Races & Balance Guide
Keep an eye out on sneaky Fire Dragons rushing in round the back to destroy your gens.Its even more frustrating when they slip into Falcon transports and make quick getaways.A maximum compliment of fully buffed Warp Spiders can change the outcome drastically as they can ambush you at will.At T4, an eldar player with their greater variety of units having reached their maximum population cap will have to play very badly to lose at that point.
Necrons>>>Tau Reasons:An all in tau rush build is to skip the gen and build 3 squads.Tau's aim is to begin his pressuring from that point onwards and maintain it to gg.Tau's stealth suits cappers can do a brilliant job of capturing the map very quickly.But once the NWs march is setup, a sizeable blob of fire warriors even with their extended shooting range can break easily to the metallic march and disruption from the NL's abilities.Tau players with extra skill can still give Necron the runaround with timely Vespids hit & runs on LPs and gens.Its micro intensive as the smart Tau player as do all smart players fight on two or more fronts simultaneously.
Orks>>>Necrons Reasons:Pro Orks build all their Waagh banners behind their HQ.Building Waagh banners and a PoG at contested points is asking for the Ork to be deteched considerably.A NL solar ability and approaching NWs can easly flatten a bunch of banners.Orks' Shootas can slaughter NWs once they have the PoG upgrades.Necs can get outnumbered by Orks greater swarm of units even if Orks pop cap only reaches to 75/100.An Ork t2.5 critical mass focused on melee can pretty much pawn whatever infantry Necron has out.
Chaos=Necrons Reasons: Berzerkers with their morale immunity are a good choice to fight flayed ones morale damaging effects.Watch out for a bunch of defilers heading towards your Monolith.The Possessed marines, Prince and Obliterators team is a nightmare to fend off.If you make it past that hellish lot then the Bloodthirster will only arrive to mop up & destroy your Monolith in next to no time.
Necrons=Space marines Reasons:A solid sm strat is to scout rush and kill as many scarabs as they can. Followed up by marines spam and the Force Commander storming in to keep the pressure up.At this point Necron is struggling to unite his NWs and NL.Once Necron sorts his critical mass of NWs into a marching blob of metal can the fightback begin.Sm can regroup to a fallback position and force Necrons to teleport all the way back home.Eventually Destroyers will come out only to retreat as soon as missiles are whizzing towards them.Come t3, Necrons monolith and gen grid is vulnerable to an orbital bombardment and then termies deepstriking in to pummel the monolith.
If the elites don't finish the job, dreadnoughts will drop on by in next to no time.If somehow Necron survives to t4, Lord destroyers can be used to steal a couple of predators to support and defend the Restored Monolith on its plodding journey to the target's base.
Necrons>>>Imperial Guard Reasons:One of IGs common strat is to send the command squad on a scarab hunting,gen destroying mission.The command squad will give you the runaround for a while until you knock of a huge chunk of their health off.Basic unupgraded IG guardsmen need to run and bunker inside to the nearest LPs or their own HQ to survive against NWs as it be suicidal taking NWs head on.Another IG strat is to send Tekpriests towards the outer edges of the monolith's base and steadily building turrets creeping towards the monolith.The NL can easily destroy a few IG turrets with his staff without losing his life.
Once you have a few NW squads,they can march ahead & still walk over basic guardsmen easily.Its a case of scouting your opponent to see if he constructs a tactica to know the build path he's heading.If so he is likely to be massing guardsmen with nades that can disrupt the necron march.If after a dozen minutes IG still holds a relic, its best to head up over there or else you be hearing a series of loud booms.
Necrons=Sisters of Battle Reasons:Sisters in squads do have a chance in battle by focus firing on NWS.The key to winning with sob is exploiting their "faith" system.Abilities like heal,purifying light are useful in getting the sisters out of dire situations.And everyone agrees celestions are sob's most awesome units.Fast celestions tech can bring down a monolith even much quicker with krak grenades thrown in.
Necrons>>>Dark Eldar Reasons:DE has a small window of opportunity, usually around the 4min mark to seal the win.This is achieved by massing warriors and both commanders and sending them together with mandrakes straight towards the necron base.Necron can counter this by building a LP2 and a turret.This wards of early spam rushes not just from DE matchups.Even with the DE armory buffs, warriors & mandrakes are too fragile when fighting head on against NWs.In t2, DE really only has the Wyches to look forward too to hold off the march.DE's Scourges will come off worse in a straight up battle against NWs.
