What do you think?
Rate this book
Warhammer 40,000 6th Edition #Codex
Warhammer 40,000 Codex: Tyranids, 6th edition
Book - Warhammer 40,000 - Games Workshop Tyranids is the book for every Tyranid collector. It contains a detailed background of the mysterious race of Tyranids, a showcase of our full range of Tyranid miniatures, and rules for organising them into armies for games of Warhammer 40,000. Ages 14+
105 pages, Hardcover
First published January 10, 2014
5 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
About the author
Games Workshop
1,017 books108 followersGames Workshop Group PLC (often abbreviated as GW) is a British miniature wargaming manufacturing company. Games Workshop is best known as developer and publisher of the tabletop wargames Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000 and The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 26, 2014
I've just finished reading Games Workshop's latest codex release for the Tyranids. This is my review. While reading it, keep in mind that I am a lore person — you don't come here for rules advice.
The new Tyranids codex is probably the most well written codex Games Workshop ever came out with. At the very least, it's on par with the Space Marines and Dark Angels codices which were already excellent.
From start to finish, the background sections of the book are captivating. They convey the horror of facing a planetary invasion by the Tyranids perfectly; down to the last detail. This is some of the best "fluff" to come out of Games Workshop in ages — it's comparable in quality with, and might even eclipse, the Horus Heresy books from Forge World.
I love the concept of the Tyranids and the whole idea behind the army and as such I enjoyed reading the book a lot. If you're even remotely interested in 40K lore, you should probably get this release. Together with the Space Marines codex, it plugs right into the old school writings from the '90s, takes what was best in them and elevates them to a whole new level. Story-wise, these new codices are a new golden era in the hobby — I love it!
It's a shame that Games Workshop seems to not list individual authors on these books anymore. This is probably because of all the backlash these people tend to get from the community because of the rules part. It is nonetheless a shame, because the writing in this book is a bloody masterpiece and the author (or authors) deserve the credit for it.
Keeping in mind that I know next to nothing about actually playing 40K with a Tyranid army, it's no secret that the new rules are highly controversial. To me, it seems like GW reacted to the previous Tyranids book being pretty powerful — so powerful, in fact, that it was still fairly competitive even when this new book came out. Or so I am told.
I think the designers simply adjusted the power of the army downwards a bit. Since they usually make new releases more powerful, this created the huge backlash in the community. To some extend, I can understand that — if it happens to your army, it really hurts. The few new goodies they added in the new codex can't compensate for that.
The rewritten rules mostly seem to have neutered abilities and made some stuff more expensive. And they've streamlined some things. Everything considered, however, it doesn't seem that bad. Tyranids still are a very playable army and one that is extremely evocative and fun.
And at the very least, the army has some excellent lore. And that's the most important part of the hobby anyway — or should be.
The new Tyranids codex is probably the most well written codex Games Workshop ever came out with. At the very least, it's on par with the Space Marines and Dark Angels codices which were already excellent.
From start to finish, the background sections of the book are captivating. They convey the horror of facing a planetary invasion by the Tyranids perfectly; down to the last detail. This is some of the best "fluff" to come out of Games Workshop in ages — it's comparable in quality with, and might even eclipse, the Horus Heresy books from Forge World.
I love the concept of the Tyranids and the whole idea behind the army and as such I enjoyed reading the book a lot. If you're even remotely interested in 40K lore, you should probably get this release. Together with the Space Marines codex, it plugs right into the old school writings from the '90s, takes what was best in them and elevates them to a whole new level. Story-wise, these new codices are a new golden era in the hobby — I love it!
It's a shame that Games Workshop seems to not list individual authors on these books anymore. This is probably because of all the backlash these people tend to get from the community because of the rules part. It is nonetheless a shame, because the writing in this book is a bloody masterpiece and the author (or authors) deserve the credit for it.
