Hey folks! I play Necrons, currently the worst Codex in
40k. I picked them up specifically for that reason – I’ve always enjoyed playing Underdog armies. I’ve been steamrolling them through opponents for months now, and they’re actually undefeated in both competitive and casual play. They haven’t *won* every game; they’ve had a couple of tied games – but its about a 90/10 split between wins and ties.
Outside of formal tournaments, I generally get them out for one of two reasons. Either my opponent isn’t ready to take on a “Hard” army, playing
DE or Orks would be an wasted exercise in noob-stomping, or because they need to be put in their place. This usually happens in one of three ways – either a stranger challenges me to a game because they know who I am, tells me that they are better than me, and how much pain I’m going to suffer at their hands, or Person A told Person B who I was and what it signifies, and Player B doesn’t believe them, demands proof, and tells player A that I’m a lair, or because an innocent tournament player (or group of gamers) is suffering at the hands of a
TFG who is abusing them and being obnoxious about it – and they ask me to come to whatever store/wherever place/etc and shut them down. In these kind of cases, I make a HUGE deal about how I love a challenge, so not only am I going to play the worst codex in
40k against their super-powered army, but I’m also going to use an army that does what the army is worst at. That’s right – CLOSE COMBAT NECRONS!
I have two themes of close combat Necrons; Wraith-Wing and Tomb-Spyder Wing.
Today’s guide is going to focus on the less mentally challenged of the two, the Wraith Wing. I had hoped to skip this kind of guide and simply have battle reports from some of the
GTs coming up over the next six months, but with a new Codex apparently a certainty and a mere 2-4 months away…waiting would render the advice and tactical analysis of the army useless and no longer applicable. I have *no* illusions about the power of the codex, how underwhelming it is – and I like to tell people that I’ve never met a Necron army that I didn’t laugh off the table. I’m very grateful that my use of them thus far has been so successful, but I harbor no illusions that they will meet their untimely demise sooner or later. When I’m in “shutting down a gakface” mode, my backup plan if they fail to humiliate is to say, “Oh...well if you can beat a bad Necron Army, you’re worth my time” and getting out one of my
GT armies. =p
SO! This guide is meant to show you what I play, how I play it, and for you Necron players out there….hopefully to see some last minute resurgence of Necron domination before we go the way of
IG. So few people remember how gak the old
IG were, only that Mech
IG is ridiculous. =D
Part I: Dashofpepper’s 2,000 Point Wraith Wing
HQ: Deceiver
HQ: Necron Lord + Destroyer Body + Phase Shifter + Rez Orb + Warscythe
Troop: 11x Warriors
Troop: 12x Warriors
Fast Attack: 3x Wraiths
Fast Attack: 3x Wraiths
Fast Attack: 3x Wraiths
Heavy Support: Monolith
Heavy Support: Monolith
Heavy Support: Monolith
A few notes to address questions that usually come up.
1. Yes, there are 33 Necrons in that army – many fewer than in most Necron armies. Contrary to popular belief, this does not make them easier to phase out, it makes them harder to phase out. While fewer actual models need to be killed to trigger a phase out, a greater portion of the army needs to be killed. 25% of a huge army is a significant force left on the board that could have done something if not for phasing out. Whereas in my army….phase out will literally mean that every unit is dead anyway. I can lose all my warriors and not phase out. I can lose all my wraiths, my destroyer lord, and either warrior unit and still not phase out. More on survivability later.
2. For the purpose of this guide, presume that when a Monolith Deep-strikes within 1” of an enemy unit, they move out of the way. There has been ample discussion in the
YMDC forum on Dakka about what happens when a Monolith deep-strikes onto or near enemy units given that the main rules have changed in how deep-striking happens. There are some who interpret the Monolith’s special rules to mean that it will roll a mishap as normal, and move enemy models out of the way on a result of 1-2, but mishap normally on any other result. Others point out that the rule was written when the only mishap result was to be destroyed, meaning that it is intended to avoid mishaps. I play the latter method. Moreover, I’ve yet to play against an opponent who thought it works the other way, nor have any
TOs from either local, regional, or
GT events that I’m planning on taking Necrons to told me that it works the other way. That isn’t an assurance that you don’t need to check, because you still do. But in 100% of my experience, I’ve not had it ever come up. Keep in mind that
YMDC madness is in no way any reflection of actual, real-life
40k. If you intend to post in this thread to argue about it, go rage in one of the
YMDC threads about Monolith deep-striking, because I neither want, nor care about your opinion.
