So, I have the book in my greedy little claws! Here be my first impressions on it. As usual caveats apply, this is a first reading and as such I may get some details wrong and my opinions will probably change at least a bit as we learn the book. Also, check out the Tactics Corner for more articles and videos!
As you all know, I love Nids! I have a very large bug army and really enjoy their fluff and play-style. Here are some of my lovely swarm!
Ah yes, fully painted and did me right through the years.
And then I opened the new book….and felt like someone punched me in the nuts.
Almost every, single unit in there got a nerf! Seriously, almost every….single….unit….got nerfed…..in an already low tier army…..WTF?! That was my first reaction as I am looking at it through the lens of what we had. It is sometimes hard to adjust to seeing it as what it now is.
That pretty much sums up my feelings on this release on my first read through. However, I don’t want to start out like that so let’s go in reverse order. It’s better to look at what we have than lament what we’ve lost. I will save my overall opinions for the end. We’ll cover the Good, the Bad and the Ugly on this first read through, and then hit some of the units.
The Good
- Chaos doesn’t have to worry about being the most disappointing book in 6th ed, anymore. Yay?
- The fluff and the art are really good. It is a pretty book at the least.
- You won’t need to buy many new things, honestly. If you are a long time Nid player you can put a really solid list on the table with what you have in your collection, now. Some of the new units are solid, but nothing jumps out as me as an auto-include.
- Some old standby units got better! Where most units got kicked in the balls for no apparent reason, some core units improved such as the Flyrant, Termagants, Mawlocs and Biovores all got minor to major improvements. Nice! The Mawloc can randomly kill himself for some inexplicable reason, but overall he improved.
- Some previously crap units got minor to major buffs such as the Carnifex, Veomthrope and Tyrannofex. OK, that is good! Canrifexes especially got a nice boost for the points and I think we will be seeing a lot of them.
- The new units range from OK, to pretty good. Not terrible, not fantastic, but solid looking to me, now. I think the Crone especially, could be good at the price point taken en mass in a Flying Circus list. Although, he and the poor Harpy are the only FMCs that are actually on flying stands which is a big disadvantage to those that are on normal bases, plus they’re REALLY squishy at T5 and a 4+. How they are priced close to the Turkey is a bit of a mystery, but hey.
- A lot of units went down in points which is good in a vacuum. We will talk about why that is deceptive later.
- The Nid psychic powers are largely pretty good. Some are situational or can be rather poor, but in general, they have a useful school of powers. Increasing Synapse is very useful and I see that being a common choice. However, compared to OTHER primaris powers like Guide or Divination which actively buff you, this simply prevents you from suffering negative consequences so it really feels less awesome.
- Catalyst is a great power. Too bad it isn’t the Primaris. FnP to the caster’s unit and one other unit within 12″ is awesome.
- The Horror is good. A pen check at -2. A lot of armies ignore it due to fearless, but against things like Riptides it can save your ass (they are not Fearless). I see this being a surprisingly good power if you can get it off. The only real downside is that it is only 24″ range and is cast at the beginning of the movement phase so a smart player will often stay out of your range.
- Onslaught: Run and then Shoot. Solid on the right unit and things like Carnifexes, Tyrannofexes, Dakkagants, etc. will love it. A Flyrant and Crone will love it, too.
- Paroxysm: -D3 to WS and BS. Really good. It means that often you will hit on 3’s and be hit on 5’s. I think this can be very good for surviving shooting and improving your odds in assault.
- Psychic Scream. This is a good power and if you get it on a few fast units, like Flyrants, you can do some work. Again though, you can’t count on getting it (and you may get it on a support unit or something). Too bad sPods are gone =(
- Warp Blast. Just like it was, but got nerfed a bit. 2 Warp Charge, AP 2 on the lance (although still brutal) and str5, ap3 on the small blast. Not bad at all, but I like this power the least, honestly. Unless you are playing armies where it will really shine, I would pass on it, myself.
