Tyranid Roundup

 

10th Edition has been proving to be the Tyranid release we've long waited for!  Sorry, Eldar players.  Hopefully some of the things going on in the lore are hints that something big is coming for you soon.  But for now, this is proving to be every bit the range refresh Necrons got in 9th and then some.

Strangely, as with Space Marines, a lot of this is new units.  Now, the Tyranid Codex isn't the behemoth that the Space Marine codex is.  But it's still one of the more stacked books.  Getting new units is nice, especially given the idea that the Hive Mind is always evolving its organisms to face new battlefields.  But there's also just a bunch of kits that have need new sculpts for a while.  Nothing like what Eldar and Guard have been going through, but it's still pretty frustrating.

Still, its obvious we haven't seen everything yet.  Necrons got a bit more stuff after Indomitus launched, and they're definitely teasing more for 'Nids.  At the very least I can't imagine Termagants getting a new kit and not also doing new Hormagaunts!

On that note, I can't seem to find the Warhammer Community article that revealed the Intercessor and Termagant datasheets.  It's not like I can't find it elsewhere, but it does have me wondering.

LORE

We're getting a little bit of new lore and story for Tyranids with 10th Edition.  As of the start to 10th, we're now officially in the 4th Tyranic War.  Now this has always been something the Imperium has done so it gets to declare "Victory!" as Bobby G realizes to his distaste in the launch trailer.  Both Behemoth and Kraken were never truly defeated, with splinters still reeking havoc across the galaxy.  Similarly, Leviathan was definitely not defeated.  The leader of the 3rd Tyranic War was the overall winner of the war in Octarius and has been launching multiple assaults around the galaxy.  But apparently when Leviathan was defeated at Baal, the Imperium declared victory in that war.

Now a new, massive tendril has attacked from The Galactic West, dangerously close to Terra.  So as if refusing to admit that they've never actually finished off Leviathan, they've just declared it a new war.  But also of note is that this tendril is not identical to the original Leviathan attacks.  Not only is this a much larger and more coordinated thrust attacking from the rim as opposed to the multiple scattered tendrils from beneath the galactic plane, not only is this tendril filled with new organisms, but the coloring of organisms isn't exactly Leviathan's coloring.  It's very close, but not identical.  It's almost like this is a new Hive Fleet, but the Imperium doesn't want to acknowledge that they have another one they have to deal with.

ARMY RULES

Unlike the other factions, we not only have both an Army Rule and a Detachment Rule for Tyranids, but we have a second Army Rule revealed!  The reveals on army building and detachments hinted that factions can have more than one Army Rule, but this is the first time we've seen one.  It's possible when we get the full rules for the other factions, multiple will have new rules we haven't seen yet.

Either way, I don't want to hear anyone complaining about nerfs after the change to Synapse.  Synapse has been immunity to Morale since 2nd Edition.  Please understand, this is a pill I am happily swallowing to see Morale finally fixed.  But if the Swarmlord doesn't get to be immune to Battle-shock, there better be a damn good reason if a model drops that is.

I also have some thoughts on Synapse creatures getting Ld 7+.  It seems odd that a creature like the Swarmlord would have a lower Leadership than a Space Marine.  But I have a theory that this was a very deliberate design choice to help prevent "feels bad" moments and force you to plan around potential Battle-shock.

The Swarmlord has more than a 90% chance to pass Ld 7+.  That's roughly a 1 in 10 chance of failure, not accounting for bonuses or penalties.  That's pretty reliable, but any gamer knows that rolling that 1 is still a thing.  Any of us should expect to pass our Leaderhsip test, but have a back up plan in case it fails.  But now, bump that up to Ld 6+ and the odds of failing go down to less than 5% - less likely than rolling a 1 on a d20.  At a Primarch's Ld 5+, it's not even 2% - an over 98% chance you'll pass your Leadership test.

But here's the thing: those rolls will still happen.  Imagine you're in a tournament and you've gotten to the final round.  Your Swarmlord with its Ld 5+ hasn't failed a single test across 8 games.  Now, in the grand final, you roll those dice and it comes up a 3.  You won't be able to help but think about the fact you just lost the tournament on a single, improbable dice roll.  And the audience and commentators will agree with you.

