# Did I mention that I like scarabs...



## dizzington esq (Apr 24, 2008)

*Lord Pestilence looked down towards the horizon at the dust clouds in the distance. The advanced mobile armour of his masters enemies could be heard thundering towards the sacred temple at a break neck speed. How dare these Infidels soil the presence of his masters most sacred of holy grounds, his place of rest of all things !!! 

With a nod from his head, a roar of chittering and metal scraping over metal filled the air. The light from the twin suns shining down upon this dead world were blocked for what seemed an eternity as a torrential rain of metal rose up from behind the obelisk into the sky and held there for a moment. Lord Pestilence raised his arm and slowly let it drop and the heavens opened up and death rained down upon the land in the form of sleek metal scarabs, a veritable horde seemingly with no end. The rain of scarabs poured down over the top of the obelisk and some, even lovingly brushing against Lord Pestilence, rushed past him on their way towards the distant dust clouds of the Imperial armour regiment bearing down even closer towards the sacred obelisk.

A wry smirk appeared on Lord Pestilence's death mask as he watched the scarabs flow past him and taking several minutes until the last one had gone past and disappeared in the distance. From ahead the sounds of large calibre rounds could be heard and small chunks of metal flying high up into the air could be seen as the intial wave of scarabs were taking incoming fire. This soon followed by larger explosions as the power plants of the Imperial armour regiment's vehicles were ripped apart by the scarabs, illuminating the dim landscape for a few seconds between explosions. 

Lord Pestilence tilted his head back in what could only be described as laughter and threw his hands up in the air. Let the enemy of his master feel the vanguard of his minions, let him feel the pain that is the metal death of the scarab...*


Scarabs are one of the most efficient vehicle killers and tarpits in the necron arsenal and possibly the cheapest. Lets look at the how and why.

The scarab stat line is nothing to write home about but each base having 3 wounds certainly makes them look better. WS and BS skill are relatively low but unless you are attacking models with a WS of 5 or more then the scarabs still hit on a 4+. Scarabs have 1 less S & T when compared to a MEQ still needing to wound on a 5+ against a MEQ. They have 3 attacks and when combined with a charge, a full squad of 10 will get 40 attacks in. On average 20 attacks will hit a MEQ and 6-7 will wound with 2-3 kills.

Being fearless keeps these guys in the fight and having 3 wounds will ensure that these guys will be hanging around for a while. Their armour save at 5+ is not fantastic but still better then nothing as if used correctly these guys will spend most of their time in cc. The scarab is quite resilient and can hold up superior enemies in cc for longer then the enemy would like, a suitable tarpit when used correctly. This can mean the difference between victory and defeat when a turn or two’s movement is denied to the enemy. No armour save weapons and S6 or greater weapons cause scarabs to drop like flies literally so be aware to avoid units sporting wargear like this.

Ranged fire can hurt scarabs especially in the form of template weapons. Being swarm type greeblies is great for the extra +1 to cover saves but really hurts when you take double wounds from template weapons of which cover save are no good against. Best advice is too move as fast as you can across open terrain to enagage in cc as soon as possible, taking advantage of cover as much as you can. Generally small arms fire will not cause them much trouble when turbo boosting due to the cover save they get, 2+.

Moving as a jet bike is where scarabs will get the drop on most enemies. A turbo boost of 24" covers a lot of ground and with the new 5th ed rules giving the scarabs a 3+ cover save, adjusted to 2+ with the swarms ability, should ensure most get through. Even to use the scarabs to turbo boost across the front of your phalanx can assist your warriors by giving them a 4+ cover save if the enemy chooses to fire through the rain of turbo boosting scarabs. Quite handy against those nasty ap2 weapons.

But this is all nothing as scarabs really come into their own when attacking vehicles of all sorts. Disruptor fields are standard wargear for a unit of scarabs. The ability to obtain a glance hit on a 6 when you charge in with 40 attacks from full unit is devastating even under the new 5th ed glance rules. 

