Using old Dakkafexes: The Fexstar @ 2000 points

The majority of the old Tyranid players complain about their old Carnifexes being useless a lot; don’t they? Well let’s shut them up and show them how Carnifexes can be used in a true Fexstar list. This will be using everyone’s old Dakkafexes and combining them with the new Tyranid army to make an effective 5th ed list. There are a couple ways to do this but let’s start with our Dakkafexes. Most people have three but we want to take advantage of Broods so we’re going to take four Dakkafexes in two broods of two. Whilst this limits our damage potential and some flexibility is lost, these 380 point units are very scary T6/W8 monsters which can be joined by Tyranid Primes. Obviously all of the Fexes have been given 2x TL-Brainleech Devourers which gives us a lot of accurate S6 firepower on the go and an impressive presence in combat. This sets us back a whopping 760 points! We are going to need to add in two Primes as well to abuse wound allocation and cover and to make sure those Fexes are striking in combat! A Prime w/lash whip, bone sword, toxin and regeneration costs 115 points and taking two sends us down to 990 points used.

So we’ve got some impressive midfield survivability, suppression fire and combat ability but we need to add to our anti-horde and true anti-tank ability. We’ll start with our anti-tank and look at Hive Guard. We have a mild conundrum here as we’d like some Venomthropes as well to make our midfield a bit scarier to assault and always have cover on the Fexes. However, with the Primes in this current incarnation of the list we should be able to generate cover for the Fexes more easily so for the moment we will just run with Hive Guard. We’ll want a minimum of 6 but we’d prefer 9 so let’s put in 9 for the moment and see what we can work with from there. This sets us back 450 points to a total of 1440 and 560 left. Going to be tight once we add our midfield in!

We still need some more anti-infantry and staying power in midfield and what better to do this than Tervigons and Termagants? Tervigons will be making the army more survivable by handing out FNP to the Fexes or Hive Guard as needed whilst making the Termagants decent in combat (and obviously providing more bodies). For the moment we will leave onslaught off as we are relying on the list’s survivability to get us through early turns. Two squads of termagants and Tervigons w/Adrenal, Toxin and Catalyst sets us back 490 points, almost all of our allotted points left. Let’s see what we have...

2x Prime w/LW, BS, Regen, Toxin
3x3 Hive Guard
2x10x Termagant
2x Tervigon w/Adrenal, Toxin, Catalyst
2x2x Carnifex w/2x TL-brainleech Devs

Not really much we can add with 70 points spare with this list. We can drop 3 Hive Guard and add in two squads of Raveners with rending claws but they don’t add much. We could also replace the Primes with a Tervigon HQ but we’d then need to replace one of the HG squads with a Venomthrope squad and leaves us with only 4 real shooting units. Instead let’s drop two HG and add in a Warrior squad with a VC. We can fit in either a 5 strong squad with no upgrades or a 4 strong squad with a combat upgrade. For the moment I’ll go with just the 5 strong which gives some target priority issues with heavy weapons and when a Prime attaches, is pretty scary in combat if you don’t have multiple PFists.

The final army looks something like this:

2x Prime w/LW, BS, Regen, Toxin
2x2 Hive Guard
3x Hive Guard
10x Termagants
11x Termagants
2x Tervigon w/Adrenal, Toxin, Catalyst
5x Warriors w/VC
2x2x Carnifex w/2x TL-brainleech worms

Totals: 2000 points
6 MCs
35 infantry (56 wounds)

Again, there are quite a few options with this list and two Primes aren’t necessary though with their ability to absorb and regen wounds and attach to multiple squads means having two opens up more options. Having that many T6 wounds barrelling down on you, even at 2000 points, is pretty impressive and whilst some lists can get more, this list is balanced in terms of shooting and close combat. Fast Mech could still give this list issues and dropping the Warriors in favour of Onslaught is an option as is running a Swarmlord or three Tervigons. However, this concept or even running two Dakkafexes + Prime is a viable and competitive option and a way for people to use their old Dakkafexes. Carnifex broods when combined with Primes can be extremely survivable and potent and take a lot of firepower to bring down. Whilst expensive, in terms of raw number of T6 wounds in a single unit, the Fexstar has no equal.