Tyranid thread

genestealers just need to be removed at this point and gsc be made battle brothers.

Swarmlord was a mistake, it should be removed.

They need a godzilla tier nigga that is intelligent and can speak English

>genestealers just need to be removed at this point and gsc be made battle brothers.
why remove something when we can expand, divide and apecialise?

hive fleet stealers
>genestealers
>genestealer warriors (larger-see space hulk deathwing)
>mutant genestealers (ymgarl's genes derived)
>specialised broods (with biomorphs and stable adaptations)
>broodlord

genecult stealers
>genestealers
>princelings (genestealers from the original brood of the patriarch that also grow in physical and psychic power)
>equipped sealers (genestealers receiving biomorph-like blessings grown from the patriarch bio-throne and other trinkets from the cultists)
>advent/eve sons (particularly blessed stealers born under the focus of the hive fleet nearing the planet, possess stable mutations, stronger connection with the hive mind and relay it to the broodmind)
>patriarch

>Should they get new units, and if so, what sort of units?
we need expanded infantry options
too many different big gribbles nowadays compared to the little choices in infantry

>What should be done to fix their crippled dex?

All middleweight creatures go up to T5. Warriors and Raveners also go up to St5.

Add a new army-wide special rule; "Rapacious Advance", which allows models to run and charge in the same turn.

While I don't play 'nids myself, I play against them on a semi-regular basis. From what I've seen, they could use a Decurion (or at least more formations) and, like said, they should be able to field fucktons of models. Lower the points cost of most of their units (who are frankly over-priced anyway). and add formations that let you bring free or respawning gaunts/ripper swarms, or make Tervigons so they never stop producing Gaunts, things like that. Something like pic related would honestly be perfect for nids.

What middle weight creatures do they even have outside of Warriors and Raveners?
Most of the nid units are either tiny buggers, or giant monsters.

>In general, the Nids should be made to be the most versatile and adaptive army of the game
I like this.

Supposedly every army's going to be getting something in 2017, keep your fingers crossed and pray to the four-armed emperor.

>genestealers just need to be removed at this point and gsc be made battle brothers.
Genestealers are used as shock troops in a standard Tyranid invasion; it's not like they don't exist outside of GSC or something.

I like this.

Middleweight creatures do need to be buffed, but I'm not sure about army-wide Run-Charge. Maybe make that an upgrade, such as Adrenal Glands?

I like this.

>What middle weight creatures do they even have outside of Warriors and Raveners?

Zoanthropes, Venomthropes, Biovores, Pyrovores, Lictors. There's Hive Guard and Tyrant Guard as well, but I don't think they need their profiles altered.

> but I'm not sure about army-wide Run-Charge

I don't understand this. Assault in 40k is fucked. Shooting armies have gradually become capable of throwing out more and more firepower, while assault has been crippled by specific nerfs (no assaulting out transports, overwatch, etc) and hampered further by other changes (directional casualty removal, making it harder to close the distance). But as soon as someone makes a suggestion which would meaningfully help redress this balance, people immediately start backing off and claiming it'll be too much. It feels like they only want a few token changes that won't actually make it easier for melee armies to...you know, get into melee.

Yes, Assault was overpowered in 3rd and 4th edition. But the pendulum has swung so far back in the other direction, shooting is now even more overpowered than assault ever was. Something needs to change if we want to make armies like Orks and Tyranids viable again, and that means looking seriously at concepts which would have broken the game in half back in the earlier editions.

Also; there's a limit to how much you can reduce a model's points before collecting the army simply becomes stupidly impractical. Termagants are 4 and Hormagaunts 5 points; two 30-strong broods of each is 540 points. That's about a third to a quarter of your army and it's 120 models. Being able to bring MORE units doesn't help, because past a certain point your models end up blocking each others movements, are forced to deploy so deep in your deployment zone they'll struggle to get close enough to do anything, and still have to contend with all the problems footslogging melee units do. Quantity over quality is a valid theme, but these units still need to be good enough to fulfill their roles on the tabletop.

And then you've got the actual cost of buying so many models, the difficulty of transporting them, and so on and so on. Just making things cheaper isn't a solution.

Bring back Without Number. Any unit that has Without Number ignores the effect of overwatch.

Make Synapse give actual benefits to the creatures that are within its range, and make the penalties of being without it less terrible.

Make Warriors usable.

