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So far this is the best list, for me, that I have come up with from the necron codex. My intent is to get some more monoliths and have a go at triple monolith builds, but for a hybrid list, this I find to be the most effective, because the units I have chosen, give you the most in regards to their points costs. I've had good results with the list, but I'd like to hear what other necron lords think of it.


Deciever @ 300pts.

Lord with Destroyer Body, Warscythe, Ressurection Orb, Phylactery, Gaze of Flame @ 210pts.

10 Warriors @ 180pts.

10 Warriors @ 180pts.

10 Warriors @ 180pts.

10 Warriors @ 180pts.

3 Scarab Swarms with disruption fields @ 48pts.

3 Scarab Swarms @ 36pts.

3 Scarab Swarms @ 36pts.

3 Tomb Spyders @ 165pts.

Monolith @ 235pts.

I could drop the Gaze of flame, and the disruption fields on one of the scarab squads, for an extra warrior, but then again the upgrades give me some extra options.

So trash it at will

I really sorry but there's nothing about this list I like.

The good things I see are the Deceiver and the monolith.

The bad things I see are everything else...the large amounts of warriors, the small numbers of scarabs, the 1/3 of your points tied up in two models, and tomb spiders.

You win with this list? You must be really good, lucky, or playing your 5 year old sister???

General_Chaos wrote:I really sorry but there's nothing about this list I like.

The good things I see are the Deceiver and the monolith.

The bad things I see are everything else...the large amounts of warriors, the small numbers of scarabs, the 1/3 of your points tied up in two models, and tomb spiders.

You win with this list? You must be really good, lucky, or playing your 5 year old sister???

Dude.....



The list DOES have some bad points, i.e. the Scarab swarms. i'd just not bother taking them. Drop the monolith and boost up your warrior squads or get some destroyers. I'd also drop the deciever and boost up your Phase Out Count Towards guys, but i'm guessing you like the deciever ?

Actually that was exactly the kinds of responses I was hoping for. People seem to think Necrons are about taking 50 point multilasers. I'm not sure if this would have been better off in the tactics section, but since I'm basing this off my list, this seemed like a good place to put it.

Maybe I should break down the roles and jobs a little more?

Deciever doesnt need explaining. He's a counter to most rock units, mephiston and poisoned attacks will take him down. Grand Illusion works when youre not playing against regular opponents. He might be going when the new Dark Eldar arrive with their poisoned attacks.

Lord is for the orb early on, but he can zoom out to tarpit, destroy tanks, or contest later in the game. The Lord is also very likely to jump back up, and if I'm lucky, with more than one wound.

These two models do take up a lot of points, but that's why I don't have any other destroyer bodies in this list.


Warriors are so numerous so that it'll take 3-4 turns for youre opponent to chew through them, as long as the necron player knows what he is doing. Gauss flayers en masse also work well as supression fire.

Scarab Swarms are the most awesome contesting unit in the game. When I'm paying 36 points for my contesting unit, I can concentrate the rest of my points on camping on my side of the table and destroying my opponent. Who are you going to use to contest in a destroyerwing list? Would you zoom out 5 destroyers risking that they get overrun in combat, with nowhere for the rest of the models to ''well be back'' to.

Tomb spyders can take a lot of incoming fire. Bad opponents will generally pour shots into these guys. In addition, they can pop tanks in CC and potentially tarpit infantry units. I'd rather pay 55 points for a MC to pop my opponent's tanks, then 195 or 250 points for squads of destroyers.

The Monolith synergises well with almost all necron builds, and it has the best anti-tank weapon in the necron arsenal.

I'll use warriors to pop the highest armour value at range and the mono to pop the lightest armour value at range. In CC I have 5 ''MC'' to stop tanks. Infantry is easier to deal with.

The secret of this list is that it looks utter crap on paper, but has enough tools to deal with most threats. Destroyer wing and Wraith Wing are great as long as your opponent cant cope with the fact that you're dominating that certain phase or field. Like any Necron list, my list has very bad matchups, but I dare to say that this list is more of an allcomers list.

I'm not saying that this is the way necrons should be played, but I was hoping to provoke discussion on the way necrons are being played at the moment.

And no, I don't play against 5-year old sisters.

Needs more destroyers

Needs more Marine Chapters!

So Sayeth. The Games Workshop Employee's ^^

Destroyers are awesome, but no this list is not about destroyers. I'll probably have to take piccies and write up a battle report so that you guys belive me...

