the one you want. But if you have a godly tank of a melee warlord just go for Fo ur.

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1 Why Play Tyranids The Tyranids offer a glut of Monstrous Creatures, hordes of cheap infantry and a mple flyers. They are ruthless and relentless in their mysterious quest to consu me and offer a variety of tactics for the general seasoned enough to not need an auto-win button. Nidzilla? With the incoming 'Tyrannocyte' drop pods, back and bigger than ever. Cheap Hordes? Of course. Close Combat? Check. Shooty armies? Check. Psykers? Che ck. Flyers? Double-check. In short, Tyranids actually offer the tactical flexibility to be able to take on most foes and win. They are an army that will grow with you as you learn their shortfalls and adapt to them. They also offer a change to the armoured legions of Space Marines and their ilk for the painter, with a lot of scope for colour schemes that pop on the table. Of course, the thing to consider is the very...unfavorable past the Nids have ha d with the gutted 5E and 6E codices and splitting good stuff into separate books. Until, that is, the Tyranocytes turned out to not take up any force org. slots. Take as many or as few as you like! If you have enough money to get the supplementary materials such as Dataslates " Leviathan Rising 1, 2 and 3" and "Shield of Baal: Leviathan, for the multitude o f formations allowing even more special combos and rules and extra units in addi tion to a standard Force Org Chart, then this army can get far better. Warlord Traits Luckily, they did forget to restrict us to Tyranid-only Warlord Traits a la the psychic power tables, so you can still roll on the BRB table for your trait. Ser iously Just Use the Big Rule Book Warlord Tables because the Tyranid specific on es are extremely Situational (IE SUCK) Nature's Bane At the beginning of each movement phase select one jungle (for est, trees, swamp, you get the idea) within 12" of the warlord; it becomes carni vorous for the game FAQ'd to dangerous terrain. Unbelievably situational at best because good luck finding a Forest on a City or Desert Table. Better hope for a different one. Heightened Senses The warlord and Nids within 12" have Night Vision. Really only comes into play turn one to shoot into the enemy's deployment zone but what in the Tyranid Codex Can shoot across No Man's land? You're bringing three rupt ure Cannon Tyranofexes perhaps. Synaptic Lynchpin The warlord has an 18" synapse range. The Swarmlord gets t his by default, which honestly is kind of stupid since Mind Eater would be far m ore useful for it, and if a non synapse creature rolls the lynchpin trait it tur ns them into a synapse creature with an extra 6" range to their default Synapse Range. Mind Eater 2 VP for independents slain by the warlord in a challenge. Deathl eaper gets this by default, which is a waste since it's too fragile to stand up to most ICs. Another WHY? Your Flyrants should be flying not challenging. Digestive Denial After deployment, pick one piece of terrain on opponent's s ide that was NOT paid for, the cover save worsens by one (ie 4+ becomes a 5+, et c.) This can be beneficial if you are doing quite a bit of anti light infantry/v ehicle shooting with the Exocrine and is also good generally, but in most cases armour will be the issue, not cover. Meanwhile everyone else has at least severa l weapons/methods they can use to ignore cover however they want. Adaptive Biology The Warlord gains Feel No Pain (5+) on the next movement ph ase after it suffers a wound for the rest of the game, even if you regenerate it. Old One Eye gets this by default, finally something that makes sense. This is

2 the one you want. But if you have a godly tank of a melee warlord just go for Fo ur. Fighter Aces In Skies of Death, you now have a bonus rule allowing you to pay 35 points for o ne of 3 special traits for any Flyer or FMC (The Harridan Flying Gargantuan Crea ture might not qualify for being a fighter ace. But the rules do say that a FGC is treated a normal FMC with the following special rules. Its best to ask your l ocal rules lawyer). Lone Hunter - Total immunity to IB and a +3" to Synapse Range if you have it. This is a great boost, as it finally allows you to bring that Harpy/Hive Crone wherever you want, or bring a few extra goons with your Flyrant as you bombard shit Ȧdapted Physiology - +1 Wound. Nice. Sudden Escape - If you're within 12" of the table edge during an opposed sho oting phase, you can bugger off to Ongoing Reserves before they dakka your ass. Issue is that you'll inevitably have to fly back in, and you'll be just as badly off as you were before leaving. Really this just means you'll start closer to your board edge than befor e. If your flyer always ends its move within 12" of the board edge, it should ne ver be on the field to take a shooting attack and it will be back on the field o n your turn, able to attack from a different angle can help if you have eliminat ed a threat on one side and now want to quickly help the other flank. Powers of the Hive Mind This is the only psychic discipline table your psykers will be rolling on. The g ood news is most of the powers are good in terms of Blessings and screwing up en emy units. While the Great Devourer can't use Rulebook disciplines, Powers of th e Hive Mind still gives you the goodies you need. 7th edition phsychic focus mea ns all your psykers get dominion as a bonus power on top of what you roll...zoan thropes anyone? Primaris. Dominion: Adds 6" to the Psyker's Synapse Range. Pretty decent, ne ver hurts to give your swarms more breathing room from being crammed up. With th e new FAQ for 7th edition out now, Psykers without the synapse rule who cast dom inion gain a 6" synapse for the duration of the power. Catalyst: Psyker and one friendly unit within 12" gains Feel No Pain. What's not to like? Cast this puppy on that 30-strong brood of Devilgaunts in area ter rain with a Venomthrope for a 3+ cover 5+ FNP, and anyone who can't bring Ignore s Cover S6+ weapons is little more than lunch meat. DA HORROR!!!: *ahem*, sorry about that. A malediction that makes an enemy un it up to 24" take a pinning test with a -2 modifier. This one is... Okay. Much l ike Fear, Pinning shouldn't be relied