Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Tyranids (section)

===Fast Attack===
Remember how vehicles used to be a problem for Tyranids, mostly due to their inability to actually get close enough to vehicles to use their high-strength weapons? Fast Attack Tyranids shine in an anti-vehicle role, and the few who don't are pretty good infantry killers (as if you didn't already have enough ways to deal with infantry, but the option is there). Able to get close enough with relatively long range weaponry and unload huge amounts of high strength organic dakka that will really fuck up mechanized assaults. Enemy fliers giving you trouble, too? There's a tyranid for that now that will make even the super OP Necron flyer will shit its metal pants at the thought of facing. Though fragile (what Fast Attack unit isn't?), they do follow the Tyranid combat doctrine of "if we can't field a lot of them, we'll give them options".

*'''[[Gargoyle]]s:''' Gaunts with wings, effectively. They are, in quite nearly every way, just Termagants with wings. They have the same stats and the same weapons. However, aside from the 12" movement there are two differences: they can exchange all of their attacks and instead make a single poisoned attack with the Blind special rule. Another thing is that Gargoyles are Jump Infantry and essentially receive a free bonus hit at I10 on the charge if they use their "jump pack" for the charge instead of for their movement.  This does allow you to re-roll your charge range, though. Throw in poison and Gargoyles become some savage monstrous creature hunters (great for fucking over other Tyranid armies and Chaos Daemons). Taking HoW into consideration, Gargoyles are incredibly cost efficient models. If you give them both upgrades, you're paying 10 points for: 12'' + 2d6'' charge, 1 S3 I4 hit, 2 S4 I4 Poisoned attacks, and a S4 AP5 assault weapon shot. Point for point, superior to even Storm Boyz. Sadly, they aren't too fantastic against much besides infantry; if they can't kill or cripple what they charged in the first round there's not much hope for the unit coming out alive... So while it doesn't hurt to have them around, they also don't always help. Like all Jump Infantry, they do have Deep Strike, the trick is getting them into Synapse before they start lapsing into Instinctive Behavior: Hunt and uselessly shooting Fleshborers instead of assaulting like they should.

*'''[[Tyranid Harpy|Harpies]]:''' The first of the two Fast Attack Flying Monstrous Creatures for Tyranids, the Harpy does a "little bit of everything." It has a Vector Strike, the ability to drop a cluster of Spore Mines over an enemy it has flown over once per turn, and a twin-linked gun, either S6 large blast, or S9 small blast. However, you can only do two of those per turn, as both the Spore Mines and Vector Strike count as firing a weapon for that turn. Because of this, it is generally not recommended to buy either the Cluster Spines or Stinger Salvo. All this leads to a very harassy flier with enough pie for everyone. Keep them in the back during deployment though, as they start in Gliding mode and thus can be instagibbed by Str10 Large Blasts, which are mostly short-ranged. Make it a point to stay out of range or LOS of a Quadgun until they can at least Jink. Their extreme mobility and range will get them where they need to be no problem once they're in the air.
** Should you wish to glide with the Harpy, its Sonic Screech lets it lower the Initiative of enemy units it charges by 5. With its low WS and attacks however, you do not want the Harpy to take on most units by itself, but the debuffs can benefit your lower Initiative units, such that you could have a Carnifex strike before Eldar. One particularly amusing option however is to give the Harpy Acid Blood, such that wounding it works more to your advantage than the other way around.
** It's also worth remembering that as MCs aren't vehicles they have a 360 degree fire-arc so plopping a Strangethorn pie onto the same unit you just passed over and pooped mines onto is, unlike a flier, entirely doable.


*'''[[Hive Crone]]:''' Where the Harpy is more "general-purpose," the Hive Crone is supposed to fill a dedicated air superiority roll. It has a Strength 8 Vector Strike, and four S5 Haywire missiles that rerolls to hit against fliers. However, using the Vector Strike means only firing one missile, and Haywire weapons work best when they can rapidly strip HP, which the Tentaclid cannot. They're fragile, and more expensive than the Harpy. Though not a terrible unit on its own, the Hive Crone is generally inferior to finding the extra points for another Flyrant, though it does find its place in several Formations. 
** The Harpy and the Crone are made with the same kit. The kit is $80 ($115 'Strayahbucks). One of the few units (the Harpy) that wasn't nerfed in the Tyranid's codex is also one of the most expensive Nid kits to buy; [[Just As Planned|One of GW's many strategies to squeeze extra cash from their customers]].
*** Again, remember that the Tentaclids and Snotty Goodness aren't bound to a 45 degree forward firing arc.  Gutted, [[Heldrake]]s!

