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Tsagualsa wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
They were crap even when they first came out.

And yes, this is one of the few times I’ve been definitive about relative values on Dakka.

You’ve probably earned a badge.

Their plastic brethren managed to look even worse:

How very dare you! Original plastics were ace. Proper alien looking with quite phenomenal texturing.

Fragile as a (well…..no politics) for sure. But still gorgeous models all the same.

 xttz wrote:

Now what about this lot?

Spoiler:

I might be in the minority here, but that's too 'Blanchean' for me, at least as a base for models. It's fine as a piece of inspiration, and was great in the 2nd edition codex, but ultimately it's mostly a mood piece stuffed full of pseudo-gigerian vague shapes and forms. I'm pretty fine with the Tyranids having an established look and design conventions apart from 'just do some ribbed organic form and stick some crests on it' and would prefer if it mostly remained that way - the occassional odd one out like the new Deathleper is splendid to underline that these are weird, unknowable aliens, but if everything is weird gak the whole faction loses visual and conceptual coherence too much for my liking.

Tsagualsa wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
They were crap even when they first came out.

And yes, this is one of the few times I’ve been definitive about relative values on Dakka.

You’ve probably earned a badge.

Their plastic brethren managed to look even worse:

A set of 3 of those were my first 40K models ever. Along with 1 pack of hormagaunts in metal - they never ever EVER stood up right

They were very very alien - if anything more alien than Tyranids are now.

 Overread wrote:

Tsagualsa wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
They were crap even when they first came out.

And yes, this is one of the few times I’ve been definitive about relative values on Dakka.

You’ve probably earned a badge.

Their plastic brethren managed to look even worse:

A set of 3 of those were my first 40K models ever. Along with 1 pack of hormagaunts in metal - they never ever EVER stood up right

They were very very alien - if anything more alien than Tyranids are now.

I for one would love to see these guys come back in some form… maybe as a new sort of guardian beast for the bigger bugs (not Tyrants, the really big ones).

 Overread wrote:
Along with 1 pack of hormagaunts in metal - they never ever EVER stood up right

I think I have about 12 of them. Some of them I've stuck the middle set of claws on upside down as it angled them down to help them stand.

Horrific minis...

 xttz wrote:
Oh yeah 90's models were usually pretty goofy.

But I'm talking about the original Tyranid concept art and how much better that stuff can now translate into models using modern casting technology.

Consider how well they updated the screamer-killer:

Spoiler:

Now what about this lot?

Spoiler:

They've definitely upped the gribbley-ness of the new designs- I'm loving the surfaces, the jagged edges and the strangeness that is returning. Can't wait see what they do with the lictor and the Stealers. New Raveners .. I'd be surprised, the kit still feels new to me, but the new design approach is so good I'd love to see what they do with them.

Got my set today, the Nid side x 2, really loving all the models so far- the Leapers are excellent and the neurogaunts are so small they look excellent, they would be great to have dressing the base of the large monsters.

Two things I noticed about the Gaunt sprue: one, the hooves have actual interior detail with a frog and everything, where the cuts allow, which is kind of adorable. Two, each Gaunt has a letter designation, A through J, on the hex-peg for the base. Last time I saw lettering like that on a GW kit it was for the arm-pairs on the new MkVI marines for the Heresy set, and corresponded to the heavy and special weapon upgrades.
Any chance the “full” Termagant kit will include a sprue of weapon options?

 Mr_Rose wrote:
Two things I noticed about the Gaunt sprue: one, the hooves have actual interior detail with a frog and everything, where the cuts allow, which is kind of adorable. Two, each Gaunt has a letter designation, A through J, on the hex-peg for the base. Last time I saw lettering like that on a GW kit it was for the arm-pairs on the new MkVI marines for the Heresy set, and corresponded to the heavy and special weapon upgrades.
Any chance the “full” Termagant kit will include a sprue of weapon options?

I said the same thing here a while ago and got told that wasn't going to happen. But realistically, considering that termagants will be cheaply available in the combat patrol / 40k starter box and that GW also kinda need to sell them separately too, how do they encourage individual sales? By including a weapon upgrade sprue not provided in the discount set.

It's something GW already do with the CSM Legionaries and their Kill Team sprue.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Overread wrote:
Along with 1 pack of hormagaunts in metal - they never ever EVER stood up right

I think I have about 12 of them. Some of them I've stuck the middle set of claws on upside down as it angled them down to help them stand.

Horrific minis...

I did wonder if they were sculpted for plastics originally and in the end they chose metal. Because as a metal model they were terrible for balance, you had to weight the base quite a bit for them to stand properly. Neat designs though, very much showing their "alien" heritage

Got my box today (1 day late because it was national holiday on the 24th here), and started building them!