I don't have a problem with run-charge, I'm just saying it should replace the Fleet part of Adrenal Glands or something similar. Because otherwise, you could very easily field an army where everyone has both Fleet and Run-Charge, which would be absurd.

I don't think Assault armies problems in 7e come from the edition's rules, but that the Codices for assault-oriented armies are just bad right now, and vice versa for shooty armies. Just compare the points cost of Tyranid and Ork units/upgrades to other army's equivalents. Not to mention that both armies have weapons/psychic powers/warlord traits which are rarely useful and sometimes dangerous to their own side, which is something else that most other armies don't have to deal with. The lack of formations doesn't help either.

So give them free reinforcements or something, like said. It's a way of buffing the army's numbers without actually increasing the number of models in play.

Fluffwise, exactly how good is tyranidadaptation? it seems pretty shit since they're still being taken out by the same weapons and tactics as before

In old fluff, it was somewhere between great and god-tier depending on which hive fleet it was. Tyranids were a swiss army knife of destruction.

Modern "can't learn from anything" stories are just Cruddace bullshit, and part of the problem with Nid dexes in general. They're the only codex that has their faction lose over and over and over in their own book.

Have you read the shield of baal campaign? the tyranids are adapting faster than ever before, to the point where gorgons adaptation was pretty standard

This was the book that finally made Tyranids scary again for me.

Make all gaunts beasts and give them acess to psychic powers again.

Is it true that Cruddace hates Nids because he got shitstomped by them in a tourney?

adaptation is great and all, but you can't really adapt to getting shot in the face with lasers

>Should they get new units, and if so, what sort of units?
The fuck? The last thing they need is more unit bloat, the Codex already has like half a dozen more than it ever fucking needed.

It needs an overhaul from the ground up that redesigns the core units to actually function the way they are intended in the fluff.

It needs rules for tyrannoformation the same way daemons have a warp storm table to represent Tyranids always fighting on a homefield advantage.

It needs a proper Hive Fleet Decurion with Formations that aren't complete ass.

It needs Warrior sized bugs being brought up to S/T 5 like they deserve. It needs small-sized bugs with built-in WON. It needs large-sized bugs with built-in IWND and access to tons of biomorphs again. It needs biomorphs out the ass for everything actually - we're talking the race that is supposed to be the most customizable in the game by original definition. Where are my leaping Warriors with blinding venom, where are my thornback and death beetle Carnifexes from 4e? Where are all my options for Genestealers still in the kit like acid maw and flesh hooks and implant attack?

Why don't Trygons have an invuln save from their electric field?? Why is their tunnel rule so utterly shit? Why is the WS so low on all these assault creatures that were originally designed with very high WS? Why don't Tyrant Guard have Feel No Pain when they're literally just born to eat fucking bullets to the face? Why can't Lictors charge immediately when they've been lying in wait for days for the perfect moment to strike? Why isn't there a new rule for Living Ammo?

I've got more too.

Yes. His armoured list got wrecked by Carnifexes.

How about proper representation of Synapse being not just fearless but the fact that it means all Tyranids are operating as a single being? Like one Tyranid in synapse having LoS to a target should mean all Tyranids have LoS to that target, if a Tyranid in synapse is charged all Tyranids in synapse range within 12" should be able to counter-charge, if a synapse creature is shot at and standing within 2" of ANY friendly instinctive behaviour creature it should be able to Look Out Sir, all synapse creatures should be psykers and they should have multiple unique psychic tables like the Eldar book, Shadow in the Warp should actually fucking DO something and should be one of the most feared anti-psyker abilities in the game (and it should be global, not locked to synapse range).

Onslaught should be changed to be the Psychic Stimulus power in Broodmind, Catalyst should grant the unit the Death Frenzy rule that Wulfen have, The Horror should give the unit -2 leadership AND force a pinning check AND make them treat all Tyranids as having Fear, not just take one pinning check at -2.

Individual Hive Fleets should get rules like Traitor Legions that restrict your build options but add tons of flavorful buffs on top.

Oh, and all the fluffrape special characters like Swarmlord need to be fucking deleted forever. I should be able to just build a Swarmlord out of the Hive Tyrant page if I want.

