O'vesa Death Star Versus AV13 Necron Spam

 

And the robots went in 2 by 2...

'Sup folks.
My most recent tournament write up continues with a look at my games, who I played, what I did wrong, how I can improve in the future etc.

Tournament was 1850, 5 games - Caledonian Uprising 2014... 116 players.. pure class.

First game up was a tough one, there were certainly easier match up's out there.. but that said, there were also harder ones.
I was playing Chris Scothorne who is a regular tournament player located in the North, plays a lot of his games at Outpost Gaming..
He was running an AV13 Necron army:

2 Overlords, 2 x 3 'bot Courts with S8, AP1 Lance
3 Ghost Arks with 6 dudes in
1 Night Scythe with 9 Sniper fucks
3 Annihilation Barges

8 Av13 vehicles with skimmer saves is not easy. It doesn't matter if you are a cheesy mother fucker running Farsight Tau ( yay! ), if you just don't roll hot, it won't go down!
Now, statistically this was not too bad for me, I just needed to remain in cover from the Lances and Deathmarks (in case of rend) and then just smash my way through the troops and kill them.

The primary was Crusade (5 objectives) with KPs secondary. Tiebreakers as per.

So killing those shitty troops was going to be quite important..

I got first turn and proceeded to push on with my plan.. Firstly, each Sky Ray pummelled a Ghost Ark each, the idea here being to add Markerlights so that the 2 TL, S9 Nova Charged, Ordnance Ap2, Ignores Cover, Tank Hunting  pie plates could hit with a bit more ease...and secondly..being S8 each missile actually had a shot at opening up a Ghost Ark. Over six shots, the chances are not that low..especially given the skimmers hadn't moved yet. So I had a go with that.. then the Ordnance... then the target lockable broadsides were left to clean up troop units and clear it out on turn 1..

Except.. as I said, if you just don't roll high..even with Tank Hunters and 2 dice per Ordnance blast.. you ain't getting anywhere.. and so I just put a few hull points on most Arks, but I was lucky enough to get one Ark for First Strike..I also used a Broadside to pummel the troop unit inside, leaving just one of the 2 Lance Crytpeks in that unit.



Bottom of T2 - Dead Barges, 1 dead Ark, 1 Warlord, 1 Troop

His turn 1, he pushed up into my face with his 2 Overlords on Barges, basically forcing me to deal with them. He threw the Ghost Arks up to get them into range of the Gauss and did the same with the Annihilation Barges.

His shooting was relatively ineffectual, killing a missile drone and a hull point on one Sky Ray.

Turn 2, a couple of solo suits came on, including one in his top right corner to dual flame the cryptke that was annoying me over there.. it still scored, was easy to hide and had a long range Ap1, S8 weapon.. I like my Cypteks extra crispy.
O'Vesa, broadsides and skyray SMS were all used to smash the Overlord Barges, then I had to charge to kill one of them. I failed Mindshackle on a Shielded Missile Drone and it killed itself, O'Vesa then smashed the Overlord to death. The other Riptide had split off and charged the other Overlord..and remained there for a few turns :( 

General depiction of the games unfolding nature.  

Necron 2: Not much. Few Gauss shots everywhere.. 2+ saves and Av13 kept me safe.

Tau 3: More troops come on, about which I am less than happy. I kill off the Ghost Arks, but that is it..the shitty combat between a Riptide and an Overlord continues.
Necron 3: No reserves. A few Gauss shots.. Combat, the Riptide Overlord continues.

Tau 4: O'vesa and Broadies push up to kill troops as do the Skyrays. Flamer suits by the way have been chasing around Crypteks and not doing anything only to then run away in the assault phase to get into cover and hope to not die to horrible lashing from the Lance. Finally, the Riptide treads on the Overlord with a Smash and gets out of there... just in time for..
Necron 4: Deathmarks come in from Night Scythe and get intercepted by 2 Pieplate Riptides. Kill loads of the fuckers, half get back up, it goes from 9 Deathmarks down to 4 after Reanimation.
Troops are all but dead, push in the midfield for more fire into my drop troops. Kill a few.

Turn 5: I move onto objectives, claim a few, kill his troops off and even have time to kill an Annihilation Barge with extreme prejudice from point blank with the solo Riptide.

Game ends 15-5 to me.
I could have pushed for more I think. I certainly think there are ways for me to have gotten more points - I needed to keep my troops alive a bit more and should have been sneakier with them. But the board didn't really have the same level of LoS blocking terrain that was prevalent that weekend. Hills for example were too small to hide even a single Crisis suit behind.
Nevermind.
I stuck to my pregame plan and it paid off.
Chris was a lovely bloke and we had a few laughs and good chat all the way throughout. The kind of game I enjoy - tough, not giving or taking anything with banter and laughs.
I'd happily play Chris again at any event and look forward to future run ins with his robots in disguise.

Next game pushed me up to an ETC player from Belgium running Neil Kerr's Ravenwing bike build from last years ETC...one that has so many tactical options that it is very difficult to beat it big..especially when the dual packs of Black Knights score too in Scouring.. he had 14 scoring units!!!
Keep reading later this week for that bad boy...

Max Air - ChaosCrons ETC Lists

Todays list is not as exciting as this picture... But it's not my fault... Boring European fucktards...

Next up in my little series examining the most popular builds at this years ETC ... Maxed out fliers.
This is not necessarily a new thing, nor a trend which no one saw coming...especially in this context - the ETC does not allow Forge World and therefore the ability to spam Sabre Defence Platforms means that fliers have a real chance to dominate.

