Battle Report: Tau vs Tyranids (from Miniwargaming)

Now that the Tyranids have been out for a while it is nice to start seeing some actual games with them. Is everything really as bad as internet commentators say? Check out this recent battle from miniwargaming. Granted, one battle is nothing definitive, but it is a start to some actual data on the bugs. Have you had any recent battles with or against the Tyranids? Share your experiences with us!

News: New Tryanid Picture Sighted

Slick here again. The first of the new Tyranids pics have been sighted over on Bols. Those with the new Escalation book can try and spot the new minis in some of the dioramas in that book. Here is the one pic that Bols put up:

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2013/12/news-new-tyranid-pics-sighted.html

What do you guys think? Looks like some redesigned Tyranid Warriors! Expect the rumors and pics to start dropping faster as we get closer to January. What are you most looking forward to with the new release?

40K Alternate Aegis defense lines

Wargamma has produced a number of alternate Aegis defense lines for non-Imperial 40K players. 

One for Necron players:

one for Eldar:

one for the Bugs:

 Da Orks:

For the Greater Good:

and Dark Eldar/Chaos Marines or even Daemons

 

Preorders are being taken at Mr Dandy, you should check them out!

Tyranids: Troop choice reviews

Hey guys, Frankie here to talk about the Troop section of the Tyranid codex. Troops are the backbone to the 40K game, with 5 outta 6 missions require you’re Troops to hold an objective, they’re good to keep alive. So let’s go through what this codex has to offer.

The first guys on our list are a great Troop and personal favorite, Tyranid Warriors. You can take a unit from 3-9. They can take almost all the upgrades in the codex, even wings, but that makes them a Fast Attack unit called Tyranid Shrikes, them I’ll cover in the Fast Attack section. They don’t have a lot in the way of special rules, other than Shadow in the Warp and Synapse Creature. This makes this unit Fearless, and great support for Instinctive Behavior units. But their real value is in their stat line. WS-5 BS-3 S-4 T-4 W-3 I-4 A-3 Ld-10 Sv-4+ these guys are very resilient with their 3 wounds, and when paired with a Tyranid Prime they only get better. Put the toughness 5 Prime in the front of the unit to help make it harder to insta kill the warriors. I strongly recommend taking Deathspitters on them, this S-5 AP-5 18” assault 3 gun is great anti-infantry and for small tanks, and with the Prime making them BS-4 they are amazing. Another thing that I love to do with them is Outflank them with the Hive Tyrant ability Hive Commander, this can be costly, but while also making you’re reserve rolls a 2+ I find its more than worth it. Epically with all of those Deathspitter shots.  At 30 points each (35 with the Deathspitters) always a great choice.

Moving on to another good troop, this one is more for assaulting and does its job very well, I give you the Genestealers. These guys are very offensive in combat, true they have no guns but they make up for it. WS-6 BS=0 S-4 T-4 W-1 I-6 A-2 Ld-10 Sv-5+ also having Infiltrate, Fleet and Rending, those 3 attacks on the charge can be devastating. They can take Scything Talons for 2 points each to re-roll 1s to hit, I recommend this, and they can also have Furious Charge and/or Poison weapons for 3 points for each of them. They have an upgrade Character called the Broodlord. This guy is awesome, almost all of his stats are 1 better than a normal Genestealer except Wounds that go to 3, and Attacks that go to 4, BS stays at 0. He's also a Psyker. Being very fast and having a lot of attacks makes him great for challenges. Now I’ll be real with you, this unit was better in 5^th edition than in 6^th. Not being able to charge on the Outflank really hurts them, they are on the table for a turn or two and anyone that knows this unit will shoot at them, and a normal bolter unit can wipe them out. If you’re going to take them you need a lot. You can take between 5-20 in a unit and are great for hording your opponent with. But you can’t take a small unit and do real good very often. This unit can take a Mycetic Spore (see next in the section) like all the troops can(except Rippers)  to Deep Strike, but they can’t take many shots and live. So if you’re going to run any you have to hide them or horde them, and at 14 points apiece, not a bad troop.

