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Currently, my opinion of the new Tyranids codex is that they are playable. They can even give many armies a scare, but they aren't top-tier. Any matchup against the top-tier armies, while winnable, will almost always be a uphill battle where the bugs will have to play an almost flawless game. That is because their codex is lacking in many of the tools that the previous edition of Tyranids had.

So if you got to "redo" the NEW Tyranid codex, what changes would you make?

The following are some of the things that I would like to see:


1. The return of book powers - Biomancy, Telepathy and Telekinesis.

2. The return of Ymgarls.

3. The return of Mycetic Spores.

4. The return of the Doom, though at a price hike (I'd say 130-pts instead of the original 90-pts).

5. Revert the tervigon back to its old rules with the following exceptions: 1) new cost in the new codex is fair, 2) cannot buy the psychic powers Catalyst or Dominion (can only get psychic powers by rolling), 3) need to pay for Cluster Spines as in the new codex and 4) option to upgrade to a Level 2 Psyker at +25-pts.

6. Old Adversary = Prefered Enemy 6" (just like in the old rules).

7. Options for Genestealers: Fleshhooks - +1-pt, 4+ Armor - +3-pts

8. Drop the price of Tyranid Primes down to 100-pts. Allow up to 2 Primes per HQ slot (a la Daemon Heralds). Give him an option for Wings at +25-pts.


Ok, that's all I can think of for now.

Aside from what you've listed...

Tyrant - 5 wounds

Hive Guard - BS4

Warriors/Shrikes - 5 toughness

a way to make gargoyles troops

Give gargoyles their auto wound on 6s back

Broodlords - 3+

Lictors - 4+

A Dominatrix

Ravenors - 5 toughness

Haruspex - Monstrous Beast

cheaper ripper and skyslasher swarms

Both FMC 3+

return boneswords to ignore armor saves

return crushing claws to +D3 attacks

return lash whips to dropping enemies in b2b to I1

return scything talons to reroll 1s but keep AP6

give the drool cannon torrent

give the flamespurt torrent

That's all I can think of at the moment

Immune to instant death from Strength double Toughness wounds (EW lite) while in synapse. This would give a decent bonus for being in synapse to offset the worse IB effects, while not gimping other sources of ID. It opens up investment in multiwound low T models.

Also if they insist on not letting nids ally, they need to give them access to the FoC slots everyone else can fill. Allying with themselves seems like the best solution. If you really think giving nids the extra HQ slot is a problem in games under 2000 points, then just expanding the elites/hs/fa slots by one is acceptable.

The above two changes would be all that's really necessary. Though if wishlisting I'd like to see the Prime and Tervi go down in points. Primes unattractively expensive to compete with Tyrants and Tervi's got almost every special rule nerfed, they did not need a point increase on top. Also swarmy needs something to make up for his weapon nerf. A toughness boost maybe?

EW within synapse range
SitW uses Synapse range (making Dominion and the Swarmlord much more handy)
Toughness and Save buffs on the new flying units.

At the risk of making myself seem heartless, I think the fact that people are still taking Tervigons in multiples is a good indicator that the unit is fine as-is.
That said I appreciate the Codex has problems, so as an outside observer:

- Warrior-equivalents changed to T5/W2 rather than mucking about with EW. Also gives a nice progression to the Tyrant Guard being T6/W2.
- Scything Talons reverted to granting rerolls in combat. There should be a reason to take them other than cost since they look so much cooler than Devourers.
- Instinctive Behaviour is a little nuts, change the balance of the D6 so that the awful result is on the '1', the good on the '6', and 2-5 is the middle ground.
- Barbed Stranglers grant Assault Grenades to charging units in exactly the same way as a Skullcannon.

- Voltage Field as an Artefact, that grants a 5+ Invulnerable save and the Trygons Bio-Electric blast.
- Psychic Powers split into 2 D3 tables: Adaption and Devastation. Adaption has Catalyst, Onslaught, something to heal Wounds and something to grant EW. Devastation has Psychic Scream, Horror, Warp Blast and Paroxysm.
- Shadow in the Warp is effective up to the full Synapse Range.
- Allow the army to purchase a Secondary Detachment from the same Codex, so effectively Allies with itself.

