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I thought with the upcoming Tyranid releases it would be good to have a look back to where they began back in 1995.

This will be done to the style of reviews we see from H.B.M.C. And Kid_Kyoto, with the drawback that I didn't start playing W40k until 4th Edition so a lot of rules don't make sense to me. But we won't let such details stop us! On with the review!

*NOTE TO MODS* This has scanned pages from the old Nid codex. I don't want to invoke a C&D on Dakka, so if you have concerns just send me a PM and I'll delete them

Disclaimer:Copyright Games Workshop all terms and images are property of Games Workshop. Games Workshop reserves the right to smite fansites who reproduce, mimic or refer to any intellectual property it owns.

Codex: Tyranids : 2nd Edition
Written in 1995 by Andy Chambers
88 Pages



More Grimbright than Grimdark. Taste the rainbow. Notice the great old-school Hive Tyrant and the awful thing beside it on the left. That was what Carnifexes used to be. I call it the cuddlefex.

FLUFF

The fluff section contains what we are used to, Hive Fleet Behemoth, the Battle for Macragge, Kraken, Kryptman's cunning plan and so forth. However this codex also covers genestealer cults. For those of us who weren't around genestealer cults were human organisations that had been infiltrated and corrupted by genestealers, creating half human genestealer hybrids that destabilised worlds in preperation for Tyranid invasion.


There is a great piece of fluff about a genestealer cult that masqueraded as a religious sect tolerated by the Eccliesiarchy who gain popular support and incite civil war against the Imperial Government. Just when defeat seems certain Ultramarine Terminators teleport into the headquarters of the cult, lay waste to swarms of genestealers and genestealer hybrids and then knocking off the patriarch (Big 'ole Genestealer with a huge head who is behind everything). Genestealer cults also get an army list, but more on that later.

ARMORY

Each bio-weapon is described in detail, with fluff stats and rules. The weapons have interesting and complicated effects, for example the spinefist fires a flamer template (there are 3 flame templates) but still rolls to hit. A flamespurt uses a flamer template and automatically hits but any models hit but not slain by it are pushed to the edges of the template.

TYRANID FORCES

Very much like the forces sections we have today- for every unit in the codex there is a a fluffy unit description, a piece of artwork and special rules. Most things have quite a lot of special rules, there is a lot of flavour.


Of particular note is the Carnifex entry. For 199 points you get one hell of a statline: WS6 BS4 S7 T8 W10 I6 A4 LD10, and a 3+ save on 2D6. Obviously T8 W10 and 3+ 2D6 save looks utterly obscene by modern standards, but this is from a more complicated time when weapons could deal several wounds in a single shot and had save modifiers. Also, gargoyles if gargoyles did not run or charge they could move 20”.

ARTWORK AND COLOUR SECTION

Little insectoid flourishes come up everywhere, the guns drip with foul liquids and the bugs look pleasingly sharp and hostile.


Very cool bio-titan-cannon thingy in the background and a warrior sporting the most horrific vagina of the 41st Millenium in the foreground. I like.

Ah, ye olde Hive Tyrant. I do love that sinister grin.



Ye olde cuddlefex, I utterly utterly loathe the sight of it. If you disapproved of the Toxathrope or whatever they called it take a good long look at this abomination. It's arms are so barren of detail... and the legs are just... I'm having trouble conveying how much I hate it. It's worse than Youtube comments. The single redeeming feature is to compare it to the modern carnifex so we can appreciate how much better it is. In my humble opinion.



Warriors: I don't hate these as much as I hate the cuddlefex.



The old Gaunts are quite little. Notice the mix of weapons in the squad. Today it is all about the options of the squad, there used to be more freedom to customise individual models. Interesting but I'd guess that this would slow the game down rolling for all the different weapons if you didn't have a plentiful variety of coloured dice.
Thick claws aside, those genestealers haven't aged too badly.
And who would of thought there was a biovore uglier than the current one?



The flesh hooks on these Lictors are actually shooting weapons with an 18” range that drags models into combat and help it climb terrain. WIN and AWESOME.



MISSIONS AND EVENTS CARDS

No pics because it isn't terribly interesting, although there is an event for a walker called a “what the ******!” result. Flavorsome.

ARMY LISTS



Yeah, that is lists plural. Tyranids and Genestealer cults. There is no force of command chart, instead everything falls under one of three categories: Individuals, Broods and Support. At least one Individual (HQ) must be taken, and no more than half of your points can be spent of individuals. No more than half of your points can be spent on support, and at least a quarter of your points must be spent on Broods. Amusingly, the justification for this system is so that you can't just have an army made of Hive Tyrants and Carnifexes.
The entries are:
-Hive Tyrant
-Zoanthropes
-Lictors
-Warriors
-Genestealers
-Termagaunts
-hormogaunts
-Gargoyles
-Carnifexes
-Rippers (0-1 choice, but can have unlimited of bases. Tarpit anyone?)
-Spore Mines
-Biovores (with 100” range)

In a great example of the little things being important, the weapons in the Hive Tyrant entry are “Claws, jaws and a bad attitude”. That little extra flavor in the description would totally justify a 10 page YMDC discussion over the RAW of “bad attitude”.

The Genestealer cult is like a small IG army with genestealers mixed in. It can have Chaos allies (there was evidently an allies system back in the day) It includes such awesomeness as the tunnelling Mole Mortar and the Thudd Gun. Frustratingly there are no statlines or rules for these in the codex, they must come from an imperial book. Sadly this cool little list was squatted.
Entries:
-Genestealer Patriarch
-Genestealer Magus
-Cult Icon bearer
-Genestealers
-Genestealers hybrids
-Brood Brothers
-Brood Brother heavy weapons
-Rapid Laser Destroyers
-Tarantulas
-Mole Mortars
-Thudd Guns

TACTICS
There is a two page text wall on tactics, and it actually looks respectable. It contains useful advice like not taking a one-trick army because when your opponents figure it out they will just beat you routinely. Surprisingly worthy.

So there you have it! As is Dakka tradition if you were not born when this was released (1995, so that should be all of us) mention it in your post.

Nice write up

I remember when this came out and suddenly everyone in the store was playing tyranids (doubt that'll happen this time). Some of those statlines are obscene but, like you say, weapons could deal a heck of a lot of damage back then - a multi-melta gave a -5 save modifier and caused 2d12 wounds iirc.

The only downside to the codex was a small thing called blind grenades which could be taken by almost any infantry for about 1pt and effectively negated all the HtH in a tyranid army. I can recall a guardian with a PF (i kid you not) taking down a hivetyrant

A helluva trip down memory lane. This takes me back...and a great write up to boot.

Thanks for the info.

Ah, yeah. Back in the day when Tyranids had hands.

I loved the Genestealer cults. I wish they'd do a White Dwarf armylist for em, basic imp guard with a big bug, magus and genestealers.

Would be so easy for GW to do. They could even just create the list and then insist the cult player has both codices if they needed yet more cash.

I do so love the 2nd Ed Tyranid book. Many'a fun games were played with it.

And I love the old Carnifex. My two have brought me many victories, and when in doubt, one of them is made of lead and is VERY heavy when used as improvised brass-knuckles.

I could never get over the goofy heads on the warriors. Like something out of Bugs Bunny.

ZF-

Ah 2nd Ed. Nids. My first army.

I must admit I was drawn in by the original Screamer Killer, Hive Tyrant and Lictor models. They were incredibly bad-ass at the time. While they look incredibly dated and undetailed now, those models were great back then (still love that Carnifex Model - the first model I bought, a 'cheap' $25 metal mini back in the day).

The biomorphs you could give to Carnifexes and Hive Tyrants were simply sick. I think you could have a 10W Carnifex that could regenerate all of its wounds every turn, and bioplasma was an incredibly strong ranged attack. And a Lictor that was actually useful and could dish out damage in combat. Ah for those days. I'm still pissed they got rid of the Genestealer Cult list.

