Adeptus Ridiculous - TYRANID BIOFORMS: From Tiny to Chunky (Neurolictor is in this one) | Warhammer 40k Lore

Episode Date: July 26, 2023

https://www.patreon.com/AdeptusRidiculoushttps://www.adeptusridiculous.com/https://twitter.com/AdRidiculoushttps://orchideight.com/collections/adeptus-ridiculousThe Tyranids, also known as The Great Devourer are an extragalactic alien race, whose sole purpose is the consumption of all forms of genetic and biological material in order to evolve and reproduce. Tyranid technology is based entirely on biological engineering. Every function is carried out by living, engineered creatures, each of which collectively forms the Hive Fleet, directed by a single Hive Mind. The Tyranid swarm is endless and constantly evolving, and in any given Hive Fleet there are an endless variety of creatures that have been incorporated into the Swarm. Certain Tyranid units are considered Synapse Creatures, whose job it is to control the lesser species within the swarm and exert the will of the Hive Mind.Support the show

Welcome everybody to another episode of the Adeptus Ridiculous podcast. My name is D.K. DiMontes. His name is Bricky. You know the drill. Warhammer 40K. We love it. You love it. Let's learn about it.

But before we do, if you enjoyed today's episode, head over to the Patreon. Patreon.com slash Adeptus Ridiculous, where you can get access to the Discord, the bloopers, if they happen, HD posters at the $15 tier. It's great. Please consider the following. Patreon.com slash adeptus ridiculous. Let's Ricky, take this thing away. The music of the third mats have been restocked. Let's go.

That man is sick. Yeah, that went really quick. So we have restocked them. They are back. So if you missed out on that, grab them while you can. I bought not the same amount as I bought the first time. But I bought like a good amount. So like, well, we sold up like a week.

Just do it, do it pretty quick, you know? Yeah, yeah, get on it. You want to get on it. they sell it real quick. So, you know, maybe very quickly go to the merch store and very quickly click, click, click, click, click. Perfect. All right. So, uh, stuff. Stuff. I love stuff. Things. Things. Options. Ideas. Ideas. Concepts. Concepts is a good one. Concepts is a pretty good one.

Any other ideas? Uh, no. Why? I, I just figured we were going to be like, hey everybody, here's a quote that DK's gonna miss, let's all have fun laughing. I mean, yeah. Sweet. So very, very, very close to what's gonna actually happen.

I mean, I mean, there's the certain possibility for that one. However, I don't know if there's particularly a very good quote that I can use for this one without making it way too obvious. Oh, you mean obvious? Like, ah, the

bolt gun at the start of your quote and then yeah like that oh okay oh i have i have one i found one all right um this is an enforcer on a on a hive uh epsilon hive the enforcers um the enforcers um well to the only i guess this is a this isn't really a quote this is more of like an excerpt from like a book or a codex so it's not like a quote but whatever um The torchlight showed up a trail of blood leading to the back room. So like a fool, I followed it. Lying in the darkness was one of the smaller ones. Its jaws distended around the torso of what I assume used to be the father.

He was still convulsing. In my horror, I shoot the victim first. Big mistake. Ooh, yuck. Oh, this sounds gross. But I think I got it. What is it? I'm pretty confident in this one.

It's the combi-bolter. For sure. 100% locking it in. You're really gonna do me like this. You're really gonna do me like this. Yes, sir. You think I wasn't gonna bring it up at all. Man, I was waiting for that.

I really hoped we would just move right past that. Oh, good sir. Do you not know me at all? I know you got a shit memory, so I assumed you wouldn't. I assumed the same thing when it happened. I was like, that sounds like a dumb thing that I would forget. Sure. Mm-mm-mm.

Mm-hmm. Let me, let me begin my two-step apology. Step one, get step two. That being said, as far as this quote, is concerned. It's some kind of crazy Zenos that is eating a person and immediately takes control of them. I don't know if it's like a Tyrannid or if it's

just some kind of weird Xenos alien thing that I don't know about or some like zombie disease thing that's like the tyrannid cultists, the genes steals. I don't know if it's like something like that, but it's some weird Zenos alien

eating controlled thing zomifies the body or whatever. Yeah, it's tyrannids. Okay, so it is just, okay. Okay. I mean, there's a million of them, but they're almost all just so obvious. Like, you know, they talk about bioships or like the tide of creatures and all this kind of stuff. It doesn't really work out if you try to do something different.

I do like this one. There is a sorcerer of the Chaos Black Legion War Bam that says, this is our galaxy, ours to corrupt, ours to enslave. The gods will not be denied their prize. So you better not eat all of us because screw you. Shy said she has one too. Ooh. Do you want to read? Do you want me to read it?

Yeah, you can do it. All right. As I looked into its dead black eyes, I saw the terrible sentience it had in place of a soul. Ooh. Behind that was the steel will of its leader. Further still, I could feel its primogenitor coldly assessing me from the void. And looking back from the deep. recesses of the alien's mind, I perceived what I can only describe as an immortal hunger.

We can slay them on our worlds, blast their fleets from space, grind their armies to torn and ruin fragments, but their hunger, that's beyond our ability to slay. Ooh, that's a great quote. I mean, it's very obviously Tyrann. It's like, you're not fooling anybody in 40K into thinking that's anything but Nid's, but, ooh, that's a spicy Nid's quote. There's a couple of those. I always really enjoyed the one from the,

the last words of the, the Magas, I think before the, like the first tyrannid thing. The whole, we cannot live through this. Mankind cannot live through this. In a single day, they have covered the surface of this planet with a flood of living blades and needle fanged mouths. This is the end.

It's like, death by the machine god, death is here. It's really good. Anyway, today is the one of the one a full situation in which I'm like, ooh, this is good research. You know, Shai had the idea of like, why don't we, we haven't really done tyrannid bio forms yet, like the individual griblies of the tyrantids models and units. The gribleys. The gribleys.