Got the Prime built, good mini, never been bottered by the pose or wings placement so it's a fine mini for me A tad small though, would have been good for him to be a bit bigger (what about him ripping a Termi in half and all that in the trailer).

Also build the Psychophage, very cool model, but confusing rule-wise. Like other have said before, nothing about it evoke a psyker-hunter, would have prefered something else rule-wise for him.

And I built the Barbgaunts too, fine model too if a bit more "2-D". Probably the most usefull addition to an army tho! My wish is for a full kit release down the line with more weapon options! I see them as the "Devastator" type of unit for the nids, so to have a couple more gun option (gosh, maybe even mixing weapons in the team ) would be very very cool!

And for all of you guys talking about old models :

Did you turn your Armorcast Haruspex into a Dactylis?

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Did you turn your Armorcast Haruspex into a Dactylis?

No I just gave him big guns and run it as a Tyrannofex with Rupture Cannons!

Nice!

Also look like they might genuinely scale well with their modern iterations?

Leviathan came to Casa del Kroll this morning. Just finished flicking through the rules, one thing that struck me looking at the beauty shots and battle scenes of the Tyranids was the lack of any Hormagaunts, but also the lack of pretty much anything that wasn’t in the Leviathan box. I think I spotted a Hauraspex and Maleceptor in one scene but that was about it.

Of all the old larger bug designs I always think the Exocrine was the best and would honestly still work looking almost just like that with a modern adaptation.

Tsagualsa wrote:


Their plastic brethren managed to look even worse:

I am one of the few who actually really like them.

And remember! Get reporting your games! For it is time.

 Shadow Walker wrote:

Tsagualsa wrote:


Their plastic brethren managed to look even worse:

I am one of the few who actually really like them.

I like them, too. Shame I never got more than one squad. They were actually pretty tall for their time and could still be used today without looking puny like Marines or Guardsmen from that time do.

 Geifer wrote:

 Shadow Walker wrote:

Tsagualsa wrote:


Their plastic brethren managed to look even worse:

I am one of the few who actually really like them.

I like them, too. Shame I never got more than one squad. They were actually pretty tall for their time and could still be used today without looking puny like Marines or Guardsmen from that time do.

I think they were taller than SC and HT. Below are metal and plastic ones with current Warrior model.

I actually really like the old Deathspitter design; the new one doesn’t look half so alien. If we can’t have the models back, the guns would be nice. Make it a flamethrower equivalent. Same with Gargoyles–give them their flamespurts back!

Here below, in about 6:06:15 we have mentioned a Neurolictor which apparently can implant its victims and turning them into some kind of slaves.
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2023/06/24/leviathan-launch-party-join-us-for-a-day-of-hobby-tips-live-battles-and-more/

 Shadow Walker wrote:
Here below, in about 6:06:15 we have mentioned a Neurolictor which apparently can implant its victims and turning them into some kind of slaves.
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2023/06/24/leviathan-launch-party-join-us-for-a-day-of-hobby-tips-live-battles-and-more/

Oooh mindslaves.

 Mr_Rose wrote:
I actually really like the old Deathspitter design; the new one doesn’t look half so alien. If we can’t have the models back, the guns would be nice. Make it a flamethrower equivalent. Same with Gargoyles–give them their flamespurts back!

Flamespurts were oddly great. By no means Killy at a weedy S3, and didn’t set anyone properly on fire, no sir. No Burny Dance there. But they did force enemy models to move to the nearest template edge. Was useful for driving enemies out of cover, or out of squad coherency. Took a bit of finesse and practice to get the most out of them of course in terms of beneficial positioning of model and template.

I guess the Neurolictors are the alt-build to the Lictor kit, then. "Taking over minds" can be perilous territory, though, because it opens the door to a character coming back from that and describing what it felt like to be a part of the Hivemind (always ends disappointingly).

Also

I am once again asking people to stop throwing the descriptor "alien" around with such cavalier abandon, robbing it of any actual meaning.

A skirt made of flesh does not look alien. Because it looks like a skirt. A skirt is an ubiquitous garment that appears across cultures and eras in human history, and is instantly recognizable to each of us.

A bipedal, digitigrade humanoid does not look alien. Because its entire form is a remix of common terrestrial features that we've all been acclimatized to since we were kids looking at picturebooks of animals.

A hollow, phallic projectile weapon with ergonomics that more or less correspond to a rifle does not look alien. I'm sure by this point in the post you can guess why.

I'm begging you, read some speculative sci-fi from outside the Warhammer ecosystem, or find and smoke some DMT, because if you think skirts, Mos Eisley puppets, and rifleguns are shockingly alien your mind is ready to be blown.

I’m hoping the neurolictor means that if you kill a character in combat, you take control of it. Tyranid controlled primarchs

 Altruizine wrote:
I guess the Neurolictors are the alt-build to the Lictor kit, then. "Taking over minds" can be perilous territory, though, because it opens the door to a character coming back from that and describing what it felt like to be a part of the Hivemind (always ends disappointingly).

