So Kirby wants me to write something, again!

The bloody cheek of it! Jeez.

Right, well if I'm writing something it may as well be interesting. I could do how I plan on winning Cent with and Ork list I've had 4 vassal games with (and 2 don't even really count)... But nahhh.... I could do why I think the 3 best armies in the game are BA, SW, and IG. Maybe. Hm. See, the problem with this blog is a lot of stuff is covered already. They like nids here. Oh, I might do one on why Tyranids aren't good.

Haha, that's happening. ^^

Disclaimer, if you're wondering what to use this article for, errr.... use it to beat nids. :P

Ok, that's a bit misleading. I don't think tyranids are bad either. No, they can compete. But you'll be hard pressed to win a really competitive tournament with them, against people of the same skill with you, using certain... "other" armies. Ok, fine. Imperial Guard, Space Wolves and Blood Angels. You happy? Making me feel like I'm some dick from BoLS (and you can say dick on BoLS btw, so I'm assuming you can say it here) preaching to you about how the world is ending and manticores and jotww and blah de blah de meta fucking blah.

Well I'm not. It annoys me that idiots like that are right about Tyranids not being up there, but for the entirely wrong reasons. So I suppose I'm going to need to justify myself to you guys. Yeah, probably. Harrumph. Right, well. Basically...

Basically, it boils down to two things. First one of em is Target Priority. So, for this example, we'll take the last tyranid list I saw that I thought was any good. A Hive Tyrant w/stuff + 2 Guard, 3x3 Hive Guard, 3x10 Termagants, 3 Tervigons with Catalyst, Toxin and Adrenal and 2 Tyrannofexes. That's 2000 points. There might have been some other stuff, but that was the by and large of it. Ok, so, why don't I think a list like that is up there? Well look at the list. You are playing say, I dunno, gunline guard. Your entire army is either armour, or inside armour. What are you going to shoot? That's right, the Hive Guard. And Tyrannofexes. Once that's done, you're worrying about, at worst, a Heavy Venom Cannon. Diddums.

See, the problem here is that when you compare it to a mech IG or hybrid SW list, it's really really pronounced. In the SW list every unit he has can hurt tanks AND infantry (GHs, Scouts, Long fangs). Of course there's a few specialisations (Long Fangs aint so hot vs infantry, and neither are vendettas) but in the playing environment, you can afford a few. Not an army full. Just as a port of call, see if you're still in your gunline mech IG boots, and looking at (for example) my SW army, you have wolf scouts, long fangs, grey hunters and lasplas razors. The only units that really suck vs your infantry are the lasplas razors. Makes target priority much harder because everything is a threat.

Cool. This is pretty much where all Tyranid problems stem from. The other big problem comes from, still, having just the 5 anti tank units. Well, that's just the problem. You have 5 anti tank units. You can (in usual circumstances) only deal siginificant damage to 5 tanks a turn, at least on the way in. Chances are if your tervigons are flipping rhinos, the game is already in your favour.  So then, I know people say "stun the tanks and pop it in combat" as another viable alternative. But what do you do when the stuff inside the tanks starts ripping your shit up? No really, it happens. Especially if you're against Straken, or SW. And then there's BA. If BA are bringing mephi and FnP TH/SS terms.... well hope you brought those bonesword warriors. Ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration. Some things like Grey Hunters can hurt your guys but it's mostly on the way out. You'll prolly down them, but they'll sting you. If they've got powerfists, be mindful of your tervigons. There's a not bad chance they'll pull em down. I am serious about some BA units. They give tyranids hell if it's a player who knows what he's doing. Oh then there's some other fun things. Like I dunno, Vect.

Ok, so, combat isn't reliable. So you have 5 anti tank units. You see the problem? Surely? What do you do if you lose 2 anti tank units turn one? Not too unlikely considering some armies out there. Up a rather famous creek with no locomotive utensil. Ho, shit, we're back to target priority. How'd that happen? Well, probably because the fact you can only deal with 5 tanks a turn from range at best is an easy to make point. There's a few other minor points:

Hive Guard have a pretty short range, if you're deploying first this means your Hive Guard may not get to shoot until turn 2. This is a bit of a problem. Hell, if you deploy poorly (everyone makes mistakes) or get refuse flanked, one unit might not be firing till turn 3.

You don't have any mech units. This means you can't tank shock. This also means you have difficulty movement blocking in comparison to other armies. Yes, you can indeed do it with gants, but everybody knows that infantry bubble wrap is not as good as vehicle movement blockers. Well, if you really need to know why, infantry bubble wrap can: Be pulled away by assaults at one end, be tank shocked straight through, be made to flee, and is generally easier to take out than mech movement blockers (but not always, however it is almost always more vulnerable to assault). So yeah, sucks.

Your psychic defense is pretty bad. That's about enough said.

So yeah, Tyranids, do not get me wrong, I absolutely think they can win games. Yes, against IG, SW and BA. I do not think the power scale is so hugely skewed that they can't even win. I just think IG, SW and BA are better, and I think nids have some horrifically bad matchups. So, to reiterate a final time (I've had my head bitten off before around here) I do not think tyranids are a bad army, but I do think you will be much harder pressed to win a tournament with them. Please don't hate me. (:

Oh, and Jaws of the Wolf Jaw Baw Jaws.

<3