I was going through the allies list and I was thinking about some of the more realistic constraints I have when it comes to playing Warhammer 40,000: As I'm still a student, I don't have a lot of money to spend on this hobby, I have a strong compulsion to only field models that I've painted or begun painting (a personal quirk) and finally, I started a Deathwing army in part because I knew I wouldn't have to purchase, paint and field very many models in order to play, and this also meant that it wouldn't take a long time to paint my army.
However this came at a price, which is at the center of the challenges that face my current army list. As a remember, here are those challenges:
1. Being a bullet-magnet eventually hurts: red-shirts are useful
Red-shirts. I need 'em. For this reason many people recommend Imperial Guard as allies.
2. Too slow and lack of maneuverability
I have a Need for Speed.
3. Not enough guns.
I need more boom-sticks.
As this is still a new (and small) army, I still have a long way to go (just over 800 points) before I reach that 1500 point-line. The distance is even greater (over 1300 points), before I hit the 2000 point-mark, which is my real objective. So. That leaves me with a very large number of points left to go!
So the way I see it, having the basics down (one H.Q. and two Troops choices) was the easy part. Now comes the complex (yet fun!) process of actually going through the endless choices that are available to us and, as the title suggests, today's topic is about allying a Deathwing army with Necrons. Here goes my idea:
- H.Q.: Nemesor Zahndrekh (185 points) & Vargard Obyron (160 points); 345 points
- Troops: Twenty Necron Warriors (260 points)
Total: 605
With my 605 point Deathwing army, the new total would be 1290, so I would still have another 210 points left to spend. So the question remains: how would this work? I'll go from 'bottom to top', it's just easier that way...
- Necron Warriors: Provide me with the quantity of firepower and body/red-shirt model count I need. Not only are they troops that arrive in number, but they're quality troops as well -- so while they're still a little expensive, I get what I pay for, while simultaneously taking care of two thirds of the challenges that my I face in terms of army composition. Also, they have gauss weapons, so there's no need to worry too much about tanks.
- Vargard Obyron: (1) Goes with the troops to bolster their leadership and deliver a an extra punch in close combat. (2) He also allows the unit he's with to be removed from the tabletop and deep-strike anywhere at any time, including during close combat. In addition to this, he doesn't scatter if he deep-strikes 6 inches next to Nemesor Zahndrekh. This provides my army with the mobility and speed that I need.
- Nemesor Zahndrekh: (1) Acts as a homing beacon as long as he lives. (2) If he joins a unit (such as the Necron Warriors), the unit will benefit from his Resurrection Orb (4+ to survive any wound, including Instant Death for the whole squad; that's basically a 4+ invulnerable save for my wad of Necrontyr). (3) His Adaptive Tactics combined with his Counter Tactics gives my Necron troopers an immense advantage, by providing them with a nice list of special rules for me to choose from, every turn -- and to simultaneously deny from any opposing unit! Essentially this makes my Necrons very tactical!
About Points...: I do see a weakness in all of this: Necrons are very pricey! If, for example, I were to take a much cheaper H.Q. (to be fair I've only looked at a couple of Necron H.Q.s so far), I could really save a lot of points. For this reason, I would almost certainly purchase the Necron warriors and use a proxy to test out different leaders, or combinations of leaders.
Assuming that my H.Q. idea is good, what would I do with those last 210 points? This is my guess at what could be most useful, before actually having tried any of this out. Call it my.. hypothesis of what would go well in this twisted alliance:
- Dreadnought: I've never tried using a Dreadnought, but they scare people so why not give it a trial run? I'm not sure if I'd go with a Venerable Dreadnought or not, so that I could use my spare points to purchase a Drop Pod for it (125 to 135 points)
- Nephilim Jetfighter, to watch the skies and bomb tanks (180 points)
- Six models for a Ravenwing Attack Squadron (161 points) or five Ravenwing Black Knights (210 points) because Ravenwing bikes would provide me with more mobility, speed and fire-support
Necron Goodies:
- Sixteen more Necron Warriors, because perhaps my army still needs more 'boys than toys' (208 points)
- A Catacomb Command Barge for Nemesor Zahndrekh so he could zoom around the battlefield as a homing beacon, thereby increasing the mobility of my Necron Warriors (80 points)
- Ghost Ark to provide my troop unit with a (nearly) infinite stream of warriors to replenish my ranks thanks to it's Repair Barge special rule (115 points)
- Five to six Canoptek Wraiths, because they're incredibly fast and can hold units down in close combat terminators either move in to finish the kill or take care of another enemy unit (about 210 points)
- A Monolith, because it frightens people, is a great distraction and an adequate bullet magnet (200 points)
What do you think about this odd alliance between Necron and Deathwing? What do you think about my H.Q. and Troop choices?
However this came at a price, which is at the center of the challenges that face my current army list. As a remember, here are those challenges:
1. Being a bullet-magnet eventually hurts: red-shirts are useful
Red-shirts. I need 'em. For this reason many people recommend Imperial Guard as allies.
2. Too slow and lack of maneuverability
I have a Need for Speed.
3. Not enough guns.
I need more boom-sticks.
As this is still a new (and small) army, I still have a long way to go (just over 800 points) before I reach that 1500 point-line. The distance is even greater (over 1300 points), before I hit the 2000 point-mark, which is my real objective. So. That leaves me with a very large number of points left to go!
