Tyranid Tyrannocyte Sighted For Warhammer 40k! [Updated!]
November 4, 2014 by brennon
The Tyranids will be dropping in greater numbers with yet another sighting out in deep space. Instead of being disgorged from some lumbering beast they will be coming down in Tyrannocyte 'drop pods' right into your deployment zone...
As you can see they're pretty nifty looking things that remind me a lot of the big floating creatures in Starcraft, the name of which escapes me. They come equipped with five deathspitters, can land and drop twenty lovely critters and then walk around the battlefield making a nuisance of itself.
As well as the Tyrannocyte there are also images and some fuzzy rules for the Mucolid Spore Cluster and the Sporocyst. Each is giving the Tyranids a whole host of new options.
The idea of a swarm of Tyranids just descending on the battlefield is an interesting one and it will be good to see what other folks think about this addition to their bug army.
Let us know.
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I believe this is the bit where the square jawed all American hero announces “Shit just got real!” because I have to admit, my more rounded British jaw is quivering with excitement at the news of this release!
This totally turns the tables on the previously disappointing (imo) ‘nid codex.
I sincerely hope this is how GW will rectify or add to armies now that most of the codexes are out, just release some fun looking models where needed instead of waiting for splash releases.
Lookin’ mighty fine so far, can’t wait to see more! 😀
Some more piccies courtesy of Warhams77 of DakkaDakka
http://ftgtgaming.blogspot.de/2014/11/more-tyranid-multikit-pic-dump.html
Gives hope GW wil re-release the Dark Eldar characters they removed so brutally. My Vect is still sitting annoyed in his chair.
Ben, the creatures you are referring to in StarCraft are called overlords.
Oh yes. Many, many times yes. The Tyrannocyte is a Mycetic Spore in all but name, and with a better weapons loud out to boot. This is one of the things that ‘Nid players have been waiting for ever since the last codex came out.
Apparently, this is also a triple kit capable of making two more critters, including some kind of deep striking immobile bio gun bunker called a Sporocyst that can boost the Synapse range of nearby Synapse creatures, and a type of giant Spore Mine called a Mucolid Spore Mine that can apparently target zooming fliers and swooping Flying Monstrous Creatures.
This is awesome stuff for Tyranid players. The Hive is officially back, my fleshy, eminently edible friends… 😉
I’m assuming you’re not talking to Necron players then…;;)
Well, with ‘Nids you never really know. Intelligent, genocidal machine warriors may not be edible to you and me, but to the scions of an immortal, intergalactic super predator whose biology can priduce acid capable of eating through armour plate, the definition of ‘edible’ is rather more broad…
That is so ugly. … I can’t describe it.
as tentacled cancerballs go, they dont look half bad actually.
I think that is the point, @reganspor. Carapacy, acid spewing, be-tentacled alien killing machines are not likely to win any beauty contests (not those with human judges, at least. Cthulhu would probably award them a 10 though…).
It is when you start thinking that the Tyranids look pretty that you really need to worry… 😉
Okay I like the Mucolid Cluster, be that’s the only one that fits the aesthetic. The others just don’t fit, at all. Now I like tentacles, (not in the weird way) so I can imagine an army I would build with these in it.
That thing looks like nightmare come true! I hope this will make the nid army much more playable as I hate the thought of gamers that like an army but can’t really play competitively with it.
Play with mature adults and whether an army is “competitive” or not becomes a non-issue….;). Of course to be fair, depending on where you live that might not be an option.
I’m a mature adult and a baseline of competitiveness is important to me (for any game). It’s an abdication of the games designer’s responsibility to sell me anything less.
That does seems to be the attitude these days. Gone are the days of games being a gateway to your imagination, house rules and player led co-operation ala Rouge Trader and the like. Well at least in the world at large, although not in my vicinity. From interweb comments I get the feeling players attach too much self-esteem to winning and losing and when they lose against a min/maxer they feel like the game has cheated them (which is possibly valid in the modern world). It feels like personal responsibility to make a gaming experience enjoyable is a thing of the past in these days of pre-packaged-on-a-plate society. Anyway I wouldn’t pay heed to what I say, I’m relic of the past….;)
Thanks for your amateur psychoanalysis. I play narrative games, I’m old enough to have played Rogue Trader first time round (and do still occasionally play, GM and all). I also play non-narrative games in which the goal is to try and win. I don’t get hung up on winning and losing, my self-esteem isn’t tied to it. I see no point in playing a game in which poor design means the outcome is already decided before playing. Gaming is a broad church. It can accommodate many different approaches. People can find their own niche and do whatever takes their preference. There is no moral superiority to being a “mature adult” who doesn’t care about winning or losing. Equally there is none in being a hardcore competitive player who can wipe the floor with most other gamers.
