This game was to test out the new necron doom scythes. The doom scythe is a fascinating heavy support choice that is both scary for its offensive potential as well as for its fragility. 1 shot and you could potentially lose 175pts just like that, or you could potentially wipe out an entire unit of paladins or 3 land raiders under the right conditions. It is also a super-fast vehicle that gives the necrons unheard of mobility. Yes, with the 2 scythe vehicles, they can actually now match the speed of arguably the fastest army right now - Dark Eldar. In my opinion, there are few units more intriguing than the doom scythe in the necron codex.
There are some controversies with regards to this vehicle, with the main one being its deathray. So pending a
FAQ, this is our intepretation of the deathray. It is a shooting attack and thus cannot be fired into combat or your own units. Now I know there will be those of you who will disagree with this interpretation, but this is how we chose to play it. We chose to play it as restrictive as possible.
For my army, I basically took my Wraithwing Necrons and swapped out some spyders, crypteks and 1 unit of troops for a pair of doom scythes and 1 night scythe. As there are no models out for the 2 scythes yet, I chose to proxy eldar wave serpents as the necron vehicles.
Finally, this is only the 2nd game for my opponent's new Sisters of Battle army so please take that into consideration when judging his tactics.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
2000 Wraithwing Necrons vs Sisters of Battle
2K Necrons (My list)
Necron Overlord - Mindshackle Scarabs, Phase Shifter, Warscythe, Weave
Catacomb Command Barge
1x Cryptek - Harbinger of Destruction, Solar Pulse
Destroyer Lord - Mindshackle Scarabs, Warscythe, Weave
5x Warriors
5x Warriors
5x Warriors
5x Warriors
Night Scythe (Black wave serpent)
10x Canoptek Scarabs
6x Canoptek Wraiths - 3x Whip Coils, 1x Particle Blaster
6x Canoptek Wraiths - 4x Whip Coils (Had extra 5pts left)
3x Canoptek Spyders - Claw Array, Gloom Prism
Doom Scythe (Blue wave serpents)
Doom Scythe (Blue wave serpents)
2K Battle Sisters
Saint Celestine
Arch-Confessor Kyrinov (Makes all friendly units within 6" Fearless)
5x Crusaders, 4x Death Cults - Rhino w/Extra Armour
10x Battle Sisters - Combi-flamer, Heavy Flamer, Meltagun, Rhino
10x Battle Sisters - Combi-flamer, Heavy Flamer, Meltagun, Rhino
10x Battle Sisters - Combi-flamer, Heavy Flamer, Meltagun, Rhino
10x Battle Sisters - Combi-flamer, Heavy Flamer, Meltagun, Rhino
5x Dominions - 2x Meltaguns, Rhino
5x Dominions - 2x Meltaguns, Rhino
5x Dominions - 2x Meltaguns, Rhino
Exorcist
Exorcist
Exorcist
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Mission: Capture & Control
Deployment: Dawn of War
Initiative: Necrons
-------------------------------------------------------------------
PRE-GAME ANALYSIS:
Necrons:
I actually think that my chances for a victory here is quite good. I feel that I match up quite well against my opponent's army. My army is good in taking out tanks and I will also do a number on his infantry, fearless or not. Also, does he want to tarpit me with fearless battle sisters, or will I tarpit him with my scarabs? Something to consider.
My army is a scary prospect for my opponent. I've got 6 really fast threats, all of which are equally dangerous and cannot be ignored - my command barge, scarabs, both units of wraiths and both doom scythes. All can take out tanks, and all are dangerous even to infantry. In my opinion, I just don't think my opponent has enough guns/offense to take down my army. The older witchhunter immo-spam army would have had a better chance.
There is not much that I fear in my opponent's army. I have the resiliency to survive his shooting and the speed to counter-assault him the moment he disembarks from his transports. I am prepared to lose my scythes with no qualms whatsoever, but don't think it is that easy to kill them, even with their AV11. Doing so is analyzing them in a vacuum, because my opponent just cannot ignore the rest of my army and also has to deal with 2 turns of Night-fight (Dawn of War and then my Solar Pulse). As a matter of fact, I predict my wraiths will do all the heavy lifting, with all the other units providing the necessary support. Even the doom scythes are actually just a support unit.
