Current State of the Meta • Tyranids & Iron Hands

Approximately a year ago when sixth edition was first released the playing field was leveled and everybody stood on equal ground... Except of course for Necrons and the still hated flyers. Those days are over now and there are plenty of nasty lists out there such as ScreamerStar and the Jetseer Council.

So let's talk about the current state of the meta. Two big things that immediately come to mind are Tyranids and the new Iron Hands. I have already briefly discussed the new rules from Forge World for Space Marine chapter tactics and characters that took part in the Badab War.

Tyranids are soon to see a new codex (maybe next month) so there is no telling what will happen with the bugs. Remember when everyone said Tyranids were the worst army ever? Heh. I am certain some of the major havoc reaping meta units like Doom and those ever gant pooping Tervigons are going to take a really big hit from the nerf bat. You never know, they might even drop the Doom from the codex and it's happened before to many other special units such as Moriar the Blood Angels dreadnaught and Tyrannic Veterans from the Ultramarines — there's no official model so I could see this to make room for the new units. It could be a good thing too... It just seems like every Tyranid army you see nowadays has all the same units:

• Flyrant w. twin linked devourers
• Flyrant w. twin linked devourers
• Tervigon
• Termagant Brood
• Tervigon
• Termagant Brood
• Doom in a Mycetic Spore

Sprinkle in some Gargoyles, Biovores, Zoanthropes or Hive Guard. Most of the 2000 point lists I see have up to 10 psychic bugs (most of which are monstrous creatures) and they are rolling for a Endurance and Iron Arm. Sure it's very competitive but something new could be a good thing. You never know exactly what will drop and GW has kept things air tight. At one time there was a rumor that Mat Ward wrote the new codex... That's kind of scary! I am hoping units like genestealers will be playable again at the competitive level. I have always wished that Warriors were T5 with a 3+ armor save but I seriously doubt that's ever going to happen. So it's soon to be back to the drawing board for the Hive Mind.

Next up are the Iron Hands and I'm very excited about the new supplement. This was well coordinated with their release in the second Heresy book from Forge World. One of the things I really like is being able to field more Techmarines - if you take two HQ then you can field up to five and even more if you have a Master of the Forge. Their new relics are very good and I think its possible to field a competitive melee army using drop pods. This will be my next project so expect more discussion on Iron Hands.