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Okay, so as it happens I play Dark Angels, Tau and Eldar, and my son chose Tyranids mostly for their look and feel. He's 13, really just starting to get into Warhammer 40k, and I don't want a lackluster codex to ruin his fun for the next 3-5 years, since it could put him off the hobby in general. We both play in FLGS tournaments, and he goes in to play there more often, and I understand that he will have to abide by the official rules during those times, but I'd like to boost the Tyranids to an acceptable level for our games at home.

I'm going to post what I've come up with, and I'd appreciate comments and constructive criticism. My goal was not to overpower the codex, but address some glaring issues, make some other units more competitive internally, and add back a couple of options from the 5th ed Codex. I will provide some of my rationalizations and thoughts in italics.


WARLORD TABLE

1) Add "Reroll this option if there are no forest, jungle or woods terrain pieces on the table." I don't believe there are any other "useless" Warlord traits -- most of the ones which cannot be used give you a chance to reroll.

2) Change "within 12" of it" to "within synapse range or 12" of it, whichever is greater." Add "The Warlord can choose to start any battle under the conditions of Night Fighting, regardless of other scenario parameters. If so, at the start of second and each subsequent Tyranid turn, roll a D6; any result other than a 6 results in the removal of Night Fighting conditions." Grants some additional bonus if you pay to upgrade your synapse range (Norn Crown, Swarmlord) and really just makes sense. Adding the condition of being able to force night fighting on the first turn to ensure that this is never completely useless.

3) Change to "The Warlord's base synapse range is 18". Just to make it more clear that it can stack with the Norn Crown or Dominion.

4) No changes.

5) Add "This terrain piece is also considered Dangerous Terrain for your opponent's forces." Remove line "(this may not be one your opponent has purchases as part of their army)". Gives a hard counter to Aegis defense lines and makes it more of an impact to your opponent -- otherwise this is a really lousy Warlord trait.

6) No changes.


PSYCHIC POWERS

All Tyranid Psykers can choose to roll on the Biomancy or Tyranid Psychic power tables. This does not apply to units with the Brotherhood of Psyker rule.


WEAPON PROFILE CHANGES

Drool Cannon - Template, S5, AP4, Assault 1, Torrent Torrent lets to use it against rear or side armor more easily, so I reduced the strength by 1 point. Not as good as a Hellturkey against MEQ, but very good otherwise.
Flamespurt - Template, S5, AP3, Assault 1, Torrent Now Pyrovores don't suck.

Scything Talons - A model equipped with a set of Scything Talons can reroll any To Hit rolls of 1 in close combat. A Tyranid model armed with two sets of Scything Talons can reroll all failed To Hit rolls in close combat. Because, really.


SPECIAL RULES CHANGES

Alpha Warrior: All Tyranid Warriors or Tyranid Shrikes in the same unit as a Tyranid Prime use its Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill and Toughness rather than their own, unless their own would be higher for any reason. Now a Tyranid Prime upgrades a squad of Tyranid Warriors to be "bodyguards", who -- by virtue of a T5 -- are more resistant to ID but are still a scoring Troop choice.

Instinctive Behavior: Change all Instinctive Behavior charts to 1, 2-5, 6 instead of 1-3, 4-5, 6. Change first sentence of "Instinctive Behavior (Feed) - Devour" to "In the Shooting phase, the unit cannot shoot. If the unit begins the shooting phase within 12" of an enemy squad, the unit may not run." Now the really awful IB results are no more likely than the kind of good ones. Also, why would a squad that wants to devour everything not run? I understand that the game designers want you to have to charge if possible, and not run to avoid having to charge, so now you cannot run if you are already in potential charge range.

Shadow in the Warp: All enemy units and models with the Psyker, Psychic Pilot or Brotherhood of Psykers special rules suffer a -3 penalty to their Leadership whilst they are within Synapse range of one or more models with the Shadow in the Warp special rule. All SitW models are also Synapse creatures. Boosting SitW to use Synapse range instead of a fixed 12" improves Swarmlord, Norn Crown, Dominion and the Synaptic Lynchpin rules.


NEW SPECIAL RULES

Living Wave: A unit with this special rule can Run and Assault in the same turn. A unit consisting of 10 or more models at the start of their turn gains the "Hammer of Wrath" USR, and a unit consisting of 20 or more models at the start of their turn gains the "Feel No Pain (6+)" USR.

Unseen Hunter: A model with this special rule has the Shrouded USR unless they moved, fired a weapon or engaged in close combat during the previous turn, if any. While in cover, a model with this rule does not have any Instinctive Behavior USRs.

