Necrons Tactics Against Assault Armies

My Necrons tend to fare very well against assault armies. For the most part, this is because they have to come towards me or I will shoot them up. Coming towards me means they have to go through the Deceiver, something very few units can do. Being an assault-based army means they do not have the capability to do a high amount of significant damage in the shooting phase. Of course, most assault armies still have some shooting, but generally it's not going to make a big difference.

Whether I want first turn or not depends on my opponent's army. If I am worried that they have enough fast, hard assaulty units or the primary is Kill Points then I will take first turn for the alpha strike. Usually I will take second turn so I can react to their deployment and refuse a flank. Having second is great for last turn portalling warriors onto objectives.

So let's start with deployment. I will want to place the Deceiver and Monoliths as far forward as possible so they can get into the action ASAP. These units are not really worried about shooting. The scarabs will go behind them for the cover save. I put my warriors in a place where they will be useful later in the game, so basically on an objective or somewhere safe. I place my Destroyers somewhere safe where they will be able to get good lines of sight to priority enemy units.

One more thing to mention regarding deployment. When you set up warriors (or any static shooty unit for that matter) you don't want to set up like this:

X is one squad, O is another.

XXXXX OOOOO
XXXXX OOOOO

This leaves you vulnerable to multi-assaults. It's better to set up like this:

OOOOOOOOO
XXXXXXXXXX

This way they can only assault one squad at a time, meaning it essentially takes them twice as long to kill my guys. While it may not seem like much, this one-turn delay can completely change a game.

When the game starts my opponent will most likely move his models forward. On my turn I turbo-boost my scarabs forward to tarpit a unit that I know I will not be able to kill this turn. This tactic is less effective against flying units like jump pack marines but it still works (more tactics on this later). Monoliths and Deceiver move forward. Getting charged is a non-issue for the Deceiver because he can just leave combat if he wants to. Monoliths, destroyers and maybe warriors shoot at whatever needs to be shot.

Second turn my opponent is likely to charge the scarabs, deceiver and/or monoliths. If he had any units capable of killing the monoliths then I would have wrapped my scarabs around my monoliths to block the charge. When considering if the deceiver should leave combat, sometimes it's not about whether the deceiver can beat the unit, but how long he'll take to beat it. You want to be moving around to use the deceiver for maximum efficiency. In my turn I will shoot some more, then I charge the Deceiver into whatever target seems the most threatening. There are some units which the golden boy needs to avoid (seer council, massed poisoned weapons, etc). These will need to be delayed or taken out using shooting.

At this point, I'm either doing clean-up duty, or I'm trying to get as many bonus points as possible or maybe pull out a draw, and everywhere in between. A note about phase out: assault armies should never phase me out because 1/3rd of my Necrons are destroyers, and they are too fast to be assaulted by almost any assault unit. So even if I lose all my warriors (which should only happen in Annihilation), I can still avoid phase out. This is obviously something I'd like to avoid if possible, but sometimes I don't have a choice.

Next up: Necrons vs. Shooty Armies

Possible Reconfiguration of my Ork List

This was my previous 1500 Ork list that I was planning to bring to the summer GTs:

HQ
[103] Big Mek w/ Shokk Attack Gun, Bosspole, Ammo Runt
[103] Big Mek w/ Shokk Attack Gun, Bosspole, Ammo Runt

Elites
[225] 15 Lootas
[225] 15 Lootas

Troops
[170] 20 Ork Boyz w/ 2 Big Shootas; Nob w/ Power Klaw, Bosspole
[170] 20 Ork Boyz w/ 2 Big Shootas; Nob w/ Power Klaw, Bosspole
[49] 13 Gretchin + Runtherd
[49] 13 Gretchin + Runtherd

Heavy Support
[135] 3 Killa Kanz w/ Grotzookas
[135] 3 Killa Kanz w/ Grotzookas
[135] 3 Killa Kanz w/ Grotzookas

Total: 1499 Points

This is my revised list:

HQ
[225] Ghazhkull Thrakka

Elite
[225] 15 Lootas
[225] 15 Lootas

Troops
[190] 25 Boyz w/ Sluggas & Choppas; Nob w/ Power Klaw, Bosspole
[190] 25 Boyz w/ Sluggas & Choppas; Nob w/ Power Klaw, Bosspole
[40] 10 Gretchin + Runtherd

Heavy Support
[135] 3 Killa Kans w/ Grotzookas
[135] 3 Killa Kans w/ Grotzookas
[135] 3 Killa Kans w/ Grotzookas

Total: 1500 Points


The new list gets rid of the Shokk Attack Guns (they were useless for me) and adds more assault capability with Ghazzie and the large choppa boy squads. The new list has better anti-mech because of Ghazhkull, while still retaining the anti-infantry cheesiness of the Grotzookas. By the way, 'zookas are amazing. They absolutely slaughter any type of infantry, and with STR6 and multiple shots they make rhinos very uncomfortable.

