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As a longtime fan of the Monolith, I was excited for the chance to field the beast with sone hopefully competitive rules with the Necron re-release. Since it's hit though, I haven't seen much talk about it (positive or negative), and I haven't seen it in the lists and suggestions for must-take units either.

So, what are people's thoughts/experiences/opinions on the Monolith? Worth taking? Best uses? Pros and cons?

Any suggestionsand/or feedback greatly appreciated!

-C6

I've heard generally negative rumblings about the Monolith, which confuses me a bit...

I haven't played it under the new rules, but it seems like a really REALLY useful model to me.

It's slow, and has poor range, but when it does get into range the firepower is pretty serious for the points cost.

On top of that, it offers some major tactical flexibility with the doorway. It's essentially an AV14 transport carrying "any and/or all units in your army, including ones in reserve." Is that not good? I think it's good.

Oh, and it can eat people who get too close.

Plus Living Metal.

It IS using up a Heavy slot, which has a few really nice options in the Necron Dex. I like the Annihilation Barge, the Doomsday Ark fills a hole in the Necro Dex with ranged killing power, and obviously Spyders are a ridiculously stupid value, so the only real strike I can see against the Monolith is to question if it's BETTER than the other options at HS. For example, taking two Barges and a maxed unit of Spyders seems like a decent core, and that's all your HS slots.

In my view, it's somewhere between good and great, but it seems like I'm a minority in that.

You make some good points! Perhaps at the very least it can fill up my HS slots (I've got two) until the release of the new plastic Spyders...

Anyone out there got game experiences with 'Liths under the new dex?

It's a gamble as is any high points vehicle IMO. Just had a game where it won it for me with some nice pie plates and cover with a last turn portal onto an objective. On the other hand I've had it go down first turn to a dark lance first shot of the game which hurt in 1k .

I have a feeling that when Sixth Edition rolls around at the turn of the corner people's feelings will change about it.

Personally I think it's too big a points sink in 1K games, as above it only takes one (lukcy?) shot to take it out.

Once your in 1.5K territory then it becomes a big easier to justify but you still have to compare it against other HS options and whether it's an essential unit for your win.

The grumblings about the Monolith I think have less to do with it's actual value for points and role within the book, and more seeing what it once was and what it has become.

Within the current book, it has a fairly decent roll as a transportation node and heavy firepower (though not as heavy as many people would like) platform. It now is vulnerable to Lances and Melta weapons, but armor 14 is armor 14.

However, compared to what the Monolith used to be capable of? It is a pale shadow of it's former glory. It's gone from being almost unkillable to being just a slower Land Raider. It's main weapon lost a full point of strength, and the ability to be AP 1 vs vehicles. The current flux arc is more consistent, but the previous version had the potential to do far more damage. The old teleportation had an 18" range limit, but it massively enhanced the survivability of units via re-rolls for WBB, and could save units from combat.

It wouldn't be going too far to say that the Monolith was, for the majority of 3rd, 4th, and 5th editions, the unified field theory for Necron armies.

This is no longer true, and thus people's opinion's of the monolith are less than stellar.

I -always- field a Monolith or two, but I never play lower than 1500.

People aren't fans of it because it really is a support/utility unit, with no cookie-cutter function. I like it for the following reasons:

1. It cannot be glanced to death because the Portal of Exile cannot be destroyed.
2. It will still soak up a lot of fire.
3. Its unlimited-range teleporter is terrific for getting my units around the battlefield (use two Monoliths for increased shenanigans)
4. The Str 8 AP 3 large blast gun is great for taking out infanty
5. It is a walking wall of cover
6. It is a great roadblock and creates excellent bottlenecks and killing corridors. (I run a very shooty army, and play on a table with lots of CoD terrain, so this is important to me)
7. Living Metal is still no slouch against anything but Melta or MCs, the former of which are susceptible to the pie-plate, the latter get wiped by my destroyer wings.
8. It can pull units out of reserves without rolling, even on turn 1. (If you use Night Scythes, this can be very important)
9. Deepstriking is dangerous on the table I usually play on, but if you can safely deepstrike a Monolith into a flanking position, then its unlimited-range teleporter function will ruin your opponent's day.

