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Hierophant

2017-06-26T22:26:29Z

2600:8801:2E80:56A0:1892:A6F3:1760:C151:

[[File:Hierophant Nid.jpg|500px|thumb|right|Those little specks are about to have a bad day.]]
The '''Hierophant''' is a [[Forge World]]-only fuckhuge [[Tyranid]] biotitan which is a fucking engine of destruction. It has a large arsenal of bio-weapons and is the Tyranid response to [[Gargant]]s and [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Titan]]s. The largest playable Tyranid unit in the game, it stands at 10 inches without a stand. However, in the fluff it is 15 meters tall. To put this to scale, the average height of a Imperial Guardsmen stands at around 1.5 to 1.8 meters tall while a average Space Marine is 2.5 to 2.7 meters, so on the table you can expect the size difference between a Hierophant and most things to be approximately fluff accurate - in other words it's pretty fucking huge.

They also weigh at around 51 tonnes, which in real world terms is not actually that massive. Compared to many sauropod dinosaurs (not to mention things like tanks), this is rather light. Furthermore it would be a rat compared to the Blue Whale. Figures that GW would end up failing at scale again.

With that in mind, the Heirophant is probably not all that dense. While the dinosaurs prove that land creatures can safely get that large, dinosaurs have legs under their bodies like pillars, while the Heirophant's front legs legs go up to the "knee" then down again. From a structural perspective the body is hanging off the limbs. Additionally, for the Hive mind to create a creature that can only invade Earth-sized or smaller worlds is likely be a waste of time (unless it turns out that larger worlds in 40k don't allow the kinds of fortification that need a Hierophant to attack). Instead of being a huge brick like a Carnifex, the Heirophant is probably light for its size, armored and structured in a self-supporting way to enable so it can either take cannon shells without breaking bones or splitting armor, or it can suffer broken bones and split armor but can those wounds can't kill it before it can perform its mission. Purely speculation, but one could assume it has legs made entirely the hard chitin Tryanids use for armor, with muscle and bone only extending far enough to give mobility and reinforcing structure; Terran life forms do this as well - it's why chickens have big drum sticks but much less meat on the rest of their legs. The inside of the beast would most likely be entirely metabolic structures and weapon organs (standard Tyranid fare), but with a dense and powerful digestive system in the lower front area to take in energy - remember that petroleum, what we use for fuel, is just plants that have been changed by the earth, and it has a very high energy density. As such, it's not to hard to imagine the Hierophant being powered by some kind of organic gasoline, though it would need a lot of fuel to create enough energy-dense petrol; thus, either it needs to conestly "nurse" off a hive ship or the hive mind just has hormagaunts jump in its mouth to give it enough energy to fight. The supportive structure is likely a porous, hard (and regenerative) supporting material with a dense bone-core and plated chitin armor, segmented like an insect. The odd shape of the body probably protects vitals from infantry, smaller beasts, and flame weapons; it can walk over barricades and could even use it's circulatory system to move heat generated from movement or energy weapons to it's top, ensuring weapons organs function at peak efficiency. Alternatively, it might be at least partly supported by the hive mind, like a Zoanthrope.

[[File:Hierophant, Knarloc, Squiggoth_Size_Comparison Earth Creatures2.PNG|542px|thumb|left|But then again, if the Hierophant thinks that he is all big and mighty...]]

Of course, unless its weight is mitigated by psychic hijinks or it being filled with helium (or better yet, a considerable vacuum), there's no explanation for how a 51-ton creature on FOUR POINTED LEGS doesn't sink balls-deep into the ground the moment it makes planetfall.