Also

I am once again asking people to stop throwing the descriptor "alien" around with such cavalier abandon, robbing it of any actual meaning.

A skirt made of flesh does not look alien. Because it looks like a skirt. A skirt is an ubiquitous garment that appears across cultures and eras in human history, and is instantly recognizable to each of us.

A bipedal, digitigrade humanoid does not look alien. Because its entire form is a remix of common terrestrial features that we've all been acclimatized to since we were kids looking at picturebooks of animals.

A hollow, phallic projectile weapon with ergonomics that more or less correspond to a rifle does not look alien. I'm sure by this point in the post you can guess why.

I'm begging you, read some speculative sci-fi from outside the Warhammer ecosystem, or find and smoke some DMT, because if you think skirts, Mos Eisley puppets, and rifleguns are shockingly alien your mind is ready to be blown.

I sure hope 'taking over minds' means something more like 'sucking the brain out and putting some control worm where it used to be', Marie-Sue-Mindcontrol-for-5-minutes can feth right off, as you said it practically only ever serves to give some A-lister character 'tragic' and 'traumatic' experiences by being submitted to it for a short while and then breaking out of it.

As for the 'alien' - DMT machine elves or whatever are all fine and dandy, but let's not forget that this stuff here is intended to be a range of game-pieces first and foremost; 'these are the fast ones', 'these are tough' and 'this one has a huge killy gun' is something that should be legible even if you're not that familiar with the range, and the pieces need to be facile to assemble and paint for the average gamer. That severely limits how alien these aliens can be, and is a necessity for the wider health of the game and the range.

 Altruizine wrote:
I guess the Neurolictors are the alt-build to the Lictor kit.

Yeah, that is my bet too. Double kit when Deathleaper is a clampack.

 Altruizine wrote:
I guess the Neurolictors are the alt-build to the Lictor kit, then. "Taking over minds" can be perilous territory, though, because it opens the door to a character coming back from that and describing what it felt like to be a part of the Hivemind (always ends disappointingly).

Also

I am once again asking people to stop throwing the descriptor "alien" around with such cavalier abandon, robbing it of any actual meaning.

A skirt made of flesh does not look alien. Because it looks like a skirt. A skirt is an ubiquitous garment that appears across cultures and eras in human history, and is instantly recognizable to each of us.

A bipedal, digitigrade humanoid does not look alien. Because its entire form is a remix of common terrestrial features that we've all been acclimatized to since we were kids looking at picturebooks of animals.

A hollow, phallic projectile weapon with ergonomics that more or less correspond to a rifle does not look alien. I'm sure by this point in the post you can guess why.

I'm begging you, read some speculative sci-fi from outside the Warhammer ecosystem, or find and smoke some DMT, because if you think skirts, Mos Eisley puppets, and rifleguns are shockingly alien your mind is ready to be blown.

If there's one thing Warhammer needs, it's more gatekeeping - thanks for making discussions around the game fun for everyone! /s

Tsagualsa wrote:
I sure hope 'taking over minds' means something more like 'sucking the brain out and putting some control worm where it used to be', Marie-Sue-Mindcontrol-for-5-minutes can feth right off, as you said it practically only ever serves to give some A-lister character 'tragic' and 'traumatic' experiences by being submitted to it for a short while and then breaking out of it.

Not sure a literal brain swap is the way to go when Tyranids already have Genestealers with hypnotic gaze and DNA implantation. Now we're talking about a Lictor, so there's most likely some tentacle action involved to make it a little different from a Genestealer looking at you suggestively, but Tyranids already have implantation of biological material as a means of mind control in their arsenal. Seems a bit awkward that a Lictor would have to scoop something out and replace it in full when it could just put something in your brain to get mind control.

Plus, I think mind control scarabs already cover the tragic, traumatic A-lister experience. Look at them extra-galactic illegal aliens, coming here and stealing our gimmicks!

Tsagualsa wrote:

As for the 'alien' - DMT machine elves or whatever are all fine and dandy, but let's not forget that this stuff here is intended to be a range of game-pieces first and foremost; 'these are the fast ones', 'these are tough' and 'this one has a huge killy gun' is something that should be legible even if you're not that familiar with the range, and the pieces need to be facile to assemble and paint for the average gamer. That severely limits how alien these aliens can be, and is a necessity for the wider health of the game and the range.

No, I'm fine with that. I don't *want* the models to look alien, I like the 4th through 10th aesthetic, dino-beetles with cleavers and machine pistols growing out of their hands, who throw down with the chainsaw space knights and bodyglove elves that populate the rest of the setting. I just want people to stop describing every detail they enjoy on a Tyranid model "alien" when it's not accurate from an informed POV.