The B-List

Didn't get any games in yesterday, but I spent some time organizing my stuff. Man, I've got a big pile of shit to sort through. I've got Eldar, Chaos Marines, Tyranids, Beasts of Chaos, Dwarfs, Goblins, Marines of all stripes, Orks, Daemons, Inquisition, Dark Elves and probably some stuff I don't even know about. Well, time to clean house.

I got together my Ork army, finalized it and put it away in its case. Nothing left but a few minor conversions (Leman Russ -> Battlewagon, kombi-skorchas, Burnas -> Lootas) and painting left. I've got a line on a broken Wave Serpent I intend to loot and turn into my 4th and final Battlewagon (for now), so I'll update the army as I go.

That left me with a considerable amount of Orks I'm not using. All told it ends up between 2000 and 2500 depending on how everything is equipped. I though it would be fun to turn this rabble into a backup army, a B-List if you will. All the boyz and bitz that got left behind by Waagh! Chum

-59 boyz, various equipment (a mix of sluggas, shootas and heavy weapons, all easy enough to modify as needed)
-11 Nobz, various equipment, 1 of which is a Painboy (could be Flash Gitz, lol)
-1 Trukk (3 when I convert the last Battlewagon)
-6 Nob Bikers, various equipment, 1 Painboy
-Biker Warboss
-SAG
-10 Grotz, 1 runtherd (I can probably scavenge more from various sprues)
-2 Deff Koptaz
-1 Looted Vindicator
-15 Kommandoz including 2 burnas and Snikrot
-Various bitz that can be konverted into Big Gunz (BW weapon bitz) or Killa Kanz (paint pots!)

So, while I'm scheming up my schemes, anybody care to take a stab at turning this bunch into something workable?

Battle Report: Orks vs. Tau

Hey, more games, w00t!

I had to bring my army up to 2000 points, so I added 2 koptas and 4 Lootas (splitting up into 2 units of 7 and 1 of 8) and swapped the Shoota Boyz' big shootas for rokkit launchaz (boardin' planks went bye-bye).

My opponent is a newbie to 40k after playing Fantasy for, like, ever. He had just picked up his Tau army last week (it's pretty much exactly the Tau army I've been questing after, but alas I have too many projects and not enough money!) . I'm fuzzy on all the details, but here's the basics.

Shas'O w/ Airbursting Frag, Missile Pod, Multi-Tracker, HW drone controller, 2 gun drones

2 Bodyguards w/ twin-linked burst cannons, drone controllers, 2 gun drones apiece

3 Crisis suits w/ twin-linked fusion guns, drone controllers, 2 gun drones apiece

3 Crisis suits w/ twin-linked missile pods, drone controllers, 2 gun drones apiece

2x 10 Fire Warriors w/ 1 Devilfish

10 Kroot

4 Piranhas w/ burst cannons

8 Pathfinders w/ Devilfish (FW jacked this one)

8 Gun Drones

2 Railheads w/ gun drones

3 Broadsides

We rolled up Capture and Control with Spearhead deployment. From my perspective, 3 objectives were placed on the midline from left to right, with 1 top left and the last bottom left.

Terrain was pretty consistent, a couple big LoS blockers (one big rock in the middle of the board, 1 on the bottom right, 1 at top center), hills, forests. It was a bit light on my right side of the board. He won deployment and picked the top right half (the basically empty one-terrain place-fail!).

Going into it, I knew how Tau can fuck up Orks, especially mech Orks. His build was far from optimal, but 5 Railguns had me very worried.

Tau Deployment:

He put both Railheads on a hill at the very top left with a commanding view of the field. Broadsides toward the far left near the midline with a big blind spot behind the central rock. Pathfinders deployed as far up as possible in some ruins, with the Shas'O and Fusion suits behind them. Missile suits deployed towards the middle, closer to his edge. Piranhas started on his board edge as far right as possible. FW and their Fishes, Blue and Gray set up between the Pathfinders and Piranhas/Broadsides respectively. Gun Drones Deep Str-eye-cked.

Ork Deployment:

I deployed the Battlewagons as far forward as possible in the center, closer to his board edge. I set them up so AV14 was facing every side, using the central rock formation to block or limit LoS from the Broadsides. KFF and Meganobs deployed centrally, Shootas to the left and Sluggas+Boss to the right. Trukks deployed outside of the BW formation, still in range of the KFF just in case. Lootas took the 3 big hills in my deployment zone at top left, bottom left and bottom right, so between all of them they had a good view of the battlefield. Grot screen stretched to cover them all. Koptaz outflunk. I wanted to minimize any potential damage from the Broadsides, so I blocked LoS as best I could, set up for a turn 2 charge, huddled around my KFF and hoped for the best.

