Fighting The Necron: Second Look at Eldar Units

Its been a busy week. Its been very very warm in Michigan this week, especially for March. Between the nice weather and car repairs its been tough to sit down and write. I have been contemplating the Eldar this week though. Contemplating how the fit into the new meta. Or I should say how they fit into the new meta now that Necrons have stormed the field once again. Old School Terminator and CVinton have been converted. They have been running rampant with their respective Armies of soulless killing machines for well over 2 months now. I have gotten in about 6 games against the Necron Codex and have lost every one. I am not ashamed to admit it. It has been a very good learning experience though.

I have been forced to really go through the Eldar codex and take a second look at units. Mainly units that have the capability of chasing down Command Barges and Night Scythes. I also have to balance the list out with units that can take down squads of immortals with little trouble. I am trying a different approach now. Units that have gone by the wayside have once again come to the forefront. It just goes to prove my point that you can know your army in and out, but you should always re read the codex. New situations and uses for units will always pop into your head.

Case in point I was faced with a modified, some would say meaner, version of CVintons “Tesla Orgy” when we played this past Friday at another local store, The Fortress. I broke out a very specialty unit for this battle. One that Eldar players oft overlook. In fact I seldom if ever use the red headed step child of Aspect Warriors. The Shining Spears. I took a hard look at all the units in the codex and the Spears kind of stuck out. Although their laser lances are very short range, they are strength 6 and a lance weapon. The Exarch can also pack a Star Lance which is strength 8 lance weapon. Given the Shining spears mobility and ability to hit and run. They make ideal Command Barge hunters.

In the game in question the Spears Acquitted themselves very well. Destroying a command barge on Turn one and then hunting down the Lord like a dog. Sadly due to the small unit size casualties were high. The Exarch, however, was on fire as he was the only member to live for most of the game. He claimed both command Barges and a Lord.

Another favorite Aspect of mine is the Swooping Hawks. They made a go at one of the Command Barges as well and were able to destroy its Tesla weapon before it ran off into the welcoming arms of the Shining Spear Exarch. I needed to run a bigger squad though. The intercept ability along with haywire grenades make them ideal for hunting fast vehicles and fast skimmers. You just have to be careful as they have a tendency to draw fire and they are fairly lightly armored. I only ran 6 in the squad and I should have run 8 maybe 10.

I don't know why I have not been running Dark reapers enmasse in the backfield. They are classic “Marine killers” and when you have a Farseer guiding and dooming they can wipe out heavy targets pretty quickly. Again I should have run more than one squad. The single squad was able to punish the immortal squads, despite the solar pulse being used on 2 turns. In fact the Solar pulse was the only thing really keeping all 3 Immortal squads alive, that and me only running 1 squad of Reapers. The squad was also able to clean up the scarab farm after a nice cleansing in the form of twin destructors from Eldrads Warlock retinue.

I am starting to see the value in running Pathfinders as my troop choices. Its a rare thing anymore where fluff actually points to an efficient army. Alaitoc Craftworld has been hunting down tomb worlds for thousands of years. They are the last of the Eldar that still remember their duty to the old ones. I may be starting up a second Craftworld soon. Running lots of Pathfinders and Rangers. The 2 squads I ran were able to get most of the Necron army in a nice big field of overlapping fire. Although they are more expensive than Dire Avengers and guardians, their shooting ability and range is better and they can deploy pretty much anywhere, giving you the ability to hold objectives effectively. Since pathfinders can potentially have a 2+ cover save they are very hard to get rid of without dedicating a ton of shooting. Even so they out range most other units. They are effective at taking out normal infantry and monstrous creatures.

So now I go to refine the list. With all this work going into dealing with the Necrons you may think its a massive amount of list tailoring on my part. It is actually, but any army I bring that is effective against the Necrons I think will also be very effective against any other army as well. Also my justification for tailoring is this. Although its nice having an all comers list, Eldar are a very specialized force and with the age of the codex showing, a bit of tailoring to the meta is very much needed to roll with all the new kids on the block.

So more on the list development as it happens. I will be announcing the official date and posting missions for the “Test Of Khaine” tournament in the coming week. I will also be hopefulling continuing my old series “The Foundations Of Vengeance” on Dark Future Games.

