Once home from my local GW I eagerly began to browse through the new tome snatching moments here and there around getting on with things round the house and looking after my daughter. However with the negative connotation picked up from online it wasn't long before excitement turned to disappointment. Now this was my initial reaction and basically not a lot has really changed and on the face of it the Nerf hammer has been swung with wild abandon in many subtle yet unfortunate ways.
I've always favoured the use of assault based nids as it fits much better with my aesthetic so my first impressions was that we have been hit here for no apparent reason.
Scything talons are now just close combat weapons with AP5 losing the abilities to re-roll, a glimmer of hope is added when you combine pairs of melee weapons you get +1 attack. But since in a number of cases the attacks on profile have been reduced to compensate.
Things appear to continue in this vein throughout the book, Tervigons go up by around 40 pts and need 30 Termagants to become troops. Tyranid prime up 45 pts, Boneswords nerfed but 5pts more, oh my GOD the Sky is falling we're all going to die....
Opps sorry there, yes ok some things have definitely got worse. But once the hyperventilating, internet poisoned reaction has worn off I think there are actually some little gems in there that once wheedled out and exploited will actually prove quite scary.
Some of these are obvious such as carnifex dropping to a more reasonable 120 pts base, taking them from an overpriced liability to something thats actually usable and even worth considering as a brood of 2 or more.
Cheaper gaunts are also nice, But the added variety allowing you to mix and match weapons
within units. While a strangle web or two is a bit meh at s2 taking you unit of devilgaunts and sharing them out like special weapons is a great change that will help keep the Devourers alive much longer as normal gaunts soak up fire.
One of the subtler changes that I don't thinks been capitalised on yet are the changes to Adrenalin Glands. Losing +1 I when 6th ed rolled out was a tough one on many units especially fexes. Now however you get fleet of foot thrown in instead. I genuinely believe that this is a major buff for us and we can dish this out to our MCs and warriors. Experience gained with my Orks has shown me just how useful running a unit can be to buff it's speed. The reroll to mitigate bad runs and failed charges is a major buff to what are commonly seen as slow units and I can't wait to surprise people with a brood of Fexes bombing it across the table and getting stuck in turn 2, sucking up overwatch while genestealers sneak round the back and the new faster Hormagaunts tarpitting units while your core forces get to work.
For me these are just some of the benefits of the new codex and with some clever playing I actually see a good opportunity for a close combat army with very little ranged units needed (as Tyranids should be), on the other hand there are plenty of shooting options to take the exact efficiency is yet to be seen, as good player develop the tactics and skills to make Tyranids work.
Over the coming months I hope to write up some of my thoughts and past experience with nids, I even grabbed all the old 3rd ed onwards dexes out of the loft to look at what's changed over the years. WOrks still mad though so can't guarantee anything.
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