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Actually, many MC are s6 or 7. That's pretty solid vs av10 rear armor as it is. How many av14 rear vehicles are there? Landraider and monolyth. Well i'd be damned if it's right: "I can't kill a landraider in a single turn with any random MC. This game is FREAKING UNBALLANCED".

 koooaei wrote:
Actually, many MC are s6 or 7. That's pretty solid vs av10 rear armor as it is. How many av14 rear vehicles are there? Landraider and monolyth. Well i'd be damned: "I can't kill a landraider in a single turn. This game is FREAKING UNBALLANCED".

Implying that someone is going to let you get into assault with a vehicle they don't want to be in assault without doing everything in their power to make that a non-possibility is a silly idea.

There's a reason why shooting has been the main method to crack open vehicles for a Tyranid list for two editions.

This just means that now the Tyranids now can trust nothing but shooting to defeat mech lists.

Unless you want to blow 600+ points on a triple carnifex brood, crushing claw tyrant guards+meleerant, or crushing claw/rending claw warriors, just to ensure that someone gets into assault.

You know because GW wants to make sure the only way Tyranids can be competetive is to buy expensive new models, dataslates, forgeworld, and supplements.

Feth GW and feth the Horse it rode on and feth everyone in that company with any input into how the game is designed.

I'm not going to tournaments or playing non-homebrew games anymore, I'm tired of this bs.

Tyranids still have haywire missile flyers, zoanthrope str 10 lances and carnifex. The smash change hurt the Flyrant. trygon and the other FMCs.

Competitive tyranids already made some use of the flyer with haywire missiles, and zoanthropes are a staple of many armies. Again the changes hit some builds hard, but there are still some options. It may alter the overall positioning of the armies, though all should still be usable.

Overall I like the direction of the smash changes, it was bad having any MC in the game able to rip apart my landraider like a tin can. Still, I feel some MCs need to be buffed to match walkers in cc and be able to combat armour. The trygon comes to mind. Twice the height of a dreadnought, but only slightly over half the strength.

Edit:

Implying that someone is going to let you get into assault with a vehicle they don't want to be in assault without doing everything in their power to make that a non-possibility is a silly idea.

Well, it certainly is now that FMCs cannot charge after changing flight mode. Before it was actually quite doable.

 Kain wrote:

 koooaei wrote:
Actually, many MC are s6 or 7. That's pretty solid vs av10 rear armor as it is. How many av14 rear vehicles are there? Landraider and monolyth. Well i'd be damned: "I can't kill a landraider in a single turn. This game is FREAKING UNBALLANCED".

Implying that someone is going to let you get into assault with a vehicle they don't want to be in assault without doing everything in their power to make that a non-possibility is a silly idea.

There's a reason why shooting has been the main method to crack open vehicles for a Tyranid list for two editions.

So what's the point of all that desperation with a mellee nerf if there's 'no mellee' anywayz? You've got a buff that you're way harder to ground and it only happens at the end of the phase, so you get to be snap-shot at for the whole phase. Making non-skyfire weaponry even more useless vs your FMC. You've just got a huge durability buff and you're not happy. In exchange they've just taken away the omnipotent possibility of reliably killing anything you want whenever you want as it was previously. That's good game design actually.

 koooaei wrote:

 Kain wrote:

 koooaei wrote:
Actually, many MC are s6 or 7. That's pretty solid vs av10 rear armor as it is. How many av14 rear vehicles are there? Landraider and monolyth. Well i'd be damned: "I can't kill a landraider in a single turn. This game is FREAKING UNBALLANCED".

Implying that someone is going to let you get into assault with a vehicle they don't want to be in assault without doing everything in their power to make that a non-possibility is a silly idea.

There's a reason why shooting has been the main method to crack open vehicles for a Tyranid list for two editions.

So what's the point of all that desperation with a mellee nerf if there's 'no mellee' anywayz? You've got a buff that you're way harder to ground and it only happens at the end of the phase, so you get to be snap-shot at for the whole phase. Making non-skyfire weaponry even more useless vs your FMC.

Maybe I want to run a ground pounding monster mash or a gaunt swarm rather than the same pile of gargoyles, crones, harpies, and Tyrants with maybe some biovores, zoanthropes, and carnifexes.

Maybe I want to use a warrior or genestealer heavy list and still have as good a chance of winning as Skyblight swarm spam.

Perhaps I'd actually like to use rippers, or a Subterranean horde of monstrosities.

