Looking at Tyranids...

[Notanoob]

So I've gotten myself some BFG mod for Vassal and intend to use it (until I have the money to buy the stuff). Since I play Tyranids, I naturally looked to them for my fleet. However, after reading the rules and such, I am not so sure. The Tyranids main advantage is their amazing boarding capabilities and short ranged weaponry. Yet they are the slowest race in the game with relatively low shields and few hits. They are furthered hampered by Synapse. Am I missing something, or do they suck? It appears to me that they wouldn't stand a chance against Eldar and have a tough time vs. Chaos. Also, in their design notes they were stated to be easy to cripple but hard to finish off. I don't see anything that would suggest that they are any harder to finish off than any other race. What am I missing?

[nkalakos]

I can't comment on tyranid power level, but "hard to finish" part probably refers to the fact that they don't halve their spores when crippled. They keep their full defensive strength, unlike other races.

[DycesKynes]

They do not Suck, they can be tricky to play.  If you get a escort to highlight a ship then you can free choice who to hit.  Take the upgrades and you have a 6 spore hive ship.  Take escorts with claws on a ship and they can wipe out other escorts easy, and don't forget their shields do a point of damage against ships with no shields.  The pyro acid batteries cause crits.  When they are far away I usually start hording all the ordinance.  I spend most of  my points upgrading a hive ship and then on escorts, lots of them.  As far as the synapse control, try to use it to your advantage to make the fleet do what you need them to do.  Try playing the vanguard fleet and see if you like that better.  I think they are very dangerous is the right hands, faster ships are more of a challenge. I love the massive claws.

[Notanoob]

Thank you for clearing a few things up for me. I am still a little worried though. Even without the other problems (which are fixable), Tyranids are still  really slow, and that really doesn't work well at all with short ranged weapons, or ramming/boarding. How do I deal with that? Am I supposed to just spam a ton of ordinance? Wouldn't that mean that my ships would have less pryo acid batteries? And in turn Feeder Tenticles and Claws? It seems that it is really difficult to do enough damage to hamper other, tougher targets.

[marengo]

I am in no way an expert at playing nids, but I understand the generally accepted way of dealing with Eldar is to take the pain until you have them between your ships and a near (ish) table edge. then go all ahead full and spray then with lots of Pyro-acid. Low armour values and lots of fire critical hits mean that 1 or 2 hits per Eldar ship does a lot of damage.

Chaos, don’t be ahead to AHF and Come to new heading early in the game as it is more important to get close than to try and maximise long range firepower.