[RailgunV42]

* * Recently My atention was brought to a Tyranid tactic used effectivly against my tau that nearly spelled disaster for me, and would have worked have he executed it better.

Due to the large size of Horgaunt Sqauds You can move them into a kind of broken line with like half models spear heading the front of the squad. The Rest start lagging in the back making a wall across the board. If this sqauds assaults a squad diagonal to it, It blocks the line of sight to all enemy troops behind the wall becasue Combat blocks line of sight and that unit is in combat, though half its models able to attack, they are creating a wall. Tihs canmake any shooty army nearly useless very quickly. this letts your vonerable slow moving bugs move into combat unscathed.

Simple tactic. I'm surprised I don't see it used more often.

what do you guys think of this?

-railgunV42

[Lucifer-2.3456789]

*writes this down* ill try it.

[HiveMined]

Hmm...seems like it could eb quite effective. I'm surprised no one's thought of it before. However, it is quite vulnerable to counter assault. Hormagaunts strength lies in their numbers and the number of attacks they have. If the line is spread out so much, it reduces the way they can bring their strengths to bear. So as a tactic - yeah, alright. So long as you have other elements in your army that can inflict some damage, I can see it as a viable tactic. But basically, it sounds like it sacrifices the squad for the tactic to work.

[StarGod]

Have a zoanthrope behind the combat, or some warriors, hivetyrant if you want to stop them from running away. i suggest zoanthrope as you don't want to commit it to combat, where it can get squashed by nasty things - maybe flying nid warriors to keep up with gaunts

[RailgunV42]

Originally Posted by Phage

Hmm...seems like it could eb quite effective.* I'm surprised no one's thought of it before.* However, it is quite vulnerable to counter assault.* Hormagaunts strength lies in their numbers and the number of attacks they have.* If the line is spread out so much, it reduces the way they can bring their strengths to bear.* So as a tactic - yeah, alright.* So long as you have other elements in your army that can inflict some damage, I can see it as a viable tactic.* But basically, it sounds like it sacrifices the squad for the tactic to work.

Well, you see phage, you wouldn't use this tactic on an assaulty army any way because, well, why would you need to block ther line of sight? This is an anti-tau tactic, someimes an anti-eldar tactic, and occassionally an anti-space marine tatic.
Remember you can't shoot into combat, or across it. Yeah you might sacrifice a hormaguants squad, but if that means you get the res of the army into combat, its defenetly worth it.

RailgunV42

[HiveMined]

Agreed. I just wanted to make it clear to everyone that they shouldn't expect great things from the squad used for this tactic, and that they would in fact be sacrificing it. Which is part of the Tyranid player ethos actually. You have been warned! All of you! My final word on the matter: bah. :P (Feeling random tonight)

[UXO]

There's a similar tactic that I think was called the gaunt whip. But it also involved a slow mover like a close combat tooled carnifex. What you'd do is string the squad out so that the ones in front take full advantage of their fast fleeting movement while the ones in back stay behind to keep pace with the slow fex. At the beginning of the round before you do your assault, the carnifex joins the gaunt squad (back in 3rd edition when the tyranid monstrous creatures could do this). Therefore, he also gets to make the extra assualt move of 6" and the consolidation move after combat to get even closer..

I've never tried this tactic and I think it just sounds good on paper. In reality a bunch of bolters could probably shoot out the squad before they got the fex anywhere, because with the fex joining then the hormigaunts lost their 12" charge.

[Scout Sergeant Mkoll]

Originally Posted by Phage

Hmm...seems like it could eb quite effective. I'm surprised no one's thought of it before. However, it is quite vulnerable to counter assault. Hormagaunts strength lies in their numbers and the number of attacks they have. If the line is spread out so much, it reduces the way they can bring their strengths to bear. So as a tactic - yeah, alright. So long as you have other elements in your army that can inflict some damage, I can see it as a viable tactic. But basically, it sounds like it sacrifices the squad for the tactic to work.

I've tried it, it didn't work too well. Yes you do have to sacrifice the squad to get the tactic to work, unless you have a lot of small squads which then leaves the problem that squads are easily wiped out. You need a ton of gaunts for it to work really.

If you don't have tons of gaunts then either you get really lucky and it partially works, or it just fails miserably as I've found out on several occasions.

[RailgunV42]

Originally Posted by Scout Sergeant Mkoll

I've tried it, it didn't work too well. Yes you do have to sacrifice the squad to get the tactic to work, unless you have a lot of small squads which then leaves the problem that squads are easily wiped out. You need a ton of gaunts for it to work really.

If you don't have tons of gaunts then either you get really lucky and it partially works, or it just fails miserably as I've found out on several occasions.

WHy doesn't it work. Once you get into combat, you can't get shot at, so you only have to worry about the squad you assaulted, which is as good as toast.
NOTE: IT IS A STUPIDS IDEA TO ASSAULT A REALLY ASSAULTY SQAUD THAT COULD BEAT YOUR HORMIES. attack a regular tact. squad or something. If they want to move up even further to your force to counter assault your gaunts fine. Better for you. Theri just getting closer to your main force. Its ONE Hormagaunt squad. You will love it when your carnifex's and hive tyrant actually see combat!

I've seen it work a few times against shooty space marines, tau, and a star cannon heavy eldar force with not nearly enough troops.

What happened when you tried it Mkol?
What killed the tactic?

-Respectfully
RailgunV42

[Khaldun]

I think any model farther than 6" from a model in base to base with the enemy can be shot at and past during the shooting phase.* Such models are basically out of the combat, and have a zero risk of friendly fire involved.* The tactic doesn't work THAT well... Nice try anyway. It certainly could help if you assault some fw's and block LOS for the unit behind it.