Tyranid Thoughts: Overview, First Impression

Like everyone else, I've just laid hands on the Tyranid codex. I've given it a couple of read-throughs, and am thinking long and hard about which units I'll need to buy in order to run several types of armies, as I believe this is a book that will let me have options and different types of armies.

The problem, of course, lies in actually BUYING everything. But, hey, as far as codex design goes it's a good problem to have, right? Anyway, on to some reflections on the book as a whole, since it IS a total revamp of the bugs.

So Long, 0-1 Choice

Redundancy is important; 0-1 choices are not redundant, not reliable, and thus often skipped. Thankfully, GW did away with that mess. This changes Zoanthropes, Biovores, Lictors, and Winged Hive Tyrants.

Guns

The bugs can shoot now. The Elites, Fast Attack and Heavy Support can all bring some tidy weaponry now. There are four nasty new anti-tank guns making the rounds in the army:

Rupture Cannon: S10, AP4, 2 shots, 48 inches. It comes on the expensive tyrannofex, but considering that you can't blow it off the fex and you can screen the thing with cheap fodder to keep it shooting every turn? Ouch.

Impaler Cannon: S8, AP4, 2 shots, 24 inches, ignores LOS. Hive Guard are walking T6 gun platforms. Mmm, kill that light armor and wound anything you can shoot at on a 2+, generally.

Warp Lance: S10, AP1, Lance, 18", single shot. Zoanthropes can now kill armor in a bad way. 3+ to penetrate any armor at the worst? Zoeys in drop pods? Yes please. Psychic defenses are mandatory, or did you know?

Heavy Venom Cannon: S9 Blast, 48", -1 on the damage charts unless open-topped targets. The downside is that they're not as damaging as the other weapons and their accuracy depends on the size of the target, but the upside is that they're blast weapons so they can engage troops as well, and S9 hurts.

For pure anti-troop work, the other highlight is the Cluster Spine: S5, AP- large blast; most shooty monstrous creatures can mount one on the carapace. Suddenly, they can dump wounds on infantry as well. Most other anti-infantry weapons work on the principle of volume of fire, though there are some templates available in the army.

Where did that come from?

Tyranids picked up drop pods and deep-striking monstrous creatures. They also picked up the means to boost reserves, via Hive Tyrants and Lictors that have arrived. Better yet? The Spores and purpose-built Deep Striking monstrous creatures have rules akin to the Marine drop pod that keep them from scattering into other units and rolling on the mishap table.

The Mycetic Spore is available to a number of units, and can take either a single monstrous creature or up to 20 smaller gribblies. This pod is simply a huge utility; there's nothing like 2-3 carnifexes drop-podding on a flank to get you worried sometimes. Sure, that Warp Lance has an 18" range, but the Zoanthropes started in that range AND get the shot off.

Additionally, the Trygon and Mawloc can deep strike naturally. Both are 6-wound beasts with the ability to draw a hefty amount of fire and influence the game. Trygons are simply melee beasts with a heap of attacks, while the Mawloc is basically a Tyranid shout-out to Tremors. Personally, I'm leaning towards the Mawloc just for the sheer amount of tricks that you can pull with it.

Poison, Furious Charge, Power Weapons Oh My! Melee, Tyranids, and You

Most of the army can buy Adrenal glands for a lovely 4+ poison. I'd say this is pretty much mandatory on Hormagaunts, since S3 just doesn't go that far. It gets discretionary on the larger creatures; poison ALWAYS wounds on 4+ but gets a re-roll on the wound against targets when your strength is equal to or greater than their toughness. 4+ with a re-roll is inferior to a 2+, but not by much. (15% for a 2+ as opposed to 25% for the 4+ with re-rolls). I still would probably consider it on the S6 monstrous creatures, as it benefits them on larger targets (IE: T5+).

Past that, Adrenal glands grant you furious charge. The initiative bonus would be cooler if YOU COULD GET FRAG GRENADES ON STUFF IN THE CODEX. This is one of the things I noticed that's a bit inconvenient: there are about two units that can take something close to frag grenades:

1) The Carnifex (who goes to I3 on the charge, admittedly)

2) Lictors (who start in terrain)

Addtionally, the Bone Sabre got an upgrade in a big way: it's now a power weapon, and any multi-wound critter that gets hit by them takes a leadership check or suffers instant death. Warriors and Hive Tyrants can take these, and frankly, this scares the poop out of a lot of multi-wound creatures.

Scything talons no longer grant extra attacks; they grant re-rolls. This means a unit with two sets essentially has preferred enemy. Just a note.

