Space Marines and tyranids in the warhammer boardgame?

At the moment my friend has a tyranid army and I just have the basic assault on black reach one. I prefer to use the space marine army but before I start getting more space marine units, are the space marines any good against tyranids? If so, what are some strategies I could use. If they are bad against tyranids, what army is actually good against them?Space Marines and tyranids in the warhammer boardgame?
I feel it depends on your friend. If he just makes a nid army then ya the space marines can be extremely effective, but if he builds his army to fight marines you are in trouble. What I recommend for fighting nids is to get a lot of assault marines and devastators. Also put heavy weapons in your tactical squads, break them into combat squads, and have the a team with the heavy weapon and a team with a flamer and sargent. then you basically form two groups your shooty group that will stay in them back and give support and your punchy group that will charge the nids last second or just take the charge. I recommend putting your assault marines behind the main line and have them jump were they are needed most. Terminators and sternguard veterans are also really good since they are decent in close combat and are great at shooting.Space Marines and tyranids in the warhammer boardgame?
Marines can be good against nids. It really depends on how you build your army and, of course, on the tactics you use, the mission you play and the ability of the person you play against.



Generally, nid builds either go for hordes or giant monsters. Against either, a very reliable weapon is the Thunderfire Cannon - but the model is expensive and a pain to build. Equally good are assault cannons (plenty of shots to take down hordes, but rending to deal with big monsters). You can pack out an army with these, putting them in Terminator Squads, on Land Speeders, Dreadnoughts and on Land Raider Crusaders (Blood Angels get them on the Baal Predator, too, but that's not available to regular marines).



Another good marine option against nids is the Vindicator, but its short range (24") means that the tank can get swamped quickly if you don't protect it with infantry. For similar - but not as effective - longer ranged firepower, the Whirlwind is also a sound investment.



Of course, you must never forget your mission, and Tactical marines can't be ignored. But against most nid builds, tac squads are vulnerable to either swamping or simply being squashed by Carnifexes and Hive Tyrants (not to mention Trygons, Tervigons and Lictors!). So use the heavy firepower as infantry support as well, to protect those vital objective-seizers.