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Hello!

I've just picked up 40k again after several years of slacking and got my hands on a painted Necron army for $250 . Problem is I really do not know if I can make a viable army with the units I got and what points value I should aim for. And if I lack something what should I prioritize in adding to the army.
I guess i'm kinda looking for a well-rounded army list.

These are the models I have:

7 destroyers and a destroyer lord.
11 Lords/overlords
1 Doomsday Ark
1 Triarch Stalker
1 Shard of the Nightbringer
1 Monolith
5 immortals w tesla
5 Lychguards with warscythes
5 Lychguards with hyperphase swords and dispersion fields
50 Necron Warriors

Any advice would be appreciated

You can build some stuff, but it really depends on what you're looking for in a list. Competitive? No, but you can field something fun.

Ok, well I don't aim to join any tournaments, just having a decent allround army to play with friends. How many points would be possible to make out of what I've got and what would people suggest I add to the collection? Doom scythe? Annihilation barge? any special chars? More immortals? Deathmarks?

You definitely want to add vehicles. Annihilation barges are supremely undercosted, and night scythes are competing for the top flyer spot. Filling out your tesla immortals is good. Personally at 1500 points I use three scythes and three barges, with a squad of wraiths and a destroyer lord. You can probably field at least 1850 without too many problems, albeit noncompetitive.

Tesla-Immortals are great, they can throw out a lot of wounds. Too bad you only have 5.
If you are starting with that many Lords and Warriors, I would advice you to pick up Ghost Arks; They are a great transport and they repair your Warrior-blobs!
With the models you have it's hard to go wrong, you will probably enjoy everything you can field while having a good shot at winning.

My advice:
Play some games, you will eventually find a style you prefer and you can focus on buying those models.
In my opinion we have great HQ's and vehicles, it wouldn't hurt to get those.

And our Forgeworld-stuff is also nice, although they are a bit overpriced in points and cash.
But that doesn't make them look or play any less awesome.

Jmills042 wrote:
You definitely want to add vehicles. Annihilation barges are supremely undercosted, and night scythes are competing for the top flyer spot. Filling out your tesla immortals is good. Personally at 1500 points I use three scythes and three barges, with a squad of wraiths and a destroyer lord. You can probably field at least 1850 without too many problems, albeit noncompetitive.

I don't think the word 'personally' should be in the same line as a list that is directly copied from the internet

My friend is pretty good as Necrons, and he usually fields a big blob of Warriors with a powerful model in the middle of it. The destroyers are usually deep striked in behind my force to help in close combat and force thinning.

If it's the same, so what? I use heavy destroyers because I prefer them to more wraiths. It stands to reason that given the same information, the same conclusions will be drawn.

First the obvious:

Monolith, Lych Guard, Doomsday Ark, Triach Stalker, C'tan => bad, bad, bad.

The Doomsday Ark should be changed to a Ghost Ark in order to support your big blob of Warriors, let the Lords or Lych Guard be count-as Royal Court members and pop them into the Ghost Ark for additional protection and 5 S8 AP2 shots per turn.

Play as or convert your Destroyers to / as Heavy Destroyers. They are overpriced (we aren't Space Marines after all...) but very effective and offer reliable S9 AP2 fire, which is sth. Necrons lack. Regular Destroyers are trash. 24'' guns on 1W models means they'll get annihilated by every shooty infantry unit in the game.

5 Immortals aren't doing much, up them to 10 models. Buy or convert.

Annhilation Barges are awesome, get 'em. 2 if possible.

No Wraiths? Woah Wraiths are awesome and are not only good cc units, they also are the only reliable cc unit we have. Add a Destroyer Lord for additional lulz. Min size: 5 models.

Necron Warriors are still awesome. Blob'em. 2x20 blobs is a lot of fun, you'll want to get another GA though. Buff the units with Lords w/ Reg Orbs.

The monolith makes for a good terrain piece. Alternatively, remove the crystal on top and use it as a count-as Bastion.

Ignore that post above! Well, some of it
Unless you are going to take them to a tournament, the Monolith, Ark and Stalker have a good chance of winning the game for you.

Not necessarily a tournament, any enemy who wants to win will like those picks. The Doomsday Ark is very expensive and offers extremely little - not being allowed to move and fire severyl cripples its firing power. If you did not deploy it in cover at start, you either lose an entire round of shooting or risk standing out there in the open with an open-topped vehicle. AV 13, sure, but 1 lasgun and it's gone immediately.

