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 CKO wrote:
I finally made a video! It is mostly the basic rules of the army for non-Necron players and the fundamentals of the army for us. You can skip to the 14-minute mark and go to the dojo where I show off what I feel is the true power of reanimation protocol.




I really would like my fellow Overlord's opinion.

Using Tank by Seatbelts for your opening music for 28 seconds does two thing. One it will flag the video for using copyright music. Second, that particular song has a very big cultural footprint. The tone invoked by that melody does not match the rest of your video at all.

I changed the artwork, I can't change the music but I will not be using it on the next one.

Alright, been thinking a list through, and, here me out:

Custom Dynasty - 2000/2000pts
DT: Eternal Conquerors
CoA: Interplanetary Invaders

Battalion
-Lord (For the protocols)
---WLT: Enduring Will
---R: Voltaic Staff
-2 Chronomancers
---Aeon Staves, 1 with Cryptogeometric Adjuster
-2 Technomancers
---Cloaks, 1 with Dimensional Sanctum
-3x 5 Gauss Immortals
-3x 3 Scarab Swarms

Super Heavy Detachment
-Monolth
---4x Gauss Arcs
-Monolith
---4x Gauss Arcs
-Tesseract Vault
---Powers: Antimatter Meteor, Sky of Falling Stars, Cosmic Fire

I know the Lord is AWFUL, but Command Protocols lend a lot to this list imo. Bowl the Vault down the middle of the table. Put one monolith on each side with a chronomancer and technomancer assigned to each. 1 scarab swarm to assist with LoSir and getting objectives late game if they survive. That gives the monoliths a 5++ inv and they'll heal d3+1 W a turn, +2 if Undying Legion's active. the 6CP you have left are just for operating at top bracket, perhaps a critical reroll, or even Solar Pulse.

You could argue to replace the Technomancers with Psychomancers to deny obsec on a unit that gets close to a monolith, or perhaps deny an action.

For protocols run Sudden Storm for the movement buff or to raise a banner on an objective and still shoot with the immortals. Then run Vengeful Stars for ignores cover. From their, run Eternal Guardian if your opponent doesn't have competent melee for the bonus save or Undying Legions for the extra wound if they do.

There are a few ways I can see the list being tweaked, and I wouldn't call it competitive, But this list could be a real pain to get past. 78 T8 2+/5++(4++ on the Vault) shouldn't be that easy to remove, especially with the support and traits.

40kenthusiast hot takes, part 3 of lots

Arkana, Warlord Traits and Relics


Cryptek Arkana:

Alright, so, first off, it's important to really look at the price of Cryptek's. Each of these cats is as expensive as a pair of Destroyers, each of them is a slot of a model that hits on 2's and does 2 damage that you aren't getting. There shouldn't be any 'extra' Crypteks in your army. Crypteks are here for their rules, not their damage, and the Arkana is a big part of that. So when we are talking about Arkana, we are really talking about taking a Cryptek to carry this Arkana.

So, that in mind.

Atavindicator: (Psychomancer only). This Arkana sprays mortal wounds around every turn, so long as you can tie their leadership on 3d6. That's a really good value for the cost, but it implies that you've taken a Psychomancer. I think if you have, independently, decided to take a Psychomancer it's worth it to go the extra mile for this thing. But I wouldn't take one just for this.

Cryptometric Adjuster: You get to put a -1 on an enemy's unit's shooting hit rolls, every round that you are in range. That's excellent, except that the range is super close, and this is attached to a character who doesn't want to get that close. I'd leave this one at home.

Photonic Transubjector: You ignore the first damage you take each turn. Nobody tanks with crypteks, so this isn't really worth it.

Dimensional Sanctum: Gives the Cryptek Deep Strike. I don't think, in general, that this is a good idea. People don't usually try and assassinate Necron characters, they can usually move around safely. Nobody about to spend resources on a model that has a strat that gives a coin flip to stand up. Crypteks die when the units screening them die. You can walk them to wherever, no need to spend the slot on a deep strike.

Cortical Subjugator Scarabs: You get to hand out Heroic Intervention to a unit within 6" each round. If you don't have any other plans, I'd bite on this one. Heroic Intervention wins games, and this is a powerful and versatile ability hand it out.

Countertemporal Nanomines: (Chronomancer Only). You get to pick a unit, each round, and halve their advance and charge rolls. That's an amazing, game changing benefit. I think this is a worthwhile reason to take a Chronomancer.