The Tyranids have their own version of the Drop Pod, this is the Mycetic Spore. Now to clarify this is not a Dedicated Transport. This is a Monstrous Creature that must come in Deep Strike. It can’t be taken by its self, it is an upgrade. It can carry in up to 20 infantry or a single Monstrous Creature that follow the rules for disembarking when it comes in. It auto corrects scatter in the same way a Drop Pod does, and cannot move once it hits the field. This Fearless monster has a S-6 AP-- 6” assault 6 gun that has to shoot at the closet enemy unit if it’s not engaged in a assault. And the only way that happens is if the enemy charges it. Its stat line is this: WS-2 BS-2 S-6 T-4 W-3 I-1 A-3 Ld-5 Sv-4+ and has Lash Whips, so if they do assault it they will hit at the same Initiative, and don’t forget that all Monstrous Creatures have Fear and Smash Attacks. But this is mainly just a delivery system for units. And at 40 points, I like it a great deal. It can take some gun upgrades, but I don’t usually take those. And one more thing, this is not a scoring unit, however you can claim Linebreaker with it.

This next unit makes for a popular choice in a horde based army, but I prefer to use them differently, they are the Termagants. Now to see why these little dime a dozen foot soldiers are so cool you should go read my Tyranid HQ article where I go over the Tervigon. Which can also be made a troop choice for every unit of Termagants you take. Each Tervigon spawns 3D6 Termagants a turn, and you can field up to five Tervigons in a standard game. That’s A LOT of Termagants! Throw in some Hive Guard and/or some Trygons and you have yourself a nice swarm army right there. I played a few games where I did this for fun and made so many Termagants we started using pennies to represent the huge horde. Ever seen “Star Ship Troopers”? Yeah it’s like that. It requires a ton of models, but it can be fun. Now I personally prefer balanced list over “watch me take six of the same unit and call it skill”. (Dan, I hope you don’t mind me referencing you in here.) So I take a Single unit of ten with one Tervigon. This gives me just what I need for holding on to objectives while my other units clean house. Now the Termagants die pretty easy having toughness 3 with armor 6+. But having a lot of them or forcing your opponent to deal with a bigger threat is a good way to use them. They are 5 points apiece, bring on the horde.

Moving on to the Termagants annoying little brother of a unit, we now have the Hormagaunts. Many immature jokes have been made about their name. (Sorry again Dan.) But that to the side, this unit isn’t worth a whole a lot. Once again we have a unit with no gun, and here are their stats: WS-3 BS-3 S-3 T-3 W-1 I-5 A-2 Ld-6 Sv-6+. They have a cool rule that helps their running and can take Furious Charge and/or Poison, they come with Scything Talons and can have a unit from 10-30, and at 6 points base. Now what makes worse than Termagants? Nothing really, at least as far is the units individually are concerned. Hormagaunts aren’t worthless in an assault, but they are a unit that needs a horde. And at that point there is way better support for the Termagant in ways of hording units. I ended up taking off all their arms to make more Termagants, and used their Scything Talons on Genestealers, I think they look cooler.

Now this last unit isn’t what I would call top tier, however I've seen and used them in some really fun ways, the Ripper Swarms. Now I don’t use these guys in competitive play, but some do, and they make for some fun games. There good sides to them and bad. I like to end things on a good note so let’s go over the bad first. They are Swarms, so they hate all templates. They are Strength and Toughness 3 with a 6+ armor save. They are WS, BS, and Initiative 2. They have a rule that’s called Mindless, this is if they fail their Instinctive Behavior test they take a wound for every point they fail by, so keeping them in Synapse range is a must. I agree, it looks bad for these little dudes. So let’s move on to the good things. They have 4 Attacks base, this is great with poison. And most people disregard them because they don’t find them to be a big threat. This is not true. The unit is sized 3-9 with 3 Wounds each. These guys like having all nine on the table. That’s 45 Attacks on the charge, and with poison that can be nasty. I’ve seen Terminators die to this unit a lot more than once. And they are super easy to hide, when the model is only 7/8 of an inch tall, this very easy. In 5^th edition they were fun with Venomthropes. I’ve put a Tyranid Prime with them moving them from combat to combat. They can be fun. They are 10 points a base, 14 with poison; they can also gain Deep Strike for 2 points a model. I feel there are better choices out there, but to each his own.

So that’s it for the Troop section of the Tyranid codex. I hope you enjoyed it and as always please share what you think about the above units and/or how you would play them.

Until next time!

-Frankie-

Tyranids: Elite choice reveiws.

