Codex: Tyranids done right

[Fixer]

Intended to get this one done this weekend but forgot about the F1GP. Large amounts of Dip + Tortillas and Beer got in the way, so PDF is going to be another week. Sorry

Anyway, the Tyranids Codex has a lot of issues. It's commonly regarded as the worst of the new codex releases with large numbers of unnecessary nerfs, illogical rules and conflicts with base game mechanics that harm them further.

The intent of this Codex re-write is to:

• Give 'dead end' models/options into some reason to take them.
• Rebalance the army so that it better fits it's fluff in playstyle.
• Make upgrades/options on units priced effectively to open up variety.

Primary changes:

• Synapse Creatures have eternal warrior.
• Models within Synapse range have a 4+ save vs wounds caused by combat resolution After all other saves.
• Heavy venom cannon is a Str 9, 2 shot weapon.
• Venom cannon is a Str 7, 2 shot weapon.
• Monstrous Creatures upgraded with poison wound on 2+
• Models with Spinefists count as having frag grenades.
• Warrior Sprinefists are a 2 shot, Str 4, AP4 weapon, 12" range
• Heavy Spinefists are a 4 shot, Str 5, AP 3 weapon, 18" range.
• Hive Tyrant rebalanced. Does not start with Psychic powers, may take 3rd edition 'Warp Field' making winged Tyrants viable again.
• Doom of Malantai entirely rewritten. Becomes a debuff/anti psyker unit that extends range/power with each wound. Soul sucking now works as a weapon in the shooting phase with no cover saves, str Vs enemy Ld. Can be used in close combat.
• Tervigon is no longer a Psyker, has extended Synapse range for Termagants, Hormagaunts. No longer grants AG/Poison to units within range, instead grants them to units it spawns. 'Onslaught' is an ability it can grant to one Termagant unit per turn.
• Catalyst power given to the Hive Tyrant.
• Hive Tyrant powers that force a Ld test now have 'Ld test at -2' making them actually worthwhile.
• Paroxism can be used in close combat.
• Pyrovore fire now works like a Hellhound shot.
• Lictors no longer work as broods, bought as units of up to 3 that can be placed independently can assault on turn deployed, 'suprise attack' gives him a 3+ inv save for the first turn of combat. 'Evasive' means that I1 attacks can only hit him on a 6.
• Venomthropes no longer work as broods, bought as units of up to 3, are independent characters.
• Tyranid Prime can take a Ravener body or a Shrike body. Both options reduce armour save to 5+
• Base price of Termagant reduced to 3 points. Spinefists are free, Devourer changed to Light Devourer, str 3, 2 shots, range 18", 2 points.
• Base price of Hormagaunt reduced to 4 points, Hormagaunts can take flesh hooks for +1 point.
• Genstealers can take flesh hooks for +1 point.
• Infantry models with Fleet gain the 'press of numbers' ability. Allowing them to consolodate into combat with enemy units if they roll 3D6 lower than the number of models remaining in the brood, including when they kill vehicles.
• Warriors can take leaping. No boneswords options with leaping.
• Ripper Swarms no-longer eat themselves. Are immune to instant death, still suffer from swarms (as all swarms should frankly)
• Mawloc Attacks increased to 4.
• Trygon hole rules entirely changed. May choose to deploy first turn, models in reserve declare 'deploying by burrowing'. Deploying by Trygon hole allows you to assault. If the hole is blocked or unavailable for any reason,burrowing units with the exception of Raveners must roll on the Deep Strike Mishap table. If 'delayed' they instead deep strike immediately per the normal rules, when deep striking this turn they count as being in dangerous terrain and count as pinned. This represents them clawing their way out of the earth somewhere else. Raveners deepstrike as normal.
• Carnifex base price dropped by 40 points.
• Tyrannofex base price dropped by 30 points.
• Tyranids are inexplicably immune to any psychic power with the word 'wolf' in it.

