Right that’s it. This is possibly the longest I’ve gone without a game of 40k all edition.
If I go blind, so be it.
Welcome readers to my first time stepping up to the terrible Thunderdome that is Hear Me Out as contestant. I’ve subbed in before to provide a boring, centrist cautious voice telling Chase and Rob that interesting lists just weren’t possible, but it’s finally time for me to submit one of my own creations to face the constructively-critical scorn and ridicule of my peers. This coming weekend was supposed to be my next major, St. George’s Champion, and those who’ve been paying attention to the monthly hobby updates may have noticed that I have been painting some units outside my normal pointy-eared comfort zone, adding some new faces to my Necron army.
This was in service to making good on the promise I put out in my review of the Necron updates in Chapter Approved and trying to make a revised version of my C’tan spam list competitive. I had a lot of fun kicking around with that list last year, and the Chapter Approved changes make it considerably better, so having gotten a bit bored of kicking around elf lists the time seemed right to give it a go, and I’d been busily fighting the scourge of Finecast to get it ready prior to the Coronavirus coming along.
My tournament is, obviously, not happening but I’m now three weeks deep into 40K deprivation and willing to try some desperate measures. Specifically, IÂ have a home 40k setup and our other contributors have spoken highly of the value that can be derived from running playtest games where you play both sides. When I’ve considered doing this before I’ve immediately run into the problem of “but where do I get the second tournament capable army from” but here I don’t have that excuse because if I want to test a Necron list I can’t really pretend that I’ll struggle to find a tournament elf list in my ham den. With the new ITC missions my main “cognitive” block to having a go at it (how to do alternating deployment against yourself) is gone too, so there’s never been a better time for some lockdown 40K.
The plan is to split this article into two parts:
- Part 1: Today we’ll go through my list and get some thoughts from X on both the army in the abstract and how it’ll fare against the competition I’ve got lined up for it.
- Part 2:Â We’ll go through a blow-by-blow of how the game went, bringing in some thoughts at various points from the team, and talk about any changes we’d make to the list based on it.
Leading up the forces of C’tan skepticism for our show will be… checks notes… ah, dammit.
Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones: Well well well! LOOK HOW THE TABLES HAVE TURNED. NOW THE SHOE IS ON THE OTHER FOOT. PREPARE TO BE HOISTED ON YOUR OWN PETARD. ADDITIONAL FOURTH REFERENCE! Yes, now it is I who gets to be the one who is like “hmmm I’m not sure you want to bring a list that has ‘cool units’ and ‘may require painting something new…'” I look forward to asking you if you “are sure that you don’t want to just take more Thunderfire Cannons” or “don’t just want to switch to marines generally?”
In all seriousness, as our de facto Chaos Space Marines Hear Me Out Contributor, I’m more than happy to step up and hear you out in this time of need. Because I also miss the hell out of 40k right now and all the hobby time in the world isn’t enough to make up for the loss of games. Anyways, let’s get onto it. I’ve played against Necrons a whole bunch in 8th edition, and I’m ready to see how you’re going to try to combine the same 6 mediocre ingredients into something theoretically better than the sum of its parts. Also, C’Tan are rad so I’m up for any list using them.
With that out the way, on to the main event.
The List
The absolute key issue the previous iterations of the C’tan spam list had was an inability to deal with large amounts of heavy armour at range. Luckily, Chapter Approved has given us an absolute gift in that regard with the massive discounts to Heavy Destroyers, and that’s opened up some serious options, giving rise to the following list configuration:
Battalion Detachment – Nephrekh – 1248pts
HQ
Catacomb Command Barge w/warscythe, gauss cannon – Warlord, free relic Lightning Field – 134pts
Cryptek, staff of light, chronometron – 95pts
Troops
10 Warriors – 110pts
5 Immortals w/tesla carbines – 75pts
5 Immortals w/tesla carbines – 75pts
Elites
C’tan Shard of the Deceiver – 180pts
C’tan Shard of the Nightbringer – 155pts
Fast Attack
6 Canoptek Wraiths w/vicious claws – 252pts
4 Scarab Swarms – 52pts
Dedicated Transport
Ghost Ark – 120pts
Spearhead Detachment – Nephrekh – 751pts
HQ
Lord w/hyperphase sword – 58pts
Heavy Support
Transcendant C’tan – 180pts
Transcendant C’tan – 180pts
3 Heavy Destroyers – 111pts
3 Heavy Destroyers – 111pts
3 Heavy Destroyers – 111pts
Not going to lie, it is very cool to see just how much stuff you can squeeze into a Necron list now when you branch out into some of the more out-there options, as the process for the CA adjustments this year basically seems to have been to discount anything not in the standard-issue Arks and Scythes list by 10-15% and see what happens. Given that Necrons still haven’t torn up the metagame that was almost certainly the right call, but I am hopeful that since the old version of the list kind of worked this new one might do even better. I’m also pretty happy that it’s a list where everything has a purpose, which is usually a good place to be.