Kroot infiltrated to the top left of the board, in plain sight of one of my Loota units (>,<) and the Scouts didn't move. I failed to seize and we were off.

Turn 1:

Gray Fish headed to the bottom right rock formation, Blue Fish didn't move. Shas'O and his buddies moved into the open for a clear shot on the Trukk. Missile suits headed towards the center, lining up on another Trukk. Fusion suits sat back. Piranhas headed towards the Kroot. Nothing else moved. Shooting blew off the top Trukk's big shoota and the bottom Trukk Kareen'd 4" forward and killed 2 boyz inside. 3 Lootas got gunned down (morale holds), Railguns bounced off of the KFF. Shas'O jumps back behind Pathfinders, Missile suits jump back, hiding behind the big rock.

The recently vacated Trukk mob leaps from the wreckage and does the stupid dance, waltzing up in open terrain to the Tau army. Lolz. Top Trukk wraps around the rock formation, headed towards the Piranhas and Missile Suits. BW reconsider their positions and move round behind the big rock, blocking off the Broadsides completely. Now if I can do this all game I win right? Fuck, sucks to have my shitty vehicles. Lootas account for 4 kroot, 2 Piranhas and 1 burst cannon, and 1 wound each to the Shas'O and his buddy (drones made all their saves, lol).

Turn 2:

Drones show up, get too close to the foot boyz, mishap and bounce back into space. Maybe next turn fellas! FW hop out of gray fish, ready to shoot next turn. Missile suits move out, Shas'O and Co. move out again, Fusion suits decide to head towards my car park. Kroot move towards the big rock, a-hankering for some 'shrooms! Piranhas move back. Shooting does a fat lot of nothing, lol KFF. Foot mob gets reduced to 4 but morale holds. Suits move back.

No Koptaz. Trukk mob zooms up to the missile suits, boyz hop out, and the party starts. BW move up behind them, finally facing off against the Broadsides for real. I can't sit back and wait, it's time for action. Hopefully I can get past this rock quickly with something intact and Waagh! to reach assault. Another Piranha bites it, 2 more kroot get nailed, drones make all their saves from the Lootas, fuckers. Boyz jump in, fuck up the Crisis suits, spread out 4".

Turn 3:

Yes, Drones! They show up by the uppermost Lootas, who are nice and exposed. They just barely made it too, 1.5" out. Fusion suits head towards the wagons, out of range. Piranhas deploy drones, shuffle about. Kroot move to assault the recently successful boyz. Blue fish moves in between central rock and Pathfinder ruins, Fire Warriors hop out to hose down the hurt Trukk mob. Fish and Hammerheads launch Drones too! Drones everywhere! Drone party, whoo! I fucking love frisbees! Fusion Guns out of range, Railguns do jack shit... again. Seriously, this is when I figured out my opponent was cursed. 3 Broadsides hit with 2 shots, Pathfinders reduced the BW cover save to 6+, he rolled 1 penetrating hit and proceeded to roll weapon destroyed. It's a goddamn 3+ to DESTROY! Hurting Trukk mob gets pasted, lose a Grot. 6/7 Lootas get shot up by gun drones, so the remaining Ork passes his pinning test and promptly bails. Kroot charge in, whiff spectacularly and get splattered.

1 unit of Koptaz show up, yes! I was planning on using them to help silence the railguns. Guess which side they come in on? Fuckers. They move towards the recently arrived drones to avenge their klepto brethren. Boyz on foot move to the Piranhas' drones and the objective they're guarding. Meganob BW and Slugga BW move up, hop out to go after the fusion suits and blue fish FW respectively. Shoota BW moves 6", prepares to open up. Shootas and Lootas manage to kill off 1 bodyguard and a bunch of drones in addition to 1 fusion suit and 3 drones. Koptaz nail a drone. Morale holds. Meganobs multi-charge the Pathfinders and Fusion suits, wipe them, consolidate 4" to spread out and get close to the Shas'O. Sluggas and Boss charge the FW, paste them, and roll a 1 for consolidation. Group hug! Trukk mob charges Piranha Drones, totally pwns them. Koptaz draw with Gun Drones (yes, they charged and have a buzzsaw; no, I don't want to talk about it).

Turn 4:

Piranhas flee, nobody else moves. Meganobs are in the open (sorta, KFF is there) against the Shas'O and his unit, 3 Broadsides, 2 Railheads, 2 Devilfish and 10 FW. FW kill one, nobody else does anything. I made like 20 2+ saves or 5+ cover saves in a row. It was great. 1 submunition round obliterated my Boss's unit, killed like 10. Devilfish KO'd a Grot. Gun Drones pasted by Koptaz!

