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.

This isn't supposed to be offensive or anything like that, but I've never understood why people would choose to play 'Nids. I tend to pick my faction based upon their character and personality. But, in my eyes at least, Nids lack this completely. They're just a swarm of bugs that are really hungry. I play BA because I love the whole tragic hero angle and the fact that they still strive for perfection. I'm considering playing Iron Warriors one day because I can really see where there coming from and appreciate how much it must have hurt having the glory stolen from you but continuing to do your duty. I like Night Lords because the idea of a group of warriors using fear as their primary weapon is just awesome. Everyone loves Guard for obvious reasons. Orks are funny and have their own character. Even 'Crons have started to get a little personality. What do 'Nids have to offer?

Once again, no offence to any Nids players out there but I just want to understand what it was that made you choose them.

The swarm might not have individuality but it's not devoid of story. The mystery of where they come form ;what drives them; the endless need to consume and devour and advance the swarm.

The ability to cover the battlefield in warriors, gaunts and beasts that sweep across to slice the enemy into little bits of food*

Tyranid are a living weapon bent on survival. They don't hate, they don't fear; they don't have a long complicated moral reasoning; they just hunger. A simple biological need to survive.


For some they also bring out the horror of the unknown, thoughts brought up by the Space Hulk game; by the Alien franchise (heck early hormaguants looked like 6 limbed aliens!). The silence as the swarm scuttle over the ground before the kill.


I'd also say that model wise they are fun to convert; their biological elements and their designs make them more challenging than orks; but not super difficult to achieve even some basic conversions to appearance.


-*although these days its more trying to shoot like crazy to not be shot to bits but that's more the rules than the theme.

I don't play the bugs but I would if I had the money/time/faith in GW. What appeals to me is exactly what you don't like about them, they're not a band of unique individuals they're just an unreasoning menace to everyone in the Galaxy. They are the embodiment of so much I like about sci-fi horror - space is a cold pitiless void where nobody will hear you scream. Films like Aliens, Event Horizon etc are right up my alley and I'm a Zerg player for life. In the words of Ash; "The Perfect Organism".

I think the biggest mistake GW made with the faction was introducing snowflake SCs such as Swarmlord, One-Eye etc. A varied table of optional biomorphs players use to create their own horrors would be the direction I'd prefer, of course GW isn't capable of this level of customisation without one option being head-and-shoulders above the rest. 2nd ed codex had some real gems.

That's EXACTLY why I play them. They were my first real army, before I became obsessed with Chaos They are mindless and endless. They can't be reasoned with, desperately allied with, politically deceived. They are the ultimate war machine, really. No defectors, no strife from within, able to adapt to any and all enemies and environments (except daemons, but that's a different story). They don't have rank, other than who is a synapse creature and who is bigger. They are primal. Instinctual. In a world of weird technologies, a pseudo-god kept alive by a chair, wars with death tolls in the billions (and those are the small ones), galaxy wide civil wars, races older than all of known human history by the 41st millenium, tanks and creatures the size of multi-story houses, and fungus that loves to fight, it's almost therapeutic to play the mindless animals. Sure, they're xenos, but there's so much still unknown about them: where they came from, just how many there are, how they operate (the general knowledge is there, but still not very fleshed out). They are still a big variable factor in the universe, and the fact that they are relentless enough to pose a threat to an entire galaxy full of genetically modified super-post-humans, mile long space cruisers, gods born of emotion, and undead robots from space-Egypt with weapons that can destroy worlds, is flat out impressive. Chaos is powerful, yes, but the Tyranids are death.

Some more posts to add to this discussion
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/700764.page

Was my first real army and since then I've always used them from time to time.
With the exception of FW stuff, it's all original metal models (2nd Ed metal warriors) that I use as I prefer fhe older stuff.

The army did great for a long time, but since removing EW from synapse my warrior heavy army struggles badly.

