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 jy2 wrote:
Pickup game. The Space Wolf player has played (and lost) to Geoff's GSC army before so the 2nd time, he was a little more keen to Geoff's tricks and tactics.

You are ambitious, my friend. LVO is going to be almost 500 players. Geoff might not even be the best GSC player if you consider all the guys from the East Coast or even from Europe. Who knows, we may even see Sean Nayden aka Mr #Lictorshame himself running GSC.

It's going to be interesting to see how the meta will be like at the LVO, especially among the top players.

Would love to generally just *see* more of that,. I know the coverage is hard to do a lot of but it really grows the community...much like Sean and his beard

 jy2 wrote:
Pickup game. The Space Wolf player has played (and lost) to Geoff's GSC army before so the 2nd time, he was a little more keen to Geoff's tricks and tactics.

You are ambitious, my friend. LVO is going to be almost 500 players. Geoff might not even be the best GSC player if you consider all the guys from the East Coast or even from Europe. Who knows, we may even see Sean Nayden aka Mr #Lictorshame himself running GSC.

It's going to be interesting to see how the meta will be like at the LVO, especially among the top players.

I know about 10 people taking Pure GSC already and a few more mixing Tyranids with them or vise versa. I just looking to be able to play Vs 6 people I haven't play before.
I lost to Geoff in a Tyranid vs Tyranid battle a few years back. Seams fair I beat him in a GSC vs GSC on the top table right. Right!!

I am sure the competition for best of army will be enticing.

As for being ambitious.. Everyone needs goals right!!

shadowfinder wrote:

 jy2 wrote:
Pickup game. The Space Wolf player has played (and lost) to Geoff's GSC army before so the 2nd time, he was a little more keen to Geoff's tricks and tactics.

You are ambitious, my friend. LVO is going to be almost 500 players. Geoff might not even be the best GSC player if you consider all the guys from the East Coast or even from Europe. Who knows, we may even see Sean Nayden aka Mr #Lictorshame himself running GSC.

It's going to be interesting to see how the meta will be like at the LVO, especially among the top players.

I know about 10 people taking Pure GSC already and a few more mixing Tyranids with them or vise versa. I just looking to be able to play Vs 6 people I haven't play before.
I lot to Geoff in a Tyranid vs Tyranid battle a few years back. Seams fair I beat him in a GSC vs GSC on the top table right. Right!!

I am sure the competition for best of army will be enticing.

As for being ambitious.. Everyone needs goals right!!

Those are good goals! Sadly I can't make it over to LVO this year, but I'll be hitting the Florida GTs then ATC. I would also like a second crack at Geoff though, after my Nids tied his AdMech this summer... I was so close to victory.

Hey guys, just checking in with everyone to see how goes the swarm. Anyone been looking at Trygons lately? I'm thinking of trying out a Trygon Prime with the Reaper to see how it works on some of these larger MCS and Vehicles.

Any word on when the feeding frenzy book is coming out? A book of formations for the nids would be nice.

Just hoping for whatever direction they take in 8th Nids are better translated from story to table.

Wow this is pretty sad. Feel like I'm necroing this thread. With the new FAQ that nerfs MC cover saves, is it still worth taking a Malanthrope to provide shrouded to Flyrants to guard against a turn 1 alpha strike?

 luke1705 wrote:
Wow this is pretty sad. Feel like I'm necroing this thread. With the new FAQ that nerfs MC cover saves, is it still worth taking a Malanthrope to provide shrouded to Flyrants to guard against a turn 1 alpha strike?

I think it can still be worth it, but you need to also take a ruin as fortification to give yourself a LoS blocking piece of cover that will still work via obscured rules. Fortunately this isn't a bad option anyway as its only 20pts and will be helpful in general! It is annoying that our best model got better (FMCs got some minor buffs in that blasts don't scatter onto them and they can vector strike after jinking) but our walking MCs are now even worse than they already were. I've been hearing vaguely that we might be featured in one of the gathering storm books and presumably we'll get a decurion there - we really need some amazing special rules for formations to help us out!

luke1705 wrote:Wow this is pretty sad. Feel like I'm necroing this thread. With the new FAQ that nerfs MC cover saves, is it still worth taking a Malanthrope to provide shrouded to Flyrants to guard against a turn 1 alpha strike?