Lets look at the tournaments in the UK - when FW is allowed at a tournament, fliers are not as much of a worry...when there is no FW allowed at an event - fliers abound.

The ETC follows this trend it seems, at Europe and in the States at least.

Germany, USA, Italy, Greece, France.. the list goes on and on...they are all rocking an extreme flier list.

What are the armies?
Really...
You need to ask?
Necrons and Chaos Space Marines.

Night Scythes and Heldrakes. That's pretty much the army list too haha!

Necron Megalith Pic - so sweet!

Hi all,
As a long time Cron fan, I have oft lamented the .... Dust...that has settled on my Monolith. It is a cool concept and actually - it can kinda work.. But there are just better options in Heavy Support; no one can doubt the usefulness and just all round point-for-point effectiveness of the Annihilation Barge for example.

However, I was pointed this morning in the direction of something amazing...
Something that just spoke to me.
If this is coming out ...I will have three of them.
Without doubt..

Look at it...sweet Jesus these are cool.. Huge bastards...that TRANSFORM!!!

They fly high ....float ...high above the battle field 

I hope they take a turn or two to open up and change between modes.. but once open, the full mastery of the stars is opened up by the Megalith and it is unassailable..

It charges up over the turn - during this time it is vulnerable.. but once in its lethal new position.. arcane energies engulf the Megalith and it lashes out to destroy the foolish mortals.. or something cool..
 

Now these may be conversions? Barge front pieces/prows on top, wraiths strapped to the sides.. no idea on the insides but..I'm sure someone with more creativity could do them...

But I don't think they are.. They could be,,, if they are..I need to find out how to do them... 

Any one seen these anywhere before? 
Any info on if these are new Apocalypse updates or just conversions?

Email in: 2k Necron lists

Sup everyone. Got an email in the other day from Eric K.

"...Venerable Brother,


First, love the blog and your battle reports. I am sure you get this a lot but I am seeking advice on a necrons list. Its at the point where I consider it fine tuning. Its a 2000 pt list meant to be an all comers competitive list. I am torn between two lists right now:

List One:
-2x Overlord w/warscythe, MSS, and Barge
-2x Royal Court w/veil-tek, abyssal-tek, and Storm-tek
-(5)Deathmarks w/Night Scythe
-2x (8)Immortals w/gauss
-2x (6)Warriors w/Night Scythe
-(5)Wraith w/3 coils
-(4)Wraith w/3 coils
-2x Annihilation Barge
List Two:
-Overlord w/warscythe, MSS, and Barge
-Overlord w/warscythe, and Barge
-2x Royal Court w/veil-tek, and abyssal-tek
-(5)Deathmarks w/Night Scythe
-2x (8)Immortals w/gauss
-2x (5)Warriors w/Night Scythe
-(5)Wraith w/3 coils
-(4)Wraith w/3 coils
-3x Annihilation Barge

I want to lean towards List Two but I feel uncomfortable dropping MSS on the Overlord.
Any thoughts?..."

First of, thanks for thinking of me Eric - I am more than happy to address your tweaks. I think it is important that we consider that for a second:

If these are "fine tuning" tweaks then I won't suggest any whole sale change, simply throw out some suggestions with some reasons behind it.. up to you if you take those on board or not.
OK.. so let's see if I get how you operate the lists. It's all pretty standard stuff with a few exceptions...

Caledonian Game 5/5: Table 1 - FTW!

Final game in the 84 player, 1850 40k tournament held at Maunsfeld Gaming, UK.
I've won the previous 4 games with all the style and panache you expect from me..
I've had Invisi-Council Eldar from the UK's number 2 player
I've had Double Jaws podding Wolves with Null Zone SM allies from an ex-England ETC player/organiser
I've had Double Jaws podding Wolves with Null Zone SM allies (again) from the current Scottish ETC Captain
I've had Wraith/Air Crons from a Top 10 ranked player

I've lined up for myself in the final round.. Josh Roberts with Wraith/Air Crons...
The Giant Slayer!
The Prodigy!
The lean, mean, Reanimating Machine!
The Messiah of Tesla Fire! (pronounced "Fiah" lol) (double lol.. I like that! I may use that more..)
The England Number 1!
Team England ETC Captain!

Yeah. I lost.
Came 9th.
Don't talk to me, don't even fucking look at me. ... 'm disgusted. Still lol ;)
I don't lose.
Or do I?
I don't
Or do you?
No.
Yes.
Apparently. Fuck.

NOTE: All stats correct at time of tournament.

Alright, let's get down to it then:

Mirror Match - Necrons Vs Necrons at Caledonian 2013

Round 4 of one of the UK tournament calendar spotlights...2013's Caledonian Uprising.
84 players.
High calibre competition and excellent organisation.
Round 4 finds me on table 2 after a cracking first day.

I am at this point slightly miffed.
I practiced a lot verus daemons in order to get prepared for the daemon spam that I envisaged seeing.
There were plenty up on the top tables, but no... I get to play two Necron games Day 2, lol.
Serves me right I guess.

