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Hi!

I have been playing 40k for about a year now (as Necron) and lurking the dakka dakka forums for a couple months. This is my first attempt at a serious list. So far it's performing well against my friends so I think it's ready to be criticized. Here it is, tell me what you think!

-- Reclamation Legion ------
1 Catacomb Command Barge (Gauss Cannon, Hyperphase Sword, Phase Shifter, Phylactery)
10 Immortal (Gauss)
10 Immortal (Gauss)
14 Warrior
14 Warrior
4 Tomb Blades (Particle Beamer, Nebuloscope, Shield Vanes)
4 Tomb Blades (Particle Beamer, Nebuloscope, Shield Vanes)

-- Judicator Batallion ------
2 Triarch Stalker (Heat Ray)
10 Triarch Praetorian (Rod of Covenant)
5 Triarch Praetorian (Rod of Covenant)

-- Roles ----
Warrior, Immortal => Shoot at things with BS5
Stalker => Kill tough targets
Praetorian => Kill 2+ targets, Protect vs melee, Take far objectives
Tomb Blades => Kill blobs, Take far objectives
CCB => Be hard to kill (deny Slay the Warlord), Boost morale ± réanimation, take far objectives

What do you think?

Uh, how are the Immortals and Warriors shooting with BS5?

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
Uh, how are the Immortals and Warriors shooting with BS5?

The triarch stalker gives all friendly necrons within 6" +1 to their BS

I feel like a Ghost Ark for one of your warrior units may help you out more than a second unit of Immortals. The ability to revive your warriors is awesome and well worth it. You wouldn't even have to reduce your warriors to 10 if you don't want, just have the Ark follow the warriors.

Alternatively, your 10 warriors inside armor 13, which will make them pretty damn durable.

Otherwise, strong list. I always liked the idea of 2 stalkers in the Judicator, but I never did for some reason.

Just my Experience. This list is fairly similar to what I plan to run at 1850. While I haven't actually run the Judicator Battalion yet (still working on the Praetorians), I have run a few Unbound games using the Reclamation Legion with the Stalkers just to see how they would function. So here are my thoughts, maybe you'll find it useful or you won't.

1) With that much foot power, you might find that your Stalkers are tripping over the infantry. It didn't take long for my opponents to use that against me. It became problematic against more mobile opponents, and I ended up clumping them together or not benefiting from the Stalkers at all. The solution was to use HGC on the Stalkers vs. the Heat Rays. That way they could fire OVER the Troops, and make it easier to maintain the lines. While I didn't end up doing it, I can see that there will be games where you might want to put them in Reserve if going second. It's entirely based on the environment, but should be overlooked.

2) I did use 2 units of Flayed Ones in the same way I would use the Praetorians. I really think you should try to even them out a bit, unless you plan on Deep Striking them. When deploying, the side of my army left to a smaller squad is something my opponent could approach from. Yes, I'm aware that Praetorians are faster than Flayed Ones, but the fact stays the same. They can't cover 2 places at the same time. What I DID learn is that in the games where the Stalkers survived, and the Warriors/Immortals were stuck in Combat, I could throw the Stalker into combat and usually avoid anything that could take it out. So I had these hidden little Eggs to help out the Anti-Assault in the middle while the assault units covered the flanks. I've had 3 games now where I've tied up Assault Terminators and they couldn't do much. A few other games, the Warriors/Immortals broke, but couldn't be swept because of the Stalker. Helpful if you can plan the use of 'Relentless' in certain situations, and use the Stalker to absorb Overwatch. Keep this in mind since you're running Heat Rays.

3) I only played 1 game with 2 Ghost Arks and the Stalker in a CAD. The Ghost Arks are a double edged sword. They give the Warriors a little added protection and it's nice to have something else for my opponents AT to shoot at. The downsides were also obvious after the one game as well. The Ghost Arks don't benefit from the +1 BS, and there was the addition of blocking LOS from the Stalkers. So not only did the extensiveness of the Stalkers shrink, but also limited what targets I could shoot w/o giving a cover save. I did like the GA's in the CAD, even with 2 Stalkers, but I think it's not really necessary in a Decurion, using the +1 RP and the Warlord bonus. It's really up to you.