That the Tervigon is the least sucky alternative does not necessarily make it good.

It seems to me that maybe the issue isn't so much the tyranids (wow auto correct had an interesting suggestion for THAT one...), as it is with the top tier armies. How does the new mid codex compare with the other mid-tier armies like marines?

A lot of what I'm seeing here is 'I want old Dex stuff'. My main army is Necrons and I almost prefer that Dex to the current one. Always had a soft spot for nids since they were my first army so I'll contribute my thoughts anyways.

* The loss of Spore Pods, while I believe had nothing to do with the Chapterhouse case, is a blow to the Dex. I'm sure FW will come up with something to this, but not gonna help much on the Tourney scene.

* Give Warrior Primes access to Wings

* Make Tyranids the ONLY Codex to be able to ally with themselves! This is the biggest hurt to both the old and current Dex. Every other army has access to an additional mini FoC. As stated above, they didn't get any 2x per slot options so the FoC can be restrictive when facing opponents running 4x Heavy Supports, Elites, etc. I'm aware this would lead to other things that opponents wouldn't want to face like 4x Mawlocs. But it would give the Tervigon junkies that extra unit and 1-2 Tervigons. It would allow them to take the 2 Crones that seems to be a new standard, and not have to choose which unit to take as a 3rd option and give up the 4th that would also work.

I'd even be fine with them just adding the allies FoC as an extension of the army, not that there are any 'Battle Brothers' restrictions that would apply, but if they ever changed those rules then the nids wouldn't be affected.

The loss of Doom and the Ymgarls I'm okay with. Warriors got cheap enough to take instead of making them more resilient. I kinda wish that there was something in there that would make gargoyles a troops choice w/o having to go to FW. At least players can go that route if they want to go to FW games.

Ok, some good ideas here. Some of the better ones that I like so far:


Haruspex - Monstrous Beast. Currently, the haruspex just isn't worth it. This guy is supposed to be an assault monster yet he is neither scary in combat or fast enough to make it there. It really defeats the purpose IMO. Making him fast like a beast (i.e. think Maulerfiend) makes him actually viable. I like this.


Harpy/Hive Crone - 3+. I like this, however, I feel that the cost should go up as well to compensate for this. I'd say +15-pts is fair.


Hive Tyrant - 5W. Another suggestion that I really like. Currently, hive tyrants are just too easy to kill, especially without tyrant guards or any way to get 2+. I'd say give him +1W at +30-pts. Also, give the walkrant the option for 2+ for +30-pts.


Drool Cannon/Flamespurt - Torrent. Excellent suggestions. A non-torrent flamer on a flying FMC just is not viable nor does it make sense that a flying monster would have such a short-ranged attack. Also, the lack of torrent for the pyrovores continues to make that unit as useless as ever. Please GW, give us an incentive to use those awesome models.


Shadows in the Warp = Synapse range. It just makes sense. Shadows and Synapse should tie-in together.


Allying with themselves. Tau can do it. Eldar can do it. Chaos Space Marines can do it. Space Marines can do it. Why the hell shouldn't Tyranids be able to? Why is it that Tyranids have break this trend. Unless if there will be a supplement out later that lets the bugs ally with themselves....


Instinctive Behaviour. I like the idea of the extremes being on a 1 or a 6, with the majority of the IB results being 2-5. This makes for a slightly less erratic army.


---------------------------------------------------------------


Some of the ideas I'd be cautious of. The reason being is that I don't really want another "Tau" or "Eldar" codex. In other words, these upgrades may make the new Tyranids too strong, too OP. Maybe even stronger than Tau or Eldar currently.


Warriors/Shrikes/Raveners - T5. Increasing their Toughness would make them too hard to deal with for most armies. T5 should be at a premium. It shouldn't be commonplace. Tyranids already have a lot of T6 units. They don't need to be the master of the T5 armies as well.


