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'm scheduled to pit my 'crons against my buddies Orks next Sunday, by then he will most likely have the new codex and a couple nasty surprises for me. My army list looks like this:

Lord with orb / veil (might change the veil to something else)
2x11 warriors
5 immortals
3 destroyers
5 scarabs w/ disruptor fields
1 Tomb Spyder
3 wraiths

I'm including the wraiths for 2 reasons: a) they look badass and b) I got one of them from my ork buddy for christmas, it'd be kinda rude not to field it. It's just a friendly match, so I'm not exactly going for gold here.

Unfortunately, I can't think of a single thing that wraiths can do against orks that scarabs couldn't do better. I could go Bot hunting (the 3+ invulnerable save would be handy against those powerklaws) or attack his HQ, which he always fields with a small retinue, or I could counter-attack with them. All of these things could be done by other units, though, and for 120 points the wraiths are a big investment. Any ideas what they could be good for?

Of course... if he's got his shokk attack gun finished until Sunday, the whole discussion will be moot, because in that case I know what's going down in the second turn

"Bot hunting"? What do you mean?

Honestly, CC is not where you want to be with Orks. You're better off pulling your units out of it with Veil and Monoliths than trying to countercharge. Probably the best thing you could do with those Wraiths is send them to hunt Lootas or the squishier ICs (i.e. not Warbosses).

Oh many things come to mind:

Lootas. Scarabs have a hard time hiding, Wraiths don't and can nail 'em.

Warboss on a Bike. Hold him until you get your army away from him and ready to shoot him dead.

Smashing Trukk squads shot out of their transport.

Doing the suicide pull tactic. Run them into a Ork squad, die, and get them to move forward. When you are prepared for this, you can smash the unit with rapid fire and supporting assault/lith fire. Then you have a unit removed and you can deal with the Ork army a little easier.

Your Tomb Spyder isn't really being used to it's full potential here either. It has the possibility to help rez your warriors and that's about it. Maybe add another 3 Destroyers or Wraiths, or subsitutue one squad for another? Or, drop the Spyder and throw in more Destoryers or something.

Just got back from the aforementioned game and thought I'd post my impressions.

Ironically, the wraiths, the one unit I was pretty skeptical about, gave the best performance by far. Due to their turboboost I managed to stay unharmed and in cover, and then assault 3 killa kans in turn 2. Due to amazing saving throws the wraiths held their ground not only against the bots, but also against a unit of stormboyz (8 or so) for 3 whole rounds without a SINGLE casualty, obliterating both enemy squads in the process.

The highlight was when I managed to get "Vehicle Explodes!" on one of the kans, and the ensuing explosion killed 6 of the 8 stormboyz but none of my wraiths.

Other things I learned:

- Immolators are cool. Squad sizes of 5 aren't. I need 5 more of these.
- Same goes for destroyers. My opponent managed to kill the entire squad in one round, denying my WBB.

Next time I'd ditch the tomb spyder and 2 warriors to squeeze in another destroyer or a couple immortals, and going to 1,500 points I'll max size both destroyer and immortal squads and add a lord with destroyer body to the wraiths for yet more awesomeness. Looks like I'll be the only necron player without a 'lith at 1,500

tegeus-Cromis, I think he's German (Luebbi being the easy way of typing Lübbi) and they call Dreadnoughts Cybots.

The problem isn't as much unit size is the number of units. A Necron unit really needs a duplicate to help with WBB. As you experienced, when a unit is damaged and there is no other like unit near by, the unit is gone without a chance for WBB rolls. This makes PO more likely. If you get five more Immortals then make two units of five instead of one unit of ten.

Iorek: Oh no, my secret is out

TheGreatAvatar wrote:The problem isn't as much unit size is the number of units. A Necron unit really needs a duplicate to help with WBB. As you experienced, when a unit is damaged and there is no other like unit near by, the unit is gone without a chance for WBB rolls. This makes PO more likely. If you get five more Immortals then make two units of five instead of one unit of ten.

Have to disagree there. It's true that another like unit helps with WBB, but only when the two units stick together or if there's a Tomb Spyder nearby. But especially with immortals, a unit of 10 is very, very hard to kill in a single turn. Couple that with my plan to teleport 'em around the table as a retinue for my lord with veil, and then a single unit of 10 makes more sense in my opinion.

A couple of units of Flayed Ones might be amusing and provide a little variety.

Immolators? Do you mean immortals

Nurglitch wrote:A couple of units of Flayed Ones might be amusing and provide a little variety.

Except im pretty sure no one will sell you flayed one models unless you can confirm that they are for conversions. I mean it would be a cold day in hell if people used them AS flayed ones in an actual game AMIRITE???

I use them. They almost always make their points back. They aren't all stars by any means but they can infiltrate and contest objectives from turn 1. I give them dis fields normally. 4 Flayed Ones with disfields = 84 points. I have 2 squads side by side. So one squad will get their WWB. Necrons have very few scoring units that cost less than 150 points. Wraiths are too fragile and have to be used in numbers. Same goes for heavy destroyers.

FearPeteySodes wrote:AMIRITE???

Amirite? Is that like kumite?

sounds like a kind of alloy 0.o

DonkeyCannon wrote:I use them. They almost always make their points back. They aren't all stars by any means but they can infiltrate and contest objectives from turn 1. I give them dis fields normally. 4 Flayed Ones with disfields = 84 points. I have 2 squads side by side. So one squad will get their WWB. Necrons have very few scoring units that cost less than 150 points. Wraiths are too fragile and have to be used in numbers. Same goes for heavy destroyers.

i've actually done the same minus disruption fields. it worked much better than i expected. however ultimately i don't think using up 2 elite slots is worth it. certainly not for points levels above 1,500.


and about unit durability: 10 immortals on their own are ok. 5 destroyers on their own are not. use destroyers in two units side by side or not at all. i've come to prefer not at all, filling my fast attack with scarabs.

I field a unit of 8 Flayed Ones pretty standard. They tend to hide behind something so they don't get shot at the first turn or two, then when a Monolith gets in position, they portal thru it and charge.

Sure, they're no uber elite hand to hand unit, but when used smartly, they're quite nice. Really quite nice when fighting Tau, which are a third of my games.

My experience with Wraiths has been limited. Against Tau I've had great success. Two squads of 3 wraiths screened by scarabs can tear through a static tau army like nobody's business! Against orks, however....now that's a different story.

I must see if my regular necron opponent could be convinced to take some of these types of things.
Though really I think his biggest failing is trying to protect his uber tough units instead of waltzing 'round the battlefield, hosing down whatever strays near.