Having Trouble with C'tan

[Cypher 102]

I'm not sure what to do against C'Tan.  Even back in 4th and 5th edition I've always had trouble dealing with a ranged army with a close combat god sitting in the middle of it.  It seems to be worse in 8th with the fact that I can't even shoot at them before they're up in my lines.  I play Dark Angels and have taken to playing a Land Raider Crusader filled with Deathwing Knights, an Interrogator-Chaplain, and Deathwing Ancient mainly for this and other big game hunting like Daemon Princes.  However these jokers pass out mortal wounds like they're candy so my Knights just melt away.  I honestly have no idea what to do against them while still having a list that will work with other armies as well.

[Lysere]

How many wounds does a C'Tan Have?

 

Honestly my advice for any imperial player having issues with characters that can hide is just get a vindicare or two and deal with them that way.

 

Otherwise just nuke the screen and then focus fire using your own units to screen your own beat stick until you can get it into position.

[Cypher 102]

The C'tan have 8 wounds each which keeps me from shooting them.

 

At strength 5 vs. toughness 7 and D3 damage (D6 on a 6+) the Vindicare needs to be extremely lucky to kill him in less than 4 turns.

 

Nuking the screen is easier said than done when it's a couple of 20 strong blobs of Necron Warriors.

 

As for going after him with a beat stick, the C'tan hits on 2+ and the Nightbringer wounds non-vehicles on 2+ at AP -4 and D6 damage.  The only options I'm seeing for a beat stick that can go toe to toe with a C'tan are Hammernators, Deathwing Knights, or a Dreadnought.  The C'tan tends to have mobility on those with an 8" move.  This is what I've been trying to do with limited success.  Oh yeah, spoiler alert, when you finally kill him with your beat stick there's a 50/50 chance he nukes your beat stick in return.

[Cypher 102]

Here's what I faced last game.

 

Anrakyr the Traveller

1 x Overlord

2 x Warrior squad with 20 models each

1 x Immortal squad with 10 models and Tesla Carbines

1 x Triarch Stalker with a twin heavy gauss cannon

C'tan Shard of the Nightbringer

C'tan Shard of the Deceiver

2 x Doomsday Arks

 

The Deceiver brought the two warrior blobs on a road trip with him to my front doorstep.  He got a pretty lucky series of 6s with the Arks and Stalker to get my Land Raider Crusader off the board at the beginning of his first turn.  80 gauss flayer shots later and my five Deathwing Knights, five Devastators, and five Tactical marines are off of the board.  The immortals got to use the tesla rule on 5+ thanks to My Will Be Done so there were around 18 or so hits for 10 shots.  This just added to the pain.  His Deceiver charged my Captain (which is against the Grand Illusion rules which I'll take up with him later) and killed him pretty quick.  Highlights from later turns include the Deceiver charging my Venerable Dreadnought and I was lucky that my Dreadnought was left with only two wounds left after the Deceiver was finished swinging.  The Dreadnought did what he was supposed to and brought the Deceiver down however when the he blew up that took away my Dreadnoughts last two wounds.  This left me the Nightbringer to deal with and I had nothing to deal with him.  The Interrogator-Chaplain in Terminator Armor and Deathwing Ancient charged one blob of warriors and two squads of five marines each charged the other after putting four flamers, two krak grenades and little bolter fire in.  I got re-roll on all hits and was averaging 1 or 2 warriors tipped over a turn in each squad and he brought back about 2 each turn in each.  Anrakyr came over to give the warriors an extra attack each and +1 to hit on one squad.  This ended predictably.  I was tabled on turn 3.

[Lysere]

If you have two or maybe even three vindicares they'll get at least one wound on them on average with a 50/50 shot of it being d6 damage not d3 going right through invulns and ignoring 4+ armor out right. Drop one of the Ctan first, then hit the characters and other Ctan.

 

Otherwise sounds like you got a little unlucky. Make sure you're making use of cover, screening units, etc. I'm assuming the grand illusion moves them just out of 9 like everything else. A good forward screen of scouts could mitigate that quite well.

 

You can also try and make use of transports to minimize your drops and get the first turn.

 

I have yet to play against necrons this edition so I can't give specific advice yet.

[Cypher 102]

Three Vindicares are too far down the road of list building just for this situation.  I'm wanting to find solutions in the Space Marine list, specifically Dark Angels.  I still want to run a list that will work against other armies while having some tools to be able to deal with this problem.  I don't think Vindicares are the solution.

 

Grand Illusion is 12".  I was incredibly unlucky in this game (and the two prior), however with what his list was packing I think that average luck on both sides would have resulted in me being tabled in 5 turns instead.  I also made a number of mistakes that I don't intend to repeat.  Cover is a lot harder to get for vehicles this edition.

 

I did use two Rhinos and did finish deploying first, but the local tournament scene plays that as +1 to the dice off roll rather than automatically getting first turn.

[The Unseen]

Umm... Seems like he both cheated on grand illusion, got super lucky on taking out your vehicles which necrons usually struggle with, and then you must've rolled some horrendously bad rolls to only kill 1-2 warriors in a turn. They only have a 4+ save?

[NTaW]

Do you just play Deathwing? I can definitely see them having trouble dealing with massed Warriors backed by a C'Tan (and likely a Cryptek). I play both of these armies and may be able to offer some suggestions, what's in the list you're using; literally what you listed earlier?

[ak-73]

Just place some Scouts/Rhinos/whatever between you and the C'tan to soak the mortal wounds while you hose the Necron army down. Scouts should also block any would-be chargers. Don't worry: they'll give their life for the Emperor gladly.

Edited July 21, 2017 by ak-73

[QuarterPounder]

One option might be to try moving some of your army into reserve as a beta strike. A Drop Pod with two Devestator squads or a Dev and a plasma or melta Tac squad could help provide some flexibility to your list. If he wants to counter you, it should force him to bubble-wrap 360 degrees around his Deceiver, which would mean that theoretically you would only have a single warrior squad between him and your main gun line (rough numbers, obviously).

 

Not a perfect strategy, and I don't know if The Grand Illusion requires him to come in first turn or not, but it could be an option to consider.

Edited August 1, 2017 by QuarterPounder

[Roderikum]

I like using DeathWatch Veterans with boltguns and chainswords (with Watch Masters) in a Rhino. They hunt monsters pretty well!!! and they´re not too expensive... for what they bring. Maybe you can try to deploy them in a Drop pod if you really want that bad boy dead.