Robot Viking

Robot Viking contributor ggodo (aka Billy Gibbs) returns this week with part 2 of his review of the new 5th edition Tyranids for Warhammer 40K. In this edition, he covers the brand new units introduced to the Tyranid faction. Don’t forget to check out Part 1!

Tyranids, Episode Two, Attack of the New Stuff

I’m going to begin with the Tyranid Prime. An upgrade for the Warriors, the Tyranid Prime acts as an HQ choice, the cheapest HQ available to the bugs. Tyranid warriors are synapse creatures, basically the equivalent of officers in a more conventional army, if the officers used psychic suppression to keep the rank and file in line. On that scale they are equivalent to lieutenants. This guy is like a captain to the Hive Tyrant’s general in smaller points value games, or even if you just want to get some large heavy support bugs in your list. Give him some Warriors to take some bullets for him and he’s a very good cheap HQ capable of putting out some serious damage in both shooting and melee by giving his buddies his improved Weapon Skill and Ballistics Skill. I like the Prime and I think I’ll be fielding it with my warriors in mid-range lists where I want to get really heavy support on the level of Tyrranofex.

Speaking of the Terranofex, imagine if Giger’s alien ate one of the Scarab tanks from Halo. A living siege weapon, covered in deadly bio-cannons, this is the biggest nastiest bug around, even if it isn’t the smartest. This huge, walking gun platform has a few options for just what kind of huge gun you want. The default is a flamer template that can be placed up to twelve inches away. Generally the flamer fires directly out from the model. The range placement is a rare advantage. This will slaughter large bunches of infantry without the Tyrranofex having to get within range of being assaulted, the biggest fear of all flamer carrying units. The other gun options are a crazy strong anti-tank gun or a Strength 4 AP5 20-shot gun at a 12” range. This risks the monster being assaulted, but there’s not going to be much left after you’ve fired 20 shots at someone. The bad news of being assaulted is that you can’t shoot, the upside is that with 6 wounds and 3 attacks he’s going to be able to take an assault and hit back hard.

The same can’t be said of the Pyrovore. This guy is a flamer mounted on the back of an alien turtle. These guys are 45 points apiece and with 2 wounds and 4 toughness they really exist only as suicide bombers. Move in, flamer what you can, and pray you don’t get assaulted by anything that can fight better than the Tau. These guys explode when hit with Instant Death weapons, which is nice, but no one is going to hit them with Instant Death when they’re anywhere near their own lines. These guys become a better value the more you run, but I don’t know if a group of them is worth the fact that it’s points not spent on other stuff.

Speaking of other stuff, the big winner of the new stuff is the Tervigon. You know the Alien Queen? Now imagine having five of those. Now imagine fighting five of those, plus whatever they spawn, plus the rest of the alien horde. Tervigons act as mobile birthing monsters plopping out more Termagaunts constantly on the battlefield. These guys with a large number of smaller guys will be the base of some terrifying swarms. I want to get this army mostly just to stage battles of my swarm against a few elite, out-numbered, space marines. Then the Hive Mind will slaughter the puny defenders of the Empire.

A more defensive creature is the Venomthrope. A big tentacled poison spouting squidish-snake-thing, clouding up the air with poison gas choking the other team and hiding our bugs in the clouds, the Venomthrope seems specifically designed to give your lightly armored troops something to hide behind. Marching a swarm across the board, just behind the rolling clouds of gas will strike terror into the hearts of Imperial Guardsmen everywhere. As I said in the first part about the Warriors, combine Warriors with Venomethropes and you’ve got an objective that will take a ton of fire to crack.

Now for the big guy, the poster boy for the new Tyranids, the Trygon. Imagine a xenomorph version of a snake. Now give it claws, and set it loose burrowing through the ground. The Trygon’s battlefield purpose is heavy damage wherever you need it. You can have it pop out of the ground wherever you want, shoot lightning, and leave a hole, out of which more bugs emerge. This is a huge heavy hitter, hurting infantry and tanks wherever you want. The Mawloc variant trades the entrance tunnel and lightning for the ability to come up under enemies, swallowing them whole, just to reburrow and repeat. I’m getting at least one of these.

The last new unit is the Hive Guard. These centaur-shaped Nids were created from Zoats, a centaur-like species the Hive Mind used to communicate with other species. They abandoned this plan rather quickly and decided it was more efficient to eat first and never ask questions. The Hive Guard uses the Zoat’s sturdy, four-legged body and latent psychic powers to create the perfect watch dog. The Hive Guard can see through the eyes of any and all Tyranids on the battlefield. They use this ability to steer their living projectiles to their target, and to know where they are needed at all times.

Part two complete. Be back next week when I tell horror stories from around the Imperium.

Related posts:

1. 5th Edition Tyranid Codex Review, Part 1
2. Warhammer Fantasy: Empire Strategy Guide
3. Fast and Furious: Eldar Tactics in 40K
4. Assault On Black Reach a Great Intro to Warhammer 40K