I still think that stunning tanks and finishing them off with MCs is the best anti-tank you can get from the necron codex.

Warriors are so numerous so that it'll take 3-4 turns for youre opponent to chew through them, as long as the necron player knows what he is doing. Gauss flayers en masse also work well as supression fire.

10 man warrior squads are too squishy, as a SM I'd annihilate 2 units on turn 1 with assault, Deceiver would go to as a 4+ save makes him just too vulnerable to the ubiquitous poison weaponry around. Then you're pretty much boned as there not much else to this list unless I'm missing something?

FlingitNow wrote:

Warriors are so numerous so that it'll take 3-4 turns for youre opponent to chew through them, as long as the necron player knows what he is doing. Gauss flayers en masse also work well as supression fire.

10 man warrior squads are too squishy, as a SM I'd annihilate 2 units on turn 1 with assault, Deceiver would go to as a 4+ save makes him just too vulnerable to the ubiquitous poison weaponry around. Then you're pretty much boned as there not much else to this list unless I'm missing something?

How are you turn 1 assaulting 2 units of necron warriors?

Unless it's the Necron player's first game ever, they aren't going to line up the Warriors as close as possible to your assault elements and then walk forward waiting for you to beat on them.

AspireToGlory wrote:How are you turn 1 assaulting 2 units of necron warriors?

Unless it's the Necron player's first game ever, they aren't going to line up the Warriors as close as possible to your assault elements and then walk forward waiting for you to beat on them.

Yes skilled Necron players reserve their warriors 99% of the time now its a pity and really says something about the codex when immortal soulless killing robots are forced to hide the entire game but anyways.

You can keep warriors safe but they will never kill anything as much as I try this list isn't good. Ive always wanted to try a maxed scarab swarm list but this isn't it. It just wont kill much DS or meched up flamer squads will cause you to bleed KP. It also would take away all of your mobility. Also in an environment where ML spam is the norm the deceiver is doing less and less for me in my games.

Decent idea but there are some major holes I have a hard time believing 3 scarabs with D-Field are pulling any anti-tank weight
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12 attacks with the squad on a charge a tanks moving at combat speed would take a 4+ to hit so that averages out to 6 hits and 1 glance. Now assuming the Lord is with them the odds of actually hurting something go up drastically but the scarabs wouldn't get the 2+ cover save the turn they assaulted meaning they are bolter bait that turn and flamers cause double wounds, wound on a 3+ and disallow their armor saves. Also a vhecile giving up a turn of shooting almost insures the scarabs wont scratch the vehicle leaving the bugs high and dry with their T3 and 5+ save

Scarabs really need large squads sizes to do their job which is distraction, tar pitting, and absorbing fire

Honestly i don't think this list is that bad tactically, it just needs a little more... muscle i guess. I see a lot of anti tank potential as well as the contesting potential, but what about other units? how do you deal with armies like nids and orks?

All in all, I think this is a really cool list and that you should make a battle rep (i would love to see what this list can do)

to comment on the small squad size for the scarabs... smaller squads would actually let you get more hits in because your enemy is killing one squad at a time, but who are kidding here, they still won't last that long. but you did say that they were used for contesting purposes.

The disruption fields on the scarab swarm was just left over points, only one of the squads has them, and I rarely actually use them, but I might be able to force my opponent to move a vehicle with the threat of the scarabs. The scarabs ARE NOT doing the antitank, they ARE NOT a swarm that will anihilate your opponent. They stay in reserve and contest so that my more expensive elements don't have to.

I never reserve my warriors. The secret to keeping warriors alive is good deployment. Don't deploy them so that your opponent can kill off more squads then 1 a turn, it's not hard really. This way the warriors can stun tanks for my MCs to pop open or add their fire to taking out infantry.

Deciever is finding it hard to cope with missile spam and poisoned weapons, but it gives me something against Bloodcrushers, nob bikers, terminators and all sorts of deathstars, that I would otherwise have no chance of popping.

Hordes are a bad matchup. Nids I can deal with, just annihilate a squad at a time with my shooting units and tarpit the rest with MCs, but Orks have claws, which makes tomb spyders cry. My best chance is drawing out the orks with my warrior core, letting them kill a few squads, gathering survivors into the rest and then teleporting out, leaving the rest of the horde to be tarpitted by the MCs.

