Lictor

Observe the Lictor's mastery of camouflage.

Do you remember Predator? Invisible alien hunter stalking it's prey? Think that, half as big again, minus death laser but overcompensating with claws, and a face full of tentacles that would make Cthulhu blush. Not a nice chap.

Overview

Lictors are a vanguard organism of the Tyranid Hive fleets, who roam ahead to seek out life bearing planets before inviting everyone else over for dinner. They specialise in espionage; the feeder tendrils a Lictor has instead of a mouth allows it to suck the brain of an unfortunate victim out of their skull, before digesting the memories and using the information to sabotage infrastructure on the planet. In addition to this, they possess chameleonic skin, granting them the ability to match the colour and texture of any given surface (cuttlefish skin?), and a set of claws and flesh hooks (harpoons, but mounted in the chest) for when stabbing becomes a greater priority than brain sucking.

Once the 'Nids are planetside, Lictors serve an additional purpose. A Lictor exudes a pheromone trail that other Tyranids are instinctively drawn to. The greater the concentration of prey around the Lictor, the stronger the pheromone emission. This helps to coordinate the swarm, drawing more of the invaders to the largest populations. Once battle begins, Lictors tend to break cover to assassinate enemy leaders, before slinking back into the shadows.

In previous editions, Lictors had to be assigned to a specific piece of terrain marked on a pre drawn map, from which it could jump out IF the enemy got close. Since this was stupidly impractical, the rule was replaced with Deep Strike. No lessons seem to have been learnt though, as the more recently (re)introduced Ymgarl Genestealers deploy using the exact same, discarded rule.

The current codex includes a special character based on a Lictor: Deathleaper. essentially a powered-up version of a regular Lictor, Deathleaper also has a set of special rules designed to weaken the leadership capability of enemy characters (more often than not, their Warlord), and to make it easier for it to disengage and attack new targets.