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

===General Tactics===

*'''Shooty Shooty, Smitey Smitey''': With 9th edition being about controlling objectives rather than wiping out your opponent, armies have become more elite with more invulnerable saves, higher toughness, and more wounds. This along with a smaller board has massively helped Tyranids.
**''Shooty Shooty'' - Run a Kronos Patrol led by a Neurothrope with Symbiostorm along with 6 Hive Guard with Impaler Cannons and 2 Exocrines. Kronos will give you re-rolling 1s to hit and Symbiostorm will give you 6s to hit counting as an extra hit, which amounts to +1 to hit. The Hive Guards, hiding behind cover, will put out 12 S8 AP-2 with D3 damage which will hurt most things. You can also add the 'Single Minded Annihilation' strat to shoot again which will wipe most things out. Exocrines are Tyranids' main marine killers. With 12 S7 AP-3 D2 each if they don't move and hitting on 3s they have some very consistent damage. They also have the 'Symbiotic Devastation' strat from Blood of Baal so they can count as not moving if you need to reposition. Don't be afraid to use your big guns to clear weak chaff units to either get them off scoring points or to free up your Thropes to smite the juicier targets hidden behind. Remember 9th is about outscoring, not out-surviving.
**''Smitey Smitey'' - Run 2x Broods of 5 Zoanthropes (the extra body is there to get shot) led by a Neurothrope from Hive Fleet Leviathan. Use these as Smiting batteries to move up the field doing mortal wounds to anything in their path ignoring all those Invulnerable Saves and high toughnesses. Use their own 3++ Invulnerable save, Leviathan Feel no pains, and the Neurothrope's healing to make them incredibly annoying to kill and use them to screen your guns and soak up all the Melta, Lascannon, and plasma fire your opponent puts out while moving up the field. Support them with some smaller 10x Gaunt troops units to take and hold primary points then use Lictors and Rippers to grab you Secondaries.
*'''100pts for 30 Scoring Points''': Take a Lictor (or 2) and some Rippers and take Deploy Scramblers / Teleport Homer and Line Breaker Secondaries. It should be easy to use a small 10 gaunt brood to deploy scramblers in your Deployment zone and the centre of the board, then deep strike lictors into your opponent's deployment zone in cover and deploy the final Scrambler for 15 points or start the teleport homer as Lictors count as non-character infantry. With -1 to hit, 3+/4++ and 4 wounds (and a 6+++ Leviathan Feel no pain) it means your opponent will have to concentrate a lot of resources into removing them and not anything else in your army. Deep strike some cheap Rippers or another Lictor in to get 'Line Breaker' and you should be netting 25-30 points with less than 100pts of models.
*'''Synapse and you''': When choosing synapse units for your army, it's worth considering where they are going to be placed and what role they will fill. If you want an Exocrine providing fire support while your Broodlord and a unit of Genestealers advance, then having a cheap synapse unit (such as a Malanthrope or a bare bones unit of warriors) to babysit him will help keep him on target. Conversely, if you want a fast moving core of Hormagaunts to advance on the enemy, relying on a slow moving unit of Zoanthropes for synapse is asking for trouble. Walking Hive Tyrants, the Swarmlord, Broodlords, Maleceptors, and Trygon Primes can all keep pace with your basic assault units like Hormagaunts and Genestealers. If you intend to run fast units (12" move or higher), such as Raveners, Harpies, Crones, Gargoyles, or Sky-slashers, then adding Shrikes or a winged Hive Tyrant will help you keep up. If you intend to invest in Biovores, Exocrines, Hive Guards, or a Tyrannofex, consider taking a Tervigon (with associated termagant screen), a Malanthrope, or a unit of Zoanthropes. Warriors and Tyranid Primes are your flexible option. Equip them as required, but don't go overboard.
**Don't forget the penalties for being outside of synapse aren't terrifying anymore. Your guys will still run faster than a Slaaneshi daemon high on crack, so you can get around the targeting restrictions with careful unit placement - and some units, like Biovores or, if you're feeling silly, Lictors or Pyrovores, don't have a practical reason to care about Synapse.
*'''Mortal Wound Spam''': Tyranids have a ridiculous number of units that can cause mortal wounds either directly or indirectly. Zoanthropes with Smite, Biovores with spore mines (and the spore mines themselves), Mawlocs, Maleceptors, Venomthropes and Toxicrenes with their miasma, Pyrovores when they die, Harpies dropping spore mines, Hive Guard with shock cannons, Hive Crones with tentaclids, and a Carnifex on the charge, and the death spasms of almost all your monstrous creatures can all pile on mortal wounds. Keep these in mind when facing high durability units.
*'''Brood Brothers''': With the ability to add a detachment of Guards if you ally with GSC a whole new age of sweet, stinky cheese has come upon the bugs. Get an auxiliary detachment or a supreme command detachment if you want your CPs, fill it with two Magos and an Iconbearer then use a spearhead detachment for the Guard (for the Leman Russes with Objective Secured) and another 'specialist' detachment for the Tyranids. Use the Guards for ranged and mobile anti-armor or character assassination, It's a shame they can't take a Doctrine if taken this way, but hey- you can still legally take a Baneblade with your 'Nids.
*'''Anti-Psyker''': It cannot be underestimated how hard Nids shut down Psyker-heavy armies. Shadow in the Warp makes their powers harder to cast and Psychic Scream can force opponents to double-up on a power on different units just to make sure you don't completely make a power unusable and can make one power Psykers literally useless. Kronos turns this up a notch with its Warlord Trait and Stratagem. The Stratagem makes any WC7 power impossible to cast without a +2 bonus at minimum (poor, poor Farseers), and the Warlord Trait means that any casters get the equivalent of Perils upon any failed psychic test. It's a niche protection to be sure, but an important one considering the smite-spam meta. Just remember that Shadow in the warp doesn't work on the opponnent's deny ability, it's a different test to take.
*'''Threat Saturation''': Tyranids' main playing style involves LOTS AND LOTS OF SHIT, you should be throwing so much shit that your opponent has no way to deal with them all at once (or at least think they can't). Do they shoot those Carnifexes advancing and threatening to charge? Or the Trygon Prime that just popped out with a brood of Genestealers about to slice his face off? Or maybe the Gaunts that just sprinted from halfway across the board that can tie up their artillery in the next turn? Or... ''"shit"'', they say as a Mawloc appears inside their deathstar or the wall of Spore Mines that they ignored is getting a bit too close. Remember the quote how if they militarised every Imperial citizen and if every shot that they make are kill shots then they still wouldn't have enough to kill the Tyranids? Apply that to your battle-plan and harvest those biomass!
*'''Change is a way of life (Crusade)''': In crusade's tyranid are a monster to face against because your opponent has no idea what on earth you could be bringing each game. If you fight Imperial Fists you Know what you will face because the chapter tactic and special rules they bring are fixed to every game. Sure the marines might go heavier on armor one game, or a more hoard of marines the next but they will always be Imperial Fists. Tyranids on the other Scything Talon can change wildly from one mission to another. Normally the ability to change out your hive fleet's second bonus for one of the custom one's is a nice way to customize your army and try out new army builds, but in a Crusade You'll have much more of an idea who your opponent is before you even build you list and can then not just optimize against them, but also wildly change up your build. Go with a nidzilla one game then bring 150 gaunt's the next, each with a different adaptive bonus to play to the strength of each army style.