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Hey all. I've been playing tyranids for about a year and a half now so I've seen lots of lists come and go by then. I loved to stay as true to fluff as I could at first, but I found that it was much harder winning games that way. I always hated nidzilla and found it kind of lame, but with this updated codex we have, I found that Carnifexes are fairly viable with their points reduction. With this list, I can still throw lots of little things in people's faces as well so that's +1 in my book.

I'd like to all to take a look. In my meta at least, I still haven't lost with this list. Played against Salamanders, two Chaos players, and Dark Angels.

HQ

Flyrant
X2 Devs

Elites

x3 Venomthropes

Troops

1) x21 Termagaunts
x21 Spike Rifles

2) x20 Termagaunts
x20 Spike Rifles

3) x21 Termagaunts
x20 Spike Rifles

4) x3 Warriors
x3 Deathspitters

5) x3 Warriors
x3 Deathspitters

6) x3 Warriors
x3 Deathspitters

Heavy Support

1) x3 Carnifexes
All x2 Devs

2) x3 Carnifexes
All x2 Devs

3) Exocrine


I always try and go first and load the middle of my line with the Carnifexes and the Exocrine. I bubble wrap them with Termagaunts and give them shrouded with the Venomthropes. The warriors hang around and provide synapse while also taking shots when they can. My Flyrant usually flies around doing Flyrant things.

I try and allow my opponent to string his army out against me and it's worked several times where they've pushed one or two units up while keeping others back and I've been able to delete that unit off the board with the Carnifex broods. With so many shots, I've found it's just a matter of time, even against Terminators. You can only make so many 2+ saves. The Exocrine tries not to move when she can and snipes the higher value units.

Against melee oriented armies, it gets weird because I'm almost playing defensively which I'm not used to. I'll just let him come to me and target prioritize. I've killed Demon Princes first turn with almost no effort. Maybe it was just my opponent. Sticking myself in cover and shielded by the Termagaunts makes people hesitate to charge me since they have to go through the meat shield first. There' also the chance that he won't make the charge or goes last unless he has grenades. All in all, it's worked very much in my favor so far.

Against many vehicles or against a flyer heavy list is where I see this list falling to the side. I only have one flyer and he admittedly can be very meh sometimes. He isn't exactly the hardest thing to kill. Though, even only snapshotting, I can still get a fair amount of hits with 72 twin-linked shots coming from the two broods of Carnifexes. I just have to hope their armor is only 12. Otherwise, they just take out my Tyrant and own the skies all day.

Now, in my meta, it isn't exactly win at all costs by any means, but the people there are definitely not out to lose. The only time the real velveeta lists come out is during tournaments. That's when you see the usual Tau teleporting around shenanigans. I would like to enter and see how this does against a list like that. The only big downside I've found so far is the 18" range on the Carnifexes. That hurts a lot. However, if I had one good turn where they were in range of just one brood, I feel as though I could do serious damage. That's also barring the Exocrine with her s7 ap2 assault 6 shots or large blast template.

What do you all think?

Tayo wrote:
Hey all. I've been playing tyranids for about a year and a half now so I've seen lots of lists come and go by then. I loved to stay as true to fluff as I could at first, but I found that it was much harder winning games that way. I always hated nidzilla and found it kind of lame, but with this updated codex we have, I found that Carnifexes are fairly viable with their points reduction. With this list, I can still throw lots of little things in people's faces as well so that's +1 in my book.

I'd like to all to take a look. In my meta at least, I still haven't lost with this list. Played against Salamanders, two Chaos players, and Dark Angels.

