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I have two small boys (7 & 10) who have been playing 40k for more than a year, but who now are building new armies. The little one has Tyranids, the eldest has Necrons. I just finished painting "base armies" for both (as part of their Christmas presents) and they are dying to play against each other... but even though we have both codeci I don't really have a good enough understanding of either army to come up with a scenario that would treat each fairly enough for the kids to have fun playing and learn how to use their armies.

The little one has 20 gene stealers, T-prime w/ upgraded gun & a single zoanthrope, though he'll probably have a full squad of 3 zoanthropes by the time they get a chance to play.
The eldest has 36 warriors, lord w/ res orb & 3 destroyers.

Points-wise I can balance the two (the Necrons will have more points painted so I can adjust the size of the warrior squads accordingly). I realize neither if these armies has an ideal configuration. They'll probably be playing at about 850 ish points (just guessing). Can any of you who are knowledgeable about both of these forces suggest a fairly balanced situation where both boys will have a chance to play their armies rather than one just blowing up the other? I realize this is kind of a mismatch as the Necrons are seriously bad in HtH and that's the specialty of the Nids... but this is the match-up I've been handed so am trying to make the best of it.

I'll take any suggestions... scenario, terrain, army make-up, special rules to keep things from getting out of control... you name it. The goal is to let both armies (boys) have at least a chance of doing what they do well against the other so they can learn and have fun with their new forces.

Many thanks...
Gits

It's not just an annihilation problem you have. Secnario wise nids vs crons is almost impossible fluff-wise due to the fact that nids avoid cron worlds because crons are psychic nulls (I think that's the correct excuse).

Using that sort of logic it would just be an annihilation

Anything should work as long as you give the necron player at least 300-500 more points than the tyranid player.

But basically with the units they have now, the necron player will just get chomped up and swept in a few turns. Zoantropes is icing on the cake. Personally I play necrons and my brother plays tyranids and no matter the game we play, objectives or annihilation, it just turns into annihilation because if he phases me out, he doesn't have to worry about the objectives at all.

IMO just start them both off with spess merines.

Done that, these are their second armies. But I do appreciate the advice. The necron boy has a Nightbringer that we could get painted up soon enough... would that even the odds any?

Juvieus Kaine wrote:It's not just an annihilation problem you have. Secnario wise nids vs crons is almost impossible fluff-wise due to the fact that nids avoid cron worlds because crons are psychic nulls (I think that's the correct excuse).

Using that sort of logic it would just be an annihilation

Not really. The nid's could be bio harvesting a world where the crons tombs are dormant. All the bio harvesting could disturb the tombs and waken the necrons. I feel like I was just reading almost this exact scenario the other day.

Keep in mind guys I'm really talking game mechanics here, not that the fluff aspect isn't interesting (which it is). What I'm really looking for is advice on how to make a playable game between these two armies given the low point values and limited unit selection.

Well Necrons are going to be the underdogs. It’s good that the older boy is playing them. I wouldn’t give the necrons more points (handicapping armies is not a good habit to get into), just know that he’ll need to make smart decisions to win.

Necrons stink at close combat and had their anti tank seriously nerfed by 5th edition rules. Since ‘nids have no tanks the only thing you really need to worry about is the CC getting way out of hand. The biggest threat to this list is losing combat, taking a ld check with negative modifier, and getting cut down. This will ignore WBB rules and cost you very expensive warriors you can’t afford to lose. The nightbringer would provide some essential close combat support to even up of win combat.

If the necrons have the nightbringer + lord w res orb + lots of warriors that is going to be a pretty decent list against nid’s.

Necron tips:
Nightbringer is a good match up with monstrous creatures, will not do so well against genestealers.
Warriors will hurt stealers really bad, won’t do so much for monstrous creatures.
I would deal with Zoanthropes last. They aren’t going to hurt you in CC, and you’ll probably get cover and WBB against their shots.
Avoid losing combat (combat in general) and getting cut down.

Defense scenario.
Nids attacking Necrons.
Have the Necrons defending an objective of some sort in terrain while the Nids try to wrestle it away from them.

