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This past weekend was the Indy GT, so a friend and I packed up our armies and made the 5 hour trek to have a weekend of fun in Indy.

I have had a lot of success with a heavy scarab farm type list from mid 6th edition (you know 9 months ago) to the present. I wanted to try something a little bit differant, and with T wolves becoming a "thing" again, I was unsure how well the scarabs would hold up. I ran my new list ideas across a couple folks and they said....dont do it.....stick to the swarm, it works. Not sure what to take, I made a hybrid of the two lists I thought of taking.

My list 1850 Necrons

HQ
Zandrekh
3 x haywire cryptekhs
Destroyer Lord (weave, mind schackle

Fast
7 x scarabs
3 x scarabs
5 x Wraiths

Heavy
3 x spyders
2 x spyders
1 Ann. Barge

Elite
5 x D marks
Triarch Stalker

Troops
5 warriors in Scythe
5 Warriors in scythe
5 warriors in G Ark.


ROUND 1
We were using NOVA missions. Not sure of any differances to the NOVA missions to this event, but if there were changes, they were minimum Im sure. This tournament DID allow a list of Lords of War approved for the tourney. I believe the same list the BAO uses.

Mission 1. Hold objectives. You can either score points for each turn you hold objectives, or you can tally how many objectives you hold at the end of the game to figure your primary score. Those were the two options.

My opponents list.
Khan on Bike
Chapter Master on bike (max power)
Command squad (gravs, apothacary, sheilds)

7 Bikes w/ 2 grav and MM attack bike ......x2
10 Marines in Drop Pod (melta, mleta, M. melta)....x 2
5 sternguard in pods (Melta x 5)

T fire Cannons x 2


My list does pretty well vs these White Scars lists folks run these days, so I had that advantage, but T fire cannons always make me nervous being based on T3 scarabs, and night fight no longer restricting range so I should still tread cautiously.

The longer the game goes, the more I grow the scarab swarms, the better my army gets, so I play for tallying objectives at games end. My opponent does the opposite.

I get re-roll reserves as warlord trait....nice. Night fight turn 1.

I choose to go first.

The board had 2 large ruins in opposite corners and plenty of hills and LOS blocking terrain scattered throughout the board. Dawn of war deployment.

I castle up in one of the ruins with my little insect swarm, and place my open topped vehicles behind them to keep the pods from coming down and popping all my stuff early.

My opponent deploys all bikes directly across form me with the T fire cannons in each corner. All the bikes scout forward aggressively.

Game begins.

My opponent essentially cant charge me turn 1 and his grav guns arent all that scary to my army, so I grow my swarms and sit...even move away from his army a bit to keep the Multi Melta bikes away from my Ghost Ark.

Opponent drops a couple pods to take some objectives and start his tallying of points.

Turn 2 I drop the shy Necron army facade and go for the throat. Zahndrekh gives the scarab horde furious charge and the Destroyer lord jumps in the unit for preferred enemy and they crash into a bike unit and some foot marines destroying the whole lot. My opponent has his T fire cannon Techmarine standing out of terrain so the Death marks drop in a position to kill him silencing one gun. Wraiths and Tesla destroy most of what is left.

From here the Sternguard and Super command squad realize they are suddenly alone against nearly my whole force. Like true marines they killed all they could before being destroyed against overwhelming odds.

My opponent was very caught off guard how devastating the swarm can be with some minor buffs, and basically walked into a terrible trap.


Round 2.
Mission Kill points. Options- Kill Point differential is your score, or (the other option is too complicated to quickly explain, but neither my opponent or I choose the option).

Opponent name was Will and he was a nice fellow from Lexington,KY. His list was not so nice though!

Spirit Seer (invisibility, dominate, shreik)

3 x Wraithknights (1 was warlord per Iyaden? codex)

5 x Wave serpants all with 5 dire avengers.

7 Warp spiders.

Will and I joked before the game how Serpant/Wraithknight lists are a "0" for cool factor.

