I Have Been Challenged!

My 40K BFF Zack, aka Deadmeat of the Chapter of the Iron Skull has challenged me to complete my 750pts army, and he his, before our met up at the Adventure's Guild of Riverside (California that is).  Ten warriors and three Scarabs to paint in about three or so weeks, no problem, if life doesn't get in the way.

Destroyers on the Way

Tonight I finally opened up a Destroyer and got as far as taking all the pieces off the spures before life ended my with 40K.  I can't what to see the first one in Legion colors.  However, I do not like the multi-lens targeting head on the Destroyers and I am considering using a regular Warrior head in its place.  Going to have to play with it and see.

To expand my 750pts list to 1000pts I will need six Destroyers in total.  I am planning on running the Deceiver, two ten man Warrior squads, two three man Destroyer squads, and a squad of three Scarabs.

2500 Point Necron Warrior Army Tactics

These are the planned tactics for the 2500 point Necron Army I listed last with the fifty Warriors in it.

Everything in reserve, with the exception of the Deceiver depending on terrain and enemy units with things like barrage weapons.  Monoliths deep strike into the the enemy using their special rule to displace enemy units.  Special attention needs to be paid to where the portal is facing as the two fifteen unit Warrior squads are to portal through the Monoliths.  If the Warriors portal they will rapid fire, and if they do not, the Monoliths will use their Particle Whips the turn they deep strike in.  Then the Monoliths will ram stuff all the while using their particle whips and Gauss Flux Arcs depending if the Warriors or another unit needs to portal through for a second WBB roll.  Monoliths are also create for deep striking onto objects depending on the game scenario.  The Warriors will be in the enemy's face rapid firing as much as possible for as long as possible with the Monoliths help.

The Lord and his attached twenty Warrior squad will VOD onto the board, in range of the Monoliths portal ability just in case.  They will do really do about the same as the other Warrior squads, VOD'ing around to rapid fire as much as possible as long as possible, and contesting objectives near the end of the game.  I am thinking of a ResOrb in place of the Solar Pulse, will need to play with both to see.

Destroyers will turbo onto the board if needed, but with their range, they probably will not have to to end up in range of a target.  They will do their target priority, taking out transports and killing close combat units and other big treats, staying in range of the Monoliths for that extra WBB via the portal.  Their final role is to contest objectives.

The Deceiver is to run up to the Monoliths and provide counter assault with the Scarabs.  The Scarabs are to hold units until the Deceiver can assault them.  I hope in the new codex the Deceiver can teleport about the board like a proper god should, because it is embarrassing to have a god running across a battlefield.

This is my basic theory on how I will use the army.  But until it is assembled and I can start playing it, it is all theory.

My First 2500 point Necron Army

 Being as my dream 2500 point army would cost at least another $270 for new models to create the list, I am going with an alternative using what I currently have and will only be purchasing one additional model for it, a Monolith.

Deceiver                                                300pts
Lord with VOD and Solar Pulse                 180pts
20 Warriors (attached to Lord)                360pts
15 Warriors (portal through Monolith)      270pts
15 Warriors (portal through Monolith)      270pts
5 Destroyers                                           250pts
5 Destroyers                                           250pts
10 Scarabs (hold units for Deceiver)         120pts
Monolith                                                 235pts
Monolith                                                 235pts
                                        Total            2470pts

The remaining 30pts I am thinking about spending on more wargear for the Lord, though hot sure what yet.  I would be able to get a Monolith for about $55, and feel this is a reasonable army with the correct tactics.  I am considering to the Warrior to Immortal and Flayed One conversion to save some money, but are conversions like that allowed in 'Ard Boyz?

My current dream 2500pt list for 'Ard Boyz

 1x Lord w/VOD and ResOrb                                        200
 1x Lord w/destroyer body, ResOrb, Solar Pulse            200
10x Warriors                                                              180
10x Warriors                                                              180
10x Immortals                                                            280
 5x Destroyers                                                            250
 5x Destroyers                                                            250
 5x Destroyers                                                            250
 1x Monolith                                                               235
 1x Monolith                                                               235   
 1x Monolith                                                               235
                                                             Total           2495

Only need a destroyer lord, ten immortals, two destroyers, and two monoliths to complete the list.  I probably don't need the Res Orbs, especially not two of them, but I am afraid of losing the WBB in melee.  I guess I could add a small unit of flayed ones or a three more immortals.  But the limits of the force org chart is the suck here, I wish I could take scarabs.

