Codex Tyranid Traits

 

 

 

 



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The Doom of Galt

When the bioships of Hive Fleet Leviathan reached the Galt system, they swept aside the Imperial defenders with ease and proceeded to devour the ice rich outer worlds. The delay was enough to allow a great many to evacuate the hive cities of Galt V but not everyone was able to escape. As the Tyranid bio organisms burst onto the doomed world, the Planetary Defence Forces put up a brave but futile fight. Only when help arrived from the Sons of Tantalus fourth company did things change. Captain Democritus choose the tight confines at the edge of Hive Tempest to engage the horde. They only had to slow the advance long enough for more evacuation transports to get away.

A couple nights ago my mate Joel came over for a game. he had asked me for a 3,000 point game and for some crazy reason I said yes. I hate large scale games with a passion. They are generally far too twinky and take an age to complete. But I had said yes. I decided to play a lot more infantry than usual, taking an third tactical squad, a 9-man squad of terminators, 9 man squad of assault termines split between lightning claws and thunder hammers, and upping my scout squad to ten men. Dropped the predator for a vidicator, and added in a dreadnought.

Then I found out that he had brought his Tyranids.

Joy.

We rolled the kill point style mission and that gods awful table quarter one! Why GW? WHY? We both had barely enough room to place everything. I also suggested that we roll for a battlefield trait since they will be used in the upcoming league, and we got a toxic miasma which meant all close combat attacks were poisoned (4+). This hurt his MC's a lot.

Once the game got underway it wasn't so bad and my marines did an awful lot better than I expected though Joel had his usual twinky luck. He got first turn and I lost the vidicator to tyrant guard, and a load of marines and termies to spore mines. Couldn't have put the termies in reserve because there just wasn't the room on the table to risk it.

Game went to turn five after about three hours of play. All I had left was the scout squad who hadn't been touched and quite frankly were my unit of the day. They did awesome. The sheer number of monstrous creatrues hurt me badly but the poisoned wounds did make any combats easier for me.

I called it after turn 5 due to there being no point in continuing.

Good game and actually reasonably fun, but never again at that point value.

Codex comparrisons - part 3

Sisters of Battle.
All I can say about this army list is that it desperately needs a proper codex and not a white dwarf article. At the moment it is woefully lacking in everything. They don't have enough options for vehicles, no flyers and not enough options for their infantry choices. Under 6th they should probably be put away until GW give them a proper book.

Space Marines.
The Space Marines have gained something this time around! Yay! Moving and firing a heavy weapon, being able to overwatch and the host of new psychic disciples have bumped up their playability now. Their tanks are more survivable under the hull point system though you do have to adapt your thoughts to rhinos and realise that they are there to get you half way up the table now. If they survive then yay. Obviously this applies to the other space marine codex as well but I included it here because it is a boost for this codex. Since 6th I have had much more luck and won more games than I ever did under 5th. The changes have been good for them. Tactical squads still need close combat weapons or the option to take them though.

Space Wolves.
This army was a nightmare under 5th and have got worse under 6th. Although the new edition has made the right move and favours shooting over combat, Space Wolves are still IMO the best close combat army in the game. It's for this reason that they are the commonest ally I see taken by other players.
They get so many options for weapon load outs that they can almost cherry pick like Eldar do. Their rune priests can deny the witch in an area on a 4+ which is just crazy. Long Fangs can split fire with heavy weapons which is a huge bonus.
I think 6th edition has done this codex very well.

Tau Empire.
Under 5th the Tau army has always been a one trick pony - they sit back and shoot with scary accuracy. Close combat screwed them severly and that was an opponents saving grace. 6th edition has changed that. The codex still desperately needs an update but can now hold it's own a lot more. Overwatch has helped stem the assault problems and they can pick vehicles apart a lot better. Much like with Space Wolves, I fully expect the Tau to end up relegated to the ally detachment until they get a new book.

