New Tyranids 9th Edition 40k Rules: War Zone Octarius

By Travis Pasch | October 14th, 2021 | Categories: Games Workshop, rules, Tabletop Gaming News, Tyranids, Warhammer 40k

New Tyranids 9th Edition 40k rules are here including Synapse and Hive Fleet rules that are coming in War Zone Octarius!

With the book coming before too long, you know GW had to preview some of the new 40k rules for Tyranids. This time, they show the new Synaptic Links for two units but they do say all larger bioforms will receive the links, so hopefully, this will be a pretty decent buff.

Warhammer Community just unveiled the new rules and just as we’ve seen with the other armies, you can pay a few extra points to upgrade your character bugs to have some extra abilities. Let’s get into the rules!

New Tyranids 9th Edition 40k Rules: War Zone Octarius

War Zone Octarius Book 1: Rising Tide is the next major narrative supplement for Warhammer 40,000, covering the formation of the Cordon Impenetra and the Imperium’s desperate attempts to keep the war contained. Octarius is packed full of both lore and rules for the armies involved, including new Armies of Renown and Codex Supplements.

Since we just saw the conclusion of Warzone Charadon in its second book, this strongly suggests this will be a recurring theme. While we now know about Octarius, and that it could be the same number (or more) of books as Charadon, it might be safe to assume more Warzone “sectors” will follow.

New Tyranids 40k Rules: Synaptic Links

They previewed these new Synaptic Links rules for two units but they do say all larger bioforms will receive the links, so hopefully, this will be a pretty decent buff.

Synaptic Links allow larger Tyranid bioforms to extend a portion of their innate strengths to nearby units. Each synapse creature has its own unique ability, so stealthy Broodlords can guide swarms of chittering beasties through the shadows making your squishier units much more resistant to gunfire as they creep within clawing range of the enemy.

Giving the benefits of light and heavy cover all the time, then giving them dense cover over 12″ is really strong. Hopefully, this helps your Genestealers survive long enough to get into combat!

Meanwhile, sinister Neurothropes can project an aura of psychic dread through fast-moving units, like flocks of Gargoyles, ensuring a weakened enemy unit is liable to flee from the field no matter where they are.

This isn’t the craziest one ever but for 15 points it’s not bad. Maybe they’ll be the codex to really try and take advantage of enemy Morale.

Buy one get one Free! Choose from hundreds of minis now!

How it Works:

You can choose any unit within the Synaptic Link Range as the target, normally 12” around the unit with the ability. Better still, because the Hive Mind can flow freely through the brains of its many bioforms, other Synapse units boost the range of the ability merely by being within 12”, even if they don’t have that specific buff themselves.

This is a nice way to do it because you can basically have your different Synaptic Links all across your army. Just keep your bigger bugs within 12″ of each other and you’re giving buffs to all kinds of units. This also makes the Neurothropes’ rule much better.

If they are within 12″ of a Synaptic creature who is within 6″ of the enemy, the debuff will be applied.

Synaptic Hive Blades

These blades turn a Hive Tyrant or Tyranid Prime into an absolute nightmare for enemy Characters, especially when using the new Gestalt Commander Warlord Trait to borrow the raw power of Behemoth or regenerative abilities of Hydra.

There aren’t too many items that cut through Invulnerable saves, so this is pretty strong because of the number of models you can take it on. Especially if you’re facing armies who have them on almost every mini!

Gestalt Commander

Can’t decide which of the new Warlord Traits you want to take? Why not have two with the Alpha Leader-Beast Stratagem? For just 1 Command point, your Tyranid Prime can dial the melee prowess of an accompanying squad of Tyranid Warriors up to 11 with Swarm Leader, ensuring anything they attack has the worst possible day.

This is pretty sweet, allowing you to adapt to the game as it goes on. Plus, this is just fun, but it’s something else you’ll have to remember at the start of each battle round. So, you can just wait until you realize you need something and change.

Swarm Leader

Re-rolling hits are always something really strong, and if you get this off on a unit with a ton of attacks, it could really make the difference. Plus, the aura is 9″, so you’ll have even more flexibility.