Tyranid codex: Review

I have seen a fair few reviews of this codex saying that they are bitterly disappointed and that the codex isn’t as good as it should be. While I can see why they are saying that, I have come to a rather different conclusion of my own. Granted the codex doesn’t have a big new shiny unit like the wraithknight or the riptide but I believe that the codex has its gems none the less.

The biggest change in the codex is the price drop almost everything receives. This is deserved, and rather it should have happened last codex for most of the big bugs. This allows the tyranids to take a much larger force than they could have last week. Extra models mean more chance of them reaching where they have to go. I have to say the Carnifex is the one who gets the best deal out of this as it makes then roughly the price of an upgraded dreadnaught but so, so much more destructive. It used to be the big scary unit back in 4^th, but 5^th killed it and 6^th appears to have brought it back. I fear the sight of facing 4 of these monsters in a 1500 game plus a lot more.

Unfortunately something has to give when points get reduced, and this time round it’s the bio-morphs. Again we get a big shake up and a few things change. The most obvious is the scything talons, which no longer give re-rolls to hits, they are just ap 6 combat weapons, a shame but that’s what happens. Last whips no longer slow the opponent down, instead they speed up the monster, granting +3 initiative. A few odd restrictions have occurred, we cannot have fex’s with 2 big guns, probably an old hang up from 4^th edition where dakka fex’s with 2 heavy guns reigned supreme.  

Something’s have defiantly improved though, regeneration is a lot different to what I expected, it is now you regain a wound on a 4+, I just expected it to give you ‘it will not die’. Venom cannons have finally lost the old artefact of -1 to the vehicle damage table. It’s about time as it was such a stupid rule that made no sense any more, it was fine in 3^rd edition when it was introduced as they could still wreck a tank with a penetrating hit, but in 5^th and 6^th they could only irritate it, now it can actually do real damage.  We have got a few extra bio-morphs as well, acid blood can now be bought, which if the nid takes a wound, the attacking model takes an initiative test or suffer a strength 5 ap 2 hit. AP2!!! That’s amazing for something so cheap. I wouldn’t bother giving it to everything but on a hive tyrant who might get stuck in a challenge, why not?

Let’s look at the new bugs shall we. First the hive crone, this new flyer is meant to be dominate they skys, taking out enemy flyers and monstrous creatures alike. They come with tentaclids, the tyranids version of missiles, and they become twin-linked when targeted against flyers which almost makes up for the lack of BS the tyranid suffer from across the board. They also have haywire, which practically lets them glance a flyer to death, however the strength of them is 5 so it wont be doing much else bar glancing with haywire at that strength. It will let it stand a chance of taking down flyering daemon princes though, but not perfect. It gets a template weapon which isn’t great, but it can vector strike at strength 8, not bad for taking out flyers either.

The Haruspex is a combat monster but I wouldn’t say it was great. He regenerates wounds in combat and gets extra attacks for each kill it gets. For 160 points you get 5 wounds which should get into combat but only 3 attacks, so on the charge it could possibly kill 8 models. The other side of this duel kit is the Exocrine, a 170 point model which has a large plasma cannon on its back, only 24 inches but it can either fire a large blast, or 6 shots. If it stays still it increases its ballistic skill to 4, which helps a lot when you want to fire 6 shots into a tank. I think this is a welcomed addition to the codex as it gives a great ranged way of taking out terminators and light tanks. It’s not great in combat but that’s life.

A big blow to the nids is that they now have their own psychic powers and they aren’t great. Some powers have increased in ability, Catalyst for example now targets both the caster and another unit, which is a great boost as tervigons and other monsters can target itself and a friend, best of both worlds.

Over all I like this codex, and it will take a skilled player to make it a tournament winning book, but it has the potential there, I am sure of it.

What do you guys think of the codex?