For those of you unaware of the tournament I am preparing for, it is this. A 750pt 40k tournament run by our local Games Workshop (mt Gravatt), which is designed as a welcoming environment to new players and experienced ones alike. The trick with this tournament is it's force organisation. There are no Imperial Knights, no formations, not even codex-specific force organisation charts such as the Decurion or Windrider host. So here it is...
The only compulsory choice is one unit from troops. This allows for some serious flexibility and also opens the door for unorthodox armies such as Harlequins and Skitarii (both of which do not have HQ's) to legally compete.
Then there are your optional slots.
0-1 HQ
0-3 troops
0-1 Elite
0-1 Fast Attack
0-1 Heavy Support
And to close it out, you have a "wildcard" slot that can be used as either a second Elite, Fast or Heavy support.
The thing that leapt out at me with this players pack, is that you have to be pretty deliberate with your unit selection. By taking an elite unit, you are excluding all other elite units in the book unless you're willing to use your wildcard, in which case, you'll face the same problem with Fast and Heavy. So I spent a lot of time staring at the necron book trying to work out what kind of army I wanted to build. While I was spoilt for choice with good units, I kept going back to a great piece of advice I had received from another, far more experienced Necron Player.
Pick on thing and do it well.
Necrons have the units, characters and vehicles to have a strong presence in every phase (except psychic of course), but to excel at one phase in only 750 points, I would have to sacrifice strength in another. So when it came down to the crunch, I was torn between a fast, Canoptek-heavy combat army, or a relentless shooting army capable of destroying anything foolish enough to step into open ground. And yes. I went with shooting.
The tournament is not without composition, however, with lists going before a panel of judges for either approval or resubmitting. So, not knowing what I would be able to use, I just started writing lists. And all of those lists had three units that seemed to continually pop up. The first is Illuminor Szeras. This crab-like cryptek is an incredibly versatile utility character. He improves the Reanimation Protocol of all nearby models, he has a 12" leadership bonus, he increases the stats of his own unit, and lastly, he carries around a laser stick of death that only adds to my barrage of firepower. Not amazing in combat, but if he ends up in a hand to hand fight with my enemy, things have gone very wrong!
The second is the Triarch Stalker. This towering walker is well at home in a shooting list, bringing decent armour, a tank-melting Heat Ray, as well as his ever-useful targeting array which improves the Ballistic Skill of all other units when they target the unit he has already shot. Not only that, he makes a great centre piece (and las cannon magnet) for my army, looming over the troops around him.
The third unit that kept making appearances are Destroyers. 
These floating death dealers have had a significant improvement in the last book, having been barely seen at all beforehand. It's not that they were ever truly bad, it's just other things from the same slot were better. Dragon Ogre Syndrome strikes again.
But in this book, they are harder than ever to kill, and while not cheap, they do bring some great AP3 shooting to the table to handle any pesky power armour that comes my way.
And while I won't publish the list here in its entirety, it gives you a good idea of the direction I am going in.
So, what else have I been up to? Well, my High Elves have not been without love this week, having added two Bolt Throwers to the force.
The addition of these, my only war machines, I now have the ranged hitting power to scythe down light infantry with relative ease, as well as having an efficient counter to monstrous cavalry and any gigantic creature that fancies an Elf entrée. Since I put the shout out for challengers interested in battle reports, there has been more than a few interested in spilling Elf blood, so with my schedule allowing, I'll be jamming in some thousand point games which will hopefully produce an entertaining battle report or two!
What have you been working on? And would YOU like to face my elves?
Until next week,
Gabriel
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