Tyranids
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Drifting through the void come star-eclipsing shoals of immense creatures whose cephalopodic forms bristle with spines and feeder tendrils. Each of these living vessels is host to thousands upon thousands of dormant warrior-forms, ready to wake from their slumber when the hive fleet locates its next meal.

Welcome to the rules section of Codex: Tyranids. Whether forging your own tales of glory and infamy with narrative play or pitting yourself against your opponents in nail-biting matched play contests, this page present all the rules you will need to bring your Tyranids collection to life on the tabletop.


Books

BookKindEditionVersionLast update
  Tyranids
  TyranidsCodex101.2October 2024
  Munitorum Field Manual
  Munitorum Field ManualExpansion101.14December 2024
  Grotmas Calendar: Tyranids - Warrior Bioform Onslaught
  Grotmas Calendar: Tyranids - Warrior Bioform OnslaughtExpansion10December 2024
  Boarding Actions
  Boarding ActionsExpansion101.0October 2024
  Legends Field Manual
  Legends Field ManualExpansion101.9October 2024
  Legends: Tyranids
  Legends: TyranidsDatasheet10September 2024
  Imperial Armour: Tyranids
  Imperial Armour: TyranidsDatasheet10September 2024

FAQ

Codex: Tyranids

Q:What is the effect of the Unseen Lurkers Stratagem with respect to the Balance Dataslate ruling on Stratagems that prevent units from being targeted?
A:
The effect of the Unseen Lurkers Stratagem becomes:

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, your unit can only be selected as the target of a ranged attack if the attacking model is within 18" or, if your unit has the Lone Operative ability, if the attacking model is within 6". Your opponent can select new targets for the attacking unit’s attacks.
Q:Do units that are repositioned by rules that do not specify that the unit being repositioned is first placed into Reserves (e.g. the Grey Knights Teleport Assault rule) need to take a Battle-shock test on a roll of 2+ if a TYRANIDS CHARACTER with the Hunting Grounds Enhancement is on the battlefield?
A:
A: Yes. Rules that are triggered by or apply to Reserves units are also
triggered by and apply to a repositioned unit when it is set back up.
Q:Can I use the Rapid Regeneration Stratagem when an ability like Doombolt or Vortex of Doom would inflict mortal wounds on a TYRANIDS unit from my army?
A:
No.
Q:When resolving a Mawloc’s Terror From the Deep ability, which units need to take a Battle-shock test: every unit within 12" of the Mawloc, or only those units for which a 5+ was rolled when resolving that ability?
A:
Only those units for which a 5+ was rolled.
Q:If my opponent uses a rule to place a unit into Strategic Reserves during the first battle round, and that rule states that the unit must arrive on the battlefield in the next battle round, what happens if a model from my army uses the Psychostatic Disruption Enhancement in the second battle round when that enemy Strategic Reserves unit is due to arrive?
A:
The ‘cannot arrive’ rule takes precedence over the rule stating that the unit ‘must arrive’ from Strategic Reserves. Roll one D6: on a 4+, that enemy unit cannot arrive on the battlefield this turn.
Q:If I select a unit of Neurogaunts for a Neurotyrant’s Neuroloids ability that is not led by a SYNAPSE unit, does that unit of Neurogaunts gain the SYNAPSE keyword?
A:
No.
Q:When using the Reclaim Biomass Stratagem, can the Stratagem effect be used on the unit that was just destroyed?
A:
No.
Q:Does an Attached unit containing a HIVE TYRANT and TYRANT GUARD
receive the Stealth ability from a VENOMTHROPE’s Foul Spore's ability?
A:
No. The unit has the MONSTER keyword and the ability excludes MONSTERS.
Q:Are SPORE MINES units that are added to an army during a battle restricted by abilities that prevent Reserves from being set up within a certain range (e.g. Space Marines Infiltrators’ Omniscrambers)?
A:
No.
Q:Do rules such as the Insurmountable Odds Detachment rule and the CARNIFEXES’ Blistering Assault ability let me choose between not moving the unit in question or moving the unit as far as possible following the conditions?
A:
Yes.
Q:If I roll one D6 for a CARNIFEXES unit’s Blistering Assault move and then choose not to move the models, do they still count as having made a Blistering Assault move that phase?
A:
Yes, they have made a Blistering Assault move of 0".
Q:When a CARNIFEX model makes a Blistering Assault move or an ENDLESS MULTITUDE model makes a Surge move, does that model have to move the full amount allowed by the dice result?
A:
No, it can move any distance up to that allowed distance.
Q:Does a unit affected by the Psychostatic Disruption Enhancement have to arrive from Reserves in the next Movement phase?
A:
No.
Q:Does the Synaptic Goading Stratagem allow a unit to leave Engagement Range and move towards the closest objective marker?
A:
Yes.
Q:Can units targeted by the Shadow in the Warp army rule use the Insane Bravery Stratagem?
A:
No. Insane Bravery can only be used in your Command phase.

Introduction

On this page you will find several Tyranids Detachments you can select from, as described in the Core Rules (see the Select Detachment Rules step). If you are playing a Crusade battle, see the equivalent step in the Mustering a Crusade Army section of the main Crusade rules. Each Detachment is a themed fighting force that focuses on one particular combat style employed by the Tyranids - the rules they include are as follows:

1
DETACHMENT RULE
If you select to use a Detachment, a Detachment rule listed here will apply either to your whole army or to particular units within it.

2
ENHANCEMENTS
When mustering your army, your chosen Detachment enables you to upgrade CHARACTERS using the Enhancements listed here, as described in the Core Rules (see the Select Units step). If you are playing a Crusade battle, you can instead use the Renowned Heroes Requisition to give your CHARACTERS Enhancements, as described in the main Crusade rules.

3
STRATAGEMS
Your chosen Detachment gives you access to the Stratagems listed here in addition to the Core Stratagems listed in the Core Rules. During the battle, you can spend Command points (CP) to use these Stratagems.

Army Rules

Synapse

Some Tyranids serve as synaptic conduits or nodal relays through which a portion of the Hive Mind’s iron will flows, overriding the natural instincts of the swarm to direct the teeming warrior-beasts to function as a single, gestalt organism on the battlefield.

If your Army Faction is TYRANIDS, while a TYRANIDS unit from your army is within 6" of one or more friendly SYNAPSE models, that TYRANIDS unit is said to be within Synapse Range of that model and of your army. While a TYRANIDS unit from your army is within Synapse Range of your army:
  • Each time that unit takes a Battle-shock test, take that test on 3D6 instead of 2D6.
  • Each time a model in that unit makes a melee attack, add 1 to the Strength characteristic of that attack.

Shadow in the Warp

Tyranids flood the battlefield with the psychic signature of the hive fleet - an icy, alien dread that gnaws at the minds of their prey and smothers even the most stalwart courage. When faced with such unfathomable horror, many are driven insane or suffer catastrophic neural damage.

If your Army Faction is TYRANIDS, once per battle, in either player’s Command phase, if one or more units from your army with this ability are on the battlefield, you can unleash the Shadow in the Warp. When you do, each enemy unit on the battlefield must take a Battle-shock test. Each time an enemy unit takes such a Battle-shock test, if it is within 6" of one or more SYNAPSE units from your army, subtract 1 from that test.

Invasion Fleet

Detachment Rule

Hyper-adaptations

Every warrior organism in the Tyranid race is fashioned by the ineffable alien will of the Hive Mind. Their flesh and chitin is endlessly mutable, honed into whatever form will prove most lethal to the prey.

At the start of the first battle round, select one of the following Hyper-adaptations to be active for TYRANIDS units from your army until the end of the battle:

Swarming Instincts

Each time a TYRANIDS model with this Hyper-adaptation makes an attack that targets an INFANTRY or SWARM unit, that attack has the [SUSTAINED HITS 1] ability.

Hyper-aggression

Each time a TYRANIDS model with this Hyper-adaptation makes an attack that targets a MONSTER or VEHICLE unit, that attack has the [LETHAL HITS] ability.

Hive Predators

Each time a TYRANIDS model with this Hyper-adaptation makes an attack that targets a CHARACTER unit, on a Critical Hit, that attack has the [PRECISION] ability.


Enhancements

  • Alien Cunning 30 pts

This leader-beast possesses highly sophisticated neural pathways, allowing it to identify priority strategic assets and adapt the disposition of its warriors to seize them before the foe even recognise their value.

TYRANIDS model only. After both players have deployed their armies, select up to three TYRANIDS units from your army and redeploy them. When doing so, you can set those units up in Strategic Reserves if you wish, regardless of how many units are already in Strategic Reserves.

  • Perfectly Adapted 15 pts

This creature was created for one purpose: to completely eradicate the defenders of the target prey world.

TYRANIDS model only. Once per turn, you can re-roll one Hit roll, one Wound roll, one Damage roll, one Advance roll, one Charge roll or one saving throw made for the bearer.

  • Synaptic Linchpin 20 pts

With a neuro-cortex that pulsates with the irresistible power of the Hive Mind, this leader acts as a blazing synaptic beacon to the lesser creatures of the swarm, the better to direct their actions and react to the ever-changing state of battle.

TYRANIDS model only. While a friendly TYRANIDS unit is within 9" of the bearer, that unit is within Synapse Range of your army.

  • Adaptive Biology 25 pts

The same weapon rarely works against this leader-beast twice, as its alien physiology adapts at an astonishing rate to counter the attacks of the foe.

TYRANIDS model only. The bearer has the Feel No Pain 5+ ability. At the start of any turn, if the bearer has fewer than its starting number of wounds remaining, until the end of the battle, it has the Feel No Pain 4+ ability instead.


Stratagems

RAPID REGENERATION
1CP
Invasion Fleet – Battle Tactic Stratagem
Prey stare in horror as chitinous armour regrows and flesh, muscle and sinew knots back together.
WHEN: Your opponent’s Shooting phase or the Fight phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets.

TARGET: One TYRANIDS unit from your army that was selected as the target of one or more of the attacking unit’s attacks.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, models in your unit have the Feel No Pain 6+ ability. If your unit is within Synapse Range of your army, models in your unit have the Feel No Pain 5+ ability instead.
ADRENAL SURGE
2CP
Invasion Fleet – Battle Tactic Stratagem
These warrior organisms destroy all as their adrenaline surges.
WHEN: Fight phase.

TARGET: Up to two TYRANIDS units from your army that are within Synapse Range of your army and are eligible to fight, or one other TYRANIDS unit from your army that is eligible to fight.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, each time a model in any of those selected units makes an attack, an unmodified Hit roll of 5+ scores a Critical Hit.
DEATH FRENZY
1CP
Invasion Fleet – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Tyranids care nothing for self-preservation, lashing out even in death.
WHEN: Fight phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets.

TARGET: One TYRANIDS unit from your army that was selected as the target of one or more of the attacking unit’s attacks.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, each time a model in your unit is destroyed, if that model has not fought this phase, roll one D6: on a 4+, do not remove it from play. The destroyed model can fight after the attacking model’s unit has finished making its attacks, and is then removed from play.
OVERRUN
1CP
Invasion Fleet – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Tyranids in battle form an unstoppable avalanche of flesh and chitin that buries the foe alive.
WHEN: Fight phase, just before a TYRANIDS unit from your army Consolidates.

TARGET: That TYRANIDS unit.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, each time your unit Consolidates, models in it can move an additional 3" as long as your unit can end that move within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units. If your unit is within Synapse Range of your army and not within Engagement Range of any enemy units, instead of making that Consolidation move, it can make a Normal move of up to 6".
PREDATORY IMPERATIVE
1CP
Invasion Fleet – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Guided by the instincts of leader-beasts, the swarm can be tasked with focusing its hunting instincts.
WHEN: Your Command phase.

TARGET: Up to two TYRANIDS units from your army that are within Synapse Range of your army, or one other TYRANIDS unit from your army.

EFFECT: Select one Hyper-adaptation. Until the start of your next Command phase, that Hyper-adaptation is active for those selected units in addition to any other that may be active for your army.

RESTRICTIONS: You cannot select the same Hyper-adaptation you selected at the start of the first battle round.
ENDLESS SWARM
1CP
Invasion Fleet – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
As the battle rages, more organisms pour in to bolster the swarms.
WHEN: Your Command phase.

TARGET: Up to two ENDLESS MULTITUDE units from your army that are within Synapse Range of your army, or one other ENDLESS MULTITUDE unit from your army.

EFFECT: You can return up to D3+3 destroyed models to each of the selected units.

Crusher Stampede

Detachment Rule

Enraged Behemoths

In their efforts to lay the monstrous beasts of a Crusher Stampede low, the prey only succeed in further enraging the rampaging monsters. The surviving beasts are driven to fight with greater fury the more of their number that fall.

Each time a TYRANIDS MONSTER model from your army makes an attack, add 1 to the Hit roll if that model’s unit is below its Starting Strength, and add 1 to the Wound roll as well if that model’s unit is Below Half-strength. In addition, while a TYRANIDS MONSTER unit from your army (excluding Battle-shocked units) is at its Starting Strength, add 2 to the Objective Control characteristic of models in that unit.

Enhancements

  • Ominous Presence 15 pts

The crushing menace of the Hive Mind rolls off this monstrous creature in waves, causing it to loom even larger in the minds of its quailing prey and lending it absolute dominance of the battlefield.

TYRANIDS MONSTER model only. Add 3 to the bearer’s Objective Control characteristic.

  • Enraged Reserves 20 pts

Contained deep within this organism’s body is a pulsating sac filled with a cocktail of adrenostimulant fluids linked to a ring of vascular-pneumatic sphincters, allowing them one last-ditch strike.

TYRANIDS MONSTER model only. If the bearer is destroyed by a melee attack, if it has not fought this phase, roll one D6: on a 3+, do not remove it from play. It can fight after the attacking model’s unit has finished making its attacks, and is then removed from play.

  • Null Nodules 10 pts

A contraganglion knot in this creature’s cranium channels and amplifies the smothering power of the Shadow in the Warp to nullify its prey’s psychic abilities.

TYRANIDS MONSTER model only. Once per battle, when a Psychic Attack is allocated to the bearer, it can use this ability. If it does, until the end of the phase, the bearer has the Feel No Pain 5+ ability against Psychic Attacks.

  • Monstrous Nemesis 25 pts

With its basic logic centres and instinctive drivers augmented, this warrior organism is capable of singling out and hunting down valuable prey without direct synaptic oversight.

TYRANIDS MONSTER model only. Each time the bearer makes a melee attack that targets a MONSTER or VEHICLE unit, add 1 to the Wound roll.


Stratagems

CORROSIVE VISCERA
1CP
Crusher Stampede – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Highly acidic fluids spray from the creature’s wounds, lethal to those nearby.
WHEN: Your opponent’s Shooting phase or the Fight phase, just after a TYRANIDS MONSTER model from your army with the Deadly Demise ability that cannot FLY is destroyed.

TARGET: That TYRANIDS MONSTER model. You can use this Stratagem on that model even though it was just destroyed.

EFFECT: Do not roll one D6 to determine whether mortal wounds are inflicted by your model’s Deadly Demise ability. Instead, mortal wounds are automatically inflicted.
RAMPAGING MONSTROSITIES
1CP
Crusher Stampede – Battle Tactic Stratagem
Tyranid monsters have reserves of energy that they unleash in waves of devastating fury.
WHEN: Fight phase.

TARGET: One TYRANIDS MONSTER unit from your army that has not been selected to fight this phase.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, each time a model in your unit makes an attack, you can re-roll the Hit roll.
SAVAGE ROAR
1CP
Crusher Stampede – Battle Tactic Stratagem
This monster is even more terrifying to behold than other bioforms of its kind.
WHEN: Fight phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets.

TARGET: One TYRANIDS MONSTER unit from your army that was selected as the target of one or more of the attacking unit’s attacks.

EFFECT: That enemy unit must take a Battle-shock test and, until the end of the phase, each time a model in that enemy unit makes an attack that targets your unit, subtract 1 from the Hit roll. If that Battle-shock test was failed, subtract 1 from the Wound roll as well.
UNTRAMMELLED FEROCITY
1CP
Crusher Stampede – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Encircling and entrapping such physically powerful and fearless beasts is nigh on impossible.
WHEN: Your Movement phase.

TARGET: One TYRANIDS MONSTER unit from your army that has not been selected to move this phase.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, each time a model in your unit makes a Normal, Advance or Fall Back move, it can move through models (excluding TITANIC models) and sections of terrain features that are 4" or less in height. When doing so:
  • It can move within Engagement Range of enemy models, but cannot end that move within Engagement Range of them.
  • It can also move through sections of terrain features that are more than 4" in height, but if it does, after its unit has moved, roll one D6: on a 1, your unit is Battle-shocked.
SWARM-GUIDED SALVOES
1CP
Crusher Stampede – Battle Tactic Stratagem
One cannot hide from a gestalt entity with a million eyes, even in the densest cover.
WHEN: Your Shooting phase.

