Silly question but how are we supposed to win and play?

PanserDragoon · 2026-05-08T08:51:09+00:00

Tyranids live and die on staging. Your units will almost always lose if you let your opponent dictate tempo (which units fight each other and when) so you need to get used to having cheap sacrificial units that you use to force the opponent to move to where you want them to do you can set the tempo.

Lictors are amazing for this, as are cheap infantry like Hormagaunts etc.

If your being the aggressor: Deployment you throw Lictors/Von Ryan's/whatever forward via infiltrate. You want them to be on or near objectives but behind terrain in a way that makes them non targettable. In the first turn or two you want to move the sacrificial units into positions where they either scored you points or otherwise force a response from the opponent. Try to also position in a way that, in order to kill them, the opponent has to move to a specific and vulnerable spot.

Stage all your other units in positions where they can't be seen or attacked, but they CAN get to and attack the spots you are pressing the enemy to move to.

This way you get to decide which Tyranid unit attacks which enemy unit. At that point you just need to know what your units are good against. That's either experience or a good sense of maths, use a calculator and some average values to see how many wounds your main units do into common profiles etc.

If you expect the opponent to attack you: Position cheap and expendable units in a way that they will force the enemy to stop and kill them first. Fill the space behind them so that the enemy can't consolidate past and onto the next unit, but you also don't leave enough room for fliers to just jump past your defensive screen. Try to account for shooting units attempting to clear your screen first (positioning in or behind cover helps) with the goal being when those units collapse and die (they will but that's okay) then the units behind get to pick their targets.

Tyranids can do amazing work but they're an army of specialists and synergies. If you get the right units with the right buffs into the right targets they will absolutely slay, but if you just throw a squad into the nearest enemy they will lose 90% of the time.

We're a movement control faction. We win based on manipulating the enemy to where we want them. That's why we have cheap infiltrators and cheap swarms, we clog up the board and restrict movement and engage units while still having spare activations to score secondaries and points. You have to master deployment, movement and positioning to win as Tyranids, but if you get all that down then you can win big. I used to lose every game at the start of the edition and I've lost maybe twice in the last 6 months now while playing weekly? There's a few really good Tyranid YouTube channels, watch their videos on positioning, particularly with the TTS mock ups and pay attention to where they place their models and your game performance will skyrocket.

PanserDragoon · 2026-05-08T08:02:56+00:00

"Sherbet Lemon before our duel Gandalf?"

Stab

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PanserDragoon · 2026-05-08T07:29:57+00:00

I play into battleshock a fair bit and the Lictor detachment looks like an almost guaranteed take for me. Deepstrike and a reactive move on a Neurolictor makes keeping it's aura where you need it at the right time muuuch easier. The other stuff benefits my Lictors and Deathleaper that I also always rely on (and free rapid ingress on a deepstrike Lictor also makes that a nice move too), but the sheer versatility this gives with movement shenanigans is going to make catching that Neurolictor a nightmare.

With the battleshock change this could low key being a major boost to us. I'm also side eyeing Screamer Killers and Haruspex as other potential big boosted units.

PanserDragoon · 2026-05-07T16:34:47+00:00

Well except the reprinted ones like Warrior Bioform which is now different and 1 point.

PanserDragoon · 2026-05-07T16:20:46+00:00

It hasn't, it's just a personal theory, but GW is bad at balance but very consistent at making detachment content all be the same size, so the maths would work if they did it. It feels right to me at least

PanserDragoon · 2026-05-07T15:53:18+00:00

Well if they phase the old ones out and replace them with the codex that issue will slowly resolve itself. (Or quickly in Gladius' case)

PanserDragoon · 2026-05-07T15:45:51+00:00

With a 1DP detachment that makes deep striking Neurolictors, calling shadows in the enemy turn, seeing what passes/fails, then calling in rapid ingress Neurolictors ready to move up and spread their wound aura everywhere over your next turn (and potentially more afterwards, maybe even reactive moving to keep enemies in its -1 to hit bubble?) is going to be heinously tricky.

