Thinking outside of T6; Heavy Support

By TheGraveMind

And we thought Godfexes were expensive in 4th edition

Tyranid heavy support, the home of the T6. You have trygons and mawlocs, carnifex, tyranofex, and the little biovore. Trygons and Tyrannofexes are the most common of the culprits taken for this FOC slot. But lets take a look at the other possibilities.

First, lets have a moment of silence for the "Godfex". Never again shall such an amazing monstrosity of upgraded biomass walk across the battle field. Compare a venom cannon, crushing claw and regenerating Godfex with the bells and whistles. The 5th edition Fex clocks in at 270 points, while the 4th edition was sitting around 250. Granted the newer one has two more attacks, but what did we lose? Oh nothing important, just T7 W5 2+ for less points. A base 85 point carnifex (and 75 point Hive tyrant) would make people run screaming in this day and age. Oh how the young forget. But we cannot change the past, lets look toward the future....


Carnifex, oh carnifex, How Nid players miss thee. With the price jump and removal of options, few nid players even considered using a carnifex when the new book came out. Some of that has carried on, but there are many that are out there trying out the FEXstar. You take one or two Fexes, and an equal number of Tyranid primes and attach them together and run them up. An alpha warrior with regen and lashwhips and sword is a great addition to a carnifex. Seeing as half of the squad is not a monstrous creature, they are able to get cover, just as tyrant guard do. Lash whips and bone swords help out in combat and help make sure fexes get to attack first/same time, and don't get bogged down. They synapse keeps them under control and the extra wounds with regen are great for soaking up shots. But don't forget they count as average T6, but also average Ws6 when being attacked.

I myself have not tried out this combination because I was never the nid player that had 5-8 carnifexes laying around. The three I had were converted into Tyrannofex/tervigons. But this seems a very nice combination and a great way to get some S10 close combat attacks into the fray. If I ever made the models for this, I would make my Alpha warrior look like his whip was a leash for the carnifex.

The real Tremors feel

Mawloc; the crazy uncle of the trygon.
"The one trick pony, he'll get to hit maybe once, and then will be taken down". Not always true. While he is some what of a gimmick, what the Mawloc does provide is some amazing disruptions. It's a shame we don't see more of these being played. The ability to hit any target on the table, push units around, and even possible remove whole models/squads from the game is pure mental warfare at its greatest. You can achieve amazing board control with just the ability of having him pop up. I've tried it when the book came out, and simply had some bad luck with the scatters.
The thing it comes down to is it requires the right list to run it. The sad part is that the FAQ did somewhat hurt the ability to build a proper list that functions well with it. That is not to say there isn't' still great possibility for it, but it requires a good amount of work to get it there.

Now that's a Barrage!

Biovores.
I've heard people list these suckers as some of the useless units in the codex! WHAT!!!! Let me present to you an example; You deck yourself out in all of the newest anti tank units the Tyranid codex has to offer, and you are destroying chimeras left and right. What do you have now? A wall of wreckage that can slow you as you cross over/around and that you can't see the infantry huddling behind on the objective? Here comes the biovore, just lob those mines right over, and watch whole squads die in the barrage. S4 AP4 large blasts make short work of anything not MEQ. And with multi-barrage it can be very devastating. You don't require line of sight, and the attack counts as originating at the center of the blast. Multiple blasts means you can easily get more hits than there are squad members.

Even if you don't kill a whole squad of guardsmen (which is easy with 15+ hits, wounding on 3s and ignoring most armor and cover) they still could be pinned or start fleeing from break tests. What if you face Footdar or greentide? Again you are almost destroying whole squads. But 50% or more of my opponents are going to be MEQ! Well, even then 15+ hits, wounding on a 4+ should kill a few marines a turn.
Sure Nids are known for being able to handle infantry just fine, but the ability to reach out and harm a squad that far away is great. I have yet to be that disappointed in Biovore performance. The times they slack against marines is overcome by their actions against everything else.

Trygons and Tyrannofexes. I'm not saying they are bad, but I think people are a little too complacent with them. Trygons need to be in combat, or they get shot to pieces, and getting them there can be trouble unless you are running more than one, and that is a good amount of points to get a trygon into combat. Tyrannofexes are great and I know people have still held out because of their point values and I don't blame them. 265 points for a two shot Bs3 gun isn't the best, but it is far more than that. S10 shots early on popping vehicles, and once you get close, S5 large blast and 2+ poison flamer really hurt infantry. If you are close enough to assault you should do so sparingly to mop up, and keep from getting shot with meltas.  6 wounds really make both of these beasts nice large targets that can soak up a lot of fire. One wants to get into combat as soon as possible and avoid getting shot, the other wants to stay out of combat as long as possible so it can keep shooting.

So I'm curious what you all have tried? The FEXstar? Triple Trygon rush? T-fex shuffle?