Eternal Warrior within Synapse. This just makes multi-wound tyranids too hard to deal with. GW is moving away from this mechanic, as evidenced by them getting rid of it for Daemons. I don't mind EW for 1 unit at a time - maybe a psychic power that can give 1 unit EW - but IMO EW for the entire army may make them too strong.

 jy2 wrote:
Eternal Warrior within Synapse. This just makes multi-wound tyranids too hard to deal with. GW is moving away from this mechanic, as evidenced by them getting rid of it for Daemons. I don't mind EW for 1 unit at a time - maybe a psychic power that can give 1 unit EW - but IMO EW for the entire army may make them too strong.

How about only giving EW to double toughness attacks? So force weapons and special rules would still go through.

Also with regards to Warriors what about making them T5 W2. Helps balance out the T boost a bit.

What about removing Instinctive Behaviour altogether? Leadership values drop to 6 (small fry), 7 (mid-beasts) or 8 (MCs) and the MCs lose Fearless. Synapse Creatures remain Ld10 of course. So you are still screwed without Synapse, but at least your army won't fall apart.

Also Synapse could provide an additional special rule chosen during army creation (all Synapse creatures will give the same bonus rule). The list of special rules would be: Adamantium Will, Counter-Attack, Crusader, Hit and Run, Feel no Pain (6+), Monster Hunter, Rage and Stealth. so you can shake up your army according to your personal playstyle and make it distinctive from the other Tyranid armies.

Make Warrior types Toughness 5 and 6 wound Monsters Toughness 8.

 Madness! wrote:
Make Warrior types Toughness 5 and 6 wound Monsters Toughness 8.

T8 isn't a huge buff though. Dark Eldar wound on a 4+ with splinter weapons, Grav Guns on a 3+, Jaws still insta-gibs, etc. While increasing toughness would help the mid-sized beasts, it would do nothing for the big ones.

 FirePainter wrote:

 jy2 wrote:
Eternal Warrior within Synapse. This just makes multi-wound tyranids too hard to deal with. GW is moving away from this mechanic, as evidenced by them getting rid of it for Daemons. I don't mind EW for 1 unit at a time - maybe a psychic power that can give 1 unit EW - but IMO EW for the entire army may make them too strong.

How about only giving EW to double toughness attacks? So force weapons and special rules would still go through.

Also with regards to Warriors what about making them T5 W2. Helps balance out the T boost a bit.

I'm against both changes.

First one is somewhat complicated and still makes Synapse a little too strong.

The second one is because we don't need bugs to spam T5 as well as T6. Warriors have never been T5 before for as long as I remember. I don't really see the justification why they should be T5.

 AtoMaki wrote:
What about removing Instinctive Behaviour altogether? Leadership values drop to 6 (small fry), 7 (mid-beasts) or 8 (MCs) and the MCs lose Fearless. Synapse Creatures remain Ld10 of course. So you are still screwed without Synapse, but at least your army won't fall apart.

Also Synapse could provide an additional special rule chosen during army creation (all Synapse creatures will give the same bonus rule). The list of special rules would be: Adamantium Will, Counter-Attack, Crusader, Hit and Run, Feel no Pain (6+), Monster Hunter, Rage and Stealth. so you can shake up your army according to your personal playstyle and make it distinctive from the other Tyranid armies.

IB has been a part of Tyranids for a while now. It just doesn't seem right without IB so I would say keep it. Just don't punish us for it. Also, our MC's have always been Fearless. I don't see a justification why we should all of a sudden lose it.

I prefer to keep Synapse simple. If you start giving out USR's with Synapse, you're going to have a lot of bookkeeping to do. But like I said before, I want fixes that make us a little more competitive, not ones that make us super good.

 Madness! wrote:
Make Warrior types Toughness 5 and 6 wound Monsters Toughness 8.

That is truly as your internet name states.....madness!

I'm talking about fixes that make them a little better, not ones that make them broken.

 Crazy_Carnifex wrote:

 Madness! wrote:
Make Warrior types Toughness 5 and 6 wound Monsters Toughness 8.

T8 isn't a huge buff though. Dark Eldar wound on a 4+ with splinter weapons, Grav Guns on a 3+, Jaws still insta-gibs, etc. While increasing toughness would help the mid-sized beasts, it would do nothing for the big ones.

