Forget Ghouls, these boys are the stars of the show so far:
This new Carnifex isn’t the best, there’s too much of the weird-looking 2nd Edition metal model about it and I hope it won’t replace the great and hugely customisable current kit and will just serve alongside them, but there’s no denying it’s an intimidating and fearsome model. I’d be interested to see a size comparison between it and the current Carnifex. Curious that this one has a big brain and that it seems to have been given Synapse Creature rules, Carnifexes are not normally well-known in the intelligence department. More Synapse options are always welcome, as for those not familiar with the Great Devourer they are there to stop your entire army from going out of control, rampaging across the battlefield, running away or even eating each other as they could in the 6th Edition rules if you weren’t careful.
Now this one is interesting, the Neurotyrant, a living generator of the Shadow in the Warp. Not as big as I expected it to be, but that hopefully means it’ll be on the more affordable side of things. I’m curious as to what those little mini-me familiars do.
These Neurogaunts are curious things, they seem to be a fusion of Tyrant Guard, Gaunt and Synapse Creature. It’ll be most interesting to see how they work with bigger Synapse Creatures, perhaps they simply extend the Synapse Range of the big beasts or something. Also they’ll likely be a more expendable and cheaper bodyguard unit than Tyrant Guard that can protect Synapse Creatures other than Hive Tyrants.
Barbgaunts - something extra to add to our not-to-be-sniffed-at range of shooty creatures. Their ability to take them in squads of 5+ and their comparatively small model size (compared to other gun beasts like Warriors or any of our monsters) should make them more difficult to deal with as they can hide behind more cover and may not need to worry about Instant Death if their small size can warrant them one Wound rather than more (in proper 40K discussion that is, Instant Death’s gone from the new Editions).
And lastly this dude, the Psychophage. Primarily focused on killing Psykers (not that the Tyranids need much help there with Shadow in the Warp), though I hope he can be given all-round decent fighting rules against other targets as well.
An all-round solid range of new Tyranids, I look forward to hopefully being able to pick up a few of these with the release of the inevitable partworks magazine series that will appear in a year or two, and writing 6th Edition rules for all these new models.
On to the TOW preview tomorrow, I for one am hoping for a quality Bretonnians vs Tomb Kings starter box as the ultimate display of apology from GW for shitting on these awesome factions in the past. Certainly a boring rehash of the 6th Edition boxed game or a dire Kislev-focussed set would be a waste of potential.