So Rob Sims Crons:

2 x D Lord - Scythe, Shackles, Semp  ( 1 is Warlord obv)

10 Immortals - Tesla

4 x 5 Warriors in Night Scythes

2 x 6 Wraiths

3 Annihilation Barges

Deployment: Dawn Of War
Mission: Crusade

Rob goes first, deploying with Wraiths up front of his Barges over to the left hand side of the board. This is where the greatest density of objectives are, although as you can see across these photos, they are well spread, one objective in each table quarter, one in the middle of the board (NOVA style).
He deploys his Immortals across in the tower on the right, on an objective and looking to hold down a flank.

The key error here is that I can't really out-CC him as he has the D Lords, but I can ignore them.. I'm not planning on ignoring them totally.. what I'm planning on doing is using the psychological threat of force to bully him and keep him playing defensive.
I can't do that all game, but the longer it goes on the better.

I deploy my Wraiths out of sight, my Immortals out of sight on the extreme left behind a ruin and push all the Barges and Overlord on the right, opposite the Immortals and where they can move up the board edge.

Largely, the plan here is to reverse the deployment zone into Hammer and Anvil, forcing his Wraiths to come along the length of the board and away from the action - or, failing that stay out gaurding objectives til I get the last minute, last turn dash to contest...keeping 750 points out of the game.
If he realises what I'm doing and commits them.. fine, I'll deal with them but the longer I don't have to, I can maul the rest of the army.

Turn 1 and Rob realises that I'm going for his Immortals and moves and runs them back off the objective towards the safety of the herd. He adjusts his army slightly, checking I am out of retaliatory fire range and that's that. Turn 1 for him done. He is patiently waiting his fliers to come in and then strike in a coordinated mess. Fair enough, let's divert a little more attention.

My turn 1, I move 30" with my Overlord into the top right corner of the board, looking to keep those Immortals  on the run and away from that objective.. I push my Barges up the field so that they can get some cover and so that they are going to be in range next turn of any centrally placed fliers.
Why would they be in the middle... ?
Well, I'm going to give them some bait.
Tempting bait.
I move one unit of Wraiths up and out of their terrain piece into a position so that they can't be shot the Immortals or by 2 of the Annihilation Barges.
My Immortals continue to play the waiting game as well, waiting for flier support.

Turn 2 and Rob and I agree that in this situation he either wants all or none of his fliers.
He gets them all...

Cally Game 3 - Necrons Vs Wolves w Marines (AGAIN)

Game 3 was up on Table 5, I was moving into the position I wanted to be in, namely tougher games versus tougher oppoenents that would help me to improve my standing from last year (11th) and meet this years target of Top 5... which I missed out on by 4 spots due to the way the final game turned against me.. d'oh!

But anyway, more on that in due time. Back in time to the end of the first day and two solid wins for me. 2 solid wins as well for Bernard Lee from the Scottish ETC team who is running a very similar list to Chris Green (of yesterdays post fame HERE).

Mission: Puge (Kill Points)
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil

Bernard Lee - Space Wolves with Space Marine Allies

2 Rune Priests, Jaws, Runic Axe, stuff.

3 Wolf Guard w Combi Melta

8 Grey Hunters, Standard, Meltagun, Power Axe - Drop Pod

8 Grey Hunters, Standard, Meltagun, Power Axe - Drop Pod

10 Grey Hunters, dual Plasmagun, Standard, Power Axe - Drop Pod

5 Hunters, Meltagun - Drop Pod

3 Hyperios Missiles

Libbie, Termie, Null Z, Gate

10 Sternguard - 5 Combi Plasma - Drop Pod

5 Scouts

3 Attack Bikes - MM

Thunderfire

Bernard was a good lad from the Scottish Team but made a couple of mistakes. The biggest of these came at set up when Bernard rolled and switch out the Psychic Powers of his Rune Priests rather than keeping his Jaws.
I am really nto sure what the argument is there, perhaps - and I guess this is logical-ish, he didn't want to give up the Warlord Secondary or the KPs for his 2 Rune Priests and was going for Iron Arm etc on his Priests? Perhaps enfeeble as well so the drop pod bolter marines could do significant harm to my army.. perhaps Bernard was thinking more in line with Dark Angels (6th ed codex proper - buffing and debuffing armies, also a la Tyranids) and the way they work now.

I can see some logic in that, but I am an army of I2 models..

God send in disguise I can tell you. Bernard did still have a damn decent amount of shooting and between his Sternguard (I love Sternguard in a Wolves army) and podding Marines/Hunters and the THunderfire lobbing shells into me.. I knew I was in for a rough ride.
He got to go first, perfect for him, tough for me to deploy - but that said, I knew if I could deploy right I would weather the hail in the first turn and have the right tools to deal with things in the later game.

SO with that in mind... I used a defensive deployment based around a terrain/piece/building (impassable) with my Wraiths upfront and then a layer of Warriors, followed by barges, with both Immortal groups in the very back corner of my board.
By doing this I negated the full effect of:
a) Rapid Fire combi plasma from Sternguard
b) Short Ranged melta from the Grey Hunter packs.
- I ensured that all 4 Barges had a 4+ cover from the buildings from all accessible angles.
- All Immortal units were outside of 12" and in cover from the Plasma units
- There were no Pod shaped holes in my deployment due to the judicious use of all 3, 5 man Warrior squads and both Immortals.

In this manner, Bernard could happily rapid fire Warriors if he got very close to the Wraith on the drop, or he could drop and get the Wraiths.
His other option, which of course negates the limited mobility of a drop pod, was to drop down further away and wait for the other pods to come in up close and provide a single killing blow.. Of course this would mean no killing on turn 1 and I would get first blood and still maul his 30 marines that were on the board.
So he doppped up close.

