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All this talk about creatures just wandering around aimlessly and popping into existence randomly is just plain silly.
Spawning is an abstraction, pure and simple. ?Because of the facts that:
--Tyranids almost ALWAYS act last (SR 1), except possibly against IG/Orks
--Tyranids have virtually no effective shooting (in the last 3 games I can count the number of actual shooting casualties I have caused on my hands and have fingers left over)
--Much of the Tyranid list is VERY slow (15-20cm on the vast majority of models, as opposed to othr races vehicles, transports, etc.)
...Tyranids get to spawn some casualties back. ?Thats the main reason. ?My opponents are learning a couple things very quickly. ?Yes, those Warriors may get to Spawn back 3 more Gaunt stands...doesn't help much when you kill 12 of them in a turn. ?Yes, I can bring back a Carni or two...but not all 4 of them you just killed. ?I can even bring back a Hierodule...assuming I am using a Dominatrix with no enemy within 30cm and near a Brood Nest.
When Spawning is really overwhelming is when your opponent is killing 3-4 stands of little things a turn from each Swarm, then you get all or most of them back. ?But thats just poor tactics. ?Its not as if every army in existence can't outmaneuver the 15cm move on the Warriors leading the Swarm, or simply engage them with superior FF numbers and drive them Instinctive.
As for the actual mechanisms of the Spawning action, who cares? ?My Gods, but worrying about that is nothing but hyper anal nit-picking. ?Its a massive Tyranid invasion of a planet. ?Tyranids don't do things half-assed, last time I checked.
There will be swarms of Gaunts and other lesser creatures everywhere. ?Some larger creatures will be with them, such as Fexes and Slugs with Guns, lurking and hunting. ?Large spawnings (multiple Fexes, for example, or a Trygon or Hierodule) are nothing more complex than a Mycetic Spore drop.
Hive mind surveys the battlefield from orbit, through the eyes of every Tyranid in Synapse range, all at once..."Oh dear. ?The Dominatrix over by the city has lost one of its bodyguard Hierodules. ?I'd best drop another one down to protect it...its far too valuable to lose."
Whoosh. ?Mycetic Spore drop from orbit. ?Oops. ?Failed your Spawning check? ?That Lunar Cruiser must have intercepted the Hive Ship and distracted it or injured it enough that the drop never happened.
Its all just an abstraction. ?If you get bogged down into details of fluff, you lose sight of the most important thing...do the rules work, and are they fair?
Again and again I say this...let the fluff (stories, 40k armies, whatever) guide us, not force us to march lock-step with it. ?Its a place to start, not the final word.
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