Editing Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Kill Team(9E) Xenos (section)

==Hive Fleet==
===Why Play Hive Fleet===
*'''Pros'''
** Genestealers are incredibly mobile and sneaky, even moreso than any other scouts or sneaky units short of Tau stealth suits.
** Warriors provide Synapse as well as durable bodies that can switch between melee or shooting with little hassle.
** Gaunts are numerous and have GA2 to swarm around the opposition.

*'''Cons'''
** Gaunts remain exceedingly fragile and very specialized. Not to mention that you can only bring one fireteam of them.
** Synapse makes your warriors into very visible targets. It also means that your team will likely huddle up to each other as the wounds rack up.
** 4+ BS on your big guns makes shooting less than desirable...unless you pick the short-range stuff.
** No [[Lictor|Lictors]], bummer.

===Special Rules===
*'''Synapse:''' Any operatives activated within 6"/pentagon of an operative with the {{W40kKeyword|Synapse}} keyword do not suffer the movement or WS/BS penalties that being injured inflicts. This makes your warriors into strongpoints for your army.

===HF Wargear===
*'''Flesh Hooks (2 EP):''' Provides a short-ranged gun with 3"/square range and the power of a bolter but Lethal 5+ for extra cits.
*'''Acid Maw (2 EP):''' A rather short-ranged gun with 6"/pentagon range and Splash 1 for lucky crits to spread around.
*'''Extended Chitin (2/3 EP):''' The bearer can re-roll one defense die. Costs 3 EP for a {{W40kKeyword|Tyranid Warrior}} operative.
*'''Feeder Tendrils (2 EP):''' The bearer regains d3 wounds each time it kills a foe.
*'''Toxin Sacs (2 EP):''' Whenever the bearer scores a crit in combat, they can convert a miss into another hit.
*'''Adrenal Glands (2 EP):''' The operative adds +1"/triangle to their movement for the game. This is especially vital to hormagaunts, who are the most prone to getting squished and thus need to close the distance to get a hit off before dying.

===HF Units===

The kill team is composed of three Fire teams
<tabs>
<tab name="Tyranid Warrior Fireteam">

The fireteam is composed of 3 of the following:

*0-1 Tyranid Warrior Leader (if you don't have another leader)
*1-3 Tyranid Warrior Fighter
*0-1 Tyranid Warrior Heavy Gunner

*'''Tyranid Warrior Leader (Combat, Staunch, Marksman):''' The leader remains as elite as the warriors it commands, with a 2+ WS and 3+ BS on the long-range guns making it a capable shot. That BS can also make it very tempting to grab two sets of melee weapons for maximizing those attacks.
*'''Tyranid Warrior Fighter (Staunch, Marksman):'''Your classic warrior is an absolute monster, capable of filling out whatever role you need of it and tanky as hell with a 4+ save and 18 whole wounds.
**Melee weapons are plenty and diverse, and if you pick two melee weapons (say scything talons and bonesword+whip or two sets of rending claws) you add +1 attack to both weapons.  Rending claws are plenty deadly with Rending maximizing crits, while scything talons offer Balanced for reliability and boneswords give Lethal 5+ to make crits more likely. Taking a bonesword and lash whip gives a bonesword with one less attack than when paired up, but the whip gives a short-ranged shooting attack with Stun and can even rob the enemy of attacks when in combat with the enemy.
**One set of arms can be provided a gun instead of melee weapons. Spinefists provide short-range firepower equal to a bolt pistol. A devourer provides that same power with Ceaseless but suffers at a 4+ BS. The deathspitter also uses the 4+ BS, but provides more potent firepower.
*'''Tyranid Warrior Heavy Gunner (Staunch, Marksman):''' As with the fighter, this warrior has one set of arms dedicated to melee weaponry. However, the second set of arms is stuck to some sort of heavy gun, limiting its mobility. The barbed strangler has Blast to flush out crowds of enemies while the venom cannon has high damage with AP1 in order to rip through armor.

</tab> 
<tab name="Genestealer Fireteam">
The fireteam is composed of 5 of the following:
*0-1 Genestealer Leader (if you don't have another leader)
*4-5 Genestealer Fighters

*'''Genestealer Fighter (Combat, Scout):''' Your elite genestealer, given a bonus wound and a 2+ WS for extra ripping.
*'''Genestealer Leader (Combat, Scout):''' Genestealers are extremely mobile, being able to dash as soon as they're activated. Not only that, but they're also quite sneaky, getting a 5+ Invuln save and the ability to stay Concealed regardless of any circumstances. This means that a genestealer can very easily sneak up to an opponent and ambush them.
**You have only two weapon selections. Rending claws + scything talons gives you 10 attacks, half with Rending and the other half with Balanced for good damage. If you pair up rending claws, this reduces you to only 5 attacks, but these attacks get Relentless and Rending for maximum crit-fishing.
</tab> 
<tab name="Tyranid Swarm Fireteam (Max 1)">

