Tyranids First and Not-so-First Impressions - A guest article

So the new Tyranids have been out a couple of weeks now, and me and the rest of the Tyranid players are slowly but surely rising out of the craters following the bombing that was the first impressions of the new codex. I'm not gonna lie, it was bad. Things had been removed, stuff that was good had been nerfed, and the new things in the codex seemed lackluster to say the least. I'm sure I wasn't alone in sending slightly angry e-mails to Games Workshop asking them what the playtesters of this mess had been smoking, but deep inside we knew nothing was going to change.

The new models were on their way, so I figured I would just ignore all the bad things I had been reading myself and that others had been telling me and just go for it. Try to make it work. I had noticed things like the Venomthrope being buffed, and some new statlines that could work (including the BS4 Hive Tyrants. Lovely!) so I tried to feel as positive as I could as I prepared for my first game with the new bugs, which so happened to be against the very person owning this here blog!

I was stunned, really, I was. Things were going really well. I was dodging shots left and right with my 3+ cover saves from the Venomthrope/Intervening models combo I had figured out, and my shooting went very well, with Warp Blasts from my Zoanthrope piercing Centurion armor, and my Hive Tyrant's Venom Cannon killing regular Marines. Slowly and steady I was stomping my way up the table, and soon enough I was ready to charge. The assaults went well, and with the constant spawning my Tervigon did, I never really ran out of cover for my bigger creatures. The game ended with a pretty crushing victory for the Hive Mind. ”New-codex-luck”? Maybe, but it had gone really well, and I felt pretty damn good.

The next targets for my dear Tyranids were the Orks of a player another town over. I had heard to be careful when playing against him from some of his friends and this time, I thought, the new Nids were going to meet their doom. This game was longer than the one with Mike, so I won't go into detail, but I won this game too! 2-1 in victory points, so not a huge victory, but a victory nonetheless.

So, in short, my first impressions were terrible. I was hugely dissapointed, and I really felt almost betrayed by Game Workshop. They had released a half-baked mess, I thought. However, as I 've played more games with them, they still have that Nids feeling. A lot of bugs, running around, giving cover to the big boys, stomping behind them. Venomthropes is the name of the game now. Venomthropes and lots of shooting. Preferably two Flyrants with devourers. Carnifexes are also really appealing now, being a lot cheaper. So if you were like me kids, and you thought the new Nids were nothing but xeno trash, think again. There is potential, and while many things were indeed nerfed, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised if you really try to create interesting combinations of different units. For the Hive Mind!

-Anders Alléus