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Follow the link for both parts of the video: http://www.frontlinegaming.org/2011/11/18/813/

This turned out to be one of the most fun games I have played in a long time! I just had to preface this with that statement.

Anyway, I wanted to try out the studio Necron army we've been working on http://www.frontlinegaming.org/2011/11/17/well-be-back-reviving-an-old-necron-army-part-3/ (and it is for sale, if anyone is interested) and I thought it would be cool to try out the old school Necron Phalanx with Ghost Ark support.

The plan was to use Overlords with big Bricks of Warriors plus a Crpytek to keep nasty assault units away using Harbingers of Transmogrification. The Overlord would use Phaeron to allow the big bricks of Warriors to move and shoot, and give them some punch in HtH.

The Ghost Arks would support the Warriors and the faster elements of the list (Annihilation Barge, Destroyers) would be used for mobile fire support and objective snatching.

Brother Captain Poncho's list was built to represent a typical, balanced Space Marine list that would be similar to what you'd see in a pick-up game.

The game turned out to be crazy and fun, and I have to say, the most I play Necrons the more I like them. The codex is just good fun with lots of depth and tricks to pull out.

Here are the lists:

The Necron list is short points because I added up the Crypteks wrong the first go around.

Necrons

HQ
Overlord Phaeron, Orb, Shifter, Warscythe 1 195
Cryptek Trans, Crucible, Tremor 1 55
Overlord Phaeron, Orb, Shifter, Warscythe 1 195
Cryptek Trans, Crucible, Tremor 1 55

Troops
Warriors 20 260
Ghost Arc 1 115
Warriors 20 260
Ghost Arc 1 115
Warriors 5 65

Elites

Fast Attack
Destroyers 5 200
Destroyers 5 200
Destroyers Heavy Destroyers 3 180

Heavy Support
Annihilation Barge 1 90

Totals 65 1985


Space Marines


HQ
Captain Relic Blade 1 130
Command Sqaud M.Gun x 4, Razorback 6 195
Librarian Null Zone, Gate 1 100

Troops
Scouts Fist 10 165
Tactical Squad Fist, Flamer, M.Launcher, Rhino 11 230
Tactical Squad Fist, Flamer, M.Launcher, Rhino 11 230

Elites
Dreadnought L.Cannon, H.Flamer 1 145
Assualt Termies L.Claws x 5 5 200
Land Raider Crusader M.Melta, X-Arm 1 275

Fast Attack
Typhoon 1 90
Tornado 1 90

Heavy Support
Devastator Squad M.Launcher x 4 5 150

Totals 54 2000

Army Pictures:

Just out of curiosity, would you mind PM'ing me how much you are looking for the Necron's?

Also, I can't seem to find the video battle report. Perhaps I'm looking in the wrong place...

We'll have the video up in a second, we just want to see what people think about the outcome based off of lists.

PM incoming. Thanks for the interest!

I'm looking forward to watching this. I'm soaking up as many BRs as I can so I can figure out what works and what doesn't against anything other than IG.

Beautiful armies !

Waiting for the BR

Cracking looking armies, leave aside the "who will win" stuff though Reece, your stuff and reports are good enough without them imho.

Just 3 lascannons and a whole bunch of short-ranged glancing shots. Then again, with ghost arks and 4+ RP, they're a very sturdy lot.

Marines, on the other hand, don't really have great assault units....just a bunch of shooting that the necron troops don't really care that much about.

I'll give it to SM in annihilation. Destroyers should be easy pickings, as are the ghost arks/barge. Seize ground will go to necrons for their more resilient troops and a draw in Capture and Control as neither army would be able to contest each other's objectives (LR will get immobilized from all those glancing shots).

@Thread

Thanks, guys! We've been listening to your suggestions trying to make better bat reps.

@Ratius

Thanks! We'll just throw the first video up then, as it is a really great game.

@Jy2

I agree with your analysis for the most part, but the Marines do have LC termies and a captain with a relic blade, which can do some work.

No bother!
Probably know my views on the whole "who wins" thing hehe
I always think if the rep is good, it'll speak for itself and people will appreciate it no matter

SMs really are excellent. Cream is definelty unique.

Thanks! Yeah, the Marine army is my personal army, and my favorite. Every single marine is unique in some way.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Rest of the video is up!

I appreciate that you used "fluffy" lists to test the new units. I don't think you learn much from being assaulted to death while testing to see how resilient a unit can be with a 5+ rez and an arc nearby.

I still feel like Necrons need a heavy hitter. Wraiths, a shard, or a DLord sitting back on the rear objective would have really evened the odds vs. that split melee paintrain you ate.

I don't think you neccisarily have to spam melee units like Wraiths but just a solid counter-assault unit for necrons would be nice.

Anything moving that slow and purposeful (for lack of a better term) really showcases how slow Necrons can still be. 2 ghost arcs isn't exactly mech either. (meaning they are almost certain to die by turn 2-3 in any game that requires you to make it over the center of the table)

IDK, necrons are looking like LD10 fish-o-fury but with some melee/monsterous creatures in place of static long range anti-tank. I wish I could change that preception but i can't help but think that necrons just want to shoot stuff and 'get back up'.

Great game, thanks for taking the time to put it up. Very enjoyable. Still not sure how Necrons will work long term because they are just so vulnerable to any assault.

Maybe 6 Ed will change that??

@Painen
I think you can get it done with smart play even lacking an assault unit. I like the core of the army, those two bricks of Crons are so good. We started using mind shackle scarabs and wow, do those even the odd sin combat. You'll see what I mean in some upcoming games.

