This list was just a slight adaptation of the list I brought to NRVCon, and I felt pretty comfortable with it. Round 1 I got paired up against Dave, who I had played back a couple years ago at Battle for Blacksburg. This time Dave was bringing an Imperial Knight list with a Knight Acheron in a Baronial Court, accompanied by a Culexus Assassin.
Dave deployed first and spread out along his line. I did the same, leaning just a bit to my right.
Dave started the game being cagey and pulled back a bit while my units largely rushed forward.
Despite taking some brutal damage to my list, I just had enough board control to win the Primary and Maelstrom, and come away with a 10-1 win.
For game two I was matched up against Zeke and his very pretty Eldar army which included 5 units of Scatter Laser Jetbikes, a Wraithknight with a sword, a Lynx, a Warp Hunter, and a Riptide Wing. We had Vanguard deployment and Zeke opted to go first. We both deployed largely across our front lines, though I kept my two Reclamation Warrior units in reserve. I didn't seize so I popped my Solar Staff top of 1 and endured the Eldar alpha strike with little casualties.
Zeke made a costly mistake in his shooting as he killed 6 of the 7 Scarab bases, and then opted to wipe them out, meaning they would regenerate. This allowed me to string them into his zone where they promptly charged and killed the Warp Hunter. The remainder of the forces mostly moved forward. Turn 2 the star got charged by the Wraithknight and took no casualties, doing 3 wounds in return, however this would not last as for the following five rounds of combat I would only do a single wound.
Turn 4 turned out to be extremely bloody, as in the top of the turn stomp 6s and D 6s killed over half my star, while some of my Warriors ran down a riptide that had charged them. In the bottom of the turn the warriors went to charge and had five of their number cut down by overwatch. In combat, the tomb blades who had been fighting a unit of jetbikes both died, and the remains of the star were wiped out. We played out the top of turn 5 but it was readily apparent that I could not contest or win either Primary or Maelstrom, and wouldn't claim any secondaries either.
In the final game of the day I was matched up against Dave and his Farsight Tau, which included a Riptide Wing and a Drone Net.
I won the roll for deployment and opted to go first, despite Dave having +1 to seize for his Warlord Trait. I deployed primarily along my left flank, with two units of warriors holding down the right. Dave deployed with his Skyrays and Riptides in the middle, with the Stormsurge on my left and the drone units on either flank.
Dave failed to seize so I went first and used the Veil of Darkness to jump the star over onto Dave's side of the board. I spawned a single scarab ahead of the unit and moved the unit forward, lining up a 10" charge on a Skyray. The rest of the army shuffled forward while trying to be safe. I ended up making the charge, and avoided overwatch as the entire unit was out of line of sight to everything but the skyray, which they promptly destroyed for First Blood.
In the bottom of turn 1, the Riptides killed the majority of the Scarab unit while the star absorbed a good amount of fire before getting charged by the Stormsurge, where the two sides would punch at each other for a while, though Dave wouldn't get a 6 on the stomp for some time.
At the top of turn 2, Orikan went super saiyan, which was fortunate. The tomb blades jumped forward and lined up a charge on one Riptide, while the remaining couple scarabs prepared to sacrifice themselves to respawn. In combat and overwatch I lost the Scarabs entirely, and one Tomb Blade, but they held in combat, tying up the Riptide.
In the bottom of the turn, Dave's two flamer crisis suits arrived and, despite scattering pretty wildly, were able to toast the Reclamation legion unit of Scarabs, with a little help from the Riptides. Combats raged on between the Tomb Blades and Riptide and the star and Stormsurge.
The only big change over the next couple turns was the Spyder killing one crisis suit, the respawned scarabs killing some drones and then a crisis suit, and the Spyder eventually dying. Eventually the Stormsurge fell after taking 3-4 Wraiths with it.
The Riptides eventually broke through the Tomb Blades and Warriors who also charged in, while my star hunted down the Commander for Slay the Warlord. The game continued for 6 turns, but in the end I held the two objectives on the left while Dave held one and contested the other, netting me a 9-3 victory.
I ended the day 2-1 with a 2019 score, placing me firmly in the dead middle of the group. It was a great time and enjoyed playing all three of my opponents. Here are a few more pictures from the day I managed to snap before or between games:
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| Zeke's awesome Wraithknight |
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| Ricky's Knights |
I'm definitely looking forward to July's tournament, which is a Renaissance Man event where everyone has a single CAD, where you can't take a second Elite, Fast Attack, or Heavy Support until you've taken one of each. It's a pretty cool format and I'm looking forward to taking my bugs down for a showing.
After playing quite a few games with it I'm starting to think the Retribution Phalanx formation is a bit of a trap, as it's a lot of points invested in the formation, and then more invested in keeping the Overlord alive, all to maintain a gimmick, which most good players won't fall for. Respawning the Scarabs is very good, but it does require a certain amount of cooperation from the opponent.
As soon as the Scarabs get whittled down and the star gets tied up, the army has next to no punch. That's somewhat of a given, since the star is about half the army in itself, but it doesn't feel like the strongest Necron list I could take.
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