Lately there hasn’t been much to get all ranty about. No blog is making truly outrageous claims about the state of 40k. Forums are humming along doing their job, teaching the sixteen and under how not to play 40k. Still, for some reason I am getting more and more perturbed. It wasn’t until I caught myself pulling off fly wings that I started to understand my feelings of ennui– it was the new Tyranid codex.
I had all the symptoms of “Codex Creep Hysteria” which without proper treatment can become “Codex Dementia”. Luckily for me I don’t really believe in codex creep as a general principle. It must be something else? Then, I realized I was not the one with dementia, but the one dealing with everyone else’s dementia. With every codex it seems like the sky is falling and the world is about to end, as your current army will be blown away by the impending new release. One movie scene comes to mind when I think of all this…
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_GJkKMPHxw
Stop crying and learn to adapt. I would be more worried about Nid players than the new codex frankly. Remember this rule of the Internet: first impressions are usually the wrong impressions. Take whatever forum or blog you are reading and turn it upside down. Case in point: Tervigons (bug pooping machine) at first glance you scream broken! When in reality it is pretty crappy. Let’s presume is that this was GW’s answer to “We will be back”, which means they play tested WWBB and found it overpowered enough to come up with the Tervigon. Understand, most players hate variable effects and with this unit you get a variable amount of guants, followed by a distinct possibility of the poop shoot stopping for the rest of the game. Not to mention that the guants you’re pooping have to stick around the Tervigon.
I am not saying there are no nasty things in the Nid Codex (Tyrant and Guard), just take Internet hysteria with a grain of salt. For all our complaining about GW not play testing it is still obvious they do do some. Here is a list on how they balanced the new Nids.
- Most units don’t have grenades
- No flying troop choices
- Few long-range weapons
- Few invul saves
- Pricey units
- One blast weapon for Troops
- No Etneral Warrior
- Expensive units <——–thanks Slackermagee for reminding me.
Instead everyone focuses on the OMG and not the weaknesses. Another problem with new codex hysteria is some Marine and Chaos Marine players. They did the same with IG and now they will do it with Nids. In the midst of hysteria they decide it is time to play a new army. Only to try fitting Marine Lists into a Nid bodies. Case in Point: Drop pods err I mean Mycetic Spores. Across the Internet we are now seeing Spore Armies, forgetting they didn’t work with Space Marines and won’t work with Nids. Reserves anyone? As well these Marine players will get frustrated with units being so easily killed and not shooting as well with the worse BS and range. Just go to eBay or a trading site in 6 months and you will see what I mean.
The moral of this little story is don’t go quitting the game over this or any new codex. Adjust and learn, take more plasma or hide in your transports a little longer– trust me it is never as bad as it seems.
Questions for Comment:
- What Tyranid units do you think are overrated?
- What Tyranid units do you think are underrated?
- How big of deal is codex creep?