The Great Devourer is once again carving it’s way through the galaxy. Countless worlds fall to a tide of horrific creatures that break down the planet to it’s very building blocks in order to further fuel the swarm. 3 Tyrannic Wars have fallen upon the defenders of Humanity before, but with Hive Fleet Leviathan and the 4th Tyrannic War, it seems that the fate of the Imperium balances on a knife edge.

Codex Tyranids (2023), up for pre order today, is the very first codex for the new 10th edition of Warhammer 40k, and with it we see what the plan is for Codexes in this edition. Alongside the new book there are also a whole host of Tyranid creatures that expand on from the initial Tyranid Wave in the Leviathan boxed set, and bring some new options for Tyranid players.

In this review we’ll be checking out the new Tyranid Codex and seeing what has changed from the index datasheets, what the new structure is for codexes this edition and having a look at what is included in the codex over what was available for free at the launch of the game. We’ll also be unboxing and checking out each of the new Tyranid kits that have been released alongside this book, seeing how they size up against the models they are replacing and other models in the range and also seeing just how they perform in game.

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us free early review copies to unbox and check out on the site! If you would like to support the site then why not order your Tyranid reinforcements through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too?

We have also filmed a full unboxing of all the new kits, which you can check over on YouTube or down below!

We’ll also be painting up the new models over the next few weeks – so make sure you stay tuned!

So get into Synapse range and prepare yourself for our full review of Codex Tyranids!

Codex Tyranids Review

It’s been a couple of months since the Leviathan box dropped, and with it the brand new edition of Warhammer 40,000. One of the big questions we had then was what format codexes would take and just what would be inside of them? The other was will any of the datasheets from the index change?

With the release of Codex Tyranids we get our fist sight of what a 10th Edition Codex looks like and answers to both of these questions.

First of all, with the new edition comes a new aesthetic for the books, tying them in with the look of the new core rulebook. From a layout point of view we get a full index in the front of the book with every unit listed to make it easier than ever – this is a simple change but a much appreciated one. The ordering has also been moved around a little with the Crusade content now coming at the end of the book – previously it always felt odd that this was between the datasheets and the matched play content, so feels a little more flowing now.

As ever, the book kicks off with a hefty lore section covering the history of the Tyranid threat all the way up to the current timeline with the 4th Tyrannic War. While many players may be familiar with Tyranid war, there’s lots of fresh stuff here including some narrative, plus some great new and returning artwork. We also get some fun in universe stuff such as a chart depicting all the tyranid bio weapons from what looks like “samples” of the creatures retrieved in the field!

After this as always we get a nice colour gallery with a particular focus on all of the new models that are accompanying this release.

Points are included in the back of the book just like with the older 9th edition books, but in a new move Games Workshop actually include a QR code to scan that takes you to the new points whenever they get updated. Now, trying this before release this just takes you to the downloads page on Warhammer Community – I’m hoping that this is a unique url that takes you to the points on release, but I can’t tell if that is the case at the time of writing this. Even if it does just take you to the downloads page, this is still a great addition for making sure you have the most up to date points values

Combat Patrol

One of the new additions to Warhammer 40k 10th Edition is Combat Patrol, and it’s clear that Games Workshop sees this as a core part of the game. The ability for players to simply pick up a Combat Patrol box and immediately be able to jump into the game is an excellent idea, especially for those that may have been put off in the past at the financial cost of starting the hobby. No longer will players feel they need 2000 points straight away to be able to play, and I really hope this format is successful and popular for those taking their first steps into Warhammer 40,000. Now, I suspect this is not aimed at most people reading this, and you are probably at the point were you are able to jump into the full game and the flexibility of building your own army. And the real selling point that GW want people to embrace this way of playing is that almost all of the content included in the Combat patrol Section of this book is identical to the free download available on Warhammer Community.

The only additional content we get here is a 2 page guide to painting up your Tyranids. This uses a combination of contrast and traditional paint to get the models painted up in a quick but effective scheme. What’s also nice here is that a shopping list of 12 paints is also included to make it as easy as possible to pick up the supplies that you need in order to get these painted.

Detachments

Next up we get the Army Rules and Detachments and I think this will surprise some people. Many people thought that the rules presented in the Index lists would be “make do” lists until the “real” rules got released – and what is actually the case is that all of the core rules for the army and the first initial detachment are exactly the same, but simply accompanied by 5 additional detachments. These detachment then change up the way the army is built and how it operates by focusing on the different types of forces that would exist for the Tyranids. The achetype armies that you would see operate in the lore. I believe this is going to be the plan for all the Codexes going forwards and that the Codex will simply give you more ways to build your force rather than completely replace what is in the free index.

