Why we play tyranids?

[Uprising]

Hello everyone. 

 

I just want to say welcome my tyranids brothers and sisters.  To get this forum started, I would like to ask why you play/collect/paint tyranids?

 

My personal background is they are my first 40k army.  They are the reason I played 40k, and love every aspect of them.  I love the fluff, an abyssal terror from beyond who only goal is to devour and grow.  No mercy, no regret, no compassion, just the pure animal instinct to survive.  I also love the inspiration of the tyranids, a mixture of lovecraft, starship trooper, and xenomorphs from aliens.    I really enjoy the models, they truly look like they came from another universe.  Finally, I enjoy the play style.  I was always a fan of hordes, and we are the HORDE army(let just forget orks  exist).  

 

 So, why are you part of the swarms?  Why do you play your part as the true threat to the 40k universe?  Or are you just here for the cute little rippers?  

Edited June 18, 2017 by Uprising

[Dosjetka]

For me there's just something about a ravenous, unrelenting tide of monsters devouring everything in their path. I also really like their fluff and the various bits of artwork produced.

 

...that said, i don't actually have a Tyranid army... yet. :D

[graceslick]

A few years ago I gave up on fantasy as it was/is pretty dead where im from. I have never been a fan of sci-fi but since 40k is the biggest miniature game in Sweden I decided to give it a shot and looking around at miniatures, the cool looking monsters of various sizes with big claws and long sharp arms felt more interesting than being another one playing Marines (ive been thinking about SW as I like the color and scandinavian vibe). Also I always have struggled with keeping up motivation with painting and with Nids you could make up your own color scheme and get away with any crazy combo without shame, hopefully making it more fun. Dont care about fluff so a army based around just killing and eating everything in their path is some good stuff.

 

Since I waited for 8th ed to start for real I will first build my Space Wolves army as they require less models and my summer will be busy. After the summer I will try to build my army based around some of my favorite models, Warriors, Hormagaunts and Trygons/Mawlocs. 

[Aqui]

Hello!

 

I don't currently have a Nid army or a Cult, but back in the day, I once had a Khornate Cult army (the rules were in the Compendium between Rogue Trader and Second Edition). I hope to go back to my roots eventually, as 'Stealer Cults were my favourite army of all time! If I do, it'll be made in increments of 250 points.

 

Before I came to the BnC, I did buy one of the bigger 'Nid models (I forget the name of it) around the end of Fifth Edition, but I found this site and my destiny diverged. It'll need a bath so I can get the horribly thick coat of paint off it!

[Hrvat]

The answer is simple - Starship Troopers. 

 

Having an antagonist faction that has no personality really appeals to me as a contrast to the other more human factions. 

[Aqui]

The answer is simple - Starship Troopers. 

 

Having an antagonist faction that has no personality really appeals to me as a contrast to the other more human factions.

The idea of an entity whose consciousness is so vast it can't be simply comprehended by most others does appeal a lot

[sac_ld]

I was originally looking into Warhammer Fantasy Battle back in 2004 but I opted to hold off since I was about to move 1/2 across the country for school. Fast forward to 2006, I have a new group of friends and they only play 40k so since it looked like that wasn't gonna change any time soon I looked into some of the armies. There were two armies that really spoke to me; Necrons and Tyranids. Since Tyranids had the newest codex of the two and had the coolest miniature of the two armies (I think the 4e Lictors are the sweetest looking models) I opted to play them. Much like Uprising I love every aspect of Tyranids, but I particularly love playing the initial invasion of a planet. I have played a Genestealer vanguard army every edition since 4th (yesterday I played a 97 power game with 77 Genestealers, 2 Broodlords, 3 Lictors, 1 Deathleaper and 1 Red Terror). I personally think the body horror of having the mutated population of the planet fighting for the Tyranids are comming to consume the planet adds to the grim darkness of the ensuing war. Some of these Genestealers were coworkers, neighbors friends, or even family. Now they only answer the call of a alien consciousness looking to consume a world like it was a fruit ripe on a branch.

[sockwithaticket]

I don't play 'nids, but I have a lot of love for them in the 40k setting; they're a completely different kind of enemy to any others in the universe. They are the Great Devourer, an existential threat that can wipe away systems in a tidal wave of fang, claw and chitin. There is no hope of negotiation or forcing them to retreat, the only prospect of survival is to annihilate every single bug, from Hierophant down to Ripper.