[ReveredChaplainDrake]

Given that this is just a preliminary, take my initial comments with a grain of salt.

[*]Synapse Creatures have eternal warrior.

Regarding Tyranid Warriors (and Shrikes, for that matter), I think they'd be served better by just being T5 in the first place. Eternal Warrior doesn't really resolve a lot when they only have 4+ armor saves.

[*]Models within Synapse range have a 4+ save vs wounds caused by combat resolution After all other saves.

So... Feel No Pain vs Combat Resolution? Seems like a simpler way to phrase what you're trying to go for. (I don't think No Retreat wounds can ever deny armor saves.)

[*]Heavy venom cannon is a Str 9, 2 shot weapon.[*]Venom cannon is a Str 7, 2 shot weapon.

Good. You should also do something about the TLed Deathspitter. That thing needs Str7 so badly it hurts.

[*]Monstrous Creatures upgraded with poison wound on 2+

Seems a bit extreme. As someone familiar with Nurgle Daemons, who actually can take 2+ poison in CC, more often than not this is horrendous overkill. You're probably thinking of Marines. Rather, think of the Wraithlords and Talos who would be completely screwed by this.

If you look at other codecies, you'll find Poison works differently. For instance, Banewolves and Dark Eldar poison have flat wounding values, but no strength for re-rolling failed wounds. Considering this, future poison will probably be a flat "re-roll failed wounds", considering that's basically what it's supposed to do. Sure it makes poison on Gaunts a bit less effective against T5, but it makes it not nearly as stupid on big monsters.

[*]Models with Spinefists count as having frag grenades.[*]Warrior Sprinefists are a 2 shot, Str 4, AP4 weapon, 12" range[*]Heavy Spinefists are a 4 shot, Str 5, AP 3 weapon, 18" range.

Yikes, AP3 Spinefists. Considering that they all count as Frag Grenades, the jumbo AP is probably unnecessary, given an appropriate price restructuring.

[*]Hive Tyrant rebalanced. Does not start with Psychic powers, may take 3rd edition 'Warp Field' making winged Tyrants viable again.

For the record, 3rd edition Warp Field was 2+ sv only. Warp Field was actually really pointless in 3rd edition because Extended Carapace was 10 pts cheaper and didn't stop the Tyrant from taking Wings. (That restriction first showed up in 4th.)

Granted, I'm pretty sure you probably meant 4th edition Warp Field, which conferred a 6+ IV and could be combined with Wings. Also, as 3rd and 4th edition taught us, you should probably just make this a special rule, like Old Adversary or Hive Commander. It doesn't require a psychic test to maintain. It can't be negated. You can't lose it. Seems more like a persistent thing than a literal psychic power.

[*]Doom of Malantai entirely rewritten. Becomes a debuff/anti psyker unit that extends range/power with each wound. Soul sucking now works as a weapon in the shooting phase with no cover saves, str Vs enemy Ld. Can be used in close combat.

IMHO, Doom doesn't even belong in the codex. I could see using it like a "you can upgrade one Zoanthrope in your army to a Doom at +XX pts" kind of thing, though.

[*]Tervigon is no longer a Psyker, has extended Synapse range for Termagants, Hormagaunts. No longer grants AG/Poison to units within range, instead grants them to units it spawns. 'Onslaught' is an ability it can grant to one Termagant unit per turn.

Nothing to fix how it can only spawn Fleshborer Termagants? This, more than even the points cost, is what messed up so many players' collections.

Also, Onslaught is a very useful ability for bigger creatures. Right now it's a must for Zoanthropes, but it's a bit wasted on the likes of the lowliest gribbles.

[*]Catalyst power given to the Hive Tyrant.

The Hive Tyrant is already a bit overburdened with his own psychic powers. If he can't cast more than one per turn, this won't make a lot of difference.

[*]Hive Tyrant powers that force a Ld test now have 'Ld test at -2' making them actually worthwhile.

