New Necron Codex Review - Monolith

Nick speaking,

In this New Necron Codex Review, we are going to take a look at the Necron's one and only tank, the Necron Monolith. Lets face it, the Monolith is an amazing vehicle! Armour fourteen all round, no bonus dice roll from weapons like melta, and no reduced armour from Lance weapons.

The Monolith's Power Matrix crystal not only has a nice strength nine ordnance template, but you can choose to teleport qualifying Necron models through it for an extra WWB roll! Even if you do manage to get through the armour, it's almost impossible to destroy the Power Matrix, as a weapon destroyed result just reduces the Gauss Flux arc attacks by one, and it can still be used with Crew Stunned or Shaken results!

The Monolith is also classed as a skimmer that just floats to the ground if it's immobilised, so basically you have to Wreck or Destroy it if you don't want to waste your shots!

Oh and it can deep strike!

Popular Internet wisdom is that you should ignore the Monolith and go for phase out, and they would be right! Of course, we as Necron players have to start taking advantage of this Internet advise! In forth edition I hardly used the Mono, but now in fifth edition, I don't leave home without it!

With only a 24" range the large blast isn't that great, unless you deep strike it in! I tend to give my Monolith a different mission for my army! Either to Deep Strike to contest along with my Scarabs and Destroyer Lord, or as a WWB factory at the back ranks for any downed Destroyers or Warriors.

So what is wrong with the Monolith? Well I remember when the Mono could only be hit in CC on a roll of a six regardless, and this is one big disadvantage at the moment as it can now be hit on 4+, even if it moves. So watch out for those Razorback Power fists!

I would like to see the range of the Blast template at 36", and something that makes your enemy need a six to hit it in CC again. The chances are though, that we will see a points cost drop and a rules nurf. Just look at what they did to the Eldar Falcon! After all if we are going to only have one tank choice, GW will want to start selling more of them, maybe we will end up having squadrons of Monoliths?

Or...

Will we get more tank choices in the new Necron Codex?

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Turn Five Eldar Battle Report

Nick speaking,

Turn five is usually key for my IDIC Hann, Saim-Hann styled army list. Reserving everything and going in for turn five contesting or staying out of trouble for the annihilation mission, are tried and tested Eldar trickery tactics. In this first video battle report against Blood Angels with my newly painted Eldar tanks, it was a different story...

I needed the game to go on...

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Worst Eldar Unit Poll - Results

Nick speaking,

First up, thanks to all those who voted on this poll, it was the best response on a poll I've had so far. So without further ado, here are the top voted Eldar units to get the title of Worst Eldar unit...

In Third place with 13% of the votes are 'Guardians'

In Second place with 15% of the votes are 'Support Weapons Battery'

In First place with 32% of the votes are 'Swooping Hawks'

Surprisingly, every single unit listed got at least one vote, including arguably the two best troop choices Eldar have, Jetbikes and Pathfinders! Which just goes to show, that everyone has different opinions.

Hot on the heels of the Guardians in fourth place was 'Shining Spears' followed closely by 'Storm Guardians' and 'Wraithguard'. Just below them were 'Dark Reapers' and 'Harlequins'

When you open my two Eldar cases, you will see that I have no Heavy Support Battery or Wraithguard models. The reason for this, is the Battery seems to have no place in the type of lists I go for, and thus I can understand the lack of love for this unit, and the wraithguard models are just too expensive to buy for the occasional times I will use them with their short range guns. Of course, when the next Eldar Codex comes out and we are issued with multi-part Wraithguards, it will be a different story.

Talking of new models, I have decided that my Warp Spyders will be the last thing I paint in my army, as one again, I bet they will be re-done in plastic at some point, and Judging from how many models I have to paint, that means I will not be painting the old ones at all!

So lets talk about the winner of the poll! Swooping Hawks! It's obvious why these guys got the Title of Worst Eldar unit, strength and toughness three, with a 4+ save and a below par strength three gun! Yes I think I may of voted them the worst unit as well. Although for some reason, just from my gaming experience with Eldar, my personal worse unit is Warp Spyders. I never seem to be able to get them to be worth the points, even though I know alot of people have great success with them! It's probably because they know I am never going to paint them!