Crusher Stampede

The first of the new detachments available is the Crusher Stampede – this is the detachment that favours big stompy monsters for players that want to create a list of kaiju beasties. The main mechanic is that if any of your monsters are injured they get +1 to hit and if they are below half strength they get +1 to wound, essentially getting stronger as they take more damage. This is nice as it does leave your opponent with the predicament of making sure they kill a monster outright and not leave it almost dead.

The enhancements available are suitably thematic such as increasing their OC by 3 to make them more adapt at holding objectives, giving the monster a chance of fighting on death before the model is removed, and giving a monster a +1 to wound against monsters or vehicles. Theres one here that seems a little duff to me is a once per battle 5+ save against Mortal Wounds from psychic attacks for a single phase.

With the Crusher Stampede strats we have 6 to pick from including one to make your monsters always explode with deadly demise, a way of letting your monsters move over other models in order to get out of tricky situations, and my favourite one “Massive Impact” which is essentially impact hits – you roll 6D6 after completing a charge and each 4+ is a mortal wound.

Unending Swarm

This detachment is about big blocks of Endless Multitude units that rush at the opponent and just keep coming back to life! I really like this one as it eliminates some of the downsides of having an army of big horde units. The main mechanic is that whenever an enemy unit shoots at and destroys any models in an Endless Multitude unit, that unit immediately moves D6 inches towards the closest enemy unit. And there’s no cap on this, so if unit A shoots you, you move D6 inches, and then unit B shoots you, you move another D6 inches. You are allowed to get into engagement range with these moves, so really captures the feeling of films like Aliens with hordes of creatures running at you as you try to thin their ranks.

The enhancements mostly give your units extra speed or additional rend, but one fun one is used in the first battleround and gives 3 Endless Multitude units the benefit of cover, allowing you to keep as many of them alive before you get them in the fight

The strats are really fun too, one allows you to surge towards the nearest objective rather than nearest enemy unit, another cool one makes your massive horde units count as 4 models for the purposes of the blast rule, essentially making them take no additional hits from it. My favourite has to be Unending Waves – this is used when an Endless Multitude is destroyed and puts a copy of that unit in reserves. There’s no limit to the number of times this can be done on the same unit, so you can have a never ending unit of 20 gaunts that just keeps coming back every time its destroyed.

Assimilation Swarm

This detachment features Harvester creatures (All the big gribbly feeder units like Haspurex, the new Norn Assimilator, Pschophage and even the humble Ripper Swarm) that are used to heal up your units. When any of those units are near an objective you control they can heal a nearby unit D3 wounds or return a slain model (Or 3 in the case of Endless Multiude) – this makes them a really frustrating force to play against as there are so many ways of healing (Lots of Ripper units are amazing here to spread out this healing aura – though they will need a friend to control the objective with their OC of 0)

Enhancements make this even stronger with one allowing the bearers unit to be healed twice, extend the range of harvester units healing ability or increase attacks while near harvesters.

The strats double down on this too with the ability to trigger this regeneration effect in other phases in addition to the command phase meaning that you could potentially regenerate 3 times within a turn – which is pretty nice! Theres also a really nice one that is used when a harvester died (And dont forget this can even be a ripper swarm) that gives all your Tyranids +1 to wound against whatever unit killed it for the rest of the game – toss some cannon fodder rippers into some decent targets early on to buff your army for the entire battle.

Vanguard Onslaught

If you are a fan of all the new kits such as the Lictor, Neurolictor and Deathleaper then this is the detachment for you – this allows your entire army to fall back and charge, and allows your Vanguard creatures (All the sneaky first wave creatures like Lictors and Genestealers, plus every creature with wings) to also advance and charge, making this a really fast army and master of hit and run tactics. It also unlocks Deathleaper as your Warlord.

Theres lots of shenanigans in the enhancements such as making it so that whenever the enemy brings in a unit from reserves they immediately take battleshock on a roll of 2+, giving one of your units stealth, or making it so that after deployment you can pop 3 units into reserves.

The focus on reserves is backed up by the strats such as one that allows your reserve units to come down a turn earlier than they would normally be able to, or the ability to take 2 units off the board at the end of your opponents fight phase and pop them into reserves, or what about giving your Vanguard units precision hits?