I don't see how this list works at all. You are basically relying on the Deceiver to solo an army while the scarabs contest. There is no punch. You have a single ordinance blast as your ranged anti tank. How do you stop rush armies? How would you stop a landraider or two or a couple of Ork battle wagons? How do you stop rhino rush even. As soon as the opponent reaches you (which they will against this list) you have nothing but a Deceiver. It isn't hard for a CC oriented squad to sweep 10 necrons off the board.

JGrand wrote:I don't see how this list works at all. You are basically relying on the Deceiver to solo an army while the scarabs contest. There is no punch. You have a single ordinance blast as your ranged anti tank. How do you stop rush armies? How would you stop a landraider or two or a couple of Ork battle wagons? How do you stop rhino rush even. As soon as the opponent reaches you (which they will against this list) you have nothing but a Deceiver. It isn't hard for a CC oriented squad to sweep 10 necrons off the board.

Only 2 tanks is easy. Gauss flayers don't look at armour values, and I'll just immobilise the raiders or wagons with my big blast and gauss flayers. It's rhino rhush armies in which my MCs better roll some 6s to hit. When you have 40 warriors you can afford to lose a couple of squads in order to draw out and bog down your opponent.

Only 2 tanks is easy. Gauss flayers don't look at armour values, and I'll just immobilise the raiders or wagons with my big blast and gauss flayers. It's rhino rhush armies in which my MCs better roll some 6s to hit. When you have 40 warriors you can afford to lose a couple of squads in order to draw out and bog down your opponent.

I'm not saying only 2 tanks. At 1750 you are facing much more than that. Hell, a Razor spam or rhino spam could easily pack 5+. Even LR spam at 1750 can squeeze 3. I just don't see it. You can lose 3 Necron squads until phase out. You don't have the ability to stop a rush because you have no ranged anti tank. Necron squads crumble to assault because of sweeping advances. I don't understand how you would have any chance of surviving a rush list.

I just got a Necron army...I just may try this list myself and see...

one nice thing is with a new codex expected soon this argument will soon be null and void

JGrand wrote:I'm not saying only 2 tanks. At 1750 you are facing much more than that. Hell, a Razor spam or rhino spam could easily pack 5+. Even LR spam at 1750 can squeeze 3. I just don't see it. You can lose 3 Necron squads until phase out. You don't have the ability to stop a rush because you have no ranged anti tank. Necron squads crumble to assault because of sweeping advances. I don't understand how you would have any chance of surviving a rush list.

This^

Destroyers are the best answer to rush lists which is why you see them so often. My bro plays a dual lash prince list with PM and Oblits. Its not really a rush list but i see it butchering this list PF are not that uncommon and when they are put in wagons/ rhinos they are a pain. You have nothing to reliably stall mech mid field which is what wins games with crons in 5th. Like I said before its not a terrible list for friendly play but it just wont cut it against anything even slightly resembling a waac list

How are you turn 1 assaulting 2 units of necron warriors?

Unless it's the Necron player's first game ever, they aren't going to line up the Warriors as close as possible to your assault elements and then walk forward waiting for you to beat on them.

It not like you have to deploy them close to my assault element just pretty much anywhere on the table. Assaulting people on turn 1 is hardly a rare thing these days with Vanilla marines literally able to assault with their entire army in turn 1 should they wish to (not that it would be a competitive build but still possible).

Yes skilled Necron players reserve their warriors 99% of the time now its a pity and really says something about the codex when immortal soulless killing robots are forced to hide the entire game but anyways.

Do Necrons do Ninja well? Do they have the mobility to pull that off? With only 1 Monolith I don't see that as a viable option for this list.


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I never reserve my warriors. The secret to keeping warriors alive is good deployment. Don't deploy them so that your opponent can kill off more squads then 1 a turn, it's not hard really.

Sorry what? How exactly do you deploy so that say 2 LSSs full of scouts with a 45" charge range from their deployment spot on turn 1 don't get you and kill you? 15 Warriors would force the scouts to double up on 1 squad but due to WBB rather than FnP 1 Scout squad would sweep a 10 man Necron squad 9 times out of 10.

If your opponent then concentrated his on the other warrior squad he could even be phasing you out turn 1. That is the issue with this list too many squishy targets, no ranged AT and no really viable ninja option.

I play SM, Orks, and Necrons so I know a couple sides of how this battle is gunna play out and I just can't see this handling any of my run of the mill list I play.

