Some more games with the new tyranids.

By TheGraveMind

Recently Rockstar had an event for Escalation, where it was basically a bring anything even. I gathered up my painted tyranids, with my scythed heirodule I had finished not to long ago and headed out. There were plenty of Imperial Knights, and stand ins, as well as war hounds and void shields.

ForgeWorld Tyranids sighted.

By TheGraveMind

Forge world event pictures by some people who were there. Interesting look. We'll see how the final product turns out and what the rules are. It is supposedly a fast attack choice. OMG we might have an MC with a 3+ that is a fast attack!

Tyranid vs crimson fists

By TheGraveMind

In a game to both practice the upcoming Frostycon missions, and to gain more experience with the New tyranid codex, I pitted my tyranids against Nemesis Crimson fist army.

The Fall of Triturus IV

By TheGraveMind

A Xenos Inquisitor on Triturus II investigating a Genestealer cult first saw the signs of the coming invasion. He sent word to the world of Triturus IV once reports of converging Tyranid splinter fleets were confirmed. Once the entity known as The Swarmlord was sighted, an all out request for aid was sent for reinforcements.

Tyranid fandex v1.1

By TheGravemind

So now that I've played a few games with the new Codex, I still think it is on par with the 5th ed book, and has the same feel to it. I didn't like the 5th ed book that much, especially not in 6th edition.

So I went to my happy place, and I made a rough draft of a Fandex for myself.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kJfxPOU_KukFRHkUH8Mg7N0gKxGpmCJv1RBz4_8k59U/edit?usp=sharing

The relics don't exist and are just place holders, the biomorphs rules are left in comments. Anything that isn't listed probably stayed the same. Feel free to give it a read and let me know what you think.

Tyranids Vs Tau

By TheGraveMind

So the week before the new codex came out, I got a game in against tyranids with my tau. I talked to one of the other premier Tyranid tournament players and we set up a game. I hadn't faced him running his Nids before, and as a Nid player gone Tau, I wanted to see how I could handle it.

Tyranids Day1

By TheGraveMind

Ok, so the new book is out, and everyone is lamenting over the nut punch that has occurred. You can read that about anywhere. I'm going to try and go through the book, and give you a summary of where the hope is.

Tyranid unit leaks

By TheGravemind

Seems tyranid information is hitting the web.

Imperius Dominatus has a good summary of a lot of things.

And Dakka dakka forums have pictures from a spanish copy if you want to confirm points costs and upgrades and such. Here

Overall getting a great sense of meh, but we'll know soon enough.

Tyranid Codex entries

By TheGraveMind

So I got two shots from the codex, Hopefully more will show up on the internet soon. This is what people were saying when they were confirming Termagaunt, warrior, and genestealer rules/cost.

Not the best detail, but you can see they are about the same. References to biomorph and bio-weapon options as per 6th ed codex. And no glaring new special rules, so we'll have to see how this goes about.

A week in Escalating Assault Day: 5

By TheGraveMind

Well, Forgeworld releasing their approved Lord of war slot concedes with my topic today very well. I wanted to bring up the topic of cost effeiciency and the blur between normal 40k and LoW slots that began a while ago.

A week of Escalating Assault Day: 3

By TheGraveMind

 So today we are going back to Fortifications. Last time I showed a Tau Defense line. Today I'm going to show a Tyranid one. Well, what would have been if they could use it properly.

Tyranid codex cover art

A section of the cover art is revealed. Supposedly there is a full swarm invasion behind him.

Also full picture of graboid.

Credit to war zone http://40kwarzone.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/tyranid-codex-cover.html?m=1

New tyranid warriors in Escalation.

By TheGraveMind

Ok, everyone, follow along, I originally dismissed this yesterday, then pulled out my warriors and raveners.

For the prime, first off notice the small adrenal gland crawling on his back. that is a new bit, does not exist at the moment. Also the back vents are slightly different than a raveners, this are thicker and stouter, while a raveners is more like a fin.

On the actual warriors, there is the fleshy part exposed on the knees and ankles, this is at least twice as much as is exposed on the current warriors, and they currently only have one pose.

You can also see that the bonesword arm is different than the current finecast bits. On the back of the primes sword is a knick, where the current ones only have a knick on the front side.

So enough subtle changes that reveal it is probably a new kit, but stays in line with the current models. probably like the marine tactical box. I'd say the small crawling mite on the primes back is the most guaranteed way of saying it is something new.