- The Warlord table is pretty good. The first result is obviously junk if you don’t have any woods on the table, but the others are solid. Night Vision is cool as most people will be using Flyrants, IMO, and 18″ Synapse is REALLY good now that failing synapse is so brutal. Getting 2 VPs for each IC killed in a challenge is hot, reducing cover is good and getting FnP after taking a wound isn’t the best, but hey, it’s a nice little bonus.
The Bad
- No more BRB psychic powers. WWWWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!?!?! By the Emperor, that was one of the only things Nids had going for them! I know some people got upset with Swarmy going toughness 9 or what have you, but how in the blazes do you justify a Daemon Prince or Greater Daemon with armor, invul, FNP, etc. going tough 9 or 10, but not a Tyranid MC that has no invul save and is usually a lot slower? This baffles me. Biomancy, Telekinesis and Telepathy were great powers for Nids and I used all of them all the time and it made the army so much more enjoyable to play. This in my mind is a monumental mistake and totally unnecessary nerf to an army that really, really didn’t need to be nerfed. I hope time proves me wrong on this but I doubt it. I see a lot of folks house ruling Nids to have the BRB powers again.
- The Bio-Artifacts. These are shitty. They are almost universally under-whelming and/or over-priced.
- The Maw-Claws of something-or-other. A rending upgrade that gives you AP5 and gives you preferred enemy for what you just ate. Eh. By the time you make it into combat and kill something, the preferred enemy will be kicking in late in the game. It is pretty cheap though (Melta Gun price) so yeah, maybe. Not terrible but not great. If you are playing a Tyranid Prime for example, might as well take it over normal Rending Claws for only a 5pt difference.
- Norn Crown: extends Synapse by 6″. Nice! Costs as much as a Terminator…doh!
- Miasma Cannon: This one is OK. A bit pricey, but you get a 36″ small blast, AP4, Poison 2+ or a poison 2+, AP4 template. Not bad at all, but for the points and the middling punch it packs, I don’t see it used much.
- Ymgarl Factor: you can get +1 save, armor or strength in assault, and have to change which each round of combat. At the cost of a Terminator, only working in assault, this could have been good but it is way, way too expensive. I’d much rather still have Ymgarls!
- The Reaper of Obliterax: Melee weapon with +1 str, +3 Initiative, Shred, ID on a 6 and AP3. Good stats again, but 5pts over a Termie in cost. Doh! Haha, why? Sheesh. I guess you could make a beefed up Hive Tyrant with this, the Ymgarl Factor and go up to STr 8 in combat with rerolls to wound which is cool, but at a MASSIVE price tag. Still, you could use this to make a flying beatstick if you are willing to pay the price on a T6, 4 wound model.
- A lot of mediocre or bad units got nerfed…..why? This is the part that just blows my mind. I can see no reason at all why some of the units that already sucked, got worse. Rippers for example. They went up in points (2pts less than Scarabs now, who are infinitely better) but still suck. They don’t explode anymore when outside of Synapse but why the hell does that justify a points increase? A T3 model is going to get insta-gibbed with impunity in a meta of Str6-8 spam that we live in now. They’re slow, weak, easy to kill, and non-scoring…..I don’t get it. There is a lot of this in the book, just arbitrary and seemingly irrational nerfs to units that rarely saw the tabletop as it was.
- A lot of shitty units stayed shitty. Especially Genestealers….what used to be one of the scariest assault units in the game, an iconic piece of 40K’s history, of which I have 50 painted….continue to suck a fat one. Ugggghhhhhh. My goodness, this could have been so easily fixed. But nope, no, they continue to suck ass. The only benefit to them I can see–at all–is that adrenal glands went down a point. That unfortunately doesn’t fix the fact that Stealers will get gutted 9 times out of 10 before they ever make it into combat. The Broodlord got nerfed too, less options that are more expensive, and no longer has cool psychic powers but has the Horror which can be good but using Genestealers as a support unit…wtf? Again, what? It doesn’t make sense, they’re meant to be a primary assault unit. We’ll get into more of the other units in later articles but there is a long list of units that stayed crappy.