Sometimes, I might just want to play with Swarmlordzilla.

Often I'd like a melee tyrant to actually be scary in melee.

Usually, I rather like the idea of a Tyrannofex not being a glorified hellhound, a poor man's punisher, or super size me Hive guard.

Maybe I want to run a mutable army with a vast number of options for mutations and biomorphs.

I'd even like to have more than one god damn table of psychic powers to choose from like everyone else with psykers.

Hell, I'd love to play rain of spore pod armies.

I'd like to think that bio-artefacts are even vaguely comparable to space marine (of any variety) or Daemon toys. Hell even Eldar or Guard level would be nice.

Perhaps I'd like my Heirophant to actually be competetive with a Reaver or Phantom titan.

I'd rather my Heirodule not be overpriced garbage.

BUT NOOOOOPE.

I've had it.

Maybe the next Tyranid codex will be better but feth it, I'm tired of having my chains yanked.

 koooaei wrote:

 PrinceRaven wrote:
Ah, so only Tyranids were really screwed over then?

I thought, we're allready used to it

In all seriousness, you still have other stuff and you can more reliably stay into air to dakka the hell out of vehicle's rear armor with your 1 million twinlinked devourers.

You see, my opponents aren't incompetent, and understand how to put their vehicle's rear arcs against the edge of the table or terrain, so that's not very helpful.

Kain, just run what you want. I wanted to run a greentide in 6 ed and i did it. People wanted to run many walkers and they did it. Why wouldn't you run what you want?




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 PrinceRaven wrote:

 koooaei wrote:

 PrinceRaven wrote:
Ah, so only Tyranids were really screwed over then?

I thought, we're allready used to it

In all seriousness, you still have other stuff and you can more reliably stay into air to dakka the hell out of vehicle's rear armor with your 1 million twinlinked devourers.

You see, my opponents aren't incompetent, and understand how to put their vehicle's rear arcs against the edge of the table or terrain, so that's not very helpful.

It doesn't matter in mellee. And if they put their stuff in some particular places - they loose mobility. Previously vehicles were just almost auto-destroyed with MC no matter what you do. Don't you think it's not really great? Yep, maybe the nerf's too harsh but i find it to be better than it was previously.

 koooaei wrote:
Kain, just run what you want. I wanted to run a greentide in 6 ed and i did it. People wanted to run many walkers and they did it. Why wouldn't you run what you want?




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 PrinceRaven wrote:

 koooaei wrote:

 PrinceRaven wrote:
Ah, so only Tyranids were really screwed over then?

I thought, we're allready used to it

In all seriousness, you still have other stuff and you can more reliably stay into air to dakka the hell out of vehicle's rear armor with your 1 million twinlinked devourers.

You see, my opponents aren't incompetent, and understand how to put their vehicle's rear arcs against the edge of the table or terrain, so that's not very helpful.

It doesn't matter in mellee. And if they put their stuff in some particular places - they loose mobility.

Because I like to feel that I'm not just going to be canon fodder for other people to kill or have the lingering sensation that I'm being punished for my choice in armies.

And I'd also like to not reward GW for screwing over an entire army for three editions straight.


No, no I think my way of custom rules and homebrew with friends, relatives, friends of relatives, relatives of friends, and friends of friends is better for my stress levels.

 Kain wrote:

Because I like to feel that I'm not just going to be canon fodder for other people to kill or have the lingering sensation that I'm being punished for my choice in armies.

And I'd also like to not reward GW for screwing over an entire army for three editions straight.

No, no I think my way of custom rules and homebrew with friends, relatives, friends of relatives, relatives of friends, and friends of friends is better for my stress levels.

Homebrewing is a way to go either.

You think you'll get screwed just cause of smash attacks? You mean tyranids have only 1 real option to only spam MC with smash attacks or autoloose? Than the codex is screwed before the update anywayz.

 koooaei wrote:

 Kain wrote:

Because I like to feel that I'm not just going to be canon fodder for other people to kill or have the lingering sensation that I'm being punished for my choice in armies.

And I'd also like to not reward GW for screwing over an entire army for three editions straight.

No, no I think my way of custom rules and homebrew with friends, relatives, friends of relatives, relatives of friends, and friends of friends is better for my stress levels.

Homebrewing is a way to go either. Anywayz, you think you'll get screwed just cause of smash attacks? You mean tyranids have only 1 real option to only spam MC or autoloose? Than the codex is screwed before the update anywayz.