Glancing hits, as we all know, cannot destroy a vehicle or walker in one shot but enough glancing hits can strip a vehicle of all its weapons and immobolise it and finally destroy it. For example, you charge a vehicle, all you need to do is immobolise it and in your next turn all your attacks will automatically hit. You could even be rude and move back a small distance in your movement phase so you can get the extra charge attacks in when you charge in during the assault phase, I do it and its great. That initial immobolise is all you need to begin the start of the end for the vehicle and that is the equivalent of rolling just one 6 on the glance hit table.

The new 5th ed glance rules actually suit the mode of attack a swarm of scarabs would use. Just like in many movies a swarm of flesh eating beetles scour over a body and strip it to bare bones in seconds is just the same way the necron scarabs work, removing the vehicles weapons one by one until there is nothing left but a metal husk.

The jet bike movement enables scarabs to contest objectives towards the end of a game. This is especially helpful as most of the necron army is relatively static. Your own necron troops can hold objectives closer to their side of the board and contest your enemies close held objectives with the scarab swarm. Do not forget that scarabs can take a belting in cc as mentioned above and still hold up to it.

The cost of a scarab with disruptor fields is only 2 pts less then a standard necron warrior, well worth it considering the above benefits. So even if you use them as a tarpit only to hold up that squad that could do you some damage, they are still very cost effective. With all the above said and done there is really only one more thing to say and that is...

Did I mention that I like scarabs...


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## darklove (May 7, 2008)

Spot on! k:


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## morfangdakka (Dec 31, 2006)

That is why I like scarbs too.


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## Farseer Beltiac (Jul 11, 2008)

Man, getting eaten by scarabs would hurt.....


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## jakkie (Dec 21, 2007)

iv used them like this countless times. its worked like a charm!


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## darklove (May 7, 2008)

I have 20 Scarab Swarms...


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## NorthernTau (Jun 24, 2008)

Yep its not unheard of for scarabs to hold up a good sized squad of marines for an entire game. While they can't do a lot of damage, they can do enough to wittle down...and can take beating after beating after beating. But yeah I especially love using them against vehicles. Many opponents just don't expect that kind of punch out of something so small and inexpensive. Nice post Dizz.


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## Katie Drake (Nov 28, 2007)

> The jet bike movement enables scarabs to contest objectives towards the end of a game. This is especially helpful as most of the necron army is relatively static. Your own necron troops can hold objectives closer to their side of the board and contest your enemies close held objectives with the scarab swarm.


Wow... I never would have thought of it this way. For some reason I assumed that because swarms weren't scoring they couldn't contest either. :-\ I'll check my rulebook later on to be sure but if you're right this is absolutely killer and just might convince me to take Nurglings again.


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## dizzington esq (Apr 24, 2008)

Katie, if nurglings are troop choices then the swarm ability will take away their ability to be an objective holder. Can still contest though which is not to be over looked. On one of the necron threads there was some talk about the new necron codex making scarabs a troops choice. Whilst this would be great for letting necron players field maxed out fast attack destroyer and wraith squads it does not help us out with an alternate objective holding unit.

Did I mention that I like scarabs...


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## darklove (May 7, 2008)

Nurglings also move a lot slower than Scarab Swarms - but If you have the Tally Man (or whatever he is called) Nurglings become quite deadly after a while.


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## mists_cloud (Sep 4, 2008)

dizz, cookie for you. I didn't know where to place the scarab swarm but now I know.


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## Dialgar (Sep 7, 2008)

Wow, an awesome post. i have never really used scarabs that much, but now im seriousy considering spending points on some (not just using them to fill in points)


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## slaaneshy (Feb 20, 2008)

You have it spot on. Also I have found opponents often overlook the little buggers and learn at their cost what they can do.


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## Concrete Hero (Jun 9, 2008)

I modeled nearly all my scarabs on my Necron Lord's base to make it look like he was being carried along by a tide of them... 

Sort of regretting that now


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