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It's time for one last fling with a certain 600pt tournament I keep entering, and this time i'm giving the Eldar a much needed rest and trying my hand at my new Necrons.

Rules are:
600pts max
You must have the standard 1 HQ and two troops.
You can have up to 1 Fast Attack OR Heavy Support
You can have up to 1 Elites
You can have an extra HQ (Space Wolves are still only allowed two)
No Special Hq's (unique units and upgrades are still allowed (e.g. Marbo and Telion) but not hq's, e.g. Calgar)
You can have up to an extra 4 Troops
There is no model repping, conversions are allowed so long as you let your opponent know
Models don’t have to painted.
Armies are to be selected from in print codexes (Sisters of battle are allowed)
Games are played on a 6x4 table

The Scenarios:
SCENARIO 1: Dawn of War + Capture and Control
SCENARIO 2:Seize Ground + Spearhead
SCENARIO 3: Special Mission Scorched Earth (see below)
SCENARIO 4: Pitched Battle + Capture and Control
SCENARIO 5: Annihilation + Spearhead
SCENARIO 6: Special Mission Scorched Earth (see below)
Scenario 7: Annihilation + Pitched Battle

Special Mission: The mission below is taken from the GW School League International Final and supposedly represents a “new blend of 40k as never played before”
Scorched Earth
Spearhead Deployment and D3+2 objectives – all pieces of terrain MUST be rolled for on this chart prior to objective deployment and setting up
1 – 3 Burning: the terrain counts as dangerous terrain
4-6 Smoking: Add +1 to the cover save of any unit in terrain
In addition, both burning and smoking terrain blocks Line of Sight that is drawn across and above them

The list i've drawn up is devoid of Wraiths (because there's already another user of Wraiths, and because I dislike them) and Scarabs (with no Spyder to support them, I can't buy enough for them to be worth the investment and to survive to get the job done; I could buy 8 or so, but that's 120pts one what is, at best, a tie-up unit that still needs to traverse the board, or I could buy 5 for 75pts, and have them all die early thanks to being unable to spawn more; that and I have no more than 6 bases), and is as follows:

HQ:
Ahkan the Deliverer - Overlord w/ Warscythe, MSS, Phase Shifter, Mehsarket (CCB) – 240pts

The Court of Deliverance:
Rahmis of the Twin-Suns - Harbinger of Destruction, Solar Pulse – 55pts
Zekhem the Empowered - Harbinger of Destruction, Gaze of Flame – 45pts

Troops:
Ahkaerio I – Immortals of the Deliverer - 5x Immortals w/ Tesla Carbines – 85pts
Ahkaerio II – Immortals of the Deliverer - 5x Immortals w/ Tesla Carbines – 85pts

Heavy Support:
Aepephi – Vessel of the Deliverer - Annihilation Barge – 90pts

Total – 600pts

Reasoning:
Overlord's gear - At first he seems quite expensive, totalling 160pts alone without the CCB, but he's the only defence I have against AV14 and any AV13-spam, and with T5, as well as that 3+/3++, I could throw him into combat with something and tie them up for a long time; the only things I fear are GKs and their force weapons and/or hammerhanded S10 Daemonhammers (especially if they have an attached character to cast HH for them). MSS i've kept for at least some defence against GKs or other units, but also because it's a handy tool to have, and i've yet to remember them in any of my 1500pt games, despite both Overlords having them, so it'd be a decent way of training myself to remember them in the same way i've had to train myself to remember Eldar psychic powers at the start of the turn.

CCB - It's one of 2 AV13 vehicles on the board; can sweep to thin units or try and take out vehicles, has S6 tesla, can move flat-out to contest last turn... For 80pts, it's a steal, a very annoying (for the enemy anyway) steal. Even if it's blasted out from beneath Ahkan's feet, he'll still likely be at least 24" up the board. Disallowing cover when sweeping would also be a decent counter to those gakky little special scenarios that'll undoubtably end in my Immortals wading through dangerous terrain whilst being blasted by Long Fangs with a 3+ cover save; luckily, only 2 weapons in my army care about cover saves.

Pulsetek - I'm going to trust that this guy needs to no explanation.

Gazetek - I had 10pts left over in a codex where sod all costs 10pts, go figure.

