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Anybody have an experience playing or playing against Wraithwing armies? I've started really enjoying the success of my Destroyer Lords and their natural personal guard of 6x Wraiths. Through trade I ended up with a few more Wraiths and rather than have a lone Destroyer I simply tweaked him into a Destroyer Lord. At any regular point value this will take up a majority of your list at 720 points, two HQ slots and 2 FA slots leaving you with a rather open 1000+ points free to spend as you wish. Does that 2nd Destroyer Lord put too many eggs into one basket? I really enjoy the idea but it seems so odd to simply ignore all the interesting gadgets in the Necron codex.

I regularly play against a list like that - 2 Lords each with about 6 wraiths, and the rest of the points taken up with barges, and a flyer or two. I don't think having the two DL/wraith squads is too many eggs in one basket as they're just so effective (against marines at least - I suspect they'd do less well against hoards).

It'll win you a lot of games, but I do find them boring to play against personally.

The Competitive scene sees this build quite often and played well it walks through most lists.

2 D Lords.
18 Wraiths.
3 Barges
4 Night Scythes
4x5 Warriors.

Yeah, that's similar to what I play against (less Scythes tho thankfully).

As I say, you might find in a non harcore competative environment it's a bit over the top and it'd be more fun to take some of the necron's other toys.

Yeah... while the list seems great I'm trying to fit in some fun aspects as well. I've really enjoyed the 2x DLord and 2x Wraith squad sections but that really doesn't leave too many points left at my target level of 1850. I need to fill it with troops so I grab some Warriors and then I can't really buff the Warriors with a Lord or Cryptek so I figure I might as well just take 5-10 man squads and bring a few Night Scythes. I've opted to include a Monolith to try and spice things up. I could easily have it be a 3rd A. Barge but the Monolith will give some good cover and allow for a few teleportation shenanigans. Night Scythe with scoring troops gets blown out of the sky? Have them teleport to the Monolith entrance and it won't be such a burden and you can still possibly score. The STR8 AP5 pieplate may help with more swarm oriented lists as well. Ah well, I'll fiddle around and see if I can't make something fun of it.

A bunch of wraiths are on their way to me now, along with a Destroyer lord, so I'm going to be starting a limited wraithwing army as well. I don't have or really want any croissants, so instead of going double DLord+Wraiths, I'm going to put in a regular Overlord of some kind, most likely Zahndrekh, and do more foot-based stuff with Lords and Crypteks. The options that a royal court opens up really give you some flexibility.

 Thariinye wrote:
A bunch of wraiths are on their way to me now, along with a Destroyer lord, so I'm going to be starting a limited wraithwing army as well. I don't have or really want any croissants, so instead of going double DLord+Wraiths, I'm going to put in a regular Overlord of some kind, most likely Zahndrekh, and do more foot-based stuff with Lords and Crypteks. The options that a royal court opens up really give you some flexibility.

Precisely the debate I'm running currently.

DLord gives a huge wound soak that will pretty much obliterate anything he encounters with MSS and his Warscythe. He brings the fight and focus to the enemy.

Overlords give the RC which can use Lords to make your troops a bit more durable. I personally love using the Despairtek + Deathmark combo in a Scythe to mix things up a bit. I'll run it both ways and try and report back. Let me know how yours goes.

Well, if you do that, it wouldn't be a Wraith-wing army, so much as it would be a balanced TAC-ish one.
("pure Wraith-wing" is supposed to be 18 Wraiths + 2 Destroyer Lords. it's a real rock-scissors-paper army that either crushes it's opponents completely, or loses miserably, depending on what it's facing).

Personally, I prefer the mixed tactics of Zahndrekh (with 20 Warriors + Ghost Ark) and a single D.Lord (attached to 6 Wraiths).

 L0rdF1end wrote:
The Competitive scene sees this build quite often and played well it walks through most lists.

2 D Lords.
18 Wraiths.
3 Barges
4 Night Scythes
4x5 Warriors.

Well, this is a common competitive build.
However, I tend to take larger troop units, like 10 Immortals or 10 Warriors, and less Wraith, 2x 6 or so. More shooty ground forces were quite useful in recent games vs. new Daemons (with Daemonettes and the like) threatening my front ranks.

Testing out a build tomorrow that is going to consist of

2x DLords
Triarch Stalker w TL Hvy Gauss
10x Warriors + NS
10x Warriors + NS
10x Warriors + Ark
4x Wraiths w/1 WC
4x Wraiths w/1 WC
6x Scarabs
3x A. Barges w/Tesla Cannon

It's a bit wonky as I'm going to pick up the last few wraiths tomorrow after I play this game. I think the Stalker could be easily cut out of it as it isn't going to be giving too many people Twin-Linking... but it very well may help for the underslung Tesla Cannons on the Barges and the 30 or so Warriors on the field.