I originally saw these over at The Warzone . From what I've seen most people are initially calling these just a kit bash (my self included). When Tyranid Veteran players have to do a double take, it means the models fit the current line well.

I feel the warriors might be getting a Tactical squad treatment, a new box, but will basically look the same in the end. The real question is, is the prime part of the box, or a clamshell?

The swarm is coming

By TheGravemind

The first pictures of new tyranids are out. First up is the new hive guard pack. New weapon options that look even more like a harpoon/grapple. Supposedly not a dual kit.

The other new rumor is that warriors are getting the broadside treatment and getting bigger and placed on 60mm bases.

This one I hope is not true. I like the current sculpt, I have 30+ of them. Also, warriors are the core chassis of most nids, raveners and lictors will look out of place. They are supposed to be the terminator equivelant, so they should stay 40mm.

Tyranid troubles

By TheGraveMind

 Although tyranids are my one true love, I have little hope for them in 6th edition. Even with the new book about to come out in a few months, I don't think they will work. Not the way they are.

Tyranids generally use brute strength of statline to survive (toughness and a lot of wounds). But that isn't cutting it any more. They are also supposed to be close range combatants. Pistol and melee range. That doesn't work much anymore either. The prevalence of high rate of fire and high powered shots means few things can cross the board easily.

Tyranid units need to start being faster and more mobile, but synapse requirements have generally done the opposite of that. It forces the tyranids to move as one force, and units that break off to deal with a threat are generally sacrificed.

A squad of warp spiders can easily put five unsaved wounds on a standard tyranid MC. A properly buffed tau unit can put 8 unsaved wounds. And most of these units can do it with good range/mobility that allows them to minimize retaliation. And it isn't uncommon for many of these to now ignore cover, and tyranids will rarely have an invulnerable save.

With the new rule overwatch, and no longer assaulting from reserves, it is getting harder to make into combat with enough to kill units. This is more so true with many of tyranids "glass cannon" style units.

New rumors are making it sound like Tyranids will still be a very psyker reliant army. And more rumors about MCs, which is not the problem for Nids, it is functional infantry instead.

 

What I would like to see would be an increase in unit mobility/deployment options, unique perks/protections (immune to rending etc), and tricks to making it into combat (stunning opponents, preventing overwatch). But I won't hold my breath that gw is creative enough to do things like this.

What I'm afraid will happen will be a complete style overhaul like deamons. Even if they do better, they won't be the army I fell in love with. So here's hoping something good happens, but I'll keep working on my tau till then.

Tyranids in the new Apocalypse

by TheGraveMind

Say you want to play a game of the new Apocalypse but you have a tyranid collection, what do you do? Well before the new release I would have told you to not even bother. Not being able to assault from reserves, D weapons removing whole units of anything at a time, Large no man lands that are death to any infantry to cross them meant little Tyranids could do. Well a few things have changed, some better some worse.

Hive Fleet Zhuran

By TheGravemind

Say biomass!

Last time we showed off the Mallet Master's Nurgle forces. This time for Armies on Display I'm putting my own Tyranid Army on display. This time we added some more lighting with white background and got a second (better than mine) camera.

Return from Tippcon

By TheGraveMind

While Tippcon Aftermath goes through the actually tournament, this post is going to be more about my army and how it/I performed. I basically took the painted models I had from the Indy open, and added 100 points of upgrades and called it a day. It's not the list I wanted to run, but with out knowing the missions until a few days before hand or how the terrain was, it was my safest bet.

Daemons>Tyranids>Daemons

By TheGravemind
 

I finally had a weekend free, and so I was able to make it up to Kokomo for some gaming. I got some games in against the new Daemons finally, and man what a wake up call. I had only played against them once before, but it was a Zone of Mortalis game, so not the best representation. I also witnessed just how much Daemons slow down the game.

BattleFoam review, Tyranid trays

By TheGravemind

So back a little bit before christmas, I got myself some battlefoam for my tyranids. I had be reluctant because I wasn't sure how everything would fit, and I had to get the 1520 XL to carry my tourney list. But tyranids being all spindly and large as they are, I knew I needed to make the investment. So I'm going to do a quick run down of the foam that is build for tyranids. Being able to actually see models in the foam would have helped me make my decision a lost faster.