Failsafe Overcharger: (Technomancer Only) Pick a Canoptek unit each round and give it +1 attacks, or +1d3 if it is monsters/vehicles. I think you take this if you have a Technomancer who shepherds Canoptek units. +1 to hit and +1 attacks each is what the plastocyte gives Destroyers, and this guy doesn't even have a 1 in 6 chance to destroy your guy.

Hypermaterial Ablator: Pick a Core or Canoptek unit, it gets Light Cover vs. attacks from far away. Another worthy choice. Goes well on a Technomancer or a Chronomancer, whichever you are using to shepherd your guys.

Quantum Orb: Pick a place, next round if they are near it they might take some mortal wounds. This isn't worth it, there are plenty of ways to do mortal wounds that don't involve giving the other team a heads up a round before.

Metalodermal Tesla Weave: At the end of the enemy's charge phase you can pick a unit within 6" and on a 2+ you do d3 mortal wounds. Ridiculous. You might trigger this once or twice in a whole game, and you have to roll for it? The mind reels. Again, if you want to do wounds, don't spend points on a cryptek.

Phylacterine Hive: (Technomancer Only) Once a game, instead of reanimating a Core model you can do a Destroyer or Canoptek, or even Praetorian. I guess, like, I can see the appeal, but paying points for a once per game, and it isn't even in addition, this is a thing you do INSTEAD of the normal resurrection? Nah. Sure, once in a while you'll bring back a Spyder and feel like a king, but it's not that usual. If your guy is a canoptek caddy, just give him the failsafe overcharger.

Prismatic Obfuscation: They can only shoot the cryptek if he is the closest guy. Again, no one is assassinating Crypteks. No need to spend points trying to prevent that.


Warlord Traits:

Enduring Will: Your Warlord takes 1 less damage each time. Probably the best 'personal enhancement of the Warlord' type of trait. Worth using a strat to get for a CCB even if you have a warlord with another ability.

Eternal madness: Warlord Rerolls wound rolls: Good buff for a melee warlord, but the main guy who'd use that already rerolls 1's to wound anyway.

Immortal Pride: FNP for the Warlord, an aura that prevents Combat Attrition modifiers: No need for this. Enduring Will is better for protecting the Warlord, and the aura is help for a problem our leadership 10 army doesn't really have.

Thrall of the Silent King: Warlords Aura gets 3" bigger. I think they are big enough, like, be careful with your positioning and you can get by without this.

Implacable Conquerer: Lets Core models within 6" of your boss reroll charges. For the most part, Lychguard are the only chargy Necron Core, and they tend to veil off. If your warlord carries the Veil, then I can see this, or I can see giving this ability for a CP to the veil caddy. But if you aren't doing Lychguard stuff I think it's easy to skip this one.

Honorable Combatant: Extra attacks if your warlord is going after an enemy character: I think if your Warlord is fighting, Enduring Will is probably the right call, rather than one that only works when your character is fighting other characters. Even Eternal Madness would be better than this, I think.

Merciless Tyrant (Mephrit Only): Extra strength and Attack, weird for the shooting dynasty, but nothing innately wrong with it. I think Enduring Will is probably better for a fighting Warlord. Can spend a CP to put this on a Scorpekh if your Warlord is hogging Enduring Will.

Skin of Living Gold: (Nephreck Only): Enduring Will probably better, but this is close. I don't hate it, if you are playing Nephreck (but WHY are you playing Nephreck?).

Precognitive Strike: (Nihilack Only): Warlord fights first. An excellent trait for a hard hitting warlord, every enemy you kill before they swing is one that doesn't hit you.

Blood Filled Fury: (Novokh Only): You do mortal wounds on unmodified rolls of 6 to wound. Garbage, the last thing Novokh Warlords need is a minor damage increase.

Hyperlogical Strategist: (Sautekh Only): You get CPs back on 5+. Straightforward and incredibly powerful, combo with Imhotekh's +2 CP to make Sautekh flush with CPs.

The Triarch's Will: (Szarekhan Only): You only have to pick 4 protocols, and you can use one of them twice. Definitely worth consideration. 2 rounds of the shooting protocol will do more in most games than a minor augmentation of the Warlord.


Relics:

Orb of Eternity: As rez orb, but +1 to the reassembly rolls. The math is dreadful on this one. I can't imagine you have so many characters that this is worth it. Marginal improvement over a basic rez orb.

