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Hey readers,

I was just thinking the about the use of Scarabs in a necron army.

In all the Tactic articles I've read, they should be used as vehicle hunters stripping hull points and such.

However they do have a mediocre stat line with the WS2 S3 and apparently die fairly quickly to any arms fire especially templates.

The entropic strike sounds decent, however it mentions somewhere that the majority of enemies you'll be facing have 1 wound so if they lose their armour save they basically die anyway.

But back to their main use as stripping hull points, couldn't a couple of warriors or Gauss immortals just glance vehicles to death?? which is what begs this question for me are scarabs that amazing??

I'm not saying they're entirely useless, but what are other people's takes on this?

I have never had much luck with scarabs. There are too many S6 things out there now, and their 5+ save doesn't do much.
However, it's worth noting that the FW dark harvest crons have scarabs that have rending. However, at that point you might as well be using wraiths.

Well, I'm using them as point fillers in my Necron army. Entropic strike is fantastic if you manage to get them in cc. But this is the hardest part due to their low toughness so that instant killing is an issue.

They are that scary. A unit of 4 can conservatively expect to cause 3 glancing hits and 3 penetrating hits to a moving Land Raider on the charge. Huge area of denial to vehicles.

I've been on the other side of the table from scarabs many times, and can personally attest that they are much more capable of stripping hull points than gauss shots. In any game against Necrons, they frequently become my first priority.

herpguy wrote:
I have never had much luck with scarabs. There are too many S6 things out there now, and their 5+ save doesn't do much.
However, it's worth noting that the FW dark harvest crons have scarabs that have rending. However, at that point you might as well be using wraiths.

Worse, the very dangerous combination of Rending and Shred.

And scarabs can put out a lot of attacks.

They've got a useful psychological fear factor I often try to get rid asap when facing crons the ability to eat tank armour off characters is enough to make your opponent play differently and make mistakes. They're no long susceptable to template weapons, right? So can be surprisly durable to small arms fire.

D

Scarabs are so dangerously respected that they are the top priority of intelligent generals with armor to protect. That bad news is they're easily killed by the right weaponry, so as the top priority, they might not make it to turn 2.

If they do make it to turn 2, they'll most likely be assaulting something....score! From my experience, scarab farming isn't necessary. Just run multiple units (even small units) and keep them out of sight behind terrain if possible (they are very close to the ground) to make sure at least one unit survives to do their dirty work.

In the last game I played my necrons, I faced a guy who had never encountered scarabs. He was playing the new eldar and was fielding a few wave serpents and a fire prism. I placed a few crates close to the middle of the table where my scarabs could hide from being targetted, and the next turn, 4 scarabs took out their first wave serpent. My opponent was struggling with target priority, and only allocated one unit (i believe the fire prism, but it's been awhile) to take out the scarabs. After his attack totally whiffed, the scarabs ate the fire prism. By that time, his other wave serpent was down from other fire, so the scarabs just tar pitted one of his units for all but one half of the final turn of the game. 4 scarab bases! It's unfair what they can accomplish if they don't get killed turn 1.

Scarabs are like Demolisher Cannons: if you don't deal with them right away, they will cause massive problems for you. Anyone who has seen a few scarabs chew through a tank or even a fortification in a single assault know how nasty they can be, and they can also tarpit enemy squads for most of a full game.

Plus, there's always stripping the armor from MCs, right?
Those Wraithknights aren't so bad without their 2+ saves.

 skoffs wrote:
Plus, there's always stripping the armor from MCs, right?
Those Wraithknights aren't so bad without their 2+ saves.

Wraithknights never had 2+ saves?

Woops, was thinking Riptides, sorry.

Scarabs are very scary when mathematically a single one can glance a Land Raider to death while charging. (5 hits, -5 points to armour, 5 glances)

used in as group of 10 bases, that's 30 T3 5+ wounds to chew through, and a monstrous 50 attacks at full strength. With proper use of cover (+ stealth for being a swarm), they become as annoying as Guardblobs behind an ADL to kill off, and then they start munching away.

 IHateNids wrote:

With proper use of cover (+ stealth for being a swarm), they become as annoying as Guardblobs behind an ADL to kill off, and then they start munching away.

This is just plain wrong, neither scarabs or swarms have the stealth special rule. In the old edition they used to get stealth but this is no longer the case in 6th edition.

I never field my necron army without a unit of ten scarabs, they're always priority number one for my opponent which means that the rest of my army is not getting shot at and the warscythe lord on command barge can do his thing. If they're ignored then there's a unit of ten scarabs running riot up field!

I also have played necrons and against necrons, and I will attest they can be very challenging in a large squad. If you also threat saturate and give them choices between a annihilation barge and a scarab swarm they will either kill one and be consumed by the other, or shoot one and be consumed while being shot. They are excellent sideline sprinters and are best when paired with a spyder or two to spawn more. They world very well against shooty targets that wont move due to over confidence or heavy weaponry. However make sure you soften up large enemy squads before you charge in because against full squads they can take a beating due to low stats.
Hope this helps.

Punisher wrote:

 IHateNids wrote:

With proper use of cover (+ stealth for being a swarm), they become as annoying as Guardblobs behind an ADL to kill off, and then they start munching away.

This is just plain wrong, neither scarabs or swarms have the stealth special rule. In the old edition they used to get stealth but this is no longer the case in 6th edition.

I stand corrected (and suddenly aware I played incorrectly at my previous Tourement and no-one called it... )

They're still annoying if you keep to ruins for a 4+

I've only just started Necrons in the last week and my experience with Scarabs has been nothing but spectacular. Even against an opponent who knew exactly how to take them down I still managed to wreck a vindicator with a single surviving base. If Terrain allows it should not be difficult find a nice spot to remain out of LoS allowing a good turn 2 charge.

I've also found they are great area denial units, by deploying them in one area you are essentially telling your opponent that this area of the board is no Land Raiders allowed.