3. Deceiver vs. Nightbringer: I get this question a lot. Simply put, neither C’Tan can truly afford to be stuck in combat against their will while the enemy brings their potency to bear. Either C’Tan would gladly assault a unit of 5
TH/
SS terminators. Neither C’Tan would be happy to be stuck in combat the following enemy assault phase when two more units of
TH/
SS assault terminators pile into them on the assault. I primarily use the Deceiver because of the Misdirect ability. He takes his sweet time getting across the board, but as soon as he hits his first combat, he’s averaging 19” of movement per turn after that.
4. I like analogies, so I’m going to use one here and say that a Necron army is like a fortress. Each component of the army is a piece of the castle. The Deceiver is a moat full of poisonous fish that attackers are afraid to get past. The Monoliths are the fortress walls and cannons. The Wraiths and Destroyer Lord are roped Ballistae. The Necron Warriors....well, they're the castle compost heap. Smelly, offensive, useless, and ultimately a mandatory horror that can't be avoided.
Part II: Deceiver Tactics
1. The Deceiver is my beatstick. At T8, he’s a pain to wound, and while he has an innate dislike of force weapons, most force weapons are also not strong enough to wound him. Grey Knights are a good example. Nemesis Force Weapons can instant-kill him because he doesn’t have Eternal Warrior – another remnant of ancient rules when Instant Death worked differently, and T8 was enough to make sure that it never occurred. However, all those tasty Nemesis Force Weapons (with a few exceptions) are STR4, which can’t hurt T8 – which means that all those Grey Knights can either cast Hammerhand for +1
STR to try wounding on 6s, or they can activate their force weapons. Obviously, there are exceptions. An attached
IC casting hammerhand on a unit which activates its own force weapons is potential trouble.
ICs who are strong enough to wound the Deceiver and have force weapons are trouble – unless they are 3 wounds or less and strike at I4 or below.
2. Deceive: During the shooting phase, he can try to pin anything. Including fearless units. He can also make them fall back (unless they are fearless, in which case they take fearless wounds – a rather useless ability). What’s more, I learned the other day that he can run *and* Deceive – since Deceive isn’t a shooting ability. Nor does he have to assault the unit he deceives, since it isn’t a shooting attack, nor a
PSA. I was surprised to find that
This was universally accepted. Just goes to show that about the time you think you know what you’re doing, you find out that you don’t – so always keep an open mind!
3. Grand Illusion: I’m not sure that I’ve *ever* seen anyone fall for my bait, but the trick I usually try is to put my Deceiver somewhere exposed to try tempting opponents to deploy units in response to shoot at him, then to redeploy him behind some cover somewhere. My opponents tend to just ignore him anyway though, and I feel dumb for having done so. =p
4. Misdirect: The jewel of the Deceiver. This ability is pure awesome. He can consolidate out of any combat before attacks are made. The obvious tactic: Charge, hope to stay locked in combat so you can’t be shot at during the enemy turn, then consolidate
2D6 out of combat during the enemy assault phase, with an automatic 6” move and 6” assault during your own turn. My main uses for this are to hammer a unit down in size so that the wraiths can come in and finish them off, to create physical roadblocks of close combat, or to “force-kite” enemy units toward or away from something I want. Some examples:
-Hammer: C’Tan assaults a unit of 5 terminators, and kills three of them. The other two aren’t worth staying in combat for when he has 5 attacks on the charge probably hitting on 3+ and definitely wounding on 2+. He’ll consolidate out
2d6 and use his 12” move to get to another target to hammer on while the wraiths and Destroyer Lord move in behind to assault and finish the unit off.
-Roadblock: Enemy unit(s) are moving towards objectives in midfield, which are the mandatory 12” away from each other. A monolith is 7” or so across. A monolith (or hopefully two) attempt (and hopefully land) on top of each objective, or slightly behind it so that teleporting warriors will be sitting on it. Between the two monoliths is a 5-6” gap. The Deceiver moves up to one of the monoliths and is now amply prepared to thwart any effort to either go around the monolith or go between them. I actively look for instances where I can use a Deceiver assault (carefully positioned during the consolidate, move and assault phase) to create a physical roadblock that stops enemy units from getting by / doing anything useful / etc. I had a game last weekend where I had two monoliths in midfield, warriors in my backfield, and the enemy (playing
DOA Blood Angel Sanguinary Guard) deep-struck his entire army in my backfield to shoot up my warriors and prepare to assault them. I wasn’t expecting it, and my Deceiver had been busily making his way up to midfield. On my turn, both warrior units teleported through the monolith portals onto the enemy side of the field – leaving the entire army without the ability to get to the warriors without going the long way around over 2-3 turns, or trying to make it through the Deceiver in two turns to get to the warriors. Bam: Roadblock assault.
