Monday, July 2, 2012

So….How bout them Tyranids?


I’ve seen a ton of screaming around the internet about more “nerfing” by GW when it comes to Tyranids. Well I want to take a look at Tyranids myself to get a feel how one of my favorite armies (right beside orks) is actually going to perform in this new edition. Bear in mind this is all without extensive playtesting of the ruleset at this point and no tournaments to speak of yet. Though I will be playing a couple of games this week to get the hang of the system and have 2 RTT’s lined up in the next few weeks.

Let’s start with the negatives so I can then move on to what I see as pretty significant bumps:

- We’re done assaulting out of outflanking or infiltrating.

- Our average charge has dropped on all of our fleet units with the potential to simply reach the same charge distance as before.

- Instant death didn’t change to give our medium bugs a chance against st8+

-No skyfire

So those seem to be the major complaints from the internet but let’s get into some of the things I think got a bit of a boost:

-Flying MC’s are pretty sweet. Helps make Harpies useful (avoid the weapon upgrade since Venom cannons can’t kill anything that’s not open topped or a flyer moving flat out). Makes Flyrants fun too.

-MC’s get cover like regular infantry! That’s right, gaunts give your Trygons cover!!!

-Boneswords are lethal as all hell and still don’t allow armor saves (even 2+)

-Prime’s w/2 Carnies can now play ridiculous wound allocation shenanigans

-Feed now equals +2 attacks which is great for Trygons who get out ahead

-NO MORE FEARLESS WOUNDS!!!!!!

-The meta shift to more foot from easier to glance to death
transports/only on foot units scoring means a big boost for bugs in general. Though this shift may take a while, start painting those bugs J

-Poison means re-rolling to wound on good numbers instead of 4+ (Trygons re-roll to hit and wound!!!!)

-Hitting vehicles on 3’s or automatically means Gargoyles w/Adrenal Glands will be knocking out AV10 rear armor left and right.

-Dual Dev’s are even more awesome (i.e. no -1 on the damage table)

-Broodlords can get actual cool powers now and are pretty useful.

-Preferred enemy on Tyrants means missing 50% less of the time with Hive Guard and re-rolling fails to wound with them when not shooting vehicles. Also lets Devgaunts shoot almost marines J

That’s a pretty decent start though I’m sure I’ll find more to mess with later. Here is where I think I’m going to start from. This would be for Nova so it’s 2k with a single force org. Keep in mind it’s a very, very rough draft J

HQ

The Parasite – 160

Warrior Prime – 110
Regeneration, Boneswords, Poison

Elite

2 Hive Guard – 100

2 Hive Guard – 100

2 Hive Guard – 100

Troop

18 Termagants – 90

18 Termagants – 90

Tervigon – 195

Catalyst, Poison, Adrenal Glands

Tervigon – 195

Catalyst, Poison, Adrenal Glands

Fast Attack

20 Gargoyles – 160
Adrenal Glands, Poison

Harpy – 160

Harpy – 160

Heavy Support

2 Carnifex – 380
2xDual Devourers

I’m actually not 100% sold on the troop selections or the Harpies yet but it’s something fun to consider. Especially since I’ve got a decent shot of downing a sergeant in CC with the Parasite and then Look Out Sir will help with the rest. The wound shenanigan fun with the prime and carnies is also something I want to try. It’s really rough but I’m liking the direction. Though I get the feeling my final list isn’t going to look much like the final 5th edition list.

Comments (27)

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I wouldn't totally discount the HVC - taking off Hull points reliably is a pretty big deal, regardless of the -1 to damage.
1 reply · active 665 weeks ago
TheGravemind's avatar

TheGravemind · 665 weeks ago

HVC isn't as horrible because blasts do full strength now.

My idea list is looking something like that, but replace parasite with a flying devil tyrant, after dropping fexes.
4 replies · active 665 weeks ago
winterman's avatar

winterman · 665 weeks ago

Other positives:
--Tyrant Guard give 2+ look out sir rolls to the Tyrant. On top of 2+ save and old advesary that's pretty nice.
--The option to swap out standard powers for the new ones from game to game is nice. I think Tyrants I'd swap em out personally, everything else on a case by case basis.
--Killzone wiping and clipping are back in a way, although harder to pull off due to wound allocation and overwatch and assaulting through terrain. Still a nice bump for stealers which take the new rules otherwise pretty hard.
--Reroll 1s to hit with our shooty bugs via old advesary is nice boost to anti-tank ontop of hull point changes.
--Rage not causing our bugs to take off in random directions AND giving a notable boost is nice.
--3+ for reserves is nice for many builds, ymgarls coming in assaulting (as their rules specifically allow this) without the need for hive commander to help em show up ina reasonable time makes me happy.
--FnP against armor ignoring stuff is a boost against many armies for our T4+ bugs.

Overated
--Flying MC. Grounded rules activating on hits is crazy. I dunno maybe I am seeing it happen in my head way more then in actuality but that seems like a big disadvantage to swooping compared to the advanatages. That said I am gonna play the heck outta them for awhile but not seeing them being that great so far.
--Broodlord and new powers. I was thinking the same as everyone else till it was pointed out they have BS0. Bummer too cause I was considering broodlord spam prior to that realization. Maybe it will get FAQd in some manner (like he can reroll or something if its a shooty power).

Negatives that aren't above.
--Adrenal glands losing +1I. That's a big deal for the carnifex and I4 guys especially.

Overall I think people are on crack if they think Tyranids are worse off in 6ed. I think our ability to get into assault suffered a wee bit but the new missions favor bugs, the new meta favors bugs and only a couple of units were nerfed (stealers and trygons imo, although both are still solid and get some boosts).
Spectre Senence's avatar

Spectre Senence · 665 weeks ago

You may want to look at the Swarmlord as a psyker with 4 powers in the start it can now switch all for Biomancy powers that make it lethel. Plus guard now have ability to take damage for it!
I've been playing around with my bugs as well - I'm still going to be running 9 HG at 1999 points until we see if we can get by with 6. Squads of 3 are just so damn reliable at dropping AV11 and pretty decent vs AV12, too. Particularly with OA.

Anyway, some good changes - the overall perspective is really that giving everything EW would have been too good thougha change to ID would have been preferred balance wise (I.e. double T = 2W).
1 reply · active 665 weeks ago
My biggest dismay is almost total lack of ways to deal with Flyers. What do you do when when with an army that is sporting 3+ flyers?
7 replies · active 664 weeks ago
ShadarLogoth's avatar

ShadarLogoth · 664 weeks ago

Hey Hulk, Regen on the Fexes/Prime man. Seems like a no brainer if your going to use them like I think you will (Prime in front, Fexes alternating Look Out Sir! in back)
2 replies · active 664 weeks ago
Hi there, I am a long time reader but first post here. Just to tell you that in the french rulebook, the wording to down a flying MC is really different, it says that if a swooping MC loses 1 (or more) HP in a shooting phase, it must take a grounded test.
1 reply · active 664 weeks ago
Yep, in the french book, being grounded makes it lose its jink save and it can be assaulted but no mention of changing its flight mode so still requires a 6 to hit.
"-MC’s get cover like regular infantry! That’s right, gaunts give your Trygons cover!!!"

How do your gaunts obscure the Trygon to 25%? The 'intervening model's' rule doesn't take effect if you can see the model above the screen, in that case you use the normal cover save rules.
1 reply · active 664 weeks ago

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