I don't know if this thread will ever be a dead thread...it's got almost 400 pages worth of participation! It's EASILY one of the longest and strongest discussions of any faction in 40k, even if they are terrible in terms of viability.

Benlisted wrote:

 luke1705 wrote:
Wow this is pretty sad. Feel like I'm necroing this thread. With the new FAQ that nerfs MC cover saves, is it still worth taking a Malanthrope to provide shrouded to Flyrants to guard against a turn 1 alpha strike?

I think it can still be worth it, but you need to also take a ruin as fortification to give yourself a LoS blocking piece of cover that will still work via obscured rules. Fortunately this isn't a bad option anyway as its only 20pts and will be helpful in general! It is annoying that our best model got better (FMCs got some minor buffs in that blasts don't scatter onto them and they can vector strike after jinking) but our walking MCs are now even worse than they already were. I've been hearing vaguely that we might be featured in one of the gathering storm books and presumably we'll get a decurion there - we really need some amazing special rules for formations to help us out!

Speaking of FAQs, is anyone else disappointed that our FAQ was so small? Subterranean assault could have been DECENT, but still it's just a watered down rule that's done better in any other book. I'm really holding on to a glimmer of hope that a potential rule change on the horizon will allow Tyranids to be a viable stand alone book again. The sad reality is, if you're looking for a mildly competitive faction in the 40K universe and you've got over 20,000+ points of Tyranids you've got to pull in the GSC rules........Not that I know anyone with 20,000+ points of Tyranids *cough cough*

roxor08 wrote:


Speaking of FAQs, is anyone else disappointed that our FAQ was so small? Subterranean assault could have been DECENT, but still it's just a watered down rule that's done better in any other book. I'm really holding on to a glimmer of hope that a potential rule change on the horizon will allow Tyranids to be a viable stand alone book again. The sad reality is, if you're looking for a mildly competitive faction in the 40K universe and you've got over 20,000+ points of Tyranids you've got to pull in the GSC rules........Not that I know anyone with 20,000+ points of Tyranids *cough cough*

The one marginally interesting tidbit is that Tyrants can now leave as well as join units of Guard. So you can use your 50pt guard units as essentially 2 extra wounds for a flyrant before it takes off (also useful since it's infantry, and can get normal cover) before proceeding to deckchair on backfield objectives for the rest of the game. I believe, RaW, that when flying back onto the board from reserves, there's nothing to stop the flyrant joining the guard as well! But since that would mean you can shoot them normally rather than snapshooting, that's not likely to be useful...

roxor08 wrote:


Speaking of FAQs, is anyone else disappointed that our FAQ was so small? Subterranean assault could have been DECENT, but still it's just a watered down rule that's done better in any other book. I'm really holding on to a glimmer of hope that a potential rule change on the horizon will allow Tyranids to be a viable stand alone book again. The sad reality is, if you're looking for a mildly competitive faction in the 40K universe and you've got over 20,000+ points of Tyranids you've got to pull in the GSC rules........Not that I know anyone with 20,000+ points of Tyranids *cough cough*

Yeah I'm still a plebeian at below 10k. But you can play Tyranids competitively without GSC assistance as long as you don't mind taking 3 or 4 Flyrants. They're still one of the best units in the game. Our problem is that their supporting cast is weak (and now with it being harder to hide the Malanthrope and harder to give the Flyrants 2+ cover turn 1 without jinking, our anti-alpha took a huge hit). But I've played Nick Nanavati's old double daemon death star list (which won Adepticon) to a near tie (I made a mistake on the last turn that cost me the chance to tie).

I'm sure any army would be fine with having the ability to do that, so I think we can still do it. The reason why I moved away from the Nids was because GSC are the new hotness, and I just got tired of playing mono build Nids (and I have 4 Flyrants in my list, which is pretty non-interactive, so not too fun for most people). There's just a really big chasm between the power level of a "normal" Nids list and a "normal" list for any book Necrons and later, which is why most people struggle to do as well with Nids. You have to try harder to level the playing field.