-Force-kiting. Nothing is more annoying than the blob of Guardsmen, terminators, marines, Orks, etc sitting on an objective that you don’t have the firepower to shoot off, or the assault power to wipe out. Thus, the Force Kite! Imagine this: 30 Orks sitting on an objective. If your warriors could rapid fire them, the warriors would get assaulted in return. The full complement of wraiths and the destroyer lord can eat through the unit, but it will take at least two turns, and there’s the rest of the army to deal with. Force-kiting is using the Deceiver’s misdirect power to continually pull enemy units in one direction. In the example I just gave: The Deceiver gets his initial assault. 30 Orks pile in. Only one Ork can actually do any damage. You kill a few orks, he takes a few fearless saves. During his assault turn, you consolidate
2D6 out of combat in the direction that you are going to want the orks to go. Then you assault them from that direction. Consolidate out, assault back in – each time forcing a 6” defender react and potential 6” pile-in in the direction that you want. I’ve pulled everything you can think of off of objectives. With only two troop choices, I’ll contest if I must, but I’d rather make the enemy unable to contest themselves and leave the objective open for potential teleportation, or simply untouched so that I can focus elsewhere.
5. Deceiver tricks: The Deceiver can also phase through terrain as if it didn’t exist, with the single exception that he cannot end his movement in impassable terrain. Two common tricks that I utilize are to put the Deceiver behind BLOS terrain (like a monolith, or preferably terrain in midfield) and to wait for something to get within 12”. A lot of folks who “know” that he phases through terrain don’t remember, or recognize the fact on the table – because they are thinking in terms of their own movement capability, and 6” is 6” right? This also works on the assault. You can ignore the 1” rule when making an assault – meaning that you can situationally phase through an enemy screening unit to hit the one behind it if there’s enough room for him without ending his assault move on top of an enemy model (which is treated as impassable terrain).
Part III: Monoliths
I had originally tagged Monoliths as Part IV, but bumped them up. I should have done them first.
Monoliths are the cornerstone of a wraith wing. These three models are the most important in the entire army. I've procrastinated finishing this section for almost a week to put more thought into it, and as it is, I'm *extremely* concerned that I'm still not going to cover all the important points. If you see anything I missed, feel free to add it and I'll consider it for an edit. As a general principle, Monoliths four three general purposes in a Necron Army:
1. Death Dispensation (Particle Whips and Flux Arcs)
2. HAHAHA NOPE! (Mobile BLOS Terrain)
3. I can waddle further than you can turbo-boost (Teleportation)
4. Oh, did you call dibs on that objective? (Contesting objectives)
Death Dispensation:
Particle Whips are STR9 AP3 Ordinance Large blasts firing at BS4 that cause an AP1 hit to the model under the hole; which is their saving grace against vehicles with high armour values. I won't start repeating all the Monolith rules here because you presumably have a codex. Great for taking down Land Raiders and predators if you're in range, the odd dreadnought, and...truth be told, not much else. AP3 works wonders against marine squads, but you won't need help killing them. Large blasts are great against hordes, but they'll usually have cover. Terminators have 2+ armour saves, and while you might land on target and score an AP1 hit, it isn't particularly meaningful, especially if they have cover or invulnerable saves. I primarily use my particle whips as self-defense: To take down things that can hurt my Monoliths - namely, lascannons. Particle Whips can be fired from any of the weapon mounts on the Monolith. A Monolith is about 7.5" tall, and the flux arcs are about 4.5" up and on each corner - so you can literally fire around the corner of buildings, or use lateral movement to line up a shot against enemy armour that would deny them cover that they would otherwise get. A frequent tactic that I use is to check armour facings on a vehicle that I'd like to fire at, then see if my Monolith can move in such a way that it can put one flux arc
LOS into side armour - and circumvent cover it would get against its front arc.
Flux Arcs: STR5 AP4; nothing special but they *are* Gauss weapons and glance any armour on a 6! Against AV10, that same 6 is a penetrate. Since my monoliths are primarily used for Items #2 and #3, I'm teleporting as often as not, and only have the flux arcs to use anyway. Since I play close combat Necrons, I'm not afraid of being within 12" of enemy units - preferably as many of them as I can to maximize the potential of the flux arcs. Yes...I *will* tank shock 6". Or charge a monolith towards a cluster of enemy units.