Another kicker with these powers is that they're useless versus Fearless units. There's a subtle difference between Morale and Leadership checks, and Tyrants cause the latter. The difference is that Morale doesn't affect Fearless units, but Leadership does. A bit moot against Fearless units though.

[*]Paroxism can be used in close combat.

Again, considering Paroxysm and Catalyst are both on your Tyrant, you won't be able to cast both per turn without some specific exemption.

[*]Pyrovore fire now works like a Hellhound shot.

Won't matter. Biovores are good for anti-infantry too, yet nobody uses them. A slightly better Flamer does absolutely nothing to make Pyrovores more useful compared to Hive Guard. Essentially, they need to ignore Marine saves. If it's good enough for the Banewolf...

Try moving Pyrovores to Heavy Support, where they can compete with Biovores as the short-ranged anti-infantry compliment to the Biovore's formidable long-range anti-infantry capabilities.

[*]Lictors no longer work as broods, bought as units of up to 3 that can be placed independently can assault on turn deployed, 'suprise attack' gives him a 3+ inv save for the first turn of combat. 'Evasive' means that I1 attacks can only hit him on a 6.

Lictors should still work as broods, given the size of units they wind up assaulting. As for assaulting on the turn they arrive, that combined with a 3+ IV save makes them a bit too abusive to shooty armies. They'll never be able to dislodge the Lictor without a dedicated assault unit or a bucketload of attacks.

A common fandex mistake is to go overboard on Lictors. In actuality, they'd be fine for their points if they just had a higher toughness and a better armor save, like a stealthy Tyranid Prime.

[*]Venomthropes no longer work as broods, bought as units of up to 3, are independent characters.

Independent Tyranid characters can be incredibly abusive, given the kinds of units they can hide in. (*cough*Fexes*cough*)

[*]Tyranid Prime can take a Ravener body or a Shrike body. Both options reduce armour save to 5+

By "Shrike body", you essentially mean Wings. So, essentially, you're talking about having a Shrike Prime. As for the Ravener body, Beast movement trumps Winged movement in just about every way, making it harder to balance with Wings.

How about a "Bounding Leap" Prime?

[*]Base price of Termagant reduced to 3 points. Spinefists are free, Devourer changed to Light Devourer, str 3, 2 shots, range 18", 2 points.

3 point Gaunts? Bit of an overreaction. If Tyranid weapons were just free (and possibly generatable through specifically-armed Tervigons), that'd solve most of the problems with them. The Devourer is just a bit nuts, scaling really poorly onto Termagants, and the fix you proposed would work fine, given appropriate points costs.

[*]Base price of Hormagaunt reduced to 4 points, Hormagaunts can take flesh hooks for +1 point.[*]Genstealers can take flesh hooks for +1 point.

At those costs, players would rather just take Hormagaunts without Flesh Hooks, but in twice the quantity they'd normally take them. Also, "Flesh Hooks" are both assault grenades and shooting attacks now. Rending shooting attacks. Which do BS0 Genestealers no good for their primary function.

[*]Infantry models with Fleet gain the 'press of numbers' ability. Allowing them to consolodate into combat with enemy units if they roll 3D6 lower than the number of models remaining in the brood, including when they kill vehicles.

Nobody but nobody consolidates after killing a vehicle without a WS in close combat. Those kinds of measures are in place so assault armies actually have to think about what they assault beyond just "how do I kill such-and-such".

[*]Warriors can take leaping. No boneswords options with leaping.

This just feels arbitrary.

[*]Ripper Swarms no-longer eat themselves. Are immune to instant death, still suffer from swarms (as all swarms should frankly)

Ripper Swarms, unlike Termagants, are a unit that could definitely stand a pretty sizable points drop / wound increase.

There are only three other swarm units I know of at this point: Razorwings, Scarabs, and Nurglings. Nurglings are Eternal Warrior with 5+ IV saves and potential Epidemius blessings. Razorwings are I5, 5A, 5W Rending, as well as having Beast movement. Scarabs are Jetbike Swarms and can turbo-boost for a 2+ cover save. Rippers, on the other hand... eat themselves. They need something a bit more... positive to set them apart. A points decrease, as well as ditching that moronic cannibalism rule, could make them the "quantity over quality" swarm.

