By Rory Foster

Images copyright of Games Workshop, used without permission.

he Tyranids are one of the oldest and most popular armies in 40k, being an ever-present threat in the fluff that slowly moves further with every edition. Sadly, they've been somewhat left behind on the competitive scene in recent years due to the rising popularity of mechanised armies making a lot of their units utterly useless. Most competitive Tyranid armies were 'Nidzilla' lists, relying purely on monstrous creatures to defeat mechanised armies. Even these builds became weaker with 5th edition's release because vehicles became more durable, making the Tyranids' anti-tank capabilities even worse than before.

Thankfully, GW has given us a fresh codex, complete with new units, streamlined options and greatly increased tournament viability. This is the second codex written by Robin Cruddace, who also wrote the Imperial Guard codex (which made them very popular in tournaments). He's done good work with this book too, both for diehard 'Nid fans and tournament gamers.

The fluff section is full of the stuff you'd expect from the Tyranids; details of their invasions, their progress through the galaxy, the usual. It's not limited to their battles against the Imperium either; there are parts about a Hive Fleet that attacked the Tau, and an account of the battle against the Iyanden Eldar. I like how the Tyranids aren't portrayed as unstoppable, unlike many other codicies (Space Marines and Necrons in particular), where it's all 'Yay us!'. It's a nice switch.

It's the new units that add a lot to the Tyranid's competitive strength. Everything from the previous codex is here. Broodlords have been folded into Genestealer broods though, and are now an upgrade (like a sergeant or warlock). They're still utterly lethal in close-combat, and have a couple of useful psychic powers. Hormagaunts are no longer beasts, but this is probably a good thing, as they can now enter buildings. As a trade-off for their old movement rules, they can now run 3D6 inches (as opposed to the normal 1D6) and have Fleet of Foot. This means that they can potentially move 24" in one turn and still charge afterwards; nice!

Carnifexes now come in broods of up to three, but can only be taken as heavy support choices and every 'fex in the brood has to have the same upgrades. I'd prefer to take lone 'fexes. They're still initiative 1, but gain +2 initiative on-the-charge, so they'll still be able to strike before their arch-enemies: power fists.
'Fexes aren't the only monstrous creatures in the book though; we get four new toys to smash things with; Tervigons, a tough beastie that can create new Termagants to hold objective or overwhelm the enemy; Tyrannofexes, a large mobile gun-platform designed to take out vehicles at long range; Mawlocs, large worm-like creatures that can inflict heavy damage when they Deep Strike under enemies and can also redeploy at will; and Trygons, a variant of the Mawloc that can make tunnels for your smaller units to emerge from. All are deadly, and of course GW only gave us models for two of them (Trygons and Mawlocs; both in the same box).

The other new creatures are Harpies, big Gargoyles that can drop spore mines; Hive Guard, powerful ranged defensive units; Venomthropes, which generate a mobile cloud of cover for smaller bugs; and Pyrovores, a close-range attacker with a fairly powerful template weapon (sadly they aren't very durable). There's also a newcomer that lets Tyranids pretend to be Space Marines; Mycetic Spores. These are very similiar to Drop Pods, but they're quite tough and strong, and can also be equipped with a variety of ranged weapons. They can carry one monstrous creature or 20 infantry, allowing you to bring your close-combat units to the frontlines without wading through your opponent's shooting attacks.

Since GW has placed a lot of emphasis on special characters recently, I was expecting Tyranids to have their old special characters back, but not new ones. I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad thing, as 'Nids don't really have much individuality, but they still look like fun. Old One Eye (a super-tough Carnifex) and Deathleaper (a Lictor who thinks he's Sly Marbo) are both back with great rules, but no new models. The Red Terror (a big Ravener) has been left out, presumably because we have Trygons and Mawlocs now. 'Nids now have an answer to Marneus Calgar and Ghazghkull in the Swarmlord, a Hive Tyrant with four 'bonesabres' (upgraded boneswords), as well as the ability to bestow one of three useful rules upon a nearby unit. It's fairly obvious that he'll be very popular in tournaments, as he makes very 'ordinary' units much more powerful.

There's a rather unique character in here called the Parasite of Mortrex, a big flying thing that makes Rippers pop out of people, Alien-style. Sounds like fun to me. There's a Zoanthrope called the Doom of Malan'tai who apparently destroyed an entire Eldar Craftworld by himself. Kind of ridiculous if you ask me, but he's become quite popular with tournament gamers because he can attack units inside transports. There's also something in here that doesn't get seen very often; a special character squad, similar to the Legion of the Damned or Tyrannic War Veterans. These guys are called Ymgarl Genestealers. They're stock 'stealers which gain a random mutation every turn, improving their strength, attacks or toughness. I don't like units with random rules, but these guys aren't as bad as Possessed Chaos Marines or Ork Weirdboyz.

Many Tyranid models have been repackaged with the codex's release, but there are still a fair few units without models. I hope either GW or Forgeworld makes them at some point; I know there's a miniatures company that's made heads for Ymgarl Genestealers, so that solves one problem, but scratch-building Tervigons or any of the other big beasties is going to be a nightmare. The Hive Tyrant hasn't been made into a plastic kit yet which really sucks. It wouldn't have been hard to do, and it means players still have to do a lot of converting to get some of the options they want. Hopefully GW will get a plastic HT kit out sometime in the future. Raveners are plastic now, but cost $74 for a box of three. More ridiculous pricing from GW? How did I not see this coming?

This is definitely one of the better codicies written in recent years, both in terms of fluff and competitive viability. Tyranids will no longer struggle in the tournament metagame, and I think that might actually cause a large shift in army list styles as people adjust to deal with the bugs. After all, meltagun spam isn't terribly useful against a horde of Gaunts. Doubtless this codex will be trumped by the next one that comes out, but we can always enjoy it until then...