NanoScarab Casket: How the mighty have fallen. All this does now is just double Living Metal. It's a tragedy that we can't put this on a C'tan. Not worth a relic slot, given how often the charater goes down in one round, or just isn't attacked at any time during the game.

Gauntlet of the Conflagrator: Pistol that has a 1/6 chance to do a mortal wound for each model in the unit you shoot it at. I don't think this is worth it, you are only close enough to fire this for a round or two most games, and most units aren't that numerous nowadays.

Veil of Darkness: Deep strike yourself and another. If this isn't mandatory it's almost mandatory. One of 2 relics that will be in a majority of Necron lists.

Voltaic Staff: A super staff of light that fights about like a warscythe and shoots about like a tesla gauss cannon. Utterly transforms the unit carrying it, the other borderline mandatory relic.

VoidReaper: Warscythe with an extra damage and breaks 'ignore wounds abilities' like the NB. Fine extra damage relic, but with the NB in the army I imagine most won't bother. Certainly worth a glance at, though.

Sempiternal Weave: Gives Infantry Noble a point of Toughness and Wounds. Not worth it, in my eyes. Maybe if you are a Sautekh list and you've got an extra Cryptek.

The Arrow of Infinity: Replaces Tachyon Arrow, extra strength, and 6 damage instead of d6. Not worth it, I think. A relic slot for maybe 2 extra wounds? What if they just make the invul save?

Conduit of Stars: (Mephrit Only): Slightly better gun for a Royal Warden, worth it if you aren't giving the Warden a Veil, I guess.

Solar Staff: (Nephreck Only): Staff of light that also stops Overwatch/Set to Defend. Not even remotely worth it. Maybe vs. Tau or something.

Infinity Mantle: (Nihilack Only): +1 to armor, half power FNP. This is alright, I guess. Hard to justify the points, but I can imagine this on a particularly tanky warlord trait CCB.

Blood Scythe: (Novokh Only)+2 attacks on a warscthe. The VoidReaper is better. I guess if you are going 2 relic scythes you could do this, but surely the Voltaic staff/Veil nudges this out.

Vanquisher's Mask (Sautekh Only): Models around the bearer fight after all your eligible models. This is genuinely interesting, as a sort of Batman/Robin deal alongside the NB, but it's in the wrong faction. Sautekh characters likely gonna be Imhotekh, Voltaic, Veil carrier respectively.

The Sovereign Coronal (Szarekhan Noble model only): Increases your protocol radius and gives you both halves of it. There's an obvious combo here with the warlord trait, where you use this to give both halves of the shooting protocol in a big circle and shoot for two rounds. I can see the plan, but I think it's a bit too fancy. Maybe it works though.

 Kharne the Befriender wrote:
Alright, been thinking a list through, and, here me out:

Custom Dynasty - 2000/2000pts
DT: Eternal Conquerors
CoA: Interplanetary Invaders

Battalion
-Lord (For the protocols)
---WLT: Enduring Will
---R: Voltaic Staff
-2 Chronomancers
---Aeon Staves, 1 with Cryptogeometric Adjuster
-2 Technomancers
---Cloaks, 1 with Dimensional Sanctum
-3x 5 Gauss Immortals
-3x 3 Scarab Swarms

Super Heavy Detachment
-Monolth
---4x Gauss Arcs
-Monolith
---4x Gauss Arcs
-Tesseract Vault
---Powers: Antimatter Meteor, Sky of Falling Stars, Cosmic Fire

I know the Lord is AWFUL, but Command Protocols lend a lot to this list imo. Bowl the Vault down the middle of the table. Put one monolith on each side with a chronomancer and technomancer assigned to each. 1 scarab swarm to assist with LoSir and getting objectives late game if they survive. That gives the monoliths a 5++ inv and they'll heal d3+1 W a turn, +2 if Undying Legion's active. the 6CP you have left are just for operating at top bracket, perhaps a critical reroll, or even Solar Pulse.

You could argue to replace the Technomancers with Psychomancers to deny obsec on a unit that gets close to a monolith, or perhaps deny an action.

For protocols run Sudden Storm for the movement buff or to raise a banner on an objective and still shoot with the immortals. Then run Vengeful Stars for ignores cover. From their, run Eternal Guardian if your opponent doesn't have competent melee for the bonus save or Undying Legions for the extra wound if they do.

