Switching Gears

I remember after playing my first few games of 40K with my friend LaMonte that I noted "Marines were great but they seemed to lack something".  We often played with/against a friend of LaMonte's who had a pretty sizeable and very deadly Tau army.  We were still total n00bs but I learned the hard way about ranged weapons that would bypass my armor.

After finishing one of our games, we got to talking about all the other armies in 40K.  Rodney (our Tau buddy) brought up Necrons and how frustrating it could be to unload everything and still have them survive and stand right back up.  My interest was piqued.

Back then they still had their old codex with something like 8 entries.  People treated the Pariahs like...pariahs.  Nobody took Flayed Ones.  It was all Warriors, Monoliths, and Destroyers...with Immortals, Wraiths, and Destroyers for flavor.  (Oh yeah...and there were these star gods you could use as well...)  Still, the army looked cool.  For a novice painter, it was a dream come true.  Dry brush metal.  Hit a shoulder pads with some color.  Get awesome translucent rods for your guns to boot!


My how the Necrons have changed over the last 7 years.  They were unofficially my 2nd army and I remember always getting excited when I was able to add a new unit to the mix.  They've always been a very fun army to play and despite the changes to the fluff, I still find myself going back to them often for tournaments.

I'm rambling...so right, the point of the post!  I have been toying with all manner of armies but found myself wanting to play something different that could be fun.  Necrons are far from unpopular, but they seem to have been lost in a sea of Mongolian Spess Mahrinz, Pointy Eared Sissies, and Communist Fish.  Necrons are the original (lol and technically "only") decurion formation.  The one that started a lot of this formation madness!  But what about a different take on them?

As you may have guessed, I am really interested in using a C'Tan to see if I can use him well.  In general everybody thinks that the C'Tan shards are garbage due to their slow movement speed and inability to pick their powers (it is random every time you shoot...and you have to choose what you are shooting even before you shoot said weapon).  But I came across the Conclave of the Burning One formation from the Blood Angel campaign book.  It is pretty simple and it seemingly helps to solve some of the problems the C'Tan shard will suffer.  Hrmmm, I guess this is the list I am thinking of using:

Speak Softly, Carry a Big Voidreaper

Combined Arms Detachment - Necrons
HQ - Destroyer Lord (Phase Shifter, Resurrection Orb, Voidreaper, Warlord) - 190 points
HQ - Orikan the Diviner - 120 points
Troop - 5x Immortals - 85 points
Troop - 5x Immortals - 85 points
Troop - 5x Immortals - 85 points
Elite - 9x Lichguard (Hyperphase Sword, Dispersion Shield)

Formation - Canoptek Harvest
Heavy Support - Canoptek Spyder (Gloom Prism) - 60 points
Fast Attack - 6x Canoptek Wraiths (Whip Coils x3) - 249 points
Fast Attack - 3x Canoptek Scarabs - 60 points

Formation - Conclave of the Burning One
Elite - C'Tan Shard of the Nightbringer - 240 points
HQ - Cryptek (The Veil of Darkness) - 90 points
HQ - Cryptek (The Solar Staff, The God Shackle, Phase Shifter) - 115 points

So right off the bat this list screams assault.  I kept playing with lists that utilized the Decurion but mostly I found them to be a tax that didn't really help synergize with the rest of my army.  I did get a +1 to my Reanimation Protocols but nothing really seemed scary.  To make matters worse, I didn't even have ObSec to help me with objective based missions.

The one thing I really wanted from the Decurion was the ability to field the Canoptek Harvest.  Even then, sometimes I thought that the Scarabs and Spyders were a bit of a tax.  But I realized that I could start to somewhat create a small Scarab Farm that would be really useful if I faced Battle Company lists and their assortment of vehicles.  Plus in this case, the Gloom Prism gives me a slightly better chance at denying some horrific Psychic power.  The Wraiths are pretty straight forward.  They're fast.  They get in your face.  They cause a real big stink, especially with Reanimation Protocols enabled.  I always ran them with a Destroyer Lord when possible and this time would be no different.  I did sacrifice a 2+ save in favor of the Voidreaper among other things.  Still digging the list.

So cool.  The whole idea of the Conclave formation is it forms a bit of a mini-deathstar.  By taking a God Shackle, I effectively remove the pain of small arms fire (though admittedly Eldar still laugh with their Rending-Lite attacks).  But suddenly gaining FNP also helps me weather some of that.  Not to mention going from 4 wounds to a whopping 8 wounds total.  I had thought about taking the Transcendent C'Tan but just found that Gaze of Death was too good to pass up.  Additionally, I gave one of my Crypteks the one off Veil of Darkness to help me with those aforementioned mobility issues.  If my opponents hide in their corner, "Surprize!  Butsekz!" may happen.

Okay.  So we have the Conclave acting as a deathstar.  We have the classic wraith mini-deathstar (really more of a really assaulty unit).  Do we need another?

Sure!  Why not!?

So with that in mind I decided to finally take some Lichguard with the sword n' board load out.  I originally had 10 but opted to eliminate one to help me better utilize some points.  By themselves, they are pretty hardy but I knew I wanted something else to help them.  Then along comes Mr. Orikan the Enabler.  Suddenly, these guys are next level good.  Their Reanimation Protocols go to 4+.  They re-roll failed saves of 1 (which is great considering they have a 3+/3++).  They are the anvil I will slowly march forward into my opponent's deployment zone.  They don't have great tools to deal with 2+ saves, but that is what the Wraiths and C'Tan are there to help with.  What's that you say?  Mr. Orikan has been training with Goku?

He sure has!  He may be a little shy but all it takes is that one roll and he goes super saiyan without needing to take a Perils of the Warp to activate it.  Plus now it is permanent for the rest of the game!

Though they may seem like a tax, I actually really like the Immortals I took in the list.  I had actually considered dropping stuff to perhaps try and fit 2 Night Scythes in (as it helps patch some of my aerial weaknesses and gives me rides to boot).  But for now I'm just gonna stick with the 3 squads of *OBSEC* units.

Pros: 
This list is basically a bunch of assaulty goodness.  It is relatively slow moving but has some tricks to get up the board.  Necrons are survivable as hell and have the ability to put the hurt on a lot of things.  This list even lets me have some ObSec units that normally would not have that ability in a Decurion.

Cons: 
Super low model count.  Pretty slow movement.  Generally ranged or template D could cause a problem.  Stomps could cause a problem (luckily nothing can stomp per the event rules).  There is next to no shooting in the list outside of some Immortals and the unreliable C'Tan powers.  Of course, Psykers may also do a number on them.

I definitely plan to playtest this.  About the only unit I need is a model for Orikan but I have a little over a month to get him, assemble him, and then paint him up.  I can easily proxy something for him in the mean time.  I am in the middle of stripping and repainting my Necrons but the scheme should be easy to carry out.

I hope to get a game in this week and give it a go against the practice mission Steve put up over on the  BeakyCon6 blog.