Return Of The Star Gods

Which To Choose:Immortals or Warriors?

noreply@blogger.com (Warflake) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:22:00 +0000

This has been a topic of debate with myself really and I can imagine with most of the rest of you.

On the surface I immediately went straight to Immortals being that they had a better save....Then I thought how cheap the Warriors are, I can take say 30 of them for a mere 390 points. That is pretty impressive. That is not to say you will take 30 but I would for that cheap haha. The thing that makes them more tempting is they have Gauss which you can auto glance on a 6, if you bring 30, very tasty. And I think if this is coupled with a couple of big units of Scarabs, obviously one of the stars of the Codex, I think those shots could get scary. Very scary. This is just one case for them. There is also the case for bringing a Ghost Ark. What has surprised me is the lack of use this seems to get in peoples lists. Especially when they are running Warrior units. It's open topped so can be fired from, AV13 protection and if you disembark or if you have a unit nearby on a roll of a 2+ you get D3 Warriors back from the dead. That could be objective sitting to the max while keeping those lovely Gauss shots. That being said I also think they benefit from large squads. I think the thing I find most funny is how people have been putting up lists with small 5 man Warrior squads, that will not last long. I won't go any further with these but I will say I like the look of having a couple of big units of these guys and maybe one unit of....

Immortals, coming in at 17pts per model with a 3+ save and with a Gauss Blaster rather than the Warriors Flayer with a point increase in Strength and AP bringing it to S5 AP4. Or and this is the part I like, exchange those to Tesla Carbines with that lovely ability of a roll of a 6 for two hits. The AP - hurts it but I think this is fair due to it could get rather nasty. Overall I think these would do nicely for thinning out infantry. A unit of 10 with these could be nasty. You don't need to go Tank Hunting with these as you more than likely have a bunch of Scarabs munching to give the rest of your armies weaponry good chance of destroying everything. I think a unit of 10 Tesla Carbines coming in at 170 is a good deal. If you want to make them your main troops I think Night Scythes (when they are eventually released) will be brilliant. I would recommend possibly having one 10 man unit with a few 5 man units dependant on points level if these are your main troops.

Personally I like the idea of mixing them but it seems alot of 'net lists' have made the Immortals the only logical choice. I think a good idea would be to have two big groups of Warriors backed up by small groups of Immortals with Tesla say for example you have 20 warriors back them up with two 5 man Immortal Squads.comes in at 430 points. This is just for an example and I'm not saying that's what you should run exactly but you get the idea. I personally think that the Ghost Arks maybe getting sold short a little especially if your running a predominate foot list. I think they are a viable choice seen as they make your warriors even more survivable.

I don't think I have to say anything about the Night Scythe seen as most people think that's the only choice haha.

This is just my thoughts, please leave your thoughts on what you think are the best configurations for Troops are.

I shall leave you with a list I find to be the best I've written so far.

HQ
-----
Overlord - Warscythe - Command Barge - 180 pts

3x Crypteks - 105 pts
- HoD
- HoD
- HoD w/ Pulse

Troops
----------

10x Immortals - 170 pts
15x Warriors - 195 pts
15x Warriors - 195 pts

Fast Attack
----------------
10x Scarabs - 150 pts
10x Scarabs - 150 pts

Heavy Support
---------------------
Annihilation Barge - 90 pts
Annihilation Barge - 90 pts
3x Spyders - 150 pts

Thanks,

Warflake Out.

Yet Another 1500 Point Necron List ...

noreply@blogger.com (Warflake) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:59:00 +0000

Although I am enjoying writing lists with this Codex I feel rather limited because of the little I know of how they will work out so with out play testing or at least extensive research into other peoples playtesting I can't comment yet.

I do have a basic idea of what I'll need and that's to stay away from assault ;p.

Of all the lists I've been playing around with for this points level I think I like this one best as it has alot of guns that can hurt. Whether I'm right on that point remains to be seen but from what I gather I'm fairly confident this would do well. I'm not sure what it is though but I feel myself limited when writing 1500 point lists with these guys, it could possibly be that the things they do have are fairly expensive points wise. I think though that I have done a good job.

HQ

Overlord w/ Warscythe - 100

Command Barge - 80

Royal Court
Cryptek Harbringer of Destruction - Solar Pulse - 55
Cryptek Harbringer of Destruction - 35

Troops

Immortals x 10 - 170

Warriors x 9 -232 Ghost Ark

Immortals x 9 - 153

Fast Attack

3 x Heavy Destroyers - 185

9 x Scarabs - 135

Heavy Support

Annihilation Barge - 90

Annihilation Barge - 90

Doom Scythe - 175

I thought that I lacked ranged AT weaponry which is why I implemented the Doom Scythes and Heavy Destroyers. I really do like the look of the Doom Scythe and really look forward to playing with it, the Death Ray sounds silly but it also sounds fun. Tesla is one of my favourite things in the Codex so lots of that makes me very happy. The only other thing I may do with a list is trying to fit in a Monolith, sadly this may have to replace the Doom Scythe =[ unless you have advice on what I could do to fit it in?

If you have written lists I really want to see them so either post a link to where you have written them or just write them out in the comment section. It's not that I need inspiration I'm just really enjoying everyones different take on it.

Your opinions would be greatly appreciated.

1500 Point Necrons:Now With AT

noreply@blogger.com (Warflake) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:30:00 +0000

Following on from yesterday I put together another list that I think is a little more effective than the last.

HQ

Overlord w/ Warscythe - 100

Command Barge - 80

Royal Court
Cryptek Harbringer of Destruction - Solar Pulse - 55
Cryptek Harbringer of Destruction x 2 - 70

Troops

Immortals x 10 - 170

Immortals x 10 - 170

Warriors x 10 -130

Warriors x 10 - 130

Fast Attack

3 x Heavy Destroy - 180

Canoptek Scarabs x 6 - 90

Heavy Support

Doomsday Ark - 175

Canoptek Spyder x 3 - 150

1500

More Anti Tank, which a few people rightly pointed out on my last list, has been added.

Let me know what you think of this one in the comments section.

One thing I shall address also is people getting confused over the Crypteks abilities. Yes I can take more than one of the same Harbringer, in this case of Destruction, it states that I cannot repeat unique wargear options from that type. As I have shown in my list I have three Harbringers of Destruction but only one has Solar Pulse, this is an example of what it means. Before people start telling others there wrong on various blogs please read the rules haha.

Thanks,

Warflake Out

I Have Written My First List

noreply@blogger.com (Warflake) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 20:08:00 +0000

I just wanted to bring to your attention a list that I just written over on my other blog.

http://www.40kn00b.com/2011/11/initial-1500-point-necron-list.html

Please visit it and give me your thoughts either there or on here. This list is'nt anything special that I can tell as I wrote it after not having the book for very long and wrote it purely out of first glances, please by all means judge it as so haha.

Thanks,

Warflake Out.

I Have The Necron Codex

noreply@blogger.com (Warflake) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 18:09:00 +0000

And I really like it personally, to me it's not overpowered and not weak at all. I will review it properly once I get over the initial excitement of looking at the pretty pictures but I'll say some things I like about it from I have looked at so far.

Some things have been nerfed but in a way to reduce points costs, that is a good thing in my opinion. Thirteen point Warriors? Yes please.

The amount of special characters, even though I will more than likely not use them alot of the time and will more than likely opt for the cheaper Overlord option the choice is awesome. Also the amount of work they have in the backstory for them is awesome. This army has alot and I mean ALOT more character now which I think was needed.

The Night/Doom Scythes look like they shall be interesting and look forward to seeing the model for those. Furthermore the new look Wraiths look very interesting and I hope will be having a new model. On the subject of models I think it's a great idea of packaging the sets as two options like Deathmarks and Immortals etc and I really do like the new look of the models they have released.

The division in factions is also very cool, I had seen this in the White Dwarf but is further explained in this which in turn, as said previously, gives the army more character.

The weapons aren't what everyone was crying CHEESE over either, I think the weapons are good but I see alot of anti infantry and not a great deal of anti-tank but that maybe me just flicking through out of excitement. I would have liked for example hyperphase swords to be a bit more than power swords but maybe that's just me.

The C'tan Shard thing is interesting, they are fairly cheap points wise but not once you add upgrades and being that it's only one unit is going to get you far but I still may run one or two because I'd like to see how they do.

I think Quantum Shielding on the vehicles is pretty cool, increasing the armour values by 2 until a penetrating hit is caused.

One thing that ever since I saw the models I have been thinking, the big gun platforms. For example the Doomsday Ark, I just love the look of them and there stats definitely tempt me towards them.

This has been said many times I can imagine but one thing that disappoints me is the Flayed Ones, both there models and there stats personally. I don't think I shall be fitting them in any force soon.

I do like the Praetorians and the Lychguard and will more than likely use them, even at there Terminator costs. More than likely the Lychguard with Hypephase Swords and Dispersion Shields at a total cost of 225 for 5 models seems a little hefty though but I like them.

I am relatively new to Necrons so I don't know a great deal about there last Codex but I have had a quick look through and in my opinion they have done a good job in bringing them into 5th (and possibly into 6th? Remains to be seen).

This post is just me being like over excited and just blurting things out without actually reading much so take it as that please haha.

I shall try and pay more attention to it now I'm at home and have more time to focus on it I promise.

All I'll say is I am really happy I bought this Codex.

Thanks,

Warflake Out.

Not Long Now...

noreply@blogger.com (Warflake) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 20:59:00 +0000

Till I get my hands on that Codex!

Much has been said about them the past couple of days from a number of blogs but I have tried my best to ignore them until I pick up my copy.

Watched a couple of unboxing videos earlier also of the Ghost/Doomsday Ark and also the Command/Annihilation Barge and once again GW have out done themselves seemingly.

Whether I shall be purchasing either remains to be seen but stay tuned nonetheless.

Thanks,

Warflake Out

Necron Sample Armies

noreply@blogger.com (Warflake) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 23:07:00 +0000

Pulled from Games Workshops What's New Today.

Making a 1,000 Necron army is very quick and easy. A couple of boxes of Necron Warriors make the core of the army, while the Immortals provide some heavier firepower. The Lychguard and the Overlord provide your army with some much-needed close combat crunch, while the Doomsday Ark is just plain terrifying. With this force you have weapons to deal with pretty much every situation.

At 1500 points you can field quite a terrifying number of Necrons. In this force I opted for more guns and less combat with the intention of pureeing my enemies with heavy firepower before they even got near me. The combination of Deathmarks, Immortals and Necron Warriors will make a real mess of enemy troops, while the Monoliths and the Annihilation Barges can deal with tanks and heavy infantry.

Thanks,

Warflake Out

Necrons White Dwarf

noreply@blogger.com (Warflake) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 12:46:00 +0000

So I actually made the effort of picking up this months White Dwarf just to get to see the points costs from the Battle Report and maybe see some info. What I got was a lot more than that. For Necrons this was a fantastic issue, I haven't bought a White Dwarf in over 8 years and I must say I don't remember it ever being like that, but that is beside the point.

First things first the battle report, the points costs from what I saw seem reasonable and they showcased most of the units being that it was 4000 points per side. I think the most interesting thing was that Necrons actually didn't win, I would have thought they would have made it so they do but it was actually a good battle report and both teams had a good chance. Both sides weren't optimised from what I could tell and were more geared towards gimmicks. Showcased some of the Necrons new abilities and they seem pretty cool and all I can say is I can't wait to get my codex to be able to read this in better detail.

One of the specialist HQs were used, Imotekh the Stormlord with his ability to spread a D6 S8 lightning storm over separate squads on a roll of a 6. Interesting ability that limits your ranged attacks due to it creating night fighting but can be stopped at any time. Another one of the units showcased was the Doomsday Ark, the one with the big gun haha. It has a stationary range of 72'' S9 AP1 Heavy 1, Large Blast and a Combat Range of 24'' S7 AP4 Heavy 1 etc pretty decent One thing I have noticed is the the weak armour, this is conteracted by the Quantum Shielding ability which increases the front and side panels by 2 until a penetrating hit is scored.
Necron Warriors are 13 points now, marine stat line etc. Immortals are troops now, so we have a heavy weapon for the troops as promised. It is fairly clear that Necrons are an extremely shooty army and have good skills to do so but they also some extremely scary close combat elements if used right.

