Swarmlord
The Swarmlord, also known as Schwarmführer (due to his first leaked images coming from german WD scans, also it sounds way cooler), and Gargamel (owing to how he fucked over Papa Smurf), is one of the few Tyranid character with a little bit of personality. He is as ancient as the Tyranids themselves, a veteran of conflicts across several galaxies. Essentially the Granddaddy of all Hive Tyrants, the Swarmlord is the Creed of the Tyranid army, and also the most intelligent, cunning and experienced Hive Tyrant of the swarm. Whenever the Hive Mind can't overwhelm the opposition with sheer numbers or adapting new tactics, it spawns the Swarmlord, and he gets shit done. And on top of being a super-general, the Swarmlord is also a close combat monster and powerful psyker, capable of facing off with the Despoiler himself. Although it should be noted this is only in Crunch as, in Fluff, the Swarmlord has rarely managed to win a fight against serious opposition and is weaker than Marneus Calgar in a duel, meaning Abaddon is most likely the stronger fighter in the actual narrative.
He's also immortal, as his memories and personality are constantly saved by the Hive Mind and are placed in brand new shiny body if the previous one got blasted apart with massed melta fire. While the hive mind could potentially spawn a new Swarmlord without the previous one being slain, which could lead to multiple Swarmlords on different battlefields, no evidence of such cloning exists. However, if the Macragge Swarmlord is still alive, hibernating under the surface of the planet, there ARE at least two Swarmlords in the Galaxy. He's something of an Ensemble Darkhorse on /tg/, well liked and thought of as incredibly badass. Shitting all over Calgar probably has something to do with it.
He serves as the Super-Heavy unit of the Tyranid Army in Dawn of War 2.
List of deeds
- First seen on Tyran, leading Hive Fleet Behemoth's final assault on a Mechanicum outpost. Not quite clear why, because the battle was pretty one-sided, although he could have been gathering more data about human warfare.
- Showed up on Macragge and kicked major ass, outclassing Marneus Calgar in both tactics and close combat. He cut off Papa Smurf's limbs, guts and one eye, but due to plot armor, failed to kill him. The honor guard managed to recover their Chapter Master thanks to the
force-feedingheroic sacrifice of their commander to the Swarmlord to buy some time. While the Ultramarines withdrew to space, the Swarmlord led his forces to the polar fortresses to omnomnom the First Company and Ultramar PDF. And he succeeded. Unfortunately, the space battle for Macragge hadn't gone so well, mainly because the Imperial Fleet had the balls of steel Ultrasmurfs lacked; while the Tyranids won the planet, they lost the war. It's not quite clear what had happened to the Swarmlord, as his body was never found. It's possible that he's still under the surface of Macragge, waiting for a new hive fleet. - It's likely that the The Great Beast, who lead Hive Fleet Kraken's invasion on Craftworld Iyanden was the Swarmlord itself. The Avatar of Khaine attempted to goad the creature in single combat during the fighting. However, the Swarmlord, not really knowing nor giving a damn about honorable duels and such, tricked The Avatar into getting shit kicked by twelve Carnifexes. It also avoided all Eldar attempts to assassinate him until the corsair prince Yriel finally managed to stab him in the face with a cursed spear. (If you look closely at the wording used, it's more likely to be a Hive Tyrant with Armoured Carpace.)
- Showed leading Hive Fleet Leviathan at the last years of M41, where it once planned and executed multiple simultaneous and devastating attacks on Hodur Sector, resulted in omnomnoming two dozens of imperial worlds (including one space marine chapter home world) in less then two months. Such a rapid and unstoppable Tyranid advance is rumored to be the main reason for inquisitor Kryptman's decision to launch his infamous mass-exterminatus cordon project and stolen-genestealer project to redirect Leviathan into an ork empire.
- Launched a campaign against Vior'Los, where he faced off in a Duel against Farsight and got his ass kicked.