*'''[[Ravener]]s:''' Raveners are very similar to Warriors, but they're faster, have higher initiative, have more attacks, and are more fragile. Ultimately they're ok. They aren't as good at fighting as a swarm of Hormagaunts, aren't as tough as Warriors, and get expensive when equipped with ranged weapons, but their Fleet move, 12" movement, and complete immunity to non-mysterious terrain give them a niche to fill. Ideally, they're harassers, designed to make unexpected long range assaults into exposed heavy weapons teams or infantry who think they're safely controlling an objective. The main thing to worry about with them is Instant Death and getting caught in the open. Their 5+ saves mean they won't get armor against the most typical foes, and if you can't clean up that Space Marine with a hidden Power Fist in one round then you'll have some very dead Raveners on your hands - see link for Tyranid warrior health issues.
** Alternate Opinion: Raveners are basically Shrikes without Synapse and fewer options, for the same cost. They only have two things going for them: 1) They can buy guns in addition to their two pairs of Scything Talons/Rending Claws, though that costs and 2) They are Beasts, so their low Armour Save should not matter, since, if your Beasts ever don't have a Cover Save, YOU fucked up. For all problems concerning Power Fists and Leadership, you should very much check out the next point:
**'''The Red Terror:''' For 85-points you may add the Red Terror to one of your Ravener broods (one use per army), which has better stats, access to prehensile pincers, and the Swallow Whole ability (hitting a unit with 4 attacks automatically removes a model, and ignores armor and cover saves). If you're going to use them, you may as well splurge on it. Something that is often overlooked is that the Red Terror also provides a Leadership of 8 instead of the Raveners' usual 6, which gives them greater autonomy from your Synapse Creatures. The most important aspect about The Red Terror though is that it is a Character and can thus allocate wounds to your Raveners. This is therefore going to make a Ravener brood much more resilient. He ignores instant death from missile launchers (T5), has a 4+ save that can reduce the typical damage from AP5 weaponry, and can (statistically with 6 attacks on the charge) swallow whole a hidden powerfist. 

*'''Shrikes:''' Winged warriors which cost just as much as the normal warriors but have a weaker armor save, made up for with a much greater mobility. Equip them with any combination of your favorite melee weapons and get these guys into an assault ASAP, get kills, and then onto the next squad before you can shake a ripper at them. They still suffer from anything that can instant death them and although they can now take the Prime, there isn't much point as the Prime can't fly.  If you can manage hopping them from cover to cover running, they won't disappoint you. Overall, a strong contender for a Fast Attack slot on your army. Now the same cost as regular warriors and/or raveners.

*'''Sky-Slashers:''' Rippers with cute little wings. Not much better then the grounded version, but now with the added weakness of taking dangerous terrain checks if they use their jump move while in terrain! They can, however, use their jump move to assault, which gives them a free I10 hit, in addition to their other attacks for a metric fuck ton of paper cuts on the charge. If they take Adrenal glands, they can glance AV10 rear armor vehicles to death on the charge, with a 12+2d6" threat range. Otherwise, see Rippers, described above. 

*'''[[Spore Mine]]s:''' With the new codex, these guys move 3" in the movement phase, can run and assault normally (But halves their roll), and will explode in close combat at initiative step 10, with a large blast S4, AP 4, however, you only get to place one large blast. For each additional Spore mine beyond the exploding one, add +1S to the blast (to a maximum of S9, since you're only allowed 6 mines in a cluster.) and remove them all afterwards. This means that they can be a good distraction for relatively little cost, able to really scare tanks and light infantry with high strength blasts. They also don't count as kill points, so if you have the spare points, these are a great point sink.  Even if you don't field them alone, buy some as you're going to need them for the Sporocyst's defenses and Biovore's missed shots.

*'''[[Mieotic Spore]] Mines (Forge World):'''[[Centurion Squad|Spore Mines in Spore Mines]], they move 3+D6" in the movement phase, and half their run distances, but unlike the smaller mines they may not charge at all. When they go boom, they resolve it like a large blast shooting attack with a 6" range but with no BS to speak of you could end up horribly overshooting your target and end up with nothing. Also, the number of mines does not increase the strength of the blast which is S5 as standard, though you '''can''' have one marker per spore mine. Finally, as a consolation, if one of your markers misses (or you lose a meiotic spore to enemy gunfire), you can replace the model with a brood of baby spore mines. For 15 points a model, its not a bad alternative to a regular spore mine brood, since you get more chances if you miss. Since they cost exactly the same as the average three spore mines they produce when destroyed you might as well take these in place of regular spore mines in your list if you have the money to buy both.
**With the new release of '''Mucolid Spores''', the Meiotic spores will struggle to find their place, the models can be used as either since there is very physical little differences between them other than a few tentacles.
**Comparing the two: They have the same points cost per model and both get the Shrouded USR. However Mucolid Spores '''don't''' compete in the Fast Attack slot and have the advantage of being able to assault zooming flyers ''(something that Meiotic spores were [[Forge World|supposed]] to be able to do according to their fluff)'' and Mucolids have a higher bomb strength that can be increased per bomb. What the Meiotic spores have going for them is that they cause an ''ignores-cover'' explosion for '''each''' bomb in the cluster and get to leave behind normal spore mines if they fail to hit anything. Take Meiotic spores if you're facing big hordes of GEQ infantry (or Orks or other nids) as they do much better at that job.

