The Red Terror
SWORD: what The Red Terror kills
Damage for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 120 pts kill ~82 pts in one activation.Typical melee unit: 55 per 100
Best against line infantry, weakest against hordes
Into each enemy type
Units near it by SWORD
Across the game· melee units
SHIELD: how hard The Red Terror is to kill for its points
Toughness for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 120 pts take ~334 pts of enemy units to kill.Typical melee unit: 307 per 100
Units near it by SHIELD
Across the game· melee units
What reviewers say
4 reviewers- A must in tunnel detachments 2 of 4
- Went down in points 2 of 4
- Deletes an outlying unit and escapes to do it again 2 of 4
- Forces the enemy to screen the backfield 1 of 4
- Not much defence if caught 1 of 4
- As a Monster it can't hide 1 of 4
- No model on sale 1 of 4
Compare
| Unit | Letter | SWORD | SHIELD | Lists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Red Terror120 pts | S | Top 27% | Bottom 36% | 110of 217 |
| Old One Eye130 pts | B | Top 34% | Top 5% | 32of 217 |
| Deathleaper80 pts | A | Bottom 34% | Top 5% | 38of 217 |
How we got these numbers
What we ran
The Red Terror, 120 pts, with its datasheet's weapons, in Invasion Fleet (Hyper Adaptions: Swarming Instincts). On its own: no leader, no stratagems, no other units' auras. Counted as dice: its own abilities, the army rule and the detachment's rule.
SWORD
Enemy points it kills in one activation, per 100 pts of its own, against a mix of targets weighted like top tournament lists.
120 pts → kills ~82 pts → 68 per 100SHIELD
Enemy points it takes to kill it, per 100 pts of its own: the points of the cheapest units from top lists that kill it 80% of the time. It's per point, so a costly unit has to be much tougher to score the same.
~334 pts → 278 per 100Top and bottom %
Where each number ranks among the game's 572 melee units. How we score.
The letter
The average of 4 reviewers' newest Tyranids tier lists: Auspex Tactics (12 Sep), Into the Hive Mind (12 Oct), HivemindHobbies (18 Oct), Maelstrom Gaming Studios (26 Oct). A reviewer who would rather not be counted: tell us.
Lists
217 public Tyranids tournament lists, September – November 2026, from grimstat-corpus (CC BY 4.0). Also from Listhammer. Organisers and players: ask us and we'll take a list or an event down. Numbers run 2 Nov.