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I've been interested in the Necrons for a long time and have always wanted to play them. A friend of mine does play them, though, and he let me try them out, while I let him use my Chaos Marines for a game, just for a change of pace. We both play to win, but typically put more stock in a fun list with fun units and a good theme over just picking the best. I say that so you all don't laugh at me too hard when I tell you about the squad of 20 flayed ones in my list. I'll give you a quick rundown of the lists, then a brief analysis of how the units performed. Granted an analysis after just one game is hardly a fair analysis, but first impressions are powerful. Anyway, here is what I took.

1 Necron Overlord w/ Res Orb, Staff of Light
1 Necron Lord w/ Res Orb, Staff of Light
1 Cryptek w/ Veil of Darkness, Staff of Light
1 Destroyer Lord w/ Warsycthe, Sempiternal Weave
20 Flayed Ones
x2 12 Warriors
x2 10 Immortals
6 Wraiths
5 Destroyers
1 Monolith
1 Annihilation Barge

And here is what my opponent took, using my Word Bearer Chaos Marines

1 Chaos Lord w/ Dual Power Axes (Because it looks cool)
1 Dark Apostle w/ The Black Mace
10 Possessed
1 Hellbrute w/ Plasma Cannon
1 Hellbrute w/ Twin Linked Heavy Bolter
x3 10 Chaos Marines w/ Heavy Bolter, Plasma Gun, Power Sword
9 Chaos Marines w/ Rhino
3 Obliterators
5 Havocs w/ 4 Missile Launchers
1 Predator w/ Twin Linked Lascannon, Heavy Bolter Sponsons, Havoc Launcher


Necrons Unit Analysis and Grades[b]


Overlord
In this list, the Overlord's role is almost solely to open up the royal court. I considered giving him a warscythe, but if his unit gets into combat then I've probably done something wrong. I put the Overlord with a unit of Immortals and let him hold onto his Staff of Light for some extra ranged damage. He ended up doing very little. His res orb saved only two Immortals that would have died without it, so I suppose the orb payed for itself, and he killed a couple enemy marines with his Staff of Light. He was quite underwhelming, though. I didn't expect much because I geared him to be a support unit rather than an offensive powerhouse, but other than granting access to the royal court, I don't feel he earned his points. Grade: C

Necron Lord
The Necron Lord I placed with the other unit of Immortals to give them a res orb as well, and the added firepower of another Staff of Light. Everything I said about the Overlord holds the same for the Necron Lord, albeit at a much more efficient points cost. He saved a few Immortals with his res orb and killed a few marines with his Staff of Light, but wasn't overly impressive at anything. Still, at almost half the points of the Overlord, he is far more efficient at what he did, and he accomplished what I wanted him to do, therefore his grade is a little higher than the Overlord. Grade: B-

Cryptek
I really like the fancy toys the Crypteks can come with, and I couldn't pass up the chance to take at least one. The Veil of Darkness was an awesome tool in the Necron's last codex, so now that I finally had the chance to use it, I wasn't going to pass it up. True, it lost the ability to take units out of combat, it still could be a nasty surprise. I placed the Cryptek in the unit of Immortals with the Overlord. I figured 10 Gauss Blasters and 2 Staff of Lights could do some serious damage, even to marines. Unfortunately, the Cryptek died before I got a chance to use the Veil. I wanted to use it to utterly break a wounded unit, but never really saw an opportunity to teleport my unit somewhere where it could do enough damage to justify both the risks of deep striking and the return fire they would surely face. I rarely deep strike with any of my armies, but I found myself wondering if the points spent on the Cryptek would be better spent elsewhere. The only good thing the Cryptek did was accept a challenge from the enemy Chaos Lord to keep the Overlord alive. Perhaps I didn't utilize the Veil well, but the risks of teleporting these Immortals all over the place gave me pause. I'll probably give him one more shot. Grade: D

Destroyer Lord
This is one of my choices that maybe wasn't the most practical, but looked fun. Plus I really wanted at least one model with a Warscythe, it's just a cool looking weapon. My plan for the Destroyer Lord was this; set him down on the table, send him straight for the enemy, and make them divert attention to deal with him. At toughness 6 with a 2+ armor save, I figured he'd have to attract a lot of fire, and if he got into combat with a typical squad of marines or a vehicle he could cause some damage. He did end up drawing enemy fire, but it didn't take much. Two enemy squads of marines fired at him, and the plasma guns in those two squads took him out. He failed his We'll Be Back roll (I know it's called something else now) and that was it. Moving into rapid fire range of two plasma guns probably wasn't my best move, but he had plenty more firepower he could have directed at the Destroyer Lord if need be, and the units he did fire with were mostly out of range of my other units anyway. In the future, I may play him a little more conservatively, maybe as a counterattack unit, but I really don't want to give up such a cool mode. Grade: D-

