(Part 2 of AbusePuppy’s Tyranid review)

ELITES

Oh god, here it comes. First of all, the Elites slot is where pretty much all your anti-tank firepower is located, which means using them on anything else is risky at best. We have a variety of excellent selections here, so many- even most- Tyranid armies will find their Elites filling up well before anything else.

Hive Guard

I guess we’re starting with the best first, then. Hive Guard are one of our new units and boy are they a doozy. Not quite as tough as Tyrant Guard, but pretty darn close when it comes to most things, and with a firepower output that makes most transports cry. Note also the magic S8 on their attacks, which means that Nobz and characters can’t just suck up the wounds and call it a day. To top it all off, they don’t need LOS to shoot and can ignore many kinds of cover. Their raw stats also make them pretty reasonable if they get stuck in melee, so you aren’t risking a lot to put them on the front lines.

Really, there isn’t a lot to say about Hive Guard; they’re really good and pretty simple. Most foot armies are going to want to fill two slots with them, probably 2×2 at 1500 or 2×3 at higher point values.They do compete for space with Zoanthropes, but their longer range, lower price, and better reliability (more shots, ignore terrain, no psychic test or associated countermeasures) make them the better generic choice. It’s still good to have some S10 guns in your force to deal with Land Raiders, however- Hive Guard don’t fare well against AV13/14 opponents. There’s also the issue of the model’s cost- $20 is not cheap, especially for something you’re buying in multiples. However, it’s a unit you’ll use time and time again in your lists, so I would strongly recommend picking some up.

Lictors

Oh, the much-maligned Lictor; will GW ever restore you to your original place of glory? Once one of the most feared units in the codex, Lictors are now relegated to skulking around the edges of battles or popping out to annoy a unit before dying. Though their stats received a significant bump, their rules got rather wonky, so they are still a somewhat middling choice. Worse, they are competing for space with some of the best units in the codex and thus suffer badly in comparison. Still, they can be dangerous and have roles they can fulfill, so they’re not a complete waste.

Deploying by Marbo-style Deep Strike, Lictors main advantage is always arriving exactly where they need to be. No rolling dice, no trying to stick to the borders of terrain- you put them somewhere and that’s where they are. They have a pair of extremely short-range S6 shots that can be useful in glancing tanks, but AP – means you are unlikely to actually destroy anything with them. And, unfortunately, that’s all they do on the turn they arrive. Pheremone Trail doesn’t kick in its homing beacon or reserves bonus until after the Lictors have been around for a turn, which is rather pathetic. You can’t assault or move that turn, either, so it’s never going to be much of a surprise for your opponent. Hmph. The laziest Predator, I guess.

Once they have kicked in, though, you’re looking at a reasonable combat machine. High S, WS, and I along with Rending means that you can do some real damage to enemy units on the charge, although keep in mind that it’s not terrifyingly strong, even with a full brood of three. Many people complain about Lictors being in broods now, but honestly if they weren’t they’d be even worse- you already give up KPs like candy, making the situation worse isn’t a good idea. However, for what they excel at- pouncing on units in the sidelines- they do a good enough job, being one of the few units with Frag Grenades in our whole codex. Stealth also helps them bear the worst of any shooting attacks, although with T4 and three wounds they are fairly vulnerable to small arms fire, as they tend to be within Rapid Fire range of all sorts of things. They aren’t terrible, though- standing in normal cover means they take more than a squad of Marines to kill one with a turn of shooting. Their 5+ armor save, on the other hand, is a real killer in close combat and means that a round of poor rolls on the charge that fails to kill anything can leave you very vulnerable to your opponent’s return attacks. Hit and Run means that they can depart fights whenever is convenient, and high I makes the test pretty reliable; this can be a good way to get somewhere you need to be, as 2d6 is a lot of distance.

Let’s also take a moment to talk about their Pheremone Trail in more detail. To be honest, it’s not terribly useful, all things considered. Unlike many other armies’ beacons, Lictors can’t start on the table and don’t have any kind of “auto-arrive first turn” rule, so you can’t rely on it being there. Its usefulness for guiding in Mawlocs to hit targets is also rather overstated- any kind of reasonably smart opponent will simply walk 6″ away and be out of range of your beacon. Yes, you could probably catch him with the bare edge of it if he doesn’t go much further, but that is a very marginal use; you’re probably better off just dropping him in the center. The reserves bonus part of the ability is also of limited usage, as Lictors themselves must start in reserves, so you are rather likely to have the better part of your army on the table before they even make their appearance. Still, a bonus is a bonus, and sometimes your Hive Tyrants die, so there are worse things you could be doing.

So what are Lictors good for? Well, they can make good pinpoint firepower- they show up, shake something, and hopefully charge in next turn and kill it. They also can be good at harassment, especially against a melee-weak army like Guard or Tau, disrupting their lines and shutting down heavy weapons to make the rest of your force’s advance easier. What are they bad at? Killing things. You’re paying an awful lot of points for a couple attacks on a not-terribly-durable chassis. If you find yourself lacking in firepower, Lictors are not for you. They are by-and-large weapons of finesse, not brute firepower like much of the Tyranid army. Whether you find this helpful or not is up to you, but as a whole they are a fairly mediocre unit that I can’t give a strong recommendation to, unlike most of the Elites.

Deathleaper

Well good lord that’s a pile of special rules. This is probably what Lictors should have looked like, but at least the option’s there, I suppose. Alright, so the Big D is basically the craziest Lictor you’ve ever seen, with improved stats in almost every category. He has all the Lictor’s normal rules and then some (which we’ll get to in a second) and can harry your opponent in a number of different ways. However, for his points he isn’t all that dangerous straight up, so it’s clear that he is not going to pull his weight just by killing dudes- even more so than with Lictors, the key to using him is to use him when and where you need him.

Okay, so in terms of upgrades on the Lictor he’s significantly harder to kill due to always getting Night Fighting (with halved distances) in order to shoot him. That means that even guys in Rapid Fire range are far from guaranteed to get a shot off at him, and anyone further than 18″ may as well just give up. (Caveat: barrage weapons ruin his day.) On top of that he slows movement through difficult terrain while nearby and always has the option of vanishing to reappear on a later turn. Oh, and he’s Fearless, and to cap it all off he rends on 5s as well (not on penetration rolls, though it doesn’t make much difference.) He is also WS9, which is super-relevant because it means that almost everyone in the game hits him on 5+ in combat, partly making up for his shoddy armor save.