The gribleys. Like the sort of main tyrannid units that just like overwhelm you, I assume, or like just little griblies? Well, just like tyrannid bio, like, unit, tyrannid units in general. Oh, okay. We haven't really done one. that's just like like full on just tyrannids like all the little little small boys and the big boys and the and the itty bitty boys and inner city boys must be boys have we talked about the norn emissaries

since they came out because it's we haven't recorded an episode in a minute are you referring to since they came out with the model with the minis yeah or minis yeah minis um no we haven't but there hasn't been any more lore involved in the non emissaries those are so sick oh they're so they're so So sick. Oh, my God. And talking about tier-knit minis, all I can think is like, oh, man, those Norn are so great. That mini is so cool. Oh, my God.

So in preparation for research for this episode, I was like, oh, I can't fit these all in one and go. I just can't. There's that many? There are so many nids. So I was going to instead mainly cover the small griblies and the medium grimmies. Okay. And then I thought maybe next week we'll cover all the big griblies and the bigger, bigger grublies and the big griblies.

Mm, the monster match. Which has gone from from from gribly to grobbly or grubly. Gribbly, grubly. I feel like grubly should be the smaller ones, right? Because it has the word grub in it. And then it goes to grible and then grobly. Um, I was considering covering the Nero-Lichter, yeah. Oh, no.

No, you will get us to monitor. shy you will be the one who gets us demonetized i will not i if we just talk about the model we'll be fine it's you're the problem you're the one causing issues you know in all fairness shy's usually the one that keeps us monetized because she is the one censoring us out most of the time to be sure we slip up and you know we say a little something a little little as the kids say out of pocket uh she's usually the one that like rains that in so i i don't know i don't think she get us to monetize. No, shy spent too much time on the internet and she is seeing things that aren't actually

there and stuff. So we'll. Improper meme shows up on screen. All right. So anyway, let's talk about tiered biophorms. Let us start with the tiniest one I can think of, the tiniest one possible. That is not fired out of a gun. Oh, no.

Because there's a million that are fired out of guns, but those are... The Ripper Swarms. Oh, wow. The Rippers. And they're the smallest, huh? I love myself a cute little Ripper Swarm. They're also known as a little ankle biters. Oh, man, they already sound awful.

Like, the smallest, most insignificant... Oh, yeah, that's about what I was thinking they'd look like. Just this absolute swarm of little, like, oh, my... piranha bugs. Yeah. So, Ripper Swarms are like about the size of like a large house cat to about the size of like a medium dog.

Ripper Swarms and they they scurry around the ground with the primary means of like, they say like small maggot-like species, but they're much larger than maggots. Yeah. But they're like maggots for the Tiranids, I suppose. Yeah, comparatively speaking there, yeah. Dan, that one guardsman is trying. Yeah.

It's an orc. Sorry, it's an ork. I thought he was covered in dudes. That orc is trying. Yeah, he's so dead. There's no shot. So the, the whippersorms are pretty stupid. Of course. The minas is adorable.

Oh, that's kind of cute. I don't want one of those as a pet. Okay, let's back. Not really, though. Like, you know, a domesticated one of those. Sure. So they're totally mindless, just totally brainless, and they are entirely moved around by the wheel of the hive mind

and the synaptic link. Once the synaptic link is cut, they just kind of flat out die. But these, because most tyranids like can still operate on their own without a synaptic link, they have become way stupider. It's kind of like, oh, they're eating a guardsman. Oh, gross. Like, it's kind of like, I don't know, if you were in a war zone

and you just lost all comms. Oh, yeah, you'd be in big trouble. It depends on which, like, bug, though. Like, like, river swarm will just flat out die. Yeah. It just, like, loses its link and goes, blah. But mainly their entire job is to eat things. They are often deployed either to do a couple of things.

One, to get through, like, little vents. Oh, you just had to do it, didn't you? I had to do it. I thought about it for a second. to get through like little vents or areas and kind of like swarm in through special spots where things can't reach. But more primarily, they are meant to eat the planet. They are sent in at the end and they just scurry across the ground, consuming all and every little ounce of biomass they possibly can.

And when they become too big and fat to be combat ready anymore, they will slowly make their way back to the big reclamation pool. and jump into it and redissolve themselves back into the thing. Yikes. But Bricky, what if I get off the ground? Will I be safe? Of course not, shy, because there's also a variation of the Ripper called the Sky Slashers. Oh, no, it's a ripper swarm with wings.

It's a cute little forge world flying Ripper Swarms. So let's say you've got yourself a nice little floating fortress. Sucks to suck, man. Those look a little bit bigger, actually, than just the regular Ripper swarms. Yeah, because they have wings. No, I mean, just like their bodies in general. Like, if you took off the wings, they look like they'd be, like, bigger Ripper Swarms. Maybe a little bit longer, sure.

Maybe, yeah. Also, it's weird. They only throw in the Ripper Swarms after the fight. They're not, like, during the fight. Because I feel like you could really screw some people up by just sending in a swarm of these things. Because they're just so numerous, like, yeah, you can try and shoot all of them, but uh-uh. And once they get to you, they're just

going to eat you alive and just turn you to a skeleton when they overwhelm you. Considering the fact that there are orcs currently fighting ripper swarms in the upper picture, they are used for combat. It's just their primary their primary focus

is to be the end. Because once, you know, it's not great if your entire army is based on ripper swarms and then you kill the synapse bug and they all just like perish. True. That's not good. It doesn't help.

Just keep the synapse bug away. Just way far away. You know, that's fine. You're right. There's no way you can kill anything far away. Also, the whole point of synapses, they have to be close to extend the range of the synaptic link. Oh, well, okay, fine.