Bat Rep: Necrons Vs SW/SM - Double Jaws Priests!

Game 2 at Caledonian on Table 14 (I think lol) against Chris and his SM/SW combo. Chris made early game banter about his joining up with the English ETC Team and "hadn't I done the same?", "Killswitch taking the piss endlessly if Chris lost to me" well..... that didn't turn out so well for him. Whilst playfully establishing his own position in the gamer hierarchy, he was also just making conversation and I can confirm that Chris was also a top lad, took everything well, could see most things coming - even if it was a little too close to it happening.. but a solid player.

I guess that's what you get most of the time after a round 1 win.. other players on a win.. but you can never really tell if that player is any good or whether they just pulled out the luck of the draw with a good match up..

Opponent: Chris Green
Mission: Relic & Bore Draw combined
Deployment: Dawn of War

Chris's army was:
Wolves:
2 Jaws Rune Priests (the other powers weren't used)
4 Wolf Guard in a Pod with Combi Melta (yup...done that before!)
10 GH in a Pod with 2 Meltaguns, Power Axe, Wolf Standard
8 GH in a Pod with Meltaguns
10 GH on foot with Plasmaguns and Terminator Wolf Guard w. CML
2 x 5 Long Fangs - 4 ML
Aegis w. Quad Gun
Space Marine Allies

Libbie - Null Zone, Gate
Tac Squad - ML, plasmagun
Storm Talon - Skyhammer Missiles, TL AC
Vindicator - Siegeshield

I won the roll off for deployment and went first, dictacting where the battle would be fought as his mobility was limited realistically to drop pods. I wanted him in and away from my objective.

My objective was in the bottom right of my deployment zone, his in the centre-right (my centre-left) of his zone. Relic was in the centre between two ruins.

My plan was to leg it across the field, blasting with Tesla and Gauss as I went to gun down his realtively small army. There are not a great number of Marine bodies in the army.. 300 points are in the HQs, but in no more than 6 T4 3+ saves...and the flier is over costed for what it does. Given as well that the drop pods would not bring every marine onto the table for at least a turn, I can use my firepower to my advantage. The Vindicator is a scary prospect, of course, but it has to come a little forward and then I can Haywire the shit out of it.. realistically as long as it is 6-8" on from his table edge, I should be able to bring the Haywires on from reserve and kill the Vindi...

Caledonian Game 1: Invisi-Council of DOOOM!

So as I posted at the end of last week, Caledonian 1850, 5 game, 84 player 40k tournament was last weekend.
I came 9th and was playing for the tournament on top table in the last game.
This week I am going to throw up all my Battle Reports, which will be brief but informative and have well detailed photos for almost every turn, most certainly for key moments.
(This paragraph will be the same all week lol, so don't read it again tomorrow!)

Game 1: 
Opponent: Gaz Jones - Eldar w. Dark Eldar 
Deployment: Vanguard 
Mission: Scouring - the 5 objectives are the blue discs you can see above

Gaz Jones: 

Eldrad

Farseer - Jetbike, Fortune, Doom, Mind War, Eldritch Storm, Stones

Baron

Seer Council x 7 (enhance, embolden, 5 destructors)

5 Fire Dragons - Exarch, Crack Shot, Tank Hunter

5 Pathfinders

3 Guardian Jetbikes

3 Guardian Jetbikes

5 DE Warriors

3 War Walkers - 6 Missiles

3 War Walkers - 6 Missiles

Bastion - Quad Gun

He won the roll off due to the Baron's +1 ability and went first - he needed to get the Council Fortuned, Guide some War Walkers and try for First Blood. Which he got on an Annihilation Barge.

Eldrad redeployed the Eldar as shown from their original strung out position across the hypotenuse of the table to the huddle in the corner.
Whilst I was aware of the Eldrad redeploy shenanigans, it didn't effect me too much as I felt that this game had a certain "feel" to it. I wanted to keep my Wraiths back as in my planning they do not come into the 'anti-Council' plan until after the Baron is dead so they can't hit and run. However, with Eldrad keeping his powers and the secondary Farseer going for Invisibility I felt the Council would be far less aggressive. Gaz and I were open and frank about the ideas and the way the game was going to be played as we could both see a lot of the key points from the off.

Ignore my flier, it's just sat there out the way.. 

With the Council in a far more defensive role, primarily due to the attaching of Eldrad on foot as an anchor point, I viewed the Council as some sort of wushu bamboo tree - waving all over the place, bending, but never breaking. I'd need to stick to my original planning for the overall game, but largely ignore the Council through steady and calculated range manipulation - whilst the Council could cover a very good distance, they could not be everywhere at once if I pushed on multiple, disparate fronts.

The objectives were spread across the board, with a couple in great position for me, most notably behind the large blocking fantasy piece on the left. My Veil Immortals could sit here all game, denying enemy attempts to claim that or engage them, then teleport to a more valuable objective or contest one of Gaz's late in the game to swing the match up in my favour.



Turn 1: There is very little action on Turn 1 save for the Council getting Invisibility off, Fortune off, Guide off on both units of War Walkers - this leads to a dead Barge after a scout and move gives them a good position which denies my cover. My bad. Meh. Warming up lol.

My 1, I kill 3 Fire Dragons. Meh. Warming up lol. I also turbo boost my Overlord down to the fantasy house you can see in the top of the above left picture. This is an extremely long charge for the Council by the time they are in a position to see the target unit (me) - the Overlord is aiming to smash the Bastion next turn.

