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This is a great example of what the Scarab Farm is capable of. Even with some errors in the opening moves, and crazy dice, the Scarab Farm holds its own. Purifier Spam is arguably the top dog right now, and Fuegan17 is a top notch player. This is a great showdown and really illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of this list.

Army lists are covered at the beginning of the match.

Stormlord Scarab Farm Necrons 1750pts
Unit Description Size Cost
HQ
Imotekh 1 225
Cryptek Chronomotron 1 40
Zandrekh 1 185
Lord Scythe, Scarabs 1 60

Troops
Warriors 20 260
Ghost Arc 1 115
Warriors 5 65

Elites

Fast Attack
Scarabs 10 150
Wraiths Whip Coils x 3 4 170

Heavy Support
Spiders Gloom Prism 3 165
Spiders Gloom Prism 3 165
Spiders 3 150

Totals 53 1750


http://www.frontlinegaming.org/2011/11/28/video-battle-report-necrons-scarab-farm-vs-grey-knights-purifier-spam/

I have to say man...you playing these Necrons gives me a headache with how amazing you are with board control, movement...everything!

After viewing all of your battle reports and the listening to your thoughts on Necrons, I have to agree 100% that Necrons can be thoroughly competitive in the right hands with the right build. Overall, they are not a push button codex and a good player with the tools this army offers can make those with a push button army sweat out every turn.

Reecius is a very beautiful person, but on turn 1 and turn 4 we only saw him and no shots of the board position. I would like to see the board position each turn.

I would also like to see Reecius play against the scarab army more. I'm sure everyone else are competent army generals, but to be honest Reecius is the best tabletop General out there. If you want to show the Ant farm is top level, then Reece should lose to it with his best armies (Footdar) just as regularly as the others have. Otherwise I can't tell if it's the list or the guy playing the list.

Can you post the list for those of us who cant watch the vid? I am play testing several list and the scarab farm is one I would like to attempt.

Good, interesting matchup and I like the strategy interludes that go naturally with the overall narrative.

One small critique from watching this latest video, it would be great if we could get some more protracted shots of the board as you guys talk through the going ons. There were times when I would have liked to have "seen" what happened and then hear how it happened after.

@Unholy Martyr
Thanks, that was nice of you to say! I play and think about the game too much, which is why I am good at it, haha, not the best use of my time I am sure, but oh well.

But yeah, it is a high skill level army, like Footdar, that you have to play very well. You can win with them if you do, but mistakes are punishing.

@Darth
Hahahaha, noted! I don't know why Luis had me in the frame so much, but we will tell him to focus on the table more.

We will switch it out too, with me (or one of the other guys) playing against the Scarab Farm.

And I am flattered that you think I am the best General out there, that is very kind!

@mstersmith
The Cron list is added to the first post.

@Calypso2ts
We're glad you like the videos!

That is a good idea, we will add more clips of what's happening. We're actually working on an idea for an entirely new type of battle report, so stay tuned for that!

Just a question, why would you as a GK player used Cleanin Fire, rather than using your force weapon? I had a fun game against one my buddies with a swarm list and I just destory every swarms, including the Spiders using the force weapons.

mrblacksunshine_1978 wrote:Just a question, why would you as a GK player used Cleanin Fire, rather than using your force weapon? I had a fun game against one my buddies with a swarm list and I just destory every swarms, including the Spiders using the force weapons.

Truth! The Purifiers would have done MUCH more damage had they done that

Good battle report, against a top army! Glad to see the Scarab Farm doing so well.

Hope to see you guys try out some of the other stuff in the codex eventually, the Scarab farm seems pretty tried and tested, although I would love to see it against Reecius' Space wolves and Footdar as well.

Go purifiers!

Necrons put up a good fight, but I think the knights are still the army to beat. In order to succeed against them, I think necrons will require more wraiths. IMO, scarab-farm (I like to call it spydercrons) need more wraiths to be an actual tier-1 army.

Reecius, when you start trying out 2 units of wraiths with your scarab-farm, you will find them to be a much better necron army.

Reecius I was thinking of using a simular list but got poo pooed for it but seeing you sucess I think I will try it. I came up with this so far

HQ

Storm Lord 225

Royal Court
-Lord x 1 70
-warscythe
-res orb

-Cryptec x 1 55
-Harbinger of Dispair
-veil of darkness

HQ
Necron Overlord-130
-warscythe
-res orb

Royal Court
-Cryptec x 1 55
-Harbinger of Dispair
-veil of darkness

Troops
warriors x 18 349
-Ghost Arch

warriors x 18 349
-Ghost Arch

Fast Attack
Canoptek Scarabs x 10 150
Canoptek Scarabs x 10 150

Heacy Support
Canoptek Spyder x2 100
Canoptek Spyder x2 100
Canoptek Spyder x2 100

