Quote: (arkturas @ Feb. 18 2010, 14:35 )
Is it me or does the Tyranid List (9.x) appear to have wildly differing game play experiences and results running the whole spectrum from being completely ineffective to absolute domination?
My game analysis has put them at "slightly" below 50/50 win/loss, but the anecdotal evidence seems to be as you indicate.
For me, it often seems to be more a matter of the opponents' experience against Bugs that swings things from wildly effective to somewhat ineffective.
The main lessons learned through play experience are many of the "counter-intuitive" approaches to fighting them that are not obvious at first glance, and it can be frustrating to learn them if you've developed effective tactics against other armies that "always work".
Such lessons include:
1) You must engage Tyranids to defeat them, doing it on your terms to beat them back, clipping or heavily supported being, obviously, the best way to do it; shooting will only make them angry! *laugh*
2) Focus on destroying a swarm at a time instead of diluting your attacks against multiple formations. Against other armies it's often a good idea to harrass multiple formations with Blast markers and token shooting, against Bugs, you're just wasting your time.
3) Don't let them get away! Pursue broken swarms, even with your own broken formations; this reduces spawning and gives a chance of the swarm not rallying. Nowadays, it's *very* rare for me to have a swarm that spawns more than a D3 points each turn as the enemy always tries to keep harrassing units near them.