Tyranids.
Under 5th the Tyranids were yet another nightmare to deal with. They don't have good shooting so they became crazy good at close combat, as you would expect. However I feel that they were made too good. The current codex did a nice job of toning them down and bringing them to an equal level with everyone else. The problem, once again, is that some units have become obsolete. Genestealers won't see use under 6th and why take carnifexes when trygons are a better option?
Overwatch has been a balancing factor for other armies but if you get into close combat with tyranids you can just count your unit as a speed bump.
Tyranids are still a really tough army to play against and have come through 6th edition in  a good way. As with many codexes, it will just take players time to work out what does and doesn't work any more. Like the hive, they'll have to adapt.

The Stygia Campaign

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to some bods from the club (I forget who unfortunately) and the topic of how you could have a planetary campaign featuring all factions came up. Many years ago that is exactly what I planned for a couple of campaigns that we ran. Hunting through my files I found the backstory I had written for it. Just for enterainments sake here is the Stygian Campaign.

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Armageddon. Cadia. Vraks. Macgragge. These are wars so vast that no one will ever forget them. Now, in the waning years of the Imperium a new name has been added to that list, Stygia. A world located deep in the heart of the Ghoul Stars. A world that has become the centre point for every major power in the galaxy. A world whose fate may very well spell the salvation or damnation for the entire universe.

            Thousands of years before mankind crawled from the seas, the Eldar race had already been instrumental in the banishment of the Necrontyr, but found the universe still beset by warp entities from the Immaterium. Their seers knew of the Chaos Gods, and foresaw a time when the ruinous powers could collapse the walls between worlds and all would be lost. They scoured worlds where daemonic incursions had destroyed native species and laid traps for the most powerful daemons, drawing them from the warp and containing their essences within specially prepared devices called the Amarth-Thame ("Apocalypse Box"). By the time the seers declared an end to their work, they had contained the spirits of thousands of powerful warp entities within these devices. Now they needed somewhere to hide them away. Such a place was found along the rim of the galaxy, a newly forming world still primordial with a surface of molten rock. The Amarth-Thame were dropped into the churning core of the planet, hidden away but protected from the untamed forces of creation. Within a few generations knowledge of the Amarth-Thame had been forgotten amongst the petty desires of the Eldar race. The world that would be Stygia cooled and solidified. The artifacts were distributed across its surface, deep beneath the ground. Here the contained daemons slumbered and awaited a time when they would be freed to extract their wrath upon the galaxy.

Stygia was first discovered by humanity in M24 when a colony ship, the Endeavour, was swept of course in the warp by powerful storms that buffeted and pushed the ship far off its intended route. When finally, the ship's navigator was able to punch a hole back into the material universe they were in a region of space dominated by ancient and dying stars. Too far from Earth or its other colonies to make contact, the colonists looked for a new home out here. They found Stygia, a beautiful green world with vibrant blue oceans. After a brief exploration, this is where they decided to make their new home.

In M31, an exploratory ship moving ahead of the Great Crusade located Stygia and its colony. What they found disturbed the crew greatly. The colonists were living a simple lifestyle, living off the land but almost a third of the population exhibited mutation or unchecked psychic potential. The mutants, though accepted by their human counterparts, lived separate to them and had thus slowed the unnatural evolution of the humans on the planet. The world was logged but all concerns were swept aside when in the following year the Imperium was plunged into civil war. The Horus Heresy had begun.

Once again, Stygia was forgotten until 812.M41 when records of the planets existence were uncovered by an accident in the great libraries of the Administratum on Holy Terra. For some time now, space marines of the Death Spectres chapter had been stationed near the Ghoul Stars, fending off incursions from daemons and other warp entities, and word was dispatched to them to investigate the current situation on Stygia. When they arrived, they found that mutation had spread further through the population though no direct cause could be attributed. Those who were heavily mutated or were identified as latent psykers were eradicated by the Death Spectres and the planet forcibly converted into the Imperium. Local system lord, Salem Draco, paid a visit to the planet and decided that it would be perfect for an agri-colony, supplying the nearby systems with an abundance of food. The locals were put to work working the newly planted fields, or in the mines pulling precious ores to the surface. The surviving mutants, manyclassified as "beast men", fled into the untamed forests and hills to escape persecution or extermination. The planetary governor, Exon Valdez, set up his palace in the newly constructed city of Bludhaven.

