"Wow, that's a lot of shots"

That's what my last opponent said when my five Dakkafexes killed almost his entire Astra Militarum infantry screen - 60 guys and change - on turn one. 

It does slightly annoy me that Carnifexes can't do this in-game anymore

Welcome to part 4 of our Tyranid Codex review! Today we'll be looking at Tyranid weaponry, everything from guns to claws, how it performs and how it compares to both other Tyranid weapons and what other armies have. This article is going to have some :maths: in it and be a little bit statistical so if that's not your thing, you might just want to glaze over those parts and skip to the conclusions. But everybody loves maths when it means Tyranids actually get to win things without resorting to putting 5 Hive Tyrants on the board, right?

I'm going to break down the weapons by category and look at the more interesting choices and options that we're presented with.

My Spike Rifles, noooo! Spike Rifles are gone from the Codex, so we're left with Fleshborers, Spinefists, Devourers, the latter of which is the only one that costs points.

Being able to shoot whilst in melee (Spinefists) is really not worth losing the Str 4 of a Fleshborer nor the ability to advance and shoot with the assault weapon. Fleshborers being the only other free option now, this makes them the obvious choice for our Termagant screens. Fleshborers are also used by Gargoyles, too.

Both Fleshborers and Devourers share the same profile, the only difference being that Devourers fire more shots at a longer range, so the expected wounds chart below is applicable to both weapons - just multiply out the numbers according to your squad size.

We're not really discussing a choice here so much as we are looking at what we can reasonably expect these weapons to achieve. We can see that we can expect 20 Fleshborer gants to do a morale-test-inducing 5 wounds to a squad of Guardsmen, and that 20 Devilgants would overkill the same squad (over 15 wounds). Meanwhile, 20 Devilgants should shave almost 4 wounds off of an average vehicle, and using Single Minded Annihilation on that squad would put a very serious dent in the same unit.

As with most AP0 weapons, the damage output is really not impressive vs anything with a saving throw but is certainly fantastic at clearing screens. I think that there is a tendency to overestimate what "volume of shots" can do to tougher targets based on anecdotal evidence, but at the same time remember that these units do have a very high potential damage and sometimes you just need that hail mary roll (or have no other target to shoot at).

I'm not going to draw a specific conclusion here, but it is useful to know your averages when deciding how to split fire to maximise morale rolls vs guard Infantry spam, for instance, so use this info as you will.

Next up, let's take a look at Tyranid-Warrior sized weaponry that also might be found on Raveners as well as Tyrannocytes. These weapons will not be incredibly common as they are not the most competitive of units but it is worth looking at how they stack up against eachother.

The Devourer is essentially pointless at this level because a Deathspitter only costs 1 extra point. Don't take Devourers on these troops.

The Deathspitter received a decent buff in the codex. Now 24" range and only 5 points, this is functionally an assault Heavy Bolter, and is actually pretty nice for its cost. The Venom Cannon was also buffed and points changed to make it in line with other heavy weapons. So how do these guns stack up vs eachother and others?

Here's a reference chart of expected wounds for common weapons with BS 4+:

And here's the expected wounds for our Tyranid weapons at BS4+:

We can see a few things here:

• Deathspitters are... fine.
• Barbed Stranglers are barely worth their points over a Deathspitter unless you're getting the +1 to hit bonus, at which point they become quite a bit better. They are still better though, so if you have a spare 5 points and nothing else to spend it on, they could be worth it.
• Venom Cannons stack up very well against the competition - they're 10-20% better than Krak missiles at destroying tanks and even come out better than Frag Missiles at killing Infantry (although the upper amount of Infantry they can kill is obviously lower). They lose under 10% efficiency vs a Lascannon except all but T8 targets and are better than it at killing multiple small models.
• Spinefists are a special case - they're not great at killing anything but since they can be used in melee, can contribute a reasonable amount of extra damage output, particularly when targeted at screening units.