The new Tyranid codex was nearly universally regarded as terrible and coincided with a substantial drop in GW stock prices after it's release.

In other words it was so bad it substantially hurt GW as a company.

I was hoping that it would all be better in 7e but clearly it's intended to just be a vehicle to sell a certain few Tyranid models while making the models few people are interested in buying more of too competitively poor to keep on using to encourage people to shelve them and get the new flavour of the codex.

Nids players should wait to panic until after their FAQ comes out.

The big thing I am wondering is how shadow of the warp will work. All it would take to make a flyrant useful again is if shadow gives a -3 to leadership tests and allows units to DTW against all powers cast while in shadows.

 schadenfreude wrote:
Nids players should wait to panic until after their FAQ comes out.

The big thing I am wondering is how shadow of the warp will work. All it would take to make a flyrant useful again is if shadow gives a -3 to leadership tests and allows units to DTW against all powers cast while in shadows.

Not sure how a FAQ can change things without giving Tyranids a bevy of special rules, stat changes and exceptions. Essentially a full on Errata.

Rule clarifications at this point can't really help too much. SitW changes can only help so much and even if tyranids got BRB powers again it would still be largely be just putting bandages on a necrotized wound,

Well, you could alwayz go with a cheap fearless swarm with shrowded. Smash nerf is not the end of the world, eh.

It's not, but I think Kain's point is more that Tyranids have been hurt, once again, for absolutely no reason. It really doesn't seem to end. Other armies get buffed and nerfed and buffed and nerfed, but Tyranids just seem to always get punished for existing, especially because they're supposed to do melee well but melee is consistently made worse.

It's rather telling if you consider how MCs are regarded as very powerful in this edition, and yet Tyranids (the MC army) are still incredibly sub-par. Everyone else's Monstrous Creatures (most of which are actually robots and not creatures at all) are far superior to the army composed entirely of literal monstrous creatures.

 Kain wrote:

 koooaei wrote:
Seems, you'll have to find other sources of mellee anti-tank.

Crushing claws and Carnifexes (preferably carnifexes with crushing claws).

Which anyone with half a brain can avoid as none of them can get any movement options better than fleet.

Spoiler:

ALL ABOARD THE MONOBUILD TRAIN GUYS.

DESTINATION: PSYCHIC CHOIRS TO NOT GET SCREWED BY ENEMY PSYKERS BUT CERTAINLY NOT FOR BUFFS, DEBUFFS, AND ATTACKS BECAUSE YOU DON'T ACTUALLY HAVE GOOD POWERS COMPARED TO THE BRB OR ELDAR, SKYBLIGHT SWARMS THAT ONLY EVER SHOOT BECAUSE MELEENIDS ARE BLASPHEMOUS TO OUR GW OVERLORDS, AND CARNIFEX SPAM.

NOW LEAVING: ANY HOPE OF ACTUALLY HAVING FUN WITH YOUR TYRANID ARMY IN A COMPETITIVE SETTING.

I'm so fething impressed.

Making an edition that does nothing to help the armies that actually need it (or making them actually worse in some cases) while doing little to hurt the Eldar, Imperial Guard, and (not-Khorne) Daemons and bringing back the spectre of 5e grey knights, giving Imperial players more choices then they can handle while telling Xenos (unless they like Elves) and Chaos Space marine players they can go get fethed.

BRAVO GW, TRULY YOU ARE THE EPITOME OF COMPETENCE. I SALUTE YOU.

Wait, no that's sarcasm, GW is subsapient scum and no one in the design team or leadership deserves to ever touch the game industry again.

 morganfreeman wrote:

That said, stop being such a ponce about it. Ork players like myself managed to weather the gak-storm which was 6th edition with an ancient army book and literally every part of our army nerfed via the new edition rules. That's not even mentioning crap like flyings being introduced and other stuff to kick us in the groin.
EDIT: Clarity.

In all fairness, our lootas got a bit better and biker nobz a lot better with new fnp and no t4(5). Wagon rush got an indirect buff due to meta change to s7 spam and Hullpoint system that's somewhat ballanced out with a s4 on explosions and no disembark after moving 12, though flatout was handy. Also meganobz got a chance to see the board. But everything else...yep.

But i'm pointing out that tyranids didn't get only nerfs with this new edition. Dakka flyrants are sufficiently harder to kill now. Consolidating from combat to combat will help either.

