However, that's not all. The old claim that Tyranid armies can be many and varied in style is now truer than ever. Here's a few of the army styles available to generals with a hankering for the Hive Mind:

The Hive Tyrant leads the swarm against a beleagured outpost.

THE HORDE

With a new HQ choice, the Broodlord, plus rules like Without Number to keep those Termagants recycling, the horde army is now very viable indeed for those generals who like to outnumber their foes two, three, or even four-to-one. Not a big lummox in sight – just scores of critters to drown the opposition in a tide of bodies.

Tyranid Warriors finally take their place as the mainstay of the 'Nid forces with an extensively revised entry and a Synapse-based immunity against instant-kill weaponry! With some very nasty mid-range weaponry and a host of warrior variants such as Deep Striking Raveners and the new Lictor popping out of whichever piece of terrain suits you best, this army of middleweights can be a deadly prospect without a single Gaunt or monstrous creature to back it up.

THE BROODLORD

The Broodlord click to enlarge

This Tyranid is one tough customer – a Genestealer hero who, with a sickeningly high Initiative and rending claws so powerful they count as power weapons, is more than likely to rip off an enemy character's head and spit down his neck before he's even switched on that bothersome power fist.

The first Genestealer to make planetfall in each invasion and therefore the biggest and baddest of them all, the Broodlord and his retinue of Genestealers can Infiltrate into the thick of the enemy – either absorbing so much fire the rest of the Tyranid army can advance unmolested or simply slaughtering their way through whatever they can lay their claws upon.

THE FLYING CIRCUS

Feel the need for speed? Try an all-winged army led by a Flying Hive Tyrant and a few broods of winged Tyranid Warriors! With your Troops selections filled by flying Rippers and a Fast Attack allocation filled to the brim with lightning-fast Gargoyles, you need never get your claws dirty with anything other than the enemy's blood.

THE LEVIATHANS

The New Plastic Carnifex

What's that sound? Oh yes, it's 200 tons of ground-shaking Tyranid monstrosity stomping across the battlefield through a carpet of voracious Rippers. With the new Shock Troops rule, Carnifexes under a certain points value can limbo their way into the Elites section of the Force Organisation chart. To save you from the math, that means you can feasibly field six Carnifexes and two Hive Tyrants – no less than eight monstrous creatures – in a game of 1,500 points or more. Altogether now: “Raaargh!”

THE NEW PLASTIC CARNIFEX

The Carnifex is back, and this time he is bigger and badder than ever. Lavishly sculpted by none other than Jes Goodwin (the daddy of the Tyranid model range), the new Carnifex has so many options that it can be put together in several thousand different ways. With options not only for the traditional two sets of biomorphs in its arm sockets, but also head, carapace, and tail biomorphs, plus the ability to boost its Toughness with a bonded exoskeleton or its Wounds with reinforced chitin, it's quite feasible to field a fume-belching, tusked Carnifex with Toughness 7, 5 Wounds, an acid maw, spine banks, crushing claws, a barbed strangler, and a scythed tail! Don't even get us started on the regenerating ones...

Tyranid Carnifex

Points: 85

Next: The New Genestealer Sprue
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