Tyranid Snipers

[yoritomo]

You know what tyranids also don't have? Transport vehicles. Does this mean we'll see a Tyranid rhino and Tyranid land raider next?

This is poor game design at its worst. An army is defined by what it can't take just as much as it is by the units listed in the codex. By trying to give every army access to every unit you are not making better armies, you're brushing away everything that makes armies unique. All you are really doing is forcing everybody to play the same army. How much fun would you have if the only other army you could play against was another Tyranid army?

[gman25639]

yoritomo, why are you always so negative? Anyways, if they needed synapse to precision fire, whats the point of making them stealth scout units? They'd have to be close to the main army to function properly, thus defeating their purpose

[blindmage]

Why not just make a new bio weapon that's available to Warriors and a few others?

[gman25639]

Frankly i think having a specialized sniper unit would be cooler, rather than just making a new weapon. Besides, warriors dont have stealth or infiltrate.

[t⊗theark]

Apr 25, 2013 4:38:49 GMT gman25639 said:

yoritomo, why are you always so negative? Anyways, if they needed synapse to precision fire, whats the point of making them stealth scout units? They'd have to be close to the main army to function properly, thus defeating their purpose

They can be out and forward, killing things or they could be better if they have a synapse creature by them which are actually intelligent to think for them because THEY'RE JUST GAUNTS! They can be scouts but, like all tyranids, they do better when something is thinking for them.

[grarik]

I have to agree with Yorimoto, you're trying to fit a unit into the army that doesn't fit. Snipers really don't fit into the fluff of the army, and its even further from fluff to give them to gaunts. Gaunts are cannon fodder, flying, running or shooting, their primary purpose was always to swarm over the opponent. They're not smart, in fact I'm pretty sure that outside of synapse control they're basically animals, no way would they have the mental capacity to select a leader and aim specifically for it, it'd be far beyond their cognitive abilities.

Besides, we're not the only army to lack snipers, orks, dark eldar, chaos marines and daemons don't have any, so it's not exactly a unique position

[gigasnail]

this is why we can't have nice things.

[warfrogger]

Give termagaunts a 4+ poison 12"-18" assault 1 gun option. Done . Nids should have some decent shooting options as they are adapting to the combat styles of the milky way but Imo they should always favor cc on the whole. Gaunts also arnt smart enough to identify key individuals without hive mind guidance so sniper gaunts are iffy fluff wise.

[gman25639]

The Tyranid race as a whole is VERY adaptable, the Genestealer is actually rather intelligent and adaptive to circumstances, so is it really that far-fetched to develop a Gaunt with a more adaptive mental process capable of picking out individual targets? It could be a slight tweak in their base instincts, they identify the greatest threat (e.g. a captain as opposed to just a scout marine) and attempt to eliminate from range. This is essentially just a further extension of Gaunts' instinct towards self-preservation.

[gigasnail]

or like the hive guard, their weapon symbiotes could be smarter than the creature carrying it. w/e.

[blindmage]

Honestly, I don't really see Nids caring about who they kill. The wave of bodies will take care of them. So more gaunts die...woopdy doo.

To me, Nids are most analogous to insect swarms. Insect swarms kill everything in sight. Think of Locusts or those hordes of bugs through the woods every few years.

Having specific sniper style weapons really gives Nids of more relateable side as they now have to think and make rational choices. Having the bigger critters (synapse characters) should be enough (excepting geanstealers and lictors, as that's their purpose). Smaller Nids simply don't think like that. Nids shouldn't be understandable on an individual level, in large groups there could be a seeming intellect, but it's all instinct, pure force of will, not sapience.

[gman25639]

Again i say, nids are very adaptable, so if they needed a sniper, they would make one.

[scrotatohead]

I don't see the problem with providing a sniper rifle upgrade option for lictors. They are designed to infiltrate and assassinate. Trade out scything talons for a rifle. It makes sense to me that a Lictor would be capable of identifying priority targets. If a Lictor is too common give it to Deathleaper. He already has the ability to target leadership capabilities and it would go nicely with his fluff. Either way you would limit the amount of sniper elements in a 'nid army while providing the option.

[grarik]

Apr 25, 2013 19:50:21 GMT gman25639 said:

Again i say, nids are very adaptable, so if they needed a sniper, they would make one.

I'm sorry but that isn't a very good argument, simply because it can be used to allow anything and everything; Nids are very adaptable, if they needed a super tough, fast unit to shelter things until they could get close to assault, they'd make one. And presto, you have a tyranid landraider. How about a devastator squad? with lascannon equivalents? Surely the hive mind could evolve some kind of organic laser. Or terminator equivalents? It'd make sense that they'd evolve heavily armoured shock troops, warriors with extra thick armour or something.

Similar can be said for orks, they're really good at scavenging imperial technology, where's the ork leman russes, or basilisks, or predators? at least those used to exist, and fit into the general orkish theme.

I'm not trying to be negative, but there needs to be a better argument for a unit than "because I can".

[Psychichobo]

The idea of a TYPICAL sniper doesn't fit in with Nid fluff, that's the thing. There are ways to circumvent this - I'd ditch the idea of sniper rifle gaunts and have a look at some other alien possibility of fitting a Nid sniper in that isn't just giving a regular goon a sniper rifle.


For example, Nids tend to be more or less always about CC. Even their big bugs shoot little bugs, and ad infinitum. So I'd go for something that's technically CC even though it's actually a sniper attack.

Something like giving Sky-Slashers the ability to inflict so many hits on a unit it passes over, and somehow inserting the sniper rule in their to emphasise some sort of programming to go for the 'alpha' or something.


Really though, you need to find a way to make the Sniper Tyrannidy, rather than justify giving Nids Snipers.