Outflanking dominions? Don't really care about them. They are just not enough to deal with my warriors. Out of my 4 warrior units, I only need 1 to survive and he will be in the nightscythe. The rest will just be screening units that will draw out his outflanking units and hold them in place for my support units to finish them off.
Honestly, I see my opponent as a big underdog in this matchup. Against any other necron army, he may stand a chance, but against the merciless onslaught of my
Maximum Threat Overload 'crons, he will need to play an almost flawless game to have any hopes for a victory.
Battle Sisters:
Against my army, my opponent may have to think outside the box. If he plays it the traditional witchhunter way - with his tanks castled up and giving cover to each other - it may well hurt him. Doom scythes....heck, my entire wraithwing army....loves a tightly packed army. That means there'll be a lot of multi-assaults. However, he would also have much more support that way as well.
He needs to focus-fire on my wraiths and try to wipe them out 1 unit at a time. He needs to space out his sisters to avoid a multi-charge. Unfortunately, that's kind of hard to do when everyone is relying on his
HQ's 6" Fearless bubble. Use his dominions to take out my command barge and doom scythes. I'm not sure if the new
SoB rhinos come with searchlights, but they would be a big help to light up my skimmers for his exorcists to shoot down. Otherwise, focus his exorcists on my wraiths as well. He needs to take them down to a more manageable level (like, 1 or 2 guys), but even still, they would be a threat to the smallish 5-man squads.
I don't know if outflanking would work, but it is definitely a tactic he could try. Question would be should he, or is it better to deploy his dominions with the rest of his army for support? Honestly, I feel them to be a distraction at best, but anything he does to divide up my forces may help.
Finally, I think he has to take a gamble and play aggressive against me. Do not let me corner him in by his objective. If I do that, even a superior army would have trouble threatening my objective as they will be just too busy trying to fend off my threats.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Deployment:
Map of the terrain.
My objective.
Sisters of Battle objective.
Neither of us deploy anything on the board.
My reserves - 1 squad of warriors in the night scythe.
After thinking for a while, my opponent decides not to outflank his domininons.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Necrons 1
Necrons come on. Skimmers move flat-out.
Necrons then run.
SoB 1
My opponent comes in and castles up. Dominions and
HQ in the front. Battle sisters in the rear and to the right (from my perspective).
He is taking a big gamble clustering up his vehicles like that.
He then pops smoke on all but the exorcists.
In his shooting phase, I believe only 1 exorcist sees anything but doesn't manage to do any damage.
Necrons 2
Overview of the top of Turn 2. Let the carnage begin!
Night scythes come in from reserves. Spyders spawn 3 scarabs and then necrons advance.
Wraiths get ready to pounce.
Command Barge flies over a battle sister rhino and wrecks it.
Doom scythes then fire their deathrays. One of the deathrays weapon destroys a rhino and blows up an exorcist. The other ray shakes 1 rhino and weapon destroy another rhino. I believe the tesla cannon shakes another 1 rhino and its arc stuns a 3rd rhino.
My lance-tek (cryptek with lance) immobilizes the middle exorcist.
Wraiths run.
And finally, my wraiths with destroyer lord multi-assault 2 dominion rhinos....
....wrecking 1 and immobilizing the other.
And you not what? I'm actually not surprised at the devastation I caused.
SoB 2
Battle sisters (from the stunned rhino), dominions and
St. Celestine prepare for their counter-attack.
As a matter of fact, most of the sisters disembark from their transports and prepare for retaliation.
Deathcult/crusader proxies surround my wraiths and get ready for the counter-charge. Kyrinov stays in his transport. 1 unit of dominions go after my 1 of my doom scythes.
Dominons manage to immobilize my command barge after I've just moved flat-out. I should be wrecked, right? Wrong. Necron command barges have this little trick where they can transfer any results of Immobilization or Weapon Destroyed into 1W for their Overlord instead (without any saves of any kind, of course). So naturally, I put 1W on my Overlord to save the barge.