- A lot of previously good units, got nerfed. Sigh. Why???? Noticing a trend? Seemingly totally irrational game design choices that just keep gutting the bugs’ best stuff and I am clueless as to why. Hive Guard go up in points and lost a point of BS? They were good, but hardly OP before. Good players only ever took 1 unit of them just to pop vehicles and at that task they were good. Not great, just good. Clarifying their gun to just ignore cover was good but the rest of it was so lame and seems to me that the person(s) writing this book seriously have no clue what’s going on with the game.
- And of course the big one: Tervigons. Holy shit, did they got nerfed. Again, they were just good, not great: good. They were seriously fine the way they were, they didn’t–at all–need a nerf. I hope I am wrong and it all becomes clear later, but that is my stance now. And Tyranid Primes going up massively in points….who is writing this? The only IC Synapse Nids have, which mind you is not really a buff but something that stops a bad thing from happening to your army, went up in points for no apparent reason, and actually lost offensive punch in many ways. I am waiting to see how this makes sense.
- A lot of the old Biomorphs that were actually good, like Implant Attack, Armored Shell, etc. are gone. Why?! WHY?! For crying out loud, WHHHHYYY?! What was the possible rationale for this? Maybe with practice I will see that there is a good reason for all of this but as of now, it looks ugly.
The Ugly
- Where-oh-where did Ymgarls, Spore Pods, the Parasite and the Doom go? Some of the best units in the book, gone. Another company makes the models GW never got around to, and so we all just get them yanked. Wow this sucks. Couldn’t we have gotten an “Alien Pea Pod from Space” or something? The Doom was a chief, Ymgarls were actually good in assault, the Parasite was the only Jump Infantry, IC synapse in the book and the Spore Pod added mobility and tactical flexibility to the list. Losing these SUCKS so hard. Ugh.
- So many units that got “cheaper” actually aren’t, or got more expensive as their upgrades went up in cost. Soooo, a nerf and a points increase in many cases. Wow.
- Some of the units’ abilities make no sense. Like the Trygon allowing units to come out of the hole he makes AFTER he arrives. Again, WTF?! Didn’t they learn anything from Lichtors last edition? That doesn’t work with a crap.
- Instinctive behavior became a huge liability. Yes, it can give you a bonus, but it can also cause a unit to destroy itself…..yeah. Your opponent kills your synapse and then laughs. It is more of the wacky, wild randomness that GW seems to think we love….
So what to do?
I honestly don’t know, yet. I want to play a game or two before really passing judgement, but I am really disappointed so far. You can make some good lists I think, probably some really good lists, actually. There are some winners in here, but so much of it is complete junk and disappointing that I seriously feel that this book was written by someone(s) that don’t actually play 40K or that is really out of touch with the game. You read the book and there is almost ZERO excitement. How does the same studio that gave us Eldar, where almost every unit is good and the hardest thing is choosing which awesome unit you will use, also give us this? Did they hand this off to the secretary to write because they were too busy or something? I don’t get it.
Well, we’ll look for the killer combos and good lists as we always do and hopefully there are some things we’re missing. I hope I am wrong on this one and that it is actually going to be a good product. Video bat reps inbound!
Dont know if you saw my line in the last comment feed, but you got it. Simply the most disappointing codex of six ed. Like a watered down drink, just simply bland. Remember how you asked for a PS4 for Xmas with Battle field 4??? Well, you just got a 360 with Call of Duty… It will have to do…
Yeah, that is how I feel right now, too.
Maybe this codex is simply a passive aggressive response to the universal hate Tyranids received in 5th edition. I would have much rather seen the project given to someone who’d have loved to write the new codex. This is simply a vicious cycle.
Yeah, I would love to hear why they made some of the decisions they did. It doesn’t make any sense.
They took the worst book in the game and made it worse… I hoped they would learn.
You forgot the brutal nerf to scytals. :(. So many missed opportunities and outright bad decisions in writing this book. I’m sure there is one or two decent builds in it but I was hoping for more then another book that has to rely on our equivalent of hell turkeys and cultists
Yup, ScyTals got owned, hard. Poor Hormagants and especially Trygons! Ouch.
Personally, I love what I hear about the new tyranid book and I want to start a nid army so bad right now. So many cool looking things, but the variety I can field looks so nice. I don’t care if everything is bad or meh, but they all look so cool and feel cool to run. I really want to get into the Tyranids now.