It would essentially make TMC's immune to small-arms fire....which is the majority of the firepower of almost all the armies in the game.

 jy2 wrote:

IB has been a part of Tyranids for a while now. It just doesn't seem right without IB so I would say keep it. Just don't punish us for it. Also, our MC's have always been Fearless. I don't see a justification why we should all of a sudden lose it.

Okay then imagine it like this: the new Instinctive Behaviour would be the low Leadership value and thus vulnerability to Morale/Pinning tests. According to the fluff, Tyranids continue fighting even after the Synapse disappears, but it becomes easier to scatter them to the wind. For me, it looks more like a "low Leadership" thing rather than a "roll on this table for funky results" thing.

And it is not like change is a bad thing, right ? If it makes the codex better, then give it a chance.

 jy2 wrote:
I prefer to keep Synapse simple. If you start giving out USR's with Synapse, you're going to have a lot of bookkeeping to do. But like I said before, I want fixes that make us a little more competitive, not ones that make us super good.

Well, Chapter Tactics is not exactly the "broken" or "lots of bookkeeping" special rule either and this wouldn't be any more different. You pretty much gains one special rule for your army as long as your units are within synapse range. For bookkeeping, you only have to remember the one special rule you had chosen - a feat I think every player can do.

For me it is a quick fix on a few points:

1. Allow the Codex to ally with itself
2. Bring back mycetic spores

Just with these 2 changes it would allow the bugs to be more competitive. A lot of what I am hearing honestly is people either either unwilling to adapt to the changes or coming up with solutions that are a bit over powered and overall I think the book is okay but needs a few tweaks to make it on par with the top level books.

There is a lot of stuff we could do to fix it, I'm going to start with the overview, and I'll update this post later when I get into specefics.

1. Overwhelming Swarm- The Tyranids do not ally with other races, but instead bring and overwhelming numbers. To address this, the Tyranid FOC slot instead follows this: 1-3 HQ 2-8 Troop, 0-4 Elite, 0-4 FA, 0-4 Heavy.

2. Change the IB table, to make it even more punishing, by removing the 6th result, and having the 1st option on 1-4 roll. When in Synapse, models have certain benefits by being in Synapse range. IB: Feed gain Rage. IB: Lurk Gain Stealth. IB: Hunt gain PE. Note, this will not affect any synapse creatures, or creatures without the IB rule.

3. Shadows range increases when Synapse range does.

4. Tyranids are able to benefit from more than 2 CC combat weapons at the same time. They still gain the +1 attack from two CC biomorphs.

These four changes a lone would make a pretty large difference, in the way the army plays, drastically improving it. From there, just some minor tweaks, with points costs and what not, and you'd be well on your way.

Artifacts:
Maw-Claws. I'd just say lower it by 5 points. It's really not that bad.
Miasma Cannon- Make the Flamer Torrent and the Blast large blast.
Norn Crown- Increases both Shadows and Synapse range. In addition, SITW from this model causes a -4 LD instead of -3 to Psykers.
Ymgarl Factor- Decrease the points cost by about 20.
Oblitirax- Enhanced LIfe Drain. In addition to the normal lifedrain rules, at the end of each round of combat if the bearer inflicted at least one unsaved wound, it regains a wound. This may not take the wielder above it's starting wound value.

Psychic Powers- I honestly think for the most part these are pretty fine, after some playing. If Dominion Increased shadows range, it would be a lot more useful. Paroxyism would be nice if it was D3+1.

That's it for now, I'll update this as I go through.

I think more force org. chart stuff would be cool and balanced. Like.. flying hive tyrant making gargoyles troops, and wings available to the prime making shrikes troops. Deathleaper making lictors troops... maybe Old One Eye making a single unit of carnis troops or elites.

Also, significantly more options. Like, options for just about every biomorph for just about every critter. +1 save on gaunts? (or anything) pay X points.

As far as FOC goes I would rather see the equivalent of a flex position. By that I mean allow an extra slot available to 1 single FOC position so you till have the chance to flavor your army to become interesting but you avoid entirely breaking all of the FOC rules which everyone else obeys.