It's got two threats the Deciever and a monolith which both are easy to either just take down or just avoid. Everything you have, except the scarabs and Lord, is really slow. So for those things to play off each other they are going to have to be in phalanx or castled up, which is going to be the down fall of it when your warriors get rolled over and you phase out.

Even if you reserve all your warriors what does that leave on the table 3 spiders, Lord, Deciever, and couple rinky scarab swarms.

Hell one Long Fang squad would bring this list crashing down.

I'm enjoying this discussion. Hiding warriors from t1 charge isn't that hard. Use the scarabs if I have to or just the MCs. Against a razor or rhino rush, it's really just down to luck, if I can stall the marines midfield. Orks are difficult since deff rollas wreck monoliths reeeaaally easily. I wouldn't really worry about power fists anywhere else than in Orks. No lists use them anymore, prefering to use up the points for more MSU.

I was thinking, as a substitute for the deciever, I'd take a second lord on destroyer body, and swap 10 warriors for 2x5 immortals. Immortals give me nice suppressive fire on the move, and 2 shots at 24'', so they should be nice. Losing the deciever is still quite a blow.

Keep the trashtalk coming, I'm interested in your opinions.

haizelhoff wrote:
Warriors are so numerous so that it'll take 3-4 turns for youre opponent to chew through them, as long as the necron player knows what he is doing. Gauss flayers en masse also work well as supression fire

When you field warriors, and place them on table, it is not the necron player that is making the shots, it's opposing player... Yes, warriors are durable, but not in cc... Remember that there are no WBB rolls for ENTIRE unit, even those who died prior sweeping advance happened... So anything assaulty in their nature will sweep away entire squad... So, 10 warriors is durable as hell, but only in shooting... Any good player will take advantage of it...

As for all not-enough-to-kill-vehicle debate, no1 has 2 vehicles in 1500pts... I play SM, and in 1500pts I have 7 vehicles... Try to stop that before I assault you with marines (and you will be sweeped away).... Or blast warriors with vindies...

There is reason why footy necrons don't fly in 5th edition... When they get stubborn, it will be different matter, as it will become difficult to sweep them... And with WBB and 3+ save, they can lock in combat many things... But for now, most competitive lists are (unfortunatly) destroyer wing and wraith wing...

So your list has potential... But only when new dex arrives...

If you sweeping advance one squad, the warriors WBB into another squad. Necrons are squishy in CC, yes that is a fact.

haizelhoff wrote:If you sweeping advance one squad, the warriors WBB into another squad

No they don't

I'm enjoying this discussion. Hiding warriors from t1 charge isn't that hard.

I'm still not understanding how you're doing this? You don't have enough bodies to totally surround the warriors so how exactly are you going to hide them from the chargers?

Just a little raw thingy... You don't get wbb rolls in next squad... As sweeping advance says (unfortunately, since I play necron) that you remove them from game and that no special rule can save them at this point... So it negates wbb... Furthermore, you have to remove all models in squad, and that means models that were downed before sweeping took place (warriors that died in assault that resaulted you losing combat+ shooting phase)... It is a terrible nerf for necrons that makes them extra poor in cc...

Chinchilla wrote:Just a little raw thingy... You don't get wbb rolls in next squad... As sweeping advance says (unfortunately, since I play necron) that you remove them from game and that no special rule can save them at this point... So it negates wbb... Furthermore, you have to remove all models in squad, and that means models that were downed before sweeping took place (warriors that died in assault that resaulted you losing combat+ shooting phase)... It is a terrible nerf for necrons that makes them extra poor in cc...

Are downed necron models still regarded as models for that purpose? Are the downed models regarded as even part of that squad? I have to confess, I'm not up to date with the interpretations on Necron rules, that is a good point.

About surrounding the warriors:

Table corner + scarabs + spyders + mono + deciever is enough

I always use scaras with D-Field. CHuck a load of scarabs ata tank and they can earn their points back very quickly.

I tend to put my D-Lord with some scarabs to beenfit fromt eh Turbo save and try to nail enemy armour early on.

haizelhoff wrote:

Chinchilla wrote:Just a little raw thingy... You don't get wbb rolls in next squad... As sweeping advance says (unfortunately, since I play necron) that you remove them from game and that no special rule can save them at this point... So it negates wbb... Furthermore, you have to remove all models in squad, and that means models that were downed before sweeping took place (warriors that died in assault that resaulted you losing combat+ shooting phase)... It is a terrible nerf for necrons that makes them extra poor in cc...