The idea of synapse is it's like chain lightning. It bounces between synapse creatures like a node. It goes like beep boop, beep, beep, beep. And so if you kill a certain big bug, you severed the chain to the synapse. Yeah, I guess I just kind of figured that it was like a direct link from like the hive mind. I guess I didn't realize that there needed to be a synapse bug in the vicinity. Oh, it is a direct link to the hive mind, but you need a bug to provide it. Yeah, it's like the satellite that pushes the signal to the bugs to get them to do what they need to do.

And without it, they can't get the signal. And they just, right. Gotcha. So outside of the Ripper Swarms, you also have something known as the Cortex Leach, which has one of the most horrifying pictures I have ever seen in my life. Oh, is this a face hugger? It's a face hugger. Yeah. Yeah.

It is a face hugger that will burrow into the eyes, nose, ears, and mouth of the person and take over their brain. and making them become little puppets. So it's mind control bugs. Have we talked about these before? Because this picture seems oddly familiar. I feel like I would have remembered something that horrifying, but something about it does seem very familiar. I don't know if I'm just literally thinking of,

like Shai said, I'm not sure if I'm just thinking about it because, oh yeah, it is very obviously a face hugger ripoff. Or have we talked about this? I think it's just a facehugger ripoff. Okay. So I'm just thinking of the classic face hugger and that's why I think I've seen it before.

Okay. Besides the Cortex Leach and the Rippers, though, we get into the more like regular battle line gribbles. Actually, real quick before that, let's do so. No, actually, I'll say this for later. Battleline gribbles. And that is going to be the Gaunt.

Not to be confused with Ebram Gaunt. Now, Shai, if you can throw me a little bit of a soundtrack here, maybe some like old vaudeville music hit me with a little bit of like a like an old timey filter because the gaunts are known as the termagons, spine gons, hormagons, neurogons, barbgones, deathgons, hellgons, nightgones, tarragons, slash gons, razor guns, cruisagons, gons, exigons, mallgons, mordogons, mordogons, mordoguns, protgons, pyrrogons, lachgons, and gargoyles. Well, I'm going to have to say, shy, do not hit him with the vaudevill and old-timey stuff.

That is not what that was. What you need to do is make this super cursed anime style and put the poker wrap theme behind that because that is 100% what he just did. I don't know what that means. Oh, don't worry. When the episode airs, you'll know. Okay. Well, so we have the Gaunt. And the Gaunt is basically the overall term for the main,

may not main battle line, but like the infantry. What a, if a guardsman would be in this here it is. And so the main one that is often used is, the termagant. I've heard of these. You have. The termagons are super common. They are nice little,

little, you know, bugly boys. They are about two meters in length. And, well, they're not like particularly strong, per se. They are,

there are, well, you know, a lot of them. Yeah, there's, like, like with most

tyrannid things, it's like the overwhelming number of bugs, right? It is even comparatively speaking to the guard, I assume. This is just bug city. Yeah, it is a ton of termagons that are normally in a large mass. And they are made often with these things called, well, the termagons are the gun version.

And they are just recently getting new minis and they look pretty cool. They look kind of goofy, actually. I like them. I think they look cool. I think it's because they're holding the gun. I don't know why, but something about like this big alien bug thing kind of holding the gun and looking kind of forward. It looks kind of weird

to me. I think it would look better literally without the gun. Because it would give off this sort of savage like raptor vibe instead of like, look, I've got a little gun and I don't know. Well, in that case, in that case, you're going to love the hormagant. Which is the exact same

thing, but with giant claws and no gun. There we go. Let's go. That's what I want. Just like that. Bada Bing, your wish is granted. The Norn Queen. has bestowed upon you this. I don't want the Norn Queen to be giving me anything, because chances are it's not...

Put it to the table. From a Norn Queen? Isn't she like all spikes and claws? No, she'd more likely, in attempting to do so, she would probably cut everything off. Listen, you're... Oh, I hate that. I hate that so much. I, aye, aye, what is that?

Oh, that's the... Starship Trooper. Yeah, yeah, Star Ship Troopers. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I don't like it. Bug.

Vigina bug. Yeah, that sure is. Now, you probably do got to censor that one, shy. You probably can't put that one on. Yeah, you can't put that Star Ship Trooper alien on the screen. That's, that's... Uh-uh. Anyway, the Hormagont and the Termagon.

The Termagont is the shooty version. The Hormagant is the jumpy, really fast, like, speedy, stabby version. The termagant has a wide variety of guns known as the things like fleshbores, spine fists, devourers, and strangle webs, and a few others. The ones that are interesting are the flesh boars, which fire things called flesh bore beetles, which are blind beetles, so that they don't change trajectory when they are fired out of the gun, that lay eggs in the gun sack that quickly. mature to keep them with a constant stream of ammunition. Oh. And they fly at the enemy at extreme speeds and use a little toxin poison to do a little bit of arm

penetration and burrow into the enemy at rapid speeds before quickly dying. Oh, great. So this, actually, this sounds a lot like the scarabs from the mummy, where they just go a little bit. Not quite. Not quite like the mummy. Not quite like the mummy. The mummy ones are actually more like the devourers.

Oh. The devourers are a partly rotted flesh gun filled with flesh worms writhing all in it. And once they hit the target, they burrow into the target and eat away at the body until they reach the brain. Oh. Yum. The mummy. Gross. Yeah.

Well, in the mummy, do the scarves burrow in and then like start eating? or is I don't know I try not to think about the mummy because I saw it as a kid and it scarred me for life well yeah it was like I said

it's most of that scarred me for life about the mummy I kind of loved the rest of the movie but like that scarab part just didn't it never sat right with me and the human mummification while they were still alive is also just not pleasant to think about

no there's a lot of bad stuff in that movie but it has a what's his buckets and I like him. What's his buckets? I forget his name. I'm sorry. It's okay.

