First few Nids and some small points thoughts.

Hey guys. I got my first few bugs painted up, namely 12 gaunts with devourers, 10 stock gaunts, and a warrior prime. I said first few... I know people might question the devourer gaunts. 10 points a gaunt, what are you thinking! I'm thinking these guys kick out 36 shots at 18 in. range. That's pretty good. In cover or used carefully, they can be fun and a nice fire support squad. I plan on adding some warriors (I know they might not be the best unit in the book but hey I like 'em), zoanthropes and converting up a tervigon soon, which should bring me up to a 750 ish points mark. It'll look something like this:

Warrior Prime- Bonesword, lashwhip, Adrenal Glands

10 Termagants

12 Termagants- Devourers

3 Warriors- 3 Bonesword Pairs, Adrenal Glands, 2 Deathspitters, Venom Cannon

Tervigon- Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs, Catalyst

2 Zoanthropes



What do you think? Hopefully I'll get some pics up soon so you guys can see the progress.

I like comments!

-Bangley

Something stirs.....

Sitting at my desk the other day, I felt a sting in my ankle, only to look down and see a small six limbed critter scurrying back under my bed. Try as I might, I couldn't find he sucker! But the slight glimpse of him I got looked like a mix between an insect, a horse, and a tiny dinosaur. For the past few nights, I've been waking in cold sweats and hearing voices. I haven't been able to astropathically communicate for a while, and it's awfully cloudy outside.... and raining spores....

If you can't get it, I've caught the bug bug. After a while with the codex and a few test games, they are just too fun. The new book is probably one of the most balanced and well put together things GW has done in a while, with a few goofy things here and there. I've been toying with some lists and came up with something kind of gross that must be tried. I dub it- THE DOOM BOMB!

The Doom Bomb is essentially going to be the Doom of Mal-antai (or whatever) in a nifty snot pod with two Primes attached to him. With the Doom being a unit of 1 infantry model, and Primes being independent characters, I see no reason this wouldn't work. The way I'd run them, it comes out to exactly 300 points, leaving enough to form up a potent force to be the main army. The plan is, quite obviously, to drop the pod as close as possible to as many enemy troops (or transports full of troops if you swing that way on that argument) and begin to eat them through their own moral checks. I estimate that if I get a decent spot, I can get the Doom up to 10 wounds and S10 blasts in one turn. That's nasty. The Primes will give him CC support and take any wayward S8 shots that could double him out. While by no means super tough, this combo seems to me to be quite the thorn in the side, and I hope will really make people have to choose their targets. You can't just let the Doom and two Primes run around and do what they please, but you also have to watch out for the rest of the army, which should be substantial due to the fairly low cost of this mob.

What do you guys think of the bomb? I'll whip up a full list sometime soon. Any other 'Nid experiences? Hate 'em? Love 'em? Let's hear it.

-Bangley

Blood Angels on the horizon!

So there's this leaked codex beta. And I may have found it and playtested it. It was a 1750 games of new Blood Angles VS a Salamanders marine army. I played around with the Landers, Dante, and some Predators. I have to say, this army looks really fun! And not as over the top as some elements might make it look. The only big thing is the apearance of another fast skimmer tansport that might make Eldar players cry (myself included).

The Lander is fun, and despite it's ridiculous main gun isn't that crazy. Dante is a hoot as he used to be, with some fun new stuff and lacking some of his old stuff. I think one of the coolest, if not the biggest thing, is the new Baal Predator stuff. It has a Plasma Cannon option for the turret, and a zillion cool sponson choices. And you can make it a fast vehicle and relive the old mobile fire base that Predators used to be! My favorite setup so far is a Plasma turret, Multi Melta sponsons, and over charged engines. It comes out priced about like a Leman Russ Vanquisher base cost. I'll probably run two of these just because I think they're cool!

So has anyone else peeked at this leak? I suggest giving it a try, it's a hoot! We'll see when the book officially comes out, but from this experience I think my fledgling Space Sharks army might be using this book....


-Bangley, out.

Buuuuugs!

Hey guys, Bangley here. So JD and I managed to get a copy of the new 'Nids book a little early and took it for a test run. We played a little 1250 game; he ran the bugs and I ran my Eldar. My list was a pretty typical meched-up Eldar deal, with Eldrad, some Avengers in Serpents, Fire Dragons in a Falcon, and some Warp Spiders. JD tried out the Tervigon spam we've been reading about so much from BoLS running three of them, with some Hive Guard and Genestealers as backup.
I won't go into too much detail, but my take on the new Tyranids is as follows: play against them like you used to and you'll pretty much be fine. It's always been about target priority, and it still is. I want to talk about the overall changes and a few specific things we tried.
Let's get to the big changes first. For me, bugs used to be kind of a cake walk. They had no real ability to shoot down my tanks, so I could basically run circles and pick off what I wanted when I wanted. This new book makes a few big changes, namely more big bugs, more little bugs, and a few units that can actually shoot worth a damn. For example, in this game, I knew only the Hive Guard presented a real shooting threat to me so they were my first targets. I managed to take one unit down early and avoid the other for the most part. So I had one tank get immobilized, and one lose a gun. Everything else was fine. Being an objective mission, this was good. So while the new bugs can shoot some now, it's not over the top. It's not like you're suddenly facing a Guard gun line with claws. While there are more big bugs available, you can only fit so many in a list. I mean there's at least one for every force org slot, so Nid Zilla players will be happy. But it's not as bad as the rumors made it sound. As for more little bugs, c'mon. They're Termagants. I don't really care how many you have.
As far as specific units go, I both hate and love the Tervigon. I think spamming them is a mistake since you have a monster that really does nothing on its own, and makes little guys that do even less. BUT! It generates scoring units, and gives your piddly little Gants limitless numbers. Which is nice. I think one or two of these should be a staple, but any more is a mistake. Hive Guard are nice, and I think they're a good choice, but comparing them to Zoanthropes.... I'm not sure. I'm leaning towards a mixed bag, like one unit of each or two units of Guard and one of Thropes. Termagants.... are Termagants. Enough said.

So if you're dreading the clawed doom headed your way, just keep your head straight and play smart and you'll be fine. Anyone else had some experience with the new Tyranids? Let's hear it- I like comments...

-Bangley, out.