Anyway, back to the Hawks.

Interestingly, the Hawks are one of my favourite models, and I am sure that before 5th edition and the multitude of mech, they probably would have been quite reasonable on the table, so with the Skyleap ability are they really that bad?

I noticed that Fritz 40k has recently done a Swooping Hawk themed army  consisting of thirty Hawkes, thirty Jetbikes, Baharroth and an Autarch. It looks very interesting and I was wondering if anyone out there is using this list or one similar that may actually be able to redeem the Swooping Hawks name?

Maybe it is time for me to use a couple of proxy models and have a go with a spammed out Hawk list!

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New Necron Codex Review - Tomb Spyders

Nick speaking,

Next up in the Necron heavy support choice to get a New Necron Codex review, is the Tomb Stalkers little brothers, the Tomb Spyders. Generally Tomb Spyders only make it into my list if I end up with a few points left over after taking all the stuff I want, but these big daddy spyders do have a few good things about them...

With only the Monolith around for all the Las and missiles to shoot at, the next obvious target is going to be your toughness six Tomb Spyders! with only a 3+ save, and no invulnerable save, they can go down pretty quick.

Taking advantage of 5th edition rules for Tomb Spyders is where Spyders are best used, and pooping out a single Scarab Swarm into cover is how you do it. Now you don't have a montrous creature that has to be 50% in cover for a 4+ cover save. You have a toughness six unit, that chooses the Scarab Swarms 2+ cover save!

On a side note, why is it that one of the rolls I can never make, is not taking a wound when pooping a Scarab! For some reason I nearly always roll a one!

Anyway, when the pooping rule gets the nurf hammer, and there is no longer a 2+ cover save from shooting. The Tomb Spyder really is not going to last that long if they stay the same, especially with only two wounds and no invulnerable save. Of course, they do have the ability to extend the distance for the WWB unit coherancy rule. This can be a great advantage if you keep them at the back between your spaced out Warriors, and behind cover, stopping your opponent from wiping out two units who would normally be standing close to each other for the WWB.

So what about these guy's in the new Codex? Will they still poop? How about if they pooped a random amount of Scarabs like the Tyranid Tervigon?  Or had more wounds? Maybe they will get some linked in rules with the Tomb Stalkers to beef them up? Will they change the Spyder enough for a Tomb Spyder spam list?

What do you think?

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Tyranid Turn Two Win!

Nick speaking,

So I turn up at my mates house for our usual weekly game, having chosen to take my Tyranid Stinger Fleet to face off with his Blood Angels. We set up the terrain and roll for the mission, getting Seize Ground with three objectives and Pitched deployment. I win the roll off and take first turn just as I had planned to...

With two of the three objectives placed on the left side of the board near me, I lined up my two twenty strong poisoned Hormagaunt broods, with the Swarmlord and Tyrant Gaurds between them. I then Lined up a row of  Ripper Swarms at the front, to help the Gaunts with cover saves. I keep the Deathleaper and The Doom of Malan'tai with Mycetic Spore in reserve. I also hold back three broods of Genestealers for the flank, and start looking for a nice secret deployment place for my brood of Ymgarl Genestealers...

I am looking to give the impression that I am trying to hold on to the objectives! In reality I am trying to bait the BA's towards me and the table edge to the left. With the Swardlords 'Alien Cunning' re-roll the flank rule, I can pretty much guarantee the side they come on from...

Blood Angels set up a Heavy Support Missile squad in the middle back area of the board in terrain, along with a Whirlwind, one troops unit and Mephiston around them. BA hold back two five man TH/SS Terminator units for deep striking and two drop pods. One of the drop pods with ten troops and a Teleport beacon to come down on turn one, and the other one with nine Vanguard Veterans in. These are the very same veterans, that wiped out my Seer Council the week before with there 2+ poisoned guns! BA finish off by infiltrating a unit of Scout bikes.

