Quote Originally Posted by Cheesegear View Post
...What 'Nids are you playing? I haven't seen Melee 'Nids - with the singular exception of Carnifexes - since 8th started. And, with the two best Traits being 'Don't Advance/Charge', and the other being 'Don't Move', has only reinforced that notion, excluding pocket Patrols of <Kraken> Genestealers... Not that <Kraken> is good, mind. Only Genestealers are good, when they are Kraken.



What if your opponent doesn't have Psykers? What if your opponent has two Psykers with which to cast the same Power? All's you're doing is reducing your opponent's redundancy. If your opponent has one Psyker, with one good Power. Yeah, sure. It's amazing. But, in my experience, if your opponent has brought one Psyker, they've brought a lot of Psykers, or, their Psyker is brought purely for Deny purposes, and whether or not they cast a Power per turn is most irrelevant to their battle plan...So, knowing that you're Kronos, they just wont even try. Or, maybe they'll pull off a Smite anyway.



Agreed. But in my experience, Tyranids should do that using Neurothropes or Zoanthropes, and not using your Command Points.
I agree that simply shutting down one of your opponent's Powers can be strong - especially if you also give up your Warlord Trait. But, even if you were <Kronus>, and not running Swarmlord, I still don't see how you could go past an Infantry Character with Synaptic Lynchpin, or possibly a Dakka-Tyrant with Instinctive Killer.



I think what seals it for me, is that Hydra rolls a dice for each Wound lost, potentially allowing the regeneration of several Wounds per turn. Which is pretty useful. But, that's only useful for a Hive Tyrant, I guess...Yeah, you're right.



With both of them, I can't see writing either of them down on my army list.
If I knew, specifically, who my opponent was going to be, then yes. I'd consider Kronous' a lot. But, that's now how it works.



Definitely incorrect, and I strongly disagree. I believe every Hive Fleet has a gimmick, which is good for a pocket Patrol, or a min-maxed Detachment of whatever your slot of choice is. Maybe it's a question of semantics. I'm aware that...

Lucius, Patrol
Tech-Preist Dominus
Rangers (x5)
Corpuscarii Electro-Preists (xLots)

...Is a thing that exists, and has a use against armies without Codecies, or, rather more specifically, against armies that don't have an SUA interrupt. And it doesn't really do anything against hordes with a 5+ or 6+ Save anyway, and especially if said horde-type unit has a FNP save. But, just cause the Forge World has a gimmick, especially a gimmick that doesn't even work against everyone, I'm never going to admit that Lucius is good FW. Because it just isn't true.
Unfortunately, because of the above Detachment, it does have a use, and some people have really low standards, such that 'usable, sometimes' is the same as 'good'.

Just because Kraken Genestealers can potentially break the game against some opponents, doesn't make Kraken good.
I see melee Nids all of the time. And yeah, I know my meta isn't very good at gauging competitiveness but it's really easy to get first turn charges with multiple units. Sometimes it's a matter of spamming more SUA then they can handle (which is really easy for Tyranids to do), but I've also seen a combo of the Swarmlord, the Kraken Strategem, and one SUA to bring 60 Genestealers into a first turn charge. Or sometimes there's some Hormagaunts sprinkled in to maximize tying units up. Yeah, shooting Nids is also very good these days. But melee Nids are alive and well.

If my opponent doesn't have Psykers? Well then they are usually either Tau, Necrons, or Dark Eldar, so I'm not worried, and I just don't use that stratagem or Warlord trait. They can be changed between games, so it's not like you need to invest anything in it, because the Kronos adaptation is good enough on it's own. But it's gold against the armies that use psykers and really want to get off important powers. Flat out stopping a Warptime or a Quicken can be game changing. Same with Da Jump (particularly if you are shooty Nids). And if they are spamming psykers, which is also very common, then the Warlord trait really has a big impact. The spammable psykers only have a few wounds. And the D3 for failure makes it really risky. Particularly if you got burned by the stratagem earlier.

Sometimes that's enough. You get a Deny, and they likely have a -1 for Shadows of the Warp. But sometimes you really don't want that power to go off for whatever reason. It's only a single CP, and some powers are just that devastating to have go off. Synaptic Lynchpin is only good if you don't have a lot of Neurothropes, because otherwise it's just redundant. Instinctive Killer is situational. Does your opponent spam a lot of the same units, and are those units worth shooting at? Otherwise I think a Dakka-Tyrant is better off with Heightened Senses.

Since Warlord traits aren't preselected, I'd use them more as a matter of adapting to what the other guy is bringing. Do they have a lot of stuff that might charge me? Then I can use the Kraken trait. Do they have a lot of Psykers? Then the Kronos trait.

A question of semantics I believe. If you can build around a faction's adaptation and have it be useful, then generally I think it's a good faction. Like Kraken, Behemoth, or Hydra. While some traits are just more or less useful in general like Kronos, Gorgon, Levi, and Jormungdar.

Gorgon and Hydra are actually the traits I see the least. They are both for melee Nids, and often the most important thing for melee Nids is the delivery. So Kraken, Behemoth, and Jormungdar end up being much more useful. Jormungdar especially since it's also good for shooty Nids.

Also, for the Swarmlord, why not put him in a pod instead of paying for 3 Tyrant Guard? It's cheaper, and he can still use his ability when he comes in, guaranteeing he'll make his charge.