Could you be more specific about what you're not "happy" with in the v9.1 list?

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

Was able to do a battle report with the F-ERC list today, read about it here:

French Bugs vs Canadian IG

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

Guy's, for some reason i'm unable to access the french lists as i'm running ubuntu (a linux based system); is anyone able to convert them into a .doc or standard .pdf and email me them? PM if that's possible and i'll give you my address (though think that's in the profile anyway).
Cheers,
R>

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There's an English translation .pdf at the start of this thread, but they've updated since then and I haven't done a new .pdf yet.

The one at the start of the thread gives the general idea of their changes and setup though.

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised with the "French version" Tyranids!  I'm gonna list some pros and cons about it and hope my opponent chimes in as well.

Pros:

- First off, it *felt* like Tyranids... I was worried that they'd just be "Orks Redux", but they didn't feel Orky at all... it was a swarm sweeping (almost) unstoppably forward, not a horde of Boyz on the rampage.

- It's much faster to use: in putting together an army list, deploying it, and using it in play.  A *lot* less dice rolling (not having to constantly roll walker tests was a relief!), no need to check Synapse ranges and such, and "fixed" swarms makes for easy setup without having to pick and choose which Brood goes into which Swarm.

- Not taking Blast markers for coming under fire is *fantastic*!  No more "token" Blast markers slowing the swarms down as Tyranids don't care if you just take potshots at them, you've actually got to do damage to them to get them to notice your efforts.  This may be one of my favourite changes and I didn't miss "Expendable" at all.

- I didn't miss spawning... not one bit.  Spawning has become such a small boost that, in the thick of things, it has little effect.  The Swarms were large enough to begin with not to need it.  And, it's less rolling.  *laugh*

- I *love* Zoanthropes as Synapse creatures with leader, gives them a purpose, maintaining the cohesion of the Swarm, with some shootiness thrown in as well.

Cons:

- Having LV Synapse creatures makes them *really* easy to "snipe" out of Swarms... I really don't think Tyranid Warriors should be LVs... but, if they are, why aren't Lictors and Raveners LVs as they're the same sized "chassis"?

- Raveners with *three* attacks each are insane... which leads to...

- The "French" Tunneling rule is far too easy too abuse: you can drop your Burrowing Swarms almost where ever you like... the Turn 2 limitation has little effect as the enemy will, most likely, be near the centre-line anyway.  I *highly* recommend using the Tunneling special rule in the E:A Rulebook so that the Tyranid player actually has to plan where things are coming up.

- Without a "Deathwind" attack, I don't see a lot of point in using Mycetic Spores at all: you need to activate your space ship first, and that's not guaranteed to even show up (Spaceships don't have Synapse, nor are they classed as  Independent, so that's activating on a 3+... I believe this is probably an oversight), dropping fairly small swarms that you're only going to be able to activate one of before the enemy counter-attacks.  I guess I'd just rather have those Swarms on the board.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable and thought-provoking experience.

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

Glad to see you enjoyed the list Chroma. From my reading of the list you've picked up most of the points I noticed.

I honestly believe this list is a better basis for moving the nids on from now than the 9.x version. We've become so bogged down in the minutae of the list that we've not noticed the big problems, namely the excessive micromanagement of the list.

Spawning, broods swapping formations, synapse range, complex brood construction, walker etc etc are mostly nice ideas but ingame they just slow things down with little benefit.

A simplified reboot like this is just what the nids need.

I do share your concerns about several aspects of the list (particularly tunnelers), but this genuinely seems a better platform to build from to me.

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http://www.troublemakergames.co.uk/
Epic: Hive Development Thread

Hye Guys !

Thanks for the game test. And to give you satisfaction an fun to practise the game. This is our goal
We have done the same reflexion about the same problems.
Today we have play an other game, using "Tunnelers" rules from the Rulebooks, like you explain. And we love it !

Raveners will be "downgrad" (??) one extra attack less and 3+ Assault value (but we are not satisfited about the ravener profil and his cost ... test test test^^)

About LV, the IG army was plenty full of AC shoot. And this a point to keep in mind. In all the games we had played, just 2 or 3 time the swarm were without synapse. Once again we test again and again.

An other point that was put in daylight today , the PI for ally formation near a break formatiion after an assaut is to nulify for the nids.

Thanks from Zed (The Holy Conceptor of this French Brainstorm list, whose english is far more nasty than mine ^^

I just thought of another thing I really liked!

- Lictors, being independent, can only *contest* objectives, not claim them.  Forces them to be more an assault unit not a late game objective grabber.

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

Arg yes a lot of typo mistake !! Sorry:

* Spaceship are independent units (activation on 2+ and not 3+ )
* Lictor are LV (ravener great problem at this time , profil, cost ...)
* We are testing some minor adjust on swarm cost (ex : Hierodule 175/300/450)
* Upgrade for the gaunt swarm 0-2 GT/Zoanthrope becoming 0-1 GT and you could change  as GT as you want in Zoanthrope
* We change independent statut that can control objective and not just contest. Exception for Lictors that can only contest. It was hard to control objectives with only the half of  army's formation ^^
* Mycetic spores certainly add a deathwind rules.

Once again thanks

I think the French list looks interesting. Will stick it on the 'to test' list.

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http://hordesofthings.blogspot.co.nz/

test the list ?
You are welcome markconz ^^

Just a question to chroma : your impression at the spore cheminey ?
Do you have any proposition for modifiate ravener and trygon ?
Ravener with 3attaques is maybe too, but if we downgrad at 2attques, the trygon become the only choise (3+2macro or 6 with ravener )

thank at all TC

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English ? What is this ? a food ?
Epic Ohhh is a love !!!

Got it :-)

Look forward to playing with the updated changes; Chroma's BatRep has inspired me to get my nids done ASAP!

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It really seems that the french list is easier to use. I've played only once with the other list and it was a bit messy. Looking forward to try the french list.

Just took a look; i like it! Boy oh boy is a Hydraphant Nasty' 4TK attakcs you say?!? Yes please!

I'll give it a go as a playtest ASAP but for now I too would like to see Warriors and Zoanthropes bought back to infantry or AV status respectively; as we all know LV's are so fragile i'd be scared (though forced!) to take take them!

I would also add the Taccomm Lictor Sniper attack as this seems very fitting.

Look forward to trying out the WE flyer harridan; nice way of getting round it's CC attacks with the 10cm range; though i beleive that the Harridan could work either way; as a skimmer for gargoyle swarms of as a flyer; I don't like how in 9.1 it's possible to have stuff like Exocrine's and/or hierodules tagging along with it!

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The Walker makes sense as far as saving time, but I was okay with the "Agile" rule back when it was floated.

How often are you pushing Synapse range with your swarms?  Most of the time, it's so obviously in range, we didn't have to check.

Is there really much picking and choosing during setup?  We pretty much designed swarms with the initial setup in mind and there was rarely any change based on the specifics of the particular board/game.

- Not taking Blast markers for coming under fire is *fantastic*!  No more "token" Blast markers slowing the swarms down as Tyranids don't care if you just take potshots at them, you've actually got to do damage to them to get them to notice your efforts.  This may be one of my favourite changes and I didn't miss "Expendable" at all.

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Neal