on. Though it can still be useful in certa in situations. Broodlords only know this power. (but seriously, the power is 24", and Broodlords+Genestealers can Infiltrate within 18" in plain sight or 12" wi thout line of sight, making mass-genestealer lists potentially devastating again st armies that aren't immune to Pinning) Onslaught: Oh look, a 24" blessing that lets a unit run AND shoot in the Sho oting phase. Makes up for the relatively short range weapons that need to get cl ose quickly like Impaler Cannons, Devourers, Bio-Plasma and Bio-Plasmic Cannons. A good power to have! Paroxysm: Same as Horror, but instead reducing the unit's Weapon Skill and B allistic skill by D3 (For both when you roll). Its better because making them sh oot at low BS or letting your swarm hit them on 3s is far more useful than Pinni ng. Makes the Haruspex really good at killing elite infantry, what with the gett ing an extra attack for every wound it inflicts(new attacks do not generate new

3 attacks). The previous version was better, but let's count our blessings maledic tions where we can. The new version does have some differences to the old that a re strictly advantageous- Significantly increased range, and it's now a maledict ion instead of a shooting attack, which means it can still be cast while the use r is engaged in combat. Psychic Scream: What they gave us in place of Doom, but for everyone. Basica lly a watered down version of Psychic "Shriek" (See the similarities?), instead of 3d6, you get 2d6 +2. It's a Nova power, but with a range of only 6", it's no t so useful. Not as good, but hey, better than nothing, right? EDIT: This power is absolutely splendid. Think harder - being within 6" of something that can cas t this meeaaannss.. Shadow in the Warp. It's technically 2d6+5, due to Shadow's -3 Ld. Psychic Scream is deadly (A flying Hive Tyrant won't have a problem, but the power is still situational as SitW only affects Psykers so this power won't be used so often. Could be great against Grey Knights, other Tyranids or Deamons though). Warp Blast: A witchfire that costs 2 WC, and you have a choice between a s5 ap3 Small Blast or s10 ap2 Lance. Both are short range (24" Blast, 18" Lance), b ut these powers pack a punch. Zoanthropes still know this power by default thank fully. Melee Weapons Not a whole lot in this section, but our close combat weapons are straightforwar d for what they do. Scything Talons: These got nerfed with Boneswords being right behind these w eapons. They no longer you let you reroll ones anymore, so they're now basically CCW. On Monstrous Creatures these are okay if you want to keep them cheap, othe rwise the only use Talons will see is to grant units the extra attack since they 're free. That's about it. Summary: AP 6 Chainswords. Rending Claws: You know them, you love them. Now they're AP 5, good against Flak Jacket and T-shirt wearing squishes. But their main use is to wound ANYTHIN G on 6s and ignores armour saves. For only five rippers, you can't go wrong with these. Boneswords: The other weapon that got hit by the Nerf Sword, Boneswords are now AP3 rather than AP2. They also lost the ability to force Leadership checks o n 3d6, instant killing those who failed. Now it just instant kill models on an u nsaved wound from 6s. Since you're using a pair, would it be hard to ask if it w as on a 5+ since the LashBone combo also requires a 6? Otherwise, these are stil l good, and useful on Hive Tyrant, but for just five extra Devour Worms you may as well go with the LashBone combo since it outclasses Boneswords (Unless of cou rse you're on a budget or want Rending Claws instead). Lash Whips: Exclusive to Venomthropes (only not, since hive tyrants, warrior s, shrikes, and malanthropes can all take them Tyrants, Warriors and Shrikes can only take them together with Boneswords and Malanthropes have Grasping Tail, wh ich is an uber Lash Whip that only works in challenges) this grants them (And th ose with the LashBone) +3 Initiative in the Fight sub-phase. Very useful, but ha s crap AP. You can't use them alone anyway on other units, and it becomes AP3 wh en paired with the Bonesword. The old lashwips were better since other units in combat with them could benefit from them, and they reduced ALL ENEMY MODELS IN B ASE CONTACT TO INITIATIVE 1 (not +3 to your own Initiative, it made enemies Init iative 1). Hold em in place with lashwips, watch hormagaunts tear em a new assho le. Lash Whip and Bonesword: Same as above, but mixing the two for AP3 attacks p lus the Initiative bonus and chance to instant kill on a roll of 6. Another weap on you can't go wrong. If you have the spare points, slap on Rending Claws and y ou won't have to worry about TEQs ever again! (Note that you have to choose one or the other, either ID or rending. Nid CCWs don't stack anymore, except to gran t +1A if you have two sets of them) which is nice for CC monsters. Crushing Claws: No longer grant d3 extra attacks, instead they give armourba

4 ne and unwieldy as well as being S+1 AP2 and they're now 10pts cheaper. Now wort h using on MC since they're both cheaper and MCs aren't affected by the unwieldy special rule. Slap these on Carnifexes for the worlds fastest can-opener (Stren gth+2d6, a return to the older days of 40K). Baneblades cannot stand up against even two 'fexes with these things. Against even AV 14 you're getting to roll for additional damage 11/13 of the time. With 4 attacks (or 5 on the charge) and a 1 in 3 chance of exploding afterwards. Ranged Weapons Okay, this is going to be the crazy part. The Destroyers of Worlds got a big ran ge of (Pun not intended) Ranged Weapons in the book. To keep this organized and easy to know who can use them, each weapon will be under the selected unit(s) th at are equipped with/can exchange to that weapon, and if they're worth using or not. Hive Tyrant Weapons*2: Twin-linked Deathspitter: Cheapest weapon, these are similar to Twin-lin ked Pulse Carbines, but with extra shots. Pretty decent for its points cost, alt hough it gets overshadowed by this next weapon. Twin-linked Devourer with brainleech worms: Quite a tongue twister, no? In any case, these should be auto include for your Flyrant, because these Devour ers are Elite and Horde killers as they dakka two