Truly, I am glad you are stoked as I am not. I want someone to be happy with this.
Yeah.. doesn’t instill ANY confidence at all that GW has a clue. I’m pretty sure they have monkeys doing their playtesting.
I was kind of looking forward to restarting/finishing the counts as Nid army I started last year.. Now, not so much.
The only word that comes to me for this book is incompetence. I so hope I am wrong and just not seeing it but this feels like a total dud.
To Reecius and Bigpig, one change that doesnt get mentioned a lot is the interaction with smash and tyranid weapons. So yes scy tal do not give you rerolls to hit, a trygon going down to 5 attacks with +1 for 2 sets of scy talons, will get 4 smash attacks, unlike 3 attacks with rerolls when smashing in previous books. Not great, but not really that much of a nerf either.
Good point, so maybe a wash when smashing but a definite hit when you aren’t. I played tygon quite a bit and usually wasn’t smashing unless facing vehicles or mu ltiwound opponents at t4 or better.
Thanks for the small point of positivity! That is a good one.
Ummm… Didn’t Nyds always rely on “cultists”, cheap scoring units that flood the board…
I am holding out hope for some good games to come from this book, mind I think quantity had a quality all of its own previously and this book seems to advocate that.
Tervigons still have a place I think, it’s just no longer as a primary unit, which I don’t necessarily see as a bad thing. Maybe 1 to squat in the backfield and camp an objective you place 1/3 of the way up field?
T-Fex is quite possibly the hidden gem at first glance, he gained a lot and had to sacrifice nothing.
Unfortunately I think GW slipped up with the Hive Guards new weapons and that’s why they had to decrease the BS (I don’t know this, just picking my nose and speculating)
As far as the BRB Powers, maybe they won’t remain as potent throughout the ages and don’t despair I’m sure Orks won’t have access to them either.
I do have to say I find it rather humorous that GW doesn’t make the new kits the best thing since buttfucking yer ol’lady and the whole interwebz is raging at their impunity, as opposed to accepting that they are just OK.
Had they been awesome sauce rage would have spread like herpies at a hippy commune at the odasity of GDub gouging them for all the new hotness (That came out clustered as fuck…)
I think the book has potential, more so then one or two builds I’m hoping, I’m hoping to have a couple games in this Wednesday.
I hope you are right my friend, and that I am wrong. I want Nids to be good.
Man this article makes it sound pretty rough for the nids. Good to hear we might see more carnifexes though. I really like those guys…
Can’t wait for a batrep!
Crispy
The T-Fex and Carnifex are pretty solid, now! That is a good point.
Big bag full o’ sucks from damn near everything I have read! A mid/low tier codex basically got the shaft (primarily not being able to take BRB powers as that is sort of what kept them afloat previously, but also synapse now making guys out of range deuce their unders). Honestly, pretty disappointing so far, even though I don’t play ‘nids, I just have fun playing against them. Part of me feels like it was a traditional GW knee-jerk reaction of a couple previous codices (Eldar and Tau) being so damn powerful that GW shot their wad and owned ‘nids, who needed nothing short of a minor boost. Sucks, but I am sure we will see a pigeonholed set of powerful builds, as we do with CSM (ugh, CSM…).
Also, on an semi-related note, I sort of felt a bit underwhelmed by the model release (the harpy is AWESOME, but it and the exocrine thangs are really the only new models, along with a plastic release of hive/tyrant guard and some minor (?) altercations to the warrior kit).
The Harpy is garbage so far. Maybe to give pseudo grenades but in our experience that thing is a total dud.
Yeah, I have heard he is lackluster in-game; I primarily meant the new model! I read jy2’s review and am a bit more enthused, but I still sort of feel they got the CSM pigeonholed special.
“Farewell to the Bugs!” The army is more for the casual player now (putting it nicely) sigh I remember the good ol days when shoot the big one was a pain. Now cruddex 2.0 hit.
I’m in the process of writing a strongly worded letter about their teams ability to write fun rules. I can manage with rules that aren’t competitive but rules that are not enjoyable are unacceptable. I might also include words not fit for children’s ears about Codex:Inquisition while I’m at it.
