ALIEN EVOLUTION

The first thing veteran Tyranid players will notice is that the Custom Hive Fleet section is gone. Don't panic though. The army is just as customisable as it ever was, perhaps even more so. However, the emphasis has shifted from mutants within broods to broods of mutants. Phil explains, "When we sat down and thought about it, we came to the conclusion that the Hive Mind, consisting as it does of a gestalt consciousness of billions upon billions of component brains, spread out over countless light years, is unlikely to experiment at the level of the individual creature. Instead, we thought it far more appropriate that the experimentation be taking place at a larger level and so changed the customisation rules to apply to broods rather than individuals."

Something existing players will also appreciate is the fact that these customisation rules are built into the army list entries for each brood type. Thus, players will no longer need to flick between different sections of the book. Custom Hive Fleets have gone from an interesting aside in the last Codex, to a fully integrated feature of the army. This change came about because of the enthusiasm of Tyranid players for that element of the army.

This philosophy extends to another aspect of the army, in that there are no special characters in the Codex. Phil really wanted to concentrate on the "horde" aspect of the army and thus stripped out any concession to such un-Tyranid individuality.

Another area that received a lot of attention was that of Instinctive Behaviour. As existing Tyranid players know, the Instinctive Behaviour rules were intended to reflect the nature of the Hive Mind's control over the broods - if the control was weakened by the destruction of certain Hive Node creatures, the lesser broods were wont to behave in a far less controllable fashion. Since these last rules were written, the rules have generated a number of questions that have needed attention in extensive FAQs. Phil set out to address this problem and soon found that a new rule was required, rather than a fix of the old one.

The new Instinctive Behaviour rules are simple and tied to the existing Morale system. Thus, players no longer have to refer to a table mid game. If a Tyranid brood outside Synapse range wishes to move, it must pass a Leadership test. If it passes, it may move; if it fails, it falls back.

What about the rules for synapse creatures though? Well, Phil's been a bit of a clever swine here. "One of the problems that developed with the old Codex was the vulnerability of the middle-weight beasties, which led to Warriors and Raveners dropping out of players' armies. This was a shame as they were cool models." We've all seen what happens when you introduce a good old krak missile to a Tyranid Warrior! "To alleviate this problem, we've rewritten the Synapse rules such that creatures within range of the Hive Node are immune to the effects of the Instant Death rule. This new rule simulates the Hive Mind invigorating the creature despite horrific injury and gets around undesirable weakness in the list - bonus!"

FROM CRITTERS TO MONSTROSITIES

With Tyranid Warriors once again viable choices, Phil turned his attentions to ensuring that a number of army configurations became a real possibility. "Early in the project, I identified a number of army types I wanted our playtesters to concentrate on," tells Phil. "These are the 'critter' army (lots of the little guys), the 'Monster' army (lots of big guys), and of course the balanced army containing a healthy mix of both. As it turned out, the balanced army proved the most effective in our playtests." Something I'm sure everyone will agree is a good thing.

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