Had a game today with Necrons vs Tau, (EUK) trialing what I'm hoping to be able to take to The Manchester Mangle at the end of the month (Reliant on models turning up, being painted in time and being able to borrow models).
Necron list was as follows:
TOMB COMPLEX [75]
INFANTRY PHALANX [275] 6 Necron Warriors and 1 Necron Lord, 1 x Pariah
INFANTRY PHALANX [275] 6 Necron Warriors and 1 Necron Lord, 1 x Pariah
INFANTRY PHALANX [275] 6 Necron Warriors and 1 NecronOverlord
MONOLITH MANIPLE [275] 3 x Monoliths
MONOLITH MANIPLE [200] 1 Monolith, 2 x Obelisks
MONOLITH MANIPLE [200] 1 Monolith, 2 x Obelisks
DESTROYER MANIPLE [300] 6 Destroyer
FLAYER MANIPLE [200] 6 Flayed One units
PYLON [200] 1 Pylon
PYLON [200] 1 Pylon
PYLON [200] 1 Pylon
WARBARQUE [325] 1 Warbarque, Necron Lord
Tau:
CRISIS BATTLESUIT CADRE [400] 5 XV8 Crisis Battlesuit, Shas'o
FIRE WARRIOR CADRE [325] 6 Fire Warriors, 3 Devilfish, Skyray
FIRE WARRIOR CADRE [325] Skyray, 6 Fire Warriors, 3 Devilfish
ARMOUR SUPPORT GROUP [300] 4 Hammerheads, Skyray
ARMOUR SUPPORT GROUP [300] 4 Hammerheads, Skyray
BROADSIDE GROUP [300] 6 XV88 Broadsides
PATHFINDER GROUP [200] 4 Pathfinders, 2 Devilfish
PATHFINDER GROUP [200] 4 Pathfinders, 2 Devilfish
RECON SKIMMER GROUP [175] 3 Tetra, 3 Piranha
BARRACUDA SQUADRON [150] 2 Barracuda Fighters
ORCA DROPSHIP [150]
RECON SKIMMER GROUP [175] 3 Tetra, 3 Piranha
Very cagey game initially, as Tau have a LOT of AT firepower. Crisis suits didn't get anywhere near to my monoliths, as they didn't feel confident about surviving the Pylon gauntlet (Pylons positioned so that any flyer on the table was looking at taking 2 shots AA) and started on the ground. Necrons moved around the cover, limiting what could shoot at the Portal carrying fms and burning through Pylon, long range war barque shots, Destroyer and Flayed one activations till the Tau forward scouts had activated then bringing the monoliths and deploying the Necron Warriors. 1st turn managed to completely destroy a unit of broadsides and cripple a few other activations.
Turn 2 saw the flayed ones, previously broken in turn 1 return to the field and teleport into a nice position, using their first activation to engage the crisis suits and absolutely cream them, taking the BTS and any threat of MW doom away from the monoliths. Very engagey turn for the Necrons, having stripped the Tau of their forward scouts. Brutally effective, use of portals to deliver Warriors to where they needed to be.
Turn 3 was pretty much just mopping up and portal hopping onto objectives.
4-0 victory to the Crons.
Points of note: Despite the Tau players stated intent to try and take out the portals as early as possible: Careful maneuver of the monoliths as well as distraction units such as Flayed ones and Pylons - also providing cover fire and BM laying for engagements, meant that not a single Portal was lost to arguably one of the shootiest armies in the game. MW threat was taken care of nice and early in turn 2 (Also scoring me the BTS - Yarrrr!). Necrons definately do have the tools to deal with MWs getting to their portals without needing the special rules to make it something they don't need to worry about. I also only did the Necronkey-cokey once, although it was quite a cheeky little trick, it most certainly isn't the be-all and end all of necron tactics. It was useful to have portals free to move troops around the table who were already on the table and be able to adjust to the changing situation, as well as taking some of the importance/pressure off the monoliths (2 portals needed everytime you hokey-cokey engage puts quite a lot of pressure on them and makes them much more neccessary than they would/should otherwise be). It's also useful to have portals available for broken troops to flee into, rather than waiting for the end of the turn to phase out hoping not to get picked off in the meantime. They can then come back on a marshall, keeping the activation count high and boosting the numbers back up - particulary important in turn 3 for capturing and contesting objectives. Additionally, not Necronkey-kokeying also gives the Crons a greater threat radius on an engagement. Every turn I had portals to spare, that hadn't been used.
Destroyers were good but not overwhelmingly so. Needing to double and always shooting at units in cover meant they rarely caused many casualties, needing 6s to hit. They engaged once against a very depleted HH fm and crushed it but were in turn broken by firepower and fled off the blitz in turn 3. They can hit hard, in the right situation but are less survivable than a space marine tac squad (And can't really use cover). Worth 300pts IMO but any more and I'd likely take Obelisks instead as these are faster, have longer range and better armour.
Planning to have another game with E-UK Necrons on Tues. If I remember I'll try and take some pictures and do a slightly more detailed bet-rep.
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