Swarmlord
The Swarmlord, (also known as Schwarmfuhrer) is one of the few Tyranid character with a little bit of personality. The Swarmlord is the supreme general of the Tyranid army, and also the most smart, cunning and experienced Hive Tyrant of the swarm. Wherever the hive fleet could not overwhelm the opposition with sheer numbers or standard tactics, it spawns the Swarmlord, and he gets shit done. And besides being a super-general, the Swarmlord is also a close combat monster and powerful psyker, capable of going toe to toe with the Despoiler himself.
It also serves as the Super-Heavy unit of the Tyranid Army in Dawn of War 2.
He's also immortal, as his memories and personality are constantly saved by the hive mind and are placed in brand new shiny body if the previous one got blasted apart with massed melta fire. While the hive mind could potentially spawn a new Swarmlord without the previous one being slain, which could lead to multiple Swarmlords on different battlefields, no evidences of such cloning exists. However, if the Macragge Swarmlord is still alive, hibernating under the surface of the planet, there ARE at least two Swarmlords in the Galaxy.
He's something of an Ensemble Darkhorse on /tg/, well liked and thought of as incredibly badass. Shitting all over Calgar probably has something to do with it.
List of deeds
- First seen on Tyran, leading Hive Fleet Behemoth's final assault on a Mechanicum outpost. Not quite clear why, because the battle was pretty one-sided, although he could have been gathering more data about human warfare.
- Showed up on Macragge and kicked major ass, outclassing Marneus Calgar in both tactics and close combat. He cut off Papa Smurf's limbs, guts and one eye, but due to plot armor, failed to kill him. The honor guard managed to recover their Chapter Master thanks to the
force-feedingheroic sacrifice of their commander to the Swarmlord to buy some time. While the Ultramarines withdrew to the space, the Swarmlord led his forces to the polar fortresses to omnomnom the First Company and Ultramar PDF. And he succeeded. Unfortunately, the space battle for Macragge hadn't gone so well, mainly because the Imperial Fleet had the balls of steel Ultrasmurfs lacked; while the Tyranids won the planet, they lost the war. It's not quite clear what had happened to the Swarmlord, as his body was never found. It's possible that he's still under the surface of Macragge, waiting for a new hive fleet.
- It's likely that the The Great Beast, who lead Hive Fleet Kraken's invasion on Craftworld Iyanden was the Swarmlord itself. The Avatar of Khaine attempted to goad the creature in single combat during the fighting. However, the Swarmlord, not really knowing nor giving a damn about honorable duels and such, tricked The Avatar into getting shit kicked by twelve Carnifexes. It also avoided all Eldar attempts to assassinate him until the corsair prince Yriel finally managed to stab him in the face with a cursed spear. (If you look closely at the wording used, it's more likely to be a Hive Tyrant with Armoured Carpace. )
- Showed leading Hive Fleet Leviathan at the last years of M41, where it once planned end executed massive simultaneous attack on Hodur Sector, resulted in omnomnoming two dozens of imperial worlds (including one space marine chapter home world) in less then two months. Such a rapid and unstoppable Tyranid advance is rumored to be the main reason for inquisitor Kryptman's decision to launch his infamous mass-exterminatus cordon project and stolen-genestealer project to redirect Leviathan into an ork empire.
- Now he's rumored to be in the Octarius empire, pwning Orks.
Not much known about his effort there.It was going well, but then the Eldar went and purged the entire system of all life.
- In FFG's Deathwatch,
another Swarmlord (or perhaps a subspecies of Swarmlord)a very accomplished Hive Tyrant called the Dagon Overlord is mentioned to be leading the forces of Hive Fleet Dagon. Unlike the regular Swarmlord, it's able to drive the swarms it commands into a blind rage and can actively copy the traits of the victims it devours, all while emitting a constant cloud of poisons that would make a Venomthrope jealous. (Unusually, it seems to go out of its way to hunt down and kill Deathwatch Kill-teams, as if it wanted revenge against the Hive Fleet's past defeats at their hands.)
On the tabletop
In game the Swarmlord is one of the most deadly and expensive HQs in the game. It can seriously buff his army (tactic: through him in a corner use a Hive Tyrant with hive commmmader to outflank 30 devilguants with 18 inches of this guy and use 'alien cunning' to give them preferred enemy, watch hilarity ensue) and kill almost anything in close combat packing high weapon skill instant death attacks. It is as vulnerable to anti-tank fire as any other Tyrant with only one extra wound and a basic tyrant armor save. He is more survivable in close combat thanks to a 4++ he gets from parrying attacks with his swords. There are only a couple HQ models outside Apocalypse capable of killing a Swarmlord in a challenge with a chance of or better than 50% - Primarchs, Draigo, Lysander, Abaddon and Skarbrand primarily, but also anything with a lot of high strength/AP attacks, anything that causes instant death or anyone that has Eternal Warrior. Give him a unit of Tyrant Guard and he's damn near unstoppable. If you have a friend who is a Blood Angels player who won't shut up about how powerful Mephiston is, just say "Swarmlord" and you instantly end/win any ensuing argument. Also it's hilarious.
Sadly, it lost Eternal Warrior as of 6th edition and Tyranids lost access to the main book psychic powers, including their buffs. And he lost his special rule that makes enemies reroll successful invuln saves. And he got 5 point price increase as a final slap in the face. What does he get from all of this? One additional attack and he's level 3 psyker. ONE, UNO, EIN attack and ML3 when there isn't really much to use it for due to the Tyranid psyker table being at most decent-ish and unspectacular, and he gets less rolls for powers than he used to. Christ...
Given the removal of the parasite, the nerfs to walking hive tyrants (R.I.P armored shell), and the obscene overcosting of Primes, the general theory on why the Swarmlord and other Tyranid HQs was hit so hard is that GW wants to promote sales of Flyrants and Tyrant Guard which are not only big and expensive models, but big and expensive models you have to buy a lot of. Everyone already had walkrants, most people only ever get one swarmlord, and the prime is a rather small model by GW standards. Tyrant Guard weren't spectacularly buffed, but Flyrants are one of the clear winners of the new book.
The Swarmlord however, is likely going to be sitting this edition out unless a new FAQ, Dataslate, Supplement, or Forgeworld book allows Tyranids to roll on BRB powers, and maybe give him back his rerolls while they're at it. So ends a year and a half of true glory, replaced with bitter mediocrity and memories of godhood now lost.
