Necron impressions after a couple games

We went on a road trip this past weekend to New Jersey to pick up the Necrons. I wanted to start small since I haven't finished my Blood Angels yet, and a friend of mine has been waiting for this release for ages so he has models he graciously let's me borrow when playing. I picked up the Codex, a Cryptek, and the Ghost/Doomsday Ark (these names still confuse the heck out of me!).

I put together a quick list at 1,000 points and I got to play a couple games with them over the weekend. Seeing as they are the new hotness and my second army, I thought I'd give a quick run down of my thoughts after my games against Imperial Guard and Grey Knights. Here was my list:

HQ
Necron Overlord w/ Warscythe
Cryptek w/ Abyssal Staff, Veil of Darkness, and Nightmare Shroud

TROOPS

9 Necron Warriors w/ Ghost Ark
9 Necron Warriors
8 Immortals w/ Tesla Carbines

FAST ATTACK

5 Necron Destroyers w/ 2 Heavy Gauss Cannons

3 Canoptek Scarabs

HEAVY SUPPORT

1 Canoptek Spyder

I posted 2 losses. The first game I played against Imperial Guard. The mission was Capture and Control with Pitched Battle deployment. I decisively lost this game because my Immortals with Tesla Carbines couldn't scratch a Valkyrie that was contesting my objective and I couldn't get close enough to contest the other objective. It didn't help that my Necron Overlord hung out in the Ghost Ark all game with a unit of Necron Warriors far from the action. I also forgot that monstrous creatures have Move Through Cover and my Canoptek Spyder moved like 8" in 4 turns and left the Canoptek Scarabs on their own where they got crushed in assault. It's a humbling thing to see an army decimated in assault by Imperial Guard, but that's what happened.

The second game, I played against Grey Knights. The mission was Annihilation with Pitched Battle deployment. This game was a lot closer and I only ended up losing by 1 kill point. My folly in this game was forgetting the mission from the very beginning. I needed to just hunker down and open fire. I spent a couple turns moving my Ghost Ark 12" which meant it and the troops inside couldn't fire. That was 28 shots wasted. I wanted to be in rapid fire range, but that didn't get me anywhere. Next time, stay put! Plus, I got a bit too aggressive when deep striking my Necron Destroyers and they were annihilated by a Purgation Squad with 5 Psycannons and Astral Aim. I didn't do bad, I just couldn't cause enough damage to win.

Here's my observations:

Not So Fast

Going from Blood Angels to Necrons is going to be a steeper learning curve than I thought. I'm used to zooming around the battlefield laying down shots from my Razorbacks, but you don't have that luxury with Necrons. A lot of people are calling the Necrons a mobile army. I disagree. They are quite the opposite as you need to pick your spot and fire away. 

"Did you say nine pens?"

Canoptek Scarabs are INCREDIBLY deadly. Taking a Leman Russ' armor down by 8 points on all facings in 1 turn is crazy. Same goes for a Psyfleman Dreadnought with 5/5/3 armor. There really is nothing cooler than shooting with gauss flayers and all your hits auto penetrate on the damage chart.   

"Killian, I'll be back!"

The Necrons are crazy resilient. Reanimation Protocols works really well as does using the Ghost Ark to add D3 fallen Necron Warriors back to a squad. The ability for Canoptek Spyders to generate additional Canoptek Scarabs is awesome and my opponents were not pleased by how resilient my force was.

Gauss is Boss

Don't underestimate gauss weapons glancing on a 6. I did some serious damage with this. Maybe it was luck, but I was a mech armies nightmare and I wasn't even optimized for that. Of course, against the Grey Knights that didn't mean much with Fortitude, but there is a lot more potential there than most people probably realize.

"Don't get cocky kid!"

Starting fast doesn't guarantee a win. In both games, I started out with a huge lead putting some serious hurt on opposing vehicles by immobilizing them early. By the end of turn 2, it looked like I had both games in the bag, but my lead quickly flitted away. If you aren't careful, a couple assaults can really turn the game around. With this army more than any other I've seen, the tables turn fast.

Changes with 6th Edition

A lot of people said that some stuff with the Necrons won't make sense until 6th Edition. First off, rapid fire sucks. Necrons are a shooting army with primarily rapid fire weapons which means you sit around a lot. Rumor has it that 6th Edition will change rapid fire to the following:

Rapid fire weapons may be fired twice at max range if the shooting unit didn't move that turn, or once at max range/twice at 12" if they moved.  