I really do like the idea of being able to change different models into troops. As long as it is done intelligently. If OOE makes a single brood of fexes troops cool but all would be busted. Something should make Gargoyles troops but a Flyrant seems like a wierd fit for that job. Though it is the only source of flying synapse it stilly seems wierd. Perhaps give a tyrant the ability to make a single unit become scoring as long as it is in synapse.

A few other things could help this codex become complete. Simple things like bring back Scythe tal rerolls. They weren't game breaking in most cases but still a nice boost. Allow us to retain our multiple weapon bonuses, after all they are not fighting with weapons but actually fighting with their own appendages. It is only natural that they would be able to fight with all everything at once. If they do that then also retain the extra attacks for specializing in CC biomorphs. Poison in shooting would be great for all small arms fire. Though allowing them to retain the weapons strength would be amazing. Imagine devilgaunts with S4 poison shots. The rerolls you would get would be great. A bonus for dual Bone swords would be nice too. Before you had a better chance for ID now it means nothing.

 jy2 wrote:
The following are some of the things that I would like to see:

1. The return of book powers - Biomancy, Telepathy and Telekinesis.

2. The return of Ymgarls.

3. The return of Mycetic Spores.

4. The return of the Doom, though at a price hike (I'd say 130-pts instead of the original 90-pts).

5. Revert the tervigon back to its old rules with the following exceptions: 1) new cost in the new codex is fair, 2) cannot buy the psychic powers Catalyst or Dominion (can only get psychic powers by rolling), 3) need to pay for Cluster Spines as in the new codex and 4) option to upgrade to a Level 2 Psyker at +25-pts.

6. Old Adversary = Prefered Enemy 6" (just like in the old rules).

7. Options for Genestealers: Fleshhooks - +1-pt, 4+ Armor - +3-pts

8. Drop the price of Tyranid Primes down to 100-pts. Allow up to 2 Primes per HQ slot (a la Daemon Heralds). Give him an option for Wings at +25-pts.


Ok, that's all I can think of for now.

Same thoughts here. Word by word in many cases. "Similar minds think similar"

Details:
4- I was thinking 120 points for the Doom... and give it HQ status. Just like the Deathleaper.

5- Something is missing. The Tervigon does no longer buff their children to the point that it is good to have them close. Instead, players are encouraged to keep Termagants as far as possible to avoid Synaptic Backlash.
This is WRONG. Players should be encouraged to keep the Termagants around their mother, risking Synaptic Backlash.
Proposal: keep it as it is now (including the cost) with two changes: it buffs the Termagants around as in 5th & option to upgrade to a Level 2 Psyker at +25-pts.

7- Genestealers are broken for the same reason Commandos and Mandrakes are missing: losing assaults from reserves. This is part of a bigger problem.

9- No love for the Parasite of Mortrex? I have seen some really nice conversions. Never played with or against it, but the worst part of the new Codex is that it takes out some units some people love. Give them back.

Writing my Fan Codex, my three big things were:

1) Cheaper everything- Tyranids should be the "Swarm" faction. Barring a few small fixes (Hormagaunts WS4, Hive Guard BS4, etc.), our stuff shouldn't get better. What it should get is cheaper, with the option to buy...

2) Biomorphs- Maybe I'm Biased (as the 4th ed dex is when I started actually playing), but to me this is the best system to encapsulate the mutability of the Tyranids. Bringing Back the ability to fine-tune our units on an unrivaled level would do wonders for giving our army a unique flavour. On a related note...

3) Variable Weapon stats with the Critters. Again a thing I miss from 4th, the variable S/RoF mechanic was great. It really captured the "Essentially the same weapon, but bigger" aspect of the Tyranid Guns. It wouldn't be that hard to remember, when you consider Melee weapons use a similar system now.

4) Bring Back Spods, and allow assaults from reserves under certain conditions. With no transports, Tyranids are kinda limited to a head-on assault strategy. This would open up the maneuvering options.

