you can put down the Swarmlord, then everything but the Genestealers should have troubles operating as normal. Anything that can't fire at the swarmlord should focus and the next closest significant threat. . . probably not the Gargoyles. If you can shoot the genestealers and hormagaunts off the board then the board is yours.

On a different note that list would have to be fully upgrade maxed out to reach 1000pts. This is far from a winning list at that pt level.

Alright thanks for the info! What about for my necron army i listed awhile ago, or is it the same base tactics?

I'm not very familiar with the necron army. Idt I've ever even played against one. The strategy I gave you is to counter the tyranids. Follow the same guide lines. Necrons do better with their consistently better save but won't strike first in melee and in melee this list will either drown you in wounds or put out some ap 2 wounds for no save so still avoid combat until you need to finish them off. Even then I would still pass on assault since the rapid fire is worth it and being able to overwatch will likely put down a few more bugs.

Another good note: ALWAYS and I do mean ALWAYS make the nids charge through cover. It won't slow a charge down any but it will drop them to I 1 and give you a chance to reduce his numbers and attacks significantly. His list will not have any assault grenade in it.

 dmthomas7 wrote:

cosmicsoybean wrote:

 dmthomas7 wrote:
If that is all your opponent is bringing then he is pretty screwed. The Swarlord is strong but slow and only has a 3+ save with no invul until melee. If swarmy gets into melee he probably won't be stopped by anything you have, but shooting should drop him pretty easy. After he goes down Synapse is toast. Then his hormagaunts have a pretty good chance of literally eating themselves. The hormagaunts are a significant threat if they get close. on the charge those 24 could put out alot of hurt to about anything. but they are fragile at T 3 and only a 6+ save. Something needs to focus fire on them early because horms move across the table quickly.
The Gargoyles are in much too small of a brood to be effective. They will only put out a single S4 AP 5 shot at 12". Even if they get close it should be very easy to shoot them off the board or assault an win pretty quickly. Don't focus alot of attention on them.
The Genestealers are very scary. . . once in melee. they are relatively fast but there isn't a reliable way to get them where they need to be. Avoid CC with them like the plague. Shoot them until they are gone. Shouldn't take much only a 5+ save.
The Tyrannofex is a very hard unit to kill. The only 2+ save in the book and T 6 W6 as well. Depending on the weapons load out he has, it could be even worse. Possibly a really scary torrent flamer. Once he is in range your fire dragons should put a pretty good hole in him.

Most importantly focus your targets. There are multiple strong threats here so you need to drop them one at a time. If you can put down the Swarmlord, then everything but the Genestealers should have troubles operating as normal. Anything that can't fire at the swarmlord should focus and the next closest significant threat. . . probably not the Gargoyles. If you can shoot the genestealers and hormagaunts off the board then the board is yours.

On a different note that list would have to be fully upgrade maxed out to reach 1000pts. This is far from a winning list at that pt level.

Alright thanks for the info! What about for my necron army i listed awhile ago, or is it the same base tactics?

I'm not very familiar with the necron army. Idt I've ever even played against one. The strategy I gave you is to counter the tyranids. Follow the same guide lines. Necrons do better with their consistently better save but won't strike first in melee and in melee this list will either drown you in wounds or put out some ap 2 wounds for no save so still avoid combat until you need to finish them off. Even then I would still pass on assault since the rapid fire is worth it and being able to overwatch will likely put down a few more bugs.

Another good note: ALWAYS and I do mean ALWAYS make the nids charge through cover. It won't slow a charge down any but it will drop them to I 1 and give you a chance to reduce his numbers and attacks significantly. His list will not have any assault grenade in it.

Alright, Im playing vs him right now with my necrons, he has taken arounr 15 casualtys and I have taken none, the monolith is amazing!

Yea the Monolith should demolish the nids since they only have 1 strong way to destroy it, Warp lance

 dmthomas7 wrote:
Yea the Monolith should demolish the nids since they only have 1 strong way to destroy it, Warp lance

He used his phyker ability to wound it, and a tyranofex's big cannon to bring it down to 1 wound, but i still won 3/3 of my games.