Several years later, miners working the Drakkensgraab mines unearth and bring to the surface an unusual object bearing xenos markings. The first Amarth-Thame had been pulled from its resting place beneath Stygia. Concerned by this turn of events, Exon has the artifact dispatched to an Inquisitorial facility in a nearby system. Scholars of the Ordo Hereticus determined that the object was of Eldar manufacture and that the runes were of containment, and that they held the essence of Chaos. The Amarth-Thame was quickly secured within their fortress library behind multiple purity seals, for safekeeping. Over the next one hundred and fifty years, several more of these artifacts are uncovered and the concerns of the Inquisition grow.

Events come to a head in early 999.M41 when suddenly and without warning all the Amarth-Thame began to broadcast a psychic scream that penetrated the minds of all on Stygia. The scream echoes into the warp, affecting psykers across the galaxy, disturbing the sleep of ancient evils and drawing the armies of Chaos like bees to honey. Even the Tau whose species have no psykers were able to hear this call, though faintly. The Eldar farseers are affected worse than any other, feeling the rage of a thousand trapped daemons flooding through their souls. The Amarth-Thame have been unearthed and awakened.

Now, in the last days of the 41st millennium, every major race has descended upon Stygia.

Why We Fight…

Chaos Marines & Chaos Daemons.

The call of the daemons trapped within the Apocalypse Boxes has reached across the galaxy. Touching the minds of all who serve the Ruinous Powers, it calls them to battle, plunder and fire. Fleets of traitor ships are leaving the Eye of Terror, the Maelstrom, and their strongholds throughout the galaxy are heading towards the Ghoul Stars. Daemons claw their way through the weak fabric of reality, stepping onto the surface of Stygia. Soon this world will burn and the entities within the Amarth-Thame will be freed.

Grey Knights & Sisters of Battle.

The Inquisition has been aware that something is afoot on Stygia for some time and has planned for just such an event. Grey Knights and Inquisitorial forces have been drawn from their secret places and now bolster the defences of Stygia. Under the guidance of one High Inquisitor Butlerian, the armies of the Inquisition fight to uncover and safely deal with the xenos artifacts and any heretic forces that have arrived.

Dark Eldar.

The Dark Eldar have raided Stygia for centuries, taking slaves and generating fear among the colonists. Drawn again to Stygia by the cry of the Amarth-Thame, these piratical Eldar see the war as a great opportunity to conduct their attacks with impunity. Let the lesser races fight one another, while they sow disorder and reap the benefits.

Eldar.

Memories of the Amarth-Thame have resurfaced and the Elder rush to Stygia. They have found the foolish humans uncovering things better left alone. Reading the fickle winds of fate, the seers of the Eldar know that this war will determine the fate of the entire galaxy. Either humanity will rise from this stronger or else they will usher in a new age of Chaos. Neither event favours the Eldar, but they cannot sit back and do nothing. The Eldar ride to war.

Necrons.

The psychic scream of the Amarth-Thame have disturbed the Necron who still slumber under dead worlds in the Ghoul Stars. The psychic scream interferes with their machines, awaking them early and causing great pain. The Necrons have begun to materialise upon Stygia, harvesting life forces and seeking a way to silence the incessant scream that interferes with their operation.

Orks.

Orks are drawn to conflict, and even they sense that something big is going down. Across the galaxy Orks are leaving battlefields to follow larger fleets that are headed into the rim of known space. Most Ork vessels are destroyed before reaching orbit but a few have managed to get past the great fleets above and crash into the surface of Stygia. It matters not to the Orks what this fight is about, they just won't be left out of it.

Space Marines & Imperial Guard.

The might of the Emperor's finest have been redirected to Stygia by the planetary governor and the Inquisition. The PDF has been augmented by troops from Cadia, Valhalla and other fortress worlds, while companies of Space Marines are deployed across the surface of Stygia. This world belongs to the Emperor and they fight to ensure it remains so.