But if you're Ld 7+, you're planning for it.  You never take it for granted you're just going to pass the test.  This doesn't mean that failed Battle-shock won't cost you the game against an equally skilled player, but you also know that they're dealing with similar odds or worse for their keystone units.

Speaking of your opponents taking Battle-shock, Shadow in the Warp is now universally going to be more impactful.  Well, maybe not against Daemons, but even then you'll probably still use it to try and prevent them from expanding their Shadow.  I like how these two opposed abilities are both named "Shadow."  Seriously, this ability will potentially really turn a game around.  And though there are arguably more consistent and useful army rules, this is the one with the most potential to reek devastation.

It's also going to mean that you'll nearly always try to bring the new Neurotyrant.  Since you only get to use Shadow once a battle, you'll want to make it count.  And inflicting an army wide -1 penalty to your opponent will help that a lot!  The Neurotyrant also helps out with Synapse, though I'm a little sad that the Neuroloids appear to just be tokens.

Finally, we have our Detachment rule.  Adaptive Physiology/Traits are back, and are stronger than ever before!  Each of the three choice provides you with a significant benefit against your opponents army.  This is going to drastically increase the reliability of Tyranid damage.

One thing I didn't talk about with Space Marines is we got some peeks at Combat Patrol.  We now know what both the new Space Marine and Tyranid Combat Patrols will be.  Plus, the teases show us we can use our Prime as just a lone melee monster, or use him as a buffing character.  Additionally, we get to see the weaker version of Endless Swarm, Teeming Broods.  Other than the peek at Termagants that was in the Adepticon Preview, we don't have anything else for this game type.

As a quick aside, we also got to see some Crusade rules.  As the Crusade supplement in Leviathan is focused around a Tyranic war, there will be some crusade rules that specifically apply either to Tyranid or non-Tyranid factions.  The Tyranid only Mass Devouring grants more RP at the end of a battle the more you decimate your opponent.  These rules are continuing to demonstrate a key theme of Tyranids: a terrifying and brutal assault that is heedless of losses or danger.

UNITS

Lets start from the bottom and work our way up.

We got a quick peek at Rippers during Adepticon.  These rules appear to be for Combat Patrol, and will have the rippers attached to your Termagant broods.  I'm not expecting the stats to change much, but they might get some type of Deep Strike special rule in larger games.  Either way, they're OC 1, so GW doesn't want to see rippers used to take objectives again.

The Neurogaunts are my biggest "Let's wait and see," of the reveals.  They're extremely underwhelming.  They remind me of what I called Protogaunts back in 3rd Edition, where you were able to take Termagants slightly cheaper if you took away their Fleshborers (though you still had to give them Spinefists).  The trick here is that they want you to use them to fill out more Synapse for your army.  They also mentioned them being able to protect Synapse creatures, meaning that our Leader beasts might be able to join them.

The problem is that they'll die to a stiff breeze.  So if you can't take big bricks of them for cheap, they're not going to be worth it.  Your opponent will focus them down, knowing that will let them kill your bigger threats while stripping you of Synapse coverage.  Again, we just need more information for them.

Now Termagants are a different story.  Skulking Horrors is massive!  It's like a mini Battle Focus!  It makes me wonder if the reason I can't find the datasheet on Warhammer Community is that GW decided it might be too good.  This is going to make Termagants a potentially dangerous enemy to deal with.  Also, Devourers are back to Strength 4 and are now just a gun.

The Barbgaunt is another one we need to see more rules for.  If split fire is still a thing, Barbegaunts will be an excellent candidate for rushing up the board and harassing enemy infantry.  Disruption Bombardment only requires that the Bio-cannon hits, it doesn't need to wound.

Next we have the new Genestealers Datasheet.  They're going back to a pregame move and now hitting on 2s, just like in current GSC.  But to my surprise they don't have anything like Lethal Hits or the like.  Instead they have Vanguard Predator, which I mentioned is a functional duplicate of Veterans of the Long War.  They're going to absolutely shred light infantry, but will likely struggle to take out their Terminator nemeses unless they're on an objective.

