--Edit-> If it's alright, I'm repurposing this thread into a general overview of my experiences as I get accustomed to playing again, and inviting others to leave their thoughts and comments about their own similar experiences. I'm a bit late to the party, but I'm enjoying the new codex and trying to find my playing style within it. Currently avoiding Nightscythes to keep the game challenging (not to mention, it'd be a lot of trouble for me to carry around a bunch of new, large transport models!).
FIRST DAY
I tried to rally seven of my friends and it's looking like I'll only be bringing two. Nevertheless, it's a good opportunity to practice with my new Necron 'dex (not to mention pick up a model or two). My standard Space Marine opponent and Eldar opponent should be in attendance. Given that the Eldar player just recently doubled the size of his army, I anticipate having to flex some mechanical muscle at higher points than I've done previously in 6th.
The 1000 point list I'll be taking is the one I've experimented with already:
Destroyer Lord w. Orb and Weave
10 Immortals (Gauss)
10 Immortals (Tesla)
5 Destroyers
Annihilation Barge
Monolith
Against the Space Marines, the Monolith and Destroyers should provide the low ap necessary to remove threats throughout the game. Immortals+Monolith should help to claim objectives (not to mention the Destroyer Lord can always leap in and contest by combat...he should last a while, if not win outright against most of his units barring the Terminators).
Against the Eldar, I'm a little less confident, if only because our Eldar player tends to be more tactical and I've had less experience fighting the pointy-ears over the years. He recently bought an army online that had a unit of every kind of Aspect Warrior, so I have no real idea what he'll be bringing to the table, but hopefully this list will be flexible enough to handle whatever gets thrown its way.
As for a 1500 point list, I'm not as certain of what I plan to bring there. Here's what I'm thinking.
Destroyer Lord w. Orb, Weave
10 Immortals (Gauss)
10 Immortals (Tesla)
9 Immortals (Tesla)
8 Deathmarks
5 Destroyers
7 Scarab Swarms
2x Annihilation Barge
Monolith
I'm less confident about this list since it was trickier to get the points in, but I'm hoping that it has the flexibility and the punch it will need to perform well. We'll see how it performs today, and I'll come back with my thoughts. I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts as well, since I doubt I'll run into every pitfall just in today's games.
RESULTS-->Well, after much deliberation the three of us decided to have a 3-way free for all against our better judgment. My Necrons failed to take home victory in a 1500 point 3-way Crusade mission, but I mostly attribute this to bad luck and standard free for all shenanigans. The Space Marines and Eldar ended up focusing on my side, the Eldar player having made that choice early and inadvertently enabled the SM to claim two objectives scott-free. The Space Marine player then--prone to impulsive decisions when frustrated--decided that he didn't care about objectives and just wanted to spend the rest of the game killing me specifically when I wiped out one of his units. Unfortunately, he still won since the Eldar were fighting tooth and nail for the two objectives on my side and ignoring the two that the Space Marines already had (to be fair, he had little choice by then, being already committed with his foot-troops). Despite both of my Deepstrikers mishapping and being repositioned in stupid places (and my last-minute scramble to escape from the sandwich between SM Land Raider/Terminator combo and Eldrad/Striking Scorpion/Avatar being completely flummoxed by good charge rolls, resulting in mass Necron death), I still managed to tie the Eldar player by sucking up Eldrad (and the non-Warlord SM HQ for good measure) into the Monolith's Portal of Exile and moving some rapid-firing Immortals onto my home objective again in the final turn of the game, the total score ending at 8-4-4 Victory Points.
Afterward the Eldar player and I had a more traditional 1v1 1000 point game, which my Necrons won handily (also Crusade). Having the high ground to catch the Eldar out in the open helped immensely, as did having a great deal of ap 3 weaponry. I think that--all in all--relying too much on the Monolith for mobility is asking for trouble, especially with the mishap table being the way it is, though I like the idea of one tank being able to semi-rapidly relocate your entire army (which was my intention in game 1 after it became clear that I was going to get sandwiched between two opponents and the Space Marines had overextended themselves). Otherwise I had few complaints that had anything to do with units in the army, and hope to experiment with these lists further.
Edit--> After thinking about it some, I'm remembering how easy it was to reduce my army to one-scoring unit in the 1000 point game, and reflecting on the poor list-etiquette of taking three big point-sinks in such small games. I'm thinking about trading out the Monolith and Destroyer Lord for an Overlord w. Sempiternal Weave and Gauntlet of Fire, 10 more Immortals (undecided between Tesla and Gauss), and the second Annihilation Barge.
SECOND DAY
Got three really enjoyable games today against our Eldar player. Space Marines/Tau allies+Necrons vs. Eldar for the first game, Emperor's Will mission type, my Necrons did most of the killing and let the Tau and Marines hold the objectives. Found victory using the list below:
Destroyer Lord w. Tachyon Arrow
9 Immortals w. Gauss Blasters
9 Immortals w. Gauss Blasters
8 Immortals w. Tesla Carbines
2 Annihilation Barges
After our Space Marine/Allies player went home, the Eldar player and I decided to get serious with some very tactical objectives game, Scouring mission type. Took the same 750 points list as before by request, as the Eldar player wanted to see if he could have defeated just me. As much as I'd like to think I just outplayed him, a lot of the Necron codex options just seemed generally more solid and we talked at length about the difference in perceived strength between our books.
We ended up playing the Scouring again at 1000 points, and again the sheer volume of fire seemed to do a lot of the work for me, though we had some pretty sharp interplay of field movement, between an aggressive team of Warwalkers trying to snipe an Annihilation Barge around cover and Shining Spears/Fire Dragons trying to dance their way into my back field. I haven't had a game against such a mobile opponent in a long time, and it was definitely good times.
Destroyer Lord
10 Immortals w. Gauss Blasters
10 Immortals w. Gauss Blasters
9 Immortals w. Tesla
5 Destroyers
2 Annihilation Barges
Looking forward to trying bigger games, and if you guys see any holes in the lists as they evolve let me know. Having a great time exercising the new codex and trying things out, though my games have just been against Space Marines, Tyranids and Eldar so far, with most of the emphasis being on Eldar, so I'm not as rounded out yet as I'd like to be.