Anyway, they also can do other with cool things like fire strangle webs, which are mucus webs that constrict around a target and then quickly harden. Struggling often has you constricted even more. So people will struggle to get away and end up actually suffocating themselves to death, which is pretty awful. If you stayed perfectly still, would it be any better? Like, wouldn't you still get strangle web? and you would still die.

You'd be immobile and then probably, yeah, we'll just be stuck there forever and then die. Or you will just be immobile and then the bugs will come and kill you anyway. If your buddy is nearby, is that something that you could cut off? Or does it harden to the point where it's like, nope, no shot, leave him, let him die? I don't know the specifics. But I'm assuming like a space room would just go like, bram, and let's break it open. Yeah.

But like, I don't know, maybe like a catachian, we'll have a big knife and be like, Oh, this is nothing, mate. Cut, cut, cut, cut. Cajla, cut worse than this. So the termagons being the shooty ones, the hormagons being the stabby ones. There are also the gargoyles, which are basically termagons, but a little less strong, but they have wings. And they also spit acid that they aim specifically for the eyes of the enemy to blind them and make them very confused. I mean, that's smart.

That's just smart battle tactics. So, sure. I love it. Very, very, very suitable name, too. There are two new gons that have actually arrived. The Nero Gant and the Barb Gant. Ooh, is that then? No, that's the gargoyle.

Oh, okay, I was going to say, that kind of looks like the wing things we just talked about. The NEROGont is a brand new Nid, and it basically serves as this relay for the synapse. It's got this funny little parasite on its back and when shy post the mini you'll see it it's like kind of latched on to its head and what they basically act as a way to protect some of the

big synapse beasts of the nids but also they literally act as like a relay node to extend the range of the synapse of the creatures. Oh those look silly. They do right? Those are silly minis. Those are

I guess I don't hate them but I don't know. So essentially this thing is just a hulking, walking relay. It's just a walking satellite. Yeah, they're pretty terrible in game, but they're mainly meant to protect the big bugs. They're meant to basically just be like, A, we are extra wounds so that you can't kill the big bug.

And also we relay stuff. Does the synapse, I was just thinking about this, because it never dawned on me that synapse bugs were a thing that needed to happen. Do you have to worry about that in the tabletop? Are there synapse bugs that actually, like, you have to, like, have them close to your little swimmers for them to be effective better? Yeah, so certain bugs have the rural synapse. And if you are within range of the synapse bugs,

you are able to not be affected by Battleshock, which is morale basically nearly as bad. Normally you need to roll two dice and beat a number. It allows you to roll three dice and beat a number. There are also lots of really good abilities that TIRNids have, special stratagems and stuff, that get specifically better if you are in synapse. For example, rapid regeneration gives you the ability to make a certain squad tankier

because you're rebuilding them really quick. But if they're within synapse, it's like on a six dice. Now it's on a five dice. or endless swarm allows you to regenerates little gribly gaunts and stuff. But you can only pick one unless they're both in synapse, then you can pick two. And so it's like, you know, you get better when you're in synapse. Okay, that's cool that that's actually something that you have to worry about in the tabletop too,

because they could have very easily just been like, yeah, that's too complicated, screw it, and just not have it and just, you know. That's cool. That's a thing. Yeah, it's a fun little little. a method to work around in the game. It's not like a great rule, but it's still fluffy. Yeah.

The Barb Gaunt is the other gaunt, which is a fire support artillery gaunt. And what these guys are is they are a weird blind guy with a giant parasite that is a gun attached to its body. Huh. It's very weird, but it is, so the red and black thing is another parasite. I attached to the blind, weird gaunt thing there. That thing looks, is that a, is that a big one? Or is that about the size of a thermo horogant? They're a little bit bigger.

They're a bit larger. They're not like giant, but they are larger. They're pretty fun. They've basically fired these weird, like, what is it? How do I describe this? It's like. Barb? Well, it's a barb, yeah.

But it's like, it's, it's, they're chitness, sorry, chitness barbs. And they detonate with a, with violent muscle spasms, keeping the enemies slow down and stuck. So it's like a way to control people. Yeesh. It's just a weird design. It's just they're totally blind and they just shoot a, and there's just a parasite that aims and shoots on their shoulder or attached to them. Yeah, a lot of the new Tyrann models seem to be a lot more. or going for this like

parasitic look. Yeah. Which is like a symbionic relationship, right? The gun needs the barb-gant thing and does the big blind thing really need the barb? I guess it needs the barb thing to see

and like direct it, right? Well, it needs to move too. Oh, well, yeah, true. It's not, it's immobile without the, yeah. It's its own own, I don't know, it's his own weird, wacky combo, but it's neat. It's unique. and cool. I like the vibe. I like the vibe.

But other than that, there's a bunch of other gaunts to go along with it, but like I mentioned earlier, there's way too many to talk about. Yeah. But if we want to talk about some of the other smaller bugs, we also have at least one more small bug to talk about, and we're not going to say anything

because you've covered it a million times already. It's the gene stealer. Ah, yeah, the gene stealers. We know about the jeans stealers. We have a whole episode on the gene stealers. Put the card up, shit. I put the card up, get people over to that gene stealer episode. The Gene Steeler cult episode specifically has it talking about how a cult is formed. And how the pure strain gene stealers arrive.

And those double heist. They hide. Yeah, they're devious. They hide. They impregnates. They create a plan. Generations in the making. Oh, yeah.

It lasts. It takes a while before they sprout. But when they sprout, that's a lot of no moss. Crazy enough, Gene Steeler Colts are actually like the best army in the game right now. Really? Gene Steeler Colts are?