After deployment I roll a six for the Deathleapers 'It's after me!' rule and reduce Methiston's leadership down to seven. I then note down on a piece of paper, the terrain on the right hand side of the board for my Yngarl Stealers to lay dormant. I planned for them to start working on the back ranks when they arrived.

On turn one, Blood Angels fail to seize the initiative and I don't have a lot to do except start to move forward a bit, so that there is some room and cover for when the rest of my army comes on in turn two.

In BA turn two, the Troop drop pod comes down right in the middle of the board, getting ready with the teleport beacon, and the Scout bikes move to the centre ready to shoot my right side Gaunts. Mephiston throws a double six for his move like a Jump psychic test and takes a Perils wound. Everything shoots at the right side Gaunts, but with cover saves from the Rippers I still have about ten left...

On my turn two, everything comes in from reserve except for one brood of Genestealers. Deathleaper deploys on the right side in terrain for the distraction, Doomies Mycetic spore lands next to the group at the back, and Ymgarl Stealers pop their heads up with one unit of Stealers flanking in behind them for support. The other Stealers flank in behind the gaunts on the left, and Swarmlord gives the ten Gaunts furious charge to make a play towards the bike squad.

Doomey uses his Spirit Leech and sucks the brains out of the troops leaving only one power fist guy left. He also reduces the missile guys down to two launchers, and with his LD of seven, Mephiston is downed after throwing a LD roll of fifteen! My Ygnarl Stealers head out and assault the drop pod troop unit, wiping them out, and the ten Gaunts take down the bikes to just one model.

BA reserves sees the other drop pod and one Termy unit come out in turn two. The Vanguard drop pod comes down on the left side of the board, loading up their guns, and the Termies come down behind my lines on the left, but with the teleport beacon gone, the Termies scatter right into my troops and throw the re-deployed next turn result on the mishap table...

At this point my opponent is starting to get a bit frustrated. When it comes to the BA shooting phase, Doomey sticks his hand up for some more Spirit Leech, and takes out the last BA Power Fist guy!

With no Troops left, Blood Angels concedes for a turn two win!

Of course he could have carried on for the draw, but it was easy to see what was going to happen. Vanguard were going to shoot out either the Gaunts or Stealers on the left with their special no cover save bullets, only to be hit back by the last flanking Stealers. From then on I would of had enough troops to have at least claimed one objective, whilst the rest of my army held up the last Terminators when they came in...

All in all, Doom of Malan'tai and Deathleaper make an awesome double act...

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Necron Tomb Stalker - First Battle Report

Nick speaking,

After waiting so long for something new for Necrons, playing my first test game with the Necron Tomb Stalker was pretty exciting. So exciting in fact, that it seemed to have an effect on my gaming ability...

The Tomb stalker does exactly what you would expect it to do on the table, as long as you accept that in most games it will die! It does make a fantastic distraction unit that also can do some damage, giving your other units (Warriors) some breathing space. Necrons now have a nice new toy to play with, and I am looking forward to a few more games with it sometime soon...

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Necron Tomb Stalker Ideas

Nick speaking,

With my Tomb Stalker model ready, it was time to re-arrange one of my army lists for it to fit into. After alot of deliberation, I decided that the Stalker would best fit the Capstone list, but how to get him in it?

The Capstone list is basically thirty Warriors, Lord and Scarabs, Deceiver, Monolith and two lots of four Destroyers. With a tweak on the Lords Wargear and dropping a unit of Warriors, I can free up 195pts for the Tomb Stalker...

Of course before I invest in the Forge World model, I need to test it out! Luckily my gaming buddies are happy to be guinea pigs and let me use a proxy model!

Obviously, I will have to be extra careful with only two units of Warriors on the table, but I have found that if there are enough distractions around, two units can do the job nicely, and I am hoping the Tomb Stalker will be enough of a distraction to compensate the loss of the Warriors?

Time to test it out, battle reports to follow...

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Bringing the broods to life - Genestealers

Nick speaking,

Introducing the next Stinger Fleet brood to come to life ...

