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So, for the last few weeks a couple of Necron lists have been have been rattling around in my head. The main focus of them all is to present my opponent with nothing but AV 13 quantum shielded vehicles to fire at. (A fair percentage of my opponents can't deal with av 13, or av 11 back armors terribly well)

As a base line, I was thinking of running 2 Ghost Arks with Warriors and a Destruction cryptic embarked in each (one with the solar pulse), and a cheap Overlord in a CCB.

From there, my lists start to diverge.

How many warriors in the Ghost arks? Min sized squads with 5, or go for all 9?
How many Annihilation Barges? Go for all 3?
Should I get another Warrior Squad in an Ark?
Should I get another CCB overlord so I can double up on HoD's with my Warriors?
Doomsday Arks or Triarch Stalkers: Worth a shot?

The first list that I have been wanting to play looks like this:

HQ
Necron Overlord
Warscythe
Catacomb Command Barge

Cryptec
Harbinger of Destruction
Eldritch Lance, Solar Pulse
Cryptec
Harbinger of Destruction
Eldritch Lance

Troops
Necron Warriors
Ghost Ark
5x Necron Warrior

Necron Warriors
Ghost Ark
5x Necron Warrior

Heavy Support
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge
Doomsday Ark

This comes to 985 points. Enough to give my overlord Scarabs or Sempiternal weave, or throw another warrior into one of the arks.
The idea behind this list being that with the DD Ark, the opponent can't afford not to close in on my army. Once within 36", the Eldritch Lances start taking pot shots. Then at 24", the flayer arrays and destructors start mangling.
Light on troops, and the DD Ark makes the list more static than I'd like, but once within 24 inches, there is a terrifying amount of fire for the 1000 points range. (40 gauss flayers, 2 Eldritch Lances, 2 destructors, 2 tesla cannons)

Then, there are 3 variants on this list that I am considering.

My second list is exactly the same, but switching The 2 A Barges out for 1 more Doomsday Ark. I feel like they can be a fairly potent threat when taken in pairs. And any melta heavy army is going to be all too eager to close into my 24" kill box in order to make the pie plates stop. Downsides being Dark Eldar are going to be just as happy to blast darklight from 36 inches, and Lascannons can get lucky. This army is also now even more static, and only has 5 av 13's to aim at.

HQ
Necron Overlord
Warscythe
Catacomb Command Barge

Cryptec
Harbinger of Destruction
Eldritch Lance, Solar Pulse
Cryptec
Harbinger of Destruction
Eldritch Lance

Troops
Necron Warriors
Ghost Ark
5x Necron Warrior

Necron Warriors
Ghost Ark
5x Necron Warrior

Heavy Support
Doomsday Ark
Doomsday Ark

980 total

The third, and likely most sane list forgoes DD Arks and fills its Ghost arks a bit more for a little extra staying power when the transports get popped.

HQ
Necron Overlord
Warscythe
Catacomb Command Barge

Cryptec
Harbinger of Destruction
Eldritch Lance, Solar Pulse
Cryptec
Harbinger of Destruction
Eldritch Lance

Troops
Necron Warriors
Ghost Ark
8x Necron Warrior

Necron Warriors
Ghost Ark
8x Necron Warrior

Heavy Support
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge

978 points, The last points I can again spend on some novel gear for my overlord, or another warrior.
This list lacks any truly long range firepower, and is going to end up making a slow march up the field.

Then my last idea was similar to list 3, but removes an A Barge to fill the ghost arks to the brim, and make my overlord an IC/MC hunter once his barge is popped.

HQ
Necron Overlord
Warscythe, Sempiternal Weave, Mindshackle Scarabs, Phase Shifter
Catacomb Command Barge

Cryptec
Harbinger of Destruction
Eldritch Lance, Solar Pulse
Cryptec
Harbinger of Destruction
Eldritch Lance, Gaze of Flame

Troops
Necron Warriors
Ghost Ark
9x Necron Warrior

Necron Warriors
Ghost Ark
9x Necron Warrior

Heavy Support
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge

999 points

Looking for some C&C from more experienced players. Any of the lists sound viable? If not, is there a list that meets my criteria that is? Should I scrap my AV 13 wall concept all together?

Any help would be appreciated.

(Edited for clarity)

your first one sound viable. i personally run a DDA, Lith, and AB as my heavy support. i have a list posted that might give you some ideas.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
but then again i run alot of warriors and deathmarks. I like a little variety in my army. keeps all the bases covered

The bottom two lists look like they have some promise for sure. Anyone who doesn't double down on anti armor will have a hard time dealing with this.
I'd personally take list 2, it has the most AV 13 targets at 6, and I would spend the points to get a few more items for the overlord.

I'd take list 3 but drop an anni barge and the superfluous warriors for another barge lord with 10pts to spare for a gaze of flame or something.

Catacomb command barges are far and away the best performer of all necron vehicles and that way you're well set up to expand the list with more ghost arks with double teks aboard as you need more scoring units at higher points. 2 scythe barge lords are in my experience always better than 1 with a lot more doodads. If you were your opponent and you just popped a barge would you shoot the lord that fell out or the barge that's still alive? Not getting your grounded lord shot at is just as good as him making every armor save.

