Unit of the Week: Night Scythe

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

 

Welcome to the Unit of the Week Series!

 

Each week a different unit will be highlighted for discussion until we have amalgamated a full list of our available options and their relevant tactics as 9th edition evolves. This will include not only matched play, but free play considerations as well as Crusade, as these methods of play are just as relevant and exciting.

 

Please keep in mind this isn't to lament the status of featured units or compare them to others but to try and find their potential for all types of gameplay.

 

This week’s unit is:

 

The Night Scythe

 

As a loose guide, here are some thought-provoking questions to consider and cogitate as we discuss this week's unit(s):

• How do you use this unit in your listbuilding process?
• What stratagems synergize well with it?
• Which crusade bonuses best suit this unit?
• What units do you put inside the Night Scythe for front-line delivery?
• Once it has dropped off its cargo, how do you employ it?

The floor is yours, honored nobles and Crypteks!

[Mandragola]

The night scythe is a pretty interesting model. Two things jump out to me: the great transport capacity and the massive limitation in what it can carry, as only Core and character units can go inside.

 

So basically this thing is a way to bring warriors or lychguard places. In theory you can drop off deathmarks too but I’m not sure why you’d do that. You could have 20 immortals ride in it I guess and send in a pretty massive strike force, but I’m not sure why you’d do that. 5 guys riding along, ready to jump out and do actions, could work well.

 

To me the really interesting thing is the Prismatic Dimensional Breach stratagem. This lets a unit disembark after the scythe moves and there’s no restriction on how close they can be to the enemy - so long as they’re outside of engagement range. Given that the scythe itself can move extremely fast this strat lets you send a brutal unit of lychguard somewhere your opponent won’t be at all happy to find them. Plans will need to be altered significantly if 10 of these guys are hacking their way through the backfield.

 

The plane itself won’t do too much damage. It’s guns aren’t great. However it will sometimes be able to park itself near a character or a backfield objective holder and make a bit of an impact. This gun is therefore quite a lot less useless than it would be on an annihilation barge, but it’s still not awesome.

 

Don’t forget the strat that makes a vehicle auto-explode too. These things will often be places where your opponent would prefer they didn’t go bang.

[Get Thokt]

The most common synergy I hear with the Nightscythe is Lychguard with Warscythes. I haven't yet tried it myself, but we are looking from 285pts to 425pts to pull off the combo. 425pts is quite the points sink, and I'm not sure whether you'll be able to trade that with the opponent. What valid targets would be great for a charge? Characters, Van Vets?

[Miek]

I think it's worth mentioning here that you can't use the relentlessly expansionists circumstance of awakening to put the night scythe (or any other flyer) into strategic reserve for free, as explained here: https://www.goonhammer.com/ruleshammer-qa-october-22nd-2020/#Question_4_Relentless_Expansion_an_Aircraft_into_Reserves

 

+1 for the stratagem, I don't think I'd give the night scythe much thought without it, but it makes it quite interesting. I haven't really tested it yet unfortunately.

[Kierdale]

It is a truly lovely model.

Hidden Content

YOINK!

[Miek]

Something which might be fun: Deploy the NS with 2 core infantry units of your choice, and put the 3 of them in reserve for free with the deceiver. Than deploy each unit with the NS' stratagem on turn 2 and 3.

 

What happens if the NS is loaded with a unit when it gets put into reserve by the deceiver, does this unit remain embarked, or is it considered as having been placed in reserve as well?

 

Edit: Pretty sure they remain embarked, just as if the NS has moved out of the table in its movement phase.

 

Edit 2: Something like this. Send the flayed ones and psychomancer in deep strike for 1CP, then send the 2x20 warriors and NS in reserve for free, and hide the Scarabs and cryptothralls out of sight. Only the deceiver should be visible (of you can't also hide it). Must be pretty annoying to deal with for armies that depends on shooting, and can't really screen against the NS' drops with the stratagem. The psychomancer can remove objsec from enemies, relocate warriors if needed, or try to pull a morale combo with the deceiver if the stars align.

 

1250 pts Novokh patrol detachment

 

+ No Force Org Slot +

 

2x Cryptothrall

 

+ HQ +

 

Psychomancer: Arkana: Dimensional Sanctum, Relic: Veil of Darkness, Warlord, Warlord Trait (Codex 4): Thrall of the Silent King

 

+ Troops +

 

20x Necron Warrior (Gauss Reaper)

20x Necron Warrior (Gauss Reaper)

 

+ Elites +

 

C'tan Shard of the Deceiver

5x Flayed One

 

+ Fast Attack +

 

3x Canoptek Scarab Swarm

 

+ Flyer +

 

Night Scythe

Edited March 20, 2021 by Miek

[Mandragola]

Putting the night scythe itself into strategic reserve is an interesting idea. It stops the enemy shooting it down and lets you put it basically anywhere.

 

The scythe can be put anywhere outside of 9” of the enemy when it appears. Actually that’s a major disadvantage, since it means the enemy could well screen out the scythe, preventing you from putting the cargo where you want. The great advantage of being on the board is that the scythe can drive right up to the enemy.

[Miek]

I guess it depends on the matchup, but it arrives T2 and can drop a unit from reserve 6" away from enemies (not 1", thanks Mandragola); there should be an objective you can reach this way. It doesn't have to be in the opponent's deployment zone. The idea here is not to drop lychguards in its zone for disruption, but to drop warriors on objectives that can shoot and charge before anyone has the possibility of doing anything to them, with objsec of course.

 

Leaving the NS on the board during deployment seems rather risky to me, anyone would try to shoot it down ASAP if it either had a cargo or if there were applicable units in reserve (for the stratagem).

 

Edit: Ultimately, the combo I am proposing is using the deceiver to put candidates for the NS' stratagem in reserve without paying their cost. There are options for the NS, both of which can function well depending on the matchup and scenario. Easily saves ~4 CP at the beginning of the game, and allows you to cheat the deployment requirements (that half your army has to be put on the board).

Edited March 21, 2021 by Miek

[Mandragola]

I think there’s definitely something here with this combo. I don’t think you’re quite right about how it works coming out of reserve though. The scythe itself has to be >9” away from the enemy and the unit has to deploy wholly within 3” of it, meaning you’re looking at a 6” charge, not 1”. And there’s still the issue if screens keeping you away from where you want to be.

 

If you’re using warriors then I think you don’t need to worry hugely about the scythe getting killed. They can still do great work just walking on anyway. Being able to charge and swamp an objective with angry obsec robots is nice but at a minimum you’re firing 40 shots. That’s good enough, I think.

 

Nice idea to use the deceiver to get everything into reserve.