Until next time..........

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

The Stormlord vs BigMek SkrapKlaw

True to form, the Orks confounded Imhotek, and sent the Necrons back to the junk heap.

Ok, first disclaimer, I'm writing this blog post off of the Blogger iPhone app, and I don't have all the nifty formatting controls.

Secondly, due to school and breaking my ankle, I have been off the grid for quite some time. Now, with SeerK going thru hobby malaise, I totally sympathize, and I've personally been struggling to get back on that horse for a while now. Well, thanks to BigMek, I've cleared off the cobwebs and played my first game with the new Necron codex.

I pretty much took a whole lot of new units to test out, paying little attention to actual army cohesion. After taking everything I wanted, I still had about 1000 points left. That was the first shocker. The point costs were shifted and I didn't feel so out gunned.

My army consisted of:
Imhotek
5 Deathmarks
24 Immortals with Tesla
2 Monoliths
4 Tomb Blades with Tesla, Shields, and enhanced BS
6 Scarabs
5 Lychguard with Sword and Shield
1 Triarch Stalker
1 Annihilation Barge

I was just a shade under 1850. Lots of new stuff to try out.

I'm afraid I don't know the ork army well enough to give BigMek's deployment. Feel free to add it in, BigMek.

For this battle, we were fighting for 4 objectives, spearhead deployment. The Stormlord kept night fighting going for all but the last round. I suggest using this power, the lightning ended up impairing two of his vehicles, and destroyed some weaponry off of them.

I jumped on the tesla bandwagon for this fight too. I must say, it is nice. However, for a vehicle heavy army like BigMek's I certainly missed the gauss weaponry. After the game BigMek suggested that I should have swapped the Tomb Blades to TL gauss, and used them to turbo boost and take out the rear armor. I totally agree with him. Tesla is anti troop, and doesn't have much teeth against vehicles.

The Triarch stalker was the MIP for me. The tesla destructor was harsh, and the targeting array made a TL array of death over a squad of nobs and a vehicle.

I never got a chance to try out the scarabs, BigMek's coptas chewed them up first thing. The Death marks never hit the board either. I have the worst luck with reserves, and I didn't read the new monolith rules well enough to think to have them come out there. Next time.

Speaking of monoliths, they are a solid unit still. The particle whip did its thing like normal, and sucking Orks into the portal did the most damage to BigMek's army. They will continue to be in the army list.

The annihilation barge was good too, but it didn't really get to cut its teeth.

I scooped after BigMek squashed the last squad of immortals. I could have continued to round 5, but having no troops to hold the objectives, I didn't see the point.

You have won this round BigMek, but I want a rematch.


-Stormlord

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Necrons Awaken!: SeerK's Thoughts On The New Codex

I am writing this live from Evolution Games.  I have in my hands the New Necron Codex.  Although there will be buzz around the net like crazy for weeks to come I wanted to add my two cents before The Strormlord Hijacked the blog and went to town on the new codex.  Where to begin.

I have to say it was a major overhaul.  Previously Necron players were faced with very limited choices, especially in the troops department.  Now Immortals are in the troops slot alongside warriors.  The other slots have expanded like crazy.  So here are my top 5 choices of my favorite additions.

First lets get to the one that may seem benign, but will play a part in strategy for Eldar and Grey Knight Players.  Tomb Spiders, or Canoptek Spyders as they are called now, work slightly differently.  They ass a base of scarabs to an existing unit and, much like the Tervigon, will cease to produce swarms with a roll of a 1.  It also has a vehicle repair ability much like the Ork MeK.  Weapon destroyed and Immobilized results can be repaired on a roll of 4+ thanks to the addition of a Fabricator Claw Array for 10 points.  The real bump out of left field though is the Gloom Prism upgrade.  Psychic powers that target the Tomb Spyders or a unit within 3" may be nullified on a 4+.  So basically you have a defensive psychic hood.  Offensive powers or powers like Doom can be nullified as long as they target the unit.  I can see some arguments arising over the wording on this.

The next bit involves a unit that should have been cool in the last codex but kind of rode the fail boat. Wraiths.  These guys have been beefed up.  They now sport a 3+ invo save, are jump infantry, they automatically pass dangerous terrain tests and ignore difficult terrain.  They are also 2 wounds now and have the rending rule.They are only I2 now, but you can take more than 3 in a unit now.  It has doubled to 6 in the unit.  Add in the fact they now have Lash Whips, whip coils, and you have a pretty effective unit.