The Stalker is, again, too expensive. It can be effective but it's hard to fit in a good list as you'd have to get enough other threats or your enemy will just shoot it down asap and you lose your force multiplier.

The monolith is extremely expensive, but has very poor weaponry and usually ends up being destroyed the turn it landed or the turn afterwards if you decided to DS it.

2-3 monoliths can work against some armies, but it's hit-and miss. Looks cool though.

Hmm, so most seem to think that the majority of the units I have suck. Maybe this was a bad deal :/ Didn't anticipate it not being possible to create something good out of all these miniatures without having to spend as much again on extra stuff.
So for example if I want to create a 1000 or 1500 point army out of this no one has any suggestions?

That's because you haven't tested it against your friends and you are asking it in the wrong place.
This is dakkadakka, and if it's not good enough to win world championship than it has to suck.

They might call it bad choices because there are "better options", but other codices would kill for models like that.
I will now make a circa 1500-list that could work, so hang on.

1505:
Overlord with MSS, Orb, Weave and Scythe
Lord with MSS, Orb, Weave and Scythe
Lord with MSS, Weave and Scythe

C'tan Shard with Swarm and Gaze of Death
Triarch Stalker with HGC

2x20 Warriors
1x10 Warriors

Monolith

This list will probably win you many games and also brings a lot of fun.
I always prefer to stay away from Overlords since I prefer the named characters.
And Crypteks are great for any list, you could proxy them or convert some shielded Lychguard-models.

Lychguard are one of the units I dislike: They are really expensive and die quickly, but they bring a really hard punch.

 Sigvatr wrote:
Not necessarily a tournament, any enemy who wants to win will like those picks.

But 'wanting to win' does not always equal 'copying a tournament list'.
Doomsday brings S9, AP1 at 72". Why would I want to move that vehicle?
Stalkers see a lot of play and their Twin-Linked ability is a great addition to any game.
Monoliths are cheap for only 200 points, bring tons of firepower and a great transport-system. It's also very durable with AV14 since people decided to skip the melta and friends.

Kangodo wrote:
That's because you haven't tested it against your friends and you are asking it in the wrong place.
This is dakkadakka, and if it's not good enough to win world championship than it has to suck.

They might call it bad choices because there are "better options", but other codices would kill for models like that.
I will now make a circa 1500-list that could work, so hang on.

1505:
Overlord with MSS, Orb, Weave and Scythe
Lord with MSS, Orb, Weave and Scythe
Lord with MSS, Weave and Scythe

C'tan Shard with Swarm and Gaze of Death
Triarch Stalker with HGC

2x20 Warriors
1x10 Warriors

Monolith

You got 2 vehicles. Immediately as the monolith enters the field, it will be destroyed. Immediately. The Blobs are good, as they are Necron Warriors, but an enemy with 2+ dedicated cc units will destroy the list at ease. Furthermore, the list has nothing that can reliably kill infantry, especially bigger units.

Doomsday brings S9, AP1 at 72". Why would I want to move that vehicle?
Stalkers see a lot of play and their Twin-Linked ability is a great addition to any game.
Monoliths are cheap for only 200 points, bring tons of firepower and a great transport-system. It's also very durable with AV14 since people decided to skip the melta and friends

Nobody takes Stalkers. They are expensive, offer little firepower compared to their price and are very vulnerable due to being open-topped. The twin-link ability is nice, but it needs synergy. In the above list, for example, you have nothing to profit from the beneficial effect. You got 30 twin-linked bolters and in order to get said effect, you'd have to target the same target as the stalker which is, most of the time, an enemy vehicle. You therefore have 2 of 3 units per turn being able to destroy 1 vehicle - and that just doesn't cut it vs. most enemies. And at 175 points? Nah, thanks.

Monoliths aren't cheap. They are FAR from being cheap and neither do they offer "tons of firepower". They got lots of bolters and 1 (one) good anti-MEQ weapon. For 200 pts, that's terrible. Furthermore, in this case, what would you transport? You'd only be able to transport your blob of Warriors. A blob of Warriors right next to the enemy army is extremely risky. A squad of TAC can destroy them in melee. You'd need a dedicated cc unit to transport to make it worthwhile and even then, it's very risky to pull off. And let's not mention the stuff we got in the same slot...

