My New Necron Army

Hey all, Learn2Eel here with a bit of a divergent article. Today, I'm going to talk about one of my favoured armies in Warhammer 40000 since I first glimpsed their models almost a decade ago - the Necrons - and how starting them up tomorrow morning (or tonight for those in the Northern Hemisphere) will be very much a great beginning to a unique journey.




For those that don't know, my first Warhammer 40000 army since returning to the hobby was Chaos Space Marines; I soon followed them up with Dark Eldar and Grey Knights, both of which have since been sold off because I didn't have as much fun with them as I had hoped. Then, my awesome Tyranids came along, and though I loved playing an army that was so utterly different from any other I had ever attempted to use, the responses from my fellow gamers about how brutal they were kind of threw me off of them until another tournament or gaming event comes around. I'm enjoying my 'Chaos' right now - my Chaos Space Marines allied with Chaos Daemons - as it provides a nice sense of balance involving theme and competitiveness based around a mostly monstrous army with lots of fodder. Whilst that is all well and good, I've yet to play an army I could say is a "gunline" - at least, not since before my hobby hiatus when I forayed into the mighty Tau Empire just as they had been newly released. Though the Tau are about to be re-released, and I do love them as an army and am very excited to see how their new codex shapes up, two of my compatriots on this website - the quirky pair of Megavalhalla and Jax Tolmen - have both decided to invest in new Tau armies. As I want to do something different, and I want to play an army that I like aesthetically, has a rewarding, balanced army list, and is unlikely to be redone in the next two years, Necrons were simply the perfect fit. This is especially in light of the fact that they were very nearly the army I was going to pick ahead of Tyranids; in that sense, I am going to be doing the three (four if you count the Chaos armies as two) armies I enjoy the most, and all of them are very different from one another. To say I am excited would be very much an understatement!

When I learned I would have the resources to buy a new army only two months after purchasing the entirety of my Tyranid force, I was a bit overwhelmed, to be perfectly honest; which army should I do, what race do I like more, which army looks better, and so on. Though I eventually settled on Necrons, simply writing the army list was a literal pain in the backside; I wanted something unique to my Chaos and Tyranids, an army that would be competitive, but one that wouldn't frustrate my opponents as my space bugs have done. At first, ignoring my wishes, I came up with an army list that very much suited my visual tastes, but was overly-competitive and would definitely cause my regular opponents no end of torment and irritation.

1500 Necrons

HQ
Destroyer Lord w/ sempiternal weave - 140
Destroyer Lord w/ sempiternal weave - 140

Troops
Warriors (5) w/ night scythe - 165
Warriors (5) w/ night scythe - 165
Warriors (5) w/ night scythe - 165

Fast Attack
Wraiths (4) - 140
Wraiths (4) - 140
Wraiths (5) - 175

Heavy Support
Annihilation Barge - 90
Annihilation Barge - 90
Annihilation Barge - 90

I'm very much a fan of the classic Necrons!

Though a highly competitive player would probably tear this army apart at the seams, it would nonetheless be brutal in my meta. This army list wasn't even designed with competitive play in mind! As well, the imagery of the army clashes; fliers, Wraiths and Annihilation Barges supported by Destroyer Lords and Warriors make for an interesting 'mix', but one that seems a bit too all over the place, especially given the low model count. As a note, I've found that as awesome as whip coils are, the extra Wraith bodies balance out the need for whip coils by increasing the odds of the unit making combat by granting extra ablative wounds. Of course, this is speaking from a player that has to face Dark Angels and their Standard of Devastation, so that is probably why I would presume as much. I do love the Wraith models though, but they sure are expensive where I am - over $70 in Australia for three!

