Tyranid Survivability

[bluelizard1976]

I'm a Tyranid player with a problem! There is to much fire power out there and my basic troop 6+ Sv just isn't helping!

I try to take as many troop choices as possible splitting the enemy fire, using my Lictors to tie up entrenched troops any dirty trick that I can think of!!

But currently for every game I play I lose, that's a 100% loss rate!!

I know tactics play a big part in whether you win or loose but it would be nice for my broods to survive long enough to be able to use some.

I think the win ratio for tyranids should be around 1:5

Am I being to optimistic or does it just sound like I need to rethink how I play?

[IBBoard]

Orks are in a similar position - even worse now that the new Codex removes most of their saves, IIRC.

Fleet of Claw should help to some degree, reducing the amount of time that you're not in combat. That won't help if you're charging head-long in to a load of Heavy Bolters or other rapid fire weaponry.

What armies are you facing? And how much use of terrain do you make?

The main ways to keep a horde army intact enough to kill enemies at the other end are:

• run around/through the scenery. If they can't see you then they can't shoot you, and with the Fleet of Claw rule then you won't be penalising yourself too much for doing it
• Shield your tougher units with lots of cheap and inexpensive stuff. The Orks use Gretchin as a living shield to reduce the Ork casualties, but a similar tactic with Termegants and something tougher behind them should work.
• Call in the big guys. If you've got a horde of small critters or a couple of big critters then there are a couple of alternatives for your enemy: 1) target the little ones and leave the big ones to smash things, 2) target the big ones and get overrun by little ones, 3) try targeting both and hope that splitting your fire power doesn't result in them both getting through.

As for the entrenched stuff, unless it is also the stuff that has the most dangerous weapons (e.g. a heavy weapons squad) then I'd potentially be inclined to ignore it. If it is entrenched then it has a defensive advantage and it wants to use that in its favour. If you don't fight on their terms and skirt around them then they have to come out of their cover and fight on your terms. If a vehicle or heavy weapons squad elsewhere poses a greater threat then go for it rather than for the entrenched squad.

Depending on the army, the terrain and the experience of the general then you should be able to achieve 50:50 or better. It can depend very much on luck as well, though. I had several battles where dice rolls just didn't seem to go for me, but being an Ork player I didn't care too much because [i]da boyz had fun fightin' da beakies[i]

[bluelizard1976]

Mainly facing Marines with their contraptions of doom, Land Speeders with assault cannons and those Heavy Bolters.

I try and use the scenery as much as possible keeping in/behind it and lots of troops up front they just drop under the pressure of having to perform!!

[IBBoard]

Speeders and other quick vehicles can be a problem, especially against a horde army when they have multi-shot weaponry.

Marines are a tough nut to crack, and the battle I did best in against them (apart from against my brother, TGSC) was one against the Space Wolves 13th Company, where they closed in for combat against my Orks. That meant more combat, which meant more boyz in the fight and large numbers of Orky attacks! Unfortunately the heavy armour armies turned out to be a bit more difficult and do tend to leave you shot to bits on your approach.

A speeder is only armour 10 from what I remember, so there should be some Nid weaponry that will take it down. I'd guess it's normally held by the Nid Warriors or Hive Tyrant.

Since you aren't likely to get in close enough to hit it (e.g. with a Carnifex) I'd say you need to hit it with a few venom cannon shots or similar, but only if you can't hide on the other side of cover from it. Even just being in soft cover should help to a degree in keeping your units alive long enough when it does attack, but once it does then you need to make sure it is left vulnerable so you can take it out before it hides.

It will reduce the horde-ness of your army, but bigger creatures with heavier weapons are probably the way to go against it.

The other alternative (unless I'm thinking of older versions of the rules) is a biovore. Lay down a patch of spore mines in its most likely attack position and you force it to either risk the mines (which might not be wise at armour 10) or find another position (which either delays it or can put it where you can bring more guns to bear).

Not sure if that helps.

[bluelizard1976]

The best I ever did against marines with me 'nids was an almost complete shooty army still didn't win but forced a draw. I did learn that you can take down a speeder with a gaunt and a fleshborer, and some really lucky rolls.

Not fond of Biovores but I can also use units of spore mines as fast attack.

[IBBoard]

Yeah, a wide variety of troops can get lucky hits on armour 10 vehicles and take them out. That's why Orks rely on numbers - enough shots in one direction and something should stick!

Just taking spore mines would help funnel troops and vehicles, although it also leaves it a bit more obvious as to where they will be. They'll still funnel the troops, but they'll be a bit easier to avoid.