What is the general opinion of tyranids right now?

[antin3]

I love the new models coming out and I have a few painted up somewhere here in my apartment. But I keep reading that they are trash, is that true or just overreaction? What is your opinion?

[Dreadlordpaul]

I think it depends on what you use against them my mono nurgle csm army struggles against them but my foot slogging DE army lols at them

[Spider-pope]

They still shred my Daemons, and now they have fancy pants new models to do it in style.

[vstag]

I started playing them a few months ago and I got to say I love to play them, and there not as bad as the internet makes them out to be, but they do have a little bit of a up hill battle going for them. A few things just hurt them more then other armys and they do have bad balance inside its own book, but if you know what your doing and play smart you can do just fine with them. Still if somebody is whanting to play to win then they should pick a diffrent army, but I think I have had more fun playing my bugs then my IG or BA armys.

[leonmallett]

As a long time Tyranid player, the thing that disappoints me is the horde concept just seems to unworkable to me to be anywhere near survivable or effective. To avoid this requires compromise or specific choices to compensate, thus moving away from massed horde to lower model count alternatives.

That may be just me being a rubbish player though!

[Vampiric16]

I've been playing them for nigh on 10 years now, and I've never looked back. I'll admit the current codex was a bit of a disapointment (more to do with the lack of effort than anything), but I still get a kick out of my bugs.

[ReveredChaplainDrake]

Specifically, Tyranids have it rough against armies with fast and/or numerous transports, long-ranged psychic defense, instant death infliction, and basically anybody with units more points-efficient than theirs. At their best, they're alright against Orks, Daemons, Chaos Marines and Tau. Basically, the only armies Tyranids excel against are the "bad" ones, while they suffer against all the "good" ones (GK, SW, IG). If the locals aren't that meta and you have a ton of $$$ to throw around, you could try them. Tyranids just can't bring it the way other armies can, and it always feels like you're trying to fight against your own army's flaws rather than against your opponent's army's strengths when you attempt to bring it. Tyranids also have some horribly exploitable achilles' heels for their best units, from their crutch-like dependence on psychic powers to high-toughness high-wound monsters in a meta with armies designed to spam poison and force weapons.

That said, compared to other meta armies, Tyranids suffer the least against the Newcrons, who seem to thrive against the kinds of transport troll lists that give Tyranids problems. Tyranids could wind up a whole new army (though still horribly flawed) in 6th edition, which is said to debut sometime this July.

[Oppressor]

They suffer from no AV, and horrible armor saves which means they must pray for craptons of cover on the board to go anywhere. If you take a venomthrope, it gets targetted and taken out seperately, and takes up elite slots that are the domain of your only reliable AT spam.

[Draconis]

Specifically, Tyranids have it rough against armies with fast and/or numerous transports, long-ranged psychic defense, instant death infliction, and basically anybody with units more points-efficient than theirs. At their best, they're alright against Orks, Daemons, Chaos Marines and Tau. Basically, the only armies Tyranids excel against are the "bad" ones, while they suffer against all the "good" ones (GK, SW, IG). If the locals aren't that meta and you have a ton of $$$ to throw around, you could try them. Tyranids just can't bring it the way other armies can, and it always feels like you're trying to fight against your own army's flaws rather than against your opponent's army's strengths when you attempt to bring it. Tyranids also have some horribly exploitable achilles' heels for their best units, from their crutch-like dependence on psychic powers to high-toughness high-wound monsters in a meta with armies designed to spam poison and force weapons.

That said, compared to other meta armies, Tyranids suffer the least against the Newcrons, who seem to thrive against the kinds of transport troll lists that give Tyranids problems. Tyranids could wind up a whole new army (though still horribly flawed) in 6th edition, which is said to debut sometime this July.

This guy said it. Nail on the head. It's a fun army, and I tend to dominate where I play. But thats because nobody plays seriously. I just rush forward and crush things. I still use lictors and carnifex and still win so..... However, in a competitive area, nids are going to suffer bad and it's going to seem unfair. However, with the arrival of Crons and hopefully their ability to destroy transports, I hope it reshapes the meta so that the nids can thrive.

[Captain Collius]

with a very good player in a friendly enviroment nids work other than that they have trouble

[Hicks]

I love the concept of the army, the minis are great, but they really don't compete with the newer codices.

