CSM Lash/Obli spam @ tourney

(right-click -> display image or whatever it is in english; than you'll see the bigger picture)

Hi,
So I attended a 1750 points tourney during Easter with a pretty basic Lash/Obli spam list. I used sorcerers for my lashes (prefer them over daemon princes because they are easier to hide in a rhino). I scored 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss placing me 7th out of 24. I'm pretty happy but the main thought I had after tournament was the over price of the CSM list. It might be just that I was upgrading my units but when looking at any of the IG armies and than looking at my army, it looked like 2000 points of guard and 1500 points of CSM. Anyway I had a blast, and who knows what I'll be doing in the futuree, maybe I'll try using the Space Wolf codex, it seems nice, but people seem to dread the lash/obli list a lot, maybe even too much.

What makes mechanised so God damn good?

Hi,
Ron from FTW asked me and a couple of other FTW members our insight on mechanised armies so here we go.

Atleast here in Finland we've seen a big shift into mechanised armies. Almost any army that can have transports is fielding them. For me it started when I stumbled upon a blog about Blood Angels and a blogger called Jawaballs. He wrote about using assault marine squads in rhinos so that they never leave their transports. He really opened up the concept to me personally, and this is where the Templars overhead come along. I was in the middle of making a Templar army and I realised that they had the old smoke launchers. This along with the new damage chart made the rhino's indestructable for a turn.

It is exactly this damage chart that has made transports worth it in 5th ed. In 4th ordnance would just blow everything apart, and the transports would become death traps. Plus there was entanglement and the old emergency disembarkation, but suddenly in 5th ed APCs became what they were meant to be, an extra turn of safety fot the men within it.

This plus the drop in the prices of transports point-wise has really made them worth it. IG don't even need to leave their transports, as up to 5 men can shoot out of a chimera, and it doesnt count as open topped.

Also worth noting is that cover saves for vehicles have greatly nerfed long range anti tank fire. 50% doing nothing IS a big deal. I dare not guess what the future holds, maybe mech will stop being the main trend, but with Spearhead just around the corner, it really doesnt seem like it.

5th edition is more of a Tank Battle game, where you have a limited number of unit's you must keep alive to hold objectives at the end of the game, meanwhile manouvring a dozen tanks trying to kill off your opponents scoring units. I'm not going to complain, but it does cut down on the visual side of gaming. All armies look the same now, just tons of Rhinos.

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