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I've never fared well against nids, especially if they horde the crap out of me.

What's the best approach when facing Tyranids with an Eldar army?

Striking Scorpions, Guardian Defenders, Dire Avengers and Night Spinners handle hordes very efficiently, and they're perfectly decent against grounded monsters as well. Concealed, Guided Guardians in cover are pretty good against Flyrants too, especially if you can get Doom off as well.

Speaking of psychic powers, apocalyptic Eldritch Storms are hilarious against hordes. Only tried it against IG, but I'd imagine it's almosts as fun against Tyranids (except that they'll typically have a cover save of at least 5+ and can't be pinned, of course).

 Flugel Meister wrote:
I've never fared well against nids, especially if they horde the crap out of me.

What's the best approach when facing Tyranids with an Eldar army?

Take out Synapse with your high-strength, high-AP firepower. Starcannons are great against MC's, but Fusion guns/pistols, brightlances, and missile launchers work wonders too. Even Scatter Lasers and Shuriken Cannons can do it, since they have such high rates of fire they can force through wounds (A scatter laser, on average, is only 10% worse than a Brightlance for causing a wound, just from the high rate of fire) - but the other options are definitely more efficient and reliable. If you need to start going to cheddar town, Wraithcannons will nearly-instantly annihilate these beasties.

Once the Synapse is gone, the rest will effectively attend to itself.

If Flyrants are your problem, look to missile launchers, since they come stock with sky-fire.

I'd just scatter storm and maybe go crimson hunter formation and run them directly for his flyrants flying monsters. I would not go wraithguard, or fire dragons or ANYTHING that has to be close and that is pricey. There gun range is short... that's why scatter bikes are amazing. High str super high range with the jump shoot jump.

Crimson Hunters aren't ass effective as people would like. A Flyrant WILL kill one per turn. There's very little chance that it won't, and sure, you have some good guns in the Starcannons, but that's still not a sure thing. And Bright Lances are just not going to do it. So you focus fire a Flyrant down but they come in pairs or more. The other will systematically slaughter the rest, and the Crimson Hunter's Vector Dance is worthless, since the Flyrant can shoot in a 360 arc. And any player with sense will fly off the table if need be and they don't have enough Flyrants to risk before the Crimson Hunters come in, or hug your table edge.

Scatbikes are a better option. Not great, but you should be able to force a Jink with 5 bikes all firing. But five bikes is also prime Flyrant prey, and they will make them a priority for the exact reason that they are dangerous. You have range and mobility, so kite it around a bit and you have a better chance. And these will make very short work of any horde Tyranids use.

Falcons and Hornets have Pulse Lasers, which instakill Warriors, Zoas, Venoms, Hive Guard, Biovores and few other beasties. That pops a lot of the most important creatures in a Horde type army. And Hive Guard, which you prolly won't see realistically. S8+ guns are really effective against mid sized Nids.

 SharkoutofWata wrote:
Crimson Hunters aren't ass effective as people would like. A Flyrant WILL kill one per turn. There's very little chance that it won't, and sure, you have some good guns in the Starcannons, but that's still not a sure thing. And Bright Lances are just not going to do it. So you focus fire a Flyrant down but they come in pairs or more. The other will systematically slaughter the rest, and the Crimson Hunter's Vector Dance is worthless, since the Flyrant can shoot in a 360 arc. And any player with sense will fly off the table if need be and they don't have enough Flyrants to risk before the Crimson Hunters come in, or hug your table edge.

Scatbikes are a better option. Not great, but you should be able to force a Jink with 5 bikes all firing. But five bikes is also prime Flyrant prey, and they will make them a priority for the exact reason that they are dangerous. You have range and mobility, so kite it around a bit and you have a better chance. And these will make very short work of any horde Tyranids use.

Falcons and Hornets have Pulse Lasers, which instakill Warriors, Zoas, Venoms, Hive Guard, Biovores and few other beasties. That pops a lot of the most important creatures in a Horde type army. And Hive Guard, which you prolly won't see realistically. S8+ guns are really effective against mid sized Nids.