Number three is the Entropic Strike rule.  Any unsaved wounds caused by a weapon with this rule cause the model that took the hits to loose its armor save for the rest of the game.  Any hits inflicted on vehicle cause it to loose a point of armor on a roll of a 4+.  So basically units like Canoptek Scarabs can just fly into a vehicle and eat it.  Anybody who says this codex does not have enough anti tank is a damn fool.  There is plenty of anti tank to go around besides this little treat.  A full unit of scarabs is 10 bases.  Thats 50 attacks on the charge.  I am not a math guy but that sounds scary.  somebody good at mathhammer calculate 50 attacks hitting then also "wounding" on a 4+

The next favorite is a new unit.  The Triarch Stalkers.  So we have a nice walker with living metal, move thru cover and quantum sheilding.  Not only that but is has a heavy 2 multi melta.  He can also tag a unit, marker light style, when he hits a unit and all other units shooting at it count as twin linked.  This is a nice elites choice, although Necron players are now faced with several choices in each slot so I see some major decision making, but also major flexibility with the the codex.

The last of the top 5 is another new unit.  The Night Scythe.  This supersonic transport can carry 15 models.  It can also carry jump infantry ( counts as 2 models) and jetbikes ( counts as 3 models).  So you can actually carry a unit fo 5 jetbikes in this thing.  Necrons now have a Jetbike unit, Tomb Blades, which look to be able to really cause some trouble.  On a side not the Tomb Blades have an upgrade which boosts their BS to 5.  Can anybody say Eldar Crystal Targeting Matrix.


There is a ton of stuff i want to talk about, but I want the Stormlord to have first dibs.  I now leave you to prepare for the End of Days tournament.  I have a list to hammer the kinks out of.  I will post the results tomorrow after Vogrin and I win.


Until then...........



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


WAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mother Of God: The Necrons Awaken

Well kids the Necrons have gone up on the GW site for pre order and we have a nice view of some of the new stuff, some limited rules included.  I have to say I am impressed and a little scarred.  I will let the Stormlord give the break down on everything once he stops drulling and doing the robot happy dance.

I have noticed a couple things though and I have to say I am a bit jealous.  I am noticing a pretty good amount of AP 1 and 2 in this codex.  The big enchilada being the strength 9 AP 1 large blast from the Doomsday cannon on the Doomsday Arc.  Keep those storm shields handy Mon-keigh.

The Death marks are also pretty slick.  They can deep strike in your opponents turn when one of their deep striking units arrive.  When they mark the unit all Deathmark units will wound them on a 2+ in close combat and shooting.  Note the Deathmarks have sniper rifles.

C'Tan are now able to be customized and the selection of Named lords is very nice.  So yeah I will be picking up a codex and plotting with The Stormlord.

I would also like to announce a new author on the Craftworld.  Given I have not been able to write or work on my back burner Ork project, I have invited BigMek SkrapKlaw to give a proper orky perspective on things.  He iz Da Big Boss and I iz only un uf da boyz.  SO welcome him and look for Orky articles and musings in the future.


Until next time..............

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

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More Necron Leaks

Well I would love to say I found these, but Fritz40K had them up today.  More leaked pics and point costs.  The Stormlord will have a bunch more once he gets his cold metal hands on the codex, Hopefully this weekend if the black boxes and pre release stuff hits the shops.  So first some point costs.

Necron Lord @ 45 points

- Necron Cryptek @ 35 points and 55 points (depending on wargear no doubt)

- Lychguard @ 40 points...however, one squad of 5 was +25 points more expensive...could be that the shield option is +5 points.

- Deathmarks @ 19 points...not that bad, actually.

- Flayed Ones @ 13 points (and no mention at all of the "Fearsome Visage" rule or something they used to have)

- Warriors @ 13 points

- Ghost Ark @ 115 points

- Immortals @ 17 points regardless of weapon

- Scarabs @ 15 points per base

- Destroyers @ 40 points

- Heavy Destroyers @ 60 points

 

 

I see some changes but nothing to extreme.  Apparantly scarab swarms are clocking in at 15 points a base to.  Given the rumors of what they can do thats pretty cheap.  SO here a a couple of codex shots to wet your whistle as well.  I am not sure how I feel about them yet.

