[Antikaratekid]

Hey guys! I have heard about this combo. Have any of you used it? Is it REALLY viable? Any experiences using it? How exactly do you go about it and would it compliment a fast offensive necron army?

 

[jONESIE]

Hey Chief!

Compliment a fast aggressive army it would :rofl

Main use would be for non-Marine opponents with lame armour, like Tyranid Gaunts, or Imperial Guardsmen. Against Marines, you may want to use the Monolith to help repair the Necrons whilst the Lightning Field tagged a few extra kills . This way, you will more easily feel the effect of the bounced wounds as it's in conjunction with you losing fewer Necrons.

The other thing is positioning. I like to imagine the Lightning Field is usually placed on a Destroyer Lord, so he can get around to use this wargear. A sneaky tactic is to attach him to Scarabs or Wraiths just before charging (attatch). The Scarabs can soak up the wounds and pump out the Field hits.


Usually though, it's something I leave at home, instead favouring the Gaze of Flame- less attacks instead of bouncing wounds is usually more reliable, especially when you start to think about all the dice those nasty Chaos or Nid HTH units can roll...

 

[Quick]

The Bug-Zapper: Necron Lord + Destroyer Body + Lightning Field, escorted by 8-10 Scarab Swarms.

I have never used it in competitive (read: tournament) settings because of its relative ineffectiveness against Power Armor. Against Orks, Tyranid Hordes, Eldar, Imperial Guard, etc etc, it's quite effective. It's very fast and is great for plowing through rank and file units. Then, by the end of the game, when all the Scarabs are dead, the remaining Lord can go and hunt lone characters.

Again, though, in tournament settings, one is better off bringing a 'take-on-all-comers' list, which naturally means a 'take-on-all-Marines' list.

Frequently, its effectiveness is based on the element of surprise. Every opponent, no matter how often they've played assault-Necrons, always expects Necrons to use the same hit-and-fade short-range fire tactics, with every unit acting more or less independent of the others. When the Necrons jump right on top of them, they get flustered.

 

[Phoenix]

Ive never used it at all to be onest, and i dont really rcal seeing it in many, if any, lists on here. Personally I think it seems quite a pointless and suicidal tactic. They Scarabs are fairly expendable, but having the Lord with them just to take damage is a bit risky i think.

Also the returned hits are pretty weak, and Saves are still allowed. If the enemy does enough wounds to you i suppose you may do a few in return, but suicide isnt my thing.

I think id far rather spend the points and kill the enemy the old fashioned way, with Lord + Wraiths

 

[Katie Drake]

One thing I learned from a White Dwarf article (gasp! Actually learning something from White Dwarf!) is to put a Lord with a Lightning Field into a unit of Flayed Ones when fighting things like Tyranids or Orks. The Flayed Ones themselves have a decent number of high (for a Necron) Initative Attacks and when combined with the Lightning Field can do real damage.

 

[Phoenix]

Actually, as they have WBB thats not such a bad idea i guess. They will be dying anyway (rather than needlesssly, like the Scarabs) so may as well try and take something down with them. And if they get back up again, they get another chance at a final zap!

 

[Katie Drake]

Actually, as they have WBB thats not such a bad idea i guess. They will be dying anyway (rather than needlesssly, like the Scarabs) so may as well try and take something down with them. And if they get back up again, they get another chance at a final zap!

Makes it that much harder to Phase Out, too. ^^

 

[Quick]

Of course, the downside of that is thus:
the Lightning Field is most effective against squishy things. Squishy things generally have low Leadership. Low Leadership means succumbing to the Flayed Ones' Terrifying Visage and not hitting the Flayed Ones very well. Ergo, no Lightning Strikes and the Lightning Field is wasted.

I tried it a few times, and I never got it to work effectively. Of course, the things I attacked with Flayed Ones had already had their Leadship modified by Pariahs, the Gaze of Flame, and the Nightmare Shroud, etc etc.

 

[kore]

The main downside of this tactic is that the rate of return is always lower. LF only works on unsaved wounds per the FAQ. LF is dependent on taking wounds. The only time I would be satisfied doing this is in the true bug-zapper form, using Scarabs. The logic behind this is that the low Initiative of the Scarab may prevent it from even getting an attack, but with LF the unsaved wound actually does something. Using LF with FOs requires that they go down for the count, hoping for WBB. But their MEq Initiative makes them good in combat and, as it was already mentioned, FOs have Terrifying Visage to prevent hits from taking place thus working against the LF.

I say Scarabs only, and never against MEqs.

 

[kalender]

Well, I'm a nid player, and I've seen it used quite effectively... against me! Then, I must say that it works due to our low saves, but it wouldn't be worth it against a MEQ army.

It does wonders on all small (non-MC) bugs, since the strength is enough to wound and our saves are crappy. In fact, I remember charging with a lot of (expensive) genestealers and dying due to the LField. (and the amount of expendable wounds provided by the scarabs). They got their points back (by far) and were quite useful since prevented a ton of rending hits on the warriors (which can deny WBB).

Now that I know how it works I would try to prevent it from happening again, but it was a nasty surprise that first time, and given the mobility of the scarabs, I'm not that sure that I can fully prevent it if I face it again (I'll try to wither the swarms with fire).

 

[Arandmoor]

One thing I learned from a White Dwarf article (gasp! Actually learning something from White Dwarf!) is to put a Lord with a Lightning Field into a unit of Flayed Ones when fighting things like Tyranids or Orks. The Flayed Ones themselves have a decent number of high (for a Necron) Initative Attacks and when combined with the Lightning Field can do real damage.

I remember that article. I was so excited because it was the first necron article in WD since their release!

However...that article basicly made me stop buying WD because of that very tactical suggestion.

Why?

Because the necron FAQ states (at least it did then...it's been a while) that the Lightning Field only causes a return wound if and only if the attacked Necron model fails it's armor save.

Seeing as this goes directly against what is suggested in WD, you would figure that the WD authors would, at the very least, review their own FAQs before publishing a tactics article.

But anyway, I'm not going to spend an entire post complaining about WD's treatment of the Necron army.

Unfortunately, IMO the Lightning field isn't worth taking except as a gimic simply because it doesn't actually do anything until after you lose a model and then the attack's strength is too low to really be useful.

Still...it can definetly make games interesting.

 

[Quick]

To be fair, though, I can't really remember a truly insightful tactical discussion in White Dwarf since...um...well, I'm sure it's happened before.

Keep in mind, though, why we really buy White Dwarf...oh, geez. I'm not making any points with GW here, am I?

 

[Arandmoor]

Their marine articles are usually spot on.

...I don't think any sarcasm is needed.

 

[Katie Drake]

*chuckles* Okay guys, let's get back on topic.