Other things are minor play differences. I really dislike the CCB, but I run Zahndrekh standard in most lists. 'Target Priority' is great with the Judicator. With around 30 Warriors I actually prefer the Tesla Immortals, which is funny because I never used them in the last Codex. That's mainly because I sit them behind the Warriors and not the other way around. With the Praetorians (Flayed Ones) and Tomb Blades and Warriors moving forward, the Gauss Immortals rarely see Rapid Fire range. I'm not disagreeing with any math that says that Gauss is better, and that the BS5 is kind of wasted on Tesla. I also run my Tomb Blades with that setup, haven't found it necessary to keep them in range of the Stalker. Just giving my experience is all.

Thanks for your suggestions!

Swapping Immortals for a Ghost Ark
I don't have any Ghost Ark (yet) but when I get one I'll try this for sure. I added the second Immortal unit because I had points left over and I wanted to get more value from the Stalkers.

Changing heat rays for the HGC
Hmmm... it's true that the stalkers don't get to shoot a lot (especially at melta-range), but I everytime I look at the weapon choice I find it hard to pay 10 points and lose 2 shots. Still, I'll try it, nothing to lose (except the game haha)

Evening the Praetorians
I have different unit sizes because they don't do the same thing. The bigger unit's job is to protect against melee. The smaller one is mostly there to take objectives and/or kill campers (5-man squad holding objectives in the back)

Tesla
I'll try to take notice of how many times the Immortals shoot at rapid fire range in my next games. You might have a point. I built a tool with Google Sheets to help me compare different loadouts and from what I see Tesla is better if you are against 3+/2+ save AND if you shoot at >12" most of the time.

CCB vs Zandrekh
Although Zandrekh's Warlord trait is incredible (reroll shooting rolls of 1 with BS5 is fun ). I don't like using him because:
- He makes the Immortals an obvious target
- He often ends up dead
- Apart from the Warlord Trait, he brings nothing to the army

Franky, I don't really like the CCB either but at least...
- It's pretty hard to kill (AV 13, It Will Not Die, Jink)
- It can actually do some shooting instead of just sit there
- It's very mobile (objectives!)
- It helps against Sweeping Advances

funkymonk wrote:
Evening the Praetorians
I have different unit sizes because they don't do the same thing. The bigger unit's job is to protect against melee. The smaller one is mostly there to take objectives and/or kill campers (5-man squad holding objectives in the back)

I get the tactic, and wasn't trying to say it's not effective. Just showing the counter that after 2 games just using Flayed Ones, my opponents figured it out. Approach from 2 sides, kill the smaller unit, then the bigger one can only address 1 threat. It wasn't hard to shoot the units that the bigger blob wasn't going to deal with, and the Mobility of the Praetorians will be more reliable than the numbers of the Flayed Ones so it's not a true comparison.

funkymonk wrote:
Tesla
I'll try to take notice of how many times the Immortals shoot at rapid fire range in my next games. You might have a point. I built a tool with Google Sheets to help me compare different loadouts and from what I see Tesla is better if you are against 3+/2+ save AND if you shoot at >12" most of the time.

I probably should've mentioned that my meta isn't currently MEQ, so that has an impact. If I ran the Gauss Immortals in the rear, they AP 4 factors in slightly. Tesla has no AP, so I didn't care about giving a cover save from shooting through the Warriors. If you're up against MEQ lists or running them in front of the Warriors, then the Gauss will still win out.

funkymonk wrote:
CCB vs Zandrekh
Although Zandrekh's Warlord trait is incredible (reroll shooting rolls of 1 with BS5 is fun ). I don't like using him because:
- He often ends up dead
- Apart from the Warlord Trait, he brings nothing to the army

It's funny, because these are the reasons I don't run the CCB. I run Zahndrekh with as full a unit of Warriors every time, and not Immortals. So don't know if that's why we see it differently, but that's the only reason I can see Immortals becoming a high priority target. For his points a 2+/4i is enough for me, and will often tank wounds when the unit gets low. Zeal on T1 means that you're not going to budge against a lucky assault. Counter Tactics makes things interesting, especially vs. Space Wolves. I can't tell you the number of times that I've selected Fearless, then jumped into combat to tie up units until the game ended.

funkymonk wrote:
Franky, I don't really like the CCB either but at least...
- It's pretty hard to kill (AV 13, It Will Not Die, Jink)
- It can actually do some shooting instead of just sit there
- It's very mobile (objectives!)
- It helps against Sweeping Advances