They've overtaken Eldar. Wow. I don't know. In my head, I was like, Gene Steeler Colts never going to be like top tier for some reason. I don't know if it's just because like, oh, yeah, it's just like,

Humic cultists with some bugs. And it's like, I was like, eh, space Marines, though, chaos. And you're telling me a little cultus are, eh. I never know. They have a rule where when you kill a unit, you roll a dice and on a four up, you just, that unit is comes back at full strength next turn somewhere where the opponent isn't on the battlefield.

So the idea is, and if it's like a battle like a regular battle line like normal dude, it comes back automatically. So basically you need to be hyper mobile army and stomp out every area of the maps. They can't respond them. And so the idea is if you want to be Gene Steeler close, you'd need to like stomp out every nest, every home, every hidden super great they're in, or else they're just going to keep coming from the minds.

I mean, that is very true to how Gene Steeler's works. So, yeah, I mean, that's kind of cool, actually. I kind of dig that.

Yeah, I mean, it's only half the reason they're a problem. People who play against them will realize that certain characters, The primus is kind of part of the reason their army is broken. But yeah, the endless respawning is pretty crazy. That's, that's, and when you say it like that,

and it's like, oh, yeah, that is how Gene Steeler's work. It's like, oh, I like that. That's pretty cool, yeah, I'm okay with it now. So that basically ends these small bugs for the most part, besides the other 9,000 gaunts. You know, I'm just going to close my eyes and click on one of these random ones. I'm kind of curious.

Okay. Proto Gantz. Hmm. The first version of the Gons, maybe? The first ones that were ever born? Because they're the pro- There is just a picture. There is no lore.

Never mind. Nice, man. You picked a good one at random. Let's go. Let's go. All right. Let's talk about the medium-sized Tyrannid creatures.

Okay. And to start with, we should talk about what arguably is the most important Tyrannid vile form of all time the Tyrannid warrior. Oh, sure. You've seen this guy a million times over.

He's in the Space Marine 2 trailer. He is the main battle line unit for the Tyrannids. Guns and claws. Guns and claws. But most importantly, they are big, they are tough, they are fast, they are the space marines equivalent for the nids.

I was about to ask if that's what they were, if they were the, they are to the tyrannids, what the space marines are to the Imperium. I would say so. I mean, not necessarily, because space marines are a hyper elite force. Sure, but that's the closest comparison you can get is.

Yeah, there are a ton. Yeah, there are a ton of warriors out then about. There's like, there's a ton of them, they're big and tough. They shoot really well. They stab really well. They've got crazy weapons like venom cannons, which fires poison-coated,

what is it called? Crystals that will often explode. It's often good for tanks because the poison crystals go into the tank and explode and cover the crew with venom. Oh. Which is pretty great. So it's like a venom shrapnel bomb. Yeah, but like with some good penetration.

Yeah. The Venom Canon is your premier anti-armor. Well, maybe not anti-armor, but like anti-tuff things. Yeah, yeah. They are also, yeah. They are also synapse creatures. Ooh. Which is why they're so important.

Because as they trudge around the battlefield, firing at stuff and stabbing things, they are a synapse model. So they are providing the will of the hive mine and directing troops. Here, there, and everywhere. They're both leaders as they are, like sergeants, commanders, as they are beasts and weapons. Oh, wow. I would not have pictured this tyrannid as a commander. Also, I'm just noticing this on the mini.

Man, the hands that are holding that gun look weird. Like, that arm, like, sprouts into three different hands that are holding that big old cannon. That's a weird-looking arm, dude. The mini is very old, for one. You got that bowling ball grip. Yeah, in three different, well, or at least in at least two different spots. That is crazy. It doesn't look bad for an older mini to be fair.

For a 15-year-old mini, that's still pretty pogging, as the kids say. Don't pog. Don't pogging. Oh, it's too late, dude. I have already, I have pogged and I have been pogging. If you keep pogging, it's good. Does your pog will that your pog burrow into my skin and reach my brain? Oh, it might.

The pog canon. It shoots passion orange guava. Ah, that's really tasty. It's so good. Anyway, the, but I mean, I guess maybe they're not necessarily commanders that's your new warriors, but they're like, they're like your sergeants, you're your captains, you know? And for the most part, there's actually not much to talk about them because they carry all kinds of weapons and all kinds of melee weapons. They have bone swords and rending claws and lash whips and barbed stranglers and venom cans. cannons and death spitters and sithing talons.

You know, they're just... Strangler. I'm assuming that they strangle things with like just a barbed whip type thing. Yeah, it's like a, it's a seed that grows very large, is fired, and sends out hooked tendrils to bind and rip apart its prey. Ouchies. Ouchies. Yikes. So the, uh, the, uh, the simple tyrannid, uh, warrior is, is a very, like, nice battle line. unit, but what if you want to

be a brainy boy? Oh, yes, a brainy boy. Yeah, brainy tyrannid boy. A brainy tyranid boy, you have the lovely zonthrope. The zonethrope is deceivingly frail as it is basically a

gigantic brain on a tendril. And unfortunately the... I feel like I've seen this before. Oh, you definitely had. Yeah, we've talked about things like this before. Haven't we? I don't remember the name Zonthrope or whatever, because I feel like I would.

But I feel like we've seen giant brain just hovering around before. You absolutely have. He do be blasting. Never mind. I didn't think that's what it looked like. I mean, its head looks like a giant ripper swarmer. Oh, yeah, it kind of does a little bit. You're right.

