Send in the Warriors

I'm just back from my first game with 5th Edition Necrons (or should I say 6th Edition?), and I'm totally convinced that this is a fun army to play.

The game was 6000 points each side, Necrons took on Grey Knights, Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines in an Annihilate mission. I don't think a single turn went by without some special rule or another ruining our opponents' plans, and by the end of turn 4 the Necrons were ahead 14 kill points to 7.

Because all three of us with Necron armies were building on forces we already had there was in excess of 100 Necron Warriors on the table. I was the only one to put Crypteks (or any Royal Court members, for that matter) into mine, but was glad of it. The combination of Transmogrification Crypteks and a Writhing Worldscape C'tan is absolutely phenomenal. I spent a good part of the game taking pot-shots at a unit of 20 Khorne Bezerkers, killing a couple of guys to dangerous terrain each turn, and even took a wound off of Abaddon when his unit of Terminators was forced to test.

One of the Necron armys included Imotekh, and his night fighting rule meant we could engage the enemy right at the range we wanted. The extra chances for lightning strikes in a game this size helped out too!

Most Necron units are still vulnerable to combat though, as you would expect. I managed to avoid this for the most part, but several squads of Warriors further down the table were removed in the assault phases. Fortunately the new codex has tricks and units that meant we were almost always in a position to offer some kind of counter-attack in our own turn, typically wiping out the offending unit.

And let's talk about Deathmarks briefly. Mine spent the first few turns hanging back, as I didn't want to be over-eager and throw them away just for one round of shooting. Instead they waited until the enemy reached our line, then combined Veil of Darkness, Hunters from Hyperspace, and some rending that I was reminded of to really tear into a unit of Terminators. The next turn they were able to use the same trick to warp half way across the field and hit a different terminator unit.

Pimp My Codex

Well the Necron codex hasn't been out long enough to break properly, but here's my first attempt at a 2000pt list.

Necron Overlord - Weave, Phase Shifter, Res Orb, Scarabs, Warscythe

Necron Lord 1 - Weave, Phase Shifter, Warscythe, Scarabs
Necron Lord 2 - Weave, Phase Shifter, Warscythe, Scarabs
Cryptek - Eternity, Chronometron

C’tan - Writhing World, Grand Illusion

Cryptek - Despair, Veil of Darkness
10 Deathmarks

Cryptek - Transmogrification
10 Necron Warriors

Cryptek - Transmogrification
10 Necron Warriors

Cryptek - Transmogrification
10 Necron Warriors

5 Scarabs

4 Destroyers

Monolith

Canoptek Spyder - Fabricator Claw, Particle Beamer

1995 pts

And here's why I think it's going to be fun;

Writhing Worldscape
The C'tan ability Writhing Worldscape levels up the effect of difficult terrain on enemy units. This is welcome enough, as I'd be hoping to hide my units in cover most of the time anyway, but once you add a few Crypteks to the mix it becomes a lot of fun. See, the Tremorstave that comes with Transmogrification Crypteks forces hit units to act as if they're in difficult terrain. And the C'tan upgrades this to dangerous terrain. Not only do I slow them down, but my opponent is now removing models in his own turn, which is something everyone hates to do.

Hunters from Hyperspace
This one's a bit nasty, and I do wonder if it'll be FAQ'd out of existence. When a unit of Deathmarks deploys they place a targeting marker next to an enemy unit on the table. That targeting marker means any Deathmarks have a hugely improved chance to wound that unit. Now adding a Cryptek to the unit means that they can't deploy by deep strike any more, but will still place their targeting marker if you deploy second. Then the C'tan's Grand Illusion lets you deploy the Deathmarks a second time, targeting an additional unit. Then Veil of Darkness to deep strike every turn, targeting another unit each time. You should always be able to wound any unit you're after now!



So that's my earliest attempt to break Codex: Necrons. I should be giving this list (or something quite like it) a test on Thursday, so will let you all know how it goes.

We'll Be Back!

What better time to get back to blogging than with the release of the new Necrons?

Necrons were the first army I played, back when they had an army list in White Dwarf and a handful of metal models. A brief check online tells me that was all the way back in 1998, which actually scares me a bit.

Apart from that first little foray I didn't go back anywhere near Necrons until recently. About a year ago I bought some second hand Necrons from a friend, planning on starting a robotic horde of my own. With the rumours approaching I added a Monolith to the list, bringing me up to 1500 points, and left it at that.

Despite the old codex Necrons had some fun tricks, most of which I picked up from reading Fritz40k's blog. Now with a 5th Edition codex several of the clever bits of wargear used for these tactics is changed, so the race is on to find the new combos. And from a brief flick through the codex I've already spotted one or two ideas that I'm looking forward to testing.

So, without much further ado I'm away to read my new codex and work on my army list. After all, I've got a galaxy to conquer.