I have to admit I haven't played my Necrons in a while (the new edition soured me a bit on them), but I do still like the force. So, here are some more pictures along with my thoughts concerning particular units.
Warriors: I happen to think that Necron warriors are one of the best troop choices in the game. They are all around good with fine stats, 3+ armor, and an effective gun. Their biggest weakness is their speed -- or, in this case, lack of it. You can get around that somewhat using a Monolith, but as I rarely use one I've gotten used to watching the Necron tide slowly advance toward (hopefully) victory. Accordingly, I typically try to take as many as I can, relying on their toughness and ability to get back up to keep going. This tactic often works, but against an enemy with a lot of firepower even warriors can be surprisingly fragile. Not surprisingly, I often take a Resurrection Orb to boost my warriors even further (remember, you just need to have the squad within range, not individual models).
Destroyers: These are the bread and butter of my force -- or, at least, they were in 4th edition. With S6 attacks they were deadly to any infantry and having 3 shots made them deadly to vehicles given their ability to glance. I almost always take six and frankly I've been tempted in the past to paint up another three. However, with the rule change for glancing Destroyers have taken a big hit. As they are no longer such a threat to anything with an armor value I'm probably looking at taking Heavy Destroyers more often instead or in addition to.
Heavy Destroyers: The up-gunned brothers of the regular Destroyers, Heavies have been a mixed bag at best in my experience. Sure, with a S9 attack they can threaten anything, but their gun is only Heavy 1. Even with a 4 BS they miss a frustrating amount of the time. Basically, I've learned not to rely on them. Still, with the arrival of 5th ed they've practically become a must buy. My recommendation to Games Workshop is to up the shots on the Heavy Destroyer to at least two, maybe even three whenever a new Necron codex appears. That would make them worth taking without any reservations.
Immortals: These are just all-around good troops. They are hard as rock and have a great gun. They also count as Necrons which means they can get back up. But, they too suffer from the common Necron weakness of slow movement. Therefore, I use them as a means of stiffening my warrior juggernaut. It would be great if in a new codex Immortals were made Troop choices, thus making them a sort of "Dire Avengers" compared to the Necron warrior "guardians".
Pariahs: I really love the idea behind Pariahs. I even love the abilities that Pariahs possess. What I don't love is the huge cost and the fact that Pariahs don't count as Necrons. Nevertheless, I still often play with an unit. I even converted a Pariah into my Necron Lord (middle of the picture) to fit the pariah "theme". Combined with the Lord they represent a frightening ranged and close-combat threat -- their weapons ignore all saves, even invulnerable! However, at their cost (36 points a pop) it is still iffy justifying their use. If they were made "Necrons" they'd be a great buy.
Tomb Spiders: I like these models, both when it comes to their look and their abilities. Even when equipped with Particle Projectors they aren't much of a ranged threat, but they are scary in close-combat. Their ability to help Necrons get back up can also be handy, but you need at all times to be mindful of where you place them. Beyond that I use them as a means to take on bigger obsticles that my warriors can't otherwise handle.
Wraiths: Great looking models, but I think they are hobbled by their lack of power weapons. Sure, they have a bunch of attacks, but against anything with a serious armor save wraiths tend to be underwhelming (at least with my dice rolling). Likewise, with just a single wound they are more fragile than they look. I'd like to see any updated rules at least give wraiths rending. An extra wound would be nice too.
Flayed Ones: I'm not crazy about these guys in general. The models are a cool idea, yet I think they are only so-so in application. As far as the game goes they suffer from the same basic problems as wraiths, but at least they are a lot cheaper. Being just a regular warrior with claws rather than a gun Flayed Ones still lack power weapons and are therefore iffy in close-combat. They excel against low leadership/low save opponents, but against "generic" enemies (that often have power armor) I would rather take something else.
Monolith: What can I say -- it's a big honking slab of living metal that is nigh indestructible, brisling with weapons, and has the awesome ability to help "recycle" Necrons. It's a good purchase no matter how you slice it, but -- and I know many Necron players will consider me nuts -- I don't particularly like playing with one. When I look at the points cost I remind myself that I can take almost 5 destroyers instead. All things being equal I prefer that option. Problem is, with these new rules things aren't equal. A monolith is now officially even a better buy. When I do play Necron's again I suspect I'll be taking this unit more often.
