At Warhammer Fest, we met a pair of new Tyranid creatures found in the Warhammer 40,000: Leviathan boxed set – Barbgaunts and Neurogaunts. The Hive Mind has been hard at work evolving these new bio-forms, but what can they do in battle?
Barbgaunts
The Hive Mind loves some living artillery, from the spore mine-firing Biovore to the mighty Exocrine. They’ve now got another beast to add to that list, the Barbgaunts and their bio-cannons – which are actually the brains of the outfit!
The Heavy ability makes them ideal for plonking down in sight of an objective to rain fire down on your enemies, while Blast makes you even more dangerous against larger units.* Any infantry that survives the initial attack will also find their advance disrupted.
Yep, those bio-cannons fire chitinous projectiles that slow your foes down.**
Neurogaunts
These little critters scuttle across the battlefield in massed swarms, each carrying a parasitic neurocyte upon their backs. Individually they may not seem up to much, but a big enough unit may be able to drag down a Space Marine or two.***
They may look like bayonet or shovel fodder, but they have a little trick up their spindly chitinous sleeves – they can increase the Synapse Range of your leader-beasts, such as the Hive Tyrant and Winged Tyranid Prime. It turns out those weird things on their backs are synaptic conduits.
Synapse is a crucial keyword in the new edition, as we explained in the recent Tyranid faction focus. It makes you much more likely to pass your Battle-shock tests, so your other bio-forms, such as the Haruspex and Termagants, can hold onto crucial objectives.****
These new bio-forms are just the vanguard of the Tyranid assault. We’ll be taking a look at some of the other creatures as we get closer to the release date of Warhammer 40,000: Leviathan. In the meantime, sign up for the new edition newsletter – there’s a Space Marine or Tyranid version, so you can choose your allegiance.
* Especially useful if you find yourself up against a rival Hive Fleet.
** And give the Barbgaunt its name – and we thought it was short for Barbara Gaunt.
*** Think of the kudos the Hive Mind will give you if you manage to mug a Terminator.
**** Vital for emerging victorious in a lot of missions.