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Looking to go back to playing Nids and in accordance I'm looking for advice on big gribblies to use as support for the rest of my swarm.
So, as the title suggests, I'm looking at Carnifexes and the Tyrannofexes.
Any recommendations for which to use and the loadouts?
Thanks in advance!
The Colonel.

For me it's Carni's all the way, they are a lot more versatile than the T-Rex, and the T-Rex is soooo damn expensive. I mean don't get me wrong, a Carni is damn expensive as well. Plus the Carnifex is one of the iconic units of our 'Dex so that gives it the win for me.

Well, Dakka-fexes in Spore Pods are pretty decent. I'm struggling to use Tyrannofex in games though. They're just not very points effective.

Carni with devourers or crushing claw bioplasma.... I found the T-rex impressive, but when I look to the weapons, they don't have the range or the power that fit twith the Tyrannoflexe.

Carnifex all the way : deep strike in a mycetic spore would be really more effective than a T-fex.

An advantage of the T-fex is that he is able to suffer a great number of shots, so your opponent may focus on it instead of your really dangerous units.

So would you all say Carnifex regardless of the situation? Or would the T-fexes be useful some of the time? Would it help to post the rest of my list?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh and thanks for all the help so far! I didn't expect this much so soon.

Carnifex can be shot in via Mycetic Spore. Then it can unload 12 twin-linked Strength 6 shots at the enemy, destroying any vehicle short of a Ghost Ark or Land Raider in one volley, or lawnmowing away
a dangerous infantry unit.

Tyrannofex does not have the Deep Strike option. It has a S6 AP4 torrent weapon, as well as other stuff to shoot. It is much more durable, with 2 extra wounds and a 2+ armor save. It can be a distraction unit for this purpose, or serve as the anvil to your Flyrant's hammer. Its anti-vehicle option, the Rupture Cannon, is not the most reliable or synergistic, and costs extra points.

Is the mycetic spore essential in your eyes then?

 Colonel Dakura wrote:
Is the mycetic spore essential in your eyes then?

It helps get a slow scary unit that needs to be realistically within 18" range to do its job, get there a lot quicker.

Add one more to the pro-Carnifex group. When I run them, I usually go with poison, two sets of talons and always in a group of 3. Cost a gakload to field, but boy does it draw fire. Add on some help from endurance and you have a super durable unit that hits like a brick

Tyrannofexes are fun and much more durable than carnifexes but overall you have much more options with a carnifex.

If you do run a Tyrannofex, the best way is just basic acid spray and poison larva. Then you use the tyrannofex as a line breaker. He walks forward and just pushes everything out of his way. Smash attacks against vehicles and lots of templates against infantry. Just don't get him into close combat by himself or he will be stuck there forever.

Carnifexes can be built in a bunch of different ways. Screamer-killer is great for close combat (crushing claws and bioplasma) or dakka-fex is the best for shooting (2 TL devourers) Carnifex are not as tough ( 4w vs 6w, 3+ vs 2+) but they are cheaper. You can also run Carnifex in a brood of 3 to have all sorts of crazy fun. In broods of Carnifex, I run a Tyranid Prime for LOS wound allocation and have a venomthrope follow behind them for cover saves against AP3 weapons.

What about a mix then? A brood of two Dakkafexes and the line breaker T-fex suggested by Shamroll?

 Colonel Dakura wrote:
What about a mix then? A brood of two Dakkafexes and the line breaker T-fex suggested by Shamroll?

Would be one hell of a gun line to break through, I'd argue that running two individual Dakka fex's would be better in that situation, that way you have 3 tough units, and the single fex's can still do the damage a unit of 2 would do but, you'll have the added bonus of being able to shoot two different units, if the first does its job and finish's off a unit. Minimises overkill...

How's this for a list then -
HQ - The Swarmlord (280)
With 2 Tyrant Guard (120)

Elites - Doom in Pod (130)

Elites - 3 Zoanthropes (180)

Elites - 2 Hive Guard (100)

Troops - 10 Termagants (50) [2 Units]

Troops - Tervigon (210) [2 Units]
TS/AG, Catalyst, Onslaught.

Heavy Support - Carnifex (210) [2 Units]
TL Devourers x2, Bio-plasma.

Heavy Support - Tyrannofex (250)
Dessicator Larvae.

TOTAL - 2000

Looks pretty solid to me, and will do a lot of damage to most armies, the only problem you will have is with flyer heavy armies, but even if you run dual flyrants, you'll still have problems with them so thats not to worry about to much, against 1 or 2 flyers you can just ignore them anyone. Depends what sort of level of competitiveness you are aiming for.