I guess that's a common, like, Turing it head Yeah, that's like the shielded, the armored look, yeah. So the Zonthrope is a giant psychic beacon for the hive mind. It is an enormous brain bug whose entire point is to have their bodies that have ironically atrophied and just have these floated, bloated heads of overwhelming psychic power. Oh, boy. How fun. In fact, they've become so crazy.

they actually don't even crawl on their tendrils, these levitate across the battlefield. All right. And their heads are just batteries of the hive mine. They blast apart, like, with their brain, tanks, boil adamantium down. Sometimes enough of these will even break Titans apart because they're blasting Titans with their brains.

Oh, that mini is sick, though. Yeah, the Neuroprope. Yeah, that's actually a dope mini. I actually quite like that one. It's creepy. You see the giant brain jutting in the back? Yeah, that's very cool. And it makes total sense why they have like that giant armor plate on top of their head now

because it's like, look at that big old brain. Of course they would evolve to like protect it. So of course you would want that giant shell on top. Ironically, Neurothropes are pretty poorly armored even with their, their Kitan up there. But despite that, they make up for it in. all kinds of energy force fields and psychic powers to kind of block attacks anyway. Oh yeah, being like super psychory, they could make a lot of force fields, because I was going to say, like, maybe they can psych or blast things, but like if you snip this thing, but it's like,

well, if it has a, it has a mine force field. Are they tanky in game? They are very tanky in game, but not for their, not for their armor. They have a bad armor save, but they have an invulnerable save assumed by having their, uh, their, their, brainy blast. Right, right. Okay. These are honestly, arguably one of the best

tyrannid models in the, in the game. Yeah. I was going to say they sound amazing. They're their premier anti-tank, because they go up and there's like, brain blasts and they blow you apart. Yeah.

There's a, interestingly enough sometimes, the Zonthropes have actually been seen to burn themselves out, like firing and using so much of their power that their heads will just kind of start bleeding and eventually like break down and they'll just fall limply. Oh, so they get that 11 treatment where their nose starts to bleed and just,

uh-oh, blah. Well, the psychers have apparently accompanied the idea that it's as if they're suffering perils of the warp, because the warp is still the warp and they may be overreaching. Right, right, right, right, right. I didn't even think about that. Yeah, you would have to reach into the warp to use all that psychic nonsense blasting. Yeah. That psychic nonsense blastin?

Yeah, you know how the words work. I know how words work. There's also another thrope one called the Venomthrope. Man, we're really deep throping. Oh, shut the, I'm so upset. We are. This is a deep dive. The Venomthrope are

floaty poison dripping thropes. Oh, great. So they just drip poison? They have gas-filled bladders and float across the battlefield emitting lethal gas

that will eventually kill the entire world's indigenous night life. Ruin the soil and with enough of them make the atmosphere completely uninhabitable so that the only thing that can come there is the high fleet and they get to be like, oh, cool.

Oh. Food. Yeah, Shai's right. That do be looking like something from a hentai. Very, absolutely. Modern corporation bug. Whalen, you tawny bug. Yeah.

It's a cool looking bug, though. Does it have a mini? It does. The mini is okay. You can use a bigger base. Also, because they float, it's held up once again by a single little tendril, which makes it kind of me.

Very flimsy and kind of. Oh, that's not bad at all. That's not a bad mini. at all. Its face looks goofy. Like, it looks like its teeth are just, like, you know, the stereotypical, like, British cartoon character? I don't know why, but its face kind of looks like it has teeth like

that. You mean like this? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, like that. And now I can't unsee it. But, like, the artwork, Shy posted of it, it looks so much cooler. This thing looks... Nerd, react to this man. Yeah, it looks like...

Can you... Hey, shy, can you put glasses on this thing in post? Because I think it would look just like, you know, and I can't unsee it anymore. The venomthrope has been ruined for me. Well, unfortunately, it will also ruin a lot of other things, particularly your body, mind, and life. I was going to say, you mean everything, everything around it, every living thing that is in its vicinity? Yeah.

Once it's like brief exposure to the spores of it will cause you to have nausea and spasms and vomiting. And then more than a minute will basically have. have your tissue start to dissolve. And you will just die. It'll just melt. It'll just melt into something for them to suck up with a straw. Pretty much. It'll just turn into a sludge.

Yep, that is very tyrannid, to be fair. Yeah. It's pretty awful. Yep. Mm-hmm. There's... It's like being around anime fans. Oh, no.

It's so bad, but it's so true. There's the Tyrannid Ravinor, which is a Tyrannid War. but with a big whip coil tail to go fast and also like burrowing the ground. That's not really that important. I just wanted to mention it because it's kind of cool looking. Yeah, that's kind of cool. It's like a like a dragon tail.

That's cool. Yeah, big old whip coil. There are also the bio and pyrovoors, which have just recently gotten a brand new mini, which I am very happy about because I did not like the old gorilla ones. Ooh, gorilla ones. These things, when you said, like, what is it, a pyro, pyromore? I thought it was going to be a pyrovor. I thought it was going to be a flame-throwing bug that just looked crazy and all charred up.

It is. Okay, so the bivore is very old. There are, there were the old bivore minis, which looked like that. Oh, they have. I don't like that, actually. Very guerrilla-y, also big penis gun. That's the part I didn't like. The gorilla part is fine, but the big fleshy cannon thing.

that is very, very unsettlingly phallic is, I don't that. The new one is still kind of phallic, but it looks way cooler. Oh, that's so much cooler. Oh, like, just every category is so much cool. Like the crazy, like, spider vibe, so much better than the gorilla thing. And the cannon's still kind of fleshy and fallicky, but, oh, so much better. That is leaps and bounds better than that old thing. So this actually reminds me a lot of.

a certain Starcraft unit, you can turn roaches into called the Ravager, or is it Ravanaer? Ravager. Oh, wow, yeah, that is very close, isn't it? I like this unit a lot. This thing fires like a little

like explosive thing up in the air and then down on the ground like artillery. But I've always liked them. They also look a little bit like, yeah, the Raviner is just a hydrolysk anyway. So that makes sense. What was that?

