Unit of the week: Carnifex

[Spacecow]

Another week, so time for a new unit to discuss.
One of my favourite to run: The Carnifex!

How do you like to run your brood?
How do you prefer to load them?
How’s Old one eye holding up?

Again, feel free to showcase yours if you want to!

Edited April 12, 2021 by Xenith
Edited tags.

[jbaeza94]

I run 2 (because that's all I have haha) with quad devourers, enhanced senses, and spore cysts. They have been great vs geq and even did ok vs marines. I've never used them in cc, but I'm considering making 2 double scytal and magnetiz one for claws to be ooe. I'd like to run the new +1s ap and d trait on him, his claws hit on 2s in the charge, explode on 5, causing 23 d to t7 and 19 to t8 per fight phase. His scytals do 24d to t7 sv3 and 18 to t8 sv3

Hell be brutal.

Edited December 3, 2019 by jbaeza94

[IronDreddKnight]

I’ve got two fex’s, hoping to add more I the new year if I can get my hands on the bioswarm box.

 

I keep chainring my mind on how to run them. I’ve ran scytals + devourers + ES + SC..

Scytals + HVC + ES + SC..

Quad devourers + SC + monstrous acid maw..

 

I like to make sure my fex’s can play in both the shooting and assault phases. Same as my Flyrants, the more play you can get out of your models, the better your chances of wining.

 

I don’t run a melee fex because I find they’re a little too slow to be a melee focused melee unit. So having a gun allows it contribute while it’s chasing biomass.. old one eye is the exception to this rule as he’s just such a beat stick. (Never ran screamer killers or stone crushers, these might also be exceptions, I can’t say)

 

In contrast I don’t run dakka fex’s either since I find they’re vulnerable to assaults. Which is fine with screen protection, but it’s nit difficult to remove screens, then they’re exposed. At least with a melee weapon, they can hold they’re own and your opponent will think twice about charging.

 

Spore cysts have always been a constant, what ever build I run.

[IronDreddKnight]

I run 2 (because that's all I have haha) with quad devourers, enhanced senses, and spore cysts. They have been great vs geq and even did ok vs marines. I've never used them in cc, but I'm considering making 2 double scytal and magnetiz one for claws to be ooe. I'd like to run the new +1s ap and d trait on him, his claws hit on 2s in the charge, explode on 5, causing 23 d to t7 and 19 to t8 per fight phase. His scytals do 24d to t7 sv3 and 18 to t8 sv3

Hell be brutal.

He’s even better, fex’s have the inbuilt +1 to hit rolls on the charge, while he has the +1 to hit aura which he also benefits from. So his attacks explode on 4’s. Absolute beast!

[jbaeza94]

 

I run 2 (because that's all I have haha) with quad devourers, enhanced senses, and spore cysts. They have been great vs geq and even did ok vs marines. I've never used them in cc, but I'm considering making 2 double scytal and magnetiz one for claws to be ooe. I'd like to run the new +1s ap and d trait on him, his claws hit on 2s in the charge, explode on 5, causing 23 d to t7 and 19 to t8 per fight phase. His scytals do 24d to t7 sv3 and 18 to t8 sv3

Hell be brutal.

He’s even better, fex’s have the inbuilt +1 to hit rolls on the charge, while he has the +1 to hit aura which he also benefits from. So his attacks explode on 4’s. Absolute beast!

Wouldn't claws explode on 5s because of the minus 1 to hit?

[Spacecow]

 

 

I run 2 (because that's all I have haha) with quad devourers, enhanced senses, and spore cysts. They have been great vs geq and even did ok vs marines. I've never used them in cc, but I'm considering making 2 double scytal and magnetiz one for claws to be ooe. I'd like to run the new +1s ap and d trait on him, his claws hit on 2s in the charge, explode on 5, causing 23 d to t7 and 19 to t8 per fight phase. His scytals do 24d to t7 sv3 and 18 to t8 sv3

Hell be brutal.

He’s even better, fex’s have the inbuilt +1 to hit rolls on the charge, while he has the +1 to hit aura which he also benefits from. So his attacks explode on 4’s. Absolute beast!

Wouldn't claws explode on 5s because of the minus 1 to hit?

Yeah I thought so too :)

[IronDreddKnight]

Apologies yes, your spot on, I was considering scytals, the claws would explode on 5’s. :)

[Closet Skeleton]

I run 2 (because that's all I have haha) with quad devourers, enhanced senses, and spore cysts. They have been great vs geq and even did ok vs marines. I've never used them in cc, but I'm considering making 2 double scytal and magnetiz one for claws to be ooe. I'd like to run the new +1s ap and d trait on him, his claws hit on 2s in the charge, explode on 5, causing 23 d to t7 and 19 to t8 per fight phase. His scytals do 24d to t7 sv3 and 18 to t8 sv3

Hell be brutal.

 

Do the new traits work on unique characters? Sounds like they shouldn't.

[Kallas]

Do the new traits work on unique characters? Sounds like they shouldn't.

At the moment the wording doesn't restrict them from affecting named characters. It's possible that they will FAQ it. At the same time, there are functionally just additional Warlord Traits, albeit with some different functionality on top.

