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Geoff "InControl" Robinson busts out the old Nids for one last battle against Frankie's Dark Eldar and Rich from Greenstuff Industries' Chaos! So long old Nids, it's been fun.

Great reports gentlemen as usual. The Nids seem to be changing quite a bit however I think they will still be fine we just need to get our hands on the codex to figure out how they can still be a powerhouse. Also that heldrake conversion was really cool!

Don't get your hopes high, they will never be able to compete with the top tiers. For fluff purposes it is excellent.

 Valek wrote:
Don't get your hopes high, they will never be able to compete with the top tiers. For fluff purposes it is excellent.

People said the same about eldar, pointing to the fact that an army that relied so much on psychic buffs had its power generation system nerfed.

Just look at them now.

From what I have been seen I think the new Nids are not going to be as super tough as they were with access to biomancy. It's rightfully so because I don't think a Swarmlord should be running around with T9 being nearly impervious until he's in your face chopping everything up. They are losing the really good psychic buffs but with all this point reduction they're going to be able to field even more bugs especially with the potential of never ending 4d6 spawning tervigons.

Tervigons do not have a 4D6 upgrade, nor do they have an upgrade that keeps them spawning forever.

Those were malicious troll fake rumors from 4chan.

Good to see the nids playing it out one last go around. I just had a going away party for mine as well. Two 2k games vs CSM and Tau. I think the doom knew he was gone.. I've never seen him perform as well as he did in either game. He removed 3 firewarrior units (12 man units - caused them to run off the table) two pathfinder units a BS team with a buffmander and 6 drones... RIP DOOM RIP

I really wonder how ole swarmy is going to hold up now. With no book powers for EW and no longer forcing rerolls on successful saves... I don't think you will be able to throw him at things like you used to. Many of the top CC models in the game will now kill him in most cases.

Swarmy is dead and buried. Looking at his increase in points and dramatic decrease in power? Wow, that sucks. He is gone from the table.

So many stupid and arbitrary changes have been made. Like Rippers getting more expensive? WTF? Why? Genesteelers still sucking, etc. It's like the person(s) that wrote the rules don't play the same game we do. They nerfed bad units...it is so weird.

What on earth did Rich make his helldrake out of?!!

Couple of great reports as always. I for one will not miss the Doom from a tabletop point of view (cos I hate playing against it), but I always thought it was an excellent Lynchpin for any Nid list. I'd been expecting a points hike, but to see it go entirely?

Man.

On a more positive note, I love that Cityscape Megamat. I'm finally sold on it. I love urban table-tops, City-Fight or not. When I heard about the urban version, I thought I was either going to love it or hate it and frankly, I love it.

 Roci wrote:
Good to see the nids playing it out one last go around. I just had a going away party for mine as well. Two 2k games vs CSM and Tau. I think the doom knew he was gone.. I've never seen him perform as well as he did in either game. He removed 3 firewarrior units (12 man units - caused them to run off the table) two pathfinder units a BS team with a buffmander and 6 drones... RIP DOOM RIP

I really wonder how ole swarmy is going to hold up now. With no book powers for EW and no longer forcing rerolls on successful saves... I don't think you will be able to throw him at things like you used to. Many of the top CC models in the game will now kill him in most cases.

I wonder if this now makes Ghazghkull the most feared CC IC in the game now?

@Reecius

I definitely agree they made some arbitrarily just stupid nerf decisions but I did my best to read between the lines hoping to pick up things many people may not look at. What I see is that most of the units are being given claw attacks of some kind that ignore 5+ saves. Obviously they are trying to make the weak endless horde units like termagants and hormogaunts stronger at being able to take out units. They seem to be trying to take the emphasis out of relying soley on MC and relying more on actual infantry for the purposes of combat and putting that strength into the lower units. I believe they said something like for every 30 gaunt squad you make a tervigon a troop so they are really pushing towards hordes of gaunts swarming your opponent and now with 5+ ignoring armor attacks in combat they will be able to chew through most infantry units with ease. especially with GEQ being so prevailant at this time. So like 30 man gaunt squads with reoccurring gaunt squads from spawning tervigons looks to be what they are trying to get at. the tervigons sit on objectives in the back and release the tide for some objective games providing FNP with that one nid power psychic power (it seriously sucks they have to wait a turn but my guess is that they are thinking 30 waves of gaunts are going to be so much in your face people wont be able to handle them). I'm not sure... there may be need for less synapse than more actually if on the field running these huge blobbo squads. that's why they were saying Warrior would be needed for your army (for the synapse) although I'm not to fond of the idea of it although if you are running 2 huge blob squads then keeping synapse isn't so hard to do, it just gets harder as you begin to spawn more and more gaunts. That's when the Hauspex or even the re-birth of the Carnifex comes in and is probably what is going to be used to help escort gaunt units down the field via distraction. There has been an introduction of running and shooting through one of their psychic powers and that is what I presume the flyrant or just normal walking hive tyrant will be taking now in order to be able to give carnifexes that ability which I absolutely believe was their intention. Finally you will probably see waves of gargoyles flying down the field.