Vanguard Deployment

Similar board layout to my previous game, Will had me go first. I castled and pumped up my scarabs and braced for Impact. Turn 1 against this army I always use my Admiral Achbar strategy (you know about repelling firepower ....etc). If a unit is seen by too many of the Eldar units....its dead. So I try and deploy my units around corners so no unit could be entirely seen. I hide units in ruins without windows as well and brace for impact.

Wills Wraithknights whiff and manage no wounds....luckily. His serpents wound a couple spyders, and he glances the ghost ark. Not bad. Now i mockingly play an air violin saying how bad I feel for his Writhknights having bad luck.

I get nearly all of my reserve units and deploy all my warriors out of their scythes to try and kill 3 serpants. I get a rear shot with an Annhillation barge, and my Triarch stalker is in melta range. my opponent doesnt have the +1 cover upgrade so i think this is golden. I fired everything I had and managed 1 hull point on 1 serpent, and wrecking another. Wills luck has changed and he makes about 12/16 cover saves. Now Will gets to mock me about feeling bad I was so unlucky, and we have a good laugh. My wraiths and D lord land behind all the serpents to corner these eldar. Slowly though, the swarm of scarabs was growing, and wills attention would be on the imediate threats around him.

Will does his counter punch and invisibles the warlord to go after the Wraith ball. He then blazes at my Scythes and wriths killing a couple wraiths and knocking 2 Hull points off of a scythe. The Wraithknight is un scathed, but does no damage. Next turn the Scarab swarm released charging two dire avenger units, one of which had the spirit seer. All went down in a slurry of Eldar meat. The invisible wraithknight punches himself, and takes an additional 2 wounds. I also am a bit more fortunate with my haywire shots this turn and 2 more serpants go down. The Warlord Wraithknight goes down the next turn and the wraith ball drags down a second wraithknight 1 turn later.

As the game is spiralling out of control for the eldar, Will makes a go of it locking down 6 Kill points in the last 2 turns, but too little too late as Will has a wounded serpent and a few dire avengers at games end.

So after round 2 Im sitting well, missing only 1 of 30 points, but lots of gaming to go yet. I will try and get the rest of day 1 complete when I get off work tomorrow.

Very exciting so far with an unconventional Necron list. I like!

Great games! And interesting necron list. It's alwayz much more interesting to read reports which include something like this rather than traditional cheesy competitive lists. And it's even better when scrabs beat the heck out of a serpent+knight spam

Round 3

Mission Table Quarters.........Either score quarters as you go, or tally them at the end. Deployment Hammer and Anvil.

Opponents List

Overlord in Barge (all the normal upgrades) x 2

5 Warriors in Scythe x 2

Ann. Barge

6 Wraiths

Tau Fire Cadre-
3 Broadsides (skyfire) missiles
3 Broadsides (same)
Riptide with gattling gun and Skyfire and smart missiles


So, I go for tallying quarters at the end ...my opponent has so many smart missiles that once they get in range to my warriors, they will be dead, so I couldnt risk trying to tally every turn. My opponent does the same.

I win roll off and have my opponent go first....to cut down on the shooting.

Board is similar to the previous rounds (ruins in corners) but there is a large wall in the center about 12" wide and 12" high.

Going to be a tough fight as those Broadsides match up to almost all of my key units (wraiths, scarabs out of LOS, fliers, heck even the vehicles since they get Tank Hunter for free).

My opponent (Max) puts his Broadsides and riptide as far forward as possible. Wraiths and CCB Overlords hide behind the wall in the center. Not a lot of ways to approach this army, if I sit still the guns will shred my army, but if I advance, I walk into all his melee units.

I have the wraiths and D marks deepstrike. My scarabs and Dlord join up and hide out of LOS in the ruins. Zahndy sits in the Ghost Ark to take Tannk Hunter from the Riptide if he shows his face.

