I probably won't repeat everything Reece has said - you can read the article yourself - but long story short, Tyranids are better at Movement, they are awesome in melee and can tear everything apart, and they charge in faster. And no more relying on 4-5 Flying Hive Tyrants (seriously, I was bummed when my opponent fielded those against my Imperial Knights - then again, considering that I was fielding a Knightly House of 3 Imperial Knights, I'm in no position to criticize him).
Too long, didn't read? Swarmlord is bigger, better and badder. He tears thing up in melee, and has invulnerable saves that make him more durable. And he has a whooping 12 Wounds too. Not to mention, even though he's cheaper than an Imperial Knight (15 power rating compared to 23), he will utterly destroy an Imperial Knight in combat. Oh, and he's a freaking Psyker too.
I mean, just look at him. 2+ WS, 7 Attacks, each of which deals D6 Damage at AP -3. Yeah, he'll absolutely destroy an Imperial Knight in combat, no questions asked.
Oh, and he apparently has a Hive Commander ability that allows a single unit to move in the Shooting phase, allowing them to double the distance they cover. Over to you, Jesse.
Genestealers are better and badder. My Guardsmen were already afraid of them before and now even my Imperial Knight quakes at the thought of facing these things in combat. Ugh. Let's see...8" Move. Charge after advancing. 5+ invulnerable save. If you take 10 or more of them in a single unit, they get Flurry of Claws, which gives them 4 Attacks each. Throw in a Broodlord, and their WS becomes 2+. Rending Claws - we've been waiting to hear about this, Jesse! - deal AP -4 on a roll of 6 to wound. Yeah, that's just brutal. Very brutal. Suddenly I'm very, very scared of playing against Tyranids. Ugh. My Guardsmen, tanks, vehicles, Skitarii and Imperial Knights are going to be ripped apart.
Tyranid Warrior is tougher, but I don't know how. He's still a Synapse creature who can shoot and melee. Is there any change? You tell me, Jesse. If I'm not mistaken, Synapse is still the same, which essentially makes your Tyranids Fearless when within range of a Synapse creature. So, yeah, not much change there, right?
Then Reece teases us with Pyrovores, but doesn't say anything specific about them other than dumping them inside a Tyrannocyte. Huh. I have no idea. Maybe Jesse can provide some enlightenment on that.
Anyway, this article is for you, Jesse, so I hope you enjoyed it and I'll see you guys next time.
HOT DAMN!
ReplyDeleteI legitimately cannot describe how excited I am by this. So, my takeaways from the Tyranid Faction Focus:
1.) The Swarlord is a BEAST (as in killy, not unit type haha). The 9" Move I was expecting, the bump up to Strength 8 and 7 (7!!!) Attacks I was not. Nice to get an Invul save against shoot as well, even if it is only 5+. Good to see that while he gets a Damage Table, it's actually not too rough. 12W surprised me, I was expecting a 10 for exactly double, but I'm happy certainly happy to by wrong! I now epect the standard Hive Tyrant to have 10W instead of the 8W I was predicting before.
2.) Confirmation we get to keep 'Stealers and Broodlords is nice (I was genuinely expecting them to get punted over to Genestealer Cults only, just like Harlequins got removed from the 7e Eldar Dex after they got there own book). That Charge after Advancing for them is going to be just brutal. I'm very happy about that. These things are finally (FINALLY!) what they've been described in the fluff, and really makes them worth their more than a space Marine per model cost.
3.) Warriors are more durable per a change in the core rules. They were always T4 W3, but I often wished they weren't because paying 30 points a model for something that was always instakilled made the unit nearly unusable. With the changes to how Damage works, and with the remove of double Toughness Instant Death, they have a 33% chance to survive a D6 Damage Weapon like a Lascannon (if it rolls a 1-2 for Damage)and a 66% chance to survive a D3 weapon. Powerfists used to be the bane of our existence, and now we have a much better chance against them. The changes to Armour help us too - Boneswords are only AP3, and we don't really have any AP2 melee weapons outside of Monstrous creatures) so all it took was one character with a 2+ save to tank all the Wounds. Now that Boneswords reduce a 2+ save to a 5+ we can actually do more than flail helplessly at Terminators.
4.) Synapse daaaaaaaang. I was hoping for "use Synapse Creatures Leadership" but a flat ignores Morale tests? This is GREAT news. While technically speaking Synapse is the same, it's WAY BETTER now simply because the Morale rules are so much more punishing. I'm fine losing 10-15 Hormagaunts to shooting - it's fluffy and that's the point of Gants! - but I was really dreading taking that Morale test at the end of the turn and losing ANOTHER 10-15. Giving them blanket immunity while under synapse is VERY powerful, although since our small bugs are likely to be Ld 5, if you can remove Synapse from play they will EVAPORATE. Which is as it should be.
I wouldn't be too worried about your Knight - 7 Attacks base, 6 hit, 3 Wound (8 on 8) and do 10-11 Wounds total. Brutal, but if YOU get the charge you'll be doing 4 Attacks, 3 hit, 2 Wound, one saved, 6 Wounds dealt. So it's actually about equal, with the averages reducing both of us to half-Wounds left in a single round of combat, although with the edge going to that Knight.
What I like about the way 8th edition is looking is that there doesn't seem to be any units that can just take on an entire army unsupported anymore, you actually need to think out a strategy instead of just waltzing an Imperial Knight/Wraithknight/Deathstar into the enemy and expecting them to be fine. Swarmy all alone is gonna get chewed up. Swarmy going in with a screen of gribblies is going to wreck face.
Ha ha, I knew you were going to be super-excited about this. Cool!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know Imperial Knights were Deathstars. I mean, according to the fluff (and I'm reading Kingsblade now), there are entire knightly houses of them and they are an army in their own right. I often wish they were cheaper just so I can field a bunch of them alongside my Skitarii or Imperial Guard allies. That's also down to the fluff. I mean, you see entire courts of Imperial Knights stomping around with Cadians/Draconians or Skitarii running underfoot.
But yeah, I knew you would be super-excited about Tyranids! I wonder what Genestealer Cults will get. I mean, if the Hive Fleets are this good, then why would you choose Genestealer Cults over Hive Fleets? I suspect we'll find out in the Genestealer Cult Faction Focus article.
My bet is that they play very differently. GSC don't get monstrous creatures, and I imagine that they'll retain their ambush tactics. Whereas Tyranids are primarily a "you better hope you can shoot me off the board before I reach you" army haha.
ReplyDeleteYou're probably right about that. They'll definitely have a different playstyle so yeah, I can see them relying more on ambush and Infiltration tactics.
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