Denying the Great Devourer

Tyranids are probably my favorite 40k foe. There is not much known about the galaxies greatest threat other than its insatiable hunger to digest everything else that moves. Suns have been exploded to deny the Tyranids a whole sector worth of bio-mass that would have only fed the unstoppable horde. In this post I am going to go over what the Imperium, Imperial Guard and Space Marines, can do to to choke the great the devourer.

    

Big creatures and swarms are the two threats that a loyal servant of the Emperor has to worry about. Look for weapons that can put the hurt on toughness 6 monsters with multiple wounds to take car of the big beasts and then also weapons to kill the swarms. Most Tyranid players will be bringing a flying hive tyrant so it would behoove you to take a flyer or two to put the hurt on him if you're not running an Aegis Defense line. 

 

Killing the Big 'Uns: Heavy bolters, auto cannons, grav guns/cannons, missiles, and force weapons are all your friends to bring down these high toughness multi wound beasts. The heavy bolter will serve you well as a multi purpose weapons that can do decent damage against both big and small creatures. Auto-cannons, like the heavy bolters, can do well against both types of creatures but should target the big ones first. Missiles are another multi purpose weapon that can cause a good wound to a big one with a krak gmissile or switch to a frag round and hit a few small creatures. Grav guns are really going to be what serve you well here, if you give a squad of bikers three of these (two regular guys and the sergeant) they will do a lot of damage for you. That's 9 ap2 shots from the squad that will be wounding more often than not. Force weapons are the true weapon in your arsenal. These weapons can bring a carnifex down in one mighty swing. This is where I love my older Blood Angel codex where I use the power to increase my Epistolarie's strength by 10, then activate the force sword and say good bye. If your opponent was silly enough to bring a brood (squadron) of these things then that is your librarians target.

 

Killing the Swarm: I think we all know the answer to this one, cleanse the  xenos with flame! Your standard troop choices can bring a good amount of flame weapons which you should take advantage of. It really is as simple as that, flamers along with the basic weapon (las guns or bolters) will be enough to deal enough damage to gaunts and all the other single wound models.

 

Tactics- Focus on the big synapse beasts first. If you see Zoanthropes kill those bastards first since they will be giving a very nice cover save to units around it. I was going to say this would be a great target for Vanguard Veterans but unless you are a Blood Angel player you're not assaulting out of deep strike anyway. I think a sternguard/biker combo would work really well against tyranids. Sternguard in drop pods crash down with a heavy flamer, which ignores cover, shoot up a zoanthrope and surrounding guants while grav gun bikers run around blasting apart big monsters. For 115 points you get a toughness 5 librarian on a bike which will help you not get insta-killed, after all that's his job. Having a quick army that can strike from multiple directions at once will greatly help you weaken the effectiveness of Tyranid flyers and deep striking Mawlocs that will wreck a gun line. Bringing a Storm Raven of any other Imperial flyer will help your cause greatly with the absurd amount of weaponry that can be brought to bare. Always target the synapse creatures, then watch your opponents army slowly fall apart.

 

Now get out there and fight in the Emperors name against the Tyranids, or whoever you find at your local store. I am going to try to get in a game some time this weekend since it has been a while since I have been able to get a battle report up. Thanks for reading and have an Emperor blessed day.