The Deceiver: I hate to say it, but I've rarely use this guy. I love the model and I prefer him over the Nightbringer, but in general I don't like using C'Tan in regular games. However, in Apocalypse they fit right in. As it happens rumors have C'Tan being relegated to only Apoc games which is alright with me.
Here is another episode in my Christmas postings -- my Necron army.
Just like for my Tyranids, I decided to buy and paint up this army when the Necron codex came out way-back-when. I made sure to create a Warrior heavy army -- I typically play with 60 -- in part because Warriors are do good and partially to have a force with real bulk. Although I do have a painted monolith I usually don't take it in favor of Destroyers.
Unfortunately, just like my Tyranids this is a force that the new rules have significantly weakened. Actually, I should say rule -- the big change in glancing. The glance on a six Necron rule allowed me to do without serious anti-vehicle firepower. When pretty much EVERYTHING you have can potentially cause a glancing hit a Necron army was scary to anything with an armor value regardless of what units you took. Now, not so much. Thus, like Tyranids Necrons is another 40K army screaming for an update.
Games Workshop just sent out this on their mailing list and I was so amazed I thought I'd post the image -- the upcoming Ork Stompa!
I for one am quite impressed. It makes me want to pull out my Ork army, even paint up those ork models I didn't paint the last time. However, even more exciting to my mind was how this truly demonstrates that GW is going to offer super-heavy models on a regular basis. This is all the more so as this email confirmed the upcoming Shadowsword, etc. model. I can't want to see the (supposed) plastic Valkyrie! If anything this makes me want to pull out my unpainted Imperial Guard to prepare for this Summer (but, got to finish my Space Marines first).
If nothing else, this should convince people to play Apocalypse!
I really like playing Apocalypse games and in my copious spare time have tried to come up with extra units to play. What’s nice about Apocalypse games is that you can bring along pretty much anything. Unlike a more typical tournament army which is meant to be well balanced, an Apocalypse game will attract units you’d never see elsewhere. The most obvious examples are super-heavy tanks and titans, but smaller units are another possibility. In particular, smaller units that you would be unlikely to see in normal games even if they are allowed.
Here are two examples: A battlecannon emplacement and an earthshaker platform.
I created them using bit and pieces of other models. As such neither were very expensive – I maybe spent $30 for both. For that money I get two large guns I can bring to an Apocalypse battle. They are also cheap points-wise, making them easy to fit into a list even when you have an upper point limit (usually many thousands for Apocalypse). The emplacement is a good choice to guard an objective while the platform can hide behind a building or hill and bombard the enemy.
Basically, for a relatively small expenditure of effort and money the result was two nifty units.
Posting my Tyranid army got me thinking about my games using them and the associated tactics. I also wanted to have the chance to post individual pictures of some of my bug models. So, here is a basic review of Tyranid units. Note that I am only going to talk about those units that are actually in my army and thus with which I have experience.
Hive Tyrant: A must have as far as I am concerned. In fact, I have two of them. One is the winged variety you see here and the other is a ground pounding cousin. They are big, imposing, and nasty in combat – assuming, of course, you can get them there.
A winged Tyrant is fast, but can be too fast for the rest of your army if you aren’t careful. Likewise, as strong as it may be it’s still fragile enough to melt in a single turn if you just fly him out in front of your enemy’s army. Keep it behind cover and try to get the charge without taking too much fire. You also want to not get so far ahead of the rest of the swarm that the swarm can’t start to join in the next turn. It (almost) goes without saying that you give a winged Tyrant Warp Field for protection. Otherwise, fit it out for close combat.
A walking Tyrant is a different affair. It’s going just six inches a turn and therefore will generally be part of your last wave of attackers. So that it’s not wasted until then give it a weapon. I prefer the Barbed Stranger as a Venom Cannon isn’t as nasty in the hands of a Tyrant as a Carnifex. Besides, the new vehicle rules somewhat nerfed the VC. By comparison, the Strangler can be an effective infantry killer.
Tyrant Guard: I usually take three with my walking Tyrant. They keep the Tyrant alive longer (important given that the Tyrant is a Synapse Creature) and are good close combat fighters. If you take them don’t bother with a Warp Field for the Tyrant.
