Everyone's favourite omnivores have just had an update, and after an initial look the general consensus is that the bugs are not adapting well to their new dietary requirements.
At least according to the internet, and the internet is always right.
There are very few major changes, just lots of little ones that push the book in a perhaps the wrong direction.
A few units got updated for the better, a few got a little bit worse, some got a lot better, and one crucial bug forgot it was lactose intolerant and has swelled in points to the point of blowing up parts of your army.
This is the much beloved Tervigon.
These had several very important roles in the previous book, which it now can't fulfill,
leaving a rather horrible gap in the army.
They had the combined roles of providing synapse, being a tough scoring unit,
making more troops, and generating lots of psychic powers.
On the psychic powers front, they are still mastery level 1, but can now only generate a single
power (instead of two or three), leaving them with much less choice.
On becoming a scoring unit, they now require three times as many termagants to be unlocked,
pushing the points investment up even further.
The next big hit is how they interact with termagants. They can still spawn more as before, but the new unit can't move or assault this turn, making the whole section of the army much slower.
The termagants no longer gain the benefit of biomorph upgrades from the mummy tervigon, so all the neat tricks of termagants bringing down wraithknights and so on are gone.
Perhaps worst of all, the detonation radius when the tervigon dies has been doubled!
In order to keep the gaunts safe, they now have to stay outside of basic synapse range, which defeats the whole point of having a tervigon in the first place.
This is a pretty big punch to the nether-regions. The poor bugs are going to have to use other
gribblies as troops, which are far less reliable and need to be babysat by yet another unit.
One option is warriors, but they are still very pricey and as vulnerable as ever to high strength attacks.
It's not all doom and gloom though, there are some new and improved units to sugarcoat it all.
Flyrants got a bit better, with a price drop and an improvement to BS, they are now a very solid HQ choice with good anti-air, and a boost to psychic powers.
The new Crone FMC is a nifty choice, again with good anti-air and a very powerful vector strike. They are a little bit flimsy, and won't stand up to much shooting, but they are the
second cheapest FMC in the game after the Harpy.
The Exocrine has a pretty good shooting attack, being able to plasma pie plate marines and terminators, and add a bit of additional anti-air spammed firepower. A bit on the pricey side, but still a good choice.
Mawlocs, so these guys got a bit of a nerf in disguise. The unburrow attack is now pretty nasty, and will clear out most infantry where it arrives. The downside is that it can only be once per game. Burrowing puts the mawloc into ongoing reserves, so when it arrives it will just stroll on from the board edge, and not burrow-strike again.
After a bit of thinking and complaining about how things have changed, I came with a list that should just about be able to hold it's own.
2* Flyrants: 2 Devourers each, 1 hive commander, 1 old adversary.
2*2 Zoanthropes
2 Venomthropes
3* 15 Termagants
20 Hormagaunts
2* Crones
3 Biovores
2 Exocrines
Total: 1840
The Flyrants rather obviously do what flyrants do, but better now.
Due to loosing mycetic spores and such, troops are a bit less mobile now,so a hive commander
is essential for getting a unit in position. Old adversary no longer buffs other units, and only works in combat, so the points may be better spent elsewhere.
What they don't have are the new nifty flamer thorax weapons, which can do a variety of anti-infantry and anti-tank duties, and are worth a look.
The zoanthropes provide the essential synapse coverage, and can buff units or add a little bit of extra shooting.
They are still a little bit vulnarable to sustained firepower, but considering the points cost they are a better investment than warriors or tervigons.
Venomthropes I'm still not sure on. They give shrouded to nearby units, which helps keep the squishier bugs alive, but they really need some LOS blocking terrain to hide behind, or else they will blow up pretty quickly. Also, with the advent of Ignore Cover, the shrouded bonus might just not work anyway.
Two Crones make the rest of the air force. Due to being flimsy, I didn't want to go all out on them. The vector striking ability is great, and the additional haywire and flamer shooting is ok, but they are not as tough of powerful as say a helldrake.
2 Exocrines are the next bit of shooty goodness. AP2 is always good, and is something nids have not really had direct access to before. The two firing modes also gives them a lot of options in terms of how to prioritize targets. A bit short ranged, but lately a lot of new weapons in the 6th ed books have had shorter ranges, so it's not too bad.
Now the quirky bit, 3 Biovores. Great at blowing up light to medium infantry, and very cheap. But that's not what I want them for.
The new spore mine rules open up a lot of silly tactics. If the biovores miss (totally by accident of course), a sizable group of spore mines get's placed down. They can be placed anywhere under the large blast template, so can cover quite a bit of ground.
This is where the fun begins.
You can lay down minefields on top of objectives. You can block off movement paths just by landing in front of the enemy. And most importantly, the mines can force the enemy to dedicate a bit of shooting to them, taking heat off the rest of your army.
And if they aren't dealt with, they will eventually reach a critical number where they can do some serious damage to enemy troops
Finally, the contentious bit of the list, the Troops.
These guys are pretty much just going to hide in reserve and hope not to die horribly.
The hormagants were chosen as they are a bit faster when it comes to running for objectives.
A mere 65 troops models with no protection other than LOS blocking terrain the venomthropes is still pretty flimsy.
The old nid tactics of victory through attrition may have to be ditched, in favour of hiding troops and hoping they don't get spotted.
The only way these guys will survive is if the enemy is too distracted getting beaten up by all the other MC's, assuming of course the MC's have survived.
These guys don't have any upgrades, as they are a bit expensive and might not be used very often, considering that they will be hiding rather than fighting. The Devourer upgrade for the Termagants got a bit cheaper, so a squad of them is an option.
The more astute amongst you will have noticed that the army is mainly about shooting,
which is traditionally not Nids' greatest strength.
Getting into combat with medium toughness and medium save infantry is pretty hard. You could try and rush the enemy down with Raveners and such, but that's not a guaranteed tactic and relies on there being plenty of LOS blocking terrain.
There are still 6 MC if things really require a bit of combat punch, and 4 FMC's can get in assault positions quickly.
What I haven't covered are the psychic powers, partly because I haven't seen them in action yet.
Most bug lovers are mourning the loss of Biomancy, but the new table has some decent defensive and offensive powers, which can become very nasty when combined with Shadow in the Warp and such.
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