Thoughts on Tyranids so far

Now I have had a good chance to play a few games with the Warhammer 40,000 5th Edition Tyranid codex, I thought I would briefly share my thoughts so far.

First thought; cover.

Cover is massively important to the Tyranids. As an up-close-and-personal army with almost no access to invulnerable saves or transports, getting across the table and getting to grips with your opponent with enough models left to do serious damage is reliant on getting those cover saves.

I would also point out at this time the 25% terrain rules. If you're not playing with at least 25% of the gaming table covered with differing types of terrain (LoS blocking, area, difficult/dangerous, ruins, etc) then you are already on the backfoot and will have a much harder time of it than you really should.

Fortunately, the army is capable of generating cover for itself, either by using screening, cheap units or by using Venomthropes.

This requires a different way of thinking and playing over say, Imperial Guard. The Movement phase becomes the most critical of all; setting up assaults, counter-assaults, getting in range for shooting, all whilst trying to maintain your cover saves until the last possible moment, or the enemy threats have been dealt with.

Second thought; Transports and eating the juicy treats inside.

Having played a 1750 point game yesterday against my mates Sisters of Battle (using new rules and points costs we guessed at) saw about 5 transports on the field (not as many as he could have taken). Transports carrying meltaguns and heavy flamers...

Getting the units out of the transports posed quite a problem (even with Hive Guard) but once they were out it was feeding time and units disappeared rapidly.

There are really only two phases that Tyranids (and any other army) can open the transports; shooting and assault. Of these two phases, it is much, much better to do the job with shooting rather than assault. If you assault a transport, say Rhino, with a TMC (Tyranid Monstrous Creature) it will probably be destroyed, however that then leaves a full (or nearly full) squad inside ready to jump out and wreck whatever assaulted the transport in their go, which will be straight after (assauming Pinning check is passed, but that isn't reliable enough to depend on).

There is also the option of surrounding the transports exit points and hull with models and hoping the transport is wrecked which would, if i'm not mistaken, mean the transported units inside are destroyed.

If you shot said transport, then your assault phase comes straight afterwards, leaving you free to munch on the contents! Obvious, but pretty vital stuff!

The problem here comes from the Tyranids rather limited anti-transport shooting:
Hive Guard (Elites)
Zoanthropes (+ Doom of Malan'tai) (Elites)
Tyrannofex (Heavy)
Heavy Venom Cannons (HQ, Fast Attack, Heavy)
Devourers with Brainleech Worms (HQ, Heavy)

Of these, the HVC is OK for suppression, as is the Devourer. Supression just doesn't cut it against transports as the squad inside can still just get out and shoot/assault you in their turn. Transports must either a) explode b) wrecked or c) immobilised far enough away from anything useful, forcing the squad inside to get out.

I've listed the FOC types for these as well. No anti-transport in Troops, very limited in Fast Attack and the Heavy and HQ options are very points-heavy. So that really only leaves the Elites section.
Of the two choices, Hive Guard and Zoanthropes each have their pro's and con's:


Hive Guard
Pro: cheaper, multiple shots, don't need LoS, T6, 24" range, S8, harder for target to get cover save.
Con: no AP1, only glance AV14.
Zoanthropes
Pro: synapse creature, AP1, S10 Lance, 3++, variable fire mode
Con: short-range, psychic test required, can be shut down by hoods/anti-psy, T4, more expensive, easier to get cover saves from, Spore almost certainly needed.

The Hive Guard seem to be the better option generally as they have less drawbacks and are almost impossible to stop shooting unless the unit is killed but, exclusively taking Hive Guard is asking for Land Raiders to come and ruin your day.

In the 1750 point game vs Sisters, I had 2x 2 Hive Guard and the Doom of Malan'tai (in a spore) as my elites choices. It worked pretty well, with the Hive Guard going after the transports for the rest of my army to munch on the contents.
The Doom actually did better at anti-vehicle then anti-troop (although my mate rolling 6,6,6 for one of his tests was pretty painful) I believe the Doom blew up an Excorcist with a S10 blast and a Rhino, again with a S10 blast.

I am due to play again on Friday this week, hopefully against either the Death Korps or Grey Knights and i'll try to record any games I get to play.