Has it really been 3 months? Just over 9 months to Christmas again? Crazy how time flies. Anyway this post isn't to reminisce about the past Christmas but rather to present how my thoughts on Necrons have developed over that period.
These are my thoughts and experiences and how I developed my army building. I looked back recently at a thread that was raging about how Matt Ward had failed all Xenos players by releasing an awful awful codex. The Necrons, the thread alleged, had been "Nid'ed". They had little Anti-Tank, their troops were awful and everything was overpriced/underpowered. The only decent things in the codex were scarabs and Overlords. I know a certain "8th Warrior" would have always said that Scarabs rocked but that is digressing.
In that thread I posted that in my initial opinion the Necrons were as good as Dark Eldar, who were prior to Grey Knights, a very good codex. My post was lost in amongst the angst and gnashing of teeth but I held to my view despite having not playtested them. A month later and my plastic toys arrived, were built and I started getting some small 1000pt games in with them. Quickly it became apparent that a number of the initial thoughts I had about them were correct. The Overlords on Barges were brilliant, The ability of a warrior to stand back up could not be underestimated. Wraiths were excellent and Scarabs were every bit as good versus slow moving/stationary mech as the internet had proclaimed. Spyders too were good value and their close combat ability could not be underestimated. It also quickly became apparent to me that one of the best pieces of wargear was the Veil of Darkness. The ability to redeploy units quickly and even to come on via deepstrike from reserve was too good to pass up.
With these experiences in mind I started building up the force for Warpcon at the end of January. I had decided that at this stage I needed more wraiths but the rumours were pointing at that stage to a release in February, so I wasn't going to commit to buying any until had seen what the new platic models looked like. So it was I built the list with what I had and what I though would do "well enough". I knew going in that if I came up against any type of Horde List (Guard, Orks, Nids) the army was going to struggle as it didn't have the numbers. I felt reasonably comfortable versus GK, Guard and Wolves.
So it was I took the following:
2 x Overlords on Command Barges w/Mind Shackle Scarabs, 2+ Save
2 Crypteks with Solar Pulses
1 Cryptek with Eldritch Lance
2 Crypteks with Veil of Darkness
1 Lord with Res Orb, MSS and Warscythe
10 Gauss Immortals
10 Tesla Immortals
5 Warriors
6 Wraiths with 2 Whip Coils and 1 Particle Caster
6 Scarab Bases
2 Annihilation Barges
3 Tomb Spyders with 1 Gloom Prism
I then promptly played 3 Foot Horde armies at Warpcon - Guard, Wolves and Tyranids. Those turned out Loss, Win, Loss. I honestly did not expect to win against the Wolves but got lucky against an opponent that hadn't faced off against Necrons before. My other 2 games were against hybrid necrons and Wolves and both of those turned into wins. So my army had gone 2-1-2, something I was quite happy with.
What I took from the tournament was this - Wraiths are good and I needed more. This would be the recurring theme of the weekend where I consistently found myself short of CC ability. Overlords on Barges (Bargelords) were also very good with MSS and the 2+ save often helping in CC, while I only played 2 armies where I could realistically sweep attack and in both games was key to stopping the enemy forces. Court Lords are overpriced and not good enough - my one cost me 90pts and did little all weekend. Squads of 10 immortals, particularly Gauss, are too big and that 3 medium sized squads would have been better. Veilteks are good but 2 is probably unneccessary as the board is quite crowded and savvy players spread out to assist one in suffering a mishap. Scarabs are good but they die easily to fearless saves and cannot be depended upon to kill fast moving vehicles - also they die in droves to any sort of unit that can put out a decent number of attacks or cause instant death. The 3 Spyders were good overall and I considered them a worthwhile investment. Finally the Annihilation Barges were far too random for me, often not even surpressing a rhino so I seriously considered dropping them.
Since then 2 months has passed and I have played more test games. Over this time some changes were made and then reversed. I tried the Lance Courts (4 Lances w/Chronotek) and found them to be slightly worse Long Fangs. That and focussing all the AT in 1 unit often meant my opponent targeted that unit until it fell over, which when talking about GK/DE didn't take too much. Yes, with Everliving it meant they could stand back up and get one reroll but it simply provided a single target to be eliminated. I would consider this unit again, if I ran a Ghost Ark, but I don't own one and don't intend, currently, to buy one. I also tried the 2 lanceteks in MSU warrior squads but found that to endanger my scoring units that I didn't want to present as targets. Once again I can see the value, when combined with Night Scythe's but then I am still not convinced that Tesla is that great.
So how do my courts look like now? I am still taking 2 Pulseteks, although I think every army that can is now taking multiple searchlights but they don't have to be used Turns 1 and 2. I am still taking 1 Veiltek to give me the ability to reposition quickly. The most significant changes are the fact that I have replaced the Lord, Lancetek and Veiltek with 2 Tremorteks with Harps and a StormTek with Lightning Field. This has increased my flexibility with regards to Anti-Tank as I now have 2 more ranged shots that can either dissuade turbo-boosting or attempt to reduce armour on certain vehicles that might otherwise present a problem. Also the Stormtek has 4 haywire shots (at S5) potentially allowing me to stop an important vehicle from shooting/moving etc. The Lightning Field was because I points left over and the ability to inflict wounds on a unit at S8 when charged is handy if not that great. Points can easily go into another Whip Coil on a Wraith but will leave it as is for the moment.
What abouts HQ Choices? I passed over Anrakyr due to an answer I had received from the GW FAQ team saying that the January FAQ about firepoints was applicable to Open-Topped vehicles. That said fully expecting them to update the FAQ, I have left him out of all my lists. Yet it appears that the ETC will be allowing him to do his shenanigans from inside a Command Barge, so I will look at him again. I have, otherwise, tested out different loadouts on my Bargelords. Simply put, I have found that one tooled up Lord with 2+/3++ save, MSS and scythe is amazing at holding up and killing over time a good number of units. I also now run one bare Bargelord with just a Warscythe. That way I have something that is disposable against chaff and use him to draw out the Melta Guns etc.
Let me post this up - thoughts about Troops, Fast Attack and Heavy Support at another time. Also why I dislike Tesla... but also endure it will come later.
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