Tyranid tactics Thread - Ultimate Apocalypse Mod (DOW SS) for Dawn of War

The Tyranids are a diverse species of alien that hail from outside of the Milky Way. It is not known from which galaxy they came; but it is certain that they are not welcome in this one.

Tyranids (named for the first planet on which the Imperium encountered them, Tyran) are chitin bound, monstrous creatures that seek only to devour all organic matter, leaving barren husks of planets in their wake. For all its size, a Tyranid assault is a remarkably co-ordinated affair. This is achievable due to a collective consciousness known as the Hive Mind. Almost every tyranid is psychically linked, allowing a horde of billions of creatures to behave as a single entity with unsettling precision.

The Tyranids were introduced to Dawn of War Soulstorm by the Tyranid mod team who have worked for years to bring the extragalactic horrors to DoW1. The mod team kindly allowed the UA mod team to use these assets, and make them into a truly apocalyptic faction.

In UA, tyranids operate in a completely different manner to the original mod. You start a match with two units: a hive fleet and a hive mind.

The hive mind is your builder unit. This unit is not visible; it is a manifestation of the willpower of billions upon upon billions of tyranids. Buildings will automatically form once the foundation has been laid, freeing you to direct your attentions elsewhere.

The Hive mind is your ‘HQ’, so to speak. It can be seen as a cloud of spores descending down from space. From this cloud, you can create all units once they have been unlocked, and it is used to create your primary scouts. Genestealers, the Hive Tyrant, and the Broodlord can only be created from a Hive Fleet.

The Hive fleet is the sum of the tyranid’s total organic matter available. When units are created, the fleet gains health. When units are destroyed, the fleet loses health. Health may be restored as required by using the requisition-costing ‘Feed’ ability of the Hive fleet; requisition may be considered a ‘biomass’ resource for the tyranids.

All research is performed via reclamation pools. Not only do these pools perform research, but they generate requisition income. In short; they are your lifeblood. You need spore chimneys (listening posts) in order to construct these.

Tyranids are best known for swarming the enemies with countless small organisms, and then making powerful target strikes amidst the chaos with large, terrifying behemoths. This is very much the case in UA: gaunt based organisms may be mass produced cheaply so as to overrun the enemy or draw fire, while carnifexes and creatures such as zoanthropes may be used to destroy critical targets. There are some general use units also: genestealers fill this role, although they require research available through the Broodlord in order to remain competitive throughout the game. Warriors may be outfitted with various weapon types depending on the needs of the situation, just as a tactical space marine squad would.

The tyranids have many powerhouses that can draw the fire of armies and remain alive; the Hive Tyrant is notorious for refusing to bow down to enemy fire. It may use a catalyst ability to cheat death, and on top of this can sport a bio-shield.

Your Hive Tyrant is customisable, but cannot have every upgrade: you must choose an upgrade for its upper abdominal limbs, and another for its mid-abdominal limbs.This can result in a Hive Tyrant with four devourers, or with a bonesword and barbed strangler! Make your choices wisely.

The Tyranid titan is the Hierophant, a gargantuan beast that can topple the largest of foes. It is particularly effective in melee, but also is gifted with powerful ranged attacks.

The final step to overtaking the planet with your all-consuming horde is to construct a capillary tower: this tower can be used to call down meteors hurled by the fleet from space, or a devastating bio-bomb.

The Tyranids have reached the battlefields of the Apocalypse. And they wish to feed

The Hive Fleet is undetectable and can summon Tyranid units on the field perhaps in the enemies base like intended, but you got to feed it or it will die by your Spore Chimneys blowing up. Not to mention you have a Hive Mind which can build buildings anywhere.

I tend to ignore the gaunts unless I'm fighting Guard. They're too weak against anything else, so I run Genestealers as my basic troops choice. They can take down a lot of things pretty well.
When fighting say, space marines, I send in Lictors to piss them off because they seldom have the sense to use servo skulls.
Monsters are pretty good against monsters and Terminators. Less so against vehicles, but are still pretty damn good.

I prioritize research on making Genestealers and Lictors better and plain ol' teching up.
The artillery unit and the Zoanthrope are excellent. Artillery and anti-air/hold on to the night units are good.
The Hive Tyrant is useful as hell. The bio-titans are about equally useful for the cost.

The hardest I can play 'Nids is Hard against any army except Tau.

Edited by: LordRadical

What I do, is rush economy... Then i drop hundreds of the barracks and spawn the free gaunts like mad. This is enough to keep the enemy team occupied while my team mates build up and slaughter them. I call the tactic "the scree"

Xpwn3ntial wrote: I tend to ignore the gaunts unless I'm fighting Guard. They're too weak against anything else, so I run Genestealers as my basic troops choice. They can take down a lot of things pretty well.
When fighting say, space marines, I send in Lictors to piss them off because they seldom have the sense to use servo skulls.
Monsters are pretty good against monsters and Terminators. Less so against vehicles, but are still pretty damn good.

I prioritize research on making Genestealers and Lictors better and plain ol' teching up.
The artillery unit and the Zoanthrope are excellent. Artillery and anti-air/hold on to the night units are good.
The Hive Tyrant is useful as hell. The bio-titans are about equally useful for the cost.

The hardest I can play 'Nids is Hard against any army except Tau.

But gaunts are cheap and have big numbers. They are the best expendable troops especially the first gaunts. If you don't forget to reinforce the squad, the big swarm will hold the enemies in front of you dps units.