Maps(Automatch)Guide
An asymmetrical popular jumping map because of both HQs quite close to each other only separated by trees so be wary of jumping units like Seraphims,Raptors,Assualt marines etc that can instantaneously traverse to the other side & harass.Keep an eye on your outer LP & rearmost LP as they are most likely to be targeted.Both Relics are on opposite far corners so securing one can be hard because of the distance. Most popular 1v1 map ever because of the 4 nearby easy to defend lps including the river point for solid eco & the overall camping turtle friendly nature of the map so pivotal fights will occur around the relics.It can be boring cos its been overplayed so many times but for general play & testing out strats,BOs its hard to beat.Just be careful of not fighting in negative cover
too long in the central river.Note the 2 secret mini areas at opposite ends of the river,can be useful in late game hide &
seek base swapping.
The largest map in the AM pool,maybe too massive with plenty of space to build an expansion base or two near each of the 2 Thermal Generators(+30 each).If you like to tech to T4 & whip out the mono duo regardless of getting the Thermal then this map is for you because it be a while before your opponent makes his way to your base.Because Necs only have 1 nearby defendable LP,with the rest split far apart,its a constant fight for LPs as races will use rhino transports to quickly ferry to & cap LPs for map control. Again,2 Thermal Generators to fight for,so fast T2 for big Gen ASAP is a good idea.Note this is the only map with 4 criticals so expect a lot of capping & decapping with your scarabs & wraith(s).2 nearby defendable LPs but the Relics are farway on the corners.Watch out for pathing quirks near Relics & Hqs because of the tight nature of the corrider paths.Split armies is advised unless youre going for an early all out assault.Use a Nw squad and/or NL or even a turret to defend your outermost LP while your main force marches forward past the bridge & beyond. Your base is on high ground similar to Quests Triumph with 2 nearby defendable LPs so be ready to have your Nws stretched defending the other outer LPs & Relic below your Monolith.Choice of 3 routes towards your opponents HQ leading into 2 uphill chokepoints on opposite ends. A hard to harrass map because of the 2 chokepoints for each HQ on either side.Watch out for Take&Hold(T&H) win conditions from camping enemy squads on the 3 middle criticals.Theres 2 outer strategic points situated each at the end of 2 narrow higher ground paths leading to your base to defend.Only 4 strategic points for either side so a gen eco boom BO will out eco your opponent giving you a head start
in the tech race as long as you deny your opponent the criticals. Classic tech map & 2nd most popular after BR with a middle large wide open fighting ground with lots of cover along with 2 Thermals each next to the Relic up for grabs.As always be prepared to defend,teleport if necessary to your contested outer LP & Relic.In fact watch out for pathing bugs near the LP & Relic that
are next to each other & the narrow winding paths around the hills that will split your marching army formation.Beware of the 2 chokepoints on either side leading into the enemy's HQ so setup your formation accordingly to squeeze thru past heavy fire. Only 4 LPs for each side so Necs have the upper hand economy wise but conversly slower build,research,reinforce times as well as smaller pop cap due to the lack of Obelisks as you need 5 for 100% build speed as well as 6 for 20/20 vehicle cap.Watch out for early full pop cap T1 mass attack because of the 2 short routes. Classic anti-Nec map with only 1 safe nearby LP but middle LP & top 3 LPs to fight for on top of the other outer LPs.Also similar to Battle Marshes with Hqs adjacent to each other,so again watch out for early jumping troops.Also OR is notable for its lack of base space as you will need an early LP to squeeze in more gens,SC etc.Your opponent also will build extra buildings near their relic especially a T2 vehicle production building as well as by the corner LP.Beware of ambush fire from higher ground along the middle path as well pathing bugs in & around the paths leading to the central critical.
On maps with excess strategic points(SPs) like this one,LP capping takes presidence over gen farming to at least gain some map control.I advise building Gauss turret(s) near middle & top contested LPs to deny your opponent eco.If your opponent tries to take the north side of the map with the 3 Lps & critical bunched together,he'll be a fool not to, then if your army is already on the central path its a short MoD bypassing LPs along the way to swiftly flatten their HQ. Another anti-Nec map with plenty of extra points for your opponent to gather ie a potential 6-9 LPs & Relics can be taken before a sizeable Nec army are out of the gates to take them back.
Beware of your outermost LP as its difficult to secure & maintain because of close proximity to your opponents base as well as your Lps at the back from jumping troops.Theres 3 narrow paths leading into a single uphill chokepoint towards the opponents HQ.Be careful of using the very narrow central path as split pathing bugs will occur if your main army tries to squeeze quickly through.Try not to be sealed in with just your 3 LPs left. Another anti-Nec map.The "Shrine" is definitely the difficultest map to win for Necs.There are so many points to be taken on all four lanes of the Shrine.Your scarabs need to be shift queued so they are ready to travel to the next point the instant they've finished capturing the point.
