[40K] Now You See Them, Now You Don’t (Necron Army List)

	Necron Mech Reserve Manipulation
	1750
	0
	HQ		515			Troops	590			Elites		245			Fast Attack		135			Heavy Support		265
	Tekeshi, Iron Maiden of Solace					Warriors				Nitocris, the Betrayer				3	Canoptek Scarabs		135		1	Necron Monolith		200
1	Necron Overlord	90			5	Necron Warriors	65		1	C’Tan Shard	185
	warscythe	10			1	Night Scythe	100			Swarm of Spirit Dust	20								1	Canoptek Spyders	50
	mindshackle scarabs	15								Grand Illusion	40									gloom prism	15
					5	Necron Warriors	65					245										65
		115			1	Night Scythe	100
	Catacomb Command Barge	80
			195		10	Necron Warriors	130
	Royal Court
2	Cryptek	50			10	Necron Warriors	130
2	Harbinger of Destruction	20
2	gaze of flame	20
2	solar pulse	40
			130
2	Cryptek	50
	Harbinger of the Storm	0
2	lightning field	20
2	ether crystal	30
			100
2	Necron Lord	70
	warscythe	20
			90

By the under-par monitor of the sky-demon, that’s some bad layout right there. In my defence, it looks a fat sight better in OpenOffice.

Anyway. I’ve been inspecting the Necrons of late, because I want to add a motor pool to that army at some point so I have something to play mainstream 40K with, rather than running off and demanding that everyone join me in the Specialist and skirmish game wilderness.

The thought process behind this one is fairly simple; I wanted to build a fast army, one that could play around with leaving stuff in reserve and, indeed, manipulate the various reserve options that the Necrons have available. I also wanted to use my Monolith, because frankly I like my Monolith, and because it seems to me to provide some insurance in the event of Scythes being shot down (the contents can march out of the Monolith instead of on from a board edge, which seems like an improvement to me).

The two units in the Scythes are equipped for some slightly more up-close-and-personal duty than is normal for my Troops choices. Joined by Harbingers of the Storm (to mess with enemy deep striking, to provide a deterrent against assaulting the Necrons, and to add more ‘glance vehicles to death’ shots at short range) and Necron Lords (because I haven’t used them yet, and cheap warscythes seem like they might be worth a giggle), these are the midfielders, going out and flinging lightning at anything I don’t like the face on. Immortals would be better for the job, but since I don’t actually own any Immortals yet, these will have to do. The other two units receive the more customary Harbingers of Destruction; they sit tight further back, either sniping at vehicles or bringing down the Solar Pulses to turn the lights on and off – whatever’s most to my advantage at the time. I could also, I suppose, swap the squads round and have the big ones in the Scythes and the small ones in the backfield, if that proved more sensible.

Anyway, I have the Scarabs and the Spyder to be semi-disposable melee pieces and provide a little psychic defence, and my usual flying Overlord to troubleshoot Land Raiders and other nuisances. The last unit is the one that I’m not entirely sure about; the C’tan with Swarm of Spirit Dust (helps him not die) and Grand Illusion.

While I like having a crutch for my bad deployment habits and a nifty reserve/not reserve on the board/off the board gimmick, it’s quite a lot of points for that gimmick and a slow piece with lousy threat range. However, the opportunity to pull pieces into or out of reserve does seem like it might be handy – hold Tekeshi off-field to respond to the greatest threats as they emerge, decide whether or not to deploy/Deep Strike the Monolith based on the terrain and the fire lanes the enemy can draw, or at the very least redeploy the slow stuff if I realise I’ve made a mistake. It also affords a greater-than-I2 melee presence, which I confess to being quite fond of.

What do you think, folks?

Uncle Von Asks: Time To Say Goodbye To Cryx?

Shiny: The merits of euthanising your Cryx force? Let’s see. There are, as I assume you have already noted, the matter of freeing up space and a possible conversion into money for your use.

Then there are other considerations, for which I will need additional context. I know you are occasionally given to frustration with Warmachine. Is it that you are quitting the game, or are you abandoning the Cryx for something you find easier to use?

Von: Abandoning them and taking up the Skorne again.

Read And Respond: Warhammer 39,999 and Not Playing Games

In the comments to this I Do Not Play 40K post, Rob at Warhammer 39,999 asked me a Question.

Have you given any thought as to whether your interest is finally waning (And perhaps you’re “done” with warmachine), or maybe it’s just a slightly longer than normal cycle?

I’ve definitely been giving it thought, if only because there’s so much Warmachine stuff and it’s making packing for the house move inefficient, plus so much of it is just collecting dust. Now, the following post is me putting those thoughts down into words and thinking aloud. It may not be organised, it may not be logical, it may not even be correct. Please bear that in mind.

