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So whats everyone's thoughts on the most effect way to build a 2k necron airforce list? I've seen lists online with anywhere from 5-9 flyers. Do you guys think there is a magic number for flyers to ensure the army can take on most comers? If I'm looking to build a fun prevention list for maximum power gaming should I just bite the bullet and take 9 flyers?

Well, I would not take too many flyers. They just help to decimate the enemy and restrict enemy movement, but in 5 of 6 missions you'll need scoring units. Therefore, I'd opt for 4 to 5 fiyers, not more.

Flyers loaded with Scoring units kind of work as area denial, if you can keep the enemy away from objectives, then make a last-turn drop and grab you could pull it off, but it relies on the enemy not camping enough objectives effectively. Probably better to build on Wuestenfux's strategy; take four or five Warrior squads in Doom Scythes, use them for harassment, and spend the rest of your points on lots of guns on the ground to clear objectives before dropping your units on them.

i Find using more then 3 flyers a bit of hinderance more then it is a help. Personally I find Necrons to have a much stronger ground force when supported by 2-3 flyers as non-expeiranced players panic and choose to target your flyers with everything leaving your ground force to take full control. If your playing a more experianced group it could go either way depending on what they can target but overall i find Necrons better suited for full on ground force or primary ground force with some supporting flyers rather then a full on airforce list. However thats not to say an Airforce list is not good.... if you plan on going that way i would say take 4 NSs with 10 warriors in each and maybe bring 4 DestroTeks with each squad for a bit of extra fire power. IMO the Doom scythe is worth bringing!!! it is sure helpful against any Mech list when you can take out 5 tanks in a conveiniant line or a small squad of Termies that can sometimes prove to be a pain in the neck. at any rate its up to you to build your army but i would try to stick to maybe 3-4 flyers tops so you can maintain a better ground presence so that your opponent doesn't dominate on board control.

This might sound crazy but I feel "less is more" with Necrons flyers. In my neck of the woods, balanced Crons have won quite a few big tourneys. The last one was Ucon where the winner used just 2 night scythes. He owns 7. He noticed that A. Barges were better Tesla platforms and were cheaper. He did clog his board with flyers, he had more scoring units and he wasn't screwed if someone teched anti flyer.

I usually run a Single Scythe, and as either variety, it has not yet failed to bring down an enemy flier on the first turn it is on the board, with the things it dropped being usually able to kill another ground target 9/10 times.

Maybe 3 msu warriors in scythes, Immotekh in a scythe with warriors, 3 annihilation barges, a dlord, then blow the rest on wraiths and scarabs.

IMO half the value of scythes is it keeps 65 point scoring units safe until turn 5

In a Escalation Tournament (500 pt increments up to 2k), I ran the following:

500pt - 1 Doomscythe
1000pt - + 2 Night Scythes
1500 - + 1 Doomscythe, +1 Night Scythe
2000 - +1 Doomscythe

(total, 3 Doom, 3 Night)

With a good amount of terrain, I found that there wasn't any real magic number - but rather, it very much depended upon the deployment you obtained. Hammer and Anvil, especially against a gunline, leaves you out in the open and you're not really gaining all that much from it - bad, bad deployment. The other two? Fully workable.

The 3 Night Scythes felt just right (2 for scoring, 1 with Deathmarks + a Despairtek). Doomscythes? I felt I had too many, for what they were capable of doing. Dropping one or even two would have made much more sense, and replacing the points in Annihilation Barges and Wraiths for some more initial staying power.

3 Night, 1 Doom seems like the best split in my head.

Mind you this is a 1999+1 list not a double force org =D

Take scarabs/Spyders if you're taking Imotekh imo.

