Part 2 of 5 Tyranids Review

An Article by Big Santa

Here is part 2 of 5 of my Tyranid codex review, elites. The choices range from awesome sauce to, “wtf were they thinking?” I wish there was more elite slots for armies so I could play a bigger array of units. Trust me there are a lot of good choices.

Deathleaper-

 

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Final Thoughts- I see Deathleaper as a defensive annoyance creature. He is in no way an assassin, 5 attacks on the charge even with rending on 5’s & 6’s is not going to kill most characters. The Deathleapers survivability is really low if not in cover also. What he can do is mess with some vehicles and has a decent chance of killing them, plus messing with marine combat squads and non-elite squads (IG, Eldar, ect.). The Deathleaper is one of the only creatures that has grenades so that good int can be used. The Deathleaper, when arriving from reserve, can be placed anywhere on the table 1” away from enemy models. The strength of the Deathleaper comes from his abilities. “Where did he go?” allows him to return to reserves giving him more survivability, and could help go contest that objective way across the board. “Where is it?” gives him a Night Fight shield. The best ability that makes him worth considering is:

· It’s after me! – This ability subtracts d3 Ld form an independent character. This can really make psykers mad and you happy! If the Deathleaper is able to hold off some “JAWS” directed at your low int creatures, he is well worth his points. Even Mephiston hates this ability. Characters basing their power on physic powers can be hindered greatly

by Deathleaper.

The Doom Of Malan’tai-

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Final Thoughts- The Doom had his heyday back before the GW FAQ. When his “Spirit Leech” ability could hit people in transports he was devastating to IG, nowadays not so much. For his massive wound potential he is still very weak due to toughness 4 and no IC status. His points are deceiving also, he really costs 130 because you need to take a Mycetic Spore with him or he won’t be able to do anything. His psychic power, “Cataclysm” is nice (look what it did to Azeroth) str= to his wounds ap 1 large blast it could mess people up problem is getting his wounds up and it is the only psyic power he has. All in all your precious elite spots could go to something better. I say don’t take him.

Hive Guard Brood-

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Final Thoughts- If these guys were cake I would have chocolate on my face every game. I love them. In the current meta game environment they are the ultimate mech killer. The have 2 str 8 shots that ignore almost all cover with a decent BS. The have toughness 6 so are very survivable, and people tend to ignore them and concentrate fire on other things in your army. I always run at least 1 squad of these fellas just to help open those pesky light vehicles.

Lictor Brood-

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Final Thoughts- These guys are meh in my book. Same idea as the Deathleaper they’re not too good at killing elite infantry by themselves; the benefit they have is you can take a squad of 3 so you can threaten elite infantry a little more and vehicles. They don’t have good survivability outside of cover so they are dependent on it and are a little pricy. It really depends on your play style and I can see these guys being defended for their uses so I’ll leave these guys up to you.

Pyrovore-

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Final Thoughts- I feel this is the silliest unit in the Tyranids codex, 45 points for a heavy flamer… woot. They have power weapons but only 1 attack at WS 3… woot. They could be good for stacking flamer hits on a unit but your points and elite slots can be better served elsewhere.

Venomthrope-

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Final Thoughts- I like these guys more and more. They give a chance to save against missile fire for your big creatures. The enemy having to take dangerous terrain tests to assault your guys can make them think twice and hose some elite armies; Orks too can suffer decent casualties due to the tests. People tend not to focus fire on these guys understanding that they are not to worry about. They are cheap and have a couple of decent abilities; they are worth a try if you never thought about them before.

Ymgarl Geanstealer Brood-

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Final Thoughts- These are fancy Geanstealers that can emerge from a piece of area terrain and assault the same turn. Every assault phase they may morph to either gain: +1 toughness, +1 Str, or +1 Attack. I find it interesting that they may assault when they emerge from area terrain but they have no flesh hooks (grenades). You cannot take a large unit of them in fear of being stuck in terrain before you assault. A bad terrain roll and fleet move and you don’t get to use that nice int. They are nice you just need to be careful. Keep them small for the ability to assault and because they are decently expensive.

Zoanthrope-

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Final Thoughts- Zoanthropes are a nice unit for many factors. They scare the crap out of people. Placed on the board people will waste shots at them because them have the potential of making vehicles cry and elite infantry cry. I have been running them on the board because if shots are going to them they can usually save and those are shot are not going towards your bigger stuff. These guys can also be used as an alpha strike from a Spore on heavy vehicles and infantry. All around Zoanthropes are a good elite choice not to be overlooked.

In the elite slots I usually run one squad of Zoanthropes and one Hive Guard squad. Right now I’m torn between a squad of Venomthrops or the Deathleaper I’ll have to see how horrid the new Grey Knights physic powers are going to be in play.