Editing Warhammer 40,000/8th Edition Tactics/Tyranids (section)

==Tactics==

*'''Synapse and you''': When choosing synapse units for your army, it's worth considering where they are going to be placed and what role they will fill. If you want an Exocrine providing fire support while your Broodlord and a unit of Genestealers advance, then having a cheap synapse unit (such as a Malanthrope or a bare bones unit of warriors) to babysit him will help keep him on target. Conversely, if you want a fast moving core of Hormagaunts to advance on the enemy, relying on a slow moving unit of Zoanthropes for synapse is asking for trouble. Walking Hive Tyrants, the Swarmlord, Broodlords, Maleceptors, and Trygon Primes can all keep pace with your basic assault units like Hormagaunts and Genestealers. If you intend to run fast units (12" move or higher), such as Raveners, Harpies, Crones, Gargoyles, or Sky-slashers, then adding Shrikes or a winged Hive Tyrant will help you keep up. If you intend to invest in Biovores, Exocrines, Hive Guards, or a Tyrannofex, consider taking a Tervigon (with associated termagant screen), a Malanthrope, or a unit of Zoanthropes. Warriors and Tyranid Primes are your flexible option. Equip them as required, but don't go overboard. 
**Don't forget the penalties for being outside of synapse aren't quite as terrifying anymore. Your guys will still run faster than a Slaaneshi daemon high on crack, so you can get around the targeting restrictions with careful unit placement - and some units, like Biovores or, if you're feeling silly, Lictors or Pyrovores, don't have a practical reason to care about Synapse.
*'''Mortal Wound Spam''': Tyranids have a ridiculous number of units that can cause mortal wounds either directly or indirectly. Zoanthropes with Smite, Biovores with spore mines (and the spore mines themselves), Mawlocs, Maleceptors, Venomthropes and Toxicrenes with their miasma, Pyrovores when they die, Harpies dropping spore mines, Hive Guard with shock cannons, Hive Crones with tentaclids, and a Carnifex on the charge, and the death spasms of almost all your monstrous creatures can all pile on mortal wounds. Keep these in mind when facing high durability units.
*'''Brood Brothers''': With the ability to add a detachment of Guards if you ally with GSC a whole new age of sweet, stinky cheese has come upon the bugs. Get an auxiliary detachment or a supreme command detachment if you want your CPs, fill it with two Magos and an Iconbearer then use a spearhead detachment for the Guard (for the Leman Russes with Objective Secured) and another 'specialist' detachment for the Tyranids. Use the Guards for ranged and mobile anti-armor or character assassination, It's a shame they can't take a Doctrine if taken this way, but hey- you can still legally take a Baneblade with your 'Nids. 
*'''Anti-Psyker''': It cannot be underestimated how hard Nids shut down Psyker-heavy armies. Shadow in the Warp makes their powers harder to cast and Psychic Scream can force opponents to double-up on a power on different units just to make sure you don't completely make a power unusable and can make one power Psykers literally useless. Kronos turns this up a notch with its Warlord Trait and Stratagem. The Stratagem makes any WC7 power impossible to cast without a +2 bonus at minimum (poor, poor Farseers), and the Warlord Trait means that any casters get the equivalent of Perils upon any failed psychic test. It's a niche protection to be sure, but an important one considering the smite-spam meta.
**I see this mistake a lot, Shadow in the warp do make the Powers harder to cast but it doesn't work on the opponnent's deny ability, it's a different test to take.
*'''Threat Saturation''': Tyranids' main playing style involves LOTS AND LOTS OF SHIT, you should be throwing so much shit that your opponent has no way to deal with them all at once (or at least think they can't). Do they shoot those Carnifexes advancing and threatening to charge? Or the Trygon Prime that just popped out with a brood of Genestealers about to slice his face off? Or maybe the Gaunts that just sprinted from halfway across the board that can tie up their artillery in the next turn? Or..."shit", they say as a Mawloc appears inside their deathstar or the wall of Spore Mines that they ignored is getting a bit too close. Remember the quote how if they militarised every Imperial citizen and if every shot that they make are kill shots then they wouldn't still be enough to kill the Tyranids? Apply that to your battle-plan and harvest those biomass! 
** Sadly, Space Marines, and Imperial Guard (maybe more) have the firepower to shoot every one of your units.
  