So I'm gonna be testing this version of the list out and I'll see how it goes. I've played it twice so far with one win and one draw. Opinions?

Necrons Introduction

Behold, part one of my "how I play Necrons" tactica. I hope there are some Necron players out there reading this because I feel the army is underrated and I have seen lots of Necron players struggling because they don't know the basics of the army.

In case anyone missed it, here's my 1750 list:

-Deceiver
-10 Warriors
-10 Warriors
-5 Destroyers
-5 Destroyers
-10 Scarab Swarms
-Monolith
-Monolith

It can be changed to go up in points, but it's very difficult to go down. It works best at 1750 though.

The Necron codex is very old, and it was designed for a different type of game. 5th edition nerfed glancing hits which was previously the main way for Necrons to hunt vehicles. So with that in mind, vehicle hunting is made more difficult with Necrons but they can still be very good at it. Foot armies actually give me more trouble than mech armies.

A quick look through the Necron will show you that the codex as a whole is overcosted. IMO there are precisely three units in the army that are priced about right: Deceiver, Tomb Spyders, and Monoliths. There is one unit that is in fact undercosted and that is Scarabs. Look at equivalent units from other codices such as Rippers and it is really no contest. In fact I would go so far as to say Scarabs are the best bubblewrap unit in the game and I intend to go into that in detail later.

The rest of the units in the book are overcosted. There are, of course, varying degrees of overcostedness. Destroyers and Immortals are tolerable, while Wraiths are just ludicrous. But we have to make due with what we've got. Having an army with such a low model count has a few perks though. You will always have room to spread out your models (making blasts less efficient), or alternatively you can castle them up in a corner.

The Monolith is a very unique vehicle. It is nigh invincible against a lot of armies because a lot of people rely entirely on Meltaguns. Combine this with its huge footprint and LOS-blocking ability and you have a powerhouse that will protect your models from both assault and shooting. The portal is also very handy and I could write pages about it alone.

Essentially, my Necron army works by baiting my opponent into trying to Phase Out my 'Crons, and ignoring the objectives. Then I go to work glancing their vehicles and killing a few things here and there with the Monoliths. Meanwhile, the Deceiver goes to town in CC and by the time my opponent realizes they can't phase me out, it's too late. This also reveals something about how to beat Necrons. When you face Necrons, especially in a Massacre/Major/Minor tournament, the instinctual response is to go for Phase Out. Against a good player this generally isn't smart. As the interwebz always says: play the mission, not the man.

Next up, Part II: Necrons vs Shooty Armies

Necron Tactica Incoming

I'm currently working on an all-encompassing Necron tactica. It's not going to be about what you should take in your list or stuff like that, but rather it's just how I play my Necron army. I'm planning on it being 7 parts, laid out like this:

Part I: General Ideas & Strategies
Part II: Against Shooty Armies
Part III: Against Assault Armies
Part IV: Annihilation Strategy
Part V: Seize Ground Strategy
Part VI: Capture and Control Strategy
Part VII: Dawn of War

The reason why I'm doing Dawn of War but not the other deployment types is because DoW is played totally differently from the other two deployments. So the entire tactica is pretty much centered around Pitched Battle and Spearhead and then the last post will describe how the game differs in DoW.

Again, I have been quite busy lately so it might take me a long time to write this up, but I promise it will be done.

Suggestions?

I've been pretty busy lately so I haven't had much time to post. I've been meaning to get around to discussing Blood Angels but I haven't played as many games against them as I would have liked. I know I'm just another dude on the Interwebz, but is there anything you would like to know my opinion about?

I'm on the fence about whether or not I want to go to 'Ard Boyz this year. Doing so would mean I would have to convert a bunch of warriors into immortals, something I don't really want to do. It's really time-consuming and I have enough on my plate with the Orks as it is.