I would highly recommend this months WD if you really can't wait to get your codex and just want a small glimpse of the changes. Overall from what I can tell it doesn't seem OP, the only thing people can complain about from what I can see is the massive fluff changes.

Thanks,

Warflake Out.

Necrons - with Mat Ward

noreply@blogger.com (Warflake) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 17:35:00 +0000

Necrons Pre-Orders Now Up

noreply@blogger.com (Warflake) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 01:48:00 +0000

Finally presented with the Pre-Orders from GW. Head over to gamesworkshop.com and go crazy haha.

Sorting my Pre-Orders out as soon as I awaken once more.

One thing I will also add is check out the new 360 photos they are doing now. There awesome.

Thanks.

Warflake Out.

GW Necron Teaser

noreply@blogger.com (Warflake) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:17:00 +0000

As if we needed it ;] but GW have released this video.

I shall be pre ordering the codex as soon as I can and as soon as I can get it I shall post about it.

Words can't describe how excited I am about this release.

Thanks.

Warflake Out.

Possible New Necron Codex Page

noreply@blogger.com (Warflake) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 20:46:00 +0000

So I'm not sure if this has already been seen or anything but I thought I'd throw this out there as I just watched it and thought this maybe a new thing.

Still a rumour, just counting down the days now!

EDIT I've just found out that this was 'leaked' back in May so more than likely not true. Though could be interesting to see how far off it is when the real one drops in 2 weeks.

Thanks.

Warflake Out.

Tech Obelisk From Secret Weapon MIniatures

noreply@blogger.com (Warflake) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 20:34:00 +0000

So I saw this today and thought it would make a great piece for a Necron display board.

According to there blog they also think the same thing and it couldn't have come at a smarter time haha.

http://blog.secretweaponminiatures.com/2011/10/tech-obelisk-now-available.html

Check it out.

Thanks

Warflake Out.

Rumoured Army Wide Special Rules + New Necron Fluff

noreply@blogger.com (Warflake) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 20:40:00 +0000

Rumoured wide army wide special Rules.

via Yakface
NECRON ARMY-WIDE SPECIAL RULES
• We'll Be Back from the previous codex has been replaced by Reanimation Protocols (sorry I keep accidentally calling it Resurrection Protocols in some of these teasers). It now works at the end of each phase, but only on a 5+. You now remove models and place a token or marker next to the unit to remind you how many rolls to make (although you could just use the downed models as markers, but the important thing is you know that these markers don't affect gameplay at all). The rules are very clear about when/how models that return to play via RP are placed and if the entire unit is wiped out then the unit is gone and now RP rolls can be taken. Similarly, if the only model left in the unit is a character (such as a joined IC or a Cryptek/Lord) then these models alone are not sufficient to allow the other models to attempt their RP rolls. Nearly every non-vehicle unit in the game benefits from RP (as opposed to the old WBB, which only worked for 'Necrons'), except for the C'Tan shards.

Reanimation Protocols returns the model to play with a single wound unless they have a Phylactery in which case they come back (the first time they get back up) with D3 wounds.

• Ever-Living. This is basically just an additional Reanimation Protocol rule that characters have to describe how they're placed back on the table. Only characters (including basic Lords & Crypteks) have this rule, no squads do. The only real thing to note about it is that if the model wasn't joined to a unit when it went down, then if it returns to play it must be placed within 3" of the spot it fell. So characters are the only models it really matters where their 'marker' is placed when they are removed. So in some situations, such as an enemy unit killing a character with Ever-Living in CC and then consolidating on top of his marker, it would be entirely possible to prevent him from returning to play (as they can't if you are unable to place them within 3" of the spot they went down).

• Entropic Strike. This is mainly a Scarab rule, but it also applies to a few close combat weapons in the army as well. Basically if a model suffers an unsaved wound from an Entropic weapon then it has it armor save immediately changed to '-'. Obviously this would only apply to multi-wound models as any other type of model would be dead if it suffered an unsaved wound (ignoring the argument about whether a wound stopped by 'Feel No Pain' still counts as an unsaved Wound or not). Against vehicles, for each hit by this weapon type means at the end of the phase you roll a D6 and on a 4+ the vehicle's armor value is reduced by '1' on all facings. If a vehicle is reduced to '0' on any facing then it becomes wrecked immediately.

• Living-Metal. Not just for the Monolith anymore! Many vehicles in the codex have this and it basically allows the vehicle to ignore a Shaken result on a 2+ and a Stunned result on a 4+. These rolls are made immediately when the vehicle is damaged so this is nowhere near as good as the Grey Knights ability to remove Shaken/Stunned results.

• Phase out is gone (good riddance, I say ).

• There doesn't appear to be any Force Org shifting around in this codex at all unlike most other recent codexes (so taking any special character doesn't allow you to take a unit in a different section of the Force Org chart at all).

NECRON ARMY-WIDE WEAPON NOTES
• Gauss Weaponry does NOT have rending. It retains the 'auto-glance' on a penetration roll of a '6' rule, but has otherwise has lost the 'auto-wound' on a roll of a '6' regardless of Toughness that it used to have. The Gauss Cannon is now apparently Assault 2 & AP3 (I'm assuming the Strength is still 6).

• Telsa Weapons. With these weapons for every '6' rolled to hit the 'target suffers 2 additional automatic hits'. Whether or not that means the target suffers 2 or 3 hits in this case is a bit ambiguous, but I think the word 'additional' means that its actually 3 (one for the original hit for rolling the '6' to hit and then another additional two for a grand total of 3). The big daddy version of this weapon found on a lot of the heavier vehicles is the Tesla Destructor (and is almost always twin-linked to really maximize the chance to get those extra '6's to hit). All Tesla weapons are 24" and AP '-', but the Destructor is S7, Assault 4 and 'Arc' (which means you roll a D6 each unit, friendly and enemy, within 6" of your target and on a '6' they are struck with D6 S5 AP- hits as well). While the AP '-' keeps this weapon from being a premiere light vehicle killer, I think with all the potential S7 shots this can theoretically kick out, it still going to be pretty good at zapping vehicles.

The weapons go in order from lightest to heaviest as: Tesla Carbine -> Cannon -> Destructor.

• Particle Weapons. These are basically the blast weapons of the Necron army (with the exception of the pistol variant) with no special rules. They all have a pretty high Strength and a mid-range AP.

The weapons go in order from lightest to heaviest as: Particle Caster (pistol) -> Beamer -> Shredder -> Whip.

• There aren't any weapons that ignore invulnerable saves in the codex either...however there are quite a few little special abilities scattered about that simply remove models from play if they fail a certain kind of test, which does effectively ignore invulnerable saves (and any other kind of save too).

New Necron Fluff

Via Yakface

NOTES ON NEW NECRON FLUFF

There is a dramatic change in the fluff in this codex from the previous incarnation of the Necrons. The Necrontyr's empire was massive at one point, but the different Lords in the empire started to turn against each other in civil war. To prevent this from happening the overall ruler of the Necrons (the Silent King) started the war against the Old Ones specifically to give them a common enemy to fight against to prevent his empire from destroying itself. Of course, the Old Ones ended up kicking their butts and in desperation, the Silent King found the C'Tan and agreed to the Deceiver's pact without realizing what he was doing. However, after the Necrons helped the C'Tan to kill off the last Old Ones, the Silent King then ordered the Necrons to turn on the C'Tan in vengeance and utterly destroyed the C'Tan into tiny shards. This war agains the C'Tan weakened the Necrons overall so much they decided to go into stasis to avoid the vengeance of the Eldar (the C'Tan had killed the Old Ones, but not all their children).

Now that the Necrons have reawakened in the 41st millennium, their goal is no longer to 'harvest' souls for the C'Tan (the C'Tan shards are now their slaves) as it was in the old book, but rather to reestablish the great Necron empire that spanned the galaxy before the war with the Old Ones began. However, the overall hierarchy of the Necron people is gone for the most part, leaving each individual Empire to once again rule for itself. This means each Tomb World (or cluster of Necron worlds) is essentially a separate little empire to itself, with a full backstory and idiosyncrasies. While Necron warriors are pretty much just automatons and Immortals not too much better, every other higher Necron being is now much more like an actual person, as their essence is simply trapped inside a metal body.

So there is lots of crazy nuance to Necron culture that was never present before. The codex now has plenty of 'quote' boxes featuring memorable quotes from Necron Lords like other races have in their books. There are some Necron Lords who honor valor in battle, there are a few Necron Lords who trade with other races, and although an uneasy alliance apparently, yes Necrons and Blood Angels did end up fighting against a Tyranid Hive Fleet together. Oh, and there is definitely plenty of reason to have Necron vs. Necron action now (as the old feuds between competing Necron Lords flare back up again).

All in all, it is a major tonal shift. While part of me recoils from it, the other part of me thinks that Necrons as they were had no distinct 'character' that each player could choose to get behind. Yes, the race as a whole had 'character' in how it was organized and functioned, but there was never any really good reason that a player should have his Necron force painted and modeled 'X' way as opposed to another player with his Necron army looking 'Y' way. People certainly painted their Necrons in different (neat) ways, but there was never really any good fluff giving players inspiration to do so.

The only real 'personality' in the old book was the Deceiver, and that frankly wasn't the Necrons, it was their god. The mindless mission that all Necrons were on was basically really similar to Tyranids...the Necrons were coming to harvest every living thing in the galaxy (yawn).

This new incarnation, love it or hate it, gives the Necrons a whole wide array of personality and every single empire has different goals and motives (not to mention paint schemes, markings, etc). Some Necron Lords are obsessed with finding the perfect flesh bodies to transfer their sentience back into. One Necron Tomb World was damaged during the great sleep and erased all the Necron sentience and has started basically commanding its Necrons like true robots (and is actively attacking other Necron worlds to take them over and keep growing), and there are of course dozens more little stories. The Silent King, who put himself into exile (for his unforgivable crime against his people) by leaving the galaxy after defeating the C'Tan encountered the Tyranids in the void between galaxies and has returned to spur the Necrons into action against the Tyranids (realizing that if the Tyranids wipe the galaxy clean of biological matter, then the Necrons will never find a form to transfer their minds back into).

Oh, and the biggest rival of the Necrons is now actually the Altaoic (sp?) Craftworld. Apparently they are the only Eldar who stayed true on the original path to seek out and destroy Necron Tomb Worlds while the rest of the Eldar got all caught up and destroyed in their decadence and then the Fall. Altaoic rangers have traveled the galaxy far and wide over the millennia (ever since the Necrons went to sleep) to track down and destroy or hamper Tomb Worlds from reawakening.

So with this new direction there is now tons of different possibilities for players to make Necrons forces different from each other and there are neat new takes on 'nemesis' races like Eldar & Tyranids to drive gaming plots as well as good reason for Necron on Necron battles.

And as for totally destroying the background of the C'Tan, the codex does allude to the fact that there are lots of unaccounted for C'Tan shards still allegedly cast around the galaxy. The Necron are always trying to hunt them down and imprison them (in pocket dimension prisons), but this does still leave the door totally wide open for a shard of 'The Dragon' to be on Mars and for shards of 'The Deceiver' to have done all the crazy things that's been written about him in novels. Essentially, the full power C'Tan were massively, massively powerful, and the 'shard' versions of them are closer to the idea of what we had in the last codex anyway (something that can be killed/banished on a battlefield).

So while it is a little shocking to have such a massive fluff change hit, I do think it is probably the right way forward to create a more fully realized faction. But I do think it is probably going to be a massive turn-off to those players who absolutely adored the old fluff for the army.

----

Regarding the previous fluff saying that Necrons went into hibernation due to a massive 'Enslavers' invasion, in the new fluff they only really briefly mention that the wars unleashed some nasty things from the Warp, but they literally do not mention the Enslavers anymore. It is very clear that the Eldar empire is the main reason they go into hibernation, having some sort of premonition that the Eldar can and will eventually crumble as all living beings and empires do.

It was a fairly solid plan, except a lot can go wrong when you're sleeping for 60 million years, and apparently billions of Necrons have been killed by simple, normal shifts in the galaxy in that time (stars going supernova, tectonics crushing tombs, etc)...but what they didn't predict was how poorly they'd all awake from the sleep. All Necrons were supposed to wake up at once, but that didn't happen. Some Necrons woke up during all periods of history (including the Horus Heresy) and many still haven't woken up. And in some cases those that wake up have suffered terrible afflictions (like the Flayer disease).