Max walks up one broadside team, with the riptide. All the melee units jump behind the wall. The other broadside team hits pretty well with smart missiles causing 2 wounds on the D lord and killing 2 scarab bases.

I pump up my scarabs and wait.

Turn 2 my opponent brings in his scythes, but stays within 12" of his board edge so my fliers wont have a shot when they come in. Wraiths jump out in the open with a CCB directly behind. Shooting kills another 2-3 scarab bases. When the scythes come in I decide to drop the wraiths behind his army to keep the broadsides from walking forward. I try to drop them out of LOS to keep them alive, but they scatter 8-9" out in the open. Not good. They are shot dead.

I pump up my scarabs for my big offensive push. If I sit, I will lose, so I have to try SOMETHING. My scythes come in and target the Wraiths. I plan on doing the furius charge/preferred enemy combo to take them out. Destroyer Lord jumps out of terrain and rolls "1". No big deal, let me make an armour save "1". D lord is down and my scarabs lose preferred enemy. He does not stand up. I hit the wraiths and still roll well enough to have 2 wraiths left each with a single wound. I should finish them next turn and I will be free to move in my turn and wrap up a broadside team and swing this game my way. I take tank hunter from the riptide and the judge walking by rules Zahndrekh can not "see" out of the Ghost Ark so Zahndy has to get out to take Tank Hunter away. Dang. I also dump one warrior unit out to hit the Ann. barge and take 2 hull points, but it lives as max makes 3 cover saves.

Now with Tank Hunter, Riptide immobilizes my ghost ark. CCB lord behind the wraiths hits the same ghost ark, but doesnt quite kill it luckily. Both Night Scythes are shot dead.

I swing the scarabs on the wraiths just neededing 2 wounds to break free and I force 9 saves. My heart sinks as my opponent makes 8 saves. Thats really bad.

My D marks come in and mark his Riptide which has 2 wounds left. Max makes all of his Invul./armour saves and the riptide is unscathed. At this point I am switching from trying to win mode, to trying to salvage points mode since NOTHING is working. I hop the warriors and Zahndy out of the G. ark and charge the CCB. My 5 spyders charge the same CCB. The spyders wreck it, and since I have it encircled....he cant reanimate. Last wraith is killed, but the scarabs are sitting in no mans land in front of the broadsides.

Max blows the scarabs, D marks, Ann. barge, and G ark away. My army is nearly crippled.

Triarch is just within range of the Riptide and I get lucky and put the last 2 wounds on it. My only plan is have Zahndy and the troops from the G. Ark run at the broadsides to try to take the quarter they are in. It might work, but unlikely. My 3 man scarab unit comes in, hides and gets ready to get pumped up. (could have used those last turn.)

Zahndy is shot dead....but stands up. There is still hope. If he stands up again next turn and I can get the scarab swarm large enough, I might take that quarter, and hold the quarter I castled in. The scarabs get pumped up and eat a warrior squad, but Zahndy is shot dead as well as the troops, essentially ending the game.

I take a 13-5 loss.

Yikes. Looking back, the wraiths deepstriking early was an aggressive move, but would only work if the scatter was minimal. It wasnt. If I had dropped them the turn my own scythes came in, I might have been able to keep more of my army alive, but I dont now if that would have changed the outcome. The big moment was Max's wraiths making the saves to keep my scarabs locked in melee during my own turn. If they had busted out, AND my D lord could have survived, I might have been able to salvage a win, but it was a very fun game against a good opponent. What more can you really ask for?

With the amount of folks at the tourney, there is still a chance to make the top 8 with 1 loss but I will need a big score in the final round.

Round 4 is relic mission and my opponent (Tony) has the following list.

Adman. lance Imperial Knight formation (you know 3 knights ((1 w/ melta))

2 scythes with 5 warriors and voltaic staffs.
1 overlord on foot.
2 x Ann. barges.

Not what I was hoping to fight this round.

That's a lot of Necrons there....

