Some general nid tips

[craft-star]

So i started playin random and i generally dont have big problems with races but nids are rather an annoyance.
I just always seem to loose with them, whatever hero i get whether i go warrior heavy, whether i go gaunt heavy. Even if i mix them up i get stommped.
My biggest problem is that against playing most races gaunts are like little puppies. They just feed the other team's units while also causing me big losses.
Warrior's backslash is also deadly, if 1 warrior dies i get to say goodbye to my whole army.
The t2 carni is very slow, and can easily be kited by most races and the t3 carni is just a waste of resources if im already lagging behind.

So am I a complet n00blet, and are there any tips that could improve my gameplay or should I not play with nid?

[Wikkt]

what you need is a hive tyrant with improved synapse. From what I've played so far, it helps quite a bit by giving your guys better survivability.

[craft-star]

tried that, works pretty well untill some1 gets suppression or if you are playing against eldar shees on your fatty

Edit: Also im playing random so I would love some advie on playing the ravaneer and the lictor.

[Wikkt]

yeah thats why you need the HT leading ahead. immune to suppression, he can take out weapons crews. Yeah I've mostly played Eldar the past week, banshees pretty much annihilate hormagaunts.

Burning down their gen farms will help, making them choose between battle equipment for the Guardians or war shout.

Logic says war shout will be chosen, but I do happen to use grenades alot more in some games when im just harassing capping units.

Try a shooty nid build against shees, use the HT and x1 horm as a speed bump while the rest fill the shees with holes.

[Tren]

Current nids in my opinion, aren't all that bad, they have some serious issues against a rush to T2 but they are otherwise solid in T1 and T3 makes their fexes far better(yay thornback, it's almost as good as gaining retreat).

The fact is Nids need their hero, they live or die by how well he(it?) is used, so depending which hero you get as to what kind of play style you'll want.

So first off HT, this guy is as close to a straight fighter you'll get with nids, allows you to forgo warriors as he gives synapse, which can be enhanced, though I personally find the extended carapace is better for the charge, really helps break most infantry blobs and HWTs(rending talons too for real pain).

Lictor is there to break up, harass and assainate so that your gaunts can get in there without taking so many casualties, also lets you scout and with stalk you can see all enemy heroes and their LOS which is a god send(and a bargain for 35 biomass) currently best equiped with feeders and toxin cyst (like the old apoth rites but it moves with the lictor(very broken imho))

Ravener...best way to play this guy is to use your tunnels to hit gen farms, but it is risky and I find he is probably the weakest in a fight, but damage synapse is good if you can get it, regardless you need to stay mobile and keep your enemy guessing and hunting down tunnels while you hit gens and lone defenders, always go for fights you have the advantage in or run before they start.(btw spore mines drop, forget the name, very handy)

as far as general nids goyou have everything you need in T1 the only real bastard is units in buildings I have always struggled to remove them, spore mines should get the job done but usually they get focus fired on their way in and do very little, barbed stranglers lack the range and...lets not get started on termagants.

T2...well thus far T2 usually means VENOM WARRIORS NOW! especially versus orks as they can get their first deff dread on the field so damn fast, unless you have been dominating resources, going for a fex usually means they'll have 2 base raping you while you wait so yea Venom warriors are your best friend.

T3...hhmm lictors only if I am rolling in it and I want start harassing but by T3 they just don't do enough and you just don't have time to micro them. Screamer killers, great way to get free spore mines and chase away infantry. I only upgrade screamers for dealing with tanks otherwise I stick with the barbed strangeler and get a thornback fex for walkers, very nice combo.

[craft-star]

That helped a lot Gonna try out today

[Phlaago]

Now my TS rating is probably way below some of you guys but as someone who have only been playing Nids I can only say this:

Yes, guants are little puppies... so you have to dance with them until you get something with a synapse aura nearby, the only thing they can handle on their own in the early game is ranged squads without melee counters. (shoota boys comes to mind... but I dont really know orks well enough to tell if they can get one... havent seen it yet)

banshees: you dont need to go ranged, just make sure you have some kind of upgrade on your hive tyrant before you melee them and also make sure you outnumber them with your HT + however many horm squads it takes. And timing is very important... dont let the horms get a big head start.. because they might be dead before the HT catches up with the synapse aura.

If you can swing it powerwise get a warrior squad with barbed strangler (yes i know... 300req, 30 power and 60req, 25 power for the upgrade.. but aoe suppression is nice, and they are quite good in melee).. but before you think about warrior I think you should build a squad of spore mines, they hurt like hell if you manage to catch the enemy off guard... or if you dont they at least scare the enemy away.

both fexes are nice but only after you get to T3... the carnifex needs the T3 hive for the thornback armor upgrade (charge and ability to spawn free ripper squads + some extra hp rocks).
the screamer killer is easily my favourite unit in the game because of a huge barbed strangler and the ability to spawn free spore mines.

for anyone that dont believe in spore mines, I think i have a replay somewhere of a spacemarine losing 3 squads (2 of them tacs) to 1 screamer killers spore mine squad after he let them get bunched up on approach to the hill with the middle VP on leviathan hive, it also helped that he was slow to react to the spore mines approach, he didnt retreat even after they started their big chargeup detonation.

oh... before i forget, against devastator squads, shuriplats and anything similar... ravener brood. (dont bother with the upgrade unless you have spare resources)

As far as hero upgrades go I like a few combinations.

