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Okay guys so when I left off of this a few years ago the necrons werent that popular, and when I came back I find out they were re-done! This was good news for me, and looks like its really opened things up for me.

My main rival was a mech Tau player who would always whoop me, I had a strictly CC nid army. Coming from CC I wanted to do a more shooting army, tried Chaos and HATED painting them. I quickly sold them and replaced them with 40 warriors, 3 destroyers, and a destroyer lord.

So that leaves me here, Im looking for advise on what route to take to best achieve my goal with the cron army. With the new models, and new rules, what would be a good route to go? Lets just say roughly 2k points. That gives me the 2k point option, 1500, 1k, and even 500, as an option. The goal is ALL shooting, I dont want any designated CC guys. I would like to get the most shooting power as possible out of my army. What should I pick up to get this list going?

Thanks for your expertise guys!

Hey

You want to focus on what's good at shooting and avoid the bad.

Your hq choice needs to be a lord on foot with mindshackle scarabs, warscythe, sepitermal weave and (possibly) a res orb. Necron lords are top notch in challenges. If you like special characters, take imhotek the stormlord. He is amazing.

Try to avoid elite choices unless you want to field 3 full units of deathmarks. They are good, but only in large numbers

Immortals are money for taking and holding objectives when dropped from nightscythes.

Warriors are good at staying home with a royal court lord w/ a res orb and holding a home objective.

Nightscythes and doomscythes are game winners. Alot of people complain about them, but they are completely stoppable.

Wraiths are a good slot in fast attack, but you want all shooting. 3 full units of wraiths with 2 destroyer lords is really good.

Heavy support is all about annihilation barges and doomscythes. They are both stellar choices.

If you want a more indepth discussion about the army or what i run, just p-m me. I'm 9-3-0 with my current list.

My favorite .... wall of AV 13 that decimates.

Necron Overlord (Catacomb Command Barge, Warscythe, Mind Shackle Scarabs) – 195

4 Cryptek (4 Harbingers of the Storm) – 100 {Each is attached to a separate Necron Warrior Unit}

9 Necron Warriors (Ghost Ark) – 232
9 Necron Warriors (Ghost Ark) – 232
9 Necron Warriors (Ghost Ark) – 232
9 Necron Warriors (Ghost Ark) – 232

Annihilation Barge (Tesla Cannon) – 90
Annihilation Barge (Tesla Cannon) – 90
Annihilation Barge (Tesla Cannon) – 90

= 1493 - you can also drop 1 warrior from each ark and upgrade the teks to destro if you want the high str / ap staff.

With the codex there are alot of viable options.

You can go full fliers with 5 man warrior units, foot slog 20 man warrior units with a necron lord w/ res orb, or field as many AV 13 units on the board as possible.
I almost always run x3 Annihilation Barges ... for 90 points they are a steal.

Gunnvulcan wrote:Hey

You want to focus on what's good at shooting and avoid the bad.

Your hq choice needs to be a lord on foot with mindshackle scarabs, warscythe, sepitermal weave and (possibly) a res orb. Necron lords are top notch in challenges. If you like special characters, take imhotek the stormlord. He is amazing.

Try to avoid elite choices unless you want to field 3 full units of deathmarks. They are good, but only in large numbers

Immortals are money for taking and holding objectives when dropped from nightscythes.

Warriors are good at staying home with a royal court lord w/ a res orb and holding a home objective.

Nightscythes and doomscythes are game winners. Alot of people complain about them, but they are completely stoppable.

Wraiths are a good slot in fast attack, but you want all shooting. 3 full units of wraiths with 2 destroyer lords is really good.

Heavy support is all about annihilation barges and doomscythes. They are both stellar choices.

If you want a more indepth discussion about the army or what i run, just p-m me. I'm 9-3-0 with my current list.

Thats an interesting ID, I sent you a PM

Whereswaldo wrote:My favorite .... wall of AV 13 that decimates.

Necron Overlord (Catacomb Command Barge, Warscythe, Mind Shackle Scarabs) – 195

4 Cryptek (4 Harbingers of the Storm) – 100 {Each is attached to a separate Necron Warrior Unit}

9 Necron Warriors (Ghost Ark) – 232
9 Necron Warriors (Ghost Ark) – 232
9 Necron Warriors (Ghost Ark) – 232
9 Necron Warriors (Ghost Ark) – 232

Annihilation Barge (Tesla Cannon) – 90
Annihilation Barge (Tesla Cannon) – 90
Annihilation Barge (Tesla Cannon) – 90

= 1493 - you can also drop 1 warrior from each ark and upgrade the teks to destro if you want the high str / ap staff.

With the codex there are alot of viable options.

You can go full fliers with 5 man warrior units, foot slog 20 man warrior units with a necron lord w/ res orb, or field as many AV 13 units on the board as possible.
I almost always run x3 Annihilation Barges ... for 90 points they are a steal.

It seems like the annihilation barges are a pretty popular choice in most cron armies right now, so not bad. What are the perks of taking the ghost arks with the warriors opposed to saving the points and fielding more warriors? Just moving them within range faster??

