Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I rolled up to Phoenix Games in Atlanta for the 'Ardboyz round 1.

Atlanta had several places hosting the event, so there weren't as many people as you'd expect for a big city. We had 16 people at Phoenix, and I've heard that there were similar amounts at the other 2 places. Balkanization fail.

My List

Round 1:

Enemy list:

Abaddon the Despoiler
4 Chaos Terminators w/various wargear, MoT
Land Raider (dedicated transport)
10 CSM in Rhino w/2 plasma guns, pfist, MoT
10 CSM in Rhino w/2 melta guns, pfist, MoT
10 Plague Marines in Rhino w/2 melta guns, pfist
10 Plague Marines in Rhino w/2 melta guns, pfist
Vindicator
Defiler
3 Obliterators

Top 1:

He went first, drove forward with his PM's, walked forward with his Defiler + Vindicator, Drove forward with his Land Raider He shoots down 2 Destroyers with searchlights + his HS.

Bottom 1:

Destroyers + Immortals + Monoliths shoot, all make night fight rolls, sum result is missing combi bolter from a rhino.

Top 2:

He continues south, reaching assault range all along the line, Abaddon + Terminators jump out, beat up my Immortals, kill 9, break remainder. They only run 2 inches though.

Bottom 2:

Immortals run 4 inches, still on board, 3 remaining shoot Land Raider, immobilizing it. This strands Abaddon in lower left. Other shooting STILL ineffective, but I'm able to withdraw behind the liths, to bunch up in the center. Ah, also I do immobilize one of his troops rhinos. The Deceiver charges his Defiler, and destroys it.

Top 3:

He continues to close with his PM's rhinos, and even the CSM's rhinos are approaching. He shoots on the destroyers, he's now killed a whole unit and damaged the other two. His Vindicator immobilizes a Monolith.

Bottom 3:

I'm enraged. With luck this good, he hasn't phased me out yet? 3 rounds of rhino invincibility should be more than enough. In any case, my soldiers walk on this round, in the middle of my guys, so I need to take it to him, or lose. My monolith chances a trip through difficult terrain, and tank shock's Abaddon's unit as they chase me. He fails leadership. Ha!

My Destroyers finally pop one of the PM's rhinos, and the clustered PM's are then hit with a pie plate, killing 2/3. warriors + random shooting does good damage to the squad of his that hopped out of his immobilized rhino, breaking the CSM, who fall back.

Deceiver opens the other Rhino, leaving him with just one mobile rhino, and troops at the Deceiver's feet.

Top 4:

CSM rally, Abaddon is still within 6", runs again. He runs the soldiers away from Deceiver into his immobilized Land Raider (??). He drives his last rhino around my wall. He shoots at the Destroyers, they are down to one squad now, though it's oversized. He also puts some plasma cannon fire into the clustered warriors, doing good damage.

He fires his Vindicator (which got immobilized in terrain despite a dozer blade), at the Lith that just Pwhipped the Plague Marines, and the template drifts onto selfsame marines, destroying them all. Hah!

Bottom 4:

With one of his squads under strength and having just fallen back, and the other PM squad destroyed, half my board is freed up, and my guys expand that way. With the other PM squad still in their rhino and Abaddon fleeing and the other CMS squad hiding in an immobilized Land Raider the other half is also exposed, albeit less so. I fire on his heavy support this round, taking out the Vindicator and also hammering the guys who fell back. Deceiver escorts Abaddon, misses last rhino.

Top 5:

Abaddon continues legging it. His shooting from the Oblits is fortunate, and destroys the last Destroyer squad.

Bottom 5: I move to my objectives, I'm only 4 above Phase Out at this point (just 1.5 squads of Warriors left), so I'm playing cautious.

Top 6: He claims the middle objective with his 3 man squad, uses his Plague Marine squad to contest my lower left objective.

Bottom 6: I take my lower right objective, shoot his squad off the center objective and claim it with the tiny warrior squad going through a lith.

Ultimately, I claim 21 points, he gets 2. It was, as always with the crons, a much tougher game than it looked. I had 13 warriors left at game's end. 2 more kills would have gotten him phase out. Nonetheless, the grim price of going for phase out is that if you fall up short, the crons will take all the objectives, since they've been going for them.

Game #2:

Vs. Ultramarines

Kahn, w/command squad
2 tac squads in rhinos
Shrike w/10 vanguard vets
2 Landspeeders w/multi-meltas
2 preds, one las/las, other las/HB
1 Dread, Las/CCW
Scout squad w/Missile launcher
1 Bike squad w/attack bike, other upgardes

No need for a long batrep here, he had only played for 8 months, never played vs. Necrons. I massacred him, leaving only a scout squad alive, and losing my two immortal squads and a Monolith. I was able to focus on bonus points, so I got 23 out of this slaughter.

