Tyranid Hive Tyrant
Overall: ******* 7/10
Assault: ***** 5/10
Shooting: ****** 6/10
Anti-Tank: ******* 7/10
Psychic: ******* 7/10
My how the mighty have fallen. Once the terror of the 4th Edition codex, you'd never see a Tyranid army without one. Normally, for me at least, a Dakka-Flyrant that would re-roll to hit and to-wound and dump an unreasonable amount of wounds into a unit. A terror on the battle field, now reduced to a secondary assault/support role if even fielded at all. If not for the Hive Commander ability, it is hard to argue one way or the other to have or not to bother with this unit.
PROS: Still a toughness 6 Monstrous Creature who, if you are willing to spend the points, can fly, bust up tanks, and rip through any troop unit without a power or force weapon in it, and make other Tyranid units around him stronger. It is a Synapse Creature and it's Psychic powers are a great asset to the army, Paroxysm being one of my personal favorites and Life Leech is much better then Regenerate. It has the ability to carry some of the strongest guns in the army, the Heavy Venom Cannon on a Flying Creature add some much needed range to this otherwise short ranged army. And, again, if your willing to spend the points, you can still have your Dakka-Flyrant spitting out 12 STR 6 shots that re-roll to hit, and that is nothing to sneeze at. It can help bring in reserve units faster, give other Tyranids Preferred Enemy, and allow you to outflank with a MC (the Troops choice Tervigon)if you choose.
CONS: This unit is extremely over pointed for what you get. Probably by about 40 Points or so. And for the point cost that you do pay, the damned thing should come with a 4+ Invulnerable save at least. Any of the good upgrades that you would want to put on it are equally over pointed and this unit can quickly become a giant point sink. Not to mention that you can not have a 2+ save and wings at the same time. The lack of an invulnerable save is by far one of the strongest weaknesses of this unit, forcing you to "be careful" when using it as opposed to jamming it down the enemy's throat. This unit is less "scary" then it was in the previous edition. Any unit that can fight its way out of a paper bag has a good chance of knocking off wounds or flat out killing this rather fragile unit. It forces you to either buy Tyrant Guard at an over pointed cost, or dedicate units to screening it, say Gargoyles or Hive Guard.
Suggested Upgrades:
Wings - Yeah, way too expensive but does gives the Tyrant much needed mobility. A walking Tyrant is a dead Tyrant IMHO
Hive Commander - If you intend to Deep Strike or Outflank Anything, take this!
Old Adversary - Short ranged but a good upgrade for hoard style armies
Suggested Weapons:
Two Sets of Scything Talons - Might as well make sure you can put as many hits on the unit you charge.
Two Sets of Twin-Linked Devourers - Good shooting for a modest cost. Short Ranged though, so be prepared to by the wings!
Heavy Venom Cannon - This army lacks good anti-tank, so adding this will help vs. heavy mech armies.
Suggested Build 1: Tyrant with 2 Sets of Talons, Paroxysm and Life Leech, and Wings - 260 Points Screen this guy with a 15 man kitted out Gargoyle Brood and he can drop the enemies WS and BS, have the Gargoyles Changes and mop them up. This is normally how I run him.
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