However, the crowning jewel is “He’s After Me,” which lets you cripple the leadership of a single character from the start of the game on out. While this can be nice for making enemy leaders a little more vulnerable to certain effects and morale, its real benefit is against psykers, whom we otherwise struggle against. As noted in the HQ listings, we have a lot of good support powers- powers that are easily shut down by a Rune Priest or Librarian. While he doesn’t help us against all of them (such as the Rune Priest or Farseer’s abilities), he does make it rather hard for them to get off their own powers and makes Psychic Hood tests all but impossible. He also bumps up the danger from Doom of Malan’tai and Psychic Scream as well as the various of morale and pinning tests we can inflict.

So why’s this all worth his hefty price tag, you may ask? He is, to put it succinctly, your Swiss Army Knife. If you have a problem, Deathleaper is there on the job, solving it for you. He gets started even before the game does, shutting down psykers and morale-boosters as noted above. Once things get rolling, he can appear anywhere on the field to pick off inconvenient units, especially small squads and tanks that don’t have AV14. What makes him better than the regular Lictors at this (and he needs to be, given his cost) is his combination of survivability and reusability- his protection from long-range shooting means that he can’t simply be eliminated by pointing a Lascannon across the field and rolling some dice. With careful choices in where to place him, you can often ensure that enemy squads must move closer to reliably shoot at him. Combine that with his ability to arrive anywhere on the field with a one turn delay, even <i>after</i> the early turns and you have a very tough model to catch and kill- he can’t even be locked in CC thanks to Hit and Run. More importantly, his mobility and pinpoint precision mean he can easily swing games in the later turns by arriving to contest an objective or kill a squad contesting one of yours. In short, Deathleaper is a nightmare to deal with when used by an experienced player, as he offers almost limitless options for screwing with your opponent’s game plan.

Venomthrope

Unusual for the Elites slot, the Venomthrope is a support beast, being not particularly capable on its own. It can’t shoot and is pretty average in melee (for Tyranids, that is). Instead, everything within 6″ of him gets a whole host of benefits (or detriments, in the case of enemy units.) His main bonus is a 5+ cover save to anyone in range. With the nigh-universal 4+ this may seem mediocre, but giving it to your front rank of units (usually unprotected) and Monstrous Creatures (likewise) is quite relevant. He also gives them Defensive Grenades, although this is much less useful, as we will be charging more often than being charged. Lastly, they make everything in their area Dangerous Terrain for enemy models. So, overall, some moderately useful abilities, but in the end it all boils down to that 5+ save. Any kind of on-the-board list has a strong incentive to run a couple of these, as they can make your force a lot more resilient. In close combat they also have a small arsenal of tricks, not the least of which being the 2+ poison (which will reroll against anything with T4 or less, remember). However, all of them are also available to other models and so are not really terribly impressive features of the Venomthrope. Take them as bonus features rather than factors for consideration.

They are very vulnerable, however, since they’re only T4 and two wounds- likely your enemy will start by shooting them first, if they are smart. For this reason I strongly recommend either “hiding” them in the middle of a phalanx of larger units so as to limit what can draw LOS to them or have a Tyranid Prime tag along with the unit, soaking up S8/9 wounds for the group as described in his entry. Also keep in mind the relatively limited radius of the effect- clustering your units around a Venomthrope brood leaves you very vulnerable to people laying blasts onto your force, so you are probably best served putting them somewhere at the center-front of your wave of critters, helping to shield the units that would otherwise lack saves, despite the susceptibility to fire. Remember, the Venomthrope’s role is only to keep critters alive to crawl across the table- once you’ve reached the enemy’s lines, their job is basically done. They can contribute minorly to combats- and more notably to a huge fight with two dozen or more combatants, thanks to Toxic Miasma- but if they die before then, salute their sacrifice and move on. Tyranid units are expendable.

So what’s not to like? Well, for starters they are taking away from your anti-tank firepower. Especially in large games, you need to take whatever you can get, and losing squads of Hive Guard or Zoanthropes can be really painful. It is possible to make up the loss with Tyrannofexes, Harpies, or other units, but they aren’t as cheap and are rarely as efficient. On the other hand, lacking protection, it doesn’t matter how much anti-tank you have because it’s going to be dead, so you have to make some choices. Finding the right balance of firepower, protection, and cost is something your army is going to have to deal with. That’s something else: cost. Venomthropes, while not the most expensive choice in the codex by a long shot, are not exactly cheap, either. In the lower-point games where their occupying an Elites slot is less of an issue, the investment in two Venomthropes can seriously cut into your army’s budget- not to mention your budget, as the model costs a fair chunk as well.

All in all, Venomthropes are a specialized, but helpful, unit. If your army syncs well with them, they’re awfully handy. If not, they’re worthless. Oh, right, there’s an option for Mycetic Spore- don’t take it. It’s bad. Deep Strike armies are already hurting a bit for firepower, further crippling yourself in that regard is a baaaad idea.

Zoanthrope

The Big Bad Tank-Killer that has all the Marine players kvetching about how overpowered our army is. Well, to a degree, they’re right- the Zoanthrope boasts what is quite possibly the strongest AT gun in the game. (Numerically, it is marginally worse than a Multimelta due to the psychic test, but it gains some points for working better against Monoliths.) And it comes on a frame with a 3++ save and an option for a Mycetic Spore, so it’s not hard to see why they’re considered nasty. On top of that, you get a built-in Marine-blastin’ gun (and, it should be noted, the only AP3 weapon we have) and Synapse/SitW. It’s combat stats are pretty sub-par, but with the invulnerable save it can often stave defeat off for a turn so that something else can come to its rescue.

On the downside, they are unreliable- you have to pass a psychic test, a shooting attack, an armor penetration roll, and then get a meaningful result on the damage table. Bad rolls on any of these steps shut the attack down, and countermeasures against any or all of them work equally well. Smoke Launchers, KFFs, Psychic Hoods, Rune Priests- all of these are very common inclusions (or even standard equipment!) in many armies and can easy render a Zoanthrope helpless, whereas the Hive Guard’s multiple shots give it a degree of insurance against such techniques. And let’s be honest: Hive Guard is what Zoanthropes have to measure up against. Guard are the new kid in town, kicking over trash cans and calling the Zoeys out to fight for the title of Premiere Tyranid Tankbuster. As for who wins that fight… well it’s really more a matter of apples and oranges. Zoanthropes have a shorter range, meaning they often have to Spore in; Hiveguard are tougher, but are reliant on opponents getting within their (admittedly not shabby) reach. Zoanthropes are usually going to show up, wreck a vehicle, and then get shot to pieces by the occupants. They also favor different targets, as the Lance ability only really helps when killing Land Raiders, which Hive Guard can’t hurt. So a combination of both is not a bad idea, allowing them to cover each other’s weaknesses. And Zoanthropes do have weaknesses indeed; aside from close combat, which I already mentioned, Bolter fire can spam enough wounds to overwhelm their 3++, as they almost always end up in Rapid Fire range of whatever their target was carrying.