I think you won’t be alone in that.
I’ve mentioned on the “Farewell to old bugs” youtube video, I’ll say it here. Find your friendly Nids player a copy of the 4th ed codex and let him play with that one. It’s much better then the new codex
That was an absolute beauty of a book. The old biomorph system was incredible.
I got a look at it and I dont think they suck TBH. I think they take some practice and thinking. I mean Carnifexes are good now. And you can now kit them to be anything from infantry killers to Vehicle Hunters.
Reece, not a few posts down you posted an article about Underdog armies, Let that sink in for a moment.
I personally am seriously thinking about taking them.
I hope you are right, buddy.
I was really hopeful – even when all the nerfs were leaking – that the cost reductions would make the ‘nids viable. But I’m just not seeing it. As mentioned above, a lot of things got a nerf and a cost INCREASE. Most things (except biovores, carnifexes, and tyrannifexes) that got point cost reductions got large nerfs.
And I’m a totally casual player… but I can’t really see much fun in this codex.
In my circle, people use Eldar, Daemons, Dark Angels and Tau. The biggest problem I had was that it could be difficult even making it across the table. This seems to have made things worse.
You said it dude, we’re struggling to see the positive, right now.
That was a pretty funny commentary.
I fully expect all the characters (Ymgarls, Doom, etc) to show up in dataslates or codex supplements.
I have very limited experience in regards to playing with or against Nids. I can say that in very limited experience that the 1,500 to 2,000 point range is a rough spot for them. The new codex seems to make my assessment even more true.
The Nids seem to have become a bucket of dice army. Just flood the damn board and roll literally as many dice as you can throw as quickly as possible. Good fun! Kinda matches up with the army’s concept as well. Probably won’t win you any tournaments though. *Chuckle*
I look forward to the meta and the list building you guys produce and share. Thanks for doing so! I bet in less than a month you’ll have it sorted.
No, I don’t think so. Because of the Chapter House Law Suit, GW will probably never make a Doom or Spore Pod. They do not really own the rights to the model anymore. Ymgarls, maybe? I do not know of another company that made them.
well at least they wont be a bandwagon army..
Lol!
I don’t play Nids these days but they were my first fully painted 40k army back in bygone days of huge Tyranid warriors from Space Crusade, upright screaming carnifexs and I even have three (unpainted) white metal Zoat models.
I was going to buy this book for old times sake and maybe buy that fairly cheap horde deal box and throw some of the classic minis in reworked as conversions.
Think reading this may have saved me some money (or rather it’ll get pumped into my 30k Word Bearers project or tournament terrain for my club).
Basically all spore pods become terrain now I guess!
Paper weight for me!
I have a brilliant idea!! Let’s take out the doom and base a data slate on him and make more money, jolly good ole chap that’s the spirit, while were at it let’s forge a rock hard narrative and make synaps have penalties so people take more warriors to make a synaps web, by Jove we’ll sell more kits, brilliant!!!
Haha, now it’s worth twice as much tot he customer! Brilliant!
Looking at those lists and comparing them it seems like a major improvement of the book in my eyes. The complaints are basically that it’s not what you were expecting. Well, too bad for you I guess. You need to go in with a clean slate, not bound to the ‘musts’ of the old book.
Like I’ve pointed out many times now, the Daemon book had an even bigger overhaul and Daemon-players everywhere crying at GW. I mean really, we Daemons only had two units that seemed good at first; Flesh Hounds and Soul Grinders. The rest seemed to be crap, combined with new deployment and new rules that randomly kill your army and what not. Turned out those fears were way out of proportion. With that list up there you have enough to make several different good armies. So what’s the big fuss?
Oh and by the way, to answer your “how to justify Biomancy on Daemon Princes”. How about twice the points cost? That isn’t enough justification for you? 😛
Chill out and win some games and you’ll probably feel better.
