I am going to shoot myself in the foot here and post this up
I've been playing Tyranid for a couple of games. I absolutely love the fleet. I think they are ones of the iconic villains of 40K, and have been around since Rogue Trader. I can just imagine those large monstrous hiveships with clouds of small organisms floating around them, and the desperate battles taking place to wittle down the fleet. From a modelling point of view the fleet also offers great opportunities for conversion. There is no strict dogma as to what a pyro-acid battery or bio-plasma gun should look like, and the official ships do not have any either, meaning you can really be creative and easily create a cool looking fleet from leftover bits.
Saddly a lot of my games have resulted in me dominating my opponents, not quite enjoyable for either of us. Part of this is because people play against Nids like any other fleet and don't adapt to the specificity of the fleet. So I'm going to put my thoughts down on how to take on Tyranids, from the perspective of a Tyranid player.
I think the list is definitely very strong and favored by the game mechanics. Does that mean it is impossible to win or have an enjoyable game against them? I think not, but they are very unforgiving. To win you will have to leverage your fleet's strength to the max, not commit any error, or exploit any of his.
Note: I will make a few assumptions here, the first one being that we use the FAQ2010 rules. The second one that the Tyranid player does not have access to refits.
Let's look at the perceived weaknesses and strengths of the Tyranid fleet:
Perceived Weaknesses:
- Slow and un-maneuvrable, except for Krakens and Vanguards
- Moderate armor 5+ (except Krakens)
- Little to no long range
- Crippled capital ships cannot launch ordnance, and cannot use close combat weapons (tentacles and claws). Only bio-plasma and WB work, at half strength
- Less hit points on capital ships: 10 for hiveships and 6 for cruisers
- Very dependent on Hiveships
- "All is Lost" is a liability
- Can only ever target the closest ship with shooting
Perceived strengths:
- Stupidly, STUPIDLY good at short range
- Huge amounts of ordnance
- Spores make them resilient
- Everything, except maybe cruisers, is a threat to your fleet
- Ridiculously easy to go on special orders
I think the biggest strength here is number 4: everything in the tyranid fleet has the ability to cripple a cruiser in one turn, be it large ordnance waves, bio-plasma, or kamikaze escorts kitted for close combat (if the tyranid player plays with fireships than this gets even worse
). To beat Tyranids, you will have to be extra careful in your target selection and management of your offensive resource. Things to look out for:
- Large waves of Assault boats. Boarding torpedoes are not as effective and you will only ever see small salvoes (the biggest salvo a tyranid can launch is str 6 from the Hiveship; Krakens can have Str2 torps, look out for large squadrons of these).
- Bio-plasma drones, or anything with bio-plasma. Very, VERY dangerous.
- Large escort squadrons with feeder tendrils
- Pyro-acid spam? (I have yet to try but the amount of weapon batteries you can get on escorts is staggering)
The standard tyranid tactic will be to swamp you with ordnance at range, close in while you are entangled and crippled by the ordnance wave, and do a clean sweep when at short range. Do not underestimate assault boats and feeder tendrils. They are doubly powerful: not only will large waves inflict some damage through fires and thruster damages, they will also cripple your ship's systems making you incapable of shooting at the big nasty stuff.
When you look at this list, it becomes apparent that the Hiveship is the weak link in the Tyranid list. Cripple him and his AC goes away. Destroy him and the Nid fleet will fall apart. He also has a mid strength armor (5+) and 2 less Hp than a regular battleship. Sadly he will also most likely hang out at the back protected by drones, so taking him out will not be easy, but the most common tactic put forward to beat tyranid is to take out the Hiveship. I have yet to try, but I would suggest the following:
- Massed (and I mean MASSED) long range firepower. Not available to all fleets.
- Short range torpedo "shotgunning" (i.e. hit him in the same ordnance phase that the torps are launched).
- Long range torpedoes escorted by fighters.
You will have to take down 4 shields before doing some damage, even if the ship is crippled (spores). You will also very likely have to shoot through a wall of drones and take a Ld test at -1 (FAQ2010). Torpedoes are best because they will just go straight through the wall of Drones and shields. You won't take him out with long range torps on their own, because with anything between 8-16AC on play all the time chances are he will have fighters on CAP. Unless you commit all your fighters to "escort" your torps, clear his CAP with fighters, and hope that your large salvo hits home. Don't know if it'll work but it would certainly put me off guard and force me to commit large amounts of fighters to defense.
Make sure your fleet has a good mix of long range and short range. I would deploy as far back as possible, use the long range stuff to destroy fast and threatening escorts first. Use your short range (ex: Swords) to take out incoming large ordnance waves. Cluster you ships together so that they all get +3 turrets from massed fire. Move minimum distance every turn with your block while your long range picks out targets. Launching multiple small torpedoe salvoes with Cobras or equivalent could be a good distraction as well, he will have to commit fighters to them or loose Hp on the Hiveship or escorts. Remember every single hit point inflicted on the Hiveship will hurt him, but you will have to penetrate the 4 shields first.
If you have a shot at shotgunning the Hiveship with large torpedo waves, take it.
Remember that nova canon blasts remove all ordnance markers beneath them. Might be useful as Nids will flood the board with ordnance.
Also, Tyranids can only ever target the closest threat with shooting. Ever. They are never allowed to take leadership tests to swap targets. They are also not allowed to shoot ordnance. The ONLY exception is when Vanguard drones are around. This is rarely known by Tyranid opponents, and I must admit this rule might have slipped out of my head in one or 2 of my games
This is HUGE for any Tyranid shooting. Admittedly it's not as good as it seems because Nids do not have a lot of long range shooting, but if the Nid player is careless with his ship placement and does not have any Vanguards, use this. Place sacrificial or resilient units close to his shooters, always have a unit between your long range and his shooters.
Always keep on eye out for his Vanguards. If he's doing some dodgy maneuvring that does not seem to make much sense, and if there is a Hive-gunship with str 16 45cm forward facing batteries around, chances are he is positioning for
a very nasty trick! Don't fall for that. Remember that no Vanguards = No switching targets, and no targeting of ordnance either.
Lastly, if a Tyranid ship boards you you can decide to scuttle your ship. Take a leadership test, if you pass you will randomly suffer a Plasma Drive overload or Warp Drive overload. This is known as "All is Lost". If the Tyranid player is careless and boards that cruiser with 2Hp left with 5 escorts, do it. Your cruiser is doomed anyway, and you will take escorts down in the blast or force him to brace. Note that experienced tyranid players will seldom do this mistake, but who knows he might get carried away or loose concentration for a bit.
Thanks for reading. Now go out there and kill some bugs!
