New Necron Codex Review - Scarab Swarms

Nick speaking,

I took a look at Destroyers in a previous New Necron Codex Review post. Destroyers and Scarab Swarms are currently the two best Necron fast attack choices available at the moment. In this post, I want to take a closer look at Scarabs Swarms and see why they compete so much with Destroyers!

Scarab Swarms are fast and move like jetbikes, but also they have the ability to ignore terrain. You do have the option to line them up in front of your phalanx, giving your Warriors and the like cover saves. You could even use them just to speed bump any incoming units.

One of the major plus factors of the current Codex is the Scarab Swarm entries that say they are 'small Targets' giving them +1 to any cover saves, plus they have the 'Swarms' special rule, also giving them +1 to any cover saves. So at the moment when in terrain or after turbo boosting , they are little mini terminators with a 2+ cover save. This is something we have to take advantage of.

Join a Destroyer Lord to a unit of Scarabs Swarms and send them out as a delivery system for the Lords still fantastic Wargear. Turbo boost them out on turn one, get into terrain on turn two and pop of Nightmare Shroud on as many units as you can. Use the Scarabs and Lord to draw fire, taking advantage of the 2+ cover saves. Get into the back ranks and de-mech those objective holding tanks with the Lords Warscythe!

Scarabs currently cost 12 points each or 16 points with the disruption fields. Ideally these guys should be about 10 points each to keep in line with the Codex creep, but more importantly I would love to see them in the Troops section to make way for other Fast attack choices. Why not make them troops that are not scoring, just like Tyranid Ripper Swarms?

So what do you think will happen to Scarab Swarms in the New Codex?

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Destroyer Wing Battle Report

Nick speaking,

I only own six Necron Destroyers at the moment, but being in a circle of friends who are fine with proxy models, I have found my Eldar Jetbikes make great stand in Destroyers. So with my Jetbikes in my Necron case, I am ready to unleash the Necron Destroyer Wing on my opponent...

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Why Forge World?

Nick speaking,

Generally, from a gaming point of view, using Forge World bitz to improve the look of our models has no real advantage. Indeed, in some cases it's a disadvantage? Take the Forge World Eldar Avatar for instance! Although it is an awesome model, it's at least double the size of the GW model, and twice as difficult to get 50% behind cover!

Of course there can be some advantages as well, my Forge World Eldar tanks are slightly longer than the GW ones, making it a bit easier to contest two objectives! But this is not the reason I went down the Forge World route! So why did I? Resin can be a pain to use, and it costs a lot more money?

Well, my first army was Necrons, and with only a Monolith as a tank with no FW upgrades, I have to admit I got a bit jealous seeing my buddies upgrading their tanks and dreadnoughts with FW bitz. Necrons of course only had the Pylon as a Forge World model, and at that time I only ever planned on having one army (like you do when you first start playing) so I treated myself to an expensive Necron toy.

It wasn't long after getting my Pylon, that I got the new army bug and it was time for me to get a second army. This time I wanted something different from the stand and shoot Necron's. I looked at Ork Speed Freaks and Eldar Saim Hann, but in the end I settled for the Eye of Terror's Elite, Space Wolves 13th Company army. I was playing alot against a hard hitting Emperors Children army at the time and I wanted some CC revenge. Trouble was, no tanks!

My third army was a Nid army that I got very cheap from a mate of mine. It was basically a massive box of Tyranid bitz, some made, some not, but definitely no tanks!

So that was it, my forth army had to have tanks, and the IDIC Eldar Craftworld was found. After waiting so long, I knew that my Eldar tanks were going to be all Forge World. It just had to be done, and that is why Forge World...

So what do you guy's think of FW models? have you found any advantages or disadvantages to certain models, and with the influx of models like the Mawclaw/Trigon from GW, do we really need to buy FW anymore?

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Necron Tomb Stalker!

Nick speaking,

At last, something is awakening for the Necrons!

Pre-release at Games Day UK...

Patterned in the shape of ancient and alien beasts of prey, Necron Tomb Stalkers are huge unliving machines; swift, tireless and relentless engines of murder that know neither pity nor remorse. Differing somewhat in scale and form, Tomb Stalkers and other similar constructs serve a function first of all to guard their masters’ sleep, eternally vigilant in their search for intruders that might disturb the dread tombs in which they slumber. Tomb Stalkers can detect the pulse of life through hundreds of metres of solid rock and use this ability to home in unerringly on their victims, employing a form of phase field to pass through inert matter as if it were water, striking without warning and leaving nothing but blood and dust in their wake.

Experimental rules:

Necron Tomb Stalker

Points 195, Heavy Support Choice

WS4 BS4 S6 T7 W5 I4 A4 LD10 SV3+

Unit Composition:

• 1 Tomb Stalker

Unit Type:

• Monstrous Creature

Wargear:

• Two Gauss Flayers

Special Rules:

• Sense Cluster

• Brutal Assault

• Fearless

• War Construct

• Phase Tunnelling

Sense Cluster: Tomb Stalkers have the Night Vision universal special rule.