Tau.

The Tau high command has sensed an opportunity with the growing conflict on Stygia. Their race has no knowledge of warp travel, but intercepted communications hint at the presence of artifacts from the warp. If such artifacts could be recovered and returned to the enclaves, the Tau would gain a significant advantage. Under cover, the Tau have managed to sneak a force onto the surface of Stygia in an effort to recover the Amarth-Thame for the Greater Good.

Tyranids.

The psychic scream of Amarth-Thame has even blotted out the shadow in the warp. Disorientated and lost without a connection to the greater hive mind, a Tyranid bio-ship entered the Stygia system and was engaged by picket vessels of the Imperium. Confused, the ship was no match for the enemy and crashed through the atmosphere, its carcass spewing spores in a last ditch effort to ensure the survival of its brood. However, the Amarth-Thame have prevented the emergent Tyranids from connecting to a single hive mind and those hives that have sprung up and survived have become single entities. Reports from the Ordos Xenos have even indicated that rival hives have fought and consumed one another in a savage survival of the fittest.

Battle Report

Last night at the club I played a friendly game against Joel. His first game of 6th edition. I played my 1500pt default list of marines, and he played a Tyranid list. I was expecting to face Eldar with wraithguard and wraithlords so this was kinda nice.

The deployment was the awful table corners (I forget the name) and the mission was three objectives. We both put an objective in our table corners and I had the third which I put as close to my side as I could hoping to keep them from the oncoming horde.

With his initial deployment of guants and a tervigon I was a little concerned but ultimately it didn't prove as irritating as it used to under 5th ed for some reason. First turn was night fight so I just tried to knock some wounds off his tervigon and he just crept forward.

Turn 2 and I continued to pour fire into the gaunts dropping loads of them and holding him back. His turn saw a winged hive tyrant, trygon and two zoanthropes (mycetic spores) drop out of reserve. The Trygon fires bioplasma and drops most of my scout squad guarding my main objective. The hive tyrant destroys one rhino leaving the marines standing in a crater pointing their guns at him. Zoanthropes knock a HP from the land raider redeemer.

Turn 3 and my Stormtalon turns up and blows the snot out of the trygon, and the scouts drop it to 1 wound remaining. Stormbolter on a rhino forced the winged hive tyrant to make a check which it failed, falling to the ground and taking a wound. The squad just a few inches away unload everything and slay the beast! Yay me! My captain and TH/SS terminators leap from my land raider and assault the zoanthropes who die far too easily.
His trygon assaults the scouts and kills them with ease, and the gaunts try to assault but three squads of them fail to reach even average distance and just sit there. At this point I think the game is likely to be a draw as we both hold an objective, he has first blood and I have the warlord kill, with the third objective likely to be contested.

Turn 4 his gaunts surround my terminators and assault them in huge waves, and the other squads leap onto the squad in the open. My second tactical squad retreats to hold my primary objective. Predator shots kill the trygon, and the Stormtalon hovers and opens fire onto the one gaunt squad it can still fire at.
His shooting takes out the Stormtalon which was irritating, but it had done well enough that I'm not complaining. His turn was pretty much just combat slowly whittling away at the two squads he's fighting.

Turn 5 was more combat and then finally he took out my captain and terminators and consolidated into my deployment zone. Matt rolled the dice and the game ended giving Joel the 1vp he needed to win.

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For some reason which I can't quite fathom this game was much easier than any other game I've had against tyranids. The only thing I can think of is that the overwatch and random charge helped me keep them back long enough to give me extra turns. Also, the trygon and hive tyrants have never been so easy to kill. Perhaps it was the plasma rather than meltas that helped?

Joel is not an easy opponent and he takes his fairly lengthy time but that was a good game.

Musings

Earlier today my friend Matt posted this link to his blog. I thought I'd put my thoughts to some of it.

http://natfka.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/faeit-212-exclusive-40k-design-studio.html

Q1. What were the key objectives of 6th Edition?The ultimate goal of 6th edition according to Jervis was to tackle what both he and Matt described as ‘Associative and Disassociative’ rules and to add more realism to the game.

