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So, a friend and I are thinking of trying to get a big ~7k apoc game in sometime over the break or soon after. He just got some more tyranids for his army, and I can squeeze in about 7k worth of necrons. He built a hierophant (which looks really nice I might add), and this will be his chance to use it. We plan on having a lot of fun, but that doesn't mean we are going to throw tactics out the window.

Going into the game, I'm not sure which overall approach to take. I'm worried with some bad rolling, and his good regen rolls, that I might lose too many options and thus never get it down, and the rest of the army runs over me. Or I can straight up ignore it, but the double cannons and long charges will see it wrecking all the good stuff in my army. Don't think diverting a small portion of shooting is a good idea either.

The main issue, is with my army I don't have great access to long range 'lascannon' type guns (as is somewhat the case for Necrons). I think with all my models, the main stuff that can take it down is: 4-5x destro lances, 2x death and despair units, 4x heavy Destroyers, 2x doom scythes, 2x doomsday arks, 1x C'tan shot, 1 T. arrow, and a Pylon (going to start scratch building one soon). I also have 2 units of wraiths and some warscythes that might do something in CC. Unfortunately I don't have a Stalker, but maybe you can convince me to buy one....

So, should I focus fire everything and hope to bring it down quick? Or just let the beasty have his fun and hope to weather it?

Oh, side note: I'm currently planning on Immotek, and I'm wondering about using a pulse first turn just to focus fire stuff. Think I should drop him? Or just deal with the extra cover saves? Rolling for a crap ton of lightnings does sound like fun.

If you have the firepower, then by all means focus on him. If not, then focus on the other TMC's (i.e. tervigons). Get rid of synapse and see how his bugs hold objectives.

BTW, here are some of my battle reports involving the hierophant, just to give you an idea of what it takes to kill them:


9000pt Apocalypse - Tyranids vs Witch Hunters (4500pts per side) (5th Edition)

14K Apocalypse (7K per side) - Jy2's Tyranids vs Janthkin's + SabrX's Mechdar (5th Edition)

5K Apoc - Gargantuan Tyranids vs Chaos Marines - Dominatrix vs Scabieathrax and Reaver Titan (5th Edition)

30K Apocalypse - Tyranids vs the Imperium - The Big Boys Come Out to Play (6th Edition)



BTW, Mindshackle Scarabs should work on the big brute. Take your Overlord with 3++ and MSS and ram it down his throat.

Focus any high strength AP2 weapons you have on the Hierophant, but don't ignore the TMCs. The Hierophant can only destroy a couple units per turn, but a ton of TMCs can cover a lot more ground.

 Andilus Greatsword wrote:
Focus any high strength AP2 weapons you have on the Hierophant, but don't ignore the TMCs. The Hierophant can only destroy a couple units per turn, but a ton of TMCs can cover a lot more ground.

The problem is, necrons just don't have a whole lot of AP 2 weaponry unless they spam lance-teks or doom scythes.

Here's a dirty little secret to play against the HBT. Just park your annihilation barge right in front of it and force it to either shoot down the barge or assault it. Anyways the trick is to delay it and buy the rest of your army some time to deal with the other bugs.

Thanks for the tips! I'll read through those reports next.

I think we may house rule MSS to only inflict 1 wound or something, since it does seem a bit broken against the beasty. I'll probably ask instead of I can use the old guass rule of always wounding on a 6.

Sacrificing a barge sounds like a good plan B. I wonder if it works with parking a flyer in front of it?

Oh, I may be able to get a friend to record it, so hopefully there will be a bat-rep on here eventually.

I've fought either with or against a Hierophant three times. One time it survived the entire battle and wrought havoc, one time we Vortex'd it twice to death and one time Ghazghkul and 9 Meganobz charged it. Only Ghazghkul was left standing.