Tuesday 30 October 2012

New life in the old project yet: Tyranids

Time to reinvigorate the Nids.
I'm staring at these guys now on my living room floor.. 1 Tyrants, 1 Harpy conversion, 1 Trygon, 3 Carnifexes, 18 Warriors, Zoanthrope (Doom conversion), 25 Termagants, 10 Gargoyles, 31 Hormagaunts (random number hey!..these guys are all getting turned into Termagants with green stuff casting fleshborers), 3 Broodlords, 8 Genestealers, Lictor (Deathleaper) ...

New additions - 2 Tervigons.
On order - a second pair of balrog wings for the Tyrant to become a Flyrant..
And thanks to The Voice.. another flyrant with twin devourers..

I've just bought 4 old school Tyranid Warriors, 1 with a Devourer which I am going to cast and use as Hive Guard. Fuck paying full price for a boring ass model.. I am going "Old School" for these guys.. I love the old look.. I remember being a kid and being jealous of a childhood friends Nids - they were very cool.. the old plastic Warriors with boneswords - when I saw them, they were the coolest thing I'd ever seen!

Tyranids have been a long project for me. I've never really given them real drive or momentum to finish the project though. You can see some old posts here and a really old Warseer project log that I started when I last really pushed the Nids...wow it'll be 3 years in Jan since I last really built or painted a Nid! Crazy! 

I'll be honest. The change to Nids through Sixth has gotten a lot of people excited and I am one of them.. the benefit of a huge 'back catalogue' of armies is the costs of updating and relaunching a project is very minimal.. I have just bought a set of Balrog wings, 2 Terv's, 1 new Flyrant (courtesy of The Voice) and 4 OOPWarriors for £20.. so that's about £100 all told.. Not bad.. and mainly due to the cost of Tervigons..

I did think about just converting the Carnifexes, but the new model is nice and HUGE, so it hit my weakspot for massive models.. bought!

Today, I am going to spray paint the base coat on the new models, then airbrush a base coat onto all the models that haven't got it already.. the rest of the day will be dedicated to painting chitin in base colour and maybe even washing it.. I've got a test game lined up in Wednesday vs Dimitris' Plague Marine & Epidemius army that he is taking to Blog Wars 4.. I am going to this btw, so is The Voice and Bringer of Death Steve...if you haven't already - get your ticket!! 

21 comments:

  1. Looking forward to seeing how your 'Nids do (and what they are like when being played by someone good...lol).

    You think they'll be done for BW4?

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  2. Hey Chris.. I am hoping so, you in attendance this year? I think Nids are a strong force in the current state of the game.. lots of boots on ground means lots of bio mass to eat!
    They should be done for Blog Wars.. most of it is painted, just all the newer stuff - Tervigons, old school warriors/hive guard and some more gargoyles.. shouldn't be too bad...

    You running your nids still?

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  3. I'm planning on being there as well. It will be 'Nids again for BW4 - just toying with my final list...cant make up my mind on the last 400pts - either a pair of Dakkafex, Trygons or a ton of Gants...

    'Nids are definately playing strong now - I think I've only lost 2 games in 6th Ed so far.

    I'm in the process of starting an Iron Warriors army, but its using all the Iron Warrior extras from GW & FW so its costing me a fortune (about £50 for 10 CSMs) and taking a while to build...I'm actually building the army around a list for BW5.

    I want a rematch after you annihilated me in the first game of BW1...not sure I want to play Nids vs Nids though. Never fought against them before. It could be weird.

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  4. Haha..Nid on Nid would be weird! Great to hear you'll be down.. should be good fun as always.
    Only 2 losses in 6th is impressive! Congrats.

    I thought about a pair of Dakkafexes, the fire power is pretty scary.. But too limited in range for me.. the Tyrants can bring it better cause they are faster.. Trygons are good..especially if the right biomancy option can be cast on them.. but can't build an army based on that lol!

    You going for all the old mark iron armour marines? I'm sure it'll be something special...

    My list is currently looking something like this:
    2 x Tyrant - 2 Devourers, 2 powers
    Doom - Pod
    2 x 2 Hive Guard
    2 x 10 Termagants
    2 x Tervigons, adrenal glands, 2 powers (1 also have toxin sacs)
    18 x Gargoyles - Toxin, Adrenals
    Harpy - Heavy Venom Cannon, Cluster Spines
    Trygon

    Now just need to finish painting it all!! And building it.. and converting it.. and casting it.. and um.. buying it.. well, just one box of gargoyles to buy..