Last unit of Koptaz show. Wrong board edge again. Koptaz zoom to catch the mop up. Trukk mob secures its objective, Grots spread out to grab 3(!). Meganobs clank up to the Hammerheads, Boss and Co. head towards the FW. Shoota BW moves up 6". WAAAAAAGH!!! Lootas account for an immobile Bluefish and 2 dead FW. Boss and Co. run 6". Meganobs open fire on the Hammerheads with their kombi-skorchas, catching the Drones blocking their path. Shootas nail 2 drones and finish the Shas'O's bodyguard. Boss and Co. paste the FW, Meganobs super-explode the Hammerhead.

Once his last scoring unit is gone, we called it.

I know you're all thinking it, yes my opponent played poorly and got ridiculously unlucky and crucial moments. I can't believe I managed as well as I did. I went out to minimize the effect of the Broadsides by hiding out of sight and using their movement to draw focus away from the objectives while sneaking my Grots on to 3 of them. If his list were set up better and he ran it well (i. e. not getting close to Orks, fucking me up with his vehicles I can't kill and using Kroot to absorb/blunt charges).

This should have been a totally one-sided shooting gallery. Now I want to play Tau even more to convince the locals that they are a force to be reckoned with it. That's right, they think Tau suck and Orks are the shit. Epic facepalm.

I ended up talking with my opponent for a bit afterwards between nerdgasming over the new Skaven stuff (we're both of the ratty persuasion). I advised him on setting up his suits to be more flexible with plasma rifles, missile pods and multi-trackers so they can nail 2+ saves and vehicles from far away; on putting his Pathfinders further back and making the most of markerlights instead of having to twin-link his suits' weapons; on using Kroot and Piranhas to block/blunt assaults while pouring more fire into them; using tanks aggressively to clump my units up and block movement; and giving his Broadsides ASS so they don't end up being completely useless if they can't see the entire board. And of course, I told him to throw those horrid little cubes of his out (I'm almost positive they only have 1's 2's and 3's imprinted on them).

Hopefully I can help him improve his game and army so he can table me by turn 2 like he's supposed to :P

My Proposed Marines

Here's the marine list I want to build up to for the 'Ard Boyz and various tournies.

HQ
Librarian-Epistolary, Terminator Armor, Storm Shield, Null Zone, Avenger
Elites
Assault Terminators-10, Land Raider Crusader w/ Multi-Melta, extra armor
Dreadnought-2x twin-linked Autocannon
Dreadnought-2x twin-linked Autocannon
Troops
Tactical Squad-10, Multi-Melta, Flamer, Sergeant w/ combi-melta, melta bombs, Rhino
Tactical Squad-10, Multi-Melta, Flamer, Sergeant w/ combi-melta, melta bombs, Rhino
Scout Squad-10, camo cloaks, Sniper Rifles, 1w/ Heavy Bolter
Fast Attack
Land Speeder Squadron-2 Typhoons
Land Speeder-Multi-Melta, Heavy Flamer
Land Speeder-Multi-Melta, Heavy Flamer
Heavy Support
Land Raider Crusader-Multi-Melta, extra armor
Predator-Autocannon, Heavy Bolters
Predator-Autocannon, Heavy Bolters

Total-2500

So, I've got 2 LRCs full of angry Termies to smash face, lots of firepower down range from the Dreads, Preds and Typhoons, with anti-tank from the Multi-Meltas spread around. Firepower, mobility, redundancy, flexibility.

To drop it down to 2000 I will probably lose both Typhoons, the Dreads, Epistolary upgrade, and any spare points come from combi-meltas or whatever.

For 1850, I would either drop more to keep both LRCs or go for more disposable dakka. I'm thinking the latter so I have a better balance and backups in case the LRC goes down.

The LRCs are big targets, but they are quite resilient and I do have an army besides them to dish out plenty of firepower at range and up close.

I think I'll paint these up as a different chapter to keep things fresh. Mentors maybe, or Space Sharks.

Thoughts?

My projects

Hey, I had some thoughts and I wanted to get them down so I don't forget. Don't like it, well too bad!

I've got a little bit of everything right now, but I don't have the money or patience to build them all into full on armies, so I'm going to be pruning back and making an effort at a reasonable number of armies.

I want to go for Space Marines, Orks, and Imperial Guard for now. Daemons may come later, same with Tau and Eldar and anything else that catches my fancy.

