Well, it may be no surprise to many of you, but I’ve been spending a lot of time recently working on my Necron list for the upcoming Maelstrom Team Tournament at the end of next month. For those with long memories and much patience, this was the same tournament that I did a full review of early on it my blog’s life. Back when it was a strapping young thing with points to prove rather than a shambling dishevelled wreck forever searching for another excuse to have a nap.
But, hey, time and tide wait for no muppet and I’d better get on detailing my prepwork if I’m ever going to cement my reputation as the Underlings’ premier loquacious timewaster.
This list has actually been through a few iterations before settling into the 6th-ready form it has adopted now. If you remember many months back when I wrote the ‘Necrautopsy’ series of posts about various Necron units, their application and how much I like them. Back then, I wrote a lot about Crypteks, anvil units of Necron warriors, warscything Lychguard, all that good stuff. Pretty much none of that is in this list. I just decided to run the ‘crons a little differently for this.
I can imagine many, maybe even most, Necrons players would be using Crypteks in a variety of ways, with a variety of weapon and a whole host of tricks. I tried that way in a tournament and it worked quite nicely. (Throne of Skulls, by the way; I think I batrepped that one too). However, the tricks I was using have, since 6th Ed, been massively downgraded as Dangerous Terrain really isn’t all that dangerous any more. Not to say that Tremorstave are bad, by any means. Interfering with your opponent’s movement phase can be fantastically useful, but you can’t build an army around the tactic anymore. At least, I don’t think so.
So, I switched my focus from Cryptek Gimmickry to Massed Armour, aiming to flood the board in AV13, which the Necrons can field in spades. My initial 1650 list had a grand total of six AV13 vehicles, enough to give missile-toting opponents a headache and still providing me with enough points spare to run a solid core of Troops. One thing I have learned over the past couple of editions is to not skimp on your troops.
I’d also run a couple of Overlords in Command Barges and abuse the hell out of their sweep attacks. Sadly, (or not depending on your perspective) they are just not what they were in the new edition. The Sweep attack is nowhere near as easily to pull off, what with the reduced movement in the moving phase, and the inability for vehicles to score or contest deliver real hits to the semi-brokeness they once displayed. Again they are far from bad now, but they don’t deliver the right amount of payoff for their points cost any more.
This is as I feel it should be. 6th edition has had a good stabilising influence on the game as a whole, barring the odd curiosity I have with the rule set (certain challenges in assault and vehicle to-hits rules being two of them). So the Command Barges went. The Ghost Ark went, since Troops can’t capture when embarked and the vehicle itself can’t even contest. 6th Ed had taken apart my plans for the Iron Tide list (or Necrodermal Tide list, if you’re being picky).
That said, this list still has a decent quantity of vehicles in it and packs a little AV 13, but it’s by no means the central theme to the list anymore. In fact, I’m not sure there is a central theme to this one. It’s just a collection of units in some sort of broad symmetry that work well and consistently. If anything, the list is more notable for what it leaves out than what it includes, which seems strange to me. Anyway, enough preamble, I may as well detail what (as of today at least) is in my Maelstrom list and thus give all my opponents a massive head start on me. Assuming of course that all my opponents read this blog. Which they don’t. So I win. I think.
HQ: 1 Destroyer Lord with Warscythe and Sempiternal Weave
ELITES: Triarch Stalker with Heat Ray
ELITES: 2 x 8 man Deathmark units in Night Scythes
TROOPS: 10 man squad of Necron Warriors
TROOPS: 3 x 5 man squads of Necron Immortals with Tesla Carbines
FAST ATTACK: 6 man Wraith Squad with three sets of Whip Coils
FAST ATTACK: 2 x 3 swarm squads of Scarabs
HEAVY SUPPORT: A squad of 3 Spyders with one Fabricator Array
HEAVY SUPPORT: 2 Annihilation Barges with full Tesla loadouts
And that’s about it. A couple of points going spare, but not much to spend those on.
Anyway, that’s the rough sum up of my MTT list. I’ll go through the various units and tactics with it next week, provided my typing fingers don’t develop gangrene from complete lack of use.
So long.
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