Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I've been playing tyranids for awhile now at my local group and everyone seems to think that tyranids are overpowered and tends to make cracks at me about it, I was wondering what people thought of them in the tournament scene - mainly their complaints are doom of malantai, hive guard, zoanthropes, trygons, and genestealer ws and initiative

Nids aren't overpowered at all. Being a Nid player myself, I've generally found that they can be a pretty unforgiving army, with low armour values and whatnot.

People tend to complain about anything if you ask me

Jesus is spot on IMHO.

I'd say the Nids are far from overpowered. Many people claim them to be underpowered if anything.
Ultimately, I believe the Nids to be a very balanced (and unforgiving) Codex which is capable of great success in the right hands, or huge failure in the wrong hands.

Frankly, I'd say you're either a particularly good general, or your opponents are particularly bad.
All those units you mentioned are good, but they're not unstoppable by any means. Definitely not over-powered.

DoM was VERY powerful before the FaQ. Hive Guard struggle against hordes and high AV and can wither to heavy fire. Trygons are very dangerous, but also expensive and very large targets. Zoanthropes are short-ranged, fragile and capable of being nullified. 'Stealers are supposed to be amazing in close combat and they are. Outside of it though, they're buggered.

As I said, I believe the Nid codex to actually be very balanced and requiring of a good player to work successfully.

The only time Nids ever came close to OP was in the 4th ed codex. They literally had the equivallent of Eternal Warrior on everything and alot of the unit choices were dirt cheap compared to what it is now. 5th Ed saw them get a massive nerf in many areas (namely by beloved Fex) so they're either balanced or underpowered imo.

Faq ruined near the cheese of Tyranid Codex

@Zoot
I have to say.... what did the rest of your gaming group play?
I will have to say no BA or SW?

I feel like they are competitive, but not overpowered. People will complain about any unit they have trouble with and it just happens to be a couple of your bugs.

I recently played a guy using Orcs and he had called me out to play my Nids and I had accepted. He made a list to specifically deal with them, and complained the entire game because he had no guessed what units I would bring correctly and his list fell apart on turn 2.

He was upset by the genestealers and Hive Guard and even the Tyranid Primes Alpha Warrior ability.

I think the Tau vehicle equipment that makes it harder to hit them if you are over 12inches away is overpowered and the flachett charges, but that's because I play Tyranids, and that's what I struggle with so I think it's overpowered. All relative and really it's all about how it's played.

Don't let hatters bring you down

Neither under- nor overpowered. In fact I really like their current Rule set (not perfect, but fine).

Nids are far from overpowered, some might even go so far as to say they are underpowered.

Tyranids are famous for being the only recent Codex that is not overpowered. Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Imperial Guard and Dark Eldar are all stronger.

All three of those four have very simplistic ways to pound Tyranids into the ground, though Guard is considered one of the best due to the sheer amount of variation and easy anti-mech you can bring to the table.

However, thats not to say that Tyranids can't pull off a win, but it will be a little bit of an uphill battle, DEPENDING ON THE PLAYERS.

Personally I run a very unorthdox Nid list, using no Hive guards, only 1 Trygon (and a Prime with Regen to boot) and a Hive Tyrant at under 1500 points (yes I'm a hypocrite, =P) and I have only lost one battle with my nids (against Eldar no less, full of ID stuff). It's possible to be competitive, even dominate, with any book, assuming the human factor is good enough and understands the army. However there are many blatant pitfalls in the Nids codex compared to others (MCs with no Invulnerable saves or Eternal Warrior anywhere in the book, not to mention the generally mediocre strength and some of them are overcosted. Swarms that cant take that many actual models and have to rely on an MC for actual numbers, etc...).

No. Not at all. I've never lost a game against tyranids.

Then again, I do use Splinter Cannon Spam DE tyranids get blown away by DE. Disentegrators on every raider, and double SCs on every venom... It's just murder.

Hive guard are pretty OP though.

As the others have said, nids can be effective but simply are not a forgiving army. Crappy saves galore, have to worry about instinctual behavior, and in a heavily mechanized metagame, nids are at a disadvantage because we only have like 3 ranged antitank options, and one of those (the zoe) is pretty unreliable.

Kroothawk wrote:Tyranids are famous for being the only recent Codex that is not overpowered. Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Imperial Guard and Dark Eldar are all stronger.

Word.

Tyranids are a decent mid-powered army with a range of options of play style. Nothing has emerged as the must have build.

They don't get selected for serious competitive play.

They can be, but only with certain builds, which is true of all modern codices. I find with Tyranids, one has to go to an extreme of either a massive amount of models, or as many monstrous creatures that can fit.

Most armies can't handle a seemingly unending swarm of models, since most people expect a vehicle-heavy meta, and stock up on anti-tank weapons instead of balancing their lists with some anti-horde as well.

Monstrous Creature lists are tough because not many armies can take enough of the right weapons to deal with lots of T6 multiwound models. DE won't even bat an eyebrow, nor will IG. But most SM armies have to load up on Sternguard and snipers Scouts to even have a chance.

Thanks guys The other players in my group play with blood angels, tau, Imperial Guard (3 players do), black templars, necrons, orks, dark angels, and regular marines with lysander

And then they call you overpowered.....
the things people do at times

I find a blood angels and IG(especially if they play steamroller) player complaining about 'nids being OP rather amusing. Necrons are way underpowered, Black Templar are dated, as are Tau. Deathwing DA can be decent with the new FAQ update if they run all/mostly TH/SS.