Lets all bitch about how our MC spam cant any longer jump instantly from "lol, cant touch me" to "bham, smash your face" with no chance of opponent to even respond to it, and the fact there are a whole 2 high-cost tanks in the game that are not istantly killed by the cheapest of MCs any more.

Its not like ripper swarms are now scoring, and securing, or that every damn fearless troop in the army (synapse enabled, or on its own) is securing, including the "i wish i could play genestealers instead of skyblight" (really man? they got the SAME ability now!), the fact that the all-important dominion is now free for every single nid psyker on top of his rolls, or that you actually still CAN invest in CC units, rather then buy shooter units that still brake apart dedicated CC units in CC.

Oh no, just spamming flyrant wont insta-kill everything now. how sad. so what? they were among the most annoying armies in 6th, and you KNOW it, and guess what-the other annoying lists? GOT HIT TOO. ALL OF THEM, AND HARDER.

 koooaei wrote:

 morganfreeman wrote:

That said, stop being such a ponce about it. Ork players like myself managed to weather the gak-storm which was 6th edition with an ancient army book and literally every part of our army nerfed via the new edition rules. That's not even mentioning crap like flyings being introduced and other stuff to kick us in the groin.
EDIT: Clarity.

In all fairness, our lootas got a bit better and biker nobz a lot better with new fnp and no t4(5). Wagon rush got an indirect buff due to meta change to s7 spam and Hullpoint system that's somewhat ballanced out with a s4 on explosions and no disembark after moving 12, though flatout was handy. Also meganobz got a chance to see the board. But everything else...yep.

But i'm pointing out that tyranids didn't get only nerfs with this new edition. Dakka flyrants are sufficiently harder to kill now. Consolidating from combat to combat will help either.

You're right; I forgot about Meganobz. They -did- get a substantial buff what with not always being in difficult terrain. On the point with Biker Nobz, how did they get buffed again? I skipped 5th edition (not by choice; but I hate green-tide anyway, so I don't seem to have missed much) so I was under the impression FNP actually got nerfed on the way to 6th.

EDIT: I don't really count battlewagons. Meta-shifts don't constitute book related buffs, so I don't want to include them. It's also my understanding that vehicles were substantially harder to reliably destroy in 5th, given they couldn't be glanced to death. So I disagree with that point.

 morganfreeman wrote:

 koooaei wrote:

 morganfreeman wrote:

That said, stop being such a ponce about it. Ork players like myself managed to weather the gak-storm which was 6th edition with an ancient army book and literally every part of our army nerfed via the new edition rules. That's not even mentioning crap like flyings being introduced and other stuff to kick us in the groin.
EDIT: Clarity.

In all fairness, our lootas got a bit better and biker nobz a lot better with new fnp and no t4(5). Wagon rush got an indirect buff due to meta change to s7 spam and Hullpoint system that's somewhat ballanced out with a s4 on explosions and no disembark after moving 12, though flatout was handy. Also meganobz got a chance to see the board. But everything else...yep.

But i'm pointing out that tyranids didn't get only nerfs with this new edition. Dakka flyrants are sufficiently harder to kill now. Consolidating from combat to combat will help either.

You're right; I forgot about Meganobz. They -did- get a substantial buff what with not always being in difficult terrain. On the point with Biker Nobz, how did they get buffed again? I skipped 5th edition (not by choice; but I hate green-tide anyway, so I don't seem to have missed much) so I was under the impression FNP actually got nerfed on the way to 6th.

EDIT: I don't really count battlewagons. Meta-shifts don't constitute book related buffs, so I don't want to include them. It's also my understanding that vehicles were substantially harder to reliably destroy in 5th, given they couldn't be glanced to death. So I disagree with that point.

Not only not-alwayz-in-dt buff but power weapons change made them even viable sometimes. Also, it's somewhat fun, but mellee nerf made mellee meganobz better. You don't see a power fist or even a power axe on every second sergeant now.

FNP got better in my opinion cause it became usable all the time except for instant death weapons. If previously you were hit with a power weapon - nope, no fnp. Plazmagun - nope, no fnp. Your nob biker is hit with a missile - nope, no fnp and insta-death on your 50+ pt 2-wound model with a 4+ cover. Basically, it was useful vs small-arms and mid-str fire. Mid-str was not very common and small arms allready had issues with passing t5. Now you can take 5+ fnp in all situations except for s10 hits which are not common and force weapons - not very common either. 4+ cover or armor and 5+ fnp makes nob'z save basically 3++ which is huge.