Tomb Spyder Combat Patrol List Battle Report

As I posted earlier, my Tomb Spyder combat patrol list is four Tomb Spyders and ten Warriors, 400 points dead on.  And this is the reason my buddy doesn't want to face that list again.  His list was a combat squad with plasma cannon, combat squad with plasma gun, and five Vanguard carrying a total of three power weapons in a Rhino.  Until I re-read the We'll Be Back rule a couple of days ago, we where playing that AP3 and better ranged weapons negated a WBB roll, so the biggest reason for all plasma he usually fields.  We played on a nearly four foot by four foot board (little smaller on one side).  There was a lot of impassable terrain around the corners of the board and large ruin in the center.  I went first and ran my spyders up around the ruin, any spawning a scarab swarm.  The second turn run some more into position.  On the third turn we had LOS finally and I assaulted his Rhino with Vanguard still inside.  Two spyders and their attached scarabs made short work of the rhino, some thing like two glancing hits and three penetrating hits, and the Rhino explodes.  He rolls big for the blast radius.  This two combat squads are in a trench on the side of the Rhino opposite my spyders, but close enough to the Rhino that only one Marine is not hit by the explosion.  At this point my buddy is worried as an epic fail in the dice could possible leave him with a single marine.  The dice gods were fairly kind to him though, and he only lost on unit from each of his combat squads.  His turn three he opens fire on the Spyders with the combat squads and assaults with the Vanguard.  The Spyders got cover saves from the scarabs, reducing the plasma weapons usefulness.  The Vanguard survive through his next assault phase.  With the scarabs adopting the Spyder's T6 and taking up some of the few wounds he can score, all of his marines are wiped out by the end of my turn five.  My warriors never had to move from behind the impassable terrain they were hiding behind.  I must agree with him though, four monstrous creatures in a combat patrol game is ridiculous.  Can the Tyranids even do that?  And that mixed toughness, and unit cover save tactic is insane.  I am so glad the Necrons are the only army that has a monstrous creature that can be in a unit, especially when the other model has three wounds, small target profile, and swarm special rule.

My 750 point list under construction.

Here are some photos of what I have done with my 750 point list so far. As you can see I am about half way done painting it. I prime all the models Chaos Black to start, then start building up in the metallics. On the Warriors I start with Shining Gold, go over that with Burnished Gold, and then dry brush with Mithril Silver. Then I paint the eye sockets, weapon ends and ribbed chambers with Goblin Green. Next I dot the eyes wtih Scorpion Green and dry brush over the Goblin Green on the weapon ends and ribbed chambers.  I left the golds thin to allow the black to show through in an attempt to create an aged appearance.  On the Deceiver I messed up on the eyes and will end up stripping the paint there and redoing it. The scarabs I used cheap toll painting metallics to test the paint as a cheap alternative and it was just that, cheap paint. But for the scarabs in my starter army it is fine.

WBB vs FNP

For the future 5th Edition Necron Codex, a lot of people are calling for Feel No Pain (FNP) instead of the current We'll Be Back (WBB) rule. If the Necrons were a close combat army, I would agree with this because a successful FNP roll will let that Necron still fight in the assault round it was wounded. But I believe WBB is better for the following reason (especially if you are not using a Resurrection Orb): With the proliferation of power and rending weapons in the 5th Edition Codexes, FNP and WBB are weaker special rules than they use to be. However, AP1 and AP2 ranged weapons stop a FNP roll, so weapons like most big blast templates, plasma, rending (on a roll of 6), melta, etc, make FNP useless. WBB on the other hand, is only canceled by instant death by ranged weapons. So for a ranged army like the Necrons are, WBB is a better and fluffier choice.

Current lists I am running.

My 750 point list, Deceiver, two squads of ten warriors of each, and five scarabs with disruptor fields. I have to fix the eyes on my Deceiver, ten warriors and three scarabs left to paint. Still need to base all of them.

I run two combat patrol armies: 1. eleven warriors and four destroys or 2. ten warriors and four tomb spyders. My buddy will not play against the tomb spyder list again. Tomb spyders are so awesome in combat patrol.

Bringing Necrons into 5th Edition.

This is what I posted to answer a post on my favorite Warhammer 40K blog Fritz40K.

My thoughts on getting my 'Crons on par with the 5th 'dex boys:

We’ll Be Back – Love it, no need to change it.

Phase Out - Let it stay for standard games, but for some special games like combat patrol, lift it.

