Friday 11 November 2011

Necrons: First game done...so, where to go now?

1750 Random Mechanics Army...
Had a cracking game of 40k with the new Necrons last night at the Cambridge Sons of War hobby club.

Took on Tim and his Sisters of Battle..running the apparently now obligatory Uriah Jacobson and aload of Death Cult's/Crusaders (they also get an extra attack and FNP...dirt) in a rhino, dual outflanking Immolators with Dominion melta squads, 3 10 Girl squads, St Celestine (great buy at 115pts) couple of missile tanks an a Heavy Bolter support squad..there may have been some more stuff, but I can't remember..8 chassis sounds about right..

We had to call the game before it finished and I could have squeezed a draw..but I gave the edge to Tim. I had a scarab holding up 4 sisters on an objective, he had another objective with 2 sisters, I had tied up his death cults with 11 warriors (I say tied up, he jsut didn't kill them on the charge lol) and had claimed an objective myself with a squad that was about 14-15" from the Death cults...I did have another large warrior squad pushing his left flank to go for the objective held by 4 sisters. He couldn't get both units of warriors as he only had his deathcults to actually effect the game.

So why on earth was it so close versus the shitty Sisters with the new shiny codex? Couple of bits, Tim is a wonderful player, very skilled. This makes a massive difference. In addition there were a couple of bits of contention, but I'll leave that out...no need to dwell. It was a good game.

I made my moves throughout the game to try out mechanics, test survivability etc. over and above trying to outright win.

Which of course I tried to do..it's the game right?!

But I got to test alot of things in one game and have a few tweaks and questions..

First off, Entropic Strike.
It's a simple mechanic really, but the first question...and one I have seen elsewhere on the internet...

When do we apply Entropic Strike? Now, it says IMMEDIATELY, so is this before the Scarab attemps to penetrate the vehicles armour?

We work through the steps right, hit, ES, pen, damage? So logically, ES happens BEFORE the penetration roll, correct?

Now, this is irrelevant to last nights game as I never, ever even attempted to penetrate any of the vehicles I assaulted, I literally just applied ES and left it at that! D'Oh!

Next. Command Barge. Turboboost...as part of its movement can I still do my Sweep Attacks..they just say as part of my movement, Turboboost says can't voluntarily do anything else.. codex trumps rulebook til FAQ? Or is it all good or nonsense?

Thoughts on the Mechanics?

- Tesla. Awesome. Just as good as we think it is. I got at least one Tesla 6 in almost every shot from 3 Annihilation Barges all game long. Quality.
-Arc. Meh.
-Sweep Attacks. Quality. Immobilsed the Death Cult rhino,stopped those missile tanks
-Crypteks. Cool as fuck? Still just one shot. one dice roll. 33% chance of missing...on one dice, as we have all seen...happens too often on a single shot.
- Warriors. Pap. But in big groups? Yeah, I'll take that. Phaeron and Relentless in big groups...possibly way forward. I saw a post from TKE over at Mind War FTW blog earlier.. I fully agree, Troops are a bit poo-ski. Big issue.
-Destroyers. Expensive but DO work as mobile antitank
- Destroyer Lord. Love him from previous edition. Fuck it. He's still cool. Preferred Enemy Warscythe and T6/2+ is damned useful...but Overlord and Comm Barges are cooler...sorry bro.

Oh, and yeah, I2 sucks hairy, donkey dick...as always. CC cups the balls.

C'Tan... Writhing Worldscape..not as cool as the internet thinks. Everything else? yeah, 4 wounds, 4++ equals dead C'Tan..

Overall, really enjoyed playing it. Time for a list with tweaks from what I ran..

Overlord Warscythe, Command Barge
Overlord Warscythe, Command Barge
4x Cryptek - HoD, Eldritch Lance, 1 x Solar Pulse
3x Cryptek - HoD, Eldritch Lance (these stay together as a mini missile unit)
10x Immortals (I want the 3+ and the 30" effective range from the S5 guns)
10x Immortals
5x Warriors
5x Warriors
2x Heavy Destroyers
2x Heavy Destroyers
9x Scarabs
2x Canoptek Spyders (add to the Scarab units, by Turn 2 we'll have 13 bases bombing forward..that'll do)
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge

1750
Let me know what your thoughts are guys...any of you guys gotten games in? Struggling with 5+ Reanimation Protocols? Need more effective troops? Any rules giving YOU gip?

6 comments:

  1. Did you get a chance to read my battle report against Matt's Necrons?

    The way I see it the it's Roll to Hit, Roll to ES, Roll to Pen (against new armour value) then Roll to damage.

    That's the way we played it and that's how it seems to read in the codex. People will whinge about it but I think that's how it's intended. It's different to ES vs. infantry which only affects after unsaved wounds.

    The sweep attacks are just awesome (in principle). Shame I blew Matt's CCB up before he got to make any bwa ha ha ha!

    I'm about to write a post about RP so check back in about half an hour.

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  2. Also did you find any more vict... valued competitors for BW2 at the club?

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  3. Nice list, I like it, are you running all your immortals with tesla then?

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  4. @FtF...no not yet mate, one of the prospectives cant do it,there are a few others though that are up for it..just gotta push..

    Oh, and on topic, good to see thats how you guys are playing ES too..

    @Dalinair.Cheers mate, I am running all Tesla, jsut because I want the S5 at decent range, rather than getting in too close. I am finding the 'Crons very, very weak up close and personal, especially in CC (as always!) so am trying to strike a balance between distance and effectiveness..

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  5. I'm going to reread the Entropic Strike, but I just didn't sweat it because all combat is simultaneous, therefore reducing the AV wouldn't change anything for that particular set of strikes & penetration.

    On the Command Barge, yep, even flat out you get the swings, but only at 4+ to hit.

    CC: Wraiths with whips to make lots of them I1 or try to make sure you have Scarabs in there if possible (Fearless = cannot run after CC = no Sweeping since still locked).

    GW really, really, really needs to fix Flayed Ones. Attacks could be Rending or PW. Some kind of fear factor effect, say, make Ld and hit only on 6 or only get one swing or something like that. Flayed Ones are the obligatory token minority unit of the codex.

    What I'm trying to figure out is why the Ghost Ark isn't "Fast".

    Wait on the FAQ. I'm sure it will provide some interesting changes to the codex.

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  6. I think ES is an extra stage in rolling combat against a vehicle, therefore Scarabs benefit from their own ES. I agree its a shame about flayed ones.

    The ghost ark isn't fast because it isn't really a transport its a support vehicle. Needs to move along with your footsloggers. There's plenty of other ways of moving troops fast such as monoliths or veil crypteks.

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