After browsing through Tyranid army list, here is a (non limitative) list of all the decreases, reductions and loss of efficiency affecting Tyranids without any compensation. BTW, why the Hive Tyrant became a Hive Queen? ?
- Infantry: not able to gang up on "Big Things" anymore (namely titans). Affects all armies in the game but Tyranids most, since this list relies heavily on assault infantry and its CAF is capped at +14.
- Infantry: suffering from the CAF bonus of infantry entrenched in building and ruins. Again, all armies are affected but Tyranids suffer the most of this change since it's, again, an assault infantry list. Even Genestealers (CAF+6) have now trouble assaulting SM tactical company (CAF+2) entrenched in a building (+2 bonus). Remember that one-third of assaulters will just be wiped out before combat begins just because of first fire.
- Regeneration card: was removing all wound counters, now just 1D6. Awfully random, too.
- Trygon: in GW version, the result of the to-hit roll of the Trygon was used as a save modifier. Since you hit on 3+ the save modifier was ranging from -3 to -6. Now, the TSM of the Trygon has been set to-3 TSM (the minimum) without any variation. Who hates the Trygon?
- Bio-Titans: the thread is not closed yet but many seem keen to neuter them.
- Pyro-Acid cost increased to 60.
- No allies. Not a big deal, but one could hardly count that as an advantage!
Okay, Exocrine now have a AA gun and Lictors *may* ambush, but I don't think it makes up for all of items listed above.
As Ulmo aptly said, Tyranids have to kill each and every vehicle and stand from the opposing army to ensure victory. They don't have mass damage dealing units (just one template weapon in the army, few and poor artillery) and weak firepower: they have to get close and personal with infantry stands. It's far from easy.
I seriously think that Tyranids should be reworked to be more, well, mean, because I find the army list seriously lacking punch in NetEpic 5, especially regarding Space Marine rules. ?