Take Wraiths regardless

Plant a D-Lord either with the scarabs to tank, or with the wraiths for giggles

Here's what I'm running these days at 2k. I've tried the cron-air with up to five scythes of various types. The problem I had was keeping them on the board and out of each others hair. I think 4 is the magic number as it provides physical room on the board and you have points for other stuff. The nice thing about this list is that it's both shooty and assaulty and very very fast. I've tried running three units of wraiths but I've found that 12-15 scarab bases (due to the three spyders) freak people out and they just blindly start shooting at them. While scarabs are nothing to sneeze at the real killers are the wraiths with the attached DLord. On average the assault units are hitting opponents on turn two unless they've castled up in a corner - big chickens. And you have four scoring units that are nice and safe in the scythes. I beam them down on turn three or four and go hide out or sit on the objective if it's safe.

Total Roster Cost: 2000

1 Destroyer Lord, SW, MSS, orb 190 pts
1 Destroyer Lord, SW, MSS, orb 190 pts

5 Warriors + scythe, 165 pts
5 Warriors + scythe, 165 pts
5 Warriors + scythe, 165 pts
5 Warriors + scythe, 165 pts

6x Canoptek Wraiths, 2xwhips 230 pts
6x Canoptek Wraiths, 3xwhips 240 pts
9x Canoptek Scarabs, 135 pts

3x Canoptek Spyder, claw, gloom 175 pts
2x Annihilation Barge, 90 pts

necron99 wrote:Here's what I'm running these days at 2k. I've tried the cron-air with up to five scythes of various types. The problem I had was keeping them on the board and out of each others hair. I think 4 is the magic number as it provides physical room on the board and you have points for other stuff. The nice thing about this list is that it's both shooty and assaulty and very very fast. I've tried running three units of wraiths but I've found that 12-15 scarab bases (due to the three spyders) freak people out and they just blindly start shooting at them. While scarabs are nothing to sneeze at the real killers are the wraiths with the attached DLord. On average the assault units are hitting opponents on turn two unless they've castled up in a corner - big chickens. And you have four scoring units that are nice and safe in the scythes. I beam them down on turn three or four and go hide out or sit on the objective if it's safe.

Total Roster Cost: 2000

1 Destroyer Lord, SW, MSS, orb 190 pts
1 Destroyer Lord, SW, MSS, orb 190 pts

5 Warriors + scythe, 165 pts
5 Warriors + scythe, 165 pts
5 Warriors + scythe, 165 pts
5 Warriors + scythe, 165 pts

6x Canoptek Wraiths, 2xwhips 230 pts
6x Canoptek Wraiths, 3xwhips 240 pts
9x Canoptek Scarabs, 135 pts

3x Canoptek Spyder, claw, gloom 175 pts
2x Annihilation Barge, 90 pts

I'm assuming the D.Lords join the Wraith units... so why the Rez Orb? The D.Lord is the only unit that can benefit, and it only increases his EL roll by 16.7% (unless you roll a natural 4 for EL, the Orb was a waste of points). Just seems like those points could be better spent anywhere else.

Ha that looks similar to the one I am currently play and it certainly can dish out a eye watering amount of pain. I tend to only have 1 D.Lord though and a Block of Immortals. ReZ orb while costly can have a huge impart on the game, The few times i have used one on the D.Lord he just wouldn't stay down, ended up tieing me the game. I wouldn't recommend it but if your feeling lucky it certain can prove a boom.

I've played a game against a 9 Flyer Necron list and while it can be frustrating and powerful it certainly had it's glaring weakness.

Cron air can only Zoom so must move 18'' each turn. This is really huge as though good positioning and having fast units you can limit the amount of turns the flyer can fire before it has to reposition. Having too many flyers multiplies this problem, the flyers get in each other way, they are huge models.
5 Man necron warriors are push overs and most people MSU them in NS, having them as objective takers can back fire if your opponent goes second or the game continues past turn 5. Plus they are unlike to be doing wiping out units or tanks with so few shots. Having your troops only on the field to score is wasting there firepower and impact on the game. Bigger Squads and Royal Courts can be very effective.
The Telsa Destuctor is a awesome gun, lets not beat around the bush., AP- sometimes isn't enough. Allowing your opponent saves on every unit is factor, especially when they are rolling hot

The NS is the best transport without a doubt and I prefer to play it as such, it gives your army tremendous mobility, having your 10 man Gauss Immortals be in a potions to rapid Fire bunch of Guardsmen/Fire Warriors/ Elder by turn 3 without suffering loses is amazing. Being able to have your troops all drop in one area to move the battle line and totally focus fire on a half of your opponents army can be devastating.