TheChirurgeon: OK right away I have some questions. The first is: Are you actually going to build and paint 9 Heavy Destroyers? You know those are finecast, right? And each one has long gun arms with thin struts of resin that will arrive completely warped beyond recognition or use? You know these are some of the worst hellworld models, right?
Look at this chump who thinks I haven’t already painted them.
Otherwise, I see what you’re getting at. I think that in addition to the CA points drops, being able to take out several big vehicles isn’t nearly as big an issue as it used to be, and so Necrons potentially have that going for them too. On the other hand, these seem like easy Gang Busters points for your opponents, and are we sure the math works out that these are better than just regular destroyers?
The Overall Plan
The holistic strategy for this list remains the same – use various diversionary elements to provide a screen and distraction so that my C’tan can get in position, then go buck wild with C’tan powers and rip the heart out of the opposing army, all the while dominating the board through keeping them under constant pressure. The changes post-CA19 add some new angles on this, but the basic strategy hasn’t really changed – I’m just hoping that now it’s better than ever.
TheChirurgeon: I like the C’Tan as untargetable monsters, but it feels like Raven Guard (and their successors) are going to eat you alive.Â
Dynasty Choice
Although it’s a little bit more flexible now that the big block of Destroyers is gone, I’m still comfortable that Nephrekh is the right Dynasty for this army. While discounts have made them a smaller proportion of the list than they once were, being able to screen your C’tan to keep them in the game is super important, and the incredible mobility that the Nephrekh Dynasty code (making advances automatically 6″ and allowing units to move through other units when advancing) gives to the army is tremendously important for achieving that. Allowing Wraiths to threaten a first turn charge via Adaptive Subroutines is also very powerful, and the Nephrekh warlord trait (-1 to hit) provides a good “generic” choice for a Catacomb Command Barge that wants to make a nuisance of itself.
Deep Striking one or more units remains an option as well. Against an army with a large amount of high-powered shooting you could plausibly consider chucking one unit of Heavy Destroyers into deep strike just to ensure you had something in the wings to threaten a powerful vehicle. However, the list tends to operate under serious CP constraints, so my inclination is to avoid doing that unless I’m certain it’s necessary, and view not having to as an upside of the new version.
HQ Choices
The character loadout has changes a bit from the old version of the army, changing Illuminor Szeras to a regular Cryptek with chronometron and upgrading the Overlord to ride around on a Catacomb Command Barge.
The barge is pretty simple to explain – they’re priced to move now and once I’d mathed out the new list and saw I could afford one it was pretty much a no-brainer. One of the things this list sometimes needs to be able to do is to buy time and run interference on an opponent’s plans for a bit, something CCBs are great at. Taking the Lightning Field relic for a 4++ on top of the Quantum shielding makes them a pain to kill with everything except sustained volleys of mid-quality fire, which can be hard to bring to bear on something that’s a CHARACTER. It’s also fast by the standards of the army, able to go out and grab objectives in a pinch.
The Cryptek swap is down to the advent of the Heavy Destroyers and the reduction in troop numbers within the list. Destroyers of all ilks are INFANTRY so can benefit from the invulnerable save of the chronometron, and with nine of them floating around (and probably clustering around the Lord for wound re-rolls) I want access to that to increase the chances of a unit surviving a bit of firepower. Cutting out the 10-model Immortal squad the old list ran also makes Szeras less exciting, as landing the toughness boost on that squad was a big draw for him before. Now that the list doesn’t embarassingly lack long-ranged firepower his one lascannon shot is also way less relevant.
The Lord is still here, notable only in that he’s even cheaper while probably being better for the list than previously. Without a big squad of Immortals it’s less likely that I’ll be using the Veil of Darkness to teleport him around, but he still gives wound re-rolls to the Immortal units and now soups up the Heavy Destroyers as well. Lords continue to be weirdly terrible for ancient killer space robots, but at least they’re now costed appropriately!
