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Hi,
After my last game involving Tyranids, me and my opponent came to discuss the absence of articles discussing how to best play Tyranids; We both think that a Tyranid army plays sufficiently differently that all other epic armies that a more specific discussion is warranted.
With that in mind, I'd like to start the debate; please respond with observations, critique and questions if you have played, or played against, Onachus in its current incarnation.
Mobility
Observation: For an army with fast infantry that ignores terrain, the Tyranid army is actually quite slow; It has very little in the way of fast response formations that Marines, Eldar, or any mounted/mechanized army has. This is appropriate, and shouldn't be changed. However, it does mean that the Tyranid player can expect to receive a lot of incoming fire on turn 1, without being able to retaliate.
Response: Choosing the battlefield: Tyranid players should ensure that area terrain is plentiful and evenly distributed over the table. Place objective markers in a manner that allows your forces to jump from cover to cover on their way there. Place objectives in terrain, as far as possible.
Response: Careful maneuver: Maintain a front line when advancing; Don't let a single formation be singled out. Your formations can take shooting from a few enemy formations; They can't take shooting from an entire army. If you advance on an axis, move the formations that goes the shortest first; The enemy will then typically have a harder time maintaining focus fire on any one formation during turn 1.
Response: Taking it: Tyranid players should not be worried about "normal" volumes of AP/AT fire; The biotanks are resilient, and the expendable gaunts spawn faster than they can be shot, as long as the enemy doesn't get to sustain against formations in the open. Be sure to force shooty enemy formations to move before they can shoot, and be sure to get the cover to-hit modifier.
Observation: Objective threats: Tyranids can only offer mutual support up close, so a canny enemy will try to split the Tyranid effort by spreading objectives widely, probably using a corners deployment too.
Response: Unknown threats: This can be mitigated by including a tunnelling formation which can threaten any objective to turn 3, forcing the enemy to keep forces in reserve to counter this, and possibly inciting the enemy to keep objectives tightly clustered too.
Mutual Support
Observation: The normal staple tactic of moving a FF-strong supporting formation into position, firing for BMs, and then initiating engagement from a safe distance with a small, fast formation doesn't really work for Tyranids; they don't have any firefighting specialists, and really want to initiate CC engagements; At least half the units in the army are CC specialists of some kind.
Response: Standing alone: A line formation of Tyranids should be able to initiate and win a CC engagement without support fire. Plan on being in a position where the heavy hitters in the formation can reach CC with a suitable enemy formation.
Response: Weight of Bodies: Support, in Tyranid terms, can just as well be engaging and losing with another formation before engaging and winning with another formation. If losses in the initial formation can be limited to expendable gaunts, the formation can usually recover reliably from being broken.
Addendum to response: BM prepping is as important for Tyranids as to any other engagement army; Long-range, indirect fire options, or long-range, fast shooting must be included in the army. Consider Dactylis swarms, Biovore swarms, or Harridans for pop-up shooting.
Strategy
Observation: The Tyranids have abysmal strategy, and should always plan on not starting a turn. Being slow, and not having a particular high activation count, means that late-turn engagements are also rarely feasible.
Response: Multiple threats: Position your engagement formations such that you can get at least one or two good engagements off, no matter what your opponent does. Position formations such that they can reach more than one target (in case their prospective targets just moves away, while shooting), or position them such that if they are wiped out by an enemy first strike, then another formation is ready. This is obviously much easier said than done, especially against certain types of armies such as Eldar with fast skimmers and triple activations...
Thoughts, responses? I'd be happy to compile a summary of consensus opinions in the first post, perhaps fleshing it out into a full Tactica Onachus.
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