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Hey Dakka!

A friend convinced me to join a tournament kind of last minute. I'm in the midst of moving; that means my primary armies are tucked away somewhere. My Necrons are easily accessible, but I don't have much experience with them. The TO has created custom Eternal War style missions to be played on 4x4 tables. One mission is to hold and secure board quadrants (specific note is made of troops taking advantage of Objective Secured); one's a kinda like Planetfall (so part of the army has to deep strike at the onset); one is like Purge the Alien with a modified kill points reflecting importance of the unit and difficulty to kill; the last is a mystery and has yet to be given out. The tourney is 4 rounds with points accumulated for victories, being a good sportsman, and how well the army is painted. Imperial Knights are allowed (both as allies and full armies) as well as FW however LoW are not.

I've acquired a lot more minis than are listed, but with the small point value I can only use so many. If you think I should swap guys out or add models there's a good chance I already have it (or am willing to pick up since I'll use it eventually). Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

HQ (250 pts)
Imotekh the Stormlord (225 pts)
Cryptek (25 pts)

TROOPS (370 pts)
Necron Warriors x10 (210 pts)
- Ghost Ark
Necron Immortals (80 pts)
Necron Immortals (80 pts)
- Tesla Carbines

FAST ATTACK (330 pts)
Heavy Destroyers x3 (180 pts)
Canoptic Wraiths x3 (150 pts)
- Particle Casters
-Whip Coils

HEAVY SUPPORT (500 pts)
Monolith (200 pts)
Sentry Pylon (IA Apocalypse, p.82) (150 pts)
- Sepulchral Scarabs
Sentry Pylon (IA Apocalypse, p.82) (150 pts)
- Sepulchral Scarabs

I'm thinking of swapping out the Monolith for a Destroyer to give the Wraiths a little more umph, or possibly replace it with a C'tan Shard.

Thanks a lot.

Welcome to Necrons friend. You've got a great start, at 1250 though I would lose the immortals and get warriors instead. Also, just a note, wraiths can only take one choice of whip coils pistols or the other thing. Also, with the points you've just saved upgrade your cryptek, despair if you run deathmarks, destruction or the haywire one otherwise. Big balls of warriors with a lord plus rez orb are my favorite. Oh yeah destroyers are 40+ points of 1 wound. Get barges and flyers, that's some fun stuff.

Here's 2000 points of Necron devastation, can easily pair this down in pieces to accommodate any point value, enjoy:


HQ - Overlord w/ Warscythe, Mindshackle Scarabs, Semp Weave, Phase Shifter
Catacomb Command Barge

HQ - Overlord w/ Warscythe, Mindshackle Scarabs, Semp Weave, Phase Shifter
Catacomb Command Barge

Troops - 5 Warriors
RC - StormTek
RC - StormTek
Dedicated Transport - Night Scythe

Troops - 5 Warriors
RC - StormTek
RC - StormTek
Dedicated Transport - Night Scythe

Troops - 5 Warriors
RC - StormTek
RC - StormTek
Dedicated Transport - Night Scythe

Troops - 5 Warriors
RC - StormTek
RC - StormTek
Dedicated Transport - Night Scythe

Troops - 5 Warriors
Dedicated Transport - Ghost Ark

Troops - 5 Warriors
Dedicated Transport - Ghost Ark

Heavy Support - Annihilation Barge w/ Tesla Cannon
Heavy Support - Annihilation Barge w/ Tesla Cannon
Heavy Support - Annihilation Barge w/ Tesla Cannon

NakedSeamus
Welcome to Necrons friend. You've got a great start, at 1250 though I would lose the immortals and get warriors instead. Also, just a note, wraiths can only take one choice of whip coils pistols or the other thing. Also, with the points you've just saved upgrade your cryptek, despair if you run deathmarks, destruction or the haywire one otherwise. Big balls of warriors with a lord plus rez orb are my favorite. Oh yeah destroyers are 40+ points of 1 wound. Get barges and flyers, that's some fun stuff.

Thanks for the observation about the wraiths and advice about the cryptek. The cryptek was really put in there because I didn't know what else to do with 25pts and his base weapon didn't seem that bad. As far as the wraiths, I'll probably go with the whip coils. They really seem more geared towards melee than close range shooting. Would a Destroyer Lord help them with some of the harder targets, or is he just not worth the point cost?