Focus-fire from 2 units of battle sisters, his dominions (who failed to twin-link their guns) and both exorcists only manages to kill 4 wraiths as well as put 2W on my Destroyer Lord and 1W on a 5th wraith.
His other unit of dominions also fail to twin-link their meltas and then proceed to miss my doom scythe with both meltas.
He then assaults them with
St. Celestine, but my Destroyer Lord's mindshackle scarabs causes Celestine to attack herself.
My lord then insta-gibs her with his warscythe.
His conclave assaults my other squad of wraiths.
Wraiths laugh as the conclave only manages to cause 1W and then the wraiths proceed to kill 5, plus 1 to No Retreat.
Necrons 3
Spyders spawn more scarabs. Necrons advance.
Command barge moves at cruising speed, wrecking yet another transport. Overlord disembarks from the barge.
2-wraith unit and destroyer lord splits off. They prepare to multi-assault 2 units.
Doom scythes prepare to unleash more pain.
1 doom scythe wrecks another rhino and weapon destroys the immobilized exorcist with its deathray.
The other doom scythe immobilizes a dominion rhino and kills 3 dominions with its tesla-destructor. They pass morale.
An arcing tesla shot actually kills 2 sisters in combat with my D-Lord.
Scarabs fleet forwards.
Wraiths and D-Lord (Destroyer Lord) assault.
Wraiths kill only 1 sister. The Lord kills 4 and break the squad. I fail to sweep them due to my low initiative and they fall back.
Scarabs multi-assault 3 sister units - 2 battle sisters and 1 dominion - tying them up for the rest of the game. Good, now they can't shoot me.
In the large scrimmage, I kill 3 battle sisters and my opponent kills 3 scarab bases (after No Retreat saves).
My Overlord assaults his rhino and immobilizes it.
Finally, wraiths wipe out his conclave and consolidate towards the scarab-sisters melee.
Things have just gone from bad to worst for my opponent.
SoB 3
My opponent cannot win as he has almost nothing left to contest my objective with. Almost all his vehicles have been disabled, so he is trying to go for the tie. Fleeing battle sisters uses Faith to regroup. Exorcist moves up. The last unit of battle sisters disembark to try to help out against the wraiths.
Again, his dominions go after my doom scythe and only manages to stun it.
Exorcist shoots down my D-Lord, who fails to get back up. (
BTW,
St. Celestine also failed to get back up.)
Dominions then assault the doom scythe only to nothing to it.
Battle sisters double-team my wraiths. They fail to do anything and I kill 1 sister.
Scarabs continue to tie up his sisters in combat.
Necrons 4
My doom scythe immobilizes itself on terrain. Overlord goes to try to contest his objective.
Spyders generate 3 more scarabs. Other doom scythe moves out of the way. Warriors prepare to rapid-fire his 2 dominions. Dominions would not survive.
Wraiths ignore the large scrimmage and go after his sisters near his objective. It will be game over soon.
Doom scythe blows up his last exorcist. The tesla arcs into the nearby combat, putting 1W on a wraith and killing 4 sisters!
My other doom scythe, the immobilized one, wrecks his tin box that was once an exorcist. The tesla arcs into the scarab combat and takes out 1 scarab base.
Time to assault. Spyders explode his immobilized rhino.
Scarabs kill 5 sisters (2 from 1 squad and 3 from another). He kills 3 scarab bases in return.
Finally, wraiths assault his sisters in combat with my other wraiths. I wipe out both squads of sisters and consolidate towards his objective.
I have my objective firmly in hand. Not only can he stop me from contesting his objective, but I will wipe out his sisters holding the objective next turn. He cannot win so we call the game here.
Victory to the Metallic Dead - Necrons!!!
