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Hey all,
I'm building my Necron army for competition and I'm pretty much right at the end. Mostly just list building. I've seen 3 different builds for a Decurion, Judicator/Harvest, Double Harvest, and Harvest/Destroyer Cult. Unfortunately I have to mark the Judicator version out for now until I can get more Praetorian's. So the main question I have for those that have played or played against either, which one was more efficient? From what the TO was saying, it's mostly Eldar and SM that are the most common at my FLGS. With a sprinkle of ik and Tau and a small outlier of other armies.
Thanks all!

Harvest /cult offers the most utility of the options.

Harvest just isn't as killy as it needs to be in order to be competitive. Splitting it up as Harvest/Cult or Battalion/Cult is better.
It does make me sad that the army that makes the most sense to completely spam out units... can't effectively do so.

1 of each. You want some Wraiths to throw the Destroyer Lord in anyway.

Harvest/Destroyer with the Royal Court thrown in. The super friends run around with the DLord and the maxed out wraiths. I've been on the loosing end of that stick (one of my peeps plays Necrons, too, and I played Tau) and it's a nasty net list.

Not as competative, but still fun I use flayed ones and Imotehk with a lychstar.

Double Cult!
Ap3 everywhere!!

So the consensus is that Cult/Harvest is the best decision for competition. Sounds like Double Harvest is only good for locking down 2 big threats but makes the army a ton less likely. What makes the Judicator Battalion formation one of the best ones anyways? The Praetorians don't seem to be very tough compared to the JSJ tactics of Destroyers.

The real benefit of Praetorians is that it gives the Destroyers the equivalent of BS 10 on a target each turn... super nice as it really makes those heavy gauss cannon shots count.

spacemarine542 wrote:
What makes the Judicator Battalion formation one of the best ones anyways? The Praetorians don't seem to be very tough compared to the JSJ tactics of Destroyers.

They're glass cannons. Incredibly killly, but not so great at surviving.
Destroyers aren't quite as killy, but are more survivable.
Wraiths aren't very killy, but are incredibly survivable.
(see the pattern?)


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Anpu-adom wrote:
The real benefit of the Judicator Battalion is that the Stalker gives the Destroyers the equivalent of BS 10 on a target each turn... super nice as it really makes those heavy gauss cannon shots count.

Fixed that for you (wouldn't want any new players who see it to get the wrong idea)

I see, it all makes sense now. So if Praetorians can make it to the enemy mostly intact then they'll blender whatever they get to with the exception of more dedicated assault units like Khorne Berserkers? That seems pretty good to me lol. I will have to build up more money to get 2 full squads of Praetorians and a Stalker now. So the best build for Judicator is with a Cult as well? Why not with a Harvest? I take it because saavy opponents will know better to ignore the super tough wraiths and shoot the squishy Praetorians.

Yeah, that's pretty much it.
Plus, there's synergy with the Stalker and Heavy Destroyers (as mentioned above).
Wraiths + Praetorians do actually work pretty well in concert with each other, though. Both move up at the same speed, Wraith engage and hold things that can hurt the Praetorians, leaving your blenders free to puree the rest of their list, eventually coming to finish off what the Wraiths were holding. The downside is not having much for the Stalker to work with (he can advance with the Warriors/Immortals, but that's just not as effective a use compared to what the Destroyers can do with him nearby).

I like to have a mish mash of stuff. AP3 guass is great until you run into stuff with 2+ cover saves. As stated above, wraiths can hold stuff but not really kill very quickly. I've had them get stuck in a brawl with a 10 man tac squad for most of a game. That's when I got turned on to the praetorians. 5-7 of those dudes will chew through a 10 man unit in two rounds of combat easy. So I'm a big fan of cult+judicator+harvest in a Decurion. Very swiss-army knife like.

 necron99 wrote:
cult+judicator+harvest in a Decurion.

Tricky balance, that.
Means having to skimp on certain places you'd rather not skimp.

 necron99 wrote:
I like to have a mish mash of stuff. AP3 guass is great until you run into stuff with 2+ cover saves. As stated above, wraiths can hold stuff but not really kill very quickly. I've had them get stuck in a brawl with a 10 man tac squad for most of a game. That's when I got turned on to the praetorians. 5-7 of those dudes will chew through a 10 man unit in two rounds of combat easy. So I'm a big fan of cult+judicator+harvest in a Decurion. Very swiss-army knife like.

How often is 2+ going to be spammed?

It is an odd complaint.

2+ armor dies to massed shooting... your warriors should fit the bill here (particularly if you have them in a Ghost Ark... hint... hint...)

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

 necron99 wrote:
I like to have a mish mash of stuff. AP3 guass is great until you run into stuff with 2+ cover saves. As stated above, wraiths can hold stuff but not really kill very quickly. I've had them get stuck in a brawl with a 10 man tac squad for most of a game. That's when I got turned on to the praetorians. 5-7 of those dudes will chew through a 10 man unit in two rounds of combat easy. So I'm a big fan of cult+judicator+harvest in a Decurion. Very swiss-army knife like.

How often is 2+ going to be spammed?

It is an odd complaint.

ok, 2+ is a bit extreme and not necessarily spammed but most daemons players I've played against run a couple of nurgling bases in ruins (sitting on objectives) and stealth suits get it and so does shadowsun with her peeps in ruins. While 8 shots, assuming 4 destroyers in a unit, isn't bad even against a standard 4+ cover save things would slow down.