When Tyranids invade, the Broodlord leads his followers into battle, often appearing from sewers or hidden vents to cause untold carnage amongst the enemy army.
Gargoyles are often the first wave of a Tyranid swarm to be seen in battle.
Biovores are living artillery pieces, swollen with the clutch of explosive Spore Mines that they nurture within their bodies. Upon anchoring itself to the ground with chitinous spurs, a Biovore undergoes violent spasms that expel its volatile offspring in high arcs as living ammunition. From there, the gas-bloated Spore Mines detonate in a shower of bone shards and acid rain, or else drift languidly down onto the battlefield, primed to explode whenever prey draws near.
Hormagaunts are swarming shock troops, seeded onto prey worlds in their billions. As simple hunter-slayer organisms, spawned Hormagaunts can be left to rampage across battlefields and populations, wearing down defence lines and forcing the prey to expend lives and ammunition. Many formidable bastions have been buried in literal mountains of these chitinous horrors, driven by the will of a terrible synapse beast.
Lictors are a sinister adaptation of the Tyranid Warrior bioform, specialising in infiltration, scouting, and assassination. Hidden by their chameleonic skin, these vanguard beasts stalk their prey beyond the reach of the Hive Mind's synaptic web, leading the greater swarm to fresh targets with a potent pheromone trail. Lictors pick off their prey opportunistically, always looking for a chance to crack open an unwary skull and use their feeder tendrils to suck out the secrets within.
Von Ryan’s Leapers are swift, agile Tyranid bioforms, cunning hunters and stealth ambushers that are especially lethal when fighting in dense terrain. Packs of Leapers lie in wait like living mines, lurking at the optimum locations to cause as much damage as possible. When they sense the perfect time to strike, they burst forth to butcher all around in a murderous frenzy.
Genestealers are peerless predators, swift vanguard organisms armoured in chitinous plates and possessed of terrifying strength and agility. Their broods move far ahead of the Tyranid hive fleets, to seek out fresh feeding grounds and spread their insidious genetic infection amongst the defenders. When the invasion swarms finally descend, the Genestealers burst from hiding to begin the slaughter.
For centuries beyond counting has the race of malevolent ratmen known as the skaven plagued the Mortal Realms. Arrogant, avaricious and utterly without mercy, the skaven seek to annihilate every other sapient creature – expanding, multiplying, and consuming everything in their path until they alone rule over the decaying husk of reality. Those who defy this vision are overwhelmed by swarms of frenzied, red-eyed warriors, weaponized plagues, monstrous beasts and lightning-spitting war machines. Arise, Children of the Great Horned Rat!
The Tyranids are an all-consuming alien swarm from beyond the known galaxy. Driven by the vast and ineffable intellect of the Hive Mind, their tendrils drive into fresh systems with every passing hour. These single-minded metapredators cannot be reasoned with, bought off, or put to flight. They seek only to strip each new world they encounter, devouring every shred of biomass to feed the relentless advance of the hive fleets and leaving dead, airless husks in their wake.
A Psychophage stampedes into battle at a frightening speed. They devour any prey organism in their paths, but especially favour those victims with psychic abilities. How they metabolise such esoteric powers is unclear, but doing so allows them to project surges of psychocorrosive ash that deflagrate their victims’ minds and souls.
The Deathleaper is a rare and advanced development of the Lictor strain, perfectly evolved to act as a terror weapon. This apex Lictor possesses an instinctive understanding of how to spread fear through hostile forces and prey populations alike, using its skills in stealth, infiltration, and assassination to sow paranoia and dread before the hive fleet attacks en masse.
Commanders of the Tyranid swarm, Hive Tyrants are the enactors of the Hive Mind's will. Massively powerful creatures, every part of their body is perfectly created to maim and kill.