5) Miscellaneous fixes to things like IB, and buff some units who actually need it (Pyrovores, etc.).

I've played several games against the new Tyranids, and like the OP said, I think they're pretty damn good as-is. Are they as top tier as Tau or Eldar? Maybe not Tau, but I've been nearly tabled by Tyranids in turn 3 with my Eldar. I definitely think they can compete. I think some of their rules could use adjusting, but I think this book mostly got it right.

I'm NOT in favor of giving Tyranids back the BRB psychic powers. There's a few reasons why not. First is that he only reason Tyranids ever got them in the first place was because of a 6th Edition FAQ. In none of the previous Tyranid codexes were Tyranids ever incredible psykers. The 6th Edition FAQ went way overboard in making Tyranids super-psykers, but it was balanced out by the fact that the 5th Edition codex had major problems, which the 6th FAQ made up for.

With a new codex, Tyranids do not need that crutch anymore. T9 flying monstrous creatures with FNP and Eternal Warrior are ridiculous. Especially at the lower costs in the new codex. Tyranid players grew to love Biomancy (with good reason) but it's time to move on.

I think the flying Tyrant is priced too low right now compared to its walking counterpart. The walker needs to get its lashwhip and bonesword back. Tyrant Guard need a good point reduction to make a walking Tyrant more balanced point-wise with its flying counterpart. I don't think either of them need more wounds. Between Catalyst and Regeneration, I think Hive Tyrants are just fine where they are.

Warriors likewise are just fine where they are stats-wise. Making them T5 is way overkill and would be imbalanced against a lot of armies with S3. Eternal Warrior I think is also unnecessary. What is necessary is a points reduction. They could use at least a 10 point reduction. The Tyranid Prime is similarly way overcosted right now.

I do think Gargoyles should be able to be taken as Troops. Maybe have a Flying Tyrant unlock them.

The Gaunt tax on Tervigons is too high. I'd take the tax down to 20 or 10. I'd also give Tervigons Catalyst by default, and let them roll on the table to replace it if they wanted to. I'd also allow Tervigons to give Toxin Sacs to their spawned broods again.

I do agree with Old Adversary working like it used to. I think it was a great buff for Hive Tyrants to be able to take, but it should be an expensive upgrade.

Doom from 5th should not exist. I'm in favor of his return, but it should be significantly re-written. Even if you increased his cost, the ability was simply too powerful. Doom required no skill to use. His strongest ability just went off, in BOTH player turns, without a single dice roll on behalf of the Tyranid player. That rule just is not in line with anything in the game. Between Myscetic Spores being unable to mishap, and the Doom, there was absolutely no risk of failure for the Tyranid player at all. If Doom makes it back into the game as part of a Dataslate, his rule needs to be significantly re-done, either as a unique psychic power, or something else. For example, he could be given two shooting attacks per turn, and he could use one shooting attack to drain wounds from a nearby unit, and another shooting attack to fire his unique flavor of Warp Blast.

Most other units, after playing with/against them I think are right where they need to be. I like the new Hive Guard and Exocrine. The new Biovore is pretty powerful as is the new Mawloc. The Trygon Prime I feel maybe needs something more, but I'm not sure what it is. The same thing with the Haruspex.

One of my ideas about the Haruspex (I came up with this while Tyranids were still rumored, before we knew what the Haruspex rules were going to be) was to allow it to Assault by making a shooting attack (with the tongue, and all). So the Haruspex would "shoot" a unit within 12" with the tongue, and if the tongue hit and wounded, it would "pull" that unit into Assault with the Haruspex. The mechanic would be sort of Lash-whip-like in that sense. I thought this would be a cool mechanic because it'd let you assault in the shooting phase, with no Overwatch. If the Tongue attack failed, well then the Haruspex could still try to Assault as normal. But that's all wish-listing on my part.

Regarding Tyranid weapons, which could be so much cooler.