“Major improvement” is a bit of a stretch. 🙂
…and as far as “twice the cost” for the demon prince; Cheapest DP starts at 145 while cheapest nid MC with Psyker powers is closing in on 200. For a named or greater, ok, now you’re in Swarmlord territory, but cetainly not twice the cost. 🙂
That DP at 145 wouldn’t have any psychic powers…
Or Armour…
Which is why I said starts at…
and was talking about “twice the cost” comment…
Dude. A standard build for a Daemon Prince is 340 points. Yes, you can get away cheaper, but that makes it a lot less reliable.
Ha this guy again. Stop talking about daemons if you don’t play tyranids keep those comments to yourself because you have no idea how bad it is. Yes daemon got a major over haul but daemons where really strong even before the white dwarf update. I played fate crusher. But as far as power level and synergy the nids don’t have any its Zero. Lets put it in other codex nerf wise daemons – lets take away brb rules from all your daemons and you get codex power only also take one key item the book from them also. You are still stronger then nids but got hit pretty hard. Eldar — take away blade storm, remove halo fields, make serpent shields one use only, and take away distort. You are still stronger then nids. (While we can’t forget your units would get 1-10 point reduction since you need a ” buff”)
Sorry for the massed cluster fuck. Tyranids at this point without FAQS or updates is the worst codex out there. At least all other “bad codex” can Allie or formation in what they lack.
I will gladly eat a piece of the last tyranid codex if there Come out to be a very competative build that actually beats the top teir codex. This book is no meta changer.
WE SUCK AGAIN!
LOL!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kowv6l2CBD0
I think the real issue is that every new book that comes out will be in the shadow of Tau and Eldar. If you compare this book to the rest of the 6th edition books it seems to be right in line. We have got to stop comparing everything to Tau and Eldar. Everyone knows GW dropped a bomb with those two books and its not fair to just say.. well.. this book sucks because its not tau or its not eldar. I don’t want another tau or eldar, playing against those armies does not make for a fun gaming experience. (competitively speaking). wait.. this book doesn’t sound OP and actually requires a player to use additional tactics than who blow off the table first? Sounds like a game I would like to be participating in. Maybe you won’t be building a new shelf to house all your GT trophies, but you won’t be the guy at the local store who no one wants to play because he runs an asshat list either.
Yes, i would like to show you on the riptide where Mr. Riptide touched me.
Cheers!
Chaos makes Nids look bad in my opinion, and they broke my heart with how crappy they are!
Tom Kirby was obviously molested by an Australian nid player as a small child the only explanation for the continued fucking over of these 2 groups
Huge swarm + carnifexs eh, isn’t that what the new big bundle is selling? Seems from what I’m hearing dumping 160 little bugs, carnifexs & some synapse is one way to go….. about getting a bad back.
T-Fexes and Flyrants are good, too.
Here’s a good. With the new codex the old FAQ is gone; Tyranids can now shoot emplaced weapons and weapon emplacements. At least until they remember they forgot to add that to the codex and FAQ it out. Tervigon backfield synapse manning a quad gun anyone?
Haha, nice! I missed that!
I gotta say as a decade old Nid player i couldnt agree more with everything your saying in this article. On that note the only thing that i thought would be cool was Regen on a 4+ now but at 30 pts its an option that people may be “meh” about. Looking over the book myself I feel like Tervigons are gonna be run so much less especially with the pts increase. Psychic Powers I dont mind but losing the BRB powers sucks sooooo much. Another note is that I too agree with people saying that they may be doing data slates for the Doom, which is a hope for us Nid players but then you also have to hope for pods back cuz walking that bad boy up the field wouldnt be ideal. All in all nothing jumps out from this book, got some games today to test so guess we will see
I hope we get the Doom in some way, he was great! Ah, poor Nids.
Looking at your thoughts on gene stealers, maybe the addition of the horror psychic power for brood lords will help them a bit. A unit that is pinned doesn’t force your stealers to strike at initiative 1 when charging them through cover 😀
Well first impressions aren’t good. I can see that there will be some interesting lists buildable, and am glad at least Brainleech Devourers weren’t nerfed to str5 like the rumours stated, but why o why so many pointless nerfs??