I general play 2 NS at 1k, 3 at 1.5k and 4 at 4k.

so I'm assuming its pretty much SOP to run 5x squads of warriors in the NS? I've been thinking about squads of immortals instead of warriors for a little extra fire power

The best thing to put in a Scythe with Warriors or Immortals is a Stormtek. Dirt cheap anti-tank that attaches to a scoring unit. What's not to love? Sure it's not resilient which is why you need to synergize with the rest of your list and have a certain amount of redundancy.

I run (only at tournaments since I'm dropping it from casual play):

Overlord
Weave + MSS + Gauntlet of Fire (personal preference here over the Warscythe)

5x Deathmarks in Scythe w/ Despairtek
5x Deathmarks in Scythe w/ Despairtek

5x Warriors in Scythe w/ Stormtek
5x Warriors in Scythe w/ Stormtek

5x Immortals w/ Gauss
10x Immortals w/ Gauss

5x Wraiths w/ 3x Whip Coils

3x Doom Scythes

ADL w/ Comms relay

Comes in at 2k or there-abouts. It's pretty brutal when it delivers that all important alpha-strike successfully, which with enough playtesting and an understanding of the opponent and their deployment is possible in pretty much any scenario.

Yes I completely agree about the stormteks. When I take an overlord I load up on stormteks. Nothing pisses off your opponent more than watching their favorite tank burst into flames from a single volley of stormtek shots.

As to why the orb on the DLord (who does run with the wraiths) I seem to be better at rolling 4's than I am at rolling 5's at crunch time. With two of them doing it I'm pretty much guaranteed one will get up at least more than once (that's the way my luck has run with them so far). I thought it was a waste of 60 points too until I ran a few games with it.

Personal opinion/observation here, but,
1 = instantly shot down
2-4 = regular army accompaniment
5-7 = legitimate effective airforce
8+ = overkill

I thiiiiink

2 Destroyer lords (well equipped)
12 wraiths (reasonably equipped)
30 immortals
3 scythes
3 barges
come out to just over 1850. I think it's like 1890 or something. not a bad place to start working, but you know me, I prefer wraiths as grabbers and harriers over having them try to play deathstar and I really like having something to follow them up. The way you can split up the wraiths and lords is nice though if you need to help out your immortals. I'm such a fan of courts though.

necrons focus fire well and immortals are great but tend to want a little help realizing their potential, mobility is a really great way to do this and 100 point tesla destructors feel natural.

Lucre wrote:

necrons focus fire well and immortals are great but tend to want a little help realizing their potential, mobility is a really great way to do this and 100 point flying tesla destructors feel natural.

fixed.

 Lucre wrote:
I thiiiiink

2 Destroyer lords (well equipped)
12 wraiths (reasonably equipped)
30 immortals
3 scythes
3 barges
come out to just over 1850. I think it's like 1890 or something. not a bad place to start working, but you know me, I prefer wraiths as grabbers and harriers over having them try to play deathstar and I really like having something to follow them up. The way you can split up the wraiths and lords is nice though if you need to help out your immortals. I'm such a fan of courts though.

necrons focus fire well and immortals are great but tend to want a little help realizing their potential, mobility is a really great way to do this and 100 point tesla destructors feel natural.

In a way my original list was like this. The problem you have is that on turn one the only thing your opponent has to shoot at is two unit of wraiths and 3 barges (I'm assuming the immortals are in the scythes or maybe one is babysitting an objective). In any case those wraiths are going to look very menacing running full bore into their lines. I was running three wraith units and I was lucky if one made it to the lines intact. That's why I switched one unit of wraiths for scarabs & spiders. At 2k I'll have 13 scarabs on turn one and 16 on turn two. That's a huge distraction and takes some of the heat off the wraiths.