E.g. If a poisoned dagger had +1 WS in close combat, that would be deemed ‘dissacoiatve’ as it makes little sense. However, if it gave you a re-roll to wound, that would be ‘associative’ as it would capture the essence of a poisoned attack being made and potentially causing damage as a result of it being laced with some horrifying toxin.
Other examples of ‘associative’ rules included the abiltiy to throw grenades and the distinction between different power weapons. By making certain rules ‘associative’, the game adds more ‘weight’ to the feel of units on the table. Flyers crashing to the ground is another example of this, as is wound allocation in shooting (models vanishing from the front of units and not the back), Its all about realism.
Realism is a fine goal but not to the point where it causes issues. If you want a hardcore realistic wargame you wouldn't play Warhammer 40K. You'd go find Platoon Leader or something. Games designers should just follow the K.I.S.S. rule (Keep It Simple Stupid!). Sadly they never do.

Q4. Why Hull Points?
According to Matt Ward, vehicles in previous editions didn’t seem to fit very well with the rest of the game system and made for odd and peculiar situations. He mentioned that there was little granularity to the vehicle rules compared to other unit types. The addition of Hull Points is therefore used to make vehicles more inclusive during a game and give them a continued presence even after having taken a few direct hits. Jervis said that it flattened out the extremes. Vehicles used to get obliterated in turn one or take damage that would render them ineffective for a turn or two which really didn’t flow too well. Hull Points therefore allow players to enjoy the attributes of their expensive vehicles without them vanishing off the table having done virtually nothing.
The only reason that vehicles don't fit very well is because they are too easy to take down. I repeat myself a lot with this but for the points you pay for them they need more survivability. Hull points is not helping in this regard. Would have been better to leave vehicles as they were rather than screw them up like this.

Q6. Why allies and fortifications?
Jervis said that the old fluff in previous editions made many references to scenarios where different races forged alliances in various situations. He felt that later editions had polarised armies and made them rather restricted. They want to open up the game as a means to circumvent some of those restrictions and allow for more diverse tactics on the table. The fluff can now follow on and provide literature that encompasses those often tenuous alliances. Many alliances have obvious narrative value.
Makes sense. Just not when Matt Ward is writing them. The addition of allies to the game was a really good idea but could have been handled better. A lot of the possible combinations would just never happen at least not often enough to have been included.

In terms of fortifications, Jervis considered these beautiful plastic kits as somewhat wasted given their aesthetic value on the table. Giving these kits rules and points values feeds into the ‘associative’ aspect of 6th edition. I do agree here as I often wished for rules regarding the 5 massive quad guns in my terrain box!

It also puts cash in GW's pockets. But saying that, I also like it. Now we just need some non-Imperial terrain/fortifications.

Q7. How difficult was it to add flyer rules into the game?
Matt Ward picked this one up. He said that it was relatively simple given that flyers were an extension to the revised vehicle rules. The team said that they had an idea of the mechanic due to Apocalypse but held off until 6th to fully include them. Seems as though they had been toying with the idea in 5th but the rest of the rules didn’t allow for it too well.
Forge World already had decent Flyer rules. Why not just use theirs?

Q8. Why Challenges?
The team wanted to create the sense that characters were leading their troops into battle and not just skulking around at the back of units. It also gave lesser characters (i.e. SM sergeants) the opportunity to exhibit moments of heroics (leaping in to save their captain with one wound left from a rampaging Daemon Prince for example).

Space Marine sergeants exhibiting heroics just before being pummeled into the ground by a character ten times their point costs! Challenges should have been left out entirely or be only for named characters.

Some extra tidbits:
· The reason that charges are not allowed on Deep Strike is to prevent the utter predictability of mega-hard units appearing anywhere and destroying whatever they want every game. There was a possible hint about Genestealers being able to do this at some point in the future!
GW whatever you don't don't let Genestealers become the overpowered close combat option again. Tyranids are nicely balanced right now. Don't screw it up.