Are downed necron models still regarded as models for that purpose? Are the downed models regarded as even part of that squad? I have to confess, I'm not up to date with the interpretations on Necron rules, that is a good point.

About surrounding the warriors:

Table corner + scarabs + spyders + mono + deciever is enough

Unfortunately, they do count as part of unit... It explicitly says so in the dex... Untill wbb roll, when they can (only if roll is successful) put them in a squad 6'' away... That means that if entire squad dies (in shooting or so), and some of them join after wbb other squad, porting that squad will not allow you more wbb rolls... There are so many wbb nerfs due to clumsy-written rules that it hurts...

Back on topic... Yes, you can corner yourself... Although, when I started playing wh40k with necrons, I always plaxed footy warriors (as they were all that I had) and scarabs... And my experience is like this: Horde of orks? I have one shoot at them (if lucky) and then i'm sweeped away... Same goes for most cc oriented armies... Wall, or not wall, you can't prevail against horde... What about wagon spam? At 1750 there are usually 4 wagons with kff full of boyz and nobz... Can you stop it by walling up? Don't think so...

True, you will have interesting battle against shooty non cc armies (tau) and similar, but as I said, I wouldn't go this way until new dex arrives...

FlingitNow wrote:

How are you turn 1 assaulting 2 units of necron warriors?

Unless it's the Necron player's first game ever, they aren't going to line up the Warriors as close as possible to your assault elements and then walk forward waiting for you to beat on them.

It not like you have to deploy them close to my assault element just pretty much anywhere on the table. Assaulting people on turn 1 is hardly a rare thing these days with Vanilla marines literally able to assault with their entire army in turn 1 should they wish to (not that it would be a competitive build but still possible).

Yes skilled Necron players reserve their warriors 99% of the time now its a pity and really says something about the codex when immortal soulless killing robots are forced to hide the entire game but anyways.

Do Necrons do Ninja well? Do they have the mobility to pull that off? With only 1 Monolith I don't see that as a viable option for this list.


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I never reserve my warriors. The secret to keeping warriors alive is good deployment. Don't deploy them so that your opponent can kill off more squads then 1 a turn, it's not hard really.

Sorry what? How exactly do you deploy so that say 2 LSSs full of scouts with a 45" charge range from their deployment spot on turn 1 don't get you and kill you? 15 Warriors would force the scouts to double up on 1 squad but due to WBB rather than FnP 1 Scout squad would sweep a 10 man Necron squad 9 times out of 10.

If your opponent then concentrated his on the other warrior squad he could even be phasing you out turn 1. That is the issue with this list too many squishy targets, no ranged AT and no really viable ninja option.

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAAH

Oh dear god, that was the best laugh of the day. 5 scouts??? Oh noes, what next, a grot squad??

You do realise the necrons can just get back up on the off chance you do sweep them? Then your scouts are standing there with their pants down. Nice job, you traded 4 KP's for 1


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As for the list itself:

I've played this list. And I can tell you, its one annoying melon-fether in objective games. You think trying to cause 9 wounds against a 2+ cover save is fun?? Thats what you gotta do to put those scarabs down.

IMO this list plays to best to the necron codex's strengths. It has its annoying counterattack elements, its tarpit units, its single rock that you anchor around and a good amount of warriors.

Wraith wing?? Dont make me laugh. They dont even have fething rending. My grey hunters will beat them in CC.

Destroyer wing?? A bit better, but still not great. Guess what, you're whole armies' firepower is 15 multilasers. For 750pts!!! What a bargain!!

If you want a speedy shooty army, play bike marines, mech eldar, or deldar.

If you want a fast CC army, play thunderwolves, dual seer council, or anything else really. Even fething grots are better in combat based on point for point effectiveness compared to wraiths.

You want to play necrons, dont try and make some kind of wannabe 5th ed force. Necrons cant do mech, they cant do gunline, they cant do CC. What can they do?? Shenanigans. Shenanigans, shenanigans, shenanigans. Abuse those 3rd ed rules. Abuse the crappily written WBB. Abuse your ridiculously good yet ridiculously cheap contester scarabs.

Dont try and migitate the codex's weaknesses. Play to its strengths. The necron codex square block wont fit into the 5th ed triangular hole, no matter how hard you force it.

I need to work up a battle rep next week. Maybe even video?