>This was the book that finally made Tyranids scary again for me.
I loved the scene with the psychic wave of nids
particularly the valkyrie one

>Oh, and all the fluffrape special characters like Swarmlord need to be fucking deleted forever. I should be able to just build a Swarmlord out of the Hive Tyrant page if I want.
What if Tyranid special characters just become upgrades you can give to units rather than standing on their own? Like one Hive Tyrant in your army can be upgraded to the Swarmlord?

These are good ideas though, I especially like the idea of Hive Fleets having Chapter Tactics-esque rules. Keep 'em coming.

I loved the entire SoB arc with the PTSD canoness having to deal with a lictor.

>I'm not sure about army-wide Run-Charge. Maybe make that an upgrade, such as Adrenal Glands?
Everything that could sprint could do this once. Often with a 12" charge range. Stop being a pussy.

>Everything that could sprint could do this once. Often with a 12" charge range.
When? Random charge distances were introduced in 6th edition, which is when Fleet was changed from Run-Charge to it's current iteration.

>where everyone has both Fleet and Run-Charge, which would be absurd.

Why? Fleet lets you re-roll the dice to Run OR Charge, not both. All the re-roll really lets you do is nullify duff results or have a go at very long charges in desperate situations, and in the latter case, you still suffer Overwatch fire and have a below average chance of pulling it off.

Fluffwise good enough to be immune against lances in space battle after 3 days of fighting.

In short think Necrons, but with organic tech instad of anorganic tech.

>Why isn't there a new rule for Living Ammo?

Fleshborers and Devourers (including their variants) get Shred, but half their Strength vs Vehicles. Gives Termagants a nice buff, actually letting them hurt things instead of just being a shitty tarpit blob, and ensures Brainleech Devourers aren't the default 'why wouldn't you pick this?' upgrade for Monstrous Creatures.

Note that this should come hand-in-hand with a buff to Venom Cannons to pick up the slack in the anti-tank department. St7 AP4 Assault 2 for the regular one and St9 AP4 Assault 3 for the Monstrous Creature-sized version.

Half, his coauthor wrote the 4th edition Nid codex and thought he made them too strong.

>Fleet lets you re-roll the dice to Run OR Charge, not both.
Not unless that got FAQ'd. The rule states that you can re-roll one or more dice for Run AND Charge moves, not either or.

I'd really like to see venom cannons become meta. I like twin linked devourers but, damn it's the only option on most big bugs

Up until the 4th edition. Hormagaunts could move up to 24" in one round: moving 6", sprint d6, charge 12".
Warriors, too if upgraded with leap.
Rough Riders of the IG could pull this too.

Lictors deepstriked into cover and could attack in the same round. Representing their insane infiltration skills.

Carnifexes could have up to T7 W5 and a 2+ save. (Sadly they were still worse than a phantom lord for half their points)

Nids need a GMC on their codex seems like most other factions either have one or can ally one in easily.

They have nothing truly fuck huge outside of Forgeworld.

Everything with 6 Wounds should be Gargantuan.

Were you seriously not around for Leaping?

Nope, I got into 40k in 5th edition.

>Hormagaunts could move up to 24" in one round: moving 6", sprint d6, charge 12".

And the funny thing is that Hormagaunts were still considered to be a pretty garbage unit back then as well. They were a fast tarpit, but so horrible at causing damage anything worth tarpitting would chew them up in short order.

I think a new game mechanic should be introduced that Tyranids can benefit the most from.

Effectively a mixed unit with a large creature and small creatures fighting together in an optimized form.

Astra Militarum (Guardsmen/Sentinels), Eldar (Guardians/War Walkers), and others could also benefit from the mechanic, but the Tyranids would use it most effectively.

>They have nothing truly fuck huge outside of Forgeworld.
The new models are actually starting to eclipse the Hierodules in size....

Change how they work fundamentally.
You get 3 unit types. Synapse emitter. Synapse recipient. Non-synapse.

Synapse now extends 12 inches from creature with rule.

Synapse applies FnP. Any creature within 12 inches gets a FNP on a 6. Any creature within 6 inches gets FNP on a 5-6. Any creature within the same melee get it on a 4-6. This offsets the insanely poor armour 90% of units get without giving them obscenely tanky.

Synapse also confers automatic morale passes on ANY phase where the amount of wounds applied before FnP is lower than the combined synapse of all creatures in range.

That means if you have 3 Warriors as a centre piece rocking 30 combined leadership then you need 31 wounds to force a morale check with no modifiers.