Caledonian Uprising 2013 Results

My 'Crons battling it out to see who wins the tourney!!

Morning guys.
This weekend was the Cally Uprising tournament, one of the largest and most hotly competed UK tournaments of the annual calendar.
This year the snow kept a few players away and the turn out was 84, but of those players, 11/16 of the top 16 Rankings players and basically every competitive UK tournament player.

The standard of player was immense. 

Skipping straight to the juicy stuff - I finished 9th.
Last year I finished 11th from 110.
So a slight increase in placing, but more importantly a significant increase over the course of the year in performance.

I like to think of myself as a good player who loses very infrequently. I can count on ONE HAND the number of tournament games I have lost in the LAST YEAR.

That is something I am proud of and I only lost once over the weekend too - in the final game to see if I won the whole freakin' tournament or um... not. 

"Not" it was I'm afraid to report. I played Josh Roberts in the final round and in case you are unaware, Josh is the current UK No1 Ranked player and has been there for a number of years - certainly as long as I've tracked these things - he is also the Captain of the UK ETC Team, the team that won the ETC last year (2012)... so he's OK at 40K... ;)

Finally a decent group shot!

I also played and want to wish a massive "Thanks dudes" to Gaz Jones (2nd in the UK Rankings and potential ETC player), Bernard Lee (Scottish ETC), Chris Green (also potentially part of England ETC) and Rob Sims (Ranked 11th UK and I think also part of the current ETC England Team) .. and of course - Josh Roberts ...on a side note, I learnt that Josh has a Special Rule of his own which reads:
"At the start of the game, before table edges have been chosen Josh Roberts may roll a D6. On a score of 2+, Josh scores 20-0 in tournament points irrespective of TPs at the end of the game"...
Luckily for me, Josh rolled a "1" and he only won 17-3.. If I'd have managed to close the gap to a draw, I'd have still finished second!! I thought I had a narrow win up to end of Turn 3, but it swung back to Josh and then some... read all about it later in the week!

Throughout the week, I'll be throwing up battle reports with loads of beautiful pictures, which I took this year, turn by turn for every game.. Needless to say, I am proud to have gotten to top table and to have gotten there by facing a high calibre of opponents, facing the arguably the highest available (not dissing you Alex, you weren't there bud!) to decide who actually won one of the most prestigious events in the UK. 

And yes, the pre-planning paid off for Game 1... :)

The Forum with results can be found here for some interesting reading.. 

Necrons Vs Seer Council Eldar w. Dark Eldar

The draw has been made for Caledonian Uprising 2013, this weekend in Mansfield, UK.
Its a 100 player (ish, not sure final number) tournament at 1850.
5 games over the 2 days.
Draws some very high calibre players.
Gaz Jones is one of them.

He is who I am playing in Game One.
Now, I do not know what the mission or deployment is, but I do know the army...I can hope regarding the deployment and mission..
I also don't know the player.
On Gaz, Killswitch/Alex knows him and he tells me he is a very, very good player.

I can find out from Rankings (not that I didn't know already as someone who has kept his eye on these things) that he is a top player and ranked 2nd in the UK at the minute and has been for a long time.

I can only hope that he is a top bloke as well (I'm sure he is) and we will have a good game.

So, he plays Eldar with Dark Eldar allies.

Let's look.
NOTE: To be honest, this process is more for me than it is for you guys as readers, but I hope its interesting anyway.. It's DEEP analysis..

Eldrad

Farseer - Jetbike, Fortune, Doom, Mind War, Eldritch Storm, Stones

Baron

Seer Council x 7 (enhance, embolden, 5 destructors)

5 Fire Dragons - Exarch, Crack Shot, Tank Hunter
5 Pathfinders
3 Guardian Jetbikes
3 Guardian Jetbikes
5 DE Warriors
3 War Walkers - 6 Missiles
3 War Walkers - 6 Missiles
Bastion - Quad Gun

Hmmmm... let's think about it..

Caledonian practice games at the club..with PICS! Whoot!

Well, it's only a week away now so it was clearly time to get some practice in.. To be honest I don't need the practice with the army, more its application against other forces. This will be my second Caledonian Uprising tournament, and in fact my second with Necrons.

that's right, Ven has actually played an army solidly for OVER a full calendar year! (Apart from winning a sixth ed tournament with space wolves, but we'll skip over that..as just 6 games in a year)

It's pretty crazy to think that a guy with mad levels of army-ADD has actually stayed focused.. But we can all see why, the army looks great on the tabletop and is uber-effective across a multitude of builds. Seriously, what more could you want?

Last night at the club I got in 3 games with my crons vs 3 separate opponents with three distinct armies.
I played demons, space marines and blood angels with SM allies.

Some shots.. No full bat reps, but some comments to accompany...


First shot shows the deep strike defence I have developed versus demons. In this case, due to terrain, I was able to use the centre of the board I as was going first and had some impassible terrain in front of me to act as a shield - generally, I will use a board edge and a short edge to shield my army, then use the multi wound, 3++ save of the 10 wraiths to shield the army. Versus mass flamer demons, I like to have all my forces on the board, bar the fliers, from the word go. I leave distinct distances in between my units so that the flamers can only spray wraiths and perhaps a warrior or two, this minimises the benefit of a dangerous, daring deep strike.. This either keeps my boys safe from having the drop on them, or it results in a couple of wraiths going down and then all the guns are on the table to shred the flamers.

