Escort drones subject to Instinctive Behaviour case 7 (βmust move towards a planetβ) may instead move towards the nearest hive ship.
Any ship attempting to fire upon a hive ship suffers -1 Ld when attempting to ignore closer targets if a squadron containing only Escort Drones is in base contact with the hive ship as well as in between the hive ship and the firing vessel.
Options
Choose one weapon: Pyro-acid battery for +10 pts; Feeder tentacles for +5 pts; Bio- plasma discharge for +5 pts
Instead of taking a weapon from above, up to 10 % of the Tyranid escort drones in the fleet can elect to become fire ships for +5 points each. If used in this manner, they still utilize all regular rules for escort drones concerning movement, spores, etc., and they may use the fire ship special rules detailed on pg. 516, even if the scenario does not call for the use of planetary defences such as fire ships.
