Warhammer 40K: Tyranid Faction Focus & Dense Cover Preview
We get some more terrain rules thanks to the Tyranid Faction Focus plus a ton of tips on how the Hive Mind will devour all in the next edition!
It’s a new faction focus and this one is on the great devourer but before we dive in let’s take a quick look at the new rules teases in the article.
Dense Terrain
The basics are bullet pointed for your convenience and it all boils down to if the terrain has the keyword classification and also meets the height of 3 inches. The extra -1 for hit rolls from ranged weapons is a good enough boost for your models that it’s totally worth trying to take advantage of. I’m positive it’s not just Tyranids who are going to want to take advantage of this new type of terrain.
Now that the new stuff is covered, let’s move on to the Tyranids Faction Focus!
Just like in previous Faction Focus articles, Games Workshop has brought in a play tester and tournament regular to talk shop. This time we have Danny Ruiz from Frontline Gaming to talk Tyranid shop.
Danny: First up, Tyranid Monsters get a huge boost in their viability. With the ability to shoot into combat and more terrain rules to help keep them alive (and a generous vertical Engagement Range), you’ll want to bring the big hitters. If you’re worried about your beloved behemoths getting blasted before they get to do their best, you can spend Command points to put them into Strategic Reserve** and have them show up where and when you need them. Want to save those Command points for tasty surprises? Well, the Tyrannocyte is always an option and, hey, it is a Monster too, so it can fire all those deathspitters into combat as well!
As a Tyranid Player myself, I’ve been looking to the return of the Monsters to the tabletop. Remember, all the tank buffs are going to apply to monsters, too. Firing into combat, blast weapon shenanigans, and all the new terrain rules are going to really help out monsters of all shapes and biomass – at least I’m hoping so.
In terms of “Tips & Tricks” from the article, there really wasn’t much to go on other than the stuff we’ve already seen. I think this might have been the first one that didn’t mention the benefits of Command Point normalization. Obviously the big boosts are to monsters (as mentioned above) and the terrain rules (also mentioned above) that will help your more close-combat focused units (aka Genestealers) stay alive vs shooting and get into combat.
The Maleceptor did get a shout-out with it’s stratagem Encephalic Diffusion – which is one of the newer stratagems for the Tyranids from the Blood of Baal book.
Anyhow, it’s a good primer if you’re a new Tyranid Player. If you’re an old vet then I think this one is just going to confirm a lot of what you’re already expecting for the Tyranids. There was also a note about not overloading your Army Building with too many monsters and not enough ways to take objectives. That’s going to be a thing in 9th.
Three Key Units
Danny mentioned three units you might want to take a look at in the next edition. Well, it was really 4 but Old One Eye and Carnifexes go claw-in-claw.
Old One Eye and Carnifexes
Again, we see the mention of the benefits for the Big Bugs in 9th. This isn’t so much a sneaky combo but more of a “if you’re going to run Carnifexes of the close combat variety, you should probably take Old One Eye too” type thing. He’s got the Alpha Leader rule which, again, isn’t new. But that extra plus 1 to hit for Carnifexes in the fight phase is really important.
Tyrannofex
With all the changes to shooting (really just shooting into combat) The Tyrannofex with Acid Spray is sounding pretty spicy! To be fair, it kind of already was…but now? It’s even scarier. It’s not new info – but we just might see a few of these guys show up in 9th. Oh, and their whole “if we don’t move we get to shoot again” rule is still there. Double tap Acid Spray? Yes please.
Tyranid Warriors
I’ve always been a fan of the Tyranid Warriors. They are multi-wound, have decent armor and can come with a variety of weapon options to do just about any job. On top of that, they provide Synapse. Plus as Troops they are “Objective Secured.” I personally build most lists with at least a unit or two just to hold the line and keep my little guys in the fight. Works like a champ. And again, Blood of Baal helped out with Unyielding Chitin:
So, overall, not a ton of new info on the Tyranids but without a new Codex on the way, what did you expect? We did get confirmation on a lot of what folks already expect though and that’s at least a good place to start. Now we just have to wait to find out about those points adjustments…
What do you think of the new Dense Terrain rule? How are you planning out your Tyranid Army for 9th?
