Another from our friend Karl…
Necron Hero ready for battle
For the Necron player in you.
This is a board store at using Necrons (really). If I wanted to do a detailed list for how
Necrons would best go up against each playable race in 40K it would take at least a
week and end up in a 20 page document for you lot to read. So, this is a general purpose
approach to the general circumstance you’ll find yourself in. There is flexibility to move
part of one with a little bit of another – which is the great strength in Necron’s. I’ll leave that
for you to find, as you’ll play the Necrons in slightly different ways and You’ll find the fine
tuned list sure enough (trust me).
For close combat armies:
Necrons are some what like the Tau when it comes to close combat, the trick is not to run
from the combat as you’ll lose every time. There are around three solid units to take (there
are that need a little work to use and one that can help you out against even the hardest of
terminator armour).
So, we have a choice of:
• Lychguards
• Flayed ones
• Praetorians (providing you keep them with that lovely rod of the covenant, there is a
reason they are jump infantry with AP 2 weapons)
• Canoptek Wraiths
• Canoptek scarabs
• C’tan shards
The obvious choices are the wraiths, flayed ones and Lychguards. If you do pick one of
these guys make sure for the wraiths you have a destroyer lord (his a mean machine and
will give any unit wishing for close combat, wishing they hadn’t – make sure he has that
taste war scythe) and include in the wraiths the whip coils, these things drop the enemy
down to a grand initiative of ‘1’. Read it a weep Eldar.
The Lychguards have to have war scythes. They aren’t power weapons so you don’t get
bumped back to AP 3, you stay at strength 7 with no saves against its wounds allowed,
plus the 2D6 during the wounding phase. It all speaks for itself. You want two units of
these heavy hitters (if you decided on them) with a fully upgraded overlord (Phaeron) and
the other with an attached Obyron. If you aren’t putting in special characters then replace
Obyron with another Phaeron.
If you use flayed ones, you got to have the storm lord as a HQ choice. Simply because he
has the ability to ‘aim’ those savages at the right unit. Imagine it flayed ones popping up
by a HQ who’s buffering the enemy army or you might want to split the army (most of the
time close combat focused armies require ‘togetherness’ to work right) and tie up some
of it with flayed ones, while the rest of your death machines wipe away the rest (through
shooting or waves of war scythes).
Now the C’tan shards are really good for offence when you pick out a couple of spells from
the list in the codex. I’m looking at gaze of death and entropic touch. These guys geared
this way are really for dealing with special characters and those greater demons (and
demon lists). If you want to run a pair of them (which is advised in my opinion) have the
other equipped with entropic touch and swarm of spirit dust. These are very large targets
and that’s why you field them when dealing with close combat armies, otherwise its just a
waste of points.
If you don’t want to spend the points, as the C’tan shards are pricey. Then send out a
swarm of Canoptek scarabs (now hear me out, they can be used for something other
than vehicles). As there wont be much for your enemy to shoot with, these little guys [the
scarabs] will tear that armour save right down to nothing. Or at least low enough for some
immortal unit to blast them away.
Praetorians are the odd choice, but if you want to jump up quick and stick it to them, then
these are the guys. Don’t change them to have the void blades unless you are dealing
with something with 5+ armour saves. As you want to soften them [the enemy] unit up as
much as possible before that final charge. If you use them right they could be the shock
assault guys that you need to push the battle. Which gives them a place in going up
against a shooting focused army also – just something to keep in mind. (It’s a push and I’d
understand if you skip them).
To support these guys in the shooting phase, just to thin that heard coming towards you.
Take one (or two) of the following:
• (x2) Necron Immortals (with Gauss weapons)
• Triarch Stalker (providing you have elite options still open)
• Canoptek Spyders
• Doomsday Arks
Doomsday Arks and Triarch stalkers are pretty much self explainatory. Necron immortals
however, are not. Giving them Gauss weapons is for the ensured killing of things that have
very poor armour saves (which goes hand in hand with close combat units/armies), the
tesla weapons don’t do it for me regardless of that chance for an extra hit (if you’re going
up against Orks or Tyranids).
Spyders should be used with the gloom prism for Tyranids and Eldar (maybe demons and
dark Eldar). Other than that I wish they could have a better twink linked particle weapon,
but it doesn’t so don’t bother. If you are fielding the scarabs then of course you have
another acting as a spawning hub in the back.
For shooting armies:
There are two races I know that come to mind; imperial guard and tau. Both make it a
tough ask to move and survive. The Necrons have answers for this (well I think they do).
Hope lies in the the Lychguard with the upgrade of the shield. Remove the attached HQ’s
for upgraded Necron Lords, for good reason. You are going to put them up front and
centre, those shields will shield your army (got to love line of sight). If you can afford it take
two lots of these guys and just march forward and keep marching.
Keep the Wraiths for the terror factor on the battle field. Plus they aren’t that easy to
blow up considering their available saves and special rules. Make nice work out of those
infantry units.
This is where you want at least one HQ to be Nemesor Zahndrek with a unit (just a single
unit) of deathmarks and heavy destroyers on the field. Simply because Zahndrek can
impose tank hunter on the heavy destroyers, so those armoured vehicles can go pop
real quick. Plus you can get rid of those buffering HQ’s (Tau and Imperial Guard rely on
buffering HQ’s to work well) on the enemy side with the deathmarks. Before you say it you
can have Necron Lords on the field at the same time as Zahndrek as well as other HQ’s if
you allow those Necron Lords are members of the royal court(s).
As a side note for both situations: The royal court is the Necron secret weapon for
strengthening the Necron army against the most deadly assaults. You have Necron Lords
upgraded to be as tough as any other HQ with the added war scythe as well as an orb,
whatever unit you attach them to will not die any time soon. The crypteks however, if
you’re sport lords (that should go to your troop choices) then the crypteks need to go to
the left over elite choices that don’t have HQ’s or Royal Court members attached to them.
These have to reinforce the abilities of the elite choice, by giving them an extra hard hit in
shooting or punch in close combat. Look at harbinger of destruction and/or despair (for the
shooting units – deathmarks) and that’s really it as the others don’t really do well with an
aggressive play style (like I prefer). If you want a step back I would say look at eternity and
storm.
I have left out flyers for heavy support, for good reason. I feel for the cost (both physical
and points) don’t warrant the way they have to be used. I would rather they be special
rules added to HQ’s, just like orbital strikes are for Space Marines. That’s just me.