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.

I'm trying my hand at three things for the first time: Tournaments, Blogging, and Battle Reports!

If you want to follow me on my journey from the Inception of my list to the large regional tournament for my area, come check it out! I'd love to get some comments on the quality of my Battle Reports! See anything that is bad, or I could do better? Let me know.

I'll be posting one every week.

List building:
http://emperorscodex.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-road-to-cag-bash-part-1.html

Batrep1 vs. Grey Knights/Imperial Guard, Primer 1 Game 3:
http://emperorscodex.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-road-to-cag-bash-part-2.html

Batrep2 vs. Necron Wraithwing, Primer 2 Game 3:
http://emperorscodex.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-road-to-cag-bash-part-3.html

Batrep3 vs. Chaos Daemons, Tournament Game 1:
http://emperorscodex.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-road-to-cag-bash-part-4.html

Batrep4 vs. Tyranids, Tournament Game 2:
http://emperorscodex.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-road-to-cag-bash-part-5.html

Batrep5 vs. Black Templar, Tournament Game 3:
http://emperorscodex.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-road-to-cag-bash-part-6.html

Batrep6 vs. Dark Eldar, Tournament Game 4:
http://emperorscodex.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-road-to-cag-bash-part-7.html

Second Batrep is posted.

http://emperorscodex.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-road-to-cag-bash-part-3.html

Excellent batreps, nice tactical explanation, can't wait for the next one

I love the explanation in your tournament blog but I wish it was pure Necron rather than Necron/Chaos. What advice would you give to fill in that AP 3 slot rather than the Helldrake?

 SupremeDalek wrote:
I love the explanation in your tournament blog but I wish it was pure Necron rather than Necron/Chaos. What advice would you give to fill in that AP 3 slot rather than the Helldrake?

Hmmm. Necrons are a bit lacking in that department, but there are a couple options. Doomsday Arks can put down AP2 pieplates. The problem I have with them is that they are less accurate then a template, and they don't ignore cover. They also can't get their Jink save because they have to hold still to shoot, which is daft.

Another option is to use a Deathmark Squad with an attached Cryptek upgraded with the Veil of Darkness. That will allow them to put down an AP1 template, pretty much killing any unit you want. Of course, you can only use this on one unit, so it's a bit of a one trick pony. The unit is a lot less useful when you come up against a Horde or MSU army that doesn't have one particular "deathstar" unit. Also, you have to stick them in a NightScythe if you don't want to play it risky with their scatter from the deepstrike.

DoomScythes are a possibility, but like the Doomsday Arks, they don't ignore cover. And they eat up a Heavy Slot, which isn't necessarily bad, but Annihilation Barges are soooo good for what they do, it's hard not to bring 3!

Destroyers have AP3, and the range to use it well, but they're very expensive for being on such a fragile frame. I've read that some people use them effectively, you just have to be very good with your positioning. They are not a forgiving unit.

Crypteks could work for you. The base weapon, Staff of Light, is AP3. For awhile I toyed with the idea of just sticking 5 of them on a Ghost Ark. 15 AP3 shots is pretty good, but you have to be close to use them, which was always the problem.

Lastly....you could always just use VoF to kill MEQ. Got a job 10 Warriors can't handle? Bring 20!

So, as you can see, there are options available to a pure Necron list. The thing is, all of these options have some sort of downside. I chose the Heldrake because it is just so awesomely overpowered right now. It's hard to hit, it's hard to penetrate, it's hard to kill with its 5++ save, it can fly 36" and put its template down 12" further, it ignores cover, it wounds most things on a 2+, it Vector Strikes for more AP3 cover ignoring goodness, and it can switch to Hover mode if you need it to.

In my opinion, the Heldrake was a giant factor in my favor in the tournament. Did I come up against lists where the Heldrake was not terribly useful? Of course. It didn't help much against the Daemon players. But in the games where it did help, I won by a landslide, which got me a lot of points in the tournament overall.

 SupremeDalek wrote:
I love the explanation in your tournament blog but I wish it was pure Necron rather than Necron/Chaos. What advice would you give to fill in that AP 3 slot rather than the Helldrake?

Hard to do outside melee for pure crons. I guess you can kill ap3 with destroyers but imo they die too easily before they get to do proper damage and they don't ignore cover. I'm running chaos allies too tbh but been thinking if Spade wolves couldn't be really nice as well. Rune priest+greyhunters to hold objective if nothing else and a 5 missile launcher long fang squad for that ap 3 high str long range fire power necrons lack.
Also the rune priest gives us psychic defence.

Very good 1st batrep, I'll be reading the second soon. I agree with most of your analysis for necrons too. I run similar lists denying small arms fire, but hardly hear anybody talk about taking the AV 13 wall I do.