times better than ordinary Dev ourers and have S6 shots. Two of these can dump 12 shots with rerolls (Plus the fact they're now BS4) and can even glance flyers to death like the StormRaven. A s I've said, these are auto include, otherwise you're doing it wrong! Stranglethorn Cannon: Hmm, a S6 AP5 pie plate with Pinning. A walking Ty rant makes better use to these because they aren't as mobile and the weapon abov e gives Flyrants the best bang for their buck since they can deal more damage. B ut in the case for the footsloggers, this is the better choice because of its lo ng range at 36" and cause Pinning, making the job easier for your Gaunts. Pretty decent at softening up those Marines before your other units charge in. Heavy Venom Cannon: This version is a S9 AP4 cupcake. This one is meh, w hile these are Fire/Necron Warrior killers, and can threat Terminators, the blas t isn't as good and more than likely cover negates the AP (And theres usually a lot of cover). Situational at best. (Oh, almost forgot. You can only equip one c annon per a model) Tervigon Weapons*2: There ain't much to equip them with, but the Thorax Biom orphs are worth using to make em more versatile. It makes them more expensive, b ut if the Miasma Cannon too pricey for you, then check out the template weapons below. One of them should make your Tervigon a threat. Termagant Weapons: Fleshborers: The traditional compact-carbine-nest, these are basically B olt Pistols. A good weapon to stick with although better range would have been n ice. Spinefists: Now that these are free, you have a choice between stronger shots or reliable hits. Either way, Spinefists are also good, it will come down to your preference and who you're facing. Spike Rifle: Another freebie, except this Harpoon Launcher acts more lik e an Assault 1 Lasgun (IE, even worse). If you want a longer range weapon, give this one a skip because the trade off isn't worth it. Also, no bits exist, so yo u will need to do some conversions if you want to use this weapon. (Tip: Don't b other) Devourer: A favorite by many, this thing has a good amount of dakka for the price of a Termagant, meaning you'll pay twice the price of a Gaunt. But for having longer range, granting you strong slugs (Or worms) and just outgun the r est of the options, how can you argue for its expensive cost? A fantastic choice IF you can afford them. A 30 strong brood with these things can and will slaugh

5 ter any other infantry on the map if they are caught in the open in range of the entire brood. Strangleweb: Huh, forgot to include this in the list. Anyway, every ten Gaunts in the unit can take this weapon for- wait, it's 5pts? Oh, its a Template weapon, okay that's fine, and they're... S2 Ap- and Pinning? Ugh, maybe it was best to not bother mentioning this crappy web shooter. Just take Devourers, or s tick with your Fleshborers. The Template damage is too weak and Harpy's with Str anglethorne Cannons does a better job Pinning down entrenched units. You only ha ve to cover two MEQs with the template to beat the wound output of a fleshborer, so for 5 pts it might not be a terrible investment. Mixed Weapons: The big change and lets be honest other than point cost r eductions the only important option is that you can now throw a row of othergaun ts in front of your Devilgaunts. Warriors/Shrikes/Prime*1 Weapons: Devourer: The default weapon, it gives then the dakka they need. Good to keep overall. Spinefists: Why would you give up the Devourers for these? Jokes aside, these are decent since they're AP 5. They're more useful on Shrikes since they'r e faster, but in most cases the Devourer outclasses Spinefists, in terms of rang e and damage output. Deathspitter: Even more deadly than Devourers, your get S+1 and AP5 for 5pts a pop. Solid choice if Devourers aren't doing it for you. Barbed Strangler*1 : A S4 AP5 pie plate Not bad, but with BS3 (For Warri ors and Shrikes), it would be difficult to land a hit, even more so to wound if they're MEQs or in cover. If a Prime is with them, sure it can be useful. Venom Cannon*1 : Stronger with S6 AP4, but they're small blast. As menti oned above, you should save the points for something else unless the Prime is ha nging out with them. (Note, like the Hive Tyrant you can take only one of these blast weapons per unit) Rippers/Sky-Slashers Spinefists: You don't get these for free this time, and cost a Termagant each. In friendly games they're great, but in general don't bo ther as it makes them more expensive. If they were half the price, then they wou ld be an auto take. Now in 7th edition units with the Swarms USR are proper scoring so now t hat deep-striking these lil' gribblies is an option, Spinefists now give the Rip pers something to do with 12+ twin-lined shots on the turn they arrive before he ading towards the prey on that objective. Hive Guard Weapons: Impaler Cannon: Awesome. Krak Missles that Ignores Cover and don't requi re line of sight makes these a must have. Short range and AP4 tho, but they're s till awesome. Hive Guard earned the name of premier transport hunter in the game thanks to these guns. Shockcannon: Not as good because they don't Ignore Cover, even shorter a t range, and you need line of sight. Being blast and Haywire makes them good at glancing all vehicles and even penetrate on 6s. If Shockcannons were free to swa p (And don't require line of sight), then they would be worth considering. As it is, save the points and stick with Impaler Cannons. Pyrovore Flamespurt: Basiclly a Heavy Flamer. No need to go into details sin ce you won't be using them sadly. Haruspex Grasping Tongue: If you're familier with the Bloodthirster's whip, then this is the Tyranid's version, but with Gulp! If you roll a six to hit, it counts as a presicion shot! Useful when you roll it, you can pick which TEQ you want to eat! Gargoyle Fleshborers: Not much different here, but since they're jump infant

