Codex: Tyranids

Warhammer 40,000 - 8th Edition #Army Codex

by Games Workshop

The Tyranids are unlike any other race to be encountered by Humanity. They are the ultimate predators; to them all living things, from the lowliest insect to the most advanced civilisation, are mere prey. Only now are the inhabitants of the galaxy realising the scale of the threat – unless the Tyranids can be stopped, it will mean nothing less than the extinction of all.

Codex: Tyranids contains a wealth of background and rules – the definitive book for Tyranids collectors. Within this 128-page hardback, you’ll find:

Background

- The Destroyer of Worlds: the origins of the Tyranids, from the first recorded appearance of their Hive Fleets to their seemingly-unstoppable advance throughout the galaxy, along with details of the manner in which their Hive Minds operate;
- Invasion Swarms: a step-by-step guide to a Tyranid invasion, from the vanguard organisms who seed initial terror through to the swarms of feeder organisms that ultimately strip entire worlds bare;
- Detailed background of the following Hive Fleets: Behemoth, Kraken and Leviathan, with dramatic recounting of famous battles and colour schemes for each;
- Tendrils of the Great Devourer: Information and colour schemes for a further 6 Hive Fleets – Jormungandr, Hydra, Gorgon, Kronos, Tiamet, and Ouroboris;
- A galactic map showing the currently-known major Tyranid incursions;
- Background and details on each character and unit available to a Tyranid army;
- A showcase of beautifully painted Citadel miniatures, with example armies featuring everything from individual images of models to battle scenes on terrain.

Rules

Everything you need to get a Tyranid army primed for games of Warhammer 40,000 is in here:

- 39 datasheets containing rules for every Tyranid unit and miniature;
- Army abilities reflecting the Tyranids’ methods of war on the tabletop;
- Weapons of the Hive Fleets: wargear both ranged and close-combat for use by Tyranid Swarms;
- Points values for all miniatures, weapons and wargear for use in Matched Play games;
- The Shadow in the Warp: rules for Battle-forged armies, including:
- Hive Fleet Adaptations for the following 7 Hive Fleets: Behemoth, Kraken, Leviathan, Gorgon, Jormungandr, Hydra and Kronos;
- 6 unique Warlord Traits available for any Tyranid commander;
- 7 Warlord Traits specific to the above-named Hive Fleets;
- 28 unique Stratagems;
- Bio-artefacts of the Tyranids: a selection of 12 rare weapons, spawned by the Hive Mind to ensure the galaxy’s doom;
- Hive Mind Discipline: 6 psychic powers available to any Tyranids model with the Psyker keyword;
- 6 unique Tactical Objectives.

126 pages, Hardcover

Published November 1, 2017

About the author

Games 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.

Reviews

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

I tend towards 3/3,5 but they deserve four for trying.
That sounds cheap, but I'll explain in a moment.

This book is about Tyranids, but about them I can only say that they are a very interesting race for the table top game and have a very bizare, alien design with a vast versatility on the battlefield. You like them if you like that, I guess, and so I do.

But I can't judge the book by that. Instead, I should focus on what you get from the book.

- an introduction to the WARHAMMER 40k universe
- a guide how to collect and play your first army
- a brief, deep introduction to the history of the race, from the imperial (read: human) viewpoint
- one map of the galaxy with all tyranid movements (note the contradiction between amount of information and how much you can put on two pages of a book)
- a brief introduction with fluff and artwork to all the units
- a brief introduction to every main hive fleet (read: army specialization)
- a small collection of high quality photographs from professionally painted models and tabletop scenery (upper tabletop standard, almost display quality; yes, I live with an aspiring professional model-painter, I will be picky about how well they are actually painted!)
- suggestions for color-patterns based on the provided lore
- tips and suggestions for deployment and play strategies
- all the data-cards and rules necessary to play the Tyranids
- an overall well designed book with high quality paper, cover and color
- an interplanetary-scale-amount of typos

I think it was their goal to give the reader a sweep of right about everything. From that point of view, they did a rather good job, though they really needed to use very tiny formatting to achieve that much on such few pages. If nothing else, the quality and quantity of almost-multi-media information justifices the price.

But the big 'But' is that the effect on the readers is rather getting just enough of everything to want more, leaving them unsatisfied. Given how cramped the text is, and how much information is pressed through so few words, the dissatisfaction borders on frustration - in my experience.

Personal feelings aside, they should either back every codex with additional sources for fluff, tactical guides, painter guides and photographs of tabletop-scenery, or divide the fields into separated publication to begin with. Both strategies have their pros and cons, but those should not be the point of a review. I bring them up to emphasize what is objectively missing in the Codex.

Because of this lack I tend towards a 3 star rating. However, when putting myself in the creators shoes, I see their effort and respect their facing of the challenges such a creation bears, in a business that focuses on tabletop miniatures and not on print.

The regular customer needs information about this type of army to play them themselves and to plan playing against it. Such needs are fully satisfied by the product.

Hence 4 out of 5 stars.

[Jim Pickone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool design and idea but they have no personality. They're just a seemingly endless swarm. Boring.

[Ingmar Boddington · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everything you'd expect to be in a Codex. Quite a few typos though (which is probably a symptom of GW rushing out the 8th Editions)