I agree :( To have a fun game against necrons I usually have to avoid taking too many monstrous creatures because as soon as my trygons come up and start assaulting units the next turn I generally phase them out. (That is a list with 2 monoliths, lord, 2 squads of warriors, at 1000)

Khisanth Magus wrote:I find a blood angels and IG(especially if they play steamroller) player complaining about 'nids being OP rather amusing. Necrons are way underpowered, Black Templar are dated, as are Tau. Deathwing DA can be decent with the new FAQ update if they run all/mostly TH/SS.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
I find myself struggling the most against gunline IG, they can simply have too many heavier weapons so my monstrous creatures never get their points back, and I can't move forward because of my lack of armor. I have since been taking biovores (which the guys at the place think are stupid because they can move and shoot )

Khisanth Magus wrote:I find a blood angels and IG(especially if they play steamroller) player complaining about 'nids being OP rather amusing. Necrons are way underpowered, Black Templar are dated, as are Tau. Deathwing DA can be decent with the new FAQ update if they run all/mostly TH/SS.

Yeah they're definitely not overpowered, If you know what to do you can take them down quite easily (with lots of S8 weapons for instant killling and whatnot). Although I can imagine kids at your FLGS might get slightly intimidated by such an army as nids coz they just look creepy.

On the other hand, I do love trygons!

A lot of ne or less skilled players confused "having a lot of rules and abilities" for "being really strong."

Nids have a ton of rules and abilities. They also pay full retail cost for all of them, and lack some options that most other codexes enjoy (anti-tank in troops, units that are self supporting). Capable players generaly know how to take apart Nids unless fielded by a very skilled player. Inexperienced players are likely to struggle.

@ Zoot,
Just out of interest, what kind of lists do you normally run? Nids are typically considered to be nowhere near OP, and I would be interested to hear what your opponents regard as OP.

People must learn to make distinctions; 9 Hive Guard and Max. Tervigons is powergamey, but ultimately flawed and not really good in the least.

Tactically sound + clever and unexpected list > Powergamey.

just a general question, can a Horde nid army be viable these days?

i have played vs nids alot and used to play nids in 3rd and 4th ED (before the Nidzilla codex, i played the mutations one) and honestly dont see them as being OP, however certain units are very good for what they cost, but that isn't OP thats normal.

MechaEmperor7000 wrote:The only time Nids ever came close to OP was in the 4th ed codex. They literally had the equivallent of Eternal Warrior on everything and alot of the unit choices were dirt cheap compared to what it is now. 5th Ed saw them get a massive nerf in many areas (namely by beloved Fex) so they're either balanced or underpowered imo.

4th edition nids were tadpoles compared to their 2nd edition equivalents. I think many players these days who witnessed that incarnation still get goosebumps when they see stealers or a Carnifex closing in, even though they are nothing like the power level they once were (at least, I do anyway )

Tyranids have the ability to be a reasonable army. They are not overpowered. They are somewhat underpowered. To sum up my feelings as a whole on the matter: I would bet money on any game I play against any Tyranid player with any build. And be confident that I'd win.



If your friends can't beat you, its because they're bad players, not because your codex is overpowered.

There are plenty of ways to beat Tyranids, and none of the them are particularly out there. As it has been said many times before, the consensus is that the nids codex is balanced, or underpowered.

Warboss Gutrip wrote:


Tactically sound + clever and unexpected list > Powergamey.

Agree. IMO, Tervigon/Hive Guard "power" lists are really just "delay the inevitable" lists. What I run does better than any of the Tgon/HG lists I've seen in action.

I think it's really early to determine that the Tyranid codex is just "the weakest". It's the hardest to use of the newer Codeci, true enough, but that doesn't make it underpowered. It means that Space Marines/BA/SW are playable by orangutans, and Dark Eldar have gotten the sagging-sales boost.

When my wife first started her nids I had a hell of a time adjusting to fighting against them with my Orks. As with most groups, theres alot of MEQs in mine, so I was very used to playing against them. Youve got to play against nids differently with Orks (and Im sure the other armies as well) then I do against Nids. The first 3 games she just kicked my teeth in. But after the 3rd game I pretty much had it pegged. Now I have good games with her, and the winner depends on how forgiving my list building is and on how we actually play the game.

They are a good army for sure, but they also have alot of weaknesses. So Id say they are balanced to slightly underpowered, and thats only because I can see AP3 or better spam just kicking their heads in.

Nids are totally overpowered! I can't do anything against them with my all Swooping Hawk army! No matter how many S3 T3 A1 model I through into CC against a Tyrant, I never seem to do anything.


On a serious note: Nids are not at all overpowered. They are, without question, the worst codex to come out in 5th. Then, the FAQ came out and ruled against them in every manor possible, making them even worse. And then, GW released an all-poison army.

Nids are a really cool army, borderline playable, but not "OP". I'd call them average at best.

I'd place Nids along with the New DE as one of the most balanced armies out there. Plenty of cool stuff and fun rules, several possible builds, but everything also has a weaknes of two that gives it actual strategic depth.

I'd seriously consider making a Nid army myself, but sadly I don't like painting bug models.