Hey fellow war-gamers, Frankie here to discuss the Elite section of Tyranid codex. In this section there are some of my favorite units and some of the most annoying. Most of them have unit sizes of 1-3. Let’s start things on a good note. The Hive Guard. This is one of the more popular units in the codex. And why not, their awesome! They weigh in at Toughness 6 with 2 Wounds at 4+ Armor Save. Not much in combat other than his Strength 5 at Weapon Skill 4 with 2 Attacks at Initiative 2 with nothing but claws and teeth (normal close combat weapon). So what makes this guy so popular in an assault heavy army? This dude is one of, if not the best shooter in the army. At Ballistic Skill 4, which is high for Tyranids, and a killer gun that rocks. The Impaler Cannon is what makes this Elite worth it, with a 24” range at S-8 AP-4 Assault-2. True, marine players get their Armor Saves, but the real kicker of this gun is that you don’t require line of sight to an enemy unit, and it ignores cover saves. Sorry bikers, no Jink save for you! Hide this guy behind a solid wall and open fire, and having Toughness 6 this guy tends to be very useful. And at 50 points, this guy is great at shooting up most tanks and infantry.

 

Some say you can’t have the good without the bad, so here it is. I give you what I would consider the worst unit in the codex. The Lictor. Now I love the way this model looks, truth be told it’s this reason I started this army. “This thing looks awesome! I’ll find a place to put him.” I said, and man was I wrong. Being new to the game at the time I didn’t know much about this dude. At first glance you see his WS-6 S-6 W-3 I-6 A-3, and think this guy can do some damage, and with scything talons and rending, you would think so. But with Toughness 4 and Armor 5+, a good overwatch will kill this guy. But maybe he has some cool rules? Not this guy, Leroy Jenkins here has stealth and his own version of a teleport homer while adding a +1 to your reserve rolls, but he has to be on the table for a turn to use them. And he MUST start the game in reserve and deep strike in. Even though he doesn’t scatter, and if he comes in on turn two, you still can’t use his abilities till turn three, at that point the game is half over. And this guy is not a character, so no challenges. At least in 5^th edition you could put him on an Independent Character, but not anymore. And at an over coasted 65 points, not even worth it. I hope they fix him in an update or something; I would like a Tyranid assassin.

 

And if that isn’t enough, they give you a unique Lictor at over double the points that dies just as easy. The Deathleaper. Once again we have an intimidating name on a very unintimidating model. The Deathleaper has some cool abilities but none that are much more than a speed bump for your opponent. I’m not going through them all, the fact that he still MUST come in deep strike hurts him. His offensive stats are better than a normal Lictor, but his defensive stats stay the same, he just gets shot to death. He gains Shroud, but that’s not enough to keep 140 points alive.

 

Moving on to a more fun unit, I have seen these guys used in some really cool ways and have made for some interesting games. I give you, the Venomthrope. This guy is fun more than anything; his stat line is a little more than your average trooper. But this guy is meant for support. Every Tyranid model/unit within 6” of this guy gets a 5+ cover save. Now this is not the Shroud rule, so it doesn’t help if you’re already in cover. This was way cooler in 5^th edition then in 6^th; it was cool with Ripper Swarms back then. The Venomthrope wounds with poison weapons in combat on a 2+, also any model in base contact with this model must a toughness test or take a wound, armor saves may be taken. But he dies too easy for my liking, the best way to really use this guy I have found is to put him with Tremagant or some other low armor unit to help them get a crossed the table. But at 55 points, not really worth it for shrouded that can get killed. But fun if you use your imagination.

 

This next unit is a one trick pony, but one that does it better than anyone. The Zoanthrope.  And what is his trick? Pulling a Houdini on any tank in the game! This dude has almost nothing to offer in his stat line outside having 2 wounds. But has some great rules. This Psyker has two powers in his arsenal, Warp Blast and Warp Lance. Both are Psychic shooting attacks. Warp Blast is a small blast with a 24” range S-5 AP-3, not bad if there isn’t a tank to pop with Warp Lance. Now this is where his real value lays, 18” range S-10 AP-1 lance. For those unfamiliar with the lance rule, it treats vehicles with armor higher than 12 as 12, this means it pins Land Raiders on a 3+ with a +2 to the damage chart. People with tanks tend to fear these flouting brains, and being toughness 4 they can be instantly killed. Good thing they have a 3+ inval save. This is a unit you should take at 2-3, because one dies to easy, the others help get at least one a crossed the board to shoot up some tanks. And at 60 points, this guy is a great choice. I personally prefer a Tyrannofex to the Zoanthropes. Zoans must pass their Psyker test, roll to hit, roll to pin, than roll on the damage chart, and at 18”, that’s gives the opponent a lot of time to shoot at this dude. T-fex is better choice (I’ll go over him in the Heavy Support section). And if they have no tanks the Zoans don’t do much. But they aren’t bad.
                                    

Now this next guy is awesome, my MVP for so many games. The unique Zoanthrope, The Doom of Malan’tai. And we finally have an intimidating name on a scary model. The lore for this guy is that he single handedly destroyed the entire Eldar craft world of Malan’tai. And his abilities match this lore very well. His stat line almost all 4’s, his strength is X, and I’ll explain that as I go. First is his Absorb Life ability, for every unsaved wound he inflicts he gains +1 wound (meaning it takes 5 wounds to kill him instead of 4 and so on) to a max of 10 wounds, and with a 3+ inval save, this Dorian Grey is a hard guy to kill. Now back to his strength, this stat always matches his wound stat. So as he gains wounds and becomes harder to kill, he also becomes stronger. Now for his greatest ability, Spirit Leech. At the start of EVERY shooting phase, every enemy unit within 6” of this model takes a leadership test on 3D6, and for every point they fail by the unit takes a wound with no armor saves allowed. And remember that every wound he inflicts he gains 1 wound. You see why I love this guy! Now you may be thinking with toughness 4 the opponent will just shoot him to death first. Wrong, he can take a Mycetic Spore (this will be covered in the Troop section) this is basically a Tyranid Drop Pod. It comes in Deep Strike and auto corrects scatter the same way as a Drop Pod. This allows you to drop him in a much crowed area and the Doom will suck up some wounds and cripple some enemy units all at the same time! Epic! Now he doesn’t have the Warp Psychic powers that a normal Zoan has. His is called Cataclysm, this range 24” S-X (and yes, X is the same as his wounds and strength) AP-1 large blast. Now this psychic shooting attack has a down side, after he shoots it but before he gains wounds he takes D3 wounds with no saves allowed. To avoid this, I switch out this power with the psychic discipline Telepathy primaris power Psychic Shriek. This is basically the same thing as his Spirit Leech ability turned into a 12” range psychic shooting attack. Now let’s go over point cost, this guy may be the most under cost dude in the codex. At 90 points with a 40 point Mycetic Spore, this guy is a must have at a total of 130 points. I don’t see why GW hasn’t made a model of this nightmare, but I hope you like mine.

                             

Now moving on to our next Elite, like all the other Elites (other than the two unique guys) this unit can have 1-3 models in a unit. This guy is another annoying unit, but not entirely useless. I give you the Pyrovore. As the name suggests, this dude is armed with a flamer, range template S-5 AP-4. His stat line is worse than most basic troops. (WS-3 BS-3 S-4 T-4 W-2 I-1 A-1 Ld-6 Sv-4+)  Now this guy can explode in the same way a vehicle can. If he dies by instant death you roll a D6, on a 4+ he blows up D6” at strength 3 AP-. Kinda cool. His close combat attacks ignore armor, but he usually doesn’t live that long. There is a fun thing about this guy, he comes with Acid Blood. (a Tyranid upgrade for most others in the codex) What this does is for every unsaved wound the model takes in combat the enemy models in base contact take an Initiative test, if failed they take a wound with no armor or cover saves allowed. This is fun for running into a unit of Terminators and pull a kamikaze, yes he will die, but he takes some dudes with him. That might work once. Anyone playing this guy a second time will shoot the crap out of him first. And at 45 points, I’ll spend 5 more points and take a Hive Guard.
                                     

Last but certainly not least. One of my favorite units in the codex. The Genestealer Ymgarls.  This unit is sized between 5-10. They have the same stat line as a normal Genestealer but with 4+ armor instead of a  5+. (WS-6 BS-0 S-4 T-4 W-1 I-6 A-2 Ld-10 Sv-4+) Like their normal cousins they have Rending Claws, Move Through Cover, and Fleet. With two additional abilities. The first is called Dormant, this is a deployment option unique to the Yamgarls. It happens after both armies are deployed, including infiltrators and Scout moves. You pick a piece of area terrain and write it down on a piece of paper and put it off to the side without your opponent seeing. (I just number the terrain, easier.) When they come out on their normal reserve roll the unit is placed within the selected terrain. They can move and assault in the turn they come out. That is so awesome, because almost no one can assault when they come in from reserve, but these guys can. The other ability unique to them is called Alter Form. At the start of each assault phase you can choose to give the whole unit +1 strength, toughness, or attack, but cannot choose the same one back to back. And because this is at the beginning of the assault phase, it happens before overwatch shots are taken, giving you the option to be toughness 5 for overwatch if you want.  This is a very deadly unit. Epically when paired with the Doom and the Hive Tyrand ability to make your reserve rolls a 2+. They do cost more than a normal genestealer. Weighing in at 23 points a model. Some think that’s a lot, for what they kill they pay for themselves every time. Keep them going from one assault to another and you can’t go wrong.