Mission 4
Score relic and objectives cumulatively or at games end. I choose cumulatively as my opponent doesnt have many models, and if I can knock out a Knight or two early my opponent will have a tough time from keeping me from scoring big. We both choose this objective.

Deployment Vanguard.

Tony chooses to go first. I castle with my normal units, but this time I put the wraiths with the D lord to go hunting for a Titan. Im going to try to use Zahndy to give Tank hunter here and there, and with the Scythes with voltaic staffs, hopefully I can cut down a Titan a turn. The triarch will be used to twin link the precious haywire shots. the double shot multi melta wont hurt either.

Tony deploys all Titans and the Ann barges. Warlord goes with one of the warrior units in a scythe.

Tony jumps a Titan towards my army while the other two say put. They unload and pen my G ark, but it lives.

I move my wraiths aggressively towards the lone titan to protect an objective so I can secure some points. I pump up scarabs and wait.

Tony brings in the scythe with no warlord. One of the two titans together splits off and charges an annihilation barge, destroying it. Now all 3 Titans are in seperate corners. Couldnt be more perfect. I roll reserves and get.....the D marks and NOTHING else. No stalker, no scythes full of voltaic staffs, not even the excess scarabs. Not good, but not terrible either. This means I have to hold the scarabs off from assaulting the Ann. barge towards the center as I cant really capitalize with any of my anti titan weapons. I manage to contest his objectives though keeping primary at 0-0.

His other scythe shows up and along with a single ann. barge...he shoots 4 wraiths dead and wounds the D lord. Ouch!! Titans kill my Ghost Ark and the Deathmarks.

I roll reserves and both Scythes STILL fail to come in. I do get the Stalker, but with no voltaic staffs to support, his time will be short lived. I try and shoot a Titan, but TOny makes both sheild saves. I give Tank hunter to the warriors that were expelled from the G. Ark and they manage 4 HP to a Titan. I also built up the scarabs and hit both Ann. barges, wiping both out.

Tony has 2 Titans focus on the scarab swarm, while the other kills the troops on the board. When the smoke cleared I had 2 scarabs and the D lord locked with both Titans. This is terrible. Now my voltaic staffs come in, and I have no target. I position both my fliers and drop off my troops on an objective to try to score a primary point. The fliers bases created a "wall" to keep a consolidating Titan from charging my troops next turn.

Tony kills the remaining scarabs and D lord. The D lord ressurects and I slide him a few inches so he scores the Relic if Tony doesnt finish the D lord off.. Tony jumps the Titans into 3 seperate corners to start doing damage to my spyders.....Zahndy......and 1 held an objective.

The D lord nets me 1 point giving me the lead in primary objective points, but only 1-0. The game goes on 2 more turns and I manage to kill 2 of the Knights with voltaic staffs, scythes on the sides...etc.

When the game ended, I had the wounded D lord, 5 warriors w/ cryptek, and both scythes.......Tony had is overlord with 2 warriors, a scythe, and a Titan with 2 HP left.

We tally up the scores and I have primary 1-0. Tony has 2ndry 6-2.

We both think I won, but I know my point total isnt going to be very high.

When our scores are reported, we find out the primary and 2ndry ponts are added to determine winner, so we find out Tony wins.

It was a great game, but It was my fault for not knowing how to score the missions, and it cost me the game. Tony went on to the top 8 so congratz to him.

I was pretty bummed, well my ego was I guess, I did have 4 fun games today, so really what more can you ask.

Joe (the guy I rode down with from Madison) and I had a pact that if neither of us was in the top 8, we were going to head out early on Sun. so as not to get home around midnight. (we both worked early the next day.)

We went to eat that night with the tourney organizer (Aaron Aelong) and at dinner he challenged me to a game the next day. We havent been able to play since 2012 NOVA invitational so it should be a fun rematch. I said yes on two conditions.....

#1 I get to use the list I wanted to originally bring.

#2 We roll up a book mission to play (I actually like the book missions.)


