Tyranids...1 Year Later!

So, here we are, a full year after the release of my favorite army in pretty much any game system. The more I play with the 5th ed Dex the more it just feels like (to me) a failed book. I really want to stress when I say a “failed” book I don’t want you to think I mean you can’t win with it. You certainly can win but in doing so you have to pick a certain, very obvious, selection of units (new ones to this dex of course). With that in mind I think the major overall issue boils down to the a couple of things that bothers me the most and that is an overall lack of direction, a failed attempt on a set out design philosophy and a lack of logical choices made within in the dex (both for options and points).

I think Robin Cruddace (and crew) just didn’t stick to their apparent initial design philosophy that they set out with. What I mean by this is if you look back to 4th ed the Tyranids and the Demons of Chaos are incredibly similar armies. Both were fearless, both had eternal warrior and both filled basically the same niche. So, in my opinion, they removed most of the things that made demons demons from the nids list. Things like eternal warrior and invuln saves. So when you do that you make a living biomass army that isn’t individually as tough as demons due to the demons supernatural nature. The way nids should make up the difference of being worse on an individual model basis is by being cheaper and just having lots of numbers and useful specialized units. The other thing that the set out to do was remove the stat changing and complexity from the 4th ed book to make it more accessable. Tyranid players loved the stat changing aspect of the book, but people playing against Tyranid players just hated it because they never knew what they were going up against. This also goes for the weapons using the creature’s strength as the base for the weapons strength.

When I stop and think about those changes I 100% think that it was the right direction to take the codex. I love the idea of having my Tyranid army really feeling like an army being made up of living creatures. I would happily have units that are nowhere near as resilient to their Demon counter parts as longs as they are costed/stated appropriately. So, a good example of this working effectively is for Trygons. Instead of being a 4 wound MC with a 4+ invuln save you get the same effect by making it a 6 wound, no invuln save unit so you get to the same place but taking a different route while making both armies unique. Another good example is the idea of stripping down Hormagaunts from this crazy beast type thing that has crazy WS and Str to what it is now. Cheap, effective, makes sense and to be honest I really like that they don’t have flesh hooks (aka grenades).

Now, where the 5th ed Codex falls apart is the fact that things in the Nid book are still priced like Demons. Harpy’s are probably the best example. Let’s look at the Dark Eldar book for a sec, specifically the Grotesques. They have virtually the same stats except +1 WS and -1 wounds and the Grotesques have a LD of 4, but they are 35pts, meanwhile a Harpy is 160pts. So, for those 125pts you get a mediocre heavy weapon, MC status and the ability to drop “spore mines” on things you fly over…which pretty much can never happen since you only move 12”. Why is a Harpy so damn expensive? Harpy’s should be at most 120pts with everything staying the same except they can move like jet bikes minus the extra assault move (ie 24” turbo boost to drop their spore mines). BAM! All of a sudden you have a unit that is appealing, expendable and looks FUN to use. Another example of this “inappropriately-costing” is looking again at the Dark Eldar book and then at the rumors for the Grey Knights. A Talos has better stats then a Carnifex except the str and wounds, but is only 100pts and the new “Nemsis Dreadnight” has significantly better stats including a 2+/4++ save for only 130pts. I know the Grey Knight one is just a rumor and will probably be different for when the book is released (although the codex has already been leaked, so good chances are it’s true), but if it DOES stay that way I will be really disappointed.

As it stands right this Tyranid player feels that GW has missed a great opportunity of bringing many new Tyranid players into this army. I have seen a fair amount of people start nids because of the awesome new models only to see them selling their army on ebay 4 months later because of how poorly the book is written. I know now there really isn’t much that can be done as the book is out and GW has apparently washed their hands of it (good to see that BOTH books that were released AFTER Tyranids have had multiple waves of models, FAQs while we are waiting for almost half our book). What I really DO want though is for someone that works at GW who actually LIKES Tyranids to go through and do a serious errata. If I had the chance I would make the following changes :

- Genestealers (both types) come with flesh hooks (or whatever frag grenade equivalent) and their base cost be increased by 1pt

- Shadow in the Warp works on models in vehicles and is changed so that it is always the range of the Synapse of the creature with it. So, a Swarmlords Shadow in the Warp is 18” while a Tryanid Warrior’s is 12”, etc.