C’tan
Still the centrepiece of the list but with a bit of a cast rotation. This army has always wanted to squeeze as many of the Star Gods in as possible, which previously meant the Nightbringer and three Transcendents, as the Deceiver sat at a lofty 225pts. That all changed in CA19, with a spectacular 45-point discount shifting him to sit at the same price as a Transcendent, at which point he’s basically a no-brainer. While he doesn’t get access to double tapping powers, his pre-game redeploy ability is an incredibly powerful one to have access to and gives the list quite a few options to speed up its game plan or put some early interference into play. It is important not to fall in to a trap of overextending with it – the hypothetical dream of an opponent deploying their entire army in a castle you can drop three cosmic fire casts on should never happen if they’re competent – but even just ensuring you can line up shots from your Heavy Destroyers turn 1 when you’re the attacker is tremendously powerful.
The rest of the C’tan are still all about doing as much damage as possible, and your power configuration will need to change game to game to best enact that (check out this week’s Hammer of Math to delve into what’s best in various situations). With only two Transcendent C’Tan rather than three you’re likely to choose to have double tapping powers on both of them most of the time, but against armour-heavy lists the option of switching both to 3++ saves remains relevent, as that can provide a real challenge for lists depending on killing stuff with powerful low shot count weapons. Cosmic Fire is still the power with the biggest potential output, so navigating your C’tan to situations where it can be used effectively is key to success – something the Deceiver helps out with.
Troops, Wraiths and Scarabs
I’m lumping all of these together because they share a role – occupy the enemy while the C’tan get into position. One of the best ways we can pull this off is with first turn charges, and there are two ways this list can pull that off:
- The Wraiths using their 18″ advance and charge.
- The Warriors popping out of a Ghost Ark post-redeploy.
The latter is particularly devious and will hopefully catch at least some opponents out. The Deceiver’s redeploy stops you charging after using it – but effects on a transport don’t flow onwards to the unit inside (and indeed this specific case was addressed in the LVO not-FAQ), so if your opponent has deployed some infantry (Marine Scouts, perhaps) in an incautious position you can:
- Redeploy the Ghost Ark with the Deceiver 12″ from the enemy.
- Disembark the Warriors at the maximum distance from the transport and move towards the target.
- Make your 3″ charge and wrap the enemy up.
Successfully pulling off an early wrap can give your C’tan space to move up the board way more openly than they otherwise might, letting them blast away with powers while closing in, which is tremendously helpful. The original iteration of this list post-CA still had the old troop configuration, but as soon as I realised I could use the Ghost Ark as a magic wrap bus I switched over to this build.
Beyond sneaky tricks, my experience of playing this army is that you need to carefully manage the rate at which your stuff is dying – it will die, but if it happens too early then you just get the characters blown off the board. Being able to have one extra Wraith and the rather sturdy chassis of the Ghost Ark will hopefully help with this, as will being able to ward off some directions with Heavy Destroyers in an emergency. Speaking of which…
Heavy Destroyers
The last major (and new) part of the list, and what I’m hoping is the special sauce that fixes some of the problems the army used to have, is three maxed-out units of Heavy Destroyers. These bad boys got a big cut in CA, going to 37 PPM, meaning that for 333 points you can get the maximum of nine of them down and that seems…great? They re-roll 1s to hit by default, and benefit from the Lord’s re-roll 1s to wound, which since what they’re firing are AP-4 lascannons means they’re on 3s re-rolling 1s on both against almost every relevant target. Given that the major Achilles heel of the original version of this list was being unable to blow up tanks at range and thus crumbling to something like the Eldar Crafters list, spending 333pts on these seems outrageously good for the army, and we’ll get to see first hand in the test game whether it makes facing down the Elf menace any more bearable. Having a bunch of T5 3W bodies that can be moved to screen off one angle of shooting into the C’tan in emergencies is also very likely to be relevant in some games.
