First game of sixth - Rebirthing the 'crons

So my first game of sixth is now under my belt. Thankfully I learned a lot. On the not so good front taking even a month break means everything I once knew fell out of my head... Just not all of it thankfully!

With this new edition however, the 'crons will be reborn!

Look, the necron baby is so cute!

Alright, so here's the deal, when you go to play sixth edition do yourself a favor and make a cheat sheet. Ballistic skill and weapon skill charts are the same, so if you rolled a 3 to hit with your warriors before, you'll roll 3 to hit with them now. Had I not let my head get in the way I would have had a different game entirely. Literally spent the entire game "Hitting on fours"... Way to go Ace. Still, everyone has those days, so put yourself a little photocopy sheet together with all the basics.

Another thing to remember, double check. Every little thing, every single time. It's annoying today, and will be annoying later, however it's going to make life a lot better once you memorize the new rules. So about those new rules; LOVE 'EM. I love the targeting of the closest model, loving the new hull point mechanics, loving the new jump infantry movement, love the snap shots. Hate? Not so much hate fortunately, only hate for my dumb ass for over thinking and screwing up something so simple as a BS 4 hitting on 4s, not 3s...

Now, as alluded to before, over-thinking and cheat sheets. For sixth I'll be putting together some cheat sheets alright... For each game type and deployment I'll have a basic sheet written so that it's close to mind and I'll be better able to focus on the objective. Remembering that Victory Points are going to be a game breaker can really help in the long run. Yesterday's game brought that home, things like First Blood and Line breaker can win a game, making units that move swiftly indispensable. Regardless, deployment is a big deal as it always has been, so the cheat sheet will be a depiction of the table, with the three deployment types. By playing around in that work space I'll better be able to use ranges, unit speed and "squishy factor" as a rule of thumb, modifying from the base line. A better analysis of the diagonal deployment zones would have helped. As much as everyone says it's only long edge on a slant, it's actually very different. Some things aren't going to fit, and distance to engagement may be very, very different in some instances.
 
Something that messed me up quite badly was putting myself too forward of the opposing force. AJ (great player, and patient!) had three fast moving transports on the far side of the deployment zone. Sensing that he was going for a flank had me placing some tough targets there to prevent the flank. Of course as is my luck the very first shot of the game popped one of my most important assets to my play style, the monolith. Without that ability to start "randomly" dropping troops in inconvenient/scary places my army becomes very sluggish. Obyron did his job zipping around and homing in on Zahndrahk (who was chillin' on his very new Chariot) but AJ seeing the threat for what it was dropped it. The CCB did an excellent job of soaking up fire power, especially ork firepower. Still, I had to manage the fact that the side the monolith was protecting was now open. In this way the deployment worked, and reanimation protocols did their annoyingly sufficient job to keep focus on pulling firepower. AJ kept at my tesla mortals since they were a scoring unit that would have done a nice job at picking up the relic.

The Ghost Arks were fantastic in sixth. I need to work on disembark and movement better, as well as pickup one or two of those fancy Night Scythes. ;) Regardless having open topped and being able to snap fire makes the Ghost Arks quite nasty and if they weren't already a target priority they're only more so now. Even having to roll a six, 15 gauss shots are a lot of shots to pop off on the move.

All the vehicles are skimmers, which means Jink on the move. Excellent business that... You're able now to get a 5+ save on the move, 4+ when flat out, again even in the wide open.

Independent of sixth; Really important... Those lychguard shields? The ones that bounce shots? You can only bounce the shot when the invulnerable save of 4+ is used. Since the lychguard have a 3+ armor save you're only going to be able to bounce shots that would instant kill a model. For example, a storm bolter starts shooting, you're going to take your 3+. That lascannon that just shot however will require your 4+ inv save, and so the shot will bounce to a unit up to 6" away. Go read the rule "When this save is used" You'll see. ;)


Of course more will come later, especially as more games come along, keep playing, and looking forward to the future of sixth, it's going to be a blast.