6 ry, they can get closer and get more shots in. Ravener Weapons: Spinefists: Cheapest out of the three, with a good number of shots/attac ks and with them being Beasts plus their mediocre BS, these are a great pairing for the two. Good to put on a couple of Raveners. Devourer: Couple of points more to equip, otherwise same weapon as other units. Deathspitter: What the hell?! 10pts per a model? Well they certainly are better than Devourer, but damn it's expensive. If you want a fast moving model that can use a Deathspitter, consider using them on Shrikes since they're both c heaper and generally a better unit because they're Synapse Creatures. Otherwise it's a decent choice. Harpy Weapons: Twin-linked Stranglethorn cannon: A single S6, AP5, Pinning Large Blast, with the added benefit of being twin-linked. This is going to increase the Harp y's role in meat-grinding infantry, which is largely it's most important role. T he only time this loadout will fail to disappoint is when your opponent is fully mechanized. Which leads to the next weapon choice. Twin-linked Heavy Venom cannon: This costs 5 points more that may be an up/downgrade depending on how you use it. The S9 on this weapon is going to allo w you to instant-death T4 units, but first consider how many of those models you 're going to hit. Most multi-wound models are typically on medium bases. Disrega rding the twin-linked attribute, when spread out, (or even slightly spaced apart ) you're only going to hit one or two models at best. Instead, intend to use the HVC in tandem with the speed of the FMC for taking out side armor on transports. Spore Mine Cysts: Being S4 AP4 and Barrage, this makes Orks, Tau, and th e like scare their infantry with the amount of damage it can deal. Cover won't s ave them this time! If the Harpy misses, then she drops d3 Spore Mines on the pl ace it lands. See the unit for more details. Hive Crone Weapons: Drool Cannon: This mouth watering template will scare the pants off of l ight infantry, although it lacks Torrent (And the ability to shoot from any dire ction) and it doesn't ignore MEQ saves as always. Still, not bad of a weapon. Even though, ironically, the Crone can fire any weapon 360 degress b ecause it's a FMC and not a vehicle, and now the Heldrake cannot. Tentaclids: Sweet Hive Mind, Seeking and Haywire missiles? Now we have a way to deal with flyers aside our special Vector Stirke. Dark Angel players wis hed their Blacksword missiles had these rules. The downside? One use only, and y ou have four, so use them wisely. Ironically, the Seeking rule makes the Hive Cr one more accurate against units in the air than units on the ground. Carnifex Weapons: Bio-Plasma: A somewhat useless weapon upgrade. With a 12" firing range, most units Bio-Plasma is good at taking out are also amazingly good at anal-plow ing Carnifexes. Now consider this, taking Bio-Plasma on a dakkafex is going to i mpair the ability to fire two Brainleech Devourers, something you paid to use. T aking Bio-Plasma on bare bones Carnifexes is just asking for trouble, as you'd h ave to deliberately get in range of dangerous units and then only be able to ass ault them since you shot at them. Avoid taking unless you have a hardon for acid -drooling mouths (I do). Twin-linked Deathspitters: Again, this should be considered using if you 're low on points, especially if you want to run three in a Brood or use one in low point games. Beyond that, this weapon lacks the awesome power this next weap on holds Ṫwin-linked Devourers with Brainleech Worms: Geez, there's the long name again! But seriously, if you didn't equip your Carnifexes with these weapons, p

7 unch yourself in the face real hard. These are popular for the same reason as wh y Hive Tyrants use these, except you're still stuck with BS3. With two Brainleec h Devourers, this set up only cost 150 pts, so take another Carnifex if you want more Dakka! Much like the Hive Tyrant, accept no substitute. Stranglethorn Cannon: Better than a Heavy Venom cannon -- situationally better than Brainleech Devourers. Consider taking if you don't want to put your Carnifexes in range of your opponents short to medium range firepower. If your l ooking for a mix of melee and shooting for your Carnifexes, however, taking this and Crushing Claws will cost the same as a Dakkafex. While not as awesome, it's still a good choice. Pinning can also play a role in some situations. Heavy Venom Cannon: These should typically be avoided on Carnifexes. You 're going to spend a lot of points on a unit that is going to be outshined by ot her units that perform the same role. They lack the mobility to hit anything but front armor, have BS3 SMALL blast, and can't handle air units like Brainleech D evourers can. Biovore Spore Mine Launcher: Excellent cheap pie plates with Barrage on a 3 wound Brood, they excel at killing light infantry behind cover. Drop these on a unit sitting on an objective, and use their blood and body parts to make yoursel f some salsa when victory is yours. Trygon Bio-Electric Pulse: These mind bullets are the bane to light infantry s as not only they have strong shots, but the fact the Trygon can Overwatch, whi ch can surprise new players that weren't expecting to recieve return fire for ch arging in. Trygon Prime Bio-Electric Pulse with Containment Spines: A beefed up ver sion, extra range and dakka for the Prime. This puts it on par with two Twin-lin ked Brainleech Devourers, as AP5 can be an advantage in some cases. Exocrine Bio-Plasmic Cannon: If you think the Bio-Plasma is weak sauce, then you're going to love this. The option to switch from Large Blast or Assault 6 P lasma shots makes this a must have as the versatility of this Plasma Cannon is a wesome. Best of all, it lacks the Gets Hot rule, so find a place to sit to get t he extra BS point, and start blasting shit! Tyrannofex Weapons Acid Spray: It's a Drool Cannon with Torrent added to it. This one is me nt to take away cover from infantry that relies on them, and S6 is terrifying to boot. Fleshborer Hive: Wow, an Assault 20 bolter at 18". While not as impressi ve as the Acid Spray, it's a five point upgrade and is meant to take on blobs li ke Boyz and Cultists. But at BS3, about half the shots will hit. It still haves it's uses tho, so it isn't a terrible weapon. Rupture Cannon: Now with Smash getting nerfed, the Rupture Cannon can fi nd some use in taking on tanks. Don't expect to blow up Land Raiders with this, but it can help take a hull point or two off. Combine this with a Carnifex with Crushing Claws, and you have a way to deal with mech lists. Thorax Biomorphs: Template weapons that're all 10pts. Only one can be taken per model. These are your choices: Desiccator Larvae: A Fleshbane template with no AP value. Useful on high Toughness units and Daemons. Electroshock Grubs: Pulse Rifle template plus Haywire. Probably the best against Hordes and Vehicles before charging in. If a walker charges a model wit h this thing the look on your opponents face will make the 10 points back straig ht away. Sherddershard Beetles: S3 with Rending and Shred. This is your TEQ kille r right here Ṫhese can NOT be fired any longer in addition to other weapons, kind a takes some of their punch. Nice to throw on a model you want to have two shoot