Individual crimson hunters might not stand up to 3 flyrants by itself, but the tyrants cost 4 times its price. In my meta our tyranid player is one of our best players, had beaten my 6th edition eldar army on a regular basis, played him once with a crimson death formation (which is alot cheaper than 3 flyrants) , killed all three tyrants in 2 turns of shooting (including grounding tests) while taking 2 HP in return fire. re-rolling to hit vs flying targets AND re-rolling the jinx save if needed is insane, its frankly THE perfect answer to flyrants if your playing a one off game, maybe not worth taking in a tourney setting.

Shoot them with your guns and brains.

Avoid assault completely. If they ever actually charge you, you're better off if that unit that got charged dies that turn.

Avoid flyers too. They show up too unreliably to help.

Last weekend, I faced 4 flying Hive Tyrants. I had no Skyfire, no flyers, and lost all but 8 bikes by the time of my first turn (and no WKs because we don't use those 'round here). I still ended up routing him.

Eldar shoot very well.

Crimson Death is amazing against hive tyrants, and don't listen to anyone who says they are not. One tyrant puts 1.33 hp on a crimson hunter a turn, so there needs to be 3 tyrants to kill 1 crimson hunter effectively. With reserve shenanigans you will always shoot at his tyrant before he can shoot at you, and he will usually jink with the tyrant that you are shooting at.

The best part is vector dancer. The tyrant has 360 degree firing arc, but he can only make one 90degree turn and fly straight ahead, limited to 18". So if you have to jink, you can fly way past the tyrant and make a turn, then by the next turn you can fire again at full BS. You can outmanoeuvre the tyrants really well, so you might not even get shot at.

Thanks for the advice, folks.

Taking it all in.

EDIT: In future encounters with nids, I may just resort to 'lots of guns'. If that doesn't work I might get some flyers.

Lets face the fact that you must neutralize the flyrants, depending on your venue its 3 or 4 of them. Any talented Nid player can still go toe to toe with eldar and win with flyrant based lists.

Crimsion hunter formation is excellent at killing them, however certian things need to happen to do it right because flyrants can wreck them very easily.

Step 1. Consider a Autarch last thing you want is for them not to come in. lessen the chance of them arriving one at a time.

Step 2 consider all three as exarchs for the BS 5

Step 3. you must have a answer for the malanathrope(s) via your ground forces or a fourth flyer, you must get rid of the shroud effect that enhances jinx saves.

Step 4. Ground force deployment.... here is the thing turn one he should be flying towards whatever you have on the board in an attempt to kill it right? So, lets say you place them to one side of the board, not all the way but most of the way. His range with flyrant devourers is 18" Brightlances are 36" now just deploy at the long range threshold. Shoot at only 2 and make sure the other 2 are out of range. You'll have 2 rounds to shoot if done right also if he took the bait.

If he Anticipates this and spreads out his flyrants your ground forces may see less shots at them and will likily take less causalities. As a bonus they are spread out so go "ahem" duck hunting and kill the ones that can hurt you next turn.

Less effective but fun in a non-competitive environment is the following:

I had luck with Dark Reapers as well, decked out with starshot missles. You again will need a little luck and advanced planning. They need to be protected so either have a bunker with the wide fire point special rule or dedicate a telepahy farseer to protect A large squad with Invisibility and/or Shroud. You'll need to do this if you hope to shoot and kill more than one in a game with the unit. you still need to answer the malanathrope(s) problem.

The aspect shrine with +1 BS on 3 small dark reaper squads allied with a CAD that has a Bunker (with the wide fire point rule) and consider having the escape hatch on it.

Use your scatbikes to kill all the Tyranids. Seems pretty straightforward to me. Nearly every model in the Tyranid army is chewed up by scatterlasers. You can even back up while firing.