The Doomsday Ark is an oddity to me.  It has an excellent mix of weapons and the shielding makes it a rough target combined with what living metal is going to probably do.  I feel jipped I have to pay for flicker fields on my transports.

This personal transport of doom is also a departure from the 40K usual.  The whole sweep attack rule is pretty scary.  At its face value it it seems not to bad, but I see some issues.  granted it is carrying a lord all by himself, but its an ablative vehicle rather than a wound for a lord. 
So there are some tidbits.  This codex is going to be scary.  Matt Ward has given it the usual treatment.  granted I am glad its on a Xenos codex rather than a dirty Imperial one.  Still this is going to be rough.  I think Necron players are kind of due though.



Until next time......

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

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Necron players, don't fall for this BS!

Sorry Stormlord I had to add this - SeerK

Necron Megalith

When I was out at the shop the other day, another one of the Necron players was all excited and showed me this video about the new Necron Megalith.

After doing a very brief search (took me about 2 seconds of digging....) I found out that this was an April fool's joke. So, despite all the current hype about the new Necron Codex and models, this is absolute BS.

Just goes to prove, don't believe everything you encounter out there. GW is keeping the Necrons tightly under wraps (which I think is a really bad idea...) so we will NOT know ANYTHING for SURE until the codex is published..

-Stormlord

Something Ancient This Way Comes: New Necron Pics

Well since the Storm Lord is busy with school I thought I would post some of the new leaked pics of the Necrons coming out in November.  I have to say they look pretty decent and have that new feel, but really retain the feel of the old models.

So here they are

So what is your opinion.  I really like the new transports.  They have a deathly feel about them.

Well next time I will have a battle report involving the Webway list bumped up to 3 portals Vs Boss Skrap Klaw and his Boyz.  It was quite the slug feast and despite the fact I did not like the performance of the Archon and Trueborns, the third portal was a very nice addition that added some good tactical flexability.


Until next time.............



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

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please allow me to introduce myself...

Greetings all, I am the StormLord, the third member of the Seer Council.  Unlike Seven and Seer Karandras, I am not an Eldar player.  My preferred army is Necrons.  Yes, you heard correctly.  Even before all the rumors started circulating, I had a metallic army waging war against the Imperium. 

I still consider myself somewhat of a 40K n00b, as I only just got back into the hobby within the past year and a half.  Back in the ancient days, I used to match my Tyranid army against SeerK's budding Eldar.  After taking a 12 year hiatus from 40K, I am back in the fold.  I never quit war gaming during that time, as I have a massive Fantasy Bretonnian army, and 4 others. Various other war games like Mage Knight, HeroClix, Axis and Allies, and Battletech pepper my experience, and give it a different flavor and perspective from your traditional 40K player.

I also run my own blog, Chaos Kingdoms.  Primarily I will keep this as a modeling/war gaming blog with a definite focus on WFB, and my 40K contributions will be kept here. You can check out my last game against SeerK's Dark Eldar here.


Later today I will post my review of the DFG tournament at Game Links. I faced 3 fantastic opponents, but all 3 were Space Marines...

I believe the WH40K Xeno players need to stick together. All this Space Marine cheese and the Imperium of man needs to fall. The Xenos are coming...

The War in Heaven: A Campaign In The Making

With the impending release of IA 11 and the revelation IA 12 will be Dark Eldar, Meatban, from March of The Machines, and I have been talking about doing a massive apocalypse game in the future. I have also started planning a campaign that will usher in the new Necron codex. I am talking of course about the awakening of a Tomb world and the Eldar going in to stop it. Granted this probably won't happen until this fall, but we have been talking about kicking off a new chapter in a battle that has raged in the 40K universe since..... well since the beginning. The War in Heaven.

I have always been a major fluff guy. The direction the GW designers and wordsmiths have been taking the universe really agrees with me. The Imperium is teetering on the brink of destruction. The enemies of man are numerous and gaining ground. Signs and portents that the end times are nigh are unheeded. An ancient and malevolent enemy is waking to take its place at the top of the food chain once again. It really makes fro some good drama and great campaign fodder.