I have mainly discussed Zoanthropes with the assumption that they will be taking a Mycetic Spore, because I feel this is largely required. Their range is rather short and, combined with their inability to shrug off much fire before succumbing, I don’t think it’s generally prudent to start them on the board. You simply can’t rely on the enemy placing his heavy armor within 24″ of their starting position; a Spore allows them to threaten anything on the board once they arrive. The downside, of course, is that you more or less give the enemy a free turn or two before they kick in, and in many cases that can be enough to swing things heavily against you. One solution to this is to run them in an army with Onslaught Tervigons; the extra d6″ of effective range can be critical in the early turns of the game. However, for many, this sort of “trundle across the table shooting” list is not necessarily what they are looking for, so a Mycetic Spore is the only real option. If the delay in shooting is unacceptable and you need something to deal with heavier targets than Hive Guard can handle, Tyrannofexes and Harpies are probably your best bet.

The Doom of Malan’tai

Uh-oh. I’ll preface this by saying I am writing this under the assumption that Spirit Leech does not work on units in transports and does not allow cover saves. I’m not interested in arguing about whether this is correct or not; until an official FAQ is released, those assumptions are as good as any and strike me as being the most “fair” combination. (No, I don’t want to argue about that, either. Go away.) If and when a FAQ or errata is issued, it may drastically change his usefulness (up or down) depending on how they rule on each of the two issues. Until then, understand that his strength will vary drastically from group to group, depending on how you interpret him.

So with an intro like that, you know you’re in for some crazy stuff. The Doom is, in many ways, a pretty ridiculous weapon against any kind of infantry-based army. He has a tendency to eviscerate practically anything in his area and even punish units up to 24″ away with his psychic powers. There is a pretty reasonable claim that he is too strong for his points (if hardly the unbeatable, utterly broken POS that a lot portray him as), but if you’re looking at running a competitive Tyranid army, he is going to be a strong contender. Beyond just draining infantry dry, he is also quite resilient against most kinds of firepower (though a single bad save can spell his end) and even poses a non-ignorable threat to many vehicles if he is allowed to “power up” even once or twice. Unlike Zoanthropes, assaulting him is no protection against his abilities. Somewhat more like them, his purchase of a Mycetic Spore is mandatory- without it, he is hardly even a threat to the weakest of armies.

The math has been crunched by others, but for reference, he will average ~2 unsavable wounds each player turn to a unit of Space Marines (assuming they have a Sarge). However, the deviation is pretty high- a single bad roll can wipe out most of the squad in one go, so Marine players are justified in considering him an unholy terror. His psychic blast is similarly devastating, although as a shooting attack it is subject to more mitigating factors (LOS, scatter, cover saves). The potential to double up on a unit can be overwhelming, and with (potentially) high S and AP1 there are very few units that can afford to ignore it. Finally, his 3++ and regenerating wounds make him largely impossible to kill without a S8+ weapon. He is not without weaknesses, however. First off, simply scattering more than 6″ away from all enemy units means that he may be unable to gain enough wounds to pose a major threat. Secondly, he can be drowned in attacks. A mob of ork boyz charging in can probably put enough wounds on him that he’ll go down. This is exacerbated by the third factor: Instinctive Behavior – Feed. Although he has Ld 10, you will sometimes fail the test and lose control of him, and he will generally be arriving far enough from the rest of your army that Synapse for him won’t be an option. And finally (and related to #1), he is very random- again, missing out on that initial drain can mean him being completely vulnerable to being blasted apart.

So the dude is a real monster, able to kill potentially large numbers of enemies and soak up enough firepower to make a difference. Is he the best thing since sliced bread? Maybe not. While he can do some damage to vehicles, he’s not exactly ideal against them, so including the Doom is a hit to your potential availability of AT firepower in the form of Hive Guard and Zoanthropes. As mentioned several times, he is also somewhat unreliable. And finally, like Zoanthropes, his need to be Spored in means that many games he won’t arrive until the battle is well under way, and some armies may not want to dedicate a non-insignificant part of their points to something that isn’t helping from turn 1. So, while the Doom is incredibly versatile (functioning well against most armies) and undeniably powerful, he does not rank as a mandatory inclusion to all armies. Still, you could do a lot worse for 130 pts.

Pyrovore

Like this guy, for example. Jesus, where do we start. Okay, so Pyrovores are basically Heavy Flamers with legs. They’re reasonably tough- one wound less than a Warrior- and ignore armor saves in CC. They also have a couple cute “retribution” mechanics that punish people for killing them (acid blood, exploding when ID’d). Doesn’t sound so bad? Oh, I must’ve forgot to mention their abysmal stats (WS3 I1 A1, worse than a Necron!) and ridiculous price tag. Hey GW, did you know that a Terminator with a Heavy Flamer also ignores armor saves, except he can ID people, kill vehicles, and shrug off most attacks? And he costs less than the Pyrovore and has better support from the rest of his army? Hell, compare him to a Scout Marine and he comes out looking bad. To put it simply, Pyrovores are shit. Even as one of the few template weapons available in the codex they completely without usefulness, especially when you compare them to the other options you have in the same slot. Troops in cover? Lictors, Death Leaper, DoM, and Ymgarl Genestealers will all do a better job at rooting them out, unless it’s some sort of bizarre “one million Shoota Boyz in a bunker” occurrence.

He does have the option for a Mycetic Spore, which makes them marginally more worthwhile. You could potentially drop a pair of them into the middle of an enemy and unlease some burny doom, forcing them to redirect fire away from your main force to deal with them. The first problem with this strategy is the aforementioned cost: you’re paying a lot of points for this “distraction.” The second is your other options: Doom of Malan’tai makes a much better formation-breaker and will probably do more damage to boot. If you are dead-set on using the Pyrovore, this is probably your best bet, but I still can’t say it’s anything close to good. Also: the model is fucking enormous for a T4 creature, significantly bulkier than a Biovore, and you’re going to pay an arm and a leg for it. Remember how I said that Venomthropes and Hive Guard were far from cheap? Yeah, Pyrovores roll those dudes and smoke them to finish off a meal of caviar and Don Perignon. And while rather a lot of Tyranids look rather, erm, suggestive, the Pyrovore in particular looks like his main gun was genetically designed to imply “standing at attention,” so to speak. His gun is even called “Flamespurt.” Ewww. Really, GW, what were you thinking with this guy?