Brutal Assault: The Tomb Stalker itself is a weapon; a mass of bladed limbs and razor-sharp armour plates. It

gains +2 attacks on a turn in which it assaults as opposed to the usual +1.

War Construct: The Tomb Stalker is a huge mass of shifting pseudo-metal, with little vulnerability except to the massive use of force. Sniper weapons, attacks with the Poisoned ability and the like, only wound the Tomb Stalker on a 6 (as opposed to a 4+, 2+ etc, as would normally be the case).

Phase Tunnelling: The Tomb Stalker is extraordinarily fast, and carries inbuilt phase field projectors allowing it to pass easily through inert matter, boring its way through rock and stone, and effortlessly passing through debris and rough terrain as it moves. As a result it has the Fleet, Deep Strike, Move Through Cover and Hit and Run universal special rules.

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My Necron Terrain and LOS!

Nick speaking,

Today I would like to take you to the Soulless Necron home world, to see how 5th edition line of sight rules have effected my terrain. I've noticed that there has been a lot of discussions going around regarding the true LOS rule recently, and most of it has been negative!

All of my Necron terrain was built around the time when 3rd edition was coming to an end, and 4th edition was just about to come out. In 4th edition everything was about sizes and I could really see the benefits. Everything became standardised and things like a size three model could gain a cover save from a size 2 barricade, but not a size 1 barricade, simple!

Nowadays, with true LOS, what was then a size three monstrous creature, can only get a cover save if 50% in cover, leaving an opening for someone to dispute it. On a side note, why was there no size four in the old rules? Surely a Monolith and some larger pieces of terrain could warrant an additional size. But that was then and this is now, and lets face it, both of these versions give us some problems and can slow the game down, but in my opinion, the true LOS rules win hands down.

For me, getting down to see what my models can see to determine if they can shoot or get any saves really does bring me into the game more. Yes, I have had my fair share of annoying disagreements with certain players, but hey, just take a 5+ cover save instead, or roll for it if it's that bad! With everything else like the assaults being speeded up in 5th edition, the game is already a lot quicker anyway. LOS is pretty simple for my terrain in 5th edition now, as most of it is solid and you are either behind it or not.

My latest army, The IDIC Eldar, is loving my Necron terrain as it's perfect for hiding a contesting tank or scoring jetbike squad behind it, but at the same time, it can mean that your shooting ability is reduced.

Most of my terrain is based on the Necron Codex. One reason why I fell in love with Necrons was because of the Codex pictures, and that's how I wanted my Necrons to look!

I made all of my tombs from foam board. If you are able to do so, an angled cutter can make it easier to join your edges together. All of the additional patterns and sticky out bits ware just pieces of cut out cardboard stuck on to the surface.

Back in the days when I made my tomb, you could buy separate sprue's from GW and I purchased two Monolith sprue's to get the two crystal sections at the top of the towers. Most of the other terrain was made from a base of foam/polystyrene and filled in with poly filler. When it came time to paint it, I used a base coat of Chaos Black, then Dark Angels Green with a dry brush of Snot green and Scorpion Green to finish.

I then did some barricades and objective markers to finish off...

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How to Convert Eldar Jetbikes

Nick speaking,

New Eldar jetbikes? When? Will it ever happen? Well yes one day! But the question is, is the current old school jetbike really that bad? Well, in my opinion, if you don't bother with the dodgy flag and exchange the supplied rider with a 'real' Guardian, it actually still looks pretty cool.

To be honest, when I first got around to doing my bikes, I was going to use the original leather jacket guy and just cut off the heads. I thought that rotating them around a bit so they were looking in different directions, and glue them back on would do the trick!

It didn't take me long to realise that putting a 'real' Guardian on the bike would look so much better, and match in with the rest of the army as well. In this post I will show you how I did it...

First up, build the Jetbike as standard, the flag pole on the back is optional! Use the original Jetbike legs , but don't glue them on yet. Then, take a standard Eldar Guardian and glue the front and back of the torso together. When dry, take some clippers and cut of the small sticky out bit at the bottom of the back section as pictured below.

This will let the torso fit down onto the legs better. The section were the torso joins the legs will also have to be cut, giving a straight edge to make it easier for them to fit together

Next, Glue the two jetbike arms onto the torso, let them set slightly so that they still move but will not drop off. Remember not to glue the guardian to the Jetbike to make it easier for painting in the future.

When ready put some glue on the top part of the legs and slide the torso into position Make sure you put the hands onto the handle bars first as you go. The arms may slide back a bit out of the armpit sockets, but not enough to be be noticeable. You may also have to raise the legs up slightly with the other hand to join the legs and torso together. Again the legs may not be 100% sitting on the seat, but not enough to be noticable. All that's left to do is put a small bit of green stuff where the legs meet the torso to finish them off.

