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Having recently invested in a Cron army, i've wrangled with a few ideas and come up with a 1.5k list i'm happy with. It's also pretty fluffy (according to my custom Dynasty anyway), so i'm quite happy that the ideas I had for it meshed with the army.

It's only had 1 game thus far against Salamanders (and I couldn't roll RP or cover saves to save my life) and I was happy with its performance overall:

Warhost of Ptaktoum - 1500pts

HQ:
Ahkan the Deliverer - Overlord w/ Warscythe, MSS, Sempiternal Weave, Mehsarket (CCB) – 210pts

Royal Court:
*Rahmis of the Twin-Suns - Harbinger of Destruction w/ Solar Pulse – 55pts
**Zekhem the Empowered - Harbinger of Destruction – 35pts
***Jehut the Shaper - Harbinger of Transmogrification w/ Harp of Dissonance – 55pts

*Ptaeri the Restorer - Overlord w/ Warscythe, MSS, Sempiternal Weave, Resurrection Orb – 160pts

Royal Court:
*Ammuntah the Hidden One – Harbinger of Despair w/ Veil of Darkness – 60pts
***Rahmes of the Twin-Suns – Harbinger of Destruction w/ Solar Pulse – 55pts
**Tekhu the Qualifier - Harbinger of Transmogrification w/ Harp of Dissonance – 55pts

Elites:
Pehktu the Prowler - Triarch Stalker – 150pts

Troops:
*Ptaerii – Immortals of the Restorer - 10x Immortals w/ Tesla Carbines – 170pts
**Ptaero I – Warriors of the Restorer - 7x Warriors – 91pts
***Ptaero II – Warriors of the Restorer - 7x Warriors – 91pts

Fast Attack:
Khepo – The Swarm - 5x Canoptek Scarabs – 75pts

Heavy Support:
Aepephi – Vessel of the Deliverer - Annihilation Barge – 90pts
Aepepho – Vessel of the Deliverer - Annihilation Barge – 90pts
Khepmin – Father of the Swarm - Canoptek Spyder – 50pts

Total – 1492pts

Glaring Issues:
1) 1492 - Yes, it's 8pts under. Ordinarily, i'd slip something in to make up the points, or re-jig the list a bit, but after dropping the Phaeron upgrade on Ptaeri (it loses fluffiness this way, but i'm not all that bothered - I can always work around the Phaeron aspect and say that it doesn't use the term 'Phaeron' to mean the absolute commander of a Tomb World, as other Dynasties do not use other terms, but I digress) to make way for Tesla Carbines on the Immortals instead of Gauss Blasters, I found myself with 23pts to spend. The only ways of spending it were: 1 more warrior, 1 more scarab base, a Tesseract Labyrinth on one of the Overlords, Phylactery on one of the Overlords or a Particle Shredder/TL HGC on the Stalker.

Of those options, the Warrior would've left me with a larger gap with no reasonable increase in effectiveness (they're already set so that the 2 Crypteks each they recieve boosts the squad to 9, forcing 3 casualties for morale checks instead of 2); the Labyrinth isn't really very useful, since the Overlord needs to be in B2B with a Character or MC, and it's used at I2; MSS would normally take care of anything. Phylactery is flat-out crap; 15pts for a 66% chance to return with more than 1 wound after a 33-50% chance of returning at all (Overlord dependant) is not worth it. That leaves the Scarab Base or the Stalker weapon. Since the Stalker is going to be twin-linking the Harps, Lances and Carbines, it'd prefer the heat-ray's 2-shots, but the range of the Gauss Cannon is pretty tasty. However, without the extra base, i've got 4 Scarabs (5 when my first turn comes around, if the Spyder isn't somehow dead), and 5 (6) would be preferable. The extra base is a whole 5 attacks on the charge, which can make all the difference.

1492pts May not be very good, but i've won games with Eldar at as much as 20pts lower than the agreed level, and with nothing really standing out as needing to be changed, i'm loath to start poking around and picking at things just to get the points total a mite higher.

2) A single stalker - It's not exactly got much redundancy, and losing it early on could cripple my shooting, but with them costing 150pts each, i'd have to lose whatever makes the second stalker worthwhile in order to purchase it, or lose the Harpteks (which I don't really want to do, since i've grown attached to them; although making a Land Speeder AV8 and still failing to down it with 2 harps and 2 lances will forever annoy me, as it will the pilot of Barge that was called upon to claim the damned KP) and the Spyder or any other combo, which hurts the army as a whole.