Also need a new rule to allow the 'tactical' side of the Hivemind like 'only the first unit that runs into an Overwatch will trigger the effect' which means a smart player will barge something like a small unit of Gaunts into the combined Overwatch of bunch of units before throwing in his assault units. Obviously this has drawbacks due to the synapse morale rule but it also allows what is normally a fairly assault heavy army with low armour to achieve their key objective.

Also allow Warriors to be taken as 'sergeants' for any small creature unit. This would allow a guaranteed synapse range for alot of creatures.

Other than that it's just a case of Nids being behind in units/cost but hey ho.

>but the Tyranids would use it most effectively.

It would also destroy a lot of their mechanical flavour. The Synapse/IB rules are riddled with problems at the moment, but the interactions between them are supposed to be core to the way the army plays. Being able to shove a Tyranid Warrior into every unit basically just makes the whole army Fearless.

Like I get that this segment of their rules needs to be rebuilt from the ground up, but that doesn't mean it should just be thrown out.

Honestly? Nah. Nidfags and Chaosfags both deserve their shitty rules, in turn for being "MUH ULTIMATE BBEG FACTION" in the lore. I don't shed a single tear for the faction as a whole. Heck, I own Tyranid mini's, but I still dont give a hoot, despite them being some of their best miniatures in their entire range.

By virture of existing, both Chaos and Tyranids diminish the overall impact of the setting. They make every struggle worthless and pointless, and add nothing, especially with their gloating about "Muh 12 galaxies" or their "We outnumber Orkz" schpeel. They act so fucking arrogant and constantly go on and on about how the Galaxy is fucked, and how nobody can stop them, and how they are super adaptive, and are basically the BEST faction in the whoke galaxy, and how they even beat Chaos.

So yeah, I can honestly say that every time they get shat in the fluff, I feel no remorse or pity. Serves them right for being a "Unending tide of flesh and bone that will devour the entire galaxy."

t. Cruddace the Supreme Faggot

>the best way to represent incredibly strong factions is to make them incredibly weak
>it makes better storytelling!

Call me what ever you want, but the Guard is a million times more intresting and colorful than space cockroaches whose only intresting facet is their adaptability.

That's not even my problem with the nids. Its that the Tyranids are far too strong a faction in the fluff, and encourages faggots to go "Y-You may have b-beat me, but in like, uh, 100 years, the main fleet will come and eat you all up! 12 GALAXIES MUTHA FUCKAS". Until.they fix the lore, Tyranids deserve their shitty rules.

>somebody was a fag to me one time
>now I must be a fag forever too, out of spite
This is not a sustainable solution, user.

That's not the point dumbass, the point is having an army on par with the others, like you would have for any game. We're not discussing changing fluff.

>space cockroaches
You clearly don't understand the concept of Tyranids.

>but the Guard is a million times more intresting and colorful than space cockroaches whose only intresting facet is their adaptability
What makes you think your one bad opinion means shit?

Tyranids have more devoted fans than most Factions in 40k, they certainly sell more than Guard do.

What kind of dumbass thinks fans of a faction deserve to be punished because of how GW writes the end game?

>hurrr you think space dinosaur bugs are cool, therefore you should have to waste money on a useless army

Its a wargame, there is no excuse for unbalanced armies. Anybody who even tries to justify it is an idiot, a spiteful child or a GW employee.

Increase armor saves and toughness. Simple really.

...

nids were fucked to death not by their codex.
they were fucked by the basic rules.
their codex was fine in 4th
then later editions of the main ruels came out and RUINED everything that nids did.
fleet
multiple combats
swarming
charging

all you gotta do is add back the stuff that the main rules took away. then they will be ok again

why does GW refuse to make warriors a functional part of the army? its been what.... almost 20 years since warriors have been fieldable.

why cant they give warriors eternal warrior? thats all they need to be good. thats it. all nids used to have eternal warrior anyway. its super fluffy too, who doesnt want to see nids blown in half but still crawling toward the enemy trying to kill them.

dumb. GW is dumb. their employees are intentionally dumb and retarded

this must be that necron faggot. you really are pathetic dude.

A better question OP, is how can they be defeated?

How could they make Old One Eye decent again? keep in mind no drastic changes will be given to him, just slight tweaks.

His biggest problem is wasting a HQ slot, and then being expensive and kind of shit.