Imothek is really strong like he said, the problem with that IC is that I find him way too expensive for lower matches.

AB are popular, not because they are so strong, but because they are so very cheap for their power.
It's hard to find something else where you get so much power per point spend.

The perks of taking Arks is it's a wall of AV13.
With the Crypteks you can just walk around, drive-by'ing everything in your path and repair Warriors while you are at it.
And when people want to shoot back, they first need to get through an insane armour.

I started Necrons two months ago and I found this link very helpful: http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000/6th_Edition_Tactics/Necrons

It's not perfect, but it's really understandable and enjoyable to read.

Kangodo wrote:
Imothek is really strong like he said, the problem with that IC is that I find him way too expensive for lower matches.

AB are popular, not because they are so strong, but because they are so very cheap for their power.
It's hard to find something else where you get so much power per point spend.

The perks of taking Arks is it's a wall of AV13.
With the Crypteks you can just walk around, drive-by'ing everything in your path and repair Warriors while you are at it.
And when people want to shoot back, they first need to get through an insane armour.

I started Necrons two months ago and I found this link very helpful: http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000/6th_Edition_Tactics/Necrons

It's not perfect, but it's really understandable and enjoyable to read.

Unfortunately I have not had a chance to pick up the newest edition rule book so I don't know all the new ruls, and as said above ive been out of the game for awhile. What do you mean a wall? Can you fire under the arks, then set them down to block los at the warriors? Or just meaning they soak up a lot of fire??

Well, you can claim a cover save if you are partially hidden from sight.
But you cannot "lift" them up and set them down all the time

Still, AV13 transports is something that:
-The opponent has to deal with.
-Protects your troops.

It gives your 9 or 10 Warriors a platform to shoot from, while the opponent has to focus on the transport first.
When you are within Rapid Fire range, that means you have 30 attacks to harass the opponent.
In my opinion it's really worth the points.

Kangodo wrote:
Well, you can claim a cover save if you are partially hidden from sight.
But you cannot "lift" them up and set them down all the time

Still, AV13 transports is something that:
-The opponent has to deal with.
-Protects your troops.

It gives your 9 or 10 Warriors a platform to shoot from, while the opponent has to focus on the transport first.
When you are within Rapid Fire range, that means you have 30 attacks to harass the opponent.
In my opinion it's really worth the points.

I get what you're saying. I definitely need to get the 6ed rules. So they can shoot from the transport. I got ya

Welcome back and welcome to the Necrons!

If you're also just getting back, then you've also got a new edition to learn, and starting there first will really affect your commitment to an all shooting army!

The biggest one being how much easier to get into combat it is. You don't need dedicated CC units but it will make the game less frustrating if you have ways to deal with CC. Wraiths and Scarabs are both decent choices, so don't overlook them when you're trying to make your army. You'll find most Overlords and Lords will take Warscythes, which requires the Lord to give up his shooting. Take it from pretty much all of us, it'll be easier to learn with the Warscythes than to sit there everygame and wish you had them. The new Mindshackle Scarabs are great, when they work, but you'll find out a balance of when to take them or not, as they too are only for CC.

Not normally a fan of Special Characters, but if you're wanting to have a good boost to a shooting based Necron list, then Nemesor Zahndrekh is your man. He's only a handful of points more than an Overlord that does roughly the same thing, and is very resilient. Why you take him is to give Tank Hunters, Night Vision, and later on Counter-charge, to one of your units at the start of every turn, and remove a similar special rule from your opponents list every turn. When you start playing with the new changes to Night Fighting and Vehicle Hull points, you'll see how awesome this is, especially when you learn how easy it is for us to keep Night Fight rules in play (even without Imotekh)

We have great 'Character' options for our units that we didn't have before. For a shooting based list, there is phenomenal support in the form of Crypteks. For roughly the cost of 2 Warriors or Immortals, you can give a unit a longer range, higher strength/AP weapon, that usually comes with an additional benefit. Or you can put normal 'Lords' in the units to make them harder to take down. Tremorteks, have a shooting attack that slows down assaulting units which keeps in with your desire to not run any dedicated CC units.

Warriors and Immortals aren't nearly as good as they used to be, but they are now both Troops options, and took a MASSIVE reduction in points cost. Immortals have a choice of weapon, and it's free to switch between Tesla/Gauss. Which one you use depends largely on how many Mech units your opponents use in your area, and how much you're willing to dedicate to taking vehicles down. I prefer Gauss on all my infantry, but not opposed Tesla. You can find discussions on it and make up your own mind.

Most of the vehicles have been mentioned. Annihilation Barges are great in general and super cheap compared to the other vehicles. Ghost Arks for Warriors are great, as they are difficult to take down, and they can also replace Warriors that you have lost. You'll eventually get a Nightscythe or two for mobility. Monoliths have lost a lot of what they did from previous editions, but their points reflect that now. They also make a great pure shooting anti-CC unit if you can get good at pre-emptively removing your units from getting assaulted out of range. I feel that Nightscythes do this better, but worth felt the Monoliths worth mentioning. The other vehicle not mentioned that works good with an all shooting army, is the Triarch Stalker. Closest thing I can compare it to is a Dreadnought, but it doesn't play like a Dreadnought at all. It will however, make anything it hits, count as Twin-linked for everything else in your army that shoots at the same unit.