Its still a useful tank but not so annoying as in the last edition. It need to be positioned with care since meltas can take it down quickly. I'd use it more as a support tank able to redeploy Necron units or letting Necron squads arrive from reserve.

It can't compete with annihilation barges

Illumini wrote:It can't compete with annihilation barges

In fact, three Annihilator Barges are a bargain. However, if you field units in Night Scythes, a Monolith gives you a way to let them return to the battle field when their transport crashes. So it has some synergy with certain mech lists.

It's a bummer that they don't allow units to assault after disembarking (even if the 'lith didn't move). If they could, I think that would really add to its value synergizing with assault units to make them functionally threaten more of the board.

I think it's pretty weak. Portal of exile will probably come up in about 1 game of 10, Dimensional Corridor is slightly weakened by what Mannahnin pointed out and it's ponderously slow.

AgeOfEgos wrote:I think it's pretty weak. Portal of exile will probably come up in about 1 game of 10, Dimensional Corridor is slightly weakened by what Mannahnin pointed out and it's ponderously slow.

I agree, Portal of exile is not something that gets used very often. I've only used it twice in the last six or seven games. However, in one of those two times the Monolith managed to suck up an entire BA Honour Guard (I think that's what they're called: the guys that can all take Melta) and the other time the Monolith sucked up Marneus Calgar. That last one alone makes it worthwhile in friendly games.

having used the monolith in a few games in the new codex, i have dropped it as:

- too slow with M6 means that if you want to use it as an assault vehicle it must either be deep striked or deployed on the field and literally take 4 turns to cross the 24in no mans land. this gives the enemy plenty of time to intercept the monolith with melta. And then

- no assault ramps etc means that any ported units take another turn to move away thus giving away any intiative to the enemy.

- if it deep strike rolls well then even if you are lucky and roll a 4+ turn 2 and port something in, no unit is able to move away from it until turn 3. compare this to SW drop pods.

- talking about drop pods, the monolith doent have inertial guidance so will suffer a mishap if it drifts too close. plus unlike drop pods as stated above, the monolith must roll for reserves and none can come in on turn 1.

- very weak firepower for the points. i mean it gets a max 12 (usually 6 or 9) str5 shots and a large blast weapon. compare that to marine transport skimmers or even the same points worth of chimeras (ok, i know it has AV14).

- melta spam kills it fast. as does lances. AV 14 is often as good as AV12 vs melta spam (you know what i mean). roughly 25% of all hits from a melta weapon will wreck the monolith.

- so to recap, its slow, has low firepower, doesnt lend itself to facilitating assault troops. It does provide nifty cover when it gets wrecked tho.

A similar port result can often be achieved with a Veil cryp or IC.

The Monolith wasn't particularly good in the old codex, it was taken because it was a a nightmare to kill, is massive so can block LOS to things and because it was a helpful support unit (re-rolling WBB, pulling things out of combat or just moving them around in general).

In the new codex its no longer hard to kill at all, having lost its durability against Lances and Melta on top of its Deep Strike protection. Its no longer a good support unit since WBB is gone (Ghost Arks fill that role now), it can't pull units out of combat and you can't assault out of it. Now it just gives you a sub par quasi transport (for an army which has 2 very solid transports but no real desire to get up close) and reasonable damage output (but pretty much every other Heavy Support option is better). In short, not worth looking at until 6th roles around.

Put me in the pretty solid for what you pay for it class.

I think those not liking aren't using it for it's designed purpose. I use it as a mobile LOS wall that protects my phalanx of warriors/GA's (great for hiding 3 HDs). It's 6" move then is just fine as that is the movement of the warriors. The vacuum works just as good as a deterrent as it does as an actually weapon, so it tends to keep dedicated CC units at bay. A 4 BS melta shot only has an 18% chance of wrecking it and it's great at punishing suicide melta squads who fail on there melta shot. Another thing is any Lance/Melta going into it are not going into your GAs/ABs/TSs etc. so it's a good Tank in the MMO since in this way. Most importantly its tremendously versatile in its application. Any of the things it can do can come up at an unplanned moment and bail you out/give you some additional options late in the game.