Since there are any number of strange and undocumented Tomb Worlds now, there is totally space for you to come up with whatever backstory and motivations you want for your personal Tomb World, much like every other codex allows players. Of course, there are also dozens of tiny little story snippets (as there are in every new codex) that give you plenty of inspiration to create and play armies as well. For example, say you really like the whole 'automaton' feeling the army had in the old codex. Well, in the codex they have a story telling of one Tomb World that during hibernation accidentally erased all the sentience from the sleeping Necrons and decided to 'take them over' and has since decided this is the way forward for the Necron race and is actively attacking other Necron Tomb Worlds to collect more bodies for the cause. Basically the only sentient brain in that whole army is the Tomb World itself (it even has given itself a name). So you could definitely use this backstory as 'your' Necron force and stick with more of a simple, robotic feel to your army.

----

Bits of the fluff talk about other races & systems paying 'tribute' to the Necrons...here's my speculation based on what I read:

Necrons have always felt like they got the short end of the stick. When they were Necrontyr, they had a crappy planet and that drove them to invent technology and get the hell off their planet...but they still wanted to prove they were the best so they set about trying to creat the greatest galactic empire. And they did...but then as always happens, their empire started to creak and moan, so the war against the Old Ones started with naturally the belief that the Necrontyr would destroy the Old Ones and emerge even greater than before, the true heirs to the galaxy. And in fact they hated the Old Ones if for no other reason than because they had the secret for immortality (what the Necrontyr wanted more than anything) but wouldn't share it. And once the war started, naturally the Necrontyr couldn't beat the Old Ones despite their superior technology, as the Old Ones had access to the Webway which meant they could escape anytime they needed.

So eventually the Old Ones (and the races they created) were kicking the crap out of the Necrontyr. And so in the frustration of again getting the short end of the stick, they made the pact wit the Deceiver and sold their souls for immortality and power. But again, they felt shafted because they had essentially been tricked into doing this. So after the C'Tan had killed the Old Ones, they again wanted to take their rightful place as rules of the galaxy but they knew that would never happen as long as they were slaves to the C'Tan, so they turned on them as this is the only way they'd ever be free.

But of course that battle against the C'Tan did tremendous damage to them and thus they decided to use their immortality to 'outlast' the Eldar empire (which they did).

So now that they're back awake (mostly), although they've lost their main command structure as a people that sort of drove them forward towards any single goal, I think their goal is still to do what they always wanted...to rule the galaxy, to be the supreme beings. And this isn't exactly the same as humans, who basically want to eradicate all Xenos and populate all the planets themselves. Necrons more than anything (I think) want to be in control. They want to be worshipped by others. They finally want to get their due as being the rulers. So while they most certainly plan to destroy any force that gets in their way, I also get the distinct feeling from the new fluff that (with at least some of the Lords) they are perfectly okay with leaving existing planets/systems under alien control, as long as those people pay them tribute. Even though I have a hard time imagining what tribute the Necrons would really need (being robots and all), I don't think that's the point. The point is that the other races are paying them fealty and recognizing the mastery of the Necrons, which is precisely what they've always wanted.

As said before please take with a pinch until we get the codex.

Thanks.

Warflake Out.

Latest Named Character + Cryptek Pic

noreply@blogger.com (Warflake) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:02:00 +0000

Rumoured Cryptek Picture

Rumoured next named character

Via Yakface

Okay, today's fun-time update is the next named character that most everyone seems interested in (and I will post this info into the master summary back on page 1 as well):

Nemesor Zahndrekh & his loyal bodyguard Vargard Obryon

This is the Lord whose mind was damaged during hibernation and he still thinks he's fighting the wars of secession against his fellow Necrontyr (not even realizing he is a Necron now).

Therefore, he still practices honor and valor towards his enemies and tries to capture opposing generals instead of kill them. He would also never use Deathmarks, Wraiths, etc, as these are not honorable (assassins). Of course, they also say his subordinates have no such compunctions, so it explains how you can still have these units in an army with him.

Even though most of his subordinates would like to see him removed because he's obviously crazy, he is still a military genius and he still has a bunch of loyal followers as well, including his long-standing bodyguard Obyron, who takes care to clean up whatever messes Zahndrekh's delusions get them into (like he always arranges for enemy prisoners to be executed while 'trying to escape' for example).

Zahndrekh has the gear to give himself a 2+/3+ save (which generic Overlords can do as well if they take the same gear). He also has a Rez Orb, Particle Caster (pistol) and Void Blade (Rending & Entropic).

His special rules are all based around his tactical acumen and they allow him at the start of each Necron turn to pick a friendly unit and give them a special rule: Counter-Attack, Furious Charge, Hit and Run, Acute Senses, Stealth or Tank Hunters (which they get until the start of their next turn).

He ALSO gets to pick one enemy unit on the table within his line of sight to lose ALL of those special rules listed above until the start of the next Necron turn.

When he is on the battlefield, any number of Necron units in reserve waiting to Deep Strike may choose to enter play immediately after any enemy unit arrives from Reserves. In other words, basically the same ability the Deathmarks have.

Vargard Obyron does not take up a HQ slot if in the same army as Zahndrekh. He has an uncharacteristic WS6 (as well as a 2+ save) along with a Warscythe.

He also has the Ghostwalk Mantle, which is a Veild of Darkness that can be used to pull his unit out of close combat (leaving the enemy to consolidate immediately), and if he choose to arrive within 6" of Zahndrekh, he does not scatter. Furthermore, if Zahndrekh's unit is ever assaulted and Obyron is not part of that combat, then he immediately teleports into the combat, leaving whatever unit he is in, even if he is already fighting combat or embarked in a vehicle.

Finally, he has a special rule that means he keeps track of any misses enemies roll against him in CC (not counting those that are successfully re-rolled). Each 'miss' that occurs before he swings in combat gives him a bonus extra attack that round of combat, up to a maximum of 6.

These guys are not cheap (although at least individually still not as expensive as the Stormlord), but they've certainly got some interesting potential.

Please take with a pinch of salt as they are still rumours.

Thanks

Warflake Out.

Rumoured New Necron Codex Art

noreply@blogger.com (Warflake) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 20:00:00 +0000

So this is the apparent new Necron codex art that's been floating around....

If true then cool but if not then it's some excellent art none the less.

Extremely different.....

Let me know what you think.

Warflake Out.

Introduction:New Owner

noreply@blogger.com (Warflake) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 18:22:00 +0000

I would like to introduce myself as I took over this blog a couple of days ago now and thought it best.

So Fritz was the previous owner but due to him having commitments to Fritz 40k and this blog being dormant for some time now he thought it best to pass it on to someone.

As I am going to be a Necron force fairly soon I thought it would be a good opportunity for me.

I do run another blog and will continue to post there but this will be exclusively for my Necrons.

I will say I am not a tactical mind and being fairly new to the game will not be posting many tactica any time soon but I will be showcasing my work and any battles and lists and such I have.

I'd like to end this by saying thank you to Fritz for this opportunity and I hope everyone who is following this blog enjoys what I post.

Thanks.

Warflake Out.

40K Narrative Campaign: Necrons

noreply@blogger.com (Fritz) — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 16:19:00 +0000

Hi Fritz,

Your response is very timely indeed - the campaign kicks-off tomorrow!

Quick details: 3,000 point roster with just 1 HQ, at least 2 troop choices and then anything else goes. The master game map has approx. 20 hexes, territories are evenly divided between 2 teams (4-6 players per team), each team will place generals on different team-owned territories. If a hex your team controls is attacked and does not have a general on it, you do not get to use your general. If your general is on an adjacent hex, you can bring it in from reserves if desired. 500-1500 points per battle (bonuses based on territory values and walk-in players). Complete rules are in the attached document.

Important note: If a unit is wiped-out in one game they are not availabe the following game. ie. if I lose my Monolith or Tomb Spyder, it will not be available again for 2 weeks.

Standard game will be Anniilate: Pitched Battle, with an Apocolypse finale in 6 weeks.

My opponents are from nearly every codex! The 2 gents with space marines love teleporting Terminators into back lines, or button them up in a land raider and charge them forward. There will be Nids, Dark Eldar, a green tide of Orcs and the IG player has more armor than I've ever seen on one table!

The Necrons I have on hand are:

1 C'tan Nightbringer
1 C'tan Deceiver
2 Destroyer Lords
4 Necron Lords (various builds)
12 Immortals
22 Flayed Ones
10 Pariahs
84 Warriors
15 Destroyers
9 Wraiths
32 Swarms
9 Heavy Destroyers
9 Tomb Spyders
4 Monoliths

90% are painted and ready to go. I can pick up more Immortals, Flayed Ones or Pariahs as needed.
So far my army roster is shaping up to look like:
HQ (either Nightbringer, Deceiver or Destroyer Lord - your *.pdf build)
10 Immortals
5 to 8 Pariahs (to neutralize deepstriking Terminators)
50 Warriors
15 Destoryers
0-8 Swarms (Tar pit or Destroyer Lord escort)
3 Heavy Destroyers
1 Monolith
1 Tomb Spyder
I have all of your *.pdf's concerning Necrons and I've read everything you've put on your site concerning them. I look forward to your HQ and army composition suggestions!

Thanks again for the timely reply!!

Sincerely,

Brian B

Reply Out:

Interesting. Well, I see two ways to game this, speaking from my own experience in playing two campaigns with the Battle For Salvation club. You need to dominate both on and off the table with two goals- making sure you have a good amount of points to show up with to the apocalypse game, while shutting down the points of the other players. Let’s talk about that first and then move onto the 500 point Necron list…

Play for each mission should go like this- play to win the mission, but at some point if it becomes clear that you can’t win the mission, then you switch over to keeping your units alive so you have them next week. This is going to be a fine line that you have to be ready for. If you can’t win, not from a defeatist point of view, but from a practical point of view, then start pulling back and running away, keeping stuff alive. Lose the game, but still be up for next week- don’t lose the game and lose your key models for next week.

The second layer is while you are trying to win each mission you are going to be looking to take out key units that your opponent might need for next week’s battle. Look at the map, where they can be next week and who they may face, ask yourself what units they have to make the win for next week, and try to take out those units.

It is not only going to be about winning the day, and 99% of the players will be approaching it from this POV, it is about setting things up for next week, and the week after, so you arrive at that apoc game sitting pretty.

Team up time. Team up as much as you can to attack single territories is also going to be key. You’ll need to game and sell this point of view. Say you and a space marine player are looking at the same territory. Tell them a team up would work flawlessly. Your Necrons which are great at holding objectives thanks to the WBB rolls and long range mass shots of the destroyers are perfect in support of a space marine assault force. Think of how unstoppable it would be- I’ll (Necrons) will hold the objectives and blast away, while you (space marines) clean up in the assault. Sounds like a win/win right? It is for you- win the territory, but let the Space Marine player take the key losses, hurting them for next week. Of course you will have to take some losses for yourself, but game this.

You’ll have to be both a tactician on the table, and a general commanding the campaign. Play it only from the table top POV and you’ll flounder.

Ok, onto the list…

500 point Necrons there is only one build- two warrior groups and a lord. The only choice is the wargear on the lord. I’d go with a destroyer body and a warscythe. 500 points on the spot. At the 500 point level you might be too weak to win that first mission, so then it is about killing key units, and your own surviving.

Generally I would look to play it this way. Once group of warriors on your side of the table, say to hold an objective. The second group just ahead with the lord joined so he can’t be picked out. Second group advances to center to shoot, etc. and then as your opponent react, you pull back to the first group, with the first laying down 24” shots. If needed the lord can then break off to take out smaller units, or turbo boost away to contest an objective later in the game.

As you build out from there I would then start adding destroyers as my next choice- a group of them, and join the lord to them. Keep adding destroyers and a third warrior group, followed by the monolith and finally the C’Tan. I of course am going to recommend the list used in my .PDF as it has the best flexibility vs. the most armies.

-Fritz

Campaign Rules Below:

These are the official rules for the Warhammer 40k campaign, set to kick off on October 6th. PLEASE do not post here unless you are adding the additional rules, or if you have anything else of extreme significance to add.

