2000PT Tank Killing Nids

[wilsondg87]

HQ
Hive Tyrant- Lashwip and Bonesword, Heavy Venom Cannon, Regeneration, Wings, Indescribable Horror, Adrenal Glands.
PTS. 310

Troops
Tyranid Warriors X9- 8xLashwip and Bonesword and Scything Talons, 1xLashwhip and Bonesword and Venom Cannon. Riding a Mycetic Spore with added Stinger Salvo.
PTS. 470

Genestealers X9- Rending claws and +1 Broodlord with Scything Talons
PTS. 188

Hormagaunts X15
Hormagaunts X15

Heavy Support
Old One Eye
PTS. 260

Carnifex- Crushing Claws, Heavy Venom Cannon, Regeneration in a Mycetic Spore with added Venom Cannon
PTS. 295

Carnifex- Crushing Claws, Heavy Venom Cannon, Regenration in a Mycetic Spore with added Venom Cannon
PTS. 295

TOTAL: 1998
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I played an army with guards and deathleapers and the tanks took care of them before being effective so i got rid of them and seperated my full hormagaunt squad into 2 squads. I added the carnifexes in mycetic spores and put the warriors in a mycetic spore.

[yWizePapaSmurfy]

Now I'm no Nid expert, but I donno how ~800 pts tied into 3 MCs is a good way to go about for your "anti-tank" when All Venom Cannons can get are -1 to damage chart Pens. (So you need a 6 to kill tanks...)

But you might have a way to get them across the table to punish in CC.

Regardless, I'd say it's not a good list, hopefully more insight comes in later.

[Tbcrow]

I agree with Mr. Smurf,

If you're going to have them ride in on spores, you might as well go all melee or go home. Once they hit dirt, they are going to be tied up in CC until they die.

The problem is, they are going to get the crud shot out of them before they have a chance to even move.

If you absolutely must have a ranged weapon, drop the HVC's for the Carnifex's Super Snot Ball. It's one large template, that can do some serious damage.

If you want true tank destruction, drop old one eye, and take Doom of Malan'tai in a spore. Drop that sucker right in the middle of as many troop formations as your can. He'll leach life, and make sure your Carnifex's have free roam of the Enemies tank formations.

If you dropped the HVC's and Old One eye, this will also give you room for some Venomthropes, who can ensure your Hormagaunts reach the fight. As it stands, the two groups of 15 will probably survive two turns, I'd say 25% ever get to roll a To Hit dice.

[Sybrite]

Tyrants should never have Indescribable horror (as any self respecting assault unit is going to be Ld9+ or fearless so that Ld test is pretty much a joke for assault protection) as you've got a good lump of mysetic spores perhaps hive Commander for the reserve bonus
-could also ditch the adrenal glands, the S bonus is nice but really only noticable vs AV14 (unless your dice are prone to low armor pen rolls) and since you have the lash whip that Initiative bonus is also moot

not a fan of venom cannons on warriors, but as its the only gun in the brood it might make its worth back attempting to crack a light transport before you assault

not a fan of old one eye, just a really really expensive carnifex to me

also not a fan of crushing claws, 25pts for D3 attacks is just not worthit in my eyes (with one eye's berserk rule at least these extras have a chance to pull more extras but still too expensive), I'm more for keeping 1 or both sets of talons so that the attacks I do get I make count.
since they're arriving via spore pods (again which I'm not too fond of doing to carnifexes, as the others have mentioned, its a turn were they're not moving or assaulting so they get shot up), you'll want to keep their costs down as much as you can, again because they'll be stuck for a turn getting shot at. or you could bank on the relative safe landing rules for the spore pods and max out each carnifexes' shooting equiping Hvy Venom Cannon and Bio-plasma, this way each 'fex could get 2 high str cupcake shots if you land them close enough to a vehicle.

in addition to the mention of spore dropping the Doom of Malan'tai in for some life sucking and tank blasting, spore dropping Zoanthropes is a very good anti-tank trick with nids (psychic hoods can put a small wrench in the works here, but using a couple broods of 2 or 3 help put the odds in your favor that the hood doesn't cancel all ofwarplance attempts

[Pox]

totally agree with everyone - feel like struggleing with anti-tank then take 2 broods of zoanthropes in mycetic spores (about 2-3 popes per pod) and a unit of Hive guard (again 2-3) should help out with any tank problems. (except maybe Eldar with runes of warding or GK's with a dread nearby...) but yeah anti-tank is not something nids do all that well at the moment.

[Beeva]

First off, hello and welcome to 40k Forums!

I more or less agree with most things people have said. A few things in particular though.

First off, and most important with Nids (more so I think than with any other army), Keep them cheap! Take the upgrades you need but resist the urge to add frivilous upgrades.

I don't like Venom Cannons or Heavy Venom Cannons. Neither are reliable tank killers with being blasts and -1 on the vehicle damage chart and for anything else they are next to useless with their poor AP. I'd leave them at home. Adrenal Glands are overkill on a Tyrant, I would take these off. Regen is as expensive as hell nad I think it's rarely worth it, if you do take it, use it when you have Tyrant guard too so you can play with wound allocation. Thing is, with only 4 wounds the Tyrant isn't hard to kill in one round of shooting so you may never get to use it!

