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Few things in the necron army are as iconic as the Monolith. It's not like there are many models to choose from, but this is one of the things that stretches back to nearly the beginning. The rules in its earliest incarnations are still the things that stories are told about. But, if we're honest, for a couple editions it hasn't been nearly the terror of the table. I finally put my monolith on the table under the 8e the other day. While it did much better than it has in a couple versions, largely due to enhancements to vehicles overall, I doubt it will see the table again as a monolith until/unless some significant changes happen.


My read is that the monolith has 2 basic use-cases; hold ground and deliver troops. It is simply outstripped for each of those use cases and doesn't do both simultaneously well.

In the troop delivery category it serves a very mediocre impression of a drop pod. First, it arrives, then a turn later it can begin disgorging reserve units. Except that placing it in reserve reduces the number of units it can produce. Not placing it in reserve means those units are in no better position than simply starting on the board and making the trudge themselves. On the other hand the Night Scythe, while not nearly the survivor that the monolith is and unable to start in reserves now, benefit from the Hard to Hit rule and the ability to place a squad of infantry essentially anywhere on the board at the start of turn 2 after firing turn 1.
Perhaps a better view is that the monolith is an escape hatch for the much better delivery mechanism/transports of the night scythes. But, at between half and a quarter of most games' total point value, that's expensive insurance.

If it served as a good holder of ground its ability to deliver troops would arguably be a fair "bonus." But this vehicle has a 29" threat radius, including both move and weapon range, and a maximum expected game wounds of ~25 (assuming it starts 5 of a max 7 round game wounded). Meanwhile, for 2/3 the price you can get a max-size warrior squad with equal range, nearly the same movement, and a comparable overall damage output, as the higher starting shots average with the lower strength and AP. While Warriors' efficacy is more sensitive to damage suffered they also have much higher regeneration, regenerating between a third and half their missing wounds every round, and the ability to benefit from things like cover and cryptek invulnerable saves.
A number of people have commented about how this is the edition of the infantry. However, this seems excessive. All the other armies I've seen on the table have had a clear jump between the main guns of their "tanks" and those brought to bear by their infantry.


Am I missing something? Are other members of the undying legions finding similar results or something different?

I don't really think you're missing anything. The Necrons seem a little underwhelming to me. Thankfully I have the luxury of a couple of other armies because my 'crons feel pretty half baked.

Maybe if the monolith could still do its teleportation trick and/or redo reanimation protocols it might be fine for the price. I'm really missing veil of darkness from days past also though that had already been semi phased out.

tomguycot wrote:
that had already been semi phased out.

Ba-dum-tish!

In all seriousness, the Monolith was "usable" for 7th, simply underwhelming. Two of its main issues were that for 50% more, an Obelisk gave so much additional utility, and taking one meant you needed some way to protect it versus Skyhammer or WWP D-Scythes. A Living Tomb and Deathmarks made for a surprisingly dangerous combo. Really, all it needed was for its Particle Whip to be a Primary Weapon instead of Ordnance, and it would have been very viable indeed.

Removing its ability to slingshoot troops around killed half its purpose, and its old shtick of independent-targeting Flux Arcs was invalidated by 8e shooting. Add the removal of Blasts, and non-binary AP and there's now not a whole lot of reason to take one, as "killing" is generally more important than "not dying".

I agree that if it could remove troops from CC it would be good again. The things are tough as nails, but it has no extra utility, and being a standard transport just doesn't fit.

I'm hoping that when the Necron codex comes out it includes a stratagem that lets Necrons scoop Infantry back to the tomb world. That sort of shenanigans would be fluffy and provide a significant usefulness boost to the monolith without increasing its actual combat power. However, history (and the schedule for the first codex releases) suggests that we won't see a Necron codex until after every Imperial faction, sub-faction, and sub-sub faction gets detailed rules of their own... (just in time for 9e!)


Meanwhile, I'm taking a page from what I did in previous editions and trying out my Monolith (with some kitbash) as a "Necron Bastion." The movement loss isn't significant, accuracy loss is at least compensated by the dramatic range boost on all weapons, and the price drop is huge. Even with a team of 10 Immortals inside (which can overwatch for an impressive rendition of the Portal of Exile and boost general area denial in normal shooting too) the price is comparable. It loses the Living Metal rule (which is annoying fluff-wise since I can't even add a spyder to fake it), but mechanically that's mostly dwarfed by the 20 hp. On the other hand, it gains a point boost in Toughness, which turns out to be surprisingly useful when you talk about the sort of few-hit high-wound weapons that are really useful at taking down single models with 20 hp.
If I wanted to put things in reserve to come in from the tomb world I'll just use the vastly more mobile night scythes which start on the table. The extra units getting placed on the table would also help offset that. But I'm finding at 1-2k points a couple 20 blocks of warriors with crypteks and lord(s) (with hyperphase sword) to cheaply round out HQ requirements for each Battalion (and go die in glorious close combat tearing something apart) are making me pretty happy. I did fall in love with the faceless hordes marching across the battlefield originally after all.
If a bastion can serve as an anchor to my forces that'll be fantastic.

One day I'd like to see the monolith be worth putting back in action as itself, though.

Take a monolith, the deceiver, and 10 lychguard.
Turn 1 the deceiver repositions the monolith 12" from the enemy.
The lychguard disembark 3", move 5", and get to enjoy a 4" charge.

Gimmicky, but fun.

Arson Fire wrote:
Take a monolith, the deceiver, and 10 lychguard.
Turn 1 the deceiver repositions the monolith 12" from the enemy.
The lychguard disembark 3", move 5", and get to enjoy a 4" charge.

Gimmicky, but fun.

Note that the Monolith is not actually a transport. What it does is enable other units to be set up on the battlefield mid-turn in the manner of Reinforcements (that is, stuff that deep strikes) per the rules on p177. So the Lychguard aren't going to be able to move after getting out and have to try for a 9" charge.

Sadly the monolith is not an actual transport, the units coming out of it count as arriving from reserves instead of disembarking and so can't move or advance in the same turn. So it's a 9" charge.

Ah damn, you're right.
Carry on then.

Made me curious, so I went and looked if it would work with the Bastion I'm using (because that would be hilarity well worth many prices)... nope, not only does it only move Necron specific units, Grand Deception explicitly forbids units aboard a moved transport from charging during the first turn. So, even our Necron Transports (well, the singular one we have; what I lovingly refer to as "the bus" with its ever-so-impressive load of warriors) won't ever pull quite those level of shenanigans...

silentone2k wrote:
Made me curious, so I went and looked if it would work with the Bastion I'm using (because that would be hilarity well worth many prices)... nope, not only does it only move Necron specific units, Grand Deception explicitly forbids units aboard a moved transport from charging during the first turn. So, even our Necron Transports (well, the singular one we have; what I lovingly refer to as "the bus" with its ever-so-impressive load of warriors) won't ever pull quite those level of shenanigans...

It forbids the moved units from charging. Does that also imply that units carried by the moved units are forbidden from charging?
Maybe, but that's a bit more debatable.
Not that 10 necron warriors is much of a close combat threat in any case.

To pull off the lychguard first turn charge, what you need is Vargard Obyron, Nemesor Zahndrekh, and the deceiver. Deceiver places the nemesor near a unit that needs to be dead, and then Vargard Obyron drags a group of lychguard with him using the ghostwalk mantle. They can still move afterwards, and don't have the deceivers restriction on charging. The nemesor tosses transient madness and MWBD on the lychguard, and they blender whatever they hit. However at 856 points to pull off, it's not a real practical option. When we get our wargear back, I imagine the Veil of darkness will function like the ghost walk mantle but without the must teleport to specific person gotcha.

As for the monolith, I feel like it tries too much and is spread thin. At BS 4+ it's shooting is mediocre, I can imagine the chain of events that lead to that particular decision, the gauss flux arks were probably too good on a deep striking unit, so they nerfed the BS, but that made the particle whip worthless, so they set it to be heavy 6 instead of heavy d6.

As a transport it's lacking, since eternity gate happens at the beginning of the movement phase and deep strike happens at the end the movement phase. So they can't disembark units until the turn after it deep strikes. Which is not a unique problem for the monolith, the problem is if it gets blown up it's a 100% kill for the units in the tomb world. No other transport has that drawback, and while the monolith has lots of wounds with a decent toughness and a decent save it will not stand up to an army's worth of firepower. at 381 points for the monolith and another 300 points for a 10 man squad of lychguard, it's just to big of a risk to use it as a transport.

The monoliths cost per wound is higher than warriors, and thanks to RP a 20 man warriors blob is way more survivable.

All in all it doesn't do anything particularly well, and it's massively expensive.

silentone2k wrote:
Made me curious, so I went and looked if it would work with the Bastion I'm using (because that would be hilarity well worth many prices)... nope, not only does it only move Necron specific units, Grand Deception explicitly forbids units aboard a moved transport from charging during the first turn. So, even our Necron Transports (well, the singular one we have; what I lovingly refer to as "the bus" with its ever-so-impressive load of warriors) won't ever pull quite those level of shenanigans...

Grand illusion can't affect units in transports because they are not on the board, and thus can't be targeted or affected by anything on the board. Also they are not one of the D3 Units affected, once again since they can not be targeted or affected while in a transport. So RAW (and I checked the FAQ), you could GI a ghost ark, the warriors could get out, move, shoot and charge all in the same turn. Not particularly useful for 10 warriors though. I suppose at the upper end of silliness you could fill the ghost ark with lords, destroyer lords, overlords, a crypteks and a few special characters, then have them all disembark and charge. That would be your entire army, so not really competitive, but might be good for a giggle at a brewhammer event.