UnNerf Gauss - I want something more fluffy that just giving them rending, don't want to lose the fluff. Against non-vehicle targets, on a to wound roll of 6, automatic wound regardless of target's toughness and counts as an AP1 weapon. Against non-vehicles, an AP value of 1 is no better than an AP value of 2, because no armor save is better than 2+. Against vehicles on a roll of 6 to penetrate the vehicle's armor, automatic glancing hit unless it would be a penetrating hit, with the weapon counting as AP1 again. Against vehicles, an AP value of 1 has value, adding +1 to the vehicle damage result roll, allowing gauss to at least wreck on a glance, and making penetrating hits more lethal. This option would help get the 'Cron's anti-vehicle closer to 4th ed and help them deal with their lack of weapons options (i.e. no meltas, and krak type weapons). Another option is to just give gauss a +1 on the vehicle damage chart with glancing hits or just let the 'Crons have penetrating hits on a roll of 6.

The lack of power weapons - I think it would be easily addressed by modifying the disruptor field (DF)war gear. Make DF work in close combat again non-vehicles as well, counting as power weapons against non-vehicles. Of course whatever correction is made to gauss regarding glancing hits on vehicles would also have to be applied to DF as well.

Lack of mobility – To counter the increased mobility of the other 5th ‘dexes, the ‘Crons need more units that can DS or infiltrate in, and teleport. Also, ‘Crons need a DS scatter of only 1D6, their technology is too advanced to scatter 2D6, doesn’t meet their fluff. This I will talk about more in unit descriptions.

C’Tan – To make up for not have psykers and their new crazy 5th ed powers, the C’Tan need new, more powerful offensive attacks similar to the new powers the psykers are getting. Also, the new armor saves and invulnerability saves some of the characters are getting in 5th, the C’Tan need their invulnerability saves increased to at least 3+, they are gods for crying out loud! They also need more mobility, they need to be able to DS around the board as if they had VOD and should also have the Monolith’s ability to force models away to make room for them.

Lords – We don’t need cheaper lords, no bronze, silver, gold stuff, stupid bad idea; the current lord should come down in point cost a little. If you want a cheap HQ alternative, there should be an elite pariah HQ choice with a little better stats than the regular pariahs. What we need are special lords like the other armies have. Examples would be a wraith lord with the option to take wraiths as elite and fast attack choices, or a destroyer lord that does the same, or others that let you take flayed ones or immortals as troop choices. Then we need lords in between the current lord and C’Tan. The fluff talks about lords crafting bigger better bodies for themselves.

Immortals – This guys are great, other than lower point cost, maybe increase I from 2 to 3 and A from 1 to 2, but not really needed.

Flayed Ones – These guys need to be more like the Space Marine Vanguard. They need their A increased to 2 if they increase the max unit size to 15 or more, or to 3 if they don’t. And if DF ends up at ignoring armor saves, awesome close combat unit. Also, they should probable be a troop choice.

Warriors – Lower point cost, no other chance if the above gauss and DF changes are made.

Wraiths – These need to be the ‘Cron CC Termies. Need to increase max unit size to 5, and there attacks need to ignore armor saves (build in DF from above). They also need DS.

Destroyers and Heavy Destroyers – I think these two should be merged. Make their gauss cannon a dual pattern weapon, cyclic fire same stats as gauss cannon, focused fire same stats as heavy gauss cannon. And a question on their T: If they are immortals that have toughness 5, basically on a jet bike, why did their toughness not increase to 6 like the lord with a destroyer body does?  They should be a T6. I would place point cost between the current destroyer and heavy destroyer. Unit size 1-4, fast attack or heavy support choice, that why you can still only field 24 total destroyers as you can now.

Scarab Swarms – Not sure why everyone wants a larger unit size on these guys, but I guess that would be fine. Lower points cost a point or two. With the DF mod above, they would be CC killers.

Tomb Spyder – Don’t think I would change this one.  Maybe let it repair a Monolith, the Necron version of a tech marine or Mek, with bonuses to repair rolls for attached scarab swarms.

Monolith – Originally I was not going to change the Monolith, but after see the rules for the Space Marine Caestus Assault Ram, that costs the same 235 points, the Mono does need an upgrade. To bring the Mono in line with the new Ram, the Mono needs a 5+ invulnerable save, the ability to teleport about the board as with VOD, Particle Whip needs AP1, and the old rule of units disembarking from a Mono count as disembarking from a stationary vehicle so they can assault out of the portal again.

As for new units, I would like the ones mentioned in the Lord section, maybe a new C’Tan or two, and a new heavy support like a bigger tomb spyder. Maybe a ‘Cron drop pod, a stationary portal that DS’s in, no weapons needed, just increases mobility, make it a dedicated transport type option to not take up org slots.

My thoughts, and I love Necrons so I have thought about it a lot.

I did forget to add that the Flayed Ones should be able to assault after DS'ing like the Space Marine Vanguard.