Locally, we have a bit of a scrub problem. People cry cheese way too quickly and suboptimal lists get thrown around a lot. I've tried teaching people with words, but I'm going to try something different. I want to throw big mean rock lists at them (one dimensional armies) and walk them through beating it until they can handle themselves. Orks are perfect for this. I want to turn my army into a "typical" overrated Ork uber army. That means Battlewagons and Nob Bikers. I would put a horde together, but fuck that I'm not painting 200 models.

So, I want to get up to 2000 points of each. The Battlewagon Brigade is easy, all I need is another Battlewagon and some buggies. More on that as I figure it out. The Nob Bikers I'm going to do up as Feral Orks and use plastic Orc Boarz to keep them cheap, but it also gives me some sweet conversion potential. I won't be using my Shokk Attack Gun, Kommandoz or Flash Gitz, but I want to keep them around for funsies. So, I'll have 2 Ork armies that are perfect noobslayer armies, but I will use them for good. Instead of just stomping on people, I will walk them through the game and help them figure out how to beat it with their balanced list. Hope it works. These guys are my favorite "fun" army, but if I can turn them into a teaching tool I'll be all for it.

Inspired by a post over on YTTH, I want to build up an army for 'Ard Boyz next year. Space Marines jump out since I have upwards of 3000 points of them but no real focus. I'm going to go for a "Best of" list with everything I love minus Sternguard. 2 LRCs full of Assault Termies, Tacticals in Rhinos, Scouts, Speeders, TLAC Dreads, Dakka Preds and a Librarian. Balanced, powerful, and easily scalable between 1500 and 2500. I need a lot of work to get there though, both LRCs, TH/SS Termies, and TLAC arms for my Dreads.

I have some Guard and I want to bring them to tourney readiness, but not 'Ard Boyz level. 2000 is the max. This will be a mostly mech list with Vets in Chimeras, Demos, Vendettas, etc and an infantry platoon to round it out. It's easy to bring Guard to 2000, but before I expand them further I want to get a good feel for them and make them different from my marines.

Deathwing is my pet project. I want to put together a DeathRaven army, similar to the one I posted earlier. All termies and Bikes, leaving the vehicles to my other armies. It should have a unique style and be a lot of fun to play, plus I won't have to buy much.

Daemons are tricky. I really want to build them up for the unique style of play and having another army in Fantasy, but I feel I have too much. I might just jack Stelek's competitive Daemon list for cheap, or stick with my initial plan for sprue Daemons. At present I'm deciding between 4 main builds: Daemonzilla, mono Slaanesh, "Best of" (chariot Tzeralds, Fiends, PBs, Bletters, TzDPs) or "competitive" (Fiends, dogs, PBs, Sheralds). I'll probably just playtest a bit more and figure out which I want. These are for fun like my Orks and DW.

All that should keep me busy and poor for a good while. Anything not fitting in the scheme will be sold off, converted, or hoarded for later.

I'm doing this to help make myself a better player by sticking to one army and learning it inside and out so I can better help my friends improve their own games and bring our community out of the cesspool of scrubdom that grips us to tightly. Plus, with some real focus I won't go leaping after the newest shiny thing.

Thoughts?

Battle Report: Orks vs. Ultramarines

Hey guys, got a game in yesterday and I figured I'd tell everybody about it.

I wasn't expecting much action at the store since a bunch of my regular buddies were out carving pumpkins. Losers. Luckily enough, Genestealer and I came across two people I hadn't seen before who were looking for games also. We pulled the old switcheroo and everybody got a new opponent, yayz.

I brought my 1850 Ork list I'm prepping for any events coming up in an effort to finally finish an army:

Warboss w/ PK, cybork body, kombi-skorcha
Big Mek w/ KFF, cybork body, bosspole
2x 9 Lootas
5 Meganobs, 2 kombi-skorchas, BW w/ armor plates, grot riggers, big shoota
19 Boyz, Nob w/ PK, bosspole
2x 12 Boyz, Nob w/ PK, bosspole, Trukk w/ ram, grot riggers
20 Shootas, 2 big shootas, Nob w/ PK, bosspole
14 Grots and 1 runtherd
2 Koptaz w/ rokkits and buzzsaws (indpependent)
2 BW w/ armor plates, big shoota, grot riggers, boardin' plank

My opponenet had his Ultrasmurfs featuring some neat paintjobs and some cool RT models. Sadly I couldn't get any pics since I left my camera at home.

Captain w/ relic blade, digi-weapons, storm shield
Command Squad w/ company champion and Rhino
Epistolary w/ Avenger and Force Dome
5 shooty Termies w/ assault cannon
Techmarine w/ servo-harness, 2 Tech Servitors and 2 HB Gun Servitors
Dread w/ assault cannon
10 Tacs, heavy bolter, famer, power sword
5 Scouts, camo cloaks, snipers, 1 missile launcher
10 Assault Marines, power sword
10 Devastators, 4 missile launchers, Razorback
Whirlwind

We played Annihilation with Pitched deployment, I rolled first turn.

