I am back from my trip to the great Northwest and returned with tales Necron triumph followed by defeat. Before my trip I imaged myself struggling to win just one game with the Necrons, but going into the final game of TSHFT I still found myself undefeated. I still didn’t have any chance of winning mind you because the way Battle Points effected the outcome, I was maybe 6th or 7th place going into my final game. Never the less I was proud of my list and how well it performed, even though it was Eldar that finally ended my reign of terror.

Here is the type of armies I faced…

  1. Mixed Space Marines
  2. Purifier Spam Grey Knights
  3. Meganob/Killer Kan spam Orks
  4. Mech Space Marines
  5. Mech Eldar

I cannot say I had any bad games, all my opponents were fun each with different personalities. Without going into really great detail about each game I am just going to go over what found interesting playing the Necrons. Before we get started here is the list I ended up going with.

Storm Lord

Cryptek w/ Solar Burst

Destroyer Lord w/ 2+ armor, mindscarabs, scythe, res orb

7 Praetorians

1 C’tan Shard w/ nades, stealth, dangerous terrain

7 Immortals

5 Immortals

5 Immortals

5 Warriors

5 Warriors

3 Monoiths

= 2000 pts.

I made some changes since the last time I posted my army. Namely I made points for C’tan, my good friend ChaosGerbil convinced me to get the model (with me press ganging him to paint it for me in one night). I just felt my army lacked another threat that could soak up fire. So I gutted my Royal Court and trimmed some points from other units to make way for the Nightbringer. I have to say it gave my list a new direction and provided an additional threat that couldn’t be ignored.

As for the games themselves, here are some highlighted bullet points.

  • Destroyer Lord is amazing: He died so many times to just get back up giving me the extra edge I needed to pull out some games
  • Unless you have melta Monoliths will not die: Three of my opponents refered to the Monoliths in the expletive after facing them
  • If you have to make a moral check you will fail it: Every time the Stormlord unit was forced to make a LD check I roll an 11 and in the final game it costed me big time
  • Praetorians are worth the points: Only two of my five games did I lose the entire squad
  • C’tan only died once: he couldn’t be killed in assault, but if you have shoota boyz he will die
  • Avoiding IG and DE was probability a good thing: I feared indirect and lance weapons I was lucky to avoid them both
  • Stormlord extra powers didn’t add much: The lightening power was hit or miss and when it did hit only ended up tickling my opponents
  • Necron rule number one: Never count out the reanimation protocols, but don’t count on them.

What does this mean for the Necrons?

Not much, I always run unconventional lists and I don’t ever expect to see anything similar showing up at a tourney near you. What I did find interesting was my list had the most problem with the unconventional lists (to the current meta) like the Orks and Eldar. I always feel in control of the games against the Grey Knights or Mech Marines. The Stormlord gave me the ability to shut down any long-range threats, which makes me wonder just how effective a tooled Necron army will be against other mechanized forces. What I think makes the Necrons an interesting army to play, is the tactics they bring to the game are hard to numerically quantify. You just cannot use simple mathhammer to figure out the “optimal” unit for any particular list. What that means for tactics and how people design lists will require a different type of player, one I think will make the game much better place. It is as almost as if GW is finding unique ways to get around the pesky limitations of relying on the D6 as a game mechanic.

As for the TSFHT event itself I had a great time!

They had a new venue in a hotel with plenty of water and easy beer access making for a very relaxing environment to play in. I made a small photo album from the pictures I took from the event.

 

The next TSHFT is in March and I hope to make it. If you want to know more information about the event head on over to

http://bloghammer.net/

I think Zen will have pictures of the winners and armies coming in the next few days.