Krakifex Rush

[piersonsmuppet]

Was contemplating a Carnifex spam list, and this is what I landed on. Was originally looking at Levi for rr HVCs, but I toyed around with a devious way to take TTL and landed on Kraken.

SL - Synaptic Lynchpin (-1CP)
Neurothrope - WL, One Step Ahead, Barb
10x Garg
10x Horm
10x Horm
3x Zoan
PoM - Gestation, Cunning (-2CP)
3x Carnifex - 1xHVC/CST/ES/Synapse, 2x DS/CC/ES/AG
3x Carnifex - 1xHVC/CST/ES, 2x DS/CC/ES/AG
3x Carnifex - 1xHVC/CST/ES, 2x DS/CC/ES/AG

SL is here to give Obsec and RR’s as needed. CC carnifex with AG strat and full rr hit/wound have proven very effective.

Carnifex: While HVC/CC is cool, 9 of them felt too slow. Giving 6 DS lets me still advance and shoot and start responding to the opponent faster. The bonus with this is TTL on Carnifex comes at a downside of the opponent just focusing down one threesome at a time. With this configuration, I think the opponent is hard pressed to stop me from getting at least 9 VP. CST on the HVC was to save pts.

Horms and Gargs are here to action and screen. T1 deepstrikers seem to be an important consideration, and that 6” scout move looks like the best answer.

PoM was a 3rd Horm unit, but I wanted something to hit the backfield so my opponent can’t just worry about moving forward.

Secondary choices:

Warp Craft is good on SL with Warp Siphon, likely to be chosen often.

TTL stands to be a good choice often I think, but I’d need tests to know if it is in auto take territory.

BEL is also close to auto take, Parasite can sometimes max this on it’s own w/ gestation. Gargoyles add more redundacy.

Engage is also a strong option with 7 Monsters pushing forward.

Stranglehold has play with SL giving Obsec and Parasite holding Cunning.

Banners and RND can be fallbacks. Both are really only workable if I don’t need the troops to 6” screen. RND instantly becomes a good choice if I win first, 16” will get me an opposing table quarter T1 and the other 3 should be easy to finish.

Adaptive change has a lot of options. Obviously 3+d3” advnace on my Fexes is good, a 6” scout helps blunt T1 deepstrike, HI on the Carnifex would be nasty vs board control, and most of the other hunt/feed actually have niche impact to where they could be a choice vs the right opposing army.

The big thing I’m not sure of is if the Horms should be Gargs. 3x Gargs would help RND and BEL plans, but I kind of like the Horms to have two big advancers.

Thoughts?

[bigpig]

I like this list. I also like the response to turn one deep strikers which seem to becoming more and more than issue. Carnifex is a good unit but I’m wondering if it is just a little “too meta” as in other players prepping and planning for them. Not sure what the alternative would be because other monsters get hit just as hard by counters to them. I guess with the Levi meta being warriors fexes pop up a bit more resilient, plus The speed of kraken really makes this army work

[piersonsmuppet]

Yea, the list does run into the issue that Carnifex are an expected quantity. However, SL is an uncommon looking occurance due to the MBS and HVC relics, so The hope is to side step “normal” plans to deal with all HVC/CC carnifex lists. They will still die fairly easily, but so far it has been the list with the lowest combo of No prisoners and Bring It Down assassinate and abhor the witch. No list can score more than 10 except 11 for BiD (which I don’t expect to be more than 10 unless the game is super one-sided and Ive probably lost in a landslide anyway). That is a big bonus in my eyes for why I chose to skip on other big monsters.

[piersonsmuppet]

I’m thinking that Devs might be better than DS in the wake of AoC and the prevalence of T3 models between Craftworlds, Harlis, and Nids. They are even into MEQ w/ AoC and Devs have 30% higher output into T3. I think the loss of range isn’t a big deal in Kraken, but I’m curious to hear any thoughts for/against the change?

[garg]

I like your list, it's elegant in it's simplicity, it looks a little light on lower quality volume shots. That could be a problem against Harlequins who can probably skirt around combat in the early rounds.
My choice would be to remove 1 cc fex and claws from another for 5 Pyrovores. It reduces your chances of scoring high on TTL but you gain a decent amount of anti infantry fire as well as cheap actions / screening / disposable objective stealers. If I remember right no prisoners is non vehicle non monster so it still won't be a good pick.

[piersonsmuppet]

That’s a good point, and something I could try if the list has problems like that. However, I think Kraken’s speed will make doing that kind of counter-play difficult. I don’t think even Harlis can easily dance around Carnifex with 17” advances and still score well on primary.