Editing Grimdark Future/Tactics/Alien Hives (section)

==Unit Analysis==
===Heroes===
* '''Veteran Warrior:''' A Hero Hive Warrior for all intents and purposes,  meaning it's the closest you got to a meatwall with Tough 6 and a 3+ defense. That said, you're got a very flexible hero, capable of switching between melee and shooting. Additionally, you can buy it wings, Pheromones and Psychic Barrier depending on how much you plan on supporting your army.
**Melee: by default, the veteran warrior has a set of razor claws, giving you three AP 1 attacks. If you want, you can even swap the base bio-carbine for a second set of claws for no cost. You can switch either of these claws for the following: Piercing Claws (Rending), Smashing Claws (AP 3), Serrated Claws (+3 attacks), Sword Claws (Deadly 3) or Whip-limb+Sword Claw (-1 attack but Deadly 6, major overkill). 
**Shooting: The basic bio-carbine gives you a mid-range 18" A3 weapon. This can be replaced with twin bio-pistols (6 attacks at 12"), bio-spitter (lone Blast 3 at 24"), shredder cannon (4 attacks at 24"), barb cannon (long-ranged Blast 3 with AP 1) or acid cannon (also long-ranged with AP 3 and Deadly 3). You can additionally buy some other short-ranged weapons: poison hooks (A3 Poison), shredding hooks (A3 Rending), shock hooks (A3 AP 2), or acid hooks (A3 Deadly 3).

* '''Snatcher Veteran:''' A super Soul-Snatcher, though you're also picking the cheapest of the lot. This guy loses out on Fear, but you have all the other goodies and can buy an additional set of razor claws to compliment the rending claws it has. This is the only hero that can pick up Psychic 1.

===Infantry===
* '''Grunts:''' Very basic horde unit with only one strike/shot on a 5+ at a pitiful 12” range. They are cheap though, and can serve as good chaff or to add some activations if you’re taking lots of big boys. They have a surprising number of upgrade options, including a couple melee upgrades (although I find these to be better when saved for assault grunts, you will get much more mileage from them). They can get one special weapon, three of which are of particular interest. The Bio-Shredder is a cheap option, but a 6” range means you might fire it once the entire game. The Shock Gun provides some needed AP2, but on a 5+ won’t hit often. The Bio-flamer is appealing, with a 12” range and 6 attacks you may get some use out of it. The Acid Gun faces the same issue with its 6” range compounded by also only one shot, and finally the Bio-rifle is a good choice for units which plan to hold objectives. It offers a very cheap AP1 sniper which can remove special weapons from enemy units. In my opinion the Bio-flamer or Bio-rifle are the best all around choices. As for the rest of the squad, here you get three upgrade options, Bio-pistols which give them an extra attack for 5 ppm, Bio-spikes which upgrade their shots to AP1, and Bio-carbines which give a longer 18” range and triple the shots, but at nearly double the unit cost. For an objective-sitting squad, carbines may be a good choice, but also increase the threat potential. Otherwise, for general purpose, either the pistols or spikes are solid choices, or you can also just keep them cheap and run them plain. If their main purpose is to server as chaff, then that’s probably the way to go.

* '''Assault Grunt:''' Angrier stabby Grunts, but you only get one model. These get an extra attack in melee and are Fast for 40pts more. They can grab some melee upgrades such as doubling their attacks, adding Rending, AP2, or Deadly 3. They can also take Furious and/or Poison for 10pts. However, they’re just as squishy as Grunts and even more expensive, so be sparing with upgrades. That said, AP2 attacks are not to be ignored on such a cheap unit, especially if you also grab Furious (with Fast, if you’re good with positioning, you should get the charge most of the time).

* '''Winged Grunt:''' Grunts, with the same upgrade options, but now with Flying and Ambush for 60pts. Due to their increased price these are less of a chaff unit, and can serve two main roles. One is to be a late-game objective grabber, where they are protected from a turn or two of shooting. In this case giving them a rifle can be a good choice. The other is to harass backlines, which will only be useful if your opponent has fragile long-range units. In that case, running them with pistols and a flamer can result in a lot of dice being rolled. In either case however, this is a specialty unit which should only be used in situations where that ambush is useful and something like Swarms or winged Warriors aren’t the right tool.

* '''Soul-Snatcher:''' Your elite melee unit. They're  over twice the cost of an Assault Grunt, but your weapons are also Rending and you have a Scout move so you can make an alpha strike. This also makes them great for nabbing early objectives. If you buy the upgrade, you can also make one of them a Psychic, though a limited one.

* '''Hive Swarm:''' Fairly tough for the price and can be given Ambush and a 12” A6 gun fairly cheaply. Again, there are two main roles here; objective holder or cheap suicide unit. For 65pts you can get a unit which can appear on any objective, and requires likely a full unit’s or more to deal with. That can draw fire away from your Grunts, or make your controlled objectives harder to shift. Alternatively, for 5pts you can drop them in next to whatever unit you need to deal with and plink shots on them, but with only 6+ quality don’t plan on hitting much.

* '''Hive Warriors:''' The elite units. Each of them is tanky with a 4+ save and Tough 3, so they can definitely hold their own in any situation. It also helps that they also have both choppy and shooty options. You can also grab wings for the unit, which gives them a boost to mobility that's bolstered by their toughness.

* '''Ravenous Beast:''' Pure elite assault type. These guys lack any shooting and only two sets of 3 attacks with AP 1, so you'll be needing to make use of Fast and Strider to avoid fire. You have only two options for upgrades: Tunnel Attack so you can grab Ambush and then rush in on an enemy, or Scout so you can start fighting faster. The choice between the two ultimately boils down to when you want these guys to begin slicing into the competition.

* '''Venom Floater:''' Your floating cover generator. Sure, they have Tough 3 and 6 poisoned attacks to make them effective in combat with their Hive Warrior statline, but their abilty to grant Stealth to two nearby units iis way more useful.

* '''Synapse Floaters:''' Synapse Floaters are actually pretty durable for artillery. They still have a 4+ save and Tough 3, but they also get to use Regeneration to tank even more. But their real role is in being pure psychic support. Since they aren't tied to any unit, they'll be able to blast away while being guarded by sturdier models.

* '''Hive Guardian:''' The toughest of the goons. A 2+ save and Tough 3 means that he won't be going any time soon. you can strap him up with a variety of deadlier melee weapons so you can screen the potential threats to your Heroes. You could also grab either the Heavy Shock-Gun for its AP 2 and Blast 3 for mob removal or the Bio-Harpoon for AP 4 and Deadly 3 so you can kill most anything.