Destroyers have been shifted to our 'We can kill Marines' now unit. If you really like shooting the new Tomb Blades are great, and for the same cost as a Destroyer you can run around with a unit shooting small blast templates. Deathmarks as mentioned above, now give us access to snipers which we didn't have before. Depending on when you last played, Snipers have some built in additional benefits now, and the Deathmarks have some of their own. If you're running a pure shooting list you might want to take a good look at these guys and take a unit. I'll agree though that they're best taken in full units.

-----
Things you need to be aware of. A HUGE majority of our shooting has been reduced to 24". So keep that in mind building your list, especially if you're going to be playing against armies that will out range you (like Tau and IG). There is a new mission deployment, that can put Necron shooting out of commission for 2 turns. Ways around this are Transports including Flyers, Deep Strike units (which we have more options than before now), making use of Night Fight as protection till we have that range, or just taking huge blobs of units and soaking the fire.

There hasn't been ONE all powerful Necron list, and that's good because when someone plays against Necrons they never know which way they're going to die. So if you try a list out and are having frustrations with it, don't fret, it can usually be fixed fairly simple. I too would be happy to PM you all the different lists that have worked for me, but then you'd be playing my army and not yours. Start small, build your own, play games and add as you go. Post your lists here, and get advice on where to grow, but be sure to tell us where you're having difficulties.

-Cheers and lookin forward to having another Tombworld woken up!

I've only been playing 'Crons since the new codex dropped, but the meta has changed a few times since then. (sorry I can't give you a win/loss/draw record, I stopped keeping track a while ago).

The single most important thing to realize with the new Necrons is that they are an incredibly synergistic army. Yes, one unit might be good on its own, but it is BEST when used in conjunction with other units in the army.
Being the case, it may behoove you to look up some of the combos pros tend to exploit (eg. Deathmarks + Despair-tek + Nightscythe, 5 Warriors + Storm-tek + Nightscythe, Heavy Gauss Cannon Stalker + Tesla Immortals + Doomsday Ark, 4 Destr-teks + Chrono-tek + Ghost Ark, etc)

When you say "shooting", do you want to go longer ranged, or will the average 24" do?
Reason being, if you're going for longer range, you're probably going to be building a completely different list than if you were just going for the average range.
(an important thing to note if you do go long range is that this Imotekh fellow these kids keep going on about will actually gimp your big guns if you take him. Just be aware).

I should probably stress how effective Royal Courts are to your strategy. I almost wish I could take them without having to take an Overlord (though, with the tactical advantage Zahndrekh grants, it is sometimes worth it).

 skoffs wrote:
I should probably stress how effective Royal Courts are to your strategy. I almost wish I could take them without having to take an Overlord (though, with the tactical advantage Zahndrekh grants, it is sometimes worth it).

Is there any reason you're not taking a Royal Court with Zahndrekh / Imotekh? This statement implies that you somehow can't, unless you take an Overlord.

Uh, no, you can definitely take them with Zahndrekh. And Imotekh. And any other Overlord level IC.
What I was saying is, a generic Overlord, while previously considered auto-include if you gave him a Command Barge, is no longer as auto-include, now that 6th edition nerfed the range of sweep attacks.
After 6th came out, the prime HQ choice became Destroyer Lords. The downside with Destroyer Lords is, though, that you can't take Royal Courts. This meant, in order to unlock one of the best aspects of the codex, you would be forced to take a less effective Overlord instead of a supremely effective second Destroyer Lord. (that's a tough choice to make).
Luckily, however, Zahndrekh is quite a versatile HQ choice, so I don't mind giving up that second DLord's spot to him, especially if it means I get to unlock a court to pull off some cryptek combo shenanigans.

Ahh see, I've always treated Dlords as the inferior choice. There is no question to me which one you'll get more use out of and have never been an auto-include in any edition.

They do have their uses, and would recommend one after you have an Overlord. They're just so limited in their use. To each his own I guess.

In the old editions, maybe, but in 6th edition, certain universal special rules that HQs have get passed on to units they join.
In this case, Destroyer Lords have Preferred Enemy (Everything)... being able to grant any unit you join the ability to reroll their 1s is nothing to be taken lightly.

Im fully aware of what they're used for, and what 6th ed. gave them. When compared to what else 6th ed. changed, they're still not worth their points when choosing to take them over an Overlord. Im not saying they suck and they should never be taken. If you're wanting a 2nd HQ, or are planning to not make use of the Royal Court, then they step into the spotlight. When I yanked mine out for 6th ed, the benefits gained weren't missed when I switched him back out for the Overlord.

Maybe the Meta in your area supports their use over the Overlord, or you feel they are the best choice. Im not disagreeing with that. There are far too many combinations in the Necron Dex to say that one is better than the other. If it works for you, then great.