I'm another 20000+ pts of NIDS player mostly due to other people buying and bailing so I could get them cheap. I am very much looking forward to some new rules. I have to always ask my opponents if they want to fight my tourni list or just a "fun" swarmy list. Though regardless I never go above 3 Flyrants I like diversity too much :-)

So I've got a tourney coming up soonis, and I wanted to bring the old bugs to the party. Just wondering if anyone has used a similar list to what I have planned to good effect.

1850
[Skyblight]
Flyrant w/ TL-Devourers, e-grubs
Harpy w/ TL-HVC
Harpy w/ TL-HVC
Crone
3x20 gargoyles

[Hive Fleet Detachment]
Flyrant w/ TL-Devourers, e-grubs
Flyrant w/ TL-Devourers, e-grubs
Flyrant w/ TL-Devourers, e-grubs
3x rippers w/ deepstrike
Mucolid
Mucolid

There is an issue with dakkafex build as there is written "carnifex can replace one pair of scything talons with twin devourer". I dont have the codex with me to correct this.

So, this thread looks pretty dead.

Let's hope the bugs get a nice new codex and some new models soon.

 Spreelock wrote:
There is an issue with dakkafex build as there is written "carnifex can replace one pair of scything talons with twin devourer". I dont have the codex with me to correct this.

No, the 0-1 restriction is only for heavy venom cannon or stranglethorn cannon.

So, has anyone looked at the rules for Tyranid kill teams in Shadow War Armageddon? I've only looked through it briefly but it looks like Tyranid Warriors are fairly high quality infantry with slightly above average speed (5'' instead of the standard 4'') and we get a couple nice rules (can't be disarmed, never take fear/terror tests, and can't be pinned).

For our options, we have a variety of Warriors (Alpha, Warrior, New-Spawn, and Gun-beast) and Primes, Raveners, and Zoanthropes for operatives. The Zoanthrope in particular looks nasty, since it never runs out of ammo for its Warp Blast and now just needs to manifest on a passed Ld. Test. It also retains its 3+ invul, which looks like it will be hugely useful with almost everything having a -1 to saves.

Other tidbits:
- In general, it looks like Tyranid bio-weaponry won't run out of ammunition very easily, with the worst ammo roll being a 5+ on 2D6 (biocannons) and the best being on a 3+ (Spinefists).

- Raveners lost their 12'' movement outside of running/charging but gain the ability to move up to 36'' on the first turn before the game begins.

- Boneswords are +2 strength and inflict D3 wounds while allowing the model to parry, paired swords allow reroll to wound in hand to hand and two parries.

- Lash Whip reduces enemy attacks instead of increasing initiative.

- Scything Talons allow the model to reroll to wound with two pairs and add +1 WS for each extra set of talons after the first (Raveners are treated as having 3 pairs, thus get a +2 to WS).

- Devourers gained Living Ammunition, so they reroll all failed to wound rolls.

- Venom Cannons lost blast, instead looks like they fire a large volume of dice instead.

- Adrenal Glands add +1 to movement.

- Flesh Hooks allow the model to climb over obstacles as difficult terrain instead of impassible.

 Strat_N8 wrote:
So, has anyone looked at the rules for Tyranid kill teams in Shadow War Armageddon? I've only looked through it briefly but it looks like Tyranid Warriors are fairly high quality infantry with slightly above average speed (5'' instead of the standard 4'') and we get a couple nice rules (can't be disarmed, never take fear/terror tests, and can't be pinned).

For our options, we have a variety of Warriors (Alpha, Warrior, New-Spawn, and Gun-beast) and Primes, Raveners, and Zoanthropes for operatives. The Zoanthrope in particular looks nasty, since it never runs out of ammo for its Warp Blast and now just needs to manifest on a passed Ld. Test. It also retains its 3+ invul, which looks like it will be hugely useful with almost everything having a -1 to saves.

Other tidbits:
- In general, it looks like Tyranid bio-weaponry won't run out of ammunition very easily, with the worst ammo roll being a 5+ on 2D6 (biocannons) and the best being on a 3+ (Spinefists).

- Raveners lost their 12'' movement outside of running/charging but gain the ability to move up to 36'' on the first turn before the game begins.

- Boneswords are +2 strength and inflict D3 wounds while allowing the model to parry, paired swords allow reroll to wound in hand to hand and two parries.

