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Hey guys
Now, I play Nids, and I love em to bits. The fluff, the models, everything. But every other army is more powerful, better looking ect.
Do I keep going? Or do I start again?

Do you play to have fun or do you only have fun when you win? I think your answer comes down to this.

Your statement is a little bit confusing. You say that you love how the nids look, and in the same sentence you tell us that every other army looks better? So that means you picked the army which aesthetics you hated the most?

Besides that, we don´t have any more information that would be valuable. How many points do you play? Show us your list, which enemies are you facing most of the time? How much terrain do you use in a normal game? Are your play partners playing on tournament level or just for fun? and so on.

I'm not a gamer, I model and paint when I get the chance so don't have that problem, but I do love the fluff for nids and space marines. Seems to me if you want to win more then the only option is to start a more powerful army? Otherwise just enjoy the atmosphere modelling and painting and the company when playing?

THE HIVE MIND wrote:
Hey guys
Now, I play Nids, and I love em to bits. The fluff, the models, everything. But every other army is more powerful, better looking ect.
Do I keep going? Or do I start again?

Ok, this confuses me - you say that you love the nid models... but then you say that every other army is better looking.

I suppose it comes as a particular surprise to me, because I've always thought my guardsmen look like a race of angry potatoes.


In terms of power, I'm not sure nids are the lowest right now (I suspect SoB still claim that award). And, it will also depend on both your lists and those of your opponents. What armies/lists do you actually face?

In terms of whether you should continue, it's not really a question we can answer. There's not point in us telling you to carry on if you're just going to be bored and depressed every game.

Obviously this depends on your group, but perhaps you could ask to borrow your friends' armies to try out and see if you prefer playing with any of their races? If you have more fun than you do with nids, you could consider starting that army. Alternatively, seeing things from a different perspective might help you appreciate nids more, for whatever reason. Either way, it might be a good idea before you commit to anything.

There is always an option of starting another project.
Take another army you like. Buy some models, paint some models. Play with them when you want a competitive game, and still bring out your Nids when you're just looking for some casual dice rolling.

You don't have to play them all the time if you don't like losing so often (who does?), but if you truly love them, don't sell them.
Their time will come and when it does, you can stand proud and say that you played Tyranids before it was cool!

You could play a fun game instead, like X-Wing or Malifaux.

If YOU believe that nids are a bottom tier army and YOUR games with the army are unfun defeats that leave you feeling hopeless, then maybe it is time to move on.

However, if your games with nids are fun and competitive, and its the general negative opinion of the internet thats got you down...feel free to ignore the forums and continue to enjoy your hobby with the army of your choice.

 Chumbalaya wrote:
You could play a fun game instead, like X-Wing or Malifaux.

This so much give up on 40k if you like balance there are better games out there, and alot are more fun than the borefest this slow clunky game has become.

Nids are doing well in the competitive scene lately. It is definitely possible to build a strong list that can put up a solid fight against the most brutal of lists.

40k is a dynamic game. The power of individual codexes waxes and wanes over time. When your army is in a low power time it can be frustrating. Assault-y codexes like Nids and Orks are struggling. Nids can put up a really solid fight though. The codex itself won't limit you unless you go up against the most elite of opponents. Nids can beat the nastiest Eldar lists unless those Eldar lists are being fielded by top players. In other words, you can leverage superior playskill against other players and pull out wins with Nids, but all things being equal, Eldar will outperform Nids in the current meta.

The codex that seems to always be never too far from the top in terms of power is SM. So, if you commit to building an SM force along with your Nid force then you can ensure that you will always have the option of being able to field a force at the highest level.

Be aware tho that since this a dynamic game you can't just build an ultramarine army at one point in time and call it a day. You do need to grow with the times. The ultramarine flavors of the day are stern guard and drop pods aplenty or bikes, talons, thunderfire cannons, and centurions which is definitely different than it was 2 years ago.

Umm the Nids are powerful. You do have to follow certain builds tho.

Nids aren't underpowered, they just have pathetic internal balance, some units just flat out suck. If you avoid the sucky units and spam the good units, they're competitive.

Of course the bad internal balance can be enough to put you off... especially if you've spent a lot of time working on units that suck and don't have enough models to field an army of the good spammy units.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Nids aren't underpowered, they just have pathetic internal balance, some units just flat out suck. If you avoid the sucky units and spam the good units, they're competitive.

Of course the bad internal balance can be enough to put you off... especially if you've spent a lot of time working on units that suck and don't have enough models to field an army of the good spammy units.

What he said. Furthermore, Tyranids really their formations in order to work.

They're a bloody expensive army to run competitively. Especially if you've already purchased what you want to run, and it's not what you 'need' to run to win games.

I know that I'd dominate local tournaments with a Hierophant, a few Malanthropes, and the Skyblight Swarm. However, I don't have $1,300 plus (Yes, I'm in Canada) to spend now.

The only thing I can offer is, it seems that every few years things turn around and different units become viable again. See Rippers, Eldar, Grey Knights (Remember Daemonhunters?)... Maybe in a year, Tyranid Warriors will be decried on the Internet as the cheesiest of the cheese, unkillable horrors that GW obviously never playtested because they will be that good.

Play the army that you enjoy the most. That's all I'm trying to say.

I absolutely jumped ship on Nids, despite the title thing under my name, but will spend the money to update the list when I have the spare. My reasons are different, lack of originality in Nid builds anymore, must-have units being runty armed Carnifex and ugly Tyrants that don't look like the Queen from Aliens anymore, the fact that swords are a thing again....

Sure Skyblight is good but that is literally following a template to build an army and I remember when Toxin Sacs gave +1 Strength and Extended Carapace was a thing. The magic is gone for me, so I play Eldar now, and even my Ultramarines are getting updated. My Nids will collect dust for a while and I don't regret it a bit. I'll add in things from time to time but overall, we will see how they fare in 8th.