8 ing attacks without giving up an artefact/melee weapon. (*1 = Cannot equip the weapon. *2 = May equip a Thorax Biomorph.) There's more to come. Stay tune /tg/ Bio-Artefacts Yes, they're really called Bio-Artefacts. Really. As you might expect from the r est of the Codex, most of these are of situational use at best. Maaaaaw-Claaaaaws (of Thyrax): They're Rending Claws with Assimilate, so the model using them gets to say "resistance is futile". Jokes aside it gives the b ug Preferred Enemy against an entire Codex the first time it kills a model from that Codex in close combat. So pretty much a not so good Malanthrope... It sound s neat and it's fairly cheap; however, it suffers the same issue as the Dimensio nal Key in Chaos Marines and Porta-Rack in Dark Angels: by the time you unlock P referred Enemy (which isn't exactly super-amazing on a single unit anyway) the g ame will already be mostly over. Still, if you were planning to take Rending Cla ws anyway, this is a decent choice. You might want to consider giving them to a Trygon Prime: while some of the bonuses are lost on a Monstrous Creature, Prefer red Enemy might very well prove the difference between wiping a unit/vehicle or being stuck in another round of combat. A flying Hive Tyrant makes the best use as he can get to combat very quickly and makes him strike at S7 with Smash. It's also cheaper than Old Adversary, plus it's a CCW, so for a Close combat or a mi xed Flying Hive Tyrant, you can't go wrong. Alternative Opinion:Snap the Maw Claws on a Tyranid Prime in a unit of gants/gaunts of your choice and make him your Warlord. Not only does this g ive the entire unit Preferred Enemy if the Prime kills a model in CC but it also means your opponent has to chew through wounds to kill your Warlord Miasma Cannon: It's an Assault 1, Poisoned (2+) shot with AP 4 and a choice of 36" Blast or Template. It's... alright, but AP 4 is a pretty big handicap aga inst everyone that isn't 'Nids, Orks, Imperial Guard, Dark Eldar or Tau, althoug h some Eldar lists will hate it too. Also you occasionally get Marines spamming scouts trying to be a wannabe ranger army, but still... You do get Ignores Cov er on the Template. Still, it's 25 points, which is usually better spent elsewhe re. That said, adding it to a Trygon/Trygon Prime gives it two shooting attacks when it deep strikes.. adding it to a Tervigon gives it a ranged attack at 36".. there are applications, but they all involve consolidating your points in your MCs, it's up to you how much you want to do that. Alternative Take: Equip this bad boy to a Trygon Prime, pop it up right next to those irritating scouts/eldar/guard or anything with a low armor save an d flamer template them into oblivion! Anything that survives can eat the rest of the shooting from the Trygon Prime. Alternatively slap it on a Tyranid Prime, a nd stick him with Dakkafexes and you have a good ranged unit. It's only 5 pts mo re than the Venom Cannon and it's the only one the Prime can equip, so why not? A Second Alternative Take: Put this on a troop tervigon have it sit on a backfield objective (with bivores and an exocrine if you like and provide synap se) if anything comes to close suddenly their being attacked and shot at by term agants for a round. The Norn Crown: The Norn Crown isn't actually an item that you can take. If you actually take it in an army list, you will automatically be sent a letter to join the Games Workshop Design Studio, because clearly you're bad enough at det ermining balance that you'll fit right in! It adds 6" to the user's Synapse rang e. For 40 points. You know, that same thing that a Warlord Trait and the Primari s power do. Okay, so, sure, you can extend Synapse to a really far range if you combine the three (for a synapse range of 30 inches), and you might not have a c hoice if your army list consists of one Synapse creature and two hundred Gaunts or something. But, seriously. 40 points.situational at absolute best. Alternative Opinion: While this upgrade is laughable, remember that both the Tyranid and Trygon Prime isn't a Psyker, and the Tervigon can only cast one

9 power. This is when the Norn Crown comes in. While it's expensive (An appropria te word I would give this Artefact), Synapse is very important in this edition. The Primes can definitely find use, either coming in via deep strike and act as a back up Synapses Creature, be able to footslog with a lot of Gaunts and can ca st one of the powers from the PotHM, or stay in the backfield babysitting Biovor es and Gaunts on an objective. Again, while expensive, some will still pay for i t on those that needs it without wasting their power, or can't use the power, -D ominion. The Ymgarl Factor: So, Ymgarl Genestealers were removed (guess they rejoined a hive fleet like they wanted), but they get a cameo of sorts in this Bio-Artef act. Each turn, a model with this Bio-Artefact gets to pick one of three upgrade s (similar to Obliterators, albeit with upgrades instead of weapons), of which t he most important is +1 to armour save. Now, this is pretty nice, but there are some pretty big caveats. First, you can only change it at the beginning of the A ssault phase. Second, you must change each turn. Finally, it's 40 points. A perm anent +1 to armour save might have been worth it, but you're going to have to sw itch every other turn even after you do get into combat so it's not exactly cons istent and with its effectiveness only extending to the assault phase it's only worth it on a fast monster you don't want to get rocket sniped to death as it cr osses the board in one or two turns. (These boosts