- Lash Whip reduces enemy attacks instead of increasing initiative.

- Scything Talons allow the model to reroll to wound with two pairs and add +1 WS for each extra set of talons after the first (Raveners are treated as having 3 pairs, thus get a +2 to WS).

- Devourers gained Living Ammunition, so they reroll all failed to wound rolls.

- Venom Cannons lost blast, instead looks like they fire a large volume of dice instead.

- Adrenal Glands add +1 to movement.

- Flesh Hooks allow the model to climb over obstacles as difficult terrain instead of impassible.

Nids do look pretty solid, though there's an error in the Rending claw rules - no model can every have 2 pairs, as all must have at least one pair of Scytals.

Beggars belief that there isn't a bleeding Lictor in there though, Shadow War is the perfect format for them, and apparently a Zoan fits better? Will still be trying a Nid team out. Just need to figure out how to distinguish the three levels of specialist now...

Benlisted wrote:

Nids do look pretty solid, though there's an error in the Rending claw rules - no model can every have 2 pairs, as all must have at least one pair of Scytals.

Didn't catch that... Oops. I know in the Genestealer Cult section the bonus applies with two individual claws, so hopefully it will be adjusted. Also doesn't appear to be a way to buy Devourers for regular Warriors either, just Raveners. :(

Benlisted wrote:

Beggars belief that there isn't a bleeding Lictor in there though, Shadow War is the perfect format for them, and apparently a Zoan fits better? Will still be trying a Nid team out. Just need to figure out how to distinguish the three levels of specialist now...

It looks like all the options across all armies are exclusively plastic kits, so it is probably less thematic and more to do with Lictors still being Finecast. Granted, our leader can take stealth skills, so one could take an Alpha with Scything Talons/Rending Claws and Flesh Hooks to represent a Lictor.


I'll have to take a trip to town tomorrow to see if our local shop will be getting any copies of Shadow War. No idea what the point level is for the kill teams, but I imagine it has to be fairly high given how expensive various models are compared to their main game counterparts.

 Strat_N8 wrote:

Benlisted wrote:

Nids do look pretty solid, though there's an error in the Rending claw rules - no model can every have 2 pairs, as all must have at least one pair of Scytals.

Didn't catch that... Oops. I know in the Genestealer Cult section the bonus applies with two individual claws, so hopefully it will be adjusted. Also doesn't appear to be a way to buy Devourers for regular Warriors either, just Raveners. :(

Oh damn, totally didn't notice that either. That's super annoying as most of my warriors (and I am assuming everyone else's) are equipped with them. And it's a bit in the plastic box, so no reason they can't be. Might have to email them asking whether that (and the Rending Claws thing) were intended.

Hopefully the Devourers is just an oversight. Still, even if it is intentional I have 6 Warriors modeled with Deathspitters that can be used. Getting a bio-cannon in the list might be tricky though, depending on how many points the kill teams run...

I'm very curious how well Flesh Hooks will work, especially given how the box set comes with so much vertical-oriented terrain that can be climbed. Might be able to take advantage of the non-linear approach vectors to get into the thick of things quickly...

Benlisted wrote:

Nids do look pretty solid, though there's an error in the Rending claw rules - no model can every have 2 pairs, as all must have at least one pair of Scytals.

If you look a bit closer, in the Resupplying a Tyranid Kill Team section it says you may replace any set of arms with another. The example they give is a warrior with scytals and a deathspitter replacing the scytals with BS+LW.
So you could conceivably take two pairs of rending claws.

Arson Fire wrote:

Benlisted wrote:

Nids do look pretty solid, though there's an error in the Rending claw rules - no model can every have 2 pairs, as all must have at least one pair of Scytals.

If you look a bit closer, in the Resupplying a Tyranid Kill Team section it says you may replace any set of arms with another. The example they give is a warrior with scytals and a deathspitter replacing the scytals with BS+LW.
So you could conceivably take two pairs of rending claws.

Interesting point, I didn't clock that either. However I don't know if you'd ever want to go the 2xRC route, as all you get is a -1 to save from scytals, and you lose the +2WS 2x scytal would give you! And you're paying 30pts more for the privelege. Dual scytals seems a better bargain basement melee option to me, dual boneswords and scytal the more expensive one. Not that I have any models with either 2x scytal or 2x RC arms heh...