If that's the case it will be a HUGE boon to Necron armies as it will pretty much double your shots. It also makes a lot more sense why Death Marks have rapid fire sniper rifles.

Necron Destroyers have Preferred Enemy (Everything). Dumb, right? If the rumors are to be believed, in 6th Edition Preferred Enemy will work with shooting attacks. I think there will be some change to Preferred Enemy, but I'm not sure the rumors are right on this one. If they are accurate, I'll be annoyed that they didn't just make the weapons twin-linked instead. I don't want my Necron Destroyers in close combat anyway.

Overall, I think Matt Ward did a great job with the Necrons. I don't see them as overpowered. Sure, there is some nasty stuff in there (Canoptek Scarabs, Death Ray!), but so far so good. It's a cool book with a lot of really interesting choices that should shake up the current 40K meta with it's focus on anti-mech.

Till next time,

The Harrower

Specialize vs Generalize: What's your approach?

Recently I've seen a flux of small point value lists (I consider 1500 small for reference) and I've been taking particular note in how some people like to run/equip their various units. For example, a common build I've been seeing a lot recently for tactical marines is a missile launcher and a flamer. Delving deeper, the common reason is "well, it can shoot a tank and toast a horde of orks!" And this build pattern repeats itself in the army where they'll have 3-4 squads each with an anti-infantry and an anti-tank weapon. As a matter of fact, I think the Assault on Black Reach marines come built like that. But, is it the right move?

I can understand wanting to have that old boy scouts motto of being prepared be applicable to everything you have, but shouldn't that be something you have applied to your army in general? Not the individual units? I'm a big fan of specialization, and I will admit that the habit does stem from playing a specialist army (Eldar), but that doesn't mean to say that the same mistakes can't be made. For example, the community recognizes Dire Avengers as being one of the best shooty infantry units in the game, but the Exarch has melee build options. Why? Well, first off, it's a hold over from 3rd and 4th, back when mech was something noobs did. Second, I think a lot of people perceive putting a power weapon in the hands of one model makes it a viable assault unit. In reality, I'm just going to laugh off any Eldar assault lead by a power weapon toting exarch. S3 + T3 + power weapon x= assault unit. Or even a unit that is capable of handling whatever situation is thrown at it. Honestly, I almost feel like the Dire Avengers having any assault options is a misleading joke that GW just throws in there, and I don't understand why people fall for it. As I always say, to succeed with the Eldar, use their units for what they're designed to do.

If you can find a double use for a single build though, well, now you're thinking ~_^. For example, Fire Dragons are excellent tank hunters, but their S8 AP1 weapons also happen to be good at roasting Tyranid monstrous creatures, and War Walkers with a scatter laser build not only make hordes run in fear, but 24 S6 shots outflanking makes almost any tank quiver in its treads. Dual purpose builds rock and should always be taken advantage of.

Anywho, back to marines. So let's say Jimmy wants to run four tactical squads, and wants to make sure he has good tank hunting and a horde contingency available. He decides to go the way of the Salamander and use meltaguns and flamers, but how should he equip the units? Following an emerging trend, he would put one multi-melta and one flamer in each squad. But here's the rub for me. Jimmy may think he's covered, but what if he was a monstrous creature and a horde of gaunts in front of him? A flamer is worthless versus an MC and the squad of gaunts will just laugh off a single melta shot. And here's the kicker, let's say it's critical that he needs to take down the MC. Jimmy may end up firing all four squads at the MC just to get the melta shots in, and everything else, from bolter shots to flamers just go to waste, and now the guant squad can swarm him. How do you remedy this? By combining your special weapons together.

Plague marines are fantastic at this. I dedicate each squad to either flamers or melta guns, and then on top of that, I'll give each champion a combi-weapon to match. So, if I were to use the same scenario, I can bury 6 melta shots in to the MC and 6 flamers in to the gaunts, which is much more efficient.

-FF

Pie Plate Woes aka Fire Prisms, What's the Point?

Every so often, I like to go back and reread units to make sure I feel like I'm taking full advantage of everything my Codex has to offer, and sometimes I have a revelation. Most times though, I feel like I made a good call in never using something, like Fire Prisms (and the Night Spinner counterpart). And it's not just Fire Prisms either. I feel the same way about most tank choices that rely on a single gun with a large blast template to own face, and this includes vindicators and defilers for example, but at least they're already Strength 10 with a good AP. Fire Prisms though...just yuck. Sure, some people may tell you "dat's why you link 2 or 3 of 'em up and get a betterer gun to do da shootin' wit..." Congratulations on having a 500 point gun that automatically has a 50% miss built into it. Every time I watch a batrep on YouTube and see an Eldar lose and gt a confused look on their face because their Fire Prism didn't do anything, I just chuckle to myself.