- Change Tyranid Warriors so they are T5, 2W, same cost

- Give the Tyranid Prime an option for Wings at 20-30pts

- Allow Tyranid Primes to join a unit of Tyranid Warriors in a Spore Pod or Outflanking because of Hive Commander

- Give Hive Tyrant the ability “Indescribable Horror” for free (like the last 2 editions) or remove it

- Change The Hive Tyrant’s Psychic Power “Psychic Scream” to always be at 12” instead of 2d6” with only invlun saves possible

- Change The Hive Tyrant’s Psychic Power “The Horror” psychic power to be 24” and -2 to the leadership penalty or make it a 12” bubble with all units having to check at normal LD (or -1)

- Change the Tervigon’s Psychic Power “Onslaught” to be cast in the movement phase and also include the line “allows unit to either run and shoot or gain “fleet” for that turn”

- Change the Broodlords Psychic Power “Hypnotic Gaze” to be cast in either assault phase

- Change the Broodlords Psychic Power “Aura of Dispair” to be cast in the movement phase and last till the next movement phase

- Remove the “-1 to damage chart” from the Venom Cannon

- Change Death Spitters to be 24” Str 5, AP5, Assault 1, Blast

- Remove Cluster Salvo

- Change Twin Linked Deathspitters on MCs to 5 pts

- Make all Termagant basic weapon options free, 5 points for a strangle web and make it str 4

- Change Doom of Malantai to grant only invuln saves but still not effect units in transports (ie units no longer get cover saves from his main ability)

- Change Lictor Deployment to be the same as Ymgarls or give them infiltrate or allow them to assault the turn they show up. Change their reserve bonus to allow one re-roll per Lictor (maybe “d3” for the Deathleaper) and always be allowed as long as the Lictor is alive

- Rework Trygon tunnel so one unit per Trygon can be “stored” in the tunnel. That unit automatically becomes available the turn after the Trygon emerges for both and can move from the tunnel as if coming in from reserves from the board edge (ie act normally). No MCs or units with wings can be stored in the tunnel. Or, another option would be to just roll for reserves for both units and if the unit in the tunnel becomes available at the same time or before the Trygon then they can move out of the hole with the Trygon.

- Give the Mawloc 2 sets of scything talons

- Change Harpy’s to be 120pts and move like jet bikes

- Change Carnifex’s to WS 4 and 140pts base

- Change Parasite of Mortex to be 100-120pts

- Change the Venomthrope to be purchased in units of 3, but are then turned into independent characters (ie exactly like Sanguinary Priests). Also, make BS 0 and make them WS 4

- Change Pyrovores to be WS 4, Str 5, T5, 3W, Init 2, 3 A, 4+ save. The heavy flamer reverts to being a regular flamer that is fired exactly like a hellhound. Also, Pyrovore retains acid attacks (ie power weapons) and always has a 50% chance to explode when killed, not just on instant death, taken in units of 3 - 5. Maybe 50-65pts? (**this one is only my idea of what they should be and obviously I haven’t play-tested it. I just think it is WAY more appropriate to what the model and fluff says it should be**)

That is pretty much what I have so far. I think for the most part all of those are very fair changes without ramping up their power level to a crazy point. Really, almost all of them are just “common sense” changes. Things like allowing a Prime to join other warriors in a pod or removing stupid SHOOTING psychic powers that you cast on your own units (aka Onslaught). Obviously there are ones that might need way more attention than me just sitting down at my computer and throwing down the first thing I think of to fix said problem. The one thing that always drives me nuts is when people go completely mental with changes like “Carnifexs should have 8 wounds and a 2+/3++ save and only cost 50pts!!!” (obvious exaggeration) so hopefully those changes don’t come off that way.

