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Tyranids

Army rule · Synapse + Shadow in the Warp

Your small creatures do not think for themselves. Within 6" of a Synapse creature they hit harder and keep their nerve. Away from one, nothing.

Tyranids have two army rules, not one. The first is called Synapse, and it is not a bonus you switch on: it is a distance. Some of your creatures carry the SYNAPSE keyword, and whatever stays near them is better directed.

  1. Find your SYNAPSE creatures: the keyword is written on their datasheet, in the keyword list.
  2. One of your Tyranids units within 6" of one of them is within Synapse Range.
  3. That holds while it is there, and not a moment longer: a unit that moves away loses all of it, and gets it back by coming back.

While one of your units is within Synapse Range, it gains two things:

  1. Its melee attacks gain +1 Strength.
  2. Its Battle-shock tests are rolled on 3D6 instead of 2D6: more dice, so a higher total, so a much easier test to pass.

The bonus goes to your Tyranids units and it is the SYNAPSE creature that projects it: they are not the same models. Not all your datasheets carry that keyword, and out of range a unit gains nothing — being a Tyranid is not enough. Go and check the datasheet before you count on it.

A worked example

  1. Ten Hormagaunts charge some Intercessors, with no SYNAPSE creature in range. What does that give?

    A Hormagaunt’s talons have A 3, WS 4+, S 3. Ten of them make 30 attacks. An Intercessor has T 4: S 3 against T 4 is “S is lower than T”, so you wound on a 5+.

  2. And if a SYNAPSE creature is within 6"?

    The same 30 attacks go to S 4. S 4 against T 4 is “S is equal to T”: you wound on a 4+ instead of a 5+. One row of the table, on every one of the 30.

  3. I have only 4 Hormagaunts left out of 10. What does Synapse change about the test?

    A Hormagaunt’s Ld is 8+: you need 8 or more. On 2D6 that is far from certain. Within Synapse Range you roll 3D6, and 8 becomes a formality.

The second army rule is called Shadow in the Warp. It only touches your opponent, it is played once in the whole game, and choosing the moment is the whole decision.

  1. You unleash it during a Command phase — yours or your opponent’s — if you still have at least one unit with this ability on the battlefield.
  2. Every enemy unit on the battlefield takes a Battle-shock test. All of them, at once.
  3. An enemy unit within 6" of one of your SYNAPSE units subtracts 1 from its test.

Not all your datasheets have Shadow in the Warp either: you need at least one alive on the battlefield, or the rule is gone. And the −1 only lands on enemies near your SYNAPSE units, not on the whole table.

Read nextThe Command phase

DatasheetsCarnifexesExocrineGargoylesGenestealersHive TyrantHormagauntsTermagantsTyranid Warriors with Melee Bio-WeaponsTyranid Warriors with Ranged Bio-WeaponsZoanthropes