I've been playing a considerable amount versus Demons and I feel like I am ready for them..



We then see some action of ba/sm, here I had to play a strategic game, playing close attention to the positioning of units in the current turn and in future turns and to coax the sm/ba to where I wanted them to be, thereby mitigating the impact of the 4 strong Hyperios missile launcher and the quad gun. I had no wish for my fliers to die. I used my speed to lure in Meph and the large assault termies, whilst engaging units on an individual level applying my whole force.





Vs the dual land raider, dual ass termies, lucious podding ironclad marines, I used wraiths to aggressively stall the land raiders, blocking exits and killed the other units piecemeal. The termies of course got out eventually and wrecked face, I had all four fliers in reserve for three turns, the final shot shows go the game went when I actually had a full army on the board... Fuck I love rolling sixes... ;)

Well, that's another week at the club done. I'll get some more games in vs Bringer of Death and his Demons on Monday, I may try and play with Space Marines to gain a more developed sense of strengths and weaknesses of the current popular builds.. there are a fair few of them at Cally.. But Crons are the big one.. some 19 out of 91 players are Necrons...including me.. good job I know them well.. 

Ven's Blog Wars 4 Bat Reps

*PICS TO BE UPDATED LATER*

This last weekend was Blog Wars 4. The 4th (unsurprisingly, its a bit Ronseal) such event ran by Alex from From the Fang. For those not in the know it is a one day, 1850, 3 game, standard mission tournament with a single stipulation - you must include a Special Character in your force, ideally from your Primary Detachment.

I have won the previous 3 and was gunning for a 4th title.
The mission packs, entrants and details can be found here.

I ran the following after I couldn't finish my Nids in time.. which I think would have fared equally well in my match ups. If not better.. But anyway, I ran my Necrons - tweaked for the scenario:

Obyron

10 Immortals - Gauss

10 Immortals - Gauss

5 Warriors - Night Scythe

5 Warriors - Night Scythe

5 Warriors - Night Scythe

5 Warriors - Night Scythe

6 Wraiths

6 Wraiths

Annihilation Barge

Annihilation Barge

Annihilation Barge

Lots of shooting, lots of highly mobile troops, Aircraft, wraiths for distraction/tie ups.. should be good...what did I face?

Game 1 - Necrons/Blood Angels by Andy BG from Iron Legion
Game 2 - Grey Knights by Matt Greenwood from From the Fang
Game 3 - Eldar/Dark Eldar by Frank Marsh from Generation 40k
"Unofficial" Game 4 - Eldar/Dark Eldar by Frank Marsh from Generation 40k

You can guess, I am sure, that due to the speed of Game 3, we were able to get in another game.. but who took a 50 min destruction-style spanking? Read on, reader, read on..

THIS IS WORDY! 10 MINS READING TIME PROBS! Worth it though o' course..

Blog Wars 4 . Bat Reps...

So it was full of Gusto I breezed in to my second Blog Wars with my tourney untested new marine creation, I was hopeful as in play testing the "tool kit" army seemed to be working well and had yet to be trounced (which is not the same as "not lost" :P )

Anyway this was the list I took. The inclusion of Chronus was due to the mission pack making special characters score or give away extra vps but you HAD to take one. Either way a scoring predator that could then cheekily throw the character from the wreckage to go and hide in a squad seemed a good bet. The fact he then gave me immune to stunned and shaken and bs5 was just icing on the cake:

Libby - Gate and Null Zone
10 Sternguard in a pod
Iron Clad with 2 hunter killers in pod

10 tacs with the holy trinity of melta in pod
10 tac with missile, plasma and assault cannon razorback
10 sniper scouts with Telion
Aegis with Las

Storm talon with cyclone
Vindicator
Thunder Fire
Dakka Pred with Chronus

Let's see how I got on then..

Stealing from Stelek...playtesting continued for Crons

Awesome thievery below!

I've got 2 days of gaming lined up today and tomorrow - Bringer of Death (Steve) is off for a few days and has some time, so we are going to really hammer some gaming over the next 2 days..

My CronFlier list is proving to be pretty god damn tough, so we are looking at Steve's GK and trying out some Mech ideas for that, in additon we are trying out a more lethal GK/Allies ripped more or less straight from the pages of YTTH.

Stelek is always good for dirty armies to try out.. and yesterday he threw up (and this morning UK time we see a polished version) a GK and SW list at 2K that I thought was really so very shooty and quite lethal.

So we are testing a traditional GK mech list for Steve with the express purpose of seeing how it handles the CronFlier build.
I am not sure how well it will go for the GKs - the Haywire Warriors using Invasion Beams and the volume of fire will be pretty nasty, on the other hand the GK have plenty of TL'ing action of sufficient strength to bring down the fliers whilst also smashing the Necron foot units and glancing the Barges.

It'll be a tough test for the GK and indeed for the CronFliers, but we all need to work on our skills and tweak our armies in the run up to the Southern UK40KGT Qualifier in October.

This evening, Kabalite will join us and we are going to see what we can get out of his latest DE list. The DE have been struggling against the CronFliers and I think we have seen sufficient evidence that this is a distinct weak spot for the DE. Time to move on to another element - mass mech. How do the DE handle it in 6th? That is the next stage in playtesting for DE.