Ymgarl Genestealers

Last, but thanks to the Pyrovore, not least. I will admit, I like these guys, so take my opinions here with a grain of salt. Ymgarl Genestealers are, as the name suggests, basically just upgraded Genestealers. They have all the features standard to their cousins as well as a couple bonuses, not the least of which is their 4+ save. This small difference is actually a pretty huge jump in survivability, as both species have to expect to be operating separate from the rest of the swarm quite often (thanks to special deployment rules) and thus can’t rely on the cover save from having screening units. Their brood sizes are slightly different- although I can’t see this being relevant very often- and they have several unique rules.

Rather than infiltrating, they have the option to stay Dormant, which involves secretly picking a piece of terrain that they will arrive from- ready to assault, no less- when they come out of reserve. The downside to this is that if there are enemies occupying the terrain such that they cannot legally be placed (more than 1″ away), the excess ‘Stealers, and potentially the whole unit, are lost. They also get to pick a stat bonus each Assault phase, either +1 S, T, or A, all of which are pretty relevant boons. You can’t pick the same bonus twice in a row, but that isn’t terribly crippling, since there are two good offense-oriented options. The S bonus is very nice when going after vehicles- which, given their surprise arrival, they can often catch stationary. (Comparing them to the rather lethargic Lictors, which take a full turn to get out of the La-Z-Boy they were perched in is rather pathetic. Have some enthusiasm for devouring all life, man!) The A bonus is ideal… well, almost anytime, really, as more attacks means more wounds and fewer return strikes. The T bonus is helpful when assaulting into cover- which they can do reasonably well, between it and their save- as well as trying to insure that you don’t massacre the opponent on the first round of combat and end up exposed to shooting on their turn. Keep in mind that the bonuses only last for the duration of the assault phase, though- a Toughness bonus won’t protect you from shooting in any way.

Their disadvantages are far from crippling, but hardly ignorable, either. First off, they are much more expensive than Genestealers, coming in at around half again the price. They also have no unit options- which wouldn’t be so bad, except it means they don’t have Toxin Sacs, so no rerolling wounds. So, for the same price a unit of Genestealers will inflict 50% more wounds on most enemies, even assuming that the Ymgarls are benefitting from the +1A bonus. If your army is lacking in bodies, Ymgarl Genestealers are probably not for you. They also have the same problem as a lot of our other units in that they’re crammed into the Elites slot with all of the AT, and while a flurry of S5 attacks is nice, it’s no guarantee and it isn’t going to come in the early turns of the game when you want to be ripping people out of their tanks. Still, a squad of around six or eight of them is dangerous to pretty much everything on the battlefield and cheap enough to not completely break the budget. And, unless you play with micro-scale scenery, it is very hard for most opponents to fill a piece of terrain enough to cut them completely off from deploying, as you will usually have several good options for where to situate them. There will be times when you are blocked off due to sheer bad luck or good guessing, but these are the exception, not the rule.

TROOPS

The backbone of any list, in a Tyranid army troops are where you will find some of your strongest CC threats and anti-infantry shooting. Tyranid troops are, as a rule, not terribly durable, so make sure that you take them in sufficient quantities to ensure that they survive until the end of the game.

(The Tervigon, while often a troops choice, is discussed in the HQ section in Part 1.)

Tyranid Warriors

Interestingly enough, despite the above caveat we start off with the most survivable of the troops units. With near-Marine statline (better in some areas, worse in others, but notably with W3), the Tyranid Warrior is a real monster to deal with. They come standard with Scything Talons and Devourer, which gives them reasonable CC ability (in combination with their WS and A), but not terribly impressive, and pretty decent shooting. They’re also Synapse/SitW and thus can be counted on to hold a point until the last man. The basic Tyranid Warrior is actually rather mediocre for his cost- you’re paying Terminator prices for something that can be taken out by a Krak shot, which can be really risky. You will want to specialize your Warriors in one way or another or you will consistently find their performance sub-par. We’ll talk about the possibilities more in the Options section, but for now let’s look at some potential uses.

One thing to consider is that, despite their vulnerability to ID, Warriors still get cover saves like any other unit, so insuring that they have cover at all times goes a long ways towards dispelling some of their perceived fragility. A line of Gaunts is one of the best ways, but terrain and Venomthropes can work just as well. You also do not want to make them an obvious target- in a list with lots of other MCs, the enemy may be hard pressed to bring enough S8+ weapons to deal with them all. In this sort of list, their lack of Eternal Warrior is almost a benefit, as it taunts the enemy with the possibility of killing a ~40pt model with a single shot; of course, that’s the point of offering them the bait, as doing so is a mistake- those weapons are dearly needed to put wounds on the MCs, who are effectively invulnerable to fire from Bolters and similar weapons, whereas the Warriors can be chewed down by them.

Over-upgrading is a major issue for Warriors, just as it is with many other bugs. Always keep in mind what your specific role is, and aim only for upgrades to benefit that role. Thinking “well, I might get into CC, so ___ would be useful, and so would ___ and ____, and they’re only five points each…” is a quick path to T4/4+ models that cost 60pts. Pick one thing. Be good at it. The nature of Warriors means that they will probably perform reasonably well at other things even if you don’t upgrade them, but shelling out points for multiple types of upgrades will lead to disaster.

Warriors can be an excellent source of mid-field Synapse, since they themselves are scoring and can spread the unit around to cover a very large area. They are tough enough that it’s hard to displace them from an objective and, depending on build, can be cheap enough that you can take broods of reasonable size to provide a pile of wounds that need to be eliminated. Compared to the MC alternatives, Warriors-based Synapse is very tough to take out and may not always paint the same sort of crosshairs on themselves that the bigger beasts tend to.

You generally will not want to take extremely large broods of Warriors, as it not only ends up being overkill (“I did twenty-three power weapon wounds to you.”) but also makes you even more of a target for Battlecannons and the like. Groups of 4-5 are what I’ve found to work best, although you could go up to six or seven if you had a Prime with you, in order to try and take advantage of him.