I had my Lootas on the left flank in and behind some ruins, another unit on a hill behind a Grot screen, all 3 Battlewagons to their right, Boss+Boyz and Shootas in front of Mek+Meganobs (upside down triangle thingy). There was a big LoS-blocking rock formation on the right flank, so I put both Trukks in there. I put the Koptaz about 1/3 of the board length in and as far forward as possible so they could cover the most ground.

He deployed his command squad in its Rhino on the far left, opposite my Lootas (uh oh). The Devastators combat-squadded, each one in a different terrain piece on the left, opposite my other Lootas, with their Razorback and the Librarian behind them. The Tactical Squad deployed further back in the center. The Whirlwind deployed to their right, behind a rock formation. The Dread and Techmarine deployed on the right flank behind some low ridges. Assault Marines and Termies were held in reserve. Scouts infiltrated to a big building to the right of in between the far left Lootas and Rhino.

Deff Koptaz jumped 24" towards the Whirlwind and 1 Devastator squad, he failed to seize the initiative.

TURN 1:
My Koptaz moved closer to their targets, ready to assault. The vehicles all surged forward, meeting up in the center going fromt left to right: Boss, Shootas, Trukks with the Mek's wagon behind them all giving KFF protection. I knew that since his only real AT was krak missile, I had the BW facing them, while the Trukks blocked their vulnerable side armor and faced down the Dread and Techmarine. Lootas opened fire, shaking the Rhino and killing 3/5 Devastators. 1 Kopta blew up the Whirlwind, another killed a Devastator. I actually forgot to charge my other Deff Kopta >,< I didn't ask my opponent for a re-do when I realized because I wanted to make sure I didn't forget in the future.

He zoomed the Rhino up and shot stuff. This is where his luck ran out. The Techmarine and retinue, Tactical Squad and Dreadnought all fired at a solo Deff Kopta and caused all of 1 wound! The other Kopta was not so lucky, getting downed by the Razor and Librarian's template. 4 frag missiles landed in the Loota/grot hug fest, killing all of 1 Loota! Scouts did jack all to the Lootas in the ruins.

TURN 2:
Party time! The Trukks zoomed to the right, disembarking in front of the Techmarine and Dread. The Kopta jumped behind the Dread, rokkits ready. The Shoota wagon moved 6" to get a clear shot at the Tacticals. The Boss's wagon headed towards the Devastators and 20 angry Orks jumped out. The Mek's wagon moved behind the Boss's wagon, but nobody felt like jumping out. The Trukk mob and Trukks' shooting accounted for 2 Servitors, the Kopta failed miserably, the Lootas immobilized the Rhino and stunned the Razorback, and the Shootas killed 4 marines. The Techmarine and buddies were wiped out at the loss of 2 boyz (powerfists never even got to swing, gotta love that majority WS and T!), the Dread got wrecked without killing anybody, and 5 Devastators got wtfpwned by 19 Orks and the Warboss.

Both the Assault Squad and Termies showed up, the jump packers arrived from the center heading towards the Boss and his buddies, while the Termies popped up right behind the recently re-deceased Dread. The Command Squad jumped out of their ride and headed to the Boss's unit as well, while the Tacticals moved to support. Uh oh. Shooting reduced the Boss's unit to 8 boyz, putting the Assault Marines out of charge range. It wasn't a total loss though; the Librarian rolled boxcars for Force Dome, taking a wound! Termies did jack all for shooting, killing 4 boyz (Boyz in the open, mind you). Scouts killed a Loota, pinning test passed. Rhino sputtered around. The Command Squad and Libby charged into the Boss's unit, killing all but 1 boy, 1 Nob, and the Boss. They proceeded to slaughter all but the company champion, yayz! Ld passed, keep on trucking. Termies killed 6 but lost 3 of their own, Ld holds.

TURN 3:
Meganobs spring into action, zooming up to meet the Assault Marines head on, the other Trukk mob moves to support their beleaguered brethren, Shoota wagon moves to get a good sight on the Tacticals, Kopta zooms towards the Razorback, and Grots abandon all caution and rush the Scouts. Shooting sees 3 assault marines, 5 Tacticals, 2 Scouts, and 2 Devastators buy it while the Razorback gets re-stunned. Meganobs wipe the Assault Marines with no casualties. The Captain knocks a wound off the boss while the Librarian and Champion finish the boyz. Captain goes down, Command Squad is finished. Ld holds. Termies get wiped, 1 more boy dies (just the Nob left).