I still have a crap ton of the 2nd Ed. Metal models. Mayhaps I'll put some back together and paint them up for nostalgia's sake.

@Zad Fnark - To be fair, I _think_ those particular plastic Warriors were vestiges from Rogue Trader. I have about 4-5 of the Metal versions that were out then that look considerably less goofy and look like very stripped down Hive Tyrants.

The models where horrible but the rules where fun. Thats what this game used to be about. Miss those days.

Thanks for the history though, love history.

I still love the old Lictor model, wish I could get hold of one now I was never a huge fan of the other 'Nids of that era, but I still think the Lictor was one of the best looking models I'd seen.

I didn't actually start playing until 3rd Edition ruleset, so a lot of this is new to me- I looked at the Zoanthrope's Warp Blast section and just laughed at some of the formulae for working out Armour Penetration.

It's nice to see a Codex as old as this one, it really gives you an idea of how much the game has changed since- for better or worse.

That was my first 40k army as well.

Oh how I love that biovore sculpt! The new ones look like crap compared to them.


Also I wish they would bring back the rules for warpfield. 2d6 save to roll over Str, Nothing but pure win!

Neith wrote:I still love the old Lictor model, wish I could get hold of one now

Hang around ebay. That's how I got mine and it wasn't too badly priced.

I'm selling one of those metal Lictors on th'Ebay at the mo. Give us a PM and I'll send you the link if you're interested.

Oh the old carnifex. Such a smooth head. And genestealer cults are one of the best parts of 40k fluff.

I found that codex in the lost & found bin at my middle school over a decade ago ...

I'm still a fan of the little gribbly gaunts - spike rifle ftw! - and the zoan I prefer over the new floaters too.

Cheers for the write up

- Salvage

Neith wrote:I didn't actually start playing until 3rd Edition ruleset, so a lot of this is new to me- I looked at the Zoanthrope's Warp Blast section and just laughed at some of the formulae for working out Armour Penetration.

It's nice to see a Codex as old as this one, it really gives you an idea of how much the game has changed since- for better or worse.

If you didn't play 2nd ed, you won't remember, but armor values were considerably higher than today's due to the different method of determining armor penetration. A lot of units in 2nd ed had armor values that don't today - bikes, jetbikes, eldar dreadnoughts (wraithlords), and wraithguard to name a few. Every "vehicle" unit had it's own datafax with charts detailing exactly what happened when it was damaged. Still have all the old datafaxes and this codex, along with a few others.

Great stuff, Teh_K42!

Gavin Thorne wrote:

Neith wrote:I didn't actually start playing until 3rd Edition ruleset, so a lot of this is new to me- I looked at the Zoanthrope's Warp Blast section and just laughed at some of the formulae for working out Armour Penetration.

It's nice to see a Codex as old as this one, it really gives you an idea of how much the game has changed since- for better or worse.

If you didn't play 2nd ed, you won't remember, but armor values were considerably higher than today's due to the different method of determining armor penetration. A lot of units in 2nd ed had armor values that don't today - bikes, jetbikes, eldar dreadnoughts (wraithlords), and wraithguard to name a few. Every "vehicle" unit had it's own datafax with charts detailing exactly what happened when it was damaged. Still have all the old datafaxes and this codex, along with a few others.

Wow, almost sounds like a totally different game to what it is today... I struggle enough to remember what Armour Penetration rolls do sometimes; I can't imagine having to check what a shot did for every individual vehicle...

Thanks for the insight, I never realised the game had changed so much in terms of rules.

Wasn't there a whole pre-game thing that the Nids did?

Jones acting stangely?

I still love that old Hive Tyrant model. The new ones are great but this one actually feels like it's thinking about how to kill you.

Whenever I need a 'boost' in my interest of Warhammer, I can always count on my plethora of 2nd Edition Codex books to bring back memories. My favourite is the Chaos one, followed by Eldar and then 'Nids. Ahhh such good times those were Thanks for this thread, brought back some warm fuzzy memories, haha.

JohnHwangDD wrote:Wasn't there a whole pre-game thing that the Nids did?

Jones acting stangely?