At only 15pts more a squad, I thought the extra point of S, AP and Sv would help offset the fact that it's a relatively small squad. I forgot that regular Necron Lords can take Resurrection Orbs, but that's still 60pts a pop I'd have to get from somewhere.

Destroyers are 40pts a pop, but [i[Heavy[/i] Destroyers are 60. I'm not really sure what kind of MC's or vehicles I'm going to be going up against and didn't want to get stonewalled by a SM army running terminator and Land Raider spam. I also thought the maneuverability would help get to units side armour - especially if someone decides to field an Imperial Knight.

I thought about using flyers, but the uncertainty regarding when they arrive has always been a turn off.

peteralmo wrote:
Here's 2000 points of Necron devastation, can easily pair this down in pieces to accommodate any point value, enjoy:


HQ - Overlord w/ Warscythe, Mindshackle Scarabs, Semp Weave, Phase Shifter
Catacomb Command Barge

HQ - Overlord w/ Warscythe, Mindshackle Scarabs, Semp Weave, Phase Shifter
Catacomb Command Barge

Troops - 5 Warriors
RC - StormTek
RC - StormTek
Dedicated Transport - Night Scythe

Troops - 5 Warriors
RC - StormTek
RC - StormTek
Dedicated Transport - Night Scythe

Troops - 5 Warriors
RC - StormTek
RC - StormTek
Dedicated Transport - Night Scythe

Troops - 5 Warriors
RC - StormTek
RC - StormTek
Dedicated Transport - Night Scythe

Troops - 5 Warriors
Dedicated Transport - Ghost Ark

Troops - 5 Warriors
Dedicated Transport - Ghost Ark

Heavy Support - Annihilation Barge w/ Tesla Cannon
Heavy Support - Annihilation Barge w/ Tesla Cannon
Heavy Support - Annihilation Barge w/ Tesla Cannon

copy this!

FETH! I just discovered that the Skyfire, Interceptor combo doesn't allow you to shoot at everyone at full ballistic skill anymore. That was why I had the Sentry Pylons in the list too.

Kitbashing a couple of pylons together seemed like a great idea, but now I'm not so sure. Is the pylon still worth it? Any suggestions on dealing with pesky flyers now that my plan for ground based air superiority just went to heck? There doesn't seem to be a really great option for dealing with flyers and flying MC without investing in flyers of my own. Some big problems with using flyers as the primary means against flyers and such is that they may not show up until turn 6 or have the umph to take out what I need them to.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Point to consider: as mentioned in the OP, points are awarded for sportsmanship. I'm not sure how well spamming the enemy would go towards that.

OomieCrusha wrote:
FETH! I just discovered that the Skyfire, Interceptor combo doesn't allow you to shoot at everyone at full ballistic skill anymore. That was why I had the Sentry Pylons in the list too.

Kitbashing a couple of pylons together seemed like a great idea, but now I'm not so sure. Is the pylon still worth it? Any suggestions on dealing with pesky flyers now that my plan for ground based air superiority just went to heck? There doesn't seem to be a really great option for dealing with flyers and flying MC without investing in flyers of my own. Some big problems with using flyers as the primary means against flyers and such is that they may not show up until turn 6 or have the umph to take out what I need them to.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Point to consider: as mentioned in the OP, points are awarded for sportsmanship. I'm not sure how well spamming the enemy would go towards that.

Necrons don't really need Ground Skyfire, Nightscythes are Twin-Linked S7 shots that can generate more shots with 6's if they are Snapshooting. Same with the Annihilation Barge. To top this off, IIRC, the Sweep Attacks from a Catacomb Command Barge can hit flyers and Ignore Cover.

As for sportsmanship...well if you copy peteralmo's list you may be in for a bit of grief, but that's only because it's a very good list In addition to that, if you start arguing that the CCB has a 3+ from the Overlord, you won't be making friends anytime soon, even if it is RAW, I don't think it is RAI

Frozocrone wrote:
Necrons don't really need Ground Skyfire, Nightscythes are Twin-Linked S7 shots that can generate more shots with 6's if they are Snapshooting. Same with the Annihilation Barge. To top this off, IIRC, the Sweep Attacks from a Catacomb Command Barge can hit flyers and Ignore Cover.