Teslammortals - Gauss would've helped against armour, but I have no gauss immortals, nor the cash to buy more. Tesla is just as fun though. They're also tougher than Warriors, with guns of a higher strength, so it was a toss-up, 13 warriors w/ 13 S4 AP5 RF Gauss shots but a 4+ AS, or 10 Immortals w/ 5-15 S5 AP- Assault shots but a 3+ AS?

Annihilation Barge - Because S7 + S6 Tesla for 90pts.

The 3 main armies i'm worried about are SW in an incarnation that has won the past 4 or so of these events and as such refuses to change, a Cron list with a naked DLord, 2x 5 Gauss Immortals, 2x5 Teslammortals and 3x Whipwraiths, and a GK list with a naked Inq. 1x GKSS, 1x GKTs and 1x LR w/ MM (10pts more have been invested somewhere, but unsure where, and the GKTs have at least 1 hammer and 1 halberd, maybe 2 halberds).

The SW i've tried to think out, and the only way I can pull it off is by hoping I go second, reserve everything to avoid his drop pod full of GH melta-goodness, and hope my CCB comes in on turn 2. If that happens, I can probably sweep the pod (if it's KPs), jump out and assault the GHs; MSS one of them, let the rest bounce off my T5 and 3+/3++, and hold them in place barring any unfortunate incidents, like rolling a Simpsons fish for saves after a hideous round of combat that sees tons of hits and at least 3 wounds.

After that, the only things i've got to fear are a second footslogging GH squad of 6 men and a melta, a LL+Jaws priest (feth jaws, feth it in the... jaws?), and 4 ML fangs. If he sticks his priest with or near the fangs, I can appear on the other side of the board; Jaws problem solved. If not, I can hope he's deployed a fair amount on, and that both my Abarge and pulse arrive at the same time, so I can hide it behind night fighting and then open fire on the fangs and hope it doesn't whiff, like all my attempts to kill them have done in all 4 games against him as Eldar. Once they're gone, or at least depleted, I shouldn't have to fear much. However, his Wolf Scouts could easily waste these plans. Best case scenario: Only the CCB comes in on my turn 2, and ties up the 10 GHs out of the pod. His Scouts come in during his T2. Whatever comes on next takes out the Wolf Scouts.

Necrons I can deal with. I castle in a corner, and he either wastes time bringing his whole army towards me at once, or he sends his Wraiths and Destroyer Lord at me, in which case, he moves up 13-18" into range of the lances. Moves a further 13-18" into range of the Tesla, my CCB moves up 12", Lord jumps out and prepares to assault, and takes on what's left. Chances are he'll lose 1-2 Wraiths and quite possibly the Lord to Tesla and Lances alone, especially if he's dumping Lance wounds onto the T6 Lord to avoid IDing Wraiths. Even if he doesn't lose many, I still have a T5 3+/3++ Lord in his grill. The DLord's Scythe and Wraith rending aren't nearly as deadly to my Lord. After that, focus-fire the Gauss down, then use the ABarge to help focus fire the Tesla down.

LR GKs will be tricky, but only because the scythe is my only real hope of dealing it a blow. I flat out up, pop pulse, sweep it, overlord charge it, and if it's still alive, then feth it. Everything else I can focus down.

Now, it's 3:40am and i'm tired, so... have at it?

Well, the format certainly sounds interesting.

Couple of thoughts:

5 of the 7 missions are objectives, and you don't have a lot of mobility. Did you consider a Veiltek? The abyssal staff may be helpful as well (AP1 and all). If you drop the pulse you can swap a lancetek for a veiltek.

Appreciate the point about AV14, but at 600 points anything with AV14 is going to take up a huge chunk of points. Then they need more points to put something useful in it. How likely is it that you'll see a LR?

I think the Overlord load out makes sense. Gives you an Invul save. Other alternative is SW plus an Orb (orb might be limited use unless you can get the overlord to an immortal squad).

A veiltek was my initial thought, but with only 5 immortals per squad, I can't afford to have anything go wrong, and that includes losing them to bad DT tests, mishapping, being Warp Quaked, or even just being mowed down.

I'd have to keep the squad out of the game to preserve them, since unlike Solar Pulse which no longer poses a threat once used, the Veiltek will be a nuisance and possibly a game changer for the entire game, and I can't afford to have 600pts firing at 6 models, especially with no pulse left to stop it, just to remove the veil.

