GAMES WORKSHOP 99120106042" Tyranid Hive Tyrant/The Swarmlord Plastic Kit

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Hive Fleet Adaptations: Rather than take one of the ‘big 6’ Hive Fleets, choose two rules from this section to make your own. I’ve chosen Prey-sight (seen above – Ed.) and Metamorphic Regrowth, which lets all models in your army heal a wound at the start of your turn!

Warlord Trait: Monstrous Hunger – An unmodified roll of 6 to wound inflicts a mortal wound in addition to normal damage. It’s not terrible, but the potential damage output from this is minimal compared to the survivability/utility you can get from the other options. C Synaptic Enhancement – The model gains the Shadow in the Warp special rule and SYNAPSE keyword. Great for extending your Synaptic Link chain and handing out imperatives at better range. Especially good on Harpies against factions with psychic units, as you can ram some Shadow down their throat early. This will notably also give you 1-3 fails to wound as Leviathan. A+ Below are the six main Hive Fleets, each of which include a Hive Fleet Adaptation (HFA), a unique Adaptive trait which can be exchanged, as well as a unique Warlord Trait, Relic, and Stratagem.HQ: Winged Hive Tyrant (Adrenal Glands, Power: Psychic Scream, Power: Onslaught, WLT: Adaptive Biology, Relic: Reaper of Obliterax) 225pts, -2CP Modern Tyranids have the potential to excel in almost every phase, and competitively it’s recommended you plan your list around this concept. All of the strong units are good enough to just brute force a win in many circumstances, but you’ll find that top players bring other tools along with them to play better to the mission. Leaning too hard into Nidzilla territory means secondaries are more difficult, but leaning too hard into the horde can mean you don’t have damage output necessary to clear important targets. In the end, it’s all about proper balance. Naturalised Camouflage – Any time a unit is receiving the benefits of cover, add 1 to any armour saving throw. This is a neat survivability bump, as it doesn’t specify Light Cover only, so Dense also grants the bonus. Obviously you can’t be in cover all the time and its only useful for INFANTRY , BEAST , and SWARM units, so not helpful for a MONSTER -heavy list. B- Exoskeletal Reinforcement – Units treat an armour penetration value of -1 as 0 instead. A slight bump in durability, but it is certainly no Armour of Contempt . Probably best to skip it as AP varies so heavily faction-to-faction. D

Endless Swarm (1CP) – During the Command phase, select one ENDLESS MULTITUDE unit and return d3+3 models to that unit. These models can be placed in Engagement Range of an enemy unit only if the unit is already in Engagement Range of that unit. If you’re fielding a horde list this is going to be a standard, as its a way to bolster your better units that will be taking fire. Generally useful/good if you have those types of Troops on the table. A Units are treated as having the benefit of Light Cover, unless they already have Light Cover in which case they additionally have Heavy Cover. Stratagem: Deepest Shadow – If an enemy psyker fails a psychic test within 18″ of a KRONOS PSYKER , inflict d3 mortal wounds and until the end of the phase any additional failed tests within that same range also inflict d3 mortal wounds. Against psyker-heavy armies this can potentially be very, very strong if dropped in right location, especially considering Shadow in the Warp and the Psychic Augmentation Synaptic Imperative can take tests to a -2 modifier. This is all well and good, but be mindful of matchups–this is worthless against an army without psykers and if they only have a few it’s not going to be all that impactful. B Another unit that got a huge glow-up from its previous iterations, the Lictor is now an actual threat to models in close combat. With its speed, deployment options, and defensive buffs there’s actually a good chance it’s actually going to make it into combat. The trouble being that aside from a distraction or potential assassin for minor characters it’s a touch overcosted and competes with a huge number of good Elite choices. If Cranial Feasting sounds like a good secondary to pursue they’re not necessarily a terrible idea, but players aware of their threat are going to wrap choice targets when possible. Competitively this role is likely played by Deathleaper, who’s slightly tougher and as CHARACTER can host WLTs and Relics. As mentioned above in the Warp Shielding entry, Zoanthropes are almost mandatory in every competitive Tyranid list. Come for the Synaptic Imperative , stay for the easily-achievable “super” Smites! The Warp Blast ability improves your Psychic test result for any Witchfire power or Smite , adding +1 for every Zoanthrope model in the unit ( up to +3). Better still, the mortal wounds inflicted by the unit are increased by one for every remaining model ( up to 3 again). As the magic number here is three you’re mostly going to see MSU here, extra models are only going to help you keep your bonus topped off if you start losing models. One unit is usually enough, but doubling up on them might be worthwhile if you want to put emphasis pushing mortal wounds ( if you do be sure you have a Neurothrope with Synaptic Tendrils around to grant Warp Siphon to both ).Psychic Power: Psychic Shriek (WC 6) – Select one enemy unit either in Synaptic Link range or within 18″ of the PSYKER. Roll a d6 for every HYRDRA INFANTRY within 3″ of the unit and 3d6 for every HYDRA MONSTER within 3″. Every result of 5+ inflicts a mortal wound ( up to a maximum of 6). If you’re already swarming an enemy line, this power can go a good way toward tearing down tougher models. It’s a little awkward in terms of how many models you’re actually going to get within 3″ if they’re not engaged, but the Hive Fleet has speed on its side. B+ Stratagem: Opportunistic Advance – A Stratagem that allows a unit to advance 8″ and ignore the shooting hit roll penalty for advancing. An incredible Stratagem that provides something in a game of chance you rarely get: a guaranteed result. Powerful for a variety of purposes, including zooming already fast melee monsters into combat in combination with the Onslaught power or opportunistically ( see what we did there ) snagging an objective in range. A+

