In line with quarterly detachment releases teased at Grotmas, we have once again received a set of new rules for several armies direct from Games Workshop! In this series we’re looking at these new detachments, covering what’s in them, how they play, and how they’ll fit into the broader meta and your games.
Lowest of Men: Hello bug lovers! G Dubs has seen fit to bless us with a new rules organism for the devotees of the Tyranids, in the form of the Subterranean Assault detachment. At first glance, this is a really dynamic and fun set of rules that will offer some real depth and power on the table as well. Exactly where it will land (or more fittingly, emerge) remains to be seen but there is a lot here to enjoy, and it is very different to the other detachments currently available for the Hivemind! Let’s dive into it.
We’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a preview copy of these rules for Review purposes.
Edit: What we weren’t a preview copy of was the updated Raveners datasheet, so check back soon for an updated version of this article which incorporates that.
Detachment Overview: Subterranean Assault
The Subterranean Assault is all about the dastardly undermining critters of the Tyranids, Trygon, Mawlocs and (we presume) Raveners, that spring from below to launch assaults and get around enemy defences. These are some of the coolest and most flavourful models in the Tyranid range, but we haven’t seen much of the big bugs of late. Raveners have thrived, but are getting new models and (presumably) new rules soon – so they remain an unknown variable here for the time being.
At first glance, this detachment does a VERY good job of making the underground bugs (henceforth Burrowers) relevant, and will pose some very scary questions of opponents on the tabletop. You gain the ability to launch surprise assaults from reserves danger close to the enemy, propped up by a new tunnel network created by your burrower bugs. This, along with a few nifty redeploy and damage boosts, should allow you to pose a very direct and flexible threat to the opponent in ways Invasion Fleet often struggles to.
Subterranean Assault brings some of the drop, punch, redeploy energy of Chaos Daemons to an army with a wider range of tricks and units at it’s disposal, and it has some of the trickery and a little bit of rules overlap with Vanguard Onslaught, but actually opens up far more combination plays across the entire Tyranid model range – I think this detachment is going to see a lot of exploration and play. If it lacks for anything, it’s durability – there are no real defensive buffs here, as the detachment is trading on offensive positioning and reach. This seems entirely reasonable to me, but Nids aren’t always the most durable of armies, so it’ll be interesting to see how it gets on.
Detachment Rule: Surprise Assault
The detachment rule is, in fact, TWO detachment rules. Perhaps one hatched out of the other in gribbly circumstances in transit from GW, who knows.
The first one is a straight up boost to Tyranid offence – the entire army gains rerolls of one to hit, in both shooting and combat. This is great – rerolls aren’t especially common in the army, and there are plenty of melee and shooting units that absolutely love having their efficiency smoothed out. But wait! It gets better!
Trygon and Mawlocs in your army gain the Burrower keyword (I’m not a betting man, but if I were, the new Raveners will probably have this as well). Burrowers allow you to place Tunnel Markers on their arrival from reserves, within 1 inch of them and 3 away from enemy units. Subsequent Tyranid units arriving from reserves can come in within 9 of the Tunnel Marker, and 6 inches away from enemy units.
If any recent Deathshroud related experiences are speaking to you as you read this, don’t worry, that’s exactly what that means. 6 inch charges out of reserve, and danger close reinforcements. There are no limits on the kinds of units that can use the tunnels, so an entire universe of applications and options awaits.
Enemy units can destroy the tunnels by moving within 3 of them – so the failure case here will be losing your Burrower units and tunnels too trivially before bringing the army to bear. That said, I think this detachment rule gives you a lot of ways to apply some quite obscene pressure to the opponent, and it will be a screening nightmare from the get go. There are still some unknowns here – Raveners being able to do this makes the detachment rule MUCH more flexible and the angles of attack more diverse – so we shall have to wait and see!
As a nice little bonus, you can make two Trygons characters in this detachment. Just as well, as there are some enhancements that would look good on them. Shall we have a gander?
Enhancements
The enhancements are a spread of buffs both strategic and violent, and I think there is plenty here to get Nids players excited.
- Synaptic Strategy (15 pts): Allows a Tyranid model to Ingress for 0 CP, even if something else already has. Lovely for applying a load of additional pressure to a point on the board and launching an assault mid game.
- Tremor Senses (20 pts): Allows you to redeploy three Tyranid units after deployment including into reserves. Abilities like this are key for breaking the usual reserves limits and taking full advantage of the tunnel system.
- Vanguard Intellect (20 pts): Allows the bearer to come in from reserves in the first battle round. First turn Ingress? Check. First turn tunnel set up from a new character Trygon? Absolutely. Very nice to have.
- Trygon Prime (15 pts): Gives a Trygon a boost to it’s weapon skill and strength. Trygons punch pretty hard, and Strength 11 attacks hitting on 2s rerolling 1s? Those punch even harder.
Honestly, the challenge here will be deciding which ones to take – every single one of these is cool, thematic, and useful. An absolute slam dunk and all stuff that will help you fine tune the tunnel based playstyle.
Stratagems
Much like the enhancements, the stratagems here feel very on flavour, and very impactful. The only thing really lacking here is durability boosts, and that is absolutely fair enough.
