Clawing Them When They’re Down: Tyranids Codex FAQ by Danny Internets July 10th, 2010 - 8:19 pm

Does anyone really think the Tyranids codex is too strong? Apparently, someone at GW does.

Last week, the FAQ for the 5th edition Tyranids codex was finally released after five and a half months of waiting with bated breath. Credit should be given to whomever was responsible for selecting the questions in this FAQ because they touch on all of the contentious issues that gamers have been arguing over for almost half a year now. However, as usual, we have a large number of rules changes disguised as clarifications, many of which harm existing army builds and limit effective combinations in an already decidedly gimped codex.

It’s not that Tyranids armies are bad, but the codex is written in such a way that it puts severe limitations on the types of armies people can take if they wish to remain even remotely competitive. By paging through the book it becomes immediately clear that most of the premiere (and interesting) selections are crammed into the Elites section of the Force Organization Chart, a poor decision compounded by the poor options available in the Fast Attack section (Gargoyles being the notable exception). The competition over these three coveted spots is made all the more intense by simultaneously concentrating all effective firepower options (Hive Guard and Zoanthropes) here (except the Tyrannofex). This ultimately serves to undermine the greatest strength of the codex, which is the emphasis on synergy and lack of spammable units. Unfortunately, this synergy does not come without making painful sacrifices, many of which doom armies to failure.

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Posted in Commentary, News, Rules | 8 Comments »

Scouting Vendettas: Why it Works by Danny Internets June 17th, 2010 - 6:13 pm

Since it seems there’s more than one person with the misconception that transports with embarked units cannot perform Scout moves, I think its worth the time to clear this up.

“A transport may carry a single infantry unit and/or any number of independent characters (as long as they count as infantry), up to a total of models equal to the vehicle’s transport capacity.”

-Rulebook, p.66

Here we have the rulebook very explicitly telling us that embarked units are carried by the transport. This means that wherever the transport goes the unit inside is assume to go with them. Note the lack of restrictions here (and elsewhere in the rules for Transport Vehicles) regarding types of movement.

Now let’s look at the rules for Scouts:

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Dear Space Wolves: Thanks. Love, Tyranids. by Danny Internets January 13th, 2010 - 8:50 am

ARTICLE UPDATE:

On January 20^th, a new version of the Space Wolves FAQ was released that reversed the ruling made regarding the combination of counter-attack and furious charge. The reversal now concludes definitively that the counter-attack does NOT trigger the bonuses associated with the furious charge universal special rule.

Presumably, this was done because of the unanticipated side effects that the ruling would have both for Tervigon swarms and IG Straken infantry blobs. It’s a good ruling that’s consistent with how most people play the game and settles the issue once and for all. I’ve decided to leave the article up because the Tervigon mathhammering is still applicable, and because the unit remains the premiere selection in the codex.

On the eve of the 5^th edition Tyranid codex release, it looks like GW is poised to drop their third top-notch quality codex in a row. While I don’t think the Tyranid book will throw them into the same competitive level as IG and Space Wolves, anything that improves upon the crapfest that is their current army is a giant leap in the right direction.

A few weeks ago, a scanned copy of the new codex leaked from stores in Germany and perhaps the first stand-out unit apparent to everyone was the Tervigon. In addition to being an affordable monstrous creature that can count as Troops and spawn new units, the Tervigon also serves as a potent force multiplier for all nearby Termagaunt units. With the appropriate loadout, these beasts are giving counter-attack, synapse, Ld10, furious charge, and poisoned attacks to an infinite number of critters, albeit within a small radius. Sounds good? Yes, it does. But that’s not the half of it.

Last week, GW released an extremely comprehensive FAQ for their last codex release, the Space Wolves. In it they included the following gem:

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Posted in Rules, Strategy and Tactics | 9 Comments »

Facepalm Express: The Imperial Guard Valkyrie and You by Danny Internets June 8th, 2009 - 9:57 am

If GW hasn’t learned by now, they never will.

The Imperial Guard Valkyrie, a shiny new model with a mammoth new price tag ($58), was released along with the new codex last month. Its over-the-top rules and undercosting make it the stand-out choice for Fast Attack, however it has become apparent that GW never actually play-tested the model in a game of 40k.

The problem with the Valkyrie model is the new flight stand, which measures about 5 1/4″ inches tall. The increased height allows the model to fly quite a distance above the tabletop plane (fly, plane, get it?), and while this may look impressive, it creates some fundamental problems for how the model functions in the game.

First of all, let’s look at the rules for transports. In order to disembark a unit from its transport vehicle the unit must be able to be placed within 2″ of an access point. Many players assume that you measure along a horizontal plane, therefore (incorrectly) believing that you can place the unit on the ground under the access point. The rulebook, however, makes no such limitations on distance.

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Posted in Rules | 14 Comments »