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I'm an old skool Necron Player, from way back in 1997 until 3rd ed Codex.

I had to sell my 4000 point army a while ago and I've only recently started on a new army.

I currently have:

Catacomb Barge/Annihilation Barge.

24 Warriors.

8 Scarab Bases.

Where do I go from here?

I want to make a strong take on all comers sort of list of around 2000 points.

Can someone point me in the right direction please?

Since you have an overlord, I would buy a set of deathmarks and lychguard, and use them to make crypteks.
You might want to get some Ghost Arks as well to help out the warriors.

I heard about the "Cryptek" box - definitely setting some of those up.

From what I've read about Ghost Arks, they seem weak. Am I reading this wrong?

Every BATREP I've read has no shortage of scarabs and wraiths.

Yeah, I can totally see Scarabs and Wraith being strong.

So on my list of goodies to expand my army, so far I have...

More Barges?
Really? These things look ok on paper, pretty good at popping light vehicles like Rhino, but a bit naff as the range is only 24". Might keep the Tesla Cannon things for a fighter conversion.

Immortals with Teslas?
Seem to be more powerful than Gauss Blasters.

Scarab Farms?
These things rip tanks apart and I've seen games where they just make your opponent hurl fire into them.

Ghost Ark?
Seems really weak.

Night Scythe and Doom Scythe?
I can see potential here. Fast transports, but lacking the kool shields. Death Ray on Doomy seems a little broken. I have an idea to make them out of Eldar Tank parts and left over barge bits.

Monolith?
Doesn't seem to be all that great anymore.

Can anyone add to this?

Puscifer wrote:More Barges?
Really? These things look ok on paper, pretty good at popping light vehicles like Rhino, but a bit naff as the range is only 24". Might keep the Tesla Cannon things for a fighter conversion.

AV 13 until they take a pen isn't too shabby. And at 90 points a pop they are stupidly cheap for how much firepower they put out. 2-3 annihilation barges and 4-6 night scythes can put out a stupid amount of S7 shots that can both arc as well as generate more hits (tesla rule). Can shred (or at least stun-lock) light vehicles and chew up infantry pretty badly (most stuff in 5th edition will have a 4+ save so the ap '-' really doesn't matter against infantry).

Immortals with Teslas?
Seem to be more powerful than Gauss Blasters.

The better part is that Teslas are assault weapons where blasters are rapid-fire. Both are good, but they serve different purposes. A Phaeron in a large squad of Immortals or Warriors with gauss weapons can work pretty well. That being said it really depends on what the rest of the list looks like.

Scarab Farms?
These things rip tanks apart and I've seen games where they just make your opponent hurl fire into them.

Good, but not absolutely amazing or auto-includes (I'd actually lean towards Heavy Destroyers over Scarabs or Wraiths...but once again depends on the list). Remember the blast weapons and templates will chew through them.....blasts/templates that cause instant-death will hurt even more. A hellhound, redeemer, or incinerator can easily wipe out 12+ bases in a single shot.

Ghost Ark?
Seems really weak.

AV13 is durable enough while it lasts. Two of them with a larger (10-15 man) warrior squads is useful. I have also seen the "Iron Curtain" build that just spams AV13 (lots of barges and arks). Just keep the enemy out of melta range if possible.

Night Scythe and Doom Scythe?
I can see potential here. Fast transports, but lacking the kool shields. Death Ray on Doomy seems a little broken. I have an idea to make them out of Eldar Tank parts and left over barge bits.

Deathray does hurt....but remember that it is tissue paper so the second it gets into range to fire, the enemy will make damn well sure to try their hardest to kill it. At best you'll probably get one shot (two if lucky) out of one.

In either cases you'll need Harbingers of Destruction with Solar Pulse to protect them from long-range fire.

Monolith?
Doesn't seem to be all that great anymore.

Meh, I see it a giant piece of mobile terrain with a short-range battlecannon. At 200 points I don't really see the point of at. About 50 points too expensive (and before people start comparing to Russes, Russes themselves are about 30-40 points too expensive for a single shot that doesn't go near it's target over half of the time).

Can anyone add to this?

Nothing overly 'terrible' in this codex. There are some 'bad' units (Monolith, Praetorians, Destroyers, Flayed Ones) and some overpriced models (Triarchs, Praetorians/Lychguard, Arks, Wraiths) but nothing really useless. All depends on how you build the list.

Thank you very much Nungunz.

I couldnt agree more with your final point, there really are no bad units in the book. Just makes it difficult to choose which ones you want in the army.

