Tyranids and the Local Group

So, the new Tyranid book hit...  While I AM happy for the two local players who actually played the army, I am less sure overall.  Of course, I haven't seen it in action yet as both local players have extremely busy work schedules and have little time for gaming at the moment.  Some things look pretty good and it seems like it is a fairly well written book...  Despite the massive cut/paste from the previous book and the obvious missing models that got cut rather than allow a third party model take the place of the non-existent GW model.  So, no Tyranid drop pods for the players. 

Psychics look good, and losing the crutch of Biomancy is probably a good thing...  AA is going to be an issue, but they have fliers of their own to dogfight.  No Allies is a problem.  The ability to break the Force Org chart is now REALLY unequally applied.  And the Tyranids are not I think powerful enough to stand against the current top tier uber lists...  Hive Guard might be able to deal with Serpent Spam, but I am just not seeing the answer to the Tau silliness.  Even the Eldar answer is by no means a guarantee against a competent opponent.  Now, it does seem very well balanced again say, Marines or anything else...  Just nothing to threaten the top tier.

Wound up picking up a Land Raider Crusader from one of the locals paring down their collection…  One of the original ones with the metal sponson guns, etc…  I’ll need to order more Grey paint I think as I have finally decided that all 5 of my LRs will be Wolves…  Or at least 4 of them with the last Spartan Class (Original, MK I) probably staying black for Fleshtearers Death Company/Consecrators (DA) use…  And since no one EVER expects Deep Striking Land Raiders J  Might be hilarious to drop on a Tau army…  So, back to painting and assembling my stuff I guess.  No clue what the real order of releases will be, but I’m pretty happy to be back working on my original Wolves again.  Found a number of truly ancient Rhino track parts and need to manufacture the internal hull parts to get myself another 4-6 Rhinos.  I have some “cash” in the form of a pre-paid Amex card that I’m going to be spending at the Gopher…  Guessing I will have no problem finding enough to spend it all between the one thing I’d like to order and maybe some Magic or Star Trek stuff…  Maggie (My Amazing Wife) has started playing MtG with me again, so perhaps we’ll make it to one of the casual events soon…  I still have a bunch of ancient cards and glancing over the costs of some of them, am frankly amazed J…  Not “I can sell this and retire now amazed mind, just way more than I had dreamed these things would be worth…

Looking at the local group I am surprised to see (NOT including my own armies in this):

2 Eldar players, one Iyanden and one more old school Craftworld/Ghost…  Neither really playing the uber lists, more interested in playing a fun game than a win at all cost sort of thing…  I have a huge collection of ancient Eldar, so could probably play most of the lists….  Just that I got sick of playing the now massively overpowered (IMO) army and feeling like no one really has much a chance against me…

2 Tau players…  One with the Riptides of doom, one more Broadsides.  Powerful armies, good players, so…  Well, I try to steer newcomers away from that J.  But the armies ARE beatable and not really the insanely overly optimized tournament forces you might see as a big event.

One IG tread head…  He is THRILLED to have the Baneblade legal now and loads of LR tanks make up the basis of his normal army.  A few other IG players, one who just found the store last night and with this on the short list for the next book out…

Tyranids…  2 I know of, but neither of them is playing much.  One works for the Public Works Dept, so drives a snow plaw…  Overtime is good I guess J…  Hoping they both get back at some point, good games are had against them…

Marines?  One ACTUAL Ultra Marine player with his stuff fully painted in the colors…  Honestly, other than my brother painting up a squad or so of them I have NEVER actually seen anyone play Marines as Smurfs J…  Is kind of nice to see though, was beginning to think they were a myth.  3-4 others who have various vanilla or at least Codex Marines lists.  Even Ted getting back in with his Iron Hands… 

One other guy playing BA…  Mostly Death Company…  So, pretty close to my Flesh Tearers.  ‘course, he is one of the Eldar players now, so this is being built/painted now.  Another guy now playing Tau who used to play BA, so potentially he could come back J…  But pretty much not an army you see on the table anymore.

Wolves?  One guy who sometimes plays them…  2 of us also HAVE the army and I intend to bring mine back to the table despite it being pretty much hopeless in the modern environment.

Chaos of all sorts…  One Demon player, 4-5 Chaos Marine players…  Pretty mellow group overall.  Mostly themed lists, etc., so more fun than win at all costs…

Necrons…  One, playing a Croissant heavy force.  Tough army, really good player, but always a good game against him in my experience.  Another old time player who no longer gets out, and his Tyranids I think will see the table first…

Grey Knights?  2-3 who at times do play…  One who plays mostly Inquisition, but he works in the local theater group who have a production going now, so have not seen him much recently.  But a LOT of nice conversions in his force…  Again, more themed than focused overall for this group as well…

DA?  Well, I have mine…  One other guy who played, but his job takes him on the road frequently.  Another person was building an army, but has not yet played in a League locally…  Looking forward to seeing more Terminators though J….

So, yeah, not really counting my: VI Legion, Wolves, Consecrators (DA), Flesh Tearers (BA), Crimson Fists, IG (Praetorians), Eldar or Grey Knights in that count :-)...  As my wife says I have too many armies...

So overall now that I have actually written it all in all we have a VERY diverse group of armies being played locally.  Most of us are actually pretty happy with 6^th edition and the expansions…  NOT being a very high stress/competitive place, we are actually growing with more people showing up and actually buying stuff ever week it seems…  May not be seeing the wider picture, but if there is a summer campaign, I would expect that we could get a fair number of folks in to play it…