Overview

Players will be broken into two teams and will be competing for control over the region known as Murder Valley. For the first six weeks of the campaign, players will vie for control of a meta map alla Dark Crusade; territories will be attacked and defended and the results of these encounters will be determined by a standard game of Warhammer 40k. To determine the final results of the campaign, players will all participate in a massive Apocalypse battle at the end of the first six weeks. What players can take to the Apocalypse battle and how many and what type of assets they receive will depend on how well they did on the campaign map.

During the course of the campaign, players will be encouraged to submit battle reports and track the successes or losses of their team. At the end of the campaign, all of these reports as well as any other fluff submitted by the players will be compiled into a massive narrative and posted for all players to access. The goal of the campaign is to provide a means of setting up regular games between 40k players, and to produce a fun and original narrative that ties their armies together.

Getting Started

Before the campaign can begin, players will need to produce an Army Roster which they will use throughout the course of the campaign. The army roster must consist of the following;

- One and ONLY one HQ (the player’s General)
- At least TWO Troops choices, to be used in standard games.
- Any other combination of Troops, Elites, Fast Attack or Heavy Support options to a total of 3000 points (including the player’s General).

Note: It is OK to take multiples of a unit in your roster. The roster only represents what you have access to for the duration of the campaign. It will still be necessary to display all of your units on the field at the same time if you wish to take them (this is so players that might not own 3000 points of models can still participate in the campaign).

Once submitted the roster may not be changed throughout the course of the campaign and units must be taken as they appear on their army’s roster. This includes war gear options and unit composition, for both the player’s regular unit choices and his or her General.

The only exception to this will be Dedicated Transports, which players may choose not to bring with a selected unit. Note still however that dedicated transports may never be taken without the unit they were bought with, and they still follow the rules for all the other units on the roster (including the inability to change war gear).

In addition to their army roster, players will also need to provide basic information about their army, such as their General’s name, which company/platoon/cadre he or she commands, and possible explanations for why he or she is fighting for his team. Because players will not necessarily know which teams they’ll be fighting for until the campaign begins, it will be alright to come up with this stuff as it goes on.

On the first day of the campaign, all of the players that are present will be divided into two teams, and each team will be given a handful of starting territories on the campaign map. The two teams will roll off, and the winners will get to decide which team will make its first move. Afterwards, the campaign will carry out as normal until the six weeks are done, as described below.

Playing the Campaign

Each team will be given a handful of starting territories on the game map, and the position of each player will be represented by placing his or her General in one of their team’s territories (the starting position of each General will be determined randomly).

Combat every week will play out similar to a round of combat in Magic the Gathering. The team whose turn it is to attack that week will start by declaring which territories they will attempt to try and control. Players may attempt to attack any territory that is adjacent to a territory that already belongs to their team (including kitty-corner). Multiple players may also choose to attack the same territory, where they will fight as a team to conquer the opposing force.

Once decided, the defending team will have a chance to assign defenders to oppose the attacking team. Defending players may defend any territory that is being attacked by the attacking team, including territories that they do not control. Like the attackers, they may also assign multiple players to defend a single territory. If the defending team fails to assign defenders to a territory that is being attacked, then control of that territory is automatically given over to the attacking team, and any players that were attacking that territory may choose to participate in any other battle of their choosing (the defenders may not react to this). Once all of the attackers and defenders have been assigned, the players will break up and play their round of 40k.

If the attacking player(s) win, control of that territory is given over to their team. If they lose, control of the territory remains unchanged. After all the battles are done, the campaign will end for that night and the results of each battle will be recorded. Next week the teams will trade roles as attackers and defenders, and will alternate attacking and defending until the campaign is done.

Fighting a Battle

Before players can fight a battle, they will first have to determine which units will fight. The rules for picking units for a fight are as follows;

- Players must follow the Force Organization Chart outlined in their codex as normal. The only exception is the inclusion of a player’s General, which will be explained later.
- Players may bring up to the number of points listed on the territory being fought over. If two players are fighting on a team, the points available to them are shared.
- There is a bonus 500 points for each additional player that a team brings to a battle. For example, if two players team up to attack a 1500 point territory, they may take up to 2000 points of units from their roster.

Note: Because players may not change the composition of the units in their roster, it might not always be possible to completely fill all of the points available to them. This may also occur if a player doesn’t have a lot of available units in his roster when he picks his army.

To keep progress simple, players will fight a standard format throughout the campaign. This format will be the Annihilate scenario played using the Pitched deployment format. When the game ends (determined by rolling a die), the team who has scored the highest number of kill points wins. If the game would end in a draw, then the players may extend the game until one side gains a kill point over the other after a full game turn, or until one side concedes the match.

Losing Units

If at any point during the campaign a unit is completely destroyed in battle, that unit becomes unavailable for selection for the next week in the campaign. For instance, if a player pulls a unit of Terminators from his roster and those Terminators are completely destroyed in battle, then he may not take those Terminators again for the next week.

This includes vehicles that were taken as Dedicated Transports, and any units that were taken to serve as a retinue for their army’s General.

The exception to this rule is that a player may always take any units from his rosters that are labeled as a Troops choice, although if their dedicated transport is destroyed then they may not take it for their squad the next week.

The General

The General is a special character whose presence is supposed to have an impact wherever he goes. To magnify this there will be restrictions as to when your General may actually participate in a battle. The rules for fielding your General in battle will be as follows;

- If a player is attacking, he or she may field his General if he is standing in a territory adjacent to the one being attacked on the campaign map.
- If a player is defending, he or she may only field his General if he is standing in the territory being attacked. If a territory is being defended adjacent to the territory the General is standing in, he may be fielded but must enter the battle from reserves.

- A General may never be fielded if he was slain in the week prior (however, this does not change how he moves around on the campaign map).

Players may not voluntarily move their Generals on the campaign map unless their team is currently attacking. If a player declares an attack on a territory and wins his battle, then his General is placed on the territory that he just conquered. If the player loses, then he must place his General in a friendly territory adjacent to the territory he was attempting to attack. If a territory is given to an attacking player by default (for instance if there were no defenders assigned to it), then the player may choose to leave his General in that territory, or may attempt to move his General into a territory being attacked by another member of his team (following the rules as if his General were standing adjacent to the territory being attacked).

Defending players may never move their General Voluntarily, and if their General was standing in a territory that was lost to the other team, the owning player must move the General to a friendly territory adjacent to the one that was lost. If the owning player isn’t present at the time the territory is lost, then his team may place the General for him.

Ending the Campaign

The campaign will last for six weeks, or until each team has had three chances to attack or defend territories. Afterwards, planning will begin for an Apocalypse game available to anyone that’s interested in playing. The most effort will be given into accommodating the schedules of the people who had the most participation during the campaign. However, once the date is set, ANYONE who wishes to participate may do so.

There will be NO awards of any kind handed out at the end of the campaign. The purpose of the whole thing is to have fun and to write up a good narrative (although we could probably hand out comical titles to people who had some rather memorable incidents occur during battles). Players will be encouraged to write up their own version of what happened at the Battle for Murder Valley. Props to including anything fluffy; memo’s, Captain’s logs, personal journals, or anything that helps flesh out the atmosphere of your army.

All of this stuff will be compiled into a general battle report of the entire campaign, with access to each of the individual players’ write ups.

Necrons + Comp = Fail!

noreply@blogger.com (Fritz) — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 08:30:00 +0000

Hello Fritz, I've been a reader and follower of your tactics for my Necrons for a good while now, and although the 1750 Deceiver list in your necron pdf works really well, unfortunately in the Australian tournament scene it seems to be shot down very quickly in comp, being viewed as too tough and powerful, the C'tan and monolith are the two big offenders here. In an effort to soften up the really overpowered Necron (!) list, I tried to write two lists that still incorporate the phalanx, while maintaining the scarab threat. I just wanted to see what you think of these two builds, and if you have any suggestions on improving them. Keep in mind that I am trying hard to not spam anything in particular.

List 1: Lord + rez orb + gaze of flame + solar pulse
8 immortals
8 pariahs
2x 10 warriors
2x 4 destroyers
9 scarabs
3 heavy destroyers
1750

The aim of this list is to have a strong gun line, the lord jumps with the HD's for a little wound allocation, while the warriors will stay in reserve for late contest/reinforcement, the scarabs are there to threaten and scare the back line, slowing down the advance if necessary.

List 2: Lord + rez orb + gaze of flame + solar pulse
Lord + gaze of flame + veil of darkness
9 immortals
8 pariahs
2x 10 warriors
2x 4 destroyers
8 scarabs
1746

Same kind of thinking, except that now there is nothing to get rid of big nid warrior squads in cover, however it does open up a good gap for an expensive lord and his immortals to mishap, i mean deep strike into enemy back line, giving some strategic edge.

What do you think?

Reply out.

Funny, “comp” on an army that is old, over costed, and underpowered compared to the newer codexes, and comp hammer comes down on the two best units (and possibly most needed) in the codex. Ok, whining over, let’s build a stealth Necron list to pass under the comp score. I’ve had to do something similar with my Saim-Hann more than once since seer councils got you whacked in comp, yet TT/SS termies, mepheston, etc. are all game. Huh?

We want to put something down on the table that will make your opponent giggle like a school girl with glee since they are going to roll over your army like nothing, and then your army rolls up and punches them in the face. Can ‘crons do this? I see another list variant coming up…

Here is an aggressive Necron list that I sometimes use- you need to be bold an in your face with it.

HQ: Necron Lord W/ Destroyer Body + Phylactery + Solar Pulse + Warscythe
HQ: Necron Lord W/ Destroyer Body + Phylactery + Warscythe
Elite: 8 Immortals
Troops: 2 X 10 Warriors
Fast: 2 X 4 Destroyers
Heavy 2 X 3 Heavy Destroyers

You deploy as a core in the center of the table and just shoot away. Lords stay attached to a unit so they are hidden and can’t be picked out. Solar pulse in DOW for a round of shooting, or join one of the destroyer of heavy destroyer groups and pulse with them to keep them up a bit longer.

After your opponent has deployed- and you want to take first turn if you can, you move and shift over to the weaker side of the table shooting and blasting. Now best pracitve 40K says you shoot a unit till its dead. So for example, let’s say a tac squad in a rhino- heavy destroyers blast the rhino and then the destroyers and immortals blast the marines till they are dead. Rinse, repeat, and move to the next. Not so with this list. You want to blast away at a unit till it gets down to a bite sized chunk for the lords. Take that tac squad down to five or so guys, and then assault them with the lord. Phylactery is on there to make them super annoying, especially if you roll like a champ. Nothing more aggravating to your opponent then your lord getting back up with full wounds. For bigger squads or embedded units like those ‘nid warriors, shoot them a turn, and then assault with both your lords. Lords, destroyers, etc. that are fast moving contest objective, etc. as usual.

-Fritz

Necrons FTW!

noreply@blogger.com (Fritz) — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 13:49:00 +0000

Thanks for responding so quickly. I just played two games over the weekend one against blood angels the other against dark eldar. I nearly tabled the Blood angels player thanks to your tips and list in the PDF! Definitely the best $10 I've spent on warhammer 40k. I don't care what anyone says about necrons you can win with them and with a little practice they are an amazing force to field. My second match I tied, but I think I won on victory points we had to pack up quick.

Anyway I know that personal recommendations or suggestions don't come as part of the deal with the pdf but.... any tips on scaling up or down the pdf list? I normally run 10 destroyers in a 2k list and with that many points I also like to try and get the synergy of the fear list going with pariahs to drop my opponent to ld 7, plus they are quite good at killing enemy anvil units even with their mediocre initiative. As for scaling the list down I ended up having to cut the deceiver but I think In my match against the dark eldar player the deceiver would have served me better than the destroyer lord and all his goodies. The monolith was literally indestructible so there is no way I would drop it.

In the pdf you talk alot about castling up to one corner or side, but what if your playing dawn of war? Then your forced to spread out your entire army.... I've had problems with every dawn of war game I have ever played because of being too spread out, What can I do?

I totally understand if you are unable to respond to my many many questions, but I really wanted to thank you again for the fantastic pdf and providing so much tactical advice for free on your blog.

