After reading through the new Necron codex, I have to give Matt Ward a
for his latest work. It's actually pretty decent
IMO. Not as
OP as the Grey Knights or nerfed like Battle Sisters, it's right up there with his Blood Angels. There are some strong elements to the codex, but they are balanced out by the higher costs just like the Blood Angels. And while some people may not like the direction the author is taking with the fluff just because it is so different from the previous edition, I actually find it refreshing and like it. Best of all, while I find the older Necrons kind of boring with very few decent builds, this new book has a lot of flexibility in terms of army design. You can play wraithwing. You can play mechcron (or is it crondar?). There's immortal-spam, combat-crons, cronzilla, etc. Looks like it could be a lot of fun.
But this thread isn't a review of Matt Ward's work, so I'm going to stop right here with the reviews. Instead, I finally got a taste of the new Necrons. And I have a hunch - that the new necrons are good, but they're not quite up there with the Grey Knights. So I brought my Grey Knights against them. What's more, I brought a
GK build which I suspect that they will have trouble against - Draigowing! My opponent for this match is Gus. Gus beat me once before with his Tau (battle report
here). I then returned the favor at the Ard Boyz preliminaries (battle report
here). Because he didn't really want to proxy, he basically brought an updated version of his 4th ed. necron army. He also brought a foot-list against my foot-list.
So do you think Necrons have a chance against Draigowing?
BTW, for the mission, we rolled and got Annihilation. I offered to re-roll it but Gus, being the brave necron general that he is, politely declined. He relished the challenge....of just trying to stay alive.
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2000 Draigowing Grey Knights vs Necrons
2K Grey Knights
Lord Kaldor Draigo
Librarian - Might of Titans, Sanctuary, Shrouding, Warp Rift
Psyfleman Vendread - 2x
TL-Autocannons, Psybolt Ammo
Psyfleman Vendread - 2x
TL-Autocannons, Psybolt Ammo
10x Paladins - 4x Psycannons, Psybolt Ammo, 1x
MC-Hammer, Warding Stave, Brotherhood Banner, Apothecary
5x Paladins - 2x Psycannons, Warding Stave
1x Paladin - Hammer
Large, isn't it?
2K Necrons
I don't have Gus' list but this is approximately what it consists of (that I can remember):
Imotekh the Stormlord
1x Cryptek - Lance, Solar Pulse
Nemesor Zahndrekh
Vargard Obyron
1x Cryptek - Lance, Solar Pulse
C'tan Shard - Transdimensional Thunderbolt (24" lascannon), Writhing Worldscape (dangerous terrain)
5x Lychguards - Warscythes
10x Necron Immortals
10x Necron Warriors
10x Necron Warriors
10x Canoptek Scarabs
5x Destroyers - 3x Heavy Destroyers
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Mission: Annihilation
Deployment: Dawn of War
Initiative: Necrons
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Deployment:
Map of the terrain:
Gus deploys a unit of warriors and immortals at his 24" line to push my troops back. He almost makes the mistake of letting me deploy first and then trying to seize the initiative (on a 4+). Nemesor attaches to the warriors.
Everyone else will be coming in on his Turn 1. No reserves.
My deployment. Draigo (using Lysander as a proxy) attaches to the large paladin block. I leave my soladin in reserves.
BTW, I use Grand Strategy to let me re-roll all 1's to wound for 3 different units - deathstar, 5-man squad and 1 vendread.
I fail to steal the initiative.
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Necrons 1
Necrons come in.
A close-up of his mini-deathstar, with Immotekh to the left and Darth Obyron to the right.
Necron movement. Nemesor joins the immortals.
Finally, necrons run.
The Stormlord's lightning storm fails to do anything, but that's because I only have 2 units on the board so far.
Grey Knights 1
Grey knights come in. Libbie joins the paladin deathstar.
My paladin deathstar sees his warriors and fire at them, dropping 6. I would have wiped them out had they not gone-to-ground (he rolled 6-7 3's for his cover saves).
2 warriors then get back up. Right on the average.
Necrons 2
Necrons continue their advance. Night-fight continues.
Lightning storm fails to do anything once again. Destroyers see my 5-man pally squad and drops 1 of them with a heavy destroyer lascannon.
Necrons then run.
Grey Knights 2
Despite using Psychic Communion for -1 on the reserves roll, my soladin still comes in. He stays out of
LOS behind the tower.
Knights advance. 4-man unit moves behind hill for cover.
Again my deathstar passes their Night-fight test. They then take his c'tan and drop him like he's not.
His explosion then takes out 6 immortals as well as put 1W on Nemesor.
Moral of the story? Keep your enemies far but your friends even farther.
GK: 1, Necrons: 0
My other pallies and 1 vendread see his destroyers and proceed to take down 3 (2 normal and 1 heavy).
1 normal destroyer gets back up....
....as well as 3 immortals thanks to Nemesor's Resurrection Orb.
Necrons 3
Night-fight continues once again.
Warriors back up and away from my deathstar's threat range.
As does the rest of his army.
Lightning strikes, smiting down 1 almighty paladin.
The thunderstorm then rages and pens my vendread 4 times! It takes out both his arms, his legs and then just to make sure he can't so much as even spit, stuns him.
Destroyers spot my small paladin squad and drops another 1 paladin. Scarabs fleet towards them.
Necrons run and spread out.
The swarm then ignores my paladins and go after my vendread.
