RE: [NetEpic ML] Tyranid Cards clarification

From: Peter Ramos <primarch_at_...>
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 08:03:03 -0400

Hi!

-----Original Message-----
From: peter cornwell [mailto:petecorn_at_...]
Sent: Friday, July 12, 2002 12:23 AM
To: netepic_at_yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [NetEpic ML] Tyranid Cards clarification

While we're on the subject of Tyranid cards,

I'm just wondering - what the reasoning was behind the removal
of the orders cards?

--->The tyranid were completely redone by Paul Lipori. The newer rules
are more reflective of a hive mind structure than the original GW rules

Was the Tyranid army not powerful enough under the old rules?

---> The original GW rules were clumsy and had many loopholes. The
current rules better show how the hive mind works without the ploy of
order cards.

Because doesn't their elimination make the Tyranids a fair bit more
powerful?
I don't have the old Tyranid rules, or a usable Tyranid army yet, but in
Netepic
it looks like each turn you can give orders to more swarms and
effectively pick up more hive mind cards (because you'll pick them up
every turn, instead of sometimes getting only orders cards ).
Also, in the old rules the power of a good hand of hive mind cards
would
be offset by the fact that you picked them up at the expense of more
orders
cards. ie if you have a great hand of hive mind powers, your army would
be
more likely to be running out of control.

--->The amount of hive cards is less than in the original rules and it
is dependent on how powerful you swarm leaders is. Unlike the original
rules were it didn't depend on the leader's power. Now orders are
dependent of hive mind radius which is dependent on the swarm leader's
power. This change has been present since 1.0 and has been heavily
tested and works much better than the old rules which were too random.

I know this is probably an ancient debate - but I'd be really interested
in
hearing
briefly the jist of what that debate was.

--->As with many of the old GW rules they were tacked on without much
concern with the older rules in place. There were many contradictions,
loopholes and it didn't mesh well. The mechanics of order cards were
cumbersome and too erratic in nature. It made tyranids weaker than other
races to depend on random cards to be able to do things. This is a
restriction no other army has. Back then Paul was our resident "bug" man
and took it upon himself to develop the current rules and test them.
They function more as swarms now due to the hive mind radius and the
amount of cards depends on swarm leader power. On average you get very
few cards since the hive points are divided by five. Also note you LOSE
cards as hive leaders are slain. This produces a nice attritional effect
that makes tyranids less effective as their leaders die. Much better
represented than the original.

Peter
Received on Fri Jul 12 2002 - 12:03:03 UTC