I first started my Tyranid army tenuously, with 10 Termagants here, a Winged Tyranid Prime there. I just wanted enough to proxy the Tyranid Combat Patrol as released in White Dwarf 497. However, as I painted my models I was surprised to discover that Tyranids were actually, puzzlingly, impossibly, utterly adorable. So it was a real surprise, when I bought the full Codex Tyranids book for 10th edition Warhammer 40,000, to also discover that Tyranids are the singularly most Horror-genre horrifying thing in 40k. They're not cute, they're not nice, and I don't think any codex was as unsettling as this one. This is my review of a book I hope, in the best of ways, I never make the mistake of reading again.
Lore
It starts with the lore. From the very beginning, the Tyranids are presented as an unstoppable force, and that tracks with the game. In my playthrough of the Pariah Nexus campaign, the Tyranids were the baddies. Looking down at the table to see swarms and swarms of Termagants and Neurogaunts pouring out of ruined buildings, through city streets, across the battlefield, still sticks in my memory. It's a defining trait of the army, and of the Genestealer Cults (one of my first 40k armies, thanks to the old Combat Patrol box), so it feels right to be introduced to the species as one that over-procreates to account for a high death rate as it, paradoxically, searches the galaxy for resources to stay alive.
Then you learn about how Tyranids possess a hive mind, and learns and adapts to threats. The Imperium invents a solution to dissolve Tyranids, only to find that the next wave of Tyranids have conveniently developed an immunity to the substance. They're like the Borg, that way.
Next, you read about the Hive Fleets, and the biological voidships that spawn Tyranid armies. They float through space, feeling for gravitic ripples in space so they can navigate to a planet and drain it of all life. They don't use the Warp for travel, but when they've accidentally ended up there they seem to be impervious to its daemonic influence.
The descriptions of the voidships are as pleasant as medical texts about the interiour of body parts you never wanted to know about. To make matters even less comfortable, there's a few notes about boarding actions taken against a Tyranid voidship, and all the things that go wrong when that happens.
Short stories
As usual, there are two short stories in the codex. I always enjoy the stories in a codex, even though few of them are very happy or aspirational. They're usually about battles that the main character is likely to lose, but at least there's hope.
Not in this codex. Both stories in Codex Tyranids are bleak and utterly devoid of hope. The first story is about a Commissar facing a Tyranid invasion, and ends in her death. The second is about an Inquisitor only studying the Tyranid threat, and it ends with him seriously contemplating suicide just to remove himself from a universe where Tyranids exist.
Weapons
I love it when RPG and wargame source books talk about weapons. I'm not actually a fan of weapons in real life, in fact I'd say I was generally opposed to them. But as a wargamer, weapons are the primary gaming asset, so I want to know about them. I want pictures, I want descriptions, and happily Codex Tyranids provides.
There's a three-page spread about all the weapons Tyranids have at their disposal (and then some). One page is just illustrations of each weapon, and the other pages are descriptions of how the weapon works. It's exactly the armoury I want.
Emotionally though, I can't emphasise how unpleasant the Tyranid armoury is to read. Everything is a bioweapon, from gun to flesh hooks to bone sword. All ammunition incorporates a living or noxious thing, sometimes it's a worm or a beetle, other times it's a spore or a toxin. Get shot by a Tyranid, and you're basically pre-digested. Confront a Tyranid and chop off its claws, and you'll likely be strangled by its tongue, suffocated by a poisonous emission, melted by acidic spores, or crushed by its body. It's a death machine.
Curiously though, no Tyranid seems to actually be equipped with flesh hooks, one of the featured weapons. I know this because two of my Tyranid Warrior models have flesh hooks, and reading about what they did was so exciting that I turned to its data card in the back of the book to read how the flesh hook was implemented in the mechanics of the game. The answer is that they're not. Tyranid Warriors, for whatever reason, don't have the option to take flesh hooks, even though the model kit definitely includes them.
Then I checked every data card, and the closest match I could find was the Norn Assimilator, which has Harpoon Barbs. When a unit takes a Fall Back action while in engagement range of the Norn Assimilator, the Harpoon Barbs cause D6 Mortal Wounds on a roll of 2+. Also, a successful Harpoon Barb attack adds 2 to a Charge targeting the victim. Neither ability is exactly like what's described in the Flesh Hooks section, which is more like a grapple and pull. Flesh hooks are meant to hook into a victim, and then pull it toward the Tyranid, and while the Harpoon Barbs are similar it's not an exact match. Then again, there's no rule within 40k, that I can think of at least, that would allow a model to be forcefully removed from unit coherency, so maybe the description of Flesh Hooks was just promising too much for the rules writers to accommodate. Obviously, though, I'll be developing my own rule for that, because Flesh Hooks sound like a lot of fun.
Showcase
The middle of the codex is, as usual for 10th edition, a showcase of very nicely painted models. I always enjoy this section, either because it gives me ideas on how to paint an army, or because it inspires me to build evocative battlefields, or just because it's cool to look at.