So what is the war in heaven you may ask? Millions of years ago the old ones ruled the galaxy thanks to their intelligence and technology. The fostered young races and built the webway. The Necrotyr were also an ancient race, but slower to advance because they were a dying race right out of the gate because of their sun. They were jealous of the Old ones. Enter the C'Tan. The Necrotyr discovered the reason why their sun was dying. A being of pure energy was feeding on it. It was a C'Tan, In fact it was The Night Bringer. Somehow they made contact and then brought it into the physical world. They then set out to destroy the old ones. This started what is known in the mythology of the Eldar as the war in heaven. Some of the Eldar Gods of old were real and some were warp beings much like the gods of chaos, in fact Khaine was an aspect of Khorne in the Rouge Trader days.

Regardless the Necrotyr raged across the galaxy with their C'Tan masters and wiped out all the life they found. After warring among themselves the C'Tan and their Necron servants went to sleep and slumbered for over a million years. The legend of the Ygnir, what the Eldar called the C'Tan, grew and was largely relegated to legend. Now they awaken. The 4 remaining C'Tan are alive and operating, except for the Void Dragon who is imprisoned on mars. He is the real reason man has technology. So the Necrotyr awaken to retake a galaxy they scoured of life. The Imperium is ill equipped to deal with the threat and the Eldar are to few.

I have a war in heaven campaign I will be running this fall or even when the Necron codex comes out. IN the mean time though look for an announcement for a massive apocalypse game in the next couple months where the Necrotyr Lords of Evolution games take on the Seer Council of Evolution games. That is once Meatban finishes his Doomsday Monolith.

Later in the Week I will be trying out a couple of Dark Eldar lists. I have two I wish to run and will be playing the living daylight out of them over the next few months. I plan on playing at a variety of places as well. The ultimate goal is a Dark Eldar list that will do well at Adepticon next year.

Until then..............

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

I Have Cast the Runes And I See Potential

I have been reading the runes so to speak lately. I think it has a lot to do with my break from the Dark Eldar and going back to my Craftworlders. I recently saw a play test codex leaked out into the blog sphere and forums. You would be correct in guessing its the impending Grey Knights codex which should theoretically be hitting stores in April and pre release copies are probably making their way to stores now in the infamous GW Black boxes.

I have seen this codex in its raw form. Having seen these things in the past, while working for GW, I can say that changes may be pretty minimal. I have seen some pretty nasty things in it as well. 2 wound Terminators with the potential to have FNP. A monstrous creature called a Dread Knight which is armed with force weapons. Everything in this codex, with a scant few exceptions is psychic. People are dousing their collective drawers, despite the high points costs on everything, because of how powerful the models are.

They are powerful. They are all psykers. Many Eldar players will cry foul when they read about the psychic capabilities of the army. This apparent strength of the army though is its main weakness when facing the forces of the Craftworlds. Even the Dark Kin have a big advantage. Worry not for the psychic superiority of the Eldar will stymy the Grey Knights more than any other force. Runes of Warding will be standard issue. They should be already, but some internet and tournament “experts” say you don't need them. I say any regular reader knows my stance on the subject.

The followers of the Ordo Malleus seemed convinced that this codex will be the end all beat all, the pinnacle of power armor perfection. In a way it is. I see it as hope though. Hope for the Eldar. I also see it as a terrible foreboding. A taste of evil is also it. I am sorry to disappoint if you think this was going to be a Grey Knight rant or preview I will leave that to Inquisitor Lord Vogrin over at DFG. This is more of what I see in the future for the Eldar and 2 of our mortal enemies. The Mon-keigh are a trifling compared to whats down the road. I speak of course about the Ygnir and The Primordial annihilator. Commonly known as the Necrons and Chaos.

Whether you believe in codex creep or not The Eldar and Chaos Marine Codex’s are going to be the last or next to last pair of codex’s. With the trends and rules we see in each consecutive codex we can see a picture emerge for our favorite codex. You have a two edged advantage thanks to this. Firstly you have rules that were developed, theoretically, with the codex’s behind it in mind. So you have some advantages in weapons and rules that work against the previous codex’s. You also have some refinements and nerfing though, which seems to be more prevalent in non imperial codex’s. You can argue the fact all you want, its still true. The second real advantage you have is that the system itself has aged to the point that you are comfortable with the rules and really only have to deal with semantics when the codex comes out and is then FAQed. The counter point to this is of course people are use to their codex's by this point and have a refined army list. That is usually not ready to deal with the new force so chalk up another advantage.