To narrative game does not need a set of rules. You can make your own up. You can do it as you go along if you want. You can take a rulebook and modify, ignore, and hack to your heart’s content. To game competitively requires rules and requires that the designer has put in the work to make sure the game works, the rules are clear and reasonably comprehensive, and the game is reasonably balanced. That is what I pay the games designer for when I’m buying their rules. I then have the option of doing what I want with them. If they don’t do that then not only am I stuck with limited options of what I can do with them, but as the bulk of the work in games design is getting rules to work and games to balance then they’ve abdicated their responsibility as a games designer. They’ve took my money and passed it on to me.
It sounds like I offended you. That was not my intention so please accept my apologies. There *are* many people who nail their self esteem to winning, this is fact, in the same as there are many stupid people in the world, it doesn’t mean I was referring to you or to everyone who enjoys competition.
As for games balance it is entirely subjective in my opinion as it has to take into account player skill. The more complex the game the greater the part skill plays. One man’s sh*te faction is another’s world beater. My point is too many cry foul when things don’t go their way. Such is modern society. Again this does not in any way mean I’m referring to you personally.
Pushed a button rather than offended :). I appreciate that competitive gaming is not everyone’s taste, but I don’t think “competitive” should be a dirty word. Playing to win is one of the joys that gaming offers. It pushes you, challenges you, draws you in, and gives you great moments. I don’t think anyone should be made to feel that somehow they’re doing it wrong if they enjoy this.
Player skill is hugely important, which is as it should be. There are undoubtedly people who will cry foul just because they can’t win as often as they want with a given army. In my experience that’s definitely not the norm though. Gaming communities are usually pretty good at sussing out what’s good and what isn’t. Not every army needs to be as good as every other, and it’s fine for some to be more of a challenge than others. When it reaches a point where before a tournament you can pick out the handful of armies which are the only ones that can win is when you know it’s a balance issue rather than a player skill issue. Ultimately, the worst thing about poorly balanced games (especially combined with an unclear ruleset) is that it promotes WAAC gamers. And I think we can all agree, nobody like those guys lol
All fair points..;). My take is that only being to pick a handful of armies is an issue only for tournament and perhaps pick-up games but doesn’t necessarily mean the game is broken – unless of course it designed for tournaments – in which it has definitely failed at it’s primary purpose!
My other point would be that in my experience “WAAC gamers” are unpleasant to play against regardless of how well the system is balanced. We may have a close game that doesn’t I enjoyed playing them! Thankfully they are generally few and far between – although they are certainly not restricted to tournaments – you can find them anywhere…;)
My only point was that its been made clear by many nid players that the recent codex fell rather flat. GW, if they wish to sell nid models they will address this and from what I see today they are doing just that.
You see ‘Nid drop pods. I see Elder Things and other unnameable Things for Cthulhu games! Ia!
They remind me of the Throne of Everblight for Hordes?
Heh, last time I checked on the nids, they were mostly about big angry monsters in red or purple carapace with plenty of hard lines. They may or may not have looked like dinosaurs. When did they go all pink, fleshy and shapeless? The Zerg comparison seems pretty apt. It’s like the tabletop game of the videogame of the tabletop game. Or perhaps the tabletop game of the videogame of the tabletop game of the videogame of the tabletop game.
..or.. something.
While interesting, I feel they suffer too much from CAD. They look rather “cut and paste”. There isn’t enough to make them seem organic.
Yes, I was thinking it looked over symmetrical. The precise movement of the tentacles to all match makes it looks like its dancing. It definitely looks out of place with the rest of the tyranid range.
Whenever I see the Tyrannocyte, I think of this Blizzard cinematic;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVbeoSPqRs4
It is good to have biological death from above back, and I particularly like the idea of replicating the Tyranids galactic scale tactics on the tabletop, with Trygons, Ravenors and Mawlocs attacking from below even as Tyrannocytes and their payloads strike from above – a maw where the famgs are made of bugs closing in on the opposing battleline.
It is cheaper to make the same tentacle many times, than making many tentacles one time. So there you are, cutting corners to keep costs down and trusting the rules to do the selling.
Mega tics wouldn’t like to see the size of beast that fell from. lol