Counter Offensive 3: Necrons
Going into CO3, Yblis’ Bzrkx had yet to win their first game: shameful, but true. Both battles I fought that weekend were at 2000 points.

Yblis' Bzrkx vs. Death Guard
This was an Omega-level “Take and Hold” vs. Brian Somerville (brother of ladies’ man Mike Somerville) and his Nurgle Marines. Brian and I had clashed the year before, with my Dark Eldar crushing his. Now, it was time to see if the Excellent Younger Somerville could exact some Cruel Revenge.

As the Escalation rule was in effect and all of Brian’s army was mechanized, the game started with Centurion Lucifer, the Pariahs, and two Warrior Squads on the board: my Destroyers and the Monolith were in Reserve, along with my other two Warrior Squads, which I planned to deploy through the Monolith. On the first turn, I advanced my forces towards the center of the board, intent on taking the objective. 

On Turn 2, my Destroyers came on, as did two squads of Rhino-mounted Plague Marines. As no one was in range, we quickly moved on to Turn 3. The Monolith did not arrive, but Brian’s Land Raider, his Chosen, and another Rhino-full of Plague Marines rumbled onto the scene. Brian’s Gooey Guys combined their fire to drop four Warriors from Unit 2.1.; those four then all failed their “We’ll Be Back” rolls.

Hmmm.

On Turn 4, the Monolith Deep Struck near Brian’s lines, deploying Unit 2.4. Centurion Lucifer used his Veil of Darkness near the lead Plague Marines. ‘Bot firing shook the Land Raider, dropped three Nurgle Marines from the lead squad and one from another. That was, to say the least, less than impressive.

On Brian’s turn, his last unit of P. Marines came on, as did three units of Plague Bearers, summoned off said Pee Marines. Brian then showed me what impressive firing should be like, dropping two Warriors each from Unit 2.1 and Unit 2.2, eleven Warriors from Unit 2.4, all four Destroyers, and destroying the Monolith. 

The Monolith went down because the shaken Land Raider used its daemonic equivalent of the Machine Spirit to fire a single lascannon: needing a “5” to hit, Brian rolled a “6.” He then rolled a “6” to penetrate, a “4” to destroy the vehicle. The Monolith’s flaming end also took out Unit 2.3, who had meant to deploy through the Monolith but were now unable to, and thus, according to Codex: Toasters, counted as destroyed. One “Hail Mary” shot, 505 Victory Points racked up. At that point in the game, I may have lost control of myself and said something along the lines of “Shucks!” or “Gee willikers!” or even “Gosh darn it!” Or something like that.

In the Assault Phase, Plague Bearers swarmed my Toasters. The Pariahs lost three and took down three daemons. Warrior Unit 2.1 lost four, killed no daemons, broke, and was run down. Unit 2.2 lost 1 one and killed one daemon. The Chosen struck down four from Unit 2.4., temporarily taking out that squad.

On Turn 5, one Warrior from Unit 2.2 and seven from 2.4 made their “WBB” rolls. The seven from 2.4 joined up with Centurion Lucifer and 2.2, the sole surviving squad, and all of them used the Veil to escape to the center of the board, in cover. The Pariahs lost one of their own but hacked down the last three Plague Bearers they were fighting, then consolidated into the Chosen.

Brian’s Greater Daemon emerged from the Chosen on his turn—any faint hope I had vanished upon his arrival. Shooting took down four of my Warriors, and the Daemon and the Chosen nerfed the rest of my Pariahs. The only bright spot was that charging Plague Bearers only took down one Warrior and lost four of their own. Ha! Take that!

On my last turn, three of my Bzrkx made their WBB and I attempted to Veil my remaining ‘bots behind the Land Raider and zap it from behind, hopefully nuking it and eluding the clutches of the daemons. Alas, my scatter roll went wide and the rest of my army went off the table.