No More Eternal Warrior

Bugs lost Eternal Warrior. A lot of folks bemoan this, but there are now a LOT of 2-3 wound T4 models on the board in addition to a heap of T6 monstrous creatures. What's this mean? Now, a missile launcher or lascannon can have a 50/50 shot of popping a T4 critter in cover, OR a chance at knocking a wound off a monstrous creature. Now, there are target priority issues instead of all the big guns ALWAYS going into the big ones.

Tervigon

This merits much more discussion that I'm going to give it in an overview, but the short version: it's a 6-wound monstrous creature with the ability to drop 3d6 Gaunts in a new unit each turn, and provide psychic support/Synapse. The only thing that stops them is any doubles on the 3d6 mean they're tapped out of Termagants for the remainder of the game. I'll cover this guy more in-depth later. Trust me, it's a huge influence.

Summary

Frankly, I could keep going for some time, but I'm going to stop with the critical hit wall o' text. In short, the Tyranids picked up some brand new capabilities, and got tweaks to old ones.

1) Tyranids have anti-tank and anti-infantry shooting with fair range, now.

2) Tyranids have drop pods and other reliable deep strikers, AND the ability to enhance reserves rolls.

3) Tyranids can take poison on just about everything, and furious charge. Too bad they left frags at home (AKA: get COVER against them...)

4) They lost eternal warrior. Now you have target priority issues.

5) Tervigons.

I'm going to give the various segments on the book their own special treatment later on, and pick out some units (IE: Tervigons, Mawlocs) that deserve some special treatment and explanations. It's a good day to play (or get back into) the bugs.

Monstrous Creatures versus Vehicles

Most codices field monstrous creatures as a support element: Dark Eldar get the insane Talos, Eldar can field Wraithlords and the Avatar, and the chaos books field Daemon Princes.

With the Tyranids, though, there are no vehicles: there are merely monstrous creatures. As such, monstrous creatures fulfill the same role as tans. The chief advantage of the monstrous creature is that while vehicles have excellent durability from the damage chart, monstrous creatures have greater stamina in terms of doing damage.

A Matter of Wounds

I'm going to be arbitrary here, and take a hive tyrant with a pair of devourerers and a heavy venom cannon. Place it opposite a Space Marine Predator toting Heavy Bolter sponsons and an autocannon.

Aside from range, they're roughly similar in terms of guns: anti-personnel suite, and a weapon suitable for attacking lighter armor and heavier infantry. Following me so far? Have the image of a happy little hive tyrant, and our stout, chugging Predator?

Now fire a meltagun at them from within 6". Let's assume it hits, and neither of them have cover.

The Predator might:

1) be stunned, and unable to move/shoot for the next turn

2) lose a weapon

3) be immobilized

4) be destroyed

5) Explode violently, sending shrapnel and chunks of space marines into innocent bystanders

The Hive Tyrant might:

1) Lose a wound

2) Die, if that was its last wound

Capabilities, and loss thereof

Every roll on the vehicle damage chart has a 33% chance of temporarily inconveniencing a vehicle, 33% chance of degrading its capabilities permanently, and 33% chance of killing it outright. The exact numbers change depending on the AP value of the weapon.

Additionally, some vehicles may have an immunity to shaken/stunned, and while that's annoying as all get-out (...nothing like getting shaken/stunned results against Soul Grinders and Defilers, lemme tell ya) it's not that common, and even with extra armor, you can keep vehicles from shooting for a turn.

What does this mean? It means that even if you don't kill a vehicle, you can reduce its ability to participate in the fight, sometimes in a significant manner.

What use is a Land Raider Redeemer that's immobilized on turn one?

How's an immobilized Wave Serpent going flat out going to land? [Hint: not very well]

What use is a Hammerhead without its Rail Gun?

How's that Dreadnought going to do in assault without its Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon?

What's a stunned vehicle going to do when there are powerfists nearby?

How's a Leman Russ Demolisher feel when you forcibly removed its battle cannon?

Sometimes, even shaking or stunning is enough. If you shake something like a Hammerhead or a Leman Russ Demolisher, you've kept an expensive gun from contributing to the battle for a turn, and that may buy you some breathing room you desparately needed.

Stunning a tank near assault troops can sometimes be very unhealthy for a tank; S6+ attacks against the rear armor of 10 are...painful...en mass.

The Flip Side

So, just how do you lock a monstrous creature's guns down, or hold it in place? Oh, and for fun, realize that a monstrous creature can move and fire two guns, regardless of strength or class, and how this doesn't always hold true for vehicles*.

Simple.

CHAAARGE!

