Editing Swarmlord (section)

=== 8th Edition===
In 8th Edition Swarmie is back with a vengeance. An even 300 points nets you a monstrous 6 attacks at WS2+ S8 AP-3 D3+1 mortal on 6+ to wound and an additional one at S8 AP0 DD3 thanks to the pincer tail; a tough T7 12 Wound 3+/4++ (3++ against melee) platform that can run at a frightening 9". The range on Synapse and Shadow in the Warp is increased to 18" and thanks to Hive Commander the Swarmlord can pick one friendly '''Hive Fleet''' unit within 6" and have them move instead of shooting. This can be the Swarmlord itself to run a frightening 18" before charging, a fun way to suddenly spring a nasty surprise on your opponent, which is increased by 2d6" if you use Onslaught. The Swarmlord has a fixed Warlord Trait: Alien Cunning. This allows it to [[Creed|redeploy at the start of the battle to exploit the battle plans of your opponent]]. The downside is that this is a fixed ability, meaning it's predictable and loses its surprise because it cannot have a different trait. The Swarmlord knows three psychic powers: Smite and two from the Hive Mind discipline. Don't forget that the Swarmlord can use two powers per turn:

* '''Dominion''' lets one friendly Tyranids unit within 36" both ignore Instinctive Behaviour and Morale tests for one turn. While useful it's also situational.
* '''Catalyst''' simply grants a 5+++ save against all wounds to one unit within 18". Extremely useful, since the Swarmlord will draw a LOT of fire.
* '''The Horror''' is pretty useful: an enemy unit with 24" of the user substracts 1 from all their hit rolls and Leadership tests. Not only does it protect you until the start of your next psychic phase (have fun shutting down enemy heavy weapons squads this way), any damage you do against infantry units will hurt even more.
* '''Onslaught''' is by far the best of the bunch: if used on itself the Hive Tyrant can move 9", advance D6", then use Hive Commander to move another 9", advance D6" and charge after that. This gives the Swarmlord an average threat radius of 32", allowing for a first-turn charge in whatever vulnerable position your opponent has. Do note that afterwards your opponent will likely Fall Back and blast your Swarmlord to bits, but it'd be hilarious if you manage to take out your opponent's HQ unit with such an attack.
* '''Paroxysm''' means that one enemy unit within 18" of yours is unable to fight until it's the last unit to have to do so until your next Psychic phase. This seems odd at first, but it means you can cripple the tactical effectiveness of this unit and assure it won't be able to overrun one of your units and charge another one until you're ready for them. Situational.
* '''Psychic Scream''' hits the nearest enemy unit within 18" with d3 Mortal Wounds, and if they're a psyker they have to roll 2d6. If this is higher than their Leadership, pick one of their psycic powers: they can no longer use it in that turn. This is a tremendous way to fuck over an enemy psyker, but because of how targeting works you're not very likely to hit a lot of psykers with this unless you fight Grey Knights or something. But even then, d3 Mortal Wounds is always nice.

So in short, Catalyst and Onslaught are the best picks. Something that makes the Swarmlord unique is that it does not have a fixed Hive Fleet trait: it can pick from any of the traits and as such has access to a couple of useful effects:

* '''Behemoth''' grants re-rolls on failed charge rolls, which is alright since the Swarmlord is meant for combat, however with Hive Commander the Swarmlord can easily auto-charge after coming out of a Tyrannocyte or even when footslogging across the board, especially if it successfully casts Onslaught on itself, making this less useful.
* '''Kraken''' lets you roll ''three'' dice when rolling to Advance and pick the best one, which is a massive boon if you have the Swarmlord run off by itself. It can also charge in the same turn as falling back.
* '''Leviathan''' grants a free 6+++ for everything within 6" of a Synapse creature, which is valuable as your opponent will often focus a lot of high damage weaponry into the Swarmlord to bring it down.
* '''Gorgon''' gives re-rolls of 1 on to wound rolls in combat, which will be useful if you send your Swarmlord to try and take out tanks, or just want more reliable damage output.
* '''Jormungandr''' grants the benefit of cover out in the open... unless the model advances. Which given how you'll be running the Swarmlord is going to mean jack.
* '''Hydra''' grants re-rolls on failed hit rolls in combat against units with fewer models than your own... which means nothing since the Swarmlord rides alone.
* '''Kronos''' gives a re-roll of 1s to hit when shooting, but since the Swarmlord cannot do that this won't help him.

In the end Kraken is favoured because of the significant speed boost it grants, however Leviathan's durability increase and Gorgon's rerolls can also be decent choices.

Despite all this the Swarmlord is more vulnerable than ever with the advent of multi-wound weapons. His old reliable meatshields, the [[Tyrant Guard]] have especially suffered because of this: now REDUCED from T6 to T5 in 8th in return for 1 extra wound (so 3 total) and still only 3+ armour a single [[Lascannon]] shot has a good chance at popping one of them. While they can switch any wounds dealt to their charge to themselves as Mortal Wounds on a 2+, their relatively weak frames mean that this will rapidly kill them and focussed [[plasma]] fire will really thin the herd, leaving the Swarmlord vulnerable.

Another note is that the Tyrant Guard move 7", 2" slower than the Swarmlord at his highest stats, and thus they require adrenal glands to keep up with the boss. On top of this being not perfectly reliable, the difference in speed means there's a good chance that either unit will be able to outrun the other, meaning that using both at the same time is difficult at best. Then there's the point cost: 3 of them cost 111 points bare. Two additional points for the Glands and Sacs are worth it, and the 2 points extra on top of that are useful for the Lash Whip & Bonesword for the AP-2 it grants. Skip the Crushing Claws: they're way too expensive. There's one additional point of interest: Tyrant Guard can now be taken in units of up to 6. This is expensive, since such a unit sets you back 234 points fully kitted out, but it's a fun novelty.