So a grudge match against Aaron A. BONUS report coming tommorrow.

Mission- Scouring, vanguard deployment

My list

White Dwarf Crons. These are the kind of lists I love....no duplicate units, except a troops unit, but I give them differant transports. When you read White Dwarf battle reports, these are the type of lists you see.


Zahndrekh
2 x Voltaic Cryptek's
Tremor Cryptek

Destroyer Lord (weave, mindschackle)

5 warriors in scythe
5 warriors in G ark
5 Immortals gauss(foot)

5 Wraiths (whip coil)
10 scarabs

5 D marks
Triarch Stalker

Ann. Barge
3 Spyders
Doom Scythe

1850


Aarons list

T wolf Lord (tons of gear Kraken sword)

2 x Iron Priests on Wolves each with 2+ armour, and 2 wolves...and hammers

5 T wolves with Sheilds, a hammer, fist, wolf claw

White Scar Libby on Bike

White Scar Chaptermaster on bike (all kitted out)

3 Grav Cen. in pod

10 Tac marines in Pod

5 scouts w/ cloaks

T fire cannon.

My bonus game against Aaron A.

As I said earlier its scouring mission with vanguard deployment.

We decide to place objectives like gentlemen (each place an objective in our own deployment zone, no mans land, and one in opponents deployment zone).

Aaron rolls up a couple crappy telepathy powers (dominate/mental fortitude) and wind roll off and has me go first.

Surprise surprise, I castle in my corner with all the open topped vehicles behind a ruin in the corner. D marks, wraiths, scythes in reserve. Zahndy cant "see" out of the Ark, so he stands amongst the scarabs with the D lord. This gives him LOS to most the board, AND gives me a resilient model to soak up wounds directed at the scarabs.

Aaron deploys all T wolf, fenrisian wolves, and bike chrachters in a large line as far forward as possible. He nearly stretches from one end of the deployment zone all the way to the other end. T fire cannon sits in the back. Centurians and marines in pods sit, and the scouts sit in reserve as well.

The only way I can win this is concentrating on one section of Aarons army at a time, as those T wolves can rip through almost anything in my army. Hopefully when the smoke clears I will have more units than him so I can snag more objectives.

We roll up objective values and the very center objective is worth 4 points. The objectives in my Deployment zone are "1" and "2" while Aarons are "2" and "3". The other "3" point objective is near my deployment zone, so the center looks like the key to winning this game.

I pump up my scarabs and sit.

Aaron splits his mega wolf unit into two smaller units so I cant take hit and run from the entire unit. Large T wolf unit + chapter master go one direction.....Wolf lord, libby, and 1 Iron priest along with 4 fenrisian wolves go another. Both creep forward 10" or so. Aarons other priest joins the T fire cannon so the deathmarks cant knock out an easy target. 10 man Tac squad comes down and combat squads around the center, grabbing the 4 point objective. His T fire cannon kills a scarab base as I have stealth ruins for a warlord trait.

I roll reserves and everything comes in. Aarons whole army can support itself, as in, if I hit one part of it, I could be swarmed. I think for a moment and I decide to go all in, in killing his wolf lord unit. Wraiths drop nearby and run. D marks land nearby and mark the wolf lord, so no matter what unit he is in....its marked. Doom scythe kicks things off and kills one iron priest and 1 fenrisian wolf. The tesla also opens up killing the other 3 wolves. Deathmarks, and night scythe unload as well killing the libby and wounding the wolf lord 2 times. Not bad. I pump up my scarabs and am real happy how that went.

Aarons Centurians come in and try to nail the Ghost Ark, getting 3 hull points on me, but it lives. His wolf lord and iron priest join up and kill the D marks. He fires melta at my doom scythe but I risk not jinking so I can keep my laser beam...luckily Aaron misses. His chapter master and T wolves both try making 6-7" charges against my scarab blob. They all crash in. Hmmm......I dont think this will go well.

