The Gene-Splicing Chambers; New Tyranid Unit Concepts!

[Evil Eye]

Having been reading through some of the older Tyranid Codexes, I've been hit with a wave of inspiration for new Tyranid creatures, both completely new organisms and also some new variants of existing creatures (gaunts and the like). So I figured it'd be cool to start a thread to post ideas we've all had for new units for our beloved bugs, as inspiration for homebrew rules or even just as an excuse to make models!

 

So let's get started shall we? First up I decided to take the named but otherwise nondescript gaunts from the old trading card game and give them actual roles and descriptions.

Hellgaunts: Special weapons gaunt armed with screamerfist bio-plasma weapons. Evolved seemingly as counter to heavy armour. Usually seen only in small numbers, thank the Emperor.

Could work as a one-per-10 weapon like the Strangleweb, would be interesting anyway!

 

Terrorgaunts: Psychological warfare/sabotage gaunt breed with short razor-tipped grasping claws. Seems to be used as a more expendable alternative to genestealers.

I had this in mind as a concept for Kill Team, of "budget genestealers". Also inspired partly by the rather grim card art.

 

Slashgaunts: Hormagaunt derivative with bladed tail weapons and sharp carapace extrusions. Reported in certain Hive Fleets as the most common form of hormagaunt.

Realistically most likely to work as representing a specialism in Kill Team.

 

Razorgants: Termagant derivative with similar bladed carapaces to slashgaunts, armed with skinflayers (bioweapons that fire shreddershard beetles).

Weapons seem horrifically effective against carapace armour, and even power armour is vulnerable due to the beetles’ ability to crawl into joints.

Remember thorax swarms? I do! Another special weapons gaunt concept, presumably having a similar effect to rending claws now that Rending is no longer a USR.

 

Crucigants: Termagant anti-infantry derivative with quilled carapaces, armed with blooddrainers (bioweapons loaded with dessicator larvae). Lightly armoured troops are easy prey for this strain, recommend full body protection when dealing with.

See above, albeit with a "wounds on 2+" or whatever rule ala the original weapon.

 

Exegants: Termagant anti-tank derivative notable for ridged, bioluminescent carapaces, armed with shockslingers (bioweapons evolved to launch electroshock grubs). Able to take down surprisingly well protected vehicles for their size.

As above but anti-tank flavoured. Given that the most effective weapons against tanks are usually man-portable weapons (grenades, rockets, or in ye days of olde anti-tank rifles) this isn't as implausible as it sounds.

 

Malgants: Mutated and deformed gaunts used as cannon fodder. First encountered in Goliath.

Idea I had for potentially making use of unsalvageable gaunt models, and also because deformed things are scary.

 

Mortegaunts: Feeder-organism gaunt, effectively acting as a larger ripper, either in the latter stages of planetary consumption or as cannon fodder. Underestimating them is a mistake; they are extremely aggressive and their claws and teeth make for potent weapons.

Another one perhaps best reserved as either a Kill Team specialism or a cosmetic feature for Hormagaunts.

 

Rendergants: Gaunt breed intended to tackle heavy infantry and light vehicles, equipped with a miniaturized venom cannon symbiote. Usually seen in small numbers supplementing existing broods- high priority target due to the potency of its weapon.

Special weapons gaunts again! Carries a slightly less powerful venom cannon, inspired by the old "weapon-beast" mutation from 3E.

 

Protogaunts: Dominant hormagaunt, larger and more intelligent that its kin, acts as a brood alpha. [cross-ref. Von Ryan’s Leaper]

The equivalent of a sergeant unit for hormagaunts, or perhaps a gauntier broodlord?

 

Pyrogaunts: Living suicide bombs with spore mines grown onto their carapaces. Premature detonation can disrupt Tyranid battle-swarms, recommend prioritizing their destruction.

Controllable spore mines in effect. Always seemed like a fun concept.

 

Lashgaunts: Unusual tentacled gaunts, exact purpose unknown. Sometimes encountered alongside Terrorgaunts.

Another one best suited for Kill Team. Also tentacles! Tentacles are cool.

Genogants: Specialist gaunt armed with a bizarre bioweapon known as an enslaver rifle; launches cortex leeches with intent of producing mind slaves.

I have absolutely no idea how you'd handle the rules for this thing, but mind-slaves need to make a return.

 

Toxigaunts: Similar role to venomthropes, produce cloud of toxic spores wherever they go. Hive Fleet Aswang was notable for heavy use of these.