Last game:

Vs. Mech Eldar:

Farseer w/jetbike
warlock council on jetbikes
2 Dire Avenger squads in Wave Serpents
1 3 man jetbike squad
3 Fire Prisms
3 Warp Spider squads

Top 1:

He fires at the monolith wall with his prisms, which are hiding in his corner. Doesn't do anything, despite twin linking into a railgun shot. He shoots down a destroye with his NW (I'm in SW), wave serpent.

Bottom 1:

I immobilize a Lith in terrain. Dang it. I shoot my lith's whips at his fortuned jetbike unit, killing 3, one with each whip. I shoot the destroyers at his NW wave serpent, tearing off its guns, shaking it and immobilizing it.

Top 2:

His reserves don't arrive. His Jetseer council charges Big D, who misdirects. His NW squad hops out of their WS, can't spread out due to failed move + run rolls.

Bottom 2:

I Monolith whips the downed WS, also catching most of squad. They lose about half the squad. The WS explodes, killing once again about half. Destroyers finish them. Other guass fire concentrates on jetlock squad, doing nothing through the fortune. Deceiver charges in, taking 3 wounds and killing 3.

Top 3:

2 Warp Spider squads DS, killing my smaller destroyer squad and mangling the other down to 2. His prisms destroy a Lith. Deceiver misdirects.

Bottom 3:

Shooting kills a whole Warp Spider squad. Deceiver charges back in, kills farseer + all but last guy in warlock squad.

Top 4: His second WS squad comes in, goes to SE corner to blast down my scoring unit over there. With the aid of the prisms almost does so, but they hug the cover and survive with one left. First WS squad moves up to where the DA died, heading for safer ground. Deceiver kills last warlock.

Bottom 4: Deceiver scares the top WS squad off board, which gives me the NW objective.

Over the course of the game I try half heartedly to get him off the SE objective, then contest at the last second with a squad of destroyers. He destroys another lith with his fire prisms in the top of 6. I win by massacre, 21-0.


Ultimately, I'm the winner of the tournament with 65 points.

Next up was Orks, third was Space Marines.

Congratulations! And proof that a well played army is a winning army, despite what other people say!

And besides, necrons shine better at higher point games!

Nice man I was wondering how it'd turn out there I played in Marietta at Gigabites cafe. Our number one was a Chaos be cafeful if you play him if his army makes it remotely close he'll cut through you like a hot samuri sword through butter. I know he did it to me after I had massacared my last 3 opponents with that list. (2 practice games outside the tournament)

Nice report. Its good to see Necrons win a tournament.

Woot! I freakin' LOVE seeing Necrons winning. Tired of seeing people gripe about how sub-par they are, while ignoring any tactical advice on how to play them well. Necrons tied for 2nd place today in Cary, NC with a mech vet IG list, so there's another necron army headed to semi-finals.

I'm glad player skills (and undoubtedly luck) in this tourney is showing that any army handled properly can win....

Its good to see that Necrons can still win. Alot of people dump on them for being weak.

That list has only two troop choices. A good player will try their best to kill them. I don't see this list getting past the semi finals. I don't mean to be a jerk, just honest.

I don't feel like fielding this one again, can I get some audience participation here? Why has no one killed my troop choices yet?

Thumbs Up 40kEnthusiast!

Gotta love that over used canard.

Yeah, go ahead, blast at my spread out warriors squads who aren't even participating in the battle so my boat tons of destroyers/immortals can keep pounding on you.

...makes sense...

And they are in reserve, and/or hiding behind monoliths. At least it wasn't "Ignore the Monoliths, go for phaseout", which may be the #1 internet Necron meme.

With only 47 Necron models (if I can add correctly this morning), I'm surprised that people weren't trying to phase you out. Did the Deceiver and Liths draw that much fire away from the rest of your army?

Believe me, it's MUCH harder than it looks to get to phase out with so many T5 models, and the only T4 models completley out of the battle untill the last turns.

And you really can't ignore Big D, he's capable to inflicting so much damage. Just ask 30 Boys, 6 Nob Bikers, a Warboss Biker, Typhus and 4 Termies. (his total kills from a game I played last night)

Well, imagine you are playing a fairly typical list, you've got say X heavy weapons.

