Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: Codex Tyranids is Bigger, Meaner, More Interesting
Goatboy here with some Tyranid thoughts from the brand new codex. The Bugs are BACK, bigger and meaner!
First of all it has been a bit frustrating as I’ve had these thoughts for a bit – but alas you can read them now. I won’t go into too much detail as there are a ton of other sites that dig in, get stuck in, and chew these things to bits. Instead I just want to go over what excites me about the new codex. Let me give you a tid bit of history so you can understand my feelings about Bugs.
Back In the Day – Nidzilla!
Many moons ago before I started writing for this site I decided to jump back into 40k after my divorce. I needed a hobby to help pass the time and I remember enjoying this game back in my college days. Some kids that I sold models too back when I worked at a comic store while in college opened up a store and they got me started playing this game again. I asked what army I should play and as the store was competitive minded set they said I should do Nidzilla. I grabbed a bunch of plastic monsters, threw some kind of skeleton color scheme and started wrecking events with my big bugs.
It was a ton of fun and helped me make a bunch of life long friends. From the buddies who ran the store (including the ever lovable Abe from this website), to meeting the BoLS crew, and all the tournament buddies I saw as I traveled around the country. Heck this past weekend I was at Adepticon playing on the Tiki team with old friend Jared and new Friends Pete and Duncan. I met more people, saw more old buddies (Shout out to Bryan and Luke who ended up meeting slightly tipsy but strangely game focused Goatboy), and threw down with some Custodes.
What this meandering story is about though is to show you that my initial love and desire for this game started with Big Bugs. Thankfully this book does do well with giving me those fun Big Bug feelings by making those monsters good. They also made the rest of the book really good which could be a problem. In fact this book seems very powerful as it has all the issue plaguing us with the Harlies right now – fast, tough, and damage bringing. With that let’s start with what I like about the book.
Welcome Back Big Bugs
There is a lot to like as this feels like a really redesigned Tyranid book from the top down. It reads like a well oil machine of death full of claws, teeth, and spiky things. I think each Dataslate got a big splash up with weapons getting better, more attacks, and then a lot of improve saving throws. It is almost like the Hive Mind adapted after eating a few planets. I wonder how much Ork DNA went into some of these things. It is pretty dang scary thing to read as these monsters will be coming for you.
From the Monster side of things all the big bugs got better. The Carnifex in all its flavors has a better save and more damage potential. The only gun that seemed to take a hit was the Twin Linked devourer as it is less important in the new build. The Screamer Killer looks awesome to me with its 2+ save, bio plasma stank breath, and loads of attacks. This again makes me wonder if Squadrons need to be looked at as again there is going to be an army of 9 of these jerks in all different flavors back by Warriors and Hive Tyrants.
Oh speaking of Hive Tyrants the walking one has a place now with its weapon load outs. Double Heavy Venom Cannon or Barbed Strangler seems good especially since you can body guard them with Tyrant guard. Remember what I said about a walking wall of doom – this army does it. Heck lots of other big ones got better to. The Haruspex looks mean too especially since it is an Elite big bug. Tons of Attacks and Wounds mixed with an Angry Attitude. Oh it is also a pretty sweet model as well.
Hyper Adaptable Rules!
I think the most interesting thing in all of this is the ability to shift your armies “Chapter” tactics on the fly with Hyper-Adaptation Biomorphologies. This is the most customizable option as normally your Hive Fleet has one lock in rule then another one you can hot swap between 2 of the 3 Adaptions. This can be done as you get to the table and seems cool. This is like all the other armies shifting rules but instead you get to just flat out pick it at the beginning. I like this as it gives you a lot of options to mess with as well as being simpler as you just pick what you want right away. No need for a random set of cards to hot swap them from turn to turn.
There are things like making your monsters count as Obsec plus count as more wounds, reroll deny the witch, army wide heroic intervention, no overwatch for enemy units, and some other fun toughness abilities. These are all pretty amazing and makes me wonder if the Crusher Stampede and other released things might not be valid because some of these rules match up. I am sure one set of adaptations is going to make it in the meta but it is still cool to get those options.
Synapse & Psychic Bugs
There is another new rule in Synaptic Imperative Abilities that activate once per battle based on what the Synapse unit has. They then spread to all other Synapse units. So you can set up chains of abilities that last for a turn all thru the power of the Hivemind. Things like giving a 5+ save from mortal wounds, a 4+ inv for monsters, exploding hits, and other movement tricks. These are all based on the Synapse unit themselves. It seems to be another layered form of tricks you can use. This is again another example of how Tyranids got a glow up in this new book.
Psychic powers seem to stay the same with tweaks to get them matched up correctly. The craziest thing is all the powers don’t say CORE on them which is important. It means everything helps the entire army like some kind of big organism of doom. Onslaught will be used a lot as it gives you Advance and charge. The army lost the double move abitliy which was always a frustrating thing in Crusher Stampede. Catalyst got tweaked as well. It now gives a 6+ FNP to Titanic models and a 5+ FNP to everyone else.
Relics & Upgrades
Relics wise I am a big fan of the Relic Venom Cannon and Stranglehorn cannon. You can set up some mean bullies with 2 Hive Tyrants. There are a ton of weapon options to. Which is what you expect from giant space monsters ready to eat your face off. On top of this the Warlord Traits got better as well! You have Objective Secured options, fight first options, better range options, FNP, and other fun things. If you wanted to make a bad ass monster commander this book is ready for you.
Oh like every other book we have had there is an upgrade set of options for your characters. You can pay a few more points and grant them something neat that surprisingly matches up to some other books relics. Do you need another way to get an always strike first? Here is an upgrade for you. Do you need a 4+ invulnerable save? Got that covered too. How about just making that big monster that isn’t synapse – well Synapse now? I got you because this book is bussin’.
The Bugs Are Back!
There is a ton more things in this book and this article could go on forever. Just trust me there isn’t that much bad in this book at all. It is full of powerful rules and abilities. I do fear it is going to be another part of the trifecta of rough armies for the game. I am hoping we see something to bring these guys down. Or at least something to bring up the other armies that came to early to the party. The book just looks crazy strong right now and will be complaining about Bugs in the future.
Enjoy My Codex Review
NOM NOM NOM!