only last for the Assault pha se and not the turn) Reaper of Obliterax: The Reaper tries (and mostly fails) to be a bonesword & lashwhip + 1, which is to say it's a bonesword/lashwhip combo that also has a + 1 S bonus and Shred. For 25 points more than a normal Lash Whip and Bonesword, t hough only 15 points more than a Lashbone and Toxin Sacs, if you don't mind woun ding T8 a little less often. Excepting of course the fact that you can put it on a Trygon Prime. A Mother Fucking Multi Armed Sword Wielding Snake Monster. Mode l one up with tits and you can run Shiva all over the place eating everything. T he basic here is that the Lashbone is only available to a few units and the arti fact makes it available to a few more albeit at higher points. If you want a Ter vigon to actually be threatening in close combat, you can add this to it too, ma king it swing at initiative 5 so it's actually a problem for power sword-wieldin g Marines. Also worth mentioning that re-rolling wounds makes getting that 6 for ID even more likely, which could come up if you didn't take toxin sacs or the r e-roll from toxin sacs doesn't apply. Alternative Opinion: A Hive Tyrant with the Reaper of Obliterax can stri ke at the same time as a Daemon Prince, hit's harder than he does, ignores his p ower armor at AP2, and can instant death him on a 6 (With a Shred reroll don't f orget)this is one of the few ways in which a Tyranid can best a Prince in close combat. *WARNING*: DO NOT Send this Hive Tyrant after any Greater Daemons other than the Lord of Change and perhaps the Unclean one. You will die horribly if yo u think the Reaper of Obliterax can help you solo a Bloodthirster Biomorphs Acid Blood: For every unsaved wound the bug takes the enemy unit makes an In itiative test and suffers a S5 AP2 hit for every failed one. Better then Ichor B lood (CSM), worse than Burning Blood(Daemons). Can be hilarious when that one su rviving terminator who just killed your monster gets melted by his own attack an d you still get the kill point. Adrenal Glands: Fleet and Furious Charge, cheaper for units that already hav e Fleet. Except Trygons. Regeneration: It Will Not Die on a 4+. This is amazing on monsters, except w hen the opponent actually understands how to shoot an MC to death in one turn, i n which case you just wasted (cost of unit)+30 points. Toxic Miasma: All enemies in The entire assault take a S3 AP- Poisoned (4+) hit at initiative step 1. One use only. Toxin Sacs: Poisoned (4+) for melee. Decent on Gaunts although expensive Spine Banks: Count-as assault grenades, same profile as a thrown frag grenad e too except the entire brood can fire them off.

10 Flesh Hooks: Your other source of pseudo-assault grenades; 6" S user and Ass ault 2. No longer Rending. Wings: Slap these on a Tyrant and start up your own Flying Circus. Tail Biomorphs none of these benefit from any other biomorphs or blessings. WYSI WYG. Does it benefit from unit type rules? i.e. Carnifex monstrous creature smas h effect to ignore armor in close combat? No, this is specifically ruled against. Also does not benefit from adrenal glands or toxin sacs. Mace Tail: S8 AP- and Unwieldy. Amusingly you can ignore the Unwieldy part s ince the only units that can take it are MCs, and it's the unwieldy rule itself that allows MCs to ignore it, and not any property or rule of monstrous creature s themselves. Prehensile Pincher: S6 AP5. (Red Terror is stuck with this. Which is great, since it has a better S and AP than the Red Terror does with the rest of its att acks) (yeah but this doesn't count toward the swallow whole attack) Thresher Scythe: S4 AP4 Rending. Toxinspike: S1 AP6 Poisoned (2+). Unit Analysis 7th edition for Tyranids, a couple of points that apply to the changes of the ra ce overall. Psychic Powers: Unfortunately Tyranids at present cannot swap or exchange ps ychic powers for any powers within the psychic disciplines. They may only use Po wers of the Hive Mind. Yes, no more Main Rule Book psychic disciplines. This is an ENORMOUS nerf as it means the Tyranids no longer have any source of Eternal W arrior, making MC-heavy lists especially vulnerable to any source of the Instant Death rule (Distort weapons, force weapons, etc). The only real benefit the 7E Psychic rules have is that now all psykers get Dominion for free. Make the best of it. Poison: New rules for poison let you use your strength if it's better, while gaining a reroll on the wound if your S exceeds the T of the defender. Monstrou s creatures can get Toxin Sacs for mere pennies and the upgrade is now highly re commended for them with how they redid Smash. Sure, you lose out on the heavy hi ts by getting only one Sx2 hit, but you also get all your non-how attacks at AP2. New Instinctive Behavior rules. Each Behavior has one of 3 results- roll a d 6 to determine which one, with the first being 1-3, the second being 4-5, and th e third only occurring on a 6. Given that the first (and most common one) is alw ays the worst, keep your best units in synapse range- nothing could be more humi liating than having two members of a Carnifex brood eat each other because they moved too far away from their synapse creature. Lurk: 1-3 Fall Back / 4-5 Can shoot only when in cover / 6 Can shoot onl y when in cover, gains Stealth Hunt: 1-3 Go to Ground / 4-5 Shoot closest unit / 6 Shoot closest enemy unit, gains Preferred Enemy Feed: 1-3 Inflicts hits on themselves / 4-5 Charge closest enemy unit / 6 Charge closest enemy unit, gains Rage Single model units ignore Feed 1-3 results, instead acting as if the y rolled a 4 or 5. Fearless models ignore Hunt 1-3 results, instead acting as if they r olled a 4 or 5. A pair of melee biomorphs is now considered to be only 1 CCW, in a bit of in itially-awkward streamlining. The intended equivalence is "my Space Marine has o nly one Chainsword" -> "my Tyranid has only one Pair of Talons". The end result