Not trying to disagree here, just offering a different perspective. Your games are different than mine. I've found that he goes down pretty easy.
* As a CCB, he can always be targeted. It's a trade off between the IWND/Jink vs LoS/RP. AV13, won't amount to much since it's still Open-Topped, and when QS is lost, he really goes on the defensive or dies in a blaze of glory. Once in combat, he's really not any different than any other Overlord, and is easier to single out, so I don't really see how he prevents sweeps?
* Yes he does shoot. My only struggle with it is the amount of points for it? I struggle to see how he is more valuable than the 10-14 Warriors that could be spent in his place, at least on paper. In a CAD, they're fine but I can't imagine them being optimal in a Decurion.
* Not going to disagree on the mobility, but I abuse 'Relentless' all the time. So that might be a key reason I don't care so much about it. It throws my opponents off and really helps me get around the battlefield. It works in my favor more often than it has failed me.
* Praetorians are Fearless, so I expect them to help as Anti-Sweep. This is the biggest reason why I don't really compare the FO's as an equal as a substitute for the Praetorians, and why I'm building them. While it hasn't happened yet, the Flayed Ones CAN be swept. I've had them break from shooting oddly enough. So I'm a bit more reserved when throwing them up against a unit that I can't do some damage to. I'd probably be a bit more aggressive with Praetorians, since they must all be killed, much like Wraiths.

They're common enough in most lists so it's probably just a preference of choice, and I have nothing against anyone taking one. You've been good enough to share a different view on what you plan to do with him, compared to what I usually get told they do, so thank you for that.

The CCB makes units 12" around it reroll Morale so that's how it helps to prevent sweeps. It's not perfect, but it saved me a couple of times.

Here's how I see the comparison for CCB vs Zandrekh. Like you said I don't think there's an obvious winner, but I like comparing things so here goes.
The CCB loadout I use amounts to 175 points. So I'll compare the CCB to Zandrekh + 2 Warriors (176).


Shooting Resilience (CCB slightly better)
- Exposed (Can be targeted)
+ Only S8-10 shots are threatening (and with 4++ and RP, I'd say only S10 shots are scary. Usually my opponents don't even bother shooting at it)
+ IWND

Melee Resilience (Zandrekh way better*)
- Nothing to discuss really, Zandrekh is clearly better with the help of his warriors/immortals
* BUT keeping the CCB out of melee is fairly easy with the 12" movement

Offense (about the same because of Rapid Fire)
- Loses 2 BS5 S4 AP5 Rapid Fire (2 Warrior)
+ Gains 2 BS4 S5 AP3

Mobility: (CCB way better)
+ Mobile

Support: (Zandrekh way better)
- Adaptive Tactics
- Counter Tactics
+ Reroll morale/pinning/fear 12" around him (although Zandrekh can do it too with enough foresight)


Maybe I'll give Zandrekh another shot.

I see, you're not throwing the CCB into a Combat, you're just keeping him around for the LD re-roll. That's where I got confused I think.

Yeah, it's really a matter of preference. For me, there is enough stuff to drop QS in most of my games and that puts the CCB on the defensive. The current Unbound setup I've used works because my opponents have been shooting Flayed Ones into Oblivion, so the Stalkers aren't a high priority target. I'll still lose one and the second will often lose its shielding. I just hope that the Praetorians will maintain the same threat level as the Flayed Ones.

Thank you for taking the time for your input. I've gained some insight and now support you if you're going to run the 2 units of Warriors/Immortals. I'll still be using Zahndrekh, but might give the CCB another chance if I can remember to drag it with me.

Judicator Battalion is definitely not a top tier option for necrons in my opinion.

Secondly I would like to state I have played a lot of warhammer and have gotten slay the warlord in nearly every single game I've played. Even those I've lost. I can not think of one time that that point wasn't mine. I also want to state that I could say with relative certainty my opponent has gotten the slay the warlord so few times I could count in on one hand.

Honestly this is confusing to me and I think it's because I almost never make a commander a scary looking target. I always place them in a support role where their like buffing leaderships tranferring rules etc...

I play Tau, Marines, Cron and Eldar sometimes. I also almost never play the buffmander with Tau the same way everyone else does, because that way is easily deaded. If I run one he is not the warlord if heis running up with fusion is wut im saying

You have to think about it like Slay the Warlord is a maelstom card your opponent has that he can score in the next turn if you don't orchestrate a denial, because it basically is exactly that. Don't trade points here willingly.

All of this to say I think the CCB is prob a easy point for them. I'd be PUMPED to see it if I was playing my other lists or even my crons. The fact that I get slay the warlord and my opponent doesnt and that I get first blood generally(all about deployment zones baby) has probably contributed to me winning more games than the fact that I'm General Cheddar