In general, I like to start my Tyrant and Guard as close to the front line as I can so that they can stay within range of the rest of the force as best as possible. Start them in the back and they’ll be badly outpaced by all those fleet of claw gaunts and genestealers.
Brood Lord: I don’t use this very much – I prefer the Tyrant – but he is a must have if you are going with a genestealer heavy (or only) army. He doesn’t quite have the punch of the larger units, but is still pretty nasty in combat. His ability to let one unit of genestealers infiltrate can be a blessing and a curse. Sure, you can surprise the enemy, but then again it and its entourage tend to be stuck out by themselves away from support. Likewise, since it can’t fleet of claw it slows the group down. If you aren’t careful it can be too far away to do anything without running into the open. In that case it is too fragile to stand up to concentrated fire and potentially too slow to get into combat quickly. An Extended Carapace is a necessity with the Brood Lord. Likewise, Toxin Sacks are nice as the resulting strength 6 means he wounds Space Marines (and other Toughness 4) on a 2+.
Tyranid Warriors: I have three 5 bug squads of these painted up and for good reason – they are great. They are powerful in close combat (especially if you give them rending claws and scything talons as I do) and best of all count as Synapse Creatures. They are a must have just for keeping the rest of your force fearless.
Give them Extended Carapace or else see them wilt in the face of bolter fire. Set them up so that they can stay within Synapse range and have them join the charge. Remember that they aren’t Fleet of Claw so if you aren’t careful your main forces can outpace them and end up out of Synapse.
You can take Tyranid Warriors with ranged weapons, but I’m not impressed with their effectiveness if you do. One, with their modest strengths they aren’t apt to do a lot of damage. Two, you may be tempted to have them stay back and shoot, but then they lose their advantage as Synapse Creatures. Three, if you do keep them up with the rest of the swarm then you’ll find them in charge range without the punch that melee Warriors have.
Lictors: I am not enthusiastic when it comes to lictors, although they certainly have their uses. They are fairly effective in combat and their ability to pop out where the enemy lest wants to see them is handy tactically. However, they only have 2 wounds and a wimpy 5+ armor save. That makes them awfully vulnerable for 80 points. For goodness sake make sure to use their cover save bonus as much as possible. However, you’ll often find you need to send them out of cover to get at the enemy so this ability isn’t as nice as you might think.
Genestealers: The bread and butter of a horde army thanks to their magnificent stats and rending attacks. Unfortunately, they aren’t as good as they used to be thanks to the new edition that depowered rending. Before, it took an average of 6 attacks to rend one target. Now it takes 9, a 50% increase. Or, to put it another way, that’s 3 vs. 2 genestealers when they charge or 4.5 vs. 3 otherwise. This is a significant drop in effectiveness, but they are still your best troops.
Unless you feel suicidal always take Extended Carapace. A genestealer’s natural 5+ save is so much tissue paper against bolters and other similar – and common – infantry weapons. Genestealers are still going to be sadly fragile in comparison to their cost even with a 4+, but at least the enemy will actually have to use heavy weapons for the job. Another biomorph I like is Feeding Tendrils.
Gaunts: The most important fact to keep in mind here is that “gaunt” is Tyranid for “cannon fodder.” Resist the urge to jack them up with biomorphs and instead go for sheer numbers. One, with their lousy saves they will die in droves anyway. Two, numbers give you a lot of extra shots and a lot of targets for the enemy to deal with.
As you can see from the picture I prefer Gaunts with spine fists as that’s the cheapest weapon. Fleshborers cost an extra point and will therefore mean fewer models, but they are admittedly better weapons against higher toughness targets. In either case you put your gaunts in front and fleet them forward until they hit charge range. Then you let fly a volley and attack. Expect your gaunts to drop like flies, but that’s okay – it’s their job. That’s why you have so many. For instance, in my standard Horde force I take sixty. Hopefully, while they soak up fire the rest of your force – you know, the nasty bits – can get in close without taking much if any damage.
