The third day of GW’s advent calendar of shiny new Warhammer 40k detachments is good news for the Tyranids, with the Warrior Bioform Onslaught joining the six codex detachment options already available to the chittering bugs. Perhaps the hive mind has been motivated by the Warriors’ excellent performance as baddies in Space Marine 2…
Revealed via GW’s Warhammer Community site on Tuesday, this new Warhammer 40k detachment sits right in the middle of the Tyranid size chart, sidelining endless hordes of Termagants or Kaiju-style Tyrannofexes in favor of Tyranid Warriors. GW is gradually working its way through new detachments for all the Warhammer 40k factions, and it’s the Thousand Sons turn on Wednesday, December 4, according to GW.
The Warrior Bioform Onslaught turbo-charges Tyranid Warriors, whether they’re equipped with ranged or melee bio-weapons, and has lots of upgrade options for the Winged Tyranid Prime character that turn it into a more powerful unit leader.
As per normal for Warhammer 40k 10th edition, you get one core detachment rule; four Enhancements to buff characters; and six unique Stratagems. We’ll briefly break down the new rules here, and explain how they work in plain terms.
Detachment Rule – Leader-Beasts
The Detachment Rule is incredibly simple and very, very scary: Tyranid Warrior units, whether they have Ranged Bio-Weapons or Melee Bio-Weapons, and the Winged Tyranid Prime unit, all gain a 5+ invulnerable save.
For purely administrative purposes, both types of Tyranid Warriors gain the ‘Tyranid Warriors’ keyword, which is referenced by the detachments’ Enhancements and Stratagems.
Tyranid Warriors also gain the Battleline keyword, allowing you to field up to six units of them and granting you additional victory points in the current Pariah Nexus matched play mission pack. Not only that, but as long as they’re not Battle-Shocked, those Warriors also have an Objective Control characteristic of three.
The real question for this detachment is, how many Tyranid Warriors or Gargoyles do you own? Giving Warriors a 5+ invulnerable transforms how survivable they are, while a blob of Gargoyles – that will also gain an invulnerable when led by a Tyranid Warrior Prime – will be an incredibly annoying, and movable, tarpit.
Enhancements
Synaptic Tyrant – 10 points
For the Neurotyrant only, this Enhancement lets it lead a unit of Tyranid Warriors.
Oh yeah, it’s all coming together. The Neurotyrant gives the unit it leads +1 to hit, and +1 to wound if you’re targeting a Battle-shocked unit. Normally the Neurotyrant uses this force multiplication with Zoanthropes, but by leading a unit of Tyranid Warriors you can also use all of the detachment’s stratagems on your brain bug.
Ocular Adaptation – 20 points
For the Winged Tyranid Prime only – models in its unit get +1 to hit.
We’re torn on this one. It’s a cheap accuracy buff on top of the Warhammer 40k ability Sustained Hits 1 that the prime already grants. You’re probably best off leading a unit of Gargoyles with them: bunging the Winged Prime in with Tyranid Warriors allows your opponent to benefit from the Anti-Fly rule whenever they target the unit, and between Astra Militarum Hydras and the sundry little AA guns mounted on Space Marine vehicles, there’s a lot of Anti-Fly going around.
Sensory Assimilation – 20 points
For the Winged Tyranid Prime only. Enemies get -1 to Hit it or the unit it’s leading, in both the shooting and combat phase.
Another great buff, attached to a bug that has problems. Of the two Winged Tyranid Prime Enhancements, this is the one we’d use to lead a unit of Tyranid Warriors.
Elevated Might – 30 points
The bearer of this Enhancement, and their unit, can declare a charge in the same turn that they advanced.
Normally, the only way Tyranids that can both advance and charge are found in the Vanguard Onslaught Detachment. Elevated Might may not provide an army-wide buff, but you can attach it to a huge range of units. You could also make an extra nippy Flying Hive Tyrant, or make a surprisingly mobile wingless Hive Tyrant with Tyrant Guard, just to be contrary.