Of course, you could really start to make them stand out and try some different poses as well. I found that changing one arm every third model was enough to make the unit stand out a but more...

Now you can really start going to town and put Guardians everywhere. Here you can see my Vyper with a 'real' Guardian manning the gun...

Next up, Shuriken Cannon Jetbike conversions

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Necrons @ 1000pts

Email in:

Could you take a look at this 1000 point Necron list for me?

HQ

Necron lord-Veil Of Darkness-resurrection orb

200 points

ELITES

5 x Immortals

140 points

TROOPS

10 x necron warriors

10 x necron warriors

360 points

Fast attack

x 3 wraiths

x 3 destroyers

273 points

973 point

Reply out:

Nick speaking,

Your list seems to be going in the right direction, but here are a few things to consider...

The fast attack choice is one of our best choices and you need to take advantage of this by maxing out. I would suggest either two groups of Destroyers or two groups of Wraiths. My preference is the Destroyers for their S6 long rage guns, toughness five and fast moving ability, either way make sure you keep them within 6" for the WBB synergy.

The Lord and Immortals Veiling about is always nice, but I would drop the Orb (check out my Lord with an Orb post for more details). I would also suggest getting Solar Pulse, this is a fantastic piece of wargear and with a 33.3% chance of playing night fight, it can really help out those Destroyers get a round of shooting. Nightmare shroud is another piece of wargear worth considering, especially if your enemy is not fearless!

In my 1000pt list I prefer to use up the last fast attack choice, and opt for a unit of Scarab Swarms to join a Destroyer Lord. Turbo boost the unit out for a 2+ cover save and give your enemy a distraction. Get them into cover and pop of Nightmare shroud as often as you can...

Hope this helps

Nick

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New Necron Codex Reveiw - Wraiths

Nick speaking,

Continuing on with fast attack chioces for my New Necron Codex Review, brings us nicely onto the Necron Wraiths. First thing to say about this model is don't buy the one that has the wires coming out of the bottom! Yes it looks cool, but it is a weak point and is very susceptible to being bent and broken!

Anyway, Wraiths have some nice attributes, including weapon skill six, strength six and a great 3+ invulnerable save. So what are they lacking in 5th edition? Easy, you can only have a maximum of three models in one unit! Oh, and of course they are over priced compared to current Codex's.

Wraiths could make an excellent bodyguard for a Destroyer Lord, if they had the numbers. At the moment though, that job will have to be left to Scarab Swarms, more to come on these guy's later.

So, what do we want for the Wraiths? Bigger units, lower point costs, maybe some gun upgrade options, and surely those big claws on them should be rending!

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Forge World Falcon Painted

Nick speaking,

Here is my finished Forge World Falcon Tank that I painting with my Fire Prisms...

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How Much Time Poll - Results

Nick speaking,

In my recent How much time poll I asked you how much time do you spend on painting your beloved models a week? I ran two polls together, one for people who were single, and one for people who were in a relationship/married/have children etc!

I can now reveal the results...

Single People Results:

86% Paint 1-10 hours a week

8% Paint 11-20 hours a week

2% Paint 21-30 hours a week

2% Paint 31-40 hours a week

In a Relationship results:

81% Paint 1-10 hours a week

12% Paint 11-20 hours a week

3% Paint 21-30 hours a week

3% Paint 31-40 hours a week

The results indicate that it doesn't make a great deal of difference if we are in relationships or not, most of us seem to be painting on average, up to 10 hours a week. This interests me, because at the moment I also fall in the 1-10 category, at about 7 hours a week, but I worked out that if I were single, I probably would be rack up about 25 hours?

So what do you think of the results? Anyone surprised by them?

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New Necron Codex Review - Destroyers

Nick Speaking,

So it's on to Fast Attack in this post, and first up is the Necron Destroyer. It has to be said that the Fast Attack slot is one of the most competitive choices in the current Codex along with Heavy Support. Destroyers will very often come out on top as the main Fast Attack choice due to their fast movement and sheer number of long distant shots!

Currently Destroyers are fifty points a model and come in unit sizes of three to five, with the We'll Be Back rules as they are you have to have two units within 6" to keep them coming back up. That's two Fast attack choices gone already! And of course, this senario applies to all units with WWB.

Putting the WWB rule aside for another post, What does the Necron Destroyer need from a new Codex? Like all Necrons they are currently over priced compared to the latest Codex releases, and a points reduction is the first step. I would also like to see some upgrade options! Maybe the option to upgrade every third model to a Heavy Destroyer with a unit size of up to six, or maybe nine models?

Overall the Destroyer is a great model, but does that mean it will get the nurf hammer in a new Codex?

So what do you think GW will have in store for the Destroyer?

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Forge World Fire Prisms Painted

Nick speaking,

At long last I have finished painting my Forge World Fire Prisms!

I can't wait to get them on the battle field...

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