===Specific Strategies===
*'''The Genestealer Slingshot''' This is a technique made popular on several competitive lists and is used to get a first-turn charge with Genestealers. You will need the Swarmlord, a broodlord, and a large unit of Genestealers all from Hive Fleet Kraken. This technique will also need 2-3 command points, plus potentially more for rerolls for crucial pyschic powers (The Resonance Barb relic can be key in this regard.)
**First, move and Advance The Swarmlord and Broodlord into the midfield. Then use Metabolic Override to move the Broodlord even further ahead. (remember that you do not re-roll the Advance die when moving a second time. Instead, you use the modified Movement characteristic of the unit from the first time it Advanced.)
**Secondly, use Opportunistic Advance on the Genestealers, but remember to leave at least one model within 6″ of The Swarmlord. In the following Shooting phase, use The Swarmlord’s Hive Commander ability to allow the Genestealers to move and Advance a second time. If needed apply Opportunistic Advance a second time to move even further. At the end ensure that at least one model is within 6″ of the Broodlord for his Brood Telepathy power. Follow this up with Synaptic Lure, Kraken's signature psychic power on your target of choice for re-rolling charge distance. Charge. 
**When the dust settles, your genestealers can have moved up to 40″ in a single turn, and will usually be in position to make a very easy charge.

*'''Kronos Gunline''' Take 2-3 Neurothropes across 2-3 Kronos detachments. Equip one with the Resonance Barb relic and the Kronos power Symbiostorm. Now load up with 2-3 Exocrines, 3 hive guard units (two of which with Impaler Cannons, and one with Shock Cannnons), and one 3-man unit of Venomthropes. Two Exocrines should be equipped with Dermic Symbiosis for the 5++ and the padded damage table. Try to max out least two of the Hive Guard squads. Use your remaining points to fill out battalions with tyranid primes and as many min. squads of Termas/Hormas/Rippers as you can. The Impaler Hive Guard should immediately be hidden away in LOS blocking cover. Deploy everything else a little tight to maximize the Venomthropes' -1 to hit bubble. Come the Psychic Phase, you should have little trouble casting Symbiostorm with the Neurothropes' +1 to cast and re-rolling 1s. Take turns giving exploding 6s to your Exos and your Guard, as needed. Remember that your shooters shouldn't be doing much moving. You want to keep your re-roll hits of 1 intact. Let your Tyranid Primes, and your squads of little bugs run around to grab objectives and screen. Reserve a good portion of your CPs for giving an Exocrine +1 dmg, for letting an Exocrine move and shoot as if it stood still, and for letting hive guard shoot twice. Send your Shock Cannon Guard at vehicles of any toughness and dump a bucket of MWs on 'em...possibly twice! Get as much out of the Shock Cannons as you can early, because once your enemy sees how dangerous they are to their vehicles, they will mow them down. Nevertheless, you should have no problem wiping out a few vehicles/monsters/flyers (or at least 1 1/2 knights) per turn. What's more, Exocrines and Hive Guard also excel at killing Primaris EQ infantry. Two things to beware of with this play style: 1. Avoid close combat all together, but especially keep your shooters from getting charged. 2. Be prepared to deal with your enemy's backline shooters, specifically ones that don't need LOS. You can bring a Tyrannocyte to drop your Shock Cannon HG behind enemy lines and bid those Thunderfire Cannons, or Night Spinners goodbye.             
*'''Psychic Bomb''' Send 1 neurothrope with 2 groups of zoanthropes, you'll get 23 wounds of ++3 invulnerable flyng, preferible kraken, smite spaming, self healing, 1 rerolling, 2 spell monsters that can easily lock nonflyers in combat, making them unable to shoot or allowing other units to charge without fear of overwatch.
*'''Termagant Bomb''': Simple really, a 30-bug group of Termagants equipped with Devourers (maybe only 20-25 of them) appears from a Trygon tunnel, or a nearby Ravener if you're using the Jormungandr stratagem and want to save points (or if you're insane: Tyrannocyte). That's up to '''180''' S4 shots that will kill any hordes and almost anything else. Best used to clear away bubble wrap for your gribblies to get to the enemies' gooey insides. Somewhat weakened by the nerfs to deep strike, but still a fairly viable strategy. It just isn’t the amazing alpha strike it once was.
*'''Old One Eye and the Tusker Gang''': Get a brood of Carnifexes, and equip them all with dual Scything Talons, bone mace, tusks, adrenal glands, toxin sacs, and spore cysts, and add Old One Eye. This gets you some pretty speedy and deadly second wave melee monsters with 5 (6 after charging) S6 AP-3 D3 (4 on a wound roll of 6) hitting on 2+ rerolling 1s on the charge attacks on top of the mortal wounds they cause just for charging. Kraken recommended for the ability to keep charging the same unit repeatedly, but don't use the stratagem; you want all of them to be in range of OOE's aura. Great for murdering TEQs, and can deal some pretty heavy damage to vehicles. While the Carnifexes themselves aren't that expensive, costing 111 each, OOE ''is'', so it's recommended to use this in high-point games.

{{Warhammer_40k_Tactics}}

[[Category:Warhammer 40000 Tactics(8E)]][[Category:Tyranid]]