[Filius]

I also don't play Nids yet, but someday I will. Here are my Reasons why …

• „The proper study of mankind is life.“ from the Ribofunk Manifesto. Technology is fine, it gave Mankind and the Xenos Races the Reign over the Galaxy … but … nothing beats Life, or to Quote Dr. Ian Malcolm "If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, uh... well, there it is." Life is suprior to Technology and the Tyranids are the proof for that. High speed Evolution … really the coolest thing.
• The come from another Galaxy. Well actually this is impossible, but just the Idea of it freaks me out. Having eaten one or even several other Galaxies before, then crossing the extreme Void between the Galaxies to devour ours. This alone marginalize everyone and everything in our Galaxy including the existing Conflicts there …
• … and they really marginalizes everything. They are so much more then any other Faction. Great. A threat beyond all previous dimensions.
• They eat whole Planets, with everthing. All Biomatter, all Water, all Air. This is not jus annihilation, it's the complete and irreversable destruction of even the fundamentals for Life. No other Faction is that radical.
• The Hive Mind. Starship Troopers has already been mentioned. I'll add a Quote to that "We were learning, expensively, just how efficient a total communism can be when used by a people actually adapted to it by evolution."
• They are purest high octane Nightmare Fule. I consider most of the Demon and Chaos Factions either ludicrous or disgusting, but hardly ever horrible. But the Tyranids are pure Horror. Teeth and Claws and Acid and Toxis and alien Speed – all that only to devour you, to devour everything.
• They are only Antagonists. Orks can be funny. T'au can be hopeful. Eldar can be mystical. Even Dark Eldar can be … uhm … whatever. But Tyranids can't be Protagonists, there can be no story about them. I am still fascinated by the Idea of a "Chronist of the Great Devourer", someone, who writes down their Victories, who praises their Way of Life, but noone will probably ever write a book like this, and probably that's just what makes them the coolest.
• Tyrandis are the best Reason to play Space Marines (or T'au). Fighting the Tyranid imho is the epic battle of 40k, the most challanging and heroic battle to fight. Of all the archetypical stories that make up the Hobby and the Stories within it, the fight against the Tyranids is the most existential, the hardest and the least hopeful. But … the Size of the Foe has some relation to the size of the deed of fighting against it.
• All in all they are the Absurd. In view of the Tyranids, all human endeavour are meaningless. But they are undertaken none the less. This is what Life is all about.

[BrassClaw]

So I play 3 armies currently. Worldeaters/Khorne, Traitor Guard, and Tyranids. I first fell in love with the bugs during the hay days of godzilla nid days. Seeing 6 Carnifexes on the table wowed me. Still play a godzilla style today.

 

What I really like about them, is that they are the true alien. With the galaxy pretty much carved out by the other races, Nids are the new guys on the block(galaxy). A force that only invades and destroys completely and have no interest in holding territory.   

[Halandaar]

For me the appeal is that they aren't so much a faction, more an absolute force of nature; an apex predator taking the form of an army of infinite numbers. You can't negotiate or reason with them, any more than a farmer can negotiate with locusts or a host can reason with a plague.

 

They are pretty much the only truly neutral force in 40k. No agendas, no politics, no webs of intrigue or Machiavellian designs. Only consumption, adaptation and survival.

[Cryptix]

Because an alien intelligence with a mastery of gene-crafting that will devour not only your body, but assimilate your memories and knowledge and consume the last dregs of your soul, all the while knowing that something bigger and badder is out there, and its not satisfied with the galaxies left behind is awesome.

[Evil Eye]

Well my introduction to 40K was actually the 3rd edition Tyranid codex...in 5th edition. Long story. Anyway, the idea of this horrific, completely unfeeling entity that devours all in its path, has no identifiable origin, is simultaneously trillions upon trillions of creatures yet also one gargantuan entity, and makes even daemons tremble at their sheer wrongness is just awesome. They're the ultimate villain- there's no reasoning with them or allying with them, they don't even have a concept of morality, and their entire existence is centred around consuming all other life. Every other villainous faction in 40K can be appeased or manipulated- the Orks, the forces of Chaos, even the Necrons. But not the Tyranids. They aren't even truly evil per se, they are simply death incarnate.

 

Also, the models always rocked.

[Dreagher]

I first started the hobby with tyranids even if I shelfed them for most of 7th in favour of other projects.

 

I really liked the astetic, aswell as the menancing feel of thread they produced in the setting.

[Sabadin]

Looking back it's hard to believe it's been 21 years since I first set eyes on Tyranids. Being a huge fan of the Alien and Predator franchises, they had an instant aesthetic appeal and got me learning more about 40k. Once I picked up the 2nd ed codex I was hooked, they were just such a drastic difference from everything else, utterly alien to us and absolutely horrifying.

 

Then as my collection built, being able to play them in completely alien and horrifying ways, seeing that look of horror on your opponents face when they successfully shoot a unit of gaunts off the table and you just scoop them up with a look of "Back you go", because after all they're just fodder to distract from they real threats. And when simply the words "genestealers" or "Lictors" instilled fear in whoever was on the other side of the table.