[*]Mawloc Attacks increased to 4.

Doesn't really address the issue that Mawlocs are entirely too random to work. They're the only unit in the game that tries to (essentially) deepstrike for a mishap on purpose. IMHO, it should be counted like a shooting attack (2d6-BS3 scatter).

[*]Trygon hole rules entirely changed. May choose to deploy first turn, models in reserve declare 'deploying by burrowing'. Deploying by Trygon hole allows you to assault. If the hole is blocked or unavailable for any reason,burrowing units with the exception of Raveners must roll on the Deep Strike Mishap table. If 'delayed' they instead deep strike immediately per the normal rules, when deep striking this turn they count as being in dangerous terrain and count as pinned. This represents them clawing their way out of the earth somewhere else. Raveners deepstrike as normal.

To each their own, but this tunnel is especially weird, given the whole "deploy by tunnel mishap" thing. Particularly considering that Trygons have Drop Pod Deepstrike.

Raveners are probably better handled on their own, possibly re-rolling their Deepstrike scatter or scattering less ("Ascent of Tyranids") to represent their advanced burrowing senses.

[*]Carnifex base price dropped by 40 points.

40 is a bit much for a price drop. Usually people go for 20 pts down (given the re-roll), or at most 30, and that's if they don't just make the Carnifex actually worth its points. (To be honest, the Trygon should be the fragile one, while the Carnifex is the tough one.)

[*]Tyrannofex base price dropped by 30 points.

Tyrannofexes and Carnifexes really need to be standardized, like Termagants and Hormagaunts.

[*]Tyranids are inexplicably immune to any psychic power with the word 'wolf' in it.

How about "Blood"? Or "Pain"? Or "Nemesis"? Just "Wolf"?

In all seriousness, it'd probably be harder to Jaws a Tervigon if (1) Shadow were 24" and (2) it actually worked on psykers in vehicles (measuring 24" to the hull of the vehicle).

*-*-*

All in all, I think your buffs don't particularly help the monsters while they unnecessarily boost the gribbles beyond what can be handled by other armies. Particularly that 3pt Termagant thing, which is nothing if not an invitation to buy Adrenals and Toxins on them anyway. Corny as it is, buffs from nearby Tervigons give one of the few good instances of synergy in the book. That's why everybody loves that build.

I gave up many an attempt to rewrite the Tyranid Codex when I realized that the reason Tyranids suck isn't so much because of stuff in their book, but in other books. For instance:
-Transports should not be so endlessly forgiving to their passengers.
-No Retreat! should not result in wounds by proxy to Monstrous Creatures that otherwise weren't even scratched.
-Cover should not be so impossible to claim for MCs.
-Jaws of the World Wolf should not exist. Ever.
-Psychic Powers shouldn't be nearly so easy to block.
-Mephiston is sick.
-Stuff like Blood Talons and Purifiers systematically negate tarpit units, especially combined with NR!

[Fixer]

Whew, okay just back from the Wargames club. Managed to pull off a win against Grey Knights with my Nids, will post a vid battle report tommorrow. Have to be up for work in about 5 hours too.

I agree with a couple of things you say, not enough time right now to respond to everything but a couple of points:
Monstrous poison on a 2+ makes sense. As it stands the Tyrant/Trygon wounds pretty much everything other than MCs and Wraithlords on a 2+, even T5 stuff when you are charging with Adrenal Glands. 2+ to wound poison is the only upgrade that would make any sense.

The pricing of gaunts and rebalance of Tervigon is to change the Gaunt/Tervigon combination from a 'must use together' combo to 'one that works well'.
This way you can take cheap termagants on their own for meatshields (priced like grots) or upgrade them to fairly useful against the enemy but not be effectively required to have a Tervigon with them.