@OP: Your stuff isn't trash, you can play a lot of different lists with it. The Necron codex allows for a lot of lists that range from terrible to very good, but most lists usually come out to be mediocre-to-good. There simply are units in the codex that aren't very good and those include C'Tan, LG, monoliths, Flayed Ones etc. We'd need more info on your meta to get you a good list - what are typical enemies? Are they experienced players?

Those dedicated CC-units will be halted by the Monolith, the C'tan or the Lords.
They will win in CC, but they are probably going to spend way too much points on it.

And what exactly is going to destroy the Monolith? Even lascannons need a 5 to glance.
200 points for AV14 is considered cheap in groups where not everyone copies netlists.
S8AP3-blasts with 12 bolter-shots all around is more dakka than most AV14's bring, so it does have a lot of firepower.
You can use it to transport troops to Objectives, get C'tan into combat or get your Destroyers to the other side of the field.

Nobody takes Stalkers? Out of the two army lists on the frontpage, one takes Stalkers.
I also take a Stalker, therefore it's basically disproved that "Nobody takes Stalkers".
They are great looking models, they have a good range and firepower and are also AV13-walkers.
165 points is "much", but not "take this and you will definitely lose"-much as most codices have.

I also disagree with your "@OP".
Necrons have to put a lot of effort before they can come up with a terrible list.
You'd have to take the worst HQ, 10 warriors and fill the list with Flayed Ones and even then you have a good shot against most codices.

@Totto: You can also skip the C'tan (which might be too expensive) and add Heavy Destroyers, they are very nice.
But like I said: Do not take advice on things like this at Dakkadakka! Play with your friends and you will learn at what level they play,

Ok, thanks all for your input. I guess most people I will game with have never been in a tournament but just play casually like me. I think what I will come up against mostly are things like Tau and Eldar and possibly Orks.

Good lord, so many tourney wannabes and bad Necron players in here. It's distressing.

OP, you've got a good chunk of minis. It's a nice mix great for casual play. That's easily 2000 points and then some.

What points level do you usually play at?

2000 and then some?
Without any upgrades (even mandatory ones or the "you shouldn't leave home without this"-options) it comes down to almost 2800.
It's a really good deal, I wish I had that many Destroyers since they are too expensive to buy imo.

And it's not just a good deal, it's a really solid core that can take your army anywhere.
You need a minimum amount of models to start with almost any tactic.
Except Scarab-farm, you don't have any scarabs! That's too bad.

I am also really sick of those discussions!
What am I going to say? That I haven't lost a round while skipping Wraiths, Flyers or AB-spam?
That will just end up in people calling my friends bad or claims that their lists suck.
Dakkadakka isn't a good representation of the 40k-crowd; most people look at a tactic, fluff or model they like and then try to build a good army around it.
That doesn't make them bad players, that doesn't make their lists bad. It makes them people who are enjoying their hobby.
And a healthy playgroup is a group where people can field armies they like with the same power-level as the armies their friends field.

You misunderstand me. The bad Necron players are the wannabe tryhards shouting "hurr wraiths, barges, scythes only, no fun allowed!" when the OP is obviously talking about casual play with friends. Even in a tournament environment there's a lot more to the army than what Dakka thinks is good. It's distressing.

text removed.

Reds8n

I'm in the same position as the OP, I've just got a sizeable chunk of Necron models. I need to play a few games with them but that's what I suggest the OP does, have a read through the codex, other boards on here and kinda figure out what you might want to take

I'm going to models that look good, like the Stalker? Looks awesome! If you're playing with friends you'll have fun regardless of what you take but from the past two weeks of reading about the 'Crons, they seem pretty decent.

Warriors and Ghost Arks sound like a good direction to head in


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, it depends on what points level you're playing at.

I played in a league that started off at 400 points, then 800, and then 1200 etc and the Necron player brought a monolith and a flier, at such low points games as a Dark Angel player I didn't have a lot that could fend both of those off, as well as the two blobs of warriors he brought along

I had a lascannon razorback, that's it to fend off those two

 Sigvatr wrote:
First the obvious:

Monolith, Lych Guard, Doomsday Ark, Triach Stalker, C'tan => bad, bad, bad.

The Doomsday Ark should be changed to a Ghost Ark in order to support your big blob of Warriors, let the Lords or Lych Guard be count-as Royal Court members and pop them into the Ghost Ark for additional protection and 5 S8 AP2 shots per turn.