In a competitive game I won't run them as it's close to pointless.
If I do have to use them for one I throw the harridan in for good measure.
While it's over costed by a fair bit, it draws fire off the rest of my stuff and just generally causes them a headache to kill.

I don't but I love their models and fluff. That being said, I hate the triple Flyrants WAAC lists they've become.

Eh that's partly a result of Nids being behind on codex releases. Happens all the time in GW games; an army that goes without new codex in a new edition quickly either dies totally as they can't work or becomes a near one-trick pony where there's very limited actual viable choice for what works and what simply won't work. So you can easily end up with popular armies that are very limited in diversity but which abuse something to give them an edge; because often as not if they don't use that army then its a huge uphill struggle

Indeed with Nids having their strength in close combat; but 40K being a dominantly shooty game at present it makes it very hard to make it into a winning position. So nids go for guns because that works even if they are not the best with them.

Cassor the Damned wrote:
They're just a swarm of bugs that are really hungry

To me Tyranids were never this. When I bought Rouge Trader this was not Tyranids. They used bio engineered weapons and to my knowledge even use metals and what not as well. They had captains, war gear and what not just like any other army. Thing is they were truly alien. While that may have changed in my head the Tyranids as are now is just the "beginning" force and the Rouge Trader Tyranids are the main force and come later.

I still envision the Proto Nid miniature and zoats. Because I couldn't find those miniatures at the time I gave up on Rouge Trader. Was shocked to come back in 4th edition to see how much they changed.

While I don't care for the 2nd/3rd edition miniatures, the late 3rd edition and 4th edition miniatures I just love. I really love the swarm look. Love how there is multiple different sizes of Nids. Also the 4th edition codex was so customable it really felt Niddy. Just because GW crapped on them and took all the colour and flavour out of the Nids with 5th edition and 6 edition codices I still consider myself a Nid collector. While I still play them, I don't play them Add to dictionary. I don't like playing at a disadvantage compared to 7th edition codices.

Honestly,

I'm a biologist. I like the look of "bio-creatures" and I love painting the models.

I love the Aliens movies. IMHO, the Tyranids 'might' be a tiny bit inspired by H.R. Giger's work on Alien/Aliens (sarcasm).

It's as simple as that. Plus, I don't mind playing the faceless horror that my other friends get to try to blow up. It makes for fun narrative games (e.g. Starship Troopers scenarios)

I started wanting to play Necrons when I read the background of the game But their last codex was from 5th. Next runner up was Nids.

Now I have both.

 Overread wrote:
The swarm might not have individuality but it's not devoid of story. The mystery of where they come form ;what drives them; the endless need to consume and devour and advance the swarm.

The ability to cover the battlefield in warriors, gaunts and beasts that sweep across to slice the enemy into little bits of food*

Tyranid are a living weapon bent on survival. They don't hate, they don't fear; they don't have a long complicated moral reasoning; they just hunger. A simple biological need to survive.


For some they also bring out the horror of the unknown, thoughts brought up by the Space Hulk game; by the Alien franchise (heck early hormaguants looked like 6 limbed aliens!). The silence as the swarm scuttle over the ground before the kill.


I'd also say that model wise they are fun to convert; their biological elements and their designs make them more challenging than orks; but not super difficult to achieve even some basic conversions to appearance.


-*although these days its more trying to shoot like crazy to not be shot to bits but that's more the rules than the theme.

If I was gonna start Nids, this guy nailed it in one. Perfect reasoning.

The horror from beyond is a big pull. The Nids carry the Lovecraftian torch in 40k. They are the only extra galactic threat. Because of it nobody knows where they came from, how many galaxys they have been to before. If their eating whole systems has another goal besides perpetuating the race? Nobody knows.

They appear to be the end of all things, devouring everything in their path.

Only the Necrons really come close to rivaling Nids for biggest threat to the galaxy.

 Lance845 wrote:

They appear to be the end of all things, devouring everything in their path.

The Swarm is not the end, it is simply the beginning. All else is but imperfect species unable to survive the might and strength of the swarm

In the battle of survival of the fittest the swarm is pure; the swarm is supreme.