I know many people will read this and wonder why I even care at all, or at the very least to this degree. To be honest I wonder this myself quite a bit. I think the reason for it is because I have spent well over $1000 and over 300 hours worth of my time converting, building and painting this army. The biggest thing though is this has always been my favorite army for any game system. I just love how the models look, I love the basic idea of the army and I love how it looks on the table. It just frustrates me to no end having so many things just not make sense and to constantly feel like my army has hindrences just for the sake of it (ie only having frag grenades on a model that has init 1 and Lictors…sigh lol).

Let me know what you guys think and I promise above all promises this is the last time you will see me talking about the problems of Tyranids.

- Ghoulio

Next Up: Tactics of the “All Reserve” Tyranid army which, after playing it a whole bunch I feel is by far the most competitive way to play this army!

Space Sharks!

Time for another guest post by Mr.Ryan Szolopiak. We were chatting about different armies and we got on the topic of space marines. He started linking me his space marine army the "Space Sharks". I just loved the colour scheme and overall look of the army. He also has an amazing display board that goes with it. The craziest thing is he painted the entire 1500pts army in a MONTH! My Nids are sitting at 2 years (just over 4000pts though) and my DE are at 4 months and have less then 1000pts and no display board.

He finally got a new camera and will be sending me some pics of the rest of his Tyranid army including his Golden Demon winning Trygon. Should be pretty sweet! I am also working on finishing off my Tyranids. Right now I am converting up a unit of 10 ymgarls (going to post some pics of the test model soon) and 20 Gargoyles.

Vanquisher Custom Turret and Tallarn Tourney Progress

So I went out and bought a Leman Russ Turret (Demolisher) on eBay about a year ago on the theory that I could convert one of my existing tanks into a 2nd Demolisher..

There were two flaws with this plan:
1) I like the Vanquisher better than the Demolisher and probably should have bought a Vanquisher turret instead.
2) The turret ring of the new GW tanks is completely different from that of the older tanks such that they don't fit together.

Happily, I found a way around the problem.

This is the parts I had. I cut down the Demolisher turret, and a spare battle cannon I had laying around. I also have 2 styrene tubes. One of the same diameter as the battle cannon's barrel, and one that is *just* smaller and fits inside the larger one.

The glue acts as a filler so that any bad cuts I made on the tubes are covered up.

The smaller tube is so that the tubes all line up correctly (I tried without it, and the barrel looked crooked. NOT badass at all). The length of the styrene is based on a measurement I did of the Vanquisher vs Leman Russ tank diagrams in the Imperial Guard Codex.

This is a shot of the Forge World Tallarn Tank commander I've had laying about for a while. I plan on putting magnets under his base. He can then act as Pask, a special IG tank commander to the Vanquisher OR as Al'rahem. So that will be a 3+ to hit that pesky Land Raider at the tourney, and a 2D6 + 8 Str hit. I'm hoping it will KILL it, as I hate those Land Raiders, I really do. Alas this tank probably won't be in the tourney as I have other stuff in prep right now, but I figured it was a good time to getter done anyway. With the magnets I can give him some nice legs (maybe a plastic Cadian trooper) to be Al'rahem as the current miniature of Al'rahem is AWFUL. But what happens if I want Pask AND Al'rahem...? Probably won't have that many points anyway..

I had to cut down the original tank ring, and replace it with my own custom plastic one. This ring was made by an FDM machine at my work. It basically will make any 3D shape you like in plastic, and it took 10 minutes. So with a pair of callipers and Solidworks, I created this, and glued it onto the underside of the tank turret. For comparison you can see the original (much smaller) turret inside the custom one.

My measurements were a little off, and this turret required a bit of paper shim to keep it level. I shall add real shims in due course, but at least you get the idea.

I'm quite proud how this turned out especially since its been on the back burner all this time.