Ripper Swarm: I don’t have any of these painted (thus the lack of a picture), but I do have a handful constructed and I have used them in battle. They are a different sort of cannon fodder, but not being fleet of claw they are slower than your other two troop choices. They also don’t count as scoring units. To my mind these two limitations add up to a good reason not to take them. However, they come on the sprues for gaunts rather or not you want them to so if you are painting up a lot of gaunts you might want to do some rippers as well. I would take them only if you have some extra points with nothing to do or if you are playing in an Apocalypse game where points aren’t a problem.
Raveners: Another unit I am not wild about, I tend to prefer using these points for more genestealers. Nevertheless, Raveners can be a reasonable choice. They are fast and with the combination of rending claws and scything talons they get 5 attacks on the charge. You can also give them a ranged weapon. I usually prefer spine fists. The great vulnerability for Raveners is the same as for the Lictor – just 2 wounds and a measly 5+ save. That makes them bolter bait.
There are two uses for a Ravener, either as close support for your advancing waves of bugs or as deep strikers that go after a vulnerable enemy unit. In both cases they are at the mercy of your opponent’s firepower. In the first case you need to hope he doesn’t pick out your Raveners in a crowd and in the second you need to hope you drop someplace protected from firepower (not just heavy firepower, but any firepower). So, using Raveners is a judgment call – just how lucky do you feel today?
Spore Mines: I do have some of these painted, but I use them so little I’m not sure where I’ve put them. Again, they are something of a throw-away unit you buy if you have some extra points or if points don’t matter. They can be annoying to the enemy and downright useful if your opponent over-estimates the threat they pose and stays away from wherever they end up. If you’re lucky you can deep strike them close and do immediate damage. If not, they will likely be shot up the next turn. Bio-acid is my spore of choice, but the points are probably better spent on more gaunts.
Zoanthropes: I often take these units, but they can be frustrating at times. They best and most obvious use is as roving Warp Blast platforms. WBs are the best weapon the Tyranids have, capable of taking out vehicles and power armored troops with equal effectiveness. The big problem here is the Zoanthrope’s meager 3 BS. That’s just a 50/50 chance to hit. Expect to growl a lot in frustration when your floating bug psykers miss (a lot).
Zoanthropes can take two psychic powers. For this I really only see two viable choices, namely Synapse or Psychic Scream. The first is handy if you are worried about your gaunts going instinctive. The second can add up if you take a full three bug squad – a -3 to leadership can get even marines running. By comparison, Catalyst won’t be as useful as you think (if your squads aren’t already going first then they aren’t likely to do much even if they can hit back) and leadership checks in the face of The Horror are typically too easy to make.
Carnifexes: Before the latest edition of 40K I would say that Gunfexes – any carnifex built to shoot – would be a sure buy. Now, with the new rules their best weapon, the Venom Cannon, has lost a large part of its effectiveness thanks to it only being able to glance vehicles (unless they are open-topped). As a result they aren’t the “must haves” they were before. Still, they are the biggest booms the Tyranids have. I have three Gunfexes with VC and twin-linked Devourers. They are still good at killing things and even a Gunfex can be scary in close combat. Make sure they fire on the move and join in the melee when appropriate.
Of course, you can also take carnifexes that have been tooled up for close combat. Such monsters are truly horrifying to face – if, and this is a big if, they can actually get into combat. Carnifexes can’t Fleet of Claw and therefore aren’t likely to get into hand-to-hand until at least turn four. Even if they do they will typically take a round or two to kill off the one enemy unit only to find that any other targets are multiple turns away. As a result I’m not convinced they can earn their points back. Whether they do will depend a lot on the force you are facing – if it is one that also relies on melee for victory then you’re in good shape. If instead it is a gun line or a mobile army able to stay at arm’s length you’re in trouble.
It's the Christmas season and with everything going on I have less time to work on 40K projects. So, to fill the void here is a blast from the past -- my Tyranid army.
This is one of my four painted 40K armies and by far the largest. When the (then new) Tyranid codex came out I immediately decided that I wanted to do a horde army. Frankly, just on general principles I think every Tyranid force should be a horde. Come on, when you think Aliens or Starship Troopers do you imagine the heroes fighting a single monter here or there or a gigantic tide of claws and chitin? Sadly, the new Rending rules make a horde force less viable, but there is still something deeply satisfying about putting down an army more than a hundred models strong.