I spoke to Matt Ward in person after the seminar and I really must emphasise that he’s a really nice, polite and engaging fellow who doesn't deserve the flak he gets from some members of the community. He deserves praise for his role in bringing us 6th edition.

How much were you paid to say this? Seriously, Matt Ward should be kept away from anything 40K related. Back away from the game now.

He explained that rule setting is always going to be ‘a moving target’ and what works for one person is going to upset another. He said that there were many things that were out of his hands because business decisions have to be taken into account when developing game systems and rules.

Fair enough. It's always going to be a case of "someone is f***ing with my game". We can grumble all we want but editions change.

A couple of key points that came out of that conversation:

· Flak Missiles are currently unavailable to all armies, but we’ll soon see them filtering through into the game.

Or GW, you could have just added a line or two to each of the 6th ed FAQs giving them to missile lauchers for X points. Sorted.

· He spoke about Tyranids being a tad difficult to work with as they have (in the past) been a little one dimensional (i.e charge everyone into CC). He made a point about there being no vehicle rules in the Tyranid army and that its monsterous creatures need to be able to kill Daemon Princes so how do you balance it out? We shall see!

Charge into everything is what they do. Don't change that. As for MC's taking down Daemon Princes, well they can do anyway. Not as well as they used to but why should they get special treatment?

Next I spoke to Phil Kelly (the dude) who again is a really sound guy (and by the way - he isn't leaving GW).

Phil said that there are currently 6 ‘projects’ on the go for 40k. I think he was referring to Codex’s. I asked him about Tyranids too and he said (rather excitedly) that he has ‘some really great ideas up his sleeve’ for the Nids. Sounds encouraging! It's worth noting that everyone I spoke to in the design team understands the need for Nids to get a boost.
Tyranids don't need an update. Tau, Space Marines and Eldar do. Let's get them out of the way first please.

He also shared his personal opinion on 5th edition and said (with the greatest of respect) that Alessio Cavorte seemed to want to make the game more competitive and simplified. He thought that this made the game a little to flat and generic in its function (which I personally agreed with). His words were that it ‘lost its craziness’. 6th has therefore moved to address this and give more feel and character to the units and the game as a whole.

Cavorte did the right thing with 5th edition. Simple is the way to go. 5th was not a flat and generic game. It was the most fun version of the game we have had so far. 6th is a step in the wrong direction as far as I am concerned.
It does seem to be a consensus amongst GW staff that 2nd was a great edition in many ways (although obviously broken in others).

I think they were having a laugh. 2nd was the biggest pile of pants 40K has ever seen. The sooner people realise that and stop looking back with rose-tinted glasses the better.

One other exciting thing that he mentioned was the release of expansions. He said that one example of an idea floating around is the introduction of relic’s which could be (for example) wargear from the Horus Heresry era, usable in today's battles. Possibly a new book or expansion but still just an idea at the moment.

Interesting. Would have to see how it works though. Remember what I said about simple not complex.


Lastly I spoke to Robin Cruddace. I asked him about GW’s release schedule and to my utter amazement, he said that they were aiming for some sort of release each month. Be it a codex or some sort of expansion. I would be surprised if this were true!

He said that there would most likely need to be a larger number of expansions between now and 4 years time so that you don’t reach a point where all codex’s for 6th are released with 2 years still to go before the next cycle. Take that how you will

Oh dear. I can see this being a bad move. You don't need loads of expansions.

Rankings

Over on the 40K forums site there has been a recent discussion with posters ranking the codexes. I've not taken part but I have read through it and here is my list from top to bottom (top being best).

Chaos Space Marines.
Grey Knights.
Tyranids.
Blood Angels.
Space Wolves.
Eldar.
Dark Eldar.
Chaos Daemons.
Imperial Guard.
Necrons.
Dark Angels.
Orks.
Tau Empire.
Sisters of Battle.
Space Marines.
Black Templars.

That's how I would list them. How would you?

Tyranid codex review

New Tyranid and Space Wolf models

Looks like a German White Dwarf magazine, but we have a tyrannofex/tervigon kit, winged hive tyrant, and fenrisian wolves.

The link is here.