Pretty much what you'd expect- gaunt sized venomthropes. Possibly redundant.

 

Asphyxigant: Heavy weapons gaunt armed with a short ranged barbed strangler projector. Again usually seen in limited numbers amongst broods of other Termagants and their variants.

See rendergants but armed with a mini-barbed-strangler "mortar" instead of a venom cannon.

 

Neurogaunt: Highly psychic, Synapse-capable gaunt. Physically weak, protected fiercely by other gaunts. Priority target.

Remember the hive node mutation? That, but with added psychic fun. Could be great for Kill Team.

 

Pseudogant: Also known amongst Astra Militarum regiments as “dummies”, these brightly-patterned and outlandishly decorated gaunts appear to have been evolved as distractions and decoy targets, appearing to be far more dangerous than they actually are to direct fire away from actually important creatures.

Intended purely for Kill Team, the great thing about this is it requires no homebrewing at all- just convert and paint a gaunt up to look scarier and meaner than it actually is, apply no upgrades or special rules to it, and watch your opponent scramble to take down a relatively weak cannon fodder, thus allowing the less flamboyant units in the team to close in for the kill!

 

I may post some more ideas I had later but for now, over to you!

Edited August 19, 2021 by Evil Eye

[Dracos]

Gaunt to have to stop you right there :D

 

 

 

Mind you I'm for anything that can pay closer homage to Aliens and Heinlein's original concepts. 

[WarriorFish]

Wasn't this sort of mixing and matching in a (much) older Tyranid Codex? I don't think we'll see any new gaunt variants without a new model to go with them, but increased variations would be nice.

 

It is part of the Tyranid theme after all, currently it's only really Carnifexes that match this with their different named variants though you can really mix and match Warriors. A few extra riffs on gaunts would be fun - if gaunts generally got a better deal that is I'm not sure how this could play out practically, but when in doubt... drop points?

 

Since we're here my idea would be a kind of swooping gaunt, like a flying squirrel. Maybe they can deep strike or have some other movement buffs?

[Evil Eye]

"Swooping" gaunts would be a great idea- for such cute things, I can see flying squirrels working well as an inspiration for that. I seem to recall there's a species of gecko or something that does a similar trick as well, incidentally. Should be fairly easy to model as well- remove the mid-limbs from a termagant and replace them with small scything talons (gaunt or 'stealer would work) and position them in such a way that they can work as the mounting point for greenstuff wing membranes stretching towards the tail.

[WarriorFish]

There is yes, they were one of the critters that I processed during my search for a colour scheme I like the idea of a spore mine gaunt, but it'd probably end up with an even shorter lifespan than a normal gaunt. As an upgrade to a normal squad though... the "hidden power fist" has competition?

[TheNewman]

I think you've grabbed the wrong end of the stick on Toxigaunts, the interesting part of those units is Fight First. Not that a to-be-hit penalty wouldn't be nice, but being able to stack Fight First down into the Troop slot is where Toxicrenes and Venomthropes start looking viable as a melee-centric army core and not just a defensive buff for the more valuable shooting beasts. Edited September 8, 2021 by TheNewman

[Crasker]

Concept:

 

Fortification Unit based on the predatory actions of the antlion, the sea anemone, the pitcher plant, the venus flytrap ect.

 

Unit is a large stationary maw with sectional/separate lashes that is used for area denial.

 

Maw can spawn 3 lashes within 3" at the end of each movement phase, maximum of 9 lashes. Lashes must adhere to unit coherency rules.

 

Maw has the option to setup outside of deployment but not in opponents deployment or within 9" of enemy unit.

 

Death throes (6/3/D3)

Instinctive Behavior

Immobile

 

Keyword (Maw) Monster, Character

Keyword (Lash) Infantry

 

........................M Bs Ws S T W A Ld Sv

Maw model. - 5+ 5+ 6 7 8. 3 7 4+

weapons - Ravenous Maw & Grasping Tongue.

.......................M Bs Ws S T W A Ld Sv

Lash model. - 4+ 4+ 4. 4. 1. 1. 6. 5+

weapons - Massive Toxic Lashes (Melee) & (shooting)

 

Design :

 

Take the maw from the Hauspex kit, face it skyward and base in on 60mm (approx). Take the toxic lashes from the Toxicrene kit, alter and base each to it's own 32mm base.