I have so many models that I can't quite get them all in the same picture, but for the record the force you see above includes:
One Winged Hive Tyrant
One Tyrant with Barbed Strangler and 3 Tyrant Guard
One Brood Lord
15 Tyranid Warriors
3 Raveners
3 Zoanthropes
2 Carnifexes with Venom Cannons and Twin-Linked Devourers
1 Lictor
40 Genestealers
80 Gaunts with various weapon loads
I painted my army using the dip method -- you do a basic highlighting job on each model and then dip them in wood finish to give them a final, balanced look. I had to experiment to find the right color for the dip (it's easy to go too strong and ruin the model), but overall I think the method works quite well for a Tyranid army (and, potentially, with anything that has an organic look). It won't win any painting awards, but it does well with the 5' rule and has a great overall effect. Best of all, I finished my whole force is less than three months.
The only negative about the army is the time it takes to actually move and shoot so many models. It makes completing turns when you're on the clock (say, at a tournament) a frantic affair. This also makes me hesitate to bring the army to an apocalypse game.
Oh, and guess what force you'll be facing if you come play 40K Space Hulk at Origins. 
As I announced last week we here at 40KOrigins.com are running what will hopefully be the “World’s Largest Apocalypse Game” for next year’s Origins Game Fair. I’ve been in a number of such games before and they’ve always been fun. However, this particular game is designed to be as large as possible. We especially want people to bring their titans and other spectacular models. Pictures (and more) will be taken so we want everything to be as impressive as possible.
However, that means a heck of a lot of models out there. So, this thing has to be planned properly. That’s why with this post I will be starting a new series where I invite everyone to post their own experiences and to provide feedback for any ideas offered.
By far the biggest headache for Apocalypse games is to keep everything running as smoothly as can be. With so many models out there with so many special rules it’s easy for things to get bogged down. We don’t want turns to take five hours. In order to help prevent this I propose the following special rules:
1) Every player must pick one table (there will be from 4-8 in a long line for the game) and deploy from there: One tendency I’ve noticed from the Apocalypse games I’ve played is for people to deploy their models all over the place. Tactically, this makes sense as it allows you to spread around your units to wherever they are needed. The problem is that a player can easily be stuck rushing back and forth between different parts of the playing area trying to finish combat with various enemy individuals. He can get distracted, lose track of what models he needs to finish using, and generally being inefficient. Multiply this by every player and you get chaos (no, not that type of Chaos). Forcing people to start play on a single table may be a bit limiting tactically, but it means that his models will all be nearby and easier to manage.
2) While players are allowed to move their units wherever they like he needs to be willing to let other people conduct combats with his units, especially if they are on other tables: Another big problem is how the process can end up being log jammed with everyone on one side waiting to have his turn shooting at a particular single enemy individual’s units. As he can only play one combat at a time the game starts to grind to a halt. Therefore (and especially for those who brought a large amount of models), people are encouraged to allow others to temporarily run portions of their troops for the sake of completing turns faster.
3) If you can, bring along a friend to help: Not everyone has suitable 40K armies for an Apocalypse game or even one at all, but they may still be interested in playing. People will be encouraged to bring along friends to aid them run their armies. If nothing else, this would be a great opportunity to bring newbies into the game.
4) Turns will be 1 hour per side: Or, to put it another way, every turn will be two hours long. This will hopefully allow us to get in a full 5-6 turns. It will also push people to get done as fast as possible.
So, what does everyone think?
Here is my just finished Thunderfire Cannon. As I've stated before I really like this model, although I'm undecided on how effective it will be in actual battle. The techmarine was fun to paint, but required a lot of detail work.
In battle I think it will be important to keep the cannon as far back as you can as it is rather fragile. Usually, it won't make sense to bring it in with a drop pod, but it's still an option if you are going with a pure drop pod force (or, in my case, a hybrid "Deathwing" force using the new codex). Its different types of ammunition are also handy. In particular, the ammo that forces units to move as if in difficult terrain could be a game winner if used at precisely the right time.
Too bad that a straight Dark Angels army can't take a Thunderfire Cannon. But, that is yet another consequence of DA (and the other non-vanilla marines) not getting a proper update. Sigh.