Courageous Skink Brave
Kansas
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Hello, fellow hobbyists/gamers! My name is Kyle, and I collect Tyranids - I used to also collect lizardmen, but since I couldn't figure out a way to successfully execute the paint scheme I wanted I've since quit.
A little about my experience:
I started collecting 40k back in Fall 2004, when I was 9. It was a rare time in my area where playing 40k was actually what was cool (whereas in the rest of the world that kind of thing may be considered "geeky"). Being a kid, I took my tyranids VERY seriously - a kid I had a bit of a rivalry against played Ultramarines, and his bragging about their victory over Behemoth and how "tyranids suck" and "they're so easy to beat - you just shoot the synapse creatures" made me much angrier than it should have. I viewed my tyranids as "my babies" essentially, and I felt a deep hatred for Space Marines that I still have today (I mean a legitimate hatred - I can't stand reading about their victories or even reading battle reports where they win, and I revel in battle reports where they lose). I also had friends who played Orks, Eldar, Chaos, Tau, and Imperial Guard.
The reason I chose Tyranids was because of two things that truly appealed to me - amongst all of the playable armies, they are the only ones that can absolutely not be reasoned with, and to face them is the simple matter of life and death - they don't care about wealth or notoriety. They are supposed to inspire fear because they represent an incredibly horrifying threat, and can overcome any adversary with their incredible ability to evolve. Just listening to the tone that they were described in fluffy dialogue made me swoon over them more than my other two potential candidates (Necrons and Eldar).
I played my first game in a friend's basement - a free-for-all between Eldar, Orks, Ultramarines, and myself. I had recently gotten a Carnifex, I had a Hive Tyrant, several warriors, 3 Battle For Macragge Tyranids (my friends all gave me theirs), plus two boxes of gaunts (16 termies 16 hormies) and a box of 16 purestrain genestealers. Back then, the Carnifex was taken much more seriously than it is now (although it's a lot cheaper points-wise and you can take them in groups), and the terrified expressions on my friends faces caused my mouth to contort into the malicious grin of a ravenous monster preparing for its lunch. I was not disappointed by my army's performance - I tabled all opponents by turn 3 (albeit we were only using a 48" x 48" board). Never again would I hear my rival bashing my army for its fluffy defeats.
The next time I played was on my 10th birthday, and my swarm was eager to sample new prey with the release of the incredibly awesome 4th edition codex. In 3rd edition I didn't really care for the models, especially the metal ones (impossible for me to put together, and I thought many of them looked dumb). I got many new beasts, including a zoanthrope, a battleforce, a ravener (but only one, never got more after that since they were still awful to put together, and then with 5th they apparently sucked), two lictors, and since I had my party at Games Workshop, I got a Hive Tyrant with a Venom Cannon. All of the kids I invited also got assembled units for their armies as "party favors" - my Ork friend got a Wartrukk, my Ultramarines rival got a Land Speeder (I invited him because I was looking forward to slaughtering his delicious marines), my IG friend got a walker, I forget what my Eldar friend got, and my father who started playing Necrons got a Tomb Spyder. The first scenario was just for kicks, where the guy who worked there had us play just with the units we got as party favors. It started with my HT and the tomb Spyder facing off action-movie style on the top of a tall skyscraper - my HT ate the Spyder for lunch. Then, it was time for seconds, and, leaping down from his vantage point, he destroyed the land speeder and walker without taking a single wound in return. He got killed by the Wartrukk, but it was still rather fun.
The next game was against Necrons, and it was the first time I got to field my Godfex (Had pretty much every upgrade possible), and I tabled him in turn 1 due to the Phase Out rule. In that short time frame, Carny took out a unit of 12 Necron warriors before they could lay a wound on him, and proceeded to annihilate the nearby monolith.
That was the most recent game I've played - I nearly cried when I looked through the 5th edition codex. When I heard a new 'nid dex was in the works, I decided that I should start preparing for what I hoped would be my army's redemption. I was horrified when I saw it - the fact that the fluff was tale after tale of defeat (unlike fourth, which told of their many victories), and all the other crap others have complained about and I won't beat a dead horse, made me almost ready to just quit 40k permanently.
However, I was never a serious competitive player - I basically play exclusively for the fluffy aspect. I know it'd be possible to make the new 'dex work, but for me it wouldn't be worth it because it doesn't fit their fluff at all. My curse has always been my ability to come up with great ideas - it's a curse because I do not have the skills sets to make the ideas come to life in almost all cases. Examples include a way to make anatomically accurate life-restorations of dinosaurs and several great video game ideas. However, with 40k my ideas are easy to make into reality - it usually just involves coming up with a special rule or various mission sequences to make it possible. That's why I love this hobby - I don't have to be depressed knowing my dreams will never come to fruition.
Anyways, long story short, I'm looking forward to getting to know people on here and perhaps sharing some of my ideas relating to 40k!
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Faithful... Enlightened... Ambitious... Brethren... WE NEED A NEW DRIVER! THIS ONE IS DEAD!