The Aliens franchise, plain and simple.

Lance845 wrote:The horror from beyond is a big pull. The Nids carry the Lovecraftian torch in 40k. They are the only extra galactic threat. Because of it nobody knows where they came from, how many galaxys they have been to before. If their eating whole systems has another goal besides perpetuating the race? Nobody knows.

They appear to be the end of all things, devouring everything in their path.

Only the Necrons really come close to rivaling Nids for biggest threat to the galaxy.

Or one of my other favorite "what ifs". What if they are running away from something or someone instead of just devouring and moving on?

Davor wrote:

Lance845 wrote:The horror from beyond is a big pull. The Nids carry the Lovecraftian torch in 40k. They are the only extra galactic threat. Because of it nobody knows where they came from, how many galaxys they have been to before. If their eating whole systems has another goal besides perpetuating the race? Nobody knows.

They appear to be the end of all things, devouring everything in their path.

Only the Necrons really come close to rivaling Nids for biggest threat to the galaxy.

Or one of my other favorite "what ifs". What if they are running away from something or someone instead of just devouring and moving on?

Which would make sense if they were not drawn here by that artifact super powerful psychic artifact from the horus heresy.

Because the look on the face of my foes when they are overrun by towering bio forms and torn asunder by Genestealers are worth every penny spent on the army. That and Carnifexes!

When I first started playing, I wanted an army that no one had. When it got to it, I had 2 options, Tau or Tyranid. One was good at shooting, the other assault, and both were opposites. Then I remembered being traumatized as a young child by a scene in starship troopers where an arachnid warrior ate a cow, etc, and decided that I wanted to traumatized others in the same way. I don't care that they have no individuality. Each has a special place in my heart. When I play a game, the board is my platter, the enemy army my food. It wants to run away from the utensils of my will. Slowly I circle, hormagaunts here, a carnifex there, rippers elsewhere. When finally i'm ready, I make my move, and enjoy the fruits of my labor.

All hail the Great Devourer, long may it's unyielding hunger roam.

 Unyielding Hunger wrote:
When I first started playing, I wanted an army that no one had. When it got to it, I had 2 options, Tau or Tyranid. One was good at shooting, the other assault, and both were opposites. Then I remembered being traumatized as a young child by a scene in starship troopers where an arachnid warrior ate a cow, etc, and decided that I wanted to traumatized others in the same way. I don't care that they have no individuality. Each has a special place in my heart. When I play a game, the board is my platter, the enemy army my food. It wants to run away from the utensils of my will. Slowly I circle, hormagaunts here, a carnifex there, rippers elsewhere. When finally i'm ready, I make my move, and enjoy the fruits of my labor.

All hail the Great Devourer, long may it's unyielding hunger roam.

All hail the great devourer! Praise its tendrils

Bugs. More bugs. Big bugs. Little bugs. More bugs. Jeepers would you look at the size of that one bugs. Underground bugs. More bugs. Flying bugs. Big flying bugs....

You get the picture? Also - the customisation options (especially in 4th). Choices. Swarms of bugs. Nidzilla bugs. Flying bugs. Tunnelling bugs. More bugs...

Beyond the human galaxy, beyond the range of human spacecraft and astrotelepathy, lies the unspeakable cold of the intergalactic void. Few men have ventured into this realm and none have ever returned. It is the great barrier that divides galaxy from galaxy, a place where time and space conspire to hold the galaxies apart with inconceivable distances.

Yet the void is no longer empty. An immeasurably ancient and implacable intelligence moves through the cold and the darkness, its many eyes fixed on the distant glittering lights of our galaxy. The Great Devourer moves between the stars and hungers for the flesh of all who lie before it. This great organism, this monstrous entity, men know as the Tyranid race.

Even by naming the Great Devourer men betray their ignorance. Every thought and action, every spark of life in the Tyranid race is bound and interlinked into a single mind, into a single great entity which stretches over light years of space and is controlled by the immortal hive mind. A billion times a billion Tyranids stand at the rim of the galaxy yet each one is no more than a single cell in the living body of the hive mind, the devourer of worlds.

