DEVOURING HUMANITY: Tactica Tyrannofex

Hello again! This is Russell back again to talk about what I think is an under appreciated model in the new Tyranid codex: the Tyrannofex. Please note, however, that I don't claim that it is a "good" model, just one that I run frequently, and that I think more people should run. Now that I've lost all credibility by admitting to running a model that isn't good, let's talk about the choices for unique weapons that the Tyrannofex can carry.

His name is Jake. Say "Hi Jake!"

Fleshborer Hive:
I think a lot of people are taken in by this very sub-par weapon. Assault 20 does sound rather intimidating, I'll admit. But let's look at it this way: what else has Assault 20? Twenty Gaunts. And those gaunts are less than half the cost, can hold objectives, could take a Mycetic Spore, and are debateably harder to kill due to their ability to get cover saves and the fact that they have 20 wounds (kind of). Honestly, I think 20 Gaunts is probably a better choice than the Fleshborer Hive Tyrannofex, and I don't think 20 Gaunts is a particularly good choice.

Acid Spray:
I don't have a lot of experience with this particular weapon choice, though it seems reasonable. It makes your Tyrannofex very good at pushing stubborn units off of an in-cover objective. Eldar Rangers or Imperial Guardsmen with Camo Cloaks can be frustrating for Tyranids to get off objectives, and Acid Spray, along with the Thorax Swarm the Tyrannofex comes with, can be very effective at killing them. But this does make your Tyrannofex into a very short range, very slow beast who will spend the first several turns just moving up the board doing nothing. I think that Acid Spray is worth considering, if you are having trouble with your opponents going to ground in cover on objectives, but I am not sure that it justifies the very high cost of the Tyrannofex.

Rupture Cannon:
This is the thing that really sells the Tyrannofex for me. Two shots at BS 3 is nothing impressive, and I do warn you that this weapon will miss at frustrating times. But a long range, high-strength weapon is something that the Tyranids are completely lacking outside of the Tyrannofex. When you really need a tank across the board to die, and can't get the Hiveguard or Zoanthropes there in time, the Tyrannofex is a great backup plan. I have had great success breaking open transport tanks with the Tyrannofex so that my Genestealers can assault the embarked troops. The Rupture Cannon is also a good answer to some high speed, long range weaponry, such as the Imperial Guard Valkyrie/Vendetta, which can outrun and outrange your other tankbreaking options fairly easily. All in all, I think that the Rupture Cannon is the best option for the Tyrannofex.

The Tyrannofex is a very expensive model, and I would not recommend trying to squeeze it into any list below 1500 points, and even then it is questionable. But it can be very effective as a long range gunner. I also usually move it slowly up the board, using its Cluster Spines and Thorax Swarm in the late turns once the tanks are all down. I have also found that the Tyrannofex rarely dies, because the amount of firepower that the opponent has to pump into it to bring it down is usually not worth the amount of damage that it does.

All in all, the Tyrannofex is not actually a good model. It is very expensive and does not do very much damage. But I feel justified in taking it on a regular basis simply because it fills a hole that the Tyranids are not able to fill with any other model. Tyranids are sorely lacking in long range, high-strength shooters, and the Tyrannofex is an overpriced option, but it does the job, and honestly that is good enough to justify its points in a lot of games.

Switching Armies: Nidses!

So I’ve had quite a few battles in the past few days and I figured it was about time to tell you about some of them. Two of the other gamers and I decided to try switching armies around for a couple of battles to get a feel for using a different force. The first switch was me going over to Nids. Being a fan of outflanking from my Mobile Infantry Guard lists I decided to go for a genestealer heavy army. Here’s a breakdown of my list:

Broodlord with feeder tendrils and flesh hooks
10 Genestealers with flesh hooks, 4+ save
Lictor
Lictor
8 Genestealers with flesh hooks, scuttlers, 4+ save, toxin sacs
8 Genestealers with flesh hooks, scuttlers, 4+ save
8 Genestealers with flesh hooks, scuttlers, 4+ save
3 Bio-acid spore mines
3 Bio-acid spore mines
3 Bio-acid spore mines
Carnifex with venom cannon, barbed strangler, enhanced senses, extended carapace
Carnifex with venom cannon, barbed strangler, enhanced senses, extended carapace

A couple of points of contention that this list brings up:

- 4+ save on the stealers. I could afford a ton more troops if I dropped the save, but not having them die instantly to basic infantry weapons seemed to be a big plus in my book. Plus the army I was borrowing had it modeled on, so that was a plus.
- Spore mines. I figured they were cheap and hilarious and an ok way to deal with tanks, something that this army will struggle with. They can even pen a Land Raider on a wing and a prayer!

I played the former Nid player who was now playing Tau. Set up was in a desert canyon, granting plenty of cover for my stealers and Lictors while at the same time affording a great degree of protective mobility to the Tau jetpacks and grav tanks. He had loaded up on maxed out firewarriors in Devilfishes and railguns, but only 1 team of battlesuits.

Mission was 2 objectives, deployment was long board edges and my opponent won and chose first turn. He deployed his army, and in response I deployed two carnifexes in out of the way locations.



1st turn saw little happening, as my cover saves held out and the Fexes did little to deter the enemy tanks. 2nd turn got a little more interesting as two of my genestealer broods came on, including the one led by the Broodlord.



I unfortunately forgot that the Broodlord wasn’t fleet, so I was unable to assault anything on the turn they entered play. I was repaid for this mistake with boatloads of enemy fire that reduced the Broodlord’s retinue to 4 genestealers. My other brood escaped any molestation, however, and the Fexes continued to prove invincible.

My third turn shooting managed to pin the battlesuits with a Strangler and stun a Devilfish whose firewarriors had disembarked. Also two more genestealer broods came in on the opposite board edge, allowing me to charge for my objective. I made another poor decision in not sending two broods to secure the objective, a choice that would haunt me later. One brood assaulted a hammerhead, hitting it on 6s three times...



then rolling this for armor penetration:



The tank blew up but failed to take any of my troops with it. Victory for the swarm!



The rest of the battle became a mad dash for me to secure an objective. His objective was too far back and well guarded to assault, especially after my Carnifex was finally downed by a lucky missile pod shot. At one point I assaulted 4 tanks at once and only managed to kill one. I also assaulted two firewarrior squads with lone Lictors and slaughtered them both in one round. Yay enemies getting to hit me on 5s!

In the end it was a draw only because the Tau player forgot that he could contest objectives with tanks (his response when I reminded him of this after the game: Contesting? What, you mean getting on an objective and NOT assaulting? Madness!). I probably could have done a bit better if I had managed the Broodlord better and gotten the assault on the Battlesuits with the fleet-enabled Stealers.

Still, it was fun to try out another army for a change. Since he wants to try using my IGuard next time and our Tau playing friend has sadly departed for Montana, I’ll be back to Nids… though I now have the go ahead to borrow elements from another Nids playing friend, allowing me to field everything except for Raveners. Should be interesting…