3) Crypteks-A-Go-Go - Yes, there are many Crypteks - some would argue too many - but they each have a purpose. Lances and Harps sit in Warrior squads, using the Harp to strip vehicles of AV and the Lance to more easily bite in, or simply using the S6 of the Harp (as an Eldar player, S6 has a special place in my heart, even if I have horrific luck with it). The warriors can add in Gauss whenever they see fit (see: when something comes into range). Alternatively, the Harpteks can switch to the tremorstave in order to slow down infantry, making the warrior unit quite flexible. The Immortals simply VoD around and zap infantry or the rear of vehicles.

No Cryptek is without a purpose here, and the Lanceteks synergise very well with the Harpteks; the only one that could be out of place is the one with the Immortals, but a S8 shot at the rear of a vehicle is quite nice, or even at a different facing if it's already eaten a few harps. With the Harp's infinite range, I can also snipe AVs off vehicles hiding near board edge, in preperation to Veil over and zap it with Tesla. Against a Rhino hiding on an objective, S5 tesla will still tear it a new one against any armour value if it's eaten even a single Harp and being Entropic Struck.

Of course, the Harps do require a 4+ to reduce armour, but it's still a 50% chance plus the S6 shot against said reduced value. This allows them to hurt opposing AV13; whittle down AV14 for the lance, or make it easier to damage AV10-12. Hell, it can even spare the scarabs a few wounds by making it easier to insta-wreck a vehicle through their own ES and stop it exploding.

In any case, the only Crypteks I could really see as being unnecessary are the Harpteks, and they're staying.

Battle Plan:
CCB takes a flank, whilst the scarabs + spyder advance through cover to threaten vehicles that need eliminating. Hopefully the spyder won't end up like last game and take 3 TL multi-melta shots to the face and fail all 3 cover saves it was called upon to make during it's short existance. Warriors take up positions in area terrain and/or on objectives placed nearby. Immortals bounce around as needed, with the Stalker lighting up targets for them and/or the Warriors. ABs just go where they're needed and shoot at small elite units (Purifier combat squads and the likes) or anything that needs to eat lots of S7 hits.

Comprehensive analysis! I overall like the list, only small thing would be that I personally don't see the point of 7man warrior squads with Crypteks.

I'd dump 2 warriors from each squad and add another spyder.

The point of 7-man warriors is that I need to take 3 casualties instead of 2 in order to take a morale check, thanks to the crypteks boosting the squad number to 9, and to give my crypteks a few more ablative wounds. It also gives the army less of a Cryptek-Spam feel, especially since most competative Necron armies only have 2-3 5-man Cryptek-minder squads; two of 7 at least shows that i'd like them to stick around longer, and i'm not just trying to pull Cryptek MSU unit shenanigans.

Because of the size of 5-man squads, and the lack of Ghost Arks (after viewing the sprue, I refuse to even think of building one), it's going to be easier to not only wipe the squad, but also force morale checks, and requiring 3 casualties instead of 2 could be what forces my opponent to choose whether or not to dedicate more fire to the warriors than they're worth.

If two marine squads fire at me, and two warriors go down, he then has to make a decision: force the third casualty and a morale check at the cost of another unit's shooting, or risk having wasted the shooting of the previous units on a squad that is not only not fleeing, but also potentially back up to full strength, or, if not back up, then having only lost 2 ablative wounds.

I'm not sold on the second spyder idea, even if the warriors are dropped. My lone spyder has fared pretty well on his own, and I only have 6 scarab bases at the moment, so the 6th and final base I have available is pretty much auto-added on my first turn, and the spyder then just follows up to replace any casualties and draw fire from the scarabs themselves. It actually hasn't done anything noteworthy itself, so i'd be wary adding a second here if it's just going to be sitting there with nothing to do.

If I did drop the warriors, i'd probably pick up a phase shifter on one of the Overlords instead; after the Dreadnought Incident in my last game, i've become quite cautious about throwing them at things, especially if those things are S10 and ignore armour.