Zach

Reply Out:

Zach, awesome job and a great start- the star gods are pleased! Sounds like you are getting the flow of the .PDF down and from there you can start adapting the ideas to your own style. Scaling the list down…

I’ve written it at 1750 since that seems to be the lowest standard here in the states, with more games moving to 2K or 2.5K points (!) you just add more destroyers and/or scarabs. Gives you a bit more shots, and the scarabs soak up that much more. Pretty easy. Scaling it down to 1500 is a bit hard since the list was written to work around all the problems that Necrons currently have. The best to try and preserve the tactics is to drop the Deceiver and put in a tomb spyder to speed bump- and start pooping out scarabs with the lone tomb spyder. By far not the best, but it will buy you a turn when your opponent tries to crash your core…

Let’s get you pumped for dawn of war since that is the best mission for the list! Pick the side you want to castle up on, based on terrain, objectives, etc. and put your monolith in reserve to deepstrike, and everything else except the lord to walk in on turn one. When you go, pop off solar pulse, everything moves on to the side you want- castle up, and then go to work with the destroyers for a free round of shooting. At this point all your robots should be a block on one corner of the table. When the monolith arrives, you drop it at the top of the block for the capstone. DS will get it there faster then moving only 6” since it is so slow. Hope that helps!

-Fritz

Necron Nightmare Build

noreply@blogger.com (Fritz) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 15:58:00 +0000

You wouldn’t always know it from looking across the sea of gaming tables full of Space Wolves, Blood Angels, and Imperial Guard but there are actually other armies in the 40K universe. If you are a xeno player, what is one supposed to do while waiting for a new codex? Well, consider exploring some variant army builds to breathe some new life into your army.

So this is a build that I used to use extensively in 4th edition and now adapted for 5th edition play- the nightmare build. Making extensive use of flayed ones, pariahs, and tomb spyders backed by the golden one it is all about synergy and fun. I don’t think I have to point out that this is a fun/themed list to give you some variety in your Necron games, and not a “competitive” list. The goal of this army is to scare your opponent and make them run away crying like little children. Nothing is funnier than seeing Space Marines consistently run away turn after turn.

Pariahs’ are the lost child of the Necron codex. ‘Cron players so want to do something with their souless ability but struggle based on the over the top point cost, 0-1 limitation, and the fact that they aren’t Necrons. This theme builds on them and gives you a reason to put them down on the table. So here is the list at 1750 points…

HQ: C’Tan Deceiver
HQ: Lord W/ Solar Pulse, Nightmare Shroud, War, Gaze Of Flame, Scythe
Elites: 10 Pariahs
Elites: 10 Flayed Ones X2
Troops: 10 Warriors X 2
Heavy: Tomb Spyders X 3
Deployment…

Regardless of the mission the army needs to stick together and work as a core unit- think of a Roman legion formation marching and fighting as one giant block. Tomb spyders are in the front with a second rank of flayed ones, pariahs, and the C’Tan. Behind them is the lord and your two warrior groups.

If you are familiar with Necrons right away you are asking yourself what is in the list to pop all those spamy razorbacks that are going to be coming your way.

Nothing! But hear me out…

In the best of cases you have ranks of destroyers and maybe even a heavy destroyer group mixed in. With this build we just don’t have the points for them, and to take a single group of min destroyers isn’t going to do anything so we just aren’t going to bother trying to stop the opponent from crashing out ranks- but remember the idea of sticking together.

You want to deploy where you can enter and be in terrain. In the front ranks the spyders will begin pooping out scarabs swarms that get into cover and now you have a T6 unit with a 3+ cover save. Position them so a “net” is cast around the rest of your units granting them a 4+ cover save.

At the start of the game your warriors and pariahs move to the front to get the 24” range of shooting so maybe you can get lucky at immobilizing a vehicle. With shooting for the first few turns you can even go to ground for the 3+ cover save- keeping units alive is important for now. Keeping the P’s up is key so be ready to attach the lord and pop off solar pulse to cut down on a round of shooting if needed.

As those legions of razorbacks come forward they will hit your wall of tomb spyders with two options. Crash through and tank shock or stop just before and rapid fire. If they crash through you are fearless or LD 10 and if they get out and rapid fire you take it with the T6 or WBB rolls. If they move up to then assault next turn through your ranks, then you assault the transports first and swarm for the emergency disembark. Hold the line and take the crash.

Now when those marines get out for whatever reason they are in the pariah bubble- LD 7 as you hit them with the C’Tan powers, visage of the flayed ones, and the shroud of the lord. Mob those units and pile in the assault. Once you are in the assault, you are then protected from shooting so you want to encourage that as soon as possible…

Wraith wing, destroyer wing, and the nightmare build can all give you some new fun and different games while we wait for that new ‘dex, especially if you are playing the battle mission books and variant missions.

Necron Wraith Wing

noreply@blogger.com (Fritz) — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 14:57:00 +0000

A few posts back I talked about running a destroyer wing themed Necron army so this week let's turn to running a wraith themed army...

While we are talking about “wing” based Necron armies another variant is the wraith wing which still packs some punch but is a bit harder to use on the table given a lower model count and the vulnerability of the wraiths themselves.

A wraith wing list is built around a core of fast moving wraiths backed by Necron destroyer lords and heavy destroyers. Here is the list and how it plays out:

2 Necron Destroyer Lords W/ Warscythes
3 X 10 Warriors
3 X 3 Wraiths
2 X 3 Heavy Destroyers
1 x 2 Tomb Spyders

The main issue of the list is that wraiths occupy the same slot as destroyers and this list needs to crack open transports so the wraiths can get at the guys inside- this leaves single shot heavy destroyers for the task, at least you can get those heavy destroyers on the table. While they aren’t bad per se, the problem is that you only get a single shot, and the models come in units of only three.

The two lords each get attached to a wraith unit for some added punch and to take a few wounds on the way in if needed. Wargear is up to you, but solar pulse on one is 100% mandatory- not so much for night fight this time, but more so to protect you from shots on the way in.

Warriors are there for “scoring” and three are taken over the standard two for variants lists like this since there is no counter assault or speedbump unit. Let’s now look at deployment:

Standard Wraith Wing Deployment…

Ok, let’s start with the back of the table and work our way up. Warriors are spread out on the table- one on the left, once center, and one on the right. Being spread out means your opponent has to divide their forces up to get to your warriors. The tomb spyders go in-between each group and poop out a single swarm for wounds and then get into cover. This way when one warrior group falls to shooting, etc. the spyder is the bridge to WBB those warriors over to another group. Be prepared to shift warriors on the flanks and the spyders over if your opponent looks to hit the center warrior group.

Ahead of them are the heavy destroyers. They start in the center of the table so they have range to everything and operate as a “pack” so you can get WBB rolls when a unit goes down. Their job is to crack open the tanks for the wraiths to assault. The final layer is the wraiths who also start front and center and then flank the weak side. They too also operate as a pack with the lords, with the non-lord wraith group piling in on one of the assaults to make sure combat it won. The idea is to kill a unit or two in the assault, and then zip away to the other side of the table as opposed to wading through combat after combat like they are terminators or something- which they are not. The wraiths and lords are a surgical strike, looking to hit and run, keep your opponent busy moving and shooting trying to react to them so your warriors can slip in RE mission objectives.

40K Battle Report: Necrons Vs. Khanh’s Swiftriders

noreply@blogger.com (Fritz) — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 14:04:00 +0000

Tonight at the club my Necrons stepped up to face a fast moving space marine bike army led by Khanh. Khanh was attached to a jacked out command squad led by a chaplain, along with three scoring bike units, and three group of melta missile speeders. Mission was seize ground, three objectives, with a 12” deployment. Two objectives were placed mid field left, and on to the right. I won first turn and of course passed it to my opponent who began setting up.

Deconstructing his army I was worried about the Khanh led bike squad as it literally could rip through my entire army and would be on me in two turns. This is the type of unit that is little seen in my experience, and if you don’t know what it could do, it can and will catch you by surprise. Furious charge, litanies of hate, feel no pain, TH/SS bikers- the works all mounted on a fast moving T5 platform. Most marine deathstar units these days are terminators in a land raider + null libby…

So my opponent deploys the speeders and outflanks everything else. I breathe a slight sigh of relief, now I at least have a chance with the ‘crons- and we’ll get to more of that in a moment. I deploy everything and castle up in the center of the table. Two warrior groups and the C’Tan to the left, immortals and the lord on a hill next to them, and 15 destroyers in the center. You know when elite jacked out marine bikers STILL outnumber you, your codex needs some updating ASAP…

As standard destroyer wing I try to seize first turn and fail…

Speeders move into position and start firing melta and krak missiles at the Deceiver, not a bad choice, but not THE choice of target priority. I understand the thinking- kill the C’Tan and there is nothing to stop the biker command squad, but my opponent is missing a key point, especially surprising since he used to Necrons himself.

My turn has the immortals and destroyers firing at the land speeders- 20 S5 shots, and 45 S6 shots make quick work of them and wipe out all three units. So far so good. I run the warriors closing the ranks in the center of the table, and move the Deceiver to just in 18” of the table edge so he is in range of an outflank assault for the command squad.

Command squad comes in and moves right to the C’Tan. With only two wounds left from eating malt and krak lest turn, and them getting the charge off he is the bait, they smash through him and the rest of my ‘crons are done. My opponent assaults and the Deceiver withdraws leaving theme there out in the open. On my turn every immortal, warrior, and destroyer takes aim as the lord detaches from the immortals and moves into assault position along with the C’tan. With a smile the Deceiver nods and I start rolling some dice. Feel no pain saves a few at first, but forcing so many wounds means the apoc goes down at some point and S5/6 bypasses the T5 of the bikes. Khanh and two bikers are left, as the C’Tan and lord assault…

From there it is just mop up as my warriors move into position to take two objectives as the destroyers single out each bike group and blast away- S6 means marines die like marines. Game ends with me holding two objectives while the marines hold none literally having been wiped out to the last marine.

Now for some after action commentary so this battle report is more than just how awesome I am with Necrons, but rather how not understanding my army really won me the game. Let’s reverse the armies. I’m facing a fast and very mobile shooty army while mine is primarily a fast moving assault army backed by some elements of long range shooting. With so few Necrons on the table I would have just gone for phase out so I can leverage all of my army on my opponent’s no one or two units being sent off to hold objectives. Go for phase out, that said 99% of the time with Necrons you just ignore the mission and go for phase out, remember this anytime you play against the ‘crons, expect when you play me of course, then please go for the mission...

Anyway, I’d take first turn and deploy everything in the center, and then on my turn turbo boost all my bikes right into the center of the ‘crons. With my speeders I’d pick a destroyer squad and fire into them till they are down. Yes they would get their WBB roll since another destroyer squad is within 6”, but then there are only two squads, which can only fire at two targets. Then with my bikes in the Necrons face for next turn assault, those destroyers would have to fire on the bikes to soften a few before the assault, speeders then continue to go to work on the speeders. As for the C’Tan I would just ignore him, I can’t assault him, he will be put into a position to assault me, and will, but the rest of my army would be crashing my lines and then I would pop and phase out. Understand how the destroyer wing works and it’s easy to take out. Since the game ended at 8:30 or so we got in another game vs. my Grey Knights…

GK post tomorrow…

The Wager

noreply@blogger.com (Fritz) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0000

By Fritz

Prologue

Somewhere near the Halo Stars far from Holy Terra…

“This is the Imperial Dogma, we read you Inquisitor Longinus, and have locked onto your signal. Ready to begin teleportation transfer upon your command.” Voxed the Captain from orbit high above the dead world.

“Longinus here, begin teleportation!” Replied the Inquisitor as two metallic cylinders about three meters each in height suddenly materialized next to him and his entourage.

“Have your Menials secure the stasis tubes and fall in behind us.” Motioned Longinus to the Tech-Priest Magos Oro.

“As you command Inquisitor.” Replied the machine adept through his vox implant as the huge cybernetic enhanced Menials hefted the cylinders as something from within banged and thrashed about momentarily throwing the tech servants out of balance.

“Sir! We have secured passage to the temple vault and have locked down the adjacent passageways.” Informed an Inquisitorial Storm Trooper as he moved forward and saluted the Inquisitor while catching his breath from the long dash to the surface.