HAHAHA NOPE
Mobile Blocking Line of Sight Terrain. There's some famous (or infamous) bad advice floating around on how to defeat Necrons. "Ignore the Monoliths and go for the phase out." This leads to a lot of weaponry that could be killing monoliths being fired at Necrons instead. This is a *good* thing. My army has 32 Necron models in it, with a phase out number of 8. Kill 23 single-wound models and one multi-wound model that have 3+ or 3++ and I'm done. In truth, you can't fire at what you can't see. Triple monoliths create a vast wall of
LOS denial that you can move across the board, or literally "form" anywhere on the board within about two turns. I use them in four ways:
1. The Monolith Wall: This one is obvious - deployed in my deployment zone, moving up the board to get into 24" particle range while my Necrons hide behind them. Against armies with significant ability to kill them...not particularly advisable.
2. Deep-Striking Mobile BLOS: This is my best protection for both Deceiver and my Wraith Wing. Typically speaking, my Deceiver is trying to get across the board as quickly as possible to make something happen. Move/run in turn one, followed by a monolith deep-striking between him and where he's trying to go - ideally such that he can move and run to get behind it and still be out of
LOS. There's only one opportunity for a Monolith to move Cruising speed per game...and that's during a deep-strike! I'm not particularly concerned about thunderhammers and worse when they need 6+ to hit. And if anything *dares* to actually assault the Monolith, they're going to be greeted by the friendly Deceiver in my following turn. The other use is for the wraith-wing
WBBs. A turn one move or turbo-boost up the field...casualties taken...and before I take
WBBs, I deep-strike Monoliths onto the table within 18" to have a second
WBB if I need it. If I have to take it, that generally means that the remainder of the wraith-wing is *also* going to have to turbo-boost over to the Monolith to either bring the rez orb to the teleporting Wraiths, or bring the remaining units of wraiths to the teleported rez orb. But presenting a 6" by 6" Monolith with a door facing whichever way you need (like towards your own deployment zone) as a backup plan / safeguard is quite handy. There are risks - you may roll poorly for reserves and not get any Monoliths. You may scatter 12" away from where you need to be. Risk management is always king in
40k, just keep it in mind.
3. The inaccessible Firing Platform: Impassable terrain is GREAT for a wraith-wing. Your combat units can phase right through it, and your Monoliths can land on top of it where they're safe from assault. Nothing beats particle whipping a Battle Wagon that has a Deff-Rolla with Ghazghkull inside. Nothing in the army can actually hurt you.
Against certain armies, I'll happily trade being immobilized (
for
DT) on top of impassable terrain in exchange for being impervious to damage.
I can Waddle Further Than You Can Turbo-Boost!
Wraiths have a potential charge range of 42". 18" range to the Monolith, 6" through the monolith to the front, 12" move, 6" charge.
Warriors have a potential movement range of 36". 18" range to the Monolith, 6" through the monolith to the front, 6" move,
D6 run.
A few weeks ago, I had a game against Sanguinary Guard Blood Angels. Nasty buggers - the whole army had 2+/4+
FNP. I had gone first. My wraiths turbo-boosted up the field on turn one. Turn two, both of my warrior units plodded onto the board and two monoliths deep-struck in center field. On my opponent turn two, he deep-struck his sanguinary guard in my deployment zone - preparing to beat the tar out of my warriors and go for the phase out. On my turn three, both warrior units teleported and ran about 30" away - two turns worth of movement to even get back into range to threaten me...if I stayed still.
Necrons don't have the firepower or assault capability to simply wipe armies off the table like other codices do - but we *do* have the tools to neutralize threats. Teleportation is also half my strategy in winning objective games. Late in the game, I start teleporting scoring units onto objectives.
Oh, did you call dibs on that objective?:
My Wraith Wing only has two troop choices. In objective games - with potentially 5 objectives on the table, two troop choices don't cut it. However...those two troop choices can grab 2-4 objectives (more than two being from spreading out to hold multiple objectives), while a gigantic block of living metal deep-striking onto an objective or moving onto it make a great contesting unit - incredibly hard to budge. I actually use the Deceiver for a similar tactic by lining him up in the middle of a couple of objectives to go pounce on anything foolish enough to get near them. If there's a BLOS piece of terrain on the board, and you're placing objectives...place one a few inches in front of the terrain feature, and the next 12" behind it. With the Deceiver guarding the BLOS terrain, he'll avoid fire, be in assault range of the front objective, and be able to assault anything passing by the first to get to the second. Monoliths can do the same thing - If objectives are exactly 12" apart, a monolith can sit exactly between them and contest both!