But since I can't buy any more scarabs without combing eBay or buying yet more unnecessary warrior boxes, there isn't much I can buy for the 60pts i'd have leftover, unless you'd count 3 naked Tomb Blades as something worth having, even just as last-minute contesters (or would two Shadowloomed ones be better? 3 With 3+ cover saves or 2 with 2+s?).

EDIT: Yesterday had a further two games, one against Tau and another KP rematch against Sallies. Crons won both, tabling Tau with minimal casualties, and beating Sallies again by 6 KPs to 5, with 1 dreadnought, 2 emtpy rhinos, a lone MM marine hiding behind a wall, and a squad of marines left against the scarabs, one unit of intact warriors in an AV14 building (my scarabs ate the marine-controlled one), another unit of intact warriors, an AB, the CCB Overlord (who had previously killed 1 Dreadnought responsible for the Dreadnought Incident, and then beat and chased Vulkan and his final Hammernator bodyguard off the table) and the Stalker. If the game had gone on, there's little chance he could've won, what with two easy KPs, 1 hidden KP, a lone but tougher KP, and 1 squad of marines vs the Scarabs (probably would have locked the squad in CC until game end) 2 lances, 2 Harps, a multi-melta and lots of Tesla Destructor goodness.

Avatar 720 wrote:The point of 7-man warriors is that I need to take 3 casualties instead of 2 in order to take a morale check, thanks to the crypteks boosting the squad number to 9, and to give my crypteks a few more ablative wounds. It also gives the army less of a Cryptek-Spam feel, especially since most competative Necron armies only have 2-3 5-man Cryptek-minder squads; two of 7 at least shows that i'd like them to stick around longer, and i'm not just trying to pull Cryptek MSU unit shenanigans.

Because of the size of 5-man squads, and the lack of Ghost Arks (after viewing the sprue, I refuse to even think of building one), it's going to be easier to not only wipe the squad, but also force morale checks, and requiring 3 casualties instead of 2 could be what forces my opponent to choose whether or not to dedicate more fire to the warriors than they're worth.

If two marine squads fire at me, and two warriors go down, he then has to make a decision: force the third casualty and a morale check at the cost of another unit's shooting, or risk having wasted the shooting of the previous units on a squad that is not only not fleeing, but also potentially back up to full strength, or, if not back up, then having only lost 2 ablative wounds.

Re the ghost ark, its a lot easier if you don't put the regenerating warriors in it. Also, if you leave them out you could magnetise to convert to Doomsday Ark.

Anyway, re the smaller warrior squads, I've found that shooting morale tests aren't a huge problem with LD10, but as I said, its personal preference. If anything, slightly larger warrior squads I find a problem in CC. this is because not all the warriors die, the unit get SA and then there is the issue of the ever living cryptek getting back up (this is the issue of not being able to get back up in coherency with the unit). If all the warriors die in CC, the cryptek gets back up near the ever living counter (after a successful roll obviously).

Avatar 720 wrote:I'm not sold on the second spyder idea, even if the warriors are dropped. My lone spyder has fared pretty well on his own, and I only have 6 scarab bases at the moment, so the 6th and final base I have available is pretty much auto-added on my first turn, and the spyder then just follows up to replace any casualties and draw fire from the scarabs themselves. It actually hasn't done anything noteworthy itself, so i'd be wary adding a second here if it's just going to be sitting there with nothing to do.

Fair enough. As monstrous creatures, they are helpful in CC, particularly against MEQ. But if you aren't going to use it for that, obviously don't get one.

Avatar 720 wrote:If I did drop the warriors, i'd probably pick up a phase shifter on one of the Overlords instead; after the Dreadnought Incident in my last game, i've become quite cautious about throwing them at things, especially if those things are S10 and ignore armour.

Yep. I think that phase shifters are useful because they provide more flexibility. If you are going to spend the points on it, you have to use the overlord aggressively though.

Avatar 720 wrote:But since I can't buy any more scarabs without combing eBay or buying yet more unnecessary warrior boxes, there isn't much I can buy for the 60pts i'd have leftover, unless you'd count 3 naked Tomb Blades as something worth having, even just as last-minute contesters (or would two Shadowloomed ones be better? 3 With 3+ cover saves or 2 with 2+s?).

You could get a StormTek with lightning to go with your immortals. That's a nice CC boost and makes it easier for the squad to open vehicles. With the remaining points you could get a tachyon arrow - as you have a stalker you'd have a higher chance of hitting!