1838

Not sure if I would lose the synergy you seem to have created but beeing able deep strike at will to avoid the assault or move into double tap posisition seems to have its advantage. Unfortianatly I can not play test as I am away from home. Would like your imput though. Thanks.

mstersmith3 wrote:Reecius I was thinking of using a simular list but got poo pooed for it but seeing you sucess I think I will try it. I came up with this so far

HQ

Storm Lord 225

Royal Court
-Lord x 1 70
-warscythe
-res orb

-Cryptec x 1 55
-Harbinger of Dispair
-veil of darkness

HQ
Necron Overlord-130
-warscythe
-res orb

Royal Court
-Cryptec x 1 55
-Harbinger of Dispair
-veil of darkness

Troops
warriors x 18 349
-Ghost Arch

warriors x 18 349
-Ghost Arch

Fast Attack
Canoptek Scarabs x 10 150
Canoptek Scarabs x 10 150

Heacy Support
Canoptek Spyder x2 100
Canoptek Spyder x2 100
Canoptek Spyder x2 100

1838

Not sure if I would lose the synergy you seem to have created but beeing able deep strike at will to avoid the assault or move into double tap posisition seems to have its advantage. Unfortianatly I can not play test as I am away from home. Would like your imput though. Thanks.

If I may offer some of my own comments to this list.

- Veil of Darkness is a gimmick. Don't rely too much on it, let alone build an army around it. More important than veil crypteks are HoD crypteks with Solar Pulse, especially since you do not have a shooty army.

- Only 2 units of troops, especially large blocks that can easily be swept? I don't recommend more than 1 large block of warriors. Keep the rest like "grot squads" - 5-man warrior units. I recommend throwing in at least 1 HoD cryptek with each troop unit for some ranged shooting.

- Objectives-based scenarios will be a problem. You have your block on an objective and the enemy approaches into assault range. So do you teleport off your objective? Also, with only 2 troop choices, how will you play multiple objectives? My rule of thumb is 1 troop per 500pts in your army (with a minimum of 2). Thus, at 1850, you should have at least 3 troop choices. I'd actually recommend 4 troops.

- Get Mindshackle Scarabs for each Lord/Overlord in your army. They are just that good.

- You only need 1 ghost ark. You should also take no more than 1 large block of warriors. Drop the other ark.

- Drop 1 unit of scarabs. You only need 1. Instead, get another 3 spyders. What you need to do is maximize your scarab-factories. The spyders are also decent counter-assault units.

Reecius wrote:

@Darth
Hahahaha, noted! I don't know why Luis had me in the frame so much, but we will tell him to focus on the table more.

We will switch it out too, with me (or one of the other guys) playing against the Scarab Farm.

And I am flattered that you think I am the best General out there, that is very kind!

"there" meant your area of California. Sorry for the confusion. And IMO in order for the experiment to be valid, then you need to play your best armies against the swarm meaning Reecius needs to play Wolves or Footdar against someone else running the Swarm. I don't think you running a khorne chaos army, of which I have never heard you playing at a big tournament can count.

If it's the list and tactics for the list then that needs to be shown, however right now it looks like the swarm is having success because of the guy running it who has been known to take whacky builds and do well with it while few others can with that same list. That's all I'm saying.

mrblacksunshine_1978 wrote:Just a question, why would you as a GK player used Cleanin Fire, rather than using your force weapon? I had a fun game against one my buddies with a swarm list and I just destory every swarms, including the Spiders using the force weapons.

because you test for force weapons after you wound, he could stack wounds on one base

fuegan17 wrote:

mrblacksunshine_1978 wrote:Just a question, why would you as a GK player used Cleanin Fire, rather than using your force weapon? I had a fun game against one my buddies with a swarm list and I just destory every swarms, including the Spiders using the force weapons.

because you test for force weapons after you wound, he could stack wounds on one base

No he can't. ID removes whole models immediately and since all those bases are homogenous (all the same), he would be removing whole models at a time. You can't stack/allocate unless the models within the units are different.

One thing also to keep in mind is that force weapon takes place after a failed wound but before the removal of models.

jy2 wrote:

fuegan17 wrote:

mrblacksunshine_1978 wrote:Just a question, why would you as a GK player used Cleanin Fire, rather than using your force weapon? I had a fun game against one my buddies with a swarm list and I just destory every swarms, including the Spiders using the force weapons.

because you test for force weapons after you wound, he could stack wounds on one base

No he can't. ID removes whole models immediately and since all those bases are homogenous (all the same), he would be removing whole models at a time. You can't stack/allocate unless the models within the units are different.