The point I am trying to make is that the Eldar Codex when it comes out will be nasty. More so I am worried about how nasty the Chaos Marines will get. That said I am also worried GW may nerf the hell out of both of them. I am leaning towards nastiness though. I also see people getting blind sided by the Necrons. I think one of the main disadvantages of the army are the “we'll be back” rules. People spent so much time and effort trying to understand those and doing them wrong, they paid very little attention to the unit rules and tactics involved. They also ignored adapting the tactics to 5^th edition. I honestly believe the impending Necron codex will be the gunman on the grassy knoll metaphorically speaking. It will be a total revamp like the Dark Eldar were. People will be caught off guard. I know I am stating the obvious to some, but I honestly think the Xenos releases from here on in are going to be nasty. There has been to much outcry for them not to be.

The Grey Knights do not worry me. They should not worry you either. So put them out of your mind. The forums and blogs will light up with clamor for the new power armored savages. They are a footnote. SO treat them as such. Lay waste to them.

As a side note I would like to applaud CSVinton of Dark Future Games. He recently rid himself of his Salamanders. I support you in your decision to rid yourself of power armor.

Next time I am going to discuss the second Mission in the “Test Of Khaine” tournament on March 19^th at Evolution Games in Lansing Michigan.

I also want to touch on the concept of the Footdar army. You can make them work very well. You just need a good plan and the right strategy.

Until then....

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

Its been a Necron kind of week

So I have gotten a few games in this week in preparation for the GW Store Tourney series round 3 on the 24th of this month.  So far the only takers have been Raven Wing and Necrons.  Wednesday night saw me square up against the Necron horde of "Meat Ban" Evolutions games computer guru and follower of this site.  He also started a rather colorful, lots of foul language, Nercron blog called March of The Machines.
This game was pretty brutal.  the list consisted of

Eldrad with 6 warlocks 2 with spears, embolden, enhance and a wave serpent with scatter lasers
2x 7 man squads of pathfinders
1x 6 man squad of guardian jebikes with 2 shuriken cannons
1x Farseer on jetbike with runes of witnessing, spirit stones, guide and fortune
2x Fire Prisms with holo fields and spirit stones
1x 5 man squad of dark reapers with Exarch armed with missile launcher, crack shot and fast shot.

I cheated though.  I was so distracted I forgot the Striking scorpions I got out of my case were not in the list and they got placed.  Granted they spent the game moving across the board and did not really contribute at all but still,  It was late and I was tired, I feel bad.
  Granted this did not stop the fire prisms from killing all his immortals on the first turn and the pathfinders from killing all his destroyers also in turn one.
The game went six turns but he was on the ropes from the begining.  He did get some revenge though.  His Monolith immobilised Eldrad's wave serpent in close combat. He did it from the rear and basically stood there unmoving so Eldrad and his Warlocks could not get out..........for three turns.  He just would not stay down.  needless to say frustrating.

Today I phased a 71 warrior strong force on turn 6 with the loss of a few jetbikes and warlocks.  This list removed the fire prisms dark reapers and second Farseer in favor of a 5 man unit of wraithguard with warlock in a wave serpent, a wraithlord and 10 warlocks as opposed to 6 and the Avatar.  This Game was 1850 points as opposed to the 1750  point game with Meat Ban.  No accidental scorpions this time though.
Once I closed the distance it was a slaughter house as the Avatar and Eldrad cut a bloody, or is it oily, path thru the warriors and 4 destroyers.  The two lords took longer to get as they started to retreat to the other side of the table with the surviving warriors.  I eventually caught him and got him below his phase number as we went into turn 6.
I felt bad though as I also played him in a small 500 point game with his raven wing and killed them to the man loosing only 2 shining spears and loosing none of the jetbikes.
So the list has been doing ok so far but i need to test it against a space marine force and without cheating this time.
We will see what Saturday Holds

Until then

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