As for sportsmanship...well if you copy peteralmo's list you may be in for a bit of grief, but that's only because it's a very good list In addition to that, if you start arguing that the CCB has a 3+ from the Overlord, you won't be making friends anytime soon, even if it is RAW, I don't think it is RAI

Glad to hear that Necrons aren't completely screwed without skyfire. With the Command Barge, if it's being shot, the owner can decide whether the shot hits the rider or the chariot; while with melee combat the attacker gets to choose. One big problem did arise when checking out the list though. It would require an outlay of $250.

OomieCrusha wrote:

Frozocrone wrote:
Necrons don't really need Ground Skyfire, Nightscythes are Twin-Linked S7 shots that can generate more shots with 6's if they are Snapshooting. Same with the Annihilation Barge. To top this off, IIRC, the Sweep Attacks from a Catacomb Command Barge can hit flyers and Ignore Cover.

As for sportsmanship...well if you copy peteralmo's list you may be in for a bit of grief, but that's only because it's a very good list In addition to that, if you start arguing that the CCB has a 3+ from the Overlord, you won't be making friends anytime soon, even if it is RAW, I don't think it is RAI

Glad to hear that Necrons aren't completely screwed without skyfire. With the Command Barge, if it's being shot, the owner can decide whether the shot hits the rider or the chariot; while with melee combat the attacker gets to choose. One big problem did arise when checking out the list though. It would require an outlay of $250.

Oh definitely, Pylons are neat but Annihilation Barges are too cheap for what they can do All your Flyers and stuff have Skyfire anyway. Necrons usually win the air battle due to how easily they can pluck things out of the sky...curse those easy to access Nightscythes...

Regarding the CCB...I wrote that as 3+ and I meant to write it as 3++, provided that the Overlord has the Phase Shifter.

BRB page 86: A Chariot is always treated as a single model.
Necron Codex page 82: A model with a phase shifter has a 3+invulnerable save.

RAW, you've got an AV13 vehicle with a 3++. RAI, it's debatable whether this was intended (much like the Death Ray being allowed to hit models in CC) so if you want to keep friends, please don't argue it does. Most tournaments are ruling it doesn't get a 3++ and a 4+ Jink and 2+ Armour Save are more than enough for it (and those 45 points can be spent elsewhere, like a Cryptek, Scarabs, a Wraith, etc). I do hope it is all sorted when the new Codex comes out

Yeah, it does look quite expensive, curse you GW! My only suggestion is: Magnetize. Spending £5 ($8?) for three sets of £30($50?) is going to help you out in the long run than buying boxes and boxes

If the new Codex makes models unplayable competitively, then you've not spent as much money, it's also easier to carry, advantages are endless

Sentry pylons with focussed death rays are pretty great.

Other than That list posted with double barge lords and triple annihilation barges is pretty nice. There could be some tweaks but they would be minor, really just personal preference.

instead of the destroyers I suggest taking units of scarabs. They are just so good! I can't justify taking destroyers of any kind right now even though I love their aesthetics, they are just to points heavy for what they bring to the table and their damage output. Here's hoping they get something in the next codex. But scarabs are such a gold star unit. they're a cheap tarpit that is the bane of any vehicle, especially land raiders and all those assault vehicles that want to get up close and ruin a good necron gunline. Wraiths are pretty good, but in my experience scarab swarms have done so much more in close combat then wraiths have ever done for me. right now all of my fast attack slots are scarab swarms of varying sizes depending on what point level I'm playing at. also if you are worried about imperial knights, this may be anecdotal but I took one out in my last game by outflanking it with a couple small units of warriors pecking off a hull point or two a turn and then let him charge my lord with a warscythe and phase shifter. he sliced it in half. AP1 and armorbane is fantastic. bring a lord with a warscythe, put him in a unit of warriors in the back and with your intitive of 2 let the knight kill some warriors, then consolidate up and go to town. it's a good chance to kill a huge number of points with a very small investment on your end.

As stated before that list will not make you many friends though

Apparently if I just knock off a couple of units and a cryptek while adding an extra Necron warrior to a squad, it converts pretty easily to a 1250 pt army.