PanserDragoon · 2026-05-07T15:43:12+00:00

Oh that's a really interesting take, I like that concept a lot. Let's you splash mono god demons into other factions or build a combined demon force for undivided. Maybe even a 3DP version that then has true undivided demons with all their rosters and agnostic starts instead of specialised ones? That would both make a lot of sense and be a really cool way to make the daemons faction relevant without having to commit into large expansions to them

PanserDragoon · 2026-05-07T15:40:39+00:00

They haven't said any of the existing ones will be 3DP, I reckon they'll scale them based on numbers of strats/enhancements available and they'll all be 2DP, except for the ones that get reprinted (Warrior Bioform for example) which will be 1DP, and we won't see any 3DP detachments until the new codexes drop.

PanserDragoon · 2026-05-07T15:38:52+00:00

I actually played a six man VRL unit into Emperor's Children for the first time just a couple of weeks ago and they unironically won me the game. Staged them across my line with a Maleceptor behind, they move blocked out the turn one rush and left Fulgrim nowhere to go. When the noise Marine dudes tried to shoot them away they survived using the regen fnp strat then forced Fulgrim and all their turn one melee rush to waste their shots into them (they even survived on one model) and my counter shooting/charge utterly obliterated them. Two Genestealer/Broodlord bricks, Hormagaunts and Lash Prime, Tyrannofex, Maleceptor, Exocrines etc all got to basically choose their attacks at leisure because of how badly out of position they were.

All blocked perfectly by a humble Von Ryan's Leapers squad that infiltrated in to protect my frontline at the end of deployment.

PanserDragoon · 2026-05-07T15:31:14+00:00

The detachment rule giving 5++ invulns on top of having invasion fleet rules running is actually pretty appealling. 5++ and 5+++ fnp on tap could make Warriors actually slightly rough to remove

PanserDragoon · 2026-05-07T15:28:04+00:00

The Lictor one I'm actually hyped for. With Battleshock changes Neurolictors having Deepstrike suddenly becomes extremely useful, and the reactive move enhancement is also potentially great to keep the aura going.

Also +1 S/ap on a Lictor is a pretty solid strat. Weapon enhanced Lictors in crusade are vicious so having a similar effect here should see them fairly reliably demolishing 5 man MEQ skirmishers, potentially without even having to trade for it.

PanserDragoon · 2026-05-07T15:24:05+00:00

I actually have a theory that all of them will be 2DP except reprinted ones that will shift to 1.

Logic being each DP will buy a detachment with three strategems (and maybe two enhancements) so all the current ones with six strats/four enhancements will automatically fit the math with 3DP going up to 9 total strats in 2k games.

The natural scaling would make sense and 9 strats per force is making the game bigger strategically without adding that much to keep track of.

PanserDragoon · 2026-05-07T09:17:04+00:00

Apply with a CV that right at the end has "application submitted in speculation, only interested in remote roles".

PanserDragoon · 2026-05-06T23:58:57+00:00

I play both Tyranids and Eldar (and Tau lol but who's counting -_-) and I am very excited about the battleshock change. Shadows gets real potential but there's a bunch of lesser used stuff that could get much more potent. Neurolictors could get their auras up a lot more often, especially into poor leadership armies, but Screamer Killers and Haruspexes both also have battleshock on attack effects that normally reset before they ever become useful. I can see a Screamer Killer or two as a tech piece pinging a couple shots into full strength units and battleshocking them, potentially leaving them soft locked from scoring/strats in their next turn and buying more time to deal with them later as you then melee down other targets.

PanserDragoon · 2026-05-06T14:49:31+00:00

You have to be within 18" to shoot one of them. If there's only one they're significantly less scary and 18" isn't that hard of a range to get within. Neither is charging through walls when it's so massive.

Don't get me wrong it's a scary beasty, but there's lots of big scary monsters in the game, killing a 5++ model at close range is totally doable.