Flayed One Pack
I've heard nothing but bad things about this unit, and when I was reading their codex entry, I just sat there scratching my head wondering what they were thinking. But..... I recently had been playing Dawn of War on PC, and I really liked those Flayed Ones. Nothing beats deep striking three full units of Flayed Ones in the middle of the enemy ranks when they think they are going to win a fight, and watching all their troops get thrown around by bloody killer machines. Those mental images in my head led me to take this squad of 20 Flayed Ones. "I'll do the same thing!" I thought. Take a big squad, deep strike them in the middle of the enemy ranks and laugh with glee as they causes terror, havoc and destruction. Besides, even if they don't slaughter all of my enemies, they will certainly divert a huge amount of fire, right? Never, I think, has untested scorn for a unit been more justified than it was in this game. First, the unit didn't arrive till turn 4. Second, they scattered nearly off the table. Third, their run move was a pathetic 2, so all 20 of them were bunched up (with three obliterators looking right at them). I deep struck them near the enemy obliterators and havocs, hoping to destroy their main fire base, which had been plaguing the rest of my army. Four frag missiles from the havocs and three assault cannons from the obliterators saw 15 of the flayed ones drop. Five of them got back up. Next turn, they tried to assault the obliterators, but failed their difficult terrain charge. My opponent charged them with his Dark Apostle with the Black Mace (which turned out to be a very good weapon against Flayed Ones) and pretty much put an end to the Flayed Ones. What I realized is too many things have to go right for them to be useful. They have to arrive early, not scatter and get a good enough run move to spread out. They also have to be in assault range for their next turn, and enough of them have to survive to cause an impact in combat. Maybe they would be better if I outflank them? I don't know, because they still have to arrive early, and on an opportune side. To be fair, that was a very dismal first impression, and I'm sure it won't go that poorly for them every time, but they were just awful. I could do a lot with the points they would free up if I got rid of them.... but those Flayed Ones in Dawn of War are just so cool. Oh, and I'd have to find some of the old models because I don't like the new ones. Grade: F- (Because an F just isn't bad enough)

Immortals
At first, I was so disheartened by the change to Gauss Blasters I almost didn't take any Immortals. If Immortals are close enough to be in rapid fire range, I figured, then they were close enough to get assaulted. I then had to decide if I wanted Gauss Blasters or Tesla Carbines. The Tesla rule is fun, with great potential, but I again chose aesthetics and went with the Gauss Blasters, since i just like the way Gauss Blasters look, and thought the Carbines looked a little generic. The Immortals did fairly well. One unit glanced a rhino to death on the first turn while the other knocked out a couple of marines at long range. They never did anything astonishing, but slowly chipped away at the enemy forces every turn. When an enemy flank was getting weak, I'd start marching the Immortals forward to finish them off with rapid fire. They ended up being fairly resilient with their res orbs, and I only ended up losing 6 or 7. The Staff of Light in each unit from the characters added kills every turn and made the unit as a whole even more dangerous. After glancing the rhino to death in turn one, they decided they had gotten their allotment of killed vehicles in, and barely scratched the two hellbrutes whenever they fired at them. Still, I saw their potential as vehicle hunters as was impressed. The enemy Chaos Lord, with about three marines left in his squad, did assault one of my Immortal squads. The Cryptek in the squad took the Chaos Lord's challenge, died horrible, but spared the rest of the squad and the Overlord. The rest of the Immortals, with the Overlord's help, managed to kill the three marines and caused the Chaos Lord to break and run. The Immortals gunned him down next turn. Overall, I was happy with the Immortals, but they didn't "wow" me at any point. Grade: B-

Warriors
In any army I play, I always like to have superior numbers. I ended up with 81 models in this 2000 point list, and that's not bad. Even if Warriors aren't nearly as good as Immortals, I decided to take a few to bump up my numbers. They ended up doing fairly poorly. One squad got wiped out before my first turn, but they did soak up the majority of my opponent's fire. I decided to just play aggressive with the other squad, sending them out of cover into rapid fire range to get some kills before they went down, and that tactic worked well enough. They put the hurt on some marines, burning the squad of marines in the rhino down to just four models before they could reach my line and making them a manageable unit, then took some pot shots at the hellbrutes before they finally went down. I noticed, after turn one, my opponent ignored my Warriors in favor of more threatening targets, and that allowed the Warriors a couple turns of freedom to cause havoc. Eventually, my opponent turned some focus on the warriors and they crumbled like he was swatting away a fly. For their low cost, they did alright. They're a nuisance, and a fairly affordable nuisance, but those squads of 12 are only a dozen or so points less than a squad of Immortals. I've considered giving the Warriors a Lord with an orb, but that would end up defeating the purpose of cheap cannon fodder units. I'll probably give the Warriors another shot, just because I like having numbers, and I like the models, but I hope they don't die as easily every game. Grade: C-