HQ

Flyrant
X2 Devs

Elites

x3 Venomthropes

Troops

1) x21 Termagaunts
x21 Spike Rifles

2) x20 Termagaunts
x20 Spike Rifles

3) x21 Termagaunts
x20 Spike Rifles

4) x3 Warriors
x3 Deathspitters

5) x3 Warriors
x3 Deathspitters

6) x3 Warriors
x3 Deathspitters

Heavy Support

1) x3 Carnifexes
All x2 Devs

2) x3 Carnifexes
All x2 Devs

3) Exocrine


I always try and go first and load the middle of my line with the Carnifexes and the Exocrine. I bubble wrap them with Termagaunts and give them shrouded with the Venomthropes. The warriors hang around and provide synapse while also taking shots when they can. My Flyrant usually flies around doing Flyrant things.

I try and allow my opponent to string his army out against me and it's worked several times where they've pushed one or two units up while keeping others back and I've been able to delete that unit off the board with the Carnifex broods. With so many shots, I've found it's just a matter of time, even against Terminators. You can only make so many 2+ saves. The Exocrine tries not to move when she can and snipes the higher value units.

Against melee oriented armies, it gets weird because I'm almost playing defensively which I'm not used to. I'll just let him come to me and target prioritize. I've killed Demon Princes first turn with almost no effort. Maybe it was just my opponent. Sticking myself in cover and shielded by the Termagaunts makes people hesitate to charge me since they have to go through the meat shield first. There' also the chance that he won't make the charge or goes last unless he has grenades. All in all, it's worked very much in my favor so far.

Against many vehicles or against a flyer heavy list is where I see this list falling to the side. I only have one flyer and he admittedly can be very meh sometimes. He isn't exactly the hardest thing to kill. Though, even only snapshotting, I can still get a fair amount of hits with 72 twin-linked shots coming from the two broods of Carnifexes. I just have to hope their armor is only 12. Otherwise, they just take out my Tyrant and own the skies all day.

Now, in my meta, it isn't exactly win at all costs by any means, but the people there are definitely not out to lose. The only time the real velveeta lists come out is during tournaments. That's when you see the usual Tau teleporting around shenanigans. I would like to enter and see how this does against a list like that. The only big downside I've found so far is the 18" range on the Carnifexes. That hurts a lot. However, if I had one good turn where they were in range of just one brood, I feel as though I could do serious damage. That's also barring the Exocrine with her s7 ap2 assault 6 shots or large blast template.

What do you all think?

Yeah, only one Tyrant, at such a high point level... I'd likely trim a Dakkafex from each Brood, and buy a second Tyrant...I know you like the shooty (and who can blame you? ) but I like using Hormagaunts as bubblewrap, they extra speed, means they never delay the advance of the Big Bugs.

You are hardly helpless vs AV, because Carnifexen rule CC, even when kitted for shooting. It's the HoW that makes them so fearsome. In tourney play I strongly suggest rolling on Strategy for Warlord Trait. If you get "Master of Ambush" you can infiltrate (up to) 3 units, and the Warlord.

Vs Space marines you are well equipped, as you have found, but vs Eldar, and Tau you will have serious "issues". The best answers are being able to get into the foes backfield as fast as possible, Outflank, and Deep Strike are two tools to look for.

I prefer to put a Cannon in each Brood of Warriors, but that is a "style" thing. But it does give some boost to range. If you can add a second HQ, you may (ask the TO) be able to run x2 CAD, then you can split out the Dakkafexen into more Broods (you'll have 6 available slots)

I'd also suggest you look into adding a Formation, you have many of the pieces already, and the extra "special rules" might give you a boost.

In any case...Good luck, and good hunting!

You could consider adding a unit of Biovores to get the Living Artillery Node. It would help you against blobs, it will help your Exocrine, and it'll free up a heavy support slot.

Your 2 broods of 3 carnies are great and all, but a smart opponent will only let you get into range of units that you'll overkill with hilarity. I think you'd be best off by splitting the 6 into 3 broods. You'll lose some resiliency (because of model cycling) but you'll gain flexibility and lose the "over kill" factor. You don't always have to wipe a unit to make it useless. Consider that 2 dakkafexen will significantly cripple just about any unit in the game, barring those with invisibility.

Other than that, I think you're on the right track.