I’m not going to flatter myself to think that people notice these things, but if you happen to have noticed, I’ve gone dark on the interwebs for about a year or so.
Reason being, I switched from a job that allowed me to spend nearly 6 hours a day surfing the web and killing time to one in which I work over 50 pretty consistently. So my internet presence was slashed markedly. On top of that, I had to move to a gaming backwater over an hour from my regular stores. I went from averaging 3+ games of 40k a week to maybe one a month. On top of that, I had my second son and while he’s been a great blessing, there’s a lot that goes on with that and my toddler son is also demanding more attention than ever before, plus having a house vs an apartment means more house work…
In short, I’ve just not been able to play as much as I’d like. I got a few tournaments in over the last few months and did respectably (won Best General at a 12 player RTT-style event), but I also dabbled in Warmachine and continued my daliance with Malifaux. I even missed a TSHFT for the first time ever.
In any event, I went from being, in my own not so humble opinion a pretty solid expert on 40k to a casual gamer! BOO! In fact, at last weekend’s tournament I got my first game in against the new Necrons! YIKES!
Well, I’m heading back to TSHFT in less than two weeks and there have been quite a few changes to the world of 40k.
GK were just out for a few weeks before my extended hiatus and I still only have a smattering of games against them.
Necrons are brand-new to me and I still have only one game against them under my belt.
We got a bunch of FAQs as well as some new models for some older models finally.
How am I going to handle the “new” armies, or, better put, how do I *think* I’m going to handle the “new” armies. Do I think these armies are going to force me to rebuild my tried and true Ork list?
First, lets look at GK. First thing that sticks out to me like a sore thumb are purifiers. OMG, why? Run the numbers anyway you like and a unit of boyz vs purifiers is a nightmare matchup for me. My only advantage in this arena is that I can still outshoot them if I’m in cover, and I really haven’t seen anyone run purifiers as troops choice here. I’m seeing a lot more acoloyte based forces and uber-razor spam. DCA scare me less than other forces as their power weapons and high initiative are essentially wasted on me. A combo charge from two of those smaller units could do some serious damage to one of my big mobs if backed up by a grenade toting IC, but that’s a bundle of points to kill off something that isn’t that expensive. Psyflemen are certainly awesome, and probably my biggest concern as they are putting out serious firepower and can’t be suppressed as easily as regular dreads. Draigowing looks nasty to me as it just absorbs massive amounts of damage and I lack AP2 shooting.
I see the dangers inherent in the GK dex, and I think its going to come down to making sure they can’t focus enough of their forces onto any part of my army too much. They are mostly a mid-range shooting force (outside of psybolt HBbacks and Psyflemen), which plays into my hands a bit as I can match that mostly. I’ll just have to be cautious to not get caught up in melees I can’t win and making sure my target priority is perfect.
Overall, I think my boyz can handle them, it’ll certainly be an uphill battle vs draigowing or all-purifiers, but the basic acolyte/razorspam seems right in my wheelhouse for dealing with.
Necrons now. I think of the two dexes, this one has me the most concerned. Lots of high strength shooting is a great recipe for wiping out infantry Orks, and necrons seem to have it in spades. AV13 is actually quite an issue for me since my only long range shooting is S7. Night fight is annoying, but lobbas are useful here, and I’m fast enough that I can move up quickly as needed. Necrons are an army that will win the short-range firefight with me in most of their configurations, but I can beat them in combat relatively consistently, so I think the critical plan here is to try and engage as quickly as possible.
Things I’m most worried about is the large amounts of high strength shooting that the necrons employ as well as their weird resiliency. In my only game against them I beat up a unit in combat and they held and all 5 that I knocked down came back up, totally changing the combat from a grindout that I would win to a desperate fight.
So, those are the things as I see them, and now I’m going to do something I don’t normally do: ask for advice.
Any tips on dealing with GK or Necrons that I may have missed? Would love to hear from some Ork generals on what they’ve been doing against these armies.