And just in case you think I've been slacking while Ghoulio and Big Willie have been painting up a storm, here is a shot of the stuff I've been REALLY working on. The Valkarie/Vendetta is coming along nicely although I recently had to tear the engines off because I couldn't paint the top of the fusilage easily. Outlining it is also a pain but worth it I think.. You can see the underside is done is sky blue (the upturned wing), and the top in my Tallarn Camo, so he'll match the rest of the vehicles. I'll keep all the doors closed, but they can open technically if I really want to. I'll also leave the wings off so that I can take his baby in my foam case. Also finished and ready to be based is the FW Sentinel (lower center of pic). The Ogryn Chimera turret is mostly based coated, and I'll paint him properly soon (lower left) as well as the Commissar and Astropath that I paint while waiting for the Valk to dry.

The Pack grows!

With Game Summit 2011 only a week and a half away it's time that I finish off my wolves.  Here are the final models that I need to paint and what will likely be the hardest hitting part of my Army.  A Wolf lord with TH/SS and Saga of the Bear, a Wolf Lord with FB/SS and Saga of Warrior born and Canis Wolf Born.  Coupled with 10 Fenrisian wolves to help get them into combat.  I have 10 days and an iPod with a camera so I'm planning on posting pictures as I finish off the army.  From the looks of it there is going to be everything from Nobz biker lists, Heavy Monstrous creatures, Hordes, Super mobile BA and super shootie Imperial Guard.  Should make for an interesting Tournament and the best overall and best general will get tickets to the GT in Las Vegas!  Stay tuned for more updates!

Group shot of the Space Wolf Characters and their mounts

Canis Wolfborn 

 Wolf Lord on Mr. Dandies Battle wolf mounts (awesome kits, review coming, check out the link!)

 Wolf Lord with Frost Blade and Storm Shield

Archon Finished!

I ended up getting about 4 hours worth of painting time today as I finally had a day off (been working like crazy the last couple weeks) so I figured I might as well try and get my Archon finished. I was actually really surprised he went as quickly as he did considering I painted him in less time then my first Incubi lol. Overall I am fairly happy with him. The red on the cloak took about 1/4 of the total painting time. There are about 15 layers building up from black and its a shame the camera doesnt show it.

This is going to be my first Archon of 2. He is my "support" Archon. Fairly cheap build with a Phantasm Grenade Launcher to go with my Incubi (it gives them assault and defensive grenades). I tried running them about 5 games just on their own and their lack of assault grenades really really hurt them in almost every game (I think the game against guard was the only one it didnt). I am also going to do a brute force Archon with a Husk Blade and Soul Cube as it just turns him into a destoryer of worlds :P . Next week I should have a bit more time and it will be time for Raiders!

Tyranid Guest Post!

A little while ago I entered in a Dark Eldar painting competition at Spikey bits.com. I started looking through the different entries and I noticed the name of a friend of mine from when I was working at the HQ store for GW Canada. After looking at his entry I started thinking about his old Tyranid army. The one thing that always stuck out to me when I was working at the GW HQ was just how awesome Ryan Szolopiak's Tyranids looked to the point where they were 100% the inspiration for my Tyranid army (specifically the textured painting style).

So he just finished off his Tervigon and I asked him if I could put up some pics of it on our blog, so here it is :) Its made up of Carnifex and Trygon bits with a crap tonne of Greenstuff. Ryan is also going to be taking some pics of the rest of his army which I will also post here because it too is awesome.

Reavers Finished!

This week I managed to get a decent amount of time in on my Dark Eldar army as I am on night shifts at work, so I decided to finish off my Reaver Jetbikes. Basically I am painting everything that needs to be assembled first, then the other stuff second (so the wyches will probably be last as they are completely built). When I say the Reavers are "finished" that isnt 100% true. On all my Reavers, Hellions and Tanks I plan on doing some red design work to help make them "pop". I just haven't figured out how I want to do that yet, so I am leaving it. I will probably just leave everything till they are all painted, then go back and do the whole lot in one go, that way they have a unified look to them and it ties everything into the army.

Next up for the Dark Eldar are going to be my last 2 Raiders then the Ravagers. Once those are done all I have left is 20 wyches and my 1500pts army is complete! MUAHAHAHA!