So I guess this is just an update to let people know I'm alive... yeah.........

1750 Necrons vs Tyranids Battle Report

I was asked to post battle reports of my Necrons. I haven't played any games with them in since the Battle Missions tournament (I'm gonna be playing Orks until August), but here's one I wrote on Dakka about a month ago. This basically shows my usual tactics against a Deep Striking army.

Tyranids
- The Swarmlord
- Flyrant w/ Hive Commander + other stuff (made no difference)
- Doom of Malan’Tai + spore
- 3 Zoanthropes + spore
- 3 Zoanthropes + spore
- 9 Genestealers w/ toxin sacs + Broodlord
- 9 Genestealers w/ toxin sacs + Broodlord
- 9 Genestealers w/ toxin sacs + Broodlord

Setup
Mission was Annihilation; deployment was Spearhead. I won the roll for first, and I considered giving it up because I was predicting he would put everything in reserve, but in the end I decided to take first.

Deployment
The quarter I chose was on the left side of the board. I deployed everything as far away from the short table edges as possible because I didn’t want to get roflpwned by his genestealers outflanking. Monoliths were close to the center; warriors and C’tan behind them with the Scarabs slightly to the left. Destroyers were lined up on my table edge right behind my warriors.

He kept everything in reserve as I had predicted. Stealers outflanking, Swarmlord walking on and everything else was deep striking.

Turns 1&2 – Necrons
I shuffled my models into a piece of area terrain about 3 inches off my table edge. Monoliths in front, C’tan and warriors surrounded by scarabs with my destroyers in the back, right along my table edge. All the jetbikes had turbo-boosted for the 3+ cover (2+ for scarabs). I left a big hole in the warriors to bait the Doom to DS there, then get killed by Big D.

Turn 2 – Tyranids
Everything came in from reserve. Swarmlord moved and ran forward. All of his stealers came in on my left in a big horde. The Zoanthropes dropped about 12” in front of my monoliths. His tyrant landed about 9” forward/left of my army. He would need to be killed next turn. DoM took the bait and landed right in the middle of my warriors, taking off 2 scarab wounds, then dropping its psychic power pie plate instant-killing 4 swarm bases (I forgot to take cover saves lol). The zoanthropes shoot at my monoliths, destroying one.

Turn 3 – Necrons
I turbo-boost my remaining scarab I shuffle my Necrons around a bit, getting my destroyers into LOS of the tyrant. My surviving monolith moves forward. DoM takes a wound off my C’tan. My shooting goes fantastically. The flyrant goes down to destroyer fire, while the Doom’s pod is killed by my warriors’ mass rapid-firing. Then I shoot my monolith’s pie plate at the left zoies. I hit and wound all three, and he fails all three invulnerable saves in some awesome luck. The Deceiver kills the Doom in assault. 4 KPs in one turn, not bad!

Turn 3 – Tyranids
At this point it’s an uphill battle for him. He has 3 Genestealer squads on the left, 1 Zoanthrope squad, the Swarmlord and 2 spores. Basically in this turn he moved and ran his Swarmlord forward, Zoies whiff on the Monolith, and his genestealers kill my scarab roadblock.

Kill Points – Necrons: 4, Tyranids: 2

Turn 4 – Necrons
I have not lost a single Necron model yet, so things are looking good. I portal my left warrior squad through the monolith to get them out of charge range of the Stealers and into Rapid Fire range of the Swarmlord. The Swarmlord has moved to within charge range of the Deceiver, so I move forward for the epic fight. I move my Destroyers out of charge range from the Genestealers, failing one DT test. They pop off some shots at one stealer squad, reducing it to just the Broodlord. Portalled warriors rapid fire the Swarmlord, taking off 2 wounds. Then the C’tan charges the Swarmlord taking off one wound while remaining fine himself.

Turn 4 – Tyranids
His Genestealers all move towards my army but nothing is in charge range. My opponent shoots his zoies at my ‘Lith and does no damage. I believe his shooting at the Monolith was a mistake because my warriors were all huddled up together after going through the portal and he could have blasted them with AP3. My deceiver leaves combat.
Kill Points – Necrons: 4, Tyranids: 2

Turn 5 – Necrons
My downed destroyer which had failed DT gets back up. Then, when I move to get in LOS of his swarmlord & zoies, I fail 3 out of 5 DT tests. I kill his Swarmlord and a spore from shooting and kill his Zoanthropes in CC with the deceiver. I had placed my Warriors so that his last spore and my one monolith were blocking his stealers from charging.