>Scrap the Warlord trait
>Just make him a Heavy support
>Or better yet, upgrade Carnifex like RT
>Return his 2+ save
>1+ wound and weapon skill
>FNP as standard
>Leadership 10
>Add fleet
>Same Points cost.

I'd kill for this. it wouldn't even be very good but god it would make him not just painfully shit.

Thoughts?

>nids were fucked to death not by their codex
I'm assuming you haven't actually read any of the post 5e nids codexes.

Agreed. OOE should just be the most indestructible distraction carnifex of all time.

Honestly I'm not a big fan of Nid special characters period. Old One Eye is cool, but there's no real reason for him to be a playable model rather than just a cool-ass story in the codex. Characters take away from the whole endless-swarms-into-infinity thing, and they tend to promote shitty writing, like Swarmlord or Draigo etc.

I'd be much happier with customizable Fexes so I could craft my own tankbot rather than having to pick a premade one.

>They make every struggle worthless and pointless
That's the point, you dolt. None of the other factions matter because they'll ultimately lose. Meanwhile, Chaos is inherently self-defeating, while the Nids are unsustainable because more biomass requires more biomass and they have to run out of galaxies to eat eventually.

>I'd be much happier with customizable Fexes so I could craft my own tankbot rather than having to pick a premade one.

True, but Gw like characters, or selling them.

I'm just beng real, we ain't seeing the custom fex again i don't think

Biomass doesn't require biomass.

>every struggle worthless and pointless
No fucking shit, Sherlock. That's the whole point of 40k...

I know this is most likely bait, but I have meet people who seriously don't understand this

They don't even need EW they just need Toughness 5 and the ability to Look Out Sir on gaunts.

It makes zero sense that fucking OGRYNS can be T5 but Tyranid Warriors cannot.

How do you figure?

Has the Earth's ecosystem ceased functioning due to not receiving more biomass from an outside source (disregarding the globally irrelevant amounts deposited by meteorites) over billions of years? No?

Then why would a Hive Fleet?

They were fieldable in the 4th edition codex. There every synapse creature had eternal warrior without the fancy name.
They could not get instantgib'd.

>they just need Toughness 5 and the ability to Look Out Sir on gaunts.
Not really. Like he said, they would be perfect the way they are if they had something to protect them from ID

Yes, it's called Toughness 5. Protects against ID from everything except S10 and special weapons that specifically have ID, against which mooks like Warriors should NOT be protected. EW is for legendary heroes.

Besides, Warriors should be tougher than Genestealers, they're twice the damn size.

Aye, their only job was using their speed to force some of the enemy gunline into close combat.

If you wanted to kill shit with troops you used Genestealers, if you wanted to swarm/tarpit you went with the other gaunt derivates.

>Yes, it's called Toughness 5
Which would be a buff to a unit that doesn't need it when there are options like EW out there

Except that the EW variant Nids had in 4th also protected them from s10 and force weapons, but didn't make them super-resistant to small arms fire the same way T5 does.

EW is not an option for a basic Troop. Contextually it is used on legendary and heroic individuals just like contextually FnP (6+) tends to represent specific things, like bionics, rather than just giving Skitarii and Iron Hands more Toughness instead.

And yet Warriors being vulnerable to S10 and Force weapons but more resilient to small arms makes more sense for them.

Again, Ogryns are Toughness 5 and Genestealers are Toughness 4. Warriors should not be less tough than Ogryns by any stretch of the imagination and they should clearly be more tough than Genestealers which they share biology with but tower over because they are scaled up.

In 2e this wasn't the intention. Hormagaunts were supposed to kill other equivalent troops in combat and tarpit elite forces, Genestealers were supposed to kill elite forces. There was a whole tactics section that said things like "don't charge basic space marines with your 16 point Genestealers because it's a waste when you can slaughter them with 8 point Hormagaunts instead."

give fleshborer hive rending!

>Contextually it is used on legendary and heroic individuals
C'mon user, don't be gay like that. EW would fix them cleanly and with no effort

I'm perfectly fine with the Hive Mind nope-ing force weapons, because that's what the Shadow in the Warp DOES. I'd also be fine with T4 Warriors instead of T5 ones, provided they had the ability to get a decent armor save and weren't overcosted, because they're still going to have 2+ wounds. The point value of warriors is part of their problem, even in 4e, because they seem to get a "synapse tax" placed on them that a number of other synapse-generating units don't have to worry about. If you wanted to give them flying it was even worse.