The only way I could really deploy the veil is using the first list I considered:

HQ:
Ptaeri the Restorer - Overlord w/ Warscythe, MSS, Sempiternal Weave, Resurrection Orb – 160pts

Royal Court:
Ammuntah the Hidden One – Harbinger of Despair w/ Veil of Darkness – 60pts
Rahmes of the Twin-Suns – Harbinger of Destruction w/ Solar Pulse – 55pts

Troops:
Ptaerii – Guardians of the Restorer - 10x Immortals w/ Tesla Carbines – 170pts
Ptaero I – Warriors of the Restorer - 5x Warriors – 65pts

Heavy Support:
Aepephi – Vessel of the Deliverer - Annihilation Barge – 90pts

Total – 600pts

10 Immortals with an Orb Lord and a Veiltek is what I normally use at 1500pts, and short of being charged by two dreadnoughts, vulkan and hammernators (I scattered into charge range and my Orb Lord was crushed by S10) they have yet to be taken down.

The downsides are that I lose the second AV13, I lose the mobility of the CCB, I lose my only reliable way of nuking AV14, and I lose my Shifter Lord, but all this in exchange for a very tough unit.

It all depends on a lot of 'what if?'s. What if I do switch out the pulse and Gazetek for a Veiltek, and they lose 2 guys to DT and run away? Or they mishap? Or they get shot off the board early on? But what if I can't reach objectives in time?

I'm loath to give a Veiltek to any unit under at least 8 models, but if I don't then I could lose to objectives relatively easily. Do I make my squad a huge target? Or do I try and go for annihilation no matter the scenario, or just try and eliminate the scoring units? I could swap lists, but then how do I compensate for the lack of 2nd vehicle to draw fire, lack of mobility, lack of last-turn contesting and lack of Shifterlord?

As for AV14, it's very likely. If the SW player turns up, chances are his friend will too, and he's brought the list I spoke of in the OP to every one of these tournys thus far (to my knowledge anyway). That's at least one LR i'll likely have to deal with. Any more i'm unsure about.

For SW + Orb, I considered weave, but all too much can ignore that 2+, even at 600pts. It'd also make my plan to tie up wraiths or enemy lords and the likes pointless, since rends will ignore it, as with enemy scythes, and if he does end up against GK force weapons, he'll need the invul to prevent being IDed, and just in general.

He can do so much more with the shifter than he can with the weave at this points level, and very few armies will be able to reliably deal with T5 3+/3++, whereas to counter T5 2+ all you need is AP2/1 and power weapons, preferably S10, but not necessary. My Eldar have faced enough plasmaguns and meltaguns to assure me that if the CCB gets blown out from beneath him, he will die.

For guard to take him out with plasma, they'd need 7 plasmaguns, or 4 rapid-firing to bypass SW. To get around the shifter, that becomes 19, or 10 rapid-firing, almost tripling his survivability. SW might help against the more mundane weaponry, but if I can draw things like plasma and melta away from the rest of my army with a single model, and still have a good chance of surivival, I will.

Wow, your meta sounds vicious. Ignoring 2+ saves and LR at 600 points!

Good points re the veiltek, plus the risk of DS mishap is something to take into account. I wouldn't have thought that annihilation on every game would be possible with the second list.

Overall, the first list sounds like it would work better.

Well, I used the list in my OP, and got the following opponents (thankfully the Space Wolves were not there) in no particular order:

Necrons w/ Hyperphase Sword Overlord (no other upgrades), 5 Warriors, 10 Telsammortals in a Night Croissant, and a Doom Croissant.

Tyranids w/ HQ Tervigon, Doom in a Spore, two lots of 10 Genestealers w/ Toxin Sacs.

Grey Knights w/ Not an LR! Terminator Inquisitor w/ Psycannon, 5 GKSS, 5 GKSS w/ Psycannon, 10 Interceptors w/ 2 Psycannons and a Hammer on the Justicar.

Space Wolves w/ RP + LL & Jaws, WGBL w/ frost blade, 9 Grey Hunters w/ 1 Meltagun + Wolf Standard, 5 Grey Hunters (unsure if they had a special, they didn't do much), 5 Long Fangs w/ 2 LC + 2 HB.