TARGET: One TYRANIDS MONSTER unit from your army that has not been selected to shoot this phase.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, ranged weapons equipped by models in your unit have the [IGNORES COVER] ability, and until the end of the phase each time a model in your unit makes an attack, you can ignore any or all modifiers to that model’s Ballistic Skill characteristic and any or all modifiers to the Hit roll.
MASSIVE IMPACT
1CP
Crusher Stampede – Epic Deed Stratagem
Employing their sheer bulk and vicious chitinous horns and spikes, the largest Tyranids crash headlong through the foe, often with devastating results.
WHEN: Your Charge phase, just after a TYRANIDS MONSTER model from your army ends a Charge move.

TARGET: That TYRANIDS MONSTER model.

EFFECT: Select one enemy unit within Engagement Range of your model and roll six D6: for each 4+, that enemy unit suffers 1 mortal wound.

Unending Swarm

Detachment Rule

Insurmountable Odds

When Hormagaunts, Termagants and other such expendable warrior organisms attack en masse they make up for their comparative fragility with sheer numbers. Coupled with the speed and ferocity of their onslaught - which only seems to increase as the prey try to gun the creatures down or drive them back - the gathered broods soon overrun even the most determined defenders.

Each time an enemy unit is selected to shoot, after that unit has finished making its attacks, if one or more models from one or more ENDLESS MULTITUDE units from your army were destroyed as a result of those attacks, each such unit can make a Surge move. To do so, roll one D6: that unit can be moved a distance in inches up to the result, but that unit must end that move as close as possible to the closest enemy unit (excluding AIRCRAFT). When doing so, those models can be moved within Engagement Range of enemy units. A unit cannot make a Surge move while it is Battle-shocked.

Enhancements

  • Relentless Hunger 20 pts

An overriding need to sink their fangs into the flesh of their prey drives these creatures toward the foe.

TYRANIDS model only. Add 2" to the Move characteristic of models in the bearer’s unit.

  • Naturalised Camouflage 30 pts

These warrior organisms possess limited chameleonic properties that conceal their advance. The benefits of such deceptions decrease as they approach their prey, but can be enough to bring them safely into range to strike.

TYRANIDS model only. At the start of the first battle round, select up to three friendly ENDLESS MULTITUDE units within 9" of the bearer. Until the end of the battle round, each time a ranged attack targets one of those units, models in that unit have the Benefit of Cover against that attack.

  • Piercing Talons 25 pts

A simple but potent biomorphic enhancement of these warrior organisms sees some amongst their number boast diamond-sharp talon tips. Lashing suddenly from amidst the mass of thrashing weapon limbs these plunge through armour to pierce organs and rupture delicate systems.

TYRANIDS model only. Each time a model in the bearer’s unit makes an attack, on a Critical Wound, improve the Armour Penetration characteristic of that attack by 1.

  • Adrenalised Onslaught 15 pts

Biostimulants course through the bodies of these warrior organisms, combining with goading synaptic impulses to lend them an unholy turn of speed.

TYRANIDS model only. Each time the bearer’s unit Piles In or Consolidates, models in this unit can move an additional 3".


Stratagems

SYNAPTIC GOADING
1CP
Unending Swarm – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
For a moment, a minuscule sliver of the Hive Mind’s ineffable will is focussed through these warrior organisms, driving them to pounce upon either valuable prey or else some vital strategic target.
WHEN: Any phase, just before an ENDLESS MULTITUDE unit from your army that is within Synapse Range of your army makes a Surge move.

TARGET: That ENDLESS MULTITUDE unit.

EFFECT: When making that Surge move, you can re-roll the D6 to determine how far your unit moves, and your unit can end that move as close as possible to the closest objective marker (instead of as close as possible to the closest enemy unit]. All other rules for making Surge moves still apply.
UNENDING WAVES
2CP
Unending Swarm – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
No matter how many warrior organisms are slain, more are already surging forward over their corpses.
WHEN: Any phase.

TARGET: One ENDLESS MULTITUDE unit from your army that was just destroyed. You can use this Stratagem on that unit even though it was just destroyed.

EFFECT: Add a new unit to your army identical to your destroyed unit, in Strategic Reserves, at its Starting Strength.

RESTRICTIONS: Any destroyed CHARACTER units that were attached to your unit are not returned. You can only use this Stratagem once per battle.
TEEMING MASSES
1CP
Unending Swarm – Battle Tactic Stratagem
Skittering, darting and pouring over one another, the Tyranids make for hard and confusing targets.
WHEN: Your opponent’s Shooting phase or the Fight phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets.

TARGET: One ENDLESS MULTITUDE unit from your army that was selected as the target of one or more of the attacking unit’s attacks.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, each time an attack targets your unit, subtract 1 from the Hit roll.
SWARMING MASSES
1CP
Unending Swarm – Battle Tactic Stratagem
The sheer weight of Tyranid numbers begins to tell as they bury their victims in lashing, biting horror.
WHEN: Your Shooting phase or the Fight phase.

TARGET: One ENDLESS MULTITUDE unit from your army that has not been selected to shoot or fight this phase.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, weapons equipped by models in your unit have the [SUSTAINED HITS 1] ability, and If your unit contains 15 or more models, each time a model in your unit makes an attack, an unmodified Hit roll of 5+ scores a Critical Hit.
BOUNDING ADVANCE
1CP
Unending Swarm – Battle Tactic Stratagem
Synaptic impulses from the Hive Mind urge greater speed from the swarm’s warrior organisms.
WHEN: Your Movement phase.

TARGET: One ENDLESS MULTITUDE unit from your army.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, each time your unit Advances, do not make an Advance roll. Instead, until the end of the phase, add 6" to the Move characteristic of models in your unit.
PRESERVATION IMPERATIVE
1CP
Unending Swarm – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Triggered by incoming projectile fire, a synaptic pulse spurs the danger-senses of lesser warrior organisms and causes them to scatter like a shoal evading predators. Only once the explosions have stopped and the dust cleared do the bioforms bunch up once again.
WHEN: Your opponent’s Shooting phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets.

TARGET: One ENDLESS MULTITUDE unit from your army that was selected as the target of one or more of the attacking unit’s attacks.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, your unit is treated as containing fewer than five models for the purpose of the [BLAST] ability.

Assimilation Swarm

Detachment Rule

Feed the Swarm

Even as the beasts of the Assimilation Swarm stalk across the battlefield they make use of the abundant biomass yielded up by the prey worlds slow demise. Warrior organisms heal even the most grievous wounds in moments, or stagger upright and return to the fight after they seemed slain. A strain of revolting vitality flows through the Tyranid broods as though leeched direct from their dismayed victims.

In your Command phase, each HARVESTER unit from your army can Regenerate one friendly TYRANIDS unit that is within 6" of it. A unit can only be regenerated once per phase. Each time a unit regenerates, do one of the following:
  • One model in that unit regains up to D3+1 lost wounds.
  • One destroyed INFANTRY model (excluding CHARACTERS) is returned to that unit with its full wounds remaining. If that unit is an ENDLESS MULTITUDE unit, up to 3 destroyed models are returned instead.

Enhancements

  • Regenerating Monstrosity 20 pts

This nightmarish creature seems virtually unkillable, its every hurt healing in moments as it guzzles down the hunks of bubbling biomatter that were once foes.

TYRANIDS model only (excluding MONSTERS models). The bearer’s unit can be regenerated up to twice per phase, instead of once.

  • Instinctive Defence 15 pts

The swarm’s warrior organisms fight with instinctive and single-minded ferocity to protect the all-devouring organisms in their midst.

TYRANIDS model only. While the bearer is within 6" of one or more friendly HARVESTER units, you can target the bearer’s unit with the Heroic Intervention Stratagem for 0CP. In addition, while the bearer is within 6" of one or more friendly HARVESTER units, models in the bearer’s unit have the Fights First ability.

  • Biophagic Flow (Aura) 10 pts

Parasitised biomass and revivifying fluids flow through the Assimilation Swarm like lifeblood.

TYRANIDS model only. While a friendly HARVESTER model is within 12" of the bearer, when using the Feed the Swarm ability, that HARVESTER model can Regenerate one friendly TYRANIDS unit that is within 9" of it, instead of one within 6".

  • Parasitic Biomorphology 25 pts

These warrior organisms boast additional fanged maws, jabbing probosci and haemophagic membranes that consume the fluids of their prey.

TYRANIDS model only. Add 1 to the Strength characteristic of melee weapons equipped by models in the bearer’s unit. The first time the bearer’s unit destroys an enemy unit in the Fight phase while the bearer is within 6" of one or more friendly HARVESTER units, until the end of the battle, add 1 to the Attacks characteristic of melee weapons equipped by models in the bearer’s unit.


Stratagems

BROODGUARD IMPULSE
1CP
Assimilation Swarm – Epic Deed Stratagem
Should a foe successfully slay one of the swarm’s assimilation organisms, they only mark themselves as a priority for predation and consumption in turn.
WHEN: Any phase.

TARGET: One HARVESTER unit from your army that was just destroyed. You can use this Stratagem on that unit even though it was just destroyed.

EFFECT: Until the end of the battle, each time a friendly TYRANIDS model makes an attack that targets the enemy unit that just destroyed your HARVESTER unit, add 1 to the Wound roll.
RECLAIM BIOMASS
1CP
Assimilation Swarm – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Dead Tyranids are consumed and reconstituted by the swarm just as readily as the lifeless carcasses of their prey.
WHEN: Any phase, when a TYRANIDS unit from your army is destroyed, before the last model in it is removed from play.

TARGET: One HARVESTER unit from your army that is within 6" of that destroyed unit.

EFFECT: Regenerate one friendly TYRANIDS unit within 6" of your HARVESTER unit (See Feed the Swarm).
TYRANNOFORMED
1CP
Assimilation Swarm – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Swarms of diminutive Tyranid phage organisms carpet even the most vital strategic assets, steadily breaking them down for assimilation.
WHEN: Command phase.

TARGET: One HARVESTER unit from your army that is within range of an objective marker you control.

EFFECT: That objective marker remains under your control, even if you have no models within range of it, until your opponent controls it at the start or end of any turn.
ABLATIVE CARAPACE
2CP
Assimilation Swarm – Epic Deed Stratagem
These organisms have employed consumed minerals to exude an additional hardened protective layer over their chitinous armour.
WHEN: Your opponent’s Shooting phase or the Fight phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets.

TARGET: One HARVESTER unit from your army that was selected as the target of one or more of the attacking unit’s attacks.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, models in your unit have the Feel No Pain 5+ ability. If your unit is within range of an objective marker you control, until the end of the phase models in your unit have the Feel No Pain 4+ ability instead.
SECURE BIOMASS
1CP
Assimilation Swarm – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
When rich sources of biomass are identified the warrior organisms of this swarm will stop at nothing to destroy resistance and claim them.
WHEN: Fight phase.

TARGET: One TYRANIDS unit from your army that has not been selected to fight this phase.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, melee weapons equipped by models in your unit have the [LETHAL HITS] ability. If your unit is a HARVESTER unit, each time a model in that unit makes a melee attack, a successful unmodified Hit roll of 5+ scores a Critical Hit as well.
RAPACIOUS HUNGER
1CP
Assimilation Swarm – Battle Tactic Stratagem
The hunger of the Tyranids can never be satiated.
WHEN: Your Fight phase.

TARGET: One TYRANIDS unit from your army that just destroyed an enemy unit.

EFFECT: Your unit immediately Regenerates (See Feed the Swarm). When doing so, if your unit is a HARVESTER unit and you choose for one model to regain up to D3 lost wounds, that model regains up to 3 lost wounds instead.

Vanguard Onslaught

Detachment Rule

Questing Tendrils

In the early stages of an invasion, the Hive Mind harries and unbalances its foes with lightning-fast flanking attacks, before encircling them for the final, bloody slaughter.

TYRANIDS units with this ability are eligible to charge in a turn in which they Fell Back. VANGUARD INVADER units with this ability are eligible to charge in a turn in which they Advanced.

Vanguard Prime

During the earliest stages of a Tyranid invasion, the rare bioform Imperial observers have named Deathleaper has been seen fulfilling a leadership and coordination role amongst the swarms. Employing pheromone trails and goading imperatives, the creature provides guidance to other warrior organisms that is the localised equivalent of synaptic control.

DEATHLEAPER loses the Hunter Organism rule and can be your WARLORD.

Enhancements

  • Hunting Grounds 20 pts

This warrior organism has identified installations and routes of communication and supply vital to the prey. As the Tyranid invasion commences so the beast orchestrates ambushes and terror raids against these priority targets, ensuring that those enemy reinforcements who do reach the battlefield do so in bloodied disarray.

TYRANIDS model only. While the bearer is on the battlefield, each time your opponent sets up a Reserves unit on the battlefield, roll one D6: on a 2+, that unit must take a Battle-shock test.

  • Chameleonic 15 pts

Subdermal crystals in this organisms carapace capture and redirect light, helping to conceal it.

VANGUARD INVADER model only. The bearer has the Stealth ability and each time a ranged attack targets the bearer’s unit, models in that unit have the Benefit of Cover against that attack.

  • Stalker 10 pts

This hunter seeks vital priority prey that has been pheromonally marked for swift slaughter.

VANGUARD INVADER model only. At the start of the battle, select one enemy unit. Each time the bearer makes an attack that targets that enemy unit, add 1 to the Hit roll and add 1 to the Wound roll.

  • Neuronode 20 pts

While no true synapse beast, this bioform has been grafted with a limited synaptic symbiote, the influence of which increases its host’s ability to formulate and enforce large-scale predatory strategies.

TYRANIDS model only. After both players have deployed their armies, you can select up to three VANGUARD INVADER units from your army and redeploy all of those units. When doing so, any of those units can be placed into Strategic Reserves, regardless of how many units are already in Strategic Reserves.


Stratagems

SURPRISE ASSAULT
1CP
Vanguard Onslaught – Battle Tactic Stratagem
Vanguard organisms strike from unexpected quarters with calculated and emotionless alien savagery that is appalling to behold.
WHEN: Your Shooting phase or the Fight phase, just after a VANGUARD INVADER unit from your army has selected its targets.

TARGET: That VANGUARD INVADER unit.

EFFECT: Select one enemy unit that was selected as the target of one or more of your unit’s attacks. That enemy unit must take a Battle-shock test. Until the end of the phase, each time a model in your unit makes an attack that targets that enemy unit, add 1 to the Hit roll. If the Battle-shock test was failed, add 1 to the Wound roll as well.
ASSASSIN BEASTS
1CP
Vanguard Onslaught – Battle Tactic Stratagem
These bioforms have been adapted to strike with pinpoint precision at the pre-assessed weak points of selected prey that require elimination.
WHEN: Fight phase.

TARGET: One VANGUARD INVADER INFANTRY unit from your army that has not been selected to fight this phase.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, melee weapons equipped by models in your unit have the [PRECISION] ability.
SEEDED BROODS
1CP
Vanguard Onslaught – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Warrior organisms erupt from concealment straight into advanced positions.
WHEN: Your Movement phase.

TARGET: One TYRANIDS unit from your army that is in Reserves, or up to two VANGUARD INVADER units from your army that are in Reserves.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, for the purposes of setting up those selected units on the battlefield, treat the current battle round number as being one higher than it actually is.
HYPERSENSORY SCILLIA
2CP
Vanguard Onslaught – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Hissing clusters of scillia warn of the slightest prey movements, allowing the Tyranids to react.
WHEN: Your opponent’s Movement phase, just after an enemy unit ends a Normal, Advance or Fall Back move.

TARGET: Up to two VANGUARD INVADER units from your army that are within 9" of that enemy unit, or one other TYRANIDS INFANTRY unit from your army that is within 9" of that enemy unit.

EFFECT: Those selected units can each make a Normal move of up to 6".

RESTRICTIONS: You cannot target units that are within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units.
UNSEEN LURKERS
1CP
Vanguard Onslaught – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Hyper-attuned senses warn vanguard organisms when they are being targeted by the prey.
WHEN: Your opponent’s Shooting phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets.