For example if Sm opens with a 4 scout BO.He can divide his scouts into two pairs and assign each pair to a row.The capping options are std gradual forward capping or SM can take the Necron points aggressively and then cap the remaining points backwards towards his base.The nightmare scenario for Necron is being left with one point at the rear.
The rest of the factions can increase their capping efficiency by using regular infantry on top of their starting cappers.Raising the scarabs pop cap by one would level the playing field in regards to map capturing although it will disrupt the balance of the factions matchups in other areas of strategic play.Nothing will change the game mechanics of Necrons saddled with a slow start handicap as Necrons generally do get stronger the longer the game goes on.Players feedback has criticised Necrons winning games with minimal points as Necrons can still technically build their economy up albiet without the buildings completion time bonus from holding onto LPs.Besides, near total map control is not a guaranteed victory as some players playing the rest of the other factions do challenge themselves and deliberately play with only their home LPs taken while turtling up and letting their opponent grab all the contested points.At the end of the day, a player with map control and twice as many points, can have way less economy than an opponent with only 3 Lps as those same LPs can be fully upgraded together with the eco globals.
After capturing the critical your opponent will likely camp the army in the centre to try for the lazy T&H win.Sending phase shifted wraiths/NL should stop the T&H even when completely surrounded by your opponent.Be wary of pathing quirks around the central critical as you may find your Nws splitting up unintentally & taking the long way round up & thru the stairs. 2 Thermal generators to fight for each located on the far corners so be ready to have a spare scarab to make the lengthy trip there in time on standby to build one.Theres a long wide central path with a
critical in the middle & you have 2 outer Lps to defend so make good use of Nws teleport & NLs jump at a moments notice. Yay! the only map in the pool to have a Relic inside your base so no more worries on opponents at a distance decapping it at the last second to stop you from having the black pyramid of death.Watch out for ambush points in & around the outer LPs near the branching paths.2 criticals,1 of each on the far corners with the 3rd critical located in the centre of the map most
likely to be taken 1st which is placed in a chokepoint similar to the one in Quests Triumph. There is a middle wide lane together with left & right paths leading to faraway Lps & Relics.Here NWs slowness will be exposed brutally as they will be dragged back & forth between the 3 entrances to their base from split attacking units eg a Commander situated on one of your close Lps & a couple of squads on the other.At least you have the choice of taking the short direct big central path for the main push to relieve the pressure & counterattack as well as dividing your forces up to follow one or two of the long 2 branching downhill to flat ground then uphill paths. Necrons will have an uphill struggle to win on these maps in order of difficulty:Shrine of Excellion, Outer Reaches, Quests Triumph, Vortex Plateau and Meeting of Minds.What these maps have in common are half a dozen territorial points compared to the regular five strategic points.
Blood River(small size)
LPs:8
Criticals:3
Relics:2
Emerald River(large size)
LPs:8
Criticals:2
Relics:2
Fallen City(large size)
LPs:8
Criticals:4
Relics:2
Fata Morga(medium size)
LPs:8
Criticals:3
Relics:2
Fraziers Demise(medium size)
LPs:6
Criticals:3
Relics:2
Meeting of Minds(medium size)
LPs:10
Criticals:3
Relics:2
MoonBase(small size)
LPs:8
Criticals:3
Relics:0
Outer Reaches(small size)
LPs:10
Criticals:3
Relics:2
Quests Triumph(medium size)
LPs:10
Criticals:3
Relics:2
Shrine of Excellion(medium size)
LPs:10
Criticals:1
Relics:2
Titans Fall(large size)
LPs:8
Criticals:3
Relics:2
Tranquilitys End(large size)
LPs:8
Criticals:3
Relics:2
Vortex Plateau(medium size)
LPs:10
Criticals:3
Relics:2
Conclusions
The plus Necron will see are greater build times the more LPs they capture.But the limit of five scarabs restricts Necron in capturing the majority of points scattered all over the map in the early game stage.Depending on your play style, you can try and control the map or prioritise on gen farming.On these maps Necron is more vulnerable to having his points taken especially if the opponent has an efficient cap order in rotation with his cappers and regular infantry.Massive machines battles are more likely with maps having thermal generators,ie Emeralds River, Meeting of Minds, Fallen City and Titans Fall.These maps with a limited 4 points per side ie Fraziers Demise & Moon Base won't stop Necrons from spamming gens albiet at a slower rate but Necrons will have to put up with slower building completion speeds and a smaller army population cap.