That closes out my outline of how the list is supposed to work – let’s see what Rob thinks
TheChirurgeon’s Thoughts
I’ve already groused a bit above, but generally my response boils down to “How is this better than the list that Stephen Christopher put together for a third-place finish at Hammer in the New Year back in January?Â
Steven Christopher’s Hammer in the New Year List
​Sautekh Battalion (+5 CP, 1,462 points)
HQ: Cryptek [5 PL, 95pts]: Chronometron, Staff of Light
HQ: Imotekh the Stormlord [10 PL, 140pts]
Troops: Immortals [8 PL, 135pts]: 9x Immortal, Tesla Carbine
Troops:Â Immortals [8 PL, 105pts]: 7x Immortal, Tesla Carbine
Troops:Â Immortals [8 PL, 105pts]: 7x Immortal, Tesla Carbine
Elites: C’tan Shard of the Deceiver [12 PL, 180pts]
Elites: Triarch Stalker [8 PL, 115pts]: Twin Heavy Gauss Cannon
Fast Attack: Destroyers [12 PL, 187pts] 3x Gaus Cannon, 1x Heavy Destroyer w/Heavy Gauss Cannon
HS: Tesseract Ark [13 PL, 200pts] w/ 2x Gauss Cannon
HS: Tesseract Ark [13 PL, 200pts] w/ 2x Gauss Cannon
Sautekh Spearhead (+1 CP, 538 Points)
HQ: Lord [5 PL, 58pts]: Hyperphase Sword
HS: Doomsday Ark [10 PL, 160pts]
HS: Doomsday Ark [10 PL, 160pts]
HS: Doomsday Ark [10 PL, 160pts]
++ Total: [132 PL, 9CP, 2,000pts] ++
Stephen’s list is planning some similar shenanigans with the newly re-costed Deceiver, but trades out the Heavy Destroyers for regular destroyers, plus some more reliable Doomsday Arks, which are now even better after the changes to Devastator Doctrine have made Imperial Fists opponents less common. I also like the Triarch here as a way to use Targeting Relay to boost the Arks, while the Destroyers act as their usual deep-striking menace. While yes, this isn’t technically anything like what you’re going for with your C’Tan-heavy list that is admittedly much, much cooler, my job here is to be the voice of boring old reason, and so you have to make the case for why your heavy destroyers are a better sell than the Doomsday Arks.
Wings’ Response
I mean it’s difficult to argue that the above list isn’t safer – Doomsday Arks are great, and Tesseract Arks are also pretty tasty (though crumble badly against some kinds of shooting). Newly discounted Imotekh and Triarch Stalkers also look good – both units already had quite a bit to recommend them, and are obviously even better at their new prices.
The big drawback of the Arks as firepower is that they’re almost impossible to hide, and just completely melt to some popular shooting options. The above list also doesn’t really have a way to project pressure outside the shooting phase, so if it’s confronted by a powerful melee threat that it can’t trivially delete off the board (Possessed or Paladin bombs spring to mind) it risks ending up on the back foot, which is particularly bad in the new ITC missions.
Ultimately, the above list is trying to win the game in the shooting phase and the C’tan list isn’t – the Heavy Destroyers are there to do enough damage early on that the rest of the list doesn’t just get shot off the board before the game really gets started – neutralising a few key threats will slow the clock down enough to let the vastly mid-table presence of the C’tan list begin to tell.
That’s the idea, anyway. I am painfully aware that Eulis Sanders (one of the world’s best Necron players) recently said that if you face Necrons and see Wraiths across the table you can probably relax, but that sounds like coward talk to me, and we’re going to try and make this thing work.
Oh, also, if you thought painting nine Heavy Destroyers was bad, it is like a tiny baby challenge next to painting three Doomsday Arks. Having painted one Ghost Ark, I have sworn that this is the one kit I will commission from someone with an airbrush if I ever need more of them. It is not fun.
The Matchup
The Competition
Obviously when playing a more out-there list the temptation is to softball the opposition to make it look brilliant, so in order to avoid that temptation what I’m going to put down as the opposition is the optimised version of my Battlefield Birmingham list that IÂ wished i’d played if I’d had the revelation about my options that I came upon while driving him from day 1 around 24 hours earlier.
