Last night I was overtaken by a strange demon, it reached into the back of my brain, planted it's seed and commanded me to do it's bidding: to gather up my old Games Workshop Tyranid army that I picked up from my dad's place and see if I could actually make a legal army out of it in today's 6th Ed world.
What I finally put together was as follows:
So what am I looking at here?
Well after gathering the pieces, diapering at how many models are missing arms and bases and how everything beyond a 25mm base is square (therefore invalid in today's games) I have what looks at first glimpse a perfectly reasonable Tyranid army using almost exclusively 2nd Edition models.
Got a few issues of course, but I put them aside posted this picture on the internet and asked if anyone knew of a way of seeing if this was a legal army and what would be needed to make it legal.
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It was then that I remembered the latest podcast episode by Soulstone Train where they talked about army builders in particular one called Battlescribe.
So onto the net I popped, downloaded the iPhone app, installed the 40k 6th Ed data source and started putting together my army.
What shocked me was how easy it was, you just click to add units and upgrades, alter the numbers, all the while the app telling you how many points you're sitting on:
It was then I saw the terrible truth, 3 of my units, the Termagants, Hormagaunts and Gargoyles are all short on numbers. To be the minimum amount requires 10 models, I'm sitting on 9 Terms, 9 Horms and 7 Gargs. Not great, but let's be honest, how hard would it be to pop onto eBay and pick up 5 models for a few quid each? (I've checked, it's easy).
In the meantime I have removed these three units, relying on my 30 Genestealers to act as the troop force. As you can see from the previous screen capture I'm looking at 1449 points, just 51 short of a 1500 army! And that's without the units I removed (it's also omitting The Red Terror, who I'm aware is not a 2nd Ed model, but I picked it up about 10 years ago because I liked the model. I've had to exclude this because it's not listed in Battlescribe so until I know better I have to assume it's not valid in 6th Ed).
Yes this army still needs stripping, repainting and rebasing, but the fact is it's legal, and that amazed me.
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There are a few issues that I face with this army, such as expansions. If I wanted to add to it there are some models I could add fine and it wouldn't be a problem, but there are some that would look super out of place. If I wanted to pick up a plastic brood box of say Horms or Gargoyles they would need to be a separate unit and not 1 large one, because they would look really strange alongside my 2nd Ed versions.
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You know what really struck me? Just how easy this whole thing was!
I remember back in the day, sitting for hours with a pencil, pad of paper and army book at the ready, using a calculator to record down everything, coming to the end and realising I was either over on points or over value with a certain type of unit, having to go back over the list, cross out what I needed to, then rewrite everything so the list was easy to read.
Now that is all done for me!
It's amazing! With the power of the internet and smart phones wirelessly connected to my printer I am capable of doing all of this in a fraction of the time and still walk away with a list. It may not be competitive but who cares?
**Edit** Just found out the Red Terror is a command unit to be included with Raveners so these would need to be picked up too if I wanted to use him.
Anyway, that's all from me today, I hope you are all well and stay clear from whatever little Beasty laid it's 40k eggs in my brain.
Until next time stay safe and I'll see you Cryptside!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
Battlescribe is awesome but not flawless, you have to check it against the codex when you're done. Apparently a terminator captain riding a bike is the most known issue with it. That being said, even with the double check it's easier than it used to be.
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