Hot Take: The New Tyranid Prime Is as Redundant as You'd Expect

The rules don't stop rolling out from the Warhammer Community datasheet factory. We've seen two interesting characters for the T'au and the Leagues of Votann released in the past week and bringing up the rear is a new Tyranid Prime for, well, Tyranids. Did they save the best for last? No, but we're gonna talk about this guy anyway.

Statline wise it's kind of what you'd expect, he's got a better save but less movement than his flying brother but is otherwise identical. His combat profile is interesting, giving him three different choices to how to approach combat with a sweeping Lash Whip for clearing 1 wound models, Scything Talons for killing Space Marines and a Rending Claw for also killing Space Marines but with more strength and damage 3. With Synapse these all go up 1 strength but that doesn't hit many meaningful breakpoints outside the Rending Claw hitting strength 9, meaning he can scratch the paint on a Rhino. Overall, this doesn't do a ton to wow the average player as these are all profiles Tyranids are generally very well equipped to handle. Surely his rules make up for that though, right?

First off, this guy is a leader. As you'd expect, he can lead both types of warriors but he can also join both types of gants as well. Alpha Warrior gives the unit he joins Sustained Hits 1 and Aggressive Leader-beast gives his unit a D6" surge move. This is all very fine. We thankfully have a very useful comparison point, the Winged Tyranid Prime, who also gives their unit sustained hits but gives a fight on death instead of the surge move. The only reason you really took the winged prime was to give a unit the Vanguard keyword for the relevant detachment but there's no interesting shenanigans that can be done with this guy in that regard.

The best uses we could think of for this guy are to either join a unit of Hormagaunts in Invasion Fleet where you can give them a 5+ Feel No Pain and make for a very annoying tarpit, or combine him, a bunch of Termagants, and a Tervigon to make for a similar annoying tarpit. There really isn't a lot of exciting things to say about this guy unfortunately, as he doesn't really open up any new capabilities or play options for the faction like the other two releases this week did. While we don't have the points for this big bug, the Winged Prime sits at 65 points and is leagues more useful than this guy, so there's a chance he's dirt cheap, but considering he's competing with the Lictor for that cheap bozo slot, I don't see him making a lot of lists.

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website, and subscriber-only content covering competitive Warhammer 40K!

Tags: tyranids | Hot Take | competitive 40k