Options

Note that all Warriors in the brood must take the same options, so no wound allocation shenanigans. However, see the Venom Cannon/Barbed Strangler entries.

Mycetic Spore: This is a big one. Warriors advancing across the field can get shot up, but with a Spore you give your opponent exactly one turn to deal with things before you are in his face. As with many other units, Warriors should be fielded in a Spore only if it is part of an overall deep striking strategy that intends to deny your opponent the chance to deal with your army in the early game. If you are coming down in a Spore you almost certainly want to keep your gun, as shooting is the only thing you can really do the turn you come down. (With good arrangement of your Spores, running will generally be unnecessary, but there is of course the possibility.)

Rending Claws: As with the Prime, you can actually get these two different ways: by trading in your Talons (and paying 5 pts) or by giving up your gun (for free.) The former option I consider sub-par- it’s generally taken as an attempt to make a shooty/bitey hybrid Warrior, but I just don’t feel it’s worth the points. Rending simply isn’t that good of a rule anymore, and Genestealers do the Toxin + Rending trick much better thanks to their superior Initiative and mobility. The other method, however, holds more appeal for me; essentially, it is the concession of all modicum of ranged ability to become a close combat monster. Paired up with the Bonesword/Lash Whip, it allows you to penetrate vehicles, vaguely threaten Dreadnoughts, and minimize damage to enemy squads if you are trying to hide in CC. The note about Dreadnoughts is important, because Warriors are otherwise unable to harm them, so if you don’t have a Prime attached and a lot of MCs in the list, you may want to consider it. Overall, the Dev -&gt; RC swap should be a major consideration; do you really need a few S4 shots, or will the flexibility in melee help you more?

Paired Boneswords: Boneswords are the real reason that Rending Claws + (other melee upgrade X) is a poor choice. For a pretty reasonable price, you can add a better-than-a-power weapon to your CC unit, turning them into real monsters. Paired swords, although cheaper, are generally the worse of the two options because you really want to be striking ahead of Marines to minimize your casualties on these expensive dudes. However, some lists may be extremely scraping for points- in which case the downgrade is an option- or may be worried about killing multiwound models. The twin swords are very handy here, since a Ld test on 3d6 kills almost everything in the game. (Note that only one test is made, no matter how many wounds you did to them.) Enemy Tyranids are, ironically, extra vulnerable to this due to generally poor Ld on our non-Synapse creatures. See also below entry for more on Bonesword strategy.

Bonesword/Lash Whip: This is the good stuff. Although it’s far from cheap, this is effectively power weapon + grenades (which you desperately need). Striking first- or, at worst, simultaneous- is a massive advantage and lets you ruin most types of dedicated CC units, although your nemesis (TH/SS Termies) don’t really care, which is why you should leave them to other units in the codex. Combined with Toxin Sacs, you should be able to scythe through roughly two marines per Warrior, which should quickly turn most combats into a slaughterfest. Of course, the unit does become pricey at that point- 50 pts per model- but what you get is a brood that is all but unbeatable in melee, and even just one or two models can beat a lot of units in combat. This is, in my opinion, one of the strongest possible Warrior builds.

Barbed Strangler: Unlike all of the other options, this actually creates a unique wound group within the brood, which is a huge deal because it means you can suck up potentially two more wounds without losing a model. This alone is often enough reason to take one of the heavy weapons, but the truth is they’re not too shabby on their own. The Strangler is a very nice large blast template to be carrying around and has the range to reach out and hurt people even in the early game. If you’re using Devourers, it also matches up nicely with their target priority and adds yet another leadership roll that the unit needs to pass. The main issue with the Strangler is that Tyranid lists rarely lack for anti-infantry shooting, so you’re paying points to improve something you don’t really struggle with. However, it is a reasonable choice in any case and if your area is very mech-light it can really shine.

Venom Cannon: A lot of people don’t like the VC and its big brother, but honestly, they’re not all that terrible. They aren’t great, either, but as noted above, you need AT guns. If the rest of the brood has Deathspitters, a VC can bring a nice bump to its transport-killing ability. Your blast will land roughly 50% of the time (depending on hull size), so it isn’t a terrible proposition for you and you’re really only looking to stun/immobilize most targets anyways, so the -1 isn’t all that crippling. Like the Deathspitter, it also performs reasonably against non-vehicle targets, so you have good duality in the unit. And hey, ID for Guard and Eldar never hurt anyone.

Spinefists: See the Tyranid Prime entry. They aren’t great, but they aren’t horrible, either. If you’re one of those people who’s always bitching about rolling 3s on their to-hit, maybe you’ll want them.

Deathspitter: While the anti-infantry improvements over the Devourer are rather mediocre (+1S, trades morale penalty for AP5), against vehicles they make a world of difference. You’ll be able to score some damage to transports by virtue of sheer number shots, although you aren’t going to be wrecking many Rhinos with them. Really, though, all you need to do is Stun/Immobilize them so that you can get in there in CC and do some real damage, so the Deathspitter ends up being a pretty good option for a shooting brood. A Warrior Prime particularly benefits such a unit with his BS boost and ability to shrug off S8/9 hits (since you can’t hide in CC easily.) If you’re taking these, you probably aren’t taking any other upgrades except maybe, <i>maybe</i> Adrenal Glands, as you want to keep the individual Warriors as cheap as possible to act as a Synapse centerpiece.

Scything Talons: I guess this is an option, just like with the Prime. Not really sold on it, though.

Adrenal Glands: Lets you strike before Marines and hurt vehicles more. However, not really compatible with Toxin Sacs (since they give you a fixed to-wound value) and redundant with Lash Whip. Taking these in place of Rending Claws in order to penetrate vehicles is an option, but honestly I think you’re better off with the Claws for the other options they give you, especially against Dreads. However, you could do a lot worse than these.

Toxin Sacs: Pretty much an auto-include for any CC build. Rerolling wounds against Marines is simply too good to pass up, and the fact that it lets you threaten bigger monsters as well is just gravy.

Common builds

The Budget Patrol: 1 Barbed Strangler, no other upgrades

Shooty Synapse: Deathspitters, 1 Venom Cannon

Choppy Doom: LW/BS, Toxin, RC (deep strike version keeps Devourers instead)

Genestealers

Cheaper than before, with the same stats, but the devil is in the details this time around. Genestealers are still excellent shock troops and rate reasonably well against even the best assault troops in the game, but their current incarnation suffers from a number of issues that drag this otherwise-excellent unit down in little ways that add up.

