Mattakar wrote:
So why is this the most limited of all the force lists? There is just one way to play it - lots and lots of base infantry. You can take a few other selections, but pretty much every bug force of reasonable size is going to need to put down most of its stands in gaunts, raveners, and gargoyles. It doesn't matter who the enemy is, the hive mind cannot adapt to maybe take more artillery, or more anti-vehicle bugs, or whatever.
Hello Mattaker. My collection contains a lot of metal and relatively little plastic (in proportion), so I feel your pain with respect to the focus of the list. As far as how the list arrived where it is...
The design philosophy on Tyranids has changed several times over the years. When Jervis wrote the first draft list, it was supposed to be a "horde of fangs and claws" concept. He was especially adamant that the "everything any other army has, just biological" was a bad idea because it pigeonholed the Tyranids as just another version of a normal army.
Despite that, Epic development slowly went to "old school" bio-vehicles being allowed. The results were bad. Disastrous is arguably not an overstatement. The list was basically stripped down and sent back to the starting point for redevelopment, with the intent of keeping the horde concept front and center.
Since then the main GW studio and FW have introduced more big bugs. However, they have for the most part not taken the path of "biological tanks and arty" and have instead put a Tyranid-specific spin on big bug abilities. The old school Epic unit concepts just don't fit in a lot of ways, so they've been tweaked to be more in keeping with the official Tyranid army style. That means downgraded shooting and a greater emphasis on assault and close support.
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My Dom's want to have units of exocrine and haruspex to deal with enemy armor, without a bunch of gaunts getting in the way.
Tyranids don't use batteries of biocannons to engage in artillery duels any longer in the background fiction. The massed biotank/bioarty Tyranid formations of the past are now portrayed as a rare exception rather than the rule.
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Also, what happened to bug transports?
Same as above. Transports were intentionally cut due to the design philosophy of the GW studio. None of the 40K units have transport any longer except Harridans. The gribbly hordes have to walk.
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And no AA? How can any army expect to compete in EA if it has no aerial deterant? My imperial opponent thinks nothing of 3 or 4 plane detactments.
As others have noted, a lack of AA is painful, but it's one of the defining weaknesses of the list.
That said, it may very well have become too much of a weakness at this point. Personally, I'd like to see Meiotic Spores get a bump in ability and/or drop in price so that they can be a real, if modest, deterrent.
Mattakar wrote:
I'm not sure whether to do just a small game with what is "legal" or make some units that do their best to follow the spirit of what is already here, but let me field my army.
The list is still in development, so by all means feel free to experiment. I suspect strongly that if you stick to the spirit of the list you will have little trouble. There almost never is.
The problems always crop up when people take an option which is in the spirit of the list and find a way to manipulate that option outside the spirit of the list, so that the result is unbalanced. The army list is intended for a tournament environment and has to take power-gamers into account.
But if you and your friends agree, play it however you want and just have fun.