Instead, tervigon support becomes a bonus, an alternative to a Tyrant lead force with guants or a 'playstyle' rather than a necessity.

The overall plan is to rebalance the list so that there are these options. Hopefully once the list is finished I can post a few sample army lists as examples

[ReveredChaplainDrake]

The problem with flat 2+ poison on a Str6 MC (I'm thinking of the Hive Tyrant and Trygon, mostly) is that it doesn't particularly help in any way. When you have a 2+ poison, you have to price it according to the possibility that you can wound a Wraithlord on a 2+, as well as a Marine, making it either entirely too good for your points against anything better than a Biker Marine, or making it prohibitively expensive for an ability that won't work most of the time. IMHO, Monstrous Creatures don't need flat wounding at all, given there's nothing in the game they can't wound with a 6. This would allow Toxin Sacs to be priced appropriately for their abilities, making it a fair choice, but not one so good as to auto-include.

Actually, something I'm thinking of right now is that maybe both the upgrades we're referring to can be included. Toxin Sacs can re-roll failed wounds, while Acid Maw (I don't think this biomorph is in the new codex at all) can allow a monster to wound on a 2+ vs everything, or vice versa.

As for the Tervigon, there are quite a few reasons that they get spammed, and not many of them are addressed in what fixes you have mentioned:
-They're easily turned into incredibly durable scoring synaptic / shadow units.
-They have a free upgrade to a fairly decent pie plate shooting attack.
-Their spawning creates new broods. This is a major liability in KP missions, but it isn't mandatory, making the penalty negligible. However, in objective missions, these freebie units are simply game-breaking.
-They cast Catalyst, and are the only ones who can.
-They confer Counterattack, Toxin Sacs and Adrenal Glands to Termagants.

Fix these things, or make it so that Tervigons aren't the only thing in the codex that can do this, and Tervigons will be less of an auto-include "choice".

[Fixer]

Okay, have some spare time today

The problem with flat 2+ poison on a Str6 MC (I'm thinking of the Hive Tyrant and Trygon, mostly) is that it doesn't particularly help in any way. When you have a 2+ poison, you have to price it according to the possibility that you can wound a Wraithlord on a 2+, as well as a Marine, making it either entirely too good for your points against anything better than a Biker Marine, or making it prohibitively expensive for an ability that won't work most of the time. IMHO, Monstrous Creatures don't need flat wounding at all, given there's nothing in the game they can't wound with a 6. This would allow Toxin Sacs to be priced appropriately for their abilities, making it a fair choice, but not one so good as to auto-include.

Since That's only a few things that it's really performing better at and Wraithlords are not going to be having good times against poisoned Tyranids in general.
I suppose you could argue for a 3+ poison for MCs with St6 base, 2+ for the Carnifex. This would give a slighty improvement in general. The Carnifex is wounding everything on a 2+ except for the wraithlord anyway, giving it a reroll with 2+ poison would be the only reason to upgrade it with poison glands.

Actually, something I'm thinking of right now is that maybe both the upgrades we're referring to can be included. Toxin Sacs can re-roll failed wounds, while Acid Maw (I don't think this biomorph is in the new codex at all) can allow a monster to wound on a 2+ vs everything, or vice versa.

As for the Tervigon, there are quite a few reasons that they get spammed, and not many of them are addressed in what fixes you have mentioned:
-They're easily turned into incredibly durable scoring synaptic / shadow units.
-They have a free upgrade to a fairly decent pie plate shooting attack.
-Their spawning creates new broods. This is a major liability in KP missions, but it isn't mandatory, making the penalty negligible. However, in objective missions, these freebie units are simply game-breaking.
-They cast Catalyst, and are the only ones who can.
-They confer Counterattack, Toxin Sacs and Adrenal Glands to Termagants.

Fix these things, or make it so that Tervigons aren't the only thing in the codex that can do this, and Tervigons will be less of an auto-include "choice".

