Part 1 of 5 Tyranid Review.

-An article by Big Santa-

I wanted to give an in-depth review of the Tyranid codex starting with the HQ choices, their powers, and upgrades. Sorry for the late post midterms were annoying this year.

Hive Tyrant-

Upgrades-

• · Acid Blood- When this model takes a wound in cc the attacker takes a wound, vehicles are glanced on a 4+. This upgrade is really meh… it could hose Mephiston, maybe, but not worth it overall.

• · Adrenal Glands- Gives the Hive Tyrant furious charge. This is a nice little upgrade if you feel you will need the extra punch to take out vehicles. It helps if your Tyrant is forced to attack a land raider. I don’t count the init boost because I always run a lash whip on the tyrant. In the long run only take it if you have the extra points floating around.

• · Implant Attack- To wound rolls of 6 cause instant death. Not necessary for your Hive Tyrant. Whatever you want to ID it usually has eternal warrior, and a 6’s is nothing to rely on. Your bone sword causes ID on a ld test so if you're beating up on ork nobs you should get about the same results.
• · Regeneration- During your turn for every wound that is on the Hive Tyrant, roll a dice, for every 6 rolled you recover one wound. I do not agree with the internet on this one. For the points this ability is not worth it! The Tyrant has so few wounds on him (only 4) and he is usually in a squad of guard to soak up most wounds. Points can be better spent elsewhere.
• · Toxic Miasma- Non-vehicles in B2B take a toughness test or suffer a wound. Really a meh ability, CC based element in base with your Tyrant are not going to fail that often to make it worth it, and they still get a save.
• · Toxin Sacs- Gives the Tyrant poison. Why does a MC need poison? (other than a Tervigon, lol)
• · Armored Shell- Gives the Tyrant a 2+ sv. I disagree with the internet here too. It is a nice ability and can be handy, but it is very expensive! People tend to not target the Tyrant’s squad until other things that are easier to kill are down (Tervigons, Trygons, Zonathropes, etc.). I would take this in a smaller point based games when not taking guard as support.
• · Thorax Swarm- All differing flamer abilities. I really don’t see the point in these so I have never tested them out. The only one that seems promising is the flamer that wounds on a 2+, but I have never had time to play with it.
• · Wings- The Tyrant moves like jump Infantry. This ability is really expensive and it means your tyrant will be all on his own going across the table. It is not worth it; even with a screen of gargoyles (that might be able to give him a cover save depending on who you play) he will go down quick.
• · Hive Commander- Your reserve rolls come in at a +1, also you may give one troop choice the outflank ability. I like this ability! If you’re relying on some of your reserves to come in this is the way to go. Also nothing is funnier than outflanking a Tervigon and spawning gaunts in someone’s flank.
• · Indescribable Horror- Units have to take a ld test to be able to assault you. Meh, ld is such joke in 40k anymore it’s not worth the points. If you really want it you can get a physic power for free that does the same thing.
• · Old Adversary- Every unit within 6” gets preferred enemy including the Tyrant’s unit. This is an ability that you should always fit into your list. It helps so much; you can never go wrong with rerolls.

Final thoughts- The Hive Tyrant does a lot in a decently priced packaged. The Tyrant is the best bang for your buck; highly customizable and very deadly. Problem is, to have him stay alive you need guard, so points are used up quickly. In the end the Tyrant won’t disappoint and is a solid HQ choice.

The Swarmlord-

Upgrades- None!!!

Final Thoughts- The Swarmlord is the character based Hive Tyrant. He has a whole set of abilities over the normal Tyrant including: 4+ inv sv in CC. +1 to reserve rolls that stacks w/ Hive Commander, also allows you to reroll the table edge that that an out flanker arrives on. The ability to give a Tyranid unit within 18” FC, PE, or Acute Sen. Also the ability to cast 2 physic powers a turn.

