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This is my first attempt at one of these threads, let's see how it goes!

Here's the list I brought to Kiladelphia -

1850 Necron Decurion (Derpcurion)

Reclamation Legion
Nemesor Zahndrekh (Warlord)
10x Lychguard w/Warscythes
5x Immortals w/Gauss
10x Warriors
10x Warriors
3x Tomb Blades w/Gauss

Royal Court
Overlord w/ Solar Staff and Res Orb
Vargard Obyron
Orikan the Diviner

Canoptek Harvest (1st)
1x Canoptek Spyder
3x Canoptek Wraiths
3x Canoptek Scarabs

Canoptek Harvest (2nd)
1x Canoptek Spyder
3x Canoptek Wraiths
3x Canoptek Scarabs

Canoptek Harvest (3rd)
1x Canoptek Spyder
3x Canoptek Wraiths
3x Canoptek Scarabs

The basics idea is to stick all the characters with the 10 Lychguard and get the meatgrinder going as soon as possible. When their powers combine, you get a unit that is very durable, very killy, but very slow! You really need to make that first charge to slingshot into more enemy units, and in the games where I wasn't able to do that (you'll see coming up) I pretty much couldn't win.

To breakdown how the unit works, I'll go by the characters in it -

Zahndrekh - Comes with Zealot, so the unit has Hatred, so they reroll all failed hits in the first round of combat, and autopasses fear/morale/pin tests. He can also crowdsource counterattack and hit & run, which have the potential to make a huge difference. He's got 2+/4++ and allows the lychguard to reroll RP rolls of a 1 due to the Reclamation Legion rules. Basically, he holds the unit together. Being I2, the whole codex is very susceptible to Morale, and this is pretty much the only way to get Necrons to be immune to it.

Obyron - He's got a warscythe, 3 swings, 2+ armor, and lets the unit Deep Strike once per game. He can luck out in a challenge and get some bonus attacks but thats not super important. This guy is how you're gonna get to units that don't want you to get to them. He's basically expendable to tank with once you've popped his Deep Strike, he wasn't that many more points than a regular Necron Lord with a warscythe (which seem like a pretty bad deal for the points, they are basically 2 wound lychguard for 3x the cost).

Orikan the Diviner - He allows the unit to reroll saves of a 1, which is especially useful because two of the characters have 2+ armor to tank all that non-AP2 fire. He has anothe 4++, which has its uses. He also adds +1 to RP rolls, so combined with the Decurion bonus the unit is always testing on a 4+. On top of that, he has a chance to level up and just go beastmode in every game. 2+ rerollable armor saves suffered from the 2+/4+ nerf, but they're still better than just failing.

Generic Overlord (aka Chumplord) - This guy is here because I had to bring him per the Royal Court, but also because someone has to hold the Res Orb and Solar Staff. The Solar Staff gives the unit pseud-invis for a turn, which is wicked important if you're slingshotting them across the board in a tight cluster via DS. The Res Orb allows them to reroll all failed RP rolls for one phase. This is very important, if you lose too many lychguard then your damage output goes waaaay down. If I'd had a second one of those, my 3rd game would have gone very differently. He's also great to tank on with anything that's not s10 once you've taken some wounds on your 2+ armor save guys.

As for the rest of the army, the 3 Harvest Formations snap up maelstrom points, possibly endgame objectives, and typically pin an enemy unit while the Lychstar shambles over. The Warriors/Immortals/Tomb Blades are pretty much tax units, but they're useful in the backfield. A couple times having 20 S4 shots coming in from my board edge really ended up being useful.

Overall, there's 18 units total (but 4 are characters that ride with the Lychguard). I've got 3 heavies and 7 fast attack, which absolutely play a big role in the outcomes of my games. I got all the lists from my opponents, I'll try to post my first two games later today.

Cool stuff, looking forward to the rest ...

Round 1: Andrew M. - Daemons allied with Chaos Space Marines

CAD

Kairos Fateweaver
3x Herald of Tzeentch

11 Horrors of Tzeentch
11 Horrors of Tzeentch

8 Screamers of Tzeentch

Bastion w/Comm Relay

Allies

Be'lakor

10x Cultists

Chaos Fire Raptor

This guy head a beautiful army, I think everything had been converted or modified to look like a sea creature. His Chaos Fire Raptor was some type of flying submarine, his horrors were jellyfish, and he had a giant squid that was Fatey. I wish my army looked as nice as his did. He had all the makings of a screamer-star and some super-tough flying monsters. If you didn't notice, my army pretty much doesn't shoot, so getting stuff in the air to come down to my level can be really tricky. I figure with the 2+ reroll nerf from the mission packet, I can chew through the screamer star if I get there quick enough. However, with his speed and my general lack of speed, I can't exactly pin that unit down unless he throws it at me. There's also the potential for him to summon lots of roadblocks. He gets grimoire, portal glyph, and some spells that don't end up having a huge impact (besides summoning a few characters and some other units).