I'd love to be more involved in local tournaments more but mostly it's with friends or at the local store though soon I'm gonna give the gaming club a whirl

Yeah people can give you all the advise under the sun on here and break down every last point of your list, but the proof is in the pudding. Give it 2-3 games as it is, giving you are a fair medium of opponents, missions, armies, situations etc that way you will have a good idea of tweaks and changes that you should make.

Excellent. Thanks for all the help! As always, great response.

This thread made me want to run both! I think I may just make up a few lists and try to do that. One with dakkafexes and another with crushing claws and scytals fexes

Yeah, running both sounds interesting, 2 big bug guns and 3 Brainleech would tackle anything. Have fun!

 Colonel Dakura wrote:
How's this for a list then -
HQ - The Swarmlord (280)
With 2 Tyrant Guard (120)

Elites - Doom in Pod (130)

Elites - 3 Zoanthropes (180)

Elites - 2 Hive Guard (100)

Troops - 10 Termagants (50) [2 Units]

Troops - Tervigon (210) [2 Units]
TS/AG, Catalyst, Onslaught.

Heavy Support - Carnifex (210) [2 Units]
TL Devourers x2, Bio-plasma.

Heavy Support - Tyrannofex (250)
Dessicator Larvae.

TOTAL - 2000

Don't take Bio-Plasma, you won't be using it over the Devourers except against Terminators(you can only fire 2 weapons a turn with the Carnifex). Those points are better spent elsewhere.

Remember to take Cluster Spines instead of Stinger Salvo on the Tervigon and Tyrannofex.

The Swarmlord is a good meatshield, I'd take him with 1 guard if I were you: it opens up more points, and if he gets Iron Arm, you'll want the Swarmlord's toughness to be the majority in the unit to make it harder to shoot to death.

Either take two tyranofexxes and/or a unit of 3 carnifexes with frag spines.

The thing is, with carnifexes getting FNP and maybe the It will not die rule, they become nearly impossible to remove. Add in the frag spines, meaning when they charge they will always strike at int 3, it makes them crazy good.

Your list is ok, but the bio plasma tends to be a waste of points and can keep you from making your charge. Consider dropping the hive guard, making 2 units of 2 zoanthropes and adding another tyrant guard.

Ill post this list here since your op inspired me to make it. (and made me extremely excited to run it!)

== HQ ==
Hive Tyrant Brood (350 pts.)
Hive Tyrant (1) - Twin-Linked Devourer - Brainleech Worms, Twin-Linked Devourer - Brainleech Worms, Armoured Shell, The Horror, Leech Essence, Hive Commander, Old Adversary = 290 pts.
Tyrant Guard (1) - Scything Talons = 60 pts.
Tyranid Prime (1) - Devourer, Scything Talons, Regeneration = 90 pts.

== Elites ==
Zoanthrope Brood (160 pts.)
Zoanthrope (2) = 120 pts.
Mycetic Spore (1) = 40 pts.
Zoanthrope (1) = 60 pts.

== Troops ==
Termagant Brood (11) - Fleshborer = 55 pts.
Termagant Brood (10) - Fleshborer = 50 pts.
Tervigon (1) - Scything Talons, Cluster Spines, AG, Toxin Sacs, Cat, Taken As Troops = 200 pts.
Tervigon (1) - Scything Talons, Cluster Spines, AG, Toxin Sacs, Cat, Taken As Troops = 200 pts.

== Heavy Support ==
Carnifex Brood (3) - Twin-Linked Devourer - Brainleech Worms, Twin-Linked Devourer - Brainleech Worms = 570 pts.
Tyrannofex (1) - Rupture Cannon, Cluster Spines, Thorax Swarm - Desicctor Larvae = 265 pts.

== Total ==
2000 pts.

I feel like instead of a swarmlord Youd be better off running a armored shell walkrant with dual TL devs. He can keep up with the rest of your crew unlike a flyrant, and he can add to the shooting fiesta you have going on. give him old adversary and hivecommander to help get your doom in and whatnot if you feel it benefits you, or spend the points elsewhere. I really like how you have a doom in there though, I may shuffle some things around to make room for him. In my list the 2 zoeys in the pod are for AV14 busting and the one loner is gonna be swapped for biomancy and will be a backfield buffer. If you get a chance to run your list please post a battle report! I am so curious to see how a list with both these options turns out.