About wagonz. Even if you don't consider meta changes, hullpoint glance system made wagonz way better. If previously, a glance had 1/6 chance to stun, 1/6 chance to immobilize and 1/6 chance to wreck you emidiately - which is 1/2 to stop a wagon full of boyz, now it's just a hp strip off a 4 HP vehicle.

I'm liking the downgrade of smash, MC's were too much of an answer to everything. now nid players have a reason to take carnifexen as CC monsters (remember? the nid monsters dedicated to ripping tanks apart once upon a time?) instead of just bringing monsters with various increases to their attacks which meant smash dropped them down to 2 attacks, then they got D3 for claws and 1 for charging and ended up losing 1 attack and gaining 4 strength.

it's a shame it's not unwieldy. rearing up for a dramatic attack should leave you open for a few stab wounds first. at least they aren't amazing against characters any more though!

But the thread here is not bout orkses And not even about tyranids

It's about regular walkers becoming better to the point of seeing the board from time to time. And it's a really good thing! Finally, blackreach dreadnaughts will be used a bit. Walkers got awesome models and it's a cool concept on the whole. Right way to go imo. They also need hammer of wraith and move through cover imo.

 koooaei wrote:
Well, you could alwayz go with a cheap fearless swarm with shrowded. Smash nerf is not the end of the world, eh.

Ok, sure, let's go swarm.

I now have an entire army incapable of hurting the scoring vehicles my opponent has, supported by a small number of fragile Synapse creatures. Plus, when those creatures die, my entire army starts running off the board and killing each other.

Its not like ripper swarms are now scoring, and securing, or that every damn fearless troop in the army (synapse enabled, or on its own) is securing, including the "i wish i could play genestealers instead of skyblight" (really man? they got the SAME ability now!), the fact that the all-important dominion is now free for every single nid psyker on top of his rolls, or that you actually still CAN invest in CC units, rather then buy shooter units that still brake apart dedicated CC units in CC.

I'm sorry, did I miss the bit where Rippers and Genstealers suddenly dropped in points?

Free Dominion on everything is a nice little buff, but at the same time it now takes 3 warp charges to reliably use Dominion instead of 1.

Oh no, just spamming flyrant wont insta-kill everything now. how sad. so what? they were among the most annoying armies in 6th, and you KNOW it, and guess what-the other annoying lists? GOT HIT TOO. ALL OF THEM, AND HARDER.

Actually, spamming FMCs got a lot easier with the new FOC rules, and now they're a lot more durable and can all score while gliding. I'm not complaining about nerfs to FMCs because they got arguably stronger, I'm complaining about all the other MCs I like to field, as a non-spammer, being horribly nerfed, as if GW wants me to just spam the hell out of FMCs.

 koooaei wrote:
Actually, many MC are s6 or 7. That's pretty solid vs av10 rear armor as it is. How many av14 rear vehicles are there? Landraider and monolyth. Well i'd be damned if it's right: "I can't kill a landraider in a single turn with any random MC. This game is FREAKING UNBALLANCED".

It's not just Land Raiders - we're going to have a serious issue with AV13 walkers or high toughness MCs like Wraithknights. S6 just doesn't cut it there, and of course all of those will get to attack before a melee Carnifex.

You're complaining about walkers beigh buffed in mellee?.. In all fairness, walkers are supposed to be on par with the toughest monsters fluffwise. Wraithknights are as broken as they were before - nothing changes here.

Skullhammer wrote:
Try the thirster can get up to 11 attacks IF kitted and lucky enough on the charge and can barely hurt a basic dread and would have to smash an ironclad, thats not good for a 300pt monster, combine this with the no charge on the turn he lands from flying and its not looking good.

from the leaks the best things to beat deamons and nids is dreads and there equivilants, they should just walk though all mc's without much problem.

how are you getting 11 attacks on a thirster?

but yes, its a Nerf to mc, but they're not dead!

 koooaei wrote:
You're complaining about walkers beigh buffed in mellee?.. In all fairness, walkers are supposed to be on par with the toughest monsters fluffwise. Wraithknights are as broken as they were before - nothing changes here.