It's also worth noting that all those giant dinosaurs were very slow beyond being able to take a large stride, and most large Earth animals on land have to actually be extremely cautious with their movements because it's surprisingly easy for them to break bones from relatively small falls due to their sheer mass. Even at elephant size, a slip down a few meters can cause some pretty serious injuries. While for the giant sauropods high speed movement would be next to impossible and so much as tipping over would likely be fatal. Meanwhile, the Heirophant is noted to be extremely fast (easily capable of outrunning people with jetpacks) and shrugs off tank shells like annoying gnats and can easily get into high speed rough and tumble melee fights with Titans and Stompas so even with Forgeworld's rather low weigh estimations, the Hierophant is already a very much impossible beast thanks to its sheer agility (being far faster to react and move and substantially more agile than most smaller animals) and its incredible resilience. A bruthakayosaurus may be bigger but it's more fragile, slower, and would have had to spend a great deal of its day doing nothing but eating to sustain itself while the Hierophant can run around at high speeds over the course of a Hive fleet's assault on a targeted planet.

[[Crunch]]-wise, this is the most powerful Tyranid model in the game. It's extremely durable, throws out more attacks per turn than any single model - besides a CSM model that gets lucky a demon weapon, a Dreadnaught with blood talons since it can more attacks, and An'ggrath if rolls lots of 6s - and packs two S10 biocannons, which are sadly only AP3. It's only BS3, but with that many shots it's not going to matter. As the number of attacks it has, plus the fact that it's a gargantuan creature, would indicate, the main area it excels in is close combat: Apocalypse exclusive [[Daemon]]-lords are likely to die against it. It's damn hard to kill, too, having 10 wounds, toughness 9, and can regenerate and get a wound back by rolling a 6, and it gets to roll a six for every remaining wound it has.

[[Phil Kelly]] has one, and he called it Nancy. 'nuff said.

==8th Edition==

Holy fucking christ.

Listen. The Hierophant has always been a great choice. Although it was extremely expensive, it always pulled it's weight. The only problem was that the Tyranids never had a true badass TITAN. At the end of the day, the Hierophant was just a gigantic 'Nid.

Then 8th Edition happened and turned that shit RIGHT AROUND.

The Hierophant Bio-Titan is just that. A bio-TITAN.

3+-5+ WS, 3+ BS, S10, T8, 6-3 Attacks, an armor save of 2+ and an invulnerable save of 5++, all while moving from 12"-3". You may of noticed I skipped the wounds. We'll get to that.
Bio-Plasma Torret is pretty much a Flamer with 2D6 hits. Did I mention the Pistol rules? It's Bio-Cannons are now... Dire Bio-Cannons? Whatever, the stats are pretty much the same, but the AP is now -2 and the Damage is '''2D6'''. And yes, you still get two of them. They are Macro 6 weapons, basically meaning Titanic weapons. So yes, 12 S10 AP-2 2D6 shots on a single target is possible. And if that just was not enough [[Dakka]] for you, for the value price of D3 Mortal Wounds, you can double the strength of your bio-cannons. See also: [[Rape]].

The Hierophant also has some great Melee options as well, with Lashwhip Pods and Monstrous Scything Talons.

Although the Lashwhip Pods only do 2 Damage, you get 3 hit rolls for every Attack. You wanna use this against big crowds. The Monstrous Scything Talons have Sx2 (That's 20 fucking Strength), AP-5 (No Armor saves whatsoever), and, yet again, a Damage of 2D6. 6 attacks of S20, AP-5, and 2D6 Damage is most likely a kill to damn near anything that looks at you funny.

You also can get Incendiary Ichor (It's just Acid Blood) or Swarm Incubation Chamber (Can carry 20 Gaunts or Genestealers/6 Hive Guards, Warriors, or Tyrant Guards, AND a Prime or Broodlord. An example would be 20 Genestealers and a Broodlord, or 6 Warriors and a Prime.). Both are free.

All that for just the low, low price of-
Shit. It's now 1800 pts. AND a Power of 90.

Oh yeah, the wounds.

'''50.''' The Hierophant is now 5 times the Lord of War it once was.

So, worth it? Probably. Just sad we won't be seeing Hierophants in non-apocalypse games, even though they were usually reserved for apocalypse games anyway.