I like the idea of a wraith heavy frontal assault that causes your enemy to have to shift their strategy to deal with - but I hate to put all of my eggs in that basket and only have 5 man units of Warriors to score with. I also didn't do too flyer heavy - I'll try another list that is another time. After tomorrow the list will probably be altered to drop the Stalker (unless it does a decent job) and add in 2 wraiths to each squad.

Reading up on the new Tau rules it seems like they could definitely give this army a run for its money. Too much air will seemingly be blown out of the sky and their buffs to Overwatch could just tip the dice god's hand in the favor of the Tau.

The Stalker barely seems like it has a place in that list.
Honestly, I'd cut it. They're best when playing a shooty 'Cron build, which is the opposite of Wraith-wing.

Reading up on the new Tau rules it seems like they could definitely give this army a run for its money. Too much air will seemingly be blown out of the sky and their buffs to Overwatch could just tip the dice god's hand in the favor of the Tau.

Air defense is an expensive upgrade. I wouldn't worry too much.
A viable tactics would be to rush forward with the Wraith units until they get ''marker lighted to death''.

 skoffs wrote:


Personally, I prefer the mixed tactics of Zahndrekh (with 20 Warriors + Ghost Ark) and a single D.Lord (attached to 6 Wraiths).

With the Ghost Ark, are you just putting it behind the warriors, to regenerate them? Do you feel you're getting your points worth out of it when it's doing that?

^
Yes, it has worked very well for me every time I've used it this way.
That, and Zahndrekh's ResOrb, make it an extremely difficult unit to kill (without the G.Ark, Z is still pretty good at keeping them alive, but eventually the unit will get whittled away. With the Ark there to refill the blob, those guys have incredible staying power).
The only thing to look out for is losing the unit to an assault, so it tends to be a good idea to keep something choppy around as an assault deterrent... OH, LOOK AT THAT, I just happen to have the best choppy unit in the codex in my army as well! How convenient!

 skoffs wrote:
^
Yes, it has worked very well for me every time I've used it this way.
That, and Zahndrekh's ResOrb, make it an extremely difficult unit to kill (without the G.Ark, Z is still pretty good at keeping them alive, but eventually the unit will get whittled away. With the Ark there to refill the blob, those guys have incredible staying power).
The only thing to look out for is losing the unit to an assault, so it tends to be a good idea to keep something choppy around as an assault deterrent... OH, LOOK AT THAT, I just happen to have the best choppy unit in the codex in my army as well! How convenient!

I usually do end up running Nemesor Z as well - his tactics are amazing. I often find there isn't much to strip from my enemies but I get the feeling that my first chance to strip Tank Hunters off something will be glorious.

Anywho - I tried out my list posted above and the results were as expected. 1850 and the mission was a 3pt objective anywhere on our side of the map - vanguard strike with heavy ruin cover. My opponent took a Space Wolves army that was very infantry heavy.

I ended up losing the match due to a few critical things.
- Jaws of the World Wolf ate 2 Destroyer Lords and a Wraith in one shot. They cannot re-animate from this. This was totally crippling as well. He spend his entire first turn firing every single one of his 1850 points at my two DLords with 4x Wraiths. The survivors in the end were 2x DLords and 2x Wraiths. Jaws ate my DLords and a Wraith and the other got boltered into oblivion.

-Triarch Stalker was useless as predicted. It shot it's 5 shots... one per turn giving TL to the Warriors. The TL really helped the Warriors deliver another level of pain - but ultimately my list wasn't built around this... at all.

- Ghost Ark didn't do too bad. None of the Warriors died before it did so I never got to re-animate any of them with it. I'll probably sell it and just use a Scythe instead as it's cheaper and has a bigger gun.

- He had no vehicles aside from a Drop Pod. Scarabs ended up fighting 4 of his marines for three turns. They are a great tarpit unit that can eat vehicles but otherwise? They can be a big waste and a liability especially if you are facing templates.

I'm going to alter the list to use the new Wraiths and Scythes I just picked up and I'll see what else I can do. I'd like to include some Immortals in the list as they're a bit tougher and can put on a little more hurt. I could also drop the second DLord and grab a Lord or two... but... eh.

Who knows. I'm going to try and setup a game vs some of the new Tau and discern if Necron CC units can actually succeed against that number of shots. They've got volley of fire and good overwatch... two things Wraiths don't like.