Keeping in mind that I know next to nothing about actually playing 40K with a Tyranid army, it's no secret that the new rules are highly controversial. To me, it seems like GW reacted to the previous Tyranids book being pretty powerful — so powerful, in fact, that it was still fairly competitive even when this new book came out. Or so I am told.
I think the designers simply adjusted the power of the army downwards a bit. Since they usually make new releases more powerful, this created the huge backlash in the community. To some extend, I can understand that — if it happens to your army, it really hurts. The few new goodies they added in the new codex can't compensate for that.
The rewritten rules mostly seem to have neutered abilities and made some stuff more expensive. And they've streamlined some things. Everything considered, however, it doesn't seem that bad. Tyranids still are a very playable army and one that is extremely evocative and fun.
And at the very least, the army has some excellent lore. And that's the most important part of the hobby anyway — or should be.
November 3, 2014
There are better Codex in this series, but I still enjoyed this one somewhat. I don't like the race much and I think the team that worked on this did well putting together an interesting combination of history, rules and art work.
February 1, 2016
Tyranids are the best
Read
May 2, 2017 As has been mentioned in some of the other reviews, the background is pretty high quality stuff and although I never think there is enough of it in any Codex, I'm more than willing to concede that this might just be me being a bit picky.
One thing I do miss from the older books are the more personal, ground level sorts of stories that you used to get. Stories told from the perspective of a squad of soldiers, or defenders of a fort, that always ended with their doom. I was a sucker for them and think it's a shame that Games Workshop seem to all about the epic sweep these days.
It's not that the epic stuff isn't cool, it is and it's mostly well written. I just wish that they could manage a bit more of both ends of the spectrum. The Gathering Storm books are a good example of the more ground level storytelling that I like.
The book isn't all about the background however. The artwork is very well done and is a very good example of the type of panoramic battle scene that Games Workshop seems to have made their own. It has a lot of pictures that you can easily spend a few minutes soaking up, with little individual scenes being played out throughout them.
Photography is another thing that is very solidly done. I love looking at pictures of well painted miniatures and although I sometimes have issue with aspects of the paint-jobs, the quality of their photography seems to be improving all the time.
As far as the rules themselves are concerned, I find it difficult to comment. I've read through them and on paper they seem solid enough, but I haven't played nearly as much 40K as I'd like and I don't have a Tyranid army.
I would certainly recommend it on the strength of the background, artwork and photography and given that the rules are going to obsolete very soon, I suppose they're the only parts of the book that matter now. A good read, but if you want it I'd advise you to pick it up quickly, unless you're confident of being able to pick up a second hand copy because it'll shortly be out of print.
One thing I do miss from the older books are the more personal, ground level sorts of stories that you used to get. Stories told from the perspective of a squad of soldiers, or defenders of a fort, that always ended with their doom. I was a sucker for them and think it's a shame that Games Workshop seem to all about the epic sweep these days.
It's not that the epic stuff isn't cool, it is and it's mostly well written. I just wish that they could manage a bit more of both ends of the spectrum. The Gathering Storm books are a good example of the more ground level storytelling that I like.
The book isn't all about the background however. The artwork is very well done and is a very good example of the type of panoramic battle scene that Games Workshop seems to have made their own. It has a lot of pictures that you can easily spend a few minutes soaking up, with little individual scenes being played out throughout them.
Photography is another thing that is very solidly done. I love looking at pictures of well painted miniatures and although I sometimes have issue with aspects of the paint-jobs, the quality of their photography seems to be improving all the time.
As far as the rules themselves are concerned, I find it difficult to comment. I've read through them and on paper they seem solid enough, but I haven't played nearly as much 40K as I'd like and I don't have a Tyranid army.
I would certainly recommend it on the strength of the background, artwork and photography and given that the rules are going to obsolete very soon, I suppose they're the only parts of the book that matter now. A good read, but if you want it I'd advise you to pick it up quickly, unless you're confident of being able to pick up a second hand copy because it'll shortly be out of print.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews