Post by Joelercoaster on May 22, 2014 10:57:30 GMT -6
Okay. So.
A lot of people have gotten the book early, and a lot of things are looking pretty shady for Nids. Instead of being a downer, I want to start a dedicated discussion on how the army will change its views a bit and cope with some of this silliness.
Smash dropping to a single attack I think is going to be the secret bad-touch that the Nids receive. Combat is the Tyranid way of dealing with heavy armor. Crone Vector Strikes were pretty solid, although moving fully over a unit/vehicle with a 24" move and limited turn is harder than you may think sometimes. That said, it's gotten its own shaft... so while it can still do some damage, it's not the heavy lifter that it used to be. In essence, *all* of our heavy lifters kind of got wrecked.
Not only does this affect our primary anti-tank method, but the effect of all vehicles being scoring, and any troop transports being super-scoring (here's still hoping that vehicles will be exempt), brings back the "turn 5 tank shock" that ruled 5th ed. Not to mention the "I don't have to leave my transport... ever..." of 5th that was super frustrating for Bugs.
So we're back to square one, except the shotgun we had has been replaced with a pea-shooter.
Also, the first person to pipe up and say "Wow the Haruspex is great now!!" because it has crushing claws... no. It's still as crap as it always was, it's just better in comparison. A combat fex is more points efficient and gets enough HoW to actually kill a tank on its own. The Frawgnid is still a sad, sad excuse for a kit.
Alright. So now the silver lining.
Obviously grounding for FMC's is light years ahead of where it was for 6th. They're staying in the air far more sensibly.
Crones are still pretty effective at anti-tank duty in general, and still very effective vs enemy flyers. Tentaclids will be used more to ping hull points along with a VS hit. I think they'll still have a place in lists, and will be pretty good at their job.
Dakka Tyrants are pretty happy floating around dakka-ing. Combat-build Tyrants... well.
Move Through Cover is a big boon in the Assault Phase. While Init1 is still a pain, Hormagaunts are much better at choking enemy lines, pretty easily getting a charge on turn 2. Plus, they're cheap enough to not really care that you kill 4-5 before they strike. There are 20 more. Kthxbai.
Speaking of Hormagaunts, giving them Adrenals is actually a more viable tank hunting option. Well, I kind of lied, it's just as viable as it always was, except that you'll get the charge more easily. But hey, that's a thing.
Walkers in combat will pose a serious issue. Smash is a joke vs them now, as a single attack, even at AP2, has a very small chance of actually doing something (even a good combat bug, it's 2/3 to hit, and then 2/3 to pen, and *then* only a 1/6 to explode. Cool, 7% chance to actually win that combat). This will put an emphasis on either/or/both heavy shooting (Hive Guard and Exocrines, double up or shut up) and gaunts to flood the board and sacrifice to just tie up units that you otherwise can't deal with. Luckily our gaunts are better at doing this thanks to no more Diff Terrain worries.
The Psychic phase will be a thing... Nids are looking like one of the top contenders, just by prevalence of Psykers. GK, I think, will actually have the most dice, as they basically get one for *every unit* in the army. Warlock-heavy Eldar could be above us, just depends how big the council is. But we're definitely strong here, and Shadows at least will very occasionally have an effect.
Anyone else have some ideas? So far I have "bring more dakka" and "choke them with gaunts". But our Dakka is limited, and if the answer to everything is "throw gaunts at it", you *will* run out of them (I know, right?). Still need to see everything in its entirety, of course, but right now I'm craning for ideas and/or ways to make this noise work.
A lot of people have gotten the book early, and a lot of things are looking pretty shady for Nids. Instead of being a downer, I want to start a dedicated discussion on how the army will change its views a bit and cope with some of this silliness.
Smash dropping to a single attack I think is going to be the secret bad-touch that the Nids receive. Combat is the Tyranid way of dealing with heavy armor. Crone Vector Strikes were pretty solid, although moving fully over a unit/vehicle with a 24" move and limited turn is harder than you may think sometimes. That said, it's gotten its own shaft... so while it can still do some damage, it's not the heavy lifter that it used to be. In essence, *all* of our heavy lifters kind of got wrecked.
Not only does this affect our primary anti-tank method, but the effect of all vehicles being scoring, and any troop transports being super-scoring (here's still hoping that vehicles will be exempt), brings back the "turn 5 tank shock" that ruled 5th ed. Not to mention the "I don't have to leave my transport... ever..." of 5th that was super frustrating for Bugs.
So we're back to square one, except the shotgun we had has been replaced with a pea-shooter.
Also, the first person to pipe up and say "Wow the Haruspex is great now!!" because it has crushing claws... no. It's still as crap as it always was, it's just better in comparison. A combat fex is more points efficient and gets enough HoW to actually kill a tank on its own. The Frawgnid is still a sad, sad excuse for a kit.
Alright. So now the silver lining.
Obviously grounding for FMC's is light years ahead of where it was for 6th. They're staying in the air far more sensibly.
Crones are still pretty effective at anti-tank duty in general, and still very effective vs enemy flyers. Tentaclids will be used more to ping hull points along with a VS hit. I think they'll still have a place in lists, and will be pretty good at their job.
Dakka Tyrants are pretty happy floating around dakka-ing. Combat-build Tyrants... well.
Move Through Cover is a big boon in the Assault Phase. While Init1 is still a pain, Hormagaunts are much better at choking enemy lines, pretty easily getting a charge on turn 2. Plus, they're cheap enough to not really care that you kill 4-5 before they strike. There are 20 more. Kthxbai.
Speaking of Hormagaunts, giving them Adrenals is actually a more viable tank hunting option. Well, I kind of lied, it's just as viable as it always was, except that you'll get the charge more easily. But hey, that's a thing.
Walkers in combat will pose a serious issue. Smash is a joke vs them now, as a single attack, even at AP2, has a very small chance of actually doing something (even a good combat bug, it's 2/3 to hit, and then 2/3 to pen, and *then* only a 1/6 to explode. Cool, 7% chance to actually win that combat). This will put an emphasis on either/or/both heavy shooting (Hive Guard and Exocrines, double up or shut up) and gaunts to flood the board and sacrifice to just tie up units that you otherwise can't deal with. Luckily our gaunts are better at doing this thanks to no more Diff Terrain worries.
The Psychic phase will be a thing... Nids are looking like one of the top contenders, just by prevalence of Psykers. GK, I think, will actually have the most dice, as they basically get one for *every unit* in the army. Warlock-heavy Eldar could be above us, just depends how big the council is. But we're definitely strong here, and Shadows at least will very occasionally have an effect.
Anyone else have some ideas? So far I have "bring more dakka" and "choke them with gaunts". But our Dakka is limited, and if the answer to everything is "throw gaunts at it", you *will* run out of them (I know, right?). Still need to see everything in its entirety, of course, but right now I'm craning for ideas and/or ways to make this noise work.