6" wide monolith, putting it 3" from each.
Part IV: Wraith Wing and the Destroyer Lord
If Monoliths are the foundation of a Wraith Wing army, the Wraith Wing itself is a series of gigantic ballista with ropes tied to the end of each so that they can be fired, pulled back to the castle, and fired again.
The wraith wing starts as three units of three wraiths, with the destroyer lord attached to one of the three units. A lot of how they move, what distance they keep for coherency, or how they mix depends on what terrain looks like and what you’re fighting against, but I’ll do my best to give a couple general rules along with some pictures later on.
Rule #1: Stick together! The strength of a wraith wing is in its 6”
WBB to another unit rule. Don’t assault things that would pull all three models out of 6” range of another wraith unit and the rez orb. Don’t move your wraiths up the field at 2” coherency distance to each other where a flank of one wraith unit could be assaulted to pull the entire unit out of 6” of the lord or another wraith unit. All ten of these models need to stick together to succeed. Just remember this basic premise: If every wraith is within 6” of the Lord with the Rez Orb, all wraiths will always have it. Start from that foundational rule, and you can spread out to avoid templates in directions that the enemy can’t hit you from.
Rule #2: Use BLOS/Impassable terrain! 3++ saves are nice, but they don’t make you invulnerable to everything – volume of fire can still take you down. Since you can phase through terrain, you can do something enemy units cannot. More importantly, that BLOS terrain can protect one of your wraith units (like the one with the Lord) from being shot at while the other two take fire.
Rule #3: Try Merging Wraith Units! This one is extremely important. A Monolith can only teleport a single unit per turn. Three monoliths let three wraith units teleport once per turn, but means that the Energy Matrix isn’t available to Particle Whip anything. I actively look for and solicit the destruction of 1-2 of my wraith units. If I lose two out of three wraiths in a unit…I have two
WBB rolls to make, and may have to teleport through a Monolith to try bringing the others back to life too. If I have a unit of wraiths teleporting through a monolith…keep Rule #1 in mind. I either need to move the rest of my wraiths over to the wraiths by the monolith, or the wraiths at the Monolith need to move out to get back to the rest of the wraiths…combat mobility is reduced. When a wraith unit dies completely, it
WBBs into a like unit within 6”. One unit of six wraiths (or five according to mathhammer) is far better than two units of three. Those six wraiths only need a single monolith for teleportation and
WBB support, leaving a previously tapped Monolith free to use weaponry or to teleport warriors around the field.
I’ll often set up an inverse L shaped wraith formation. The Lord and his wraiths go inside, and the other two wraith units wall off the direction that enemy fire or assaults will come from. I *want* those wraiths to die so that I can get my superwraith unit earlier. Destroyers suffer for losing units; instead of being able to fire at two targets with two units, they merge into one and can only fire at one unit. Wraiths have no such downside. All nine of those would be assaulting the same place anyway, so making them a bigger single unit is advantageous.
Destroyer Lord
The Destroyer Lord is T6, with a 3+/4++ and three wounds. His positioning is extremely important within the wraith wing, especially in assaults. The ideal assault is one where the Necron Lord is in base contact with only 1-2 models, who do not have power-weapons or rending, while the 9 wraiths are in base contact with everything within 3-4” of the Lord. Enemy models in base contact with a wraith only can’t attack a lord, and using those wraiths to block access to the Lord from power weapons is important. Combat won’t always be optimal like this – there are times when my Lord hangs back behind the wraiths, such that when I assault in, my Lord doesn’t make it into base contact. Protect the Destroyer Lord, he keeps the wraithwing going!
On the tabletop in a game where I’m fielding Necrons, you can expect my wraiths to be zooming around 24” per turn to get into assault range of targets, hiding behind (or in) terrain, and jumping into and out of combat. Assaulting into an enemy, devastating them at I6, losing a couple of models, then teleporting out of combat the next turn to charge back in is great fun. Not to mention that Wraiths are the only jetbikes in
40k that can turbo-boost into terrain! And out of it. Without any dangerous terrain tests! Its not that useful though – cover saves will never beat their inherent 3++.
Returning to the idea of impassable terrain for a minute, and how great it is for Necrons: Monoliths can land on top of impassable terrain. Wraiths and a Destroyer Lord also count as jetbikes, which can land on impassable terrain. If you need to avoid an assault, you can jump out of reach. A monolith on top of impassable terrain with a portal opening into the impassable terrain lets you teleport safely around the board. And the wraiths don't need to take dangerous terrain tests for ending up on top of impassable terrain! =D
Part V: Using the Warriors
So back to the castle analogy - we've got walls, ballistae, moats, cannons...we need a place for the warriors. And I know EXACTLY where they fit in!! Necron Warriors are the corner pile of crap where the peasants dump their offal, and the castle lord's evil and deranged mother-in-law claws out a home for herself and screams at the passing peasants that they need to RESPECT HER PROPERTAH RIGHTS
TO CASTLE POO!
Worse, they're the only troop option, come in a minimum size of 10, have no upgrades, and mean that 360 points of your army is automatically forced to consist of smelly unwanted mother-in-law domiciles.
There are two schools of thought on Necron Warriors:
School #1: Take lots of them. More Necron Warriors give a higher phase out number, and you have to kill more models to Phase out the necrons. The downsides are that you're tying up more points in *really* bad units, and that you have more models are on the table getting phased out - I don't think that it makes sense to have so many points tied up in units that aren't going to do much on the table.
School #2: Take as few as possible. You have a lower phase out number, but by the time you hit 25%, you have fewer models on the table, and less combat capability to *BE* phased out.
Necron Warriors serve four purposes on the battlefield.
1. Bait: A tasty unit of Necron Warriors sitting haplessly by waiting to be assaulted...mmmmm, tasty. I typically reserve my warriors and walk them on from the table edge - meaning that my opponents are going to need to get past my Deceiver, the wraiths, and my monoliths to get to them. Deep-striking units (
DoA, terminators, etc) can make a stab for them, or outflanking Baal predators, Ork kommandos, wolf scouts, etc. The enemy closes in to beat your face in and...zwoop! Your warriors teleport away.
2. Meat Tenderizer: Warriors have STR4 AP5 rapid fire weapons. Not particularly awe inspiring. 10 Warriors rapid firing 20 shots against Marines...13 hits, 6 wounds, two dead marines. Not a whole lot to scare anyone, and given their low weapon skill, lack of invulnerable saves, and the glee in which people like to try to sweeping advance them...not a tactic I prefer to try. Where they *can* be a useful pile of poo is in softening up a target for wraiths to assault. The *only* time I'll risk exposing my warriors into assault range of something is if their assault can't wipe my warriors out, or if I'm going to assault what would be threatening my warriors - thereby taking them out of assault threat. I typically don't even do this because that power matrix is either getting used to teleport wraiths or to particle whip something. Nonetheless, on occasion an opportunity arises for warriors to lay down a massive fusillade of fire without threat of retaliation, and you should keep it in mind.
3. Objective grabber: Two of every three missions are objective based...and half of those have multiple objectives. The key to winning with only two Necron warrior units in an objective mission is twofold. First, 1" bases, 2" coherency means that 10 warriors can theoretically cover 30" of ground. It is not unrealistic for a single warrior squad to snag two objectives, and if the bulk of your army is tying up the enemy, its quite doable. Most common is having Monoliths sitting on top of objectives contesting them, while Warriors teleport wherever they need to in order to hold one - such that at the end of the game, you've got one or two objectives and are contesting the rest.
4. Anti-tank: Gauss weapons glance on a six against anything, and a speeding rhino/razorback/vendetta (especially a smoked one) headed towards either an objective or one of your warrior squads is a common sight. Wasting a Particle whip that might scatter off or get shrugged off by a cover save is a poor use of resources. Wraiths are probably busy elsewhere, and while I'll throw the Deceiver at a land raider...a light transport isn't worth the effort. Many a games have been won by warriors stunning a rhino that was going to attempt delivering a troop choice to a backfield objective.
In general, the primary role of warriors in my wraith wing is to stay out of the way, not die and contribute towards a phase out, and desperately look for an opportunity to be useful on the field. They virtually always start the game in reserve and walk on the board edge unless I need them starting on the table, and I never have and probably never will bring them in from reserves through a Monolith portal.
I’ll talk more about where to deploy them – when to use the Monoliths to hide wraiths, when to move aggressively with them, etc in the last section of this tactica.
Still to come:
Part VI: Typical Deployment Strategies
Enemy models are treated as impassable terrain.
W 2 - D 3 - L 1