Walkers haven't been buffed in melee, they're just as pathetic against Krak grenade wielding Tactical Squads as ever.
MCs have just been nerfed (apart from Wraithknights, of course).

 zachwho wrote:

Skullhammer wrote:
Try the thirster can get up to 11 attacks IF kitted and lucky enough on the charge and can barely hurt a basic dread and would have to smash an ironclad, thats not good for a 300pt monster, combine this with the no charge on the turn he lands from flying and its not looking good.

from the leaks the best things to beat deamons and nids is dreads and there equivilants, they should just walk though all mc's without much problem.

how are you getting 11 attacks on a thirster?

but yes, its a Nerf to mc, but they're not dead!

6 base +d3 exhalted axe +1 two specil weapons +1 charge. If hes out numbered he could have rampage as well but you get no defencive bonuses.

 koooaei wrote:
I'm gona be happy with mc changes.

As it was in 6 ed:

"Hey, hey! I can fly 24' across the board and dish an unholy ammount of dakka at you! And you're hitting me on 6 - sure, you can ground me, but it's on a 1-2 and IF you hit. And you're also generally wounding on a 6+ with majority of your weapons cause we're all really tough! Oh, And we can also go flying again if you knock us out of the skyes! And we can also move 12' and charge at will! And you most likely won't kill us in mellee unless you have an uber-character with eternal warrior, good invuln and a ton of attacks that costs like this MC cause otherwise, your power fist sergeant will get challenged out. And we also wreck all vehicles with a ton of s10 ap2 attacks! Oh, i love this game!".

FMC were super-overpowered vs a large ammount of lists. Sure, if you play tau-dar, you don't care. But there are not only taudar around there. The problem is that stuff like talos and footslogging dp are getting even worse but when was the last time you've seen those anywayz?..

Walkers have gotten a well-desired buff. Even though, they're still quite fragile at range and haven't gotten better vs krak grenades mellee, they're not an auto-loose vs MC at least.

Adepticon spoke otherwise.. lol

 koooaei wrote:
You're complaining about walkers beigh buffed in mellee?.. In all fairness, walkers are supposed to be on par with the toughest monsters fluffwise. Wraithknights are as broken as they were before - nothing changes here.

I'd rather Walkers be buffed than Monsters be nerfed.

Buffing weak units to match strong ones generally upsets less people than bringing strong units down to weak levels.

And the Tyranids have hovered atlow tier just as the Orks have.

5e was terrible for the Tyranids as many can remember. Before the Crudex Tyranid lists mostly focused on the Carnifex stampede first and foremost and usually got a good Hive Tyrant build going with the wide array of options available for making a Hive Tyrant, thenyou could more or less fill in whatever you wanted, most of the 4e codex was pretty good and even the monster mash lists of the time weren't completely needed. Lictors and Warriors were still decent and Gaunts could respawn to ensure you had your scoring capability secured. The unit variety was a bit small back then but things were good for the time. Most Tyranid players were fairly satisfied with the book which was seen as an overall improvement over the 3e book, but generally your 3e army was good for the 4e codex, and the 4e codex was passable enough in 5e.

Then the 2010 codex book came essentially forced everyone to start over. All the statline altering mutations disappeared, the massive number of options for a lot of units were stripped away entirely, and a great deal of characterful rules were stripped away. Old standbys like Lictors, Warriors, Hormagaunts, and Carnifexes were promptly nerfed and nerfed hard. Instead a splurge of new units of which only a few were truly good were introduced. The Hive Guard/Zoanthrope (the debates on which was better were pretty intense, but the consensus was that the Hive Guard was what you wanted if you mostly faced AV12 and under and the Zoanthrope would be best for when you mostly saw AV13 and 14) and Tervigon became mandatory if you wanted to win in highly competetive settings, though the Genestealer outflanking list was a common (if not quite as good) alternative.

The Trygon shoved the Carnifex to the side so GW could hawk a freakishly big (for the time) model they cannibalized from Forgeworld, and the Ymgarl genestealer promptly stole the Lictor's old assault rules. Overnight the majority of armies used with the last book were suddenly now outright invalid or garbage. To say the new codex was hated was an understatement. It's crunch was disliked and it's fluff was clearly written by someone who had no interest in the army as all the characterful in universe narratives and short stories were stripped out for an incredibly boringly written beige prose parade of defeat after defeat for the ostensible stars of the codex.

For two years, Tyranids suffered with what was widely regarded as the worst codex of 5e and hung at the low tiers with the old Tau, the Black Templars, the Sisters of Battle, and the old Eldar staring enviously at those with better books, for a time they also shared that spot with the Dark Eldar and Necrons, but both armies got massive and highly successful reboots that shot them up many tiers. Then 6e came out.

