Unification Wars GT: My List and Generalized Performance

So, if you have been following my activities lately, you will know that I attended Dropzone Games' first GT, the Unification Wars, which was a 1999 point event running a mix of book and non-standard missions. The missions were multi-tiered and allowed for more than one way to win any game. The system was a Swiss win/loss with a 2.5 hour round limit and when "dice down" is called, dice go down. I initially wanted to run a Nemesor/ Obyron list with some clever tricks, but after thinking about how I haven't had a ton of experience with the list, I opted to go with something a little more familiar to me. That being said, I ran my Bargecrons with air and assault elements. Here is the list and my thoughts on the performance:

Here is the list (I don't have armybuilder on the computer I am using, so I am going to generalize a lot):

Scythe overlord on Barge - mindshackle and the works
Scythe overlord on Barge - mindshackle

Court 1: Despairtek w/ veil
Court 2: Pulsetek

5x Warriors in Scythe
10x Warriors in scythe
10x Guass Immortals in Scythe
9x Tesla Immortals

6x Wraiths, 3 coils
10x Scarabs

Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge

The idea was simple: take plenty of armor, hope for low amounts of opponent anti-tank, profit! Also, utilize scarabs and wraiths to soak fire and tarpit enemy assault units, use the pulse to add to the first turn boost protection of the Lords on barges, Use gun barges to dakka down tanks, infantry, flyers and take first blood, use despairtek to take either linebreaker or unguarded objectives, Lords open things, harass and provide linebreaker, troops add dakka and scoring.

Overall, I finished high in the rankings and was happy with the performance of the list and my generalship, though there are some things I noticed over the course of 5 games that I would have changed.

The lords were good overall, allowing me to threaten the enemy backfield turn two with little reprisal. They are great for hitting units where mindshackle scarabs make a big difference in the amount of incoming hits (and hits going toward the opponent as well). There were three games where I got into the backfield and tore up weak units like scouts, 5-man plaguebearers and pathfinders and many times where I was able to keep hard units off my troops with a quick response from a lord.  I think going forward, I may use one barge lord as it seemed I could have used a little more support in my actual troop units.

The gun barges were superstars. Not every mission had first blood as a criteria, but I took first blood in every game regardless. The two times I faced a Quad gun, I killed it on the first volley, then killed the unit on the quad gun (fire dragons and platoon command squad in this case). I also rarely shot fliers with my fliers. I actually killed a total of 1 Storm Raven, 3 Heldrakes and 1 vendetta over the course of the tournament with my barges. They are able to maneuver on the ground and still snapfire their tesla destructor, which, being twin linked, likes to roll sixes, which in turn yield extra hits! Knowing that my ground forces could handle fliers let me use my scythes to pressure other units, while delivering troops exactly where I wanted them. As always, barges are an excellent choice.

The wraiths were nice, but I honestly need to be a little less aggressive in most cases with them. I failed four charges over the course of the tourney (2 in the same game). I think I need to hang back a little more and wait for the right time to strike instead of going for 8" charges (though two of those failed charges were due to a 3" charge roll). I also really missed the destroyer lord that usually hangs out with the wraiths in my lists. He is a powerful anchor for them, but taking him out allowed me to add another threat to the board.

The scarabs did what scarabs do - they got shot as much as possible the first turn of each game. In only one case did my opponent not focus as much fire as he could at the scarabs. In that case, the scarabs ventured across the board, killed a batch of guardsmen and then got killed by two hell turkeys! In the other four games, opponents wanted to shoot them with high strength weapons, which was great because it took the heat off the rest of the army ... would I invest 150 points into them again? I don't know, I might have gone back and freed up points somehow for another wraith squad.

This brings me to the teks - The despair tek was great in that he allowed me to pull units toward the tesla crons (which is where he went for four games) and then deep strike them away as assault units pressed in! He also managed to keep getting up with everliving and even managed to get some kills with his flamer. All in all a good veiltek is a good buy for most armies.

The pulsetek, however, proved mostly useless. The one game where he might have been useful, I got the night attacker trait and my barges shook off lascannon fire anyway ... so, his points will go back into the two lightning teks they used to be anyway! I would have loved two lightning teks over this guy any game I played in this tourney!

Finally, this brings me to the troops. Five warriors in a scythe are simply a scoring unit, though they did shoot and assault and beat up some zombies (I'm proud of you little guys). The 10 man warrior squad proved to be a tipping point in many cases, allowing just enough firepower (either alone or added to another unit's fire) to take whole units off the board or render them entirely useless. The guass immortals were a beast unit in every game. Dropping into the backfield with S5 rapid fire Guass is more than most things can handle and carefully applying them in the right places, along with the warriors, would usually crumble a flank or a backfield completley. The Tesla immortals did very well, stripping fliers of hull points with their 6's to hit, adding some backfield fire and in one case, rolling 6 6's in an overwatch to create 18 hits in overwatch!

Last but not least were the night scythes. The added firepower of the scythes was nice to have, but the real value of the scythe is the ability to drop troops pretty much anywhere they are needed and then take them away. This is the true value of the scythe. My thoughts on Necron air? I prefer to have a mix of forces, both able to handle the ground and air combat threats while staying flexible and mobile. Also, barges beat up flyers, especially Necrons ones!

Those are my thoughts on the list I took. I wish I could have gotten a little more paint on the army and had a display board (not that my realistic plywood isn't the bomb), but it is what it is. I plan to follow this post up with some showcases on the beautiful armies that showed up, so be on the look out for that!

For more coverage of the Unification Wars, including winners, prizes and when the next events will be, check out the Dropzone Games site or their facebook. With that said, I want to thank the whole crew there for running a great event, providing an awesome swag bag and having possibly the greatest gamestore/ event space in the US!