Edited September 26, 2021 by Crasker

[Xenith]

*The next evolution of the Hive Mind.*

The hive mind, frustrated from constant defeats in 9th edition 40k realised it's issue. To win in 9th edition, you need hands. One cannot repair a teleport homer, deploy a scrambler or raise a banner with talons alone, one needs prehensile digits, and so the Grabbergaunt was born - a fast moving brood species born entirely to speed into table quarters and activate scramblers, homers, and retrieve data.

This is a thought I had a while back, after running out of scything Talons but still having plenty of Hormie bodies. This was a proof of concept, but I'll be making a full unit soon, just 10 gaunts, count as Scytals, to be fast, annoying, action performing ObSec.

Edited October 5, 2021 by Xenith

[Brother Nathan]

Dunno if it's still current fluff or not as am awaiting my ordered codex but it used to be a thing that nid units were rumoured to be based on other army's and was particularly visible in a few. Obviously stealers were human but theory was that biovore was orkish. Zoans potentially elder. Hive guard were thought to be potentially marine. Would be interesting to add more such. There was something about the tau being worried that they would get kroot genetics...

Would also be interesting something more like a droidaka... spikey rolly fast abomination

[Xenith]

Exactly that, Tyranids evolved new genus to counter their opponents: Orks charge to get in close, so using ork material the Hive Mind created an anti ork unit, a long range artillery piece. Likewise, the Eldar were master psykers, so Zoanthropes were created to counter them, using genetically psychic material, then Hive Guard were a response to heavy artillery and space marine surgical strikes on Hive Tyrants, so durable guardians were made - the original models featured the fused ribcage that the astartes have. 

[Brother Nathan]

yup so still existing to de added are tau and crons. could do with more heavy metal resistance to gause weapons or some such(not sure how fluff has changed with cron fluff and phasing out ) what could tau do? some form of on the battlefield evaluator of nid forms/healer type? faster than most hqs? vespid related tougher flying types(flying warriors) another pooled lictor type from kroot?

[Xenith]

yup so still existing to de added are tau and crons. could do with more heavy metal resistance to gause weapons or some such(not sure how fluff has changed with cron fluff and phasing out ) what could tau do? some form of on the battlefield evaluator of nid forms/healer type? faster than most hqs? vespid related tougher flying types(flying warriors) another pooled lictor type from kroot?

 

Good point on the crons. It used to be that Tyranids ate only biological life on a planet, now they seem to scour it dry and dissolve metals and such to be absorbed into the fleets, so stealing necrodermis/living metal might not be out of the question. For a unit incorporating necron elements, designed to fight necrons, I'd imagine the greatest threat for the hive fleet is having the warrior phase out - at which point the resources expended killing it are lost for nothing in return. The Hive mind would want to obliterate a model beyond repair, so it can't even phase out. I'm imagining the exocrine is already perfect for this role, but if we're going for new units, perhaps some kins of acid or plasma mortar/spewer to render necrodermis down to constituent parts before it can phase out? Nids could also do with some additional Non-LOS needing shooting. 

 

Bio-Acid Mortar - 

R - 36", Heavy D6, S 7, AP -1, Dd3. Special - Splash - For each unit within 3" of the target unit, roll a D6. On a 4+, that unit takes 1 mortal wound. At the end of the shooting phase, select one unit that has sufferered a wound from this weapon. That unit suffers an additional D3 mortal wounds.

 

On an Exocrine platform. 

[Brother Nathan]

iirc in the old fluff nids avoided necron worlds and went around but im sure there eventually has to be reason to force it. necron weapons are pretty perfectly anti nids... could get back into the theory that necrons were created to fight nids and drove them out etc. but for the nids to fight they need something out of it. also wonder do nids search underground for more materials and remove such themselves... are theyre deep dwelling underground units designed to go down and retrieve materials... heat and pressure resistant... would require... necron metal? would likely be nearly impervious to most weaponry...  probably to spew forth molten metal like the big bugs in starship troopers...

 

a weird one could be like fixed gun implacement type like the gun alien seen dead in the alien movies for like anti aircraft... how about grubby stuff moved by rippers?

personally i loved the parasites' of morthrax rules that had great potential. considering how living ammunition rules a gun beast that infects targets regardless of killing them... perhaps if not spawning rippers or such why not distract them, leaving them more vunerable to charges and not overwatching or  removing fight first etc as grubs swarm over them...