In the case of the Tyranids though, all I could see was death. The lore had, by the time I reached the showcase, fully impressed upon me how relentless the Tyranids were. They cannot be stopped. The Imperium even tried pre-killing a bunch of planets in the path of a Tyranid invasion, just in hopes of starving the hivefleet for resources, and still the Tyranids proceeded. These things are the death of all life. There is no fighting them. I don't care how pretty the paint, or how moody the lighting, or how epic the battlefield, all the photographs in this codex's showcase are just a reminder that the universe is doomed. Not from a bunch of civilizations fighting for domination, not from the Warp tearing reality apart, not from heresy or pathology, but from a bunch of hungry space dinosaur locusts doing the one thing that comes naturally to them.
Combat Patrol
Appropriately, the Combat Patrol in Codex Tyranids features a good number of models. There's a huge Psychophage (which I've recently acquired after a gaming club had a surplus), 20 termagants, 5 barbgaunts, 3 Von Ryan's Leapers (which I've also recently accidentally acquired), and 1 Winged Tyranid Prime. Once a battle, you can force your opponent's entire army to take a Battle-shock test. Plus, your secondary objective grants 4 Victory Points for each round in which your Winged Tyranid Prime has destroyed an enemy model.
I haven't played using these rules, but now that I have most of the models required for it, I'm going to give it a go. It seems like a fun Combat Patrol.
Detachments
The Tyranid's army rule is the same as its Combat Patrol rule: Once a battle, you can force your opponent's entire army to take a Battle-shock test. To be perfectly honest, I'm pretty underwhelmed by Battle-shock in 40k. It's a nice little "gotcha" when it works, but it's a lot of rolling (and remembering to roll, and then remembering which unit has failed) for a mildly satisfying restriction that only sometimes triggers. I've been playing with a house rule, lately, that just forces an immediate Fall Back (or Desperate Escape) on a failed Leadership roll the first time a unit reaches half strength.
For my main army (Adeptus Mechanicus), detachments are perfect templates to apply to a list based on what I've included for a particular battle. For my secondary armies, detachments are a little difficult to get excited about because I don't own many of those models so my army list is basically always the same. The Tyranids detachment selection is case in point. They seem useful to someone with lots of models to choose from, but realistically I'm likely going to use the default most of the time. Here are some one-liner impressions:
- Invasion fleet: I've played this one a few times. It grants one unit each round Sustained Hits 1, and Precision on a Critical Hit targeting a character model. It also extends the Synapse range to 9".
- Crusher Stampede: Focuses on big models with the Monster keyword. It allows a Monster model to make an Attack after it's been destroyed but before it's been removed. The only model I have that qualifies is the Psychophage, so I've not played this detachment. I might try it using proxies.
- Unending Swarm: Improves AP on a Critical Hit, and adds 3" to Pile In and Consolidate.
- Assimilation Swarm: Focuses on models with the Harvester keyword, of which I have none. It allows a Harvester to respawn a destroyed Infantry model.
- Vanguard Onslaught: Favours models with the Vanguard Invader keyword. It grants them Benefit of Cover when targeted by a ranged attack, and allows you to redeploy one unit before the game starts.
- Synaptic Nexus: Weakens incoming damage to a Synapse model by 1, and weakens the Leadership of enemy models within 9" by 1. I like the Synapse subsystem, although I know I've barely put it to good use. This is intriguing detachment that I'd like to try.
Datasheets
This part of the book is the part you need to play the game. It's got all the current models and all the numbers and special abilities that go along with them. Yet another reason I like Tyranids is that a lot of the models are very distinct from one another, which makes it easy to proxy. If I want to play my Winged Tyranid Prime as a Neurolictor, it's easy to do because it's the model with wings. If I want to play my Psychophage as a Norn Assimilator, it's easy to do because it's the big purple bug. And so on.
It's easy to try new things with Tyranids, and there's a lot to try. There are a few interesting subsystems within the Tyranids, like Synapse and Harvester and, with the right detachment, Vangaurd Invader.
Crusade
As is often the case, the Crusade section for this army provides a fun little minigame that allows you to track the progress of your Tyranid invasion. Whether you win or lose a game, you get battle experience, and eventually you earn Biomass Points. You can use Biomass Points to improve your Crusade Force either by granting a unit XP, or increasing its point allowance, or with Requisition Points.
Battle Traits, as always, is the most exciting part for me. It's a simple subsystem: You play a game to gain XP, and then you spend XP on an upgrade (a Battle Honour) to a unit of your choice. Should a model fall during battle, you roll on a table to find whether it's really really dead, or whether it's just gained a penalty to its abilities (a Battle Scar).
Good codex
This was the first Warhammer 40,000 codex I've read that I consider to be wholly within the Horror genre. It's easy to dismiss the Tyranids as angry-but-adorable bugs, legally-distinct Alien monsters, legally-distinct Borg, or just run-of-the-mill locusts. This codex successfully transcends those expectations. It makes the threat of Tyranids very clear, and frankly unsettlingly urgent. I'm a little afraid that I might have some Termagants lurking in the corners of my game room, having casually played a whole campaign with them as the primary opponent. Sure, I appear to have defeated them, but those were just the ones I knew about.
There are more, I can sense it.
If you want to be similarly scarred by angry bugs bearing biological guns that shoot brainworms at you, buy Codex Tyranid. It's a great read, whether or not you play a Tyranids army.