(Speaking of, Gauthic old chum, 4-weeks is an eternity in blogging... how about an update?)
I built up a list though numerous practice games, but set them aside a couple months ago... and not because it wasn't going well, 'cause it was! Seriously, the Necrons have everything I like about an army.
Mixed arms approach? Check!
Solid troops? Check!
Tactical options? Check!
Solid strategy? Check!
Counter-attack options? Check!
Not MEQ? Check check check!
Yeah, that's six articles right there... but I can turn anything into an article, truth be told. Let's look at what critics suggest isn't included.
Points efficiency.
What you talkin' about Willis? Willis, in this case, being my pal Darkwynn... Nick, to his friends.
(Hopefully I'll still be one after having a go at his criticism of the 'Crons!)
Here's what he had to say in his article What's the Fuss? on Bell of Lost Souls. Note that I basically grabbed the entire paragraph under 'basics,' since that's really the heart of his argument.
But, here is the problem: everything looks like it’s shoehorned into the army list. There isn’t one thing in this book that screams, "you need to take this!" Not one single unit in the book is strong; they are all mediocre at best. People will think the Stormlord is a great buy, but in reality he is expensive and can’t fight his way out of a paper bag. Lychguards and Praetorians are horribly overcosted and bring nothing to the table. Deathmarks are isolated units that by themselves won't sway a battle. C’Tan Shard are, again, over costed and expensive - plus you need to buy other units to make them effective. The list goes on. Any time you try to build a effective tactical list you run into a point problem. They have put too many choke points on builds to make the book effective.
From my perspective, it's interesting that he doesn't mention the units I think are must haves... and my army is very different from the other two at my FLGS, which are in turn very different from those I've seen around the Blogosphere, such as Mercer's - my personal favorite Necron build someone else has done - over on Imperius Dominatus.
(I didn't have time to sort through Mercer's blog to find good pics of his army, but here's a battle report featuring the list I mentioned.)
Let's go with the agreement; I personally wouldn't take the Stormlord, or Lychguard, or Deathmarks, or C'Tan...
...but the Client Pimp in Question has been doing quite well with the Stormlord while the Artist Formerly Known as Farseer Tim used Writhing Worldscape to great effect in a recent City Fight tournament.
Still and all, not a great counter-arguement, since those are local examples. Let's instead look at what's missing from his list of, "You need to take this!"
Scarabs.
Scarabs. Easily the best unit in the book, both cost effective and always useful. Spyders by themselves aren't awesomesauce, but in conjunction with Scarabs in the form of a Farm make both unit types easily a quarter-again more points effective.
And potentially more devastating than that. The combo isn't a must-have; Scarabs do fine by themselves. Personally, I wouldn't field an army without at least one good size unit - it shouldn't be a problem fitting them in to any type of list.
He also doesn't mention Wraiths - the sleeper hit of the book - or Destroyer Lords - my personal favorite unit.
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| The pictures are from Musings Of A Metal Mind. Here's the Link! |
But..!
That actually makes sense, knowing him like I do. Darkwynn is without a doubt one of the best tournament players out there, in large part due to his ability to take apart a Codex and make it sing. His army lists are always nasty.
And here's the 'but!'
He likes to double-down on what a book does best. In regards to Necrons, they are undeniably a shooting army, but crafting them as such leaves all the gaping holes Darkwynn mentioned in his article. It's not that he's wrong so much as his perspective is different.
This isn't an army that fits his style.
* * *
So let's look at another Editorial from another top tournament player to see what he thinks...
To Be Continued
8 comments:
Ha, I always have love Brent. Even if you disagree it doesn't bother me, I still feel comfortable standing by my statements. Even Ben Mohile thinks I am crazy and him and I go at it back and forth all the time.
As for Necrons shooting, I don't even think they do that well. I look at their line up and they are curved at a specific army type such as infantry with telsa or low AV units. I think they could do alright against Marines in some fashion depending on the build. Othertypes of armies I tihnk would destory them esp paid by a good player.
It also comes down to what they do not have an answer for right now on the touranment scense which covers a good 50% of the scene. Grey Knights paladins... They have no Str 8 Ap 2 shots that they can mass or scale out in three or four shots unless they forgive a lot of other options which gimps them.
I am waiting to play Ben at Adepticon with his Necron list and we will settle it there :)
Also great article even if you trolled me :P
Have I mentioned it before? I love the look of these Necro-Nids!
Nick likes getting trolled though!
At BAO, we saw I think 1 necron player? Our local meta doesn't have alot of them either. I think there is potential in the book but most people go for the gimmicks and when those don't work against good players they probably think the book sucks.
I personally think lychguard are great for the necron army.
Let me go make some popcorn...be right back...
Ok.... FIGHT!
@Darkwynn: What are you talking about??? It's called doomsday arks.
They're pretty solid and do quite well against Grey Knights. Especially good at vaporizing Paladins.
Honestly? I think Darkwynn has a point. There are a few choke chains on the Necrons, including the ranges mostly capping out at 24" across the army. I don't think that necessarily makes them bad but it does make for an 'interesting' shooting army experience; there's a narrow band in which they function well, and enemies that are either too close or too far away rob them of efficiency. The games I've lost with my Necrons have been the ones where I haven't been able to set up that optimum range bracket over the enemy army, either because I've deployed badly, because they've moved me around (dual Lash hurts 'footcrons' like it's still 2008) or because I've gotten lucky, sniped a few transports out of the air on turn one, and then realised that leaves me with half a dozen AT weapons in range of the enemy army.
Needs moah Doomsday Arcs I think.
There are to many problems with the Doomsday ark to make it work in reality. You will get one or two shots during a game at best with good players.
The Doomsday Ark is going to push to much of a threat and its to easy to get around. With it being staionary to fire its str 10 punch. With Terrain and a good player I can hide, your force to put the thing in the corner to be effective and its easy counter.
IN reality your best bet is the Doomscythe to deep strike and hope you end up on the otherside of the die roll when playing Grey knights and they deep strike before you. Then you need to hope you deep strike close enough and not kill yourself. That and it has no model...
I am doing okay with my Cronz now that I've finally started to play my army (doesn't count though since all my opponent's suck... Heh).
Anyways I think all the Canoptek units are awesome and reasonably costed. Surprisingly to me Cronz are stronger in melee than shooting plus they have lots and lots of dirty lil tricks up their sleeves thanks to Mr. Ward. The shooting can be enhanced by the Scarabs and their Entropic Strike... Scarabs penetrating vehicles on 2+ in melee is crazy.
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