Nothing overly 'terrible' in this codex. There are some 'bad' units (Monolith, Praetorians, Destroyers, Flayed Ones) and some overpriced models (Triarchs, Praetorians/Lychguard, Arks, Wraiths) but nothing really useless. All depends on how you build the list.

In what way are Wraiths overcosted? I'd really love to see you reasoning behind that.

I agree. When a model comes with 2 wounds and a 3++ for 35 points, I don't consider that overcosted at all.

Let's not forget, with those whip things, Wraith generally hit first in cc - which is huge IMO.

Might have to convert some up methinks.

Puscifer wrote:Let's not forget, with those whip things, Wraith generally hit first in cc - which is huge IMO.

Might have to convert some up methinks.

Indeed, you only need about 3 Whipcoils in a squad to be effective as well. With Whipcoils, and their Wraithflight, they can hit first even when assaulting in cover.

I'd still go with a whole unit with them.
First of all for redundancy, second for casualties.

Puscifer wrote:I'd still go with a whole unit with them.
First of all for redundancy, second for casualties.

A full unit of Whipcoils is not really needed though, with the MSU Nature of most lists out there, 3 whip coils tends to be more than enough. If you want to pull wound allocation, a Particle caster or 2 can help with this.

I'm assuming that the Whipcoils work against any models in b2b contact?

If that's the case, if you give Wraiths any additional gear, will they lose Rending?

Puscifer wrote:I'm assuming that the Whipcoils work against any models in b2b contact?

If that's the case, if you give Wraiths any additional gear, will they lose Rending?

Nope. None of their equipment replaces their claws.
And yes, Coils work in B2b contact.

Puscifer wrote:I'm assuming that the Whipcoils work against any models in b2b contact?

If that's the case, if you give Wraiths any additional gear, will they lose Rending?

Phase attacks is a special rule, and not dictated by any wargear they have/don't have. You are in no danger of losing it. Yes, Whip Coils work on any models in b2b that have an I value.

So... For example:

Three Wraith with Whipcoils and two with standard gear assault an a Talos. All in b2b, is the Talos initiative 1 against all the Wraith?

Puscifer wrote:So... For example:

Three Wraith with Whipcoils and two with standard gear assault an a Talos. All in b2b, is the Talos initiative 1 against all the Wraith?

It only takes one Wraith's Whipcoils to be in b2b with a model, for it to be at I during combat. So, yes in your example the Talos would be I1 to ANYTHING in the combat with it.

Sweeeeet.

Thanks.

It's becoming a little clearer about what I want in the army.

Definitely want wraiths. My friend plays newcrons and every game his biggest complaint is that he doesn't have enough wraiths. Great against everything, I recommend 2 squads of wraiths, one big squad of scarabs, a bunch of spiders-50pt monstrous creatures with additional abilities? Yes please. Add other things you'd like for flavor. This list is nasty in our player base.

I was going to go with 2 units of Scarabs and 1 Wraiths, but I can see the potential of two Wraith Units.

Concerning troops choices, I've already got 24 Warriors and I want to get 10 Immortals. Do I go for more warriors or is 24 of them plus 10 Immortals going to be enough?
I'm thinking possibly another 12 Warriors won't hurt.

HQ, I'm not really that fussed with ATM. I think the troops, FA and Crypteks are far more important.

This is my 1850 right now. I feel like it's pretty competitive:

Overlord-195
Command Barge, Septimal Weave, Warscythe
Overlord-195
Command Barge, Septimal Weave, Warscythe
Royal Court-160
4xCryteks, 4xDestruction, 1xSolar Pulse
Royal Court-160
4xCryteks, 4xDestruction, 1xSolar Pulse
10 Immortals-170
Tesla Carbine
9 Immortals-153
Tesla Carbine
5 Warriors-65
5 Warriors-65
5 Warriors-65
5 Wraiths-175
5 Wraiths-175
Annihilation Barge-90
Annihilation Barge-90
Annihilation Barge-90

Just my currnet take on Necrons. Lots of firepower with solid cc.

Hulk, that list is awesome and it gives 150 points of room for any extras you would want to add in for 2k.

Are the two classes of Barge really that good?

I've got one, I love the model and I'm thinking of getting more.

My gaming experience says that the Annihilation Barge is really that good. So much so that when I had two I went out and picked up a third based on it's awesomeness. As for the command barge I don't have a ton of experience with it yet but I felt it complimented the army well and filled in a few gaps. Plus 2 more AV13 is nothing to scoff at.

