Quote:
But Gaunts are still important, especially to "bulk up" Tyranid Swarms, in all the games we've played where Gaunts are minimized, the Synapse Swarms get hammered, there's fewer targets for attacks, so they can be concentrated, they often wind up being out-numbered in assaults, and they can't spawn enough back to press on.
To be devoid of Guants means you've got no "cushion" around your swarms, every kill is of something "important" then and your swarms quickly break down. At least that's been my experience.
I can see your point on this- the AP element of enemy firepower is hitting 'valuable' Raveners instead of being diluted in a sea of Gaunts.
I don't think the effect is pronounced enough to encourage people to take more Gaunts thant the minimum needed to take other useful stuff.
As an aside I just don't see Raveners as the main part of a Tyranid army, with Gaunts a poor second, but we seem to disagree on this. I want the Ravener as a novelty like Genestealers or Lictors- a unit with a cool niche, but not the core of the army. You keep putting cases forward to say the Ravener is the core of the Nid army by making it the best at all the roles the Gaunts try to do, then making it irreplacable as a LV bullet shield for Warriors.
Quote:
Fluff-wise. raveners are used almost exclusively as a deep striking, tunneling menace that operates on their own, or with trygons. They are never refered to in the fluff as hanging around bodyguarding tyranid warriors.
Agree exactly. A novelty 'support' unit. Hence in my Splinter Fleet Churoninx list Raveners can only be taken to follow the trail of a Trygon as it tunnels up.
With Warriors as Infantry, and Gaunts as the only Spawnable unit type- I think my list puts Gaunts at the forefront, since when all else is dead you tend to have the majority of Gaunts littering the battlefield (since they respawned).
Quote:
The "tunneling menace" is replicated by the infiltrator rule; most references will be refering to a 40k-sized battle/table all the models of which would be a single swarm in Epic.
I considered the Tunnellers rule to replicate...well, tunneling. Or at the very least Teleport.
Infiltrator represents their rapid speed over ground (they move pretty fast in 40k) much like Hormagaunts.
Quote:
All references to Gaunts and Warriors (or large Tyranid creatures if they aren't identified) are that the big creatures are *obvious* amongst the Gaunts. It's the whole premise for "shoot the big ones".
That was a lame-ass special rule to cover up a core game mechanic flaw in a lame-ass game system.
I distinctly remember a background piece describing the initial Tyranid assault on a Guard position. The Warriors crawled amongst a silent sea of Gaunts in the night, only when searchlights spotted them did the Tyranids burst into a stampede forward.
I've always pictured Warriors and Gaunts together, maybe I'm wrong- but Gaunts roving on their own would just be migratory animals, they need the Synapse to direct and control them. Warriors being the smallest/most common Synapse.
Rules-wise you know I despise Light Vehicle as a death sentence to most units that are lumped with it, and as such I think it needs to be used very sparingly (in the case of Splinter Fleet Churoninx, only Zoanthropes (with a decent 5+ RA) and Bio-artillery (who should be hidden) being LV).
There is no more justification for Warriors to be LV than Terminators, Obliterators, Ork Nobs, etc, etc.
Quote:
We shouldn't mix fluff and game mechanics. Fluff allows all kinds of stuff which game mechanics don't (like shooting at more important vehicles amongst others or doing the same with infantry). The question is what rules most follow the fluff feel of the army. Few gaunts certainly fall into this category. The whole problem is that people don't want to take gaunts anymore for any other reason than to add few more units. I think this is just wrong.
I agree with this partly- yes, game balance and an interesting army list to use and play with is paramount. But the background can't be dismissed completely when writing an army list- otherwise what's the point? If you don't follow the background, or at least try to emulate it in style, then your not writing a Codex Tyranids (or IG, or SM, etc).
