Just wanted to say that.
I've known some great Tyranid players in my time. The great ones show up, and in a totally bug-trance state just consume your army and win, then move to the next table. Repeat. They understand the concept with emotionless candor, that bugs should play as bugs. The more bugs the better. A few large flying bugs is just a point sink from getting you more / dozens of additional bugs. A few bugs creating distractions or improved cover. Fast bugs to pin you down. Big bugs to destroy you. Other bugs that make more bugs. They hit your army in a tidal wave. They don't really care for cover, nothing. In Maelstrom games they don't even care for objectives. They control the pace of the game and their huge swarms just gain ground. Opponents just react to them. Recoil from them.
Bad to mediocre Tyranid players are more common though. They whine. They always complain they can't win. They always complain that their army lists all look the same. Right now you will see them comment on forums about their hates for the current 40K edition and their dreams for 8th.
I thought about being a Tyranid player. Once. Painted about a baker's dozen of Genestealers. Then decided to go back to the more human-side of the game. After all, even though I know that bugs can win and be awesome and fearful to behold, I just cannot connect with them. Psychologically I cannot make the bugs win. I hate bugs.
In real life, I go out of my way to crush ants. Use pesticides on their nests. Or better yet, drown them with water. Flood the nest with a hose. One of the best things I ever saw was those videos of guys pouring molten aluminum down into ant nests and after all the hissing and popping stops, digging up the mass of aluminum as art. Shiny and chrome.
Its why I have no empathy for the bad to mediocre Tyranid players. Tyranids have no real characters. They have no history. They have no real background. They fight for nothing other than to consume carbon-based life. Remember every Hive Tyrant, no matter how awesome, at the end of that planetary invasion just itself wades into a digestion pool and gives its biomass back to the hive fleet. Its genetic material and carbon transferred to space and eventually turned back into something else. It is that cold fact that some Tyranid players embrace.
I'd say that the ideal Tyranid player, after winning a tournament, would just destroy their army and start over. Recycle the plastic. Go to the FLGS. Buy new boxes. Start over. Glue. Airbrush. Paint eyes, claws. Teeth. Invasion.
Overall, even the great Tyranid players stop playing Tyranids. I think it is because of the monotony of their success. Without fluff, without history, consuming can only get you so far. Some go on to play Demon armies. Some go on to play orks. Some just quit active play and hide in the background, looking for a new reason to rise and come forward, deploying their hordes to the table again.
Will 8th Edition bring the great ones back out? Time will tell.
MING
Ah you miss the point. As a Tyranid player you get to be the Hive Mind. You the player at the table get to be a character from 40k. You care not how many of your selves die, so long as the prey can be brought low all will be reborn again.
ReplyDeleteOn the other end, having gone 11Wins out of 12 games in tournaments with them this fall. They are a pretty shit codex right now. Here is hopeing that 8th will help right size them and make them feel like the terrors they should be.
I have been that long time Tyranid player manifesting the horror to consume the galaxy, then I started playing low model count skirmish games and realized that same statement. Tyranids have no real characters. They became boring and I have recently sold off my massive collection. No I am all character, I play Death Watch & Grey Knights. The best of the best! Baby!!!
ReplyDelete