Yeah, we chose to use "fluff" oriented lists that were still competitive because we wanted to replicate your average game between players. We have a nasty Cron tournament build we're cooking up, but this list is a lot of fun to play.

@Cpt Stubbs
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. They are vulnerable to assault, but that was pretty crazy, with 8 glaces I should have stopped the LRC, but it is a dice game. Normally, I think that Land Raider would have been stopped dead, and then I would have been fine.

In games we've played since then, you will see how the Phalanx handles assault armies. You have to use some tricks and wargear combos and it isn't nearly so bad.

With an army this big and slow would you ever consider 5 man flayed ones to outflank for a late game contention? Or deathmarks even?

I used Flayed ones in our next game and they did really well, actually.

As you said, in a foot list, mobility can be a major problem.

I count on the Destroyers to fill that role in this list. I find they work fairly well, and the Ghost Arks can get it done in a pinch.

Using a little squad for that purpose isn't a bad idea at all though. The only issue I see, is that you may need a little more punch to actually get someone off of an objective or survive any counter punch the unit takes.

This really goes to show that games can quickly turn around sometimes.

Great battle report! I liked the In depth analysis you guys did, it made for much more enjoyable batrep. I think it's even more useful, when dealing with a new codex.

Looking forward to more in the future. Can't wait to see how the Mindshackle Scarabs, and a few other units work out.

Great report Reece, really well done again man. I'm loving Frontline Gaming's service at the moment; if only I lived in the states. I hope the business goes well too man.

I haven't voted because I'd watched the 1st part on the website before you made the poll on Dakka, but I'm amazed Luis didn't push the advantage to seize the win. His termies had basically crippled your left flank, taking out a ton of points; I would've thought this would leave the rest of his army open to stop/slow down/kill the second warrior squad. Obviously they're tough, but ~40 Space Marines tough? It might have been worth tankshocking them too in the hope of the lord being run-down, particularly with what your rolls were like at the time...

Again though, great game man. Those hazard striped cans/terrain look brilliant too.

Fantastic battle report. That ending was awesome, just goes to show how the Dice Gods love messing with us lowly peons. It's nice to see that a shooting Phalanx can still do alright against a pretty standard Marine army, since that's my favoured style of play.

Great battle report just like the last few!
Just one question though, I think that in turn four or five you mentioned that you shot at the the command squad and then assaulted them. Did you shoot with your destroyers or warriors? Because warriors have rapidfire guns.. Don't know if I missed it or a mistake might have been made.
Great job at pulling off that win! I think that 20 man warrior sqaud with a ghost ark backing it up is really tough, might actually be worth losing the mobility you get from putting a 10 man squad in an ark.

I believe they were relentless from the overlord, so that they could move, rapid-fire and assault.

thats what the phaeron upgrade does

@Sasori
I agree, we feel that the longer Bat Reps are better. They take more effort, but you get a lot more out of them.

We may end up doing less battle reports, but have them higher in quality, which we are fine with.

@Just Dave

Thanks! We appreciate the kind words. It takes a lot of work to do these, so the feedback is awesome.

Yeah, Luis is not known for his Tactical acumen, hahaha, we say he is an expert at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

@Dytalus

Thanks! Yeah, we agree, not everyone plays hardcore tournament lists. Most people play for fun, so we figured we can mix it up to represent what most people play.

@Robbietobbie

As Jy2 and Valek said, Phaeron is what makes that unit work. It is such a good upgrade.

Right i'm sorry, i forgot there was a phaeron in there ^^ disregard previous comment!

Awesome bat-rep. I really enjoyed watching the whole thing. I liked hearing your thoughts between rounds, informative. Very nice site too. I will be checking it more often!

you guys seriously need to test better lists. more shooting more court.
or go hth hell with a deathstar, necron can do it all, but you need to tailor the list.

@RobbieTobbie
No worries, we all make mistakes!

@Inquisitor_Dunn
Glad you like it! They take a lot of work, but they are better.

@Valek
We are working on what we think will be a GT winning Cron list as we speak, but it isn't done yet. Once we get it ready to go, we will have a serious tournament bout.

We also like to play casually though, you know? Not every game has to be balls out tournament style.

But no worries, you'll see some competitive lists soon.

I think I'm definitely going to use the blob squads with Overlords and Transmog Crypteks when I build my Necrons. They seem to be working for you both in this game and the other one against Blood Angels. I'm not sure about the Detroyers though, because they are so fragile and such a huge target. I'm wondering if 6 Heavy Destroyers and a C'tan wouldn't be a better build instead of the 10 regular Destroyers and 3 Heavy Destroyers. Either that or some additional Warriors in another Ghost Ark with Harbingers of Destruction and Solar Pulses. Curtailing your opponents ranged firepower would have been a HUGE benefit in this game, especially early on.

I'd like to see a few games against Imperial Guard using this style list if you are able. They seem like one of the worst possible matchups because of their huge numbers of inexpensive guns and their Ordnance that doesn't care about Night Fight. If you could do one or two games against Guard it would really help with my decisions on what to buy since I can only test play about one game a week!

I definitely like the more in-depth battle report, especially with feedback from the players on why they took what they did in their list, and how they expect it to perform in the game. That kind of commentary is very useful.

Yeah, these reports are much higher in informational content. Glad you like them!

We did play the tremorstave wrong, it only works in movement, not assault. It is still amazing though.

We have a report ocming up against IG with a similar list, although definitely more of a tournament build.

I personally enjoy the Brick list more and we will be happy to put one up against IG.

Been messing with this style list myself and I've come up with two builds I'd like to try. If you care to critique them they can be found here.