Wraiths
The old Wraiths are some of my favorite models in the Warhammer line, so I'd definitely try to find the old ones over the newer models. You'll notice no whip coils on them, and that was a tough choice, but I had to shave off about 50 points, and those were the first things to go. I figured with two wounds each, and a 3+ invulnerable save, they should survive mostly intact before they got a chance to swing. Where everything else had been mediocre to just plain bad so far, these things did pretty well. I put them on a flank, right next to the Destroyer Lord. The enemy couldn't focus fire on both units enough to wipe them both out, so I figured at least one of the two units would get into combat. The Wraiths were the ones to make it. An enemy marine squad fired at them, and the Wraiths failed their first assault roll, but they made it into combat in the next turn. By then, they had almost all taken a wound, but I hadn't lost a model yet. They proceeded to wipe out the enemy marine squad. On my opponent's next turn, they finally knocked the Wraiths down to two models, but in my next turn, they charged the enemy predator and tore it apart. After that, they were poised to test their luck at an enemy hellbrute, but my opponent finally killed the last two before they could assault. They absorbed a lot of fire, knocked out an enemy marine squad, a predator, and was about to take on a hellbrute before they died. I fear they will be targeted earlier in future games, and thus die earlier, but with the Destroyer Lord deployed next to them, one of the two units should make it into combat. Grade: A

Destroyers
Like the Immortals, when I saw the change to Gauss Cannons, I was quite unhappy. I liked the higher strength and better range of the old Gauss Cannons, if the new ones are AP 3. Still the old Destroyers were something I always wanted to use in the old codex, so now that I got to play them, I was going to give them a chance. I'm glad I did. In my first turn, they killed 7 enemy possessed, effectively crippling my opponent's most powerful close combat unit. They spent the rest of the game picking off a couple marines in and trying to putt glancing hits on hellbrutes. My opponent knocked them down to 2 with anti-tank fire pretty early, but light fire at long range barely scratched them. They easily made their points back, and for some reason I was pretty lucky with their We'll Be Back rolls, until every other Necron unit. That Preferred Enemy makes a huge difference with them. Grade: A

Monolith
The Monolith was the iconic Necron model in the last edition. Dangerous, incredibly high tech, and almost impossible to destroy, just like the Necrons themselves were supposed to be. It has gotten significantly frailer in this edition, but there is no way I'm going to pass up using such a beastly unit. I remember whenever I fought Necrons in the last edition, I usually just ignored the Monolith, not wanting to waste firepower on something I'd probably fail to destroy. I found that was still the case in this game, as my opponent didn't fire a single shot at it. He did end up sending a hellbrute at it, but I was lucky and the hellbrute only managed one penetrating hit, shaking it, which the Monolith ignored before I managed to kill the hellbrute. Offensively, it was less impressive. Every turn I fired two Flux Acs at a hellbrute, and two at a marine squad. Though I hit with almost every shot, I didn't cause a single glance or kill. The rolling was poor, though, and I could see its potential to easily shave off some hull points from vehicles. The Particle Whip was just as disappointing. In my first two turns it fired at a full marine squad out in the open, but scattered so badly I only managed 1 kill total for both turns. On the third turn, it got a direct hit and killed six. Again, the potential for devastation is there, it just didn't happen in this game. I never used the Eternity Gate, for offense or teleportation, and looking back at the game I could see a few ways I could have teleported units into better position. In future games, I see it doing better as those dice rolls will average out into a more positive performance. However, my opponent didn't have any melta or lance weapons, and I wonder just how long Monoliths live now-a-days when faced with those weapons? Still, even if it dies on turn 1 in every game, I'll always use one, because there's no way I'll leave home without [i]the original Necron beatstick. It pains me to give it a poor grade, and in future games I'm sure it will do better, but for this game only, it gets a..... Grade: C-

