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Howdy. I've been completely out of the hobby (painting/playing/reading/etc.) since probably when the newest Blood Angels codex dropped back in 5th edition.

I've graduated from college and have a steady full-time job, and I've sold most of my old IG army.

I'm looking to slowly move back into the hobby, but I have no idea where to start. My interests lie primarily in painting and modeling, but I would like to be able to play an army that wont get rolled over every time. Although, there's a chance my losses are attributed to my own lack of skill - IG used to be one of the top dawgz if I remember correctly and I still didn't win much with them...

Anyhow, I've always wanted to try Tyranids. What's their meta look like? Not good from what I've read, but nobody seemed to have first-hand experience.

Anyway, what did I miss? I know a couple armies got updated and shooting armies are awesome now?

In very brief, 6th edition came out and the rules made the game a shooting-only skirmish game, but then apocalypse got fused with 40k, which means it's also trying to be a mass-battles game as well. Throw in 1.5 super broken codices and a strong move towards gunlining, and 40k is now much more of a sandbox game where you get to play with minis, and less of a quasi-strategy dice game that 5th edition was.

As for tyranid, they just got a new codex, and, as usual when someone gets a new codex that isn't horridly overpowered, most people don't like it except for a few seasoned players.

If you're going to get back in mainly for the hobby stuff, then I'd ignore things like game balance and power levels at the moment, as everything is likely to be rather different by the time you get things painted up. This is extra true given that we're at a time when a lot of new kinds of content is being added, and even at the cusp of a new rules edition.

Dont listen to that guy.

Play small games of 500-1000 points and anything above that can be a cool exception and you will find a strategic fun game where most units can be used well.

Also use a proper gaming board of terrain. You shouldnt find many issues playing games like that. You will also fins it hard to be tabled/table someone.

Im not sure about Tyranids sorry but someone I know is gonna start them soon so I guess i'll see if they are truly that bad.

That's if it's 7th edition and not just 6.5 with escalation and stronghold assault roped into the BRB.

Oh boy.

Well, there's flyers, allies, extra allies, super heavies, the game is dominated by shooting except it's not because the best armies are based around death stars, the game is at its most balanced ever because you see ten-fifteen different armies in the top twenty at tournaments, the game is at its most unbalanced ever because the bottom armies are so hopelessly outclassed by the top armies that you just have to see it to believe it, there are codexes without troops choices, there's a codex now coming out with only two units in it that's actually one unit with different guns, there are dataslates and formations allowing you to build an army made up with units from who knows how many sources (except for Tyranids because feth Tyranids), you can buy terrain and buildings for your armies.

Thud wrote:the game is at its most balanced ever because you see ten-fifteen different armies in the top twenty at tournaments, the game is at its most unbalanced ever because the bottom armies are so hopelessly outclassed by the top armies that you just have to see it to believe it

I'm having a hard time parsing this.

The game is balanced because each of the 15 armies (not including sisters or knights) has had a player win 20 tournaments at least once (which tournaments?), but it's also so unbalanced because those codices that aren't consistently tournament-winning aren't even worth playing with (which armies)?

My suggestion would be to get off the internet and ask some around some LGS etc.

 Ailaros wrote:

Thud wrote:the game is at its most balanced ever because you see ten-fifteen different armies in the top twenty at tournaments, the game is at its most unbalanced ever because the bottom armies are so hopelessly outclassed by the top armies that you just have to see it to believe it

I'm having a hard time parsing this.

The game is balanced because each of the 15 armies (not including sisters or knights) has had a player win 20 tournaments at least once (which tournaments?), but it's also so unbalanced because those codices that aren't consistently tournament-winning aren't even worth playing with (which armies)?

15, or 12, or 16, or whatever, arbitrary numbers are arbitrary, including ally combinations. If you look at the results from e.g. Calidonian Uprising, or LVO, or whatever, you'll see loads of different armies at the top. Before there was always a dominant army. You'd go to a tournament and all the top placers were from the same codex with roughly the same build. IIRC, one year at Adepticon 16 of the top 20 were Grey Knights. Now, you'll see Beastpacks, Seer Councils, O'Vesa stars, SM bikers, Tau gunlines, Screamerstars, Necrons, FMC spam, IG blobs, WS spam, etc in the top of the tournaments. In that sense, there is balance. However, if you pit an O'Vesa star against a Blood Angels army, it's not a game anymore, it's a joke. In the heyday of Grey Knights, or Space Wolves, or whatever, you could bring one of the bottom armies against them and at least participate in the game. You might not win the game, but at least you'd be a part of it. In that sense the game is very much imbalanced right now.

Stay away from the internet and power plays and tournaments in general. get yourself some friends at FLGS and have fun with the game.

Things that have change game wise, flyers, allies, defensive terrain as part of army choice.

Like I said stay away from the internet and the douche bags in
general that this hobby seems to attract and you cant go wrong really.

Tyranids are fielding nice flyer armys at the moment with mawlocs acting as artillery pieces. It can be quite a bit of fun. But if you opt out of flyers the army is very slow and predictable since the loss of ymgarl dormancy and spore pods.

It's fun to play, but I like fielding giant mc's so of course its fun for me.

Well, GW has gone 305 days without a FAQ update. So, you've missed out on that frustration, at least.

Thanks everybody. I'm gonna have to play a 6th edition game sometime and fill in my rules gaps. As for the meta.... we'll figure that out when we need to.