Wednesday 27 January 2010

[Head to Head] Waaagh! Nobrot VS New Tyranids

So, now the Tyranid Codex has landed it's time for everyone to start facing - as usual - that the sky is falling, this Codex is better than every codex before it and everything inside it is unbeatable.

So I figured what I'd do is take a look at what's actually showed up on the tabletop, as opposed to what's circling the rumour mills, and then assess how I can attack and defeat these threats with my Ork army.

Threat #1: Trygon / Mawloc
The Tyrgon, it's big, scary and can take a lot of firepower head on. I think the best way of dealing with these guys for me, is to attack them in the same way I dealt with Carnifexes in the previous edition - lots of Tar pit units of Ork Boyz led by a Power Klaw Nob.

The Trygon might be able to rip a few Ork Boyz heads off before they can attack, but the sheer weight of numbers with the remaining FEARLESS boyz and the Power Klaw should be able to dent it. Combined with the fact if they charge, they're looking at between 30 - 60 S4 shots (depending on if they're Sluggas or Shoota) before charging in.

Threat #2: Mycetic Spores
These guys can be a nightmare for Orks, having a unit walk out in your midst right in your Boyz faces, unleash a wave of firepower and then say "Come and deal with me". They're also Monstrous Creatures with Wounds, which means 1 lucky Big Shoota shot isn't going to destroy it... but on the bright side it's easier to rip into in Close Combat.

I think they key to these guys is to treat them similar to how you would expect a Marine Drop pod force to show up... right where it hurts in your army. And they'll come in two flavours... either dropping a squad of cheap Gaunts or Warriors or with a Monstrous creature inside it.

For Monstrous Creatures, I'd go for the Tarpit method, shoot - then hack it to death. Whereas for the cheaper Gaunts, I'd try and isolate their Synpatic link and maybe use a Vehicle to tank shock them off the board or finish them off with something relatively cheap that I don't want tied up in combat like a cheap Boyz unit. For this, I use a mob of 20 Shoota Boyz that can hover near where stuff is likely to show up and attack from.

Threat #3: Zoanthropes
Zoanthropes are now one of the new "Must-Have" units in the Nid list, after being sidelined for years in favour of the Carnifex spam.

There's 2 things the Zoanthropes are doing well at the minute and that's having the AP1 Lance Weapon, meaning that pretty much any vehicle it's hitting is looking at getting penetrated. Combine that with the fact it can also use a slightly lower Strength plasma cannon shot to attack multiple elite troops like Nobz or Nob Bikers.

Threat #4: The Horde
Nowadays, it seems GW want to focus on getting more smaller troops on the board and even bigger centrepiece models. So now, the idea is to get as many Gaunts on the board, even reducing the price of Hormagaunts almost in half.

However though, the Orks have a trick up in their green arsenal, the fact that they do the Horde better - in my personal opinion. For the same price as a Hormagaunt you get something that's tougher, hits harder and have access to special rules to buff them up (Fleet from the Waaagh!, Big Mek's Force Field etc.).

However, Orks are notoriously sparse on template weapons on anything but vehicles. So the next thing to start thinking about with thinning hordes is weight of fire from units like Shoota Boyz and Lootas, giving your Nobz and Characters Kombi-Skorchas, just to think the place out, and then if push comes to shove... take a unit of Burnas!

Threat #5: Tervigon
I think the Tervigon is THE must have item in the Tyranid codex. A Monstrous Creature that you can take as a Troop choice AND it spits out more troop choices? "Yes Please!" shout the Tyranid players.

My personal method of dispatching this chap would probably involve sheer weight of firepower from a Loota Mob, followed up by support fire from somewhere else. But the majority of Nid players will hedge their bets on a combination of 2 Tervigons, incase 1 of them decides to give up. I think this is a unit you would likely have to commit a turn to, in order to kill them off completely. Meaning the rest of the Tyranid beasties run rampant.

Personally I'd be inclined to send in a Burna Squad to deal with it... Flamers to clear away the Gaunts it spawns and the Power Weapons to deal with the Tervigon itself.

Conclusion - Where from here?
Well... where next for Waagh! Nobrot! with all these Tyranid invasions?

I think I'm likely to stick to the balanced list I have, which includes a Burna unit in a Wagon, maybe give my Warboss a Kombi-Skorcha to be able to thin any hordes he might face.

Orks are lucky in the fact it's more or less Mandatory to take a Power Klaw on any Nob you buy... with a lack of Power Weapons. So that helps to deal with the amount of Monstrous Creatures and also, thanks to the loss of Immune to Instant Death from the Synpase rules, you can now smack your opponent's Tyranid Warriors and smaller beasties to your hearts content.