{{Tyranids-Creatures}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category:Tyranid]]

Haruspex

2017-06-26T21:24:11Z

2600:8801:2E80:56A0:1892:A6F3:1760:C151: /* 8th edition */ General revision

[[Image:Haruspex6th.jpg|400px|thumb|right|A face that only a mother would love.]]

The Haruspex is essentially the very embodiment of '''''"OMNOMNOMNOM"''''' (toppling the [[Ripper|Rippers]] and rivalling the [[Mawloc]]) within the [[Tyranid]] race, which is saying something given the reputation of the 'Nids. Its specialty is in assault and eating things. Lots of things. To aid it in this task it has a mouth that wouldn't be too out of place in your average [[Anime|tentacle hentai]]. The tentacles work just as good for [[rip and tear|tearing apart]] enemy combatants as they do for eating said enemy combatants.

While the current design of the Haruspex is new the creature itself was in [[Epic]] where it looked like a slug with pincers and a pair of grabby claws on its back. Luckily it received a makeover to look more menacing, just like [[Trygon|some]] [[Exocrine|other]] monstrous creatures.

It received an official model in a shared kit with the [[Exocrine]] in the 6th edition release of Codex: Tyranids.

In the grand [[GW|GeeDubs]] tradition of Tyranid vocabulary names, "Haruspex" was the job title of a [[Roman Empire|Roman]] fortune-teller. Except it was a specific brand of fortune telling what used sheep livers/intestines instead of anything reasonable and not-disgusting. Just in case you were wondering why the Haruspex looks like it's barfing up its own digestive system (which could also be an offensive version of stomach eversion, something that sharks in real-life do).

==On the Tabletop==
Another melee monstrous creature, though focused on infantry [[Carnifex|instead of vehicles]]. It can shoot out its tongue to grab things before charging, and it even has the Precision Shots rule on this tongue.

The general consensus is that it's situational and rather unimpressive, much like the rest of the Elites slots following the removal of Ymgarl [[Genestealer]]s, the nerfing of the [[Hive Guard]]s and [[Zoanthrope]]s, the moving of the Deathleaper, and the lack of fixes to any of the problems that made [[Lictor]]s and [[Pyrovore]]s bad. Though at least the [[Venomthrope]]s got better. However, it's presence does now mean the Tyranids have monstrous creatures in every slot. So with the exception of [[Termagaunt]]s to unlock [[Tervigon]]s it is now possible to make an all-Nidzilla list.

The Haruspex also appeared in [[Chapter Approved]] 2002, where it was given stats alongside some other creatures that at the time were not in the Codex. Costing only 105 points it was a lot better at fighting (superior WS, BS, I and LD), but it was less tough (W3 and 4+ save). This was offset by its rule, Fast, making it as fast as a [[Ravener]] which greatly helped getting in close. But even for a creature with so many claws it did not have rules for them in this iteration: rather it had a pair of [[Tyranid Bio-Weapons|ranged weapons]]: a S3 AP3 flame template and a 12" S5 AP4 Assault 3 Spinefist, meaning it excels at short-ranged shooting against medium infantry.