The Leviathan psychic power Hive Nexus allows a single CORE unit access to a different Synaptic Imperative for the turn If every model in an INFANTRY unit is on or in an Area Terrain feature with this trait, then it can either Hold Steady or it can Set to Defend (see below) when an enemy unit declares a charge against it.

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Exoskeletal Stabilisation – Models do not suffer hit roll penalty for Advancing or moving and firing a Heavy weapon. MONSTER models do not suffer a hit penalty for firing Heavy weapons in Engagement Range. If you’re fielding horde/elite infantry, advancing and shooting without penalty is great as Tyranid guns are strong and more speed on the table is an obvious win. B+

Warlord Trait: One Step Ahead – If the Warlord is on the table, gain 1CP for any Stratagem used by an opponent on a 5+. This is the only method of farming CP Tyranids have access to and on average is going to net you more returned than you’ll be spending for the trait. Bear in mind, the return on this depends heavily on how frequently your opponent uses Stratagems. If they blow them all in one or two turns, you’re not going to getting as many, but the constant CP-drip in Nephilim helps encourage more moderated spend. Best to place it on a easy-to-hide non-Warlord character such as a Neurothrope using Hive Predator . B There are five ‘chunks’ of Tyranids rules in the book, to wit: new Bio-artefacts, Stratagems and Hive Fleet-specific Psychic Powers and two new additions – Adaptive Physiology and Hive Fleet Adaptations. Here’s what I’m using from the book to properly establish my own Hive Fleet, Eumenides… Some weapons have ‘Blast’ listed in their profile’s abilities. These are referred to as Blast weapons. In addition to the normal rules, the following rules apply to Blast weapons:Now the Hive Fleet equivalent of a Space Marine Lieutenant, the Tyranid Prime is potentially a free slot so long as you’re fielding a unit of Warriors as well. Compared to the cost of a normal Warrior they’re probably slightly overcosted for what they bring to the table, unless you’re fielding a gunline in which case their Guidemind Imperative is very useful and probably worth considering. Tervigon The short version is you pretty much can’t go wrong with a Winged Hive Tyrant competitively. The usual competitive build is going to have Adrenal Glands and monstrous bonesword, with or without the Reaper upgrade ( and it should be with ). Hive Tyrant Provided you keep it hidden by other models on the approach, Old One Eye is a terribly dangerous monster on the table. It has a very high damage output and depending on how your overall list is structured your opponent may have trouble chewing through its protective models before it smashes into their lines. As one might expect, OOE is probably best combined with at least a few other CARNIFEX models to hand out a +1 hit modifier ( which works for all hits, so this is a nice bump to HVC Carnifex). If you’re looking for a brawler, so long as it closes distance it can cleave through elite infantry and vehicles alike. OOE is expensive points-wise which might cause it to be passed over for a HIVE TYRANT , but the Nephilim Changes may have carved out a niche for Old One Eye due to the painful detachment tax on a second Hive Tyrant. Both of these Stratagems can normally be used once in Combat Patrol and Incursion games, twice in Strike Force games, and three times in Onslaught games.