Escalation vs. Necrons 3000 pts. Looking for tactical help

[Polythemus]

Hey everyone, I am looking for tactical advice on this one. I recently played a 3000 pt escalation match vs Necrons. Unfortunately most of the info is tied up in captions to pics on blogger so i wont be reposting the whole thing here. This is a whole report that can be found on my blog. But I would really appreciate tactical advice on it.  since its more of a no frills batrep but i will repost some stuff here to give some reference for discussion. looking at the complete rep will allow better understanding of tactical options used.

 

This was my first experiment with Escalation or 40k with super heavies.

 

A word on escalation/ stronghold assault rules in case you dont know by now there are several unique rules that change the game. but the most important of these are Void shields, and str D weapons.

 

Void shields act as a 12" av 12 bubble which can be taken for every fortification and an option of 3 for a void shield generator. the generator itself is an av 13 building. the build disappears with a pen or a glance, and a disabled shield can be regen'd on a 5+. It also may absorb a single str D shot.

 

Str D weapon can be found on some models and doesn't allow saves of any kind including invul saves. it has special interactions with super heavy models depending on the result of the vehicle damage table roll meaning that it may take away as many as D6 + 6 HP with a single shot with rolling a 6.

 

my list

Azreal in Land raider

librarian on bike

 

deathwing termies assault cannon

deathwing termies asssault cannon

ravenwing bikers

ravenwing bikers

demi tact squad in thunderhawk

 

Black knights

Darkshroud

Nephillim

 

void shield gen with 3 shields

Thunderhawk with D-laser

 

 

his

zandrek

destroyer lord with warscythe

 

immortals

warriors in n. scythe

warriors in n. scythe

warriors in n. scythe

 

scarabs

wraiths

 

annihil barge

annihil barge

 

C'tan with (flamer of D - real name unknown) and  6d6 krak missle ability

Pylon

 

mission was emperors will plus relic

 

deployment

 

deployment strategy

 

so the ctan is a huge threat its flamer is the apoc flamer and its str D plus Ctan has the ability to shoot 6d6 krak missles per turn, is toughness 9 str 9. and has 6 wounds. i tried to deploy defensively with the whirlwind, devs, and godhammer are protected by the void shields.

i know he'll just try to objective grab with his troops on the final turn. so i tried to build a list that could handle flyers. before starting he informed me that the pylon is str  D 3 interceptor skyfire and AV 14 with 6 HP. my plan was to aggresively deepstrike both termies and try to destroy the void shields and kill troops. the raven wing would? was not sure. Maybe pepper the wraiths, distract, and harass the troops.

 

 

 

 

n1 - against 3 str D and 6d6 krak the crons destroy the void shields and generator like paper mache. (mayo jar)

 

 

 

da1 - unsure what to do i try to excute my plan one set of termies scatters back. the raven wing advance along the flank bu tcant do much versus the ctan. the other bikes go for the scarabs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

n2 - decimation by the firepower of the necrons eilimates multiple targets and puts me on the back foot. But I still have my thunderhawk en route.

 

 

 

da2- wah- wah. ho hum i just lost the game basically. kind of a bummer cause there is almost no way that i will survive this and i wanted to see how the thunderhawk would do. In other news zandreks squad were at least partially within the bubble of the void shield so we counted them as recieving protection of all the bubble (because that meant i would die faster and i wanted this over as fast as possible at this point.) the resulting charge meant all the bikes were killed minus the librarian who challenged zandrek but did no wounds.

 

 

 

n3 - um ouch. necrons beat me comprehensively in every facet of the game on that turn. The necrons are just rolling downhill at this point.at some point they kill the remains of the thunderhawk tactical squad.

 

 

 

da3 game conceded. know when your beaten kids.

 

Well I tried to put a brave face on it and take it all in stride but that game left me very dissapointed. i will say that i never lost my cool which is good. 0/3 versus necrons. I will admit i took a couple of fluffy choices while my opponent took only teeth and knives. I still have never beaten him. even if i had survived with the thunder hawk im not sure how much help it would have been. i think that it would have been a different game but once again necrons give me the finger.

 

A few thoughts

1.) Escalation makes it hard to field expensive models. the more points that are bound up in a model the easier the D weapon can erase it. this means if your using marines it requires the use of rhinos. tact squads in rhinos absorb the same as a void shield and protect that squad a little longer.