GW is the most toxic company in our industry. An industry that, unlike video games, seems to support bad behavior and poor customer value. Instead, for purely nostalgic reasons, hand continue to support the company decision-making processes. I love the fluff too but I give Black library my money for that. They deliver. GW doesn’t and they DO NOT care about their customers wants. That is not a viable long term business plan. I have stopped buying their products as a way to show my displeasure. I am MUCH happier playing infinity and warmachine now. The online communities are much better than GW’s. The play is much more engaging and the fluff is building. I have even read some warmachine books and they are pretty decent. He’ll they even write stories about their named characters. So boycott GW and play a game where the owners will email you rules clarifications and are customer focused. Good luck.
Agree in almost every way to that post, but I still can’t help but love the models GW produce. I hate the company with a fiery burning passion, but the models man, the models!!!
Definitely play other games more like infinity, firestorm armada, Xwing, bolt action, etc… Lots out there besides GW.
Good for you, some of us love 40k as a game, the models are amazing as are many other things about the game
You said it, dude.
Do forgeworld Tyranid models improve the equation any?
Curse you network effects.
Harridan flying gargantuan creatures would seem to help out SUBSTANTIALLY…and they’re “official” since they were featured in the Escalation supplement.
Two S10 AP3 Assault 6 Biocannons will swat enemy flyers out of the sky or flatten tanks and because of the gargantuan creature rules it can fire each gun at a different target.
The only issues are that it costs a massive 735 points to field, doesn’t contribute to the now mandatory synapse net, and is vulnerable to being grounded and then blasted to pieces by any S8 AP3 or better guns. With only T8 8 wounds and a 3+ save it won’t survive the attentions of dedicated heavy guns for long once grounded.
No ‘dex on me ATM but do hormies still have claws and teeth in their entry as well as Scything Talons? Could that be a loophole?
Only ScyTals.
I like how NO ONE is giving this book a chance, I love Reece, but this article is very poor. You should of waited to play a game before you got on the internet lambasting the codex. All you’re doing here is glossing over the MAJOR improvements to the book, I understand you and everyone else are mad it doesn’t work how you wanted it to, but to instantly rush to judgement that it’s “bad” before playing even a single game with it (not like one game is even a good enough sample size but its something) is just crazy. The book is good, just give it a chance.
Please, please prove me wrong. I want to be wrong but all of my instincts tell me this book is a pile of crap.
Talking with Bigpig and I agree with him that this new book will have about 2-3 competitive builds and that about it just like daemons, and the guy using incorrect Deamons info to compare to Tyranids needs to keep your comments to yourself you do not know what your talking about
What is the situation with Allies for Tyranids? Can they ally with themselves?
Nope.
Ridiculous! You should really highlight that Tyranids officially have less force org then every other list. That is a big “Ugly” issue.
I guess my bugs aren’t coming out of storage.
Yeah, this is seriously bad. Hopefully we get an update or something soon. The book can be played and won with but it is going to be very limited.
Of course. The book is bad so bad. I dont know what person write the book but he hasnt any idea of hobby.its the worst book and we need that gw knows that. Ill cancel preorders I hope a lot of people make that. Gw must knows that the codex its so bad and the better thing for this its lower $$$$ for tyranids. Its a absurd this codex everything in this codex.
I will definitely have to push, adding more 3 dimensional terrain onto the board.
I don’t know if there is enough terrain to fix this.
Very sad that the only army that can shut down psychic power is very lack luster and boring again.
I think ^^^ this is a large problem with a lot of gamers, a lack of terrain has pigeonholed assault armies throughout the lands, GW actually expects us to be playing with cluster fuck boards, they greatly alleviate the stresses of CC armies.
I have a mono-Khorne CSM army, in the basement we call home they do fine, on a barren board with some six pieces of terrain they are a rampant liability where I have to use multiple Maulerfiends in the hope of getting anything to the other side of the board.
It’s not really the nerfs that bother me, its the lack of fortifications, BRB powers and allies/foc changes etc. that bothers me. The codex has none of the stuff that makes 6th edition what it is!
Sometimes it feels like Nids are this army that just kind of runs parallel to 6th edition without actually being a part of it and interacting with it.
If you rip out the page with the warlord chart on, you’d have no idea what edition this codex is actually for. It’s this that bugs me because it makes the book look really lazy, with very little thought or effort put in.
