Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

-Redacted-

*Disclaimer* I have played 0 matches as Tyranids and have no idea what I'm talking about. My only credentials are too much time on the internet and lots of theory hammering.

I think mix-matching your termagants is more the way to go now, with one unit of 30, taking 15 with Devourers. Outflanking this unit with Hive Commander is a good idea.

I think the best thing to do with Hormagaunts or any assault unit is to make them as cheap as possible and take as many of them as you can. That way, it won't matter as much when you lose a ton of them, as you invariably will.

For synapse and psychic trickery, you need a zoanthrope

For cover abuse with little bugs and MCs alike, you need a venomthrope.

Add another carnifex to the brood, lose Bio Plasma and regeneration. They aren't worth it.

A Mawloc would be a good addition as they literally eat battlesuits

An Exocrine can be a good addition with all that tasty plasma but I feel like taking one involves taking the whole living artillery node to get those TL'd, pinning blasts.

Gargs are good where they're at but more of them wouldn't hurt. Keep em cheap and annoying.

With the addition of a Zoey and maybe a shrike/warrior brood/prime, you can lose the norn crown, I'd go ahead and drop regen off the Tyrant too. Most flyrants get brought down in one turn or not at all.

If you want to mess with him at lower points levels, bring a Tyrannofex with regen, acid spray and a thorax hive. Laugh as he fails to kill it all game, every game. Just make sure those H-heads don't get to him. Be sure to put catalyst on this monster just for kicks and giggles.

Our tools for killing aforementioned hammerheads are few in number. You can take Hive Guard and hope for lucky sixes with the impaler, you can rely on your flyrant getting side armor to glance it to death, you can (again hope to get lucky) warp lance it with a Zoan or the final and most reliable but hardest to accomplish method, smash the bejeezus out of it with one of your monsters, namely a Carnifex brood, preferably with Crushing Claws.

Hope that helps and welcome to the Hive Mind!

this list absolutely needs venomthrope cover, 1 is too easily focused so I would go with 2.
Change the hormas to 20 - 20 with no options. hormas are always better with more body instead of upgrades.

Consider buying another flyrant and change the loadout to be : wings, 2x devourer and electroshock grubs.
Flyrants are the bread and butter of every competitive nids army so your list needs to start with those.

So once you got yourself another flyrant and those 2 venoms you can expand your army with a couple heavy hitters like the exocrine, tyranofex or even mawlock.
Also, dont forget about synapse, you got lots of small griblies so a brood of 2-3 zoas would probably be a good addition for you.
whatever you chose to get, dont go with warriors and stay the hell away from tyranid prime.

Against Tau, Venomthropes aren't going to be as effective as you think, due to Tau's abundant Ignore Cover weapons. If you can get hold of them, Malanthropes will still perform decently due to Synapse.

Against Tau - BIOVORES. Biovores are seriously good, and if you can get them in a Living Artillery formation, they will make their points back very quickly. It also gives you access to an Exocrine, which is going to help put wounds on a Riptide.

Hormagaunts need to be as cheap as possible - you are going to win combat, you can shed 150 points off your upgraded Hormagaunts and field another unit of 30.

If outflanking, Hormagaunts are not the ones you go for. 30 Devourer Gants are best to outflank, or if you roll Master of Ambush for a Strategic Warlord trait (always roll on this for Nids), Carnifexes with TwinLinked Devourers w/ BLWx2.

Hive Tyrants should be Wings, TwinLinked Devourers w/ BLW x2 and if you have points, Electroshock Grubs.

Relics are a waste of point, swarms over morphs, always.

Consider a few small genestealer broods.

I know that sounds ridiculous given how much people rag on 'stealers, but it's not as silly as it sounds: you don't want stealer units per se, you want broodlords.

Tau have no access to psykers, so you should be able to dominate the psychic phase, they have sucky leadership, and they are dependent on mobility, firepower and overwatch - making them very vulnerable to being pinned.

Multiple psykers with The Horror who don't need to be deployed in line of sight and will be in range from turn one are useful here. A riptide, for example, is one of the only non-fearless monstrous creatures out there, and losing Supporting Fire from it is a big deal. Yes, the tau can use markerlights to increase their snap-shot ballistic skill, but if he's having to burn 2 target acquired markers just to get back to where he should be, that puts you at the advantage...

Plus, locking down a battlesuit team so it can't run away is very, very satisfying.

locarno24 wrote:
Consider a few small genestealer broods.

I know that sounds ridiculous given how much people rag on 'stealers, but it's not as silly as it sounds: you don't want stealer units per se, you want broodlords.

Tau have no access to psykers, so you should be able to dominate the psychic phase, they have sucky leadership, and they are dependent on mobility, firepower and overwatch - making them very vulnerable to being pinned.