There are so many things wrong with the Fire Prism, and for a proof of concept, compare it to a Falcon. The Falcon is the same point cost, has access to the same upgrades, and you can get 3 Strength 8 shots as opposed to the single Strength 9 shot (Strength 5 if you use the large blast). For a real kick in the teeth, the Fire Prism arbitrarily has BS4, but since it's a scatter weapon, you get the same hit chance as BS3...same as the Falcon! The last important note is that the Falcon is also troop transport. So not only can I blast you at long range with Strength 8 weapons, but I can hold an objective as well. Fantastic.

So what brings on this rant? Just so many "famous players" on YouTube who use this and seem to advocate it, but I've never really seen them do well with it consistently. In my opinion, check out War Walkers. These guys are my bread and butter, and every battle, tournament, league, etc, they've been by MVPs. My lists usually tend to include 2 3-model squads of walkers, each decked out with dual scatter lasers, and a Falcon with holo-fields that I keep a 5 man dire avenger squad in.

In closing, I'm not the only one on DED 'ARD who's gotten fed up with pie plate guns. A few of our marines players won't touch vindicators, and one who did own 3 of them, dumped them because of how little they performed for him. IG players have it a bit easier though since they can run their template producing vehicles in squadrons for better cost. I'd be very interested to hear if you have had similar experiences with your blast template vehicles, or if you even think I'm completely off the mark.

-FF

Bringing Eldar into the 5th Edition, Part 1

Now, I must assume that because of the title some of you will scoff at the timing of such an article. However, I still see many people focusing on builds that would've been completely devastating in 4th edition Warhammer 40K games but are only capable of functioning on a mediocre level in the 5th edition. Predominantly, there's a lot of builds that utilize the concept of indestructible grav tank spam which tries to transport a nominal amount of infantry with the hope that 200 point wave serpents will be capable of killing their enemy so that their fragile troop of 5 dire avengers will never even have to see the board.


Unfortunately, this just will not work anymore for various reasons. In particular, as the game evolves and with new trends developing, the previous thought of more upgrades equating to increased durability are only proving to be marginally correct. In my opinion as well, I sense a desire for versatility when looking over some Eldar lists, which contradicts the core concept of the Eldar being specialists in their chosen path.


With this series of articles, I hope to help people move away from certain concepts that made the Eldar an unstoppable force in previous editions and to understand that their precious space elves are still very viable and very competitive in the new edition.


As these articles progress I want to focus on the various Force Organization Chart choices available section by section (HQ, Troops, Elites, etc). But the very first thing I want to get on the table is the concept that Eldar are over-costed and uncompetitive due to this since we have to pay a "premium price" on all of our units. The Eldar codex is fine. Yes, I said it. The Eldar codex is FINE.


Sure it can use a bit of a face lift, but what doesn't in terms of codices that have survived into 5th edition from previous editions? I'll post my thoughts on what units are "stinkers" and which ones are winners in the follow ups to this first article but what I want to get right out there is my opinion that the Eldar codex is fine and very competitive. I have defeated many many players to prove this point, almost all of which are using codices that were recently revised or released, including many Space Marines players.


That being said, I want to start my first discussion outside of the parameters I originally mentioned because I personally feel that this is where a lot of people get stuck on the idea that Eldar cost too much to be competitive. That's our main transport unit: Wave Serpents.

Now, the most common comparison that is drawn between Wave serpents and other transports is that of the wave serpent (WS) vs the Space Marine rhino, which is roughly costed at 35 points. I continually hear complaints that our WSs cost way too much to be competitive that there should be a cost reduction because other armies can transport their troops for less than 50 points.


I also see a lot of people contradicting their own complaints by stacking on upgrade after upgrade and they end up with a transport that costs nearly 200 points! If you're going to complain about the cost of your transport, why make it more expensive? Maxed out, with a twin linked bright lance, spirit stones, additional shuriken cannon, vectored engines, and star engines, we have a 190 point transport that's only marginally more capable of surviving than the 100 point version.