Next up, my first Stinger Fleet Mycetic Spore...

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New Necron Codex Review - Heavy Destroyers

Nick speaking,

The first Heavy Support choice I want to take a look at for a New Necron Codex Review, is the Heavy Destroyer. At 65 points a model and only three in a unit these guy's seem to fail in so many areas, despite their S9 AP2 guns, but it wasn't always like that...

In 4th edition, I would very often take Heavy Destroyers with great success. The amount of tanks on the table was minimal compared to these days, and Heavy Destroyers were ideal for taking out a few tanks at long range, especially with the vehicle damage chart as it was. So what did 5th edition do to them to make them so bad?

With a 33.3% chance of rolling the kill point mission, this is the biggest fail for them. With only three models in a unit they are an easy target, and when all three are downed there is no WWB roll, unless you spend another 195 points for a second vulnerable unit! Couple that with the not so good for Necrons new vehicle damage chart, and it's hard to see why these would end up in any competitive list?

Obviously there has to be a points reduction somewhere for this unit. I have already talked about the idea of being able to upgrade every third Destroyer in a standard Destroyer unit to a Heavy Destroyer! So does this mean that we can actually get rid of Heavy Destroyers from the Heavy Support section totally? Maybe making way for new more exciting and playable units like the Tomb Stalker?

So what do you think will happen? Points reduction? Bigger units? Better guns with more shots and AP1? Or just get rid of them totally?

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Fritz's 750pts Challenge!

Nick speaking,

Fritz 40k wrote:

"So what is the 750 point challenge? Right…

Write up a 750 army list and send me a battle report to post on up here at the blog. Send me those armies lists with your thoughts on the how, what, why you are thinking at 750 points. Pictures, pictures, pictures or it didn’t happen!"

I have played many games at about 800 point before, but I have only ever played 1750 points with The IDIC Harlequins! My Harlequins were totally inspired by Fritz and his PDF, so much so, that the PDF made me go out and buy any models I could get my hands on, so that I could start fielding an army as quickly as possible. So with that said, I will happily take on Fritz's challenge, and make it my own personal challenge for my Harlequins...

First up, my list:

1x Farseer (Doom/Fortune/Spirit Stone) (130)

5x Pathfinders Rangers (120)

5x Pathfinders Rangers (120)

8x Harlequins (kisses/Jester/Fusion Pistol/Shadowseer) (222)

1x Wraithlord (B.Lance+EML) (155)

747 Points

My aim was to keep the army working together in much the same way as it had to in bigger games. First I had to lose Eldrad! Dropping down to a basic Farseer was inevitable, but I felt that I had to keep the Spirit Stone with Doom and Fortune to give the army any chance. Who knows what I would be up against, and being able to use both powers was going to be key.

Next was Troops, and I only had Rangers or Pathfinder Rangers to choose between. I new from past experience that I wanted the Pathfinders, somehow I think that the 2+ cover save will be even more important in a smaller game than ever. I know I could take normal Rangers and go to ground for the 2+, but I need these guys to be shooting and pinning every turn.

Obviously the Harlequins had to be in the list, and I put in the usual trickery models. Shadowseer for Veil of Tears, Death Jester for his mid range strength six/pinning shots, and one Fusion Pistol just in case a tank rolls up next to them. Of course, the Harlequin kisses were also going to be essential to help in the assault.

Last but not least, the Wraithlord is in there for the long range de-meching/pinning shots, and to help out the Harlequins in the counter assault.

The IDIC Harlequins master Jedi plan in objective missions will be to park one unit of Pathfinders on an objective, with the Harlequins and Wraithlord nearby to de-mech and counter assault. The Farseer joins the Pathfinders and does what she does best with Doom and Fortune, whilst the other Pathfinder squad flanks/reserves depending on the situation. When the time is right the Harlequins will move out and assault, hit and run and contest any objectives. Annihilation tactics are pretty similar except I will hold back everything and just pick of the kill points.