That’s it for the Elite section of the Tyranids codex. Sorry not all my models aren't painted, but those guys don't get out much. Join me next week as I go over the Troop section. Please let us know what you think, units that work for you, units you play against, and/or how you would use them. We would love to hear from you, the players.

Until next time! 

-Frankie-

Tyranids: HQ choice reviews.

Hey everybody, Frankie here. Last week I went over some of the basic rules in the Tyranid codex. And I left you promising that this week I would go over the Hive Tyrant. But in truth we will be talking about a few of their HQ choices. There’s not an HQ, or any unit for that matter, which I haven’t had on the table at least ten times, in either competitive play or just looking for a fun game.  And as a result I have come to know what units work where. That is why I like the Hive Tyrant, Monstrous Creature WS-8, BS-3, S & T-6, W-4, I-5, A-4, Ld- 10, Sv-3+.  He can take most of the upgrades available to the army. I'm not going to go thourgh them all. He can be given wings that make him a Fly Monstrous Creature, and already being an awesome beat stick, wings add speed to power, and snap shots are a beautiful thing. He can be upgraded to a 2+ armor save. He comes base with a bonesword & lashwhip(no armor saves with instant death on a failed leadership test and enemy models strike at Initiative 1)  and a set of scything talons(reroll 1s to hit). I like to give him the stranglethorn cannon over the talons, it’s a large blast S-6 AP-5 range 36” pinning gun. The gun is nice for infantry, but his real value is in combat. 

With 6^th edition giving us challenges he becomes the character killer, the truth of it is there are only a handful of characters in the game that stand a chance. Because this HQ doesn’t care how fast they are, due to his lashwhip, what kind of armor save they have, what toughness they have, due to smash attacks that all Monstrous Creature have, or how many wounds because any toughness 4 or 5 enemies you use Smash Attacks and instant death them with S-10. And if that’s not enough he has a psyker power to make an enemy unit WS & BS 1. He can upgrade his close combat attacks have poison to reroll any failed wounds he inflicts, but I don’t usually take that. Another good thing about him is he has some upgrade abilities excusive to him, the best of these is Hive Commander. This allows you to add a +1 to your reserve rolls (making them a 2+) and can have any one troop unit outflank. This is great for Tyranid Warriors with a Tyranid Prime with deathspitters. And how much does this monster cost? His base cost is 170 points, but running him with the upgrades that have worked for me (wings, stranglethorn cannon and Hive commander) 275 points. Some may think that’s too much for one model, but for supporting the army the way he does in my list, he’s amazing!

Hive Tyrants can also be given a unit that can only be taken to add to him. Tyrant Guard. You can take 1-3 of them at 60 points for each. They can be upgraded to have a bonesword or lashwhip. They’re not bad in close combat with WS-5 S-5 T-6 W-2 I-4 A-3 Sv-3+. They have Scything Talons and Rending Claws base. If the Hive Tyrant dies while this unit is still on the table they gain Furious Charge and Rage for the rest of the game. They are best for keeping your Hive Tyrant alive till he gets to combat, but for the points, giving him wings and making him a Flying Monstrous Creature is a much better choice.

I have just recently started running my 5^th Edition HQ as well, the Tyranid Prime. This guy is a great choice.  He is an Independent Character, but he is made for Tyranid Warriors. Because when he joins a unit of Warriors they use his WS and BS in place of their own. This takes the unit from WS-5 & BS-3 to a WS-6 & BS-4. Going from hitting on a 4+ to a 3+ when shooting their S-5 AP-5 18” range deathspitters. This is all the deadlier when they outflank on a 2+ due to the Hive Commander ability from the Hive Tyrant. He is Strength and Toughness 5, making it harder to instant kill the rest of the Warrior unit. Like the Warriors he can be upgraded with a bonesword & lashwhip, double boneswords or rending claws. I have mine kitted so I can run him with either bonesword & lashwhip or double boneswords. Magnets are awesome. Double boneswords cause instant death on a failed leadership test of 3D6, and being at Initiative 5 this is great for challenges. This HQ is yours for less than 100 points with these upgrades. And for leading a scoring unit, I feel is a good deal.

