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Tactica Heavy Support [Broken HTML]

Submitted By: Date: May 31, 2006, 07:21:45 PM Views: 1859
Summary: <p class="body">This article will be on how to utilize the heavy support options available to the necrons. However, I won’t be talking about the monolith as I wrote a tactica article just on it since it happens to be such an important and complex unit in the necron army. All my tactics are based on my experience as a necron player for several years. I won’t be describing any specific rules so as to not violate Games Workshop copyright and I will assume you know the necron rules as I write this article. Ok, let’s get down to it.</p>

<p class="heading">Tomb Spyders:</p>
<p class="subheader">The Basics:</p> <p class="body">These monstrosities are the only monstrous creatures in the necron army aside from the C’tan.  They are slow moving, scarab making, necron repairing fighting machines that can be equipped with short-range firepower or pure close combat capabilities.  Sadly they are not as effective as they were in 3rd edition but if used correctly they can still be a great benefit to your army.</p>
<p class="subheader">Tactics: <p class="body">As simple killing machines alone, tomb spyders are not that impressive.  They have good strength and toughness but their WS of 2 does not help their close combat effectiveness.  They also only have 2 wounds and with the 4th edition description of tomb spyders they can now be targeted, even when in a group of scarabs that they create (in 3rd edition you could simply take any shooting against the scarabs grouped with the tomb spyder making them much more durable against shooting).  Now, it only takes a pair of krak missiles to destroy a spyder.  Tomb spyders can be nasty in close combat but if you want to throw them at the enemy don’t send them against an opponent who is really powerful in shooting.  Despite good toughness and armor save they are just too vulnerable to heavy weapons.  If you happen to be going against an enemy army who is going to try and engage you in close combat stick your tomb spyder behind some cover and have it build scarab swarms.  When the enemy reaches you move out of cover and charge the enemy with your spyder and its small attack force.  It is decent as a counterattack unit and can tie up enemy squads for a time.  It is not as effective against a shooting army as it is really slow and cannot be teleported with the monolith or veil of darkness.  Even if your opponent ignores it there is a good chance it won’t reach the enemy in time to do any significant damage.<br />
The tomb spyder has a secondary ability which does prove useful on occasion.  In order to make their “We’ll Be Back” rolls necron models have to be within 6 inches of another necron of the same type.  In the case of special necron units such as destroyers, immortals, wraiths and heavy destroyers who operate in small groups this can be difficult if the squads are spread out or if there are separate units that are far away from each other.  On page 13 of the necron codex the tomb spyder’s ability is described.  Basically, so long as your tomb spyder is relatively close to your units they don’t need to be near each other in order to get their We’ll Be Back rolls.  If you happen to have two separate units of heavy destroyers with just one heavy destroyer in each, this ability becomes very useful as it allows them to make We’ll Be Back rolls even when far away from each other.  This ability may sound unimportant but suppose a whole squad of 12 warriors somehow got wiped out by shooting and none of them were within 6 inches of another necron warrior squad.  Under normal circumstances they would all just die but if the tomb spyder is nearby then they can make their We’ll Be Back rolls regardless of how far away other warriors are.  The tomb spyder can insure that whole squads are not wiped out in single salvos of fire.</p>

<p class="heading">Heavy Destroyers: </p>
<p class="subheader">The Basics: </p><p class="body">These guys are the single shot tank busters of the necron army.  While every gauss weapon in the necron army is capable of taking down any vehicle the Heavy destroyer has a weapon that actually has a high enough strength so that its gauss ability is not needed.  It is specifically meant for taking out enemy vehicles and can do the job well if used correctly.</p>
<p class="subheader">Tactics:</p> <p class="body">Heavy destroyers are units that you must consider carefully before deciding to take them in your army.  While they do have the movement of a jet bike and a powerful weapon they are also very expensive and are very tempting targets to the enemy.  I have lost my heavy destroyers on the first turn of some games without them being able to destroy anything.  They are very expensive models so unless you know your opponent will have good vehicles that are worth destroying it may be better to leave the heavy destroyers at home.  After all, all gauss weapons are capable of destroying enemy vehicles so a model that is only meant for killing vehicles is often unnecessary.  Because heavy destroyers are so expensive they are also bought only in small numbers.  I, for instance, always take them in groups of one.  Often I will take two heavy destroyers (each taking up a heavy support choice) and will stick them within 6 inches of each other so that they can get We’ll Be Back rolls.  I take them in separate groups so they will be able to fire at different targets as I consider it a waste to have two powerful weapons in a squad when it usually only takes one to finish the enemy vehicle.  Remember, if you only take one heavy destroyer it will never be able to make a We’ll Be Back roll because it needs another of its type within 6 inches to be able to repair itself.<br />
To be completely honest I don’t use heavy destroyers much.  It is just that the necron army is more capable of taking down enemy vehicles than any other army in all of Warhammer 40k.  Warriors, immortals, pariahs, destroyers, necron lords, and models equipped with disruption fields, all of these can take down a land raider if need be and with the huge amount of shots you can put out it doesn’t take much to knock out most vehicles.  I would really only suggest bringing heavy destroyers in larger games (1500 points or more) and then bringing at least 2 (so they can get We’ll Be Back rolls).  I will admit that they can be useful at taking down things such as tyranid monstrous creatures (since they have the only weapons with AP2 in the necron army) and sometimes it is necessary to have things like that.  But remember, they are expensive and it just takes a single shot from a good heavy weapon to knock out a heavy destroyer and even if you get the We’ll Be Back roll it is only a 50% chance of success.  Really, the best advice I can give with these guys is to try them out in different situations (in and out of games) and draw your own conclusions.  There are some units in armies that are simply not needed very much.</p>


<p class="heading">Conclusion:</p> <p class="body">This concludes my article on necron heavy support tactica.  Much of it is actually common sense but there are a few tricks that I have pointed out that many people don’t think of.  Use these as guidelines so you can get the feel of how a unit should be used and then develop your own methods.  Hope this article was helpful, good luck gamers.</p>
 

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