So I finally had my first game playing Necrons and 8th Ed the other day. I played Maelstrom against Dark Angels. No battle report I’m afraid as I always get too caught up & forget to take notes or pictures. But here’s my initial thoughts on them:
My list:
Destroyer Lord -Staff (Warlord)
Cryptek -Staff
10 x Warriors in Ghost Ark
10 x Warriors
10 x Warriors
Doom Scythe
4 x Wraiths
3 x Destroyers + 1 x Heavy
3 x Heavy Destroyers
1,637 pts
Crazy good stuff:
30 Warriors + Cryptek + Ghost Ark = Amazingly solid army core.
They were able to dominate the centre of the board all game. After 7 turns of absorbing pretty much all my opponent’s anti-infantry fire and getting involved in assaults with a captain and tac marines, I still had over half of the Warriors left. I lost the Ghost Ark to an Auto/Las Predator, but not until after it didn’t matter anymore. Their damage output wasn’t brilliant, but that’s because they were mainly firing out of rapid range at marines in cover. But the threat of getting into that rapid range forced my opponent to stay in cover and plink away. Considering we were playing maelstrom, that was huge. Not too shabby in assault either, so long as you’re the one charging.
Destroyer Lord + 3 Destroyers + 4 Heavy Destroyers = Fantastic mobile multi-wound killing wing.
Between them, they managed to take out a Razorback, a Predator, a Rhino, the remains of a Nephilim, a Typhoon Landspeeder and a squad of Black Knights. Brutal.
Good Stuff:
4 x Wraiths: With the Destroyers destroying big threats and the Warriors dominating the centre, the Wraiths were free to use their speed & survivability to zip around the board claiming maelstrom objectives for me. The one time they got into assault they took out the DA Warlord (chaplain) in two rounds with just 1 casualty. Good utility unit. Though I’m wondering if 12 scarabs could do a similar job better for similar points.
Not Sure about:
Doom Scythe: Crippled a Nephilim 1st turn, whiffed vs Predator 2nd turn, then died. Need to see it in action a bit longer before making any solid judgements.
Next game will be another maelstrom vs the same opponent. The campaign rules meant we have 3,500pts to use in total across both lists, and I’d like to try out some different units to help me get a better feel for playing Necrons. Provisional list for the next one:
Destroyer Lord -Staff (Warlord) (Warlord has to stay in as per campaign rules)
Command Barge -Warscythe, Gauss (don’t think it’s worth the points, but I wanted to try a different HQ, and I like the speed for staying within buff range of destroyers / tomb blades / whatevs)
10 x Warriors (interested to see how these guys do without Cryptek & Ghost Ark support)
10 x Warriors
5 x Immortals -Gauss (is 5 enough? Too easy to focus out and loose benefits of reanimation protocols?)
5 x Deathmarks (could field these as a single squad of 10, but I like having 2 deepstrike units for maelstrom)
5 x Deathmarks
3 x Wraiths
4 x Scarabs (road bump / sneaky objective grabber)
4 x Tomb Blades -Gauss (again for the speed & damage output seems pretty good)
3 x Destroyers + 1 x Heavy (Since I have to keep the Destroyer Lord, makes sense to give him something to buff)
3 x Heavy Destroyers
Doomsday Ark (alternative option vs the Doom Scythe. Not sold on it, but worth a go)
1,856pts