There are a few ways I can see the list being tweaked, and I wouldn't call it competitive, But this list could be a real pain to get past. 78 T8 2+/5++(4++ on the Vault) shouldn't be that easy to remove, especially with the support and traits.

I dunno, it looks similar to a knight list at this point, and most people feel that knight lists are not very competitive right now. And a monolith can't stride over models the way a knight can. And resilience wise, probably similar to a knight which can have a 4++ save against shooting. Other armies shooty lists can take down a monolith a turn. All while having more to contest objectives. Just my opinion.

You're definitely right, I'll keep tweaking it.

There's gotta be a way to at least field a monolith semi-competitively, right? That's probably wishful thinking though.

I know there are some good relic/arkana combos, and I believe we've got a general idea of what's viable, but has anyone come up with more in depth combos?

For example using a squad of plague marines with the grenade character and the grenade strat to nuke a unit

The one that comes to mind is szeras+ 2x20 Warriors w/ flayers, and a couple Ghost Arks. Could Scale it down to Technomancer (Probably with the Ablator) + 20 Warriors + Ghost Ark (Maybe with 10 Reapers inside)

Another Tactica about the Necrons!

Is it worth giving the Wraiths either of the gun options?
Both seem underwhelming.

Both guns suck.

Yeah, just keep them as close combat specialists. Don't waste the points on guns, let destroyers and warriors do the shooting.

 dan2026 wrote:
Is it worth giving the Wraiths either of the gun options?
Both seem underwhelming.

When your building your list and you have 5-10 points left and nothing really to spend it on you give the wraiths a pistol or two, the pistols aren't good but might take a wound off here or there, str6 is nice. The beamer is beyond awful for 10pts, ws4 and str4 with d3 I have no idea what this is supposed to target.

Yeah keeping Wraiths nude seems to be the way to go.

What’s the temperature of the room on Flayed Ones?
They seem to struggle to actually reach combat.
Although they could probably pop up and camp objectives pretty good.

 dan2026 wrote:
Yeah keeping Wraiths nude seems to be the way to go.

What’s the temperature of the room on Flayed Ones?
They seem to struggle to actually reach combat.
Although they could probably pop up and camp objectives pretty good.

Flayed ones need to be tested out, but I think they have a place in certain lists. They are not something you just pop in to every list. That being said, they are pretty strong coming in at 13 PPM and have 2 great stratagems. In Novokh, they seem pretty brutal.

Flayed Ones are a good screen for hexmarks, I think. You can drop them together and your opponent has to kill the flayed ones to get to the hexmark.

You can charge from strategic reserves, right? I believe you can also get an ability that gives +1 to charges? So if they arrive from the flank you can probably pull a sneaky charge off.

8" charges are still worthless when coming out of DS with the change to CP reroll for charges (forced to reroll both dice). Take five Flayed Ones for sneaky secondary/action stuff and that's it (maybe 2x 5). Hexmark is still 99% useless, unless tailoring against Harlequins, and even then it's not great. Shame, such a great model.

Acehilator wrote:
8" charges are still worthless when coming out of DS with the change to CP reroll for charges (forced to reroll both dice). Take five Flayed Ones for sneaky secondary/action stuff and that's it (maybe 2x 5). Hexmark is still 99% useless, unless tailoring against Harlequins, and even then it's not great. Shame, such a great model.

Indeed. Single models, no larger squads.
They could be decent for harassment using forward deployment.

I've had two games with Flayed Ones and both times I translocated them in to charge a unit on a backfield objective.

They do excellent against things T4 lower, especially with the S buff from hungry void

So I have started playing Necrons and what I want to run are a pair of doom stalkers plus a pair of triarch stalkers, sort of stalker theme. Anyway what I am trying to decide is how best to load out the stalkers. Do I just go with the versatile heat ray or is that too much high str shooting, when paired with the doom stalkers. Is one of the other two options a better pairing?

I believe Relentlessly Expansionists negates the Eternal Guardian Protocol? Having light cover is the obvious choice for the first turn protocol but with the most popular awakening negating it I believe Sudden Storm should replace Eternal Guardian. That way you maximize your early game movement.