*'''Dimachaeron (Forge World):''' A brand-new unit in fast attack that looks like a horrid mix between a Carnifex, a Tyrant, and a Lictor, it acts like a pseudo Jump MC (Leaping in movement gives it a 6" range, leaping in assault gives it HoW with S+1 and Strikedown).  It has a pair of S+1 AP2 Talons that, when it rolls 6 to-hit, gives an attack on an unwieldy S+4 AP1 ID claw that can kill anything smaller than Extremely Bulky.  Then, for each wound the model has (on its profile, not only the ones remaining. So if you remove the last wound from a Marine Captain, you get 3 tokens, not one), it gains a token that gives it a 4+ FNP for the turn before burning it off.  And just to add on to the horde-rape, it has an AP2 pair of claws with 4+ ID.  However, it has some unbalanced stats with WS8 BS3, but S/T/W/I 6 and 5 Attacks (6 due to 2 pairs of weapons) and a 3+, but it's reliant on Synapse with IB Feed (At least it has some alleviation if it killed some goons before to feed it FNP), Rampage, and Adrenal Glands.
** Some points to clarify from someone who has used the model; the new Leaper type has limited application for a standard move given that the Dimachaeron's base is 3.5" deep, meaning that the model can only physically clear terrain 2.5" deep.  It's great for impassible walls, rivers or leaping up onto terrain but fairly crap at clearing area terrain like forests unless clearing an edge.  The leap is great for ignoring the initiative penalty from charging through intervening terrain but if the target is *in* terrain ''you'll still hit last because, despite having a BS value FW didn't bother giving this big fellow a Spine Bank option, FFS.'' '''Incorrect''' dependent on the following; If you use the "leap" ability to get into combat you gain +1 S and Strikedown to your hammer of wrath attack. This attack lands at initiative step 10, and whether or not it wounds the opposing model fights then as if in difficult terrain, at initiative 1 due to Strikedown. Further to this the rest of the unit pile in as if in difficult terrain as per initiative step pile in rules. Although the unit is not slowed by the difficult terrain it is still effected by the reduction of it's initiative. No dangerous terrain tests on jumping or landing though thanks to it being an MC.  A successful Spine-maw attack resulting in FNP(4+) mentioned above gives the Dimachaeron a plasm (yes, plasm, not plasma) token for every wound on the <i>target model's statline</i>, not for every wound remaining which fits perfectly with the unit's job as a HQ & Elite unit hunter.  The FNP kicks in immediately and each plasm counter lasts for a game turn, not player turn.  Nomming some poor bastard with 3W on turn 3 will give the Dimachaeron a 50% chance to ignore most hits way up to the end of turn 6, effectively the rest of the game, so no, it doesn't need to kill "a lot of people", just a few unlucky good ones.  With 5 attacks base +1A for two pairs of CCWs, D3 attacks from the Rampage USR & +1S & +1A for charging this m0f0 brings 8-10 S8 I6 attacks on the charge for the NOMs making it great for hitting infantry caught out in the open and even most characters will be hitting after this guy.  Land Raiders are getting can-openererered on 6s and AV10 rear transports should be mortally afraid.  For non-vehicle NOM-proof models larger than Very Bulky infantry the Sickle Claws will ID them on the roll of a 4+ to wound, perfect for other MCs, even at S7.  If you can catch one, a Wraithknight should be dropped in a single round of combat, same for a Riptide, cheerio!  With proper support a Dimachaeron is an absolute beast, just make sure it has it's breakfast and stays away from Instant Death weapons.
** To summarize, the Dimachaeron is a beast in close combat, but it cannot do anything outside of close combat and despite being Fast Attack, it is not particularly fast, except for the Adrenal Glands, which any other Tyranid MC can buy as well.

*Cool Combat trick* Try smashing on the first round of combat to reduce your attacks to 1, ensuring you are locked in during your opponent's shooting phase! '''Just As Planned'''. Don't try this with heavy hitters but it works against basic marines or weaker!