Also, the way that section is worded makes it seem like you can swap out the scytal for a second gun - so 2x DS and 2x VC even look to be viable options, even though a model with that sort of load out is going to look absolutely absurd! But with BS4 that could be absolutely brutal, if intended.

Benlisted wrote:

Also, the way that section is worded makes it seem like you can swap out the scytal for a second gun - so 2x DS and 2x VC even look to be viable options, even though a model with that sort of load out is going to look absolutely absurd! But with BS4 that could be absolutely brutal, if intended.

I suppose that depends on whether the killteam rules permit the models to fire more than one gun.
I'm leaning towards 'probably not', given that it might also allow weirdness such as space marines firing both a bolter and a bolt pistol at the same time.

Arson Fire wrote:

Benlisted wrote:

Also, the way that section is worded makes it seem like you can swap out the scytal for a second gun - so 2x DS and 2x VC even look to be viable options, even though a model with that sort of load out is going to look absolutely absurd! But with BS4 that could be absolutely brutal, if intended.

I suppose that depends on whether the killteam rules permit the models to fire more than one gun.
I'm leaning towards 'probably not', given that it might also allow weirdness such as space marines firing both a bolter and a bolt pistol at the same time.

Good point, you're probably right in that it's not allowed. However, given the gun jam rules, a DS/VC gun-beast wouldn't be forced into melee if the VC runs out of ammo - so could still be viable!

Ok so things about Tyranid kill teams, after playing a ton of games with them:

1) They are amazing. Warriors are terrifying
2) Leader has to be a warrior called an Alpha (better BS but otherwise same stat line)
3) Regular warriors are your troopers. Your new recruits are called new-spawn (a warrior with -1 WS)
4) Specialist is a gun-beast (a BS 4 warrior)
5) Special operatives are:
Ravener (essentially guaranteed turn 1 assault as long as you go first)
Zoanthrope (nasty mind bullets, made all the more nasty now that psychic tests are LD tests again)
Tyranid Prime (warrior buff-machine, giving your whole army WS 6 if they're within 6" of it, causing LD checks for any enemy models with 8" and fighting any number of models without being disadvantaged <- this is a bigger deal than you think)
6) Combat is an opposed roll (kind of like Risk - the defender rolls their attacks, you roll your attacks and compare only the highest result, though there are modifiers. The difference is how many to wound rolls the winner makes, meaning that the dominant CC model will never get hurt in CC unless it loses the roll)
6) On that note, high WS is a big deal because it basically gives you +1 to your combat roll for every 1 you are higher than your opponent (so a WS 6 Tyranid vs a WS 4 marine would get +2)
7) That means that extra attacks are great because you will more reliably get a high roll, like with move through cover.
8) You can have two sets of weapons since you have 4 arms
9) You can have any number of biomorph upgrades....they're reasonably costed but only a few are worthwhile (+1 Move, shred, +1 armor save)
10) The guns are almost as good as other armies' options, and classically-Tyranid (bunch of shots)
11) The CC weapons are terrifying, allowing even the basic Tyranid trooper to stand tall against almost any model in the game when you have the BS + LW
12) For the first 4-5 games, you won't be subject to anything strong enough to chew through all 3 of your wounds before you get to combat
13) CC is not only viable but a very strong strategy. We are the premier CC specialists as far as I've seen, and we have the speed and durability to get there more or less unscathed
14) Our army special rules don't quite make us fearless but its close

What are you guys hoping for in 8th?

 SHUPPET wrote:
What are you guys hoping for in 8th?

Being able to actually use the 200ish walking bugs I've got in cold storage.

Foot Nids getting better without Flying Nids getting worse. Flyrants arent really OP anymore in the current meta, so Id hate to see them nerfed in the name of variety. Instead, I just want the rest of the book brought up to that level.

 jifel wrote:
Foot Nids getting better without Flying Nids getting worse. Flyrants arent really OP anymore in the current meta, so Id hate to see them nerfed in the name of variety. Instead, I just want the rest of the book brought up to that level.

To be fair, the entire meta is basically burning, 8th edition will be a clean slate with a new meta.