First off, the numbers. No complaints here- they strike ahead of everything but the rarest of characters and units and will almost always hit on a 3+. Their reasonable S/T values put them on par with Marines and two attacks means you are going to cause some hurt no matter what. Fleet, Infiltrate, and Rending as basic are all very nice. However, that 5+ armor save is a killer, because it means anything you don’t kill is going to wreck you in assault and virtually everyone’s base gun scythes through your armor like it isn’t there.

Infiltrate as a special deployment option means you have several ways to run them. First off, you can do a “standard” infiltrate, which would mean putting them 18″ away from the enemy (or 12″ if you’re out of LOS). The upside is that you can threaten otherwise-weak sections of the board, like Outflank but without the issues with reserves. The downside is that you are going to get shot all to hell because you’re not with the main body of your force, and consequently can’t get cover as easily, have no backup, etc. So option 2 is fake-infiltrating, i.e. using it to deploy somewhere near the remainder of the army so you can get cover. This is effectively giving it up in return for some safety, forming part of the first wave of assault units. Finally, you can outflank, but unless you have a Swarmlord with you this is very unreliable- you have a 33% of “missing” your correct board edge and a canny opponent will simply stay away from one or both edges, denying you the possibility of a charge. Arriving late to the battle (turn 2 at best, more likely 3 or even 4) means that you’re committing a lot of points to remaining off-board where they don’t affect the battle at all, a risky strategy.

Their Brood Telepathy is also worth special note; it allows them to operate independent of Synapse, and combined with Ld10, they can pass most Morale and Pinning checks with ease. However, don’t get cocky with them- you have a non-negligible chance of failing these checks, so don’t rely on it absolutely. High Init also means that losing a combat isn’t necessarily the end of the world for you- you have two chances (Ld test, I test) to get away unscathed, although doing so at the end of your own turn will likely result in them being shot to death.

Above and beyond their basic abilities and numbers, Genestealers have a number of issues. First off, there are several cheap, quick, dangerous CC units (Hormagaunts, Gargoyles) and other MEQ-killers (Warriors, Zoanthropes) available to a Tyranid general, so they are no longer the far-and-away premiere choice they once were. They still excel against Marines and will have some trouble with hordes (like Orks), but other units are competing for their main role and are debatably better. More importantly, they lack access to any kind of grenades, which makes their high I come into play less often than you might like, given their expense and fragility. While assaulting into cover isn’t complete suicide, it is a very risky proposition and shouldn’t be done lightly with Genestealers.

So what are they good for? Well, as said they’re fine shock troops and a lot cheaper than Warriors and more effective than Hormagaunts when built properly. Their special deployment options also lend them some flexibility and they are one of our few troops that can be counted on to hold a point if you can’t get some Synapse to them. A squad of eight ‘Stealers gone to ground is surprisingly hard to dislodge without assaulting, which will probably spell doom for whatever dares to attack them. While they aren’t as rock-solid as troops in a transport, they can weather far more firepower than most of our units. If you face a lot of Marines and are looking for some tactical flexibility in a melee package, you could do worse than Genestealers. Broods of 8-12 are normally the ideal number, as the ridiculous-sized squads simply become too much of a fire magnet.

(Aside: Stealer Shock is not a real army anymore. If you want to play it for fun that’s fine and it’s not totally horrible, but it is in no way competitive and lacks the tools to deal with most “good” lists.)

Options

Scything Talons: Not a terribly impressive upgrade, as you could just be running more ‘Stealers. However, rerolling 50% of your misses isn’t awful. Numerically, they work out to be okay but not great. ‘Stealers tend to already be a glass cannon unit, so emphasizing this isn’t a great buy most of the time.

Adrenal Glands: Doesn’t really do anything for you. You already penetrate tanks on a Rend, so this doesn’t change much. It does up your chances against a Dreadnought, but it’s probably not worth it since you can get the Broodlord; see below.

Toxin Sacs: As with all the other S4 guys, these are awesome. Given that you have Rending, they are extra awesome. Doubling up on Rends is good stuff, although it isn’t quite as fancy as having them on a Tyranid Warrior with Bonesword. I consider these a more-or-less mandatory upgrade, as your gain in damage for points invested is so large as to be absurd. They don’t help a lot against T5/6 (since units like that mostly are only taking wounds from a Rend anyways), but every little bit helps.

Mycetic Spore: Wait, what? What? I don’t understand. I don’t even understand a little bit. Never ever take this unless, for some reason, you just wanted to add a short-range T4 shooter to your army. What the hell.

Broodlord: This guy is a big enough deal as to practically deserve his own entry. Okay, so you pay a crapload of points and get a +1 to a bunch of stats. S and T are nice, the save is a bonus, you get a couple more wounds as well. But you could get three Genestealers for his price, and that would be more wounds, more attacks, etc; why would you want him? Well, he does have two psychic powers. Aura of Despair is pretty trashy, but it can make life difficult for enemy Psykers (assuming they don’t shut it down, which they likely would). It’s not nearly as useful as SitW, however, and the fact that you can’t use it until well after shooting is done (so no effect on 50% of Doom’s rolls, pinning/morale tests, etc) is really trashy. Hypnotic Gaze is occasionally useful and randomly amazing- I’ve seen it shut down a Trygon before, but more commonly you will knock a Sergeant out of combat or do nothing.

The real advantage of the Broodlord are his extra options (most notably Implant Attack) and higher S value. Normal Genestealers are Dreadnought bait; they can only penetrate basic Dreads by Rending followed by rolling a 5 or 6. Broodlords double that chance, only needing a 3+ (and even on a 1-2 they still glance it.) Given your high number of attacks, thus puts the squad at almost on par with Marines w/PF Sarge in terms of killing the Dread- not great chances, but enough to matter. Secondly, having the option of Implant Attack means you can make the squad into a major threat against characters, as a single roll of 6 will spell their doom (remember, both Rending and IA trigger on to-wounds of 6 and you should be rerolling wounds thanks to Toxin.) Combined with Hypnotic Gaze, it turns a ‘Stealer squad into something that very few characters or MCs want to get anywhere near, which gives them a measure of protection they desperately need. (Broodlords can also buy Acid Blood, but don’t do it.)