The Tervigon rules I tried to address above. It only grants the biomorphs to the unit it spawns, not to the ones surrounding it. With Catalyst moved away as well it becomes more of a Termagant/Hormagaunt support unit, less of a psychic buff/FNP provider.

With the changes made, Tyranids shouldn't need FNP to keep them alive anyway.

Onto the old post!

Regarding Tyranid Warriors (and Shrikes, for that matter), I think they'd be served better by just being T5 in the first place. Eternal Warrior doesn't really resolve a lot when they only have 4+ armor saves.

Arguable, I did petition for T5 on those models myself before. However the change in the Metagame (i.e. Grey Knights with force weapon everything) and the lack of Nid Inv saves makes the old eternal warrior on Synapse work.

Not this doesn't benefit creatures under the effects of Synapse, only the synapse creatures themselves.

So... Feel No Pain vs Combat Resolution? Seems like a simpler way to phrase what you're trying to go for. (I don't think No Retreat wounds can ever deny armor saves.)

Yes, but if the unit already has FNP, it doesn't get this benefit! Maybe give them the ability to reroll FNP if they already have it.

Good. You should also do something about the TLed Deathspitter. That thing needs Str7 so badly it hurts.

Good idea, Heavy Deathspitter going in.

Yikes, AP3 Spinefists. Considering that they all count as Frag Grenades, the jumbo AP is probably unnecessary, given an appropriate price restructuring.

Spinefists in the fluff spray out shards of spines, kinda like the frag spine launchers. So giving them frag grenades made sense.

The AP on them was to basically give the Monstrous Spinefists a reason to be taken. When you compare to the fire output and the higher strength/shots on the Brainleech, giving them a better AP makes the most sense. Also the only models that will get the AP3 are the Carnifex and the Tyrant, the Tyrant can get a BS+LW for Initiative anyway, the Carnifex gets it's frag spine option.

It does give a nice option to Tyranid Warriors though

All will be priced appropriately.

For the record, 3rd edition Warp Field was 2+ sv only. Warp Field was actually really pointless in 3rd edition because Extended Carapace was 10 pts cheaper and didn't stop the Tyrant from taking Wings. (That restriction first showed up in 4th.)

Granted, I'm pretty sure you probably meant 4th edition Warp Field, which conferred a 6+ IV and could be combined with Wings. Also, as 3rd and 4th edition taught us, you should probably just make this a special rule, like Old Adversary or Hive Commander. It doesn't require a psychic test to maintain. It can't be negated. You can't lose it. Seems more like a persistent thing than a literal psychic power.

Indeed, 4th edition one I meant.

The Flyrant really needs it's 2+ to be viable since it lacks the option for Tyrant Guard. So, ol' style warp field is back. It's always on, drawback is that it loses you a psychic power out of the 2 you can select.

IMHO, Doom doesn't even belong in the codex. I could see using it like a "you can upgrade one Zoanthrope in your army to a Doom at +XX pts" kind of thing, though.

I'm not a big fan of the Doom either but I figure I'd give it a shot at doing something interesting, rather than the stupid soul sucking rules it has now.

Seriously, the soul sucking it does causes more damage that it's actual pyschic power.

Nobody but nobody consolidates after killing a vehicle without a WS in close combat. Those kinds of measures are in place so assault armies actually have to think about what they assault beyond just "how do I kill such-and-such".

True, but then everyone has something special about them. Only Raveners, Genestealers and Hormagaunts can pull this off and the chance of them cracking the hull and getting to the gooey centre of a tank is quite low. It also gives removed the automatic melee shield of a transport away from Mech forces. Playtesting this actually worked quite well. You also cannot pull it off reliably if the unit is reduced to a low model number, with 10.5 on average as 3D6 Raveners are extremely unlikely to succeed.

Nothing to fix how it can only spawn Fleshborer Termagants? This, more than even the points cost, is what messed up so many players' collections.