- Adaptive Optimization (1 CP): Give a Mawloc or Trygon Synapse in your Command Phase. Sometimes clutch, often irrelevant, definitely nice to have for setting up those big Shadows turns.
- Tunnel Network (1 CP): End of your movement phase, remove a Tyranids unit from within 9 of one Tunnel Marker, and set it up within 9 of another, 6 away from enemy models. Beautiful, brutal redeployment mid turn, you love to see it.
- Replenishing Swarms (1 CP): A movement phase healing stratagem, restoring D3+1 wounds, or D3+1 1 wound models to a unit within 9 of a Tunnel Marker. Extremely good, and carries primary flipping potential via the smaller bugs.
- Swarming Assault (1 CP): A Charge phase stratagem to let a monster hand out charge rerolls to everybody within 6. When you launch your big assault from the Tunnels, you can smooth out that variance en masse – another awesome tool.
- Enfilading Emergence (1 CP): End of your movement phase, hand out SUSTAINED ONE and IGNORES COVER to a Tyranid unit that emerged from reserves this turn. Not melee or shooting locked – you will use this an awful lot.
- Retreat Below (1 CP): Classic end of opponent’s fight phase return to reserves, two units if Burrower units. Brilliant, and another way to reapply pressure somewhere later on.
Every single stratagem here is great, and with Hive Tyrants you have a good CP economy to exploit them. Really strong rules writing, and an entire suite of tools you can expect to use across a game consistently.
Playing This Detachment
How is this thing going to play? Well, it really is up to the Tyranid player. Being able to pop out Tyranid units all across the board via Tunnels (effectively giving selective deep strike to units that previously had to rely on Strategic Reserves) opens up a world of possibilities. You could go hard on big bugs like Maleceptors, Haruspex and Screamer-Killers, hell, even a cheeky Norn, led by Trygon and Mawlocs to come in danger close and start punching. You could throw hordes of OC little bugs straight from the tunnels onto the objectives and drown the opponent in OC. You could take a Vanguard Onslaught type direction and use it to surprise deliver Genestealers and Tyranid Warriors – there really are almost endless combinations to be explored.
One thing you will categorically need though are Burrowers to make it work – in that sense it is a detachment that will want multiple Trygon (probably a couple as characters to take advantage of the enhancements), and Mawlocs too. These will help everything else function, and hopefully in the future we can add Raveners to that mix as well. It’s going to be a wild ride watching Tyranids players figure out interesting combinations to pull off with this, but the tunnelling big bugs will certainly be at the heart of it. Because the stratagems are so good I can definitely see a Hive Tyrant being a good take as well, to help keep all the movement tricks and damage flowing.
Once you’ve got your suite of tools assembled, you will be launching tunnel attacks to hit the opponent in weak spots, building up a network of tunnel markers so you can relocate and bring in future reserves, and trying to apply plenty of pressure and damage to establish a strong position in the game. The balance between on-board presence and tunnel units will be something to iterate on over time, depending on the meta! I expect to see a quite wild diversity of builds for this one, and I can’t wait.
A Note on Lists
Normally we’d have a list in here, but in this case we want to wait on whatever rules updates are coming for Raveners with Kill Team so we have the full picture, since that will have a big impact on what a list for this detachment looks like!
Strengths
- Sensational delivery and mobility: Being able to launch assaults from 6 away from reserves repeatedly across a game is a huge delivery boost to the Tyranids, who have loads of units that struggle a bit to get into the game at times. You should have far more say in where the fight happens.
- Very strong enhancements and stratagems:Â All the supporting tricks here are brilliant, and give you tonnes of flexibility, damage, and repositioning potential. Being able to juice up Trygon as characters is great, and there is absolutely no filler here.
- Works with the entire Tyranid range:Â Although there is obviously a Burrower focus for the core mechanics here, the actual application of power in this detachment is probably the most flexible Tyranids have outside of Invasion Fleet, and I think this will be a big relief to the Hivemind community.
Weaknesses
- Durability:Â There are no defensive buffs here. This is absolutely fine, and you get an awful lot else to compensate, but it does mean a lot of the builds out the gate will be going in without defensive tricks that are typically present in Tyranid lists. You will need to hit hard on your terms, as the clap-back will sting. That will take some getting used to.
- Board space: Like any detachment that hinges on reserves delivery and 6 inch deep striking, it will need space to play. Very expansive and aggressive armies, or 12-inch no deep-strike auras, especially going first, may give it trouble getting a foothold in the game. Welcome to the GSC life, mum!
- Relentless comparison with Invasion Fleet:Â I couldn’t think of a third weakness, so here is a direct plea to you, Tyranid community – I know what you’re like. Embrace this for what it is, and don’t lose sleep running over some napkin maths that tells you Invasion Fleet is just better, or whatever. Go and smash monsters around, make tunnel markers and have fun. Life is too short!
Final Thoughts
There you are Tyranid players – at the very least, this detachment is a very different, and very dynamic way to play the army, opening up mobility and delivery for a bunch of units that struggled for it before, but the potential here is far greater. I think it can fuel a whole host of different styles of play, depending how hard into melee or shooting you go, the flexibility of being able to open up new lines of attack is incredible, and will absolutely body unwary opponents. Exactly how strong it will be remains to be seen, but it feels exciting, and should get your creative juices flowing. Enjoy!
Lowest of Men, out.
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