    Quite a bit to do then in a month.. How is yours looking mate?

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    1. Cheers -although I put that more down to the fact everyone I seem to play still isn’t overly familiar with 6th Ed rules...

      I’m liking the Dakkafex now over the Trygon because it is one of the ‘Nids only answers to Flyers and with the shift seeming to go in the direction of more infantry, it has the potential to kill more (I’ve had Trygons tied up by large squads for multiple turns). Then again Trygons are fast and I love them...

      My list so far is (need to juggle round points):
      Swarmlord (& 2 Guard)
      Flyrant (with 2 powers & 1 Devourer)
      2 x 20 Gants
      2 x Tervigons (Toxin/Adrenal & 3 powers)
      3 x 2 Hive Guard
      Either 2 x Trygons/ 2 x Dakkafex / Loads more gribblies

      I normally run the list without Swarmlord and its working nicely; literally every game I push the Flyrant forward and my opponent freaks out and pours every shot into it for a couple of turns until its dead – and by then 60+ Gants are normally within charge range. Swarmy & Trygons are grouped up and hit the centre hard.

      The ‘Nids are all painted, but most of them were done in my first years painting and need re-doing now. Plus something funny has has happened with the sand in the bases, so they could all do with rebasing. They aren’t the top of my priorities now though, so I don’t expect to see any painting awards for a while.

      The Iron Warriors are a mixture of parts – so yes, FW Iron mark armour, Umbra bolters, standard armour, Maximini cyborg bits, scratchbuilt Entrenching tools etc.

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  5. Assume those are winged tyrants there? :)
    Not found much success with Harpies despite REALLY wanting them to work in an army of flying alien jerks! Though they benefit from being flying MC's fo' sho', they're just a bit flimsy and damage output is not great (even factoring the spore run they can do once per game).
    Have been using a very similar list with my own Nids, next run out will be using pretty much what you have there, minus Harpy and Trygon, plus a second unit of gargs and 3 biovores. The 'vores I like to wheel out every once in a while and I reckon with the increased infantry of 6th they could be a useful asset for pretty cheap.

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    1. Hey dude,
      Yeah, they are winged tyrants.. naturally ;)
      I'm on the fence, so much so I have splinters, regarding Harpies - I've had one built for ever..but I'm unconvinced, I'm hoping the change to flier status protects it more, but I appreciate it is still very fragile..with bugger all output a lot of the time.. I figured the 2 large blasts plus fast moving bomb drop could be good at thinning the herd..
      I've seen a few guys throw out a biovore here and there to do just that mate, good idea...
      p.s. like the Cult - it's shaping up real nicely dude!

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  6. Is it only me who thinks that Armoured Shell on a Hive Tyrant is a no brainer?!
    I think that dakkafexs work extremely well now in 6th. I generally take my 1st turn running into mid-table and then let the fun begin on turn two. If your running 2 tyrants and 2 fex's with 2x t/l devourers thats 48 s6 shots per turn... well thats if you havent rolled iron arm then its only 36 s6 shots but it generally wrecks anything that isn't av13.
    Old Adversary P.E bubble is also a good one to take as how many times do 1's rock up when you least need them?
    (I have a horrible feeling i'm repeating the voice here :/)
    With the Tygron is that prime or just vanilla? prime gives you even more glancy fun which is always helpful... deep-strike is a good tactic now imo... allows to close the gap quickly and you can use the tunnels for devilgants..

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    1. ha.. to be fair most nid lists are about 80% the same at the moment. Most lists have very common elements so i wouldnt worry about it..

      ...though a few tournys in the colonies have been running a parasite version i like the look off. but it does depend on enfeeble stacking; which you can rely on as a rule from tourney to tourney.

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    2. I do like Dakkafexes Phil, they are solid and do pump out a huge number of shots.. Armoured Shell is a good shout too - but for me, the mobility and added survivability of wings/flying is at least as good, if not better.

      trygon is just vanilla, no points for prime. Getting this number of big beasties in at 1850 is a tight game! I have to have a special character for blog wars lists, otherwise I'd save 30 from Doom, although I think he could be very very useful in the current tournament environment.. I think depending on how much high strength shooting there is, I'll either run it in cover or deep strike..