This is 1248 pts:

HQ - Overlord (255 pts)
Warscythe, Mindshackle Scarabs, Sempiternal Weave, Phase Shifter, Catacomb Command Barge

Troops - 5 Warriors (215 pts)
Cryptek (Harbinger of the Storm) x2, Night Scythe (Dedicated Transport)

Troops - 5 Warriors (215 pts)
Cryptek (Harbinger of the Storm) x2, Night Scythe (Dedicated Transport)

Troops - 6 Warriors (203 pts)
Cryptek (Harbinger of the Storm) x1, Night Scythe (Dedicated Transport)

Troops - 5 Warriors
Ghost Ark (Dedicated Transport)

Heavy Support - Annihilation Barge w/ Tesla Cannon
Heavy Support - Annihilation Barge w/ Tesla Cannon

Two big problems though. One, given that points are awarded for sportsmanship - including whether someone would want to fight this outside of a tournament. Kicking everyone's ass in each battle is no good if you lose overall because everyone thinks you're an ass. Secondly, I presently only have 1 Cryptek, so I'd have to drop $200 - $250 to pull this off.

OomieCrusha wrote:

NakedSeamus
Welcome to Necrons friend. You've got a great start, at 1250 though I would lose the immortals and get warriors instead. Also, just a note, wraiths can only take one choice of whip coils pistols or the other thing. Also, with the points you've just saved upgrade your cryptek, despair if you run deathmarks, destruction or the haywire one otherwise. Big balls of warriors with a lord plus rez orb are my favorite. Oh yeah destroyers are 40+ points of 1 wound. Get barges and flyers, that's some fun stuff.

Thanks for the observation about the wraiths and advice about the cryptek. The cryptek was really put in there because I didn't know what else to do with 25pts and his base weapon didn't seem that bad. As far as the wraiths, I'll probably go with the whip coils. They really seem more geared towards melee than close range shooting. Would a Destroyer Lord help them with some of the harder targets, or is he just not worth the point cost?

I always run a Destroyer Lord with my wraiths. Preferred Enemy makes them that much more killy, and challenges/mindshackle scarabs can take a key player of the opposing unit making your wraiths more effective.

At only 15pts more a squad, I thought the extra point of S, AP and Sv would help offset the fact that it's a relatively small squad. I forgot that regular Necron Lords can take Resurrection Orbs, but that's still 60pts a pop I'd have to get from somewhere.

It doesn't. The shear firepower of a 20 man squad will far outweigh the extra benefits of immortals. Plus with the bigger squad, one rez orb does more work than it would for a 10 man squad of immortals. Stretching your points further. Not to mention it only takes your warriors standing up 3 or 4 times to make up the cost of a rez orb.

Destroyers are 40pts a pop, but [i[Heavy[/i] Destroyers are 60. I'm not really sure what kind of MC's or vehicles I'm going to be going up against and didn't want to get stonewalled by a SM army running terminator and Land Raider spam. I also thought the maneuverability would help get to units side armour - especially if someone decides to field an Imperial Knight.

Ah, so about that... you never need to worry about armor. Your guass weaponry eats it for breakfast by glancing it to death in a single volley. Again why 20 warriors is better than 10 immortals. More shots means more potential 6's means death to vehicles. Plus scarabs chew up armor too. Do not field destroyers unless its the lord.

I thought about using flyers, but the uncertainty regarding when they arrive has always been a turn off.

100 point flyer that can drop off its peeps anywhere along its path. Take them for cheese or not, flyers are a little unbalanced as it is.

peteralmo
HQ - Overlord w/ Warscythe, Mindshackle Scarabs, Semp Weave, Phase Shifter
Catacomb Command Barge

Troops - 5 Warriors
RC - StormTek
RC - StormTek
Dedicated Transport - Night Scythe

What's "RC - StormTek"? I'm not [i[that[/i] familiar with Necrons yet, let alone their nomenclature on the web. Also, doesn't 255pts seem high for one character? Why not add a Tachyon Arrow to give him a sick one use only weapon and bring him up to a nice even 300? Not trying to sound sarcastic there; that may be a common value for a Necron HQ. I'm just used to Orks, where if you spend 150pts on an HQ you may have gone too far.