Army List - Click to Expand+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ PLAYER: James Grover
+ REPORTED ARMY FACTION: Aeldari
+ TOTAL COMMAND POINTS: 14
+ TOTAL ARMY POINTS: 1997
+ POWER LEVEL: 116
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
== Battalion Detachment == Asuryani, Alaitoc [ 67PL, 1197pts] 5 CP
HQ: Farseer (110), Witchblade (0) [6PL] [110pts]
HQ: Warlock (45), Witchblade (0) [2PL] [45pts]
TR: 5 Dire Avengers (40), Exarch (0), 5 Avenger Shuriken catapults (15), Exarch Additional Avenger Shuriken Catapult (3), Exarch Power Bladestorm [3PL] [58pts]
TR: 5 Dire Avengers (40), Exarch (0), 5 Avenger Shuriken catapults (15), Exarch Additional Avenger Shuriken Catapult (3), Exarch Power Bladestorm [3PL] [58pts]
TR: 8 Storm Guardians (48), 1 flamer (6) [3PL] [54pts]
FA: 8 Shining Spears (160), Exarch (0), 8 Twin Shuriken Catapults (16), 7 Laser Lances (56), Star lance (10), Exarch Power Skilled Rider [14PL] [242pts]
DT: Wave Serpent (120), Twin Shuriken Cannon (17), Twin Shuriken Catapult (2) [9PL] [139pts]
DT: Wave Serpent (120), Twin Shuriken Cannon (17), Twin Shuriken Catapult (2) [9PL] [139pts]
FL: Crimson Hunter Exarch (150), 2 Starcannons (26), Exarch Power Hawkeye [9PL] [176pts]
FL: Crimson Hunter Exarch (150), 2 Starcannons (26), Exarch Power Hawkeye [9PL] [176pts]
== Spearhead Detachment == Asuryani, Alaitoc [ 30PL, 492pts] 1 CP
HQ: Warlock Skyrunner (60), Twin Shuriken Catapult (2), Witchblade (0) [4PL] [62pts]
HQ: Autarch Skyrunner (95), Twin Shuriken Catapult (2), Laser Lance (8), Warlord [6PL] [105pts]
HS: Night Spinner (110), Twin Shuriken Catapult (2), Crystal Targeting Matrix (5) [8PL] [117pts]
HS: Night Spinner (110), Twin Shuriken Catapult (2), Crystal Targeting Matrix (5) [8PL] [117pts]
HS: 3 Dark Reapers (27), Exarch (0), 2 Reaper Launchers (44), Aeldari Missile Launcher (20), Exarch Power Rapid Shot [4PL] [91pts]
== Battalion Detachment == Drukhari, Kabal of the Black Heart [ 19PL, 308pts] 1 CP
HQ: Archon (55), Huskblade (6), Splinter Pistol (0) [4PL] [61pts]
HQ: Archon (55), Huskblade (6), Splinter Pistol (0) [4PL] [61pts]
TR: 5 Kabalite Warriors (30), Sybarite (0), Shredder (8), 4 Splinter Rifles (0) [2PL] [38pts]
TR: 5 Kabalite Warriors (30), Sybarite (0), Shredder (8), 4 Splinter Rifles (0) [2PL] [38pts]
TR: 5 Kabalite Warriors (30), Sybarite (0), 5 Splinter Rifles (0) [2PL] [30pts]
DT: Raider (65), Disintegrator Cannon (15) [5PL] [80pts]
This list isn’t super complicated and was at least partially constructed on a basis of “I’m tired, it’s ETC style so I can relac, the world is ending and I just want to slam with my favourite elves” but I took the (in my opinion) inferior original version (swapping the two Night Spinners for a Falcon and more Reapers) to 5th place at a major so the power level is definitely there – this list includes a lot of the tools that make Aeldari armies strong, and is very much intended to be an all comers list, packing tools to adapt to and defeat opponents of all stripes. Will that include our C’tan?
The Mission
For the test game in this instance we’ll be using the current version of the ITC champions mission pack, and I decided the easiest option was just to roll a d6 to selet a mission at random. I rolled a 4 so we’ll be playing What’s Yours is Mine, usually my favourite mission when playing my Aeldari.
A promising start for the Necrons.
In terms of table setup, I’ve used this as an excuse to finally getting around to building and spraying the central L-blocks from my LGT terrain kit, and I’ve placed those centrally and set up some other terrain pieces around them to build out what I think is a reasonable board.
In terms of planning and thoughts, I’m mostly going to focus on the Necron side of things, and indeed will be bringing in other members of our writing team to do some of the thinking for the Aeldari. Anyone interested in how I strategise while playing elves has a frankly endless well of tournament reports and articles on here to look at, so my focus this time is on the Necrons. With that in mind, here’s what my assessment looks like.
The Matchup – My Thoughts
The big challenges for the Necrons here are the scary mobile elements, notably the planes and Shining Spears. The C’tan list is relatively resilient to ranged shooting as it just doesn’t present very good targets, but highly mobile threats that can attack from awkward angles or at speed are much more of a problem. A good turn from the Shining Spears could potentially put two C’tan into the ground and also scythe through our infantry, and we can’d do much about them at a distance either.