11 of this streamlining: a lower number of attacks all around - for some units that exchange talons for guns. Hive Tyrants, Tyranid Primes, Warriors, Shrikes, Gene stealers, and Broodlords have the same number of attacks on their profile as the y did in the last codex, but can now take two sets of melee weapons for a net in crease in attacks (no scything rerolls though. Still more attacks.) Hint: Give y our broodlord an extra attack for 4 pts. HQ Units Hive Tyrant: Now with BS 4. The Hive Tyrant is often regarded as the "leader " of the Hive because they are gigantic monsters with synapse power. Synapse kee ps all the little monsters from running around out of your control, therefore th e Hive Tyrant is the boss. Unfortunately, Hive Tyrants are very expensive in the 7th edition, clocking in at 1.65x the cost of any no-name Space Marine HQ base but lacking invulnerable saves or the ability to join any squads (Tyrant Guard a re a special case, Hive Tyrants are never Independent Characters and cannot leav e a unit of Tyrant Guard once they join it) and tend to get focus-fired to death when on their own. Their upgrades are also pretty expensive, but they sport a g ood range of versatility that can make or break the Tyrant on the battlefield su ch as wings or toxin sacs. Hive Commander and Old Adversary are worthy upgrades, HC gives a friendly unit Outflank, while OA is Prefered Enemy (Everything!) in close combat only now. And it's no longer an AoE upgrade. However, Tyrants can n ow take multiples of those. Indescribable Horror is okay, but many armies either ignores Fear or have high Ld. If you consider taking one of these without eithe r wings or tyrant guard in a game bigger than 500, punch yourself in the face - hard. Winged Tyrants: now count as FMC and can soar above the battlefield rain ing down death or landing into assaults. A note on the new glancing rules for ve hicles; it's quite easy to get to the softer side and rear arcs on most vehicles with the tyrant's newfound mobility, and 12 Twin-Linked Strength 6 shots averag e [Whoo hoo BS4] hull points on AV10 and hull points on AV11. Splend id! In 6th edition, wings make the Tyrant MUCH more survivable. Tyrant can no lo nger get a 2+ armor save so tyrant guard are a must as everything with the word power in it will shank him. Since Nids lack effective anti-air, Wings are the on ly real option now that they can no longer use Armored Shell. It bears noting th at Flyrants are much cheaper, and with slightly more viable FA FMCs the possibil ity of saturated flying circus gets scary especially with double chart [not that anyone does that]. They also get two powers translating to a 1:3 chance of gett ing Warp lance. Flying Tyrants with the Ymgarl factor are actually a viable choi ce since they can now ignore air defence batteries for the one turn that they ne ed to destroy them. Walking Tyrant: If you do choose to footslog (and there's a reason it's called foot slogging), there are a few misleading loadouts to recognize. Heavy V enom Cannons are a waste of the Tyrant's potential. People consider combining th e Stranglethorn with the Miasma Cannon for anti-infantry. Don't do this. It is e xpensive at 40 points. The Miasma cannon is only a SMALL blast, and if you want to get in range to be using its template mode, then you might as well be using t he Devourers with Brainleech Worms. Speaking of Devourers, don't take these. If you're using short ranged guns, you might as well be taking Wings for a few reas ons. While you're in combat, you're wasting the points you spent on Devourers wh ile simultaneously inhibiting the Tyrant's full combat potential. While you're o utside of combat, your expensive Tyrant Guard remain only as extra wounds instea d of close combat beasts. Equip your Tyrants for what they'll be best at -- clos e combat. Give him Old Adversary and call it a day. If you're playing against hi gh initiative armies, give him a Lash Whip and Bonesword. Another Opinion: A Hive Tyrant without Wings is more reliable in get ting to close combat. The reason why you should give him a Stranglethorn Cannon is to give him a ranged weapon so he can shoot at the enemy back, plus Pinning h elps your swarm a lot. A recommended loadout is to give him, as previously menti oned, the Lash Whip and Bonesword with either the Stranglethorn or the Miasma Ca

12 nnon. The latter is much better, as for only five points more than the Venom Can non, it has poisoned (2+), and it can be converted into a template, which also w ounds on a 2+. Although it can't do much against vehicles, its versatility makes up for that. The cannon makes him versatile and he has enough attacks to go aga inst other Monstrous Creatures and Walkers. If you just want to rip and tear inf antry and the like, the winged Hive Tyrant is a better choice overall. Exerpt from jy2 on DakkaDakka Tactics: Tyrant Guard: They're S5, T6 with 2 wounds, 3+ armor, Rending Claws and Scything Talons. If you're planning on footslogging the Swarmlord across the boa rd, Tyrant Guard are your means to get them there. They're really handy, but wou ld 3 wounds and/or a 2+ armor save be too much to ask for? They are stated to be pound for pound the most well armoured tyranids, for fucks sake the Hive Mind d ecided not to give them eyes so the enemy couldn't shoot those and they stole sp ace marine fused ribs and black carapace! Still, Tyrant Guards can automatically take Look Out, Sir wounds from the Hive Tyrant and Swarmlord without rolling, s o you can now place them in the back and troll your opponent with 5th edition wo und allocation! Additionally, they can now take lashwhip/bonesword or Crushing C laws, which will give them S6, ap2, armourbane, and unwieldy. It's an interestin g use for Tyrant guards, but conditional, especially if you opt for the Tyrannoc yte (as the Tyrant will fill one up by himself due to the transport capacity). Bizarre Note: In the list that won LVO 2015, two Flyrants from the L eviathan detachment, *each* took a single Tyrant Guard w/ Adrenal Glands. Now, t his may sound absolutely insane; after all, wouldn't attaching Flyrants to an in fantry unit defeat the point of them having wings? There are no rules that actua lly require you to run Tyranids and Tyrant Guard in the same unit, so the player just ran the two solo Tyrant Guard as objective-grabbers/campers while his flyr ants did their thing. With a 3+ save and toughness 6, it would take dedicated he avy weapons to shift them off, and with enough other targets... Tervigon: Tervigons were the bread and butter of the Tyranid codex, but now they've taken the brunt of the nerfing. While they are