Warhammer 40k tournament report: Invasion 2012

This weekend me and the boys went to Kristiansand, to our first tournament of 6th edition 40k: Invasion. It was 1750 points with minimal restrictions.

5 missions pretty much straight from the book, and tournament scoring was Victory Points. This meant that if you won a battle 4-2 in Victory Points, you got 4 tournament points. However, if you lost a battle 6-20, you got 6 tournament points. Yeah, losing could be better than winning. Kinda strange, but it was the same for everyone.

Anyhow, here's the tournament report. I reported in Norwegian this time, so if you don't understand what I'm saying, just look at the video and listen to the tone of my voice to figure out if I did well or badly ;-)

A little Necrons + Imperial Guard trick

So my brother is getting interested in 40k again. It's pretty much been two whole editions since last time, and we've been talking about Necrons.


Now, we're trying to avoid the whole "let's see what internets says is good" thing, and rather think fresh and out of our own little meta, so to speak. So I thought I'd share a little trick we've come up with.

Psykers! Now helping the metal dudes do their thing. (Photo from THQ Insider)

Ally in an Imperial Guard Detachment and take a Psyker Battle Squad. They have the Psychic Power "Weaken Resolve", which lowers the leadership of an enemy unit by X, where X is the number of Psykers in the Battle Squad. This power has a range of 36".

Then, take a Harbinger of Despair with a Nightmare Shroud and either place it in a Night Scythe or give him a Veil of Darkness to get him close to the enemy. The Nightmare Shroud lets you force a Morale Check on a unit up to 18" away, and it doesn't require a roll to hit or a Psychic Test. It's simply automatic, and you don't have to worry about Snap Shots or anything. As long as the Psyker Battle Squad got their power off, you should see the enemy's most valued unit run away like crazy! (at least 97,2% of the time)

Sure, it doesn't work on Fearless or embarked units. So what? Fearless units you just nuke with Soulstorm and vehicles aren't very hard to get rid of for Gauss-wielding tin cans.

This trick works great against some of the nasty deathstars people like to take. Unfortunately it doesn't work against Draigowing, as the big man is fearless. But against Nob Bikers and units like it, it should work just fine.

Warhammer 40k Video Battle Report: Space Wolves vs Necrons

I'm hosting a 500 point doubles tournament next sunday, and Norau is attending. He wanted to test out a list he is considering, and I was more than happy to play him.

I hadn't fielded my Necrons in some time, so the tin cans took went forth once more. For this game, we decided that Phase Out would not apply.

Optimal squad size in 40k

5 Necron Destroyers are braver than 4
Originally uploaded by Xadhoom.

Thinking back to the days of 4th edition, squad sizes were often dictated by the rule that said: A squad below half strength is no longer scoring. This lead to squad sizes of even numbers (4, 6, 8, 10 and so on) being favourable.

The idea was that your opponent had to kill one more model in order to get you below half strength, whereas squads with uneven number of models (3, 5, 7 and so on) was sub-optimal. Your opponent had to kill 4 members of a squad of 6 models to make it non-scoring. If you'd only taken 5 models, he would only have to kill 3.

...and then 5th edition came along
This is no longer the case in 5th, but many people seem to think even numbers are better. They are not.

Consider a unit of four models. If they are Troops, they are scoring to the last man. If they are not, then the number of models doesn't affect their scoring status at all. The only impact number of models has (other than being harder to kill and doing more damage), is whether they take morale checks from a certain amount of fire power.

A unit of four models must take a Morale Check if it loses a single model. This can be disastrous, especially if the unit type is Jump Infantry, Bike or a similar fast type which retreats 3D6". It may flee off the board due to a single casualty!

Always take 5 Necron Destroyers, never 4
Fritz over at Return of the Star Gods has an excellent Necron Destroyer tactica on his YouTube account. There is only one area where I feel he makes a mistake, and that is the squad size of his Necron Destroyer units. He takes 4 models. This unit may give away a Kill Point from a single shot, even before We'll Be Back-rolls, which makes it brittle.

Ld 10 is all good, but you will fail it from time to time. For the cost of a single model more, your opponent has to divert twice as much firepower before a Necron Destroyer unit of 5 models has to take a potentially devastating Morale Check.

It is pretty clear that 5 Destroyers are superior to 4, but considering how much firepower it takes to take out two models of a T5 Sv3+ unit, there is really no reason not to take the full compliment of 5 models.

Optimal squad sizes
To conclude this article, I'll just go ahead and list the optimal squad sizes in regards to when the unit will be taking Morale checks. The unit is as brave as possible for the least amount of points, so to speak.

Size - Tests after how many casualties?

