Tyranid Codex review Part 2

Tyranid Codex review Part 2: HQs part 2



This is the second part of the Tyranid codex review which will cover the remaining three HQ choices that are available for Tyranid players.   The first part can be found here Tyranid Codex Review Part 1  



Tervigon

This is the first of the new units.  Perhaps uniquely, this is a HQ unit that can be fielded as a troops choice, as well as it being a monstrous creature.  This only costs 10 points less than a tryant but has considerably inferior statistics, with a below average weaponskill, meaning marines hit you on threes, and only three attacks.  It does come with a 3+ save and the usual high toughness of a tyranid monstrous creature.  Its strength is however not brilliant.  

It comes free with a 3+ save, claws and Stinger Salvo. 
Lets look at the upgrades:

May take either Scything Talons or Crushing Claws.  I think the claws are strictly inferior to the talons, mostly due to the points cost difference, as they should not cost five times as many points.  Scything talons might be worth it, they are a small points investment.

It has the same biomorphs as the Hive Tyrant.  However in this case both Toxin Sacks and Adrenal Glands are worth taking as he passes on the bonuses to termagants within 6 inches.  More on this later.  The only other biomorph worth considering is again regeneration.

May replace Stinger Salvo with Cluster Spines for free.  You want to do this.  I can't really see the point in Stinger Salvo, it is virtually always worse than Cluster Spines.

It comes with the following Psychic power, Dominion which can increase its synapse range by 50%.  Pretty good for a free power.  It may also purchase two additional powers at a reasonable cost.  Catalyst that can give a unit within 12 inches feel no pain and Onslaught which allows a unit to shoot and run in the same turn.  Buying both powers for all Tervigons may be quite an expensive thing though, so just buy them if you need to have them.  You probably don't need all three on all your Tervigons.

Now lets look at his special rules.  The first and most important one is The Scuttling Swarm in the Termagants entry.  This allows you to take one Tervigon as a troops choice per unit of termagants.  This means you can include up to 5 Tervigons in an army, two HQs and 3 troops choices.  You will probably want to field Tervigons as troops, to take advantage of all the benefits of being a scoring unit.

It is a synapse creature, psyker and has shadow of the warp, like the Hive Tyrant before it.  I won't cover these rules again here.  It does however have a couple of unique special rules which pretty much are the main reason to include one, apart from being made scoring of course. 

First up is Spawn Termagants.  This rule is fairly self explanatory, it gives you free Rermagants.  They come with just a fleshborer and no upgrades.  It spawns 3d6 worth but any doubles means it has run out for the rest of the game.  They have to be placed close to the Tervigon.  You will probably need to own around twenty spare Termagants per Tervigon, although less per model will be needed if you have a lot of Tervigons.  You don't need to spawn them every turn, so you can hold them back inside their "transport" until they are needed.

Secondly, Brood Progenitor, which was covered earlier, it allows the Toxin Sacks and Adrenal Gland upgrades on the Tervigon to be passed onto Termagants within 6 inches, they can also use its high leadership for tests they are required to take and it also gives Termagants counter attack special rule.  The downside is if the Tervigon dies, it inflicts 3d6 hits wounding on 4+ against every termagant unit within 6 inches.  The obvious issue with this is that your units only get the advantages being within that range, so be wary of this occuring.

Conclusion:

The Tervigon is an important creature.  It can be included as both a HQ where it is averagely useful or as a Troops choice where it is considerably better.  While you can build your entire army around them, you are heavily limiting other choices that you can take, and this is not always a good thing.  I would recommend taking no more than three, and if you do that, you probably want one of them to be a HQ choice, as to not limit your troops too much.

Good Options: Toxin Sacks, Adrenal Glands, Regeneration, Cluster Spines, Dominion, Catalyst, Onslaught.
Bad Options: Crushing Claws, Acid Blood, Implant attack, Toxic Miasma, Stinger Salvo.


Tyranid Prime

This is the cheap option for a HQ.  Its base price is less expensive than any marine HQ by 20 points, and it is about 50% cheaper than any of the other Tyranid HQs, this choice is a good one for keeping HQ costs down, as well as playing wound allocation games.  We will go into this later.

Looking at its statline, it is something between a tyranid warrior and a hive tyrant.  It basically has +1 in every statistic apart from Leadership over a tyranid warrior.  Nothing really to complain about here.

It comes free with a 3+ save, a Devourer and a set of Scything Talons.  Not bad, but you will probably want to take advantage of some of its upgrades.  Lets look into them.

May replace Scything Talons with either Rending Claws, a pair of Boneswords, or a Lashwhip and Bonesword.  Prices go gradually, but you probably want to take a Lashwhip and Bonesword for the utility function of the Lashwhip.
May replace Devourer with Rending Claws, Spinefists, Deathspitter or Scything Talons.  You probably want to either take Rending claws to increase your usefulness in combat against tanks and dreadnoughts, or a Deathspitter if you are in a shooting unit.  Spinefists are laughably bad and you probably want something better than Scything Talons.

For Biomorphs it can take Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacks and Regeneration.  All three are quite useful.  Regeneration comes into its own when the Prime is attached to another tyranid unit so it can exploit the wound allocation rules.  It can join broods of Carnifexes which benefit quite a lot from this ability, as the Prime gets Regeneration incredibly cheaply.

It has the following special rules, Synapse, Shadow in the Warp, Independent character and Alpha warrior.  Alpha warrior is unique to this unit, and allows the Prime to share its weaponskill and ballistic skill with any warrior unit it joins.  Most useful for its ballistic skill, because warriors already have a higher than average weaponskill. 

Conclusion:

Being an independant character it can join any unit which has a maximum unit size over one.  This allows it to join broods of Carnifexes even if there is only one in the unit.  It is however best placed within a warrior unit to pass on its statistic bonus.  The main reason to include one is if you are trying to keep HQ costs low. 

Good Options: Toxin Sacks, Adrenal Glands, Regeneration, Deathspitter, Rending Claws, Lashwhip and Bonesword
Bad Options: Spinefists


The Parasite of Mortrex

A jump infantry special character, which can join units, probably either Shrikes or Gargoyles.  It has a fairly unimpressive statistics set for its points value, with lower toughness than any of the other HQ choices.  It costs the same base points as a Tervigon.

It comes with a 3+ Save, Implant attack, Rending Claws and Wings.  No weapon options, so you are stuck with rending rather than being able to ignore peoples armour save.  Not brilliant so far.

The only other things this model has is special rules.  So we might as well look at them.  It is a Synapse creature, so it comes with Shadow in the Warp.  It is an independent character which allows it to join units.  Nothing overly exciting so far, certainly nothing to justify its high price tag.  Lets look at its unique special rules.

Host Organism: This allows ripper swarms in 24 inches to ignore taking instinctive behaviour.  Considering Ripper swarms are not a great choice, this isn't an amazing power.  However you need to consider the next special rule before disregarding it completely. 

Implant Parasite:  Every model killed by the parasite in combat has to take a toughness test.  Any failed tests create new ripper swarm bases.  So this gives Host Organism ability something useful to do. 

The Sarg is Acting strangely: Every outflanking unit takes a single toughness test.  If it is failed, one model of the owning players choice dies and a unit of d6 bases of rippers spawns.

Conclusion:

Quite a niche character, it allows you to spawn lots of rippers.  It is reliant on the Parasite killing things in close combat, and it is quite vulnerable to being killed in close combat, as powerfists etc will instant death it.  You will need to pick your targets and play quite a canny game to get the most out of it.

This article is continued in Tyranid Codex Review Part 3