The Swarmlord is a beast in CC- he causes ID to any target regardless of toughness and any inv saves taken have to be rerolled. All this is good except the price! You have to run Guard with lash whips to make him good and scary, this also adds to points. He does not get Old adversary! That ability is so crucial IMO, and only being able to give PE to one unit makes me sad because you end up usually giving it to himself. I would say a normal Hive Tyrant is better in the long run, keep this guy for games that are 2k+

Hive Tyrant & Swarmlord Physic Powers-

• · Leech Essence- 12”D3 shooting attack str 3 AP 2 every wound you do regenerates a lost wound.
• · Paroxysm- Target enemy unit within 12” is BS & WS 1 until the beginning of your next turn.
• · Physic Scream- Every enemy unit within 2d6” takes a ld test for every point failed by they take a wound no armor save.
• · The Horror- Enemies have to take a LD test to assault you.

Final Thoughts- The power you should always, always, always take is Paroxysm!!!!!! It is a beautiful power and can make you gaunts hit on 3’s! combined w/ rerolls from PE it make gaunts a scary unit! And any dedicated CC unit cries when they need 5’s to hit you. Again always take it! The other powers are your preference. I usually take Leech Essence because it has a decent AP and if yourTyrant has suffered wounds then he has a chance to gain them back.

Tyranid Prime-

Upgrades-

• Adrenal Glands- Gives furious charge. This is a nice upgrade give I6 on the charge and gives you enough STR to try and take down a Dread if you have to. Wounding T4 things on anything but is worth it every time. I always have it on my Prime.

• · Regeneration- During your turn for every wound that is on the Prime, roll a dice, for every 6 rolled you recover one wound. Not worth its points, not reliable.
• · Toxin Sacs- Gives the Prime poison. This is not worth the points either his str is good enough to wound most anything and I usually run him with the Hive Tyrant so he doesn’t need to deal with high toughness models.

Final Thoughts- The prime is a good cheap HQ choice. Given dual bone swords, he is a scary character killer. Since Games Workshop FAQ’ed that he cannot get into a pod with warriors his only position is support for the Tyrant squad. Good thing is that if you need him elsewhere he can leave the unit and help out where you need it.

Tervigon-

Upgrades-

• · Acid Blood- When this model takes a wound in cc the attacker takes a wound, vehicles are glanced on a 4+. This upgrade is really meh, not worth it overall.
• · Adrenal Glands- Gives the Tervigon furious charge. This is an upgrade to take for your Tervigon. Why? Any USR the Tervigon gets gaunts get! (within 6”)
• · Implant Attack- To wound rolls of 6 cause instant death. Not necessary, he doesn’t have many attacks and poor WS so not worth it.
• · Regeneration- During your turn for every wound that is on the Hive Tyrant, roll a dice, for every 6 rolled you recover one wound. Again I don’t take it. But, the Tervigon has enough wounds to semi make it worth it and the longer he is alive the more gaunts you can spawn. The point cost is a little hefty though.
• · Toxic Miasma- Non-vehicles in B2B take a toughness test or suffer a wound. Really a meh ability, CC based element in base with your Tervigon are not going to fail that often to make it worth it, and they still get a save.
• · Toxin Sacs- Gives the Tyrant poison. Take it only to give it to gaunts.

Physic Powers-

• · Dominion- Synapse becomes 18” He comes with this power, can be useful.
• · Catalyst- Target unit within 12” gets FNP. OMG this is a great power! Makes your MC’s not fear ML’s as much and makes gaunts more survivable.
• · Onslaught- Target unit may run then shoot. This power can really surprise someone especially when used on Zonathropes. If they were sure their big vehicle was out of range you can spring this on them.

Final Thoughts- The Tervigon is almost a must have. The ability to create more troops on the field is great, add the fact they benefit from his ability makes him invaluable. Oh and he can be taken as a troop choice if a gaunt squad is taken. I would suggest always having one.

Parasite of Mortrex-

Upgrades- None

Final Thoughts- Combined within a gargoyle squad make for a decent flanking F U unit. He can kind of protect against out flankers with his “ripper in the brains ability.” He also spawns rippers when he kills models. He is really expensive and your HQ choices could be better served elsewhere. He will hose you on kill point missions and die decently easy. All in all he is a fun unit to take, not really for competitive play.