I'm a little sad that Screamer-Killers don't seem to be very good anti-tank anymore.  At Strength 10 and AP-2, they can bully light vehicles, but will struggle with anything Tougher.  They also get to force a Battle-shock test on any unit they can shoot at, continuing the theme that Tyranids are going to be scary this edition.

We also get to see the Rupture Cannon for the Tyrannofex.  I feel like this is showing us a bit of the Tyranid weapon identity.  We're probably going to see a lot of weapons that seem to be high Strength for what they are, but don't have a matching AP.  So Fleshborers get to stay Strength 5 but lost their AP, our monsters melee weapons are only AP-2, and the rupture cannon is a whopping Strength 18, wounding a Rhino on 2s, but only AP-4.  It's also two shots and, if you can get a good position for your 'Fex, hits on 2s.

Finally we have The Swarmlord.  I mentioned the Neurotyrant above, but we still don't have rules for it.  So Swarmy is our only currently revealed Leader beast,  and I capitalized that intentionally.  He'll almost certainly be able to join a unit of Tyrant Guard, because that's probably how their bodyguard rule works now.  But I wonder if he'll be able to Lead any other units like Neurogaunts.

Swarmy has taken a few, both direct and effective, nerfs.  He's no longer on par with a Primarch or Abaddon like he was before.  He can still shred any infantry that he comes across, but you're mostly taking him for his rules.  He's guaranteed additional CP generation, while also Vect'ing an opponents Stratagem.  He also now just comes with his current Warlord trait for additional Synapse range.

As usual, I'm excited to see more of what's in store.

MODELS

Our posterboy for 10th Edition is the new Winged Prime.  This one is a bit of a mixed bag for me.  On the one hand, I love the head sculpt.  It's brimming with hostile, alien intellect!  On the other, the wings feel weird to me.  The combinations of so many extended joints plus the fact they've replaced the lower arms feels wrong.  But maybe they wanted to give him a bit of an uncanny appearance.

The Neurotyrant is also a mixed bag.  My eyes keep being drawn to that weird distended mouth.  But unlike the wings on the Prime, this just looks goofy to me.  It's a shame because the rest of the model is just epic!  Once I've got my hands on it, I might take a stab at a little conversion.  I'm also a little sad his cool little buddies aren't going to be models in game.

As someone who started in 2nd Edition and still has an, in much need of repair, original Carnifex, this is obviously pure win for me.  I just love this piece so much.  Even things people have found controversial just work for me.  Favorite model in Leviathan!

The Von Ryan's Leapers are also all win for me.  I love the feel of action I get from them, as well as their part fanged, part tentacled maw.  I also like how they seem to bridge the evolution between Hormagaunts and Lictors.

I also adore our new Termagants!  Again, they're so full of life and character compared to the old, pseudo multi-pose kit.  We get a few new ripper figures with them too, though they're designed to fit onto bases with our current rippers.

I'm similarly enamored with the Neurogaunts, even if I'm worried about their rules.  Something about them reminds me of the Graboids from the Tremors sequels.  But mostly, they just have that whole so ugly they're cute thing going on.

The Barbguants are another one pushing that uncanny feel for me, but this time in a way that seems to work.  The way the Bio-cannon has distorted and disfigured them feels suitably monstrous.  Another win in my book.

Finally we have the Psychophage.  There are some people who claim this is ripping off the Venom Crawler, but I can see a lot of Tyranid roots from older Epic models in it.  We were doing the whole insect leg thing before Chaos made it cool!  Either way, this is suitably alien and monstrous.  It's a shame we really know next to nothing about it.

WHAT'S NEXT?

As I mentioned above, I don't think we're done with Tyranids for 10th Edition.  I feel like we'll get some more models sprinkled throughout the edition, including a few more big releases before the codex drops.  At minimum, I can't imagine we're getting new Termagants but not new Hormagaunts.  They need new miniatures so badly!  We also really need new Genestealers, but I'm expecting those to drop in a Kill Team box.  It's also hard to imagine we're getting a Winged Prime, but no Tyranid Shrikes to lead.  There's obviously a ton of miniatures I want to see new models for, but the sculptors can only work so fast.

And Eldar still need that proper range refresh . . .