That said, you’re probably best off taking this on a Brood Lord and a unit of Genestealers. Nothing else minces quite like Genestealers….
Stratagems
Synaptic Amplification – 1 CP
In your Shooting phase or either player’s Fight phase, you can pick a Tyranids unit. It gets to re-roll Wound rolls of one. If you picked a Tyranid Warriors unit, it also gets to re-roll Hit rolls of one, and you can pick an Endless Multitude unit that is within 6″ and isn’t battle-shocked – it also gets to re-roll Wound rolls of one.
A nice, simple force multiplier that obviously pays you off for taking Tyranid Warriors, but which is still useful no matter which unit you use it on.
Spontaneous Hypercorrosion – 1 CP
In your Shooting phase or either player’s Fight phase, you can pick a Tyranids unit. It gets +2 Strength to its ranged weapons, and Tyranid Warriors and Winged Tyranid Prime models in the unit get +1 Strength to their melee weapons.
In the right circumstances, this is the best shooting buff Stratagem in the game – land a ranged attack against a target with one more Toughness than the weapon’s Strength, and the +2 Strength will push you from wounding on a 5+ to wounding on a 3+. Even when you can’t line that up, it will usually give the equivalent of +1 to wound, no matter which unit you apply it to.
Restorative Impulses – 1 CP
In your command phase, return a destroyed Tyranid Warrior to a unit.
Returning 25 points worth of models to play may not sound like much, but each Tyranid Warrior represents three points of Objective Control. Returning a model to a unit with less than five models also grants you 2″ of additional threat range when you want to make a cluch charge.
Synaptic Micronodes – 1 CP
In your Movement phase, pick an objective that you currently control and that one of your Tyranid Warriors unit is within range of. That objective stays under your control until your opponent can claim it, even if you move your models off it.
This is particularly useful when you’ve claimed an objective with a melee focused unit of Warriors and want to continue putting the pressure on the rest of the enemy lines.
Parasitic Payload – 1 CP
In your Shooting phase, one of your units of Tyranid Warriors with Ranged Bio-Weapons gains the Ignores Cover ability for the turn. Once it has finished shooting, one enemy unit that it hit with ranged attacks cannot have the Benefit of Cover this turn.
Provided you have a target, this is a great tool to focus fire into a single enemy unit.
Synaptic Shield – 1 CP
When your opponent declares Shooting attacks, provided it targets a unit of Tyranid Warriors, they can throw up a psychic shield For the rest of the phase, each time the enemy targets that unit with a ranged attack with a Strength greater than the unit’s Toughness, the enemy suffers -1 to wound. You can also pick an Endless Multitude unit within 6″ to gain the same benefit.
Note that this does not protect the unit from the first round of shooting, as the enemy has already declared targets before you are able to use the ability. This is something that your opponent can play around with target priority – if they open up with their big guns first, it may simply not be very useful.
Summary
While this list has a big incentive for skewing towards Tyranid Warriors, it still has some nice buffs for your other units. Elevated Might is great on a Broodlord and Genestealers; Spontaneous Hypercorrosion can be incredibly powerful on any shooting unit; and Synaptic Amplification and Synaptic Shield reward you for bringing some Endless Multitutde units along.
It doesn’t feel game changing: it mitigates Warriors’ poor survivability, and provides a lot of handy tools, mostly for the shooting phase. Players who own a lot of Warriors already will be happy that their big bugs have a bit more bite, but it isn’t a reason to go out and stock up on Warrior boxed sets.
You can download the Warrior Bioform Onslaught detachment from GW right now, alongside the Dark Angels’ Lion’s Blade Taskforce and the Death Guard’s Flyblown Host PDF.
In the meantime, you can check which armies are getting new rules next with our guide to upcoming Warhammer 40k codex release dates – and stay up to date with daily news by following Wargamer on Google News.
Source: Wargamer