- Now he's rumored to be in the Octarius empire, pwning Orks. It was going well, but then the Eldar went and purged the entire system of all life, and after that Ghazgkhull showed up, hopped up on WAAAAGH energy and blessed by the direct intervention of Gork and Mork themselves.
On the Tabletop
The Swarmlord was one of the most deadly and expensive HQs in the game, being able to buff his army and slaughter almost anything in close combat with high weapon skill instant death attacks. While having only one wound more than a regular Hive Tyrant, he was more survivable in close combat due to a 4++ he got from parrying attacks with his swords. There were only a couple HQ models outside Apocalypse capable of killing the Swarmlord in a challenge with a chance of or better than 50% - Primarchs, Draigo, Lysander, Abaddon and Skarbrand primarily, but also anything with a lot of high strength/AP attacks, anything that causes instant death or anyone that has Eternal Warrior, and even that doesn't save them most of the time. Give him a unit of Tyrant Guard and he's damn near unstoppable. If you have a friend who is a Blood Angels player who won't shut up about how powerful Mephiston is, just say "Swarmlord" and you instantly end/win any ensuing argument. Also it's hilarious.
And then 6th edition happened. It lost Eternal Warrior, and Tyranids as a whole lost access to the main book psychic powers, including their buffs. And he lost his special rule that made enemies reroll successful invuln saves, AND got 5 point price increase as a final slap in the face. What does he get from all of this? One additional attack and he's level 3 psyker. ONE, UNO, EIN attack and ML3 when there isn't really much to use it on due to the Tyranid psychic table being at most decent-ish and unspectacular, and he gets less rolls for powers than he used to. Christ...
Given the removal of the Parasite, the nerfs to walking Hive Tyrants (R.I.P armored shell), and the obscene overcosting of Primes, the general theory on why the Swarmlord and other Tyranid HQs was hit so hard is that GW wants to promote sales of Flyrants and Tyrant Guard which are not only big and expensive models, but big and expensive models you have to buy a lot of. Everyone already had walkrants, most people only ever got one swarmlord, and the prime is a rather small model by GW standards. Tyrant Guard weren't spectacularly buffed, but Flyrants are one of the clear winners of the new book.
The Swarmlord however was forced to sit the edition out with no FAQ, Dataslate, Supplement, or Forge World book to throw him a bone. So endeds a year and a half of true glory, replaced with bitter mediocrity and memories of godhood now lost.
And then 8th Edition happened.
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 DD6, (and one annoyingly enough on an S6 AP0 DD3, thanks pincer tail) a tough T6 12 Wound 3+/5++ (4++ against melee) platform that can run at a frightening 9". The range on Synapse and Shadow in the Warp is increased to 12" 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. 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:
- The Horror is pretty useful: an enemy unit with 24" of the user substracts 1 from 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 will hurt even more.
- Catalyst simply grants a 5+++ save against all wounds. Extremely useful, since the Swarmlord will draw a LOT of fire.
- 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.
Despite all this the Swarmlord is more vulnerable than ever with the advent of multi-wound weapons. His old reliable meatshields, the Hive Guard have especially suffered because of this: still stuck at T5 W3 3+ 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 Hive Guard move at 5", and the Swarmlord at 7". This means that to keep the effect the Swarmlord has to either slow down or use its Hive Commander ability on its bodyguards, meaning it can still move only 7" per turn. And when the Swarmlord decides to run halfway across the table it'll take the rest of the game for the Tyrant Guard to catch up to the boss, making them a waste of points. 111 points for 6 additional wounds is pretty handy, but it cripples what your Swarmlord is capable of.
Power Ratings
At 15 points the Swarmlord is balanced and doesn't get any other options. Nothing else changes.
Gallery
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The Swarmlord and a certain tactical genius team up. Can I get a "Hell yeah!", people? -
El Señor de la Horda y su corcel, el Terror Rojo.