 

So far this edition is looking like a return to our glory days, where just mentioning you have certain units in your force will inspire fear and have your opponent immediately re think their plans.

[A D-B]

By a happy accident. 

 

I was, as ever, struggling to stick with an army or get it off the ground, and I found myself doing the mould lines and building a Tyranid Warrior for fun, as antidote to building Space Marines or AdMech that I'd never paint, or endlessly working on scenery for my group's gaming table. It was a weird surprise to actually enjoy painting something for once, so I decided to stick with it and see where it went. After a week or so, it became my seventh ever finished mini:

 

http://i.imgur.com/svGtbhf.jpg

 

So, long story short, I decided to stick with them, after I did that test fellow. There's the added fact that me playing Tyranids adds even more variety to our gaming group (which has almost no Space/Chaos Marine players, would you believe), and I've always loved the Tyranids' lore. There's something so completely 40K about the Great Devourer being drawn to the Astronomican: Mankind's salvation and the Emperoer's Light that makes the Imperium possible also being the beacon that draws humanity's doom. (I'm less crazy about the HH/Pharos stuff, so I tend to gloss over that. Ahem.)

 

I don't know how my army's going to look eventually, but I always adored shooty/magic armies with my High Elves, and practically everything I've ever played since then has been some variation on the same theme. Tyranids have some interesting shooting options, and they have plenty to do in the Psychic Phase, so I'm peachy keen to give that style a go.

 

Plus, the model range is incredibly strong with the exception of the oldest minis (the two-part heads for 'gants and 'gaunts aren't much fun...), and the Tyranid Warrior kit from 2014 is one of my fave kits of all time. Every single option on the minis looks awesome, and I want to use them all. 

 

As a final personal reason, I don't like playing things that I write about, as it helps in avoiding moronic accusations of author bias, so playing something apart from Space/Chaos Marines helps with that little preference. That's a pleasant side benefit.

[Xenith]

The 2nd ed metal Hive Tyrant is one of the seminal models that encapsulates 40k for me. I love it, and i love the four armed scuttling beasties that come with them.

 

When I play marines, I find games against Tyranids and orks to be some of the most fun, and. I want some of that.

 

With marines and Eldar, I care when models die, and I can over think games. With nids, I don't have to care, and it will be glorious.

Edited June 19, 2017 by Xenith

[Closet Skeleton]

I play tyranids because my first army (genestealer cultists) was hard to find in shops and then got squatted and tyranids let me use the same purestrain models.

 

Now I have a shiny new Genestealer Cult army and am hopeful about being able to get Tyranids back on the table after skipping out on the 6th ed codex because I missed that edition and refused to buy a book that obviously wasn't compatible with 7th despite being 'legal'.

 

There's something so completely 40K about the Great Devourer being drawn to the Astronomican: Mankind's salvation and the Emperoer's Light that makes the Imperium possible also being the beacon that draws humanity's doom. (I'm less crazy about the HH/Pharos stuff, so I tend to gloss over that. Ahem.)

 

My personal headcanon is that the Shadow in the Warp blocks out the Astronomicon because its fundamentally the same kind of effect; only its stronger.

 

 

The 2nd ed metal Hive Tyrant is one of the seminal models that encapsulates 40k for me. I love it, and i love the four armed scuttling beasties that come with them.

 

I still use mine. He's so out of scale next to the plastic Tyrant Guard I bought for him recently that I should replace him but I bought those Tyrant Guard and the rest of my army for him damn it so I'm not buying a new general for those troops.

 

There's something so 40k about how the utterly alien monsters are still for some irrational reason led by an officer with a sword. The latter Hive Tyrant models tried to 'fix' that but thankfully they eventually gave up with the current plastic one/swarm lord.

[Filkarion]

The Space Quest old Genestealer model.

 

Then again the "Small bugs are bullets, large bugs are larger bullets" play stile that you cannot avoid to take, in opposition with "every marine counts" of Astartes players, for example

 

The fact that _you are the Hive Mind_ when you play

 

The "they are pure, angels" illusion of the Cults, an astonishing interface between tyranids and mankind.

 

Lovecraft, but Grimdark alien gods are even more indifferent to humans

 

One day one of my friends told me that maybe it was the Emperor who telepathically called the Tyranids in the galaxy to kill him. I still enjoy this unlikely theory

 

I also have my theory. It implies the Old Ones.

[Redtoof]

They look really cool?

 

Also, Rippers are super cute.

[sockwithaticket]

So cute...

[Redtoof]

Look how happy they look!

[A D-B]

This is going to be the best subforum. Deep down, we all know it's true.

[Dreagher]

I think they might need a new guardsman soon. ;)

[Cryptix]

Doh, was it my turn to feed them? I forgot.