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Obviously it's too early to say how Nids are going to change, but access to drop pods alone makes the army SO much more competitive without having to spam the same 3 units over and over again. How high do you think we're going to get though? Will we be upper-mid tier, or do you think we might even get up there with Tau and Space Marines (...not likely)?

If nothing else, actually getting some real options for mobility and some threat overload options to make otherwise useless units viable has completely reinvigorated by love for Nids.

Absolutely 100% did the Tyranids just get a huge boost and power up to the codex with these new units. Very impressive. Look forward to how these shake up things.

cant really compare the spores to the drop pods as they are primarily a dirt cheap delivery system that also arrives half on turn 1

maleceptor is meh, as is toxicrene

the venomthrope and zoanthrope kits are just new models, and the neurothrope is also not reeally a game changer.

Time will tell. The tau sucked on codex release. Elder sucks on codex release. Took about a month to find out they didn't sick. So in abouts a months time we will see how the new Nix toys fair and makes the Nix codex work better or not.

*edit for stupid auto correct*

Yes. Being able to drop Assault creatures into charge range will definitely help. Tyranids needed the ability to disrupt gunlines.

Not sure why you drop in anything melee- it has to sit for a turn and contribute little to nothing other than being a fire magnet. A unit that puts out a lot of shots or templates benefit the most from the new pods. They can be wherever they can usually do the most damage. On the other hand a Dimachaeron might have the melee chops to be worth podding in. I believe you're still going to see certain units spammed. Like carnifexes, it's just theyre going to deepstrike in wherever the Tyranids need them most instead of crawling across the board.

Twenty Termagants with Devourers. Sixty shots is going to massively hurt a lot of things. I might actually have to rethink what I was going to now that I mention it. A Screamer Killer Carnifex, maybe a pair of Zoanthropes and the Termagants is a very good all-rounder to drop into the enemy. But expensive....

Davor wrote:
The tau sucked on codex release. Elder sucks on codex release. Took about a month to find out they didn't sick. So in abouts a months time we will see how the new Nix toys fair and makes the Nix codex work better or not.

Yeah it'll probably take about a month to figure things out... but literally only a couple whiners said Tau or Eldar sucked on release. And they only said so because the new Codices invalidated their old playstyles. This false claim pops up all the time, and it needs to die ASAP.

 Andilus Greatsword wrote:

Davor wrote:
The tau sucked on codex release. Elder sucks on codex release. Took about a month to find out they didn't sick. So in abouts a months time we will see how the new Nix toys fair and makes the Nix codex work better or not.

Yeah it'll probably take about a month to figure things out... but literally only a couple whiners said Tau or Eldar sucked on release. And they only said so because the new Codices invalidated their old playstyles. This false claim pops up all the time, and it needs to die ASAP.

Yeah... I see this pop up way to often, I was pretty active when they were released and the only thing people complained about for Tau were the Railside nerfs and the new fliers sucked, took them less then a week to workout Missilesides >>>> Flyers and MCs and that Riptide were the best thing since sliced bread. The buffmander took a little longer but I saw people claiming the codex was going to knock IG and Necrons from top spot a little after a week. Eldar were similar, people immediately noticed how strong Wave Serpents and Warp Spiders were, Wraith Knights were called crappy and Expensive at first but it didn't take long to realise that a stock standard one was a beast. The Seer Council took awhile to pop up but no one was calling Eldar bad after release, it was mostly prior to release when the incomplete rules were leaked.

 Zande4 wrote:

 Andilus Greatsword wrote:

Davor wrote:
The tau sucked on codex release. Elder sucks on codex release. Took about a month to find out they didn't sick. So in abouts a months time we will see how the new Nix toys fair and makes the Nix codex work better or not.

Yeah it'll probably take about a month to figure things out... but literally only a couple whiners said Tau or Eldar sucked on release. And they only said so because the new Codices invalidated their old playstyles. This false claim pops up all the time, and it needs to die ASAP.

Yeah... I see this pop up way to often, I was pretty active when they were released and the only thing people complained about for Tau were the Railside nerfs and the new fliers sucked, took them less then a week to workout Missilesides >>>> Flyers and MCs and that Riptide were the best thing since sliced bread. The buffmander took a little longer but I saw people claiming the codex was going to knock IG and Necrons from top spot a little after a week. Eldar were similar, people immediately noticed how strong Wave Serpents and Warp Spiders were, Wraith Knights were called crappy and Expensive at first but it didn't take long to realise that a stock standard one was a beast. The Seer Council took awhile to pop up but no one was calling Eldar bad after release, it was mostly prior to release when the incomplete rules were leaked.

Yup, with Tau there were also complaints about an over-reliance on markerlights (...fair enough). And yeah, the Railside bore the brunt of the complaints, since it couldn't move 12" and fire anymore (boo hoo).

also broadsides lost their SNP which used to allow them to move and shoot...now they cant.

Tyranids now have a few tricks they didn't have, but the point cost of the pods are balanced enough to keep them from forming a new meta.

The only thing that really changed is how Tyranid players feel about their army. Before, we were by and large a bunch of whiners who complained that we HAD to play with certain units to be competitive (nevermind the fact that those options are pretty freaking good) and pined for the days where we could assault our opponents and eat their faces off. Now, we have some mobility options that allow for tactics other than flying around the board hoping not to get grounded and shooting our Brainleech Devourers, but the fact that our pods cost more than twice that of the Marines, coupled with the reality that we need to roll them in from reserves (which can be a disaster) will most likely keep any new tech from breaking the game.

I do love the new models and options, but the list I had 2 weeks ago was pretty good and I'm having a hard time shoe-horning any of this new stuff into it and expecting a MAJOR uptick in performance.

Atleast for me, it's not about changing the competitive nature of Nids, but it's about having that shift from monobuild that you mentioned. The pods being a 'random' element isn't a big deal for me. But being able to take Carnifex types that aren't dakkafex because they can finally get into combat with Claws and Armorbane, it just feels right again. The Flyrant still has her place, but now the rest of the army matters too.

I don't think we'll see a shift from the staple two flyrants.

What we should start seeing is some serious threat Overload. I don't think you'll ever see more than 2-3 pods in a competitive list.

Having a Dimacheron, Brainleech Carni, and/or some other unit drop down in their face is something a lot of armies can't handle. We'll still have some trouble with Waveserpent spam, but I feel we have a much better chance against a few armies we have struggled with, such as Tau.

 AdeptSister wrote:
Yes. Being able to drop Assault creatures into charge range will definitely help. Tyranids needed the ability to disrupt gunlines.

Indeed, this will give Nids a new play style.
Hard to judge atm if this will give them a boost.
But I guess so.

I think we'll get more competitive running some manner of fmc and pods list. I'm pretty hopeful.

 Voidwraith wrote:
Tyranids now have a few tricks they didn't have, but the point cost of the pods are balanced enough to keep them from forming a new meta.

The only thing that really changed is how Tyranid players feel about their army. Before, we were by and large a bunch of whiners who complained that we HAD to play with certain units to be competitive (nevermind the fact that those options are pretty freaking good) and pined for the days where we could assault our opponents and eat their faces off. Now, we have some mobility options that allow for tactics other than flying around the board hoping not to get grounded and shooting our Brainleech Devourers, but the fact that our pods cost more than twice that of the Marines, coupled with the reality that we need to roll them in from reserves (which can be a disaster) will most likely keep any new tech from breaking the game.

I do love the new models and options, but the list I had 2 weeks ago was pretty good and I'm having a hard time shoe-horning any of this new stuff into it and expecting a MAJOR uptick in performance.

I think the main issue is that we had to footslog almost all of our units up the board, which basically meant that half the Codex was unplayably vulnerable. Pods make absolutely everything deadlier and, inversely, make some footslogging units less of a suicidal waste of points.

Tyranids are not done yet. You still have formations and a new campaign special character. However tyranids were already placing in the top 10 for major tourneys. So with new formations special characters and choices including drop pods I fully expect to see then in tau levels.

gungo wrote:
Tyranids are not done yet. You still have formations and a new campaign special character. However tyranids were already placing in the top 10 for major tourneys. So with new formations special characters and choices including drop pods I fully expect to see then in tau levels.

I disagree entirely with this. What was winning in tournaments isn't going to be affected by these new units, the units used in those list will continue to comprise those list because the Flyrant is so much better than any other choice.

I think these new options give new life to a lot of Tyranid units that were never going to see play in the first place but don't really change what was and still are the best unit choices.

gungo wrote:
Tyranids are not done yet. You still have formations and a new campaign special character. However tyranids were already placing in the top 10 for major tourneys. So with new formations special characters and choices including drop pods I fully expect to see then in tau levels.

What's with this "tau level" thing?

Its like people didn't notice tau no longer take top spots in turnies for a while now, only the odd list to show up in top10.

The thing that tau are no longer as cheezy as before doesn't make their general level lower. Having been taken away the ability to buff-spam triptides, they've just shifted towards a not less powerful farsight bomb in tournament scene. Take away the wings from a flyrant and tyranids will shift towards...footslogging MC with 3+ and shrowded unable to do something significant vs any fast shooty opponent and being awfully hardcountered by GK.

"not less powerful farsight bomb"?

When was the last time you saw a farsight bomb take a spot in the top 16 in a turny?

Farsight bombs are a nice gimmik, but not an award winning deathstar.

Tau today are still a powerful codex. but no longer sit on the throne with eldar, codex marines and deamons.

Man, i hope noone will be like the ones you've listed. The game's much better with power kreep being toned down.

The T-pods will bring a lot of problems to gunline people. I think it'll be imperative to have a good 1st turn against Tyranids to sore points/diminish some power so you can handle the T-pods and what they'll bring inside. Interceptor could become even more useful.

Tyranids will likely be on level with Tau now, only being beaten by Eldar, Daemons, SM, SW and Necrons.