TARGET: One VANGUARD INVADER unit from your army that was selected as the target of one or more of the attacking unit’s attacks.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, your unit can only be selected as the target of a ranged attack if the attacking model is within 18" or, if your unit has the Lone Operative ability, if the attacking model is within 6". Your opponent can select new targets for the attacking unit’s attacks.
INVISIBLE HUNTER
1CP
Vanguard Onslaught – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Hunter-slayer organisms can melt away before the eyes of their foes, only to strike from a new direction.
WHEN: End of your opponent’s Fight phase.

TARGET: Up to two VANGUARD INVADER units from your army, or one TYRANIDS INFANTRY unit from your army.

EFFECT: Remove the targeted units from the battlefield and place them into Strategic Reserves.

RESTRICTIONS: The targeted units must be more than 3" away from all enemy units.

Synaptic Nexus

Detachment Rule

Synaptic Imperatives

The leader-beasts of these swarms act as conduits to the will of the Hive Mind. Irresistible imperatives lash out from them like whips that drive lesser bioforms to hurl themselves at the prey, to fight on through fatal wounds or to attack with redoubled savagery.

At the start of the battle round, you can select one of the Synaptic Imperatives shown below. Until the end of the battle round, that Synaptic Imperative is active for your army and while a TYRANIDS unit from your army is within Synapse Range of your army, it will benefit from it. Each Synaptic Imperative can only be selected once per battle.
  • Synaptic Augmentation: While this unit is within Synapse Range of your army, models in this unit have a 5+ invulnerable save.
  • Surging Vitality: While this unit is within Synapse Range of your army, add 1 to Advance and Charge rolls made for this unit.
  • Goaded to Slaughter: While this unit is within Synapse Range of your army, each time a model in this unit makes a melee attack, add 1 to the Hit roll.

Enhancements

  • Power of the Hive Mind 10 pts

The Hive Mind channels lethal energy through its synaptic bioforms.

TYRANIDS PSYKER model only. Improve the Strength and Armour Penetration characteristics of psychic weapons equipped by the bearer by 1.

  • Psychostatic Disruption 30 pts

A maelstrom of psychostatic disruption boils about this bioform. It degrades artificial and biological cognition alike, causing teleport signals to fluctuate, geopositioning cogitators to spew contradictory data, and onrushing enemy warriors to reel in confusion.

TYRANIDS SYNAPSE model only. Enemy units that arrive on the battlefield from Reserves cannot be set up within 12" of the bearer. In addition, once per battle, during the first or second battle round, when your opponent declares that a unit will arrive on the battlefield from Strategic Reserves, the bearer can use this Enhancement. If it does, roll one D6: on a 4+, that enemy unit cannot arrive on the battlefield this turn.

  • Synaptic Control 20 pts

The Hive Mind’s synaptic network is so strong that even the mangled remains of mortally wounded beasts can be compelled to fight on.

TYRANIDS SYNAPSE model only. Each time an attack is allocated to the bearer, subtract 1 from the Damage characteristic of that attack.

  • The Dirgeheart of Kharis (Aura) 15 pts

This grotesque biomorphic symbiote buries itself in its hosts thorax and emits a droning psychic note. The longer prey are exposed to the sound, the worse their atavistic terror response becomes...

TYRANIDS SYNAPSE model only. While an enemy unit is within 9" of the bearer, worsen that units Leadership characteristic by 1.


Stratagems

THE SMOTHERING SHADOW
1CP
Synaptic Nexus – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
In the heart of the swarms, the Shadow in the Warp can literally kill with its smothering power.
WHEN: Any phase, just after an enemy unit fails a Battle-shock test.

TARGET: One SYNAPSE unit from your army within 12" of that enemy unit.

EFFECT: Roll six D6: for each 3+, that enemy unit suffers 1 mortal wound.
SYNAPTIC CHANNELLING
1CP
Synaptic Nexus – Battle Tactic Stratagem
Tyranids are one with the Hive Mind; individuality is a disadvantage that they surpass.
WHEN: Command phase.

TARGET: One SYNAPSE unit from your army.

EFFECT: Until the end of the turn, while a friendly TYRANIDS unit is within 9" of the selected unit, that unit is within Synapse Range of your army.
IRRESISTIBLE WILL
1CP
Synaptic Nexus – Battle Tactic Stratagem
Whether paralysing its prey or forcing them to stumble out of cover with its force of will, or else puppeteering nearby warrior organisms, the leader-beast ensures the prey targets are struck down.
WHEN: Your Shooting phase or the Fight phase.

TARGET: One SYNAPSE unit from your army that has not been selected to shoot or fight this phase, and one enemy unit within 24" of and visible to the SYNAPSE unit.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, each time a friendly TYRANIDS model makes an attack that targets that enemy unit, if the attacking model’s unit is within 6" of your SYNAPSE unit, re-roll a Hit roll of 1 and re-roll a Wound roll of 1.
REINFORCED HIVE NODE
1CP
Synaptic Nexus – Battle Tactic Stratagem
Psionic shielding crackles around these leader-beasts, helping to ensure their survival.
WHEN: Your opponent’s Shooting phase or the Fight phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets.

TARGET: One SYNAPSE unit from your army that was selected as the target of one or more of the attacking unit’s attacks.

EFFECT: Until the attacking unit has finished making its attacks, each time an attack targets your unit, worsen the Armour Penetration characteristic of that attack by 1.
IMPERATIVE DOMINANCE
1CP
Synaptic Nexus – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
At need, the focused will of the Tyranid leader-beasts can goad warrior organisms to exhibit strategically beneficial behaviours at the instant they are needed most.
WHEN: Your Command phase.

TARGET: One TYRANIDS unit from your army that is within Synapse Range of your army.

EFFECT: Select one Synaptic Imperative, even if you have already selected that imperative this battle. Until the start of your next Command phase, that Synaptic Imperative is active for your unit instead of any other Synaptic Imperative that is active for your army.
OVERRIDE INSTINCTS
1CP
Synaptic Nexus – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
The seemingly omniscient Hive Mind processes the sensory input of its swarms at an impossible rate, and compels its broods to react accordingly.
WHEN: Your Movement phase.

TARGET: One TYRANIDS unit from your army that is within Synapse Range of your army and made a Fall Back move this phase.

EFFECT: Your unit is eligible to shoot and declare a charge this turn.

Warrior Bioform Onslaught

None of the synapse-beasts comprising the hive fleets are more prevalent than Tyranid Warriors. Lethal killing machines in their own right, these bioforms serve not only as instruments of destruction but as relay nodes through which the will of the Hive Mind transmits. Armed with an array of devastating weaponised biomorphs, broods of Tyranid Warriors and other bioforms slaughter their way through any resistance and open a path for hordes of Hormagaunts and Termagants to pour in to obliterate all remaining resistance.

Detachment Rule

Leader-beasts

Tyranid Warriors are adapted to shepherd the hive fleet’s teeming swarms to war. Benefiting from heightened senses, hardened forms and great strength, they serve as ferocious beacons for and enforcers of the Hive Mind’s indomitable will.

TYRANID WARRIORS (see below) and WINGED TYRANID PRIME units from your army have a 5+ invulnerable save.

KEYWORDS
TYRANID WARRIORS WITH RANGED BIO-WEAPONS and TYRANID WARRIORS WITH MELEE BIO-WEAPONS units from your army gain the TYRANID WARRIORS and BATTLELINE keywords, and while such a unit is not Battle-shocked, TYRANID WARRIORS models in that unit have an Objective Control characteristic of 3.

Enhancements

  • Synaptic Tyrant 10 pts

This Neurotyrant has been integrated into the synaptic web, maximising its control over the lesser bioforms and providing an additional layer of protection.

Neurotyrant model only. During the Declare Battle Formations step, the bearer can be attached to a TYRANID WARRIORS unit.

  • Ocular Adaptation 20 pts

This node-beast’s bio-adaptations allow it to perceive the minutest electrical impulse or heat signature. Few prey organisms escape its clutches.

WINGED TYRANID PRIME model only. Each time a model in the bearer’s unit makes an attack, add 1 to the Hit roll.

  • Sensory Assimilation 20 pts

The Hive Mind feeds accumulated sensory data to this leader‑beast, providing it with forewarning of incoming attacks long before the foe can land a blow.

WINGED TYRANID PRIME model only. Each time an attack targets the bearer’s unit, subtract 1 from the Hit roll.

  • Elevated Might 30 pts

This bioform and its accompanying organisms possess muscular adaptations that give them incredible speed and endurance.

TYRANIDS model only. The bearer’s unit is eligible to declare a charge in a turn in which it Advanced.


Stratagems

SYNAPTIC AMPLIFICATION
1CP
Warrior Bioform Onslaught – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Tyranid Warriors focus and amplify the urgency of the Hive Mind’s impulse to nearby broods, lending them increased coordination.
WHEN: Your Shooting phase or the Fight phase.

TARGET: One TYRANIDS unit from your army that has not been selected to shoot or fight this phase.

EFFECT: If that unit is a TYRANID WARRIORS unit, select up to one ENDLESS MULTITUDE unit from your army, that is not Battle-shocked, within 6" of it. Until the end of the phase, each time a model in those units makes an attack, re-roll a Wound roll of 1, and, if it is a TYRANID WARRIORS unit, re-roll a Hit roll of 1 as well.
SPONTANEOUS HYPERCORROSION
1CP
Warrior Bioform Onslaught – Wargear Stratagem
Biomorphic symbiotes growing beneath the chitinous plates of some Tyranids can be activated by synaptic impulse, acidifying their bio‑weapons at a moment’s notice.
WHEN: Your Shooting phase or the Fight phase.

TARGET: One TYRANIDS unit from your army that has not been selected to shoot or fight this phase.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, add 2 to the Strength characteristic of ranged weapons equipped by models in your unit and add 1 to the Strength characteristic of melee weapons equipped by TYRANID WARRIORS and WINGED TYRANID PRIME models in your unit.
RESTORATIVE IMPULSE
1CP
Warrior Bioform Onslaught – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Responding to impulses from the Hive Mind, dormant nanoviral organisms awaken within the corpse of a fallen Tyranid Warrior, knitting together ruptured organs and restoring its broken form to life.
WHEN: Your Command phase.

TARGET: One TYRANID WARRIORS unit from your army that is below its Starting Strength.

EFFECT: Return 1 destroyed model (excluding CHARACTER models) to your unit.
SYNAPTIC MICRONODES
1CP
Warrior Bioform Onslaught – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Impulses from the Hive Mind compel its most adaptable bioforms to shed microbial micronodes that burrow into the soil, knitting together to form a short-term synaptic relay that persists only as long as the brief-burning lifespans of its composite creatures.
WHEN: Your Movement phase.

TARGET: One TYRANID WARRIORS unit from your army.

EFFECT: Select one objective marker you control that your unit is within range of. That objective marker remains under your control until your opponent’s Level of Control over that objective marker is greater than yours at the end of a phase.
PARASITIC PAYLOAD
1CP
Warrior Bioform Onslaught – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
The projectiles fired by this weapon are infected with parasites that burrow into the central nervous systems of their targets, causing them to wail and scream in pain and giving away their position to the oncoming swarms.
WHEN: Your Shooting phase.

TARGET: One TYRANID WARRIORS WITH RANGED BIO-WEAPONS unit from your army that has not been selected to shoot this phase.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, ranged weapons equipped by models in your unit have the [IGNORES COVER] ability. After your unit has resolved its shooting attacks this phase, select one enemy unit hit by one or more of those attacks. Until the end of the turn, models in that unit cannot have the Benefit of Cover.
SYNAPTIC SHIELD
1CP
Warrior Bioform Onslaught – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
By focusing the psionic energies of the Hive Mind, these leader‑beasts shield the teeming bioforms under their command.
WHEN: Your opponent’s Shooting phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets.

TARGET: One TYRANID WARRIORS unit from your army that was selected as the target of one or more of the attacking unit’s attacks.

EFFECT: If that unit is a TYRANID WARRIORS unit, select up to one ENDLESS MULTITUDE unit from your army, that is not Battle-shocked, within 6" of it. Until the end of the phase, each time a ranged attack targets one of those units, if the Strength characteristic of that attack is greater than the Toughness characteristic of that unit, subtract 1 from the Wound roll.

Crusade Rules

In this section you’ll find additional rules for playing Crusade battles that are bespoke to TYRANIDS units. You can find out more about Crusade armies in the main Crusade rules.

This section contains the following rules:

DEVOURING WORLDS
As the hive fleets tighten their stranglehold on the galaxy, more and more worlds succumb to their unending hunger. The rules presented on the following pages allow you to devour one world after another, strengthening your force as your foes fall.

AGENDAS
TYRANIDS armies can attempt to achieve unique Agendas in addition to those found in other publications. These represent the faction’s unique goals and their particular methods of waging war.

REQUISITIONS
TYRANIDS armies have access to a number of bespoke Requisitions in addition to those found in other publications.

BATTLE TRAITS
As they gain experience and prowess, TYRANIDS units in your Crusade force can be given one of the Battle Traits in this section instead of one presented elsewhere.

BATTLE SCARS
Themed to the unique nature of the TYRANIDS, these Battle Scars represent long-lasting effects units from your Crusade force may come to carry.

CRUSADE RELICS
In addition to the Crusade Relics presented in other Crusade publications, TYRANIDS CHARACTER models can claim one of the Crusade Relics found here.

CRUSADE BADGES
Here you will find three Crusade Badges representing goals you can set yourself when campaigning with your Crusade force. Once one is achieved, you could set yourself a new goal, or take the opportunity to start a new Crusade force.

Devouring Worlds

Your Crusade force can only work on devouring one world at a time. When devouring a world, your Crusade force will move through three stages in order: the first stage is Invasion, followed by Predation and then finally Consumption. During each phase, your force will devour more of the world’s biomass. Once you have devoured enough biomass and participated in enough battles, you will complete your current stage and move on to the next stage in devouring that world. If at any point your Crusade force finds itself without an active world to devour, generate a new one as described below.

Generating a World

When generating a world to devour, your Crusade forces Biomass and Battles Played points begin at 0. To generate a world to devour, roll one D6 and consult the table below.

World Type
D6

INDUSTRIAL WORLD
May also be a forge world, manufactorum world, refinery world, etc.
RURAL WORLD
May also be an agri world, feudal world, Knight world, etc.
HIVE WORLD
May also be a capital world, shrine world, etc.

Next, consult the relevant table below to generate the Biomass and Battles Played points needed for each stage of that world’s destruction. Generate the number of points needed for the Invasion stage first, then generate the number of points needed for the Predation stage by adding the value in the table to what you generated for the Invasion stage for that world type. Finally, generate the points needed for the Consumption stage in the same manner, but add the value in the table to that of the Predation stage instead of the Invasion stage. Note that Biomass points accrued during a previous stage of a world’s destruction still count towards the targets for the current stage.

Industrial World

STAGEBIOMASSBATTLES PLAYED
Invasion32D3
Predation+D34
Consumption+35

Rural World

STAGEBIOMASSBATTLES PLAYED
Invasion3D32
Predation+2D3D3
Consumption+2D3D3

Hive World

STAGEBIOMASSBATTLES PLAYED
InvasionD3+3D6
Predation+2D3D6
Consumption+D6D6

Completing a Devouring Stage

To complete a stage and move on to the next, your Crusade force needs to have acquired at least as many Biomass and Battles Played points for that stage as were generated for it above. Keep a Battles Played tally during each stage; these tallies do not carry over into the next stage but simply act as a minimum requirement for advancement.

  • Each time you win a battle, your Crusade force gains 1 Biomass point.
  • Each time you lose a battle, your Crusade force loses 1 Biomass point (to a minimum of 0).

Additional ways of earning Biomass points can be found in the Agendas section. Once you have reached a particular stage of devouring, you gain access to new Requisitions that you can purchase once per world.

For example, Scott has completed the Invasion stage of an industrial world that required 3 Biomass points and 4 Battles Played points. During that stage he instead earned 5 Biomass points, which will now carry through to the Predation stage. This may mean he has already met that stage’s Biomass points requirement, and only needs Battles Played points to complete that stage.

Stage 1

Invasion

VANGUARD ADAPTATION1RP

In the first stages of a Tyranid invasion, swift and adaptable broods of bioforms assess and then rapidly counteract the defences of the prey. Some organisms may already have infiltrated the target world, and only now burst from their hiding places to wreak bloody havoc. Others pour down from spore-blighted skies and flow into battle, the myriad heralds of yet greater horrors still to come.

Purchase this Requisition before a battle once per world. Select two VANGUARD INVADER units (excluding CHARACTERS and MONSTERS) from your Order of Battle. For the next battle, you can swap these units’ Battle Traits (and change their Crusade point totals accordingly). After the battle, they must be swapped back.