At this point he concedes, as none of his stealers are in charge range. Kill Points were 7-2 for the Necrons, and there was no way for him to phase me out as I had not lost a single “Necron” model aside from the 3 destroyers in WBB mode.

Post-game Thoughts (written a while ago but still applicable)
This game has reinforced my opinion on the ‘nids: they are not very good. Doom of Malan’Tai is useless against Necrons, and I was prepared for his all-reserve strategy. The Swarmlord did not fit into his list. If you want to start in reserve with ‘Nids, you need to have everything deepstriking, not some deepstriking, some outflanking and some walking on. If you do the latter it will be easy for an experienced opponent to kill you in bite-sized chunks. The all-deepstriking ‘Nid army is powerful purely for the shock factor, and if you have never played against it before then it can be pretty tough. However I have played several games against drop ‘Nids so I knew what to expect and I was not surprised by anything so this game was a breeze.

So to sum things up, ‘Nids should be deployed on the table and run across. However, it is very difficult for them because they lack the speed to get into the assault quickly and they still lack long ranged anti-tank (tyrannofex is not points-efficient). Another thing that I think is quite important is that ‘Nids have no way to tank shock (or do anything similar). The tank shock move is so underrated and without the ability to tank shock troops off an objective the codex will struggle in objective games.

Comment away...

My 1750 Necron List

I tend to reference my Necrons a lot when I'm writing, here it is just so everyone knows what it is.

HQ
[300] The Deceiver

Troops
[180] 10 Warriors
[180] 10 Warriors

Fast Attack
[250] 5 Destroyers
[250] 5 Destroyers
[120] 10 Scarab Swarms

Heavy Support
[235] Monolith
[235] Monolith

Total: 1750 Points

Basic tactics are the monoliths and C'tan advance to kill things, while the warriors and destroyers stay back and shoot at anything that needs to be softened up before the C'tan roflpwns it. Scarabs are my main bubblewrap. Monoliths are mainly anti-tank but they also block assaulters or LOS, portal my warriors out of close combat or onto objectives.

FWIW, I have 30 models so I Phase Out when I have 7 models left, but in ~30 games with this list I've only Phased Out once against "Leafblower" IG when they got first turn. I've come close many times, but that was the only actual phase out. My most recent tournament I played against triple-Land Raider SM, which I won by a Massacre victory; then dual-Lash + oblits, which I won by another Massacre, then a Minor Loss to Mech IG.

I intend to post pictures soon, after I fix the Deciever's broken arm and head.

The Importance of the Army List

As interwebz players, we have all seen countless army lists and the discussions which revolve around them. I would actually say that I see more discussion of army lists than tactics. This is interesting because, for the most part, I would say tactics are much more influential in the outcome of a game than lists are. I don't like to toot my own horn, but I do very well in local tournaments with my Necrons against tough lists. Furthermore, I rarely come away from a game thinking I played perfectly but I lost solely because I was playing Necrons.

Yet, we still discuss army lists much more than tactics. Why is that? The answer is quite simple: it's easier to talk about army lists than it is to talk about tactics. With army lists, you have the list written out in front of you, and you have your codex which tells you your alternative options. There is no abstract thinking required. Now, I'm not saying building good lists is easier than playing, I'm saying they are easier to discuss. Tactics, on the other hand, require abstract thought in order to talk about. You need to be able to imagine and visualize the models on the table, the distance between units, and the terrain. This can be very difficult if there are no pictures provided, especially when you get into complex situations.

I like to think of the player and army list as a contruction worker and his tool kit. Take Mike Holmes from the TV show Holmes on Homes (if you haven't seen it Mike Holmes is a beast at renovation) for instance. Now let's say someone gave me a brand new, top-quality kit of tools, and gave Mike Holmes an old crappy one. I'm sure Mike Holmes could still do any renovation job ten times better than I could. This is because he knows how to use what he has to build something.

But where am I going with this? Think of Necrons as the old crappy tool kit, and Mech IG as the brand new one. They both have similar tools (anti-tank, anti-infantry, counter-assault etc.) but the IG list's tools are newer and better. However, a good player will make due with what he has, and the difference between the IG list and the Necrons is actually very small IMO (maybe 10-15% in power).

