Review of the 2010 Tyranid Codex
THIS POST HAS NOT YET BEEN EDITED FOT 6th ed. Hopefully, once I've got to grips with the new rules, I'll edit it, to make it relevant for 6th. This might take a while.
This post is not intended to be an extensive tactica, though it does contain some thoughts on that subject.
It is simply a review of each unit in the new Codex, including some of their uses.
Inevitably I will have missed some blatantly obvious things, so please post to add info, correct my mistakes etc. I can then edit the post so it makes more sense.
From the Biomass formally known as Lord Ramon
Overview of the 2010 Nids
Long gone are the days when Rending ruled the battlefield. We now get less Rending hits per Attack as we did in the previous rules edition (In 4th ed’ rules 6s To Hit gave Rending). Against vehicles, we only get half as much additional penetration.
In this codex we have lost our ‘Eternal Warrior’ equivalent and Move Through Cover. This is not good. Many models are cheaper points cost. This is good. There are plenty of new crazy dudes. This is very good. Disturbingly Feeder Tendrils have disappeared too. Not Good.
The lack of Eternal Warrior and Invulnerable saves on our largest monsters now is a real downer.
In relation to Anti-Tank we have some good shootiness: the Heavy Venom Cannon (Carnifex, Harpy), Warp Lance (Zoanthrope), Rupture Cannon (Tyrannofex), and Impaler Cannon (Hive Guard). From a close combat Anti-Tank point of view, the Carnifex is still king of the hill, followed by the Monstrous Creatures with S6. One average a Carnifex has a penetration of 16 in close combat, where MCs with S6 have an average of 13. In Assaults against all non-Walker vehicles, when we attempt to penetrate their rear armour, 13 is plenty good enough.
Our units with Rending, S4+ and plenty of Attacks should deal with Rear Armour 10, though don’t rely on this too much. Each Attack against a vehicle which has moved at Combat speed has a 50% of hitting. With S4 you need a 6 to Glance. So the chance to Glance Armour 10 with 1x S4 Attack is 50% of 16.66% = 8.33%. if you have Rending them rolling a 6 for Penetration gives the Rending bonus, and so means that you will Penetrate not Glance. Statistically you need 12 S4 Rending Attacks to achieve one Penetration.
Each S5 Attack has 8.33% chance of Glancing Armour10, and 8.33% of Penetrating. So Rending makes no difference against Armour10, but is very useful against Armour 11. As Armour 11 includes (Chaos) Space Marine transports, this is cool! Using the same logic each S6 Rending Attack has an 8.33% of penetrating Armour12.
If an enemy vehicle remained stationary last turn, these %s all double, so 8.33% becomes 16.66%.
The new Instinctive Behaviour rules make good sense, and have been nicely put together. Synapse is now less important than it used to be. Well done GW.
Quite a few of our bugs have Shadow in the Warp, and this is a useful addition though nowhere near as powerful as the version from previous Codex. Having said that, in the past if the one bug with Shadow got killed, you lost all your cover. Now it is spread around more, albeit with a much smaller area of effect per model.
What is interesting is that Termangaunts are so cheap that we can have four units of 10 and a host of Monstrous Creatures (say 2x Tervigons with Regen/Catalyst/Toxin or Adrenal + 2x Heavy Venom Fexs) for 1,000pts. That’s 8 units with 5 scoring.
Adrenal Glands vs. Toxin Sacs
Choosing whether to take Toxin Sacs or Adrenal Glands, or to ignore them is quite complex. If you know what army your opponent is fielding, this helps a lot. However, for all-comers lists the choice is difficult as these upgrades are sometimes not cheap.
For S3 models, when we assault Adrenal Glands improve their chances of damaging T2,3,4,5,7 and give them a chance against vehicle armour 10. They also increase Initiative when we assault.
For S4 models, when we assault Adrenal Glands improve their chances of damaging T3,4,5,6,8, and give them better capability to damage vehicle armour 10, and a chance against vehicle armour 11. They also increase Initiative when we assault.
For S5 models, when we assault Adrenal Glands improve their chances of damaging T4,5,6,7,9 and give them better capability to damage vehicle armour 11, and a chance against vehicle armour 12. They also increase Initiative when we assault.
For S6 models, when we assault Adrenal Glands improve their chances of damaging T5,6,7,8,10 and give them better capability to damage vehicle armour 12, and a chance against vehicle armour 13. They also increase Initiative when we assault.
In general, this means that Adrenal Glands work well with Rending when you want to Assault vehicles.
For all our models, Toxin Sacs improve their chances of damaging any models with Toughness, but do not improve our effect against vehicles or increase Initiative. Also with Sacs, S3 can damage T7+, S4 can damage T8+ etc. The lack of bonus against vehicles doesn’t really trouble our Monstrous Creatures very much.