Termagants

Trivia note: “Termagant,” with no ‘u’, is the correct spelling; Gaunt (from the adjective of the same spelling) is the more general genus that collectively refers to all the breeds, sometimes including Hormagaunts and Gargoyles. Termagant is generally reserved for the Fleshborer-bearing variant that is most common. The omission of the ‘u’ is due to its derivation from the old English word for a violent or raucous woman. Harridan and Harpy have their origins in similar words; many other Tyranid beasties take their names from Latin or pseudo-Latin terms. So anyways…

The humble Termagant. It’s not particularly good in assault (I4 being its only distinguishing feature.) It doesn’t have very good shooting (Bolt Pistols are not known for being Super Pro.) It isn’t tough, fast, or… well, pretty much anything. It’s got about as poor of stats as you can get, bar Grots. Its only redeeming feature is actually not even a feature of the unit, but rather the fact that it can get Fearless from a nearby Synapse unit. Hell, they aren’t even particularly cheap- Guardsmen are the same price, but come with a better gun, better Leadership, Frag Grenades, and options for Heavy and Special weapons.

The Termagant’s effectiveness, then, lies in its role in the rest of the army. It serves as mobile cover, as an assault screen, and as a scoring unit (rendered durable by its ability to go to ground without any real concern for loss of firepower.) And, even though its 12″ reach may be pathetic by most standards, it still outranges most of our other troop units, who are exclusively melee, so you will usually see Termagants taken as objective holders, especially alongside their momma.

That is, of course, the other advantage- taking Termagants lets you take Tervigons as scoring units (and ones that produce additional scoring units, at that.) Their other special rules are fairly minor in comparison- Move Through Cover never hurt anyone, but it’s certainly not anything to write home about.

So what kind of army wants Termagants? Well, as said, you’re mostly going to be taking them as a way to get scoring units, although taking large broods for meat shields isn’t unknown. Hormagaunts are only slightly more expensive, though, and can run forward with impunity (and cause some damage if they manage to arrive), so I generally find them (or Gargoyles) to be better living walls. Any kind of on-board army will want to strongly consider taking some Termagants and a Tervigon- or two or three- to create a strong scoring presence on the board, as 2/3 of your games are going to be won and lost on objectives. Armies that rely on shooting are going to especially want Gaunts, as they are not only surprisingly vicious when backed by a Tervigon’s upgrades but also cheap and plentiful enough to make an effective army-wide screening force.

Options

Mycetic Spore: Lacking much firepower in their normal form, basic Termagants are not a very impressive part of a Spore force. However, upgraded with Devourers they can become quite deadly to most units, pouring out a withering hail of fire the turn they arrive- something that Spore armies otherwise lack much of. I am cautious when adding any of the large blast weapons to my Spores containing Gaunts, as the possibility of scattering back onto the unit (as you are forced to fire at the nearest target due to the Spore’s rules) is a very real one.

Strangleweb: Huh. Well, it is a pinning Template, at least. However, its crappy Strength value means that it’s usually pretty useless; Orks are just about the only target it actually can do anything against. Everyone else you still wound on 6s, and against Kroot you’re actually worse off. This really should have been S3, but lacking that it’s probably something you’ll almost never take. The option exists, though, so keep it in mind. Oh, and it can be cute with a Mawloc, since Mr. Mouthy pushes them the minimum distance possible.

Spinefists: GW really screwed a lot of the old guard Tyranid players when these switched from being the preferred combination to worthless. Statistically, against T4 models you will score the same number of wounds with Spinefists as with Fleshborers, so paying points to do the same thing is a poor choice. They are superior against Eldar/Guard/Tau, however.

Spike Rifle: Ummm… right. Well, it does have an 18″ range, so that’s something. Unfortunately, that’s about it. Worse than a Lasgun? Yup. Don’t pay points for this trash.

Devourer: Youch, that’s a very pricey T3/6+ model. However, while it’s alive you are spitting out ridiculous numbers of shots, so try to alpha strike your opponent out to the point where he can’t effectively shoot back. Hitting isolated units is a good bet, as is hiding behind cover (or other units). These are probably the weapon of choice for Gaunts in a Mycetic Spore, since they let you cut down on incoming fire and your little men are already costing a lot of points. (Compare two squads of 20 Termagants in Spores to one squad of 20 Devilgaunts in a Spore in terms of firepower vs. points.)

Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs: If you want these, you should generally be taking them on the Tervigon that accompanies your Gaunts. They are otherwise not terribly costed, but not something I would really ever buy, either.

Mycetic Spore

Discussed mostly in the context of other units’ entries, but we’ll take a moment here to talk about the Spore in its own right. First off, the Spore is actually a pretty reasonable unit if taken in isolation- three wounds, T4, and a 4+ make it as tough as a Tyranid Warrior. BS2 means that its base gun is going to be very mediocre, but honestly that’s not much of an issue. Ld is completely irrelevant. Three attacks and WS2 is not exactly great, but S6 and MC status mean that any hits it manages to make are going to hurt (assuming it gets a chance to strike, which is a little unlikely.)

The basic gun is actually a pretty fair deal, and certainly better than the Storm Bolter on a Drop Pod. Remember, it will get to shoot the turn it comes down (unlike a Pod), which will help cut down on your casualties on arriving a little. Its high Str can actually make it decent against vehicles, but don’t expect much more than shaken/stunned results, as it’s AP-. Keep in mind that as an MC, you can fire both the Tendrils and any gun you purchased as an upgrade.

Remember also that just because you purchased a Spore for a unit doesn’t mean you have to deploy in it. You are perfectly free to elect to deploy normally (or stay in normal reserve) with the unit, although the Spore will still arrive via Deep Strike, completely empty, anyways. This isn’t something you’ll want to do very often, but the option exists.

Options

Cluster Spines: A very nice choice. You get a high-Str large blast template for a small number of points, which can be perfect for something like Zoanthropes that otherwise struggles with large numbers of dudes around. Comparing it to the Strangler, you’re up a Strength but lose Pinning, which I would generally consider an overall gain since lots of horde units are Fearless. You lose your AP (boo hoo) and also a lot of range- that is probably the largest concern, as 18″ just isn’t all that far. Still, for the cost it’s a real deal.

Stinger Salvo: I don’t think so. You never want Salvo on any of the other MCs who start with it, why would you take it here? The VC is better for sniping at tanks and the other guns are better at hurting everything else. Against Eldar/Tau who aren’t in cover I suppose this is a sorta decent weapon.

Barbed Strangler: Pretty nice. Pretty much like Cluster Spines, but with some tweaks. This is really going to shine against Tau and Guard armies, where the Pinning can really take effect.

Venom Cannon: Expensive, but possibly worthwhile? I haven’t tested this one much, but its excellent range combined with high Str make it pretty good at most things. I’ve said elsewhere: Tyranids don’t have a lot of options for AT guns. Being able to get one on a “transport” is a very useful option.

