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Author Topic: The Benefits of Sub-Optimal Units  (Read 1393 times)

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Offline Foxfire

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The Benefits of Sub-Optimal Units
« on: March 27, 2013, 10:10:44 AM »
Hey all.  I've been thinking a lot about the various entries in the Necron codex and how--by the time I even arrived on the scene--people had already figured out the tournament-caliber units from the less cost-effective selections and which units outperformed the rest.  Now, while that's a little disappointing from a contribution stand-point (not much to experiment with if everyone already knows the uber lists), it's alright because not everyone plays in a hyper-competitive environment anyway, and the codex is solid enough to provide a lot of different builds for casual play.  So, what I would like to ask is what sort of performance you guys have gotten out of those units which are considered less effective? 

Monoliths lost all of their resilience abilities, lost their ability to save our units from combat (though combat resolution+sweeping advance made that pretty moot in 5th edition anyway) and were put in direct competition with Annihilation Barges for the heavy support slots and Nightscythes for troop-transporting purposes, both of which arguably blow it away and make fielding the poor giant far less justifiable than it was before.  That said, I've personally had a lot of fun playing around with one in my army.  My playing group doesn't have much anti-flyer right now and taking two or three Nightscythes would be a perfect way to drive all hope of competition into the ground, but the Monolith's increased teleportation range and increased flexibility in what it can teleport has made the dynamic for playing it a lot more interesting.  I find myself planning complicated distraction tactics, deepstriking and teleporting Scarab units that I've beefed up for the first two turns which my opponent simply can't afford to ignore (also looking forward to doing this with C'tan once I get mine fixed up a bit).  I find myself with unusual options in objective-based games, being able to relocate sometimes large parts of my army to solidify gains on sections of the table that my opponent assumed from deployment would be safely his.  Not to mention, I think it will be indispensable against my Eldar opponent, who has come to favor a Fortune wall, and tends to hold objectives with weaker units that are much more susceptible to my troops.

C'tan are significantly scaled down from their previous incarnations, and in terms of actual CC nastiness you'd do better to invest in other options, especially Wraiths accompanied by a Lord, which--while more expensive--is much more mobile and harder to shoot down.  Even so (and despite the exorbitant cost of our once-great star gods), I'm looking forward to trying them out.  Monstrous creatures, especially ones with big flashy models, tend to attract a lot of attention, either by absorbing a great deal of fire or by compelling your opponent to react to the threat they represent.  Now, for their cost, I'm not sure the C'tan are justified in most games, but provided your opponent has other things to shoot at, I feel like the unit wouldn't be a wash in every game and you could do some fun things with a big gnarly monstrous creature roaming around.  I'm hoping to get my first crack at fielding one once my group moves up to 2000 point games again.  Have any of you guys had good experiences with them?  Any disastrous ones?

Destroyers are different from before, to be sure, but I don't feel like fielding them is as dubious as the other things on this list.  Being able to spam anti-marine fire is a nice change of pace for me, and though the Destroyer Lord has more synergy with a unit of Wraiths, if you aren't fielding them then rolling around with a Sempiternal Weave-lord is a pretty good way to keep your expensive firing squad alive while giving your Lord some "Look Out, Sir" cover if you decide to escort him close to enemy armor.  So far I've found that my opponents always find something else in my army more threatening and focus fire on that, excusing the Destroyers of their high points cost per model.  Our drop pod marine player may end up being a real thorn in the side of this unit (lots of melta and volume of fire/he wiped an entire Immortal unit with one squad last game), but so far it's done its job well and gives my list an answer to marine hordes, TMC's, and Eldar fortune-wall.


So, I am aware that Nightscythe-spam and Wraith-spam are doing pretty well right now, and the utility of Immortals (Tesla and otherwise), Scarabs and Tomb Spyders isn't in question.  Have you guys had any good experiences with other units in the army, found that they're unusually viable in your particular LGS meta, or pulled off any crazy hair-brained schemes that the forum just needs to hear about?


Edit-->Sorry for the block of text and typos, they should be fixed now.
« Last Edit: March 27, 2013, 11:47:14 AM by Foxfire »

 


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