Sure, the Wraithlord has S10, ignores armor saves, and all that good stuff. He also has...2 attacks. So he got charged by 20 termagants that have Synapse support. So, Mr. Wraithlord, what're you doing for the rest of the game? That's right, squishing a gaunt a turn. Real productive, that. Bet you wish you were firing those heavy weapons, or wandering around flaming things, or insta-gibbing stuff like Warriors. But, you're NOT. You're playing patty-cake with largely inconsequential troops.

Also, cry if the other guy has lots of poison attacks. Your expensive T5-6 just got negated. Wraithlords HATE poison...

The downside is that a monstrous creature has two settings in melee: full blast, and d-e-a-d dead. That Trygon that's in a fistfight with you? Yeah, he's swinging all those attacks until you drop him, as opposed to, say, a Dreadnought. Mr. Dreadnought is big and bad and crushing you with S10 power weapon attacks until, y'know, someone with a powerfist breaks that dread CCW off. Then the dreadnought tends to go bye bye.

Cons of being a monstrous creature

While you're not going to lose combat capability each time you get wounded, you ARE still vulnerable to anti-tank weapons. As a slight con, melta weapons don't care about getting within half range of you, since S8 is S8 at all ranges.

Cover is harder to find, too. It's not impossible, but Vendettas are a royal pain for you.

Cover is not always enough, though. Toughness means that even small arms are a (small) threat to you. Bolters will NEVER harm a Rhino's front/side AV11; but bolters CAN wound T5-6. T5 monstrous creatures feel this keenly, which means stuff like Daemon Princes and the Harpy. 5+ to wound isn't bad if there are 6-10 shots like that, or enough melee attacks. However, T6+ ones tend to worry much less, but a 1/6 chance to wound isn't the same as 'Cannot Be Damaged'.

Even though you ignore armor saves in assault, monstrous creatures not inclined towards close combat CAN be tied up by large numbers of expendable troops. Furthermore, larger squads with a powerfist in them can kill you (...albeit, at a cost to themselves, BUT 4-6 marines are usually a decent trade for a monstrous creature).

Monstrous creatures that want to get into assault may have problems as you are slow, unless you have wings or deep strike (or deep strike WITH your wings). Deep striking into assault range also carries the issue of sitting there and bellowing 'SHOOT MEEEE' to the other army, which is something you have to work around.**

Monstrous creatures with guns tend not to have the same level of firepower as a vehicle. This is likely to balance out the fact it's harder to stop them from shooting.

Speaking of vehicles, vehicles can simply tank-shock troops off an objective. Even if they pass that morale check, the people move aside. If a monstrous creature wants to pull that trick off, you're hoping for an assault that leaves you within 3" of the objective to contest (or just, y'know, killing the guys...). Furthermore, monstrous creatures are technically vulnerable to tank shock. You get one attack against the front armor, and if you're one of the lower-strength monstrous creatures, the odds get a little long against toughter targets. Plus, you have to STOP the thing, so even if you penetrate, it's a 50/50 shot that you'll stop/kill the thing. Or, you just got run over, good job...

Summary

I think with Tyranids coming out, it's worth noting the differences between vehicles and monstrous creatures, since the Tyranids can and do press monstrous creatures into service as gun platforms.

1) Monstrous creatures fight at full strength until death***; vehicles can die in a single hit or lose weapons/mobility temporarily or permanently

2) Monstrous creatures can always move and shoot two guns; moving vehicles can limit their available firepower

3) Monstrous creatures are generally slower than vehicles, but see item 2 for the compensation.

4) Monstrous creatures can be locked in assault, for better or worse.

I think that wraps it up for the major ones. I think the MCs have more combat stamina because they're based on wounds, though this can be a double-edged sword.

*Mr. Predator is sad. When he drives, he can fire ONE gun, while the tyrant can stomp around all day firing every gun it holds. Mr. Predator thinks that makes the Tyrant intolerably arrogant. So, the Tyrant kicked the predator over.

**I'd suggest giving them lots of scary targets and asking if they can kill them all.

***Which may be Instant Death, in some cases. OR poison.

Minor Tweakage, and What's Coming

I want to thank my readers for the input. I've tweaked the font colors and layout slightly.

Now, I'm keeping the layout simple; I've just switched to a whiter font to up the contrast between text and background. I prefer simple because it makes it easier to navigate the page; it's just less distracting to the eye.

As for the articles themselves, I'm going to aim to keep the content fresh. I think a little intro isn't a bad thing; I could probably do a little better to write an intro paragraph on some of the articles.