“Good, we move now!” replied Longinus as he activated the vox on his wrist.

“Imperial Dogma, this is Inquisitor Longinus, we are entering the tomb now, if you do not receive vox transmission from either myself or Magos Oro within the hour orbital strike this position and wipe the tomb from the face of the planet! Longinus out!” continued the grim faced Inquisitor as Sister Ursula of the Ecclesiarchy looked uneasy at the order to enter the tomb.

Standing before the blasted open doors of the stone complex Longinus moved forward as a detachment of Storm Troopers moved to meet him and fell in line with the expedition party. Descending the stairs which lead into the blackness below the Inquisitor drew his power sword and racked his bolt pistol.

Passing through the rune engraved corridors which were lit by an eerie green light from a series of glowing crystals it was evident that the conflict below had only just ended. Dead Inquisitorial Storm Troopers littered the floor with their bodies scarred and blasted, mangled and stripped almost beyond recognition.

“We tread on the border of heresy!” Whispered Sister Ursula as she carefully stepped over the bodies as to not dirty her boots.

Looking for silent assurance to the Inquisitor, Magos Oro was met back with a reassuring glance as Longinus ignored the Sisters observation.

“Are there any mechanical dead?” asked the Tech-Priest as his servo arms and ocular limbs took sensor readings of the walls.

“No Lord Tech-Priest, their dead vanished shortly after we secured the chamber.” Replied one of the Storm Troopers unsure and hesitant how to address the Mars Priest.

“Vanished?” noted Sister Ursula looking about in disbelief.

Continuing on the party made quick progress to what appeared to be the central vault of the tomb complex. Now hundreds of meters underground there was nothing but coldness and silence broken only by the shuffled footsteps of the group and the whirling servo motors of Magos Oro’s Skirarii and Menials.

“We are here- have them place the cylinders over there.” Noted the Inquisitor as Magos Oro motioned to his Menials.

“By the Holy Machine!” gasped the Tech-Priest as his cybernetic ocular locked on the giant structure before him.

Standing as tall as the most ancient of titans the group stood before a huge metallic construct that appeared to be fabricated out of living metal which pulsated with unholy internal energy as runes danced across its surface.

Mounted on a huge four pronged base stood a crescent shaped support structure, which in turn supported a massive five pronged pulsating green crystal.

Turning to the Tech-Priest Longinus nodded his head as he switched off the vox communicator on his wrist…

“Magos Oro, you have twenty minutes to complete your analysis, I suggest you get started with all haste.”

Nodding in return the Tech-Priest moved towards the pylon surrounding it with Menials as their sensors and auspexes divined what secrets they could.

“Inquisitor! I must protest!” barked Sister Ursula. “This construct is an abomination and a heretical symbol to our faith.

“Sister, I will remind you only once that you are a guest of this expedition on behalf of your Sister Superior, and as a courtesy I have extended to the Ecclesiarchy. I suggest you remain silent and remember your place.” Continued Longinus as he watched Magos Oro continue his scans.

Growing more nervous with each passing second Sister Ursula slowly fingered the bolt pistol in her holster as she swallowed hardly.

“This is Heresy!” she yelled as she moved to draw the pistol.

“This is the Inquisition!” barked back Longinus as he turned with his bolt pistol already on the draw and fired a round into the Sisters neck tearing through it. Collapsing face forward on the ground Longinus kicked her pistol aside as Magos Oro stopped his reading for only a moment.

BOOM! Suddenly echoed one of the side passages leading into the vault as the sounds of hellgun fire and the screams of men filled the air.

“Reinforce! Go! Go! Go!” ordered the Storm Trooper Sergeant standing next to Longinus as he took off with his men heading down the corridor into battle.

Turning his head almost completely ninety degrees behind him Magos Oro pleaded “I need more time!”

“Five minutes!” was the reply from Longinus as he palmed a single bolt pistol round in his hand. Turning it over and over for a moment he marveled how it seemed to encapsulate a tiny galaxy in its translucent chamber head.

Racking back the single load slide on his pistol he pushed the round into his bolt pistol and took aim down the corridor while bracing it across the elbow of this other arm to steady the shot.

Brak! it cracked as the round traced through the air leaving a trail of warp residue as it sped down the corridor into the sounds of battle.

Removing a small activation ward from his power armor Longinus pointed it at the metallic cylinders and activated it as air hissed from within releasing the sides and blasting the tops off.

“Wrahhhh!” screamed a legion of voices as two misshapen humanoids bound in warp chains and runic hexagram wards stumbled out writing in agony and warp fire. Pausing for a moment they seemed to taste the air before taking off at breathtaking speed down the passage.

As the explosions and small arms fire continued Longinus moved to the pylon and the Tech-Priest as he trained his bolt pistol glancing around the empty space before him.

Feeling a shift in the air before him Longinus instinctively whipped around to the right and began firing off his pistol as a group of shadows materialized before him transforming into a group of hulking metallic humanoids wielding burning green rifle like weapons.

Peering into the very soul of the Inquisitor the tallest of the metal constructs motioned his warriors forward with an arcane staff which blasted out bolts of energy dissolving the organic parts of a nearby Menail leaving nothing more then a writhing heap of mechanics.

Moving to fill the gaps the Skitarii returned fire with their las-burners and plasma guns which slammed into the metal warriors blasting them apart while others reformed moments later to continue the assault.

“Done!” droned Magos Oro as he caressed the pylon with his remaining organic hand before sacrificing his Menials into the charge to buy a few more precious moments of time.

“Good, then our agreement has concluded!” Returned Longinus as he sheathed his power sword and removed an odd shaped grenade from his belt holster. Clamping it to the pylon he activated it as a small warp void opened and began to burrow deep into the construct.

“No, this artifact is priceless!” shirked the Tech-Priest as Longinus yelled over him into his vox.

“All squads back to the surface, fall back with covering fire! Teleportation evac…in ten minutes.”

Running through the corridors emptying clip after clip into the green tinted darkness Longinus fired upon an array of mechanical spiders, and metal warriors as his lungs and legs began to give way before climbing out to the surface of the planet.

Standing with a dozen or so surviving Storm Troopers and Magos Oro he gave the signal to transport as they dematerialized just in time.

“Faint life signs are noted still below.” Observed the Captain of the Imperial Dogma as the Inquisitor and Tech-Priest towered over his shoulders from behind.

“There is nothing that can be done for them now, only deliverance to the Emperor’s grace. Lance strike all ordinance on the tomb and a hundred meters out.” Ordered Longinus grimly as he turned to Tech-Priest.

“You are disturbed Magos Oro?

“I mourn the unnecessary destruction of any artifact to the manifestation of the Machine God.” Came a droning reply.

“We both have our obligations Tech-Priest. The ends always justify the means!”
Was Longinus’ reply as the planet surface below erupted into flames.

Clutching his Staff of Light as best he could with what remained of his shattered arm the Necron Lord limped into the central chamber of the tomb flanked by battle scarred Immortals.

The Harvest of thousands was complete and for now he would have a few moments of eternity to himself. Dismissing the Immortals with a flicker of hate form his eyes the Lord took the passage to his personal chamber overlooking the interior of the tomb complex.

Sitting in his archaic throne he rested his staff to the side as raised hieroglyphs on the throne parted releasing a swarm of small scarab like mechanical drones. Swimming over the broken body of the Lord they repaired living metal and star god technology with unmatched efficiency knotting the Lord back to full strength before reabsorbing back into the throne.

Once again the Lord took his staff and gazed over the open chamber below. Legions of Warriors were phasing in from the success of the Harvest as they were sorted out by the Tomb Spyders. Those with the scars of battle were directed to the Schlepula chambers for repair while other were marched to their stasis crypts to again slumber.

“How have I come to this?” echoed a shredded fragment of his soul.

“I was something else so long ago…”

“…do I dare to be it again?” intensified the glow of his eyes.

Chapter 1

Staring grimly at the vox-screen Inquisitor Longinus keyed in the access commands securing the feed to his console only. Scanning over the spider like hieroglyphs he waited impatiently for the Imperial Dogma’s machine spirit to translate it to high gothic.

Merely gazing on such symbols would immediately condemn a man to death, but as an Inquisitor he was beyond such trivialities set up by the High Lords of Terra.

“The ends always justify the means.” He intoned as he whispered thanks to the Emperor before committing the translated message to memory and keying the console clean of any data traces.

“Commander, status on our progress?”

“Lord Inquisitor, we have finished the transfer with the Space Wolves and are ready to bring the warp engines online.”

“Good, I am on my way now, comm the Space Wolf Commander to meet me.” Replied Longinus.

“At once Lord Inquisitor.”

The command deck of the Imperial Dogma was quite different then other Imperial cruisers of its class. Extensively upgraded with the blessings of the Machine Adapts and null magics, it was built to penetrate places unseen.

Working with a minimal crew of servitors and menials most of the cruiser operated itself through the presence of a power machine spirit. So much so, there were times when Longinus was alone yet he could feel as if the ship was watching him.

Walking over to the main bridge panel, Longinus feigned interest in the readout on the console as the Space Wolf commander grew more impatient by the moment.

The ‘Wolves were a proud chapter with an inherent distaste in Imperial authority so Longinus knew he needed to establish his dominance in the next few moments if they were going to be of any use to him.

About to speak the Space Wolf Commander was cut off as Longinus motioned to the Imperial Dogma’s Captain.

“Captain, prepare to jump to warp take us to this point.” Was the order as Longinus entered the coordinates into a keypad on the console.

“Coordinates confirmed Lord Inquisitor, awaiting jump on your command.” Replied back the Captain as relays and pic-screens flashed to life on the command deck.

“Commander…” motioned Longinus to a harness seat next to the Space Wolf as he strapped himself into one in preparation.

“Jump!” Issued Longinus as the structure of the Imperial Dogma began to elongate and then bend inward as it broke through to warp space in a shower of prismatic colors.

Chapter 2

Part of the fifth great company, Falgeirr and his pack of Grey Hunters were on their way back to the Fang when they received an Inquisitorial order to rendezvous with the Imperial Dogma.

Not one to obey any outsider’s order, especially one from the Inquisition, Falgeirr did what any proper Space Wolf would do- he promptly ignored the broadcast and continued on his way.

“Let them eat static!” he laughed with his Wolf brothers as the Inquisitorial ship hailed them again which was cut short by litanies from the Iron Priest over the comm.

“Engines are off line! Grav-drives failing!” was the frantic message as the Space Wolf vessel slowed to a dead stop.

“Brother Falgeirr, the Inquisitorial ship is haling us again, they want to know if we are ready to listen now?” remarked one of the Space Wolves stationing the communications console.

“Battle posts lads! We won’t fire the first shot, but by Russ we won’t be pushed around either!” replied Falgeirr as his brothers readied themselves.

Pulling alongside the Space Wolf ship the Imperial Dogma launched its boarding cables and extended it coupling as the two ships embraced. Signaling that the airlock had cycled, Falgeirr and his group of Grey Hunters stood with their weapons drawn and at the ready.

With a rush of stale air the doors to the hatch opened qw a squad of heavily armed Inquisitorial Storm Troopers escorted a servitor forward.

“Space Wolf Falgeirr, this ship, yourself, and the Brothers in your command are hereby under conscription to the Inquisition. By the Immortal Emperor of Mankind you will transfer all control and command to Lord Inquisitor Longinus.” Droned the servitor as a parchment copy of the Inquisitorial decree slid out of a scriber mounted into the side of its head.

“What?” gasped Falgeirr in disbelief as the vox relay inside his ear also sprung to life.

“…Storm Trooper boarding squads have teleported to the engine room and weapons control….orders…?”

Hesitating for a moment Falgeirr calculated the odds of a dozen or so Space Wolves versus the Inquisitorial forces that were suddenly taking over. It would be quite a tale to tell back at the Fang.

“Tell Inquisitor Longinus that the ship is his, but there will be a reckoning for these actions this day, so I swear!” Replied Falgeirr as he issued a ship wide order to transfer command.

Chapter 3

“I demand to know the reason for this abduction Inquisitor!” barked Falgeirr as his patience had finally worn out.

“Respectfully so Brother Falgeirr, you are in no position to make demands of the Inquisition. What I choose to tell you is out of the grace of my generosity and our mutual commitment to serve the Emperor.”

