Okay, next part.
Weapons:
Boneswords. Inevitable reduction to AP3, but the instant death rule is better.
Crushing claws. Big change. still unwieldy, but a strength bonus, AP2 and armourbane means destroying tanks will be easy, even better that you won't really need to use the smash rule and sacrifice attacks.
Lash whips. Changed to give an Int bonus rather than reduce the enemy Int. I think this is slightly worse as the enemy still strikes at his normal initiative.
Rending claws. As before but now have AP5 which is a bonus. Combine these with bonesword and lashwhip to make enemy characters cry.
Scything talons. Lost the reroll bonus for some reason. Just a close combat weapon with AP6. Models with two pairs of these gain an attack in exchange for losing reroll all misses. I think this is worse to be honest.
Ranged weapons: Mostly identical to last edition, so i'll just highlight a few items.
Bio plasmic cannon. exocrines weapon, this is nasty. A short range plasma cannon of doom. Expect this to feature in many game to come.
Deathspitter. Please please give this back its blast marker. There is still no real reason to pick this over devourers. The monstrous creature twinlinked version thankfully dropped in points by a lot. Sadly, you would still find the points to pay for the twin devourers instead. They are still superior.
Devourers: lost the leadership penalty to morale tests, but still the go to workhorse weapon. The twin linked brainleech version is king.
Drool cannon and flamespurt: should really have been 'torrent'
Thorax biomorph guns: lost the ability to fire these as well as normal weapons, so a bit of a nerf. On the other hand they are slightly better in effect.
grasping tongue: haruspex only, but the new humiliation kill weapon.
Impaler cannon: better now it ignores cover and doesn't require
LOS.
shock cannon: new hive guard weapon. could be interesting. is it better than the impaler cannon? difficult to say.
spike rifle, spinefists: thankfully free swap for fleshborer.
Strangleweb: big point drop, and now rolls against toughness not strength. This won't make a huge difference unless to fight orks a lot. (guess who I play against a lot?)
tentaclids: new anti air missile. requires playtesting to determine is usefulness.
Venomcannons: Fortunately lost the penalty to damage chart rolls. I still think this should be changed to Blast, assault 2, but its better than before, the heavy version may see more use for antitank work. the normal version is also cheap and cheerful.
Sporemines: the old cluster deployment was utter crap. Far far improved now. Random movement is gone, replace by a slower move but under player control. biovores and cluster units got a big boost here.
Biomorphs:
Acid blood. as before but the same unclear problem remains: do you test for each wound suffered up the the creatures remain number of wounds, or is it really a test for each wound suffered even if its more than the creatures remaining wounds? Eg. an ork unit inflicts 20 unsaved wounds on a 3 wound tyranid. Do they take 3 tests or 20?
Blinding venom. changed, needs testing before I can decide.
regeneration: only one wound can be regained a turn, buts its now a 4+ rather than 6+
fleshhooks / spinebanks. assault grenades can now be taked on more creatures. huzzah!
toxin sacs: as before. expect to see lots of these on bigger creatures.
adrenal glands: grants fleet as well as furious charge. Mandatory for any assault nid models.
tail biomorphs: huzzah a use for those bits on the sprue! cheap and cheerful, nothing game breaking. all seem about the same rather like power weapons.
Bio artifacts:
maw claw: cheap and cheerful fun.
norn crown. expensive
miasma cannon. expect to see this a lot.
ymgarl factor. so so, but might be a fun surprise now and again.
reaper of obliterax: expensive indeed, but will make your
MC smash close combat opponents into small pieces.
overall, they seem priced correctly and are not over the top. Try this combination: Hive tyrant with thorax desiccator larvae, miasma cannon and maw claw. Thats a long range blast poison 2+ on the way in, 2 poison 2+ templates in close and when a close combat wound is caused, its preferred enemy on top! adrenal gland for fleet and hopefully the onslaught power to run and shoot...heh heh.
Powers of the hive mind:
Yes tyranid can no longer take any BRB psychic powers. I won't debate why, its just how it is now. So what tools do we have? Well they are mostly subtle, not flashy.
Dominion boosts synapse range (and you don't want to be outside synapse)
Catalyst grants feel no pain to the caster and another friendly unit. Very useful.
The Horror is a pinning check at -2. good before changing enemy units in cover.
Onslaught as before: Run then shoot.
Paroxysm reduces
WS and
BS by D3. not a good as before, but better range.
Pyschic scream is a short range nova power. this should cause a few wounds.
Warp blast as before.
The important thing here is all the blessings and maledictions are no longer classed as a shooting attack (as per the previous codex) which made them almost useless. The new list is about subtle tipping the balance in your favour rather than blasting the enemy to bits.