BATTLE EXPERIENCE
Units from your Crusade army with any of the following keywords gain an additional 1XP from the Battle Experience rule if they are wholly within your opponent’s deployment zone at the end of the battle:
  • ENDLESS MULTITUDE
  • VANGUARD INVADER
  • WARLORD

Stage 2

Predation

INFESTATION1RP

So thoroughly infested with Tyranid swarms has the prey world become, that broods prowl almost all environs and surge from every tangled thicket and blasted ruin to attack. Even defenders who consider themselves safe within formidable fortifications can be suddenly and violently disabused of that notion amidst a rush of chitinous bodies and stabbing talons from an unexpected quarter.

Purchase this Requisition before a battle once per devoured world. Select one ENDLESS MULTITUDE unit from your Order of Battle. For the next battle only, that unit has the Infiltrators ability.

BATTLE EXPERIENCE
Units from your Crusade army with any of the following keywords gain an additional 1XP from the Battle Experience rule if they control an objective marker in No Man’s Land at the end of the battle:

Stage 3

Consumption

GUARD AND CONSUME1RP

As the Tyranid ecosystem takes hold, strange living structures sprout forth that are vital to the final consumption of the world. Those Tyranid organisms charged with protecting these grotesque bio-structures now become exceptionally aggressive even as vile eater-beasts devour every scrap of available biomass and ferry it back to the waiting assimilation structures.

Purchase this Requisition after a battle once per devoured world. Choose a CHARACTER or MONSTER unit that was not destroyed in that battle; that unit immediately gains 5XP.

BATTLE EXPERIENCE
Units from your Crusade army with any of the following keywords gain an additional 1XP from the Battle Experience rule if they were not destroyed at the end of the battle:

Biogenesis

Each time your Crusade force completes the Consumption stage of its attack on a world, you can spend any of the Biomass points you have acquired on the upgrades shown below, before generating a new world to devour.
THE SWARM GROWS
2 BIOMASS POINTS

Raw biomass is diverted to the creation of even more warrior organisms and hive ships to bear them through the void.

Increase your Crusade forces Supply Limit by 100 points.
RARE BIOMORPHS
4 BIOMASS POINTS

A great enough stock of biomass has been secured that a portion can be poured into fashioning strange and terrible graft organisms for the swarms’ mightiest leader-beasts.

Select one TYRANIDS CHARACTER unit from your Order of Battle. You can reduce the cost of the Renowned Heroes Requisition by 1RP (to a minimum of 0RP) and use it immediately to give a model in that unit an Enhancement as if it had just gained a rank.
ENHANCED ORGANISMS
5 BIOMASS POINTS

The Hive Mind exploits the neurally cached experiences of its warrior organisms to hone their predatory instincts.

Select one TYRANIDS unit from your Order of Battle. That unit gains 5XP. Each unit can only be selected for this upgrade once per devoured world.
RAPID ADAPTATION
5 BIOMASS POINTS

A focused allocation of biomass offers a brood the chance to rapidly and significantly adapt at the Hive Mind’s urging.

You can use the Adapted Physiology Requisition once for 0RP.
BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES
6 BIOMASS POINTS

With so much accumulated biomass, the hive fleet can adapt whatever aspect of its nature the Hive Mind bids it to.

Your Crusade force gains 1RP.

Agendas

If your Crusade army includes any TYRANIDS units, you can select Agendas from those presented here.

INFEST THE PREY WORLD

In order to overwhelm the prey, devour the biomass of the dead and seed the world with toxic spores; the swarm must cover all.

At the end of the battle, gain 1 Biomass point for each table quarter that wholly contains one or more ENDLESS MULTITUDE units from your Crusade army that are not within 6" of the centre of the battlefield. Each ENDLESS MULTITUDE unit wholly within your opponent’s deployment zone gains 2XP.
HUNT AND SLAY

The Hive Mind has marked those prey organisms whose swift destruction it wishes prioritised. The hunt begins.

At the start of the battle, your opponent selects five different units from their army to be Prey Targets (if your opponent’s army has fewer than five units, they select as many as possible). Each time a unit from your Crusade army destroys a Prey Target unit in the Fight phase, make a note of it. At the end of the battle, each unit from your Crusade army gains a number of XP equal to double the amount of Prey Targets they destroyed, and your Crusade force gains a number of Biomass points as shown in the table below.

ENEMY PREY TARGETS DESTROYEDBIOMASS POINTS GAINED
10
2-31
4+D3
TYRANNOFORM THE PREY WORLD

In preparation for the complete assimilation of biomass on this prey world, it is necessary to seed Tyranid structures on the battlefield, from sporecaster organisms to digestion pools.

At the start of your Shooting phase, you can select one INFANTRY unit (excluding CHARACTERS) from your Crusade army that is not Battle-shocked and is eligible to shoot. If that unit is more than 12" away from any Tyrannoform Spore markers, it can implant tyrannoform spores. If it does, at the end of your turn, place one Tyrannoform Spore marker, 40mm in diameter, anywhere within 1" of that unit. At the end of the battle, each unit that implanted one or more tyrannoform spores in this manner gains XP equal to double the number of Tyrannoform Spore markers they placed in this manner, and your Crusade force gains a number of Biomass points as shown in the table below.

IMPLANTED TYRANNOFORM SPORE MARKERSBIOMASS POINTS GAINED
31
4D3
5+3
TYRANID ATTACK

Every last prey organism that stands against the swarm must be overrun - butchered - and their biomass consumed so that fresh waves of bioforms may be spawned.

At the end of the battle, if there are no enemy models remaining on the battlefield, each TYRANIDS unit from your Crusade army that is on the battlefield gains 3XP, your Crusade force gains 4 Biomass points, and you gain 2 Battles Played points for this battle instead of 1.

Requisitions

If your Crusade army includes any TYRANIDS units, you can spend Requisition points (RP) on any of the following Requisitions.

Consume to Survive

The hive fleets must constantly hunt, slay and consume prey worlds in order to replenish or increase their ranks.

If your Crusade force includes any TYRANIDS units, the Increase Supply Limit Requisition costs you 2RP to use.

RESPAWN WARRIOR ORGANISMS1RP

The Hive Mind can break down the biomass of its warrior organisms, reabsorbing them and restructuring their bodies and neural pathways at a molecular level before spawning them anew.

Purchase this Requisition at any time. Select one TYRANIDS unit from your Order of Battle that has no Battle Scars. That unit loses any or all Battle Traits it currently has. For each Battle Trait it lost, you can now select a new Battle Trait for it.
AN INTELLECT VAST AND COLD1RP

The gestalt consciousness of the Great Devourer is omnipresent throughout the hive fleets, always urging its mindless, ravenous swarms on toward whatever strategic goals will see them best feed, grow and spread.

Purchase this Requisition during the Select Agendas step of the battle. You can select one additional Agenda to use during this battle. At least one of the Agendas you select must be a Tyranids Agenda.
SYNAPTIC BIOREGENESIS2RP

As the needs of the swarm change, so the Hive Mind is able to break down the physical form of its synaptic node-beasts while preserving their neuro-ganglia and the cached sense-impressions therein. This neural mass is then encased in a new and more suitable physical form.

Purchase this Requisition at any time. Select one SYNAPSE unit from your Order of Battle and replace it with a new SYNAPSE unit. You cannot purchase this Requisition if doing so would cause your total points to exceed your Crusade force’s Supply Limit. The newly added SYNAPSE unit starts with the same number of XP as the unit it replaced and immediately gains the appropriate number of Battle Honours for its rank.
ADAPTED PHYSIOLOGY2RP

Every warrior organism is fashioned by the ineffable alien will of the Hive Mind. Their flesh and chitin is endlessly mutable, honed into whatever form will prove most lethal to its prey.

Purchase this Requisition at any time. Select one TYRANIDS CHARACTER from your Order of Battle with a Crusade Relic. You can exchange this for any other Crusade Relic they are currently eligible for, adjusting their Crusade points as required.

Battle Traits


Rudimentary Instincts

MUCOLID SPORES and SPORE MINES units never gain XP, and so can never gain Battle Honours. However, they are also assumed to pass any Out of Action tests they are required to take (no dice is rolled) and so never accrue Battle Scars. You can mark the XP section of their Crusade card as ‘N/A’ to remind you.

TYRANIDS UNITS
D6

Excluding SYNAPSE units
STRENGTH BORN OF HUNGER

These warrior organisms are possessed of a ravenous hunger, their eagerness to tear and rend flesh lending their blows additional, frenzied strength.

Add 1 to the Strength characteristic of melee weapons equipped by models in this unit.
ENHANCED SENSES

The sensory acuity of this brood has been heightened such that no prey can hide from them.

  • Each time a model in this unit makes a melee attack, you can ignore any or all Hit roll and Weapon Skill modifiers for that attack.
  • Each time a model in this unit makes a ranged attack, that attack has the [IGNORES COVER] ability.
INSTINCTIVE AUTONOMY

This brood possess heightened tactical instincts that allow them to hunt efficiently even without direct synaptic oversight.

While this unit is within 18" of a friendly SYNAPSE model, this unit counts as being within 6" of that model for its SYNAPSE ability.
RANGED RESISTANCE

These warrior organisms are well protected by their pseudo-sentient carapaces and partial regenerative capabilities. It takes a great concentration of fire to do them any real harm.

Each time a ranged attack is allocated to a model in this unit, add 1 to any armour saving throw made against that attack.
FLEET OF CLAW

Moving with lithe rapidity, these warrior organisms close the distance to their prey and begin their killing frenzy.

Each time you make an Advance or Charge roll for this unit, you can re-roll the result.
ONSLAUGHT KILLERS

The bioforms of this brood have been imbued with tensile strength and whipcord sinews that allow them to spring upon their prey, lending their pouncing onslaught additional impact to maximise carnage.

Each time a model in this unit makes a melee attack, if this unit made a Charge move this turn, add 1 to the Hit roll.

SYNAPSE UNITS
D6

UNFATHOMABLE TERROR

These leader-beasts emanate the unfathomable will of the Hive Mind, an alien consciousness so vast it drives prey creatures mad.

At the end of your Movement phase, select one enemy unit within 6" of and visible to this unit. That enemy unit must take a Leadership test, subtracting 1 from the roll. If failed, until the start of your next Movement phase, that enemy unit cannot be selected to Advance and its Move characteristic is reduced by 2".
PSYCHIC SHADOW

Such is this creature's psionic power that enemy sorceries unravel in its presence.

Each time a ranged Psychic Attack targets this unit, this unit has the Benefit of Cover and the Feel No Pain 5+ ability against that attack.
PSIONIC RESONANCE

So potent is the psionic presence of this leader-beast that it is able to act as a nodal amplifier to imperatives unleashed by other nearby synaptic organisms.

Once per battle, this unit can be targeted with a Stratagem. If it does, reduce the CP cost of that use of that Stratagem by 1CP.
ALIEN RESILIENCE

The damaged flesh and chitin of this formidable warrior organism regrows at an astounding rate.

At the start of your Command phase, one model in this unit regains 1 lost wound.
ARMOURED BIOMORPH

This brood boasts thickened and extended chitinous carapaces.

Add 1 to the Toughness characteristic of models in this unit.
PSYCHIC ABERRATION

So potent is this bioform's synaptic presence that it acts as a focusing lens for the psychic might of the Hive Mind.

Once per battle, at the start of any phase, you can select one TYRANIDS unit that is Battle-shocked and within 12" of this model. That unit is no longer Battle-shocked.

Battle Scars


TYRANIDS UNITS
D6

Excluding SYNAPSE units
UNCONTROLLABLE

Lingering neural trauma has left this brood with a damaged connection to the synaptic network.

This unit is never considered to be within Synapse range of your army.
BY INSTINCT ALONE

Severed entirely from synapse control, this brood is forced to fall back upon its own hardwired instincts in battle.

This unit cannot be targeted with Stratagems.
MINDLESS FOCUS

Overdeveloped prey-response instincts drown out the higher functions of this brood, causing them to obsessively focus on the nearest prey to the exclusion of more strategically important targets.

Each time this unit is selected to shoot, models in this unit can only target the closest eligible enemy unit when resolving this unit’s attacks.
BESTIAL RAGE

So overcome with biochemical adrenaline and predatory aggression is this brood, that its warrior organisms seek constantly to hurl themselves upon the nearest possible prey and tear them to pieces.

Each time this unit declares a charge, one of the targets of that charge must be the closest eligible enemy unit.
Generate a Battle Scar from the main Crusade rules.

SYNAPSE UNITS
D6

NEURAL DISSONANCE

Due to neurosynaptic feedback or cranial damage, this bioform struggles to mesh fully with the Hive Mind.

This unit cannot benefit from any Stratagems or Detachment Rules that require the SYNAPSE keyword.
SYNAPTIC DECAY

Physical and neural damage has eroded the strength of this organism’s synaptic signal, leaving it unable to fully impose its will upon the swarm.

Reduce the range of this model’s Synapse ability to 3".
LOBE IMPAIRMENT

Although able to still provide the warrior organisms around it with basic synaptic imperatives, this beast is no longer able to control their behaviour.

While this unit has this Battle Scar, it loses the Synapse ability.
CASTS NO SHADOW

This organism’s psychic presence is all but non-existent, its ability to deepen the Shadow in the Warp stolen away from it.

While this unit has this Battle Scar, it is affected by your army’s Shadow in the Warp ability (and thus must take a Battle-shock test when it is used).
Generate a Battle Scar from the main Crusade rules.

Crusade Relics

When a TYRANIDS CHARACTER model gains a Crusade Relic, you can select one of the Crusade Relics presented here.

Artificer Relics

SPIRIT-LEECH CORTEX

This rare cranial biomodification allows its monstrous host to psionically drain the life from its prey, feeding off their animus and using it as fuel to both regrow and augment its own form.

PSYKER model only. Each time an enemy unit loses a wound as the result of a Psychic Attack made by the bearer:
  • The bearer regains 1 lost wound.
  • Until the start of your next Command phase, add 1 to the Strength of the bearers melee weapons.
BALEMIND MEMBRANE

This foul net of neuro-membranes infests the cranial cavities of its host and amplifies their offensive psycho-synaptic aptitude.

Model with one or more Psychic weapons only. Each time the bearer makes an attack with a Psychic weapon, you can re-roll the Hit roll and you can re-roll the Wound roll.

Antiquity Relics

MORTREXITE IMPLANT ATTACK

This bio-artefact can penetrate the thickest armour in order to implant dozens of Ripper parasites within a host. In seconds, the ghastly creatures grow to full size, devouring the host from the inside out and bursting forth in a shower of gore.

  • Melee weapons equipped by the bearer gain the [DEVASTATING WOUNDS] ability.
  • Each time the bearer fights, if one or more enemy models (excluding VEHICLE models) are destroyed when resolving those attacks, after that fight is resolved you can select one friendly RIPPER SWARMS unit within 12" of the bearer. If you do, add one Ripper Swarm model to that unit. If any of those destroyed enemy models had the MONSTER keyword, add D3 Ripper Swarm models to that RIPPER SWARMS unit instead.
SLAYER SABRES

At the hilt of each of these enormous, curving blades is a shell of diamond-hard chitin. This houses the brain of the weapon-symbiote. With a mental command, the wielder can generate a surge of psychic energy through this organism that incinerates the sabres’ unfortunate victims from the inside out.

MONSTER model only. Select one of the bearer’s melee weapons. That weapon gains the following ability:

Slayer Sabres: Each time the bearer fights, after that fight is resolved, select one enemy unit hit by one or more attacks made with this weapon this phase, then roll one D6: on a 2+, that unit suffers D3 mortal wounds, or D6+1 mortal wounds instead if that unit has the PSYKER keyword.

Legendary Relics

THE NORN CROWN

First named by Inquisitor Kryptman, the Norn Crown is a unique parasitic organism that burrows needle-like cerebral bores directly into the brain of its host, forming a neuro-synaptic link that acts as a hyper-conduit for the Hive Mind. Through this abhorrent union, the Hive Mind’s indomitable will can pour forth to augment and control the hordes of lesser Tyranids that scuttle in the leader-beast’s wake.

  • While the bearer is on the battlefield, once per battle, you can use the Shadow in the Warp ability one additional time.
  • While the bearer is on the battlefield, increase the range of friendly SYNAPSE units’ Synapse ability to 9".

Crusade Badges


Vanguard Tendril

Stretching out across the dark void, your swarms spread the soul-crushing Shadow in the Warp to sow dismay amongst the foe. With every successful act of predation, every prey bastion broken open and its defenders devoured, every massed clash won by means both insidious and monstrous, the power of your tendril grows. You have amassed much biomass and driven vanguard organisms like talons into the yielding flesh of yet more bounteous hunting grounds. Now is the time to push forward at the Hive Minds urging and let the true feast begin.