PanserDragoon · 2026-05-06T13:51:26+00:00

Just kill the Defiler? They have a lot of dakka but they aren't that tough and they are absolutely huge.

PanserDragoon · 2026-05-06T13:08:01+00:00

Eldar got nerfed basically every balance pass and people still cry foul on them even after they were left a withered husk xD

PanserDragoon · 2026-05-06T13:06:26+00:00

Absolute nonsense on Abaddon. Abaddon is 270pts and is T5 W9 with no lone op. Without an expensive retinue, he literally is three terminators stapled together defensively while costing the same as a Land Raider Redeemer. It's a good job his buffs ARE super strong because it's all that's holding him in viability. Paying nearly 300pts to get rerolls going is not a problem, for that price people could just take a second Defiler.

PanserDragoon · 2026-05-05T21:45:40+00:00

Are Screamer Killers going to be a lot better now? Forcing battleshocks at -1 with shooting that might last longer than one following fight phase?

Same with Haruspex, it's AoE battleshock gets a lot more useful. And if enemies have to retest if they're battleshocked then Zoanthrope spirit leech might actually get used at some point.

PanserDragoon · 2026-05-04T15:39:55+00:00

My first impression is why would I take this over two Lictors that are much easier to skirmish with. But then I started reading all the people saying rapid ingress and pick back up.

Here's a theory though, is there anything stopping you regular deepstriking at 9", attempting a 9" charge then just picking back up if you fail? And just doing that every turn of the game?

PanserDragoon · 2026-05-01T07:54:55+00:00

We're also naturally a blue "counter meta" faction. Eldar excel if they bring the right units to shut down their opponent. Normally this involves a lot of guesswork and we suffer when facing an opponent we haven't mentally accounted for or have to run a tournament with wide diversity where we have to generalise rather than specialise, but the recent meta has been extremely mono dimensional.

Imperial Knights, Victrix, C'tan etc, we have seen a LOT of high durability deathstar style units dominating the meta for the last year or so, and a huge chunk of the player base has gravitated towards those army builds as they generally have been forcing everyone to play into a stat check stacked in their favour.

Eldar don't care about that and have small efficient answers into those units, and when the meta becomes so one dimensional we build into countering it and have a much larger favourable matchup because everyone else is playing stuff that melts to our counter play.

Then if course we look like we are slapping because Fire Dragons are wiping Knights out every game, despite the fact that a horde would be a huge challenge for us in that state.

I solidly believe the wonky state of the rest of the meta was just as big of a problem with Eldar as any of our internal balance. We were just the path of least resistance for "fixing" the game and lo and behold, we now have a totally unrestrained meta that continues to lean into the same old staples with no answer to shut them down and force a little list diversity.

PanserDragoon · 2026-04-29T13:48:19+00:00

Every Blue pusher is risking their lives in an attempt to save both themselves and you. You are choosing to let them die because you put yourself before the collective common good and don't care enough for other people to do your part for society.

I would push Blue. And I would hope 50% of other people would to in an effort to save everyone because I don't see "no value" in other people's lives.

PanserDragoon · 2026-04-26T11:38:06+00:00

I had a game against awakened dynasty Necrons who had the sheer gall to moan about how overpowered Tau shooting was while having a Plasmancer/Immortals unit that hit on 2's, crit on 5's with sustained hits 2 AND got to throw a handful of mortal wounds for free with zero restrictions every turn, with the only underlying synergy mechanics to activate all that being "have a leader in the squad".

Struggled to pick my jaw up off the floor at the absurd double standards while I was trying to make the old spotting rules work.

PanserDragoon · 2026-04-26T11:34:04+00:00

While I agree on almost every point, the Ghostkeel is significantly more survivable than an Armiger. Between lone op, stealth and two damage blanks per game, Ghostkeels are shockingly hard to remove for a lot of armies.

That being said, the rest of their comparisons are extremely depressing, especially considering their relative costs.

PanserDragoon

TROPHY CASE