Report from the Bandwagon: New Models - Same Complaints

In case you've been under a rock and hiding from the 40k blog/forum-o-sphere, GW will be releasing new Tyranid models in March. I could hardly call myself a 'tyranid blogger' if I didn't make some sort of obligatory post about the new models as it will definitely impact the greater 'meta' of the tyranid game.  Not a big impact mind you - first and foremost, tervigons and tyrannofexes use the big oval 120mm base.  Nice to have some official sizing [insert rant about the lack of GW customer service that made this more of a surprise than it should have been here].  Aside from the base size and bulk of the new models, the rest of the impact is probably pretty nil, except to point out that the thousands of players who have scratch-built tervigons and tfexes may buy one or two, but most won't bother, or may buy bits from ebay or elsewhere to trick their scratch-built models up to size spec.  I'll be buying three simply because I haven't gotten around to scratch-building any tfexes and will use one as a reference model for my other tervigons in tournament play to manage 'modeling for advantage' issues.  The next impact to the meta is a probably small influx of new players: with a mostly complete line, the new models will certainly attract some new tyranid players who avoided starting tyranids simply because the price of entry was scratch-building a minimum of two tervigons.  From a competitive standpoint, that's pretty much it.  Which brings up the last line of the title:  same complaints:

Xenos and Chaos on top at Throne of Skulls?

Stats borrowed from Claws and Fists' excellent post and recap here:  http://clawsandfists.blogspot.com/2012/01/throne-of-skulls-final-standings.html

Oh the fun you can have with metrics.  From an average score standpoint: Xenos own 4 of the top 5 slots.  Xenos and Chaos own 7 of the top 10.  But soft scores count: "you also get points based on how many of your opponents nominated you as their favourite opponent of the weekend" - with that taken into account, it's possible to infer that Xenos and Chaos players are more fun to play against.  SinSynn should have a field day with this one.  I'll give the Imperial sc.. uhm.. players a break and make the disclaimer that this was only one tournament, and won't try to make a grand claim that it's a result of finally getting to play against a more diverse field, instead of the usual higher volume of Imperials.  An opportunity for a higher number of people to play armies they enjoy playing, vs. those they play simply to win with.  For ToS, 73 of 128 players were Imperial, just shy of 60% so not a huge disparity.  One could argue that this is 'working as intended' going back to Jervis' WD article about the format encouraging diversity by scoring by codex rather than straight up ranking.  Probably the most interesting metric of all?  Zero Sisters of Battle.  How's that White Dwarf codex plan working GW?

Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?

Inspired only slightly by Nurglitch's erudite pontifications to post this as a non-sequitur to a Tyranid blog.  For good measure, I'll own up to definitely being inspired by Pinky's non-sequiturs to Brain's AYPWIP question.

I wonder sometimes how to explain the importance of imagination to my kids, family, and friends.  Well - how important is it?  To me, imagination is the best possible weapon against a small, narrow mind.  If you're reading this, I can guess you've probably encountered them somewhere in your life's journeys.  In practical terms, your imagination is your mind's ability to grasp the realm of the possible.  To see a thing and think it through, to understand its implications, uses, and potentials.  More importantly, to create something altogether new and previously unseen.  Imagination's counterbalance, wisdom, is what you've learned works, and what doesn't - usually through trial and error.  Together these make up our mental bandwidth to process the world - and they govern our ability to not only survive, but to make our life better, be happy, get richer, get more stuff, find that special other person - whatever your goals happen to be.  Whether consciously defined or not, goals are the product of our imagination.  In the same sense however, we are fettered by the bounds of our imagination, a prison we cannot see until we look through the lens of another's imagination, and grow richer for it.  The serenity of balance is simply to imagine at all, and confident use of wisdom to test the products of our imagination.  I pity those who only live in the 'real'  world.

Realizing I've not been posting much lately - which in turn makes me realize that colocating all of my hobby stuff with my computer probably wasn't the smartest move.  Add in an impertinent girl-child who refuses to play Super Dungeon Explore until I get the figures painted in all their chibi goodness and I've not been doing much more than reading a lot of blogs, playing Orcs Must Die (such a great game!), and working on non-Tyranid figures not enough to get a game in yet.  If only my imagination weren't an utter slave to my short attention span.

Writing Tyranid POV

With so much excellent fluff out there for the grimdark of 40k, I still keep hoping for a good meaty tale from the Tyranid point of view.  The Eldar-centric Path series is a great example and as a long-time Eldar player, I've truly enjoyed it.  Turning to my latest love affair - Tyranids - the general consensus is that 'nids are too mindless, or simply not individual enough to develop a decent point of view from which to write.  This doesn't mix with the fluff though - there are several potential plotlines out there that I think could be developed relatively easily.  The brood brothers, covens, genestealer infestations all have a human side with great potential political and violent interplay driven by alpha-male predator interactions.  Taking a different tack though, writing from the perspective of a full-out invasion horde would be tough.  I still think it would be possible; below is my take on an opening.  A Ymgarl brood, bent on returning to the Hive Mind after being abandoned by a tendril of a Hive Fleet's assault:

"Lost"

Here come the vibrations again, pulsing, rumbling then staccato… time passes… and quiet.  I hear a buzzing and … footsteps.  Have they discovered us?  We detect no mind-noise, and we would have felt the Mother-of-All long before our family was close.  This may be much-needed prey.  It has been… long since last we fed, since last we were abandoned.  We will find the Mother again.  I subtly awaken the closest, dormancy shed like a husk.   Close enough to see, to hear their minds… listening for the heavy tramp of the flamebringers.  No, these are light steps.  Moving slowly like a new hatchling whose carapace has yet to harden.  These have no carapace, no smell of poison.  They carry long firespitters, but they rode in a metal beast that can take us away from here, if we are worthy.  We must find the Mother.  We will be careful; I awaken the brood.  Dormancy slides from us like the birthing pool’s slime, slow and distasteful.  It has been a long sleep.