One thing also to keep in mind is that force weapon takes place after a failed wound but before the removal of models.

that's the answer he gave me when I inquired about force weaponing his scarabs! well that's the last time I ask reece a question! hes always cheating

I agree with jy2, force weapons would remove one base and then normal wounds.

BUT cleansing flame hast the potential to do more than 3 wounds per cast, as you can only forceweapon once...

@reece, tbh is think the list is to topheavy on the HQ compartment, like you play this list, i feel a destroyer lord with mindschackle Scarabs and 4 to 5 wraiths would complement this nicely..., Dont see much for Zandrek, unless you give the unit stealth, dunno if he can do this?

Zahndrekh can give Furious Charge to the Scarabs, or Stealth to the warrior block. Coupled with the Cryptek and Lord (Imotekh punches like a paper doll in CC) the warrior squad is pretty resilient. Furious Charge on the Scarabs means they can eat up enemy squads like delicious delicious brain meats.

I think a lot of 'cron armies are going to wind up being HQ heavy. The Royal Court is extremely useful, and being able to have two (or one and a D. Lord to go with a Wraithwing) gives you a large amount of evil tools to play with.

Another good battle report Reece. Keep these coming!

Valek wrote:I agree with jy2, force weapons would remove one base and then normal wounds.

BUT cleansing flame hast the potential to do more than 3 wounds per cast, as you can only forceweapon once...

@reece, tbh is think the list is to topheavy on the HQ compartment, like you play this list, i feel a destroyer lord with mindschackle Scarabs and 4 to 5 wraiths would complement this nicely..., Dont see much for Zandrek, unless you give the unit stealth, dunno if he can do this?

I'm not sure what you meant by 'force weapon once' but according to the NFW rules, once one force weapon has been activated, the entire squad's force weapons are activated, meaning that each successful wound would remove a base; considering its 3+ to hit 3+ to wound, I think the mathhammer works out in favor of NFW over CF.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
What I'd really like to see is the Scarab Farm against a tight 1850 draigowing

uh, beg you pardon, then those guys need to be 100 points the guy, force weapon is a psychic power and only one can be cast for one guy, being the champ or the model you choose and it is only for one wound. tbh the best thing to do is going for +1str and hit on 3+ wound on 2+ with no saves.

Wtf everyone has with draigo wing, it's crap, at 2500 it shines but 1850 no, yes it will beat scarab farm, but i can make a good all around list with necrons that will eat it for breakfast and still be hungry... paper/siccors/rock

@Valek

Brotherhood of psykers - a grey knight unit can use one psychic power each turn. The unit counts as a single psyker and follows all the normal rules for a psyker.

Also nemisis force weapons in wargear states- note that a unit of grey knights with the brotherhood of psykers special rule needs to take only a single test to activate all of its force weapons.

So one test to activate all of them meaning 3 wounds with force weps would take out 3 multiple wounds bases.

Valek wrote:uh, beg you pardon, then those guys need to be 100 points the guy, force weapon is a psychic power and only one can be cast for one guy, being the champ or the model you choose and it is only for one wound. tbh the best thing to do is going for +1str and hit on 3+ wound on 2+ with no saves.

Nemesis Force Weapons are different than Force Weapons, once activated all the units wounds inflict ID.

Ok, heavy overpowered against multiple wounds if you ask me... but ok.
Then indeed forceweapon activation is what you need, paladins with the banner will as said just walk over that squad.

also, force weapons would not be subject to the gloom shround thing spiders have correct?

As it only blocks things targeting the necrons so a force weapon test would be targeting the GK squad and not enemy troops if how I understand the workings

right...

Valek wrote:I agree with jy2, force weapons would remove one base and then normal wounds.

BUT cleansing flame hast the potential to do more than 3 wounds per cast, as you can only forceweapon once...

@reece, tbh is think the list is to topheavy on the HQ compartment, like you play this list, i feel a destroyer lord with mindschackle Scarabs and 4 to 5 wraiths would complement this nicely..., Dont see much for Zandrek, unless you give the unit stealth, dunno if he can do this?

The rules for the Force Weapons for GK are OP, It states that all wounds cause by a nemsis force weapons are instant death.

reece, even considered using flayed ones with double warscythe lords in? they would be a fine harassament unit that can reliably deepstrike with Imothek's rules,

7 to 8 flayed ones
1 lord, ms scarabs, rez orb
1 lord, ms scarabs

think a lot of units will have huge problems stopping this in hth, double warschythe can threaten vehicles and 10 models with a 4+ save and 4+++ rp is quite sturdy also if you have scarabs threathening from his line.

jy2 wrote:

mstersmith3 wrote:Reecius I was thinking of using a simular list but got poo pooed for it but seeing you sucess I think I will try it. I came up with this so far

