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| Not quite a Tyranid, but at least he's got a cool hat. |
Let's get started on why I like him so much. For a measly investment of 140 points, you get a BS/WS 8, S/T 4, W3, I7, A 4, dude with a 4++. Not to mention that he comes stock-standard with pseudo-invisibility, forcing enemies shooting or attacking him in close combat to resolve their attacks at WS/BS 1.
He also comes with Psyk-Out grenades, a neat little trick to dampen those pesky Grey Knights or Eldar Jetseers if they get the charge on you.
Not only that, the dude is completely saturated with special rules. He's got Infiltrate, Fear, Fearless, Infiltrate, Life Drain, Move Through Cover, Preferred Enemy Psyker, and more assassin-specific ones, such as Psychic Abomination, which causes all psykers within 12" to drop -3 Ld, and denies them from generating warp charges. Plus it makes those psykers unable to cast powers on a 4+, requiring a 6+ instead.
His gun, the Animus Speculum, is really where it's at. This is a S5 AP1 Assault X weapon with an 18" range. It fired a number of shots equal to the combined mastery levels of all Psykers within 12" of him, plus you can pay up to three warp dice from your pool to add that many shots as well. Against a Psyker-heavy army, this thing can really bring the pain.
In Close Combat, he has the rule Life Drain, which means that enemies get no armor saves, and all wound rolls of 6 cause instant death. All right, but wait, there's more! If he's fighting a Psyker in Close Combat all wounds cause Instant Death.
So yeah, he's a beast. But why use him in a Tyranid army? He's a "Come the Apocalypse" ally, so we must have no synergy, right?
Wrong! The limits of Come the Apocalypse are nothing compared to the gain this guy can bring to our army. First of all, via infiltration, we won't need to worry about the deployment restrictions that Come the Apocalypse infringes on us.
The true synergy comes in the form of utilizing our naturally psychic army lists. The best Tyranid units are psykers, and that's good. To make the best use of this model you'll need to be adding extra shots to his Animus Speculum every turn, and having Warp Charges to spare will be very helpful. Not only that, but since Tyranid powers aren't really all that amazing, it's not the end of the world if one of our psykers finds itself within 12" of it. The leadership debuff won't effect our Psykers, since they're (almost) all Synapse Creatures anyway. The only real downside is that you won't want your units within 6" of the Assassin, or you run the risk of having one of them forget to do anything.
Speaking of Leadership debuffs, the -3 Ld to Psykers that he causes stacks with Shadows in the Warp's -3 Ld. Let me tell you, Grey Knights aren't as scary at Ld 3.
One combo that I've found to be particularly devastating has been using the new Neurothrope's Spirit Leech on a psyker unit within 12" of the Culexus. It's one of the few ways to simply erase a Paladin or Jetseer Squad. Plus, those wounds can be siphoned into more warp charges for the Zoanthrope brood to blow up some armor with warp lance!
This guy is also pretty great as an anti-meta jammer. Stick him into combat with a Centurion Star, and enjoy watching him murder his way through an expensive DeathStar unit, while shutting down the Psychic powers of the attached Tigerius.
Beyond all synergies and combos, this unit is simply a well priced and powerful addition to the Army. The awkwardness in avoiding its 12" bubble is offset by it's incredible damage output and board control abilities, and I sincerely doubt I'll stop taking it anytime soon.
Tune in soon, I'll be talking about making your own Tyranid version of the model, and discussing my fluff/backstory for just what this crazy anti-psyker thing is doing in my army.
-Vitsika
Hopefully the model building thing is out soon...this looks promising
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