What evil lurks in the hearts of man? The broodlord knows
Ok folks the job is done, and that was in under 24 hours
We cannot hope to bang out anything, list wise, until we have a working set of special rules common to all of them.........period.
I am going to start by digesting all of the ideas posted thus far, so give me some time to do it, but I am going to say the following and I am ready for comments on them. That said these are the 'cardinal rules' I feel the list must follow.
(1) Spawning: This creates the 'endless horde of bugs feel' that is a vital part of the Nid list. It stays or it really isn't a bug list.
(2) Weak AA/Air: As Jervis once said, and I agree with him, an army list is defined more by its weaknesses then anything else. Anyone can design a power list, it takes talent to design one that isn't a power list. I know there is enough talent here to accomplish this task.
(3) Overall Low in Firepower: This doesn't mean that the Nids don't have ranged weapons worth the name. It does mean that a Nid player that tries to max out on firepower will lose every time they try it. One way to accomplish this is to ensure the Nid high firepower units are dead poor in assaults (both firefight and close combat) and dead meat if they are shot at. In other words they have to be protected from everything. This does not apply to units whose base weapon range is 30cm or less.
(4) Purestrain: Bugs are pure specialists...........period. Each bug type has ONE function in the swarm, if one wants flexibility it has to be built in at the swarm level and NOT in the individual units.
(5) Fixed Spawning: It has been too long that I have allowed the 'Super Spawn Shift' to go on, a problem I noticed a long time ago when I was in charge of the list. Basically a Nid player could use spawning to completely shift their point of attack, both during a turn and in between turns. Too many times I have seen opponents bust their noses off blasting a Nid flank into the ground during a turn only to have every killed Bug, from across the table, suddenly 'appear' right in front of them destroying all their hard earned advantage. It ends now and becomes more limited in flexibility.
Some concerns I have already quickly noted and will comment on.........
"It always seems that the Nid army is a bunch of little critters with a leavening of bio-tanks"This, to me, is much like comparing the Ork Horde Army to the Kult of Speed Army. NOTHING says we cannot, or that the Nids wouldn't be able, to put together a different type of horde army. So the Nids can, BUT my feelings right now are we have to bang out the Little Critter Bug Horde List first. The others can follow on later. Does this mean individual players/groups should avoid trying to bang together another type of list? No, in fact I encourage them to experiment, and even post me a question or two on advice and I will answer. They will be the 'frontiersmen' laying the ground work for that list WHEN the horde list is done.
What about the Old Nids and the New Nids, what do we do?One thing unique about the Tyranid Army is, unlike other armies of the 41st millenium, they evolve right before the Imperial Scholars eyes. We don't even have to rationalize the change from the old lists to the new lists because the GW has already taken that into account by allowing the Nids to quickly evolve while the rest of the armies remain pretty much stagnent by comparison. Combining the old and the new is sheer suicide, just too many units to try to play balance when we don't have to. Better instead to create two, three, or even four horde lists to cover the evolution of the Nid Army over time. For now I would like to concentrate our efforts on two very basic Old and New Horde lists, then lets see where that takes us.
What about the differences of opinion on special rules?See that is my job, to make those tough decisions. Doesn't mean I am going to be right all the time, and heck those who have known me for a long time know I am smart enough to see it when I have been wrong. But it does mean everyone that wants this project to succeed is going to have to acceed to my decisions. This doesn't mean I have a closed mind once a decision is made, I can change it IF one can prove it was wrong, or a dumb idea, and I have had a few of those
Basically I will be providing us all with unity of effort by being the boss bug. I can assure all of you that working together we will accomplish much more then if we are always butting heads to get what we want.
I am looking forward to working, once again, with the old Epic Gronards and the new Epic posters here.
Cheers All,
Jaldon
