Well is see Gaunts as cannon-fodder. Huge numbers to bulk up a swarm (to gain outnumbering bonus in assaults). If they kill something the better. But the real killing comes from the bigger bugs.

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First of all, thanks for an interesting evolution. Many changes seem promising, but am i interpreting "rounding down" right if 1 dead gaunt counts as 0 for assault resolution, 3 as 1 and so on?

/Fredmans

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Yes, I agree with what you're saying, but I'm not sure that it addresses my original point: gaunts were even more useful when they could serve as meat shields for the warriors.  They were cannon-fodder before, their utility as cannon fodder has diminished because the (Now) LV tyranid warriors can now be targeted by AT fire.  

If part of the intent of the 9.2 changes was to diminish the usefulness of gaunts... fine.  Chroma suggests that part of the idea was to allow for more sniping against warriors: I'm not sure how this will play out... though I guess my basic concern is that the more the army list skews toward large brood creatures and large groups of synapse creatures, the more it becomes a 'monsters, inc.' list -- bio versions of imperial guard armored columns -- rather than a tyranid list intended to represent billions of bugs carried in millions of landing ships.

... that said, given the shortage of plastic gaunts, perhaps the 'monsters inc.' list is more practical.

Read the swarms rule again... it's Brood creatures that are not in an Independent Swarm that test for "control range"; those that *are* in an Independent Swarm, don't have to test... so Subterranean and Harrassment Swarms can move and attack normally... they just take Blast markers for casualties as there's no Synapse present.

No need for tunnelling Synapse.

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So that's the reason that there is no Independent stated in the notes section of the unit

But i think the Tyranid Swarms section has to be rewordet to make it more clear.
Else Synapses would "steal" Brood creatures from Independent Swarms. Or is this intended?

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Good points. A further iteration re 'stealing' brood creatures: do independent brood creatures -- gargs and raveners, for example -- respawn?  Do they respawn to a synapse and then become regular brood creatures?  In terms of modeling, is it necessary to distinguish brood creatures bought as independent from their dependent brethren?

On closer inspection I'm even less impressed, sorry.

Everything has been nerfed, especially the stuff that was sub-par to begin with.
Best way to show this is my 9.1 list.

Hive Group 1xDominatrix. Synapse 475
No competitive change (thankfully), though the change to the Bio-Plasma is pretty boring- simplicity can be good in moderation, but it's not the sole goal of game design, otherwise we can play chess.

Attack Group 1xHive Tyrant. Synapse 100
No competitive change (thankfully), looking to be my only reliable Synapse outside of Dom.

Assault Group 3xWarrior. Synapse 150
Assault Group 3xWarrior. Synapse 150
Light Vehicle- the death cry of a unit. Well, these are utterly pointless now. I can get more resilient vehicle synapse in the form of Hive Tyrants, and faster in the form of Winged Hive Tyrants. If I have to shell out on protective vehicles (Carnifex, Haruspex) for the Warriors, I might as well replace the Warriors with more resilient Synapse. A real shame- I like horde nids, not Nidzilla.

Infestation Group 1xSynapse Node. Synapse 125
Nerfed to 3 DC instead of 4, same cost. No idea why, but this theme of random nerfage runs throughout the list. I'll still keep it as a great blitzkrieg protector.

Gargoyle Flock 4xGargoyle. Brood 100
Nerfed to 3 units instead of 4, same cost. Shrug.

Termagant Cluster 4xTermagant. Brood 75
Termagant Cluster 4xTermagant. Brood 75
Termagant Cluster 4xTermagant. Brood 75
Termagant Cluster 4xTermagant. Brood 75
Termagant Cluster 4xTermagant. Brood 75
Nerfed to 3 units each instead of 4, same cost. Could be worse, they could be Hormagaunts- simultaneously boosted in pts and nerfed to 3 over 4...
I'll take them, purely because I have no choice.

Carnifex Cluster 3xCarnifex. Brood 125
Mercifully avoided the nerfs.

Bio-Artillery Cluster 2xDactylis. Brood 150
Speed 20cm- so can no longer garrison, so weapon range is suspect. They where a so-so choice for me before, now they serve no purpose. Gone.

Heirodule Cluster 2xBarbed Heirodule. Brood 250
These will have to be 2 separate choices, so forcing more Gaunts. I'll take this one on the chin, as it does reduce Nidzilla and 'encourage' more hordes. A stealth nerf is that needing 9 they will never respawn.

Genestealer Swarm 6xGenestealers. Independent. 150
Spared the nerf, but kind of pointless before (watch Genies trying to hurt a Skimmer Spaff Eldar army). I put them in for spare pts, so I'll keep them for the same reason.

Bio-Titan Swarm 1xHeirophant Titan. Independent. 275
Bio-Titan Swarm 1xHeirophant Titan. Independent. 275
Spared the nerf, they are still the best units in the list.

Lictor Swarm 3xLictor. Independent. 150
Lictor Swarm 3xLictor. Independent. 150
Hit with the nerf bat, no longer scoring, no longer able to reliably kill the one unit they charge. I guess the nerf is partly justified, they where amazing rear line harassment units, suicidal but boy did they take down what they hit.


I started on a 9.2 list but frankly lost interest whilst going through the above wave of nerfs. Whether it was the disappointment that I built and painted Warriors, Dactylis and Lictors for no reason, or just that this list is basically half the 9.1 list when the 9.1 list struggled to win before I don't know.

Can someone point me to the boosts or positive changes that 9.2 got?

You did notice that Termagants counts as "half" for kills in assaults and that Hormagaunts have two attacks instead of one now, I hope... so they've both been improved.  The the reduction of clutches to "three" is because of the, very faint, hope of a Tyranid sprue re-release.

Any "assault focused" unit is going to have difficulty with "Skimmer Spaff Eldar army"... I'd love to hear a plausible reason for giving a firefight value to Genestealers or Lictors... but I don't think you'll be able to.

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You did notice that Termagants counts as "half" for kills in assaults and that Hormagaunts have two attacks instead of one now, I hope... so they've both been improved.  The the reduction of clutches to "three" is because of the, very faint, hope of a Tyranid sprue re-release.

Because it's easier to drop points if it's a problem than to raise them.  So, both Gaunt types got a boost and a point "increase"... I'm pretty sure people would've initially balked if they were 50 points a clutch... but playtesting may show that to be valid.

Heck, with the "nerf", "Assault Groups" might be better priced at 100 points, but, again, I'd want to see game results, not just "LVs suck!"

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I'd love it if the Scream-Killer had no firefight... but the Carnifex is supposed to represent a "merging" of various types, so we don't need to stat up a whole bunch of Carnie phenotypes... I think I've got a list of five or six "Carnifex variants" already, but adding them will just muddy the waters at this time.

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Because it's easier to drop points if it's a problem than to raise them.  So, both Gaunt types got a boost and a point "increase"... I'm pretty sure people would've initially balked if they were 50 points a clutch... but playtesting may show that to be valid.

Heck, with the "nerf", "Assault Groups" might be better priced at 100 points, but, again, I'd want to see game results, not just "LVs suck!"

Note that in v9.2, a Synapse Swarm that loses its Synapse creatures is *NOT* destroyed in assaults or after moves; it can still act and be picked up in the End Phase by another Synapse creature... that's a big improvement over v9.1.

I for one, know that a formation of Gaunts with Light Vehicle Warriors is asking for a quick slap of AT fire to neutralise it.

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