Pictures, too, can be good. I'm going to try to get more batreps with actual pictures. I try to spruce up most articles with at least a little bit of picture love, just to keep it from being the wall of text to the face. I'll make sure most of them get at least a small picture up front, since I do think it makes it more pleasing to the eye.

Content-wise, I'm mostly pleased; I'll keep with the logic of my list-building and with the unit analysis. I'm personally trying to work up to an army-level understanding of things; I'm not 100% confident with slapping a whole list together but I'm pretty confident in my ability to figure out good uses for a unit. I think, though, this is one of the things keeping me from being an upper-tier general. (That, and the tendency to every now and then do something out of stupidity and/or inattention to detail. Whoops.) I'm also going to try to be less reactionary in general to other's posts, though I think some of that's from occasional burnout with work. Work is...somewhat stressful; I've had worse jobs but the demands go from reasonable to insane and back again with the drop of the hat. But, it's a job and a paycheck, and I'll take what I can get.

What's Up Ahead
I'm going to get a round or two in against new Tyranids come this weekend.

I'm also going to lay hands on the Tyranid 'dex this week, so you'll get some impressions on that.

Last question: should I get a spite for the dice gods e-mail? I think I'm probably going to cave and do it, just because it'll give me some fuel for writing.

Oh, and a 5k brawl with Boc at some point. I WILL EAT YOUR SPACE ELVES! Albeit, with a combined force of stuff.

In Review

In review? This time, it's this blog.

I'm using the new year as an excuse to ask you, the reader, what you come to this blog for, what you'd like to see more of, and what you'd like to see less of. I'm doing this in part because this blog is a hobby of mine and I'd like it to be helpful to readers. (the other part is that I've caught The Crap and it's snowing, so I've got some spare time.)

So, on that note:
Layout of the blog, good, Y/N?
Bat-reps, good, Y/N?
Unit Analysis, good, Y/N?
Larger army-type analysis, good, Y/N?
Anything I'm missing here that you'd like to see, Y/N?

I'll tell you some things I won't really get into, though.

This blog will never be a hot one for painting tips. I might show off my work (such as it is) but honestly, there are better places to go for painting advice.

I will probably not do much on modding stuff, honestly. There are better places for a how-to, but I'll show off anything that looks neat to me that I've pulled off.

Anyway, comments, questions, feedback. Please.

Foot Armies Space Wolf Brainstorming

Blame this one on the beating the Black Templar took today, along with Stelek's 'Top Ten Units of 2009' post.

On the BT Front
Fact is that there's just not a ton you can do if the enemy wants to make your troops go away and they're all on foot.

This time around, the Guard player wasn't nearly as frightened of the Templars, so he blew the hell out of my troops.

Had I been really, really lucky with the dice, I might have actually won because he wasn't paying quite as much attention to the objectives. I would have had to have a Terminator get a better 'run' roll (...or not have, y'know, botched his bloody morale check...) to get within 3" of one objective, and have the game end on turn 5; that would've made it 2-1 in terms of objectives.

As it was, I had the Grey Knights, a random BT terminator, and about 9-10 guys in power armor alive at the end when I conceded.

Highlights included a Hellhound and a lone marine with a lascannon trading shots for about 3 turns. Additionally, two surviving terminators took two wounds and pulled snakeyes on the armor saves. Yay. I really needed that.

The short version of his list was:
Company Command w/ MEltas in Chimera
Allied battle sisters w/ flamers (borrowing 'toon command's Chimera)
2 melta-vet squads
toon command w/ flamers
30-man 3x autocannon + commissar platoon
2 Hellhounds (Hull meltas)
Vendetta w/ Heavy Bolters
2 Russes w/ Lascannon, Sponsons
1 Demolisher w/ HHF

I managed to do SOME damage, but not NEARLY enough, obviously.

Bottom line with Foot Armies?
Mech up. If you don't have a crap-ton of guns (...IE: Tau, IG potentially) or speed (SW Cav Lists) or have a heap of monstrous creatures and/or speed (IE: up-and-coming Tyranids) then you're just not gonna do that well against a decently-run, decently-built mech-heavy force. (Or Tyranids, probably.) I consider myself a decent player (...I just sound smarter on the internets because I wrote way too many papers in college) but I'm just not seeing a real decent way to make this list work against nastier opponents. I might've been able to win that Chaos match from last time with better target priority, but against a lotta tanks + a lotta guns, it's uphill.

On to Space Wolves
So, another brainstorm. This brought to you in part by the Stelek post mentioned previously, and in part to me realizing that I'd be able to pull this together without a lot of money spent (...just need to get a few Dreads and a few tanks and some bits). Basically, the goal is "I Go First. You Get Hurt." To that end...