The already nerfed and price hiked Carnifex got even worse with the loss of armorbane for MCs (as it was already S9, Smash was essentially worthless for it), and other than Dakkafexes, was promptly consigned to the dustbin now that any other TMC could do it's job while still being more cost efficient (by the 5e book's standards, which isn't saying much.) The Genestealer, which once offered an alternative troop build to Tervigon spam, was also the victim of unseemly nerfs as it got the worst out of 6e's assault nerfs, and so was also forgotten in comp-builds. The armored shell Tyrant was immediately outshined by the Flyrant and was also relegated to semi-comp lists. Hormagaunts suffered even more, and to add insult to injury Chaos cultists were introduced and found able to do much of the same job or even better for the same cost, or even less cost.

The Swarmlord went from a potent if hampered by lack of EW SC to a monster when people found what he could do with Biomancy, but you had to have more Flyrants if you wanted to have a chance in Ace Combat 40k, so the Swarmlord was mostly something of a gimmick, and because of how slow he was he was pretty easy to adjust to unlike the current ridiculous HQ monsters going around. Biovores got favoured by the meta-shift, but overall you could feel that there was somehow even less viable options then there used to be. It was now mostly a Flyrant, Zoanthrope, and Tervigon spam show, though many found the Ymgarl genestealer still good, and fast attack offered harpies for more FMCs or gargoyles for cheap annoyances, the HS slot saw the Biovore become more popular, the Trygon remained a good enough deal, the Mawloc was liked by some, and some people liked Dakkafexes and Tyrannofexes.

Then escalation came out and Tyranid players quickly realized to their horror that their Lords of War, long in need of an update; had very little about them fixed, while the changes to D-weapons and the clarification that yes, Gargantuan flying creatures can be grounded, informed us that Tyranid lords of war were now in a very bad place. From Heirodules who struggled with Darnath Lysander to Harridans getting zapped down by lasguns to Heirophants getting blown away by Warhound titans half their points cost, Escalation and the new Apocalypse rules were the first of bad tidings. There was also stronghold assault but the Tyranids could barely afford to fit them in and they clashed with the Tyranid's playstyle, so it was instead mostly used by the enemies of the Tyranids to induce new headaches.

Then the new codex came out. All those biomancy reliant builds? As completely and utterly invalidated as those builds made with the 4e codex became when the 5e book was released. The Swarmlord instantly fell from favor, the Tyranid Prime was crippled with a price hike without the slightest of buffs, the Ymgarl genestealer, Mycetic spore, Doom of Malan'tai, and Parasite of Mortex were outright removed from the book (the spore removal in particular invalidated a vast number of builds and essentially meant that the Tyranids had no choice but to footslog their terribly squishy army), units that relied on the spores instantly got worse, Zoanthropes and Hive Guard were hit with a hard nerf, the Tervigon was made next to unaffordable in most lists, and there was a definite feel that GW wanted you to ditch your old army and buy all these shiny new FMCs. The Carnifex also got better, but it was small comfort for yet another codex essentially crushing all the hopes and dreams of Tyranid players for actual improvement over the last book. And the fluff was still awful because it was all the same fluff except with a new Tyranid vs Daemons story written in the same boring prose.

The Formations came out, and then many felt like the Formations were essentially a money grabbing scheme so that Tyranid players who want to be competetive or have a fun and flavourful army that actually felt like a Tyranid force would have to buy it in 10-15 dollar packets. It was greed in the worst way. It was GW indulging in what everyone was afraid they'd start doing once Supplements and Dataslates became a major feature of 40k: Pay to Win DLC add ons. And suspiciously, most of the best Formations also happened to be the ones that forced you to buy the new models. A double whammy of the Pay to win mentality, you not only have to buy the overpriced dataslates, you also need to go buy (increasingly overpriced) new models to boot, in bulk.

Now the new edition comes, and the options constrict even more. Liked Trygons? Go feth yourself GW says! Liked reliable psyker powers after we've already defiled your psychic options? Go feth yourself GW says! Liked Melee Tyrants? Go feth yourself even harder than you did with the new book GW says. Were you fond of Tervigons even after we cut off their ovaries? Go feth yourself! GW shouts. Were you hoping for any improvement to melee after we spent all of 6e making it less and less viable? Go feth yourself says GW again. You didn't think Haruspexes were so hot? Well too bad, now the MCs you did like are now made much worse so you'll have to buy our new model anyway!