Rhino fixes itself, Scouts kill 1 Loota, Warboss loses another wound. Yawn.

TURN 4:
Everything heads to the left to mop up. Grots continue their charge, no damage from grot blastas. Tactical Sgt downed by shootas, Razorback stunned by the Kopta in assault, Rhino re-immobilized.

Warboss finally buys it, Captain and Libby move away.

TURN 5:
Libby eats shootas and buys is, Captain wtfpwned by Meganobs.

At this point we called it, since all he had left was an immobilized Rhino, immobilized Razor and 3 Scouts. I lost 1 Kopta, my Boss, his mob, and a bunch of random boyz and lootas. 3 KP total. We decided to let the Grots and Scouts fight anyway, Grots got wiped :P

Obviously this was an epic mismatch, no weapons higher than S8 with little mobility vs. a BW list is not going to end well. This is your typical "battleforce" style list, a little bit of everything with no real focus. I think my opponent was new to 5th ed because of his list and overall lack of familiarity with the rules (had to go through wound allocation every time). It was fun and he was a great sport, but a challenging game it was not. Hopefully he'll stick around and we can turn his army into a real killer.

1850 Doublewing

I <3 my Dark Angels, so you can understand my fury at the travesty that is our Codex. Sucks to be us, every damn edition.

Whatever, I still play with my Deathwing and Ravenwing at least. Bored today so I thought up a potential build for the comp-loving local tournies.

HQ
Belial-Lightning Claws
Sammael-Jetbike
Troops
Deathwing-Apothecary, Assault Cannon
Deathwing-Assault Cannon
Deathwing-Assault Cannon
Deathwing-Assault Cannon
Ravenwing-6, 2 meltas, Apothecary, Attack Bike w/ multi-melta
Ravenwing-3, 2 meltas, Attack Bike w/ multi-melta

Total-1850

So I've got 4 scouting units full of melta loving to either get in and nuke vehicles early or outflank or just hide for a turn. The big Bike Squadron will almost always be split up, leaving the Apothecary in his own unit to either cover the Termies with another ignored save or protect the forward bike elements. Belial and the 4 DW squads will advance and provide a withering hail of fire (ha ha!) and maybe fight off a unit or two. Sammael zooms around looking pretty, eating lascannons, and shooting my only template weapon, what a champ.

I'll see if I can't get some playtesting in with it tomorrow.

Chumby's Nexus of Necron Nowledge

Necrons? People still play them?

Ah, I'm just messin' with ya, all four of you.

Necrons are in a tricky place currently. The Codex is old as a tomb world and 5th edition certainly didn't do them any favors. Gauss isn't what it used to be and combined with the increased resilience of vehicles a mech army can generally roll right over the poor tin men. What's worse, combat became even more dangerous and with only I2 losing essentially spells doom for your Warriors, bringing you ever closer to the dreaded Phase Out.

We talk a lot about competitive lists, optimized builds, and strong armies, but sometimes it's about bringing the army you love. I'm guilty with my Orks and Deathwing. And if you don't bring Guard, Tau, Marines, or Eldar you won't auto-lose. They may have a lot going against them, but a well built and well run Necron army can still hold its own. And if competitive play isn't your thing, then Necrons will do just fine in casual play.

Let's start with a quick analysis of the various units and options in the Codex. It shouldn't take too long, yay for limited choices!

Necron Lord: The only Necron HQ you've got. He isn't as good in combat or shooting as most HQs, but he provides the nigh-essential Ressurection Orb to keep your bots coming back for more. Use him to support and protect your army. A cheap Rez Orb Lord is good for smaller games. If you've got leg room, a Destroyer Body and Warscythe are extremely useful upgrades. T6 and boosted movement allow him to shrug off the blows of most normal troops and quickly respond to whichever threats present themselves. The Warscythe is for the extra dice against vehicles (they need all the help they can get) and ignoring invulnerable saves will give pause to units like Terminators or Daemons. He is far from the best fighter, but he's about the best you've got.

Pariahs: Ha ha! Unfortunately, Pariahs suck pretty hard. They are extremely expensive for non-Necrons that only have 1 attack and I3. Their Ld and anti-psyker effects may have some use, but the range is way too short and it lowers your Phase Out count way too far. Avoid at all costs.

Immortals: Solid. T5, Gauss Blasters, not an exorbitant cost. They're basically Warriors that are useful. Good mobile firepower at decent range and capable of shrugging off anything short of a Demolisher shell.