If I was to draw a conclusion from this, it's that Deathspitters don't justify including a unit to bring them (as with most heavy bolter style weaponry) but they are a pretty efficient weapon should you already be bringing a unit that uses them. Barbed Stranglers are a similar weapon, being better vs large units but not efficient enough over a Deathspitter for 5 extra points. Venom Cannons come off very well, being a straight up better take all comers weapon than a Missile Launcher and not significantly worse than a Lascannon at anti-vehicle duty - a nice buff for Tyranids who have struggled with armour-cracking for a long time. It's not a weapon that we can deploy in enough numbers to be as effective as it could be if we could, say, take Tyranid Warrior squads with all Venom Cannons, but if you are running Tyranid Warriors it's certainly an efficient choice.

Note that we've not analysed these weapons when our BS is 3+ (Tyranid Prime) or 5+ (Tyrannocyte) but the numbers move roughly in-line with the changes. All of the weapons become more desirable and worth their points at BS3; at BS5, you probably want to stick to Deathspitters, although an argument can be made for using Barbed Stranglers on a Tyrannocyte if you want some additional anti-chaff firepower.

And now onto the big guns! These guns will see a lot more widespread use than their smaller bio-cannon cousins, being used by Hive Tyrants and Carnifexes - two of our best new units - as well as our fliers. Let's look at their expected numbers vs various targets, but first, a reference of some common BS3 weapons to compare against:

And the Tyranid weapons (at BS3 since your Carnifexes with guns should always have Enhanced Senses - no exceptions!)

Other than the table looking generally very good for these weapons (especially when you factor in the points cost of the Devourers and Deathspitters!) there are some obvious things that we can see here:

• Both Devourers and Deathspitters have really great numbers across the board compared to generic heavy weapons that cost more points than them
• Devourers are particularly exceptional - other weapons don't come close to their anti-infantry potential and they're not too shabby at anti-tank duty either, easily beating out even medium anti-tank weapons like autocannons, showing what a great efficiency advantage Tyranids have here
• Deathspitters, though good, are worse against most things than Devourers are; they only come into their own against T7 targets. However, their extra 6" range still makes them a consideration for certain roles
• Stranglethorn Cannons are pretty good when you compare them in a vacuum to the generic reference chart, but are soundly beaten on most counts by other Tyranid options. This combined with their high points cost makes them a generally poor option.
• The Heavy Venom Cannon is a monster! The Lascannon is generally considered the gold standard of heavy weaponry right now and not only does the HVC average over than 70% more damage than a Lascannon against tank targets, it also performs reasonably well at killing infantry too.

In the battle of the dakka weapons, we can conclude that Double Devourers are certainly our go-to take all comers weapon. They're incredible at scything through infantry of any kind, and no slouch against vehicles either; if you're fighting against invulnerable save targets such as Magnus, they will easily overtake weapons with higher AP. Deathspitters are an option if you exclusively intend to fire them at vehicle targets (the table does skip T6 vehicles such as those found in Eldar lists, against which Deathspitters will be better too) but most likely the loss of efficiency against other targets isn't worth taking them. Range is a consideration, though is interesting to note the following:

Even when the Devourers are forced to advance and get -1 to hit in order to close range, they still maintain their superiority against softer targets over Deathspitters.

The other conclusion we can draw here is that Stranglethorn Cannons simply aren't worth taking. Heavy Venom Cannons are an incredible weapon - 1.7 Lascannons for the same cost as a single Lascannon - and though Stranglethorns perform a little bit better against the softest of targets (but still worse against marines), those targets simply aren't targets that you want to be shooting with your 25 point heavy weapons. The Stranglethorn Cannon has an identity crisis, which unfortunately makes it basically unusable. If you want anti infantry, you're going to use Devourers or maybe Deathspitters, and anti-tank you're going to use Heavy Venom Cannons.

How do the same weapons look on our fliers at BS4?

The Stranglethorn Cannon continues to look unimpressive here, having neither the anti-infantry capacity nor the anti-tank damage to justify it's points cost. The Heavy Venom Cannon though, despite being at BS4, is still better than a BS3 Lascannon and so still looks tasty!

There are far too many weapons in the codex to cover all of them in one article but hopefully this article has given you some insight into the more common choices that Tyranid players have to make when equipping their units, and given you the information you need to make informed choices. I'll talk about units with more specific and unique weapons as we discuss those units individually.

Speaking of which, tomorrow we'll finally be starting to look at the various units from the Index, starting with our HQ units and featuring the mighty Hive Tyrant!

Cheers

Ian

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Hi everybody, and welcome to part two of our Codex: Tyranids review. Today we'll be focusing on the new stratagems in the book, and there's quite a lot of them, so let's dive in and not waste any time - we've got stuff to devour, and now we can do it strategically!

(check out our short article on ratings if you want to see what our ratings are all about)

I'm English, but I think we can all appreciate what Mr Warrior is saying here.

Psychic Barrage - C

The standard copy-paste Linebreaker strategy, except this time using Zoanthropes instead of Vindicators. Great if it comes off, but too many units required, too easy for your opponent to break, and still requires a random roll. Keep this one for casual play.

Caustic Blood - B

This is a really solid stratagem if you know when to use it. Khorne Berserkers tearing up your Termagant screen? Howling Banshees killing your Hormagaunts? Pop this and watch them kill themselves as punishment! This will be a nasty surprise for opponents who aren't aware that you can do it, and you should be watch for opportunities to use it at all times.

Rapid Regeneration - B

On-demand healing is always powerful in the right situation. In an army with as many monsters and hence as many degradation tables as Tyranids (and the worst degredation tables in 40k, to boot... :sadface:), being able to heal your unit back to a higher threshold in a pinch often might as well read "+1 to hit" on top. Use sparingly due to its high 2CP cost, though.

Scorch Bugs - C

Turn your giant units of gants, or your Fleshborer Hive Tyrannofex (no, you shouldn't be running a Fleshborer Hive Tyrannofex) into a much scarier unit. Your Fleshborers will now wound T7 vehicles on a 4+, guard screens on a 2+ et cetera. The problem is that you need a gant blob big enough to benefit from it and that gant blob needs to be in range; so whilst the strategem itself is great, the it's a little bit restrictive to do much work. For just 1CP it's worth keeping this in your back pocket for occasional use, maybe combined with Single Minded Annihilation if the situation warrants it I guess? It's going to be a bit niche but I'm sure it will come up on occasion.

Feeder Tendrils - S

If this didn't have the word "Genestealer" in it it would be a solid D, but it does, so it's excellent. Genestealers killed an enemy character? Gain 0-2 CP. That's it, simple. Tyranids have so many great uses for their CP and Genestealers are such a ubiquitous unit that getting something for free is simply fantastic. Make sure to model a few of your Genestealer models with Feeder Tendrils and make gobbling noises whenever you use this!

Comment if you get the reference!

Implant Attack - B

Inflict a mortal wound on a 2+ on a unit that you wounded and didn't kill. Simple but great - I've already heard stories of a unit of Genestealers killing a Magnus, a Mortarion, and a Space Marine Biker (ok, bit less impressive that one) with this. Again, a super useful strategy that won't always be relevant but is highly reliable when you need it to be.

Bounty of the Hive Fleet - C

Eh, it's a struggle to find a second good Bio-Artefact in most lists (outside of Kraken, who have maybe the best artefact/relic in the game so far), it's even more of a struggle to find three. There's some OK choices but nothing I'd be regularly spending CP on. I'm sure occasionally you might want to grab a Miasma Cannon on top of your Behemoth claws or something like that, but I'd expect it'll be an exception to the rule.

