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.

So, decided to kick the tyres on the Necron Codex last night for something different. And something came up during the game...

- Scarabs have the Entropic Strike rule, which allows them to reduce the armour of vehicles that they successfully hit.

- In the current edition, you're not allowed to assault a vehicle that you can not damage.

- Scarabs are S3... meaning the most Armour Penetration they are capable of is 9... meaning there is no vehicle in the game that they can damage.


So, am I missing something obvious, or can Scarabs no longer nom on vehicles?

insaniak wrote:So, decided to kick the tyres on the Necron Codex last night for something different. And something came up during the game...

- Scarabs have the Entropic Strike rule, which allows them to reduce the armour of vehicles that they successfully hit.

- In the current edition, you're not allowed to assault a vehicle that you can not damage.

- Scarabs are S3... meaning the most Armour Penetration they are capable of is 9... meaning there is no vehicle in the game that they can damage.


So, am I missing something obvious, or can Scarabs no longer nom on vehicles?

Scarabs can make mincemeat of vehicles if the swarm is big enough. Take for example what happened to me about a month ago (just after 6th released).
7 scarabs assault my Land Raider, got about 19 or so hits (WS1 sucks!)and then rolled 11 "4's" my armor was reduced to 3!!!! needless to say several of those 19 hits were 4,5 and 6's my LR
never had a chance.

That is interesting, they are not capable of inflicting a glancing hit, but I would say that "Entropic Strike" does "hurt" This will be played RAI im sure.

I just looked at the BRB, and it says this

BRB wrote:
Charging a Vehicle
A unit can charge avehicle in their Charge sub-phase. The
charge move is conducted the same as charging other enemy
units. However a unit cannot charge a vehicle that it cannot
hurt - it must have some possibility, no matter how small, of
being able to inflict at least a glancing hit.

I would say Entropic Strike allows for that "small chance" even with a single scarab base.
That would be 5 attacks on the charge which could reduce the armor to 9, at Str 3 rolls of 6 would glance a LR or GA.

Assuming perfect rolls of course.

Interesting Question. The rules say: "However a unit cannot charge a vehicle that it cannot hurt - it must have some possibility, no matter how small, of being able to inflict at least a glancing hit." P.76

I guess the question is can the scarabs inflict at least a glancing hit, no matter how small the possibility?

I would say that it is possible that they can inflict a glancing hit. If they roll well enough on their entropic strike rolls.

40k-noob wrote:That would be 5 attacks on the charge which could reduce the armor to 9, at Str 3 rolls of 6 would glance a LR or GA.

Good enough for me. That's certainly 'a small chance' of inflicting a glance

Yeah, I would definitely play this RAI with scarabs, but RAW what happens when you have a swarm that is unable to glance with Entropics ? For example a single swarm vs a Landraider?

Then the aforementioned rule on pg. 76 comes into play and you would be unable to assault the Land Raider.

Honestly I don't see it being different than wraiths assaulting a land raider. Technically, they wouldn't be able to do anything to it if it wasn't for rending and entropic strike is, for this purpose, similar to rending. A "possibility" of damaging the vehicle.

Just my .02, after the fact.

Fragile wrote:Yeah, I would definitely play this RAI with scarabs, but RAW what happens when you have a swarm that is unable to glance with Entropics ? For example a single swarm vs a Landraider?

A single scarab swarm will get 5 attacks on the charge against a Land Raider.
If the scarabs gets all 5 hits and gets all 5 rolls to be 4 or higher then the Land Raider will now have AV 9 and the scarab will need 6's to glance it to death.

very, very small odds but it is "possible"

I think entropic strike is what makes the swarm capable of inflicting damage to the vehicle therefore capable of assaulting, just like rending would allow for it.

Aren't they pretty much designed to wear down tanks? Would be silly to not be able to.

Siberiandreamer wrote:Aren't they pretty much designed to wear down tanks? Would be silly to not be able to.

Hence my question, when it appeared to be not actually possible. But as has been established, that was just down to me misreading the rule, and everything is fine.