Editing Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Tyranids (section)

==Why Play Tyranids==
Because you are fucking hungry!

Or because you like the idea of an alien intelligence hell bent on devouring the galaxy under command of a will humans can't possibly comprehend... or you just like gribly monsters.

The Tyranids are a very varied faction, capable of fielding hordes like the Imperial Guard and fucking up tanks with their own, living tanks. Despite having some of the biggest monsters regularly fielded they're much faster than you'd expect and their melee output is some of the best in the game. There's an insane amount of customization, both in gear and in the monsters available to you that can fill very different roles, and this is further expanded upon thanks to their Hive Fleet and Custom Adaptations.

That's not to say it's all sunshine and roses, gunlines ''are'' viable, but you'll probably have to get close, making you more vulnerable to Rapid Fire. They have poor AP and poor armor on average, which is a considerable issue when you're fighting armies with good armor saves (e.g. Space Marines). Most armies need lots of bodies to function effectively, which can make the army one of the more expensive to assemble, paint, and transport and there's very few good all-rounders, not to mention the Forge-World Monsters, which are even more expensive per point. While being flexible on what kind of army to build, you aren't that flexible on the battlefield.

Talking about painting, Tyranids may be tied with Space Marines and Necrons as the easiest army to paint, being overall organic and alien means they are comparatively forgivable for beginners, look good with rather mute base bone or chitin-like colors and you can get great results making extensive use of shades and highbrushing, allowing you to mitigate the heavy task of assembling tens of models.

Anyhow, if you like the idea of fielding swarms of small critters backed by giants, then this is the army for you.

===Pros===
*You can partially change your chapter tactics equivalent before the game starts to better counter your opponent. You have to choose at the list building phase on matched play but it still gives a lot more flexibility then other armies.
*Amazing psychic powers at your disposal and many different ways, mostly involving neurothrope, to buff your casts.
*Tyranids power-crept ''hard'' with their new codex. 9th edition is full of killy options, with tons of AP and multi-damage options,  so the codexes that are performing the best are those that give you hard caps on avoiding damage, either through invulns, or (x) rolls of 1-3 always fail. 
*Your Monsters have been buffed to be tougher with more wounds, and their signature abilities have been made actually useful. Formerly useless units, like Tervigons and Maleceptors, can now find a place in your army.
*Tyranids now actually play like an army that's under the control of a single, dominant hive-mind, with Synergy between units being key in the new codex. Synapse has been overhauled and Instinctive Behaviour removed. Synapse range can be extended through other Synapse creatures, and Synaptic Imperatives encourage you to take a variety of SYNAPSE units to gain access to their respective abilities.

===Cons===
*You can't change your adaptive trait after you see your opponent's army, you have to do it beforehand.
*You can only make use of Synaptic Imperatives if you're warlord is alive and on the battlefield at the start of the battle round. A big blow to Hive Tyrants, who has to be the warlord if taken.
*You are CP <span style='color:purple;font-size:100%'>Hungry</span> and unlike other factions, your "regain CP" mechanic is locked behind Kraken, or with a specific Secondary Objective. 
*Your genestealers are objectively worse than the GSC equivalents while also more expensive.
*Despite being an army that heavily relies on the psychic phase, you only have one discipline to draw from. Unless you are using the Crusher Stampede army of renown, which is no longer legal.
*The Crusher Stampede and Hive Fleet Leviathan supplements are not legal to play with the release of our new codex. This is a boon for game balance overall, as the Tyranids codex is pretty strong as is, but still a nerf.
*Your entire army is dependent on once-per-turn buffs on a single unit. No constantly-on auras, this limits you to constantly needing to focus on what units need your boosts the most, to say nothing about the synaptic imperatives.
*Like many Xenos factions, GW struggle to balance Nids, and so you army will frequently go from a high competitive extreme, to being hamstrung by nerfs and put into a dumpster. Nids are still fun to play even when they're less competitive, but don't expect strong combos to last forever as they will change frequently...which is kind of lore friendly for Nids in a way.