A Murder of Monoliths |
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corey3750
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Post subject: A Murder of Monoliths  Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 1:35 pm |
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Just because someone plays the Necron the same each time doesn't mean that's the ONLY way to play them.
For the record, My turtling involves the infantry using the army's AV's for cover to reduce the effectiveness of enemy assaults and fire, and I almost always bring a scout formation or two (I like the control abilities they have), and those are wonderful to establish about 6cm outside your main army, which makes it impossible for anyone to even FF assault your main force.
It forces the enemy to engage the Picket formations first, which gives the army more time to below Monolith's apart.
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Chroma
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Post subject: A Murder of Monoliths Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 1:40 pm |
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| Quote (Ilushia @ 06 June 2006 (13:30)) | | Remember that under the Stalled Assault rules the defending player only has to kill what's within 15cm of his army in the assaulting formation. So if you throw a 15 unit Phalanx at me, but only leave 5 inside FF range, I only have to kill those 5 guys and I win, with no supporting fire on your part. |
The attacker's counter to that is to only get 1 or 2 enemy models within 15cm of the attacking Phalanx.
[edit - read the next page of the rule... *laugh*]
Still, this form of "clipping" can be potentially devestating.
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Chroma
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Post subject: A Murder of Monoliths Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 1:45 pm |
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| Quote (corey3750 @ 06 June 2006 (13:35)) | | Just because someone plays the Necron the same each time doesn't mean that's the ONLY way to play them. |
I agree 100%! There are all kinds of ways to play the Necrons (even deploying Phalanxes at the start of a game!  ), I'm just looking at potential "tournament breaker" armies is all.
It forces the enemy to engage the Picket formations first, which gives the army more time to below Monolith's apart. |
With the 10cm co-mingling range that scouts give (unless that rule has been revoked) I think nearby pickets could be very dangerous for the defender as there is probabably no way to get other defending units close enough to the pickets to help in an assault.
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Chroma
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Post subject: A Murder of Monoliths Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 1:53 pm |
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Please take a look at this BatRep of mine where a turtling gets a hurtling... and that's with only 2 Monoliths! But this is the kind of attack I'm talking about. Now, imagine 6 more Monoliths bracketing those turtled formations.
vs Biel-Tan Eldar
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Ilushia
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Post subject: A Murder of Monoliths Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 2:14 pm |
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So here's an interesting question about the experimental assault rules with supporting fire: The way it reads seems to indicate that ONLY the units directly involved (Within 15cm of the enemy) in the fire-fight/assault are capable of being hit by supporting fire. If so, does the monolith still gain +1 extra attack for each formation of the enemy in range, or only those in range AND in the 15cm bracket of the phalanx attack? I could still see this allowing for breaking a lot of enemy all at once, but far less l ikely to see a total wipe-out early on. Really all I think it'd take though is a bit of careful planning on the part of the defending player. The potential is there for this list to do fantastic damage... Or fall flat on it's face.
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corey3750
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Post subject: A Murder of Monoliths Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 1:55 pm |
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The monolith bonus attacks only take into account ENGAGED enemies.
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Post subject: A Murder of Monoliths Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 2:14 pm |
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| Quote (corey3750 @ 07 June 2006 (13:55)) | | The monolith bonus attacks only take into account ENGAGED enemies. |
But what does that do for co-mingled formations and support fire? I may have to put together a diagram to explain what I mean.
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Chroma
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Post subject: A Murder of Monoliths Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 3:56 pm |
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Okay, I've done up a diagram of a Murder of Monoliths deployment against an Eldar "turtle" very similar to "turtles" I've seen in actual play. ?
This picture depicts the Eldar Deployment zone at the start of the game. ?All Monoliths are teleported in slightly more than 5cm from units with movement less than 30cm and slightly more than 10cm from any units with movement 30cm or more, and are placed approximately 10cm or so apart forming a chain of zones of control (Potential Obelisks have not been depicted).
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Chroma
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Post subject: A Murder of Monoliths Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 4:05 pm |
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Depending on how much damage the Necron player wants to attempt to do, they declare a Phalanx engaging out of either Monolith 2 or 6, with the Engines of Vaul as their target, and declaring intermingling with all enemy formations within 5cm of the EoV, which is, essentially, all the Eldar formations in play.
The attacking Phalanx is then placed *behind* the Monolith being used, just barely within 15cm of either the Jetbikes or the Guardians. Any Eldar formations may then counter-charge, but very few formations will be able to get into firefight range of the attacking Phalanx and will stand around helpless.
If any of the Necron attackers survive, which is quite likely, the surrounding Monoliths now gauss the heck out of the surrounded formations.
Does this show how brutal the "tactic" is? Am I incorrect in how support fire works? I'm not saying I'd *want* to play this way, but is this not a brutal possibility?
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Ilushia
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Post subject: A Murder of Monoliths Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 4:12 pm |
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YOu're slightly incorrect about how Supporting Fire works. Supporting Fire can ONLY hit those units DIRECTLY involved in an assault. So only the Eldar units within 15cm of the assaulting formation can be hit by the supporting fire, at least under the experimental rules. Now, what this would potentially allow the Necron player to do is break the entire enemy army on their first activation, potentially. Which is painful, no doubt. Could lead to massive casualties for the Eldar. But you can't slice their army to ribbons with the combind support-fire the way you want to. Also, remember that you'll rarely have more then 2 maybe 3 Monoliths in range of the 'active' parts of the battle, and only those can lend supporting fire... While this is painful to the Eldar player, it's nothing like that painful. On average it should take 3 monoliths to inflict 1 hit on each of the units in the assault with FF 5+ and attacks equal to the number of them involved (So they'll do slightly better then that actually). And then the eldar get armor saves.
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