…
…
Just setting up the cognitive dissonance…
…And we’re good.
Right. Yeah should
only be a small project as I don’t really have a character or story hook to
grab hold of with the Tyranids. It’s the
stories and characters that really get me invested in an army. The aesthetics can be a good part of it, but
I rarely become as invested in an army as one where I can create a distinct
character HQ and get some storylines going.
Every list from my first Eldar collection 8 years ago (or thereabouts)
had a key character and story behind them.
Even if it was just window dressing for the fact that “Wraithlords have
swords now! That’s soo cool!” (Actual
quote).
The ‘Nids don’t have that. I like a number of the models and the monster
designs are very cool, but without a core personality to hook it on, this is
more of an exercise in tactical curiosity.
The codex hit and, as is my way, I bought a copy and had a read. It seemed good. An improvement on the last one. However, many existing ‘Nid players on the
Internet seemed to think differently. A
number of existing units had been removed, which is something of an unusual
move and something to be annoyed about, certainly. I felt though that a number of the reactions
to the codex were knee-jerk, unjustified and, frankly, embarrassing in a number
of cases. I’m just fortunate that the
smart part of my brai9n asserted its dominance just enough to stop me looking
at Dakka or Warseer. I just restricted
myself to the Overlords Facebook Group (Join today for a free gift of bupkis
and bonus pocket lint!). There was a
fair bit of negativity there, some anti-hate backlash and so on. But there was also discussion and rationality
from pretty much everyone I approached, which was good because I don’t like
pointless shouting matches, nor do I hold with bellowing aimlessly into the
void. I tried to counter some of the
complaints with observations I’d gleaned from the new rules and units. In my opinion, it’s a really solid ‘dex. But it’s not OMG OP!, to take on the gaming
parlance.
A number of the generic complaints that I’ve heard about
seem similar to the problem people had when 6th ed came round in the first
place. The loss of outflank assault
really got underneath some people’s skin.
Personally, I was glad of it. The
all-too-common argument of ‘Why are they outflanking and just standing around
before attacking?’ was easy to counter with ‘What were the guys with guns doing
before you outflanked? Why were you invisible until that moment?’ Anyway, I don’t want to make this a sour post
so let’s move on.
Unfortunately, given my natural mildly tactless nature
and various communicative difficulties, I am aware I can often come across as
being arrogant and dismissive, which is rarely my intent. I feel that happened a number of times in my
defence of the new codex and although I can bring up a number of things from my
reading, that kind of paper knowledge and mathhammer can only get you so
far. It’s best when combined with
practical experience. I also found
myself genuinely intrigued by some of the options I was seeing and became more
and more curious as to whether I could get a few of the tactics to work on the
tabletop. I’m not trying to change
anyone’s mind, really. I just want more
of an insight into a different type of army that a lot of people keep saying
isn’t good. I happen not to agree, and I
felt that this time, I needed to put my money where my mouth was.
And besides, a forum thread encouraging people to send
their crushed Gaunts to GWHQ in protest?
That’s just fethin’ pathetic.
3 comments:
Tyranids with character, eh? Sounds like a challenge to me! Imagine a tendril of Tyranids who begin to take on the personalities of the biomass they've consumed. How horrible would that be to be the mind of a person trapped in the voracious and vicious body of a Hormagant? Or a six-year-old child trapped in the body of a Carnifex?
Am I making you want to buy more models yet?
Already have a list, man!
As far as the character goes, I've decided to not think about it too hard and just relish in having a relatively nameless and relentless evil to plague my other armies with! The nearest I've got to a character per se is my HQ, a Tyranid Prime who has been named by the Kroot he encountered world on which he landed. The name itself is shameless ripped from one of my own bookwriting attempts about half a decade back.
And so began Stands-Red-Against-The-Darkness, or Stands-Red for short!
Also helps me out with a colour scheme...
That's cool. The Prime is kind of like the shark from Jaws. It's got character, but only the character imagined for it by its victims.
Post a Comment