Yes! To represent Nid "subterfuge", there was a pre-game table you rolled against for every enemy unit.

I'm looking at the point costs for the termagants and hormagaunts (note the difference in the spelling of gant/gaunt), and this is in a time when Space Marines were 30 points apiece, about twice as much as they are now.

Nids were a REAL swarm army.

Jin wrote:

JohnHwangDD wrote:Wasn't there a whole pre-game thing that the Nids did?

Jones acting stangely?

Yes! To represent Nid "subterfuge", there was a pre-game table you rolled against for every enemy unit.

That's what I recalled.

Odd that KK wouldn't mention it in his review - IIRC, it was pretty major.

I loved the fact that they had no armour save to speak of. If they were wounded, you just removed them. And yeah, back in the day a 6 or 8 point model was a big deal. You could bring heaps of them.

Gargoyles were one of my fav units. As mentioned above, their Flamer weapon, the Flamespurt, was so powerful that enemy models had to be moved to the edge of the template after being hit. If they couldn't move to the edge, they got hit again. Excellent for attacking units in thin high fortifications - they can either get hit twice, or jump off the building to get away. Their choice.

Add to that that Gargoyles could 'Fly High' (remove from table, start of next turn they appear wherever you want, no scatter), and you'd have these amazing ambush unit. I never bought more than 12 due to the fact they were metal models on those horrific old hexagonal tiny flying bases... but now they're in plastic. Mwwahahahaha!

Great retro article, I liked the old Carnifexes and Warriors. Not sure about the old Biovores though. Amazingly crapper than the current model.

Those old Warriors are STILL some the ugliest, stupidest models of all time.

The rest is fun memories.

It's a great book, full of fluff. These Tyranids are among my favourites. I like some of the current releases, but the stuff released for 3rd edition was gak.

Tyranids appeared in Rogue Trader, but in a much cruder form, there were Screamer Killers (Carnifex) and Termagants, Zoats and Squig Swarms. Why are squigs working with the Tyranids?? Genestealer Cults were much better defined under Rogue Trader.

Tyranids really took shape in 2nd edition which is more the form they still take now. The only major loss is the Genestealer Cult list which was an entirely seperate list in the book. It's sad to seem so much of the colour washed out of the game today, but minor lists receive little support after initial release and are dropped in short order, just look at Lost and Damned or 13th Company.

The second edition books are probably all the best, quality publications unlike the 3rd edition when they dispensed with all the fluff to slim them down and save money. Some seem almost collectible, I saw the Sisters of Battle for £15 on eBay recently (it was probably the last 2nd Edition published, or maybe that was Assassins).

I've got one of these lictors and wouldn't give it up for anything, it's not been improved upon IMO.

Great Look Back, now get ready for the C and D letter.

I still have a few of these guys, great looking book at the time.

The squigs were Tyranid, back in the day. They had a couple of different blisters of them.

I still loved that Deathwing story about the last squad on thier original planet. These books are great if you are having a lack of information on any of your particular armies. Between the second edition and Rogue trader, there is still alot of idea material out there for you to get in on.

I wasn't around for 2nd Ed., either, but let me just say I'm kind of glad that they have done away with different movement stats for each model and made it more universal...for one, it's much easier to remember; and I personally feel that in a game like this it helps to even the playing field a little bit. I mean, look at some of the difference in the models the OP posted, ranging from 6 to 20! of course, I'm sure it worked ''back then'' but I'm still glad to see a generic movement stat for every model...

I preferred the seperate datafaxes for every vehicle for the most part, I suppose it would be hard going in a modern Apocalypse game. But it was a good idea to see the back of datafaxes for Bikes. Bike squads of 5 vehicles each with datafaxes? Afte a few turns you'd end up with two perfectly good bikes, one that can only go half speed, one that has to test for steering every turn incase it veers out of contol and one Marine having to run to keep up. Oh dearie me, Ravenwing armies must have been hell.

Vortex Grenade, FTW

Movement was great, if you were a genestealer. Modifiers, vehicle rules that made sense, and Armorcast.