Trygons? Overpriced garbage now.

Meleerants? Even more overpriced garbage if you want them to be actually good. A Space Marine chapter master can get a far more reliable and arguably potent beatstick build for so much less it's not even funny while Daemonic monstrous creatures continued to be as ridiculous as ever.

Tervigons? Even worse than before.

Heirodule? Still a laughably terrible lord of war.

The Tyranid units who were already bad and really needed a buff like Genestealers, Warriors, Lictors, Pyrovores, Tyranid Primes, Skyslashers, Raveners, Shrikes, Old One Eye, and what not? If they got any benefits, it's only because their competition is worse. Otherwise they either got nothing or even got worse.

And superscoring rippers? Don't make me laugh. They die without synapse and get instant death'd by S6+ which is both everywhere and comes in cover ignoring varieties.

It's GW up to it's old trick of "We must sell more models, quick invalidate the old builds!" and just like last time, in trying (and failing) to nerf the over the top units, they ended up making the reasonable units suffer. Like their skimmer "nerf". Dark Eldar skimmers and Tau tanks suffered, but the Annihilation barge actually got better now that it's jink save is better and due to being twin-linked and the quirks of Tesla weapons; doesn't care if it's snap shotting, and the new damage table means it's even tougher than before. The Wave Serpent, thanks to twinlinking, also isn't that adversely affected. And in fact, the Barge is now scoring and the Wave Serpent is now super-scoring.

Similarly, none of the MCs who actually needed a Nerf got one that at all mattered, while the MCs who were at best middling or at worst desperately needed to get better (Bloodthirsters and Squiggoths for example) were very strongly nerfed.

And need I remind you that the Orks are one of my biggest armies?

For my Orks, I can expect a new codex over the Horizon, at most only a half year away, a promise of something better.

For my Tyranids I have nothing to look forward to from GW besides more DLC for years to come.

My Chaos Daemons are still unsure on how the new edition is going to pan out for them, but it seems that everyone but Khorne has something to look forward to. The Khornate daemons however, seem to be doomed to yet more long years of mediocrity.

My Chaos Space marines have a mixed bag in their hands, but at least IA13 should have some stuff.

My Necrons? My Necrons essentially got only good things out of the edition change. The only nerfs I can spot are to my necron monster mash lists which I recognized were never going to be as competitive as a more standard Necron list.

Oh but the Imperium? The Imperium gets all the god damn goodies. All the allies, all the minidexes, the majority of FW support, all the spotlight, all the psychic powers they could want, countless options, oh my Imperial armies if I was going to bother to play GW's rules anymore would be rejoicing because this edition looks like a hard swing back to 5e's Imperial spank fest.

But the army I've collected since childhood when squats still had unit entries in 2e, Noise Marines had guitars, the Dark Eldar had yet to exist, and Virus bombs could completely screw over poor save armies? The one who I've loved since Tyranid Warriors were the silliest god damn thing ever?

Nope. Just blatant cash grabs and promoting more of those hot off the design program new models and more invalidating old lists to force you to buy new ones.

Yes, the rest of the traditional game industry does this, and some do it even worse; like Magic the Gathering's bad habit of completely invalidating what might have been a top tier deck just a short year ago to the point that it would outright illegal to play, or D&D's complete upending of all the core aspects of gameplay every seven years.

No, I don't like them doing it either nor do I think GW is excused for doing it too.

GW needs a good kick in the pants and a serious rethink of it's business practices and how it handles it's games. Because it's bad for all three aspects of the Franchise, it's bad for the game for reasons that are obvious, it's bad for the hobby because GW keeps on dialing up the prices without end in sight (I remember when they said that when they switched from metal to plastic that the savings would be passed to the consumer, oh GW you comedians you) and let's them think they can get away with grotesquely overcharge for basic modeling tools, and it's bad for the lore as it's constantly twisted and contorted to promote the new must buy items in 40k.

So yes, I will continue to bad mouth GW, I will do it everywhere I can find listeners, I will get my friends to do it, I will spread the word, and there are others who are similarly sick and tired of the downhill turn GW has taken. Sooner or later, GW's practice of wringing every last dollar out of it's increasingly stagnating consumer base will backfire. My hope is that it happens sooner so GW can finally open it's eyes and see the cliff it's driving towards. Or perhaps drive all the way off the cliff and crash into the ravine below so that someone can wrest Warhammer from it's corpse.

I just had to exalt that, Kain.