Metabolic Overdrive - A

The ability to to move a unit twice, even if it might take damage and can't do anything afterwards, can be game changing. 40k is ultimately (in most rulesets anyway) an objective-based game, and many of our units love melee. Being where you need to be when you need to be there is therefore very important, which makes this strategem truly excellent. It also has some niche uses too; it doesn't stop psychic powers from being cast, so making a huge reposition with a Smite+Psychic Scream psyker, unit of Zoanthropes or even a Maleceptor can make for some funky and surprising plays.

Single-Minded Annihilation - B

 Shoot twice for only 2CP. Excellent? Unfortunately not, because it's limited to infantry only. I'm sure this might be a controversial ranking, but I really don't like this strategem. Devilgant blobs are expensive and though this combos well with the aforementioned Scorch Bugs that's still just a bunch of S4 0AP shots; Hive Guard are great but limited to units of 6. I just don't see this strategem being as game-changing as it looks on paper. Endless Cacophony is a big deal because you can use it on big-deal units; we just don't have any of those in our infantry choices.

Grisly Feast - D

More like Garbage Feast.

Pathogenic Slime - A

We've got 24 shot Carnifexes and Flyrants, Tyrannofexes that average 14 Acid Spray hits, and plenty more besides. Giving them +1 damage is great, but make sure you do your maths first - it's not always as incredible as it sounds, and sometimes you're spending 2CP for an extra 2 wounds on average. Against the right targets though (or as a hail mary with some luck involved) this can be killer.

I love Spore Mines, and I wish this was better :(

Sporefield - D

Requires reinforcement points in matched play. Even in non-matched play, 3CP for this seems like a lot.

Invisible Hunter - C

I like Lictors, they're cheap and have reasonable stats, but they're not incredible. Now we have an extra reason to take them for Pheromone Trails (read on!). This strategem seems designed to get them through a screen and into a delicious-brained character beyond but unfortunately single Lictors aren't quite good enough to take out a character so this probably isn't worth spending your points on unless you're in the incredibly niche situation of a) having a Lictor b) in combat and c) needing it to tie up something nearby.

Power of the Hive Mind - C

Most lists I've written so far don't have redundancy in their powers so this won't come up very often, but it's useful when it does, I guess. Another strat that is really for non-matched play.

Pheromone Trail - B

Lictors rejoice! You have a raison d'etre in 8th. Most units that can set up in reinforcement also have a way to deep strike, so this power is mostly pointless, except for one important thing; Genestealers' new ability to use their Infestation Nodes. This power turns that ability into your Genestealers having actual deep strike, letting you keep them safe from first turn alpha strikes and deploy them in your enemy's face without shelling out for a Trygon. All for the low cost of 1CP and 45 points, and you get a free Lictor thrown in too!

Death Frenzy - C

This would be a great stratagem were it not for degradation tables making it pretty crappy on... just about everybody. Most of our characters either degrade to the point of this not being worth 2CP (Hive Tyrant, Swarmlord), or can't fight well enough for this to be worth 2CP in the first place (Malanthrope, Neurothrope). The Prime could get some benefit from this in some situations but again, not really 2CP worth. The most notable target for this is Old One-Eye, who will most likely mince anything that kills him in melee if you get this off.

The card that finally put Mono Green Stompy on the map... wait

Overrun - A

It's a movement ability, and as mentioned with Metabolic Overdrive, movement is king. Take a clutch objective, reposition your big melee unit in their turn ready for a charge in yours, push into your enemy's backfield, or combine with Adrenaline Surge for a double-whammy on two units that were too far apart to follow up into (though bear in mind charge targeting rules). All for 1CP.

Voracious Appetite - A

A lot of Tyranid monsters actually aren't that scary, mathematically. It makes me a little sad, but that's the world we live in. Tyranids also have a bit of a problem with cracking armour (particularly T8). This cheap strategem solves both of these problems, and turns all of our melee monsters into melee beasts. A staple for any list using melee.

Call The Brood - D

3CP for 5 Genestealers that you have to pay reinforcement points for. Pointless for Matched Play. Maybe in narrative play, but like Sporefield, isn't this a bit expensive?

Adrenaline Surge: Always a payoff

Adrenaline Surge - S

Fight twice, no unit restrictions (unlike Single-Minded Annihilation... pah). Excellent, but please practice multi-charging especially if you want to get mileage out of Overrun too. Many a Khorne player has been saddened when he learned how charge targeting works. Expect "I Adrenaline Surge my Genestealers" to be heard spoken by competitive Tyranid players a lot.

Endless Swarm - D

The targets for this are too restrictive (unless you're Hydra) and it costs points in Matched Play, so like similar abilities, this is really for narrative play only.

Digestive Denial - C

The old favourite is back. This isn't great, especially given its high cost of 2CP, but very occasionally if you're playing shooty nids and your opponent puts a large firebase in a single piece of terrain I guess you might pull this out of your bag of tricks.

We already reviewed the Hive Fleet-specific strategems in our last article so I'll just rate them here for the sake of completeness:

The Enemy Below (Jormungandr) - A

Brute Force (Behemoth) - B

War on All Fronts (Leviathan) - C

The Deepest Shadow (Kronos) - A

Hyper-Toxicity (Gorgon) - B

Opportunistic Advance (Kraken) - S

That's it for our review of Tyranid strategems - we hope it was useful! Check back again tomorrow for the third part of our Codex review when we'll be looking at Warlord Traits, Bio-Artefacts and Psychic Powers.

Cheers!

Ian

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Hi Guys!

Ian here with the part 1 of our review of the new Tyranid Codex! If you haven't picked this up yet, it's a great book and yet another fantastic Codex offering from Games Workshop so it's well worth a read!

Come with me on a journey into the fleshy underbelly of the many swarms, and let's talk about who's best at gathering that biomass and who deserves to be recycled...

Hive Fleet Behemoth

Masters of brute force and smurf murder, the Behemoth Hive Fleet Adaptation allows you to reroll charge distances - pretty simple stuff. This is ideal if you're wanting to alpha strike your opponents and most Behemoth lists will focus around doing just this. With Adrenal Glands and a Behemoth reroll, units that enter 9" away from the enemy will have a 66% chance of a successful charge and that's without the potential for command point rerolls instead. This pushes Behemoth in the direction of a reserves-based playstyle, keeping your units safe off the table if you go second, and dropping them in for an aggressive turn 1.

This style of play is reinforced by the unique Behemoth strategem, Brute Force, which deals mortal wounds to a unit that you charged for every 6+ (2+ for monsters) you roll on a number of dice equal to the number of models you have within 1" of the enemy unit. Ideal with a unit of Genestealers of Hormagaunts - a little bit expensive for a monster, though,

The Behemoth Bio-Artefact, Scythes of Tyran, replaces a set of Monstrous Scything Talons giving the model +1 Str and A, and an extra attack for every roll of a 6. One of the better bio-artefacts, this mitigates Tyranids' biggest weakness (low strength) and has a decent chance of getting you an extra attack on top, too.

The Behemoth Warlord trait grants an extra damage for every roll of a 6 in combat. A clone of Toxin Sacs, this is a little weak for a Warlord Trait but they do stack if you really fancy the all-in approach.

Overall, Behemoth offers a very straightforward playstyle with a lot of potential power. It is a little bit of a one-trick pony and will have its gameplan mitigated or completely stymied by an opponent who screens well, though, so I don't think it is the most competitive Fleet in the book. It certainly offers a lot of potential punch, though, and if your event allows multiple combined Hive Fleets a detachment of alpha-strking Behemoth could be an option when backed up by another more utilitarian Hive Fleet choice.