 

2.) Choice of super heavy - thunderhawk might be feasible but damn against necrons using the pylon it is painful. and the chance of rolling a 6 on the damage table vs a super heavy is pretty high when you've got 3 shots at it. that being said if i had survived theres a very high likely hood i would have killed that pylon since after interceping, it cant shoot the next turn giving me 2 turns to fire D cannon on it. then i would have had my way with the flyers and had air superiority. but even then they can still glance AV 12 on the front and side (PS why is a thunderhawk rear armor 10!). that being said a Titan walker would be able to fire from the first turn and have more hull points. Emperor forgive me but my faith was shaken by that game.

3.) What tactics could be employed to beat the opposition? Well it probably takes a more experienced mind than mine, but requires a streamlining of the list. The ctan is toughness nine but only has a 3+ save. It would seem that long distance las cannons and missles would be best. perhaps along with support from black knights. and rad grenade. the AV 14 Pylon defended by wraiths and zandrek is a different matter. I think assault focused terminators would be a good start this would allow them to get close and harass. Maces by DWK may produce 6 pens at strength 10 if they were all still alive.

 

Strategy wise i probably should have tried to play the objectives more. But i am certainly open to tactical advice.

 

[Polythemus]

so is there a problem with this post does it need something else? It'd be really great to get some tactical feedback on it. 

[Pyro X]

from personel exp, don't try and win (as DA, standing alone) a air battle with crons. even if its 1v1. Our fliers arn't meant to take down other fliers, they mostly shine in ground support. Can the down a flier? of course they can, but its not great at it. I know your running dual wing and thats cool and all but I'm not a fan of Azreal. I like the thunderhawk as a model but right now soo many things have anti air that it would get taken down really fast (like it did). If your in a match with alot of anti air and interceptor, when you come in make sure you end your movement phase with your model blocked LOS from that anti air unit.  685 points just seems like alot, before whatever it has in it, enters the onboard. you could drop alot of nastier things with it. D weapons arn't the end all be all of 40k. Yes, they can kill everything they target, but you had the right idea on how to counter them. Lots of Void Shields. Also, I'd take things like Rhinos and other transports. The rhino may die but it only does a str 4 hit to each dude inside. Lots of things you could do. if you know they have a super heavy, you may also think of taking a butt ton of melta as well (unless you did, I couldn't tell in the list). Just of thoughts. I did look like a fun match though, even if the thunderhawk died right away.

 

sorry had the point cost wrong.

[Polythemus]

Well you might be right but i just hate just ceding air to crons so that they can just drop their @&$ troops and contest everything on the final turn, that reason alone is why crons win tournaments. Kill their transports and you kill their mobility and reduce their speed advantage. The only way i know to counter this is try and contest the air and bring flyers or surface to air platforms. Vengence battery may be a good investment here.

 

I dont have acess to drop pods for melta spam. The other problem was trying to deal with the ctan. he is tough to wound with shooting and potent. I feel like asault is the best bet.

I think against any army not named crons a t-hawk is actually pretty good. Since it can shoot all weapons at differrent targets.

[march10k]

 

I will admit i took a couple of fluffy choices while my opponent took only teeth and knives. 

 

 

This.   A hundred times this.  Bring a fun list against a competitive one, and you get an uncompetitive game.

 

How to beat him?  The Thawk is a start...Put fifteen knights inside and have them smite the Ctan (that cost him 1/3 of his points for a single model, by the way...the Thawk is "only" 1/4 of your points...and the pylon cost how much?) while the Thawk shoots the pylon with the turbolaser destructor and clears the skies of fliers with the missiles and lascannons.  The other 50% of your list can then get about the business of winning the game.

 

/edit/

 

And save the void shield generator for the Thawk's use.  How?  If it's out of LOS of the Ctan, and none of your stuff is within range to use the shield, there's nothing to shoot at to drop the shields.  Then, when the Thawk comes on the board, the Ctan doesn't have skyfire+interceptor, so it can't torrent the shields for the pylon, hence the Thawk laughs at the pylon's D intercepting weapon fire.

[Polythemus]

BrI appreciate the responses guys. I forgot to mention in my opponents list he also had a void shield gen.

 

@ pyro - correction that would actually be the firestorm redoubt that could be taken for las intercepting purposes.

 

@march 10k - while keeping the void shield out of LOS, and picking a smaller advantageous building may keep the gen alive it would feel wrong to take one smalle than my opponent. The shields gen, likely would be placed at the back of the board to benefit in this way meaning the t-hawk has to move almost paralell to the board edge to endits move within the bubble? This means limitd or no targets for the destructor. I think perhaps more shields/fortifications are in order. And fewer bikes. Sadly imperial guard are probably best for this sort of game. However... I actually just had a brainwave! End the move within his void sheild! Problem solved. Then he has to get through his own void shield to kill me. Haha!

 

The t-hawk is only slightly less than both the pylon and ctan combined.