1) all T1 hive tyrant, rending talons, improved synapse, psychic scream
(this one is not my favourite but its reasonably tough and also helps your other units survive, 1 aoe knockback in melee and 1 aoe damage reducer + the hp boost to your units)

2) T2ed killer.. crushing claw, bonded exoskeleton and then either psychic scream or bioplasma.
now psychic scream will let you tank a bit more because of the damage reduction it gives... but sometimes its useful to weaken the enemy with bioplasma first... the main drawback of the bioplasma is that its so slow to fire that you almost need to attack a spot on the ground where you guess your enemy will be to get any results)
the real killer is the bonded exoskeleton.... a few hundred hp extra isnt big.. but a ability that gives complete invulnerability for 20s is huge (costs 80 energy, so you need to watch out what other abilities you pair it with because it will be tight on energy)... people in low-mid ranks usually dont know how to deal with this combination, but knockbacks and similar things work against the HT even if he wont take damage during these 20s.

and last but not least... against spacemarines its almost mandatory to keep a few spore mines around to ensure you get some kills in order to level your troops, only other option is to blob them from all directions to panic them into retreat so you can get some xp from killing their power farms, just remember that in T1 we dont have a unit that can easily kill buildings. (please.. change the terms weaponfamily to flamer =)

[craft-star]

thx guys
have been playing some nids today, only major problem i faced was t1 turret spam but i managed it with spore mines and t2 carni

[Cheesenium]

I think Spore Mines are essential in playing as Nids as they do good amount of damage and scares the hell of your opponents away.

It works pretty well for me so far in team games,especially with RA's drop pod Spore Mines which is just sick to see how many units it could kill at one time.

[Phlaago]

Hehe, yea.. dropping the spore mines from a mycetic spore is very effective, if the enemy is not completely sure of which troops the different nid commanders can drop.

If he is used to facing hive tyrants he will expect warriors to come down.. not spore mines =)

another interesting strategy to kill off alot of enemies is engaging them in melee with your hive tyrant, hit the invul ability on the bonded exoskeleton armor.. and detonate a few spore mine squads right next to him.. your HT will survive it without a scratch, but chances are not much else will.

I did this once in the middle of my own powerfarm when i was losing badly to a ork, I think i gained 3 levels on my hivetyrant in something like 15 seconds, wasnt enough though... i lost anyway because i was whipped silly before that =)

[Phlaago]

Been trying out the Lictor Alpha the past few days and I really like it.

the feeder tendril/toxic cysts build is great for assasinating squads that are out capping.. sluggas or gaunts die in 10s or less, not much time for the enemy to react and save them.

The main problem with this build is space marines.. when facing a force commander in melee or a asm squad the lictor will spend alot of time on his back being knocked down (melee size is medium, compared to hive tyrant which is large) and feeder tendrils become kindof useless at that point.

Enter: the disruption build (Scything talons, deadly jump)
losing the hp regain from feeder tendrils is a drawback.. but scything talons do 50% more damage, this lictor build works much better when you use him to spearhead an attack by your main force.

oh btw.. .lictors weapons are power weapons so with his ability to infiltrate I find that t1 turretspam is not much of a problem when i use him =)

as for the accessory slot I dont get anything in T1.. pheromone cloud was nice before 1.5 patch when it autoreinforced your units near it.. but since you have to pay now and do it manually the 65 energy cost is more than my lictor can usually support in between fights.
Lone hunter is nice if you are just that... a loner stalking squads out to cap points.. (or the HBD teams set up to guard them)
Menacing visage is by far the best accessory if you are using your lictor as part of your main force, causing 1 enemy squad to retreat can be a big thing if used on the right squad (like fully upgraded nob squad, really craps on the enemys parade).

[Tessien]

I play Lictor and HT alot (31/32/32), I've also found that I tend to destroy my opponents in early tier 1/1.5.

I'll describe my lictor tactic I usually get three gaunt squads, as fast as possible (termagants are useless right now).

Following that, if I'm up against Eldar, Orkz, or another Nid i get toxic cysts. Until I have cysts, I hold off from fighting, and just cap. Once I've got that, I go start a fight, I walk my lictor in front of my army, when the enemy melee rushes mine, and the 'scum' forms, I detonate cysts right in the middle, this combined with the 3 gaunt squads will usually destroy the enemy melee units in 5-6 seconds.

Following this, I get adrenal glands on all gaunts, get feeder tendrils on my Lictor, then go for warriors.

Against SM:

I get leap and suppression claws, but I get the adrenal glands first, and try for circling ambushes in the initial capping stages.

[craft-star]

Termas are not useless, because hormas can be danced easiliy without synapse.