Editing Warhammer 40,000/5th Edition Tactics/Tyranids (section)

==Tactics==
*'''Musical Wounds''': The Tyranids have just a couple ways of pulling musical wounds tricks to exploit the wound allocation rules. The simplest is Warriors, who can add a Barbed Strangler into their unit for soaking up more wounds, allowing the brood to take five wounds before losing a model rather than three. However, this is a pretty tepid way to abuse the rules, and there is a far better option. Assuming there are no other uses for the HQ slots and the heavy support slots aren't full, one can join two unique Tyranid Primes (with cheap regeneration) to a unit of two Carnifexes. Since Primes are not monstrous creatures and compose 50% of the unit, as long as the Primes are in cover the entire unit is in cover (no, it doesn't matter that the Carnifexes normally need to be 50% obscured - all that matters is that 50% of the models in the unit have cover saves). Technically speaking, it is possible to play musical wounds this way as well if using RAW (which is religion to some players); on page 49 of the rulebook, it is specifically outlines that independent characters who are also monstrous creatures can be targeted separately from the unit they are a part of, but there is nothing saying monstrous creatures can be targeted separately if their unit is joined by a non-monstrous independent character. The spirit of the rules is clear, but there are plenty of people to whom the spirit of the game means nothing, and if you're one of those guys then this is a trick for thought.
**A similar trick can be pulled with a Hive Tyrant and a unit of Tyrant Guard simply in terms of gaining easy cover saves. If the Tyrant Guard have cover then so does the Hive Tyrant, because only 50% of the unit needs to be in cover and Tyrant Guard are not monstrous creatures.

*'''Tervigon Powers''':The Tervigon gets Dominion for free, and can have its use in some builds, allowing your units to have a longer effective operational range. As a rule though, it gets overshadowed by the other two powers. Onslaught allows the unit to Run and subsequently shoot, extending the effective threat range of many units as well as making it easier to attain sideshots on enemy armor, or maintain fire suppression as the Tyranid swarm advances on enemy tanklines. This ability can also turn the Tyrannofex into a fairly useful unit for softening up infantry in cover prior to your units assaulting, assuming there aren't better targets to shoot. However, as a Psychic Shooting Attack, it precludes the Tervigon itself from firing, or declaring an assault. Catalyst tends to be more popular on its ability to bestow Feel No Pain to a nearby unit. This can make otherwise vulnerable Monstrous Creatures more durable than before, lending itself to a Nidzilla build, while Tervigons as an HQ choice can make a convincing argument for Genestealer-based armies; a 5+ save and Feel No Pain are functionally equivalent to a 3+ armor save in melee, making a Genestealer unit that much deadlier in melee, or harder to dislodge from cover (very few cover-busting weapons are Strength 8 after all.)..   

[[Category: Warhammer Tactics/Old]]
[[Category: Tyranid]]

{{Warhammer_40k_Tactics}}