Mycetic Spores
Our Spores are as good at Deep Striking as Drop Pods and carry more dudes….. yeah baby! Use them as Marine players do, especially in regard to them proving cover for your units which have just ‘Disembarked’. Have a look in the SM section for Drop Pod advice.
There is a big ‘however’ in regard to our Spores. In many situations the units carried may need Synapse, so you need to have your Synapse strategy well organised before you drop your bugs all over the battlefield.
Limited Sentience: remember that your Ripper Tentacles have a very limited range. If you do want to upgrade the Spores shooting weapon, also note that is has a very poor BS.
When shooting remember that Spores can shoot their Ripper Tentacles and their extra weapon.
Weapon upgrades:
- Cluster Spines: This is a nice weapon, but for me, its range is too short. Having said that, because of Limited Sentience this may not be a problem. Against 3+ armour this is a useful weapon. Against vehicles this weapon is not much use.
- Stinger Salvo: Range = short. This weapon’s AP is great when you are fighting Guard, Eldar, and Dark Eldar. Equally this is a waste of points when used against 3+ Armour. Against vehicles with Armour 10 or 11 this weapon is vaguely useful.
- TL-Deathspitter: Range = short. TL means you have a slightly better chance to hit (33% + 33% of 66% = total of 55%). This means that in theory you will hit 0.32 times per shot more than the Stinger Salvo. However, the Salvo has a better AP, so in a tourney/competitive All-Comers list, choose the Salvo over the Deathspitter. Against vehicles with Armour 10 or 11 this weapon is vaguely useful.
- Barbed Strangler: Good range. Good against T3 and Orks. Against vehicles this weapon is not useful.
- Venom Cannon: Good range. O.K. against vehicles with Armour 10 or 11. Good against all units not Embarked, especially those without 3+ Armour.
In a Spore heavy list it is worth taking a few long range upgrades for Spores you intend to drop on the flanks, rather than in the centre.
If you do put a decent shooting weapon on your Spore, don’t expect it to last too long. Although they look tough, their weak Toughness and Armour save means they will die quickly to enemy shooting.
It is very important that you read and remember the sentence regarding Scoring for Mycetic Spores on page 90.
- Taking and Holding enemy Objectives: n/a
- Defending your Objectives: n/a
- Killing enemy units: With a decent shooting weapon they can certainly help
- Planetstrike Attacker: Very useful
- Planetstrike Defender: Could be useful as a surprise attack to destabilise your opponents plan
- Apocalypse: Definitely useful
- Best used against: anyone
THIS POST HAS NOT YET BEEN EDITED FOT 6th ed. Hopefully, once I've got to grips with the new rules, I'll edit it, to make it relevant for 6th. This might take a while.
This post is not intended to be an extensive tactica, though it does contain some thoughts on that subject.
It is simply a review of each unit in the new Codex, including some of their uses.
Inevitably I will have missed some blatantly obvious things, so please post to add info, correct my mistakes etc. I can then edit the post so it makes more sense.
From the Biomass formally known as Lord Ramon
Overview of the 2010 Nids
Long gone are the days when Rending ruled the battlefield. We now get less Rending hits per Attack as we did in the previous rules edition (In 4th ed’ rules 6s To Hit gave Rending). Against vehicles, we only get half as much additional penetration.
In this codex we have lost our ‘Eternal Warrior’ equivalent and Move Through Cover. This is not good. Many models are cheaper points cost. This is good. There are plenty of new crazy dudes. This is very good. Disturbingly Feeder Tendrils have disappeared too. Not Good.
The lack of Eternal Warrior and Invulnerable saves on our largest monsters now is a real downer.
In relation to Anti-Tank we have some good shootiness: the Heavy Venom Cannon (Carnifex, Harpy), Warp Lance (Zoanthrope), Rupture Cannon (Tyrannofex), and Impaler Cannon (Hive Guard). From a close combat Anti-Tank point of view, the Carnifex is still king of the hill, followed by the Monstrous Creatures with S6. One average a Carnifex has a penetration of 16 in close combat, where MCs with S6 have an average of 13. In Assaults against all non-Walker vehicles, when we attempt to penetrate their rear armour, 13 is plenty good enough.
Our units with Rending, S4+ and plenty of Attacks should deal with Rear Armour 10, though don’t rely on this too much. Each Attack against a vehicle which has moved at Combat speed has a 50% of hitting. With S4 you need a 6 to Glance. So the chance to Glance Armour 10 with 1x S4 Attack is 50% of 16.66% = 8.33%. if you have Rending them rolling a 6 for Penetration gives the Rending bonus, and so means that you will Penetrate not Glance. Statistically you need 12 S4 Rending Attacks to achieve one Penetration.
Each S5 Attack has 8.33% chance of Glancing Armour10, and 8.33% of Penetrating. So Rending makes no difference against Armour10, but is very useful against Armour 11. As Armour 11 includes (Chaos) Space Marine transports, this is cool! Using the same logic each S6 Rending Attack has an 8.33% of penetrating Armour12.