Game One: IDIC Harlequins Vs Blood Angels

The roll off gives us Annihilation/Pitched battle, and I end up winning first turn. I deploy the Farseer and Pathfinders on the right, backed up by the Harlequins and Wraithlord, all in terrain. I then decide to deploy the other Pathfinders in terrain on the left to try and syphon off any incoming units. I needed to stop the whole of the BA force coming at me all at once, after all I only had one unit of Harlequins!

BA deployment sees a Razorback deploy loaded with five Vanguard Veterans, and a unit of scouts infiltrate in the centre of the board with some sort of teleport beacon! They keep two Jump Pack squads and a Chaplain in reserve

On turn one I Fortune the Wraithlord and Doom his Scouts, I know the Scouts will make light work of the Wraithlord with their auto wounds on 4+. Death Jester, and both Pathfinders shoot at the scouts and take out half of them, even with them going to ground, giving the Wraithlord some breathing space. Wraithlord shoots at the distant Razor and fails to hit. BA moves the Razorback at some crazy top speed and pops smoke next to the pathfinders on the left, and the scouts stand back up.

With the Vanguard ready to pop out and shoot next turn, turn two sees me fortune the Harlequins. Wraithlord immobilises the Razorback and destroys the heavy bolter, whilst the rest of my army shoot at the scouts, leaving only the teleport guy left standing. All of the BA reserves come on in turn two and both Jump Pack units and chaplain deploy next to the teleport guy about 12" in front of me. Vanguard get out and go for the easy target Pathfinders on the left, wiping them out, but splitting there forces. One kill point for the Blood Angels.

 

In turn three I have to make a choice with the Harlequins, I use Doom and Fortune and go for the the Jump pack Chaplain unit shooting my guns in before the assault. the Farseer and Pathfinder look to be in trouble from the other Jump pack unit as they shoot out the last Scout for the kill point. Wraithlord pounds the Razorback wrecking it for another kill point.

Harlequins takes out the Jump pack guys in the assault and stay locked in combat with the Chaplain with one wound left. Perfect, now my Harlequins can't be shot at.

In BA turn three the Vanguard get thrown into the Harlequins to help out the Chaplain, but my Harlequins wipe them and the Chaplain out. My Farseer uses his Jedi powers and the Jump pack squad fail the rough terrain test to assault the Pathfinders with a double one! Five kill points to me...

In my turn four, the Harlequins move over and wipe out the last Jump Pack squad. Game ends with a total wipe out.

Conclusion:

Sending the Vanguards into to the Harleqiuns was the BA main mistake, they had a good chance to take out the Wraithlord with their 2+ poisoned guns and then force me to choose who to assault next turn. Of course if the Jump pack guy's had passed their rough terrain test it could have been a different story...

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IDIC Eldar Shuriken Cannon Jetbike Conversion

Nick speaking,

When you go to buy your Eldar jetbikes you get a choice, either get the expensive standard Jetbike, or the very expensive Shrieker Jetbike? The standard Jetbike comes with the normal catapults and the Shrieker bike comes with a Shuriken Cannon. In my opinion, the jetbike should come with all the bits to make both versions as standard, but of course it doesn't.

Even so, I also find it a bit odd that the Shrieker model has the Cannon on the side of the bike! Surely it would be better weighted in the middle somewhere? It seems like it must be time to start converting...

I have seen a few Cannon conversions around, but most of them are based on keeping the original Catapults. I have two reasons for not keeping the Catapults. Mainly, so that I could use the Cats for my Seer Council Conversions, but also because the Cannons are suppose to be an upgrade and just wouldn't be there!

So this is how I did my version...

First up, build your Jetbike as normal but leave off the Shuriken Catapult. All you have to do is cut off the pole where the Catapult would normally sit, and the sticky out bit that would have gone over the Catapult. It should end up looking something like this...

Next, find a Shuriken Cannon from your bitz box or get a cheap one from eBay....

I simply cut off the top loop as this is not needed, and trimmed the bottom circle off to make it look like part of the gun...

You will also have to gently re-shape the top back section of the gun so that it fits snugly into position...

Now just put some green stuff in the gaps and your done...

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