Reintroduce the Living Ammunition rule (re-roll failed to-wound rolls, maybe dial it back to only re-roll failed to-wound rolls of a 1) for the following: Fleshborers, Devourers, Brainleech Devouers, Barbed Stranglers, Stranglethorn Cannons

Tyrannofex
# Acid Spray, AP3
# Rupture Cannon, if both shots hit it causes a third automatic S10 AP1 hit that auto-penetrates vehicles (25% chance of happening)
# Fleshborer Hive, becomes twin-linked and causes Pinning with a -2 modifier

Pyrovore
# Flamespurt gains Torrent

Hive Crone
# Drool Cannon gains Torrent

General
# Venom Cannon becomes Assault 2
# Heavy Venom Cannon becomes Assault 3
# Devourers and Brainleech Devourers give units that suffer unsaved wounds from a Devourer or Brainleech Devourer -1 Leadership until the end of the Tyranid turn
# Deathspitters range increases to 24"
# Spike Rifles range increases to 24"
# Stranglewebs cause all non-Vehicle, non-Monstrous, non-flying units under the template to immediately test as if they were moving through Dangerous Terrain

Regarding Tyranid melee weapons, which could also be much cooler

Reintroduce the stacking of melee weapon bio-morphs rule, lose the "gain +1 attack for using two weapons" rule

Scything Talons
# One set once again allows you to re-roll 1s to hit, two sets allows you to re-roll all missed rolls to hit

Bonesword (single)
# AP3, Life Drain expanded to also restore a lost wound to the user if it inflicts Instant Death (max one per turn)

Boneswords (pair)
# AP2, Life Drain on a 5+ and expanded to also restore a lost wound to the user if it inflicts Instant Death (max one per turn)

Bonesabres
# AP2, expanded to also restore a lost wound if it inflicts Instant Death (max one per turn), force the re-roll of successful enemy Invulnerable Saves

Aside of what has been already said above I would divide the psych powers in 2 charts:

Devastation Chart:
Primaris: Horror (1wc)
1-2: Psych Scream (1wc)
3-4: Paroxism (1wc)
5-6: Warp Blast/Warp Lance (2wc)

Adaptation Chart:
Primaris: Dominion (1wc)
1-2 Onslaught
3-4 Catalist
5-6 (blessing power, probably powerful enough to justify 2wc, my idea is something like "Warp barrier: a unit within 12" gains a 4+ invulnerable save while the power is in effect, if the unit already has one then it improves it by 1 while the power is in effect")

Also:
Make VC and HVC assault 3.
make warriors and genestealers cheaper.
Improve the resistance of the Harpy and the Crone either with a 3+ or resistance to grounding test (rerolls, pass with a 2+ or simply is immune).
2+ save option to MCs.
Scything talons either give rerolls or +1 attack.
Lash whips back to either 4th or 5th versions.
Improve the range of the large blast of the Exocrine to 39", it is supposed to be a "long range" weapon.

One change that would help them alot (and potentially make them OTT) is to make more of the "buffing" units (like synapse guys) independent characters or otherwise able to attach to units. They would become wayyy more survivable (like vemonthropes attached to carnifexes) and enable the kind of synergy that runs standard in the top tier armies these days.

Let's have some fun with the Hive Tyrant (see also my earlier weapons post)

Unit Name: Hive Tyrant
Unit Cost: 165
Unit Size: 1 model
Unit Type: Monstrous Creature

WS 8
BS 4
S 6
T 6
I 5
W 4
Ld 10
Sv 3+

Special Rules: Synapse Creature, Shadow in the Warp, Psyker (Mastery Level 2)
Weapons: Two sets of Scything Talons, Flesh Hooks
Options:
# May purchase Mastery Level 3, 25 points
# Replace one set of Scything Talons with:
- Bonesword and Lashwhip, 15 points
- Twin Boneswords,15 points
# Replace one set of Scything Talons with:
- Heavy Venom Cannon, 25 points
- Stranglethorn Cannon, 15 points
# Replace any set of Scything Talons with:
- Twin-linked Brainleech Devourers, 15 points
- Twin-linked Deathspitters, free
# May take any of the following:
- Adrenal Glands, 10 points
- Toxin Sacks, 10 points
- Acid Blood, 5 points
- Regeneration, 20 points
- Thorax Swarm (which may be fired in addition to normal weapons), 10 points
- Old Adversary (returns to the Preferred Enemy bubble effect), 25 points
- Hive Commander, 25 points
# May choose one of the following adaptations (this is the fun part)
- Wings, 35 points (becomes a Flying Monstrous Creature, gains the Skyscourge special rule)
- Armoured Shell, 30 points (gains a 2+ save, gains the Annihilator Spearhead special rule)
- Necrotic Dorsal Vents, 40 points (gains Toxic Miasma, gains Sporecloud (see the Venomthrope entry), if the Hive Tyrant takes Toxin Sacks then their Poison is improved to 2+, gains the Death of Nature special rule)