That's why I play them.

They're the unknown, the outsider and the 'here be monsters' on the map. Cosmic horror.

Simple forget what you hate about a Tyranis Army and watched Starship Troopers, I guarantee you will understand the instinct to like an army of bugs killing Imperial Guardsmen!

If you haven't watched Starship Troopers line up and do the following:



Once you have watched it, you will understand

Gives you a pretty good sense of what the Imperial Guards like too!

I think another reason for many is that Tyranids are the most alien thing in 40K.

Space Marines - humans
Imperial Guard - humans
Eldar - elves in space
Dark Eldar - dark elves in space
Orks - Orks in space
Tau - basically human mecha faction for the most part with a few wild-people (kroot)
Chaos - mutated humans - although demons at least adds some more fantastical elements; however they ARE lifted from the Fantasy side of Warhammer
Necrons - Skeletons in space.

Now granted the last two are getting more alien, esp with warpbeasts and the mecha that Necrons use.

However the only faction that is pure alien; that is really trying to be alien and not a lifted fantasy race is Tyranids. Tyranids ARE the alien; they are the space beast of legend; they are the darkness in space that you fear.

Now you can argue that the are kind of bugs-in-space and that's true, but I would say that they are more alien than most and achieve a distinctive look without using vehicles or armour.


I would love GW to add a new non-humanoid based faction to bolster the aliens in the 41st Mellenium; sadly I think with Space Marines ruling the roost in factions its unlikely to b any time soon (and honestly I'd rather see the Nids get new codex and rule updates than adding another new faction codex)

edit - if you look at some of the earlier Tyranids they looked even more alien. Early termagaunts or the early larger warmachines from the Epic 40K era such as the old Trygon or Exocrine and even the old warriors were very alien looking.

They make a great bad guy and other people enjoy playing against them.
It's not just about me having fun, wargaming is really a cooperative game.

I don't, the Tyranid code is my only real gripe with GW. is it give me back the codex before this one and I'll be happy.

Tyranids used to be fun to play, and.the army looks awesome on the table. now it's just... I'd need like 3000 words, but others have written already.

new nod codex would cause me to "take all my money GW".

 Fruzzle wrote:
I don't, the Tyranid code is my only real gripe with GW. is it give me back the codex before this one and I'll be happy.

Tyranids used to be fun to play, and.the army looks awesome on the table. now it's just... I'd need like 3000 words, but others have written already.

new nod codex would cause me to "take all my money GW".

Oddly enough, I'm starting to give some respect to the book and it's many outside formations. I've got a 1k pt list using just the Subterranean Swarm formation and it is very nasty. Granted, most of the flak comes from a 390pt Trygon Prime armed to the teeth, but it deserves it.

My mate likes them because he gets to play with gigantic space monsters....

Firstly, I'm a pretty big Geiger fan. But beyond that I see them.as the ultimate combative species. The hive mind,literally learns from its battles and it's warrior/fighting creatures biologically adapt to overcome pitfalls. They adapt/evolve to become better, more lethal fighters and in that sense are the ultimate example of darwinism. I think that is infinitely cool. That's what got me into bugs.

As far as the swarm that can't be reasoned with goes for Orks as well. I just wish they had one or two competitive formations and a way for your warlord to get a 5+ or better invuln.


gak, for that matter I'd like to see a new dex (Bugs and Chaos being the only armies still burdened with a 6th edition dex).

EDIT : Wanted to add very cool looking models and so many options for customizations. Also they are one of the very few races not taken from fantasy and turned into the futuristic version in spaaaaceee.

Cause they're big and intimidating but ultimately weak.
Facing down hoards of T-Rex/Cockaroaches and Velociraptor/Cockaroaches and winning is one of the most intoxicating things that can happen to a newbie.
Tyranids get people hooked on plastc crack.