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I played last week my 6th game in general and my 1st against Tyranids.

This is what i had (in brief overview) 2000 points:

Pedro Cantor
Librarian (Terminator + epistolary)

10 sternguard veterans + dp (along with Cantor)
5 Terminators + LR (along with Librarian)


10 Tacticcal Marines + Rhino
10 Tactical Marines (in combat squads) + Razorback

5 vanguards

1 Thunderfire cannon


Tyranid army:

Hive tyrant + 3 Tyrant Guard
Broodlord + genestealers (in reserve outflanking)

3 ravenrs
3 lictors (in reserve ds)

2 zoanthropes
4 carnifex

5 (i think) gaunts, hormagaunts (I don't remember) + without number rule


The scenario was spearhead and capture and hold and the opponent had the initiative.

I managed to kill most of gaunts in the first round with rapid fire and thunderfire cannon and sternguards scored some wounds on 2 carnifex.


all i can say is that in the 6th round (when game ended) I had nothing on the table and I'd managed to kill 2 carnifex, the hive tyrant + the 3 tyrant guards, the 3 raveners, 1 lictor and 6 or 7 squads of his gaunts that kept comming back. I managed to keep away from him only in the first round afterwards he got in close combat and the game had already took it's course.


I know that he fields this kind of army almost everytime with whatever opponent? what do you think can be done?

I had a game versus Tyranids last week.
I ended in a draw, but i think i could win next time.

I used 3 Drop Pods with Deathwind launcher near objectives.
That helped me to clean his troops near them.

I used my recents two Land Speeder Typhoon against them.
Very useful, if they come to close, just flee from them, then blast the little criters again.

wow, both sides had very few troops, imho. I was a little confused by your entry for the second set of tacs, where they in 2 squads, with 2 razorbacks? Thats an interesting choice, and cool against nids. You also have a lot of points tied up in your hq, for me, at least, this doesn't work. Again, this is all my opinion.

I think the key to improving your odds, is increase the number of troops choices, and focus on playing an objectives based game, rather than just trying to kill the other side. I've seen a few nids games turn around badly for them because they focused a huge amount of points on a few models. In response to this threat, I'd take enough high strength weapons at the lowest possible cost to you, maybe have the tactical squads add a LC for instance... then get as many guns on line as possible.

Generally the behavior that I've seen is the nid player will hold his small(ish)amount of troops on his closest objectives, and then ram as many of his high point models into your gunline hopefully getting into a prolonged assault... etc. This means his troops sit around and do nothing for the whole game. You could just kill his troops, and for 2/3rds of the games/missions will automatically be at least a draw, right? Also, if you disperse your troops, or break down into multiple squads, when he gets into an assault there is a good chance he'll anhilate a small unit and be in the open for your shooting phase.

I dunno, I know what its like to sit across the table from a guy that got imppossible to kill units, and me having brought what I feel is a balanced force. Its also hard to watch a renegade model eat an entire set of troops, but... in the long run I feel that large amounts of high point models limits the other player, more than it helps them. Also, even in annhilate where at the outset this philosophy seems to work, everytime you pop one of his two hundred point models, you get a point. This isn't so hard if you have a enough low cost high strength weapons.

So to conclude,

Have more troops,
deny him an easy to assault gunline,
play to the mission objectives, Don't play them all like anhilate.
Use a small amount of points to overcome a large one.

hey, forgot to mention cool idea with the deathwind dp's on objectives, Aldebaran... I'd never thought of that.

Maybe try to keep any smallish and weak "without number" unit alive next time?

Thanks for the answers guys.

Pendrecki, just to mention that he didn't keep his troops back. He was coming round after round with everything he had. Initially I was going for his troops which I managed to kill pretty easily but with the "without numbers rules" in the next round he was coming again and in the meantime I had to do something with the monstrous creatures.

I'll reconsider my whole tactic next time.

with critters with the without number rule, always consider them a low priority, most of the time you'll just be wasting shots, but dont by all means just forget about them! if they are in range remember they are still nids, and have a good chance in close combat.

it'd be interesting to here which of the monstrous creatures you were hassled by the most, both pregame and after wards. I have an inert fear of Zoanthropes, (last time i played them they annihilated my kroot completely in but a few turns)

kill the synapse creatures.

The ld 5 gaunts will be forced to lurk (or whatever its called) and they can't hold objectives (they are no longer scoring), or be forced to roll on the "Let's get the hell out of here" chart.

The other fun thing to do is toss a Dreadnought at em. They can't hurt it, and you'll keep em tied up for the game.

"it'd be interesting to here which of the monstrous creatures you were hassled by the most, both pregame and after wards. I have an inert fear of Zoanthropes, (last time i played them they annihilated my kroot completely in but a few turns)"

To be honest I had no real problem with the zoanthropes thanks to the Librarian. The biggest problem were the 4 Carnifex and secondly the Hive tyrant with the 3 Tyrant Guards.