New Tyranid Codex

So the scuttlebutt is that a new Tyranid codex is on the horizon. Now you might not know this from the blog, but Nids are my second army in theory. I say in theory since my nids have never taken the field. I have been trying to build up a nid army for about 3 years after getting a classic battleforce box(twice the gaunts, no fex, more old stealers). These are all assembled and going with my other small purchases make about a 1K force. I also have a ton of unassembled stuff which would get me to 2-2.5K with a Tyrant, couple of Zoans, and the Assault Brood Box(2 Current battleforces plus an extra fex). I just do not get to play enough to really need a second army. I will get to the stuff but probably not before a new codex with all the painting and modeling left on my marines and blood bowl teams.

My real question with this new codex and all new codexes is how much input the marketing people get to add to the game design. It seems like the new models always seem to have awesome rules while some of the old standbys are weakened. This requires list adjustments and thus new purchases. I am not saying that marketing data should not be used for aiding design. If your goal is to make all the unit choices just as desirable then looking at what units sell poorly might give you an idea of where to look for the first improvements. I am guessing that this data would point to Biovores and gargoyles. They redid the Biovore model a couple of years ago to make it somewhat better looking but I still think it is a poor seller compared to fexes in the heavy support class.

If the marketing suits were really starting to meddle, you could expect that Fexes would not be an elite choice anymore. Since the most common list in 4th edition was nidzilla, removing this as a legal list would drive new sales of other elite choices. Will they do such a thing, I do not know. It would of course anger many existing players, but we know that gw is more interesting in new players than old players so they might not mind. They could always claim that nidzilla was not fluffy enough since people essential eliminated the swarms of small nids that exist even during the highest stage of nid invasions.

Ofcourse, many armies have been getting cheaper. Are gaunts going to get cheaper? Probably more gaunts means more models purchased, more primer, more paint, etc. Do Nids need an update, sure, will it cost you money. Definately.