Mark was kind enough to try out the Necron Tomb Portal Scenario in a 1000 point Ork versus Ork game.  Since were playing this scenario we agreed that using this terrain piece was mandatory.  A pity we couldn’t find the cord to plug it in!

He ran a varied list headed up by a weirdboy, a goodly number of boyz on foot and on wheels, as well as his usually tricky stuff like kommandos, deffkoptas, buggies and so on.  (I think Mark leans more toward the spirit of Mork than Gork!)  I opposed his machinations with my “Warboss Command Platoon,” which was Warboss Hungry, his personal physician (painboy), and his chief engineer/bottle washer (big mek with a force field), and a bunch of nobz.  Of course they were all crammed into his Mobile Command Vehicle/battle wagon.  Everything else was to protect and support this.

The game was quite bloody as was expected and when we called it due to time Hungry’s forces were ahead by only a single point.  I’ve played the basic scenario a few times now with various people so I thought I’d share a few observations about it here.

• We’ve found that the Necrons aren’t a big threat in the beginning, but they grow in power as the game wears on because of the players grinding each other down while the Necrons march inexorably to war, albeit in smallish numbers.  On turn two a unit of five warriors isn’t that big a deal, but it certainly can be by turn five.
• In a way the Necrons end up being true “allies of convenience.”  Sure, they will help your side, but you have to be careful because you don’t have full control of their actions because your opponent probably controls some too.  If you both aren’t careful they can end up winning the game though this isn’t very likely.  What is more likely is one player will use the Necrons as a spoiler to win the game for himself.
• I think Necron warriors are a good choice for the NPC faction because while they aren’t particularly powerful, nothing in the game is completely immune to them and can simply ignore them.
• Blocking off specific portal entrances to try and funnel the Necrons closer to your opponent in order to manage their aggro turns out to be a viable strategy, though a double-edged one because in doing this one’s own forces have to put themselves close to the portal.
• Another interesting mid-game tactic is to maneuver one’s forces off the objectives, etc. in order to temporarily force a situation where your opponent is leading by four points, insuring any new Necrons aggro onto her.  I say “her” advisedly because one of my IG opponents was able to do this to me!
• The amount of Necron forces as constituted seems to work well for games in the 1000 – 1500 point range.  If I was playing lower than 1000 points I might use three warriors per squad instead of five, or maybe make it a random number such as D2+1.
• The general consensus is that if the players are able to block off all four portal exits, then the Necrons should not be able to come onto the board at all rather than deep striking.  I agree and I will edit the basic scenario accordingly.