Annihilation Barge
This was kind of a last minute addition to my list. I cut my Warrior squads from 15 to 12, and took the whip coils off the Wraiths to make the points for this. I wanted to utilize the Tesla rules at least once, and the barge itself looks pretty cool. (It's a twin linked big cannon that shoots lightning piloted by undead robots!) Again, I was happy I made the points for it. Its first shot caused seven wounds into a marine squad and arched into the enemy rhino. It glanced the rhino, but only managed to kill one marine. The rest of the game went similar to that; it would get a lot of high strength hits and an enemy unit, but end up translating into one or two kills a shot. I imagine against low armor enemies it would cause utter havoc, but against marines it just doesn't do that much. For under a hundred points, though, it was certainly efficient enough to warrant taking again, and, maybe this is just me, but seeing a 6 rolled to hit with a Tesla weapon just makes me smile. My opponent mostly ignored it since it wasn't doing much, but one turn he fired the obliterators using lascannons and the four havoc's missile launchers at it and only managed a glance, so it seems to be a fairly resilient vehicle, especially for its points. Grade: C+


Wrap Up
Overall, I'm happy with the Necrons. I went in kind of expecting to lose in a firefight against an opponent who had 60+ models with good armor saves, but I actually ended up winning in a very close fight. By the end, I still had the Monolith, the Annihilation Barge and both Immortal squads, but that was it. He still had his obliterators, havocs, Dark Apostle and a marine squad. Through out the game I just couldn't scratch his obliterators, and I can see Terminators giving this army a huge problem. I might take those Flayed Ones out; that performance was just too bad. I just don't want to take out the bad units I like, for good units I don't like and end up with an army that wins, but I don't enjoy playing with.

Future Games
The hardest thing to cut from my list was the unit of 3 Canoptek Spyders. I wasn't planning on doing anything fancy with them, I was just going to line them up and send them forward, like the Destroyer Lord an Wraiths, and make the enemy fire at them. With their high toughness and powerful attacks, I can see them being a nightmare for a close combat unit that doesn't have a power fist. Tomb Blades with Particle Beamers are a thought as well. I think a squad of five could do a ton of damage, even to marine units. The only other thing I think I would add is a Doomsday Ark for a bit of anti-terminator firepower, and maybe a little more anti-tank assistance. Let me know if you have any luck with Spyders, Tomb Blades or the Doomsday Ark for those purposes, and of course, any general tips or hints about the list are welcome.

As I said before, these are only my thoughts on the units, and are only based on one game. If you think one of these analyses are innacurate, feel free to let me know, but know they were just my thoughts on the units and are no means meant to build tournament lists or anything. I'll need a few more games before I decide whether or not I'll buy my own army, but they have been fun so far. I hope you enjoyed reading it!

Well first, your doing it wrong. How can you grade out an army with only 1 game, and the list and units used are handicapped by poor list synergy?

You have combat units leading shooty units trying to be a better shooty unit. You have shooting units deployed wrong, and used In a less then ideal manner. And you took flayed ones. The only thing I see in your rundown thats "accurate" was your wraith/dlord combo.

Some counter pointers:

Overlords are AWSOME. plain and simple. Kit them out with a warscythe, some MSS and maybe a phase shifter or CBB. they can be a great assault detterent, and kick the bolts out of just about anything.

Courts are great... When used right. Read the rules more and realize the vast combo potential. They are force multipliers not stand Alones

Immortals are generally pretty solid. Tesla carbines are pure win, hyper efficient and free. They generally need large numbers, a resorb lord, night scythe or all 3. But they kick serious bolts when done this way.

Warriors are your gauss platform. Big numbers, orb optional, ark also optional. But with all 3 it's a unit that just-wont-die-..!!! It's also the best source of gauss spam.

Annihilation barges are just- better. Try them again a few times, and run more then 1.

Monoliths .... Well yea. They kind of suck and are pricey. But they can be a wild card. They also offer a decent fire magnet, and as such can protect other units like warriors.

- try a few more games. Perhaps use some of my suggestions or don't. But grading everything bad just because of 1 game..... I think your a bit under informed here. Keep playing games, learn all the rules and re learn them. The necrons are a great army, especially the ones you "failed"

Either that or your trolling. ... Hope not thogh.

One thing to note, is that you cant have a cryptek with a veil of darkness and a staff of light. He automatically exchanges his staff when he becomes a harbringer.

Flayed ones are known to be the worst unit in the codex, its a shame but hey, wraiths are a decent close combat unit.
I have heard good things about putting a D-lord with wraiths, that should last long enough to get into combat and eat some faces...

It might be worth considering putting both warrior squads together (20) and give them a res orb. Unit will have a lot of staying power, and roll plenty of dice when shooting,

Nice to read how your units performed, though.

Quick tactical note. Chaos lord and apostle are fearless so they wouldn't have run away after losing combat.

Overlord's got a slight nerf in the fact that the CCB can only move 12" in the movement phase for sweep attacks. It's still a great unit, but a fully kitted Overlord on a barge is a lot of points, 255 iirc. I usually take Zhandrekh now.