I decided that instead of doing such an army list and ticking off my friends and fellow hobbyists, perhaps I could do an army list that had a unified theme, but one that wasn't too competitive; it mostly relied on a strong, if bland, gimmick, though that wasn't my original intention. And from there, this army list was born;

1500 Necrons

HQ
Overlord w/ warscythe, catacomb command barge - 180
Overlord w/ warscythe, catacomb command barge - 180

Elites
Triarch Stalker - 150

Troops
Warriors (5) w/ ghost ark - 180
Warriors (5) w/ ghost ark - 180
Warriors (5) w/ ghost ark - 180 
Warriors (5) w/ ghost ark - 180

Heavy Support
Annihilation Barge - 90
Annihilation Barge - 90
Annihilation Barge - 90

As you can tell, this was very much an army based around the admittedly amazing quantum shielding special rule inherent on the majority of Necron vehicles - taking a force composed of five or more of such vehicles is often called an 'AV13 wall' army, and with good reason. On a 4x4, for example, deploying this army would be a confusing mess, especially if you want to turn the Ghost Arks sideways for the cheeky extra few inches on their initial movement; good luck setting them all up like that! Obviously, this is an army that relies on high AV values which, in a meta that favours plasma and autocannons, would functionally work perfectly if you use it right; of course, my meta isn't exactly like that, so it probably wouldn't perform well anyway. That, and running multiple-small-units (MSU) Necron Warriors in Ghost Arks defeats the purpose of the Ghost Arks; their repair abilities are functionally useless when combined with a small squad. Also, I am quite unsure where the Triarch Stalker is supposed to fit - I guess you could say that I had a spare one hundred and fifty points - though one would assume if I need a Land Raider dead, just hit it with the Heat Ray and watch all of my Ghost Arks and embarked Warriors glance it to death (hopefully).

No joke; I actually love them for the models!

Of course, such an army doesn't give me the models I really like in the Necron range; the fliers. Now, I can understand if you think my appreciation of their aesthetics is biased by the fact that their rules are so strong, but I really do like their design and style, much as I do most of the other Necron vehicles. The whole Egyptian theme always gnaws at me, so something that is covered in hieroglyphics is sure to grab my attention! In any case, I looked at the above army list and realized that it was very light on anti-air duties, and that it also lacked reliable means of taking out certain units, such as massed Terminators or Land Raiders; all I could really rely upon was masses of dice. This is where I felt I could use some of the more interesting units in conjunction with the Necron fliers, particularly how such units combined with specific Crypteks. Also, I have a Vargard Obyron model that I have sitting around that is going to be my kick-backside Necron Overlord!

Necrons 1500

HQ
Overlord w/ warscythe, sempiternal weave, mindshackle scarabs - 130
Cryptek w/ abyssal staff - 30
Cryptek w/ voltaic staff - 25
Cryptek w/ voltaic staff - 25

Elites
Deathmarks (5) w/ night scythe - 195

Troops
Warriors (10) w/ ghost ark - 245
Warriors (10) w/ ghost ark - 245
Warriors (5) w/ night scythe - 165
Warriors (5) w/ night scythe - 165

Heavy Support
Annihilation Barge - 90
Annihilation Barge - 90
Annihilation Barge - 90