First, Zahndy challenges to essentially taske the C masters thunder hammer attacks. Aaron swings and forces 3 saves and I fail 2 of my 3+ saves....but I live. Wolf claw swings (S6 AP3) and the D lord takes the saves making his four 2+ saves. As the other attacks come in, I kick rends off the regular saves to scarabs, but a couple hammer hits failed to Look out Sir, and my D lord is wounded twice, but he lives. I lose about 3 scarab bases. I swing everything and manage to wound 2 wolves. Not too bad.

Turn 3. My doom scythe now goes after the centurians, killing 2 of them. The warriors get out of the Ghost Ark to assault the remaining centurian (he only had a wound left after triarch fired) to bog him down. Aaron fails morale though and falls safely away. My wraiths wipe most of the tac squad.

The giant melee sees Zahndrekh fail another save...but he gets up. The Spiders that were lurking behind pile in as well in an attempt to swing the melee to my favor. Between the mind schackle scarabs, regular scarabs, and the D lord I drop 2 of the wolves, and 2 more are injured. I lose a spyder and some scarabs.

Things are looking grim for Aaron, but hes not giving up. Wolf lord, iron priest and a couple tac marines charge the wriaths and kill all but 1. The melee sees the rest of the T wolves all get wounded and killed. Now the chapter master is all alone. (note this whole time I have been taking hit and run from the chapter master to keep him from bouncing around killing units.

I take my Night scythe and Ann. barge and fire everything at the T fire cannon killing the gun only. The other wolf unit is locked with the lone wraith. The wraith is finished off, and Aaron takes his turn to kill my immortals on foot as well as the Ann. barge. Chapter master takes 3 wounds due to the sheer number of attacks.

On my turn Doom scythe + night scythe fire at the remaining Iron priest and Lord finishing them off. Aaron is down to a single centurian in melee with a triarch stalker (which he cant hurt), some scouts hunkering on an objective, and the tech marine from the T fire cannon holdoing an objective.

I move my units to hold equal value of objectives and win from first blood, and slay the warlord points. Final score 7-5 Necrons.


I was actually surprised, I thought T wolve cav would be an absolute nightmare to face, but the way the game unfolded I was able to mitigate damage enough to myself to be standing at games end on top.

We shook hands and discussed what could have been differant, but we both agreed that night scythe was the real differance maker.

I sure like that White Dwarf style of an army, and I wish I had taken for the tournie, as that Doomscythe would have been handy in EVERY one of my games. Especially against the Command Barge overlords with the S10 AP1 Beam.

All in all Indy GT was an awesome tourney and a great time. The game against Aaron was a nice bonus as well.

I like the way you write batreps. It's possible to track your command logics. It'd be even better if there were at least a couple of pictures.

And yep, T-wolves are surely tough and point-efficient and a great unit overall but they're not broken. Love this thing in new 7-th codexes. Though, some insane combos with draigo and centstar are quite annoying...but if draigo is used exclusively within his own codex, he's much more reasonable.

Btw, have you tried flayed ones?

Very well played versus the WolfStar.

Thanks for the kind words. As to pictures....Im a bit of a techno-phobe but perhaps one day Ill break down and actually take and load photos to have better reports.

I have not tried the flayed ones really. The only way I have seen them work is a giant blob of 20 with Obyron and some sort of lord with an orb, making the unit really resilient, but exspensive. Im sure there are other ways to run the unit, but I havent found a reason to convince myself to try. Of course I only own 8 flayed ones, and I havent come up with a list that has gotten me excited enough to invest in more. I have 0 Tomb blades (a unit I actually should get and try they do seem like a cool unit) and the 8 flayed ones. Every other unit in the cron codex I have LOTS of, so I enjoy coming up with crazy lists to try. Even when I was running Immotekh a bunch I didnt give flayed a chance....perhaps its their fluff that turns me off.

I think they are balls to be honest. If they were a troop it might be different.

Enjoyed your report. Nice job against the thunderwolves.