Flayed Ones are good if you take Novokh for the extra AP or Rad-Wreathed so you can wound marines on 3's. I would start my Flayed Ones on the board to take advantage of Expansionist, with a large squad of 20, you can take advantage of the mobility that RP provides. If you are unaware of the mobility that reanimation protocol provides you can go to the 17-minute mark of my video tactica to see how you can gain several inches with your assault units. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcfT70c11U8&t=2s

The Heat Ray is amazing. The flamer profile is great for supporting Warrior units, while being a ridiculously tanky Distraction Carnifex. I did the math in a another thread for the DDA, a fully buffed unit of six Eradicators outside Melta range with full loadout and buffs (4x Heavy, 2x Multi, Chapter Master + Lieutnant rerolls) deals 11.31 damage to a vehicle with QS if you use the 4++ stratagem. The unit is 280, the Stalker 140.

Relentless Expansionists does not negate Eternal Guardian.

The 6" move is "pregame" which is before the first battleround starts.
The cover from Guardian is specifically "battle round"

More than likely they'll change its wording because right now its basically worded where if the necron goes 2nd or does a pregame move he still has it active as "this battle round" he hasnt moved yet, even if it isnt his turn.
Battle-round bound rules that arent tied to a "once per battle round..." sort of thing are really bad as they cause loopholes like this.

Guardian says did not move this battle round.

Expansionist says at the start of the first battle round.

russellmoo wrote:
So I have started playing Necrons and what I want to run are a pair of doom stalkers plus a pair of triarch stalkers, sort of stalker theme. Anyway what I am trying to decide is how best to load out the stalkers. Do I just go with the versatile heat ray or is that too much high str shooting, when paired with the doom stalkers. Is one of the other two options a better pairing?

All the weapon profiles are decent. The heavy gauss is the most expensive but also the best IMO. 6 Multi damage str 7 ap -3 shots is totally amazing.

Stalker's with their targeting relay provides good synergy with the stalkers. Add a technomancer with a control node for 3+ BS canoptek doomstalkers hitting on 3's re-rolling 1's because of targeting relay.

 Vineheart01 wrote:
Relentless Expansionists does not negate Eternal Guardian.

The 6" move is "pregame" which is before the first battleround starts.
The cover from Guardian is specifically "battle round"

More than likely they'll change its wording because right now its basically worded where if the necron goes 2nd or does a pregame move he still has it active as "this battle round" he hasnt moved yet, even if it isnt his turn.
Battle-round bound rules that arent tied to a "once per battle round..." sort of thing are really bad as they cause loopholes like this.

It actually does negate it, because it explicitly says the 6" move happens "at the start of the first battle round."

It doesn't make DDAs / doomstalkers use their crappy profile or debuff infantry with heavy weapons, because those key off whether you moved in your last movement phase, and the move doesn't happen during a movement phase. But the protocol just checks whether you moved in the battle round, and the 6" move is during the battle round.

Got a rules question here:

Dimensional Translocation:

1. It basically gives you old deep strike rules for the specified unit.

2. The wording in the codex doesn't indicate a cp cost.
2.1. And when looking into the rulebook it specifically states under strategic reserves 2nd paragraph that (translated from german): "The rules for strategic reserves do not count for units that use other abilities that let them start the battle at a different place then their deployment zone. Those units do not count as in strategic reserves."
3. The only hint at it having a cost is that they are placed in the reinforcement step of your movement phase.


To me this clearly means no CP cost for Dimensional Translocation!
What do you say?

 Henker-Kind wrote:
Got a rules question here:

Dimensional Translocation:

1. It basically gives you old deep strike rules for the specified unit.

2. The wording in the codex doesn't indicate a cp cost.
2.1. And when looking into the rulebook it specifically states under strategic reserves 2nd paragraph that (translated from german): "The rules for strategic reserves do not count for units that use other abilities that let them start the battle at a different place then their deployment zone. Those units do not count as in strategic reserves."
3. The only hint at it having a cost is that they are placed in the reinforcement step of your movement phase.


To me this clearly means no CP cost for Dimensional Translocation!
What do you say?

Dimesional Translocation is free!

Yeah sure it's free. Units with build-in deepstrike never pay CP to use that ability.

Thank you very much for your answer; others asked this before and got it wrong; I wanted to be sure...the deceiver has that ability

Interestingly, I have seen different opinions on whether the Deceiver's ability to redeploy 3 units into reserves is free or not. When I read it, my inclination was that it is free, but I have seen other people argue it isn't, and that it just allows you to pay CP at a later point than normal, not to ignore the CP costs entirely.