What's up everyone, Chaplain Sam here with some exciting news for Tyranid players! The Hive Mind has gained control of GW management and decided to release a storm of new Tyranid models. There are a total of at least 5 new models coming for Tyranids (including the last two releases)! That is crazy! I am stoked, I know not every unit will be super competitive, but the collector in me is pumped. The rules just recently leaked for the Tyrannocyte (bug drop pod), Mucolid Spore Cluster and the Sporocyst. There was also a hint of something psychic to come and the Internet is going crazy hoping for the return of Doom of Malan'tai. So what do these exciting new members of the Hive Mind have to offer? Let's check it out.
Tyrannocyte
I know that is hard to read to here is the breakdown:
Base Stats, Weapons and Rules
WS BS S T W I A LD SV 75 Points
2 2 5 5 6 5 3 8 4+
- Deep Strike like drop pod with transport capacity of 20 infantry models or 1 monstrous creature
- Five Deathspitters (15 S5 Shots)
- May be swapped for Barbed Stranglers or Venom Cannons (all 5)
- Must shoot at nearest enemy
- No instinctive behavior
- Fearless
- May not run or charge (can consolidate)
- Does not take up FOC slot
Let me just start by saying that I think this is a really awesome way to put a Tyranid twist on drop pods. They are very similar in purpose, but they have some neat differences. The Tyrannocyte has some very exciting rules and it opens a lot of doors for Tyranids. A lot of Tyranid units that were completely useless are now useable (not necessarily competitive). All the many Tyranid units that struggle with short ranged weapons and/or slow movement are so much more viable with Nid pod delivery service. Take the Tyrannofex for example, its best weapons are templates, some with torrent some without. All in all, it has pretty short range so it loses some of its utility because it has to spend 1-2 turns walking and not shooting. Now you can drop one in inside of a Tyrannocyte and force your opponent to deal with a T6 W6 2+ tank in his/her deployment zone. The same benefits apply to many Tyranid units.
You can't assault from the Tyrannocyte, which is unfortunate, but that would have been a bit much. The other interesting thing I noted above is this bad boy is a monstrous creature, not a vehicle. It's incredibly points efficient for a T5 W6 monstrous creature. It's offensive output is pretty good for the cost and everything else it brings to the table. It averages five S5 hits, not too shabby. It can't charge anything, but it can still move around and swing back in combat. It won't wreck face in combat, but it's better than nothing and it's attacks are still AP2 because it's a monstrous creature. The ability to move onto objectives that you may have scattered off of is a very useful ability.
There are a lot of options I haven't covered yet, but overall I think the Tyrannocyte will open up a lot of different play styles. I think we'll see more diverse Tyranid armies moving forward.
Chaplain Sam's Rating: Good. Remember my scale is poor - average - good, so this is a pretty favorable rating.
Mucolid Spore Cluster
This leaked picture is harder for me to read, but here is my breakdown:
Base Stats, Weapons and Rules
S T W 15 Points
1 3 3
- Deepstrike
- Shrouded
- Fearless
- Floating Death - 3 inch movement and half the distance of run and charge rolls. Explode in combat at initiative 10. The explosion is resolved by placing a large blast marker of any spore and the units (friend or foe) suffer a number of hits equal to the number of models under the blast marker. The explosion is strength 8 + each additional spore and AP3. All spores are removed as casualties afterward.
- Living Bomb - Spores are non-scoring, non-denial and do not award victory points when destroyed
- Skyblast - Spores may assault zooming flyers and swooping flying monstrous creatures. The strength and number of hits is the same as above (1+1 hit for each additional spore). The hits are resolved against side armor and ignore cover.
So the obviously interesting thing here is that the spores can assault flyers/FMCs. I think it would be more useful if the attack took place while deepstriking in. They can't charge the turn they come in and flyers will easily steer clear the following turns. They're also troops, so if you've completely given up on Tyranid troops and have no interest in using them and objective secured to hold objectives these Mulcolid Spores may be of interest to you! I've never been big on suicide units that literally kill themselves as part of their attack, but I could see how these guys could be of interest. In my opinion they are a bit expensive as they are always going to eat a turn of shooting before being able to do anything and at toughness 3 they will fold pretty easily. Shrouded may keep them alive a bit longer though. Having said all that, I've never played with a unit like this so it's hard to judge how it will perform just by looking at it's stats and rules. It could prove to be pretty useful!
Chaplain Sam's Rating: Poor/Average. I think the fact that the Mucolid Spores are troops is pretty interesting. You can spend 30 points and fulfill your troop requirement and most competitive Tyranid lists take minimum troops anyway. Two minimum units of termagants or rippers are about 80 points and I'm not sure the 50 point savings are worth the loss of objective secured units. I'm torn on this one so I will use some proxies to play test these. Still, I do not think you will see these in the most competitive Tyranid lists.
Sporocyst
I can't read this one, so I've snagged a bit of information from Torrent of Fire:
http://www.torrentoffire.com/6156/nidvember-is-here-kit-and-rules-sneak-preview?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nidvember-is-here-kit-and-rules-sneak-preview
And a few bits to add to that:
- 75 Points
- Heavy Support
- Fearless
- Infiltrate
- Five Deathspitters (15 S5 Shots)
- May be swapped for Barbed Stranglers or Venom Cannons (all 5)
- Must shoot at nearest enemy
- No instinctive behavior
- Immobile
This follows GW's latest trend of producing kits that can be built into two models/units. The Sporocyst is like the twin that lives in the shadow of his brother. The Tyrannocyte is better, but the Sporocyst still has some useful abilities. It's a really interesting unit because its combination of abilities is so different than anything else we've seen. It reminds me of a Zerg factory/building from Starcraft because it doesn't move but it pumps out a bunch of spores to go blow things up. It's really not bad at all. It's really incredible cheap for six T5 wounds and 4+ save. It has the same shooting as the Tyrannocyte, but instead of deepstriking a unit in, it infiltrates and starts producing spores. The issue is its a heavy support choice... That is an incredibly crowded slot and it's tough to imagine giving up anything to bring these. I can see them being productive in lists with formations and/or multiple detachments in order to get some extra heavy slots.
Chaplain Sam's Rating: Average. This is just my first impression so don't flame me too much if you thing its horrible or amazing. This is just so different than anything we've played so I need to get some practice games in.
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See that bit about the Psychic Horror? That's got the Internet buzzing hoping for the return of the Doom of Malan'tai. I'd love to see the Doom come back, but I'm not convinced. I think GW would rather make something new that will force folks to buy models rather than dust off their old Doom conversions.
Thanks for reading!
Chaplain Sam signing off.
What do you think about the new units? Which one do you think is the most competitive? Will any of the new units break into the most competitive Tyranid Lists?