Flayed Ones: More garbage, unfortunately. They're basically a squad of Assault Marines without jump packs with no option for power weapons or fists. They can outflank, Deep Strike, or infiltrate, but they're just too slow and don't hit hard enough to have any effect. Terrifying Visage won't have much effect either considering how high Ld is currently. There is potential to combine with Pariahs, but that's a lot of points sunk into non-Necrons that can't get back up and Necrons that don't shoot. Fail.

Necron Warriors: They're mandatory, too bad. Warriors are expensive bolter marines with no combat ability, whoop dee do. They are slow, have limited offensive capabilities (woo hoo bolters!) and get taken off the board too quickly by anything with a pointed stick charging them. As your only scoring units, you want them protected. 2-3 small units is all you really need. Hold in reserve as needed and secure objectives late game or minimize KP while your army does the real damage.

Wraiths: If only the unit size could be bigger. High S, 3+ invulnerable save, ignoring cover and solid mobility looks nice, but since Wraiths come in small units and don't ignore armor, they stay on the shelf. You can try to tag team with a Destroyer Lord, but the unit size is simply too small and they just don't hit hard enough. Pity, the models look so nice.

Destroyers: Now we're talking. 3 S6 shots, T5 jetbike, WBB, all for a relatively low cost. These guys are your primary death dealers, putting out shots to take out infantry, force saves on MCs, blow apart light armor, and annoy heavy armor. Keep moving, keep blasting.

Scarabs: Cheap little tarpits that zoom across the field, what's not to like? They are great for tying down problem units and protecting your vulnerable shooty elements. Disruption Fields are relatively inexpensive and give them a chance to annoy vehicles.

Heavy Destroyers: Since glancing hits suck, you need these guys. Only a glorified lascannon, but it's on a tough and mobile platform, so side armor shots shouldn't be too hard. I'd consider these mandatory right after normal Destroyers.

Tomb Spyders: Fairly tough MCs with a low cost and solid supporting role. With a couple of these around, you don't have to keep your important units within hugztiem range of each other so a bad turn won't leave you SOL. This lets you split your army up and stay mobile, so you can get around side armor shots and force assaulty armies to split up to go after the different parts of your army. Plus, they can make free wounds! On top of all that, you get a MC that can cause some ruckus in combat, or at least buy enough time to keep your Warriors safe. A great babysitter.

Monolith: The most overrated unit of all time. Ever. Monoliths are a pain to kill, sure, but who bothers to try? Since the Mono isn't a Necron, going for Phase Out gets easier and for all its vaunted resilience, it goes poof like everything else. It doesn't even do that much damage. Flux Arcs? Immortals and Destroyers do it better. Particle Whip? No teleporting for you and it scatters, plus S9 isn't the best vehicle popper out there. Re-rolling WBB is useful, but another unit of Destroyers would be better for raising your Phase Out count. Avoid.

Nightbringer: Super awesome killy death machine...that moves 6" a turn. Pass.

Deceiver: Lots of neat abilities, but 300 points of non-Necrons is worrisome. Only in big games.

As you can see, our choices are quite limited for a competitive army. In casual play, anything works, so go nuts with it. When building your list, keep this equation in mind. Destroyers = Heavy Destroyers > Immortals. Destroyers of both types are equally essential in your army, as your primary firepower units and vehicle destroyers. Immortals add some good mobile anti-infantry dakka, but with only S5 guns and limited mobility Destroyers win out every time. After that, grab your required Warriors, a Lord, and if points allow Scarabs and Spyders to support your army.

Necrons have to be played very carefully: you need to maximize your firepower while avoiding assault at all costs (except for Scarabs and Spyders, but they go after weak units or tarpit). Your most important units are also your worst and you must keep them safe at all costs. Redundancy is key, otherwise one bad roll will lose a critical unit forever, you must always have at least 1 backup unit so your downed Necrons can attempt to get back up. You do have a metric ton of shooting dice, resilient units, good mobility and some neat tricks.

Shooting: Destroyers and Immortals put out an impressive amount of firepower. They are primarily anti-infantry units, Immortals definitely so, but they can also tag wounds on MCs to force a ton of saves and go after lighter vehicles. Heavy Destroyers are really your only answer to heavy armor, but S9 can be underwhelming, so try and get side shots if possible. Warriors can blast up close, but that means they will usually get assaulted next turn, so you want to avoid it generally.

Resilience: Destroyers and Immortals can get back up after getting hit by anything short of S10. Since we don't see that very often (or at least in manageable numbers), you can often run them independently of the Rez Orb and be ok. If Demolishers come knocking, spread out and have your Lord ready to respond if necessary. Once the S10 goes away, these guys can last quite a while.