  • You have successfully devoured one world.
  • You have won at least two battles.


Monstrous Tendril

One after another the prey worlds fall to the rapacious hunger of your swarms. Whether teeming wildernesses of ferocious flora and fauna, populous megalopolis worlds covered in mountainous cities, or indomitable fortress worlds clad in plasteel and ferrocrete from pole to pole, none can resist your hunger. With each fresh victory your bioforms harvest more and varied quantities of biomass, opening up new options for adaptation and increasingly efficient consumption of the prey. Yet more worlds still lie before you. All must fall. All must be devoured.



All-consuming Tendril

Immense swarms flood entire star systems at your urging. An unending torrent of biomass pours back into your tendril, fortifying it further with every world devoured. You are the will of the Hive Mind made manifest. You are the death of worlds, and you are unstoppable!

  • You have successfully devoured five worlds, including at least one of each type.
  • You have won at least ten battles.
  • A CHARACTER from your Crusade force has reached the Legendary rank.
  • A CHARACTER from your Crusade force possesses The Norn Crown Crusade Relic.

Boarding Actions

Introduction

Within the following pages you will find numerous Boarding Actions Detachments that can be used in your Boarding Actions games. Each lists which units you can include in your army, any modifications to those units’ army rule as presented in their Codex or Index, a Detachment rule unique to that Detachment, and a number of Enhancements and Stratagems that you can use.

ARMY FACTION
A keyword that will be shared by all units in your army.

MUSTERING RULES
Which units you are allowed to include in your army.

FORMING BOARDING SQUADS
Any additional rules that will apply in the missions Form Boarding Squads step. Note that not all Detachments will have these.

RULES ADAPTATIONS
Some units will be unable to use certain abilities in Boarding Actions battles. Where this is the case, these units and their relevant abilities will be listed here.

ARMY RULE
Due to the distinct nature of close-quarters battle in Boarding Actions, most army rules require some modifications to their effects. Where this is the case, these will be described here.

DETACHMENT RULE
Each faction will have a number of different Detachments to choose from, each with its own Detachment rule to reflect the unique fighting methods of such forces.

ENHANCEMENTS
Further Enhancements that you can give to CHARACTER models from your army, beyond those(Boarding Actions Enhancments), will be found here.

STRATAGEMS
Additional Stratagems that you can use, in addition to those (Boarding Actions Stratagems), will be found here.

Tyranid Attack

Amidst the dark of the void, the alien horror of the Tyranids is rendered all the more terrifying. Whether swarming forth to defend their own bio-ships or stalking their prey through the decks of voidships or star forts, the hunting swarms leave none alive.

Mustering a Boarding Patrol

You can include up to two of the following unit:
You can include up to two of each of the following units:
You can include up to one of each of the following units:

Forming Boarding Squads


Rules Adaptations


Army Rule

Synaptic Web

The internal structures of voidships are no obstacle to the insidious reach of the Hive Mind.

Units from your army with the Shadow in the Warp ability retain that ability.

Units from your army with the Synapse ability retain that ability and gain this one.

When measuring whether a unit from your army is within Synapse Range of a friendly SYNAPSE model, Walls and closed Hatchways are ignored.

Detachment Rule

Xeno-Terror

To be trapped within the hull of a voidship with swarming Tyranids, subjected to the focused horror of the Shadow in the Warp that wreathes them, is more than some can stand.

When you unleash the Shadow in the Warp, subtract 1 from the Battle-shock test each enemy unit on the battlefield must take as a result. For each enemy unit that fails one of those tests, that enemy unit cannot Fire Overwatch this turn.

Enhancements

Synaptic Goad

This gestalt colony of ganglean parasites amplifies the Hive Mind’s localised control over its leading warrior organisms, driving them on to greater speed and aggression.

In your Command phase, select one friendly TYRANID WARRIORS WITH MELEE BIO-WEAPONS or TYRANID WARRIORS WITH RANGED BIO-WEAPONS unit within 6" of the bearer. Until the end of the turn, add 2" to the Move characteristic of models in that unit.

Reinforced Carapace

Threaded with molecular veins of absorbed alloys and minerals, this bioforms chitinous carapace has a dull glint that hints at its formidable resilience.

Each time an attack is allocated to the bearer, subtract 1 from the Damage characteristic of that attack (note that if given to a TYRANID PRIME model, this only affects that model and not other models in its unit).

Stratagems

BIO-ACID SURGE
1CP
Tyranid Attack – Battle Tactic Stratagem
Triggered by synaptic imperative, these warrior organisms'weapon limbs secrete dripping gouts of virulent bio-acid.
WHEN: Fight phase.

TARGET: One TYRANIDS unit from your army that is within Synapse Range of your army and has not been selected to fight this phase.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, melee weapons equipped by models in your unit have the [SUSTAINED HITS 1] ability.
PHAGIC SPORES
1CP
Tyranid Attack – Wargear Stratagem
In death, these warrior organisms release billowing clouds of hideously corrosive spores that reduce nearby prey to bubbling organic slicks.
WHEN: Your opponent’s Shooting phase or the Fight phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets.

TARGET: One TYRANID WARRIORS WITH MELEE BIO-WEAPONS or TYRANID WARRIORS WITH RANGED BIO-WEAPONS unit from your army that was selected as the target of one or more of the attacking unit’s attacks.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, each time a model in your unit is destroyed as a result of an attack, do not remove it from play; after the attacking unit has finished making its attacks, roll one D6: on a 3-5, the closest enemy unit within 3" of and visible to your unit suffers 1 mortal wound; on a 6, the closest enemy unit within 3" of and visible to your unit suffers 2 mortal wounds. The destroyed model is then removed from play.
EXPENDABLE BIOMASS
1CP
Tyranid Attack – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
The Tyranids will expend the lives of their lesser organisms in droves provided it results in their prey’s defeat.
WHEN: Your Shooting phase.

TARGET: One TYRANID WARRIORS WITH RANGED BIO-WEAPONS unit from your army that has not been selected to shoot this phase.

EFFECT: Select one enemy unit that is visible to your unit and within Engagement Range of one or more friendly ENDLESS MULTITUDE or RIPPER SWARMS units. Until the end of the phase, your unit is eligible to make ranged attacks against that enemy unit as if it was not within Engagement Range of those friendly units. When doing so, each time a model in your unit makes a ranged attack, subtract 1 from the Hit roll and, after your unit has finished making its attacks, each of those friendly units that started the phase within Engagement Range of that enemy unit suffers D3 mortal wounds.
HIVE SIGHT
1CP
Tyranid Attack – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
It is whispered amongst the fearful prey species that if one Tyranid can see you, they all can...
WHEN: Your Charge phase.

TARGET: One TYRANIDS SYNAPSE unit from your army and one friendly TYRANIDS unit that has not declared a charge this phase.

EFFECT: Select one enemy unit that is visible to your SYNAPSE unit. Until the end of the phase, each time your other unit declares a charge, it can include that enemy unit as a target of that charge, even if it is not visible to it, and when doing so, add 1 to the Charge roll.

Boarding Swarm

When Tyranid hive ships latch onto prey vessels, they unleash tailored swarms of swift vanguard organisms whose purpose is to sow terror amongst the defenders and strike for vital targets such as the enginarium and command bridge.

Mustering a Boarding Patrol

You can include up to two of the following units (duplicate are not allowed):
You can include up to two of each of the following units:

Forming Boarding Squads


Rules Adaptations


Army Rule

Synaptic Web

The internal structures of voidships are no obstacle to the insidious reach of the Hive Mind.

Units from your army with the Shadow in the Warp ability retain that ability.

Units from your army with the Synapse ability retain that ability and gain this one.

When measuring whether a unit from your army is within Synapse Range of a friendly SYNAPSE model, Walls and closed Hatchways are ignored.

Detachment Rule

Priority Predation

As these cunning vanguard predators move deeper into the prey vessel, they adapt their hunting patterns at need. They run down those victims worthy of slaughter while leaving lesser enemies to flee into the dark even as the Tyranids move away in search of far worthier prey.

Each time an enemy unit within Engagement Range of one or more TYRANIDS units from your army is selected to Fall Back, after that enemy unit has made that Fall Back move, for each of those TYRANIDS units, if there are no other enemy units within Engagement Range of it, it can make a Normal move of up to 3".

Enhancements

Monoform Predators

These hunter organisms are already perfectly tailored to their task. The Hive Mind does not waste biomass in altering them further.

TYRANIDS models in this Detachment cannot be given Enhancements.

Stratagems

LITHE KILLERS
1CP
Boarding Swarm – Battle Tactic Stratagem
These warrior organisms employ agility and stealth in place of resilience, weaving around their victims' blows and exploiting the tangled internal structures of the voidship to their advantage.
WHEN: Fight phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets.

TARGET: One TYRANIDS unit from your army that was selected as the target of one or more of the attacking unit’s attacks.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, models in your unit have a 5+ invulnerable save.
ADRENALISED SLAUGHTER
1CP
Boarding Swarm – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
These organisms contain additional adrenal biomorphs, which send them into a final killing frenzy just before death.
WHEN: Fight phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets.

TARGET: One TYRANIDS unit from your army that was selected as the target of one or more of the attacking unit’s attacks.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, each time a model in your unit is destroyed, if that model has not fought this phase, roll one D6. On a 5+, do not remove the destroyed model from play; it can fight after the attacking unit has finished making its attacks, and is then removed from play.
TALON-TIP SWARM
1CP
Boarding Swarm – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
As they break the prey's lines, these organisms seek key strategic sites to tear apart.
WHEN: Fight phase, just after a TYRANIDS unit from your army destroys an enemy unit.

TARGET: That TYRANIDS unit.

EFFECT: If your unit is not within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units, it can make a Normal move of up to 3". After that move, if your unit is within range of an objective marker and no enemy units are within range of that objective marker, that objective marker is Secured by your army.
PREDATORY POUNCE
1CP
Boarding Swarm – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
The internal hatchways of prey voidships make excellent ambush sites for vanguard organisms.
WHEN: Your opponent’s Movement phase, just after an enemy unit opens a Hatchway.

TARGET: One TYRANIDS unit from your army that is within 3" of that Hatchway and is not within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units.

EFFECT: Your unit can make a Pounce move. To do so, your unit can be moved up to 3", but must end that move as close as possible to that Hatchway. When doing so, those models can be moved within Engagement Range of that enemy unit, but only that enemy unit.

Biotide

Whether responding to attacks by hostile boarding parties or spilling into an already-breached prey vessel, these unceasing waves of warrior organisms overrun their victims like a multiplying virus.

Mustering a Boarding Patrol

You can include up to two of the following unit:
WINGED TYRANID PRIME
You can include up to three of each of the following units:
HORMAGAUNTS (10 models)
NEUROGAUNTS (10 models)
RIPPER SWARMS (3 models)
TERMAGANTS (10 models)

Forming Boarding Squads


Rules Adaptations


Army Rule

Synaptic Web

The internal structures of voidships are no obstacle to the insidious reach of the Hive Mind.

Units from your army with the Shadow in the Warp ability retain that ability.

Units from your army with the Synapse ability retain that ability and gain this one.

When measuring whether a unit from your army is within Synapse Range of a friendly SYNAPSE model, Walls and closed Hatchways are ignored.

Detachment Rule

Unstoppable Swarm

This massed swarm of warrior organisms spills over and around one another as they advance, chitinous killers packing corridors floor to ceiling and bursting open hatchways with sheer weight of numbers.

Each time a TYRANIDS unit from your army moves, models in that unit can move through friendly TYRANIDS models as if they were not there. In addition, each time a TYRANIDS unit from your army attempts to operate a closed Hatchway, if your opponent tries to prevent it, add 1 to your result of the roll-off.

Enhancements

Synaptic Beacon

Like a psionic fire burning in the depths of the void, this organisms mere presence unifies and anchors all the swarms flowing about it.

While a friendly TYRANIDS unit is within 9" of the bearer (ignoring Walls and closed Hatchways), that unit is within Synapse Range of the bearer and of your army.

Hypersurge Gland

This internal symbiote can expend itself in a single flood of aggression stimulants and drive its host into a sudden, accelerated attack against a key target.

Once per battle, at the end of your opponents Charge phase, the bearer can use this Enhancement. If it does, it can declare a charge as if it were your Charge phase.

Stratagems

LIVING AVALANCHE
1CP
Biotide – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
This hatchway does not so much slide open as burst asunder like a breached dam, warrior organisms spilling forth from it in a heaving mass.
WHEN: Your Movement phase, just after a TYRANIDS unit from your army has opened a Hatchway.

TARGET: That TYRANIDS unit.

EFFECT: Your unit can make a Swarm move. To do so, your unit can be moved up to 3", but at least one model from your unit must end that move on the opposite side of that Hatchway from the one it started the phase on. When doing so, those models can be moved within Engagement Range of enemy units.
SQUIRMING MASSES
1CP
Biotide – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Like water flowing through every available gap and channel, the Tyranids squeeze through ducts and vents to spill out in the midst of the prey.
WHEN: Your Movement phase, at the start of the Reinforcements step.

TARGET: One ENDLESS MULTITUDE unit from your army that is in Reserves.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, models in your unit have the Deep Strike ability and, when setting them upon the battlefield using that ability, they can be set up anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 6" horizontally away from all enemy units, provided they are also within Synapse Range of your army.

RESTRICTIONS: You can only use this Stratagem once and, until the end of the turn, your unit is not eligible to declare a charge.
SWARM HUNTERS
1CP
Biotide – Battle Tactic Stratagem
These Termagants act like a single, many-limbed, many-weaponed organism, squirming around one another to level the most firepower possible.
WHEN: Your Shooting phase.

TARGET: One TERMAGANTS unit from your army that has not been selected to shoot this phase.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, models in your unit can ignore other models in their unit for the purposes of determining visibility. In addition, if your unit is within Synapse Range of your army, each time a model in your unit makes an attack, you can re-roll the Hit roll.
ONRUSHING HORDE
1CP
Biotide – Battle Tactic Stratagem
Surging toward their victims in a swift mass of screeching maws and lashing talons, the Tyranids are a panic-inducing sight.
WHEN: Your opponent’s Shooting phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets.

TARGET: One TYRANIDS unit from your army (excluding WINGED TYRANID PRIME units), that was selected as the target of one or more of the attacking unit’s attacks.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, each time an attack targets your unit, subtract 1 from the Hit roll.

Infestation Swarm

Many doomed voidships have been infested by Genestealers, their corridors and crawlways transformed into the hunting grounds and brood-lairs of monstrous vanguard organisms. Such infestations prove nightmarishly deadly to any unwise enough to board these apparent derelicts.

Mustering a Boarding Patrol

When selecting this Detachment, you must select either the TYRANIDS or GENESTEALER CULTS keyword.
If you selected TYRANIDS, you can include up to one of the following unit:
If you selected TYRANIDS, you can include up to three of the following unit:


If you selected GENESTEALER CULTS, you can include up to one of the following unit:
If you selected GENESTEALER CULTS, you can include up to three of the following unit:

Rules Adaptations


Army Rule

Auspex Ghosts

All the enemy see are half-glimpsed darting shadows, or partial returns of contact blips on sensor-screens. At least, that is, until the Genestealers are in position to pounce...

Units from your army with the SYNAPSE or Cult Ambush abilities replace those abilities with this one.

In the Deploy Armies step, your opponent must set up their entire army before you set up any of your units. If both players have a rule that allows them to do this, both players set up their units normally.

Detachment Rule

Half-Glimpsed Shadows

Possessed of alien cunning and unnatural stealth, Genestealers are able to fade back into the shadows or crawl across ceilings or under deck-plates, the better to evade notice by their prey.

Each time a ranged attack targets a GREAT DEVOURER unit from your army, if the attacking model is not within 6" of that unit, subtract 1 from the Hit roll.

Enhancements

Stalking Menace

Soon after this nightmarish predator vanishes from sight, its victims feel the hot reek of its breath upon the napes of their necks in the instant before it strikes.

Once per battle, at the end of your opponent’s Fight phase, if the bearer is not within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units, it can use this Enhancement. If it does, remove the bearer from the battlefield and place it into Strategic Reserves. It will arrive back on the battlefield in the Reinforcements step of your next Movement phase as if it had the Deep Strike ability. If this is not possible, the bearer is destroyed. When the bearer is set back up on the battlefield, until the end of the turn, it cannot declare a charge.

Psi-spoor Sensitivity

Able to taste its prey’s terrified mental signatures like pheromones, there is nowhere to hide from this beast.

