40K: Tyranid Army Ability Previews
Take a look at how the Tyranid army abilities will work in 8th edition. These changes are pretty big.
Like it says on the tin folks, here’s how the Tyranid army abilities work. There are some pretty sweet changes to the structure of synapse and instinctive behavior. This should rebalance how the army plays in the latter part of the game. Check it out.
The new Tyranids codex is one of the most radical updates the army has ever received, from the seven new Hive Fleet Adaptations to a range of tweaks to the army designed to make every option in the book feel powerful and viable.
First up, Shadow in the Warp hits that sweet 18″ range. Now anyone trying to smite you up is going to be taking a penalty–actually, this means it can affect a ton of offensive powers. And if the rumors are true, this could lead to trouble for psykers.
Synapse is now out to 12″ — well, for the auto-morale. It’s actually out to 24″ for being ‘within synapse,’ owing to some pretty big changes in how instinctive behavior works. Check it out:
Firstly, Instinctive Behaviour only triggers when the unit in question is more than 24″ away from a Synapse unit. This allows you much more flexibility when moving your units, and essentially gives single-model units (like the Trygon) a 24″ Synapse range, as they don’t need to worry about Morale anyway!
Secondly, Instinctive Behaviour doesn’t force you to ONLY shoot or charge the nearest unit; instead, you suffer penalties to your charge rolls and shooting. This means that in the later rounds of the game, when the enemy may have crippled your Synapse coverage, you’ll still be able to maintain a level of control over your army.
In short, the Tyranids are no longer an army that depends quite so heavily on Synapse to win, and guaranteeing 100% Synapse coverage at all times is no longer completely necessary. Significantly, monstrous creatures that work best when operating away from the bulk of your army, like the Haruspex and Mawloc, are much more free to do so.
Advertisement
That’s pretty big. Instinctive behavior still sucks, but it no longer hijacks your army when you have to deal with it. All in all, this seems like a pretty big bug buff.
And check back tomorrow for more Tyranid previews.