Also, Onslaught is a very useful ability for bigger creatures. Right now it's a must for Zoanthropes, but it's a bit wasted on the likes of the lowliest gribbles.

Been pondering that. Firstly Spinefists will be the same price as Fleshborers and was thinking that the Tervigon can spawn 2D6 of Devourer gaunts, rolling another D6 separately to see if they get the 'double'. With the pricing change on Devourer gauts, this should work fairly well.

Again, the Onslaught ability was using the Tervigon (a gaunt leader) to boost things other than gaunts. The intent is to have it as gaunt leader, not a 'must have' HQ. Besides, getting a swarm of 30 gaunts with 12" range with their short range weapons is useful.

Independent Tyranid characters can be incredibly abusive, given the kinds of units they can hide in. (*cough*Fexes*cough*)

He only has a 5+ save and a 6" range on his ability. That shouldn't make to much difference

By "Shrike body", you essentially mean Wings. So, essentially, you're talking about having a Shrike Prime. As for the Ravener body, Beast movement trumps Winged movement in just about every way, making it harder to balance with Wings.

How about a "Bounding Leap" Prime?

The Ravener body is so that it can be attached to a unit of Raveners effectively. Since a winged Warrior would be locked into moving 6" with the rest when attacked and would prevent the unit assaulting if they fleet, he needs the same rules as the rest of the unit in order for them to function.

Same goes for trying to attach a ravener prime to a winged unit.

As for bounding leap, plan was to attach that too.
For Warriors, I was thinking about restricting boneswords on Leaping units because it gives a reason to take Rending/Scything again. You have bonesword warriors as your defensive units, Sycthing/rending as your assault warriors giving you more variety.

Doesn't really address the issue that Mawlocs are entirely too random to work. They're the only unit in the game that tries to (essentially) deepstrike for a mishap on purpose. IMHO, it should be counted like a shooting attack (2d6-BS3 scatter).

Actually, they FAQed that. You can deepstrike on an enemy unit on purpose.

To each their own, but this tunnel is especially weird, given the whole "deploy by tunnel mishap" thing. Particularly considering that Trygons have Drop Pod Deepstrike.

Raveners are probably better handled on their own, possibly re-rolling their Deepstrike scatter or scattering less ("Ascent of Tyranids") to represent their advanced burrowing senses.

True, but it's still possible for them to scatter off the table, or for someone to plant a Land Raider over the hole.

Following this up with the rules for what happens when you can't hit the board via tunnelling adds a nice angle to the game. Will be described in more detail in the finished minidex.

As for points tweaks, all depends on the end result. Better to discuss that when you can start writing army lists, some points costs may seem out of whack until you try to squeeze all you need into 1500/1750 points

As for the wolf thing it really was just a joke idead but It's pretty much the only way the Nid dex isn't going to end up in a luckfest against Wolves. Frankly an ability which beats mindwar in it's option to snipe models, can drop physical gods that can phase through matter into a chasm and bypasses unit defense in the most arbitrary manner imaginable.

Also it gets annoying when you play against people that don't understand that my other army made of jump pack troops and vehicles is entirely immune to it.

[samiens]

Hate to say it but this feels like another overpowered fandex. Breaking key rules of the game (consolidating into units) is a dangerous game and seems totally unnecessary here. The massively cheap gribblies don't really provide options, they make it a no brainer and don't seem to have drawbacks. Eternal warrior on 3 wound models is really too much- the survivability of warriors with this is too much-2 wounds or T5 would be a better option in my opinion.

I'm just not clear what you are trying to do. It feels like you are trying to increase the ability of tyranids en masse, when, to me, the issue isn't that they are generally weak but that many of the units need tweaks to make them compete with the alpha units (tervigons, trygons etc)

[Ravenous]

here's a quick fix: synapse grant eternal warrior. Bam done.

[samiens]

Except that makes warriors etc utterly overpowered at points cost

[Ravenous]

Actually it would line them up with their current cost, 45pts with a 4+ sv is pretty crap.

