HQ Review: Deathleaper, the Most Powerful Warlord in the Game

Today we’ll be talking about the best HQ in the game: Deathleaper. The ability to assassinate any unit in the game is his key role within the Tyranid codex. He is able to do this through a myriad of different special rules, incredible stat line, and the element of surprise. While playing the leaper, it is suggested to yell, “I’m a rogue, I’m a rogue” while playing the theme song to Assassin's Creed in order to get yourself in the correct mindset.

To begin, we have to first understand Deathleaper’s warlord trait. With this warlord trait you maximize Deathleaper’s deadliness, getting yourself two victory points for slaying enemy independent characters. This amazing ability allows Deathleaper to sway the victory point game in your favor. One would not even need to worry about capturing points; instead, one could protect Deathleaper, and he will win the game for you. With his combination of scything talons, rending claws, and flesh hooks, Deathleaper is able to assassinate almost any character in the game. The only creatures Deathleaper need look out for are demon princes who outspeed him and greater demons who also out speed him. But all other characters need fear Deathleaper, for he is the assassin who stalks his prey from the shadows ("I'm a rogue, I'm a rogue!").

Deathleaper’s huge amount of special rules allow him to dart in and out of combat, slicing foes to death and achieving a massive amount of victory points through the use of his warlord trait. He is a very quick character, especially due to his instinctive behavior which will allow him to, 50% of the time, ignore the detrimental effects of difficult terrain. This instinctive behavior allows Deathleaper to run in and out of combat and through difficult terrain to his next foe, and thus his next set of victory points. Deathleaper should always be the warlord of your army to take full advantage of his instinctive behavior and his warlord trait. More importantly, Deathleaper is able to start on the field in a building. If your foe goes first, Deathleaper is capable of performing a turn one assault, striking fear (quite literally) into the hearts of all he meets.

Deathleaper is also one of the greatest tanks in the game. He achieves this through his special rule that forces enemies to only take snapshots at him along with his stealth special rule. This makes it to where he almost always has a save and forces his enemies to only take snapshots at him. This makes him immune to flamer templates, ordinance weapons, and blast weapons. That is over half of the weapon types in the game! The very fact that GW would allow a character to have such a broken rule amazes me and makes me wonder if they wanted everybody to play this fantastic character.

However, there is still more to say about Deathleaper. Deathleaper is able to ruin any psyker in the game through a combination of synapse creatures in his employment and his special rule that lowers the leadership of an enemy character for the entire game while Deathleaper is alive by D3. This is an amazing set of rules that has the potential of forcing enemy psykers to leadership four, essentially only giving them a 25% chance to succeed in casting their psychic power without taking a wound from perils. This is amazing considering the power of psykers in sixth edition. Being able to effectively neutralize a psykers on the enemy side of the field is worth the points Deathleaper costs alone, especially if it is an enemy Demon Prince, greater demon, or Rune Priest.

It is obvious that GW wanted Tyranids to be the premier codex of sixth edition. With this beast of a commander that is capable of assassinating any enemy in his path, disappear like the wind, tank entire armies worth of shooting with his snap fire rule, and ruin enemy psykers, Deathleaper is just another powerful tool in the hands of the Hive Mind.

Tyranids Review: Instinctive Behavior

  

     


          Tyranids are here! And with their arrival comes a set of powerful new abilities that have the ability to change the metagame as we know it. Synapse and instinctive behavior have the capability of being game changing swings in how we play the game. One could say that the Tyranids gained a combination of chapter tactics and powerful dodging skills! In this article we will examine the new and powerful skills added to the new Tyranids codex.

          Lurk is an instinctive behavior table that lends itself towards mobile shooting Tyranid armies. Moving a squad of Lurkers out of synapse can immediately save the squad from imminent assaults and back to key victory points and objectives. Being capable of having better control over whether or not your squads are assaultable or having the ability to make a made dash back to objectives is amazing in order to place more fluid pressure on your opponent whenever you wish. With luck the skill turns from a modified version of God of War from our friend Marneus Calgar into a superior movement skill that allows the unit to better reach objectives or for the unit to reach a better strategic point for assaulting or laying waste on the foe with massed shooting. Finally if the unit in question is on the high end of rolling is not only capable of placing themselves in a better position to lay waste to the opponent, the unit is also able to bolster their defenses by increasing cover save with the newly acquired Stealth rule. A wily player will be able to fully abuse this new iteration of the instinctive behavior in order to fully crush their foes. The Iron Clad Smurf lord of McCrage only wishes that he was capable of giving out this new mega form of God of War to his units!

          Hunt, while not readily apparent as to why it is so good, is a fabulous ability for not only its tactical advantage over your foes but by also showing the depth of the codex itself. The new Tyranids codex is so deep that it isn't just a set of rules to be followed. This new codex is a partner to play with! With the new hunt instinctive behavior, you are placing your trust in not only your own strategic mind but the codex helps in its own ways by making its own decisions! With the first half of hunt the unit falls to the ground, making it possible for flying hunters to ground themselves immediately in order to avoid pesky space marine stalker cannons and hunter (no relation of course) missiles along with any skyfire special rules units. This go to ground movement will also increase the cover save of the unit, thus making it more defensible and tougher than it normally would be. The next result forces the unit in question to allocate its shooting toward the closest enemy unit within line of site to the the hunters. This creates a partnership between codex and player: two minds, one purpose. The total destruction of their foes. This is especially noticeable in the last port of instinctive behavior: hunt's skill set: giving the unit preferred enemy. Now not only is the player united with their codex to destroy their foe, but they are also able to destroy the foe even more efficiently. Giving preferred enemy to a unit makes a decent unit good and makes a good unit great. Giving preferred enemy to your shooting hunters will cause total destruction to your foes from your volley of unstoppable shots.

          Feed is the assault version of Hunt, causing a partnership between player and codex. However, unlike hunt which makes it easier to survive and perform shooting abilities, feed creates scenarios for assaulting and counter-assaulting. For the first half of feeds effects a player can better control enemy assaulting zones without giving up movement. By removing synapse zone and rolling for the first half of feed's results the player is able to remove the first layer of their own troops to better control the flow of assaults. For example, if a unit of Hormagaunts is soon to be set upon by enemy Assault Terminators then the Tyranid player is able to effectively remove an inch or two from the Assault Terminators effective charge distance by feeding his or her own gaunts to one another, staying out of combat and allowing the gaunts to either perform a counter-charge along with another unit or to run away and secure an objective and let a heavier hitter to take out the Terminators. The second portion of feed's rules allows the player to allow the codex make a decision as to what to assault. This allows the player to focus on more pressing matters on the field such as strategic placement for the rest of their units and proper dice rolling technique. The final roll of feed is very similar to the results of the rolls of four and five. However, this roll also makes assault more devastating for your opponent by conferring rage to the unit, giving them far greater destructive power in assault and giving up to a whopping 30 additional attacks in on the charge. That is an amazing amount of extra attacks given to a unit for free. Space Marine players would kill to get an additional 30 attacks on the charge, Demons would pay extra points for that right, and Tau simply are terrified of the prospect of being overrun by that many attacks.

          The new Tyranids codex gives players the opportunity to get three sets of special, extra rules for free. An envy to any other codex in the game when you consider how good these abilities are, even more desirable when you consider that all of these rules are capable of being on the field at once! The Space Marines are limited to their single Chapter Tactics, Dark Angels are known for being stubborn, and the Eldar were blessed with Battle Focus. However all of those pale in comparison to the new overlords of the table when you consider that the Tyranids were given three books worth of special rules for their army that are usable all at the same time! The new Tyranids codex is looking to be the best codex release of the 2014.