What's a hydrolysk? Oh, did you know? not play a bunch Starcraft? No, I was not a StarCraft kid at all. I was always very, very bad at those, like, strategy games where you had to, like, manage all of your little armies and stuff. Yeah, I didn't, no. Ah, that's a Hydrolusk.

It's basically just a Tiernaud warrior, like a Ravenor with the fucking coil. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's just like the picture that Chai posted of the Raven or whatever. Yeah. But the, uh, the new Biodor and Pyrovor, uh, they're both basically cannons of some sort. The Biodvor in particular has the special ability to launch spore mines across the battlefield. The spore mine is the thing I mentioned that we would get to later.

It is a tiny little floating bomb and it is totally blind and it will just slowly drift across the battlefield towards heat signatures. And when it detects one nearby, it will just go. Oh, cool. And it is filled with all kinds of different fun stuff with things like poisons, toxins, virals, viruses, chemicals, sometimes even an iron shell to blow up like a frag grenade, bioacid. Oh, wow. These things just float and drift in the battlefield for sometimes days, weeks, years, until someone just walks by it and they're like, beep, beep, explosion. Oh, that sucks. that I would not want to be anywhere near a tyranton mine for sure that because that thing sounds like it just spews every noxious piece that's available

that's a cool canon though on that thing's back that's a cool canon I like that one it's a super cool canon I like it a lot though there's also the pyrovor which is a similar type of creature like the biovore except it is literally a gigantic flamethrower Oh, well, yeah, it's a very, hey, pyrovor should be like that. I mean, it's, you know, pyrovor, big flamethrer, sure, sure. It's, fire is, uh, is an organic flamethrower called the flames spurt. They are also known for exploding when they take too much damage. Have the tyranids ever mess themselves up by like, oh yeah, let's toss out one of those, uh, bio-mines that looks for heat sources. And then they're like, yeah, now send in the pyrovor.

Whoops. There's the heat signature. Um, no, I think, I think the hive mine can differentiate. I hope so. I hope so. But the, uh, the new pyrovorre miniature looks super cool. I always like the pyrovor is just a gigantic flamethrower beast that explodes. And that's just fun.

Yeah, who doesn't love a giant flamethrower on a bug? It's, but it's the best. Sure, yeah. Um, let's see here. What else do we got? We have like two to three more. Oh, should I? It's specifically non-Tyrinid life forms that get too close.

Okay. Okay. Non-Tir-a-Tor-E heat signatures, yeah, okay. There is also the Hive Guard. The Hive Guard are the main species that defend the consumption structures of the hive mines. It's just the giant capillivary towers or the spore chimneys. They are a long-range firing platform on a big, chunky beast. that basically are slightly telepathic.

It basically means they can see through like the eyes of other nids, which allows them to locate their targets with their mortar-like weapons and go, Gadush, Gadush, Gadush, Gadush. Oh, that's very handy. Yeah, it's super useful. These things used to be a really big problem for a while because they would fire artillery over structures and then murder you from like super long range. Oh, they can do that on the tabletop?

Like if you have a different mini that has line of sight on a unit, you can use this thing and just be like, yeah, this thing's hitting you because my other unit can see you? Pretty much. It's basically an artillery platform that needs setup. Okay. That's still, that's, I love that concept. Like for the tabletop, that sounds like a really cool, like,

set up to get going. It's a pretty, like, decent kind of backfield thing. You want to protect the main. main structure, so you take the hive guard, which, you know, makes sense. They're big, they're chunky. They're basically, the whole job is just plant themselves and start firing. Yeah, definitely.

The minis all right. I'm assuming that's a very old mini. For an old mini, yeah, pretty good. I like it. It's a bit old, but it's not bad. It holds up. There's the brood lore, but the brood lord is just like the leader of the gene stealers. It's used often to

move the gene steers around. It's also one of the, like the patriarch is the higher level brood lord of the gene stealer cults, which I think we talked about the patriarch in the gene stealer episode a little bit. Yeah, and we saw a patriarch in what book was that?

Oh, Kyivus Kane. Yeah, right, right, right. Yeah, they kill one. Yeah, they do. Yergan kills it with a multi-melta, or a melta gun. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And that's when we learned that Yergan is, he's maybe got a little psych freedom, you know,

Anyway. The other ones we have are the, let's see here. I think the last ones we should roll off with are the, oh boy. Yeah, we'll talk about last, Shai. Shai is very excited about the Nuralichter, which makes me kind of excited because why? Shire's excited for curse reasons, but I like the parasite of Mortrex. This is a Yeah, it's a brand new model

That came out in eighth edition Or ninth edition, so the one before this It is basically the size of a Tiernan Warrior With big old wings And a barbed tail Like a little hollow tube Like a snake's fang Yeah

And it'll fly over to you And it'll shank you with the tail And if it does, it'll implant Ripper Parasite eggs into your body. Oh no. And then they will then grow and devour you

from the inside out and then arrive at the next guy and do the exact same thing and do it again and again and again and on the Imperial fortress world of Mortrex, hence the name. The Imperial guards held back

the invasion for days until the 10th day. It arrived. And each. victim added more rippers to the swarm to the point where a single transmission was sent out that the planet had

fallen, warning of the parasite of more Treks. Oh man, that's so gross, just imagining like your buddy just exploding in ripper swarms and they're just everywhere now

and these things are flying everywhere and just dook and just ah gross. Also, what a cool mini. Oh, it's a great mini. What a cool mini. Oh, damn, that's sick. So do they do anything besides just implanting these parasites into people?