[samiens]

If they didn't cost 35 points id be more likely to agree..

[ghoulio]

Like most Fandex's I personally feel this one has gone too far. The big thing is to first look at the major issues with the current codex and then address them with small tweaks:

1) Points Costs: All the MCs save maybe the Trygon are overpriced, some by a small amount (Carnifexs should be 140pts base) and some by a huge amount (Harpy should be 100-120pts base). Other examples would include Hormagaunts and Raveners. The price for Hormagaunts is pretty much perfect with two minor exceptions. Both upgrades should be 1pt each, not 2. For Raveners Rending Claws should be standard (so costs 30pts with Rending Claws) and the ability to switch out for scything talons is free.

2) T4 Multi Wound Models: Almost all of these aren't too bad and can fit in the above category with the exception of Warriors. Warriors need to be either T5 with 2 wounds or the same stats but 25pts base with a deathspitter standard.

3) Horribly Written Special Rules: Trygon Tunnel, Lictor special rules, etc. A bunch of the Psychic Powers need to cleaned up too as we are the only book in history to have a psychic shooting attack that you have to cast on your own models...making it so you can't use it and assault in the same turn. Sigh. You clean up these you go a huge way to fix the book

4) The Range Section: This is the single worst aspect of the current book. The 4th edition Codex had 7 ranged weapons and it had MORE variety then we have now at 27 entries. Most entries can be combined into one (Stinger Salvo and Brainleech Devourers for example as they are essentially the same gun). The big thing is to bring back the iconic weapons of this book. For example Deathspitters SHOULD be Str 5, Ap5, 24" range, assault 1, blast and Venom Cannons should be how you list them. If you make the Venom Cannon into something that isnt the worst gun in any codex then that would go a long way to fixing our massive issue with ranged anti tank and it would help burden the reliance on Hive Guard and elites in general.

5) Redundant Entries and the removal of special characters: Just like the ranged section units that are basically the same should just be combined into one entry. The main one would be Carnifex's and Tyrannofexs as they ARE the same creature. You could also remove the Swarmlord and give some of his options to the Hive Tyrant.

6) Add Assault Grenades to some of the Elite CC units: The units that they should be added to are debatable. I personally would only add them to the different Stealer units as they are the only two units that SHOULD have them. I personally have no issues with everything else not having assault grenades.

7) Overcrowded FOC Slots (namely elites): Things like making Hive Guard an upgrade to Tyrant Guard would be a great start. You always want their to be some competition for each FOC but you DONT want the only good Anti Tank being in one slot so you cant take any of the interesting options.

The big thing to keep in mind is that little changes do have a huge impact on the overall army. If you make the Gant species as cheap as you have them AND decrease the cost of MCs you would make something that just couldnt be stopped (you could get FIVE hormagaunts to one bare bones grey knight and that GK just isnt winning that contest). For me, all I want for the Tyranid codex is what Dark Eldar have. Something that isn't overpowerd, has lots of choices that are soley based on your personal playstyle and is full of choices that just MAKE SENSE. Sadly we will be waiting quite a while for this to actually happen (like min of two more years) so like many my Nids are in storage till that happens or we get a massive Errata/FAQ.

[Ravenous]

If they didn't cost 35 points id be more likely to agree..

45 if you trick them out, really they would be no worse then paladins. the T4 and 4+ save and no wound allocation would mean they would be easier to deal with then any other death star. Plus they have no speed.

Because currently Nids cry when faced with basic grey knight armies.

[sninsch]

...

Because currently Nids cry when faced with basic grey knight armies.

Nids cry when they face grey knights, space wolfes, dark eldar and mech armies. Something have to be done to make them viable in the current meta. The last few books were a kick in the face for the tyranids.

If somebody know a good fandex witch covers the biggest problems please tell me. It's so sad that my tyranids haven't seen the table for a looong time =( (because my gaming groop is: SW, DE, GN and mech eldar)