So, a few lists then:

GK Semi Mech, no Allies:
Inquisitor - 2 Skulls
6 x 5 Strike Squads - Psycannon, TL-HB Razorback w. Psy Ammo
8 x Interceptors - Psycannon
Storm Raven - TLPC, Typhoon
3 x Psyfledreads

Then we have the GK/SW list that is poached from YTTH and scaled down to 1850.

Inquisitor - 2 Skulls
Rune Priest - LL, Jaws
6 x 5 Strike Squads - Psycannon, TL-HB Razorback w. Psy Ammo
5 x Grey Hunters - Rhino
SW  Dread w. 1 x TL Autocannon, Fist
SW Vindicator
3 x Gk Psyfledreads

Pretty scary I think. Plenty of shooting for gunning down everything from Guard equivalents to Terminator equivalents. Strong enough to smash down hull points from a well blended mix of range bands. Good scoring, excellent Psychic defense, S10 pie plate action for Deathstars.
Strikes advance on foot with Vindie, Rhino and 4 Razors, 2 Razors hang back empty and provide cover for GK Dreads. SW Dread advances with foot contingent, provides limited fire but also some speed bumping/tarpitting action vs select targets.

And to recap the CronFlier build that I am running:
2 x BargeLords (Overlord, Scythe, CCB - Tesla Cannon) - 1 with Mindshackle Scarabs (MSS)
2 x Royal Courts x 4 - 3 Haywire Crypteks, 1 Veil Cryptek
2 x 10 Immortals - Gauss, 1 with a Night Scythe
3 x 5 Warriors - Night Scythes
3 x Annihilation Barges

Simple Cron build, the Hawire Crypteks double up and join the Scythe bound Warrior squads, the Immortal Scythe stays empty and on the table in the most extremely defensive positions are the Immortals. Use premeasuring, terrain and line of sight to play a very defensive game for the first and second turn (where possible, we like to go second versus armies with fliers, first is much better against armies without)

We've not really explored GK in 6th, well..not too much anyway..it's time to really see what they can do this edition. Truth is though, so many GK players in the UK are bandwagoners at tournament level, so I fully expect to see a vastly diminished GK field at tournaments - we'll see, I'll get some data from the first Qualifier before the Southern Q.. I do expect to see more allied IG messes.. Anyway.. these GK lists float your boat? What are you finding is savage in the way of GK this edition? 

Necron Acan-AWESOME-thrites! lol FW hotness

Insecticons Attack!

New units from FW for the Necrons.
What I've been toying with is more shooting in my Crons..me and The Voice have been working on more shooting, less random charge length nonsense..
So what should Forgeworld drop on my doorstep this evening?

Sheer awesome Jump Infantry Melta units.
They have T5 - no insta-kill like Wraiths..
They have 3W, more than Wraiths..
They have Stealth! Cover save!
They have a 3+ save.. NOTE: Not 3++..
That'd be crazy.

They cost 45 points AND can be taken in units up to 9!

So.. ditch the Wraiths totally.. and load up on Acanthrites.

Forgot to mention the Voidblades! Haha..2A and Entropic Strike/PW hahaha.

How about this for shooty Necrons?

Overlord - Warscythe, Command Barge - Tesla
Court - 4 x Haywire Crypteks
4 x 5 man Warriors - Nightscythes
4 x Acanthrites
5 x Acanthrites
5 x Acanthrites
3 x Annihilation Barges

Lol. 1850 with 7 Tesla Annihilators, 14 Jump Meltas with Entropic Strike CC, 4 Haywire units, 4 Fliers, Command Barge..
LOL.
Forgeworld - I love your experimental rules! Crazy bastards..

Can you see how they fit in? Can play with that 12" RCL all day long.. toast Termies and Deathstars with ease. Remove vehicles so fast that the Tesla won't be able to kill the troops quick enough! 

Necron Bat Rep: Gauntlet Game 1 - Draigowing w. IG

This is a bit pic heavy, hope you guys appreciate it.. I found it an interesting activity. 


Mission: Scouring

Deployment: Vanguard

GK win roll of to choose half first, they choose the top right.
GK deploy Aegis Defense Line (ADL). Two layered, one in position to give cover to Blob and the other on the front line to give cover to Paladins to stop S8+ (none present in this list, but a damn good 'best practice' to get into).
Night Fight is in.
Draigo –Dust of a thousand worlds (useful)

Necron Over-War-Lord – minus 1 to enemy reserves (irrelevant)

Pal's up front going for mid table Turn1

GK win roll of to deploy first and go first. Both advantages at the early stage going to GK. 

GK Deployment – on the 12” – Draigo & Paladins going to scout via Grand Strategy. Solodin on the Quad Gun, holding home objective. Blob going to push first turn..but holding another objective.

NOTE: It turns out I don't have 60 Guardsmen, so the rest of them (20) are hiding invisibly in between their buddies in the same outline and shape. Irrelevant for this exercise as no real templates. 

Necrons deploy defensively trying to outrange the 48” guns.. awaiting flier support. This is a tricky process that I have been working on over the last 8-9 play test games. Especially tough with 48" range guns on the GK's - Psyfle's, Auto and Quad..

However, thanks to pre-measuring, this is quite safe to do.. ruins and other terrain on the table help to give decent saves, Night Fight being in on Turn 1 really helps. Ruins plus Shrouding equals pretty damn safe..

Paladins scout, Necrons have no interest in Seizing. 