[MajorWesJanson]

Doom is broken.
Special Characters could have been implemented better.
Overuse of special rules for every entry
Warrior prime should be an upgrade for one model in a Warrior brood, not a single model entry. This would build in a retinue.
Dropped too many biomorphs- 4th had a few too many, 5th has too few
Lack of mid strength firepower for dealing with transports
Carnifexes bumped in price too much- Combined with Biomorph dropping. Should start at say 100 points with lesser stats, and allow biomorphs to be added to bump it's stats and abilities.
Pyrovore ought to have the option for a heavy flamer attack like now, or a multimelta equivalent.

Kitwises, they ought to combine Hive Guard and Tyrant Guard into a plastic three-pack, maybe with some new/additional CC weapon options for tyrant guard.
Pyrovore/Biovore ought to be a squad unit box of 2-3 in plastic.
Zoanthrope/Venomthrope/Doom box of 2-3 makes sense
Make Shrikes more distinct than just Warriors with wings, and do a 3 box with parts for Parasite.

[ekiander]

As a long time Tyranid player, the thing that disappoints me is the horde concept just seems to unworkable to me to be anywhere near survivable or effective. To avoid this requires compromise or specific choices to compensate, thus moving away from massed horde to lower model count alternatives.

That may be just me being a rubbish player though!

This is my big pet peeve. I can live with something a bit underpowered but a horde foot slogging army is what I think of when I think of Nids and it just doesn't work at all.

[Disturbed Frog]

Doom is broken.
Special Characters could have been implemented better.
Overuse of special rules for every entry
Warrior prime should be an upgrade for one model in a Warrior brood, not a single model entry. This would build in a retinue.
Dropped too many biomorphs- 4th had a few too many, 5th has too few
Lack of mid strength firepower for dealing with transports
Carnifexes bumped in price too much- Combined with Biomorph dropping. Should start at say 100 points with lesser stats, and allow biomorphs to be added to bump it's stats and abilities.
Pyrovore ought to have the option for a heavy flamer attack like now, or a multimelta equivalent.

Kitwises, they ought to combine Hive Guard and Tyrant Guard into a plastic three-pack, maybe with some new/additional CC weapon options for tyrant guard.
Pyrovore/Biovore ought to be a squad unit box of 2-3 in plastic.
Zoanthrope/Venomthrope/Doom box of 2-3 makes sense
Make Shrikes more distinct than just Warriors with wings, and do a 3 box with parts for Parasite.

Are you off your face? Zoaonthrope / venomthrope combi kit? Aside from both having thrope in there name and being top heavy they have no other simularaties and as I like the current models I would not want them to make them look similar just so they can be a combi kit!

[Laughingmonk]

Tyranids now have a huge array of models, and beg for customization and innovation. Collector-wise, they are very fun to collect and generally are awesome to field, as they are rife with big monsters and gribbly troops.

Game-wise, they are flawed. They are very good in several areas, such as anti infantry firepower, footslogging speed (almost the entire army has 'move through cover' and many units have fleet), infiltration/outflanking, and their entire army can be made to deepstrike (by either flight or mycetic spore) very easily (which, for nids, can be a good thing, situation permitting). In addition, the entire army is fearless (under synaptic control).

Unfortunately, many of these abilities are either easily mitigated or highly situational, as many of them just aren't that great to have in 5th edition. The fact is, transports are very good, and tyranids don't have them. It wouldn't be big deal if tyranids had decent ranged anti-tank, but they lack that as well, as many of the units they have for that purpose are either horrendously expensive (T-fex) or fragile (zoanthropes, harpy). Even the vaunted hive guard aren't enough, and often come with the added price of severely clogging your elites section. Fast footslogging through terrain is good, but completely countered by the fact that assault grenades are conspicuously absent from most units, denying you your high initiative (which is devastating, as tyranids often lack decent armor saves). Fearless is also good, but with 'no retreat' you will suffer double casualties, which means you can't tarpit effectively much of the time.


However, tyranids are still very fun to play. The fact is, there are many players who don't use optimized lists, or even play the top three. The question you should ask yourself is what you want out of your army. If you want to win tournaments, and that is the main reason you play, and derive most of your pleasure from defeating highly skilled opponents with optimized lists, then tyranids right now are probably not for you. The book is flawed. If you love the figures though, then go for it. Like I tell all new players, books and editions come and go. Models are what you blow your money on, and spend your time painting and assembling. So play the army you like the idea of.

That being said, tyranids are by no means harmless. They can, and will, devastate someone who makes a mistake or brings an army that isn't prepared to fight you. They can't deal with transport spam, but they can deal with more modest amounts of vehicles just fine. They have decent selections in every slot, which is more than can be said for many armies, and often bring at least one of every slot. An an unoptimized environment, tyranids have a lot flexibility in the types of lists they can play. Aside from the tervigon-spam and stealer shock, tyranids can also deploy swarms, flight lists, mycetic drop armies, vanguard assaults, and my favorite, warrior-wing (like a tyranid deathwing, using lots of elite infantry like warriors, ravenors, shrikes, biovores, hive guard, etc.). They can be themed to play many different ways in this way, so you will busy experimenting and collecting.

To wrap it up, I'd just like to point out that many, many players choose to play sub-optimal armies. Thousand sons players NEVER had a good list. Deathwing/ravenwing has always been hard. Other players choose more esoteric themes, like all SM scout armies or haemonculus coven. Why? Because they love their armies! Think about that before writing them off. I've been playing since beginning of third (technically second, but I didn't collect then), and have probably collected/sold off almost every army in the game since than, in multiple editions, a decade of gaming. Tyranids have given more fun, even in 5th, even with their flaws, than eldar, chaos, tau, Vanilla SM, Space wolves, Witch hunters, and Demon hunters. They're awesome, fun, and unique. The book is trash. Tyranids are not!

Plus, 6th is coming. If even half of the rumors are true...

Soon my gribblies...... SOON

[chebba98]

i have been playing them for a while now and i love them, they are the easiest army to play in my opinion of the armies i have which are necrons, daemons, and just started orks. now that the new models are coming out im pumped to play with them again and so ive been going painting crazy my old tyranids, but as far as how well they do i usually win with them and lose with my other armies more. they are the army i use when i really wanna win, and i no ppl say the suck against some or the more crazy races but ive still beatin sw, ba, de, and gk alot(maybe gk just was cause the player sucked but still).

[nedius]

The points about the army have been well covered, so won't rehash other than to agree with the 'Cool models; Flawed Army' point of view.

Another thing to consider is that many players will, even with the new model releases, be left with a bitter taste in their mouth that it's taken so long to get them. It's nice to see 'nids not entirely abandoned, but I don't feel it's enough to outright wipe away the bitterness many gamers will feel at having been left in the lurch for so long.

Here's my take on the new releases:

Tervigon/tyranofex - great kit! Will buy at least one, if not two.

Hive Tryant kit - REALLY great kit! Won't but one, as I don't need one, but it is a cool kit, none the less.

Warrior Upgrade sprues: Made me laugh out loud. Honestly did. It took GW over two years, with all their model making expereince, to do what several small bits companies did in a couple of months. And some of them did it better. Nice to have them though, and if in future GW could get their rear in gear and get such things out promptly, could be a good little bits line.

On going issues:

Where are the mycetic spores, warrior primes, etc? Why no new warrior kit to make warriors/shrikes, as with the latest vampire releases (vargeist etc)?

[angelofrage]

Always had a soft spot for the Tyranid miniatures, but it's only since seeing the new releases that I'm considering starting up a force. Hoping to pick up a Swarmlord tomorrow to assemble and paint as a test. In terms of gaming, I only play against friends so don't need to be super competitive, also starting from scratch gives me the option to build a list from the ground up.

[Chapters Unwritten]

The book is really spastic. It screams to me of a draft that needed some more revisions and got pushed out early. The models are great and the army is only slightly below average but I have always attributed this entirely to the fact that the book has a huge variety of weird effects you have to remember to utilize and plan around.

[nedius]

Saw an interesting thing in GW Cambridge today.

Wolf stuff - Lotsa had gone - all the thunderwolves, most of the wolf lord on thunder wolf etc.

Nids? The arms had gone. They still had 14 Tervigons, and plenty of hive tyrants. It looked like maybe a few had sold, and very few tervigons, if any.

Telling.