Play as or convert your Destroyers to / as Heavy Destroyers. They are overpriced (we aren't Space Marines after all...) but very effective and offer reliable S9 AP2 fire, which is sth. Necrons lack. Regular Destroyers are trash. 24'' guns on 1W models means they'll get annihilated by every shooty infantry unit in the game.

5 Immortals aren't doing much, up them to 10 models. Buy or convert.

Annhilation Barges are awesome, get 'em. 2 if possible.

No Wraiths? Woah Wraiths are awesome and are not only good cc units, they also are the only reliable cc unit we have. Add a Destroyer Lord for additional lulz. Min size: 5 models.

Necron Warriors are still awesome. Blob'em. 2x20 blobs is a lot of fun, you'll want to get another GA though. Buff the units with Lords w/ Reg Orbs.

The monolith makes for a good terrain piece. Alternatively, remove the crystal on top and use it as a count-as Bastion.

I used to think Destroyers were trash also but do the math hammer against bolter's out of 12" and they are very hard to kill with T5 and 3+ saves. There assault 2 AP3 weapons with PE are also very good v marines... they are over costed IMO should be 10 points or so cheaper.. I will play test them soon, hopefully to good effect.... I would suggest the OP play's them against marine models and see how they go before canning them (I barely played them on other's advice).

AB's are good, Wraith's are good.

Agree on Monoliths unless you are facing Tau.. they struggle to glance or pen it (stay away from the Riptide though) it never causes enough damage with it's main gun, the dimensional corridor is a gimmik as a gun and hardly ever need it to get troops around the board.

There is alot of bad information in this thread as some others have pointed out. Everything you have is usable with a bit of proper planing and list synergy.
First thing is looking at what you have available you have a few army style options.

the 11 lords /overlords can be used as a pseuddeathstar royal court . something along the lines of 5 lords with wargear of choice &1-5 crypteks with veil of darkness and other toys plus 1-2 overlords. It is an expensive unit but with good rolling you could not lose any models all game thanks to the whole unit having everliving and everyone is a character so everyone is precision strikes and is able to look out sir.

The monolith is harder to kill then most people give credit you need Str 8 to even have a chance to glance and since alot of armies dont run much melta and spam Str-5-7 you should be fine.
The ctan is weak and expensive but can be pulled through the monolith or walk up field screened by it saving it from unneeded shooting

The real meat of your army is going to have to be warriors, given the amount of court members you have it wouldnt be to hard to run large squads with lords or small msu squads with lanceteks or whatever court members you like .

The lychguard are great if lead by an overlord.Lychgaurd can be used similar to the royal court deathstar giving them 1-2 overlords and 1-2 courtmembers with veil or darkness to get them where you like.

The stalker will make your warriors much better at shooting as it marks a target it hits giving everthing twinlinked against it.

^
The issue is, if he's new to Necrons, then he might have some trouble pulling off some of the more advanced tactical procedures you detailed above. If they don't end up working, and continuously seem to never work, then that's just going to frustrate him, and could lead to disinterest in the game (ie. "Well what's the point of even playing if I always get tabled...")

OP, it would be best if you get the basics Dow first before you try using the "bad"/tricker-to-use-properly units.

You've got an ass-ton of Warriors. Good. Use them. Use that Doomsday Ark as a proxy Ghost Ark. Stick two Phalanx of Warriors blocks (20 in each) on either side of it, a Lord carrying a ResOrb in each block, and walk up the table.
You haven't got any Wraiths, so for CC protection for the vulnerable Warriors, have a unit or two of Lychguard accompany the Phalanxes up the table. Use them defensively, as assault deterring counter chargers.

While the Royal Court Disco Inferno is one hell of a deathstar, it's also very tough to wield properly in inexperienced hands.
Consider abusing Crypteks, though. They're pretty easy to use if you run a court of all one flavor (ie. 5 Harbingers of Destruction)

 Sigvatr wrote:
First the obvious:

Monolith, Lych Guard, Doomsday Ark, Triach Stalker, C'tan => bad, bad, bad.

The Doomsday Ark should be changed to a Ghost Ark in order to support your big blob of Warriors, let the Lords or Lych Guard be count-as Royal Court members and pop them into the Ghost Ark for additional protection and 5 S8 AP2 shots per turn.

Play as or convert your Destroyers to / as Heavy Destroyers. They are overpriced (we aren't Space Marines after all...) but very effective and offer reliable S9 AP2 fire, which is sth. Necrons lack. Regular Destroyers are trash. 24'' guns on 1W models means they'll get annihilated by every shooty infantry unit in the game.