Batrep 3 posted. I also added links to the series in the first post for easy clicking.

http://emperorscodex.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-road-to-cag-bash-part-4.html

Batrep 4 is posted. Necrons vs. Tyranids, game 2 in the tournament.

Those are some hardcore lists you've played against. Gongrats so far for going 2-0 in the tournament.

Your list is a lot like Tomb King's (he won the IndyOpen with his necron/CSM army). One good thing about it (as you found it in your game against tyranids) is that it is a forgiving list. You can make mistakes and still recover more easily compared to some of the other armies. Because without the mobility of the night scythes, you most likely would have lost against his bugs.

Looking forwards to the rest of the reports.

 jy2 wrote:
Those are some hardcore lists you've played against. Gongrats so far for going 2-0 in the tournament.

Your list is a lot like Tomb King's (he won the IndyOpen with his necron/CSM army). One good thing about it (as you found it in your game against tyranids) is that it is a forgiving list. You can make mistakes and still recover more easily compared to some of the other armies. Because without the mobility of the night scythes, you most likely would have lost against his bugs.

Looking forwards to the rest of the reports.

Thanks! Yeah, I played a few rough games in the tournament, and their were a lot of competitive lists overall. One thing I've noticed is that the list I use (or a close variation of it) has been taking top spots in a lot of the national tournaments. I'm not surprised that more people have come to the same conclusions that I have and created very similar lists.

This list will not survive the next year though, given the way that GW is releasing new codex's and the constant state of flux that the 40k meta is now in. My new goal is to go to Adepticon next year, and I already have a couple ideas for how to make a competitive list for that. The new Eldar might change everything, but only time will tell.

The biggest problems for me to iron out are the mistakes I make. I think I do fine in the "list-building" part of gameplay, but as you can see with my latest report against Tyranids, I can be over-aggressive. It was my first big tournament though, and I learned a lot from it.

Question on the 2nd game (i.e. batrep 4).

You normally get the kill point if a unit isn't on the table (say you only get to turn 3 and one of your reserved units hasn't shown up then your opponent would get the KP for it). How does this interact with your immortals as they're not actually 'inside' the Night Scythe?

 CaptainJay wrote:
Question on the 2nd game (i.e. batrep 4).

You normally get the kill point if a unit isn't on the table (say you only get to turn 3 and one of your reserved units hasn't shown up then your opponent would get the KP for it). How does this interact with your immortals as they're not actually 'inside' the Night Scythe?

They're on the table. I get where you're coming from. From a fluff perspective, they teleport in, so they aren't technically "on the table", but in this case the rules are that the unit, while not physically on the table, is considered to occupy the same space as the vehicle. Similarly, when you embark units in a Bastion, the rules say to remove them from the table, but they are still considered to be there.

I know the fluff is different from the actual rules, but anything inside a Nightscythe is considered the same as anything inside a Rhino.

Okay cool. I guess the only stituation where they'd count as destroyed would be if their night scythe got shot down and the game ended before they got chance to walk on next turn.

Good job on the BRs, I'm looking forward to reading the rest of them.

Great read looking forward to more reports.

Batrep 5 is up.

http://emperorscodex.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-road-to-cag-bash-part-6.html

Batrep6 is up. Only one more game to go.

http://emperorscodex.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-road-to-cag-bash-part-7.html

Mech-DE really matches up poorly against Necron tesla-spam. That is one reason why they are not as common anymore in tournament play. Necrons will crush them.

You played the tesla wrong. When you destroy a unit, it does not arc because there is no unit left to arc from. You still would have probably won though.

Having played DE for a while, what you did is exactly how you beat them every time. If they leave the vehicles bunched up, the combination of explosions on the inside and out means you won't really have to dedicate any fire to the infantry. And for your last game, i'll predict a Crons/CSM mirrormatch!

 jy2 wrote:
Mech-DE really matches up poorly against Necron tesla-spam. That is one reason why they are not as common anymore in tournament play. Necrons will crush them.

You played the tesla wrong. When you destroy a unit, it does not arc because there is no unit left to arc from. You still would have probably won though.

That's true if you explode the vehicle, because then it is removed from the board and replaced with a crater. But if you wreck the vehicle, there is still a model to measure distance from. Or at least, that's how I was told to play it during the Primer, so that's how I played it during the tournament.

In any case, like I said, I don't think I won this game because of skill, heh.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Haemonculus_Jay wrote:
Having played DE for a while, what you did is exactly how you beat them every time. If they leave the vehicles bunched up, the combination of explosions on the inside and out means you won't really have to dedicate any fire to the infantry. And for your last game, i'll predict a Crons/CSM mirrormatch!

Haha, I like your prediction.