New Necron Wraiths

[Ghent]

How many of you have dealt with new Necron Wraiths? I played a few games against them and they're brutal, especially when kitted out with whip coils. The whip coils make everything in base contact with the Wraith have I1 in CC.

 

They're 4/4 WS/BS, 6/4 S/T with 3 attacks and a natural 3+ invul save. I stupidly charged them with Grey Hunters, thinking "Hey, they're Necrons. I'll just crush them in CC like usual" but boy was I wrong. The Wraiths tore through my Grey Hunters until I was finally able to whittle them down with a combo of kiting them with Jaws and Missile Spam.

 

I'm trying to think of the best way to counter them, as they're a jump troop which means they'll have 18" assault range. My first though is just Murderous Hurricane spam, while it's only S3, it's still 3d6 attacks. Plus, they'll have to roll for each model as if dangerous terrain.

[Skarvald the Troll-faced]

FYI: If they truly are jump troops then they are immune to Jaws of the World Wolf. ;_;

Murderious Hurricane is useless against them if you are using it to harm them, because you'll need 5's to wound. Then they get their 3+ invulnerable. They also have Wraithflight which means they don't get slowed by difficult terrain and automatically pass dangerous terrain. ;( But I suppose that your best bet is to hit them with it, rapid fire with Grey Hunters and then take the charge from them. They'll be going through difficult terrain while assaulting you, so your units will be I1, but so will they. Remember, Wraithflight says that they are not slowed by difficult terrain, but it doesn't say that they IGNORE it. Basically when they assault they don't roll for the assault distance if they are going through difficult terrain, but they are still going through it and Wraiths do not have any grenades. The trick is to think ahead of time and when you move your troops, position them in such a way that no matter where they get charge from when you react to the assault you won't have all of your models in base2base contact with the Necron Wraiths. This is especially tricky, because they can fly 12'' and assault 6'', so if your formation has a weakness they will exploit it.

Your best bet is to saturate them with fire. To wait and to punch them in the face.

 

Since you need an Independent Character to be in base contact in melee to be able to attack you might as well take advantage of that. You have to move him first anyways, so make sure you move him in such a way that as many of your models won't be in base to base contact. After the IC's move all models with I1 weapons (power fists, chain fists.)

 

However, at the same time you cannot afford to stay clumped, because of the Transdimentional Beamer, because they will target your IC's and power fist dudes. It's very tricky. Honestly what I would do with my army is just charge them with my Thunderwolves and put my HQ and my Thunder Hammer guy in the very front, so that my other 3-4 Thunderwolves are just chilling in the back. Ideally Ragnar's Furious Charge ability would also be ideal, but then you especially need to charge them the right way.

 

It's all about positioning, really.

[Ghent]

Damn, didn't even think about JotWW vs. Jump Troop. My buddy will be very, very happy.

 

I'll need to read through his codex, because I didn't even realize they had Wraithflight. MH still might be an option just because of the potential number of attacks hitting on 2+ w/chooser and just hoping for some failed wound rolls.

 

I don't have TWC in what we're running now, as we're just play 1,000pt games. Looks like they'll get Long Fang fire and I'll hope to insta-kill them when he fails an invul save.

[Spacefrisian]

At least they dont have reanimation protocol, meaning that once they die they stay down.

[Coverfire]

I have only played the new Necron once, he had a squad of 3 wraith, which I wiped out with my Skyclaws. It was a unit that I was more than a little concerned about at the time, and finding out that I was striking last made me think that assualting them wasn't the wisest thing to do. I had hope that the combat would last a couple of turns as right behind the wraiths was a squad of warriors, but I wiped out the wraiths and my skyclaws were decimated by Warrior fire the next turn. I am not sure how large the wraith units can be or how much they cost (making larger squad viable) but I had surprisingly little difficulties with them.

[eyeslikethunder]

I would put them in my shoot and only CC if with overwhelming numbers list. My weapons of choice would heavy bolters, assault cannons, autocannons or torrent of bolter fire. If you have to cc make sure you have numbers so keep as many attacks at I as poss. whip coils are base to base only. So if setting to receive a charge make sure they can only b2b one model each and that your models dont charge back such as putting a rhino either side of your units .they are thunderwolf price remember with whip coils treat them as such.

[eyeslikethunder]

Planning your charges to limit the number in b2b with your models is also a wise a idea using 1 model to lock to 2 or more wraiths the powerfist models are good for this. also try to make sure the excess models cant make it so that they get their attacks at their Initative.

[Captain Idaho]

The time honoured routine of soften with shooting then counter charge where appropriate. Torrent of fire helps, as does large numbers of instant death weapons.

 

Beware though; a Destroyer Lord will find his way into many lists as a hard, nuggety centre in a unit of Wraiths. These bad boys can come with a 2+ save and a T6, so as many as possible S8 wounds will find themselves placed upon him first, making torrenting with Long Fang Missile Launchers more difficult. If you are going to counter charge the unit, make sure you have reduced them in number first as this guy has preferred enemy and S7, plus likely Mind Shackle Scarabs...

 

I've not lost my Destroyer Lord yet but his effectiveness is much reduced as soon as his escort becomes small.

 

A word on Thunder Wolves; yes this unit is a match for Wraiths in my opinion, even with a Destroyer Lord and his tricks. They have plenty of wounds to soak damage and a great number of attacks at high strength, plus even multiple S10 weapons. My only word of warning is positioning of your Thunder Hammer Thunder Wolf - not in base contact with a Destroyer Lord!

 

Though that is on the basis his Strength is 10 right?