Building a Tyranid List: Heavy Support

Ok so here is where our lists have some real difficulty in choosing what to bring. Pretty much all of the choices are viable and useful in the right strategies. Lets start with what accounts for our only artillery. Biovores. Biovores are great anti infantry being one of our two creatures with 48" range and barrage shots. They absolutely wreck tau infantry lines, eldar, and guard infantry while still posing a threat to others. Their instinctive behavior is great for them unless you roll the worst result, in which case they cant do anything. i bring these guys in any game I can fit them in after my other first-pick options.
Speaking of first picks, one of the most iconic creatures to see on the battlefield is the carnifex. this guys is just as beastly as in the last edition but cheaper! I run him as a cannon fex (stranglethorn/brainleach worms) but he has so many options to choose from. he is great to just pay for him and run him at tanks. He draws a lot of fire and if he is a single model unit you need not really fear instinctive behavior. beware though, bring a brood and they might do some hefty damage to each other if you don't keep them under control. He is just a great pick for heavy support.
Our next pick is our tyranofex. This guy has our long-range strength 10 shot. he is good for what he does, but I personally don't bring these guys. they are good at killing all but the toughest vehicles (still able to take them down with luck however) and if you wish to bring his antis infantry option he can do a lot of damage in both rolls. he is almost always brought for anti vehicle due to the strength his his shot, but don't discount this guy. He is our only 2+ armor save and plenty of wounds to soak fire. A good pick, I just prefer zoanthropes for my anti-vehicle.
Next is our trygon and the trygon prime. The trigon is still a mele beast and throw a 6 would MC behind an enemy line and he will cause some chaos. His synapse counterpart, the prime is also fantastic as it add more synapse wherever you want it and he bring 12 shots out of a deepstrike instead of 6. I know a guy who runs 3 of these and groups of raveners. His deepstrike list works rather well and is probably the only one I have seen do so well. These guys are great but once again, I have another pick.
The mawloc. This guys just became awesome in this edition. When he comes up hit AOE hits, then if he cant be placed, then you do it again. If it still can be place then you roll a mishap. what makes this great? you have a 1/6 chance of death with the other options being misplaced only to burrow next turn or delayed to come up again! I bring at least one of these guys in an attempt to eat heavy infantry. I have destroy plenty of wraithguard, terminators, and light vehicles with him. Great worm. Use him to disrupt or hunt down those high armor save units. Be warned, he does scatter as per normal deepstrike so don't rely on him too much.
Now we have the exocrine.... ermergerd I want to buy this bug. He is good because he brings a large blast marine killing plasma cannon. He is also a multi wound MC so he is decently durable. Use him against marines and their equivalents. I give this guy a thumbs up :)

Now the problem with these options is something you can kinda see from my comments.... where are the bad options? They are ALL good. Maybe some are a little more for specific lists, but even in a general list these can all be used. Now you just have to decide how is my list going to synergize the best. Do you want a purely shooty bug? Bring the biovore. Shock and awe? Trygons and Mawlocs. Most of these are MCs so even the exocrine who is made for shooting can do something in H2H. Be warned though, for these are mostly single model units that can be easily focused and taken down in one turn (if they try hard enough). If you put a deepstriker out of position, or give their weapon teams open firing against them these bugs will go down. Beware of devastators, railrifles, etc. They will not find them anything but a single target to focus. Bring a venomthrope and they can get a minimum of 5+ cover (except against the lousy tau flashlights). Be smart with them and you can dominate. I hope you enjoyed the commentary on the overview of units. I will be further delving into list building and other synergies between units next. Stay tuned!