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    3. yeah i understand the blog wars concept i went along to bw3 with as many mc's with regeneration as possible... it didnt end well. want to go again this year if i can get a hand on enough devourers.

      doom is an auto include always has been tbh. i've experimented with deathleaper but 140points is alot to try and hide in a corner.

      the only character i want to run is old one eye as i have old memories of how epic he was in 3rd or 4th edition... oh and the model is awesome. if only he could take a pod...

      i'm not convinced about flyers in all honesty, think its abit gimmicky, but that is my opinion.

      i like the gargolyes with toxin sacs its a sort of deal with anything unit and quicker now than hormagaunts. even thought hormagaunts are brilliant but to make them good your looking at 10points a model.

      have you had thoughts about using warriors with either 2xboneswords or rending claws... either in a pod or as shrikes?

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    4. Have you tried cloning/copying the devourers using instant mold or something similar, resin casting perhaps? Unlimited Dev's then!

      Yeah, Deathleaper has never done anything for me.

      In what way are flyers "gimmicky"? They actually work and work well. Time will tell over the course of 6th ed whether or not they survive against new codices that may or may not all have skyfire options, but taking our lead from the Chaos book - they are limited and expensive without interceptor.. FW provides plenty of Skyfire options for cheap points and everyone gets Quad Guns etc so it balances a limited number of flyers..
      But typically, the 60 points or whatever spent on wings on a flyrant is a definite good buy. Only being hit on 6's and with Iron Arm or Endurance power up they are survivable, though with only 4 wounds, still weak to concentrated fire..

      Garg's are great. Full stop. I'm loving them at the minute, I even want a second unit!

      Not thought about Warriors too much, armour save is just not good enough for me.. I know how utterly lethal Shrikes can be, it's just getting them to combat in the first place..

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    5. I may have to google up on how to cast/clone then... seems like an much easier alternative than look on bits websites for sets of devourers.

      Gimmicky might not be the right word... My experiences of Flyers are coming across one or two in a game and my opponent spends more time with them off the board than on... i just feel if you can get midtable with any force then by the second turn a flyer will either have to hover or fly off the board as there movement will take them over units and unable to target them... or less its a bommer... i havent come across bommers yet that may pose a bigger problem... damn. flyers (bommers) might be good then... well especially against hordes. Harpys might be worth experimenting with now... i'm just not sure on the whole flyrant business. i'm most probably in the minority on this subject seeing how many flyrants are popping up now.

      Couldn't shrikes be a unit that is more playable now... seeing that night fighting is a regular occurrence so shrouding is in and then cover saves are easier to get... thats possible 4+ save which will allow the unit to travel up the board quickly, but its relying on dice to go your way which isn't the greatest of tactics to turn up at a tournament with...

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  7. I believe I am going to steal the old school warrior with devourer as hive guard idea.

    ColKG

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    1. Steal away sir.. they look cool! Even better if you still have your old ones! I had to buy alas from ebay..

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  8. Excellent stuff, still love the older Tyranids, they are still one of my favourite ranges and beloved possessions - well, former possession :(

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    1. Ha, think back to ll the stuff you used to own and it just makes you sad! I just recently gave away a Trgyon...2 years ago gave away a spare pair of Balrog wings, loads of spare parts for Nids, sold a 3rd Trygon cheap.. so silly..

      It reinforces to me that you shouldn't get rid of all your old stuff! I can't wait for Eldar to roll around! Sooo many bits

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  9. Looks like a solid list, just remember the heavy venom cannon is only a small blast. I'm sure it will do well!

    I'd probably drop that and toxin sacs off the gargoyles for at least 1 old adversary bubble on the tyrants if you want my opinion.

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    1. yea that was my probem...i kept on looking at it thinking it was large blast and wondering why you didnt like like them :P

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    2. Hey Cobbles, I've since dropped the HVC for the Stranglethorn..this very minute I've tinkered with the list..
      Tyrant -wings, Devs, OA
      Tyrant - wings, Devs
      Doom - Pod
      2 x 2 Hive Guard
      10 Terms
      11 Terms
      2 x Tervigon - TS,AG, 2 Powers
      Harpy - TL SC, CS
      17 x Gargoyles - AG
      Trygon
      1849

      Better?

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  10. Sound as a pound dude - looks like a varied fun yet strong list.

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