==8th edition==
The new edition gave new life to the Haruspex, allowing him to be even MORE of an infantry killing machine.
A movement of 7" allow him to reach close combat fairly quickly, with 13 wounds, T8 and 3+ armor, allowing him to withstand a lot of hits before the charge.
In close combat he does quite well, despite the fact that he only has 4 attacks, hitting on a 4+. When attacking with it's Ravenous Maw it gets to make D3 hit rolls for every attack (not hits, just rolls to hit) virtually guaranteeing that you get the hits, which are AP -1 and Damage 3. For each enemy model killed by this attack, it can immediately make an additional attack with it's Shoveling Claws which are essentially powerfists without the penalty to hit. Considering its T8 and 3+ armor, not a lot of infantry will wound him easily, allowing him to munch through everyone happily. It also regains a wound if it kills at least one thing with it's Maw.
ALSO, he can regain another wound for turn if he kills something with the Grasping Tongue, a weapon that can shoot in CC, with S6, D3 wounds, and AP-3. A hit usually means death. And if not death, still a pretty good chance of [[Rape]].
He can even dish out mortal wounds if anyone decides to fuck with him with Acid Blood.
He did get a bit more expensive, at 278 pts and a Power of 12, making him the second most (not counting [[Hierophant|Nancy]], of course) expensive Tyranid unit, only being beaten by the [[Swarmlord]] by 22 pts. But honestly, with the amount of shit this thing can point up with as well as dish out, he's more than worth it.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:HERESYTOTHEMAX.jpg|[[/d/]]? In my Warhams? It's more likely than you think.
</gallery>

{{Tyranids-Creatures}}

Maleceptor

2017-06-26T15:00:39Z

2600:8801:2E80:56A0:1892:A6F3:1760:C151: Revised 8th edition entry

[[File:Maleceptor.jpg|400px|thumb|right|Looks so badass, but sucks so hard...]]
In late October 2014 [[GW|GeeDubs]] made a token attempt to help the [[Tyranids]] feel less useless and released two more monstrous creatures, one of which was the '''Maleceptor'''. Described as just being an extra large [[Zoanthrope]] with extra armor and some legs because lifting something that much bigger requires more effort because of the square cube law. Though the ''real'' reason is because it shares the same model pack with the much more useful [[Toxicrene]], with the Maleceptor growing six exposed brains out of its back instead of the Toxicrene's pus sacks.

Anyway, while the Toxicrene was at least decent, the Maleceptor became incredibly unpopular within ''minutes'', clocking in at 205 points with only 4+/5++ and Mastery Level 2. Its big gimmick is a unique power called Psychic Overload, and can cast it on three different targets a turn. It brings back memories of the old Doom of Malan'tai what with target takes a Ld test on 3d6 or else take d3 wounds with AP2 Ignores Cover. Only problem: it's Warp Charge 2. Go ahead and do some test rolls to see how many warp charge dice you need to make three WC2 powers ([[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Psychic 101#Warpcharge table|answer:4 charges per shot, if you want better odds than a coin flip]]). Also it's a Focused Witchfire power, which means A) you need THREE warp charges to actually kill the important target instead of some random schmuck, so you're dropping even more warp charge dice, and
<strike> B) most opponents will force you to roll to-hit. Did I mention the Maleceptor is only BS3? </strike> (This has been changed in the Rulebook Errata v1.2 "However, some witchfire powers do not have a weapon profile (such as the Telepathy power, Psychic Shriek); where this is the case, no To Hit roll is required – the attack hits automatically".)) And of course, Deny the Witch can make it useless even when it does hit so all those warp charges still end up wasted. You can also shoot it at a vehicle to (try to) deal a glancing hit, whoop dee do. White Dwarf plays it up as the Tyranids' "psychic sniper", and it's so hilariously inept at it that [[Pyrovore|you wonder how the Hive Mind is still a threat at this point]].
It's a damn shame, because in the fluff it is described as an absolute rape machine, with broods of them able to go up against mephiston and make him look silly.

And then came 8th edition. Barring points cost (which is still pretty high), he has become far more reliable, hitting up to 6 units within 6" until at half wounds and going down from there. To add to the new reliable goodness there is no roll to manifest Psychic Overload, all models within 6" go poof on a 2+ with NO saves. Plus, those Massive Scything Talons are no joke either. Doing D6 damage and rerolling hit rolls of 1, the Maleceptor has become the [[Rape]] machine he was hyped up to be. [[Pyrovore|Gee, looks like that's two shitty Tyranid units we've seen with a comeback thanks to 8th edition!]]
{{Template:Tyranids-Creatures}}