About 4 months after the rest of the internets I have finally got round to playing my first game of sixth edition. Unfortunately it was at rather short notice. So I rocked up at Ginges house today and borrowed his Ork army for my first game of sixth against his necrons. Essentially playing Orks for the first time against an army I have never played against using a game system I haven't yet played.... so didn't expect to win, however I wasn't expecting things to go quite as badly as it did. So I'm going to use this more of a run down on my feelings of sixth rather then a battle report.
Mission and Deployment
We ended up playing Big guns never Tire with Vanguard deployment type. Not necessarily my ideal deployment type for this game but no matter. I won the roll for deployment and decided to go first. I was hoping to be able to hit Ginges' lines without having to take too many turns of shooting. Didn't quite work out that way though.
Charging:
I think that charging has become a far bigger risk now in 6th edition. With random charge length and overwatch shooting. Frankly, charging large squads in cover with a squad of Orks is more or less pointless. I lost so many models from overwatch fire, by the time I had struck last in combat, the orks were causing less casualties then the crons. Removal of the nearest models doesn't help this either, as trying to thin a squad out prior to charging with shooting just means you have to charge further, making reaching combat less likely, while still having to face a round of overwatch shooting (even if you don't roll high enough to reach combat!?!). This is made even worse in the case of necrons with the nearest models dying, then making their ressurection rolls and resurfacing further away from the assaulting squad, while still being close enough to provide rapid fire overwatch shots.
Challenges:
Frankly, probably the worst army to face challenges against, mind shackle scarabs vs a low leadership army are brutal. Meaning you have a choice between not participating in a combat with your hard as nails Ork, or killing yourself in the second round of combat. Though even if you challenge in the first round of combat (negating the MSS) chances are the lord will just stand back up and either kill you or get you to kill yourself the following combat. Not exactly the cinematic effect GW were aiming for in this case.
Hull Points:
Necrons strip hull points from tanks with grim efficiency, half a squad of shooting would have been slagging land raiders with Ginges rolling in this game. No vehicle survived past the first thing to shoot at it. Frankly it's pointless even talking about it.
Aircraft:
Proved to be entirely ineffective this game, with two dakka jets putting about 18 wounds on a squad of necrons (though Ginge had cleverly placed his lord with 2+ save closest to where they would enter play) meaning he lost about 2 necrons and a single wound on his lord (which the 2 crons just resurrected). When shot at by Ginges annihilation barges they just dropped out the sky. Although needing sixes to hit, with twin linked weapons that score 3 hits for every six rolled, and me failing all the jink saves, well they didn't last long. Against armies that don't have such efficient AA weapons, I can see flyers being hugely effective. Though my inexperience proved to be there downfall more then anything though.
Overall:
I quite enjoyed my first game of sixth, frankly given the circumstances of this game (and Ginges' insanely lucky rolling, I think he probably won't roll another 6 for a good few months) despite it being a complete whitewash I still had a fun time.
I think the game overall has shifted to more of a shooting game, even more then 5th. Which is going to be a pain for my Tyranids (though the loss of no retreat wounds, means they should last twice as long in combat).
I think I will have to try out my Tyranids and Tau next.
I take it you started this post a while back, given I don't recall seeing you today :oP
ReplyDeleteYou were always going to be up against it in this game given I know Orks quite well so knew what to hit first, which allowed me to counter you in ways that caused you the concerns listed above.
Charging and overwatch - yes dieing and getting back up within rapid fire range but further away than before is a particularly cruel necron trick, so you won't come across it too often. But even without that the nearest model still usually dies first (unless they're using a character to screen the unit, in which case they'll probably try to bounce the wounds onto others if things start to go pear shaped) If you are set to charge a unit in cover, I'd recommend not shooting them. With my orks I've typically been setting up what I want to charge, and then having any fire support shoot at things I have no intention of charging so as to make sure I don't mess things up for myself.
Hull Points - in my first game of sixth with necrons I managed, with 40 warriors over 5 turns, to do 8 hp damage with gauss. Against you on that looted wagon, the first half of the shots from 20 warriors did 5hp, killing it outright. That was damn lucky. Though statistically I should have killed it with the entire squads shooting anyway. Ironically it seems to be back to normal, the same trick just this week putting a mere 3 hp on a land raider redeemer whilst supporting fire from a second squad did nothing. I was very fortunate the land raider failed it's dangerous terrain roll or my deep striking squad would have been toast.
Aircraft - normally I find these to be excellent fire support for my ork army and the fact that not many people can deal with aircraft right now means they tend to coast around at will with relative impunity. KNOWING the guns on these things could slaughter my warriors I put my lord front and centre to soak up the punishment as much as possible. A little more experience on your part may have had you choose a different target or come at them from the opposite half of the board moving flat out to get a side shot at the unit in order to butcher them without hitting the lord. But that is just my experience with the two armies in question there. Though yes it is nice that with tesla weapons if you DO hit you hit GOOOOD :oP
Glad you enjoyed the game, from my experience your tyranids will do fine as the little gribblies won't be dying to fearless wounds and the big gribblies can often (far too often for my liking) challenge the only viable threat in a unit and remain impervious to harm.
Oh and the MSS didn't effect the first round of combat usually because my lords are further back in the unit to avoid getting shot... if they make contact then the MSS takes effect. But as it's at the start of combat before challenges are declared it probably won't hit the character fighting. And given most lords are 1 wound upgrades effectively, it's worth taking the chance. If they get up they're probably going to make you hit yourself, but if they DON'T get up (and it's 50/50 remember) then you've just made my unit a lot easier to kill, as henceforth I'm getting up on 5s instead of 4s, not to mention taking out my MSS and warscythe. There are a lot of good eggs in that basket, and i'll be honest most times I wouldn't accept the challenge anyway. The only reason I did in our game was because you were down to one model and I hoped to kill you before you struck me.
ReplyDeleteI think necrons have definitely been written with sixth edition in mind. Things like MSS which were annoying in 5th are brutal in 6th. Same goes for tesla weapons and snap firing. I guess a little more experience would have helped in this game. But oh well, i look forward to the next games.
ReplyDeleteTrue I think they were. But Orks most definitely weren't and I've been having a good run of form with those guys too. Like I said it's just down to figuring out what works best, get some more games in you'll soon get better.
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