Doomsday arks are very inflexible with their inability to move and shoot and the risk of scattering off target makes them less reliable than just straight up bs4 shooting. Combined with redundancy or, my personal favorite, twin linking the doomsday cannon with triarch stalker support it gets better, but in 1000pts you can't afford to be that extravagant yet.

You almost always want minimum squad size inside ghost arks. If you want the ark to repair something it's best to have an enormous brick with res orb support that can weather more hits more often. If you add warriors just to fill chairs it won't help you because outside the ark they get wiped out to a man too easily to be repaired reliably while inside the ark the staffs and the flayer arrays are the only things that normally get to shoot so you aren't getting much in the way of survivability or firepower. Just the minimum will make the ark an objective controller and give your lances the ablative wounds they need if they fall out of the ark.

Thanks for the quick responses, guys!

So, I can definitely see your point on the minimum size warrior squads. It just somehow makes me nervous to have so few infantry models in an army. Though I can get over that.
I'm going to do some play testing, but I like the idea of the two CCBs. I hadn't considered that yet, but it seems to make a fair amount of sense. It gives every unit in the army redundancy, and everything has a purpose. The two CCB's go zipping off and popping vehicles, while the AB's and Arks pair up and head for control points, with the AB running defense for the Ark. It's just a shame I don't have the points for 2 more HoD's, to truly take advantage of the two overlords. And if I nuke another barge for the points, it messes with the redundancy and target saturation. Though, at 1500 that could get really fun. 3 Arks with 2 lances in each and an AB to back each of them up.

If after playtesting, I like my warrior squads to be beefier, I'll try out the 3rd list, with a few more warriors, but keeping the 6 skimmers.

Then, I do want to see for myself how the DDA works, so, I'll prolly give the first list a go during some friendly games.

Thanks for the great feedback, again. And I am always grateful for more feedback.

Im anxious to see a battle report, I really like the idea of these lists.

Got a batrep yet?

Tried the list out against my friend who plays Orks last night. I don't have time to type out a full rep yet; but in short, it was a landslide victory for my Necrons!

More details when I have when I get the chance.

I am going to preface that this is my first battle report, and that we did make several mistakes during this game.

Alright, my friend plays a variant on a Speed Freaks Ork list, where his philosophy is that he wants Klaws, and as many ways to deliver them as he can. So, His list looks something like

HQ: Big Mek /w KFF

Elites: Loota x 5

Troops: (Slugga Boyz x 12 /w Nob Upgrade and Klaw, Truck /w Rokkit Launcha, Red Paint) x 2

Fast Attack: Deffkopta /w Buzzsaw
Deffkopta x 2, /w 2 buzzsaw and 1 TL Rokkit Launcha
Warbikers x 6 /w 1 Nob upgrade and Klaw

Heavy Support: Battlewagon /w Red Paint, Hardcase, Deffrolla, and 2 Big Shoota's

He perches his Loota's in a ruin or high piece of terrain, Rolls up the field with his Bigmek in his Wagon, shielding his Trucks with the KFF, While the Koptas and Bikes cause havoc and pop vehicles.
When he's got soft targets and is close enough, he Waaaaaghs his Boyz into CC.

I'm running the list Actinium suggested, 2 CCB, 2 AB, 2 GA with 5 Warriors and HoD

We roll up Capture and Control, Dawn of War.

I win the Roll to decide which side I want, and choose to go second.
He places his marker in a bunker, I place mine out in the open.

Deployment:
My opponent chooses to place a truck full of boys on the field, and DoW reserves the rest of his army. He places it as close to My control point as he can get.

I deploy a warrior unit in an ark near my point, with guns pointed toward the open space directly in front of the point.

Turn 1:
He moves his units onto the field, Turbo boosting his bikes and koptas, 13 inches of movement for his Wagon, and moves both trucks 19. At this point his first truck is right near my point, but out of range of his KFF. Truck number 2 is still within range. He marches his Loota's onto the field, and runs them up a small mesa across the field. this his first mistake. In hindsight, he wanted to roll them out inside the Wagon, and park them someplace useful when he gets the chance. As it stands, his Loota's have trouble drawing line of sight through the terrain in the midfield. Due to fast movement, he can fire no shots and declare no assaults.

I move my First GA 6 inches, well into rapid fire range. I move the rest of my army onto the field, with 1 CCB buzzing his truck, and the other moving only 12 inches, to take some pot shots against his koptas with the Tesla Cannon. The Sweep attacks get penetrating hit, which yields a weapon destroyed, stripping the truck of it's Rokkit. I then fire NEARLY THE REST OF MY ARMY at it, and in a fit of horrible luck on my part, the truck finally folds to my 2nd troop of warriors rapid firing and hitting with a lance. Finally explodes, and kills a whopping 4 boys in the explosion. With my remaining GA broadside, I rapid fire and kill another 2, due to the boys going to ground. I then score a lucky 4 hits with my tesla cannon against his group of 2 Deffkoptas, and they all wound. He fails both saves against his Rokkit Kopta, and Fails 1 save on his remaining Kopta. His Morale Checks all succeed. My mistake this round was that I forgot to roll to sight his units under night fighting rules. I was never more than 12 inches away when I shot, but it's still possible I could have rolled low.

