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Hi,

Friend has recently started collecting Tyranids and afraid my poor IG will be made into mincemeat as soon as they get close. I have a large army selection to choose from so will have some fun experimenting with some lists but wondered if there were any 'general' tips to defeating the mighty bugs?

Cheers

Jeff

If you know you are facing bugs (and only bugs) with your army list then you want to take lots of Lascannons and Heavy Bolters/Autocannons and leave the Ordnance tanks at home for a change.

Ordnance's main strength (of obliterating 3+ save troops) is pretty much useless on the bugs as the only ones (besides the Broodlord) that have better than a 4+ save are Monstrous Creatures which only suffer a single wound from the Ordnance blasts anyway, making it highly inefficient to target them in the first place.

Multiple Hellhounds can still be used to force your opponent to spread his models out. Alternatively, Rough Riders can be a potent counter-charge unit to kill Hive Tyrants provided they haven't taken Toxic Miasma or an Initiative of 6 (which does happen fairly frequently).

Mutiple Chimeras (with Stubbers) can give you some really good anti-small bug firepower.Sentinels can also contribute and can indefinitely tie up some gaunt units in CC if you need.

Drop Troop Veterans with 3 Plasmaguns can be used to pin-point strike Monstrous creatures and take a wounded one out in a single volley. Even if the Vets then get killed, if you dropped them behind the Tyranids it means they will have to turn around and engage the unit (which will ultimately slow 'em down).


So in general: you want to hit the small stuff with Chimeras, Hellhounds, Sentinels and any squads you take with Heavy Bolters/Autocannons. Then you want to paste the big creatures with Lascannons (or missile launchers if you've taken 'em) and finish them off with plasma guns if they manage to get close. If the enemy manages to get into combat make sure you've kept your squads spread enough apart that they can't immediately consolidate into another of your units, and don't be afraid to send more squads into combat to ensure that the combat will be resolved on your opponents turn (so you'll get to shoot at the enemy unit emerging from combat before they get another chance to charge).

Some great ideas, I have all the units you suggested apart from plasmaguns so will try and leave my tanks in the garage and use the other suggested units. I have over 200 troops so would conscripts work in slowing down the bugs or shall I concertrate on holding line and shooting. Have a BaneBlade, not built yet but might make it a hellhammer instead?

Cheers

Jeff

Are you playing an Apocalypse game? If so, I can't really comment on using Baneblade/Hellhammer since I haven't played a game with them yet using the Apocalypse rules.


But just in general remember that blast weapons are no good at killing Tyranid big bugs as they cause a maximum of one wound per model, so if you're taking anything with a big blast remember that it is for killing the little bugs and that you are still loading up on the appropriate amount of Lascannons to take out the bigger bugs.

Not be playing apoc games yet as friend only has 1500 pts and I have 4500-5000 but eventually hope to use super heavy once he has enough points/can some allies?

What about using flamers in each squad or would that not work as bugs be too close?

Jeff

Yep, generally everything in the Tyranid army either has fleet or a 12" charge (or both) meaning you will rarely get a chance to use a flamer to good effect.

There are some times, like if they wipe your unit out in CC on their turn (which is one of the keys to fighting bugs, timing your combats so they end on their turn) you will often have whole units of bugs sitting in a big clump perfect to be flamed. This is kind of a rarity though and I wouldn't take more than a couple flamer in your army (plus you'll still have Hellhounds to use when this does happen).