Wednesday, March 7, 2012

The Enemy Awakens: Fighting The Necron

Art by majestic Chicken
The ancient enemy has awoken. We have been lax in our sacred duty. The Necrotyr must be stopped before they overrun the galaxy. Who would have thought that Matt Ward was secretly a Xenos lover. The Necron army has gone from a second rate old codex to a powerhouse that is winning GT's and getting savvy Lords best General awards at said GT's.
One of the biggest obstacles I have been facing with the development of my Footdar army has been the new Necron army. OST and CVinton both are whipping their robots back and fourth. The Style of army they are running I have dubbed the “Tesla Orgy”. If there is anything that really shows the age of your codex its facing up against a brand spanking new one. The Necrons got the “Ward Treatment”in their latest iteration. The amount of firepower they can lay down would make even a Imperial Guard commander blush.

This proves to be a problem. Granted its the same issue you face when marching towards any gun line, but you have some new and unique problems when facing the Necrons. At least once you extract Imperial Guard from their transports or reach their line the guardsman, although numerous, are easy to dispatch. The Necron army is different. Its like facing down an Imperial guard gun line with the Guardsman all being Space Marines. The Tesla weapons add another element. The hits really stack up once the 6's start getting rolled. High Strength combined with the ability to arc to other targets further complicates a foot list. The arcing does not happen that often, but it does add a bit of a wild card. Units sitting at 50% can find themselves under rather quickly from an arc coming from a neighboring unit. This can really through a monkey wrench in your plans at some inopportune moments.

The Necron Lord also now has a transport. Affectionately called “The Douche Canoe” The command barge gives the Necron player a mobile oppression palace that can wreck havoc in the back field of your army. The fly by attack ability combined with a war scythe put your vehicles in jeopardy as the lord gets to hit rear armor. The lord can also absorb damage done to the barge by taking a wound.

Scarabs are another annoyance that gets out of hand quickly. The entropic strike ability really puts your vehicles in danger. Given the size of the swarms people are running it is also hard to take them out quickly before they reach your lines.

The real issue is that even if you have very regimented fire discipline the amount of targets presented that are a threat is high. Be it Immortals, lords, scarabs, annihilation barges or whatever. You cant ignore targets. The real trick is prioritization of targets by proximity. This is where consistently playing Eldar for years comes in handy. You know your army and you have to think a turn or two ahead while still adjusting to battlefield conditions and changes. You may be saying “SeerK I have not been playing forever what do you mean?” I will elaborate.

Depending on the type of list you are running, Ie Mech or Foot or a mix of the two, you have to look at the set up and position of the opposing force. In this case you have to look at the ranges of the enemy weapons. Tesla weapons all have a range of 24 inches. This is a severe limitation when a Necron army is facing a mobile force like the Eldar or the Dark Eldar. The annihilation barges can get into range quickly but at the same time this leaves them exposed to your big guns, which is most certainly have a much longer range. I am finding that the ubiquitous Scatter Laser is your best friend when facing the Necron menace.

With a range of 36 inches and a strength of 6, you out range Tesla based armies, and have enough punch to wound Immortals and warriors consistently. You also kill one whole base of Scarabs with a successful wound. This is all well and good unless your opponent is being “Eldar Cheaty”, as Samsquatch Monster puts it, by using Crypteks and all of their unique abilities to hamper the enemy.
I speak first and foremost about the Solar Pulse ability. This drowns your opponent in night fight for their turn. This has been the major problem for my Footdar. Bringing fire to bear on the Necron force as it advances is much much harder when you are limited by spotting distance. This allows the Necron force to advance mostly unmolested as you cannot bring your full weight of fire. Night Spinners can overcome this as you can fire indirectly. The weight of fire is not heavy though with pair or loan night spinner though.

SO as it stands I am trying to formulate a coherent plan of attack against the ancient enemy. Strength 6 weapons with long range and highly mobile units that can make hit and run attacks on foot units while pursuing the faster units is what I have so far. I am also toying with different deployment options. Mainly infiltrating units and deep strikers to hit targets holding objectives and camping out in the back field. Old fashioned simple solutions.

Well I hope to have a battle report for this weekend after I get a game in with the newly reworked Footdar list.

Until next time.....


Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

9 comments:

  1. ... The Stormlord awakens...

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  2. I think Warp Spiders may be a good choice as they can get in and out and hit and run too, but I don't know how well they hold up for take all comers. Harlies are still a good fixture for footdar as they ignore terrain and come with their own uber nightfight. They also can screen the back line from scarabs and buy you some time. Dont' discount the Avatar either, he is still a beast and if he can catch scarabs or even Wraiths, he will do a number on them, especially if he is fortuned.

    We have only scratched the surface though as far as I am concerned. I already have Tesla Orgy locked down, so the plan from here is to try different stuff and I hope your Footdar are ready! I want to roll out my take on tremorcrons, davidblanecrons and the farm ... and if the flyers come out, the saucer circus!

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  3. Have you considered the Striking Scorpion? Armor to keep you alive. Claws to do wounds. Infiltrate to get there. Outflank to slide in from the rear...

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  4. Actually the list I used tonight has 2 squads of my favorite Aspect in it. I will have more later though as the battle went south quick. The Scorpions are pretty much the only units that did ok, taking out a c'tan shard.

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  5. Whatabout quins ? melta ,VoT, coupled with fortune and doom they could be a real pain for tha crons.

    Yup Eldar have a fair old amount of str6 I think Scarabs could be less of a problem for Eldar than some other armies.

    Have played necrons a few times now, they make my DE feel very very fragile.

    Also "Douche Canoe" made me giggle , consider it stolen, tis such a fitting name.

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    1. That's exactly what I thought. The melta is a plus as it drops Necron vehicles with the quickness being open topped and all. The harlies also ignore any terrain games the crons can play.

      I think Footdar is defined by Harlies anyway.

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  6. Harliquins and warp spiders have been very solid in my games vs. Necrons (and in general). The warp spiders aren't a fan of the tremor builds but those are ganky to start with from what I have seen. The problem with scatter lasers is that they can't touch the A13 vehicles until the shields are down and scarabs will usually get a 3+ cover save vs. them (not as likely vs. warp spiders). Wraith units also tend to hold up pretty well.

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  7. How about war walkers with twin star cannons? same range and str but better AP, I normally use them for negating the feel no pain rule that those pesk blood angels(?) have. and since every GWS employee I've asked has said two star cannons on a war walker don't count as twin linked cause its a dedicated weapons platform you can blaze away with both.

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