HQ
Bjorn the Fell-Handed [270]
-Assault Cannon

Inquistor Lord [82]
-Bolt Pistol, CCW
-Hood
-Emperor's Tarot
Retinue:
3x Heavy Bolter Servitors [87]
2x Mystics

Elites
Dreadnought w/ TL Autocannons [125]

Dreadnought w/ TL Autocannons [125]

Troops
5 Grey Hunters w/ Flamer [80]
Razorback w/ Lascannon, TL Plasma Gun [75]

5 Grey Hunters w/ Flamer [80]
Razorback w/ Lascannon, TL Plasma Gun [75]

5 Grey Hunters w/ Flamer [80]
Razorback w/ Lascannon, TL Plasma Gun [75]

5 Grey Hunters w/ Flamer [80]
Razorback w/ Lascannon, TL Plasma Gun [75]

Fast Attack
4 Thunderwolf Cavalary w/ Thunder Hammer [230]

4 Thunderwolf Cavalary w/ Thunder Hammer [230]

4 Thunderwolf Cavalary w/ Thunder Hammer [230]

Total: 1999/2000

Now, I could theoretically turn the Inquisitor into a Multi-melta bunker in a Rhino; I'd need to find at least 20-30 points to upgrade the bolters to multi-meltas, and then get them a Rhino (50 points from the DH 'dex, 35 from the Wolf 'dex)

Logic behind the choices
Bjorn + Inquisitor means I'll usually have a +1 to my roll for first turn, AND a re-roll. From there, I need to take as large an advantage as I can with that, so it's a mix of guns and/or cavalry.

My best choice for firepower/durable scoring units is (I feel, anyway) 5 Grey Hunters with a flamer in the shooty-back. They can torch smaller squads and potentially beat them down in melee. Also, since I'm running 5-man squads with my Templar, I can just give a guy a flamer and they're suddenly interchangeable (...and I'll have to change out a plasma gunner, but what the hell, right? That's 4-5 guys, or a couple of those small unit boxes).

Bjorn gets an assault cannon because I'm too cheap to give the boggart a lascannon; he's ALREADY 270 freaking points. He can amble up behind the Thunderwolves.

The rifleman dreads are in there for four reasons:
1) They'd be hella fun to convert
2-4) dakka, dakka, and dakka

They can help me work over lighter armor and put a hurt on things at range. Now, in fairness, that's 250 points of shooting. Given the slots, I could get some other stuff for that price; I could probably shave some points and fit in three dakka-preds. However, the Dreadnoughts can move and shoot, and while they don't throw out as many shots as the Predators, the Dreadnoughts can threaten armor with all their shots, and are more accurate with it. Plus, they can scrabble onto rooftops if needs be. I'd probably look into Typhoon speeders if, y'know, I wasn't planning on running Thunderwolves.

As I have thunderwulf cav, I am not quite so worried about killing infantry, so yeah.

Thoughts on that?

Other brainstorm: if I were going to try to run footslogging Terminators, here's what I'd probably really roll with:

Space marine codex
Shrike, Null Zone Librarian, ~10 TH/SS terminators infiltrated.
2-3 Tacticals in Rhinos with multi-melta/flamer.

Fire support to taste.

The draft (that I'll probably never field) looks something like:
Shrike [195]
Libby w/ Termie Armor, Storm Shield Null Zone, Might of the Ancients [140]
9 TH/SS Termies [360]
2 Rifleman Dreads [2*125 = 250]
3 MM/Flamer Rhino-Tacs [3*205 = 615]
1 Las-plas razorback + squad [165]
3 Dakka Preds [3*85 = 255]
Total: 1980/2000

I could drop the Rifleman Dreads for 3 HB/Typhoon landspeeders, which would trade some firepower/durability for mobility and the ability to hide and/or get off some shots.

The basic idea would be to infiltrate the terminators with Shrike, then rush the tacticals forward to melta-bunker and support them. The rest of the army sits back, makes loud noises, and ideally targets transports so the fleet terminators use hammers to introduce forehads to brain pans.

The Librarian either Null Zones enemy CC specialists with invulnerable saves, or activates Might and swings at S6 with 2d6 for armor penetration. Any of the shooting powers would invariably work to keep me out of assault, and with the Might he's at least vaguely comparable to a Gray Knight Terminator.

Shrike hangs out and plays cutty cutty stabby stabby with the rending lightning claws, or splits off to go eat a smaller squad on his own. Depends on what I need done. He also makes sure the Librarian's hood will actually be in range (or close to it) from the get-go.

And that's your wall of text to the face for the day.