Buddy and I played a proxy game with the new crons to see how they fared. I played the crons and he played his forgeworld Nurgle CSM. We have several more builds and armies we want to test out, so there may be more batreps incoming. Our lists were as such:
Necron:
Anrakyr
10x Immortals w/Tesla
Cryptek of Despair w/veil
14x Warriors
Necron Lord w/res Orb
14x Warriors
Necron Lord w/Res Orb
Destroyer Lord
6x Wraiths w/3x Whipcoils, Particle Caster
7x Scarabs
2x Spyders w/TL Particle Beamer
CSM:
Chaos Lord w/Daemon Weapon
7x Plague Marines w/Meltagun
Rhino
7x Plague Marines w/meltagun
7x Bikes w/Nurgle, Melta, Fist, Icon
7x Termies w/2x LC, Chainfist, 3x combi-melta
Vindicator
Defiler
Mission: Capture and Control. Deployment: Pitched Battle
I win the roll and choose to go first. I deploy aggressive, with my Wraiths center-board and Scarabs and spyders about 18" to their left. My two Warrior squads deploy in cover, one in the same crater where my objective is at midfield between the Wraiths and scarabs, the other on the left flank, directly opposite the other objective. My immortals and Anrakyr deploy on the right flank, to keep them out of harm's way should my opponent seize, and with veil, their positioning is rather irrelevant.
CSM deploys very conservative. Vindi in center-board daring me to overreach with scarabs (but conceding to only live one turn, via the Wraiths/Destroyer Lord), rhino with Lord and Plagues directly to it's left as scarab bait. Bikes about 8" from the board edge to keep out of scarab shenanigans range. Other Plagues hugging LOS-blocking cover and the objective. Termies and Defiler in reserve.
Turn 1:
Seize fails, so turn 1 me: I do not take the rhino bait, and instead add two bases to the scarabs and move forward and apart, to mitigate any possible damage from Vindi fire. Spyders trundle up, Wraiths zoom into good cover to take advantage of the generous Vindi position. I scoot one warrior unit into better cover, keep the other still, and (in my first, but not largest, tactical error) veil my Immortals right in front of his bike squad, hoping to deal a fairly devastating blow to the unit that will be a pain in my bum if it's allowed to go unchecked. I scatter into excellent position for a counterassault/Vindi strike, shoot dead 2 bikes. Anrakyr's Hack of the rhino (probably wouldn't have done anything, but hey) fails on a 2. All other shooting is too far away.
Turn 1 CSM: Bikes zoom around some terrain into shoot/assault range of the Immortals, Vindi moves 6 into range of that same unit, rhino scoots 12" to make things harder on my scarabs, Plague squad in the building stays put with nothing in range. Vindi scatters, but not terribly, but he does roll 2 1's and I am able to get out of the shooting phase only losing 5 Immortals after RP. Bikes charge, I fail counterassault ld test, they go first, kill a couple guys. Anrakyr whiffs, immortals kill 1 bike, fist whiffs, I lose another to no-retreat but get back 2. I am left with Anrakyr, cryptek and 4 Immortals.
Turn 2:
Me: Wraiths move in to assault Vindi. I squeeze out 2 more scarabs, but roll double 1's, so now my spyders are hurting and can't make any more. I head my scarabs past the bike/immortal fight in order to get to the rhino, I trudge my leftmost Warrior squad out of cover to start pressuring midfield. Get a 5 on the DT, and a 6 on the run, now in good position to help out anywhere, possibly challenge for opposing objective. Home warrior squad stays put, Spyders shuffle forward hoping the immortals hold for another turn so they can help out the assault. No shooting of note, and I forget to hack with anrakyr, but it's of little consequence all told. Wraiths assault the vindi and explode it easily. Scarabs not quite able to get the rhino surrounded (or even force a rear exit that would be advantageous to my wraiths, and needing 6es to hit, still able to get 5 hits (out of 25), 2 entropics, 2 pens on which I roll 2 2's, so basically bugger all. Rather disappointed, but a stun means it's basically toast in the next combat phase. Assault phase with Immortals goes as one would expect, but Anrakyr actually hits a couple times, but only wounds once. All of the immortals are destroyed by combat, and so cannot RP, cryptek takes a wound from no-retreat and falls, but makes his Ever-Living and rejoins combat with Anrakyr.
CSM: Both the Defiler and Termies roll in from reserves. Defiler walks on at the leftmost side, in good position to large blast my cheeky warriors, but will allow cover for them. Termies port in with the help of the icon directly between the bike/Anrakyr fight and my objective warriors (also in range of my Spyders and, if need be, the second warrior squad. Rhino group gets out of their doomed transport and shoots/assaults the scarabs. Termies fire their combis at the spyders, killing one and dropping the second to his final wound. Defiler pie-plates warriors, and manages to kill 6 after a hit on the scatter and meh RP rolls. Objective Plagues stay put. Assault finally goes my way with Anrakyr and he kills 2 bikes, fist whiffs (for the second time) 1 bike (fist) remains. Plagues vs Spyders, Daemon weapon works, but gets nothing extra, kills 3 bases and a fourth drops to no-retreat. I put a couple wounds on the plagues which they shrug off, but explode the tank, which does a wound to my scarabs.
