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Hi guys,

I am getting ready to build up my Necron praetorian squads and wanted to see what everyone thought was the best build for them is. I am planning on using them in the Formation with the Stalker and 2 units of praetorian.

I am leaning towards the Rods. Is there a better reason to take the blades and particle casters?

thanks

Its down to your choice really.
rods are strong shots at a very good ap but short range and ap2 in cc so good against termues or other 2+ save stuff.

Blades and pistols give a stronger shot and longer range but lower ap and in cc have a chance of rending plus entropic strike.

but for me what tips it is entropic strike on the blade which allows you to kill (maybe) anything in the game upto and including titans. Its the versitility of the pistol/blade combo that i like, sure you've not got the ap2 but you get an extra attack and if you get charged by a dread or similar at least you can kill it where as a rod squad will be stuck unable to hurt it and being fearless unable to run even a 50pt armoured sentinal can hold a rod squad up indefinatly.

Of course this all depends on your play style and local groups meta. Good luck.

If you go against 2+ a lot or need dedicated terminator killing unit — rod it is, anything else - pistol/sword is better. With stalker buff - finding those sixes is easier - you can brake armour, you can kill tarpit quicker

Skullhammer wrote:
Its down to your choice really.
rods are strong shots at a very good ap but short range and ap2 in cc so good against termues or other 2+ save stuff.

Blades and pistols give a stronger shot and longer range but lower ap and in cc have a chance of rending plus entropic strike.

Particle casters are only 12", same as the rod. It's only +1 strength over the rod, at the expense of any useful AP.

Thanks guys. I was most concerned with the AP, but I think the rerolls will help with the entropic strike. Gonna go with blades and casters.

Cheers

Take one of each. Neither loadout is really bad, but very different in what targets they hate.

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
Take one of each. Neither loadout is really bad, but very different in what targets they hate.

Does this really work though? I find splitting squads when there are only 2 leads to army breakdown of one of them is taken out.

I've played them with rods with the expressed purpose of killing smaller 2+ sv units or 10 MEQ squads if there are no 2+ units about. If they're running some heavy duty armor I've got other things in my tool chest to take care of that threat (namely mass destroyer cult).

These guys are fast and can get where they need to be pretty quickly. Rods may have a short range but you can move 12" before firing giving you an effective 24" range. Besides you'll want to be as close as possible when you assault so a 12" range is fine with me. I took their formation to Nova last year and was satisfied with how they performed with rods.

 Falco wrote:

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
Take one of each. Neither loadout is really bad, but very different in what targets they hate.

Does this really work though? I find splitting squads when there are only 2 leads to army breakdown of one of them is taken out.

It works in a Decurion. Nobody takes Necrons outside a Decurion unless they're doing Pylons.

And it really doesn't, because of how simply hard they hit any target.

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

 Falco wrote:

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
Take one of each. Neither loadout is really bad, but very different in what targets they hate.

Does this really work though? I find splitting squads when there are only 2 leads to army breakdown of one of them is taken out.

It works in a Decurion. Nobody takes Necrons outside a Decurion unless they're doing Pylons.

And it really doesn't, because of how simply hard they hit any target.

Cool, thanks! I think that will work then. 1 of each.

Dach wrote:
If you go against 2+ a lot or need dedicated terminator killing unit — rod it is, anything else - pistol/sword is better. With stalker buff - finding those sixes is easier - you can brake armour, you can kill tarpit quicker

If you can get rerolls, Caster and Blade is better. Anything that increases your chance of a 6 tips scales in their favor over Rods.

Dach wrote:
If you go against 2+ a lot or need dedicated terminator killing unit — rod it is, anything else - pistol/sword is better. With stalker buff - finding those sixes is easier - you can brake armour, you can kill tarpit quicker

Note, stalker doesn't help you with enthropic 6'es in melee, it only buffs shooting

I would recommend the Rods for the sole reason that the Judicayor re-rolls are specifically for shooting. You have the option to DS or jump in and open-fire. That, and AP 2 shooting is generally harder to come across anyway in a Necron list, and vehicles can be whittled down in other ways.

Rods are for TEQ Hunting
Casters are for GEQ and Light Vehicle Hunting

Fielding the Apocalypse Version of the Lawbringer Phalanx makes EVERYONE Cry, as the Praetorians will be Near Impossible to Kill and Upgrade to MC Hunting

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

 Falco wrote:

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
Take one of each. Neither loadout is really bad, but very different in what targets they hate.

Does this really work though? I find splitting squads when there are only 2 leads to army breakdown of one of them is taken out.

It works in a Decurion. Nobody takes Necrons outside a Decurion unless they're doing Pylons.

And it really doesn't, because of how simply hard they hit any target.

Excuse me what? I and most of the Cron players I know rarely take a Decurion when playing competitively. The unnecessary boost to durability is nowhere near worth the loss of Obsec on the insane tax of required units. Especially when the best units in a decurion end up being from stand alone formations anyway.

 Red Corsair wrote:

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

 Falco wrote:

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
Take one of each. Neither loadout is really bad, but very different in what targets they hate.

Does this really work though? I find splitting squads when there are only 2 leads to army breakdown of one of them is taken out.

It works in a Decurion. Nobody takes Necrons outside a Decurion unless they're doing Pylons.

And it really doesn't, because of how simply hard they hit any target.

Excuse me what? I and most of the Cron players I know rarely take a Decurion when playing competitively. The unnecessary boost to durability is nowhere near worth the loss of Obsec on the insane tax of required units. Especially when the best units in a decurion end up being from stand alone formations anyway.

That's why all the CAD builds win the most?

Gonna need to see the top ranking lists from a few recent tournaments for comparison to settle this.

 skoffs wrote:
Gonna need to see the top ranking lists from a few recent tournaments for comparison to settle this.

http://bloodofkittens.com/7th-edition-army-list-compendium/ Here ya are.

Spoiler, all of the top 2016 list were decurions, to no one's surprise. D-Cult with a harvest is the most common build, and D-Cults were more common than harvests. The Jon Camacho list was the only one that did something new and interesting, Judicator battalion, living tomb and deathmarks, all of the others were pretty standard. At a guess it looks to be a wraith knight gladius counter list, which is interesting, because I'd be much more concerned about war convocation or super friends as necrons.

There is one other use for praets not mentioned so far and that is deep striking gun line. They make pretty good trouble shooters for things like thunder fire cannons and dark reapers. For this config Rod is better, because you need to start killing the second you hit the ground because you might not survive to charge on your next turn. It's our very ghetto version of a skyhammer annihilation force. I've played with the idea of an O-lord and D-lord, the O-lord with veil and the D-lord with solar staff. Deep strike in, activate the staff while shooting, then viel out the next turn to chew on a different enemy. Lots of uses from clearing out long range units we might not otherwise get access to, to herding warp spiders into a kill zone.

Otherwise the additional attacks from VBPC and rending make that the better all around choice.