Carnifex's in Pods don't work so well unfortunately. I find they don't live long enough to assault tanks and no where near make up their points back. You're much, much better going with Trygons or Mawlocs. They're a damn site cheaper and a lot more effective. Personally I'd go for a Mawloc with it's S10 blast on entry, start it on the board then tunnel it in Turn 1 so that it automatically comes on in Turn 2.

Also, I second the Zoans in pods.

[wilsondg87]

Well thanks for all your help and comments. At this moment i am still taking all the advice and working on the nids army but since it is so lackluster then i have since deterred to the grey knights til i get some gameplay and army building experience but my nids still exsist, and if they stay fun to play then ill switch back. I shall look back here in a few days to an adjusted army. Thanks again.

[Tbcrow]

Don't let being new discourage you. You will hear many people cry and complain that Tyranids are cheese, etc, but normally these are the people who are lacking in an tactical ability.

It is an extremely difficult but incredibly rewarding army to play. When you win, you know you've earned it, either through a truly superior list, or best usage of the scenario in front of you.

[Beeva]

Tyranids suffer from having a lot of cool stuff and fun toys to play with. The problem is that a lof of these are really expensive or only useful in certain situations. All this means that List building for Nids is pretty tricky! More so than some other armies I think due to the fact that many Nids have a unique function and aren't versatile.

It doesn't mean you can't have a lot of fun with them! You've just got to know what your tactics are then pick the right units for that job without going overboard. Always remember Nids are a swarm army and are at their most threatening when you vastly outnumber your enemy!

Good luck!

[commandojimbob]

If you want to go anti-tank and be on top of your opponent turn 2, then I would suggest the much underated Mawloc !

Go 3 bare at 510pts, start them on the board turn 1 and deploy them to get cover or use them to grant as much cover to themselves as possible to withstand incoming fire if you go second. Turn 2 up they pop - S6 Ap2 on the rear armour of tanks, which virtually all in the IG are AV10.

Suffice to say you are freeing up a lot of points to invest in the Nids real anti-tank options - Zoans and Hive Guard. Zoanthropes in a Spore are very good, and I have seen and used them many times to take out tough armour. Current crop of codices have anti-psyker abilities that has made their appeal dwindle, but they are definately worth considering and can be incredibly annoying to remove.

Hive Guard are great at dealing with up to AV12. Good volume of S8 shots on a T6 mobile platform (mobile - hive guard should not stand still). Seen them best utilised as hugging a Tyrant & guard deathstar - getting cover saves and not confering cover saves to their targets due to their no line of sight rule. Outside of these options, Stealers are always nice, especially with Broodlord for higher strength - shove in Adrenal and they can rip most vehicles up (if you get close enough - but - is expensive options). If the Terrain is good, I have seen them used best as infiltrators. Also, dont forget Ymgarl - pick a sensible piece of terrain, move , assault turn they appear and have better armour - I have witnessed and felt their punch a number of times.

So here is a suggested list (and BTW i dont play Nids, this is just something I have knocked up for you to consider) :

HQ (320pts)
Hive Tyrant - 2 Twin Deathspitters (these are nasty and at S6 Assault 12 twinlinked, have good chance vs a lot of transport vehicles)
2x Tyrant Guard

ELITE (485pts)
5x Ymgarl Stealers
3x Zoanthropes in Spore
3x Hiveguard (hug the Tyrant unit)

TROOPS (684pts)
6x Genestealers with Adrenal Glands and Broodlord
6x Genestealers with Adrenal Glands and Broodlord
6x Genestealers with Adrenal Glands and Broodlord
14x Hormagaunts
13x Hormagaunts
13x Hormagaunts

HEAVY SUPPORT (510pts)
Mawloc
Mawloc
Mawloc

TOTAL - 1999pts

[Sybrite]

CJB, I Think you confused deathspitters & devourers for that hive tyrant (TL deathspitters are S5 and only 3 shots each)
CJB posted a pretty nice looking list, it is light on synapse with only a hive tyrant since the zoanthropes are in reserves, but it's rush list so everything should be around that tyrant to stay under full control.
only thing I'm concerned with in CJB's list are the small genestealer squads, as I don't tend to take broodlords until the squad is at least 10 stealers strong, but I think the intended tactic is to blanket the table with auras of dispair to muffle enemy psykers (as well as using the BL's higher Str to murder any size tank)

[commandojimbob]

Ah yes - I did get confused - but you know what I mean - the option that gets you lots of S6 shots twinlinked

Yes this list is all about charging forwards and does lack of synapse but its about saturation. The Horms will need to keep close to the Tyrant, hence why the guard are required - but - once close enough, even if the tyrant die, Horms wont stand still if they fail their instinctive behaviour. Same with the Mawlocs, once they have appeared , they are likely to be out of synapse, but if they fail, they wont stand still - it will just mean your opponent could dictate where they go.

MSU Stealers with Broodlords can be flaky but deployed well, can be very tough and hit hard. The Broodlord adds some much needed punch, survivability and anti-psychic / character abilities.

These are just some additional ideas to think about vs Guard.