1. -
   
2. 1
3. 1
4. 1
5. 2 <- Optimal
6. 2
7. 2
8. 2
9. 3 <- Optimal
10. 3
11. 3
12. 3
13. 4 <- Optimal
14. 4
15. 4
16. 4
17. 5 <- Optimal
18. 5
19. 5
20. 5
21. 6 <- Optimal

Will you be taking squads of 5 or 9 models instead of 4 and 10, to take advantage of this, or is the return really too small to even consider?

Video Battle Report: Necrons vs Tau

The Necrons will rise again!
Originally uploaded
by Xadhoom.

I have read a lot of negative press about the Necrons in 5th edition. Determined to prove that they are still at least playable, I took them to the field once more. This time, against my buddy Norau's Tau.

The Necron army I played actually won a tournament for me in 4th edition, so I was very excited to see how they would perform in 5th.

The game was 1500 points, Seize Ground with 3 objective markers. The Tau set up first and got first turn.



Music from http://www.freeplaymusic.com

Video Battle Report: Eldar vs Necrons

This week, the stalwart defenders of Craftworld Ulthwe met up with the grim forces of the Necrons.

The game was 1250 points, and the mission was "Capture and Control", from the main rulebook. In short, both players place a single objective marker in their own deployment zone. The player that controls more objective markers at the end of the game wins.



We are speaking Norwegian, but you guys should be able to understand what's going on anyway, as I've written about the action in English. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask questions in the comments.

The music is by Clint Mansell, from the motion picture "Doom". Check out the Varese Sarabande website for the album. The tracks used in this clip are, quite appropriately, named "Doom", "Kill' Em All" and "Go to Hell".

Did I do any blatant mistakes? Would you have done anything differently? Feel free to comment! :)

Back to 40k for 5th edition

Aaand I'm back.

The 5th edition of Warhammer 40k is out, and MAN what a blast it is! I played my first game yesterday at GW Oslo, a 1000 point game with the following list:

• Necron Lord with Chronometron and Time Shifter
• 10 Necron Warriors
• 10 Necron Warriors
• 5 Necron Destroyers
• 1 Tomb Spyder
• 3 Necron Heavy Destroyers

I was up against Erik and his Eldar. His list was something like

• Farseer with Spirit Stones, Singing Spear, Doom and Guide
• 6 Fire Dragons with Exarch
• 5 Pathfinders
• 10 Guardians with Starcannon and Warlock with Conceal
• 6 Warp Spiders with Exarch
• Falcon with Scatter Laser, Holofield and Spirit Stones
• Wraithlord with Bright Lance

We were playing the "Seize Ground" mission and rolled four Loot Counters. The deployment type was "Dawn of War", in which only two troops and a HQ unit deploys at the start of the battle. The rest enters the game from each player's table edges in turn 1.

Highlights of the game

• Me making all my "We'll be back" rolls the first two turns of the game
• The Wraithlord falling to mere Gauss Flayer damage (He's normally impervious to mere S4 shots)
• The Necron Warriors sprinting up the field in one turn, and sprinting back the next as the small unit of Warp Spiders appeared. The Necron Warriors got slaughtered by the Warp Spider Exarch the turn after.
• The revelation for both players, when we found out that Troops are scoring to the last man!
• The Eldar attempt to kill the Necron Lord in the final stages of the game, almost succeeding, but the Lord lived thanks to his 4+ invulnerable save. No Orb no problem!

All in all, the 5th edition looks to be a keeper. I had a lot of fun in this first game, and it was very useful for learning some of the new stuff in the rulebook. It will doubtless be some rule changes we overlooked, but who cares as long as we both had a good time.

Destroyers en masse!

Necron Destroyers
Originally uploaded by Xadhoom.

Necrons Destroyers is an extremely shooty unit in the world of Warhammer 40k. Capable of taking out any unit in the game at 36 inches, while moving as a jetbike, makes them very versatile.

I will have 10 Destroyers and 4 Heavy Destroyers in my new tournament army, which means that I will probably dominate the movement and shooting phase. The assault phase presents a problem, but I may just have an ace up my sleeve...

Necron Lord and Warriors

Necron Lord and Warriors
Originally uploaded by Xadhoom.

When the Necron army list was released some years ago, my brother immediately started collecting them. He has since stopped playing, so I have adopted his armies. Last year I made his Tyranid army tournament worthy (requiring very little actual work, the list was already very solid), now I am attempting to finish his work on the Necrons.

Currently I have one Lord (pictured), 22 Warriors, 2 Wraiths, 2 Tomb Spyders and 7 Scarab bases painted, and three Destroyers built, but unpainted. The final list will be very Destroyer-heavy, with 10 Destroyers and 3 Heavy Destroyers. It will feature some much needed hand-to-hand elements, but the main emphasis will be 24"-36" shooting at high strength.