Wednesday 17 February 2010

[Tyranids] Weapon Loadouts for Warriors and Carnifexes

Hi all, Angryman here.

Whilst I'm off work with this bug that's going round (forgive the pun) I've been reading my nid codex, as you do when your ill so i thought I'd share a couple of thoughts that have been going round my mind.





WHAT DO I ARM MY WARRIORS AND CARNIFEXES WITH????


Warriors,




The age old question, what role do I want them to fulfill? in the previous codex I used to give my warriors wings to make them a fast attack option so that would free up my elite slots for the precious carnifexes. As warriors are now troops there is no need to do this which (in my opinion) rules out winged warriors, they still have a 5+ save, couples with the loss of eternal warrior (old synapse rule) means bolter fire will destroy them.

Do you want them to be fire support or close combat? as you can no longer choose 2 sets of the same ranged weapon to make them twin-linked (i had warriors with 2 sets of devourers) then its a choice of 2 ranged weapons and pick and choose the one you shoot every turn, have them with 2 close combat weapons and a mixture of both.

Warriors come with 1 set of scything talons and a devourer as standard (coupled with the stat upgrades from previous codex makes the points increase seem less severe). This load out is basic but will cover both aspects (ranged and CC). you could take the available biomorphs and give them enhanced combat abilities but then do you spend, what are now precious points, replacing the ranged weapon and making them a combat monster? There are benefits to doing this. Give them rending claws and they can take on light to medium vehicles, give them bonesword and lashwhip and they will rip through most units (providing they get the charge) or give them a 2nd set of talons and watch them never miss a thing in combat (once the FAQ comes out and ends this debate on stacked combat abilities......but that's for different, rule bashing forums).



Giving your warriors 2 sets of ranged weapons can help too, keep the devourer and give them either a blast weapon and a high strength multi-shot weapon will help you take on horde lists, elite infantry and light vehicles.


Remember these important facts about warriors though
  1. They are synapse creatures so you are going to want them near the rest of your force so either give them support or make it so no-one wants to go near them
  2. They are no longer eternal warriors so massed bolter fire can take them down, even massed lasgun fire will kill them
  3. They are susceptible to instant death.

Carnifexes




What role will your carnifex (s) be fulfilling? Well these guys can take a punch, take another punch, a slap in the face and still kick you back into next week. I began by asking myself the same question. What role do I want these guys to perform? like the warrior they can be geared up for assault, ranged or a combination AND a 4th choice - anti heavy armour. The fexes are able to take the big daddy versions of the warrior weapons, heavy venom cannon and the stranglethorn cannon. these can be used to hunt heavy tanks and elite / horde lists respectively. The only downside is the points cost of all this.

Being a monstrous creature they fex has the benefit of ignoring armour and rolling 2d6 +s when rolling for armour penetration so tooling them up for all out combat may not be needed as much, add to the fact they get +2 I when they charge means they will attack before power fists / claws.

The points for them have almost doubled, so what do you get for this? well you get a lot of biomorphs you would normally buy for the previous codex fex, also you come with 2 sets of scything talons for free.

Some previous incarnations of the fexes have gone, the dakka fex, re-roll hit and re-roll wound 8 shot S6 has gone. We have the new incarnation which is 12 re-roll hit S6. This is good (I'm using one of these myself) but its expensive. The god-fex, the ultimate in fex killing power has gone. Although you can buy combat biomorphs to enhance your fexes killing power it isn't worth spending the points on.

Why? I hear you ask, would you buy a fex at all when the codex has such other lovely creatures to spend your hard earned points on??? Mysetic spores!!!! thats why!!!! tyranid drop pods!!!!. Put a fex into a spore and watch the look of horror on your opponents face when this apex of tyranid killing craftsmanship drops into the middle of his army.

My personal preference for a fex is lots of high S shots, it makes this the perfect multi-role creature that performs each task so well, if it cant shoot it then it will destroy it in combat.

Remember these important facts about carnifexes
  1. If outside of synapse rang then they still have to test.
  2. Balance the points cost against what you want the fex to do with the rest of your army
  3. JOTWW - this can destroy fexes

well its back to my sick bed now to contemplate more weapon loadouts......tyrants....hmmmm

No comments:

Post a Comment