-------------------------------------------------------------------
POST-GAME ANALYSIS:
Necrons:
My doom scythes rocked this game. They caused so much damage! My wraiths disabled 2 tanks, my command barge 2 tanks and my spyders 1 (which was already immobilized due to my doom scythes). My doom scythes killed another 5 tanks, including all 3 of his exorcists as well as shaking/stunning a few more and immobilizing the tank that my spyders destroyed. If I was to grade them, I would give them an
A+ this game. They far exceeded my expectations, and to top it off, they survived! But honestly, with the proper application of many threats and night-fight, I actually thought that they had a decent chance to survive.
They (the doom scythes) are without a doubt my MVP's of the game. Now I've got to test them against a shooty army that will truly put my wraithwing to the test. Next stop, perhaps Reece's tournament winning Imperial Guards or maybe even my own Crowe-Purifiers or Draigowing.
The night scythe didn't do anything special. They really only had 2 chances to shoot after coming in from reserves on Turn 2. I believe their shooting killed a couple of sisters and not much else. They were never at all put to the test or even threatened this game. None of my weaker units - my troops - were, my opponent was just too preoccupied with my threats.
Wraiths were their solid self as normal.
IMO they are the best units in the codex. They disabled 2 transports, wiped out my opponent's mini-deathstar (the conclave), killed
St. Celestine (actually, my D-Lord did that) and took out 3 units of sisters (I believe 2 troops and 1 dominions). In all my battles, they have consistently performed admirably and absorbed a lot of enemy firepower. They are the true workhorse in this list and is its most dangerous threat.
Although scarabs didn't kill any tanks this game, they didn't need to. Wraiths, doom scythes and command barge were more than enough. However, they were still an integral part of my strategy as they tied up a large portion of my opponent's army and prevented him from using a portion of his offense. This just goes to show that scarabs and spyders can still contribute against non-mech armies.
Overall, I am happy so far with this build and will continue to test it out. Doom scythes are fragile, but when used carefully, they can contribute in a big way. They are just brutal if they are not taken out quickly, yet at the same time, they are not that easy to take out quickly with night-fight. Finally, they will be my anti-paladin solution as I don't really have an answer for paladins with my Scarab-farm build.
I want to thank SabrX for being my opponent once again. I may have caught him by surprise this time, but I am sure he will be more prepared for my wraithwing the next time we face.
Battle Sisters: (by SabrX)
I didn't expect jy2's scarab to tie up the rear Battle Sister unit. I was hoping his Wraith would dive in after finishing the Crusader, but he jumped over combat and went straight for my objective.
I'm still amazed how resilient the Wraith-wing is. I concentrated two Battle Sister units, a Dominion squad, Saint Celestine, and an Exorcist into a single unit. The Destroyer Lord and 2 Wraiths manage to survive.
Kyrinov didn't play a huge role in this game other than stalling jy2's other Wraith unit for a turn. The Battle Sisters and Dominions didn't need his fearless bubble against the Scarabs. I still think picking Kyrinov was the right choice. Jacob would have been instant killed and
FNP wouldn't work against Str6 attacks (Crusaders and Death Cults are T3 meaning St6 = instant death). The Extra attacks also wouldn't help because of Whip Coils.
The Doom Scythe were a major thorn in my side. I couldn't shoot at them due to turn 1 night fighting. Later on, I sent a suicide Dominion squad who failed their faith power and missed both melta-shots. Despite there outstanding performance, I still think they aren't a good pick in the current meta-game. Nid Hive Guards,
IG,
GK psy-rifle dread,
SW, and other armies with considerable anti-mech range can take out Doom Scythe.
IMO, jy2's 8-9 Spyder list is better.
In hindsight, I should have placed my objective deployed in diagonally across in the opposite corner. It would have allowed me to make full use of my army's mobility, force jy2 to spread out his units, and grant me a couple turns until night fighting wears off. I should have also kept a couple Dominion units in reserve in hopes of out-flanking and contesting jy2's objective late game.
Good game jy2. Thanks for letting me borrow your
IG models for conclave proxy.
.....Bay Area Open GT 2013 - Best Tyranids 
.....LVO GT 2014 Team Tournament - Best Generals
. 
Thousand Sons 4000+
