Necron Tomb Spyders Tactica

Hi,
recently on one of the jawaballs and Fritz live shows Fritz said that tomb spyders are worthless. I've heard/read him say it before, and I thought it was about time I share my thoughts.

Yes the tomb spyder isnt the CC monster you might hope for, and speed bumping with one is risky, but in an army where everything is overcosted (well maybe minus the monolith) 55 points for a "regenerating" t6 monstrous creature is really good.

Basic theory:

I think everybody knows that when using a tomb spyder u wanna make one scarab swarm and place that in cover, giving the tomb spyder a cover save, but maintaining the t6. This way the tomb spyders can potentially take a lot of ranged damage. This is where the tomb spyder is at
it's best. JUst make sure the tomb spyder is outside the 24" bubble. This way he'll probably be shooting 1-2 shots per squad at them, and you can stack wounds on the scarab.

Whenever I play with my 1500 points list, people really tend to concentrate fire on them. This is good since my army is very fragile at 1500 points and I want the deciever up and running. You could say that the tomb spyder is more of a terror tactic than an actual asset. "Woah you have a 55 point s6 t6 monstrous creature... oh neat he has his own regenerating tyrant guard".

When you need to hold you're opponent back for a turn feeding him tomb spyders is going to be a lot cheaper than any lords/warrior groups etc. 55 points really is cheap.


Extra monolith portal

Also another use (although a lot trickier) is using the rule, which allows you to place the warriors from wbb anywhere on the table, if there is no unit within 6". Say you deploy one squad of warriors on you're left flank, when you're main capstone formation is on your right. A smart player will first target the tomb spyder 12" away from the warriors, but in that case you can always use the portal, or hide the spyder. However if he decides to alphastrike the warriors, there's nothing sweeter than the look on your opponents face when he realises he was actually doing you a favour, letting you move all those precious phase out numbers right back into the heart of the cap stone formation.

If you are running destroyer groups, and they always get shot to pieces before you can wbb, try buying tomb spyders to go along with them. The tomb spyders attract fire and when a destroyer squad is completely wiped out they can use the tomb spyder to switch to your other destroyer group.

How have I used them in my army:

Although the tomb spyders are tricky, I really think they are more than the 55 point investment. I have to admit, although I've taken a lot of ideas from Fritz and his tactics, my own 1500 point army, has lost some of the main elements found in Fritz's builds. Destroyers replace by scarab swarms etc.. It has less firepower, but careful use of the monolith crystal and the deciever give you surprising lot of anti tank and infantry capability. This is why I have grown a need for tomb spyders, they add some much needed speed bumps and fire magnets, further protecting my warrior core. That is also why I have a destroyer lord, even though I have no destroyers. The increased mobility allows me to tie units up and I often use him in synergy with one of the tombspyders. Two t6 monsters is a lot harder, especially when one of them will just come back up again on a 4+.


There it is all bunched up in a couple of words (I've never been such a good writer) hope you guys can make sense out of it.

My 1500 points list

Deciever		300
		300
Lord		100
Destroyer body		30
Ressurection Orb		40
Warscythe		10
phylactery		15
chronometron		10
		205
10 Necron Warriors		180
		180
10 Necron Warriors		180
		180
10 Necron Warriors		180
		180
3 Scarabs		36
		36
3 Scarabs		36
		36
3 Scarabs		36
		36
Monolith		235
		235
2 Tomb Spyder		110
particle projector		0
		110
					Total:	1498