Monday, February 1, 2010

Tyranid Weapons

Ok so today let's talk about tyranid weaponry. Specifically their close combat weapons. Since they never gain any bonus attacks, they simply have upgrades to their existing ones.... Ok, now what do we have:

Bone Swords- Sweet Jesus I'll take as many as i can get!
Really that is about it with them too.

Claws & Teeth - Well, yeah it's just attacks. nothing special to see here, move along

Crushing Claws - ok so i get an extra D3 attacks and strike at I of 1. so it's kind of an upgrade, but only take it if your are low initiative anyhow. otherwise you're wasting the attacks.

Lash Whips - Make anyone in base to base with you I1 with no way out of it.... yes please. Take that you eldar scum!

Rending Claws. While not as good as they were in 4th edition, they are still very good. lets Genestealers Auto-Pen rhinos with a rend, and kills lots of marines when you have lots of attacks. Great stuff on Raveners.

Scathing Tallons- While completely different than they used to be, they can be quite useful on SOME of your creatures. basically any with a WS of 5 or better can benefit from a Single pair. since you get to re-roll 50% of your misses most of the time.

So my advice? take lots of boneswords, preferably in pairs. LD on 3D6=Somebody is going to fail and die.

[EDIT TO ADD TO DISCUSSION] Now the question that a lot of people are asking is "Do Tyranid Biomorphs Stack? The simple answer is yes. since the tyranids never benefit from additional attacks and none of their weapons are "special weapons" the answer is yes. The biomorphs you add (at least IMO) are just that. upgrades. they're not "power weapon/plasma pistol" type combos. NOW, there are a few exceptions Bear with me as I explain this:

Boneswords (basically a force type weapon) you can take two or you can combine with a Lash Whip.
 - This is a Special Melee weapon. You can't get bonus attacks so.... cool, 1 Special Weapon.
 - Claws and Teed are your basic nid weapons..... so ok.

And that is it. Rending claws add rending to your attacks, (so not a special weapon)
Crusing claws add to your attack profile and modify your initiative (not a special weapon)
Lash Whips modify your opponent's Initiative(Not a special weapon)
Scything Tallons give you re-rolls (again, not a special weapon)

So you've got the option for 1 special weapon. No problems.

Picture taken from bat-reps.com

5 comments:

  1. Boneswords & Lashwhips tend to be my prefered option (especially when coupled with Acid Blood). You're right in that a pair of bone swords is nasty though.

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  2. I thought you were going to be discussing the do tyranid weapons stack argument.

    You have the crushing claws listed wrong, they only add d3.

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  3. Thanks for that Eriochrome.

    Also, posted up some addendum to this for clarification and to add some discussion for the rules considerations.

    -Stephen

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  4. I wish it was only so simple. Things to consider:

    They are listed as close combat weapons not biomorphs.

    The claws and teeth actual say they are normal close combat weapons in their description.

    A special close combat weapon is defined in the rulebook as a weapon which grants the user some bonus. The rulebook notes that the list is not provided is not exclusive. All of the interesting tyranid close combat weapons do this.

    The rule in the tyranid codex about never getting an extra attack is very much like the rule for the relic blade in the SM codex and that is certainly a special close combat weapon.

    I do believe that they are intended to stack. The cost for the crushing claws for the fex is almost exactly equal to the average increase in hits when you include the reroll of 1's from the talon set that is left. Lash whip + bonesword would be pointless if you had to choose which one to use each turn. I am just noting that the rules again should have been easily clearer and more explicit.

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  5. I agree eriochrome. Your first draft comment on another post of mine sums it up nicely.

    I do believe that they will FAQ it so that they stack though.

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