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Hello! New to Necrons but not really new to 40k. (played 1st and 2nd ED, then got back into 5th). Before I begin I would just like to say the level of intelligent discussion on this forum has really intrigued me. What’s more, is that whenever disagreements rear their heads, opinions are voiced with maturity respect - rather and the usual futile tirade of obscenities and / or condescension.

Apologies if this is a tired old question, but I cant find any examples of it discussed previously on this forum or anywhere else using a quick glance through the first few search pages of Google.

I am considering buying and fielding a list that in essence relies the three main foot-mobile squads being supported by Crypteks with Veils.

HQ
Overlord, War Scythe, Barge
-Court: Lord, orb. 2x Crypteck, Veils, one with Shroud. 3x Cryptek, Lances.

Overlord, War Scythe, Barge
-Court: Lord, orb. Cryptek, Veil.

Troops
Tesla Immortals x9 (Lord attached, plus Veil and shroud Cryptek)
Tesla Immortals x9 (Lord attached, plus Veil Cryptek)
(Note: 3rd squad is a 4 man Lance + Veil Cryptek unit)

Fast Attack
4x Wraiths (2 whips coils)
7x Scarabs
3x Scarabs (with Spyder)

Heavy Support
Annihilation Barge
Spyder

Total: 1499 (I think!)

So basically the idea is kinda obvious, Command Barges harass advancing transports and cc units with 24” sweep attacks. AnnBarge remaining flexible. The 7 scarabs advance in an effort to intimidate the enemy off the centre of the board and / or slow their progress – if lucky assassinate dangerous MEQ. As the enemy close distance the 3 main squads simply “bleep-bloop” (the noise a teleporter makes!) out of harms way – and perhaps into a position to attack weak spots further back in the enemy line. The Wraiths and the Spyder (who by turn 2 - 3 is now with 4 or 5 scarabs) counter attack the tip of the enemy spear. The Cryptek squad obviously is tasked with shutting down enemy armour.

Lastly any surviving units can bleep-bloop onto un-captured objectives towards the end of the game, while the remaining vehicles, HQ’s can try and dispute.

Problems:
Yes I know only 2 troop squads of only 9 men is very light and liable to die too early. However, remember they each have 2 more models with them (lord and cryp). Furthermore, their job is not really to engage the enemy in the beginning of the game – merely to lure them forward to be picked off. Sure, towards the later stages - when most of the high value threats are gone - they will get their hands dirty, but initially its crucial they keep about 12-18” from the enemy assault squads (further for JI obviously, unless in cover).

My club is quite diverse but typically I will be playing marines (chaos, BA, GK) DE, Orks and Tau. I have another similar list that’s much more phalanx heavy with more troops, wraiths, and another AnnBarge, but it occurred to me the Crypteks were key to difficult combinations. Any positive suggestions will be seriously considered. Perhaps its also worth pointing out I haven’t actually bought anything yet except 3 wraiths, a spyder and about 20 scarabs! So its not too late to tear up the whole thing and start again. Also this list is clearly geared towards capturing objectives rather than KP’s or defence of a deployment zone.

Thanks for reading!

p.s. are lords and crypteks attached to squads IC’s ? What about the squad of Crypteks? They a squad or 4 IC’s standing around in the open? Can they detach from the other Crypteks? And what about KP’s, the above list would be worth about 70!

Well sadly the Veil of Darkness is a unique piece of war gear per court so the max you can have is 2. That said Obyron gives you the option for a 3rd veil and a Monolith's teleporting ability can give you the same kind of rapid redeployment I think you are looking for.

alspal8me wrote:Well sadly the Veil of Darkness is a unique piece of war gear per court so the max you can have is 2. That said Obyron gives you the option for a 3rd veil and a Monolith's teleporting ability can give you the same kind of rapid redeployment I think you are looking for.

this

If you want to abuse VoD, pair them up with deathmarks, you'll have a flamer that wounds on a 2+ along with all the rapid fire funtimes.
You may wish to consider a solar pulse to protect your scarabs as they cross the board and munch on tanks.
I don't know if you have considered this or not, but remember that you can only have one member of each royal court in a unit.

Thanks for replying guys. Perhaps i should have been slightly clearer with my description of my list.

Immortal Squad 1 has a lord from court A and a cryptek from court B

Immortal Squad 2 had a lord from court B and a cryptek from court A

As for the wargear question, the wargear only needs to be unique with respect to the rest of the same court. You can have 2 Crypteks with the same wargear provided they are different courts. As far as i can see the list above is legit, unless ive missed something........ Actually having just re-read the army list i think alspal8me may be correct. I was under the impression the arrangement was similar to SW unique wargear rules, as in you just cant have the same stuff on the same dude twice.....

Ok i may drop the cryptek 4 man Squad in favour of maybe more scarabs and wraiths... any thoughts?

Man1acCop wrote:i may drop the cryptek 4 man Squad in favour of maybe more scarabs and wraiths... any thoughts?

...
*points to signature*


But wait, a unit with 3 Scarabs?
THREE?
...
um, do yourself a favor and stick them with the other 7. Three of the little buggers is just giving your opponent free kill-points.
(consider adding another Spyder or two, if you're planning on using them to make more Scarabs every turn... unless you were using them to repair vehicles)

To be honest I would never use this list in a kill points mission as it's worth like, several hundred! On that note, does anyone have any answers for regarding what I wrote in the p.s.?

As for a spyder / scarab issue, the 3 scarabs would be 4 or 5 by the time they would be used in conjunction with the wraiths to attack enemy deep striking reserves or fast moving transports. Perhaps I should have made clear that these 2 (spiders and 3 scarabs) would either be out of line or site or certainy in cover (behind an immortal unit in the spiders case). With that being the case, and 2 command barges tear-@$$ing around their DZ / mid-field, and the 7 scarabs advancing in the centre ground I'm assuming they will have higher priority targets.

But I agree with what ur saying, if it were a KP mission i'd simply lump the 2 squads together and have 10 scarabs

Man1acCop wrote:p.s. are lords and crypteks attached to squads IC’s ? What about the squad of Crypteks? They a squad or 4 IC’s standing around in the open? Can they detach from the other Crypteks? And what about KP’s, the above list would be worth about 70!

Nope, Royal Court members do not count as Independent Characters. They can detach from the main Royal Court unit to join other applicable units (Warriors, Immortals, Deathmarks, etc), but only at deployment. Either that, or they can stay together as a Deathstar (not recommended). Not sure regarding kill points.

As for the Scarab thing, well, try it out if you want, but my (and I have a feeling MOST people's) experience is not to let Scarabs on the board at any less than 7 bases. They're too easy to wipe, otherwise. (even if you've got Spyders to create more, you're still going to want a decent number to start off with. If they're only just seeing action by turn 3, but they've only got 6 bases total, it's just not an effective use of them. Now, 10 Scarabs and 2-3 Spyders to back them up is a HELL of a different story! Suddenly you've got 16 bases to throw at armor. Ain't no vehicle gonna survive 80 Entropic Strike attacks on the charge!)

Thanks for the kill point clear up dude!

I take ur point on the scarab issue. I think if I have the terrain set up in such a way where they are out of sight PLUS if I am expecting deep striking dreadnoughts in my DZ on turn one, or transports in turn 2 -3, then I'll do it my way. Otherwise I'll probably have to invest more in my scarab sweep and send the other 3 plus the spyder and the wraiths all up the middle


Automatically Appended Next Post:
....... Ok not so much kill point clear up as detach unit clear up...