I mean, that's enough, sure. But is there anything else to them? Like, do they spit acid? Do they, or is that pretty much just it? I'm pretty sure it's mainly just infection. I mean, they do have, like, like, their own limbs they can stab you with. But for example, in-game, the idea is that

if you destroy an enemy using its barbed attack, you can therefore create an additional amount of ripper swarms near them. I do enjoy that the special ability called It Itches,

which is forces enemies to take Battleshock tests when they're in combat with it. Fair enough. It itches. Oh, no, that's terrible. I hate it. It's pretty great.

I hate it, but I love it. I love how fittingly disgusting it is for the nids. All right. We'll talk about the lictor first. The neurolictor. No. Okay, just the lictor? I didn't realize there was a difference.

I'm sorry. The lictor first. Okay, okay. The lictor is a very popular tiernage model that is basically predator. Oh, sweet. It is a special scout and vanguard unit of the Tyrannids. Got a big old,

gribly, oh, that's right. Wow, wasn't expecting that look when you said they're basically the predator. I did not expect that look. Wow. I will always remember a catachin quote, which is sex with catachin women is like fist fighting a lictor

except your erection as a purpose. Oh, I feel like I've heard that quote from you, but it never gets any less amuse. Yeah, you throw this on, yeah, a lictor on catachin is literally just predator. It's only predator because lictors are, as their special like vanguard units, they are masters of stealth. And they do not, they're not immediately aggressive. They have a chameleonic skin that changes colors with the background. It allows them to blend in and renders them basically invisible.

And they'll be opportunistic hunters stock from the shadows. when the time is right, murder you. Sure. Like you said, Predator. It all fits. It's literally Predator. Looks a little different from Predator. A little tendril-like face is kind of predatory, but yeah, sure.

They also have fancy feeder tendrils where if they eat your brain, you can actually have your memories absorbed by the Lictor learning positions and forces and enemy weak points for the tyrannids to exploit. devious. That's very cool. I like that. That they can literally absorb your thoughts by eating your brain and use it against. Ooh, that's cool. Yeah. So the lictor is basically the thing that like hides in the foliage and weights and is very opportunistic. It's a very smart bug. Okay. Good on the tabletop? Actually, quite. They operate on their own basically and they move around and they do a lot of damage. They're pretty good. Yeah, as well they should. If they're a predator, stalker, stealthy, Hunter, sure. All right.

So, yeah, there's also another variant called Von Ryan's Leapers. Oh, no, that's not that. That's the Death Leaper. Yeah, the Death Leaper is like a named version of a Leapter. It's a unique Lictor.

Got you. Mainly a terror world. NiroLictor? Shai wants to talk about the NeroLictor. It's nothing special. Okay. All right. All right.

Here's the image. Show me. I just get to see the image and figure it out. Okay. Yeah, go ahead. All right. Oh, wow. It's pretty cool, right?

Yeah, that's pretty cool. I mean, it's, man, that's, why is its brain exposed? Because it's a neurolictor. It's like a brain, it's like a brain bug version. Sure, but it's like, wouldn't you want plating on that part more than the parts? That's the very front of the brain. Like, wouldn't you want that protected more than anything? Very often the, the neuro things, like maliceptors and stuff, use that to extend their psychic power.

Oh, okay. So it's specifically unobstructed because that's what lets the signal go hard. Basically. I mean, yeah, it do have thighs that would probably save Tyrannid lives, but... Oh, no, here she goes. She's starting. You wouldn't paint thigh halves. Oh, oh, okay. I feel like I have seen this cursed art of the neural lictor.

before of it literally in the thigh highs and the long gloves. Okay, okay. That is pretty cursed for sure. Is that, is that way you didn't want to talk about it? Because there's just way too much like NSFW art on the internet about the neurolictor when what is wrong with you people? Yes.

Gotcha. See, Warhammer, the Games Workshop decides to make new stuff. It's like, okay. You have yourself this beautiful-ass-looking, uh, whatever, Nero-Lichter model or whatever. It's, it's a nice-looking model. It's all, it's all good.

It's fine, it's fine, right? Uh-huh. But then, like, they decide to give it, like, legs and stuff, and all this weird shit. And then, but then, like, you had the Death Leaper, which is this guy, and he's pretty old and doesn't look very good. No, wow, those are massive, like, arms on it. Jesus.

And then GW makes it into this thing. Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! That's the, that's what, oh, that's, I saw that one. That's such a cool mini. Oh, my God. And it's like, GW comes in here.

Build is like, here's their Norn emissary model. It's amazing. By the way, here's your thigh high for NeroLichter. And I'm like, a crumb of consistency. A crumb of, of mood, of narrative mood consistency. Please, I beg you. No matter what you do, someone on the internet is going to loot it, right? What is it? Rule 34, if it exists, there is porn of it.

There are no exceptions. No exceptions. Can I still be upset about it, though? Yeah, I guess. Oh, thank God. You understand that you know it exists. That doesn't mean you have to like it. Okay, thank goodness.

That's fair. That's fair. I didn't even notice the leg until it was. was pointed out. So aside from cursed Rule 34 Neurrilichter porn, what does the Neurolichter

do? We don't really know yet. Oh, that many just came out? Is it? No, no, no. Oh, yeah, it did. It came out with all the new reissary. Oh, okay. So the neural, okay. I thought the neurolictor had been out for a little while and that's, okay, gotcha.

There was the Lictor, but this is the Nero Lictor. Okay. So, so Until the tyrannid, like what, a new tyrannid codex or something comes out, we don't. We don't know. Pretty much. Pretty much. Cool. Cool.

And, uh, and that's about it. Yeah. That, that, I mean, those are, those are, those are some cool gribly grublies. I, I, I, I'm, I'm not happy with how this ended. Oh, well, hey, look on the bright side. You didn't have to talk about the horse gun, apparently. I, yeah. I'll see you next week for the big bugs.

I'm okay with that ending.