The fireteam is composed of 8 of the following (max 1 per kill team):
*0-8 Hormagaunt
*0-8 Termagant (Any Termagant with a devourer counts as two selections)

*'''Hormagaunt (Staunch, Marksman):''' Your choppy nid. It's plenty weak with only 7 wounds and a 6+ save. Its scything talons are its only claim to fame, though Relentless makes sure you actually hit things. With GA2 on your gaunts, you can make sure that all of them can either circle around enemies or reach cover sooner than the enemy can fire upon them. For the hormagaunt, it's your only way to guarantee that you can ever close the distance and get to killing.
*'''Termagant (Staunch, Marksman):''' Your piddly gunner-nid, only given 7 wounds and a 6+ save. You're going to need this thing to hide in order to make use of its gun. The spinefists provide piddly damage equal to your bites while the deathspitter is only slightly better at a 4+ BS. The devourer is the only full-ranged gun and Ceaseless lets you guarantee hits, but it forces you to sacrifice one gaunt for it.
</tab> 
</tabs>

===HF Ploys===
<tabs>
<tab name="Strategic Ploys">
*'''Stalk (1 CP):''' An operative with the Conceal order and is more than 3"/square from an enemy can immediately move. Especially useful for your genestealers, who are super good at hiding.
*'''Lurk (1 CP):''' If an operative is shot at while in cover and is either using the Conceal order or is readied, they can retain one additional die as a result of cover. Expect to use this a good bit if you use gaunts because they cannot last out in the open, as will genestealers.
*'''Feed (1 CP):''' When an operative scores a crit in combat, that hit scores +1 additional damage.
</tab>
<tab name="Tactical Ploys">
*'''Unseen Hunter (1 CP):''' The operative can switch its order before or after its activation so long as it doesn't shoot. Practically begging for hormagaunts and genestealers to use it, but termagants trying to reach optimal firing range might also need this too.
*'''Will of the Hive Mind (1 CP):''' Triggered when an operative is activated within 6"/pentagon of an operative with the {{W40kKeyword|Synapse}} keyword, providing +1 to the operative's APL. Useful for letting genestealers hit and run or letting gaunts or warriors run faster.
*'''Aggressive Biostrain (1 CP):''' If an operative shoots but doesn't hit the enemy, they can shoot that target again.
</tab>
</tabs>

===HF Strategies===
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'''HF Strategies:'''
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Functionally you have 3 loadouts for this kill team:

* 3 Warriors + 4-8 Swarmagaunts: Gaunts screen your warriors and go forward when its risky. You do not want to risk your warriors as they're going to be doing the real work while the small bugs jam-up hostile operatives etc.

* 3 Warriors + 5 Genestealers: Genestealers need less babysitting and can do flanking shenanigans or operate alone against isolated guardsmen equivalents. Warriors don't have to be geared for ranged as Genestealers really encourage a get-in close playstyle.

* 6 Warriors: Very flexible, can skew towards a nasty melee setup, or to a balanced configuration that has average range threat with decent melee threat. Probably the tankiest setup, with its high wound count, 4+ armour saves, and never suffering from Injury or negative WS/BS modifiers, it means other players are going to feel like they're pounding on a brick wall.

Don't even think about going all genestealer or genestealer+swarm, its too squishy and struggles to do basic shit without factoring in casualties.

'''Warrior loadouts'''
This is probably the meat and potatoes of discussing HF Killteams; how do you gear up these bad boys. The obvious starting point is to ask "What role?": Dedicated Melee or Combined Arms is how most people think, but the truth is that there is more nuance. In an all warriors team its useful to think of each warrior as a serving a purpose, like a lashwhip+bonesword warrior supporting another warrior built as a blender when facing a horde team. The heavy gunner warriors can be mix-n-matched, either 1 of each heavy weapon or double-up based on whether its hordes or elites.

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'''Counterplay:'''
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Kill the Tyranid Warriors first, these are the pieces that do a lot of the work for Hive Fleet. If your opponent isn't fielding any then its pretty much open season, melee the shooty bugs, shoot the melee bugs. Gaunts and Genestealers have pretty bad saves, so the kill team as a whole will crumble quickly when forced into a bad engage.

An important point is to focus down Tyranid Warriors one at a time, they can't get injured, you're only going to impact the killteam's performance by wholly removing Warrior activations. Secondly is have something that can flush genestealers out of Conceal, their actual defense is poor and they lean hard on stealth to survive.
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===HF Example Teams===
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'''Standard Kill Teams'''
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