A few days ago I'd say Carnifexes without a doubt in my mind. I run 3 dakkafexes with spods in my 2k list. I've been running the same list with an alteration here or there for a few weeks now. I have a tournament in less than a week so I don't really want to change my list so close to the day. However, the more I look into Tyrannofexes with Acid Spray and Larvae, the most I want to test them. In the past I always look at them for the Rupture Cannon, which I still can say with confidence is incredibly over priced. But with the torrent template weapon, they could really shine in the new infantry meta. This FLGS tournament will be the first time I'll see my local meta. Afterwards I'll get a better idea of what Heavy choices to run: Carnifex vs. Tyrannofex.

This thread might just come down to Local Meta (Who your friends are or if you go to your LGS).

patsfan32 wrote:
Ill post this list here since your op inspired me to make it. (and made me extremely excited to run it!)

== HQ ==
Hive Tyrant Brood (350 pts.)
Hive Tyrant (1) - Twin-Linked Devourer - Brainleech Worms, Twin-Linked Devourer - Brainleech Worms, Armoured Shell, The Horror, Leech Essence, Hive Commander, Old Adversary = 290 pts.
Tyrant Guard (1) - Scything Talons = 60 pts.
Tyranid Prime (1) - Devourer, Scything Talons, Regeneration = 90 pts.

== Elites ==
Zoanthrope Brood (160 pts.)
Zoanthrope (2) = 120 pts.
Mycetic Spore (1) = 40 pts.
Zoanthrope (1) = 60 pts.

== Troops ==
Termagant Brood (11) - Fleshborer = 55 pts.
Termagant Brood (10) - Fleshborer = 50 pts.
Tervigon (1) - Scything Talons, Cluster Spines, AG, Toxin Sacs, Cat, Taken As Troops = 200 pts.
Tervigon (1) - Scything Talons, Cluster Spines, AG, Toxin Sacs, Cat, Taken As Troops = 200 pts.

== Heavy Support ==
Carnifex Brood (3) - Twin-Linked Devourer - Brainleech Worms, Twin-Linked Devourer - Brainleech Worms = 570 pts.
Tyrannofex (1) - Rupture Cannon, Cluster Spines, Thorax Swarm - Desicctor Larvae = 265 pts.

== Total ==
2000 pts.

I feel like instead of a swarmlord Youd be better off running a armored shell walkrant with dual TL devs. He can keep up with the rest of your crew unlike a flyrant, and he can add to the shooting fiesta you have going on. give him old adversary and hivecommander to help get your doom in and whatnot if you feel it benefits you, or spend the points elsewhere. I really like how you have a doom in there though, I may shuffle some things around to make room for him. In my list the 2 zoeys in the pod are for AV14 busting and the one loner is gonna be swapped for biomancy and will be a backfield buffer. If you get a chance to run your list please post a battle report! I am so curious to see how a list with both these options turns out.

The one thing I would change up in this list would be to shift around some points to get the third power on your tervs, looking at it off the top of my head you could do this by dropping the talons (Tervs), and the 11th gant. That won't make a huge difference to you army but will give you one extra bio roll on one Terv which could be the difference between having Iron Arm/Enduracne or not. And then for the second Terv maybe drop Hive Commander, I think you'll get better mileage out of the extra power than the upgrade to help your one reserve come in quicker, and the your more than likely to get it in regardless of the upgrade.

Thanks for the tip! I did what you said and dropped those things and added the 3rd power for each tervi, and i used the last 10 points left to give the prime boneswords. good call!

patsfan32 wrote:
Thanks for the tip! I did what you said and dropped those things and added the 3rd power for each tervi, and i used the last 10 points left to give the prime boneswords. good call!

Cool man, let us know how it goes. can I ask how or what you intended to do with the prime? As in where you think he is going to slot into the list?

The prime is there to either be a part of a death star with the tyrant if he gets iron arm since there wont be majority toughness and they can all use the tyrants, or I am going to run him with the dakkafexes for more wounds.

Neither is particularly good. Both are overpriced by a fair margin. I used to run T-fexes in 5th when nids needed the anti-tank, but they aren't nearly as necessary in 6th.

Biovores and Trygons are your go-to Heavy Support options, and that's after you've got your psychoir situation handled.

patsfan32 wrote:
The prime is there to either be a part of a death star with the tyrant if he gets iron arm since there wont be majority toughness and they can all use the tyrants, or I am going to run him with the dakkafexes for more wounds.

Or as a third option you coul always put him with your gnats, that way he'll gain all the benefits ( and risks) of brood progenitor, and he'll have plenty of ablative wounds to LOS to. Just brood jump when the numbers begin to thin.