You can shoot them at the Deceiver for every 6 SM heavy weapons you shoot at him you should get a wound on him.
You can shoot them at a Monolith, by and large, 6 will give you a roll on the table, most likely a glance.
You can shoot them at Destroyers/Immortals/Warriors in cover, 6 will hit 4 times, wound 4 times (rounded), 2 will make cover saves, one will get up.

Most people prefer to shoot their weapons at Monoliths/The Deceiver, particularly as the crons can go through a lith if they are dealing damage.

Truthfully, the only way to Phase Out Necrons is in assault, or if they get unlucky with morale. I don't do CC, just move/port away while pouring on the fire, Deceiver plays goalie.

EDIT: An exception to the above may be the new IG codex. I haven't battled it yet, but my theoryhammer says they may be able to shoot the crons straight off the board. Key to a battle with them, I think, would be hiding my guys behind the Monoliths. I'm hoping to battle a good IG list in round 2, find out how that goes.

I would shoot everything as much as possible at the Warriors in objective based missions then clean up in the assault phase. I think probably your opponents fail to see this inherent weakness in your list. It is a great list for 4th edition but not that good for 5th edition in my opinion.

??
Shoot and charge warriors that are either:

1) in reserve
2) hiding behind the monoliths
3) hiding behind the 'liths w/ Big D in front.


......Doesn't work.

People act like Monoliths are indestructible. Enough lascannons will ruin their day quickly then you can drop pie plates on the Warriors. Snipers are the bane of Big D.

Nice job, anyone gets props for winning ard boys with necrons... you have to get match ups in your favor (which you did), but these days (myself included) I don't really worry about necrons cause most of the major lists have things that can deal with monos and they simply can't kill enough to prevent your warriors from dieing once they arrive on the board. 15 destroyers can be quite nasty but can get shot out of the sky pretty fast vs deep striking units.


Anyways props man as it takes skill to win with crons these days no matter what happened.

Yeah, the people that are downing this list aren't thinking it through.


How do you shoot warriors who aren't on the board? When they come on the board, they are hiding behind 3 Monoliths. While you are overly concentrated on the Warriors, the Monoliths/Destroyers, and Immortals are wearing your butt out. If you try and assault, you have to assault the Monoliths, and the Deceiver. The Deceiver will step out of combat, so your assault on him will fail. You will need 4s to hit the Monolith, and we all know how hard they are to kill.

I have played this list several times and I can assure you, it just isn't that easy to beat. You have to provide enough threats that the Deceiver can't stop them all from hitting your lines, and they all have to survive all the shooting they will take on the way in. Do some math on that and let me know how it works out.


Either way, its not unstoppable, but its hard to beat. When/if you get them in combat, you have 1 turn to kill the squad, if you don't kill it, the squad will teleport through a Monolith, get some extra WBB rolls where applicable, and then the army will shoot your assault unit to death. Ask me how I know....



Clay

Ignore the Monoliths, go for phaseout.

Please do try.

it's NOT easy with a list played this way.

Primarch wrote:Yeah, the people that are downing this list aren't thinking it through.


How do you shoot warriors who aren't on the board? When they come on the board, they are hiding behind 3 Monoliths. While you are overly concentrated on the Warriors, the Monoliths/Destroyers, and Immortals are wearing your butt out. If you try and assault, you have to assault the Monoliths, and the Deceiver. The Deceiver will step out of combat, so your assault on him will fail. You will need 4s to hit the Monolith, and we all know how hard they are to kill.

I have played this list several times and I can assure you, it just isn't that easy to beat. You have to provide enough threats that the Deceiver can't stop them all from hitting your lines, and they all have to survive all the shooting they will take on the way in. Do some math on that and let me know how it works out.


Either way, its not unstoppable, but its hard to beat. When/if you get them in combat, you have 1 turn to kill the squad, if you don't kill it, the squad will teleport through a Monolith, get some extra WBB rolls where applicable, and then the army will shoot your assault unit to death. Ask me how I know....



Clay

I never said it was easy but monos dont really kill anything with their shooting and if your say imp guard and driving toward them with demos, tri mg vets in chims its not as bad as your making it.

Ur in melta range by turn 2-3 at the latest, and all your str 10 guns, ordance blast weps are still pounding away at the monos, sure the deceiver is scary but if U never charge him and block him with cheep chims you can limit what he can do.

Im not saying its an easy list but if you have one of the top tier books then crons simply can't stand up to you. Of course it doesn't show here because he got prime match ups but if he played guard orks, chaos, even tau it would have been a different story.

Still don't think im trying to take anything away from you...a win is a win especially with crons all im saying is this list is not a list to be feared if your prepared (has less to do with the player, and more to do with the fact that the necron book is not very good in a competitive setting when compared to the newer books)

Please do try.

it's NOT easy with a list played this way.