Mobility: Destroyers and Scarabs move like jetbikes, so they can cover huge chunks of the board quickly and still fire to full effect. Use that speed coupled with their toughness to divide your forces if necessary, getting to vulnerable bits of the enemy and forcing them to respond to an attack from multiple side. It's like having skimmers, only 1 lucky shot doesn't leave you stranded.

Tricks: Have a Spyder build a scarab swarm and join your Destroyer Lord to it. Yay majority T6! Split your units up, keeping the Spyder within 12" at all time. If one unit gets wiped out, they come back with their buddies on the other side of the board. Instant teleportation, without relying on a Monolith or bunching up in pie plate formation.

That's what does work, let's take a look at what doesn't.

1) Warrior Horde. In theory, if you load up on Warriors your opponent can't kill them all and you can blow them away with sheer rate of fire. In reality, lolno. Warriors are far too easy to bring down with shooting or assault and the only way to get any decent amount of firepower is to get in rapid fire range. Ph34r t3h bolter! Right? Wrong. Marines have special weapons for a reason, bolters alone just don't cut it.

2) Twin Towers or Monospam. Monoliths are a pain to knock out, so 2 or 3 must be even harder. Sure, but that means you have even less Necrons and Phase Out that much quicker. The only way to bring an adequate number of Necrons is to bring tons of Warriors, and we know how awesome that is (pro tip: it isn't). In theory you could shield the Warriors with big walls of fail, but then you have no way to capture objectives and you're playing for a draw. 2-3 S9 pies aren't going to stop an entire army.

3) Wraithwing. 9 Wraiths plus Destroyer Lords. No real firepower and 9 T4 models without power weapons make up your assault force.

4) C'tan and Pariahs min-Warriors jamboree. Just kidding.

Necrons can do well, but you have a rather limited set of tools to work with and very specific applications for them. With some skill and a little luck you can still pull out that win. Player skill will generally trump list strength like always, but it never hurts to have a good list to go with your l33t skillz. Keep on trucking, I'm sure you'll get a Codex by 2012 :P

I'd like to thank bigred for giving me the idea to do this and of course most of the credit goes to Stelek for inspiring most of this tactica (the parts I didn't totally jack from his site of course ;)).

Check out some great Necron battle reports here:

one

two

three

FML

Went to go get money out of my bank account to pay for the tourney entrance fee last night. Turns out I'm $300 overdrawn somehow. Checked my account, turns out somebody took a lot of money out of my account and I don't know how. Needless to say, no tourney for mois.

FML

Update:

Well, I figured out what happened. Turns out my car payment got taken out twice. I got in contact with my bank and my financial people and they'll refund me for any overdraft fees I incurred because of their fuckup. Needless to say I won't be doing automatic payments any more.

Bum Rush

Remember that tourney I was going on about a month or so ago? Well, with my work and school schedule being so hectic I decided against going.

Weeeeelll, I just caught a break and now I can go. It starts Saturday and I don't have an army painted. I checked out the scenario list and they are as silly as local scenarios can be, but I can always play for Best General or Sports.

Now I've got to make sure I can still register, throw a list together, and hope for the best.

Yayz

Update: Here's the list I'll be using, reasons at the bottom

HQ
Warboss-powerklaw, cybork body, kombi-skorcha
Big Mek-kustom force field, bosspole
Elites
Lootas-7
Lootas-7
Troops
Meganobs-4, 2 kombi-skorchas, Battlewagon w/ armor plates, big shoota, reinforced ram, grot riggers
Shootas-20, 2 big shootas, Nob w/ powerklaw, bosspole
Sluggas-12, Nob w/ powerklaw, bosspole, Trukk w/ reinforced ram, grot riggers
Sluggas-12, Nob w/ powerklaw, bosspole, Trukk w/ reinforced ram, grot riggers
Sluggas-19, Nob w/ powerklaw, bosspole
Grots-14, runtherd
Fast Attack
Deff Kopta-rokkit, buzzsaw
Deff Kopta-rokkit, buzzsaw
Heavy Support
Battlewagon-armor plates, big shoota, grot riggers, reinforced ram
Battlewagon-armor plates, big shoota, grot riggers, reinforced ram
Looted Wagon-boomgun

Total-1850

I know it's not any good, not at all really. This event is so heavy on soft scores (over 50% of overall is based on them) that taking anything remotely competitive will get nuked into oblivion. I also had the displeasure of reading up on the scenarios, suffice to say they are fucking stupid. In light of this I say fuck it I'll just bring a goofy ass army. So I figured I'd have fun and bring my favorite units along: Meganobs, Koptaz, Lootas, and the Boomwagon.