Multiple psykers with The Horror who don't need to be deployed in line of sight and will be in range from turn one are useful here. A riptide, for example, is one of the only non-fearless monstrous creatures out there, and losing Supporting Fire from it is a big deal. Yes, the tau can use markerlights to increase their snap-shot ballistic skill, but if he's having to burn 2 target acquired markers just to get back to where he should be, that puts you at the advantage...

Plus, locking down a battlesuit team so it can't run away is very, very satisfying.

As a Monstrous Creature, the Riptide can't go to ground as per 7th Ed rules (despite not having Fearless).

Broodlords would certainly help and as stand alone units are great, but you'd have to pay the Genestealer tax and for the price of a Broodlord with five Genestealers, you getting close to a Mawloc or Dakkafex.

In addition, with S5 AP5 weapons on basic infantry, with Markerlight support they are going to be First Blood bait, so I can't really recommend 'stealers against Tau. Partly why I like Living Artillery, the sources of Pinning are much, much more durable (and Pin from a further distance too

But your comment about the psychic phase was spot on. Get a couple of Catalysts going and Nid's should be able to weather the storm long enough to get into range.

Not much to add...my all time fav for Tau is Mawloc, I like two, but Mawloc is a "love 'em, or don't" fig...so try proxies first, then buy if they work for you. It's even one of the few times when tossing on a biomod is not a waste, Adrenal can be a very nice addition. And because Mawloc is so cheap to start, it's still affordable.

I also like Tyranofex, but for perverse reasons, I find that a huge bullet magnet allows me to take on Tau with a lot more confidence. Just use Mawloc to nom all the marker lights, and all will be well.

Mawlocs are a great buy if the tau aren't packing the interceptor battlesuit syste (early warning override?).

The ability to slam two monstrous creatures into his lines on turn two leaves a tau player wanting to spread out..... but of course he doesn't want to do that due to the rest of the army.

Good catch on the Riptide. It's never come up for me, as all the monstrous creatures I use are fearless anyway.

Living artillery may be a good call. If you can keep them out of line of sight, biovores are very good at messing up an infantry/battlesuit force. The main reason I said broodlords, though, is that a pinning weapon has to actually get a wound through (less likely against something like a broadside team), and whilst tau leadership isn't great, it's good enough if he's taking unmodified tests - the advantage of The Horror is that it also stacks a nasty ld penalty on top - enough to push a battlesuit team into serious trouble.

Also - I know that markerlights let you winkle stealers out of cover easily, but I meant staying out of line of sight completely - the advantage of Malediction-type powers is that I don't believe they need line of sight.

granted, you may still find a smart missile coming in through the window with the broodlord's name on it, but if the broadsides are the thing you're pinning....

Deepstriking ripers look good - perhaps add another couple of units, outflank the termagaunts with devourers, drop the mods on the hormagaunts, perhaps drop the smaller unit of hormagaunts

need more synapse - zoanthropes? even a prime in the hormagaunts or the outflanking termagaunts - that would remove the need for the norn crown the gaunts would act as a sheild

locarno24 wrote:
Mawlocs are a great buy if the tau aren't packing the interceptor battlesuit syste (early warning override?).

The ability to slam two monstrous creatures into his lines on turn two leaves a tau player wanting to spread out..... but of course he doesn't want to do that due to the rest of the army.

Good catch on the Riptide. It's never come up for me, as all the monstrous creatures I use are fearless anyway.

Living artillery may be a good call. If you can keep them out of line of sight, biovores are very good at messing up an infantry/battlesuit force. The main reason I said broodlords, though, is that a pinning weapon has to actually get a wound through (less likely against something like a broadside team), and whilst tau leadership isn't great, it's good enough if he's taking unmodified tests - the advantage of The Horror is that it also stacks a nasty ld penalty on top - enough to push a battlesuit team into serious trouble.

Also - I know that markerlights let you winkle stealers out of cover easily, but I meant staying out of line of sight completely - the advantage of Malediction-type powers is that I don't believe they need line of sight.

granted, you may still find a smart missile coming in through the window with the broodlord's name on it, but if the broadsides are the thing you're pinning....

I may be remembering wrong...but I believe the Mawloc Nom comes before it "arrives" so it eats, and then gets shot at. And it may bounce out into reserve I suppose. Hit and Run makes it a continuing threat.

pinecone77 wrote:

I may be remembering wrong...but I believe the Mawloc Nom comes before it "arrives" so it eats, and then gets shot at. And it may bounce out into reserve I suppose. Hit and Run makes it a continuing threat.

In addition to that, all those Interceptor shots are going into one model, which is still quite durable instead of the rest of your army...and you could just eat those Intercepting models anyway