Though not the most competitive, this was by far my favourite army so far, and one that I only devised just this past evening. It reinforces the units in the Ghost Arks to a far more acceptable level, and gets rid of unnecessarily-added vehicles that were simply there to reinforce a theme. I have a higher total of scoring bodies, and I have four distinct Troops units that fulfill different roles. The two in the Ghost Ark are my primary scoring units, backed by or embarked upon their hardy transport that can be used as a mobile cover and lane denial platform in a pinch. Conversely, the pair of Warrior squads in Night Scythes are each joined by a Cryptek with a voltaic staff and given a very clear purpose; the destruction of my opponents' hardiest or most threatening vehicles. Given the disembarkation and embarkation rules for Night Scythes, when the unit arrives from reserves, it has an effective rapid fire range of thirty-six inches which, given the maneuverability of the Night Scythe, gives me a staggering area of potential effect. Five Necron Warriors and a Cryptek with the voltaic staff average four stripped hull points on any vehicle, owing to the Gauss and Haywire rules; essentially, my ninety point 'suicide' unit can wreck a two hundred and fifty point Land Raider on the turn they arrive and, if my opponent doesn't kill them off, hop back into the Night Scythe to perform the same feat in later turns. As they are doing so, the Night Scythe itself rains destruction down either on light vehicles, fliers, monstrous creatures or even infantry; the versatile Tesla Destructor is unmatched in its damage capabilities against a wide range of targets. To really spice up the army list though, I decided to employ one of the nastier units you can field; a small Deathmark unit backed by a Cryptek with the abyssal staff is pretty ridiculous for a number of reasons. The Deathmarks themselves can do quite a bit of damage, but the Cryptek that comes with them - whom benefits from their 'marked' special rule - possesses an AP1 template that always wounds on a +2 against enemy units and, by virtue of being a template weapon, ignores cover saves! How amazing is that? The fact that, again, the unit has an effective 36" rapid-fire threat range on the turn they arrive is shockingly good, especially when one considers the sheer damage an abyssal staff can cause. The unit is there to annihilate or at least severely cripple high priority targets that I am better off saving my Annihilation Barges and the like the trouble of dealing with them; Terminators and the like make for good choices. The only thing the Overlord lacks is a Phase Shifter to be the true combat machine I want to lead my army, but as it is, he's still pretty awesome!

Playing an army that is specifically geared for ranged firepower is going to be a severe change of pace compared to my other armies, especially the aesthetics; between Chaos, Tyranids and Necrons, I will soon have three entirely distinct armies visually, thematically and in terms of play-style. Whilst much of my Chaos force is (or used to be) mechanised, I don't really look at the Necrons in the same way; their vehicles are a lot different to the Rhinos, Vindicators and Predators I am accustomed to. That every Necron vehicle has pseudo-Daemonic Possession in terms of ignoring the minor damage results is very interesting, to say the least, as is the sheer multi-purpose firepower they possess. That my basic Troops can destroy Land Raiders and the like through sheer weight of firepower whilst simultaneously gunning down other Infantry is sure to be a neat twist. Of course, I've also never used an army that was considered 'weak' in melee before; though Necrons have a lot of great melee units, and their Reanimation Protocols (my entire army essentially has Feel No Pain....what!?) does benefit them in protracted melees, their low Initiative makes most of their units incredibly vulnerable to Sweeping Advances. Unlike my other armies, where either they were mostly Fearless or losing combat wasn't guaranteed a Sweeping Advance, the Initiative two inherent throughout almost the entire army is sure to prove a problem. That, and not having access to flying monstrous creatures is going to be jarring; each of the three armies I am going to have as of tomorrow (tonight, depending on your time-zone) will have fliers of a kind, interestingly. I believe I have adapted to the new edition in that sense; my Chaos has two Heldrakes, two winged Daemon Princes, and a Lord of Change, whereas my Tyranids will have two flying Hive Tyrants which, coupled with the three Night Scythes from my Necrons, will prove to be a formidable air force. Still, that really is the only true similarity each army shares, as they are so completely unique from one another aesthetically, rules-wise and thematically in terms of the Warhammer 40000 universe that to compare them is likely folly. Of course, that won't stop me from doing the awesome Thousand Sons army allied with Necrons from my dreams!

You said it Buzz!

To commemorate my new Necron army, given that I am still grieving and need to keep my mind occupied, I am going to start up a new article series that focuses on constructing Necrons, painting Necrons, and playing with Necrons. Given that they are such a popular and powerful army, I feel it just that my newest force be given such recognition and attention; as a note, I am working on a Necron Tactica at the moment, though it will likely have to be postponed to make way for the inevitable Tau Tactica I will be compiling. If you have any ideas, suggestions or critiques, please let me know in the comments below - I am really looking forward to doing this army and I am very confident that, unlike two of my previous armies, they won't be a purchase I regret. Until next time, have a happy Easter weekend!