Hive Fleet Kraken

As their tendrils tendrils spread far and wide, so does Kraken's Hive Fleet Adaptation let you do the same with your army! It allows you to roll 3D6 and pick the highest for any advance moves, and also allows your units to fall back and charge in the same turn. The first part gives you a serious amount of maneuverability - getting your melee units into combat turn 2 is now all but guaranteed, re-positioning across the board or to objectives is a breeze. The second part opens up all sorts of neat tricks; flying units can fall back, shoot, AND charge every turn, Carnifexes can fall back and charge every turn to always get their charging bonuses, Harpies can shriek every turn, your units can "fall back" through enemy screens and into juicy characters or units behind... so many possibilities!

The Kraken strategem is also excellent, allowing any unit to double its advance move for just 1CP. Combined with Genestealers or Onslaught you have some nigh-guaranteed charges from your deployment zone on turn 1, an easy way to redeploy a unit across the board, and so much more besides. Movement is really great and Kraken have it in spades.

Kraken's Bio-Artefact is perhaps the best in the book, and one of the best in any Codex to date; it makes the unit that has it -1 to be hit by shooting (with no range limitation).. Throw this on the new improved Hive Tyrant and you have a really survivable model.

The Kraken Warlord trait allows you to choose a unit near the Warlord to fight first. Not a bad Warlord trait but not on par with the other Kraken abilities,  it's really only of use if you're fighting against another strong melee army and have something to worry about - likely the generic traits are better than this.

In summary, I think that Kraken is in the running for best Hive Fleet in the codex - movement is king in 40k, especially if you like to eat your opponents' faces, and falling back and charging is a really useful tactical option. How you choose to leverage this ability makes for some really interesting list building, and I think we'll see a lot of Kraken competitively once people are comfortable with getting the most out of their toolkit.

Hive Fleet Leviathan

The biggest Hive Fleet, but are they the best? Leviathan's Adaptation is a copy paste of abilities we've seen before, ignoring any wound on the roll of a 6 (and not being able to be stacked with Catalyst, boo). It's solid, but unspectacular. We've not seen this trait used much competitively and I doubt that that will change now.

Leviathan's strategem allows you to reroll hit AND wound rolls of a 1 vs an enemy unit in the fight phase if you have a flier and non-flier within 1" of it. Personally I think that this is pretty hard to pull off and the payoff isn't good enough, and coupled with the fact that it's limited to melee and our fliers won't/don't want to be in melee with many of their best builds, I think this is a bit of a miss.

The Leviathan bio-artefact is also pretty poor. Replacing monstrous boneswords which themselves are not a terrific option compared to the alternatives, it can kill infantry (and bikers, for some reason?) if it wounds them but doesn't kill them. So, good for finishing four wound characters that you only managed to wound once... talk about niche.

The Leviathan Warlord trait is pretty solid, giving you a single reroll of mostly anything once per battle round. Simple and effective, and a viable choice for your Warlord.

Overall I think Leviathan's offering is pretty poor, possibly the worst in the Codex, and I don't expect them to see much if any competitive play. A shame for one of GW's poster boy Hive Fleets, but at least their paint scheme is cool!

Only the cool new Hive Fleets get these funky art pieces

Poisonous and with a love for eating those who won't shut up about "the greater good", Gorgon's Adaptation is simple, allowing rerolling of 1s to wound in the fight phase. It's not spectacular, but it's solid if that's what your army is based around. 

Their strategem allows any of your units with Toxin Sacs to deal their extra Toxin Sac wound on a roll of a 5+. Factoring in their reroll on 1s to wound, this makes this actually pretty easy to hit; Genestealers, Hormagaunts and even Tyranid Warriors with Toxin Sacs will therefore be able to put out reasonable damage to anything that they can get a wound through to, and this could also be decent on Trygons and Mawlocs. The problem as ever is cost; Toxin Sacs are expensive on Genestealers and Warriors who would benefit from this the most, so whilst it is a reasonable thing to have access to, I don't think that building your army to use it is going to be cost efficient.