Each time the bearer declares a charge, it can target enemy units that are not visible to it.

Stratagems

HYPERADRENAL REFLEXES
1CP
Infestation Swarm – Battle Tactic Stratagem
Goaded by the biostimulants surging through their bodies, these warrior organisms evade their enemies'attacks with unbelievable swiftness.
WHEN: Fight phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets.

TARGET: One GREAT DEVOURER unit from your army that was selected as the target of one or more of the attacking unit’s attacks.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, models in your unit have a 4+ invulnerable save.
PERVASIVE DREAD
1CP
Infestation Swarm – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
With the death of their leader, the surviving prey feel an ominous sense of doom press down upon them, heightened by subtle psionic assault.
WHEN: Fight phase, just after the enemy WARLORD is destroyed (and is not returned to the battlefield) by a GREAT DEVOURER unit from your army.

TARGET: That GREAT DEVOURER unit.

EFFECT: In your opponent’s next Command phase, each enemy unit on the battlefield must take a Battle-shock test, subtracting 1 from the result. This Stratagem cannot cause a unit to take two Battle-shock tests in the same phase.
HUNTING GROUNDS
1CP
Infestation Swarm – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Genestealers on the hunt are relentless, squirming through hatches before they have even half opened.
WHEN: Your Movement phase, just after a GREAT DEVOURER unit from your army opens a Hatchway.

TARGET: That GREAT DEVOURER unit.

EFFECT: Your unit can make a Normal move of up to 3", provided at least one of its models ends that move on the opposite side of that Hatchway from when your unit opened it.
OUTFLANK
1CP
Infestation Swarm – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Swarms of Genestealers crawl through vents and ducts as they seek to outflank their prey.
WHEN: End of your opponent’s Fight phase.

TARGET: One GENESTEALERS or PURESTRAIN GENESTEALERS unit from your army that is wholly within an Entry Zone.

EFFECT: Remove your unit from the battlefield and place it into Strategic Reserves. It will arrive back on the battlefield in the Reinforcements step of your next Movement phase. When doing so, if it was within one of your Entry Zones when it was removed, it must be set up wholly within another one of your Entry Zones. If it was within one of your opponent’s Entry Zones when it was removed, it must be set up wholly within another one of your opponent’s Entry Zones instead. If this is not possible, your unit is destroyed.

Destroyed
Throughout a battle, models will suffer damage and be destroyed. When a model is destroyed, it is removed from the battlefield. When every model in a unit has been destroyed, that unit is destroyed.
LEADER

Mighty heroes fight at the forefront of battle.

Some CHARACTER units have ‘Leader’ listed on their datasheets. Such CHARACTER units are known as Leaders, and the units they can lead – known as their Bodyguard units – are listed on their datasheet.

During the Declare Battle Formations step, for each Leader in your army, if your army also includes one or more of that Leader’s Bodyguard units, you can select one of those Bodyguard units. That Leader will then attach to that Bodyguard unit for the duration of the battle and is said to be leading that unit. Each Bodyguard unit can only have one Leader attached to it.

While a Bodyguard unit contains a Leader, it is known as an Attached unit and, with the exception of rules that are triggered when units are destroyed, it is treated as a single unit for all rules purposes. Each time an attack targets an Attached unit, until the attacking unit has resolved all of its attacks, you must use the Toughness characteristic of the Bodyguard models in that unit, even if a Leader in that unit has a different Toughness characteristic. Each time an attack sucessfully wounds an Attached unit, that attack cannot be allocated to a CHARACTER model in that unit, even if that CHARACTER model has lost one or more wounds or has already had attacks allocated to it this phase. As soon as the last Bodyguard model in an Attached unit has been destroyed, any attacks made against that unit that have yet to be allocated can then be allocated to CHARACTER models in that unit.

Each time the last model in a Bodyguard unit is destroyed, each CHARACTER unit that is part of that Attached unit is no longer part of an Attached unit. It becomes a separate unit, with its original Starting Strength. If this happens as the result of an attack, they become separate units after the attacking unit has resolved all of its attacks.

Each time the last model in a CHARACTER unit that is attached to a Bodyguard unit is destroyed and there is not another CHARACTER unit attached, that Attached unit’s Bodyguard unit is no longer part of an Attached unit. It becomes a separate unit, with its original Starting Strength. If this happens as the result of an attack, they become separate units after the attacking unit has resolved all of its attacks.

Each time a unit that is part of an Attached unit is destroyed, it does not have the keywords of any other units that make up that Attached unit (unless it has those keywords on its own datasheet) for the purposes of any rules that would be triggered when that unit is destroyed.

Example: If you only destroy the Bodyguard unit that is part of an Attached unit, you have not destroyed a CHARACTER unit. If you only destroy the CHARACTER unit that is part of an Attached unit, or if you destroy the whole Attached unit, you have destroyed one CHARACTER unit.

  • Before the battle, CHARACTER units with the Leader ability can be attached to one of their Bodyguard units to form an Attached unit.
  • Attached units can only contain one Leader.
  • Attacks cannot be allocated to CHARACTER models in Attached units.
LONE OPERATIVE

Assassins and other covert agents are difficult to track and pinpoint in the swirling maelstrom of battle.

Unless part of an Attached unit (see Leader), this unit can only be selected as the target of a ranged attack if the attacking model is within 12".
UNSEEN LURKERS
1CP
Vanguard Onslaught – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Hyper-attuned senses warn vanguard organisms when they are being targeted by the prey.
WHEN: Your opponent’s Shooting phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets.

TARGET: One VANGUARD INVADER unit from your army that was selected as the target of one or more of the attacking unit’s attacks.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, your unit can only be selected as the target of a ranged attack if the attacking model is within 18" or, if your unit has the Lone Operative ability, if the attacking model is within 6". Your opponent can select new targets for the attacking unit’s attacks.
Teleport Assault

The soul of the Grey Knights is sacrosanct, and their purity is incorruptible. The silvered armour of this Chapter’s warriors is bound with incantations, engraved with sigils of warding. Their blades shine with the inner light of their sanctity, for each of these Space Marines is a psychic warrior, in empyric communion with his battle-brothers. Empowered by minds constantly on guard, they can cut steel with bare hands, their eyes blaze with fire and even the power of their words flays the otherworldly skin of daemons. They are the Imperium’s foremost sword and shield against the daemonic. Guided by the foresight and prophecies of the Chapter’s Prognosticars, a Grey Knight can adapt to the most irrational of foes and, in a flare of teleportation energies, emerge at exactly the right location to unleash their devastating power.

If your Army Faction is GREY KNIGHTS, at the end of your opponent’s turn, you can select a number of GREY KNIGHTS units from your army with this ability (excluding units that are within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units). The maximum number of units you can select depends on the battle size, as follows:

COMBAT PATROLUP TO 1 UNIT
INCURSIONUP TO 2 UNITS
STRIKE FORCEUP TO 3 UNITS
ONSLAUGHTUP TO 4 UNITS

Once you have made your selections, remove those units from the battlefield. In the Reinforcements step of your next Movement phase, set each of those units up anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 9" horizontally away from all enemy models. Any units that are not on the battlefield at the end of the battle count as destroyed.
2. Battle-shock
In this step, you must take a Battle-shock test for each of your units on the battlefield that is Below Half-strength. To do so, roll 2D6: if the result is greater than or equal to the best Leadership characteristic in that unit, the test is passed; otherwise, the test is failed and, until the start of your next Command phase, that unit is Battle-shocked.

While a unit is Battle-shocked:

Once you have taken Battle-shock tests for all of your units that require them, your Command phase ends and you progress to your Movement phase.

In this step, if for any reason a unit is forced to take a Battle-shock test for being below its Starting Strength, unless otherwise stated, that unit does not also have to take a Battle-shock test for being Below Half-strength. While a unit is Battle-shocked, all models in that unit are also Battle-shocked.

  • Take a Battle-shock test for each unit from your army on the battlefield that is Below Half-strength.
  • Roll 2D6: if the result is greater than or equal to the unit’s Leadership, the test is passed. Otherwise, the unit is Battle-shocked until the start of your next Command phase.
  • Battle-shocked units have an OC of 0 and their controlling player cannot use Stratagems to affect them.
  • Battle-shocked units must take Desperate Escape tests if they Fall Back.
Characters
Some models have the CHARACTER keyword. These models can make Heroic Interventions in Charge Phase and are not easy targets in the Shooting Phase (see Look out, Sir, rule). If your Warlord has the CHARACTER keyword he may be able to have a Warlord Trait (see Warlord Trait section on model’s faction page).

Note that CHARACTERS cannot use their Aura Abilities while %000015069performing actions%.
  • Hunting Grounds
    20 pts
Vanguard Onslaught Detachment

This warrior organism has identified installations and routes of communication and supply vital to the prey. As the Tyranid invasion commences so the beast orchestrates ambushes and terror raids against these priority targets, ensuring that those enemy reinforcements who do reach the battlefield do so in bloodied disarray.

model only. While the bearer is on the battlefield, each time your opponent sets up a Reserves unit on the battlefield, roll one D6: on a 2+, that unit must take a Battle-shock test.

Hazardous

Weapons powered by unstable and dangerous energy sources pose a substantial risk to the wielder every time they are used.

Weapons with [HAZARDOUS] in their profile are known as Hazardous weapons. Each time a unit is selected to shoot or fight, after that unit has resolved all of its attacks, for each Hazardous weapon that targets were selected for when resolving those attacks, that unit must take one Hazardous test. To do so, roll one D6: on a 1, that test is failed. For each failed test you must resolve the following sequence (resolve each failed test one at a time):
  • If possible, select one model in that unit that has lost one or more wounds and is equipped with one or more Hazardous weapons.
  • Otherwise, if possible, select one model in that unit (excluding CHARACTER models) equipped with one or more Hazardous weapons.
  • Otherwise, select one CHARACTER model in that unit equipped with one or more Hazardous weapons.
If a model was selected, that unit suffers 3 mortal wounds and when allocating those mortal wounds, they must be allocated to the selected model.
If a unit from a player’s army is selected as the target of the Fire Overwatch Stratagem in their opponent’s Charge phase, any mortal wounds inflicted by Hazardous tests are allocated after the charging unit has ended its Charge move.

Example: A unit of five models make five attacks with ranged weapons with the [HAZARDOUS] ability. After the unit has finished shooting, its controlling player rolls five D6. One of the results is a 1, and so one of those models suffers 3 mortal wounds.

  • After a unit shoots or fights, roll one Hazardous test (one D6) for each Hazardous weapon used. For each 1, a model equipped with a hazardous weapon suffers 3 mortal wounds, that must be allocated to the selected model.
Devastating Wounds
Weapons with [DEVASTATING WOUNDS] in their profile are known as Devastating Wounds weapons. Each time an attack is made with such a weapon, if that attack scores a Critical Wound, no saving throw of any kind can be made against that attack (including invulnerable saving throws). Such attacks are only allocated to models after all other attacks made by the attacking unit have been allocated and resolved. After that attack is allocated and after any modifiers are applied, it inflicts a number of mortal wounds on the target equal to the Damage characteristic of that attack, instead of inflicting damage normally.

Example: An attack made with a Devastating Wounds weapon with a Damage characteristic of 2 scores a Critical Wound. Instead of allocating the attack and making saving throws normally, the target suffers 2 mortal wounds.

  • A Critical Wound inflicts mortal wounds equal to the weapon’s Damage characteristic, instead of any normal damage.
Mortal Wounds

Some attacks are so powerful that no armour or force field can withstand their fury.

Some rules inflict mortal wounds on units. Each time mortal wounds are inflicted on a unit, each of those mortal wounds inflicts one point of damage to that unit, and they are always applied one at a time. Each mortal wound is allocated to a model in the same manner as allocating an attack. Excess damage from mortal wounds is not lost if the damage can be allocated to another model. Instead, keep allocating damage to another model in the target unit until either all the damage has been allocated or the target unit is destroyed.

If an attack inflicts mortal wounds in addition to any normal damage, do not make a Wound roll or saving throw (including invulnerable saving throws) against those mortal wounds. If those mortal wounds are inflicted by an attack that has the [PRECISION] ability, the attacking model’s controlling player can allocate those mortal wounds to a CHARACTER model in that unit.

If mortal wounds are being inflicted as a result of the [HAZARDOUS] ability or by an attack with the [DEVASTATING WOUNDS] ability that scored a Critical Wound, each time those mortal wounds are allocated to a model, if that model is destroyed as a result of those mortal wounds, the remaining mortal wounds from that attack are lost, just as with a normal attack.

If, when a unit is selected to shoot or fight, one or more of its attacks can inflict mortal wounds on the target, resolve any normal damage inflicted by the attacking unit’s attacks on that target before inflicting any mortal wounds on that target. If an attack inflicts mortal wounds in addition to any normal damage, but the normal damage is subsequently saved, the target unit still suffers those mortal wounds, as described above.

  • Each mortal wound inflicted on a unit causes one model in that unit to lose one wound.
  • Unless the source of the mortal wounds is the [HAZARDOUS] ability or an attack with the [DEVASTATING WOUNDS] ability, damage from mortal wounds is not lost if it can be allocated to another model.
  • No saving throws can be made against mortal wounds.
  • Mortal wounds inflicted by attacks always apply after any normal damage, even if that damage was saved.
Feel No Pain
FEEL NO PAIN

Some warriors refuse to be laid low, even by what should be fatal wounds.

Some models have ‘Feel No Pain x+’ listed in their abilities. Each time a model with this ability suffers damage and so would lose a wound (including wounds lost due to mortal wounds), roll one D6: if the result is greater than or equal to the number denoted by ‘x’, that wound is ignored and is not lost. If a model has more than one Feel No Pain ability, you can only use one of those abilities each time that model suffers damage and so would lose a wound.

  • Feel No Pain x+: Each time this model would lose a wound, roll one D6: if the result equals or exceeds ‘x’, that wound is not lost.
Synapse

Some Tyranids serve as synaptic conduits or nodal relays through which a portion of the Hive Mind’s iron will flows, overriding the natural instincts of the swarm to direct the teeming warrior-beasts to function as a single, gestalt organism on the battlefield.

If your Army Faction is , while a unit from your army is within 6" of one or more friendly SYNAPSE models, that unit is said to be within Synapse Range of that model and of your army. While a unit from your army is within Synapse Range of your army:
  • Each time that unit takes a Battle-shock test, take that test on 3D6 instead of 2D6.
  • Each time a model in that unit makes a melee attack, add 1 to the Strength characteristic of that attack.
RAPID REGENERATION
1CP
Invasion Fleet – Battle Tactic Stratagem
Prey stare in horror as chitinous armour regrows and flesh, muscle and sinew knots back together.
WHEN: Your opponent’s Shooting phase or the Fight phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets.

TARGET: One unit from your army that was selected as the target of one or more of the attacking unit’s attacks.

EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, models in your unit have the Feel No Pain 6+ ability. If your unit is within Synapse Range of your army, models in your unit have the Feel No Pain 5+ ability instead.
  • Psychostatic Disruption
    30 pts
Synaptic Nexus Detachment

A maelstrom of psychostatic disruption boils about this bioform. It degrades artificial and biological cognition alike, causing teleport signals to fluctuate, geopositioning cogitators to spew contradictory data, and onrushing enemy warriors to reel in confusion.

SYNAPSE model only. Enemy units that arrive on the battlefield from Reserves cannot be set up within 12" of the bearer. In addition, once per battle, during the first or second battle round, when your opponent declares that a unit will arrive on the battlefield from Strategic Reserves, the bearer can use this Enhancement. If it does, roll one D6: on a 4+, that enemy unit cannot arrive on the battlefield this turn.

The HARVESTER keyword is used in the following Tyranids datasheets:

The ENDLESS MULTITUDE keyword is used in the following Tyranids datasheets:

Feed the Swarm
Assimilation Swarm Detachment

Even as the beasts of the Assimilation Swarm stalk across the battlefield they make use of the abundant biomass yielded up by the prey worlds slow demise. Warrior organisms heal even the most grievous wounds in moments, or stagger upright and return to the fight after they seemed slain. A strain of revolting vitality flows through the Tyranid broods as though leeched direct from their dismayed victims.

In your Command phase, each HARVESTER unit from your army can Regenerate one friendly unit that is within 6" of it. A unit can only be regenerated once per phase. Each time a unit regenerates, do one of the following:
  • One model in that unit regains up to D3+1 lost wounds.
  • One destroyed INFANTRY model (excluding CHARACTERS) is returned to that unit with its full wounds remaining. If that unit is an ENDLESS MULTITUDE unit, up to 3 destroyed models are returned instead.
RECLAIM BIOMASS
1CP
Assimilation Swarm – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Dead Tyranids are consumed and reconstituted by the swarm just as readily as the lifeless carcasses of their prey.
WHEN: Any phase, when a unit from your army is destroyed, before the last model in it is removed from play.