 

There is a 3^rd HQ choice I like to run, the Tervigon. I know what you’re thinking, you can only have two HQ's in a list under 2000 points. This is not true in the case of the Tervigon. If you take a unit of Termagants you have the choice of making this Monstrous Creature a troop choice. This is awesome for holding objectives and for the relic mission, with toughness 6 and 6 wounds on a 3+ armor save, this becomes a huge pain in opponent’s imperial back side (Sorry Slick). And this isn’t even the best part of the Tervigon. This HQ/Troop can spawn more Termagants, and thats awesome! Before the Tervigon moves in the movement phase, the spawns 3D6 Termagants anywhere within 6” of this big mamma, even if she is locked in an assault. The new unit can move, shoot and assault in the same turn they are spawned, also any Termagant unit within 6” or spawned by the Tervigon can use her leadership for tests and gain the Counter-Attack special rule and if you upgrade your Tervigon with Poison close combat weapons and/or Furious Charge these Termagants will benefit from those as well. One of the main reasons I love this model is because it is at least one additional troop to help claim objectives. The reason it’s at least one is because on any rolls of doubles on the 3D6 spawning roll you lose the ability to spawn further units in later turns. And there is one other down side to her. If she is killed, all termagants within 6” and/or spawned by her take 3D6 strength 3 AP- hits. And for being toughness 3 armor 6+ Termagants, this can hurt. But in my experience with her she almost always proves her worth. I have had games where I have spawned 40+ Termagants! That’s 200+ points of free troops! Now to be honest that’s not all the time, my average is about two units about 8-12 in size. And she has a base cost of 160 points, a great addition to the army.

 

Moving on, the Codex has two unique character HQ’s. I will go over the less known of the two first. The Parasite of Mortrex. This guy sounds way more intimidating then he actually is. This Jump Infantry HQ has some fun tricks, and all are focused around Ripper Swarms. You may be starting to see why you don’t hear much about this dude. He has a 24” Synapse for Ripper Swarms. As for the cool tricks I was talking about, any model that he kills in close combat must take a toughness test. Each failed test spawns D6 Ripper Swarms within 6” of the Parasite. And any enemy unit that outflanks takes a single toughness test when they arrive, if failed one model in the unit dies and you get D6 Rippers within 6” of the slain model. The Parasite has Rending and Instant Death on rolls of 6 to wound. And at WS-5, Strength 6 , Initiative 6, and 4 Attacks, that’s not bad. But what is bad is he’s only toughness 4, even with 3 wounds and a 3+ armor save he dies way to easy. Anyone that knows what this dude does just shoots him to death before he can do it. And true you can put him with another unit, but at 160 points, I'll take the Tervigon for the same price, He’s not worth it. He can be fun in some casual games, but that’s about all this guy is worth. P.S. sorry my model of the Parasite isn’t painted, I enjoyed making the conversion, but having him painted is on my back burner, way back.

Now on to the more well known of the two. The Swarmlord. This is a true monster indeed. As a Monstrous Creature HQ, this unique Hive Tyrant does many of the things a normal Hive Tyrant can, with a few differences. His stat line is almost the same as a Hive Tyrant, but with WS-9, W-5, I-6 instead. He has the Instant Death rule on his Bone Sabers that also force any opponent to reroll any successful invulnerable saves. Just about anything this dude touches is in for a major beat down. He has a 4+ invulnerable in close combat. An 18” Synapse range and is psyker mastery level 2 that knows all four of the Hive Tyrants psyker powers. He adds a +1 to your reserve rolls, making them a 2+ and grants his own kind of Acute Senses. But unlike the normal Hive Tyrant upgrade this does not allow you to outflank a troop. One really cool thing this guy is he can give Preferred Enemy, Furious Charge or Acute senses to a friendly unit with 18” that lasts for your turn, this can help one of your units that needs to pull ahead in an assault. This HQ can be your own Chuck Norris for 280 points. But when putting that many points on the table you want him to live to round house kick some people, so you’re going to want to take him with some Tyrant Guard. Making him cost even more. For the points I recommend putting wings on a Hive Tyrant. This HQ is not useless, but I feel there are better choices. But good none the less.

So this concludes the HQ section of the Tyranid codex. I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to comment and add your thoughts, we would love to hear what you think. Next week I will be going over the elites. This is where some really cool units like to hang out.

Until next time!  

-Frankie-

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-