If an enemy vehicle remained stationary last turn, these %s all double, so 8.33% becomes 16.66%.
The new Instinctive Behaviour rules make good sense, and have been nicely put together. Synapse is now less important than it used to be. Well done GW.
Quite a few of our bugs have Shadow in the Warp, and this is a useful addition though nowhere near as powerful as the version from previous Codex. Having said that, in the past if the one bug with Shadow got killed, you lost all your cover. Now it is spread around more, albeit with a much smaller area of effect per model.
What is interesting is that Termangaunts are so cheap that we can have four units of 10 and a host of Monstrous Creatures (say 2x Tervigons with Regen/Catalyst/Toxin or Adrenal + 2x Heavy Venom Fexs) for 1,000pts. That’s 8 units with 5 scoring.
Adrenal Glands vs. Toxin Sacs
Choosing whether to take Toxin Sacs or Adrenal Glands, or to ignore them is quite complex. If you know what army your opponent is fielding, this helps a lot. However, for all-comers lists the choice is difficult as these upgrades are sometimes not cheap.
For S3 models, when we assault Adrenal Glands improve their chances of damaging T2,3,4,5,7 and give them a chance against vehicle armour 10. They also increase Initiative when we assault.
For S4 models, when we assault Adrenal Glands improve their chances of damaging T3,4,5,6,8, and give them better capability to damage vehicle armour 10, and a chance against vehicle armour 11. They also increase Initiative when we assault.
For S5 models, when we assault Adrenal Glands improve their chances of damaging T4,5,6,7,9 and give them better capability to damage vehicle armour 11, and a chance against vehicle armour 12. They also increase Initiative when we assault.
For S6 models, when we assault Adrenal Glands improve their chances of damaging T5,6,7,8,10 and give them better capability to damage vehicle armour 12, and a chance against vehicle armour 13. They also increase Initiative when we assault.
In general, this means that Adrenal Glands work well with Rending when you want to Assault vehicles.
For all our models, Toxin Sacs improve their chances of damaging any models with Toughness, but do not improve our effect against vehicles or increase Initiative. Also with Sacs, S3 can damage T7+, S4 can damage T8+ etc. The lack of bonus against vehicles doesn’t really trouble our Monstrous Creatures very much.
Mycetic Spores
Our Spores are as good at Deep Striking as Drop Pods and carry more dudes….. yeah baby! Use them as Marine players do, especially in regard to them proving cover for your units which have just ‘Disembarked’. Have a look in the SM section for Drop Pod advice.
There is a big ‘however’ in regard to our Spores. In many situations the units carried may need Synapse, so you need to have your Synapse strategy well organised before you drop your bugs all over the battlefield.
Limited Sentience: remember that your Ripper Tentacles have a very limited range. If you do want to upgrade the Spores shooting weapon, also note that is has a very poor BS.
When shooting remember that Spores can shoot their Ripper Tentacles and their extra weapon.
Weapon upgrades:
- Cluster Spines: This is a nice weapon, but for me, its range is too short. Having said that, because of Limited Sentience this may not be a problem. Against 3+ armour this is a useful weapon. Against vehicles this weapon is not much use.
- Stinger Salvo: Range = short. This weapon’s AP is great when you are fighting Guard, Eldar, and Dark Eldar. Equally this is a waste of points when used against 3+ Armour. Against vehicles with Armour 10 or 11 this weapon is vaguely useful.
- TL-Deathspitter: Range = short. TL means you have a slightly better chance to hit (33% + 33% of 66% = total of 55%). This means that in theory you will hit 0.32 times per shot more than the Stinger Salvo. However, the Salvo has a better AP, so in a tourney/competitive All-Comers list, choose the Salvo over the Deathspitter. Against vehicles with Armour 10 or 11 this weapon is vaguely useful.
- Barbed Strangler: Good range. Good against T3 and Orks. Against vehicles this weapon is not useful.
- Venom Cannon: Good range. O.K. against vehicles with Armour 10 or 11. Good against all units not Embarked, especially those without 3+ Armour.
In a Spore heavy list it is worth taking a few long range upgrades for Spores you intend to drop on the flanks, rather than in the centre.
If you do put a decent shooting weapon on your Spore, don’t expect it to last too long. Although they look tough, their weak Toughness and Armour save means they will die quickly to enemy shooting.
It is very important that you read and remember the sentence regarding Scoring for Mycetic Spores on page 90.
- Taking and Holding enemy Objectives: n/a
- Defending your Objectives: n/a
- Killing enemy units: With a decent shooting weapon they can certainly help
- Planetstrike Attacker: Very useful
- Planetstrike Defender: Could be useful as a surprise attack to destabilise your opponents plan
- Apocalypse: Definitely useful
- Best used against: anyone