Editing Warhammer 40,000/5th Edition Tactics/Tyranids (section)

===Apocalypse Units===
*'''Heirodule''' Though it looks like a gigantic gaunt, it's really more like a carnifex on angry, angry steroids; this Bio-titan eats tanks for breakfast and is roughly the Tyranid equivalent of a baseline Stompa or a Warhound class scout titan. It comes in two versions, the melee only version which has four FUCKHUEG scything talons that can carve up vehicles and superheavies in close combat, and has a FUCKHUEG flamer. The ranged version has two FUCKHUEG scything talons and two biocannons (this particular version of the biocannon is S10 AP3 Heavy 6) which means that you can spit out six twinlinked S10 AP3 hits per turn, now despite "only" having AP3, the sheer number of high strength shots will quite regularly defeat AV 14, so you can pop open land raiders, and monoliths, and Asdrubael Vect's Dais of Destruction, kill baneblades and battlefortresses from the front (though it's still recommended that you go for their side or rear armor, <strike>because you should always try to take the most favorable option possible</strike>attack their weak point for massive damage), take out titans and stompas (Void shields and power fields only have an AV of 12 and collapse if struck with either a glancing or penetrating hit, though only one layer of shielding will be destroyed by a single hit; as for a titan's armor, it's generally identical to a baneblade's, not even a warlord has AV 14 on it's sides or rear), Brass scorpions, and Gargantuan creatures. Overall, a solid choice. In addition, all biotitans can tank shock, but this is generally most useful for the melee Heirodule, as it lets it just plow through a whole army of infantry models to get at the superheavy sitting at the back with a smug smile on it's face.
*'''Heirophant''' Coming in at over one thousand points, the Heirophant is the priciest Tyranid unit in regular scale (or more accurately, not-epic) 40k and is easily one of the priciest units period. But it makes up for that by having two extremely long ranged s10 ap3 heavy ''8'' (that is not a typo, its rate of fire is twice as high than a god damned gatling cannon that spews out hundreds of rounds a second) biocannons, gargantuan creature rules, a metric fuckton of claws, lash-whips, warp-fields, and some of the highest armor saves, toughness, wounds, and strength stats you have ever seen. You thought the four uber-daemons were tough? You haven't seen shit, compared to this beastie those four are nothing. There is not a single non-apocalypse unit in any codex that this thing wouldn't eat for breakfast. No matter what range it fights at, it will fuck something's shit up. Mr.space marine with a hidden power fist doesn't have shit on this guy. It is however, an colossal firemagnet, even if he is nigh on impossible to kill. With regeneration, he is pretty much the ultimate damage sponge, the few things that do hurt him will simply be rolled away. It's debated amongst the Warhammer community of what the psychic power 'Warp Field' does - in the old Codex, when the Heirophant was introduced, Warp Field gave the bearer a 2+ armour and 6+ Invulnerable. In the new book, it gives a 3+ Invulnerable save (but no boost to armour). God help us all if this thing has a 3++. Where it really shines is close combat against other super heavies where it will [[RIP AND TEAR]] with wild abandon. Beware taking it against [[Dark Eldar]], massed Poisoned shooting will fuck it's shit right up.
*'''Harridan''' the Tyranid's flyer, it is for all intents and purposes, a fucking flying heirodule (with the best of both versions) it has the exact same bio-cannons as a Heirodule (S10 Ap3 Heavy 6) but as a flyer, most things can't hit it, and it can pop open tanks with it's bio-cannons or it's claws and is one of the only Tyranid units that can deal with enemy flyers (some people debate that it can actually assualt a flyer, tearing it's shit up). It can carry four Gargoyle broods, but mainly you want this for the bio-cannons mounted on a extremely difficult to hit platform, though a trio of Harridans shitting out twelve full sized broods of Gargoyles right on top of someone is a hilarious way to drown someone in flyers. Due to its immensely powerful guns, only superheavy fliers have any chance of surviving being shot at by the bio-cannons and even then they're going to take a severe beating to their 1d3 structure points. With it's gargoyle broods, it can fulfil three out of four major roles for fliers excellently, air superiority, ground attack, and bombing. <s>Hydra tanks and Flakkadakka guns will eat it for breakfast however</s> Are only wounding it on a 5+ and cannot pierce it's armour save, and strangely for a Tyranid unit, it's very elite compared to other fliers, very powerful, but also expensive, so the enemy's fliers will probably outnumber your harridans.     
*'''Malanthrope''' The result of a Venomthrope and a Zoanthrope's drunken one night stand. <strike>Not horrible but why aren't you getting bio-titans?</strike> It's an expensive (250 points!) Alternative HQ with an armour save of 2+ and a 3+ invulnerable that wounds on a 2+, inflicts instant death, has psychic powers, and a boatload of attacks. This thing is a rape machine.  
*'''Dominatrix''' Remember that goofy looking Bio-titan in epic? Well Forgeworld saw fit to create an actually pretty badass looking model. The biggest Synapse creature of them all and probably the biggest fire magnet the Tyranids have to offer. But on the same hand, it's the one thing in your arsenal that's even deadlier than the Heirophant. It can lay down absolute devastation in every phase of the game with it's warp blast emitters, borderline silly amount of bioplasma shots, psychic abilities, and atrociously devastating melee capability while laughing off 90% of the weapons in the game.  
*'''Dactylis''' The Hive Mind got sick of the bitching about the Tyranid's lack of pieplate dropping ability, so it took some biovores and dumped them in Nuclear Waste. Yes it looks like a flower with a boner on top of it's head, yes it sucks at close combat, but you finally now have some serious ability to instagib blobs at a distance with FUCKHUEG sporemines. You get a large number of rounds to shoot out of the cannon, so it's your call really.  
*'''Exorcine''' Remember the Hive Guard?  Say hello to the Hive Guard's bigger, steroid abusing brother.  Essentially the Tyranid's shadowsword equivalent, the Exorcine can shoot an balls out devastating biocannon blast that can blow Titans apart, and if something gets close it can shit out a metric fuck ton of S4 AP 5 hits.  It still needs protection from Dreadnought Equivalents who are at the same time too small to be worth firing the main gun at, while being tough enough to walk through it's close in defenses.  

Note that copious amounts of Poisoned weapons are the bane of bio-titans, so armies like the [[Dark Eldar]] who typically spontaneously explode in apocalypse games are actually a legitimate threat to your units. Be wary of this, and unless you are confident that your smaller units are the real punch of your army, and not the bio-titans, be prepared to sacrifice other Tyranid units to keep your Bio-titans safe from poison. As for fliers, in friendly games you can ask for your winged units to count as fliers in Apocalypse games, so that your Harridans won't be so lonely up there. Flier rules greatly improve ranged Shrikes, Gargoyles, and Harpies, giving them badly needed ability to avoid being shot at by most units while also providing much needed low(ish) cost support against enemy fliers, sky-slashers are still garbage though.