Winged Hunters: A model with this special rule can choose whether or not to have the Skyfire special rule at the start of each Shooting phase. They don't have to use the Skyfire special rule, but if they do, all weapons they fire that turn are treated as having the Skyfire special rule. Bugs need some sort of access to Skyfire.


ARMY LIST CHANGES

Hive Tyrant

Add "Protective Carapace" (plus 1 to SV) to options for +35 points. Mutually exclusive with Wings. Does not stack with "Protective Carapace" with Ymgarl Factor. Really, why was this option removed? Is a 2+ save, land-bound Tyrant unbalanced?

Tyranid Prime

Add "Wings" to options for +25 points. Purchasing this option changes the Tyranid Prime to "Jump Infantry (Indepdent Character)" and grants him the "Winged Hunters" SR. His Alpha Warrior ability transfers to Tyranid Shrikes, but there's no way to give him Wings. Really? Also give some additional Skyfire support.

Tervigon

Any Termagant Broods created by a Tervigon have the Adrenal Glands or Toxin Sacs biomorphs if the Tervigon who spawns them has the biomorph. I get that the Termagants near a Tervigon are tied to them and can suffer casualties when the Tervigon dies, so shouldn't they get some benefit from that as well? Either give this ability back or reduce the explody Termagant range. I think this is preferable.

Tyranid Shrikes

Add "Winged Hunters" SR. Tyranids need Skyfire, and this gives a good reason to add Shrikes to your army.

Hormagaunts

Gain the "Living Wave" SR. Hormagaunts are only good at one thing -- throwing themselves into the fray. This rewards larger broods by giving them Feel No Pain 6+ when there are almost uncountable numbers, and represents the weight of them hitting your line via Hammer of Wrath. HoW will also help add some additional impact to their CC results to make up for the number that will be gunned down by overwatch and having to frontally assault your opponent. Run AND Assault will give them the ability to get into CCW faster. IS it too much?

Lictors

Gain the "Unseen Hunter" SR. Gives the ability for Lictors to deploy via Infiltrate and have up to a 2+ cover save until they are ready to attack, which fits the description and makes them more viable. Removed Instinctive Behavior because it makes no sense for a Lictor to deploy in cover but out of Synapse and be forced to abandon cover and run away on his first turn.

Ripper Swarms

Return to their previous price of 30 points per brood. Did anyone take them before? Did they need a price increase?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
My basic design strategy was to make no changes that did not fit either the fluff or existing 5th Ed rules (which in a way are fluff.). I opted to gives bonuses instead of changing prices, and I focused on making changes to units that are just not viable in the current codex: Tyranid Primes (good but too expensive previously, now can protect Warriors from ID or be a source of Skyfire), Shrikes (Skyfire makes them a viable FA option), Hormagaunts (either need a better way to get into CC or need to be valuable enough when they get there to be worth taking), and Pyrovores.

Pyrovores get a boost to AP3, like the Baleflamer, and Torrent, but are both less maneuverable and survivable than a Hellturkey. I think they are competitive in the HS slot now, though. Still risky since they are ID bait and volatile.

I don't think Tervigons suffer too much. They're probably still worth their points, especially to field them as troops. But either they're tied to the spawn or not; I don't think it's fair to make spawn explode if they benefit from no SRs.

As a fairly long time nid player, I feel most of your changes are pretty good. There are a few things that I would recommend toning down a bit so that your son does not get too divergent of a playing experience between home and store (also a few things are a little over the top), they are as follows:

Warlord Table:
Don't allow a reroll if you get one you can't use. There are a few warlord results that some armies cannot make use of. The only time rerolls were allowed is for Tau warlords for some reason.
I actually think that removing the BRB powers make fluffy sense and don't think you should allow a Tyranid player to get them back. They were nice while they lasted, but these are alien in the true sense of the word, and the BRB powers are what members of our galaxy have got their heads around.
The drool cannon doesn't NEED torrent, but it would be nice.
AP3 on the pyrovore is a stretch. I would say torrent, but not AP3 as well.
Alpha Warrior, giving them his toughness does not make any sense. Let him soak the instant death wounds but not raise the toughness of an entire unit.
I like the changes to the rolled result of the instinctive behavior.
I don't think Living wave should let you run and assault. No unit in the game can do that as far as I'm aware of and would add a lot of speed to hormaguants. Think of it this way. 6+d6+3+2d6(with rerolls because you are putting adrenal glands on them at this point) is a really really far distance to travel in a single turn for non-beast, non-jump units.

Other than those small teaks toning your changes down a little bit, I think they are some interesting ideas and may use of few of them in some friendly Survive the Horde game types.