TARGET: One HARVESTER unit from your army that is within 6" of that destroyed unit.

EFFECT: Regenerate one friendly unit within 6" of your HARVESTER unit (See Feed the Swarm).
Attached Units
Some CHARACTER units have the Leader ability, which lets them merge with other units (known as Bodyguard units) to form an Attached unit.

The Starting Strength of an Attached unit is equal to the combined Starting Strengths of all of its units (i.e. the number of models in the Leader unit added to the number of models in the Bodyguard unit). If either the Leader unit or the Bodyguard unit in an Attached unit is destroyed, the Starting Strength of the remaining unit is changed to be equal to its original Starting Strength.

Example: A Primaris Captain (Starting Strength 1) is attached to a unit of Intercessors (Starting Strength 5). This Attached unit has a Starting Strength of 6. If all the Intercessors are destroyed, the remaining Primaris Captain would revert to having a Starting Strength of 1.

For the purposes of rules that are triggered when a unit is destroyed, such rules are still triggered when one of the individual units that made up an Attached unit is destroyed (the Leader or the Bodyguard unit).

Example: If a rule awards you with 1VP each time an enemy unit is destroyed, and you target an Attached unit, you would gain 1VP if the Bodyguard unit is destroyed and 1VP if the Leader unit is destroyed (for a total of 2VP).

The HIVE TYRANT keyword is used in the following Tyranids datasheets:

Hit Roll
When a model makes an attack, make one Hit roll for that attack by rolling one D6. If the result of the Hit roll is greater than or equal to the attack’s Ballistic Skill (BS) characteristic (if the attack is being made with a ranged weapon) or its Weapon Skill (WS) characteristic (if the attack is being made with a melee weapon), then that Hit roll is successful and scores one hit against the target unit. Otherwise, the attack fails and the attack sequence ends.

An unmodified Hit roll of 6 is called a Critical Hit and is always successful. An unmodified Hit roll of 1 always fails. A Hit roll can never be modified by more than -1 or +1.

  • Hit Roll (Ranged Attack): A hit is scored if the D6 result equals or exceeds that attack’s BS.
  • Hit Roll (Melee Attack): A hit is scored if the D6 result equals or exceeds that attack’s WS.
  • Critical Hit: Unmodified Hit roll of 6. Always successful.
  • An unmodified Hit roll of 1 always fails.
  • A Hit roll can never be modified by more than -1 or +1.
STEALTH

Some warriors are masters of disguise and concealment.

If every model in a unit has this ability, then each time a ranged attack is made against it, subtract 1 from that attack’s Hit roll.
Insurmountable Odds
Unending Swarm Detachment

When Hormagaunts, Termagants and other such expendable warrior organisms attack en masse they make up for their comparative fragility with sheer numbers. Coupled with the speed and ferocity of their onslaught - which only seems to increase as the prey try to gun the creatures down or drive them back - the gathered broods soon overrun even the most determined defenders.

Each time an enemy unit is selected to shoot, after that unit has finished making its attacks, if one or more models from one or more ENDLESS MULTITUDE units from your army were destroyed as a result of those attacks, each such unit can make a Surge move. To do so, roll one D6: that unit can be moved a distance in inches up to the result, but that unit must end that move as close as possible to the closest enemy unit (excluding AIRCRAFT). When doing so, those models can be moved within Engagement Range of enemy units. A unit cannot make a Surge move while it is Battle-shocked.
Objective Markers
Objective markers represent objects of tactical or strategic import that both sides are attempting to secure, such as valuable artefacts, vital supplies or communications nodes. If a mission uses objective markers, it will state where they are located on the battlefield. These can be represented using any suitable marker, but we recommend using round markers that are 40mm in diameter.

When setting objective markers up on the battlefield, place them so they are centred on the point specified by the mission. When measuring distances to and from objective markers, measure to and from the closest part of them. Models can move over objective markers as if they were not there, but they cannot end a move on top of an objective marker.

At the start of the battle, each objective marker on the battlefield is said to be contested, and so is not controlled by either player. To control an objective marker, a player will first need to move models within range of it. A model is within range of an objective marker if it is within 3" horizontally and 5" vertically of that objective marker.

Every model has an Objective Control (OC) characteristic listed on its datasheet. To determine a player’s Level of Control over an objective marker, add together the OC characteristics of all the models from that player’s army that are within range of that objective marker. A player will control an objective marker at the end of any phase or turn if their Level of Control over it is greater than their opponent’s. If both players have the same Level of Control over an objective marker, that objective marker is contested.

  • A model is within range of an objective marker if within 3" horizontally and 5" vertically.
  • Level of Control: Add together the OC characteristics of all of a player’s models within range of the objective marker.
  • An objective marker is controlled by the player with the highest Level of Control over it (in a tie, it is contested).
  • Models cannot end a move on top of an objective marker.
SYNAPTIC GOADING
1CP
Unending Swarm – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
For a moment, a minuscule sliver of the Hive Mind’s ineffable will is focussed through these warrior organisms, driving them to pounce upon either valuable prey or else some vital strategic target.
WHEN: Any phase, just before an ENDLESS MULTITUDE unit from your army that is within Synapse Range of your army makes a Surge move.

TARGET: That ENDLESS MULTITUDE unit.

EFFECT: When making that Surge move, you can re-roll the D6 to determine how far your unit moves, and your unit can end that move as close as possible to the closest objective marker (instead of as close as possible to the closest enemy unit]. All other rules for making Surge moves still apply.
Engagement Range
Engagement Range represents the zone of threat that models present to their enemies. While a model is within 1" horizontally and 5" vertically of an enemy model, those models – and their units – are within Engagement Range of each other.

Models cannot be set up or end a Normal, Advance or Fall Back move within Engagement Range of any enemy models. If for any reason a model cannot meet this condition, that model is destroyed.

  • Engagement Range: Within 1" horizontally and 5" vertically.
  • Models cannot be set up or end a Normal, Advance or Fall Back move within Engagement Range of any enemy models.
Shadow in the Warp

Tyranids flood the battlefield with the psychic signature of the hive fleet - an icy, alien dread that gnaws at the minds of their prey and smothers even the most stalwart courage. When faced with such unfathomable horror, many are driven insane or suffer catastrophic neural damage.

If your Army Faction is , once per battle, in either player’s Command phase, if one or more units from your army with this ability are on the battlefield, you can unleash the Shadow in the Warp. When you do, each enemy unit on the battlefield must take a Battle-shock test. Each time an enemy unit takes such a Battle-shock test, if it is within 6" of one or more SYNAPSE units from your army, subtract 1 from that test.
INSANE BRAVERY
2CP
Boarding Action – Epic Deed Stratagem
To commit to battle within the claustrophobic corridors and gothic chambers of a void ship necessitates near-suicidal courage, or else sufficient fear of the consequences of refusal. To stand their ground against impossible odds during such a fight requires warriors to exhibit a kind of single-minded madness.
Use this Stratagem before you take a Morale test for a unit from your army. That test is automatically passed. You can only use this Stratagem once.
Battle Honours
Each time a unit gains a rank, it can gain one Battle Honour. Units can also gain additional Battle Honours by other means (such as by winning certain missions, fulfilling certain Agendas, etc.). Each time a unit gains a Battle Honour, increase its Crusade points total by 1 (if the unit is TITANIC, increase its Crusade points total by 2 instead). Make a note of each Battle Honour a unit has on its Crusade card. A unit can never have more than three Battle Honours unless it is a CHARACTER, in which case it can have up to six Battle Honours. Once the maximum is reached, each time a unit gains a new Battle Honour it must first remove one of its existing Battle Honours.

There are several categories of Battle Honours that can be bestowed upon a unit, such as Battle Traits, Weapon Modifications and Crusade Relics. Other categories of Battle Honour may be found in other publications. Each time a unit gains a Battle Honour, you can select from any category.

  • Once a unit gains enough XP it will gain a rank.
  • Only CHARACTER units can gain the Heroic or Legendary ranks.
  • Each time a unit gains a rank, it can gain a Battle Honour.
  • There are several categories of Battle Honours, which include:
    • Battle Traits: New skills and abilities.
    • Weapon Modifications: Upgrade an item of wargear.
    • Crusade Relic: Gain a rare and powerful artefact.
  • Each time a unit gains a Battle Honour, increase its Crusade points total by 1 (or by 2 if TITANIC).

RENOWNED HEROES1-3RP

The greatest warriors, most cunning tacticians and seers lead their armies to war possessed of hard-won skills and powerful artefacts that mark them out as legendary commanders.

When you first start a Crusade force, you can purchase this Requisition the first time you add a CHARACTER unit to your Order of Battle. After that point, you can purchase this Requisition each time a unit from your Order of Battle gains a rank. In either case, you cannot select an EPIC HERO unit, a unit that already has an Enhancement, or a unit that has either the Disgraced or Mark of Shame Battle Scars.

You can select one Enhancement that unit has access to (if using this Requisition when that unit gains a rank, this is instead of it gaining a Battle Honour). When doing so, that unit has access to any Enhancements described within any Detachment rules that it could use, even though you have not yet started to muster your army and so have not selected any Detachment rules yet.

If the selected Enhancement replaces a weapon that is a Crusade Relic or a weapon upgraded by Weapon Modifications, that Crusade Relic or Weapon Modifications are lost. Recalculate the unit’s points value as a result of gaining this Enhancement and update its Crusade card. You cannot make any changes that would cause you to exceed your Supply Limit.

This Requisition costs 1RP plus 1 additional RP for each other Enhancement that your Order of Battle contains (to a maximum of 3RP).

Example: If this Requisition was used to give a unit an Enhancement and one other unit in your Order of Battle already had an Enhancement, it would cost 2RP.
Sustained Hits

Some weapons strike in a flurry of blows, tearing the foe apart with relentless ferocity.

Weapons with [SUSTAINED HITS X] in their profile are known as Sustained Hits weapons. Each time an attack is made with such a weapon, if a Critical Hit is rolled, that attack scores a number of additional hits on the target as denoted by ‘x’.

Example: A model makes an attack with a melee weapon with the [SUSTAINED HITS 2] ability. If the Hit roll is an unmodified 6 (a Critical Hit), then that attack scores a total of 3 hits on the target (1 from the successful Hit roll of 6, and 2 from the [SUSTAINED HITS 2] ability).

  • [SUSTAINED HITS X]: Each Critical Hit scores ‘x’ additional hits on the target.
Lethal Hits

Some weapons can inflict fatal injuries on any foe, no matter their resilience.

Weapons with [LETHAL HITS] in their profile are known as Lethal Hits weapons. Each time an attack is made with such a weapon, a Critical Hit automatically wounds the target.
Precision

Precision attacks can pick high-value targets out in a crowd, whether through the unerring aim of a sniper or the pinpoint accuracy of a blade-master’s strike.

Weapons with [PRECISION] in their profile are known as Precision weapons. Each time an attack made with such a weapon successfully wounds an Attached unit (see Leader ability), if a CHARACTER model in that unit is visible to the attacking model, the attacking model’s player can choose to have that attack allocated to that CHARACTER model instead of following the normal attack sequence.

  • When targeting an Attached unit, the attacking model’s player can have the attack allocated to a CHARACTER model in that unit visible to the bearer.
Wound Roll
Each time an attack scores a hit against a target unit, make a Wound roll for that attack by rolling one D6 to see if that attack successfully wounds the target unit. The result required is determined by comparing the attack’s Strength (S) characteristic with the target’s Toughness (T) characteristic, as shown below.

WOUND ROLL
ATTACK’S STRENGTH VS TARGET’S TOUGHNESSD6 RESULT REQUIRED
Strength is TWICE (or more than twice) the Toughness.
+
Strength is GREATER than the Toughness.
+
Strength is EQUAL to the Toughness.
+
Strength is LESS than the Toughness.
+
Strength is HALF (or less than half) the Toughness.
+

If the result of the Wound roll is greater than or equal to the required number shown in the table above, then that Wound roll is successful and scores one wound against the target unit. Otherwise, the attack fails and the attack sequence ends.

An unmodified Wound roll of 6 is called a Critical Wound and is always successful. An unmodified Wound roll of 1 always fails. A Wound roll can never be modified by more than -1 or +1.

  • Critical Wound: Unmodified Wound roll of 6. Always successful.
  • An unmodified Wound roll of 1 always fails.
  • A Wound roll can never be modified by more than -1 or +1.
Advance Moves
When a unit Advances, make an Advance roll for that unit by rolling one D6. Add the result in inches to the Move characteristic of each model in that unit until the end of the phase. Each model in that unit can then make an Advance move by moving a distance in inches less than or equal to this total, but no model can be moved within Engagement Range of enemy models. A unit cannot shoot or declare a charge in the same turn that it Advanced.

  • Advance Move: Models move up to M+D6".
  • Cannot move within Engagement Range of any enemy models.
  • Units that Advance cannot shoot or charge this turn.
Charging with a Unit
Once you have selected an eligible unit to declare a charge, you must select one or more enemy units within 12" of it as the targets of that charge. The targets of a charge do not need to be visible to the charging unit.

You then make a Charge roll for the charging unit by rolling 2D6. The result is the maximum number of inches each model in that unit can be moved if a Charge move is possible. For a Charge move to be possible, the Charge roll must be sufficient to enable the charging unit to end that move:
  • Within Engagement Range of every unit that you selected as a target of the charge.
  • Without moving within Engagement Range of any enemy units that were not a target of the charge.
  • In Unit Coherency.
If any of these conditions cannot be met, the charge fails and no models in the charging unit move this phase. Otherwise, the charge is successful and the models in the charging unit make a Charge move – move each model a distance in inches up to the result of the Charge roll. When doing so, each model in the charging unit must end its Charge move closer to one of the units selected as a target of its charge. If you can also move a charging model so that it ends its Charge move in base-to-base contact with one or more enemy models while still enabling the charging unit to end its move satisfying all of the conditions above, you must do so. The controlling player chooses the order in which to move their models.

  • Charge Roll: 2D6".
  • Targets of a charge must be within 12" but do not need to be visible.
  • If the distance rolled is insufficient to move within Engagement Range of all targets while maintaining Unit Coherency, the charge fails.
  • Cannot move within Engagement Range of any unit that was not a target of the charge.
  • If the charge is successful, each model makes a Charge move less than or equal to the Charge roll, and must move into base-to-base contact with an enemy model if possible.
Saving Throw
The player controlling the target unit then makes one saving throw. By default, this will be an armour saving throw using their model’s Save (Sv) characteristic, but some models have invulnerable saves that can be used instead (see below). To make an armour saving throw, roll one D6, then modify the result by the Armour Penetration (AP) characteristic of the attack. For example, if the attack has an AP of -1, then 1 is subtracted from the saving throw.

If the result is greater than or equal to the Save characteristic of the model the attack was allocated to, then that saving throw is successful and the attack sequence ends. Otherwise, that saving throw fails and that model suffers damage.

An unmodified saving throw of 1 always fails. A saving throw can never be improved by more than +1.

  • Saving Throw: Roll one D6 and modify by the attack’s AP. If the result is less than the Save of the model being rolled for, the saving throw is failed and that model suffers damage. Otherwise, that attack is saved.
  • An unmodified saving throw of 1 always fails.
  • A saving throw can never be improved by more than +1.
Consolidate
After a unit has finished making all of its melee attacks, it Consolidates. Each time a unit Consolidates, you can move each model in that unit that is not already in base-to-base contact with an enemy model up to 3" – this is a Consolidation move. For a Consolidation to be possible, a unit must be able to end these moves within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units and in Unit Coherency. If these conditions cannot be met, then each model in that unit can instead make a Consolidation move towards the closest objective marker, but only if, after doing so, that unit is within range of that objective marker and in Unit Coherency. If these conditions also cannot be met, no models in the unit can make Consolidation moves this phase and that unit’s fight ends.

If a unit can end its Consolidation within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units, then each time one of its models makes a Consolidation move, it must end that move closer to the closest enemy model. If it can also end that move in base-to-base contact with one or more enemy models while still satisfying all of the conditions above, it must do so. The controlling player chooses the order in which to move their models.

  • Consolidation Move: Up to 3".
  • Every model that moves must end closer to the closest enemy model, and in base-to-base contact with an enemy model if possible. The unit must end in Unit Coherency and within Engagement Range of at least one enemy unit if possible.
  • If the above is not possible, each model can move towards the closest objective marker, but this must result in the unit being within range of it and in Unit Coherency.
  • If the above is also not possible, no models can Consolidate.
Normal Moves
When a unit makes a Normal move, each model in that unit can move a distance in inches less than or equal to its Move (M) characteristic, but no model can be moved within Engagement Range of any enemy models.