This is what I perceive to be the new Tyranids. They are by definition that of with their fluff in which they are a horde on the march to over-run your opponent.

Fly-rant flying around giving out FNP, synapse, and the ability for carnifexes to move up and shoot, moving up with a horde of gargoyles. Then you have 2 tervigons with 30 man hormo units granting more synapse and FNP. Hive guard supporting to pop vehicles. (I'm presuming they believe the guants are going to be much to handle so by lowering their BS by 1 they give opponent transports a little more chance at surviving) Finally Carnifexes/and or Hauspex moving down the field supporting the little ones. If this does become the case you do have to give essence to the fact they will be bringing something like over 100+ models to the board....that's tough for anyone even with ignore cover shooting. And if 7th ed is around the corner and comes to help assault.... they just might end up actually being a high end codex

All in all...I'm not one to count something out until it's been played a number of times to where people can diagnose the codex so to say , That usually takes at least 1 month or 2. Until then I will just say.... It's going to feel different playing as or against Nids now

 y0disisray wrote:


I wonder if this now makes Ghazghkull the most feared CC IC in the game now?

Although he'd probably beat Skarbrand I recon Skarbrand would be better at killing anything else now.

Dez I know you're trying to put a positive spin on things so I'm not trying to rain on you but let's really look at that list.

Your flyrant has to roll on the nid chart so you are not going to just be throwing out fnp.. at least you get two shots..

You need termas to bring Tervs which may now be one of the worst units we have. Only one power so even less chance of fnp. You can't pass ag/ts to your gants if it's killed it kills gants in 12" so unless you use your charge to extend your synapse you will kill way more of your little bugs. If you want ts/ag on gants or go yes you are paying more for them now than before. And with the lower bs and so few shots you will likely want the new HG weapon for haywire. The 18" range means you either have to risk moving up or sit and hope they come to you.

I think they will find a build or two in the new rules that fairs decently but the play style shift is leaving them about where they are now or worse depending on your units and how you like to play them.

@ Roci

I appreciate the sincere way in which you went about calling out my positive spin on things and do agree with mostly everything you said. At the end of the day FNP or some sense of cover saves needs to be in a Tyranid list in some way shape or form. Whether it be psychic powers or taking up Venomthropes for shrouded (Probably what would be the most ideal) some way it needs to get in there. With gaunts needing an extra turn just to be able to move to get where they want to go from spawning tervigons there is going to be a need for FNP or some sense of cover saves needed to at least stand a chance of getting somewhere. So you could use gaunts to provide cover saves for your tervigon and you could then use tervigons to block LOS to said venomthropes keeping them just behind or on the sides to provide cover to the units that would of greatest threat to them. Unfortunately its like a tax... taking the venomthrope for shrouded at least gives somewhat of a fighting chance for your nids although of course eldar and tau have a lot of ignore cover units.. all in all What I'd imagine are gaunts, venoms, tervigon, working together in teams so to speak. Hive guard supporting them blocking off sight to the venomthrope as well. I mean it's far fetched but hey I'm just trying to throw out some ideas to try and.... tone up the down mood for nid players. I've always found it a nice pleasant challenge in building from scratch and finding ways to make even the lowest teir armies still playable... not to say that nids are going to be low tier...after all they were just released today... in 2 months we will know that

People seem to keep pulling for the thouht of hope,

The hope is 7th eidtion reducing the effectivness of every gun in the game otherwise no matter what form of COVER you try and give, your bugs are only t6 armor 3, pick a codex and randomly open a page and youll find a weapon with 1-3 shots eating a MC alive.

Melee is amazing sure but what do i do to get across the board into range when I can't charge the first turn and people will focus the synapse and laugh even harder then before?

We've been testing the new bugs and have actually been seeing the bugs getting the beatdown in assault, too.