Turn 2:
The Orks Retaliate in CC. He rushes his 2nd truck 13 inches, and hops his boys out. He then Moves his 2 remaining Kopta's and his Bikes into Charge range. His shooting is uneventful, as his only S8 shot misses. He realizes his deployment mistake with his loota's, and begins trying to get them to a better vantage point. The assault goes better. His Bikes charge 1 CCB, 1 Kopta Charges the other CCB, and one Kopta and the 12 strong Boyz charge the GA on my point. My GA, having only moved 6 inches, folds to the Buzzsaws and Klaw attacks, and the CCB's remain intact (No 6's rolled to hit them). My troops pile out of the wreck, pass pinning check, and Disembark onto my point.

I then sweep his Battle wagon with 1 CCB, yielding only a stunned result. I then Sweep the other CCB 6 inches over 1 kopta, kill it, and hop my OL out. My AB's move 6 inches, as well as my remaining GA. My Warriors move to get a better vantage point to shoot at Boyz. In shooting, I focus enough shots at his injured unit of Boys to cause them to go back to ground, and only the Nob remains, with both wounds intact. I then focus fire at the remaining group of Boyz, killing about 8. With my empty CCB, I attempt to shoot his lootas, but fail to get line of sight on the very low, under-slung cannon. His pinned Nob miraculously makes his Morale check, while the larger unit of boyz fail, and retreat. My OL charges the final kopta, and kills it before it can respond. I then Consolidate back towards the barge.

So, by the end of turn 2, it is clear that my opponent cannot win. We decide to continue to see if he can Tie, or possibly table me.

Turn 3.
He tank shocks my OL on the way to Ramming his CCB with the remaining truck. My OL decides to get out of the way, while my CCB fails to dodge the ram. After doing some math, He realizes his truck can't damage my Barge on it's side facing, however my barge is able to stun his truck. He hops his Bigmek out of his wagon, and joins with the remaining Nob to give some ablative wounds to the nob's Klaw, though, he still can't use it until his next turn, having gone to ground. His bikes move to charge my remaining GA. He fires his lootas at my occupied CCB, and yields a glancing hit, which got cover saved. He charges my GA with his bikes, and Blows it up. I take 2 casualties in the explosion, though 1 stands back up. He loses a bike to the explosion as well.

This is my biggest mistake of the fight. I move my OL back onto his barge, and sweep attack his truck, immobilizing it. I then park it behind his Wagon, so as to get back armor with it's Tesla Cannon (theoretically). I then Shoot his bikes with my warriors, completely forgetting to move anything else before hand. I forfeit a barge's sweep attacks and cover save, as well now get auto hit in melee for 3 of my 4 vehicles if they get charged. I also don't have a firing arc with one of my AB's. My shooting results in the Biker Nob being the only bike left, and he has 1 wound left, as well as finishing off his last Foot Nob with the Bigmek as well. I then fail to get any glances or pens on his Wagon. He succeeds on Morale with his biker.

Turn 4:
He turns his wagon and rams my CCB. The CCB explodes, allowing the Wagon to continue it's ram through the crater (where my OL had to deploy) The str 10 Deffrolla then Instant Kills my T5 OL on 1 failed save. The Biker Nob moves to shoot and charge my warrior unit. His shooting is unsuccessful, as cover saves work in my favor. He then charges his biker, and my Warriors manage to take his remaining wound before his Klaw can swing.

With my remaining barge, I sweep and Wreck his battle wagon. Leaving him with a unit of loota's across the map, and an imobilized truck, he conceeds.

Your victory pleases me.

Orks got it rough against av13 spam, especially once you get into higher points and more lances stopping his transports and instant killing deffkoptas before he gets to you he has next to no chance of stopping you and even if he catches you and gets the 6s to hit with klaws that's the end of his assault phase and he just takes a face full of rapid fire next turn before he can get a real, meaningful assault in on the unit that fell out.

You might want to swap the tesla cannons for gauss cannons on barges, the ap3 makes a big difference against meq while the low chance of a tesla activation off 2 shots rarely makes that big a difference against blobs. Unless you eventually get stalkers, tesla loves being twin-linked.

GG

I may end up switching for the Gauss on the barges. Are you saying it'd also be prudent to use them on the AB's? Seems like if I'm going to want to fire the destructor at something, It'd be something I'd prefer to fire tesla at over gauss, though, I suppose it makes the barge a little bit more versatile.

Either way, I face very few MEQ's in my local game group. I've got one guy who plays either tyranids or Blood Angels, depending on his mood. The other opponents I more frequently have are DE, Orks, IG, and Eldar. So, the fact that the Gauss Cannon is good at killing MeQ is somewhat lost on my local meta.