I am just starting necrons. I traded for some from a friend of mine so I have limited models. The one thing my firend had was 6 wraiths. Those are far the MVP of everygame I have played. I held up a nob biker squad for a whole game with them and in another game almost cleared out a whole corner of the board against TAu and Gaurd. . I run 3 with whip coils which seems to be enough.

I have been trying out immortals and I have been running 10 with an overlord with the relentless rule and ann orb. I run them with the gaus weapons because I am not sold on AP- of the nelsa weapons for killing vehicles. They have been very good and will be my next purchase.

I have been real happy with gauss weapons and have glanced to death many a vehicle. I even had a monolith alive which pulled a unit of 13 warriors from reserve to be in rapid fire range to kill a battlewagon with a mek w/ KKF in it.

The scarabs have not done to much for me, I still need to try them out more.

My next thing to try out will be barges, I think they would be a good addition.

For Wraiths, a great way to get them is the Ghost Ark kit. Use the Crons that are getting repaired with the extended spine and voila! You get 10 Wraiths and a Ghost Ark (or doomsday Ark, I've found it to be fun to use against armies that have a lot of T3 when moving around).

It's costly but I'll tell you my list which has seen victories or ties against drago-wing, blood angels DOA and mech, Imp-guard leafblower variants, and iced Tau (the last not being very impressive at all)

Unit 1: The Brick

Imotech [brings nightfight, lightning [even when in reserves of dead!], phaerons i.e. relentless]

Nemesor [ an extra 2+3+ wound sink to work with eating rockets, rending ,etc... the fantastic USR nerf and buff for your own units (i.e. furious charge scarabs, counter attack scarabs, taking stealth off other people (DRAGO WING!!!), and the super import Res Orb for 4+ reanimation protocols and ever iving)

Necron Lord (from Imo's Court) with Warscythe [when furious charging Str 8 + 2d6 v. vehicles] and mindshacle scarabs. -- this guy can't be single out in combat and can remove heavy hitters before they even strike blows. Use careful placing and the character reactions in combat rule to get advantageous placement.

Cryptech with Veil of Darkness (Nemesor Court). Has a Str 8 AP1 flamer (wounding against LD is sad, but when it DOES wound it's still Str8 and can autokill T4 models and more importantly... you can jump around with the unit all the time blasting away at 24" thanks to phaeron.

19 Necron Warriors. See Above. - Ninja grab on late term objectives, allows for roving 24" range striking.. and stand up at end of each phase on a 4+ thanks to RP and the Res Orb.

Unit 2: The Other Guys
10 Immortals with carbines- 24", Assault 1, Str5 !!!
Cryptech with Veil (Imo Court) and the mentioned flamer. Same support tactics and gun use, but a little more survivable thanks to 3+ armor.

2 Units of 4 Wraiths with ALL having whipcord Tails. You can choose to trim this as I'm seeing emerging success with only 3 having the whips.

1 units of 10 scarabs.

3 canoptic spyder stock standard.
3 canoptic spyders with one having a gloom prism for anti-psi
3 more spyders with one having the prism noted above,

You can generally castle in night fight building a massive scarab wave, prime it with Nemesor, and watch it walk over a LOT of units as long as you remember to be careful about stringing it to the Spyders during assaults.

The wraiths are there to tackle the badness on table and let tomb spyders walk up with impunity to whoop tail. [otherwise they're there to buy time for maneuvers]

This list does well in multi-objective missions, can generally take a decent amount of punishment, and can yield surprsiingly few kill points as long as you don't stick around to let someone collect them. Note: One of your royal court cryptechs is only going to consist of one model. Make sure it's in the brick unit so as to prevent the Immortal troop from becoming an easy 2pts annhilation kill.

one more note: Vindicaire Assassins are your arch enemy as they can and WILL try to snipe out your cryptechs with veil. Be careful and consider placing wraiths for discouraging their near deployment.

Cleared the GW of Barges, Immortals and a box of Triarchs to go with the other stuff I had before Xmas.

Really wasn't much there, but they had all that I needed.

Checked on EBay for the old Wraith... £41.00 for 3 BNIB and the auction still has 3 days to go???

Yeah... Screw that!!!

Gonna drop down to 1500 points and go Wraithless.

yeah, the old-cron players who used to take the three units of three with destroyer-lords and warscythes for support are making out like bandits now.

On the downside, those builds also tended to use three monoliths and we see how great they are now.

:(

This is why I am convinced the Chaos Legions codex is going to suck egg-- as the company will have to mega-nerf all the old chaos models and units to get folks to buy new ones.