BTW, Nemesor gives them Furious Charge
The vendread stomps on 1 and crushes it to death. Scarabs in return hit my vendread 6 times and lowers its armor by 3 to 9/9/7.
Here we pause for a brief rules debate. There are basically 2 ways to play this.
1) The armor reduction from Entropic Strike happens before the roll for armor penetration (on a 4+).
2) The armor reduction from Entropic Strike happens simultaneously with the roll for armor penetration (on a 1-3).
Without going through
YMDC, my opinion is that the correct way to play it is #2. However, we roll for it and for this game, it turns out that I am wrong. So in addition to reducing my vendreads armor, he also stuns it with 1 glance.
The swarm then takes 1W from No Retreat saves and piles in.
Grey Knights 3
Paladins continue their advance.
My other pallies go to help out the vendread.
My paladins can see real well in the dark. They down another 6 warriors plus the Cryptek, despite the warriors going to ground again for 3+ cover.
As expected, 2 warriors get back up but not the cryptek.
Pallies then charge into the scarab-dread melee.
Paladins force-weapon 5 bases to death and the dread kills another 1 scarab. In turn, scarabs reduce the vendread's armor by another 3 to 6/6/4, pen it a few times and then blow it up. The resultant blast and No Retreat saves wipe out the rest of the swarm. Paladins consolidate.
GK: 2, Necrons: 1
So far, Gus has played very conservatively. As a result, it's been a very tight and close game.
Necrons 4
Overview of the top of Turn 4. For the 4th turn straight, it is Night-fighting.
Obyron uses his Ghostwalk Mantle to teleport away from my paladins. They try to land near my 3-man paladin unit but scatter 11" directly away from them.
They do the necron shuffle.
Nemesor gives his destroyers Tank Hunter. They then proceed to take out my vendread by wrecking him.
GK: 2, Necrons: 2
Warriors then run to screen out his destroyers.
Grey Knights 4
Deathstar gets closer to their enemies. Draigo suffered 1W previously from Necron shooting.
My other paladins advance as well but makes sure to be in cover against his destroyers.
My paladins wipe out his warriors.
GK: 3, Necrons: 2
3-man pally squad sees his
HQ unit and lets loose some psycannon rounds into them. I put 1W on each of his
HQ and down 2 lychguards....
....though 1 of them would get back up.
Necrons 5
His
HQ unit actually moves towards me for once.
The rest of his necrons back away.
Heavy destroyers shoot at my deathstar, puts another 1W on Draigo and downs another paladin.
Imotekh uses his Staff of the Destroyer but fails to do any damage to my paladins (he only hits 1 and I believe I made my invuln).
Grey Knights 5
Necrons use their Solar Pulse this turn.
My paladins move towards his
HQ. Assault is inevitable. Resistance is futile.
Paladins are moving on up. To the necron's side. They'll finally get a taste of my psycannon pie.
I surprise Gus by focusing both paladins on his
HQ unit (my paladins haven't failed a Night-fight test all game!), wiping out his lychguards and then putting another 1W on both
HQ's.
GK: 4, Necrons: 2
I then assault his
HQ's. I opt to cast Hammerhand....but fail! I then fail to successfully wound them (couldn't wound Obyron and failed to penetrate Immotekh's 3+ Invuln). Because I missed 3 times and because Nemesor gave this unit Counter-attack on his turn, Obyron was fighting with 7 S7 attacks. He then hits and wounds all 7 times! Immotekh also hits and wounds with all 4 of his attacks.
So I allocate 4 power weapon attacks on the warding stave. He fails 1. I allocate 3 power weapon and 1 normal wounds on the sword and he dies. Finally I allocate 3 normal attacks on the halberd who takes 1W. Wow, what an amazing combat. Both his
HQ's with 1 wound left survived 9 force weapon attacks and then I survive 7 power weapon attacks in return. I then take morale at -4....and pass!
Right now I am winning 4-2 in kill points. We roll to see if the game continues and it does.
Necrons 6
Necrons continue to move away from my deathstar. Warriors climb up the ruins.
Obyron then teleports his unit out of combat. He almost scatters into the tower (impassable).
Gus had a very ingenuous plan to try to get the draw. What he wanted to do was:
1. Rapid-fire my 2-man paladin unit to death since they were both down to 1W only.
2. Kill my soladin.
The combined fire of his warriors and destroyers take out my 2-man paladin unit.
GK: 4, Necrons: 3
Unfortunately, because of the scatter, Immotekh cannot shoot at my soladin because he did not have
LOS.
Grey Knights 6
I see dead necrons....
Only 4 can see from my deathstar unit (of which only 1 was a psycannon). That is enough to bring down Obyron. Then my soladin fires stormbolter. Needing 5's to wound and with a 2+ save, I manage to successfully kill Immotekh as well!
Immotekh would then get back up, consolidating 3" towards my soladin and daring me to assault him.
GK: 5, Necrons: 3
At this point in the game, we both thought I was only up 1KP. I could play it safe and not assault him, thus ensuring the win, or....
F
k it. For the glory of the Emperor....
He fails to hurt me. I then hit him twice, and roll to wound.....
We roll to see if the game continues and it doesn't.
My dead pile: 2 vendreads, 5-man paladin unit = 3KP's
His dead pile: scarabs, C'tan, lychguard, 1 warriors, Obyron = 5KP's
Victory to the Grey Knights!!!
.....Bay Area Open GT 2013 - Best Tyranids 
.....LVO GT 2014 Team Tournament - Best Generals
Thousand Sons 4000+
~1660
ha ha....
