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A little while ago, something came up on the Tyranid list that I am a member of at Yahoo Groups. Apparently, GW is not allowing either the Mutable Genus or the Mutations rules for Tyranids at any of the UK Grand Tournaments. The reason given is that it would take too much time for the organizers to verify that the army lists were legal. I heartily disagree. While there are lots of possible combinations of mutants and biomorphs, the rules for them are not hard to understand. In the Mutable Genus section, each species has a clear listing of what biomorphs are available, how much they cost and how many the species can have. The Mutations rules are even easier. They have a more limited ruleset and the main question (how many mutations are allowed) is easy to figure out, since it is based on the number of species in the list. Simply count up the species, and make sure that each brood has at least that number of wounds per mutant. For example, 8 total species means that a brood of 22 gaunts can have up to 2 mutants, a brood of 24 could have 3, a brood of 4 Warriors (2 Wounds each) could have 1. Neither of these is particularly time consuming and would take all of 5 minutes for the organizer to get familiar with the rules. That being said, it looks like the ban on most of the Tyranid codex is here to stay for a while. Although I'm not planning on playing in a Grand Tournament any time soon, I thought I’d take a look at the codex that is left and see if I could create a decent army list out of it. I’ll take a look at each section below, and give you my take on the standard codex list entries. HQ: The Tyrant is still a solid choice, though without Wings, he has to take a 2+ Save and Tyrant Guard to protect him. Warriors without leaping can still be useful, but I'm not impressed with their abilities if they can’t get into combat so quickly. They are extremely vulnerable to shooting, and can’t do much to opponents in armor. Elites: See above for Warriors. Lictors can be effective, but they are hard to use well and are very fragile and can’t claim table quarters, all for a relatively high point cost. One possible use in this kind of army list is as bullet sinks. Lictors are often a high-priority target for the enemy, so they tend to draw fire away from other units. In addition, they get +2 to their cover save, meaning woods give them a 3+ cover save, while hard cover (rock walls and such) gives them a 2+ cover save! Placed close to the enemy in very good cover, they could simply reveal themselves early in the game to draw fire away from the rest of the army, giving the army a turn or two to move in. Troops: I don’t believe that tyranid shooting is effective, with the possible exception of anti-vehicle shooting, so that leaves termagants out altogether. Hormogaunts are a possibility, since they retain their great speed. Unfortunately, they also have LD5 and, without mutants, cannot have LD10 hive nodes. This coupled with their weak attacks generally means that they will zip way ahead of the army, immediately lose combat, then run away. This is not a terribly effective thing to do. Rippers get a bonus to their cover save, but they cannot claim table quarters, they are no faster than other units, and they take extra damage from template weapons, and they are autokilled by weapons of S6 or higher, meaning they die fast and aren’t effective anyway. Genestealers fare the best here, but that’s not saying much. You have a unit that is just as slow as a marine, without any shooting ability and a 6+ armor save, but costs more than a marine. It does fairly well in close combat, but each one averages less than 1 dead marine on the charge, meaning there will be attacks back, killing more Genestealers on top of the many that died to shooting while walking up to combat. True, most of the time they can infiltrate, but that hasn’t seemed to help anyway. Even 1 turn of fire from bolters can turn these guys into paste. Fast Attack: This is an area that is almost unaffected by the Mutation/Mutable Genus ban, since the standard forces here are geno-fixed. Gargoyles are still fast and have decent guns and their bioplasma attacks make them worthwhile in combat. They also have LD10, so they won’t usually run away. The base attacks, however, are still S3, so those aren’t very effective, but these are definitely a cut above the other units available under the ban. Raveners also have speed going for them and can get the Rending Claws they need so badly to take on Space Marine armor saves. They are, however, almost unarmored and get autokilled by Krak missiles and Lascannons. As a bonus, however, you can get a brood of just 1 to claim objectives, which could be helpful and inexpensive. Heavy Support: Another area only lightly touched by the ban, Heavy Support features some of the traditional favorites of the Tyranid army list. A carnifex is still a tank-killing monster that is hard to kill, though slow. Biovores still rain death down on lightly armored foes (don’t bother with bio-acid mines, they can’t kill a marine for anything.) Zoanthropes are still a little hard to use, with their limited range antitank weapons and their BS of 3, but if the enemy has higher priority targets, you can use them effectively, either by nuking bunched up troops, or by ambushing a vehicle. All in all, the list is severely hampered by the ban, but it is not entirely hamstrung. One effect of the ban, however, will be to make Tyranid armies all start looking the same again. Without the Mutable Genus and Mutations rules, our effective choices are much more limited, and I expect that almost everyone will take the same army. This is something Andy Chambers said that he wanted to fix with the new codex, and he did, but the ban will force the armies back into the same mold. If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know |