I would be perfectly happy with larger squads of less-elite Warriors, or smaller squads of more-elite Warriors, so long as they're costed appropriately.

The easy fix and the correct fix are not always the same thing.

You could also fix them by cutting their points cost in half, but it isn't correct.

There are unwritten conventions that dictate where and how special rules are used to represent things. Eternal Warrior is not something that can be thrown around willy-nilly, it's usually reserved for one-per-army Relics, Lords of War and unique hero Characters.

Toughness 5 on the other hand doesn't only fix the problem but it also is something that feels lacking just from a fluff perspective. It is actually the cleaner solution, you're just stuck on trying to go with something that had written precedent in 4th. And yet, T5 had written precedent in 2nd.

>I'm perfectly fine with the Hive Mind nope-ing force weapons, because that's what the Shadow in the Warp DOES.
It should do this by virtue of making the psychic power more difficult to manifest, not by granting blanket immunity to Instant Death including forms of ID not caused by psychic powers.

>The point value of warriors is part of their problem, even in 4e, because they seem to get a "synapse tax" placed on them that a number of other synapse-generating units don't have to worry about.
In 4e they were actually quite cheap at 14 points base, it was just that the upgrades tended to make them expensive if you piled them on. Also they SHOULD have an upcost for Synapse, otherwise running all Synapse becomes the more point-efficient way to build an army, which is part of the current problem with Codex: Flyrants in a way.

>I would be perfectly happy with larger squads of less-elite Warriors, or smaller squads of more-elite Warriors, so long as they're costed appropriately.
I think the proper way to do this is start them cheap and have a large selection of biomorph upgrades to scale just how "Elite" you want to make them.

Not having enough different upgrade biomorphs is basically the biggest problem with the current codex. When Tau have 5 dozen ways to kit out a crisis team, being able to choose poison or adrenal glands just isn't cutting it for an army that should be very customizable with what sort of units you want.

>you're just stuck on trying to go with something that had written precedent in 4th
Not really. I advocate EW because it would not only fix them, but it doesn't chance them against weapons that don't inflict ID. Warriors are a perfect troop choice IMO if you don't count ID as a factor and I see no need to change them beyond that. Maybe allow them to change their devs to claws for free, but that's it

Customization is glorious, but I highly doubt we'll ever get something as grand as the 3.5e Chaos or 4e Tyranid codexes again. GW has just moved too far away from that sort of listbuilding.

In a way it makes sense, because it was tricky to determine whether your opponent's list had 300 extra points of wargear in it at a glance, but it's still a damn shame.

>but it doesn't change* them against weapons that don't inflict ID.
There's no reason to hold anything in the current Tyranid Codex as sacred. Usually the goals of simple and elegant design says change as little as possible but when you're working with something as utterly broken and representatively poor as the Cruddexes, it's much better to throw everything out and start from scratch.

In a vacuum where Warriors are a new model and have never had shitty rules, Toughness 5 is a better fit for them.

>it's much better to throw everything out and start from scratch.
Don't break what hasn't been broken

>Don't break what hasn't been broken
The entire codex is broken, though. So you're actually agreeing that we should ditch the whole thing and start over.

>Cruddace Codexes
>not broken
You seem to be missing the entire point of this thread and all the threads like this one that crop up all the time.

Everything about the last two editions of Tyranids has been fundamentally broken.

The last edition to do Tyranids any justice was 4e and the conventions of that era of the game no longer apply, so to modernize them properly with a real update even 4e cannot be relied upon for exact precedents, only precedents of intent.

I'm talking about Warriors and I have already made clear of what I think of them. I would rather make a minor adjustment that results in a major improvement than to throw everything out and start from scratch

And what you think of them is a poor analysis. They are not "fine".

The proper fix to Tyranids is to throw out everything that's been written about them since Cruddace got his grubby paws on the Faction and start over from Chambers' and Goodwin's original conception.

And adding Eternal Warrior is not a minor adjustment in terms of external consequences. In a vacuum it gives a small buff to Warriors but it breaks the modern conventions set around what that rule is allowed to be used to represent, and the last thing we need is less consistency of crunch-to-fluff translation.

If a presented a brand-new Tyranid beast to you that was halfway in size between a Strength 4 Toughness 4 5+ save Genestealer and a Strength 6 Toughness 6 3+ save Carnifex, what stats do you think would properly represent its size, muscle mass and durability?