Skyscourge
The Hive Tyrant is adapted for aerial combat and oversees the conquest of the skies over the prey-world, directing legions of lesser winged Tyranid beasts so numerous that they block out the sunlight on the battlefields below.
A Hive Tyrant with the Skyscourge special rule allows the Tyranid player to take 0-2 Gargoyle or Skyslasher Broods (in any combination) as Troops choices.

Annihilator Spearhead
Spawned with an incredibly tough armoured carapace, a bonded chitin exoskeleton and reinforced endoskeleton, this Hive Tyrant is evolved to survive in the harshest of environments and battlefields, and is often accompanied by large numbers of Tyranid heavy assault beasts to completely destroy the most resistant prey.
A Hive Tyrant with the Annihilator Spearhead special rule allows the Tyranid player to take 0-1 Carnifex or Tyrannofex Broods as a Troops choice.

Death of Nature
A Tyranid invasion assaults a prey-world in every way possible, poisoning their air, ground and water to speed the slaughter and consumption of the biosphere. This Hive Tyrant is host to dozens of spore chambers venting microscopic death into the atmosphere, and where it treads a carpet of feeder-beasts invariably follows.
A Hive Tyrant with the Death of Nature special rule allows the Tyranid player to take 0-3 Venomthrope or Pyrovore Broods as Troops choices. In addition, Ripper Swarms are now scoring units.




Aaaah, I hate doing things like this. It makes me yearn for a truly fluffy Tyranid book. Such a shame they never went with "the type of Tyrant you take affects the type of army you can take".

1. SitW is -4 to LD, and SitW expands at the same rate as Synapse
2. Crone and Harpy gain 15 points each and T6 3+
3. Armored Shell returns as a (ten times # of wounds) point option for any MC.
4. Any Synapse creature may purchase the rule Psyker, or +1 to ML if it already is.
5. Every Unique Item except the claws takes -15 points.
6. Prime is 100 base, 20 for Wings
7. Tervigon still grants Poison/FC buffs.
8. Mycetic Spore return at 35 points
9. Ymgarls return, may no longer assault after being placed but now choose which piece of terrain they arrive in when they arrive. 20 ppm
10. Return of the "Tyrant upgrades" HC/OA to last edition rules and points.

This is based off of both my personal preference and those things of "that is really stupid how did they not add that?" Like SitW=Synapse, and wings on a Prime. It doesn't change the theme of the codex (although boy I could do so much better) and the reliance on Synapse as I feel that was their "theme", it just shores up the stupid a bit.

You could modify the rules for synapse to read, "for the purposes of instant death only test at T+1".

From the old rumors, I really liked the idea that Warriors could lead individual packs of gaunts, ala Wolf Guard.

Wow. Quite a bit here seems over the top.

I'd soften the instinctive behavior chart. Worst on 1s, middles on 2-3, not so bad on 4+

Let troops assault from reserves/scout

Give genestealers stealth

Let you pick psykic powers

Give almost everything assault grenades

That's enough.

A lot of really cool ideas in this thread. My two cents:

Considering they are all grouped together on one page so they are related, let the Tervigon be able to be upgraded to spawn Hormagaunts or Gargolyles as well.

Let Lictors have poisoned attacks for those rerolls in combat!!

I really liked the rumor of a Born in the Skies rule where the Crone and Harpy could not be grounded. I would take that over an improved armor save any day.

It's asking for a lot but let regen be able to heal more than 1 wound a turn.