So there I was at the club, chillin' ready to just hang out, and an opportunity to game shows itself. I didn't think I'd be able to play for a few months, so let's have at!
In this case, 2,000 points, against James, our local club IG player, ready to test out his list for an upcoming tournament hosted by our very own club. (Get your tix here: http://www.battleforsalvation.com/registration-2/) That price gets you multiple days of gaming, so be sure to read about the event.
Plug aside, there was some play testing of scenarios going on, I can't say much so that the surprise isn't ruined, what I can say is that you will be challenged in terms of deployment, and tie-breaking is awesome. Tie-breaking will have a large impact as to whether or not you walk away with just a tie or a win. It's exciting for a relatively new war gamer to walk into what we worry being a meat grinder to know that you just might make it out on top and do so legitimately without requiring tabling the competition. Ok, can't say more or I'll say too much...
What I learned last night, is if you're looking for an army that's able to drop units to below half strength and generally stop/block/tarpit armor lines then Necrons rock. The Gauss on the vehicles does a lot of damage as it did before in fifth, and tesla is excellent at ripping into the poor squishy IG that are standing in the crater of their former Chimera. Certainly the shooting ability of the stalker came into play with the points spent on the Twin-linked Heavy Gauss Cannon (36" is awesome,) and my monolith survived to terrorize some player again another day. On a whim/efficiency kick I swapped the Wraiths for Flayed Ones. I can hear the haters now;
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| Y U choose Flayed Ones!? |
To anyone who hates em, I must say, because they're cheap. Yes, scarabs are cheap, and you get more, however at strength 3, toughness 3 you stand to lose those 3 wounds pretty fast, especially in the face of flamers, and/or strength 6 weapons. Agreed, scarabs are fast, however Obyron with his Ghostwalk Mantle and a little group of flayed ones presents an issue, especially when Zahndrak is in his command barge zipping to the front lines on his swift little skimmer... Now I deepstrike those flayed ones right behind cover, just in range to run towards the tanks. (Using Oby as the leader of the Flayed Ones, I can deep strike within 6" of Zahn without scatter.) Did I mention that the Ghost Ark already dropped off an Overlord with a warscythe, and that Zahn dropped off the CCB to let the Overlord on? See that line of tanks? So does the Overlord, then Zahn walks forward with Oby and "crew" that newly popped tank line exploded around its men, just in time for the next phase where Oby and company will (hopefully) be able to assault.
That sounds really complicated, it really does have a lot of steps, an awful lot has to go right. So what happens if it doesn't? Spam 'em with Gauss and send 'em packin'. :)
Sure enough about 75% of that strategy failed, it takes a lot of turns, and the stars need to seriously align. That's fine though, I had mounted up some warriors on a second Ghost Ark and zipped them forward. One flank became Ghost Arks and warriors blasting in rapid fire range three tanks, on the other flank where I was attempting to setup this shuffle game I realized I didn't have any where near enough space and put Zahn/CCB in serious risk. Instead I decided to pop Oby and the Flayed ones out of the portal of the monolith. They bolted into cover, and prepared to assault the tank line from the other side. This worked very well. Oby's warscythe carved through the tank, and the flayed ones didn't even need to bother swinging. In the mean time, all scarab units were destroyed. This is why I don't rely on them alone, people are scared of them (justifiably) so target them straight away. Flayed ones are just silly to people so they don't bother. I'll capitalize on that thank you! The flayed ones were in position for the assault when a heavy flamer started its work. Fortunately they have reanimation protocols (another thing in their favor) and they mostly got back up. One to one in model count with the guardsmen and Oby we went toe to toe to duke it out... And ran out of time, having to pack up...
Here's a vidcom taken from Flayed One memory banks of the Commisar and her men at my bit of bad luck;
In summary, playing IG can be a little spooky at first, target priority certainly comes into play since there's just so much on the board. With the new vehicle cover rules you've also got to consider your shooting carefully as well since 25% coverage can give a bonus now. As before Gauss is excellent, tripping up and tarpitting the front line tanks, making it tough for the tank line to proceed into enemy deployment. Tesla does an excellent job of laying down a lot of fire, however I'd argue it's not as important as it was before. (Rapid fire rules in 6) Getting assault units in place prior to a tank exploding is excellent, so long as you can have them in/behind cover should it not pop as expected.
I'm definitely interested in another game against IG, definitely interested in the upcoming tournament, and looking forward to play testing the Flayed ones just a bit more giving them a chance to do something.
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