Tyranids: Special Rules Overview

Top armies, killer units, and who has the best codex?! These are things I and many other 40k players discuss. Frankie here, Slick has asked me to cover these questions for a specific army, my army, the Tyranids. Here I’m going to talk about their codex, units, battle reports and more. As for this week, I’m going to talk about the army as a whole.

The Tyranid codex; I hear a great deal about this since it is my main army. Some think it needs updated, some think it’s over powered. Like any army, it’s all about how you use them. I see all too often people whine about an army being too powerful because they are playing a really good player. It’s all about how you use them, which will be covered here for the Tyranids.

They have some unique rules that can be obnoxious to some, I am not a big fan of the Instinctive Behavior rule the Nids have, but there are ways around it. The obvious way is to use a lot of models/units that have the Synapse Creature special rule that has a 12” range. Which I would say is good to have regardless; it makes all other units fearless, auto regroup when falling back, and not have to take Instinctive Behavior tests (leadership test). Another good way around it is use the Instinctive Behavior rules to your advantage.

There is feed and lurk. Feed is a simple enough rule to work with, it disallows the unit to shoot but gives them the Rage Special rule. So it is a good idea to equip such units to be focused on close combat, then if they fail their Instinctive Behavior test they will benefit from Rage. Raveners, Trygons, and Mawlocs are great for this. Lurk is a little trickier. It disallows the unit to move or lunch an assault, they must shoot at the closest enemy unit they have line of sight to and within range. If no enemy unit is there to shoot at they must move to the closest area terrain and remain there as long as they are out of Synapse range and fail their Instinctive Behavior tests. I know this seems like a major disadvantage, and it can be. But once again it’s all about how you use it. 

The best way to deal with this is to take a small troop unit and leave them on an objective on your side of the table within terrain, while your bigger units march up the field that your opponent is forced to deal with sooner over your small hidden objective holding unit. I have won games because opponents have forgot about that small unit, deeming it a low threat. Or they are so tied up with my monstrous creatures and bigger units they don't have time to take down this low point unit. And it doesn't matter if they fail their tests because they are already in terrain, so they will sit on the objective and claim it. Those are some ways to use the rules to your advantage. I would suggest a good balance between Synapse Creatures and using these tips.

Another good thing about the Synapse Creatures is they also have a rule called Shadow in the Warp. This is a cool rule, it forces any enemy psykers within 12” to take their psyker tests on 3D6 instead of 2D6. With psykers getting the disciplines and and being as powerful as they are anyways, it has saved my nids in many games. Especially against Grey Knights, because their Hammehand power works in close combat. Shodow in the Warp helps shut down such abilities. It’s not over powered but very helpful. 

These are some of the basic rules in the codex. They have some versatility within their codex, flying monstrous creatures, high initiative, and high toughness ext. We will get into some of my favorite units that have really helped me in many of my games such as Ymgarl Genestealers, Tyrannofex, and Tyranid Warriors to name a few. But I will get into those as I go over the corresponding units in the following weeks. Stay tuned, next week I will be going over the Hive Tyrant! 

See ya then.

-Frankie-