Did you use the Scarabs in concert with the Wraiths?
That's the best way to prevent Wraiths dying to overwatch, the ole' hammer-anvil one-two-punch (having them already tied up so they can't shoot).
It's one of the few ways Lychguard actually work well (have a unit of 5 with shields go before a unit of 10 with scythes: the shields will catch all the overwatch shots and hopefully survive to get into combat. Then along comes the scythes and BAM)

In the game you just had, it might have been a good idea to have kept the Wraiths behind cover the entire time until it was time to charge (and if no cover exists, stick em behind the Ghost Ark and edge forward).

I had a few play errors in that game that really cost me. I could have easily just camped home base then edged in for Linebreaker and potentially Slay the Warlord. I rushed forward against him as he had all his units high in ruins and it was mostly infantry. I could have used my Night Scythes to deny his objective at the end of the game. That said... it was a friendly game and to me that would have probably ruined the spirit of it.

He just totally ignored the Scarabs and literally blew away two or three out of the four Wraiths in each squad with STR 8+ weaponry. They still hit and did a bunch of damage that really crippled him and totally obliterated a squad but then I got caught by JotWW - and after a quick debate realized that there would be no RP roll for my two Destroyer Lords. I should have kept them up with the Wraiths, instead I doubled them back to tie up a Drop Pod w/Missile Launcher and a squad of guys - two of them with Melta's that were threatening my barge line.

I got a good deal on some banged up Night Scythes and Wraiths today so the list for tomorrow is going to be

2x DLords w/Scythe, Weave, MSS and the Warlord has a ResOrb
4x5 Warrior Squads
4x Night Scythes
12x Wraiths with 4 WC
Monolith

That gives me 6 Tesla Destructors on the field, a ton of Wraiths, two angry DLords, and a really big thing for psychological warfare. I'm seriously hoping it works and draws fire away from my Wraiths - particularly 8+ fire that will ID them. Secondary usage being I can portal a unit coming in from reserves to the gate of it - there is decent potential I can park it up near an objective. Nobody wants to get sucked into that thing either.

My other temptation would be to drop the WC and a DLord and grab Nemesor for Furious Charge, Tank Hunters, and Stealth on the Monolith (if I can give it a cover save). I'd have to alter things up in that case and I'd possibly try taking a Death and Despair squad then as well.

at first I was going to say, "ugh, Monolith? what the hell are you doing, man?!"
but then I thought "mobile cover for the Wraiths".
... so maybe it might help?

If you end up dropping a DLord for Zahndrekh, you should seriously consider adding some Storm-teks as well to attach to the Warrior squads (probably just two. after all, he might not have armor again).
DEFINITELY vouch for the D&D squad, too. Nothing ruins an enemy HQ's day like auto-hit AP1 template that wounds on a 2+.

I usually run lists very similar to what you are suggesting. A DLord and Nemesor are my standard go-to HQ's and I always tend to run at least 1 Stormtek and 1 Despairtek in my lists.

I do understand the Monolith hate - and I've got a bit of it myself. When I look at the points cost it can be a bit painful - especially considering it does jack against Air unlike our lovely A. Barges. That said, I do find a few uses for it being that it is a HUGE LoS blocker that I can easily hide 2 barges behind and possibly an entire army of Wraiths. The other two reasons being a bit different - one is psychological and hopefully they will dump high STR fire that would instant death one of my Wraiths into the Monolith instead - particularly because I plan on using it very aggressively. Exile Portal is hit or miss depending on who you play against (It at an Ork Biker Boss once which was a godsend in that particular game) but the ability to park it somewhere and use it much like one would the Night Scythes - park it on an objective and have a squad walk through the Portal and capture the objective at the end game allowing them to use the Monolith as cover as well. Even after this whole paragraph - I'm still not entirely convinced on it.

If I were to go with your suggestion I'd come up with something like...

DLord (Scythe, Weave, MSS)
Nemesor
Despairtek Squad in a NS
Stormtek Squad in a NS
10x Warriors in a NS
2x6 Wraith squads (no coils)
3x A. Barges

That would put me 5 points away from 1850 and seems to be a very solid list - I'd consider dropping the 10x Warrior NS in order to get another unit of troops. It really depends on how good I can hide and defend my 20 models worth of scoring units. The Stormtek squad is almost always a loss. They pop out and destroy a vehicle or two if they're lucky and then gone.

If I drop a Night Scythe I can pump 5x more Warriors into another squad and make the Stormtek squad be 8 Warriors instead of 5 - perhaps allowing a second turn of firing and a bit more resiliency.

I feel like as Necron we have so many damn options at an effective list... each of them causing rivers upon rivers of tears.