IG w/ Command Squad w/ Meltagun, AC HW, 3 Veteran Squads w/ AC HW, Flamer, Meltagun, Plasmagun, Leman Russ.

SM w/ Chapter Master w/ PW + SS, 2x 5 SM, Land Raider.

Went up against the Nids first in Capture and Control, Dawn of War, and got massacred thanks to the Doom landing next to my objective, and my immortals being unable to fail their leadership test against his special ability to anything worse than 'Stupid'. Command Barge got taken out by a single lucky rend, else it would've nuked the last 2 termegants on his objective (ol' tervigon stopped spawning after only chugging out 6) and forced a draw. Lord failed every save imaginable.

Second game (Sieze Ground, Spearhead) pitched me against the other Necrons, and I discovered that my lances can't hit his Night Scythe for toffee, and when they do, they roll 2s for penetration. But I managed to immobilise and de-gun his Doom Scythe on turn 1 using the Annihilation Barge, and then massacre his warriors holding his objective using my Lord. His own Lord got back up in the dying seconds of the game and re-contested my objective for a draw.

Third game (special mission) I went up against the GKs, and saw one squad of immortals get butchered on the first turn, leaving only 2 standing. Despite chucking everything I had at the Interceptors, including 11 wounds in a single shooting phase from the Annihilation Barge alone (each one was saved), they would not die, and managed to contest on the last turn whilst holding his own; damn Necron vehicles being unable to tank shock.

Fourth game (Pitched Battle, Capture and Control) was against SW. I went first and boosted my command barge up and sent my Annihilation Barge along the other flank. Popped pulse in his turn, and he rolled snake eyes to see my barge 7 inches away from his GH melta (not that it'd have mattered much, I wanted to get the GHs into combat and MSS his Battle Leader). Command barge jumped over the rhino and did nothing, lord hopped out and assaulted. riing from the immortals at the 5-man squad + RP killed a marine, and the AB killed another and nuked a wound on the RP.

My Overlord spent several turns duking it out, until the GHs broke and ran, to be escorted off the board by the CCB. Shooting from 1 Immortal squad and the AB wiped the RP squad off the objective, with my objectiv and other Immortal squad safely out of LoS behind a building. I lost my CCB to lascannons, but after opening the rhino like a tin can, my Lord ran behind LoS-blocking terrain and the Long Fangs were left either out of range, or unable to see, giving me the game.

Fifth game (Spearhead Annihilation) I went up against SM, and made killing that Land Raider a priority. Originally he skipped right to the shooting phase, and had already nuked my barge when I realised that I hadn't been allowed time to pop my Solar Pulse (in a competative tournament, i'd have made sure that they declare each of their phases, even if they're not going to do anything in them) thanks to him not declaring even the start of his turn before placing the large blast marker.

Restarting (only fair in my opinion), I popped pulse, boosted my barge behind terrain, and got ready to sweep the raider next turn. The barge targeted by the orbital bombardment again, and had a double 1 rolled for penetration (karma!). In return, I moved flat out to sweep his raider, and scored no hits. He caused no damage back to my barge, I hopped over it again at combat speed, and still nothing with the sweep, so I got out, charged the LR, and auto-hit since it only pivoted; exploding it and killing a marine inside.

He rapid-fired with both squads, and the lord went down, only to come back up again, hop back onto his barge, and bugger off, giving me a 1 KP to 0 win.

Sixth game (special scenario) saw me hide behind building for the blocking of LoS, and the Russ was unable to see nearly everything. In return, I Tesla'd his scoring units to death, smacked them around with my Lord, and won with 1 objective to 0.

Seventh game was a repeat against the Tyranids from my first, only KPs. I sacrificed a single Immortal squad to hold the Genestealers' and Doom's attention on one flank, whilst I concentrated on zapping the Termegant KPs the Tervigon kept spawning.

After taking the Tervigon to 1 wound, wiping out 5 or so squads of termegants and a genestealer squad, and losing only the aforementioned Immortals, I easily stole the rematch. I could have lost everything but the CCB and still win, and he'd be unable to catch me.

I was tied with the GKs for 2nd place, but lost to it by 300 VPs. If I had tied the GK game as I should've (11 wounds on a single squad with only 7 or so guys left in it...) then i'd have pipped him to 2nd, but i'm happy to have my first placement in my tournament gaming, even if it is the last of 5th.