The best tool we have against the Spears is probably the Wraiths – these are well-statted to make a mess of Spears with their good volume of D2 melee attacks, so present a hefty countercharge threat. They’re also not great on the offence in this matchup, as until troops start disembarking their targets are mostly T7, at which point they largely bounce off. Vect also makes relying on an early Advance and Charge extremely risky. The Eldar list here also isn’t super well set up to reliably put the whole unit down in a turn – it does have some D3 shooting from the Crimsons and the Reapers, but not enough to make a reliable job of it, so there’s a good chance of them tanking a turn and becoming a real nuisance, especially if some get back up.
The Heavy Destroyers are also operating in a target rich environment here. We do need to be careful with them, as pulse lasers are horrendous against them, but they can make a mess of things like Night Spinners in response, and are even OK against Wave Serpents. Ideally we want to hide them during deployment, as while the planes could in theory circle round to attack them, doing so would open them up to being attacked by the C’tan, which they probably don’t want
Our other serious risk here is the Eldar stripping out all of our infantry and dominating the objective game. We want to be careful about when we get out Necron Warriors out of their Ark, as they aren’t going to get an easy early wrap here, and we might need to hold them back for some mid-late game objective grabbing.
Secondary wise our plan here probably isn’t super complicated. We’re likely to need to kill some of the Eldar vehicles to win, so Big Game Hunter (aiming to get our wounds from the Night Spinners, Raider and one Serpent) is an easy start, probably followed by Butcher’s Bill. In the mid-late game, picking up two units a turn seems practical, and I’d rather commit to that than planning to kill all of the vehicles if things start to go south. We finish up with Recon because we definitely still intend to roll the army forward to put the enemy under pressure.
The Matchup – TheChirurgeon’s Thoughts
This seems like an incredibly rough uphill battle. The Eldar are going to be able to outflank the Necrons even despite their mobility, which makes Recon a good pick, and as I mentioned earlier, the Heavy Destroyers make good targets for both Gang Busters and the newly reworked Reaper objective. The Wraiths also work just fine for the Gang Busters objective as well, since they’re Beasts.
Recon and Gangbusters are definitely decent picks here, but you’ll run out of wounds before managing Reaper. If you want a second kill option you can basically freely pick between Big Game Hunter, Marked for Death or Headhunter. Headhunter probably works out easiest because of the slightly awkward wound counts – killing the Ghost Ark and three C’tan/CCB leaves you two wounds short of the 40 you’d need for Big Game Hunter, and while you might sneak across the line if the Ark healed a few wounds, taking Headhunter and assuming you can supplement some C’tan kills by eliminating the Lord or Cryptek is probably safest.
Maneouvre wise, given the table and mission you also have the option of Engineers – the Necron list has no indirect fire, so the spare squad of Kabalites have a decent shot of racking this up over the course of the game. I’d probably lean towards that over Recon to be honest – not having to go out and play with the C’tan if things start going bad could be a big upside.
My secondary picks for the Eldar would therefore be Gang Busters, Headhunter and Engineers.
Given the Eldar mobility, I’m not sure this is a match-up that the Necrons can win if they go second. I think they want first turn and the hope that they can get off some first-turn charges that gum up the Eldar battle plan and keep them from immediately killing 2+ C’Tan. Making sure the Wraiths get there to tie up the Shining Spears is going to be key. What do the Necrons do if they get second turn, though?Â
So first up, Rob has convinced me to play this game out twice – once with each side winning the roll off to pick attacker/defender to see whether it makes a difference.
I’m a bit more bullish about the Necrons having a shot going second though – I’ve played previous versions of this against plane spam and made a real game of it, and have also recently had the dubious pleasure of watching this Eldar list pour out its entire firepower and only kill a Rhino turn 1 so uh, I guess if it rolls like that there’s probably a game. The challenge for the Eldar is that as long as the Heavy Destroyers aren’t set up to be trivial plane targets there aren’t a million good options for what to shoot off the bat. The elves can probably nuke the Ghost Ark, but that isn’t a massive amount to show for the first turn.
What might prove the Necron’s undoing is the mobility of the Eldar list – while the relatively dense terrain should mitigate it a bit, with careful play the Eldar might just be able to gradually grind the Necrons out without ever fully engaging with them. Mind you, the mission helps there – having to fight for the centre is an advantage for the Necrons just because of their better staying power.
I guess we’ll see how it goes!
Next Time: The Showdown
That’s all the preliminaries out of the way, so join us next time as we recount the unfolding of the main event and assess whether we think the army has legs. If you have any thoughts about how you think things are going to go down, email us at contact@goonhammer.com.