Player-A is one of 40kE's clubmates lol.

Great to see solid results. You taking this list all the way through?

To me it sounds like you are making the list sound better than it is. Just shoot up the monoliths while the Warriors are in reserve. There are plenty of guns out there that can drop them. Even if you can just immobilize them it greatly reduces their threat.

Firstly, congratulations on your win.

Out of curiosity, why did the Eldar play charge a Seer Council into The Deceiver? That seems like the stupidest thing he could have done, especially with Eldar-raping Destroyers fielded en masse. Even with a full council (which he didn't have due to casualties), he probably wouldn't kill it on the charge, and he's virtually guaranteed to lose his only Farseer in return to Instant Death.

Danny Internets wrote:Firstly, congratulations on your win.

Out of curiosity, why did the Eldar play charge a Seer Council into The Deceiver? That seems like the stupidest thing he could have done, especially with Eldar-raping Destroyers fielded en masse. Even with a full council (which he didn't have due to casualties), he probably wouldn't kill it on the charge, and he's virtually guaranteed to lose his only Farseer in return to Instant Death.

If he was smart he would have speared/ witch bladed the 3 monos in 1 turn and let the deceaver charge him.....but thats ard boys round 1 for u!

He didn't know the Deceiver could misdirect, I think. I was figuring he would charge the monoliths, then I'd countercharge with Deceiver over the rubble.

On another topic, though, I think a seer council has decent odds if Big D is silly enough to take the charge. Hit on 4's, wound on 2's, Deceiver 4+'s the save. So, every 5 attacks does a wound? Seems like 3 wounds wouldn't be out of character, his counter kills 1 warlock, and the farseer. Next round they kill him and lose another 2-3? bad trade points-wise, but I'd do it if I was an Eldar. Getting D off the table is a big deal.

Also, about the Monolith shooting not really killing anything. That's changed in 5th edition. The Particle Whip is comparable to a railgun when it comes to vehicle popping and also pie plates at s9 ap 3.

Particle whip math:

A hit is obviously ideal.
1/3 chance of direct hit.
Otherwise, scattering 2" or less is tolerable, so rolling a 6 or less is adequate for anti-vehicle purposes.
15/36 chance of doing so.

So, to miss, you need to not roll a hit (2/3) and scatter > 2", 21/36. Odds of doing both is 42/108, or 7/18. Thus, odds of hitting are 11/18. For comparison, bs 4 is 12/18 odds of hitting. When you take into account scattering in a direction where 3 inches is adequate, and just big vehicles as targets, or scattering onto another vehicle, I usually just use bs 4 as a good estimate of how likely I am to get a hit with a lith.

In terms of damage you are s9 with the Ordnance rule, so you roll 2d6 and take the highest. 5/9 of the time you will get a 5 on at least one of the dice. Playing around with the math you'll find s9 Ord is > s10 until you hit AV 14.

So, shoot 3 liths at light vehicles, 2 hit and pen, one explodes or is wrecked, other stops (either stunned or immobilized is more likely than weapon destroyed). Shoot 3 liths at heavy vehicles, 2 hit, one pens, get an AP 1 roll on the chart. You add in the Gauss from the Destroyers/Immortals, and its an ugly rush for vehicles trying to cross the field.

On another topic, though, I think a seer council has decent odds if Big D is silly enough to take the charge. Hit on 4's, wound on 2's, Deceiver 4+'s the save. So, every 5 attacks does a wound? Seems like 3 wounds wouldn't be out of character, his counter kills 1 warlock, and the farseer. Next round they kill him and lose another 2-3? bad trade points-wise, but I'd do it if I was an Eldar. Getting D off the table is a big deal.

The odds of killing the Deceiver are good, but he loses his only Farseer, leaving the Council dead in the water without Fortune. He'd have been better off going for the Monoliths, or skirting around the flanks picking off units outside of Deceiver counter-charge range. He also could have used them to go after the Warriors after they came in from reserve.

It just seems like every target except the Deceiver would have been a good one.

Umm, Melta guns are your answer to Monoliths? How much do you play again? If thats your strat, then go buy some Missle Launchers and stay far away from them and shoot them that way. I know the MG gets a bonus on the chart, but you still need 6s after hitting for anything to happen.



Clay

Good report, like the rest, lets me read, and know what to be ready for next year.

But on another note, looking through all of these battle reports from ard boyz everyone is a winner? Its okay to post you lost because then you can help everyone else too!!!

But good job! Good luck in the next round hope you win that one too! So we can see some more battle reports!

Ace