Immortals are great and Tesla is where it's at, but take both. My standard tactic is to take at least a max squad of both tesla and gauss, and I usually keep the gauss squad in reserve in a Night Scythe and deliver them to whichever vehicle I want to die.

10 Warriors in a Ghost Ark is pretty awesome. 30 rapid fire gauss shots will certainly kill whatever you want, be it light troops or a vehicle and AV13 with jink is a tough nut to crack. Blobs are also cool, but are huge fire magnets or they take up too much space on the field.

For heavy support, the monolith has all but fallen to the wayside/ Apoc. Take a Doom Scythe and two annihilation barges. Tesla Destructors rule. S7 shots are nothing to laugh at, especially when you can generate a ton of them.

Necrons are an incredibly powerful army and are absolutely devastating with practice.

Necron Overlords are one of, if not the most feared close combat characters in the game. Give him a Warscythe, Mindschackle, and your choice of save improvements, and he will likely be the bane of any character he gets into a challenge with.

As mentioned by DarthSpader, writing up a list to try out different units in a mash-em-up manner isn't going to help to highlight their effectiveness - in fact it will likely work against it considering the lack of synergy injected into it. Not to mention that only having a single game isn't going to create an accurate portrayal either.

Have a few more games, but try to build a list with good synergy and see how that works for you. Several of the units you scored low certainly deserve a second (and third) look to see what they offer the player and his army.

Thanks for the tips so far. Like I said, it was my first game and I'm still trying to figure them out. I like the idea of combining the warrior squads into one big squad of 20 and giving them a res orb. Maybe even the Overlord with a Warscythe and MSS to dissuade anyone from assaulting them? One of the Immortal squads will probably get Tesla Carbines, but the other squad will keep the Cryptek with the Veil (and thanks for the heads up about not being able to use the Staff of Light with it) and the Immortals with Blasters, for some teleportation and rapid fire to finish off weak units or wreck vehicles. I think the Flayed Ones are going to have to go, my half-mad delusions of potential hidden greatness are all but shattered. A Ghost Ark, or Doomsday Ark might be good replacements, and a second Annihilation Barge might be a must.

A quick note about the grades and analyses. I did point out that those were for how they performed in that game only, and not how the unit is in general. I really liked all of the units and see great potential in all of them (except for the flayed ones). So if they graded poorly, it was probably due to poor luck in dice rolls or poor tactical judgement, and not because the unit is bad (except for flayed ones).


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Oh and Darth, of course I'm not a troll, and I'm offended by that! But your signature is hilarious, so all is forgiven.

A destroyer lord is my recommended HQ, simply by the virtue that he gives the unit preferred enemy. It's amazing on anything.

Your flayed ones did bad because things went bad, but with enough target saturation these little guys are amazing, don't discount them. Sure the new models look like crap, but properly used flayed ones kick the crap out of anything.

The main problem with flayed ones, is most of the nercon player base, IE the ones that recently picked up the book, don't understand the army, only their net lists. If you don't build your list to accommodate them, they don't do much.

Yes my stand out hq everytime is the dlord cant fault him. Plus put him in any unit and watch them shine.

My other stand out unit and a recent mvp are my unit of 5 deathmarks.They took out a swarmlord in one round of shooting and in my next game took out a warboss and weirdboy crippling his backline!!

Annilation barge is def worth a place simply because its immense against flyers. Hit one six on a 4 dice reroll which could have been better but the 3 str7 hits downed his dakkajet!!

was not accusing you of being a troll... or at least i certainly hoped you werent. no offense meant.

i would suggest taking as much tesla in your army as possible.for anti tank, warrior gauss does the trick, and anything else a well placed warscythe can do the trick. also consider for your court or one of your courts, a few stormteks with voltaic staffs. give them a veil tek and its a GREAT antitank unit, cheap (25pts a cryptek i believe) and with the veil they can port around. 4 haywire shots per guy will drop just about any vehicle out there just from glances.

the thing to remember about tesla, is its not about the AP or anything...its about forcing a vertiable crud ton of saves on a unit. make a 5 man unit of termies take 20 saves and they WILL loose a few, if not the whole unit.

play a few more games. it took me close to 20 games to actually figure out some of this and get the little niggley tricks, synergies and stuff down.

Annihilation Barges provide a bucket load or firepower and are extremely cost effective. I max out on 3 barges, laying down the heat.

IMO Destroyer Lords and Overlords should always have war scythes and MSS. They are just simply amazing. Simple tactics like MSSing a thunder hammer or a power fist can be absolutely devastating to your opponents unit.