Techincally... bio plasma is a "hand-to-hand" attack these days... *laugh*

So, with Lictors so emasculated, do you think the 0-2 limit could/should be taken off of them?

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Despite the instant gut reaction that LV means certain death, I think it may be an overreaction, and I feel it could result in some new swarm builds. I will try them next month against the stock 3 armies - marines, orks and guards.

Some positive feedback(ie non-nerfs): +5 cm move for the assault spawns. Finally! Throw them in with warriors and they will move faster and soak up a lot of AT fire. These are very resilient.

The reduction of gaunts to 75/3 means more points can spill over to uncommon broods, making more of them viable.

Some other remarks:

If Tyranid warriors should prove (by playtesting) to be too vulnerable, why not add the option of taking 0-3 extra tyranid warriors (instead of reverting back to INF status)?

Would 25cm move on hydraphant increase its viability? It is strictly CC, and as far as my models go, have longer legs than Hierophants

Oh, and why 100 for 3 gargoyles? They cost 25 in independent swarms, and received no boost. 75 would be more logical, or were they overpowered?

The possibility of the uncommon zoanthrope cluster seems a little bit weird. Are they meant to be spammed, or is it an error?

/fredmans

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OOPS!  There should be no "Zoanthrope Cluster" as they now come out of Synapse!

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Also, should not the Vituperator be able to carry zoanthropes, given their new status? I see no reason as to why not.

/Fredmans

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Hi Chroma,

thanks for the new version. New things to try out!  

Xenopsychology - Tyranid Swarms

-two types of Swarms, Independent and Synapse.
-"control range" checked in the End Phase (this needs *HEAVY* testing!)

Xenopsychology - Relentless

-base Initiative rating of 2+ with a +2 for Engages and Rally tests.

Xenopyschology - Expendable

-only in effect if Synapse creatures are present

Here are some comments and impressions on your list, Chroma.

I support most of the comments already made. Especially the +1D3 spawn bonus for 30 cm proximity. I think you can explain it just as good as you could explain the opposite. There are always hordes of little buggers running around. As single creatures, they are hard to spot when lurking in the grass or hard to aim at when running around erraticly. Soldiers probably won't waste time and ammo on them unless they become an actual threat (since the REAL swarm will soon arrive). The hive mind does not care much about the roaming buggers and keeps them on a long leash. However, once the enemy draws near, the synapse creatures tighten that leash, drawing the free roamers closer and putting them under direct control to strengthen the swarm in the face of the enemy. The swarm appears to grow while closing in. That is how I see the spawn bonus at enemy proximity.

It is weird that large infantry swarms will probably be as slow as ever despite that the Warriors' speed was raised to 20 cm: Since they are LVs now, you want to protect them by having around half the swarm being LV or AV. You provide some means to do so by adding the Zoanthrope option to the Synapse selection, but Zoanthropes as well as Carnifex have only a speed of 15. Therefore the problem of some creatures slowing the Gaunt swarm down still exists. (Please note that I do NOT advise you to raise the Zoanthropes' and the Carnifex' speed! It's fine at 15 cm.)

I'm not sure about the Mobility special rule. On the one hand, adding another army specific special rule is a bad thing. On the other, Walker can be dropped from over a dozen unit entries. Jury is still out on this.

The names for Scything Talons / Slashing Claws are applied inconsistently. This is most likely an oversight. Raveners and Tyranid Warriors have Scything Talons for EA+1, others have them for EA+1 MW. You probably meant Slashing Claws for the Raveners and Tyranid Warriors.

Finally, a personal crusade of mine is to change „You may purchase one Uncommon Brood Group for every two Common Brood Groups included in the army.“ on the Uncommon Brood Groups to „Up to one Uncommon Brood Group may be taken for every Common Brood Groups included in the army.“. This is the formulation used for other armies like Steel Legion or Eldar and I like to keep things consistent. This would mean of course that the numbers on the Common Broods have to be raised. I thought doubling them to 8 was to much and would have raised them to 6. This is now incidentally the doubled amount of the current brood group size. Since the Infantry broods have lost their appeal due to Warriors becoming LVs, I would lower their cost a bit despite the new „half casualties in combat resolution“-rule. Raveners on the other hand are quite useful now as „Synapse protectors“.
I would propose:
6 Gargoyles for 150 pts
6 Gaunts for 100 pts
6 Raveners for 200 pts
Gargoyles cost more than Gaunts, but not 200 pts. They gain mobility and AA, but lose the „half casualties in combat resolution“-rule. They now cost as much as the Gargoyles purchased with the Harridan. They should not cost much more, because they can't protect Synapse.
Gaunts are cheep. Yes. They should be. The new „half casualties in combat resolution“-rule is great, but they can't protect Warriors from incoming fire any more. Their low price makes them still a viable option.
Raveners are the only group where I would double the price. It seems quite right. They are expensive, but the only common „Synapse protectors“. Also, they are capable fighters.
A nice side effect with that costing is that it scales well. It helps the player filling his last few hundred points. (Granted, your list makes it easy as well...)

Otherwise, I like most of the changes. The Harrassment and Subterranean Swarms are great ideas!

Had a battle with 9.2 over the weekend, unfortunately I didn't realize Warriors were LVs until after the game and we played on a 8x6 board. So I'll try for an official report this week.

Initial Thoughts:

Control Range check clears things up, but does give the bugs a bump.

+2 to Engage and Rally seemed too much to be back in 9.0, I've found +1 to be perfectly fine in all my 9.1 battles. Since were back again, I'll pull out my old suggestion of instead of a +2 to rally, just ignore the -2 of being broken.

Expendable re-work is good, I do agree with Hena's edit. We need something in there that ties Expendible with Brood. I spent a few minutes trying to put the connection together myself before the game.

Spawning after regroup will be interesting. I think it goes a way towards solving Hena's problem with not being able to do anything helpful with the bugs when they have to take a hold action. I noticed during my game though that my spawn pool was much shallower than normal. This will need some testing.

Mobility I think is a flavorful change, thanks FERC.

Tunneling units sounds fun. However I suggest making the core unit Trygons and adding Raveners as upgrades for the simple reason of what's readily available model wise. I have Trygons, in order to tunnel them I have to convert Raveners. Fluffwise, the Trygons are digging the holes, aren't they? The Raveners are just following them.

Unit changes, these and the Relentless change are where I see the biggest problems. The two chief among them being the Warrior change and the Gaunt 1/2 casualties change. Also, where'd the FS on the Hormagaunts come from? 2 at 5+ seemed like a fair trade off with a points increase.

The Gaunts change is really messing with assault core mechanics. I haven't had issue winning assaults with all Guant assault swarms, like everything it just takes some practice and some prepping. This is the thing that got the most criticism from my opponents on Saturday.

Finally, on the army list changes. I'd suggest 100 points for 4 Gaunts rather than 75 for 3. Math made easier in my opinion.

Thanks for the Heirodule step rather than the Hydraphant step.

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Well, they can always garrison with the Synapse node, which I believe is the best option for them anyway providing both Leader and WE cover.

By the way, is the Broodlord cap gone?

/Fredmans

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Yep, no more 0-1 per army. Just a max of 1 per swarm.

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Yeah, the Broodlord is not the "Patriarch" anymore... just a super-'Stealer... the Tyranid Codex speaks of mulitple 'Stealer swarms led by Broodlords.

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