 Mythra wrote:
Umm the Nids are powerful. You do have to follow certain builds tho.

Untrue. I've won a decent number of games against strong lists of top-tier armies with things typically not used in the Tyranid book.

Lictors, Warriors, Pyrovores, Raveners, Haruspexes, Sky-Slashers, or Tyranid Primes, by chance? :(

The times I have seen vicious tyranid lists are the ones spamming the flyer formation. They are great. And pricey...

I just want my genestealers to not suck.

If you really like modeling and painting, the aesthetics of an army are top priority. I'd never play Tyranids because I don't like their visual (and fluff). So I wouldn't start an army of Tyranids.

If you don't get any fun painting modeling and/or playing Tyranids, don't hold on it because "I spent so much!"; sell it and get another army - but do a good research first. See the minis in the internet, visit your FLGS and see people playing with said armies.

IMO find something really fething sly and underhanded then run that all the time. B)

Edited by RiTides (for language)

If you have fun, keep playing. If you hate it, change armies. There's nothing wrong with having multiple armies. That being said, Nids can do pretty well against most lists. I find they really only suffer against the most competitive lists. My buddy runs Nids and whoops most of our local meta.

Personally I think if you're disenchanted with Tyranids, I'd shelve them in favour of a completely new game. Maybe I've just been playing too long but these days I feel 40k is 40k regardless of what army you play, if you're not enjoying it any more with one army you're better off trying a whole new game instead of swapping armies to try and enjoy it again.

"The magic was gone" is essentially why I moved to Chaos Space Marines. I'd never get rid of my Tyranids, and I've bought more of them since, but I patiently await the day they are interesting to play.

For a picture of the sort of person I am, I have bought a Wraithlord, a Wraithknight, a Crimson Hunter, a Riptide, a (new) Broadside, and an Imperial Knight that I, at time of purchase, had no real intention of playing with. Some day I intend to get a Dreadknight (when I can figure out how to fix the baby carrier syndrome, as I like everything else about the model) and a Monolith, because Monoliths are cool (unlike Tau and Eldar, though, I really am not interested in starting Grey Knight or Necron armies).

Try a game that actually respects its armies and players.
There are so many great games out there to try that don't have this corporate created frustration.
I was a SOB player. I know about the frustration of having an army neglected for over a decade.

So, in short: No.
In long: Yes, but with other games.

 MWHistorian wrote:
Try a game that actually respects its armies and players.
There are so many great games out there to try that don't have this corporate created frustration.
I was a SOB player. I know about the frustration of having an army neglected for over a decade.

So, in short: No.
In long: Yes, but with other games.

This.

I was a Tyranid player. I still have all of it, too. I don't sell on my dollies. But I did get utterly sick of GW's inability to create even a semi balanced game. 'Buy a new army' is a bs response. It does nothing to help your frustration against the games underlying horrendous balance. I know. I tried.

Find a company that wants your money and shows it by creating a balanced gaming environment where all armies are equally competitive and encourages you to buy things not by making older units terrible, but by making interesting new units that have a competitive place alongside older units. It's not hard to find games like this these days.

THE HIVE MIND wrote:
Hey guys
Now, I play Nids, and I love em to bits. The fluff, the models, everything. But every other army is more powerful, better looking ect.
Do I keep going? Or do I start again?

You just said you loved them. I'm lost here.

I like how half the responses to a question about different 40k armies veer off into a rant and demand they quit and play an entirely different game. It's cool not to like 40k, it's cool to complain about it, it brings some people into a warm fuzzy bond of brotherhood to hate the same things. I get it. But this is like going into a Malifaux thread about tips on gator armies and mentioning how tiny the joins are on all the metal models and how hard it is to glue and maaaan you might as well just play heroclix.

Anyway consider proxying your nids for some other armies whose aesthetic you like and see how they play firsthand before making a decision. Never base it on how much they win, for the rules to 40k are fickle and prone to change.

 Badablack wrote:
I like how half the responses to a question about different 40k armies veer off into a rant and demand they quit and play an entirely different game. It's cool not to like 40k, it's cool to complain about it, it brings some people into a warm fuzzy bond of brotherhood to hate the same things. I get it. But this is like going into a Malifaux thread about tips on gator armies and mentioning how tiny the joins are on all the metal models and how hard it is to glue and maaaan you might as well just play heroclix

None of that has been said aside from suggesting trying some other games. None have even been mentioned by name until you vomited in the thread.

People just tend to say how they criticize and hate everything because that feels like people will think of you as a wise connaisseur. People mostly think that saying you just like something will make you appear soft and uncool.

"Eww, that band... I liked them when they were underground, their first 2 albums were ok, but they changed and got sooo mainstream. Those guys now are just in for the money."
"40k was cool in 2nd(3rd...) edition, but now it has become unplayable, the armies are ugly. And GW just wants our money."

Notice a pattern?

 Badablack wrote:
I like how half the responses to a question about different 40k armies veer off into a rant and demand they quit and play an entirely different game.

Demand? You need to put on your reading comprehension glasses there bud.

We are simply offering the suggestion that if you're getting bored of a 40k army, something even fresher and more exciting than starting yet another 40k army is starting a whole new game.

As someone who has been collecting wargames (starting with WHFB) for almost 20 years, have half a dozen armies and a models from pretty much every army... I wish I had of tried more different games over the years instead of burning money on lots of 40k armies when at the end of the day a 40k army is a 40k army, it's the same game and often it's the game that's getting boring, not JUST the army.

Yes, I absolutely think that once you've assembled one 40k army, you're better off starting a completely new game than another 40k army unless you can't find anyone who is willing to try a new game with you.