There is one big exception to this, however. That is if the list is entirely lacking in one area, or it has so little that what it has can be killed very easily. Let's say it has no anti-tank, then that makes a huge difference. Again, going back to the tool kit metaphor, if you give Mike Holmes a tool kit but you don't give him any nails, he won't be able to build much, no matter how skilled he is. Similarly, if he doesn't have any spare tools and one of them breaks (killed by your opponent in 40k terms), he won't be able to do what that tool did.

Every codex in the game is able to build a list with enough tools to compete. Some have very few tools for certain jobs, and some have only one good set of tools (Dark Eldar). Some have extra 'bonus' tools (psychic hoods, RoW etc.) but in the end I think too much emphasis is put on the army list. Some people build a list and don't playtest and then go to a tournament expecting to win with it. Then they get owned. This happened a lot at Adepticon with people using the SW Razorback spam list. Ignoring the fact that that list is not nearly as good in real games as it is on paper, people just took it without practicing and tweaking their list (it's always a good idea to try out different things in lists), and they got destroyed as a result.

So what do you guys think? Am I just crazy and the army list is more important than I believe? Does it depend a lot on luck? Also, do you have experiences of you or others using lists that everyone thinks is gonna get smashed and then does really well?

My Thoughts on the Adepticon Cheating Controversy

Immediately after Adepticon ended, Tastytaste from Blood of Kittens posted that he had video evidence of cheating. A week later, he posted 3 unclear videos, saying they were evidence of cheating. I think this was a very weak attempt at trying to get attention.

Then, Tim posted this. I don't know about anyone else, but I fully believe this is sincere. He forfeited his Vegas ticket which was a very big thing for him to have done. I think Tastytaste owes Tim an apology.

I want to talk about the topic of cheating. If you see it happening you should immediately take action. Don't stare at your feet, don't take out your video camera. First what you have to do is make sure you are correct. Think the situation over for a minute and if you are confident then call the guy on it. If he persists, bring a judge over. IMO there are two main reasons why people don't do this:

a) Intimidation - This is a factor for some people, but it's really an irrational fear. I have never even heard of a situation where someone actually physically attacked another player. That would be assault and he could go to jail for it. I have experienced many times the threat of violence, heck someone threatened to punch me at a tournament a while ago when we were on the top table. But these threats never actually materialize and if you're afraid of someone you just have to get over it. I'm a skinny 5'9" guy and if intimidation has never been a problem for me it shouldn't for you.

b) People unsure of the rules - A lot of times people are not clear on the rules and this leads them to be more trusting of their opponents. They might think their opponents are making a mistake but are unsure if they are right about the rules, so they don't bother to bring it up. It's very important to learn the rules of the game inside and out so these things don't happen. I know the rules better than the back of my hand and it really helps.

If I'm in a situation where I think my opponent is doing something wrong, I do not interrupt them and I open up to the relevant rules. However, I do this such that I can keep one eye on my opponent and watch what they are doing. If I am correct, I show my opponent. If I'm wrong, I put my rulebook away and no harm has been done.

1500 Shooty Orks GT List

HQ
[103] Big Mek w/ Shokk Attack Gun, Bosspole, Ammo Runt
[103] Big Mek w/ Shokk Attack Gun, Bosspole, Ammo Runt

Elites
[225] 15 Lootas
[225] 15 Lootas

Troops
[170] 20 Ork Boyz w/ Shootas, 2 Big Shootas; Nob w/ Power Klaw, BP
[170] 20 Ork Boyz w/ Shootas, 2 Big Shootas; Nob w/ Power Klaw, BP
[49] 13 Gretchin + Runtherd
[49] 13 Gretchin + Runtherd

Heavy Support
[135] 3 Killa Kanz w/ Grotzookas
[135] 3 Killa Kanz w/ Grotzookas
[135] 3 Killa Kanz w/ Grotzookas

Total: 1499 Points

SAG Meks attach to the grotz. Boyz run in front of my killa kans to give them cover, while some of the boyz stay behind the kans so they also get cover. The list is very shooty and resilient, but slow. I haven't played it a lot, but in the games I have played with it I have been very successful. I will have a lot of time to practice though because the GTs are in the summer.

When the deffrolla FAQ came out, the interwebz went wild, saying assault Orks are awesome now and much better than shooty orks. I still think assault orks are a decent army at best, but shooty Orks are actually very powerful at low points levels because they have a lot of cheap, resilient units.

Thoughts?