The Tyranid Codex pt. 2 - Alladin's Morning Coffee Musings #2

Is the main issue with Codex: Tyranids that it is under-powered, or is it that too many other codexes are OVER-powered?

Hello again! Having the Friday off as well I thought I'd finish my musings on this topic today rather than wait for next week. I ended the first part with the question above, and while the first part went into some glaring (albeit fixable) errors in the codex design, I feel that the answer lies more in the latter part of the question than the former.

This is what happens when we lose Synapse... Attack!

Balancing a game as complex as Warhammer 40k is an extremely hard process, compounded by the rate of codex releases and other additions/supplements such as Escalation and Stronghold Assault. Not to say it is impossible, but I think the community as a whole can agree that, regardless of your opinion on Games Workshop, they could be doing much more to provide more balance.

It's not to say that they don't make any effort, as FAQs are released from time to time to address wording and ambiguity issues, however I think (and in light of the less-than-stellar financials, which you can read about at Faeit 212 and many other blogs) that a bit more focus in this area would be hugely beneficial to their end-game, i.e. building a healthy, growing, profitable community.

The 6th Ed. Tyranid Codex - Alladin's Morning Coffee Musings #1

Hey all,

Today I've decided to try a new, hopefully "weekly" feature on my blog: A short(ish) opinion piece on  one thing or another in the hobby world. We'll see how it goes, normally I spend way too much time editing and proofing my articles, which is why I get so little done! Not to mention that I spend way too much time over-explaining things - see previous sentence... :|  Anyway, this week I will throw my 2 cents into the ring on the 6th Ed Codex: Tyranids debate that seems to be taking the internet blogosphere by storm.

<old Simpsons quote>"Shake harder, boy!"</old Simpsons quote>

As usual I will preface my comments with the fact that I am new to the hobby and have no gaming experience. I am mainly a fluff enjoyer/collector at this point, although I do eventually plan on playing.

After spending a lot of time reading about the new codex on the internet (and a little time reading the codex itself, although the pre-release leaks gave me a big head start), I get the general consensus that most people are, to put it lightly, displeased with the effort by GW. And that's putting it extremely lightly. Although I am a non-tournament player, and back my words up with no actual experience, I do see where a lot of people are coming from - it is impossible to rate this codex in a vacuum, since it not only has to compete against all other army codexes, but has to "compete" with its predecessor as well.

With this in mind, it is abundantly clear why people would harbour the opinions that they do. To put it succinctly, the 6th Ed Codex: Tyranids cannot be put on the same level as some of the other 6th Ed codexes released to date (namely Eldar and Tau, but Space Marines and Chaos Daemons fall into the mix as well). The debate as to whether it is stronger or weaker than its 5th Ed counterpart remains to be seen. There have been a lot of nerfs over last edition, but synergy is a glorious thing once discovered and I don't think the community is quite yet able to make this call. A quick look around some of the forums and blogs and you will already see new combos that show promise.

There are definitely a lot of questions surrounding this codex release, but I sometimes wonder if we, as a community, are asking the right questions to begin with.

Hive Fleet Colour-Scheme-a-thon!

Well, instead of painting as I said I would in my previous post, I ended up going to the really awesome Online Tyranid Painter (link included) website and playing around with some of my scheme ideas.

Over the last few weeks and months I have scoured the net for inspiration and found a lot of amazing colour schemes. I would love to link to all the cool stuff I saw, but there was just too much. Simply Google "Tyranid Colour Scheme" and use Google Images to scroll through lots of inspiring work.

I chose the following schemes based on a) my general preferences, and b) what I felt would go well with my 3 proposed Hive Fleet names.

Without further ado, the candidates after the break.

Hive Fleet Name-a-thon!

With the new Tyranid Codex coming out in a few short days, I have decided to take the plunge and put together a proper Hive Fleet. I will get my hands on the new Swarm box, as well as a Harpy/Hive Crone kit. This, coupled with the Hive Tyrant kit and box of 12 Termigants I already own, will should give me roughly 1000pts of "naked" units to work with, and likely pushing around 1250-1300 after upgrades.

To make it an even 1500 points, I will add another Monstrous Creature, likely a Tervigon but will depend on how the rules look post-Codex release.

When envisioning my future Hive Fleet, I wasn't really planning on using hormagaunts at all, but with the price of the Swarm box being so good I figure I can't go wrong... Plus, my other main army (Grey Knights) is an elite, low model-count force, and after thinking about it I feel that a swarm army may be a good contrast.

Now, on to the important (and fun) parts: naming the Hive Fleet, and picking a colour scheme!

2014 has Arrived! New Year, New Start.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Well, recently I started implementing a few changes to the blog, changes that will allow me some more freedom to interact with the community as a whole. I am in the process of setting up a new google+ account, whatever that is. This will involve porting all my pictures to date to the new account, and then re-uploading them to each post. Not a fun way to spend a free night...

My intention is to start signing up to other blog alliances, which should give me more exposure to the gaming community. According to Blogger, my biggest source of traffic is currently vampirestat.com (? Not really sure what that's about - I accidentally clicked on the link but it looked scary so I closed the window stat. How stat? Vampire stat.) so hopefully this will change soon, I don't think the people clicking through from vampirestat.com are getting the content they are looking for...