+++++Vessel: Verdant Shores +++++

+++++Registry: Hades Subsector, Morwell+++++

++++Owner: Rogue Trader Fleet Apropos Ninth +++++

++++++ M41011.32a +++++++

++-++Comms Log ++-+++++

++++…++ +  Drexler, Scout Lead:  ..Confirm – this moon is as dead as the one by ++++!..  Just ashes, rock, and more rock.  We’re buttoning up and headed back to the Shores.  See you in a..  what was that?

Tipping the Meter

I'd come into the fall with some high hopes of the NOVA Open being only the first stop of at least a couple of east coast tournament appearances - I had my sights set on getting to the Battle for Salvation and Battle for Blobs Park at a minimum, and maybe Mechanicon or the Warstore Weekend.  For varying reasons, I ended up only making it to NOVA.  Though I've tried to keep motivated, moving my stuff into my man-cave coupled with no tournaments to look forward to has sapped the mojo a bit.  Thinking too that my repeated experiences with the slow-play aspect of Tyranids being a disappointment to my opponents is a factor, and even a general dissatisfaction with GW seems to be creeping in as well.

Scratch-Built Dominatrix!!

Rolled into the local Battle Bunker and saw this on the table - I didn't want to bother the guy who built it as he was playing a game so I only snapped one pic.  A quick interrogation of the blackshirts confirmed this big beautiful table-stomping avatar of awesomeness is apparently scratch-built.  No big plastic dinosaur or McFarland toy underneath the sculpted goodness.  Rode by a 3e tyrant; and yes, that is a genestealer on the base.  Hope I get a chance to meet the owner one of these days; I clearly need to get out more!

Also a good opportunity to share a teddy bear's lot in the grimdark:

Tyranid Library - the Fexstar

Alright gribbly horde fans, I've been promising a library article on the fexstar for a while now, so here it is.  Even better I hope, Ill get to talk about my learning experience with the fexstar from NOVA.

The classic fexstar, for the uninitiated, is two Tyranid primes plus two carnifexes with quad twin-linked devourers, also known as a 'dakkafexes'.  The main benefit of pairing two primes with a brood of two carnifexes is to take advantage of the "50% or more of the models in a unit" cover rule.  The primes, as ICs, can get cover from ordinary infantry units, and when they attach to the carnifex brood, confer this ability to the unit as they comprise "50% or more" of the models in the unit.  This means the carnifexes are no longer working under the much more vulnerable True Line of Sight (TLOS) cover rules for monstrous creatures (MCs).  The variant is the "mini-fexstar" of one prime and one 'fex; and the same cover principle still applies.  An alternate setup is to use a dakka tyrant and tyrant guard; different rules to get there, but same impact on cover.

As far as biomorphs and weapons go, the 'fex is pretty straightforward.  In my opinion, the only biomorph worth consideration is frag spines to allow an I3 charge into cover to get ahead of thunder hammers and powerfists.  It's definitely possible to build a melee deathstar and keep the dual scytals on the fexes instead of devourers, but this article is focused on the dakka version.  I've seen quite a few prime variants recommended, but the prime is just such a good unit it almost doesn't matter what you give him.  Regen is probably the most common, but I've seen both AG and poison; all have their advantages and depend on your playstyle and preferences.  For weapons I prefer bonesword/lash whip; the I1 effect for models in base contact is just too good defensively as the fexstar definitely can attract opposing assaulters/deathstars; I don't upgrade to a deathspitter, but would strongly consider it for the mini-fexstar variant.

Just to recap, here's the list I took to NOVA:
Prime: BS/LW, Regen
Prime: BS/LW
3x2 HG
2x10 Genestealers w/tox, w/BL (w/scything talons) (11 models per..)
Tervigon w/TS, AG, catalyst, onslaught
Tervigon w/TS, AG, catalyst
2x 10 termagants
1x2 carnifex brood w/2x TL Devs, frag spines
1x3 biovore brood

So let's put this into the context of the NOVA scenarios and why I ultimately went with a fexstar as my core: win conditions alternate between objectives, kill points, and table quarters.  I decided to give myself as much of an advantage in two of the three as I could:  Tyranids are generally pretty decent at objective missions being an assault-oriented codex, plus the ability to park T6 MCs on objectives as troops.  Unfortunately, tervigons are also kill-point generators, and with no shortage of units that can be relatively easily taken off the table, kill points missions can be a challenge.  Table quarter missions however, are all about having more points in a quarter than the other guy: an expensive, tough unit that can torrent or assault effectively, and is best suited for the center of the board where you can pick and choose a table quarter when needed is just the ticket.  Weighing in at just under 600 points, the fexstar can and did win me table quarter battles.  I also took into heavy consideration Mike's blog article describing the tall, x-deployed terrain, and with the expected cover advantage and lanes of fire, I had a reasonable expectation of this unit both not being blown up immediately - especially with conventional wisdom placing target priority on the hive guard and tervigons - and being able to torrent down both hordes and expensive, small units like Thunderwolves and Grey Knights.