listed as an HQ choice, t hey should always be taken as troops because there's a reason why no other codex can have ObSec Psyker Monstrous Creatures (hint: it's cheesy). Of course, there 's a catch to this -- you need to have 30 Gaunts in your army for each Tervigon you want to field as a Troops choice, and the Gaunts can't move or assault on th e turn they spawn. On top of the 35 point increase for the Tervigon itself, that means that the cost of using a single Tervigon as a Troops choice has gone up b y 105 points! Tervigons are really simple to use too as besides just keeping the m on objectives, all you have to worry about is when to spawn and when you know her time is up. If you care at all about the Tervigon's ability to actually figh t in close combat, feel free to throw Maw-claws of Thyrax on it for 10pts. 15 pt s is okay for Crushing Claws, but at the same time the Tervi's Initiative is 2 w hether you take Claws or not. Still, 15pts isn't awful for the considerable anti armour power (not that MCs in general need any help against armor in assault. C onsider taking the Reaper instead, it pushes the Tervi up to initiative 5). Also, keep in mind that Brood Progenitor no longer gives Toxin Sacs and Adrenal Glan ds to entire broods of Termagants, but Counter Attack instead, and the buff is n ow a 12" bubble. Counter Attack no longer requires a Leadership test, so now the buff is worth using on your Termagants. That said, any termagants spawned from the Tervigon will be codex gaunts. There's no way to give them other upgrades an d the newly spawned gaunts won't be able to move or assault on the turn they're spawned, making them easy targets for anything with access to pie plates. On top of that, if the enemy is smart enough to aim for the Tervigon with a high stren gth, AP3 or better weapon and actually pops her, all those gaunts are going to g et faceraped harder than ever before now that the psychic backlash radius is dou bled (so weigh the cost/benefits of taking Regeneration on her, it tends to be h elpful, most armies are unlikely to kill the entire monster in one turn giving h

13 er a chance to heal quite a lot). They're still worth fielding as Tervigons stil l help out the army, but you can't run an army of them anymore as it'll be very expensive ( Plus they can't be Warlords anymore since they're missing the Charac ter profile actually they can be if you have no characters which, seeing as you' re playing tyranids is quite likely), so it's best to use them as buffers for yo ur Gaunts and non-synapse units (With the Primaris blessing). Alternatively rule s as written; you can now spawn (after the move) on a turn you outflank the mama -bug with the Tyrant's Hive Commander ability. tl;dr - Take Tervigon as Troops, spawn Termagants, move them to a different Synapse Creature before they get Back lashed, profit. Tyranid Prime: Last edition the Prime was a middleweight boxer fighting in a lightweight division. Now he clocks in at 125 points. His only upgrade, aside f rom the Wargear table, is Flesh Hooks. In addition you can take anything from th e Bio-Artifacts, basic bio-weapons, and melee bio-weapons. However, once all is said and done, the only upgrades you want to look at are Boneswords, Lash Whips, and the Norn Crown. The upgrades are pretty explanatory; ignore everything else because they're either too expensive or ill-suited for the unit. The most impor tant aspect to discuss is its special rules. Synapse Creature, Shadow in the War p, and Independent Character. These rules constitute for the exaggerated price o f the HQ. Putting the Prime in a unit will make it the only implacable Synapse u nit in the codex. This allows the Prime for Look Out, Sir exploits too. Place it in front of Gaunts to allocate wounds to the models just behind him. Unfortunat ely, Independent Characters can't join Monstrous Creatures, so no Tyranid Prime hanging out with the Carnifexes. Overall, an expensive support HQ that will earn its points back if you utilize its full potential. Exerpt from Unyielding Hunger on DakkaDakka Tactics: Special Characters The Swarmlord: The ancient unstoppable Swarmlord is a model begging to be a part of a "Deathstar" unit. Reason being that the Swarmlord is massive, devastat ingly powerful, unreasonably expensive (in fact it got a price increase in the c odex, but a minor one at 5pts), possesses a high demand for resources during the game, and has laughably stupid weaknesses for all it took to get the damn thing. The Swarmlord basically reads like a simple flow chart; is he in assault? if n o: get into assault, if yes: win assault. Its most glaring weakness is hitting i t with six Krak missiles or any equivalent will statistically put it down withou t a fight since every missile wounds on a 2+ and ignores the damn thing's armor save. However, the Swarmlord is a Psyker (Mastery Level 3) and has several speci al abilities that buff either himself or nearby units in varying ways. It also g ets an invulnerable save in close combat and has a ridiculously high WS. If it i s in close combat, it will seriously skullfuck whatever it's fighting. It also g ets to add 1 to all its reserve rolls and can give its unit or a friendly unit w ithin 18" Furious Charge, Monster Hunter, or Preferred Enemy till end of turn. B ut with only an invulnerable save in close combat, the ability to roll for a War lord Trait, or Eternal Warrior, it's nowhere even close to being the death machi ne it used to be especially without the old glory of biomancy. Also, they took a way his ability to force enemies in close combat to reroll their invulnerable sa ves, so even in assault he's not the rape train he used to be. Still able to gim p almost anything tho. Deathleaper: Inexplicably made into an HQ unit, Deathleaper is per-point the most fragile unit in the codex, partially to compensate for the relative diffic ulty one can have in killing him. All shooting at him is reduced to a Snap Shot, so non-melee armies will have trouble with him (except Tau with their Markerlig hts), and it makes him immune to blasts and flamers. Unfortunately, the special rules have very situational usage. One allows the Tyranid player to pick an enem y model and lower its leadership by D3, which is useful for negating bonuses fro