It would help if we knew what type of CW Eldar you like to field? There are a lot of options.

All our EML options require us to pay for Flak standard. Thus, the EML doesn't get a lot of love for ground targets, but its just as effective as SM Flak. For the sameish points. The platforms are wjat differ. Flak in a Guardian squad will cost more than a Tac squad with a Flak ML, but Marines can take 4 in a Dev squad. If you want the Guardians anyways, it can be good, but its a lot of points for a single EML. WarWalkers, or any DT serpents you bring, can take them. If you don't need their weapons for something else.

Massed TL fire or our own fliers tend to be our best answers to fliers.

tyranids are actually fairly easy to beat with eldar.. I don't think I have ever lost; if you take a broadly standard force that can deal anti-air and anti-tank you can take so much str6 jet bikes I can't see how you can lose.

their fliers they have ARE good but sooner or later they fly off the board but even if they don't the blooming things can be mind shot by farseers and spiritseers really easily i.e. remember they are all creatures so you can batter them with psychic stuff that usually people forget..

remmebr that tyranids are NOT both close combat AND shooty as a rule. if he takes the shooty tyrant (they all do) remember that it is pretty terrible in close combat, even a warlock with a squads of wraithguard killed one easily..

often those tyranids LOOK good in close combat (the models do) but when you realise the loadout you realise they are NOT and often even taking banshees plus an avatar is MORE than enough. I have won one guy who took a flyrant / crone power list and was considered "unbeatable" .. simply with a wraithguard in close combat (yes GUARD) and a wraithlord battered up his 2 carnifexes and all of his tyrant plus their body guard when he charged.. all because these tyranids were actually ranged tooled)

 Acidian wrote:
Crimson Death is amazing against hive tyrants, and don't listen to anyone who says they are not. One tyrant puts 1.33 hp on a crimson hunter a turn, so there needs to be 3 tyrants to kill 1 crimson hunter effectively. With reserve shenanigans you will always shoot at his tyrant before he can shoot at you, and he will usually jink with the tyrant that you are shooting at.

The best part is vector dancer. The tyrant has 360 degree firing arc, but he can only make one 90degree turn and fly straight ahead, limited to 18". So if you have to jink, you can fly way past the tyrant and make a turn, then by the next turn you can fire again at full BS. You can outmanoeuvre the tyrants really well, so you might not even get shot at.

That is a minimum move of 18" not limited to 18" . the limit is 24 or 36", I rarely use it all.

Bharring wrote:
It would help if we knew what type of CW Eldar you like to field? There are a lot of options.

All our EML options require us to pay for Flak standard. Thus, the EML doesn't get a lot of love for ground targets, but its just as effective as SM Flak. For the sameish points. The platforms are wjat differ. Flak in a Guardian squad will cost more than a Tac squad with a Flak ML, but Marines can take 4 in a Dev squad. If you want the Guardians anyways, it can be good, but its a lot of points for a single EML. WarWalkers, or any DT serpents you bring, can take them. If you don't need their weapons for something else.

Massed TL fire or our own fliers tend to be our best answers to fliers.

I'm building back up an Eldar Army after having been out of the hobby for quite a few years. All of my encounters were with older Tyranid Codex armies. Nothing new or current. I was wanting to get an idea of how to best deal with them in the current 40K edition (7th/8th?), so I can build accordingly.

At the moment, and I'm still building up here, I have:

1 Guardian Defende Sqd (10)
1 Dire Avenger Sqd (5 + 1 Ex)
1 Swooping Hawk Sqd (5)
1 Scatter Vyper
2 Jet bikes
1 Wraithlord
1 Wave Serpent

I'm planning to have an Autarch accompany the Hawks, Reapers and possibly a Shadow weaver for horde troops. I'll also add another Warithlord and another Squad of Guardians and a few more Dire Avengers. Scorpions for CC and Fire Dragons for tank busting.

Lastly, a Farseer and Warlocks.