Thanks for the help so far.

Thanks for the help so far. I think three flyers in such a small game will be too much. People may give me grief about that as it is. I'd rather struggle a little bit during a game than lose over all because people felt it was a spam list. It also looks like each squad of warriors can only have one member of a Royal Court attached. After lots of thinking and research I'm fairly committed to fielding:

HQ (210 - 255 pts)
Overlord (210 - 255 pts)
Catacomb Command Barge
Warscythe
Sempiternal Weave
Mindshackle Scarabs
Phase Shifter? Is it really worth it?

TROOPS (595 pts)
Necron Warriors (190 pts)
Night Scythe
Cryptek (Harbinger of the Storm)

Necron Warriors (190 pts)
Night Scythe
Cryptek (Harbinger of the Storm)

Necron Warriors (215 pts)
Ghost Ark
Cryptek (Harbinger of the Storm) Should I do a Lord with a rez orb instead?

HEAVY SUPPORT (180 pts)
Annihilation Barge (90 pts)
Annihilation Barge (90 pts)

This amounts to 985 points of my 1250; leaving me with 265.

Because one mission is based on controlling table quadrants (and they specifically mention Objective Secured), I'm tempted to get another squad of Warriors. A bonus victory point is earned if I control 3 or more quadrants. Would points be better spent on something more offensive rather than a 5 man objective camping squad? The aforementioned scarabs are an option, as are wraiths, but given the limited number of points I doubt they could be led by a destroyer lord.

Again, suggestions are appreciated.

Sportsmanship has nothing to do with your list. Sportsmanship is how you behave - not what you bring. What you bring is composition.

It's a bug bear of mine that people use sports scoring as a way of sniping players who have brought perceived strong lists...

Yeah, but some of the points on the scoring rubric are:

Did your army have the possibility to counter everything in your opponent’s army (nothing in his/her army was unbeatable)?

Did your opponent’s army make sense as a military force?

Do you feel as though your opponent’s army was fair and balanced?

Would you play your opponent’s army against a friend that doesn’t go to tournaments?

They're trying very hard to make it anti-

But that's still composition scores... Nothing there is about sportsmanship. That said, I get your thought process in the list building

I mean sportsmanship is generally how you deal with winning or loosing, not weather or not your list is strong. If you put a lot of time and research into writing something strong than you deserve to field it. That being said you run into cheesy lists now and again but it only cheesy if you can't beat it, and those lists are generally a Rock Paper Scissors in that they will dominate some lists but not all.

That being said back to your 1250 list if they let you play the chariot as having a 3++ than the phase shifter is definitely worth it. Also if you plan on challenging or accepting challenge it's worth it because anyone you will fight will most likely find a way around your armor save.

Sentry pylons are cool, but they kinda require a whole army to protect making it a gunline style army. The list you have posted is definitely more aggressive seize objectives and will serve you well at a tournament.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
With the remaining points I would get a third annihilation barge and maybe some wraiths. That's it , this list is pretty set.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Deathmarks in a sythe is always fun also.

There are other parts that deal more directly with is the player (as opposed to the list) a good sport, but that's less relevant to making the army and why those sections weren't copied.

OomieCrusha wrote:
Thanks for the help so far. I think three flyers in such a small game will be too much. People may give me grief about that as it is. I'd rather struggle a little bit during a game than lose over all because people felt it was a spam list. It also looks like each squad of warriors can only have one member of a Royal Court attached. After lots of thinking and research I'm fairly committed to fielding:
blah

That part about the one member of royal court attached is true. The reason the previous list is able to attach 2 royal court harbingers is because there are 2 royal courts. You get one royal court PER overlord. Thus 2 CCB overlords = 2 royal courts = 2 harbingers in the warriors squad (1 harbinger from each court)


also as has been noted before Death and Despair squads are AWESOME. Deathmarks + Despairtek in a NightScythe. The deathmarks mark a target to always wound on 2+, the despairtek staff is a S8 AP1 Template weapon that wounds the marked target on a 2+

Ahh. I forgot they had one cryptek from two different royal courts. I don't think the 2+ wound from the deathmarks confers to the IC. Nothing I've seen agrees with that.