The New Tyranid Codex -- First Impressions

AbusePuppy said,

-The Pyrovore is terrible. No disagreement there. It needs WS4, and a boost to either I, A, or both to make it anything like worthwhile.

-Genestealers die to Bolters, but first-turn charges are more of a reality. The way I see it, you're using them to present the opponent with a choice: die now to the 'Stealers, or die a turn from now when all the other bugs you didn't shoot arrive. Them being cheaper certainly helps, too.

-The lack of options was pretty much a given. The old codex was cluttered with so much garbage (Catalyst Zoeys! 20pt Hormagaunts!) that a lot of it needed to be cleaned out. I'm sad to see some stuff gone, but most of it is good riddance.

-Hormagaunts are now half as cheap and can wound Marines ona 4+ with reroll. They also naturally strike before Marines. The drop to WS3 was kinda bull****, though.

-I think the Middle Monster Hole is something of a fallacy. Krak Missiles and Meltaguns that are shooting your Warriors aren't being aimed at your MCs, and Bolter fire takes a surprisingly huge number of shots (16, 32 with the easily-available FNP) to kill a single Warrior. Again: you want to present your opponent with two bad choices, and this is another way to do so. Remember also: attaching a Tyranid Prime (such a dumb name) to soak up S8 wounds without losing much.

-Given how good our psychic powers are this time around, I'm okay with rolling for them. Our psykers are universally Ld10, so it's not a huge issue.

-I think you're very, very wrong about there not being any new designs. Offhand, you have Deep Strike Madness, Stealer Shock (still mediocre, but viable against non-mech), Nidzilla, Flightzilla, Warrior Spam (run the numbers, it's scarier than you think- remember, they all have S5 Assault 3 guns and power weapons plus cover from cheap troops), Absolute Horde (Tervigon or Hormagaunt flavor), Swarmlord Abuse, and numerous other, less easily-describable versions. Suffice to say: I think the new 'Nids are fine.

-But yes, Carnifexes are horribly overcosted now. On most other bugs, prices went up but so did virtually everything else, and in some cases price went down (the "good" Zoey with Synapse + Warp Blast is cheaper now and has a 3++, Warriors don't cost two arms and two legs, Shrikes are also affordable, etc.)

shadowvast said,

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Re: New Tyranids

Postby Shadowvast

I had a game against the new bugs with my Thousand sons army. The thousand sons emerged victorious, but it was a HARD fight.

Now, my thousand sons ALL have invulnerable saves, so this battle was a bit lopsided in my favor to begin with. Also in my favor was knowing my army and codex, while my opponent was working with new rules and units.

We played seize ground with the spearhead deployment. ( I think that is the name, it's the table quarter one)

Turn two saw about half of my reserves show up. My opponent dropped in the zoanthropes in a pod and that unit alone destroyed the landraider, a rhino and 3 marines in a single shooting phase. OUCH

His trygon wasn't quite as successful....two obliterators with twin linked plasma guns put it, and it's twin down fast. the Mawloc went down to a force weapon on turn 4.

The warriors are really nice, but after thinking about them, I don't think they are the be all, end all troop choice. While I haven't seen them played yet, the Tervigon seems to be the winner in the HQ slot. Their ability to spawn a new unit of gaunts each turn = pure win. I have to say the bugs seem to be a bit like a paper tiger for the prepared general. They hit HARD and fast, but no longer have the raw durability outside of numbers to hang on to long fights.

From seeing what they can do, it looks like a mix of gaunts and warriors, in the troops slots, the tervigons mixed with MAYBE one of the named characters in HQ, the trygon prime in Heavy. In the elite spots it is the zoanthropes FTW. These things are SICK, combining durability with heavy anti tank firepower.

All in all the bugs have quite a few exciting builds to experiment with. I bought the codex just today and with just a few hours I can see a few obvious builds.


Tervigon/termagaunt spam horde

Tyrranofex/zoanthrope shooting spam

trygon/ravenor tunneling death

gargoyle/parasite winged horrors

trygonzilla (13 monstrous creatures!!!!!!)

and the list goes on... I really see a lot of potential here, far more than ever before with the tyranids.

Havik110 said,

1st let me say that an infant could effectively play the old nidzilla/sonic scream list, and even though the old stealer shock required more intelligence than nidzilla, it was still an easy list to win with.  (thankfully there are only 3 remaining T8 models in the normal game and 1 T7...meaning S3 will soon be able to wound everything even though its not necessarily fluffy)

This is another book that has lots of nifty options but will probably end up with 2 REALLY competitive lists (but it will still have more useable lists than any book to date)...I have already seen the double tervigon-dakkafex-trigon prime lists...they are very hard to beat if you arent putting out a lot of shots...that is what beats these armies...straight up mass flashlights aka torrent of fire...

Lets face it, the old god fex was TOO CHEAP, the old chorus of 5 sonic screams was too powerful, feeder tendrils giving AOL preferred enemy was BROKEN...

That being said there is more good in this codex than bad just like all the codecies since demons (fate weaver is still a punk and the person that made him the way his is deserves to be smacked) and I cannot wait to see Blood angels, Dark eldar, and sisters of battle get their 5th edition treatment...