The “Pure” Army rule, this enables you to pick a bespoke ability at the beginning of each battle round for each type of SYNAPSE creature you have on the Battlefield. Each can only be picke once per game, regardless of how many of that type you might have in your army, but all SYNAPSE creatures in your army then gain that special ability, granting it to all your units that are within 6”. These aren’t Auras, so can’t be affected by rules which modifier them, but likewise they don’t stack. The flexibility of these is strong, letting you decide what will best suit your army as the game goes on, and what might be needed at a certain time.
Of course, using one will shut it off for the rest of the game, and the unit dying stops it from being selected if they’re the only unit (outside of certain abilities), so timing is key. There is little point using a defensive ability if nothing in your army is under threat this turn, likewise an offensive ability might not be useful if you’re unlikely to be making attacks. You don’t have to use one each turn however, so you can always save one for later if it’s not going to be useful on a given turn.
Relentless Ferocity
HIVE TYRANTS grant Fall Back and Charge. Great for keeping the pressure on units, reactivating certain rules that trigger on Charges, or to avoid units being tarpitted and kept from their preferred targets. Ideal for turns 2 or 3, when most melee combat happens, and can be good as a preemptive deterrent to a melee focused force who might think twice if they charge in, only to find you moving off to shoot them from elsewhere and crash back in.
Predatory Guile
BROODLORDS give INFANTRY Light Cover, or Heavy Cover if they were already getting Light Cover. Being only applicable to INFANTRY limits this somewhat, and generally Warp Shielding will serve you better, but it acts a nice “secondary” Imperative once that has been used up, and especially when against armies with low AP across the board. Can also be useful for anticipating combat against units in cover, letting them have a slightly better Save against lighter melee.
Guidemind
TYRANID PRIMES give 6s explode with Ranged Attacks, provided they are attacking an enemy within 24”. A solid offensive boost, and despite the range limit will generally be applicable to most of your units as the game progresses. Just bear in mind that this will necessitate measuring on a model by model basis in some instances, though generally given the range of most Nid guns, if they’re in range to Shoot, they’ll likely be within 24”, outside of some of the heavier guns.
Surging Vitality
TERVIGONS grant +2” Mv, making for phenomenally fast armies. Great for board control, nabbing Objectives, getting into range or threatening charges, this is one of the more widely applicable abilities that pretty much all your units can make use of and benefit from in some way. Also one of the few where you don’t mind if they move out of the Imperative range that turn, lending you some flexibility in positioning that turn.
Psychic Augmentation
NEUROTHROPES grant +1 to Cast and Deny, as well as a 5+++ vs Mortal Wounds. Whilst all are quite niche, they will generally always find a use. You have a range of powerful Psychic abilities so bonuses to cast them will be handy to have when you need them off, whilst bonuses to Deny will help shut down key powers your opponent might try to cast, already difficult thanks to Shadow. The shrugs vs Mortals is a bit harder to leverage, but useful to have in those situations where weapons or abilities that are looking to do serious damage come to the fore, or even just to preempt explosions and the like.
Thrashing Demise
TRYGON PRIMES make everything explode! Ok not quite, but effectively any model with Death Throes will instead activate it on a 3+, and models without Death Throes roll a D6 when destroyed by a Melee attack, doing a Mortal Wound to the Attacker on a 6. One that’s definitely not usable every game, though it can be useful if you expect a big horde to be wiped out by a melee unit, and can be useful to get a last ditch “attack” out of a heavily damaged monster that turn.
Goaded to Slaughter
TYRANID WARRIORS give exploding 6s in Melee. A great offensive boost, obviously better for those already good in combat, turning your high attack units into veritable blenders, and can help spike your lower attack beasts with more output.
Psychic Oversight
MALECEPTORS let units Shoot and do Actions, do Actions when they Fall Back or Advance, and PSYKERS can do Psychic Actions and still cast. Whilst quite specific, this can be very powerful with the right build and Secondaries, letting you score on the missions without sacrificing board control and ranged output. A few things to note, you can only Fall Back and Shoot whilst doing an Action if you have a rule to do so, though Advancing, doing an Action and shooting Assault Weapons is fair game. Additionally, the wording for the Psychic Actions bit is a bit odd, as it states it doesn’t prevent you from manifesting Psychic Powers, which can be interpreted as being able to do a Psychic Action and cast your full complement of Powers (where similar rules state you can still manifest a Psychic Power). Check with TO/Opponents before doing a Psychic Action then casting 2 powers with a Tyrant, for example.
Warp Shielding
ZOANTHROPES give units a 5++, or a 4++ if they’re a MONSTER. So let’s not beat about the bush, this is an autotake. You will take a unit of Zoanthropes to unlock this, it’s so wildly good it has overtaken the Custodes points drops in the “Well that’s busted” Award category of 2022. If positioned correctly this affords an insane bump in survivability for your army, letting your smaller bugs not care about AP, your midrange bugs get a nice boost in toughness, and you Monsters be ludicrously hard to put down for a turn. Useful in almost any turn and against any army, the only downside is when to use it, but generally you can’t go wrong with Turn 2 when most things will be in range and line of sight, and when combat is starting to happen. The most autotake of autotakes in the history of autotakes.
Swift Onslaught
PARASITES OF MORTREX give +3” to Pile In and Consolidates, to a max of 9”. Great for swarming over a foes battlelines, maximising attacks, tying up multiple units or those that thought themselves safe this turn, and just pressing your advantage after fighting resolves. Not always going to be useful depending on army build, but handy to have up your sleeve, especially if you anticipate lots of combat due to resolve in a given turn.