Definitely not his first choice in an ally, Longinus had learned long ago that even with the best of plans you often have to make your own opportunities, and drafting the Space Wolves into service was just such an example.

“Brother Falgeirr, what we speak of here and now is heresy, it is beyond everything that the Imperium holds sacred. What we are about to cast our eyes upon would be an instant death sentence in any other situation.” Paused Longinus for a moment as he dismissed the Storm Troopers from the post at the door.

“There are but a few moments in history, where the heroic actions of a few can alter the course of the universe. You and I are about to embark together on such a moment.” Continued the Inquisitor as he keyed in the pass code to the door before taking hold of one of the cable like communication interfaces dangling from the ceiling.

Activating the interface spike, Longinus inserted it into the data port behind his neck as he released the final runic ward to the door causing it to slowly open as runes of warning flashed across its surface.

Feeling a pulse of unholy energy washing over him Falgeirr caressed the runic charm and wolf totems that decorated his power armor.

“Sorcery!” he whispered as he followed the Inquisitor inside the room.

Seated on a raised platform in the center of the room supported by a jumble of hoses, wire bundles and arcane mechanics was a large metal sphere made out of an array of misshapen metal sheets that seemed to blend and redefine themselves over the curvature of the structure.

“Names and labels are wasted on the uninitiated, but the importance of our mission depends on your understanding of this object, and what it represents to our cause.” Began Longinus as Falgeirr cautiously inched closer to it.

“This is but one of three xeno objects known as a Dyson Sphere. Fabricated by a long dead race, its true use to us has been lost to time. What we do know from the experiments and research of the Adepts of Mars is that such a sphere has the ability to negate the warp by causing a tear in the reality that feeds it.”

“If this relic has such power how were we able to enter the warp in its presence?” inquired Falgeirr skeptically.

“Such an object is antithesis to all Chaos and its abominations, but this one currently lies dormant. All attempts at divination on how to activate it have failed, but a recent opportunity has presented itself to me where we have the possibility of securing the rites to its activation.”

“And once it is active?”

“Ahh, that is the nature of our mission, to obtain the rites of activation, and then to deliver such an artifact into the very heart of Chaos’ domain!”

“I need your help in this Brother Falgeirr and that is a difficult thing for an Inquisitor to admit, this opportunity has come to me while under strength and under manned. If I were to go though proper administrative channels there would be talk, debate, and a waste of valuable time, not to mention those in power who disapprove of my methods.”

“Now is the time for warriors such as you and I to do what we were born to do. So I ask- are you and your men with me on this?” finished Longinus as he gazed intensely into the unflinching Space Wolf.

Nodding grimly for a moment Falgeirr replied.

“The will of the Emperor works in strange ways Inquisitor, myself and my battle brothers will assist you if what you say has been truthful so far…”

Chapter 4

Exiting from the warp with a metallic shudder the Imperial Dogma decelerated as its relays and console displays returned to normal. Now at the edge of Imperial Space it drifted among the Halo Stars- huge gas giants and void pulsars who have existed since the creation of the galaxy, but have now grown cold and dim with age.

A segment of space marked by superstition and myth there was little Imperial presence anywhere other then a few observation probes from the Adeptus Mechanicus.

“Brother Falgeirr, assemble your men and have them meet me on the bridge, tell them nothing other then we will both be working together to deliver a great blow to the mightiest of traitors to the Emperor. The less they truly know is for their own good.” Ordered Longinus as he parted ways leaving the Space Wolf to his own thoughts.

Secrecy was for those without honor and as a Space Wolf it was going to be hard for Falgeirr to keep the details of this mission from his men. He always took comfort in knowing up front the perils that one might face and what sacrifices would be called upon to make. If he had little faith in Inquisitor Longinus with what scraps of truth he was undoubtedly told about this Dyson Sphere how could he ask his men to follow him into battle on even less?

“Ho! What news?” greeted the Grey Hunter Sergeant as Falgeirr entered their jail like barracks onboard the Imperial Dogma.

“Yes, how long must we be caged like animals!” asked another Grey Hunter.

“Be still Brother Arius! I’m sure Brother Falgeirr made the Inquisitor see things eye to eye and tooth to tooth.” Belted the Sergeant back as the pack assembled.

Clearing his throat Falgeirr continued.

“Brothers, we have been through many trials together and shown many a foe what it means to be a Space Wolf.”

“Here! Here!” raised a muffled cheer.

“What I ask now is based on the integrity of my heart, my loyalty to you and the chapter.”

“We have been chosen for a new assignment, what was to be a quiet homecoming back to the Fang will now take us to a place beyond to all but the light of the Emperor.”

“I know little of what will be expected and what is known I have been sworn to secrecy by order of the Inquisition. All I can ask is for your loyalty and trust in that the will of the Emperor has decided to test our resolve and worthiness as Space Wolves.”

“What kind of test?” asked a Brother.

“A test against the mightiest and most epic of traitors to the Imperium.”

“Chaos?”

“Yes, Chaos, but different in that we will be taking the crusade to them this time, to bring retribution to the very heart of their wickedness, and show them the wrath of betrayal.”

“Are you with me lads?” asked Falgeirr hesitantly.

“Aye!” was the instant response in unison to the question.

When one had total faith in their Brothers there was no need for words or diplomatic persuasion, such was the way of the Space Wolves.

“I am Inquisitor Longinus and I ask for your attention to what we are about to speak about.” Began the Inquisitor as the group assembled on the command deck of the ship.

“The secrecy of this assignment is of my choosing as it is paramount to its success. We are on the edge of known space, a region known as the Halo Stars and in a moment there will be no chance of turning back from our task.”

“Heed closely, as what you will soon see and be asked to do in the Emperor’s name will be trying. There will be times where truth appears as falsehood, and what you have been trained to hate must be cast aside.”

“Once we are again underway and you have demonstrated your trust in me and the mission at hand will I be able to fully tell you what will be expected of you.” Finished the Inquisitor as a faint strobe like flash could be seen far in the starry distance out the command deck window.

Something was approaching the Imperial Dogma with a tremendous velocity as a mere speck in the distance grew larger and larger as it was evident a starship of sorts was approaching.

“Commander, clear the bridge and secure the doors. On my authority have the Storm Troopers stand watch and shoot anybody who leaves this room until I give the order to stand down.”

Confirming and following the Longinus’ orders the bridge was cleared of all personnel including the servitors and menials till only the Space Wolves and the Inquisitor himself remained.

“Imperial Dogma, lower shields and power down all offensive systems.” Commanded Longinus as the machine spirit of the ship shuddered in compliance.

Decelerating to a complete stop at the last moment a planet spanning vessel clad in shadowy darkness cast its bow over the Imperial Dogma followed by the sound of faint metallic grinding throughout the ship.

“Stand fast!” whispered Falgeirr to his Brothers as they instinctively readied their bolters and gripped their chain sword hilts.

“Imperial Dogma, signal that we are ready!”

Chapter 5

On the bridge of the Imperial Dogma there was a feeling of time standing still as a ripple of distorted space folded out next to Longinus. With a flash of blue light there was a sudden appearance of a group of skeletal beings.

Surrounding their Lord were a dozen hulking Immortals, their blasters at the ready as their sulking heads framed between massive ornamental shoulders glanced back and forth waiting for orders.

Drawing power weapons and flashing chain sword to life Falgeirr’s Grey Hunters stepped forward as the Immortals blasters began to power up.

“Hold!” boomed Longinus as he put himself between the two groups forcing both sides to lower their weapons and uneasily stand down.

“Hrash Sharr…” whispered a long dead voice which coldly filled the room.

Bowing for a moment the Inquisitor then replied.

“I am ready to honor the terms of the agreement.”

Parting the Immortals aside with a casual wave a Necron Lord strode forward looking down Longinus.

Its skeletal form etched in gold, the Lord wore a shimmering metallic cape and held a techno-arcanic staff which was clearly both a powerful weapon and symbol of rank.

“Imperial Dogma, set course for the Eye of Terror! Activate null shields!” Ordered Longinus as he turned aside and bid the Necron Lord to follow.

Marching like clockwork machinery the Immortals moved behind their Lord before coming to a halt outside the door as their master, Longinus, and Falgeirr went inside.

Standing outside the closed door meeting room the Grey Hunters made sure their bolters were chambered and their chain swords only a fist away as both sides stood unmoving before each other.

Reviewing the star chart before them Falgeirr was amazed at the level of detail it contained regarding the Eye of Terror.

“Brother Space Wolf, do not be surprised as we are not the first to find ourselves in this shadowy realm.” Offered Longinus.

“Sayash…” whispered the Lord back.

“Yes, the path you have charted will take us to this planet, 5th in the system, volcanic atmosphere. The artifact in question is located here.” Continued Longinus as a small rocky red planet displayed across the pict-screen before zooming down to surface level revealing a towering obelisk like object.

With its red eyes flickering intensely for a moment at the image of the obelisk Falgeirr wondered why it was clearly so important to the Necron.

“I will deliver you there as promised and when so I expect the activation codes in return.”

With another flicker of its cold gaze the Lord signaled its understanding as it took leave of the room leaving Longinus and Falgeirr alone.

“Imperial Dogma, secure this room.” Ordered the Inquisitor as there was an echo of shifting metal in the distance.

“We are free to speak now.” Began Longinus as he turned off the pict-screen.

“What do you think of the situation?” casually asked Longinus as Falgeirr thought long and hard for a moment.

“We Space Wolves have our own customs and often the service of a Space Wolf is rather simple. All our tales of legend, training, and faith in the Emperor compel us to seek our and destroy those who would threaten humanity.”

“Now you have not only made a pact with such an enemy but you have brought us to the very shores of hell to consummate that pact.”

“The edicts of the Emperor demand we follow your orders but what my bothers have seen this day…it might be too much to ask of even a Space Wolf.”

“This Necron Lord, he has the ability to activate the sphere artifact?” asked Falgeirr.

“Yes, it was his race that created it.”

“That structure we just saw, it is Necron also?”

“Yes.”

“What do they want with it?”

“I don’t know other then the Lord has his own personal reasons.”

“What is to prevent them from betraying us?” asked Falgeirr.

“Nothing, other then it is not in their best interests in do so…for now. Just as we are taking great risks here so is this Necron. It is acting alone and no doubt the powers that command it would not be pleased to know it is working with us. As long as it needs us we are safe.”

“And when it no longer needs us?”

“It will turn on us as we will turn on it, and this is where I need you Space Wolf. We will have only one opportunity.” Finished Longinus.

Chapter 6

“How long must my talents be wasted here? Lamented the Chaos Lord as the Khornate collar around his neck grew tighter suppressing his thoughts of rebellion.

His masters were fickle and a moment of laxness had brought him to centuries of boredom on this volcanic waste of a planet. Failure for the World Eaters meant death, yet he was denied his place before the brass throne, left to anguish here, cursed warrior now turned bureaucrat.

“Lord Syn…production from barcardium pit five is lagging again…” Hissed once of the sniveling lackeys who was forever trailing him with details, statistics, and numbers.

Watching the anguished forms of the slaves working below in one of the mine pits, Syn was angered for having his thoughts disturbed.

“Let the men handle it, take some heads and the rest will fall into line!” he barked about to continue as a flash of light in the ashen sky caught his attention for a moment.

Without the instincts of his master the lackey behind Lord Syn was vaporized by a wash of plasma as the slave pit in front of them exploded followed by the echoed explosions of ordinance in the distance.

Kicking the charred corpse aside Lord Syn rose to his feet as the comm inside his helmet blared to life.

“I know that fool! Assemble the legion at the refinery and prepare for a counter attack!” ordered the Chaos Lord as the collar around his neck broke free and tumbled to the ground.

“First salvo away, lance barrage two loading, thirty seconds…” replied the bridge gunner of the Imperial Dogma as Longinus picked out the second round of targets.

“When we land, fire at will, but keep this sector free.” Was Longinus’ final order as he made way to the hangar.

Standing shoulder to shoulder with the Immortals in the hold of the Thunderhawk, Falgeirr could sense the uneasiness of his Brothers as the Necron Lord and Inquisitor Longinus closed the hatch behind them.

Moments later the small craft was hurtling towards the surface of the planet as the Inquisitors voice commed the cabin.