The Gorgon bio-artefact gives its bearer +1T from the end of any phase in which it was wounded. It's not terrible, but people are not stupid and know how to focus fire; also, the effect of +1T is sometimes a little bit irrelevent (going from 7 to 8 on a Hive Tyrant that your opponent only intends to shoot with Lascannons anyway, for example). It's another meh artefact that is usable but not spectacular.

The Gorgon Warlord trait grants a 4+ fight-phase mortal wound aura. This is actually prety good for the Gorgon style of play and is a viable choice if your Warlord is melee-focused.

Gorgon are ok. I don't expect to see them at the highest levels of competitive play but they are playable and will likely pop up in some places simply to take advantage of army-wide fight phase rerolls in lists that are happy losing out on some of the more obviously powerful Hive Fleet choices in return for simply efficiency.

The new kid on the block (codex-wise, at least), Hive Fleet Jormungandr's Adaptation makes every model in the army count the benefits of cover unless it advances or charges. This is a pretty nifty ability when combined with lots of 3+ save Tyranid monsters, making them that little bit more survivable against Lascannons and a lot more survivable vs annoying lasgun and bolter spam. It's also pretty good for our smaller beasts, giving them an extra bit of resistance vs the small arms fire that is so prevalent right now.

The Strategem, "The Enemy Below", is not necessarily the strongest in the book but it does change the way your army can play more than any other. It allows you to set up any infantry unit in reserves and deploy it when any "tunnelling" unit deploys. This means that you have a way to deep strike your Broodlords with Genestealers, deploy forward synapse creatures without needing to buy a Trygon Prime or Hive Tyrant, gives you a way to keep your Hive Guard safe from turn 1 alpha strikes, and much more. Many armies will be built around taking specific advantage of this strategem.

Jormungandr's bio-artefact affects morale. Enough said about that one.

The Warlord trait here allows your Warlord and units within 3" to ignore cover when shooting. Again, this is not terrible but is likely eclipsed by the generic traits - Heightened Senses is just much better on a shooty Warlord, expanding your toolkit in a much better way.

The most obvious competitive build in the Tyranid codex is a combination of dakka-tyrant and dakkafex spam (more on this in another article!) and this build will benefit heavily from Jormungandr. Between that and the unusual deployment options, expect to see this Hive Fleet used a lot; it's certainly one of the most competitive in the codex.

Another more recently discovered Hive Fleet, Hydra's trait interests me a lot; it allows rerolls to hit in the fight phase if you outnumber the enemy. Blanket, non-1 rerolls are pretty hard to come by so this is quite a big deal; however it is a little restrictive. The most likely to benefit from this are Genestealers. Hormagaunts will too, and though they hit like a wet noodle, this will make them pretty good at clearing chaff screens when taken in large units to also reroll 1s to wound with their own ability. Thewre's also some potential here with units of 9 bonesword-equipped Tyranid Warriors I guess, though that's probably reaching.

The Hydra strategem is unfortunately a casualty of matched play rules; re-adding a destroyed chaff unit to the board is simply not worth setting points AND 2CP aside for. At 1cp it may have seen some play for sneaky objective grabbing or backfield melee-tying, but at two it's priced out.

Hydra's Warlord trait harkens back to the old "regeneration" abilities, allowing your warlord to try to regain each lost wound on a roll of a 6 each turn. This could be quite a swing when it comes off but most of the time your opponent won't let you have the luxury of a low-wound Warlord rolling up extra wounds for multiple turns, so isn't really fantastic.

The Hydra artefact is solid but unspectacular. It's a Slimer Maggot Deathspitter that rerolls failed wounds. Cracking T7+ armour is a particular pain point for Tyranids, so this on a Hive Tyrant would be a reasonably good pick.

I think with such a big blanket reroll, you can make a Hydra unit do some pretty nasty stuff, but is it worth the limitation and the loss of choosing another Hive Fleet ability? The answer is probably no, and I don't expect this Hive Fleet to see much competitive play.

