CODEX TYRANIDS
Without doubt, the Tyranids are the most alien race encountered by Humanity. They have been likened to a galactic locust swarm, remorselessly hungry and too numerous to stop. Tyranids are a nomadic, space-dwelling race that has migrated from beyond our galaxy in search of new resources to consume. They have discovered sustenance in abundance in the Imperium of Man and the assorted alien species. Tyranids descend onto planets only to totally strip them of bio-mass before moving on, leaving nothing but dead spheres of scoured rock in their wake.
The Tyranid hive fleets consist of millions of living craft, each home to billions of creatures – untold thousands of monstrosities evolved from the bubbling geno-organs of the ship's reproductive chambers. All of these creatures are born to serve the single entity that is the ship, and this ship itself exists only as part of the entity that is the hive fleet. All Tyranid creatures are held in a common psychic bond that enables them to act together as one organism. Individual Tyranids have no distinct minds like humans and other creatures – a Tyranid simply fulfills the functions assigned to it by the greater Hive Mind. The smaller, mindless creatures are unthinking and instinctive, but larger, more-complex creatures can make decisions appropriate to the situation.
Tyranid technology, if you could call it that, is completely foreign to Humanity. Instead of making weapons and starships out of metal and plastic, they use gene-splicing and bioengineering to grow them from living organic material. The highest forms of Tyranids - their Dominatrixes and Norn Queens - are living bio-factories that give birth to an unending stream of warriors, hive ships, and symbiote weapons. Unrelenting and unstoppable, the Tyranid race represents an unimaginable threat to Mankind and the entire galaxy.
Codex: Tyranids is one in a series of Warhammer 40,000 game supplements. Each book in the series describes an army, its background, and its heroes in detail. Inside, you will find:
Army List
The complete Tyranid army list that allows you to choose your forces
for a tabletop battle. Also included are comprehensive lists of
biomorphs and weapon enhancements with which to equip these murderous
alien broods to give you enough options to constantly evolve your
army to better 
destroy your opponents.
Hobby
Section
The Tyranids in all their icky glory, with guidance on the colour
schemes of each of the major hive fleets and how to paint their
constituent
warriors.
Background
The history of the Tyranid invasions, from first contact to
the galaxy-spanning war that threatens to consume the Imperium of
Man.
Next:
Bioengineering Your Troops
Previous: Getting Started