I agree, it feels lazy.
I think this new book is a major palystyle change, but I still think it can be made workable.
Some combos Ive been thinking of at first glance are as follows:
Venomthropes giving shrouding is crazy good. A squad of 3 Canifexes with brainleechs can be insane now, with things like regeneration, a 2 to 3+ cover save, even thrown in Tyranid Prime to this unit and you get a HUGE brick of dakka.
Harpies seem great, and now with the heavy venom cannon working normally against tanks, you can easily get some nice side and back armour str 9 shots!
The new flyer, the Hive Crone, is pretty much a harpy that kills other flyers. I can see a list that takes the amazing 30 brood gargoyles along with a Harpy and a Hive Crone to cover all of their bases.
And Hive Tyrants just got cheaper. more flying tyranid circus! nothing new otherwise, just dakka up.
From this point, I could easily see troops being filled with devouror termagants which got cheaper, as they were already a great unit in my opinion. If venomthropes are many, these little bugs love the shrouded just as much as the monsters! These guys can make great use of a aegis gunline for cover.
Normally, I and most others will say that quantity is better than quality when it comes to guns (lascannon VS autocannon, generally the autocannon is more sought after due to cheaper and more shots.) BUT the new Exocrine monster in the Heavy slot seems like a very power unit. A built in way to increase its BS only makes the next point better. A Str 7 AP 2 normally implies a small rate of fire, but not in this case. I can see this unit doing very well against MEQ, TEQ, as well as taking on light tanks with that +1 to results.
In summary:
HQ = dakka winged Hive tyrants
Elite = Venomthropes (this slot went from doing work to amazing support)
Troops = devilgants
Fast = gargoyles, HVC Harpies and Crones make this the new Tyranid Elite slot
Heavy = super cheap dakkafexes, mawloks, and exocrines are all great bugs with awesome shooting powers.
My Carnies have so far not survived very long and the range is a bummer, but for the points, they’re pretty solid. Cover saves are not something to plan around, IMO, as the top tier armies ignore it.
Flyrants rock, Primes got jacked in price for no reason at all.
I’ve had one game against them and am about to get in another. They beat my tournament white scars in the first game.
Form the few reads through the book I’ve had and the few lists I’ve put together I can assure you that you will be running at least 1 extra unit over a similar list from the old book. The other thing which isn’t obvious on first inspection is Nids can really shoot now!
It’s real easy to run an assault focused list and still pack a wallop in the shooting department. In the old book often the assault focused list had almost no shooting to speak of. If you’re trying to find a positive then I think that’s one of the best things about this new book.
Ps Onslaught and adrenal grands and more guns is very, very good as well
Please shoot us some Bat Reps, I would love to be wrong.
So do hormies only have 1 attack and no bonus attacks? so only 2 on the charge? they are cheap, but 2 attacks before a charge would be nice
Base 2.
Soooo….. homebrew codex;)?
I did the math, and my 1750 pure eldar kills either 5 carnifex equivalents or ~65 gaunts or a combination thereof per turn from 24+” away, assuming they get some cover. My Grey Knights don’t even have to do anything, I can just let you charge Draigo and the Paladins will wipe the floor with literally anything you can put in to me. It’s just sad how mismatched it is, amd I can’t think of any clever shennanigans a nids player could pull to mitigate the curbstomping.
Yup.
Gentlemen,
You think doom and Ymgarls are gone? Silly silly boys… Why would they give them to you in a book when they can guarantee that you’ll buy the book… THEN… buy the data slates. GW aren’t fools. They want MORE of your money. Mark my words friends. My prediction: There will be Ymgarls and doom at the LVO, because they will release them… Followed by gamer outcry for data slates then allowed. Then escalation and stronghold. Then they gotchya. I’ll be forced to run Stompa spam to keep up… I’ll whine at first. Then I’ll buy one. Then another. Then the divorce. Then drugs… Jail… Soon goodness only knows what I’ll be going behind dumpsters
You’ll see (insert crazy laugh). You’ll all see!!!
DrG
They are gone because another company made the models and then sued GW over the rights.