Finally answering the question of "do Tyranids bother fighting Chaos", Kronos are here to show that yes, indeed they do - and they're well adapted to do so. Their trait does something that is traditionally non-niddy; rerolling 1s for shooting if you don't move is interesting. It obviously works well with Tyrannofexes and Exocrines that already get bonuses for not moving, but what else does it work with? The arguable best unit in the codex is the new shooty Carnifex, but one of their strengths is in their ability to stay mobile whilst shooting. Likewise for Hive Tyrants. Screens tend to have to move so won't benefit from this often. Hive Guard will get mileage out of this, particularly with Impaler Cannons. What this leads us to is that whilst Tyranids are not a great gunline army, this ability is useful, though knowing when to stand still to get the bonus and when you need to move and lose it is going to be important when playing Kronos.

Kronos's strategem causes a Psyker within 24" of a Kronos unit - most likely the entire battlefield - to roll only 1 dice for a Psychic test. This takes most powers from 60-80% cast chances down to 16-33% cast chances; quite a big drop. Given the number of armies that rely on key psychic powers to make things happen (Warp Time, Catalyst for other nids, Nightshroud on a super heavy tank, etc) this is an incredibly good power. Especially combined with the Kronos Warlord trait!

Kronos's bio-artefact, the Balethorn cannon, is a Stranglethorn Cannon that ignores invulnerable saves. This sounds good until you realise that with a -1 save modifier many units would be using their normal save anyway, so mostly all that you're getting out of this is an extra 1 point of AP on units like Magnus the Red. The Stranglethorn Cannon is not a great weapon to begin with, so a slightly buffed one isn't really worth it. 

Their Warlord trait causes any Psyker within 18" that fails a psychic test to take D3 mortal wounds. This is a genuine game changer vs some armies, especially combined with Shadow in the Warp and the Kronos Strategem. Popular armies like Mortarion/Magnus or any kind of Smite spam will not only be unable to use their powers effectively but actually lose their models too. In the right meta, or in a format where you can pick your Warlord trait before each game rather than choosing it on your list, this can be super good; in the wrong meta or in a true take-all-comers list, this would be a bit of a gamble. Definitely one to keep on your radar, though!

Kronos provide an interesting toolkit of shooting and anti-psychic ability. They're not the most obviously strong Hive Fleet nor the Hive Fleet that is most obviously "build-around" but they definitely have a place and that place is hating on Psykers. Whether you should run them or not is certainly down to what you'll be facing (and how shooty you want to be, though that isn't really their biggest forte in my opinion). They are a great option for a Tyranid player to have in their kit and options are always good!

To conclude, let's summarise the new Hive Fleets and where I think they're going to land competitively. If you're not familiar with how we rate things, check our our short article here and then come back.

S-Tier: I don't think that any of the Hive Fleets are at this level. There are some great Hive Fleet specific things available, but none of them are truly incredible.

A-Tier: Kraken, Jormungandr, Kronos. You're going to see a lot of these in competitive lists. Kronos maybe less so, but when it's relevant it's going to be really relevant and ruin some peoples' days.

B-Tier: Behemoth. Doesn't offer quite enough to be the foundation of a list but as a second detachment, their Adaptation is quite desirable and we may see them show up as a role-player in competitive lists.

C-Tier: Hydra, Gorgon. These are playable, but I don't expect they'll be the foundation of many lists. They may crop up as second detachments in some lists but there's just so much more utility and raw power to be squeezed out of the higher tier fleets. Not to say that these fleets aren't potentially capable, though.

D-Tier: Leviathan. Poor Leviathan, doesn't really offer anything that another Hive Fleet wouldn't do better. I suggest that if you have a Hive Fleet painted white and purple, you practice arguing about Tyranid bioforms and how diverse their colourations can really be...

That's all for today! Check back tomorrow for the second part of our Codex review when we'll be looking at Tyranid Strategems and further increasing our knowledge of how to eat the universe.

Cheers

Ian

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