Come 'ave it Beasty!!

Great news for Space Wolves! more Tyranid rumours have surfaced and while things look bad for other armies, it's not so worrying for the Sons of Fenris.

Having read the new Tyranid rules, it's becoming more and more apparent that the Space Wolves Codex was carefully written with the coming Tyranid invasion in mind.

Saga of the Beast Slayer is certainly going to come into its own, as will the Lone Wolves and Rune Priest.

Having read through the new Tyranid rules, there are a few units that concern me, but not many. Overall, it's the difficulty of wading through a sea of little creatures to clobber the big ones which could prove the most taxing for the Space Wolves.

The good news is that Eternal Warrior is gone for Synapse creatures. Finally, krak missiles, melta guns, lascannons, battlecannons, demolisher cannons, powerfists and anything else with a suitably high strength can instantly kill Tyranid Warriors, Zoanthropes and Lictors!

New Tyranid Rules
Listed here is the worrying stuff. If you want to read the whole thing, go and trawl through Warseer, or wait for the new Tyranid Codex when it's all set in stone.

One pair of Scything Talons grants rerolls on all 1's to hit and two pairs grant rerolls to all to hit rolls.

Hive Tyrant Mental scream: all enemy units within 18" have to pass Ld check. If they fail, they suffer the difference between the roll and their Ld as casulties with no armour saves allowed.

Hive Tyrant Lifeleech: one unit within 12 " suffer D3 autohits S3 AP2. for each casulty they suffer, the Hive Tyrant is granted one Wound, up to a maximum of 10

The Parasite of Mortrex (160pts) is a hit and run monster with wings who infects people with ripper eggs. 1 model (chosen by the Tyranid player) in an enemy outflanking unit must pass a toughness test or a ripper swarm bursts out of him! The same thing happens to models killed by the Parasite in close combat. Fortunately he has Tyranid Warrior stats.

Hive Guard (50pts each) are BS4, don't need line of sight and their Impaler Cannon is Range 24" S8 AP4 Assault 2. Only 1-3 in a squad though.

Zoanthropes. Much the same, but 1-3 in a squad. 3+ Inv save this time. Powers same as before, but Warp Blast is now a 'lance' weapon.

The Doom of Malantai (90pts) is another special gribbly with Tyranid Warrior-like stats and 4 wounds and a 3+ save. He sucked the psychic juice out of an Eldar Crystal Matrix and does mental stuff.

Cataclysm is a range 24" S'X' AP1 Large Blast psychic attack. Strength is equal to his number of wounds. After using it he suffers D3 wounds. Every wound he inflicts, he gets a wound back. So his wounds and the strength of his power can go up to a maximum of 10!

For just 90pts everyone is going to take this guy!

Trygon from (200 points) and Mawloc (from 170 points) special rules detailed Here.

Mycetic Spores are Drop Pod for Tyranids that can transport 1 Monstrous Creature or up to 20 Infantry.


As you can see, that's a lot of nasty stuff. There's more in the new Tyranid Codex from the deadly Swarm Lords (280pts) to the lumbering Tyrannofex gun platform.

So the question is, what are we Space Wolves players going to do about it?


SMASH THEM!
Well, first of all, we're going to sit safely inside our transports to avoid the acid, puke and tentacles that are flying around until the Tyranids get a bit closer.

While we're waiting, our Long Fangs can pour lots of cheap Krak Missile fire into the coming swarm.

Now that Tyranid Warriors and the like no longer have Eternal Warrior because of Synapse, we can take them out more easily.

The same goes for many of the monstrous creatures who are now restricted to a 3+ armour save.

Then we're going to unleash melta guns. Lots of melta guns! Anything that's left -let it charge us if it dares! With Counter Attack we have more than enough to strike back with. Couple it with powerfists galore, Mark of the Wulfen, Wolf Banners to reroll any 1's for an asault phase and we can give the bugs a good kicking.

We have the guns, we have the ferocity and we have the Rune Priests with their ability to nullify any psychic attack on a 4+. We even have Wolftail Talismans to nullify Psychic attacks on a 5+.

There's much to be feared in the new Tyranid army. But let's not forget that a tournament sized Tyranid army will not be able to field all of those horrible units!

There's nothing to fear but fear itself. And I think a few practice games to get around the typical Tyranid trickery will put any player in good stead to best this alien menace.

Come January, my Space Wolves will be ready to slay the mightiest of Tyranid beasts and have an barbeque when they're done!

I think a whole roasted Trygon might appease the appetite of my Wolf Lord
...as a starter.