Greetings Broodlings!

Through the diligent efforts of Hojyn, I've been able to put together a translated pdf of the French-ERC's Tyranid army development.

It's a radical departure from what we've worked on here, taking an "Ork-like" approach to swarm design, completely changing/replacing the various special rules and taking the list, and some units, in quite a different direction.

As this is still Tyranid month (As we started a little late! *laugh*), I'd appreciate it if people took a look and gave some thoughts about what we could "assimilate" from the list.

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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

Very interesting. I like their version of Unstoppable. IIRC in earlier version of Epic Tyranids had no problems with terrain too.

@Synapse creatures and Independant creatures:
I like this.

@Supreme Commander:
I like this.

@Victory Conditions:
Don't like Kill SC = BTS goal achieved. It`s to easy imho.

@Meiotic Sporey, Mycetic Spores, Tunneler, Bio-Cannons:
I like it Expecially the thing with the Bio-Cannons makes much sense.

@Regeneration:
Well we have higher starting DC.

Gargolyes as Independend is interesting. Tunneling Raveners and Trygons are just cool

I like the weapons on the Bio-Titans. But odd that they are Synspses but then Synapse works different in this list.

Hierodulesand Trygon as Independent? Hmm. Some kind of slow Scout Titans here?

Why does ther Malefactor has Transport ability but the Haruspex doesn't?

Spaceships! Hurray

@ForceOrg: Well the Ork-way looks interesting. I think this version has the same merits as ours.
Ther possibility of multiple Bio-Titans in one swarm loks ott for the first moment but then you realise thet the Bio-Titans have rather few DC each.

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We are returned!
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Got to say I like it, I'm downloading it to give it a try.

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"I think that's how that works, wait get the rule book..."

Interesting.

9 lictors generating 18 first strike attacks looks kinda brutal!

No spawning makes things simpler for sure. With the size of the broods at the start of a game it would certainly look scary.

I definately like the concept of the list - spawning has never sat well with me. I've always though "why can't there just be more nids in the first place?"

In the specifics however there are some issues I agree with, and some I have issue with.

Unstoppable: Nice. It's good to see a simplification of the basic rules, and the clunky swarm system gone entirely.

Meiotic spores: Perhaps it's due to the translation, but this seems awfully clunky. I personally like them as an onboard formation (given the easily available proxy), but if the abstraction is wanted I'm ure it could be simpler than this.

SC BTS: Seems reasonable, would need playtesting to be sure.

Regen: I prefer higher DC, if only as a way of reducing special rules.

Tunneler: Sweet. The details of the rule may need work (BMs ala teleporting? Scatter ala planetfall?) but Trygons and Raveners should have some form of deep strike rule.

Tryant/Warrior Wings: Skimmer rather than jump pack is odd, and potentially gamey given the Tyrant can be the SC.

Zoanthrope: 15cm is too short to be effective shooting wise.

Broodlord: Should probably be a character.

Raveners: 3 attacks per base? Seems excessive.

Gargoyle: No AA. Yay!

Harridan: There's no way it's fast enough to be a bomber. No way.

Malefactor: Bio APC? I thought JJ was against those...

The biggest issues however are in the army structure. An "anything's possible" approach leads to weird and stupid armies. Armies consisting of nothing but haridans, anyone?


In general I do like the idea, it's a fresh and bold approach to a list that is currently a little clunky and stale, but the devil's in the details.

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Epic: Hive Development Thread

It is very interesting list.

I like the Int values of the swarms depending on what is in them (I have done something similar in the past) and the removal of going to ground.

I'm not sure about the meioctic swarms.  100% flak cover hitting every aircraft on a 5+ for just 200pts.  Not even the eldar can do that  

Some of the stats are a bit off raveners having more attacks than stealers, Lictors being better than stealers).

The army stucture looks good though it seems odd that you can't inrease the number of core units.  For example agaunt swarm has 6, 12 or 18 gaunts in it, you can't buy any extra gaunts.

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Tyranid air marshal

The biggest issues however are in the army structure. An "anything's possible" approach leads to weird and stupid armies. Armies consisting of nothing but haridans, anyone?

If I've read the meioctic swarms rule correctly you have to first roll a 6+/5+/4+ (depending n which size you've purchased) then if successful you roll 1 d6 for every unit or half DC for War Engines in the attacking formation needing 6+ to hit.
The initial roll is only to see if a spore is hit by the aircraft (to see if there are any AA attacks).
[quote]

One thing that slipped past me on first reading, Tyranid Warriors are LVs!

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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

My primary disagreement with this list is just the army list itself: I don't think Tyranids would be that "organized" in swarm composition, it seems to regimented to me that the Bugs would have "core formations".

Other than that, most of the rules and stats look decent, though I don't really like the Mieotic Spore idea as much as there's nothing the opponent can do to influence/avoid it.

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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

If I've read the meioctic swarms rule correctly you have to first roll a 6+/5+/4+ (depending n which size you've purchased) then if successful you roll 1 d6 for every unit or half DC for War Engines in the attacking formation needing 6+ to hit.
The initial roll is only to see if a spore is hit by the aircraft (to see if there are any AA attacks).

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Tyranid air marshal

I think the point of the "restricted number" is to prevent massive Mycetic Spore drops... thought things can get pretty hairy if you put 750 points of "Gaunt Swarms" in 10 Drop spores for a massive third turn bombing run... I think that might be worth being down a third from your enemy for two turns.

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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

Could be tempted to use it as the inspiration for a Skyth EA list. Then there are two different 'Hive' lists out there.

Time to ponder.

Wow... I guess it was so obvious I missed it...

A 75 point "core" formation is too cheap... it's the Termagant Terror all over again!  You could have *forty* 7-unit Guant Swarms at 3000 points... has anyone on the French community commented on that Hoyjn?

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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

Nope, but I've signalled it on the epic_fr forum. Hopefully somebody from the F-ERC will come here and comment/explain the list.

I rather like the meiotic spore idea (even though it's a bit clunky and could do with some simplification) and I think the orkified force org has some merits, but I'm not too hot on some profiles (Malefactor, Harridan, independant Gargoyles and other rules (variable init, "Alpha" Tyrant, regen).