“Space Wolves, enemy ground contact, prepare to engage, two minutes…”

“For the Emperor….and Russ!” was the reply in unison as the Immortals stood by in silence.

Whipping the dust up into the air around the landing zone Lord Syn looked on as his World Eater Bezerkers took up position.

“All teams in position my Lord!” commed his Chosen as Syn looked up making sure the Havoc squad on the ridge was in position.

“World Eaters! The lackeys of the false Emperor dare to come here and challenge us, take their skulls for the skull throne!” he replied on the open channel as the Thunderhawk landed dropping its ramp into the blackened ground.

As soon as the shadows inside began to move the first wave of Berserkers were afoot charging with bolt pistols and chain swords.

“Blood for the….” Was their rally which was cut short at the surprise of the skeletal Immortals marching down the ramp instead of marines, as they stripped away at the World Eaters with lightning from their gauss blasters.

“Havocs!” rallied Syn as he cursed, directing their las cannon and missile fire into the Thunderhawk blowing off one of its turbines as the Space Wolves then disembarked moving ahead of the Immortals.

Meeting the World Eaters failed charge head on Falgeirr and his Grey Hunters crashed into their ranks which quickly turned into a mass of whirling chain swords and flashes of bolter fire.

“Get him up there now!” bellowed Syn as he shoved away the mutant lackeys scurrying around him trying to direct the battle.

Breaking through the front ranks Falgeirr called out to the pack next to him as he tried to locate Inquisitor Longinus.

“Rally!” he ordered just as a mutated World Eater Rhino rumbled ahead dragging a chained and bound Chaos Dreadnought behind it. Bellowing in pain and eternal fury the Dreadnought popped its chains free as it towered forward lining up its plasma cannon.

“Take Cover…” ordered Falgeirr as his group instinctively dropped to the ground while continuing to fire away with their bolters.

Caught out in the open the group of Hunters to the right was incinerated by the ball of plasma from the Dreadnought.

“Melta-gun! Brother Arik!” cracked the comm as the battle intensified.

Driven by madness the Dreadnought charged towards the Space Wolves as a veil of darkness shimmered next to it materializing the Necron Lord who then lightly swung his staff of light across the machine blazing through its leg and lower torso.

Toppling forward the Dreadnought crashed to the ground as the plasma cannon discharged at point blank filling the air with star fire.

“Let them die for the Blood God! Order the rest to fall back to the wastes and we will draw them in for a counter attack!” ordered Lord Syn as he exited with his chosen Terminators.

Chapter 7

Regaining his senses as the World Eaters retreated Falgeirr took a roll call of his men which was met with more silence then “Aye!”.

Picking up Brother Arik’s melta-gun Falgeirr found Longinus talking to the Necron Lord.

Blocking his path a group of Necron Immortals strode forward causing him to stop. Taking stock in their numbers only a few were missing, probably buried in the piles of dead scattered about, while surprisingly the remainder appeared unscathed in the least.

“Honor our agreement!” commanded Longinus as the Necron Lord’s eyes flickered before dismissed the Immortals so Falgeirr could approach.

“Commander Falgeirr, we advance to the obelisk. You and your marines will go with the Immortals to draw away the enemy. I will accompany the Lord and we will meet at the obelisk.” Was the order from Longinus who now seemed a bit stiff and formal.

“Yes Lord Inquisitor.” Saluted Falgeirr as he rounded up his Brothers.

Trekking through the ash waste the Immortals trudged on ahead with little regard for cover or stealth.

“Let them lead lads, better to draw fire, and keep their backs to us.” Remarked Falgeirr as the volcanic winds picked up almost washing out of sight the Necrons ahead.

“They test me, the true gods are granting me redemption!” hissed Lord Syn as the scout reports were relayed to him. Many other commanders might have been confused in the chaos around them, but Syn’s centuries of experience told him otherwise.

“The bombardment from the cruiser is of no concern. They target the slave pits and refineries to mislead from their true objective- which is here.” He pointed out to his assembled Chosen.

“Now it seems that they have split up with what appears to be their main attack force here led by the Space Wolves. We will deny them this advantage and make sure we strike first!

Pausing for a moment Falgeirr and his pack crouched low in the ashen waste as a growing rumble could be heard in the distance.

“Armor?” commed one of the men as the ground began to shake followed by the eruption of gauss weapon fire.

“Forward you slaves and mutant dogs!” cursed Lord Syn as the Chaos task masters drove the remaining slaves from the chemical mines into the ashen wasted towards the Space Wolves.

Moving back to back with the Necrons, the Space Wolves emptied clip after clip into the huge mass of misshapen slaves who were more afraid of the wrath of their masters then the fury of the Space Wolves.

“Magazine clear!” barked one of the ‘Wolves as a fresh clip was passed to him as others were slinging their empty weapons and drawing chain swords.

“Wait for it!” was the order as a wall of slaves crashed into them pressing and pulling in all directions. In such a sea of flesh, skill was of no importance as there was no room to swing a sword or draw a pistol.

Power armor and Necron bodies were torn apart by thousands of prying hands and claws as Falgeirr struggled to maintain his grip on his melta-gun.

“Pst!” “Pst!” popped the Immortals as their bodies began to phase away while a shimmering of darkness gathered next to the last two of them. Seeing an opportunity and acting on instinct Falgeirr struggled through the sea of bodies and grappled onto the back of the Immortal as he felt his insides churn and spill out as the veil of darkness enveloped him.

Chapter 8

Materializing atop one of the broken mountains overlooking the ash waste Falgeirr rolled away behind a group of larger rocks as he struggled to keep from passing out.

Climbing across the rocks he glimpsed the battle below as the few remaining Space Wolves that he could see were swallowed under the mass of the horde.

“Call off your warriors and give me the code!” came the familiar voice of Inquisitor Longinus from the other side of the rocks.

“Rashat…” was the silvery reply.

“Consider your next move carefully Necron! My ship has locked onto this spot and if the correct code for the Dyson Sphere is not relayed it will fire on this position. Even if you survive, this structure won’t!”

Turning on his back Falgeirr could see the top of the obelisk as he heard the two immortals move away.

“…we will have only one opportunity.” Whispered the Inquisitor’s voice telepathically in his head as Falgeirr willed himself up and crouched low to remain hidden.

“Good, and now that our agreement has concluded…” began the Inquisitor followed by the sudden bark of bolt pistol fire followed by flashes of gauss energy and a high shrill scream.

Rising up from the rocks Falgeirr caught a final glimpse of Longinus’ life as half his body, power armor and all, disintegrated away. Vaping away the two Immortals with the melta gun Falgeirr swung around to the Necron Lord as his trigger clicked a final time.

“Empty!” Flashed through his mind, as the Necron Lord held his position keeping the staff aimed directly at him. Understanding the Necron couldn’t risk a glancing shot to the obelisk it held its fire.

Raising the melta gun an inch higher towards the obelisk the Lord’s eyes flickered brighter as it took a step forward.

Hoping to buys some time Falgeirr called out to the Necron as he slowly moved over to Longinus’ body.

“What is this?” he asked nodding to the obelisk.

“Old Ones…” echoed back the Lord in perfect high gothic as the ground rumbled and the obelisk rose to life and began to open apart.

Leaping away with all his strength Falgeirr rolled as pulses of light impacted into his armor while the Necron used the distraction to enter the obelisk.

“Longinus!” gasped Falgeirr as he grasped the Inquisitor’s other bolt pistol from his belt and removed the helmet to his power armor only to find a woman’s face heavily studded with neuro implants in its place.

“Falgeirr!” suddenly commed the inquisitor’s voice inside his helmet.

“Longinus?!”

“No time! The Obelisk has shielded itself from our targeters, we can’t take it out from orbit…Necron Lord….” It cracked before washing out to static.

Knowing what needed to be done Falgeirr ran to the obelisk finding the Necron Lord inside about to enter the shimmering light of its power core.

Firing off the remaining pistol rounds to no effect the Lord’s eyes grew dim as it entered the light.

“We have a lock on the obelisk!” replied the bridge gunner on the Imperial Dogma as Longinus watched the pict relay of the obelisk powering up.

“Lance strike it now!” he ordered as a volley of plasma fired from the cruiser.

Hearing the screech of ordinance entering the atmosphere Falgeirr knew there was no surviving once it hit. Filling with anger at the deaths of his ‘Wolf brothers and the machinations of Inquisitor Longinus, he swore to Russ that wherever this Necron was going he would follow to make sure it paid for its part in this scheme.

With a wolf like howl Falgeirr tackled the Necron Lord as his eyes were blinded and all sense of space and time seemed to stop.

Floating in a sea of light he heard the booming sound of plasma in the distance as he hovered across from the Necron Lord who’s skeletal body began to dissolve and transform into a being of light as the fragmented remains of its soul were finally released from its curse of mechanical immortality.

“Peace…” where its last words as Falgeirr reached out at the last moment taking hold of its staff and yanking it free from its hands.

Feeling the weight of the universe returning to him the staff glowed with an unholy green color as the bright white light was replaced by the stone blocks of a cold dark room overlooking a large center chamber.

Rising quickly from a large metallic throne Falgeirr spun around as ranks of Necron Immortals entered the room and stood at the ready.

“For the Emperor…for Russ!” he growled tightening the grip on the staff…

END

Necron Tomb Spyder Tactics

noreply@blogger.com (Fritz) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 08:30:00 +0000

On paper the tomb spyder looks like a much needed Necron anti-assault role. Something to charge into that group of marines looking to cut down your legions of warriors in a sweeping advance. The problem is, using the spyder in this manner will only lead to disappointment despite its T6 and monstrous creature status. It’s pitiful number of attacks when combined with a lousy WS along with low wound count and no invulnerable save doesn’t make it a counter assault unit- even with pooping out a unit of scarabs. So what role do they have, and can they help out your list with a few tactical changes?

Perhaps.

When considering tomb spyders you have to look at the other units in your list as the TS competes with the valuable heavy support slot which also included monoliths and heavy destroyers. Load up on spyders and you might be limiting yourself here. Thankfully you can take multiple spyders in one slot, often leaving two other slots for the monoliths and heavy destroyers.

Tactically, tomb spyders do three things- they expand your WBB nexus, the suck up shots with a little coaxing, and with some adjustment they act as a speed bump unit.
Let’s start off by looking at the WBB nexus. While the newest 5th edition codexes all have troops that can actually do something other than holding objectives, Necrons are still locked in a 3rd edition/4th edition mindset. When playing Necrons you want to do the opposite of the newest codexes- you can’t afford to spend your points on warriors who really don’t do much. Rather your points need to be spent on stuff that actually does something killy- like immortals, destroyers, scarabs, etc. Two warrior groups to satisfy the force org chart is sadly standard for ‘crons right now despite the pictures in the 40K big rule book. True this is playing it close, and limits the army, but hey it’s Necrons right? Utilizing a tomb spyder helps out with this…

With only two warrior groups we run into the WBB problem- keep them close together to get the WBB roll if a unit goes down means you have a blob of warriors that can be targeted and taken out in a multi assault sweeping advance. Throw in a tomb spyder into the center, expand that WBB range and now you are not as vulnerable. The extended range of the spyder helps keep the warriors up and running…

Spyders are also great at sucking up shots that could, and arguably should be going against your destroyers and immortals. Abuse the mixed toughness rule by creating a scarab swarm and get the swarm into cover- now you have two S6 models and a monsterous creature that gets a cover save, something that would bring a tear to Swarmlord’s eye. Put that spyder out in a place where your opponent wants/needs to shoot at it to buy your other units a few more turns…

And finally there is using the spyder as a counter speed bump, and not as a counter assault unit. If and once your opponent get’s past your other units and is heading to the warriors, position the spyder so that it is in between the incoming unit and your warriors. Spawn another scarab swarm for wounds and unit size, surround the incoming unit as best you can and then wait…don’t assault…

The reasoning here is that if you assault, your opponent will wipe out the spyder and then get a free D6 consolidation move + what they gained in the pile in to move closer to your warriors, followed by moving and even assaulting your warriors in their turn.

With the spyder in front you then run your warriors away, and let your opponent assault you. They will still get the consolidate but you will be in a better place to react since it is now your turn.

Hopefully this give you some new thoughts for the spyders in your list…