Turn 3:
Me: Move Spyder to assist vs Bikes, move forward Warriors back to assist with the Termies who could ruin my day quickly. Also, the defiler is kicking their proverbial junk in so I need to retreat. Wraiths move to assist in the scarab/plague battle. My smaller squad of warriors rapid fires but does ntohing to the termies. Large objective squad kills 3 after some boss to-wound rolls and an inordinate amount of 1's even after wound shenanigans. I decide to fire my Spyder's Beamer at the Termies rather than help in assault... does nothing. In assault Anrakyr and the bikes have a slappy fight and nothing happens. In the Plague/scarab/wraith fight I completely forget about my Whips and lose 2 wraiths and all of my scarabs over the next 3 combats (and allow the combat to drag on WAY longer than it should have) in what should have been an easy roll.
CSM: Defiler Shuffles back a bit, still wary of Anrakyr's hack, and his shots scatter off target for no damage. Termies head after my objective squad stopping just outside of their cover. Objective Plagues stay put. Termies attempt to assault my warriors, but roll the double deuce while needing only a 3 to get in. Anrakyr finally finishes the bikes off and consolidates toward the big scrum upfield. Big scrum nets some mean attrition for me, but his Daemon weapon rolls a 1 and the lord takes off a wound of his own.
Turn 4:
Me: Anrakyr moves toward the defiler, hacks it and tries to plate the objective plagues, but scatters off and does nothing. Tachyon Arrow then kills the cannon. Spyder moves up, but then I decide to try and block the Defiler from charging Anrakyr, but my run roll is too short... instead I move to counterassault. Warriors all rapid fire the stumbling Termies and kill 2 more. Wraith/Plague assault continues, I lose the last of my scarabs, he is down to 3 marines and his Lord (who rolled another 1 but made his save). It is after this fight that I remember the Whips.
CSM: Defiler moves to charge Anrakyr and his cryptek who hasn't done a damn thing all game. Final two termies move to charge the warriors. Objective Plagues move to get a couple Melta shots on the final Spyder and kill it quickly. Defiler charges, counterassault test passes, but Anrakyr is splatted by 4 ID defilerfists. Cryptek passes ld test to stay in, and Anrakyr makes his RP roll. Wraith combat turns my way now that I'm going first, the Daemon Wep finally rolls a 6 and I do lose combat, make my NR saves, but he's left with one plague and the Lord. Termies charge into cover, and lose 1 to the swarm of Necron attacks, I lose 1 guy to the final termie.
Turn 5:
Me: Small Warrior squad moves to assist with poor Anrakyr and his Defiler of doom, but he's locked so they can't shoot. Wraiths fail a bit, and the Daemon Weapon gets another 6 but the Lord is down to 1 wound and his last Plague bit it. I have the Destroyer Lord and 4 Wraiths left. Warriors beat down the final termie with weight of attacks, Oblit whiffs hardcore against Anrakyr, and he's able to get a couple Warscythe pens, immobilizing and knocking off one of the DCCWs.
CSM: Plagues move out to screen against the wraiths, but don't have much to do. Defiler finally pops Anrakyr and the cryptek bails. RP fails for Anny. Immobile Defiler sits there. Wraiths finish off lord and consolidate toward final Plague unit and Defiler. Roll means we continue to...
Turn 6:
Me: Cryptek continues to flee, Warriors try to gauss the defiler with no luck. Couple of shakens which it cares nothing about. Wraiths and lord combo-charge the defiler and Plagues. Should have just wiped the Plagues, because the combat did allow me to kill the Defiler at the expense of my Lord, but I wasn't able to wipe out the Plagues by the end of the game, and the defiler was no threat immobile and with only one arm.
CSM: Defiler/Plague/Wraith combat continues, defiler explodes, 4 plagues left not in range of his objective. Game ends with Necrons victorious.
Final thoughts: Neither list was what you would call "optimized" for any tourney experience, but the Necrons show that they give you a large margin of error to work with. With my Veil and Whip errors, as well as some adjustments in deployment that would have made things easier, I was still able to almost table one of the more resilient lists in terms of pure unkillability.
In hindsight, with this list, I should have chosen to go second, as I could counter-deploy and better set up charges. I need to veil better. Anrakyr can be clutch, but he's a bit less impressive without a barge. My Spyders underperformed a bit... mostly from me having target paralysis. I wasn't sure where they would best be used, and that uncertainty got them killed and allowed the bikes to live probably a full extra game turn than they should have. Wraiths need support and can easily be stretched thin, but are a mean, mean, mean assault unit (whips for the win, remember). They lost nearly every assault phase they were in, but took so few wounds and were able to just plow through very tough units with underperforming dice. Definitely need the Destroyer lord to make them pop, though. Scarabs are nice, but need better support than I gave them. Against an army like CSM that can have a lot of attacks, they get overwhelmed in assault easily. The only reason he didn't obliterate them in assault is because of a lack of a fist in his Plague squads.
All-in-all, for a poorly-played, vehicle-less list, the Necrons fared extremely well. I have already dropped a couple scarab bases in order to get warscythes on my warrior-sitting Lords and am tempted to shave a body or two from the Warrior squads in order to put a third spyder in, to help with their reliability, but this is a list that would definitely give me pause with my two main armies: Blood Angels and Eldar.
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Originally Posted by airmang