HQ

Storm Lord 225

Royal Court
-Lord x 1 70
-warscythe
-res orb

-Cryptec x 1 55
-Harbinger of Dispair
-veil of darkness

HQ
Necron Overlord-130
-warscythe
-res orb

Royal Court
-Cryptec x 1 55
-Harbinger of Dispair
-veil of darkness

Troops
warriors x 18 349
-Ghost Arch

warriors x 18 349
-Ghost Arch

Fast Attack
Canoptek Scarabs x 10 150
Canoptek Scarabs x 10 150

Heacy Support
Canoptek Spyder x2 100
Canoptek Spyder x2 100
Canoptek Spyder x2 100

1838

Not sure if I would lose the synergy you seem to have created but beeing able deep strike at will to avoid the assault or move into double tap posisition seems to have its advantage. Unfortianatly I can not play test as I am away from home. Would like your imput though. Thanks.

If I may offer some of my own comments to this list.

- Veil of Darkness is a gimmick. Don't rely too much on it, let alone build an army around it. More important than veil crypteks are HoD crypteks with Solar Pulse, especially since you do not have a shooty army.

- Only 2 units of troops, especially large blocks that can easily be swept? I don't recommend more than 1 large block of warriors. Keep the rest like "grot squads" - 5-man warrior units. I recommend throwing in at least 1 HoD cryptek with each troop unit for some ranged shooting.

- Objectives-based scenarios will be a problem. You have your block on an objective and the enemy approaches into assault range. So do you teleport off your objective? Also, with only 2 troop choices, how will you play multiple objectives? My rule of thumb is 1 troop per 500pts in your army (with a minimum of 2). Thus, at 1850, you should have at least 3 troop choices. I'd actually recommend 4 troops.

- Get Mindshackle Scarabs for each Lord/Overlord in your army. They are just that good.

- You only need 1 ghost ark. You should also take no more than 1 large block of warriors. Drop the other ark.

- Drop 1 unit of scarabs. You only need 1. Instead, get another 3 spyders. What you need to do is maximize your scarab-factories. The spyders are also decent counter-assault units.

Thank you. Been dying to get a bit of advice on this list. With what you recomended I can easily add some solar pulse crypteks in there drop one large mob a full unit of Immortals possibly two and reinforce the scarabs. I like this lis but I have another that is very shooty. Looking forward to play tesing them.

DarthDiggler wrote:Reecius is a very beautiful person, but on turn 1 and turn 4 we only saw him and no shots of the board position. I would like to see the board position each turn.

I would also like to see Reecius play against the scarab army more. I'm sure everyone else are competent army generals, but to be honest Reecius is the best tabletop General out there. If you want to show the Ant farm is top level, then Reece should lose to it with his best armies (Footdar) just as regularly as the others have. Otherwise I can't tell if it's the list or the guy playing the list.

I originally was using the scarab farm list in all the battle reports. We've both recently made some changes with the list. Which we believe is better and is what you see now being played. I've let him have his fun with the list now haha.

Reece has played against the scarab farm list with his khorne list at 1500pts. Which he lost, bearing some bad rolling early on causing him to call the game early.

sudojoe wrote:also, force weapons would not be subject to the gloom shround thing spiders have correct?

As it only blocks things targeting the necrons so a force weapon test would be targeting the GK squad and not enemy troops if how I understand the workings

Actually a Force Weapon test targets noone. It just affects the target of their attacks. So no, a Gloom Prism cannot be used to negate Force Weapons.

That said, there comes a point at which Cleansing Flame is better than activating Force Weapons. For example, if Reece has 2 turns to build up his scarab farm before attacking, he will have 28 bases assuming no casualties. Cleansing Flame from 2 units of 6 and Crowe (assuming 3 bases in contact with him on average) followed by all of their attacks will cause 36.93 unsaved wounds, killing 12.31 bases before the Scarabs attack (followed by the Hammers). The Scarabs cause 4.26 unsaved wounds which kills the Psycannons, then the Hammers attack for 2.22 dead bases or 6.67 unsaved wounds. Scarabs lose combat by 39.34 and take 8.75 dead bases, leaving them at 6.94 bases remaining that the Grey Knights wipe in the next round of combat.

If they instead use Force Weapons, they kill 9.65 bases including Crowes Cleansing Flame and his attacks, which is less damage and more return damage from the scarabs, potentially killing off about 5 models before the hammers kill off another 2.22. The Scarabs lose combat by less and take fewer fearless saves which means they will have more bases alive at the end of combat and the Grey Knights have lost a Force Weapon. The Grey Knights still win combat the next round but they are less likely to wipe out the Scarabs and more likely to remain in a protracted combat long enough for the Spyders to make more bases.

As you can see, if the Scarab Farm is large enough, the Purifiers are much better off casting Cleansing Flame than using their Force Weapons.