Key things for your Orks to fight the Tyranids:
- Power Klaws... don't be cheap and take Big Choppas!
- Lootas
- Burnas
- Kustom Force Fields (to reduce the amount of Boyz deaths)

Thanks to all those who read and enjoy :)
SB.

8 comments:

  1. Ive been playing the tyranids for 2 years now, after reading the new codex and playing 2 games with them ive got the following to add to the badgers post

    The trygon, it must always be upgraded to a trygon prime. I will not only have to stop testing for instictive behaviour but it then gets 12 S6 18" range shots. It becomes a synapse creature which can help with spore dropping units. It can deep strike which means it can appear in the middle of an enemy force and mess up any plans - it also has fleet and can be given regenerate (makes this fast and survivable).

    Mysetic spore - mountrous creature that can deepstrike and disgourge other units. This thing is a snip, 6" assult 6 weapon (remember it ignores armour and is 2D6 armour pen) - drop pods eat your heart out.

    Zoanthropes - their weakness is their short range, their new strengths are the S10 lance weapon, BS4, S5 AP3 blast and 3+ inv save.

    Horde - not much has changed, the cheapest option is still 5 points a piece, genestealers are still not worth taking even with the broodlord upgrade (if he had a power weapon then possibly but they cost too much). The hormagants are 6 points each and the re-roll all missed hits in combat is good but they no longer assault as beasts.

    Tervigon - you must take a minimum of 2 of these, they spawn new units, confer benefits of poisoned attacks and furious assault (if the tervigon has them and is with 6 inches) and grants the counter attack ability to all termigants within 6 inches. They can be upgraded to give another units feel no pain and have another power that allows another unit to run and shoot in the same shooting phase. A must have unit that can be taken as HQ and troop choices plus as ther eis no model for it your converting talents can be let loose.

    the doom of malan'tai - take this littlel beauty in a mystic spore and you have a unit that can appear in the middle of the enemy can use a power that kills enemys in yours and the enemys phases and has a 24" Sx (x being the current strenght of the model) AP1 - how deadly is that!!!!

    Things that will threaten nids - immune to Instant death has now gone - make use of cover - always make use of cover!!! high points cost of TMC's, a new way of thinking is needed to play nids.

    New things to help - troops always score (even if out of synapse range) - nids may be hgh priced but they include the majority of upgrades you'd give them in them old codex - there is prevalance of monsterous creatures (ignore armours in CC and 2D6 against armour in CC). most units that need to take leadership tests to use psyhic powers are ld10.

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  2. Angryman

    While the spore has a gun I am not sure where you are getting the ignore armor saves or 2D6 penetration. Those are for monstrous creature close combat attacks (and since you cannot charge anything with an immobile creature will only happen if someone charges you). While the fluff says it is tentacles it still just counts as a normal shooting attack.

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  3. good point,slight error on my behalf!!! It counts as a TMC so only if it gets charged (but who would charge it) then it would ignore armour saves, as it cant move and vehicles cant charge (unless its a walker) then it wont be fighting in CC against them so wont cause 2d6 + S in combat (unless a walker charges it).

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  4. You need to remember that, you kept thinking it had the benefits of a MC while shooting during our game. I think you were a little over excited about using more new models.

    On a note of how to beat them, avoid the Zoanthropes unless you can negate the psychic powers, thankfully the short range saved me a couple of times. The Trygon is rediculously tough even at T6, it managed to kill Khan a unit of Bezerkers, Lucius and a unit of Noise Marines. It is also hard to avoid as it has fleet, if you can brilliant, if you can't try and take it down first, it is only I4. The Tervigons are hard to kill mainly because of the number of Gaunts infront of them that they continously spawn.

    So basically my plan from now on is kill the gaunts, they are easy enough to kill if you get the charge or shoot them, the big creatures are less of a worry than the last codex excluding the trygon and each unit of gaunts is a kill point and a unit that can't get on objectives, after the gaunts, kill the tervigons, with an abundance of Synapse now available it is useless trying to sever the link. Even if you can kill all the synapse, they still count as a scoring unit.

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  5. u can kill them & slaanesh loves it lol

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  6. i must remember to stop doing that with the spore, ur right, i was a little too keen to us it. i was just amazed at how well they did from the 1st game against James to the 2nd game against you, i think it was a combination of luck and remembering the new rules the nids have (the luck being your defiler killing ur own men)

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  7. He killed the second highest number of Marines.
    Trygon - 15 kills
    Defiler - 6 kills
    Doom - 4 kills
    Everything else about 3-4 kills each.

    Damn defiler shouldn't even be on that list... I wonder who it will kill next week?

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  8. when i play you next please take him!!!

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