  • Normal Move: Models move up to M".
  • Cannot move within Engagement Range of any enemy models.
Hyper-adaptations
Invasion Fleet Detachment

Every warrior organism in the Tyranid race is fashioned by the ineffable alien will of the Hive Mind. Their flesh and chitin is endlessly mutable, honed into whatever form will prove most lethal to the prey.

At the start of the first battle round, select one of the following Hyper-adaptations to be active for units from your army until the end of the battle:

Swarming Instincts

Each time a model with this Hyper-adaptation makes an attack that targets an INFANTRY or SWARM unit, that attack has the [SUSTAINED HITS 1] ability.

Hyper-aggression

Each time a model with this Hyper-adaptation makes an attack that targets a MONSTER or VEHICLE unit, that attack has the [LETHAL HITS] ability.

Hive Predators

Each time a model with this Hyper-adaptation makes an attack that targets a CHARACTER unit, on a Critical Hit, that attack has the [PRECISION] ability.

Starting Strength
The number of models a unit contains when it is added to your army is known as its Starting Strength.
Below Half-strength
Some rules will refer to a unit being Below Half-strength.
  • If a unit has a Starting Strength of 1, then it is said to be Below Half-strength while its remaining number of wounds is less than half of its Wounds characteristic.
  • For any other unit, while the number of models in that unit is less than half of its Starting Strength, that unit is said to be Below Half-strength.
Psychic Weapons and Abilities
Some weapons and abilities can only be used by PSYKERS. Such weapons and abilities are tagged with the word ‘Psychic’. If a Psychic weapon or ability causes any unit to suffer one or more wounds, each of those wounds is considered to have been inflicted by a Psychic Attack.
Disembark
If a unit from your army starts your Movement phase embarked within a TRANSPORT model, that unit can disembark in that phase.

When a unit disembarks from a TRANSPORT model, set it up on the battlefield so that it is wholly within 3" of that TRANSPORT model and not within Engagement Range of any enemy models. If, for any reason, a disembarking model cannot be set up, that model’s unit cannot disembark.

Units that disembark from a TRANSPORT model that either Remained Stationary this phase or has not yet made a Normal, Advance or Fall Back move this phase can then act normally (make a Normal move, Advance, shoot, declare a charge, fight, etc.) in the remainder of the turn. Such a disembarking unit cannot choose to Remain Stationary.

Units that disembark from a TRANSPORT model that made a Normal move this phase count as having made a Normal move themselves; they cannot move further during this phase. Such a unit also cannot declare a charge in the same turn, but can otherwise act normally in the remainder of the turn.

Units cannot disembark from a TRANSPORT model that either Advanced or Fell Back this turn.

  • Units that start your Movement phase embarked within a TRANSPORT can disembark this phase, provided their TRANSPORT has not Advanced or Fallen Back.
  • If a unit disembarks before its TRANSPORT moves, it can act normally.
  • If a unit disembarks after its TRANSPORT moves, it cannot move or charge this turn, but can otherwise act normally.
  • Disembarking units must be set up wholly within 3" of their TRANSPORT and not within Engagement Range of any enemy models (or the unit cannot disembark).
  • Units that disembark this turn cannot Remain Stationary.
DEADLY DEMISE

From detonating ammo stores to corrosive innards or frenzied death throes, some targets are deadly even in defeat.

Some models have ‘Deadly Demise x’ listed in their abilities. When such a model is destroyed, roll one D6 before removing it from play (if such a model is a TRANSPORT, roll before any embarked models disembark). On a 6, each unit within 6" of that model suffers a number of mortal wounds denoted by ‘x’ (if this is a random number, roll separately for each unit within 6").

Example: A TRANSPORT model with the Deadly Demise D3 ability is destroyed. Before any models disembark and before removing it from play, its controlling player rolls one D6, getting a 6. There are three units within 6" of that destroyed model, so its controlling player rolls one D3 for each of them, inflicting mortal wounds accordingly.

  • Deadly Demise x: When this model is destroyed, roll one D6. On a 6, each unit within 6" suffers ‘x’ mortal wounds.
Flying
If a model can FLY, then when it makes a Normal, Advance or Fall Back move, it can be moved over enemy models as if they were not there, and can be moved within Engagement Range of enemy models when making such a move. Note this also means that MONSTER and VEHICLE models that can FLY can be moved over other MONSTER and VEHICLE models when making such a move. However, models that can FLY cannot end their move on top of any other models or within Engagement Range of any enemy models.

When a model that can FLY starts or ends a move on a terrain feature, instead of measuring the path it has moved across the battlefield, you instead measure its path ‘through the air’, as shown in the diagram below.

  • FLY models can move over enemy models when they make a Normal, Advance or Fall Back move.
  • FLY models that start or end a move on a terrain feature measure distance moved through the air when they make a Normal, Advance or Fall Back move.
Fall Back Moves
When a unit Falls Back, each model in that unit can make a Fall Back move by moving a distance in inches less than or equal to its Move characteristic, and when doing so you can move it within Engagement Range of enemy models, provided it does not end that move within Engagement Range of any enemy models – if this is not possible, that unit cannot Fall Back.

A unit cannot shoot or declare a charge in the same turn that it Fell Back.

Desperate Escape Tests
Unlike when making other types of move, models can move over enemy models when making a Fall Back move as if those enemy models were not there, but you must take a Desperate Escape test for each model that will do so (excluding models that are TITANIC or can FLY) before any models in that unit are moved. In addition, if a unit is Battle-shocked when it is selected to Fall Back, you must take a Desperate Escape test for every model in that unit before any are moved.

Each time you take a Desperate Escape test for a model, roll one D6. For each roll of 1-2, one model from the unit that is Falling Back is destroyed (selected by you). The same model can only ever trigger one Desperate Escape test per phase.

  • Fall Back Move: Models move up to M".
  • Units that Fall Back cannot shoot or declare a charge in the same turn.
  • Models can move over enemy models when Falling Back, but you must take Desperate Escape tests for them before they do so (excluding models that are TITANIC or can FLY).
  • If a Battle-shocked unit is selected to Fall Back, take a Desperate Escape test for every model in that unit.
  • Desperate Escape Test: Roll one D6. On a 1-2, one model from that unit is destroyed.
Ignores Cover

Some weapons are designed to root enemy formations out of entrenched positions.

Weapons with [IGNORES COVER] in their profile are known as Ignores Cover weapons. Each time an attack is made with such a weapon, the target cannot have the Benefit of Cover against that attack.
Benefit of Cover

Shattered ruins and twisted wreckage afford much-needed shelter from enemy salvoes. Even heavily armoured warriors unfazed by small arms fire are thankful for such cover when foes bring their biggest guns to bear.

Models can sometimes gain a measure of protection from terrain features. The rules below detail the conditions under which a terrain feature confers the Benefit of Cover on a model.

Each time a ranged attack is allocated to a model that has the Benefit of Cover, add 1 to the saving throw made for that attack (excluding invulnerable saving throws). Models with a Save characteristic of 3+ or better cannot have the Benefit of Cover against attacks with an Armour Penetration characteristic of 0. Multiple instances of the Benefit of Cover are not cumulative – a model cannot benefit from this rule more than once at any one time.

  • Benefit of Cover: Add 1 to armour saving throws against ranged attacks.
  • Does not apply to models with a Save of 3+ or better against attacks with an AP of 0.
  • Multiple instances are not cumulative.
Pile In
When a unit Piles In, you can move each model in that unit that is not already in base-to-base contact with an enemy model up to 3" – this is a Pile-in move. For a Pile In to be possible, a unit must be able to end these moves within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units and in Unit Coherency. If these conditions cannot be met, no models in the unit can make Pile-in moves this phase and you progress to making melee attacks with that unit. Otherwise, the unit can make Pile-in moves.

Each time a model makes a Pile-in move, it must end that move closer to the closest enemy model. If it can also end that move in base-to-base contact with one or more enemy models while still satisfying all of the conditions above, it must do so. The controlling player chooses the order in which to move their models.

  • Pile-in Move: Up to 3".
  • Every model that moves must end closer to the closest enemy model, and in base-to-base contact with an enemy model if possible. The unit must end in Unit Coherency and within Engagement Range of at least one enemy unit (or no models can Pile In).
Blast

High-explosives can fell several warriors in a single blast, but firing them where your comrades will get caught in the ensuing detonation is simply unwise.

Weapons with [BLAST] in their profile are known as Blast weapons, and they make a random number of attacks. Each time you determine how many attacks are made with a Blast weapon, add 1 to the result for every five models that were in the target unit when you selected it as the target (rounding down). Blast weapons can never be used to make attacks against a unit that is within Engagement Range of one or more units from the attacking model’s army (including its own unit).

Example: If a weapon with the [BLAST] ability and an Attacks characteristic of 2D6 targets a unit that contains 11 models, and the roll to determine how many attacks are made is a 9, a total of 11 attacks would be made against that unit.

  • Add 1 to the Attacks characteristic for every five models in the target unit (rounding down).
  • Can never be used against a target that is within Engagement Range of any units from the attacking model’s army (including its own).
Charge Bonus

Many warriors thunder headlong into combat, using the impetus of their charge to bring swift death to their foes.

Each time a unit makes a Charge move, until the end of the turn, that unit has the Fights First ability.
HEROIC INTERVENTION
1CP
Core – Strategic Ploy Stratagem
Voices raised in furious war cries, your warriors surge forth to meet the enemy’s onslaught head-on.
WHEN: Your opponent’s Charge phase, just after an enemy unit ends a Charge move.

TARGET: One unit from your army that is within 6" of that enemy unit and would be eligible to declare a charge against that enemy unit if it were your Charge phase.

EFFECT: Your unit now declares a charge that targets only that enemy unit, and you resolve that charge as if it were your Charge phase.

RESTRICTIONS: You can only select a VEHICLE unit from your army if it is a WALKER. Note that even if this charge is successful, your unit does not receive any Charge bonus this turn.
FIGHTS FIRST

Some warriors attack with blinding speed, landing their blows before their foes can react.

Units with this ability that are eligible to fight do so in the Fights First step, provided every model in the unit has this ability.
6. Select Warlord
Select one CHARACTER model from your army to be your Warlord – this will be the leader of your army – and make a note of this on your Army Roster. Your Warlord gains the WARLORD keyword.

The VANGUARD INVADER and INFANTRY keywords are used in the following Tyranids datasheets:

Battleline
Invulnerable Saves

Whether shielded by force fields, enveloped in mystical energies or simply possessed of preternatural senses and lightning-fast reflexes, some warriors are protected by more than mere physical armour.

Some models have an invulnerable save listed on their datasheet. Each time an attack is allocated to a model with an invulnerable save, the controlling player must choose to use either that model’s Save characteristic or its invulnerable save, but not both. If a model has more than one invulnerable save, it can only use one of them – choose which it will use.

Unlike armour saving throws (which use a model’s Save characteristic), invulnerable saving throws are never modified by an attack’s Armour Penetration characteristic, but otherwise follow the normal rules for saving throws.

  • Invulnerable Save: Never modified by an attack’s AP.
  • The controlling player can choose to use either a model’s invulnerable save or its Save characteristic.
Synaptic Imperatives
Synaptic Nexus Detachment

The leader-beasts of these swarms act as conduits to the will of the Hive Mind. Irresistible imperatives lash out from them like whips that drive lesser bioforms to hurl themselves at the prey, to fight on through fatal wounds or to attack with redoubled savagery.

At the start of the battle round, you can select one of the Synaptic Imperatives shown below. Until the end of the battle round, that Synaptic Imperative is active for your army and while a unit from your army is within Synapse Range of your army, it will benefit from it. Each Synaptic Imperative can only be selected once per battle.
  • Synaptic Augmentation: While this unit is within Synapse Range of your army, models in this unit have a 5+ invulnerable save.
  • Surging Vitality: While this unit is within Synapse Range of your army, add 1 to Advance and Charge rolls made for this unit.
  • Goaded to Slaughter: While this unit is within Synapse Range of your army, each time a model in this unit makes a melee attack, add 1 to the Hit roll.
The TYRANID WARRIORS keywords are used in the following Tyranids datasheets (see Warrior Bioform Onslaught Keywords section):

INFILTRATORS

Many armies employ reconnaissance units who can sit concealed, waiting for the right moment to strike.

During deployment, if every model in a unit has this ability, then when you set it up, it can be set up anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 9" horizontally away from the enemy deployment zone and all enemy models.
INCREASE SUPPLY LIMIT1RP

Information uncovered by your forces has revealed the growing importance of this war zone and the increasing threat posed by enemies. In response, high command has acceded to your urgent request for reinforcements.

Purchase this Requisition at any time. Increase your Crusade force’s Supply Limit by 200 points.
Leadership Tests
If a rule requires you to take a Leadership test for a unit, roll 2D6: if the total is greater than or equal to the best Leadership characteristic in that unit, that test is passed. Otherwise, it is failed.

The PSYKER keyword is used in the following Tyranids datasheets:

THE NORN CROWN

First named by Inquisitor Kryptman, the Norn Crown is a unique parasitic organism that burrows needle-like cerebral bores directly into the brain of its host, forming a neuro-synaptic link that acts as a hyper-conduit for the Hive Mind. Through this abhorrent union, the Hive Mind’s indomitable will can pour forth to augment and control the hordes of lesser Tyranids that scuttle in the leader-beast’s wake.

  • While the bearer is on the battlefield, once per battle, you can use the Shadow in the Warp ability one additional time.
  • While the bearer is on the battlefield, increase the range of friendly SYNAPSE units’ Synapse ability to 9".
Roll-offs
Some rules instruct players to roll off. To do so, both players roll one D6, and whoever scores highest wins the roll-off. If there is a tie for the highest roll, roll off again. Neither player is allowed to re-roll or modify any of the D6 when making a roll-off.
Cult Ambush

Genestealer Cults keep their fighting strength carefully hidden from their oppressors until the glorious Day of Ascension arrives. When they finally emerge to fight, it is after long years of meticulous planning, and with an intimate knowledge of the battlefield that grants them a tactical advantage. Even as battle rages, reinforcements slip from the shadows or spill up from the dark places below, called to war by the Broodmind.

If your Army Faction is GENESTEALER CULTS, you start the battle with a number of Resurgence points, depending on the battle size, as shown below.
  • Incursion: 6 Resurgence points
  • Strike Force: 10 Resurgence points
  • Onslaught: 14 Resurgence points

Each time a unit from your army is destroyed, if every model in that unit has this ability, you can spend the relevant number of Resurgence points shown below based on that unit’s Starting Strength.

Aberrants
5 models5 Resurgence points
10 models8 Resurgence points
Acolyte Hybrids with Autopistols, Acolyte Hybrids with Hand Flamers, Hybrid Metamorphs
5 models2 Resurgence points
10 models4 Resurgence points
Atalan Jackals
5 models3 Resurgence points
10 models6 Resurgence points
Neophyte Hybrids
10 models3 Resurgence points
20 models6 Resurgence points
Purestrain Genestealers
5 models3 Resurgence points
10 models6 Resurgence points

If you do:
  • Add a new unit to your army identical to your destroyed unit, in Cult Ambush, at its Starting Strength, with all of its wounds remaining and any [ONE SHOT] weapons those models are equipped with considered as not having been shot.
  • Place one Cult Ambush marker (see below) anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 9" horizontally away from all enemy units (if this is not possible, no marker is placed).

UNITS IN CULT AMBUSH
Cult Ambush is a type of Strategic Reserves. Units in Cult Ambush cannot be targeted with the Rapid Ingress Stratagem, but can be set up on the battlefield using a Cult Ambush marker as described below, or by following the rules for Strategic Reserves in a subsequent turn.

CULT AMBUSH MARKERS
Use a circular 32mm diameter marker for Cult Ambush markers. If an enemy model (excluding AIRCRAFT) ends any kind of move within 9" of a Cult Ambush marker you placed, that Cult Ambush marker is removed from the battlefield. At the end of the Reinforcements step of your opponent’s next Movement phase, for each of your Cult Ambush markers still on the battlefield, you can select one unit from your army that is in Cult Ambush and set up that unit using that Cult Ambush marker. To do so, set that unit up on the battlefield more than 9" horizontally away from all enemy units, with at least one model in that unit touching that Cult Ambush marker and all other models placed wholly within 3" of that Cult Ambush marker (that Cult Ambush marker is then removed from the battlefield).

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