I think this is going to be a fun one to play with, and I’ll certainly be leaning into this with a force very heavy in Lictors and Leapers

Synaptic Nexus

The final detachment is all about your psychic and Synapse creatures, and this seems like another strong one – in this you get to pick from one of three abilities to activate at the start of the battle round. Each can only be used once but they are all pretty good. The first is that all Tyranids in Synapse range get a 5+ invulnerable save, the second makes all Tyranids in Synapse range add 1 to advance and charge rolls, and the final gives all nids in Synapse range +1 to hit.

These units are buffed further through some ace enhancements such as a 12″ no reserves aura along with the ability to once per game stop a unit from entering from reserves on a 4+, or increasing the strength and AP of your psychic attacks by 1 (which could make the Norn Emissary into a S13 AP-4 nightmare)

Stratagems key off these further with the ability to extend synapse range, or to allow a unit to get the benefits of a Synaptic ability you have already used. Another good one is the chance to go mortal wounds to a unit that has failed battleshock too.

Datasheets

So the big question everyone had is will the existing Index datasheets change in the new codex? And the answer is no! Well, not really. We see the addition of some keywords in order to allow units to fit into some of the new detachment types, and we see some new weapons added to the Termagants to reflect what is included in the new kit, but there are no real changes to any of the existing profiles (I did notice Deathleapers save is slightly better, but that’s the only one I spotted that was different)

I think that this will put a lot of minds at ease that Games Workshop are keeping to their pledge that all units will stay the same between index and codex, and that the main purpose of the codex is to offer new ways to build your armies through the use of detachments.

Now, obviously we have seen a few things with balance so far in this edition, and some factions do deserve a bit of a rework and tweakings to their abilities, and I’d hope that this does get done within codexes – but I believe that we will also see those changes updated through FAQ and updates to the free downloadable datasheets too.

We do get a couple of new units introduced in the book through the addition of the new Norn Emissary and Norn Assimilator duel kit plus the new Neurolictor

Neurolictor

Before we take a look at the rules, I’ve got to say that this model has grown on me. In the initial images I felt this looked too “Snake like” to be part of the Lictor gene-type, but having built the model it looks much nicer in real life with the tail twisting around the models and the legs being more visible in person – it’s also suitably alien looking and adds some distinct flavour to a Lictor heavy army

From a rules point of view these guys are really fun too – like Lictors they are Infiltrators and have Stealth, but they also have the Lone Operative rule too limiting what units can shoot at them to try and get rid of their presence. They are also packing a 4+ invulnerable save giving them a bit of resiliance to units that do get within 12″ of them – and trust me, you will want to get your Neurolictors within 12″ of the enemy – They get to pick a unit within 12″ and force a battleshock test, and all battleshocked units in their aura are -1 to hit, and your Tyranids get a +1 to wound modifier when targetting them. Comboes particularly well with an early shadow in the warp (which they can also trigger too)

Norn Emissary

The first of the two builds from the new monster box is the Norn Emissary – this is a big psychic bug (Though perhaps not quite as big as people think – it stands a little shorter than a Knight and is around the size of Angron or Be’lakor) and I think the model has some really nice echos of the Alien Queen and even Godzilla with the big vents on the back of it.

The rules for it are fun and essentially are about dedicating it to fight a particular enemy unit or hold a certain objective. If you pick a unit then you get to reroll hits and wounds against that unit for the battle, or if you pick an objective then you get a 5+ Feel No Pain and an OC of 15 (up from 5) when standing by that objective.

Giving it some Mortal Wound resistance against all the devastating wounds in the game it also sports a 4+ save against mortals.

With T11, 16W, a 2+ save and a 4+ Invulnerable save on top of this it is pretty resilient and will take a fair bit of firepower to shift. its got some decent range 18 psychic attacks that can be tailored to be either precision, blast or melta each time it shoots, making it pretty adaptable against a range of enemies – it’s also pretty good in a fight with 6 S9 damage 3 attacks plus another 4 attacks from its rending claws. While it wont be destroying vehicles in close combat due to the lower strength of these, it is absolutely a threat against anything T9 or lower.

Norn Assimilator

The other build is the Norn Assimilator – this loses the psychic attacks and the invulnerable save, however in return it gets a harpoon ranged weapon that in addition to being S12 with AP-3 and D6+1 damage, it also increases your charge by 3 if you hit with it, making it a great way to make your big monster hitting combat more likely

In combat it hits harder than the Emissary, with its toxin injector harpoon adding 4 extra attacks with the same stats as the ranged version making this build more threatening against vehicles.

Aesthetically I’m more of a fan of the Emissary, and points wise the Emissary is cheaper – but if you want something that has a little more punch in close combat then the Norn Assimilator is for you!

Crusade

The book ends with the Crusade section, which has been one of our favourite additions to the game in recent years. I was a little worried that Crusade might get watered down a little in 10th Edition – but this is certainly not the case with this book having some really fun mechanics. Basically you generate a planet type, and that in turn determines how long each stage of the invasion will take and how much biomass is required in order to move to the next step of the attack. So you will have a vanguard wave probing the defences first before the bigger creatures start to move in to harvest the biomass – it’s really fun and captures what a Tyranid force would do during their assault on a planet. This biomass can then be spent on upgrading your force – so for example you can use it to increase your supply, give your creatures XP or even swap out your relic options all without having to spend requisition points – which in turn leaves you more requisition to do other fun things such as being able to swap out one synapse creature for any other one, or to allow you to pick more agendas during a battle.

In another fun move there are also achievements to unlock in the form of Crusade Badges – these are unlocked after certain criteria have been met and act as a nice objective to have during your crusade – there’s even badges for you to photocopy, cutout and stick into your order of battle or crusade diary in order to record your achievements during the Crusade – while this is perhaps more aimed at younger audiences, I really like the idea of players being able to unlock these badges during their play!

New Plastic Kits

So alongside the new creatures we also have another 5 kits being released alongside the Codex – so here’s a look at how each of them stack up:

Genestealers

The new Genestealers are a big step up from the current ones, they are not reinventing the world but rather refine what has come before – if you still have any of the classic 2nd Edition Genestealers they are massive in comparison though!

Hormagaunts

This was a kit i was pleasantly surprised with as I was never really a fan of the previous plastic Hormagaunts and more a fan of the classic Xenomorph inspired metal ones – But I have to say these look great and are much more dynamic, lithe and agile looking!

Biovore

This kit probably had the biggest change in aesthetics to what has come before, and it is a gorgeous kit to boot! The build changes quite a lot between the two different creatures, giving some nice variety on the tabletop too. He’s also been working out, as the Biovore is a lot bigger now too! likewise the Spore Mines don’t get a massive update but have a lot more detail.

Lictor

When I was a kid, one of the first models I ever bought was the classic metal Lictor, so it’s safe to say I was very excited when I saw that a new plastic one was on the way, and I really do think this shares a lot of DNA with its 90’s parent – more so than the more recent one that followed! What;s really nice about this kit is that you are able to make 3 distinct looking Lictors, so if you pick up 3 boxes they will all look different, which is a great touch

Deathleaper

Finally we have the new Deathleaper model, and despite being an absolute nightmare to build (The air was blue in the usually calm and collected Sprues and Brews studio) it is well worth the effort because the finished model looks great and towers over the Lictor.

Summary

So what do I think of the new Tyranid Codex and in fact the first codex of 10th Edition? I have to admit I was a little concerned that these codexes would completely invalidate all of the free content we have seen for 10th edition – One of the big selling points of this edition was the fact that from day 1 all the core rules for the factions was free to download on Warhammer Community. Thankfully I didn’t have anything to worry about with 99% of the datasheets and the core faction rules being exactly the same/ What we do get here are 5 really fun new ways to build your force centered around different play styles and themes allowing people to create the kind of Tyranid army they imagine while rewarding players for taking units that compliment that theme – and I’m really excited to see what future codexes get along these different army builds as I think there’s lots of fun stuff they can do. Yes, some armies certainly need some more attention and a few tweaks to core mechanics, but let’s face it – Tyranids were pretty good out of the starting blocks and so I wasn’t expecting major revision to be needed here.

From a model point of view, Games Workshop have put out some brilliant kits to build on the stuff that was released in the Leviathan box, giving Tyranids a much needed range refresh along with a couple of cool new creatures.

I’m looking forward to building my Vanguard heavy force and seeing just what the sneakier side of the Tyranids can do!

Codex Tyranids and the new Tyranid models are up for pre order today and are released Saturday 9th October

Games Workshop provided Sprues & Brews with free copies for review purposes.