This weekend I will be heading down to Cork to take part in Moofool - the celebration of the coming of age of a certain young member of WAC. I deliberated hard over what to take and submitted my list in the hope that certain items arrive via post in time to prep them. Initially I was going to give my Wolves a last runout for 5th ed, but seeing the numbers at Itzacon, I decided to help bump up the Necron numbers. In the previous post I gave my thoughts on HQ selections and as promised here are my thoughts/experiences on the other FOC choices and how it has influnced my army for Moofool.
I think skipping the Elites section of the Necron's at the moment is probably a wise choice. Yes the Writhing Worldscape Ctan can be ok, but it requires too many factors to work out. The Stalker too can be decent but easily tied up in close combat. Lychguard are more expensive than Wraiths and while they benefit from Reanimation Protocols, they require court and character support to make them decent - they are a poor deathstar when compared to other codex equivalents. That said, they can have a roll in some very specific armies. I have tried them out and they have performed admirably if not spectacularly. Deathmarks I have tried and found them lacking due to their limited range - you have one turn to kill whatever you want to and then you die. Since early January I have too a large degree run without any Elite choices but would consider one or 2 again in the future depending on how things change in 6th Ed.
It is amusing that initially one of the complaints about the Necron codex was the paucity of troops selections and their apparent weakness. I remember back in November, many people complaining that warriors were awful and not worth bringing. Immortals, back then, were not much better and complaints about the lack of FOC manipulation were rife. I think it is accepted now that much of the complaining was overboard and that indeed the Necron troop choices are solid. Yes, mostly the troops are seen in the MSU flavour of 5 x "warriors/immortals with attached Cryptek" but due to RP they can be quite difficult to shift. The few times my troops have encountered death and destruction has been due to poor play or bad matchup - looking at you Ymgral Stealers! Otherwise I have found and tried the following. Large Immortal squads: they are not necessary - instead of two 10 man units run 3 units of 7, 7 and 6. The choice between Tesla and Gauss is not so simple - I think Tesla wins out due to the ability to move and shoot but Gauss Immortals combined with a Veiltek can be nasty. Large Warrior squads: great with a Phaeron and res orb and even better with Zandrekh due to counter-tactics and Obyron. 20 Warriors counterattacking with Obyron and 2 Lords with Warscythes and Mind Schakle Scarabs is nasty but a huge points sink. Still in the ETC Cleanse Mission it can be quite fun shifting the balance of points like that!
Fast attack has often been described as the juicest of the FOC slots in the codex and nothing I have experienced has challenged that. Indeed with the choice of Wraiths, Scarabs, Destroyers and Tomb Blades there is too much to fit into 3 slots. So my experiences have led me to this point - I won't be taking Scarabs. While they are good versus Mech, the sheer number of counters and speed bumps that are finding there way into armies means that their efficiency has dropped. Against certain armies they can be great, but increasingly I have found they simply don't do what they should. I am talking here outside of the Scarab Farm idea where you are starting 2 large units and then building one up while holding the other back and then farming it when the first has gone off. Instead the idea of running 6-10 as a single FOC with a small Farm just isn't as effective as it first was due to the counters. I won't totally discount that some folks can get use of a 5 base unit but I am not convinced it is good enough to warrant a whole FOC slot to itself.
This is due to me liking Tomb Blades. 30pts for a T5 model with a S6 small blast is not something I can easily ignore. Having a 36" range with RP and the ability to turbo-boost, contest objectives or tie up non-dedicated CC units (i.e long fangs) makes them IMHO just too versatile to overlook. Yes, good opponents spread out so as to minimize the number of hits a blast marker can do but often the opportunity arises during the course of a game to land numerous hits on a unit that often is wounding on 2+. I don't think I will change many folks minds but I am enjoying their functionality a lot.
I haven't tried Destroyers yet so I can't comment but I think competition in this FOC slot is too fierce to see them as anything but Heavy Destroyers for some extra AT firepower. This leads me onto the my last choice. In the last post I mentioned that at Warpcon I felt that I often needed an extra units of these - Wraiths. To some degree they have stolen the thunder of Scarabs and have fast become the favourite choice of many Necron players. In my experience they have proven to be simply brilliant. In only 1 game at Warpcon did they fail me and that was my mistake. Otherwise they outperformed themselves. I know that certain internet pundits have called them useless but honestly I don't agree. The ability to tie-up units, kill non-dedicated assault units and move about quickly has led to me include that second unit. Natually they have their weaknesses - this being massed firepower and S8. The former can be mitigated to some extent by wound allocation and having 2 wounds, the latter by a 3++ save. Yet in my experiences so far the single biggest factor protecting them has been nightfighting. The fact that in many cases they only suffer 1 turn of shooting before assaulting means that often they arrive at full strength.
The last FOC, heavy support, is for me decided by what has been taken in the other FOC slots. Running Night Scythes, then Annihilation Barges fit. Running Scarabs then Tomb Spyders fit. I know an argument can be made for a monolith but I have yet to test it out so have no experience with it to give an opinion. I have in the past run 2 Annihilations Barges and a unit of Tomb Spyders but recently I have found that since my swarm has been dying so quickly my Spyders are often left with nothing to do except trying to make CC. I would take another Annihilation Barge over the 2 I already have but I don't have the model and won't be buying one until I know how Tesla will fare under 6th ed. So therefore I am, unwisely, not maxing out my Heavy Slots. Also I have such a love/hate relatiosnhip with Tesla as I just don't find it reliable enough in doing anything except supressing AV11. That is a problem for me especially due to the number of GK, BA and Guard players one can potentially meet. This problem is exacerbated on the Annihilation Barge due to its speed preventing it from getting into range until T2 often and hardly ever in the flanks. This issue though is for a different post, perhaps.
So there are my thoughts and here is the army that I am bringing to Moofool:
Bargelord w/MSS, 2+/3++, Scythe
Bargelord w/Scythe
2 Pulseteks
1 Veiltek
1 Stormtek w/Lighting Field
2 Tremorteks w/Harps
2 x 7 Tesla Immortals
2 x 5 Warriors
2 x 5 Wraiths w/2 Coils, 1 Pistol
5 Tomb Blades w/Beams
2 Annihilation Barges
I will hopefully get in a few more games with this army before I go and then post up some thoughts on how it functioned and batreps when I get back. Looking forward to the weekend and showing the upstart young races the glory of biotransference.
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