Uncle Von Asks: What To Do With The Werewolves of Thornwood?

It’s been so long since I did one of these that I’ve had to go archive trawling to remember how I do them…

System: Hordes
Faction: Circle Orboros
Casters: 1/1
Points: 35/35
Tiers: 0

Kaya the Moonhunter & Laris (*3pts)
* Gorax (4pts)
* Feral Warpwolf (9pts)
* Pureblood Warpwolf (9pts)

Druids of Orboros (Leader and 5 Grunts) (7pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
* Stone keeper (1pts)
Tharn Wolfriders (Leader and 2 Grunts) (6pts)

This ‘ere’s my go-to Circle Orboros list, which was built out of the stuff Mr. Bandwagon swapped me for my Skorne back when.  It’s very much a ‘do the best you can with what you’ve got’ list that I’ve been slowly adding more bits and bobs to in order to try and do better with (vis. Gorax and Stones).  However, I have as yet only won one game with it despite having been playing it or variants on it for a while now, so I thought that breaking it down and seeing what does what and talking about it might help me think about it and work out what I’m doing wrong.

Warmahordes: It’s Been A While

What with actually running the Dark Ages Vampire game (it’s going well, thanks, although there’s no interesting meta as yet and so I’m observing the First Rule of RPG Club), painting up Lizardmen and trying out Lord of the Rings, I haven’t been talking much about Warmahordes – or playing that much either, as tight financial circumstances and am-dram commitments have kept me out of the loop for October and most of November.  Doesn’t help that The Von Show takes most of a day to script, film, edit, pretend-to-transcribe, upload and format for posting either.  However, I managed to sneak in a couple of games recently and, well, I’m coming to terms with the possibility that I’m a bit crap with the Circle.

While I’m not especially demoralised by having won one game with them since I started playing them, it does appear that the amount of tech available to the faction is baffling my brains a bit.  I keep over- or under-buffing key pieces, or buffing the wrong stuff altogether.  Target priority is a labyrinth that I’m having to negotiate all over again (and frequently find myself lost in).  There often seems to be a crucial element missing from my lists, too.  I’m a great believer that a list needs to deliver damage to a single point, damage across a wide frontage, chaff into the enemy’s grill, additional moves to key pieces and probability control through buffs in order to be a good one, and most of my Circle lists seem to be missing one or two of those key elements, or spoiling me for choice with pieces that perform two or three roles.

This is what I’ve been (mostly) running of late.  I did try out Mr. Krueger the other day and he was a bit fun.  I lost to Nik’s smelly Trolls, admittedly, but it was down to an error of judgement regarding Krueger’s feat and pretty much that alone.  One brain fart isn’t quite the same as a whole series of fatal misplays, which is what the following eKaya build has been inflicting on me…

Points: 35/35
Tiers: 0
Kaya the Moonhunter & Laris (*3pts)
* Gorax (4pts)
* Feral Warpwolf (9pts)
* Pureblood Warpwolf (9pts)
Druids of Orboros (Leader and 5 Grunts) (7pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
* Stone keeper (1pts)
Tharn Wolfriders (Leader and 2 Grunts) (6pts)

There are many good components there, perhaps too many – the Stones are helping me keep Laris alive and I’m wreaking modest havoc with Primal, but honestly those things just give me more choices to make and thus more opportunities for misplays.  Thoreau says ‘simplify, simplify’… so how do I simplify this?  Other than by saying “sod this, let’s take Krueger instead?” – because I do like eKaya and I can see her potential and what she can do.  I just seem to be giving myself too much to process in order to make it happen, and I want to take some tech OUT of the list (for the first time ever) in order to refine it and let me focus more.

Also, as I move my shelves around to make room for the new toys (Bloodgorgers, Rengrave, pSkarre and, at last, a proper Raider Captain), I’ve noticed that my Cryx are gathering dust.  DUST!  Shows how long it’s been since I last disturbed the dead from their slumbers.  They’ll have to get an outing in the new year.  I keep looking at SmogCon and thinking “if there are any tickets left after the December work lull is over, and if I actually have any money to commit to hotels and food and such, I should take some Cryx down there.”  Current plan is to take a variety of pAsphyxious Tier lists and just play SmogPit games until my eyes bleed.  Nik reckons I’ll get bored and he may be right, so perhaps eSkarre and her Shooty Solo Spam should do the rounds in one of the tournaments too?  I haven’t really tested that list in any sort of ‘les affaires seriuse’ context yet, after all…