Tyranids • Some Thoughts for the Week

I found this highly amusing. I had one of my Tyranid batreps posted on BoLS this past weekend - it was a game versus a good friend who plays Space Wolves. It is an old batrep dating back three months or more and I had a big win that game. Lots of hate on BoLS with many claims I faked the batrep to make my army seem better than it is. There was also lots of comments that my army list sucks and/or that my friend's SW army list sucks. It seems to me that some people have either forgot or don't realize that Tyranids are still one of the top melee armies - in fact I will go so far to say they are better in assault than Space Wolves... At least that has been my experience. A lot (too much really) emphasis has been put on wrecking mechanized armies via shooting - a lot of people believe that shooting is superior to assault in fifth edition and for good reason but I don't think it can be made as a blanket statement.

What I have learned from playing Tyranids is that to be competitive you need a very balanced army with the potential for lots of synergy. I have removed some of my melee units to add some more shooting and so far it's paid off. My army is still quite potent in melee... I like how I was able to make the changes and not go too far in the other direction.

It still seems the general consensus is that a horde list consisting mainly of Tervigons, termagants, Hive Guard and Tyrannofexen is the way to go - but remember that from a competitive point of view this style of play has epically failed, not placing first at any major event... Yet some people still hold onto this way of thinking and proclaim it as superior. A lot of people want to play armies that are simple and do very well competitively such as Grey Knights, Imperial Guard and Space Wolves. That is okay but this approach comes up short for Tyranids which is well proven - you have to be willing to experiment and think outside the proverbial box.

I have started to see some other players around the US having some success with reserved Tyranids... It's not a major trend by any means but maybe the release of the new plastic kits will breathe some more life into this codex. From what I've heard in regards to the coming sixth edition Tyranids will get a good boost and mech will not be quite as good anymore - so some things are definitely going to change by the end of the year.

The cool thing is a follow up article on my latest Tyranid army list was posted later that day and was generally well received.  :  ) I have my host of critics on BoLS that want to shoot me down but there is still some fire under this snowy roof. Heh.