 

If Tyranids didn't have such a poor range of Warlord Traits to choose from, these would likely have been less interesting, but as it stands they're pretty cool.

[Evil Eye]

I haven't gotten the new PA book yet, but I do love me some Carnifexes. I'm planning on running some Screamer Killers (because I love Screamer Killers) and a Thornback with crushing claws, bioplasma and a stranglethorn cannon (because it looks cool as hell even if it's not an optimal loadout). I kinda wanna convert an Old One Eye too!

[BolterZorro]

I've got 8 to build: I will glue a old eye one. It is mandatory ;-). But I have no clue (yet) about the other 7. 

BTW, if you ask me "it's expensive because GW exclusive", I'd answer: you're right...except that the latest 2 big boxes of GW (Apocalypse & battleforce)  both contained a pair of carni. Bough 3 each time, resold things making the whole bunch of carni super cheap 

Edited December 12, 2019 by BolterZorro

[Spacecow]

One word: magnets :)

That way you can change your load out however you want (arms wise)/ head

 

Don’t play competitive so my opponents generally don’t care if the carapace is exactly right.

 

Good idea reselling things you don’t use :)

[jbaeza94]

I dont think they care for the wrong head either tbh. Heads have always been rule of cool for me, except for very obvious things like mawloc that is defined by its head.

[TheNewman]

Considering this is an indexed thread I'm not sure if this counts as a necro or not (apologies in advance if it does), but it seems like the right place to put this:

 

Has anyone tried using the Monstrous Acid Maw as a primary melee weapon to go full-dakka on the arm weapons? I'm building my third and fourth Carnifex and the potential to do quad Devourers/Death Spitters and just rely on the Ap5 Acid Maw as a main weapon is interesting.

[Arson Fire]

Considering this is an indexed thread I'm not sure if this counts as a necro or not (apologies in advance if it does), but it seems like the right place to put this:

 

Has anyone tried using the Monstrous Acid Maw as a primary melee weapon to go full-dakka on the arm weapons? I'm building my third and fourth Carnifex and the potential to do quad Devourers/Death Spitters and just rely on the Ap5 Acid Maw as a main weapon is interesting.

I found it wasn't a bad build back in 8th. Some people had strong opinions about always taking enhanced senses on shooty fexes. But I found the option of being a threat in melee was worth trading a few ranged hits on the shorter ranged dakkafexes.  Some more thought was given to it in the lead-up to 9th when we heard about monsters being able to shoot in combat.

 

Unfortunately it didn't pan out like I hoped. The point increases hurt carnifexes too much, and I just can't justify taking them. You're looking at 130 points for that build (140 with the almost obligatory -1 to hit upgrade), which means carnifexes stay on the shelf for now.

Edited May 16, 2021 by Arson Fire

[WarriorFish]

The UotW topics are intended as a living resource, so as long as you have something to add it's not a necro It is good timing as I have been thinking about fexes with a couple to assemble...

 

As Arson says they're a little behind the times currently but this is not a unique situation (whether across codices or within the nid one). For such things the best thing to do is not think too much in my opinion - give them a role, try to cover needs/strengths, and aim to keep them cheap! :P They are very similar to Dreads so I treat them the same in that they work well as support units especially in combining good melee and shooting.

 

Unfortunately Dreads have pulled ahead somewhat now but maybe that's a sign of things to come? If you keep them flexible and cheap and more importantly in number then they should do ok. Since you have a few already perhaps this specialised one can do better with their support? I want to make a Screamer-Killer but I'm not sure how much to expect from it.

[Evil Eye]

Seeing as this thread has made a triumphant return- what are thoughts on the mighty Stone-Crusher? I always liked the concept for it, but how does it perform?

[Arson Fire]

Seeing as this thread has made a triumphant return- what are thoughts on the mighty Stone-Crusher? I always liked the concept for it, but how does it perform?

 

I'm not a fan of the stonecrushers most recent rules.

 

For one thing, they took away the Monstrous Brood rule, so you can no longer fit up to 3 in a detachment slot.

 

But my main problem with it is they stuffed up its wargear options.

The model is sold with either a pair of wrecker claws, or with a single wrecker claw + a flail.  However in its current rules it can only choose between the pair of wrecker claws, or a pair of flails. This invalidates the claw + flail loadout, and there's no way to represent a pair of flails without converting the model.

Adding to this, a second flail does absolutely nothing more than a single flail. While the wrecker claws rules have been written to give them an additional bonus (re-rolling hit rolls) for having two of them, but there's no way to have a single claw right now, which makes the rule a bit weird.

It's like whoever wrote the weapon rules had one idea of how it should work, but the person who wrote the wargear options had another.

 

It seems easily fixed. Just requires GW to notice the error and write an errata (I did email them about it back when the book came out).

Edited May 16, 2021 by Arson Fire

[Xenith]

On the acid maw, I'm in team enhanced senses on a shootyfex. The senses get you 4 more hits per turn, also in combat. If you're building a dakkafex, best to try and keep in out of combat in the first place. If your opponent charges it, then you get to shoot in melee.