For starters, get the notion out of your head that a rhino and a WS are comparable by any means. Rhinos are 11/11/10, can move 12" max, have a storm bolter and can give themselves cover once per game using smoke launchers. The rhino is little more than an iron box on wheels that can travel from point A to B, as long as B is no more than 12" away. Then of course there's the risk of running over difficult/dangerous terrain or having to worry about manipulating other units in the way.


The WS is fast skimmer that can ignore any cover in its path and eschew dangerous terrain tests so long as you don't land in it. It also has an increased armor value of 12/12/10 with energy shields that allow it to ignore additional die effects (ordinance, melta, rending, etc) from shooting attacks. On top of all of that, it also comes equipped with a S6 Heavy 3 twin linked gun making this not only one of the most effective transports in the game (if not the best already) but a gun boat as well.


To close the argument of WSs being too costly or the debate of the rhino vs the wave serpent, it is apparent that the WS is capable of out performing any transport capable of being fielded in the 40K game. As an Eldar player, ask yourself the last time you've actually felt threatened by an enemy transport aside from it delivering its cargo. The wave serpent is a transport that flies from point A, bypasses point B while rolling down the window and tossing you the bird, and lands on point C.


Next, let's take a look at upgrading a Wave Serpent. In my opinion...don't! I know, I know, I must be crazy since so many tacita writers say that items like star engines are basically required. This all goes back to the concept that taking a unit that's already well costed and adding on upgrades to make it more costly for less effectiveness is just a bad idea. First off, weapons. What weapons should you upgrade your shuriken cannons to? Well, there's Scatter Lasers, Eldar Missile Launchers, Star Cannons, and Bright Lances. Keep in mind that a WS is only BS 3, twin-linked or not, and the foremost function of the WS is to be a transport, and when you have a transport that can move 24" you better be taking advantage of that mobility. That being said, when you flat out, you obviously cannot fire your main weapons so if you're someone who just had to have those 45 point bright lances on your WS, you're now left with a very expensive gun you can't shoot. Not very practical.


This solidifies a concept with the Eldar that will always ring true: to succeed with Eldar, you must use each unit to accomplish whatever task it was specifically designed for. This piece of tactical advice comes from the core rule book, not the Eldar codex. Wave serpents are transports and should rarely be used other wise. That aside, I've killed many marines and destroyed many rhinos with my off the shelf shuriken cannons. Our increased mobility give us the ability to take advantage of an opening and get into the side arc of vehicles like vindicators and easily lock them down from shooting because of the decent volume of twin linked shots coming from your 10 point gun.


The next upgrade for me that I see very little point in is star engines. In a normal game, you're playing on a 72" x 48" board. If you can't maneuver your forces into position with a 24" range then something is just being done wrong. To be quite honest, I think most people use them incorrectly because of disinformation from articles I've read in the past. You cannot use Star Engines after you disembark/embark troops. Period. Check the FAQ. So the idea of kicking out troops on an objective and then jetting out 36" across the board to contest an objective just doesn't work. And here's some food for thought, if you spent fewer points on upgrading your transports, you may be able to afford one more WS with another squad of infantry to send after that elusive objective.


I have a very similar opinion on vectored engines. I have never, ever been in a situation where I have vehemently wished that I had either of these upgrades. Sure, I've lost WSs that have flatted-out and were immobilized, but we're talking about a 15 point upgrade that probably wouldn't even come into effect due to the cover save you have on the wave serpent. Makes little sense to me. Do you know what's cheaper than upgrading your wave serpents with all of this stuff? Put a farseer in there with fortune. Now wish your opponent good luck as he's trying to get past your fortuned cover save and 12 armor value.


Last but not least are spirit stones. I have no bias for or against this upgrade. If I happen to be left with points left over I may add spirit stones. They're not a bad upgrade but they're not exactly one that'll make or break your game. If I do take spirit stones, I make it a point to only upgrade the WSs that are most aggressive in my line up (i.e. a WS carrying fire dragons for example, or striking scorpions).


As a closing comment, don't think that you should never upgrade your wave serpents. Always adapt your lists to your own playing environment. My suggestions should only be treated as general guidelines because there are times I will put scatter lasers on a couple of my WSs for the increased range and extra shot. But if you're someone who runs pimped out wave serpents and really feel that you're not putting enough on the table, slim them down. As 5th edition progresses and armies evolve, the game is now about how much you can put on the table rather than the single strength of an individual unit.


Next up, HQ choices!


–Farseer Frank with contributions and proofreading by Alfonzo