Outcome: Death Guard win (2346 Victory Points to 382 Victory Points)

Yblis' Bzrkx vs. Grey Knights
That game against Brian had gone, shall we say, not well. My next game (a Gamma-level “Seek and Destroy”) was also against a fellow my Dark Eldar had smacked around: Richard and his all-Grey Knight Daemonhunter force. I was determined to apply the lessons I had so grievously learned at Brian’s hands. 

I was forced to deploy behind a fairly large building that seriously moogied with my lines of fire, but I decided to use the Veil and the Monolith’s portal ability to remedy that situation. I lined up in several rows of Warriors and waited for the Knights to come to me. 

On Richard’s first turn, his army advanced, the Dreadnought’s assault cannon taking out one Warrior. I responded by having the Monolith hover over the building and unleashing a particle whip that took out four GK’s. My Destroyers and Warrior Unit 2.3 combined to drop two more Marines—ordinarily, these are not whopping numbers, but few of my guns were in range and besides, every Grey Knight down is a big loss to the DH army.

On Turn 2, the GK Terminators and a power-armored GK squad teleported onto the board, firing and killing two Destroyers. The Dread dropped two Pariahs and the other Knights took down a Warrior from Unit 2.1. No matter. My Pariahs fired on the powered-armored Knights that had just Deep Struck, killing two of them, then charged, killing three more and losing none of their own. The two remaining Destroyers blew the assault cannon off the Dread. Using the Veil and the Monolith portal as I had intended, Warriors moved into position and gunned down three Terminators. 

Turn 3 saw the Grey Knight Grandmaster teleport into the fracas. Knights fired on Warrior Unit 2.4, killing four of them, then charged and killed all but one of them. Three more Knights fell to the Pariahs, but three Pariahs also went down. On my turn, ‘bot shooting took down quite a few Knights; I don’t recall an exact number, but I do know that the Grandmaster was NOT one of them: he saved against 10 Wounds. The Pariahs were finally hacked down. I tried to teleport Centurion Lucifer and some nearby Warriors into better firing positions, but scattered badly and wound up behind the big building—nertz!

Grey Knight shooting took down four Toasters on Turn 4. The Grandmaster and the surviving Terminators assaulted Warrior Unit 2.2, killing three of them. Meanwhile, my firing wiped out two squads of powered-armored Knights. 

Turns 5 and 6 were mostly mop-up: while the Knights were able to inflict some hits, it was way too little, too late. The Necrons simply had too many guys left on the board.

Outcome: Yblis’ Bzrkx win (2557 Victory Points to 793 Victory Points)

Analysis
Yowza! Brian sure gave me a whuppin’ in Game 1, and deservedly so: I should have known better than to rush to meet a very tough enemy with lots of short-range weapons and beastly assault capabilities. I should have stayed back, sniped with my superior range, let him come to me, and then use Veil and the Monolith to escape hand-to-hand silliness. Which is what I did against Richard in Game 2, against his army of tough guys with short-range weapons and beastly assault capabilities. The results were dramatically different, with the Bzrkx snagging their first win—a big one, to boot.

While I enjoyed playing the Pariahs (and received a few favorable comments on the models), there many good reasons not to use them:

• They are expensive, at 36 points each
• They have one Attack, which pales in comparison to other assault units
• As they are not “Necrons,” they do not count towards Phase Out totals
• As they are not “Necrons,” they are not able to use the “We’ll Be Back” rule (with or without the Resurrection Orb)
• As they are not “Necrons,” they may not be teleported by a Veil of Darkness or the Monolith portal

Above: My Pariahs, using old VOID miniatures. I'd like them a lot more if Pariahs were "Necrons"

In their favor, Strength 5, Toughness 5, the 3+ Save, and the combination warscythe/gauss blaster are all good. But compared to other Elite Necron units? Not worth it. If you’re looking for shootiness, go for Immortals; if you’re looking for close combat ability, go for Flayed Ones. You might see my Pariahs in future batreps, but don’t hold your breath waiting. 

Related Pages 
Counter Offensive
Countdown to Counter Offensive 2
Counter Offensive 2

Posted September 2006
 

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