So there is no debating anymore that scarabs are one of three “must have” units in the Necrons codex, along with being the first layer of anti-tank in your army. On paper and in the codex I imagine a swarm of robotic bugs sweeping out and drowning my opponents in a tide of living metal. On the table, well, let’s just say I feel like I’m playing my harlequins with them.
When scarabs work, they work well, but one little failure on my part, or incorrect approach and a unit of ten vanish just like that!
I’ve been wondering if IG would switch over to hull mounted chimera spam heavy flamers and hell hounds, but there really isn’t any need to do that, and thankfully that has not been happening in my area.
Guard and Grey Knight have plenty of high strength shots to kill a base from range- which is how you want to deal with scarabs- stop them mid field, flamer range mean you have the potential to be over run.
Generic marines and Space Wolves can deal with them with expendable assault layers acting as a screen, so really everybody has a way to deal with them- but this post isn’t about that!
Just keep in mind that scarabs are a distraction, smoke, a thrust away from the main part of the army- at least how I play them.
So I have thirty in my list as stock filling out my fast attack slot, and after deployment I ask myself- do I have enough at hand to take out my opponent’s vehicles? The goal is of course to de-mech for my second wave of immortals to tesla stuff.
A factor in this is night fight via Stormlord + chronometon, terrain, and my opponent’s forces and personal aggression level on the table. If I think I can do it, then full out all attack- release the bugs!
If not, then I use the scarabs for area denial.
If I can’t kill all the tanks, then maybe I can at least keep them clustered up, or force them to move into position where I can entropic them to death. I’ll try to move to terrain clusters and just go to ground for a turn or two- maybe with the swarm in front going to ground and the second getting cover behind not going to ground so it can act as a counter attack unit- night fight keeping it up since it is just a bit away. At that point keeping the scarabs up, while not as good as getting stuck in there and munching on armor is better than rushing forward and getting gunned down.
Keep in mind, much like harlequins, “critical mass” is the key for scarabs- it’s not enough to get a few bases in on a tank- you need a lot to make sure it gets destroyed that turn, since each turn your scarabs are exposed they will slowly be torrented down.
Maybe your spyder farm can keep the critical mass up, maybe it can’t- look at the spyder farm from the POV as bonus scarabs, not as a cushion for your mistakes.
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