Hormagaunts

Well, Hormagaunts certainly couldn’t have gotten any worse than they were before, right? In fact, they got so much better it isn’t funny, although they took a couple major hits as well. The first thing to know is that they aren’t beasts anymore, so no more 12″ charge. As parting gift you get a slightly better run speed, but that’s it. However, they’re now extremely cheap and I5 base, which means even Marines can’t just shrug them off and ignore them. With two attacks and Scything Talons they’re actually pretty reasonable combatants, on par with Ork Boyz in terms of the damage they can do, although their specialty is more along the lines of striking first and killing things rather than going last and piling in huge numbers of attacks. However, WS3, S3, T3, and 6+ save all mean that they are terribly fragile.

So on their own, Hormagaunts are a middling choice; they ruin Guardsmen and Tau, but anything else will probably be able to pile enough attacks back to make them regret it. What makes them usable are the Tyranid support powers, most notably Catalyst and Paroxysm. The former gives them a 4+ against most attacks, cutting your casualties in half- with Hormies being so killable, this is a huge deal. Whether plowing across the field to screen your other units (a role they excel at with their three dice for Running) or leaping into close combat and getting chopped up, Catalyst pretty much doubles up your investment on a Hormagaunt squad. Paroxysm is slightly more situational but even better- it lets your Hormies hit on 3s and struck back on 5s, which will likewise halve the number of wounds you’re taking and give you a 33% bonus to damage output. (Actually, I think with Talons it’s even better than that, but I’m too lazy to do the math.) Combining the two should make it all but impossible for the opponent to win a fight against you. The Preferred Enemy/Furious Charge-granting abilities of the various Tyrants and Swarmlords also extensively benefit them, although not to quite the same degree.

Because of the above reasons Hormagaunts are generally best run in large squads or not at all- a small group of Hormagaunts will get shot up, charge into a fight, and die horribly to No Retreat. You are reliant with striking ahead of the enemy and reducing their damage to minimal levels in order to win combats- if they are striking back at full strength, you are in trouble. Charging into cover will probably kill you unless you have one or more of the aforementioned support powers backing you up, as the casualties you take before striking are going to be horrendous.

Hormagaunts excel at fighting other horde armies as well as the ubiquitous TH/SS Terminators- who cares if they have a 2+ save if they have to make 25-30 of them? Against normal Marines they are only middling (unless enhanced, see below). Gunlines do not like seeing masses of Hormagaunts charging at them, as you can often multi-charge several IG squads and still pull out a win. Charging other Tyranid units into a combat with Gaunts is risky, however, as enemies will direct their attacks against your weaker creatures in hopes of winning the fight and inflicting No Retreat! wounds on everyone.

Options

Mycetic Spore: Not quite as much of a comedy option as for Genestealers, but still not terribly impressive. I would only bother if you’re running an all-Spore, and even then there are probably things you want more than Hormagaunts.

Adrenal Glands: Useful for glancing vehicles, mainly; wounding Guardsmen on a 3+ isn’t worth the price hike. Definitely the worse of the two choices, but see below for more.

Toxin Sacs: Wounding MEQs on a 4+ is decent and rerolling against GEQs is a fine secondary. You can also use it to threaten MCs and other high-toughness target with weight of attacks- a full squad charging a Trygon or the like will often kill it. The craziness happens when you pair them with Adrenal so you can reroll wounds against MEQs while still striking first; at this point you are starting to become a real threat. However, at 10pts each they are too expensive for my tastes, despite the excellent combat performance. Hormagaunts are, in my opinion, meat shields for the real killers in your list, and if you want a MEQ-hunter you should be taking Toxic ‘Stealers or Warriors with LW/BS+Toxin, both of which outperform the so-called Uebergaunt.

Ripper Swarms

Ick. Here’s someone who got worse since the last codex. On the upside, they have a ridiculous number of wounds/point, better than any other unit in print I believe. Combined with Stealth, they are actually an incredibly durable unit and would be perfect for capturing objectives… if they could score. Yes, the unit that the Tyranids literally use to accomplish their objectives cannot capture objectives. Thanks, GW. So what you have is a mediocre tarpit unit that is extra-vulnerable to all of the things that our troops are generally already vulnerable to.

Rippers do have some amusing tricks, though; Stealth makes them able to take extra advantage of a Venomthrope’s Spore Cloud, so they can make a very durable front line to an advancing swarm. And three wounds per base means it can be very hard to cut them down once they’re in close combat, so if you can get some next to a Devastator squad or the like they can be a real hassle, tying up expensive units for large portions of the game. They are also naturally Fearless, although leaving them outside of Synapse range is not recommended anyways, as they tend to eat themselves. However, if they’re stuck in melee or the like you can afford to ignore them, secure in the knowledge that they won’t break and run.

Ripper Swarms are best taken as either a single huge line (to shield the rest of the swarm as it advances) or several small clumps to try and jump into the enemy’s backlines and cause havoc. However you take them, don’t expect them to kill much; rather, think of them as living shields for your important units. They’re a pretty poor unit in general, but they have some uses.

Options

Spinefists: Well here’s a case for actually taking Spinefists on something. With their high A value and low BS, Rippers are the perfect candidate for carrying these guns. You end up paying 15pts for every ~2 hits (which is an unsaved wound on a MEQ 15% of the time or so, or 50% of the time against a GEQ in cover). In terms of shooting-per-point that’s not terrible, but not all that great, either. Again, a harassment unit. You probably want to Deep Strike guys like this because of their short range, so grab Tunnel Swarm or Sky-slashers.

Adrenal Glands: Glance vehicles, strike even with Guard, wound MEQs on 4+ when charging? No, don’t think so. You’re a tarpit, not a combat unit.

Toxin Sacs: As above. You’re better off buying more bodies. Combining them the way the Gaunts like to isn’t really very effective, either.

Tunnel Swarm: Deep Striking is a nice trick, but you’re really asking to have a Plasma Cannon or something dropped on you. It is cheap, however, and if you aren’t going to use them as a screen for your main force all the time it’s a pretty worthwhile option. Note that Sky-slasher Swarms can also DS and, for a few points more, have a 12″ move to boot, which makes them often worth the upgrade.

Tags: 5th edition, tyranids

This entry was posted on Friday, June 4th, 2010 at 7:32 am and is filed under Forum Feature, Reviews, Warhammer 40,000. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.