WIP: New Necron Overlord - plastic Mumm-Galva-Cron

Ever notice how all bad guys have some sort of devil horns?
No?
No, me either.
But they should.
A nice simple, deep symbolic representation of their evil.
Take Galvatron - leader of the Decepticons from about 1985/6 when the 'new leaders' were introduced to Transformers.. He loved a horn.


Or Mumm Ra. Yes, you can tell my age from these classic 80's cartoon references.

In 'Ever Living' form, he also loved a bloody good horning.

Now, the current Necron range has this feature in plenty.

I love it, but after some time of hard tabletop action..my Fine(fail)cast Overlord has, again, lost his Warscythe to my ahem...careful...packaging of miniatures post game.

This is the final straw.. I need my miniatures to withstand a bloody good battering, mainly..at my hands when in transit. But also for when opponents handle mini's or casually batter them off the table with their fat asses! Jokes.

So I have built a replacement. He is a towering figure of a Necron, broad of shoulder and as tall as the pointiest Mega-Lith... plus, he is spiky! Whoot! My biggest issue was the representation of the warscythe. I based the mini off of the Lychguard kit and used the Staff from the Praetorian kit.. I've used up my warscythes on other mini's..mainly my converted Destroyer-Wraiths..

So this is the big dog. He truly does stand head and shoulders above a regular Necron Warrior. 

And, because I used a Destroyer body, he is broad indeed, almost terminator big. So I feel he is of an appropriate size.

The only thing I miss is the cool ass metallic cloak. Plus, I think I may model a Tachyon Arrow pistol as well to make him a bit more Glavatron-y.. the purple colour scheme will really help that too..He is simple, so I think I would like to embellish him a little, he will most certainly be getting a small single scarab modelled onto his base to represent Mindshackle Scarabs...gotta be wysiwyg! 


What do you think guys? Is he bad ass enough to lead the Necron Legions? Or should I just grab another fincast Overlord?! lol

Necrons: "The List" Updated 1850

A little while ago I threw up what I thought was THE list for 6th with 'Crons in the UK at 1850.
I stand by that list as a freakin' tough army.
However, we learn and we adapt - mainly through experience.
More games with it under the belt and more tweaks, slow and gradual.

As a starting point, this was the original list (don't worry, it has changed! your not reading the same post!):



Overlord - Warscythe, Command Barge - Tesla
 Overlord - Warscythe, Command Barge - Tesla 
 Royal Court x 4 - Harbingers of Haywire Goodness 
 Royal Court x 4 - Harbingers of Haywire Goodness 
 5 Warriors - Night Scythe 
 5 Warriors - Night Scythe
 5 Warriors - Night Scythe
 5 Warriors - Night Scythe
 5 x Wraiths 
 5 x Wraiths - 1 Whip Coil 
 Annihilation Barge - Dual Tesla 
 Annihilation Barge - Dual Tesla 
 Annihilation Barge - Dual Tesla 


It's tough and brings a lot of shooting. However, Wraiths and weak troops are the odd elements out here. Over playtesting I have changed several elements.

The first change was to drop out one unit of Wraiths, up the other to 6 strong.With the points freed from this I began to experiment with 2 elements:
1) Upgrading one unit of Scythe/Haywire Warriors to Veil Immortals (still with 1 Haywire Crytpek)
2) Upgrading one Annihilation Barge to a Doom Scythe

Why these changes?
The Doom Scythe is something that I'd wanted to try in 5th but it was simply too expensive for a skimmer. Now, as a flier, it has the chance to do more than deep strike, fire and die. It streaks on from reserve and it can truly reap havoc. It also provides the army with a nice easy way of dealing with Terminators and Nob Bikerz..easy vehicle killing too if I need it.. but to be honest, there is not a vehicle in the game that's not going to go down to the massed ranged Haywire.
It also keeps the Flier saturation nice and high, whilst not having too much off the board. That being said, the more I play, the more I find Turn's 1 & 2 very fraught when going second. Which, whenever I have the choice, I like to do with a flier army (only if the enemy also have fliers). So it is very important to have stuff that is survivable on the board from the start.

This was the thinking that brought back the Immortals in to the folds of the Necron army. I've not been playing without them for long at all, maybe just a dozen games, but I do feel the need to bring them back.
They increase the survivability of my troops and they also maintain, if not increase, the mobility of the scoring 'Crons.

So how does this look now then:

Glowing Airbrushed Necrons - WIP Army Showcase

Got the quintessentially Necron green glow nailed on the army. As I write this I can glance up and see the army on the table, the effect works so well - the glowing green a contrast to the purple.
The only units that have not received the 'glow' are the Warriors and Wraiths.
Warriors I am not sure whether to replace the glowing green plastic rods that they had originally were built with.. I was partially waiting to see how the rest of the army turned out, with the positive effect I think I have achieved with the rest of the force, I am strongly tempted to change them.
The Wraiths, well..I've just not gotten around to it yet!
Above you can see the whole force (most of it is more accurate!)

Let's take a closer look at the Scythes.. they look so good on the tabletop, I've even done one of them out as the Doom Scythe (which I am playtesting tonight)..

I am pretty pleased with these guys.. as to what's left - the 5th wing panel needs drybrushing back to gun metal colour, then the metal needs rusting and some highlighting. 

I like the look of the weaponry, I decided that these would be painted in "firing mode" - We'll compare to the Annihilation Barges in a second, but I wanted the highlights to have accelerated to the tips of the weapons and the Control Orb in the cockpit to be literally blazing at the activity in the ships systems, you know flying and firing..