This mission has Hammer & Anvil Deployment and each player places a 1, 2, and 3 point of objective on the board. Each player puts a 1-pointer in their deployment, a 2-pointer inbetween deployment zones, and a 3-pointer in their opponent's deployment zone. The objectives are also numbered 1-6 per maelstrom, and every fast attack choice is worth an extra VP if killed. This is rough for me because I have about 7 fast attack in this army. This deployment type is pretty bad for me, too. Without a decent deep strike or my opponent having to move out for maelstrom points, I really can't get the lychguard anywhere useful.

The table is pretty even with a big ruin in the middle and one huge LOS blocker in my opponent's deployment zone. I don't really shoot, so as long as I can see something to charge I'm in good shape. I put the 3-pointer right on my opponent's deployment edge and the 2-pointer in the center of the board. I stuck my 1-pointer about 17" in at an angle from a corner to try and zone out a big chunk of my deployment zone to get him to place the 3-pointer somewhere convenient for me, I win the roll for deployment and choose to go 2nd, I need a chance to assault the flying monsters if they come down at the end to score. My opponent deploys everything except the fire raptor and one squad of horrors. The cultists go into a bastion next to the 1-pointer in his zone, and the rest is more or less lined up on the deployment edge with a toe in a ruin. I stick the lychguard in a big line along my deployment edge. keeping Zahndrekh and Obyron in front on either end so they can tank with their 2+ armor saves. I stick the 3 harvest formations around the lychguard, so I have something quick that can run up either side or straight through the middle. I deploy one of the scarab units from the harvest formations, the immortals and one squad of warriors. I put one squad of warriors, the tomb blades, and two scarab units in reserves. The scarab units are going to give up extra FA points like nobody's business, but I did want one squad out to either bait units into my deployment zone or at least get buffed turn 1 by spyders.

Turn 1

Andrew goes first, moving only the two flying monsters up and making sure to stay 23" away from all the wraith units (he was willing to risk an 11" charge). Fateweaver kills a few warriors with wizard powers and I believe he summons another tzeentch dude on a disc to go score a point on the objective in the middle. Not a lot happens just yet. Bottom of turn, I move everything up and asault that character with the Wraiths, earning some malestrom points off the objective in the middle, killing a character, and getting first blood. I pick RP every time for the Harvest formations, because it's almost always the best choice. I debated deep striking the lychguard into Andrew's zone, but I didn't want them to be way out of range if he decides to zoom past and heckle my endzone. I just move and run them more so they're in the center.

Turn 2

The Fire Raptor comes on, the pink horrors decide to deep strike to the back of my deployment zone, and a unit of Screamers are summoned. Pot-shots are taken at Wraiths and the Pink Horrors that were already on the board move up to claim the objective I put right on my opponent's deployment edge. The screamstar moves back safely inside Andrew's deployment zone and it's way out of range for anything I have to threaten. Throughout the game points are pretty even going back and forth. I think I accomplish more maelstrom cards and secondaries, but I give up a lot more fast attack VPs. On my turn, some Warriors come on and the tomb blades. I move the scarabs back to fight the horrors and doubletap the warriors into them. I hold off on deep striking the Lychstar because I still don't know what the screamerstar can do. I've got my unit in the middle of the table now and I'm starting to spread them. I can break off characters at the end to sit on more objectives if I need to.

Turn 3

The screamerstar powers up with the grimoire and cursed earth for a 2++ rerollable save and charges into the wraiths fighting the pink horrors. This is the biggest play made this turn. I think Belakor comes down from flying and a unit of flesh hounds are summoned, he was hoping the other units of Wraiths might go headlong into Belakor instead of jumping into the screamerstar fight. The fire raptor heads towards my deployment zone and keeps trying to shoot Necron Warriors, which are sitting in cover so they have pretty good saves vs it. On my turn, I send the Lychguard up and dump 2 more Wraith units into the screamerstar to keep them pinned while the lychguard wait to charge. I think the rest of my reserves come on and some maelstrom points are earned. I start thinking about the final positions I want for my units, I feel like we'll get to turn 5 but not later.

Turn 4

The screamstar sits in combat with the Wraiths and the fire raptor kills off two squads of scarabs that came on but didn't have a chance to get RP from their spyder-pals yet. Belakor assaults a spyder with some flesh hounds and I think he kills it. On my turn, I charge the lychguard into the screamerstar and do a bucket of wounds. He loses combat by a few but doesn't take many additional wounds from his LD test.

Turn 5

The Fire Raptor comes down to get linebreaker in my endzone but has already killed all the easy scarab targets. The screamerstar becomes invisible which really lowers the number I'm able to kill, but I am finally starting to pull bases. On my turn, I charge the fire raptor with some scarabs and manage to glance out all 4 HPs! Not bad! The lychguard finish wiping out the Screamerstar and the game ends with me having an 11-9 win.

I think if we'd had time for turn 6, I would have been able to accomplish a few more of my secondaries and score the 3-pointer that started the combat which allowed the lychguard to fight the screamerstar. I didn't get to play any practice games vs Daemons with the new Necron book before the tournament, I'm sure if I played things more aggressively I might have been able to swing a few more points on the win, but I will take what I can get this early on in the event.

That was a very close battle!

That was a big win - I consider daemons the top army in the right hands. :thumbs up: