Posted by Ranillon on 29. August 2009 00:25
The latest rumors are that we can expect a new bug codex sometime in the first quarter of next year. Since I am a ‘Nid player with a 200+ model army this obviously interests me. As the Tyranid codex is commonly thought to be one of the weaker army lists nowadays a redesign is certainly welcome. Question is just what alterations is GW planning?
I don’t know, but here is what I hope to see.
1) Deal with the Nidzilla Armies One Way or Another: I personally don’t like the “Nidzilla” armies – bug forces made up from as many big creatures as possible – very much. One, they don’t strike me as being very colorful, and; two, they require a cheesy design strategy, namely taking a few token troop choices that usually hide on one side of the board while their big brothers take care of the enemy. So, I would like to see the new codex either put in limitations meant to make such designs impractical or, better yet, add in rules to make them more colorful. For example, make it worth the player’s while to take real troop choices. Maybe if you take a certain character Tyranid you can take Carnifexes as troops (yes, that’s what I said), but troop carnies have strict limitations as to number of wounds and toughness. Dealing with this won’t be easy and would require a lot of play testing to achieve the proper balance, but it would be better than what we have now.
2) Rebalance the Genestealers: With the arrival of 5th edition and the lessening of Rending genestealers went from must-buys to maybe-buys. To balance things out they need to be lowered a bit in price or given more abilities. For instance, maybe give them a base 4+ armor with access to 3+ for a high price (this is not as bad as it sounds as it’s already insane not to get ‘stealers without the armor upgrade). Another alternative is to make them better able to get at the enemy – more infiltrate or deep strike abilities at a proper cost. Either way, something must be done as right now they are sort of like Space Marines with a glass jaw and no ranged weapon.
3) Make Gaunts Worth it: Admittedly gaunts are meant to be cannon fodder, but right now they are far more “fodder” than “cannon”. As you would expect they die in droves, but they also have a hard time actually being threatening to anything more burly than an imperial guardsman – even when outnumbering their opponents by wide margins. So, come up with a way to make a horde of the buggers actually scary. Perhaps up their close-combat effectiveness a bit or increase the range of their weapons. A more fluffy tactic would be to add in a sort of “synergy” bonus to their numbers – above 10 they receive a +d6 attacks as a whole, above 20 +2d6, and so forth. Regardless, there is already a practical disincentive for people to use them since they require a lot of money to buy and a lot of effort to paint. Making gaunts appealing in game terms is therefore the best way to encourage horde armies, which is what I think the typical Tyranid force should be.
4) Expand the Range of Possible Basic Bug Army Designs: Right now there are really just three possible designs for Tyranid forces, namely Nidzilla, genestealer cadre, or horde. The first tends to be a bit over-powered (since unless you know what you are facing you tend not to bring enough anti-monstrous creature weapons) while the last two are somewhat under-powered. I’ve already talked about balancing the units themselves, but I’d also like to see more choices for basic design. For instance, what about a viable flying bug force where gargoyles can be taken as troops (perhaps only by taking a winged Tyrant)? Likewise, they could expand the ranges within each of the basic types so that they aren’t all clones – a Nidzilla, horde, or genestealer force is pretty much going to have the same stuff every time no matter who is playing. A wider range of variation is not only more fun to play or play against, but it also encourages people to round out their miniature collections.
5) Bring in Some New Units: Let’s face it – one of the appeals of any updated codex is all the juicy new units that will inevitably come with it (after all, GW wants to sell more models). Here are some random ideas for what I’d like to see.
- A Transport Option: Most every other army has one, so why not some way for Nid’s to get around in style (or, at least, more speed)? A variation on this would be to take a cue from the Zerg (or, did the Zerg take a cue from the Tyranids?) and have a stationary unit that can allow units to deep strike (e.g. they go in the tunnel entrance and come out someplace else).
- A Big Gun: Yes, a Gunfex fills this niche (sort of), but something with a bigger bang would be nice. It’s not like Biovores are used all that often. Come on, haven’t the bugs realized the handiness of heavy artillery?
- A Power Armor Killer: Not a unit per se, but it would be nice to have something that can penetrate power armor beyond monstrous claws at point-blank distances. Again, the ‘Nids haven’t discovered the usefulness of a ranged can opener?
I realize that apparently a plastic Trygon is in the works as an official Games Workshop (rather than Forge World) model, but I expect it to be a strictly Apocalypse unit. Would be nice if I was wrong, though.
So, what are the rest of you hoping for?
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