I am starting to play with a small group of mature gamers who have all recently got back into EA. I am playing Traitor Guard (Proxied as a Steel Legion list) and my most frequent opponent plays the Onachus Nids list.

It's a bit embarrassing - if I take lots of armour I seem to CRUSH him every time. Of course he eats through infantry, artillery and light vehicles formations like there's no tomorrow. How can he counter my tank company or my baneblade company? My advice is that he goes for a swarm with 12 carnifex? The nid list looks like a bit of a turkey to our group in terms of its 'competitiveness' so far, but that's only based on about 5 games (nids lose every one).

Is this good advice for him?
He rarely takes titans as I have shadowswords and a death strike unit.

Are there any experienced nid players who can help us out?

Cheers

Dave

Prep, outnumber (preferably double) and make sure you btb every tank in a tank company, you will end up about even on kills you go into the rolloff with a +2 to +4 advantage, win, hackdown more tanks (no RA against hackdowns....) then either engage the losers again and wipe them out, or pick em off with shooting, similar story with baneblades, use the tanks to hide behind so the central tank cant fight, or clip and do the same....

Also do this after you have already eaten the rest of his army

_________________
Just some guy

My hobby/painting threads

Army Forge List Co-ordinator

I also suggest giving the epicuk tyranid list a run out, it plays very differently..... expendable gaunts ftw!

_________________
Just some guy

My hobby/painting threads

Army Forge List Co-ordinator

It's been a while since I've played with nids but you really want to overwhelm tough opponents, hive tyrants can let you engage with several formations at a time with their commander ability. A couple of Hormagant heavy formations should be able to get into base to base with with everything you need. If you can get enough formations into engage range, so the enemy *will* be getting engaged with something, and a lot of your formations are mixed infiltrators to hit the guys at the back, or MW cc specialist to hit the ones at the front he might have more luck.

In the netEA list, mixed formations of the extra tyranid warrior and hive tyrants with the extra tyranid warrior, maybe 50/50 can give you lots of engagement options and keep the brood points up even if you get in close.

There can be a certain psychological aspect to playing with nids, giving your opponent lots of things to deal with so they have to make choices.

I've also had decent results with biovores, if you can get them in cover they should be able to prep formations from a fair distance.

I'd urge him not to get too disheartened, they can take a few games to get your head around!! Also, as kyuss says, the epicUK list does play quite differently - but if he's like me he'll want to get at least one win under his belt before switching lists!!

Thanks for the advice - I'll pass it on.

Dave

+1 for giving the EUK list a go.

http://epic-uk.co.uk/ukepicachampionship/albyr.php

Gives a fairly good idea of the sort of lists people have been running.

_________________
MoK's Painting Blog
Now Showing:
Mok's Modular Modern Messy Guard Army

For the EpicUK list at least it's all about the double-outnumber, not giving away any casualties (gaunts don't count), and then getting the odd damage point in - you need 4 hits on average to pierce RA armour, odds are you'll get at least a couple.
Tyranids also seem to be really good at shifting blast markers since they have lots of leader units. Prep the assault well and you can do it.

_________________

Tank companies are goingbto require prep (making sure it has a BM and you don't) and support. After that, either clipping it (FF assault where it doesn't get to roll a lot of FF back) or basing everything so they have to use their CC. Hormagaunts are good for the latter, infiltrator let's then base two units if they're close enough. Trygons too as they can barge and base up to 4.

You're not going to out shoot it, but you shouldn't have a hard time putting BMs on it with Dactylis or Biovores. Any of the bigger things (dom or titans) should be able to hurt it at range and an assault too, just don't let it sustain on you first.

Out of curiosity, how much terrain are you playing with? Less will definitly not favor the bugs.

All that being said, there's a higher learning curve for the NetEA list where you don't have the "gaunts don't count for casualties" crutch. Those picking it up in our group are definitly getting smacked around. You have to prep and support assaults, and make sure you have at least 4 formations ready to assault at the start of turn 2 as you're not going to go first.

_________________
Dave

Blog

NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17

We play with about a third of the table covered in terrain - we think that's quite a lot (similar to our Warmaster games where cavalry can rule without lots of terrain).

I suspect that one of the problems is that our two nid players have mainly infantry based armies at the moment, not many 'vehicle' sized critters or war engines yet. I have advised them they need to but trygons, carnifex, more harridans etc.

Yes, biovores are very good, they're the one unit I really fear when playing my traitor guard against them.

Cheers

Dave

Hey Davee W,
I'm attempting to come to grips with the nid list at present myself.

The EA gaunt rule does cause some issues for an inf heavy list - especially because you can't soak up those his in CC with 4++ armour.

For your friend id suggest trying to bulk out the size of his swarms by taking medium swarms with 4 warriors an even mix of gaunts. This will give you outnumbering and a chance to base to base all tank units in CC and allow you to throw more dice to get some en casualties.

At the same time to keep your swarms alive you need to be creating a dilemna for your opponent. Force your opponent to choose between your swarms and another range of grubbing aliens. And Nids have an awesome range of units to achieve this. Teleporting Lictors and tunneling trygons as well as supeer fast harridans are great macro dealing distractions to draw your opponents fire. And if they dont shoot at them... great they become great macro dealing death machines.

Dactyls and biovores are great to make your opponent waste fire power on targeting then rather than your swarm but are unlikely to win you the game.

So with this style of List the nids need to be set up to launch a series of attacks in turn two that forces their opponents to make some tough decisions about how they are going to survive to turn 3!

Please let us know how your friend goes.
Cheers
Jim

Mixed swarms (or at least swarms that cost between 300-350) are what I use mostly. Below that and they're hard to get an engagement out of and still be useful. Above that and you cut into your activation numbers. The bugs need high numbers there as their low SR means they're likely going to loose 1-2 activations before they get to do anything each turn.

_________________
Dave

Blog

NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17

I've only had a couple games with Tyranids so far, but I've noticed that having the MW attacks in CC makes a big difference, especially for RA. Having the hive tyrant and a carnifex or two in a formation has made a big difference for my engagements.

_________________
Grey Knights AC: viewtopic.php?f=130&t=33750

Tau AC: viewforum.php?

Net EA Chair

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.

Yaaaaay! The Tyranids won a game recently (just).
They tipped up with 2 medium sized formations containing Hive Tyrant, Carnifex and Trygons and then backed it up with Biovores and some little swarms.

A good, balanced game. I guess it was the lack of bigger creatures I think that was doing for them.

Thanks for the tips, I did pass them on. The blast markers did make a difference with the combats.

I'm off now to try and crush them tonight!!!!!

Dave

Hey, good news! Good to know we do actually seem to know what we're talking about!