That helps, thanks guys!

or you could make the tyranid player come in waves. So that the cron player learns target priority (and wont get munched up by turn 3-4)

And the tyranid will learn the value of cover and sneaky tactics?

purplefood wrote:Defense scenario.
Nids attacking Necrons.
Have the Necrons defending an objective of some sort in terrain while the Nids try to wrestle it away from them.

I would play a slightly modified "Implacable Advance" scenario from Battlemissions (a Necron scenario in that book found on page 54).

I would play it as written in that book (three objective markers one in the center of each third of a 6'x4' table), but in addition I would make each of the three objectives represent/act as a potential "gateways" to an underground Necron tomb/strucure that can be opened by the necrons "securing" them as per the scenario rules (Battlemissions p.54):

Have necron warriors that die (and don't get back up normally as per necrons and WBB)to be able to return to play similar to "without number" except make it that as soon as he has enough dead necrons to make a squad have them available as per automatically apearing reserves on each of his turns with the catch that they must be "deployed" within 2" of one of the three objectives that he has "secured" (as per the mission an uncontested objective is secured once a scoring unit ends a turn within 3" of it). IF none of the objetives are "secured" at the start of any necron turn then these "without number" warriors can't be brought out, but losses can still be built up and then released once one or more objectives IS "secured"

This would represent the necrons emerging from the tomb below once the necrons above have "opened" the gate via securing it. In this scenario an army can then move away from a secured objective and it remains their objective until an enemy comes along and secures it for themselves: this would represent the gate sealing at the approach of the 'nids. This would allows the necrons to open the gates and have necrons continue to emerge unless the 'nids can take all three objectives which causes them to close while the nid's have them "secured" (in reality the tomb seals iself to prevent the 'nids entering).

This would solve the problem of giving the Necron player availability to extra points in a sense but having it tied in a flavorful way to a scenario and it's objectives (and a Necron scenario to boot).

Thats my 2 cents...

I think you should just have them play annihilation a few times before adding in additional tactics to their playing. Especially considering their age, learning new armies and not having the best choice of lists (no offense meant, just being truthful) they would be better off just doing straight "kill 'em all" missions. You could always pick up the battle missions book or whatever it is called. There is a great chaos space marines mission in there (I think it was called black tide?) that had some really fun rules that both sides benefit from and it made playing cron's much more fun (and better in CC).

Having followed all of your threads, I know your boys know the game. From what I remember, Thing 1 is able to think tactically to some extent, and dislikes taking risks? Whereas Thing 2 tends to be a bit more chargey? At least it is appropriate that they have the armies they do.

Now, having said that, Thing 1 will need to hold a defensive posture, which is fortunate as it matches his playstyle.

How about this - put a couple of bunkers in each deployment zone. They both get the bunkers, but they'll only be of use to the Necron player, as he can try and hide inside.

As Thing 2 won't have tankbusting weapons, you might introduce some rules about breaking down the doors in CC at a lower AV than going through the walls. Perhaps make the doors AV10/11 instead of AV13/14, like the bunkers themselves? That would also mean Thing 1 would have to make some difficult decisions about leaving some folks outside to defend the doors, or lure 'stealers away from the doors. Maybe even set it up so that the windows of the bunker can't see the door to try and shoot the foes away (Poorly designed Imperial crap!)

Start them playing some simple combat patrols. I found with those guidelines it makes it about fair for both sides.

Introduce some objectives if you feel like annihilation is getting boring but leave it at 3-4 since they should be focusing on infantry at those point levels.

Lots of good ideas here... thanks everyone!

Post a battle report once you play something!

Today is the day... I'll let you guys know how it goes & do a little battle report! Thanks again for all the help.

I was going to recommend too that the Necrons have come for the Red Harvest. Being somewhat impotent with how the Warp works, and since they use arcane means of FTL travel, the Nids might appear unawares. The objectives are three psychic nulls (carrying the Pariah Gene) that the Necrons want for conversion to Pariahs, and the Tyranids want to eliminate as such creatures are anathema to psychic creatures. You could even have the objectives disrupt synapse within 6 inches, which could provide all sorts of amusing tactical concerns.

Let us know how it goes.