So the way I see it, having the basics down (one H.Q. and two Troops choices) was the easy part. Now comes the complex (yet fun!) process of actually going through the endless choices that are available to us and, as the title suggests, today's topic is about allying a Deathwing army with Necrons. Here goes my idea:
Allies: Necrons
Why Necrons?
They count as Desperate Allies! That means that (1) all their powers that affect enemy models will affect the Deathwing, (2) they won't profit from the synergy of choosing a allies that are Battle Brothers and (3) why the hell would Dark Angels (especially an army that looks like they're supposed to represent the Angels of Vengeance, who hate xenos) fight alongside Necrons?
The answer to these questions are:
1. It's true, the Necrons have a lot of very cool powers that have an impact on the tabletop as a whole and large swathes of the opponent's army, so yes -- this will limit my H.Q. to some degree. Nevertheless I feel that the advantages of fielding Necrons as allies to a Deathwing army, outweighs this cost.
2. This is true, but not necessarily a problem. First of all, I only have to keep my Necrons and Space Marines apart by 6 inches if I want to completely avoid any risk of tripping over my own shoe-laces. Second, there is an element of confusion and arguably of surprise that comes with choosing alliances that few would expect. Finally, the truth of the matter is that the Necron army is capable of filling in all three of the major challenges I've identified with fielding my Deathwing army. This is the central point, and is the point that outweights the price I would have to pay for the lack of synergy within the alliance.
3. This is a fluff question, but deserves to be tackled, since Warhammer 40,000 exists in our hearts and minds as much as a strategy game, as a story and fantasy world galaxy. So here's the general plot line I'd be going with: the Dark Angels and Necrons were fighting each other, when x-army arrived and totally threatened to obliterate both armies. However they decided to ally up just so they could survive to fight another day..
.. all this being said, I don't doubt that I'll probably have a lot of fun forging a much more elaborate narrative at a later time! ;)
Now onto the army list itself and what I would field...
- Troops: Twenty Necron Warriors (260 points)
Total: 605
With my 605 point Deathwing army, the new total would be 1290, so I would still have another 210 points left to spend. So the question remains: how would this work? I'll go from 'bottom to top', it's just easier that way...
- Necron Warriors: Provide me with the quantity of firepower and body/red-shirt model count I need. Not only are they troops that arrive in number, but they're quality troops as well -- so while they're still a little expensive, I get what I pay for, while simultaneously taking care of two thirds of the challenges that my I face in terms of army composition. Also, they have gauss weapons, so there's no need to worry too much about tanks.
(Necron Character Breakdown: Nemesor [&] Obyron)
- Vargard Obyron: (1) Goes with the troops to bolster their leadership and deliver a an extra punch in close combat. (2) He also allows the unit he's with to be removed from the tabletop and deep-strike anywhere at any time, including during close combat. In addition to this, he doesn't scatter if he deep-strikes 6 inches next to Nemesor Zahndrekh. This provides my army with the mobility and speed that I need.
- Nemesor Zahndrekh: (1) Acts as a homing beacon as long as he lives. (2) If he joins a unit (such as the Necron Warriors), the unit will benefit from his Resurrection Orb (4+ to survive any wound, including Instant Death for the whole squad; that's basically a 4+ invulnerable save for my wad of Necrontyr). (3) His Adaptive Tactics combined with his Counter Tactics gives my Necron troopers an immense advantage, by providing them with a nice list of special rules for me to choose from, every turn -- and to simultaneously deny from any opposing unit! Essentially this makes my Necrons very tactical!
About Points...: I do see a weakness in all of this: Necrons are very pricey! If, for example, I were to take a much cheaper H.Q. (to be fair I've only looked at a couple of Necron H.Q.s so far), I could really save a lot of points. For this reason, I would almost certainly purchase the Necron warriors and use a proxy to test out different leaders, or combinations of leaders.
Assuming that my H.Q. idea is good, what would I do with those last 210 points? This is my guess at what could be most useful, before actually having tried any of this out. Call it my.. hypothesis of what would go well in this twisted alliance:
- Dreadnought: I've never tried using a Dreadnought, but they scare people so why not give it a trial run? I'm not sure if I'd go with a Venerable Dreadnought or not, so that I could use my spare points to purchase a Drop Pod for it (125 to 135 points)
- Nephilim Jetfighter, to watch the skies and bomb tanks (180 points)
- Six models for a Ravenwing Attack Squadron (161 points) or five Ravenwing Black Knights (210 points) because Ravenwing bikes would provide me with more mobility, speed and fire-support
Necron Goodies:
- Sixteen more Necron Warriors, because perhaps my army still needs more 'boys than toys' (208 points)
- A Catacomb Command Barge for Nemesor Zahndrekh so he could zoom around the battlefield as a homing beacon, thereby increasing the mobility of my Necron Warriors (80 points)
- Ghost Ark to provide my troop unit with a (nearly) infinite stream of warriors to replenish my ranks thanks to it's Repair Barge special rule (115 points)
- Five to six Canoptek Wraiths, because they're incredibly fast and can hold units down in close combat terminators either move in to finish the kill or take care of another enemy unit (about 210 points)
- A Monolith, because it frightens people, is a great distraction and an adequate bullet magnet (200 points)
What do you think about this odd alliance between Necron and Deathwing? What do you think about my H.Q. and Troop choices?
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