5 Immortals aren't doing much, up them to 10 models. Buy or convert.

Annhilation Barges are awesome, get 'em. 2 if possible.

No Wraiths? Woah Wraiths are awesome and are not only good cc units, they also are the only reliable cc unit we have. Add a Destroyer Lord for additional lulz. Min size: 5 models.

Necron Warriors are still awesome. Blob'em. 2x20 blobs is a lot of fun, you'll want to get another GA though. Buff the units with Lords w/ Reg Orbs.

The monolith makes for a good terrain piece. Alternatively, remove the crystal on top and use it as a count-as Bastion.

Woahwoahwoah! Dont throw out Lychguard so fast! I dont know what horrible experience made you decide to call them bad! Though i wouldnt take the warscythe lychguard... If possible give em shields as well!

I Usually field my overlord/zahndrekh with a haywire/lightningfield cryptek and 5 of these guys... So.. my lord almost never dies because of the awesome savingpower of the lychguards.. which can come back on a 4+ because of my lords orb. Anyone foolish enough to charge this squad gets annihalated... Overwatch (dont expect much here) Then lightningfield... 1D6 str8 hits received!.. Sweet... Any close combat unit will get some serious hits...

They are quite pricey yes.. So dont field them when playing below 1500 points... But units with a 3+ armour save 4+ inv save toughness 5 ,backed up by a lord with a ress orb.. so ress on a 4+... and power weapons? Oh and then the lightning field of the cryptek? Yes please! Everything with an armour save of 3/4/5/6 is doomed when they charge.. This unit in my personal experience has made so many kills my opponents are now scared of this unit... Funny thing is.. they keep throwing their heavy stuff on em... which 9/10 times they survive... The Grey Knight player usualy throws Mordrak and a fully kitted out paladin squad on this unit... Most of the times my squad wins with my lord and about 2/3 lychguard left but his powerhouse unit has been locked in combat for 3 turns and is far more expensive then my unit

Everything else stated by this guy i pretty much agree with!

Dont throw out Lychguard so fast! I dont know what horrible experience made you decide to call them bad

They're not so much "bad" as they are less effective.
Ask yourself, "what do I want these guys to do?"
Then when you have your answer, ask yourself, "is there anything else that can do that job better?"
Unfortunately, for the majority of players, the answer to that question is "yes", so no one really uses Lychguard anymore...
(now, if it was possible to mix and match wargear in the same unit, or give them a Ghost Ark for transport, that might a different story).

 skoffs wrote:

Dont throw out Lychguard so fast! I dont know what horrible experience made you decide to call them bad

They're not so much "bad" as they are less effective.
Ask yourself, "what do I want these guys to do?"
Then when you have your answer, ask yourself, "is there anything else that can do that job better?"
Unfortunately, for the majority of players, the answer to that question is "yes", so no one really uses Lychguard anymore...
(now, if it was possible to mix and match wargear in the same unit, or give them a Ghost Ark for transport, that might a different story).

I think they need the NS and also the shield + sword to be able to get into combat so they are in effect 325 points for the squad.

1. Say you go first and they make it up the board in the NS and drop out say the beginning of second turn.
2. They have the shields but as you need to use your best save they only disperse AP3 shot's and only on a 4+ (so bolter fire gets in) sitting next to 10 x marines is 20 shots, 10 hit, 3.3 wound, and 1.08 die.
3. 4 left next turn charge into combat and strike last, over watch fire is likely to fail (causes 0.3 wounds) 10 marines hit first causing roughly 0.5 un saved wounds. 4 x 3 attacks is 12 attacks total 6 hit, cause 4 wounds no saves means 4 marines die... The marines loose combat and break (auto fail) roll for initiative (I2 v I4 means they are surely to run away)

Start of opponents second turn he shoots you and you repeat the process...

So your 225 point unit killed 4 marines and have suffered 1 x casualty, are about to suffer another casualty and kill maybe 3 more marines.

First off, their shield still grants the 4++ save no matter what, it's the reflected shot that only happens with AP3 or better.

So your 225 point unit killed 4 marines and have suffered 1 x casualty, are about to suffer another casualty and kill maybe 3 more marines.

Okay, let's take those 225 325 points (Nightscythe included) and see if we can't use them more effectively.
Assuming the goal is to inflict as much damage on the afore mentioned unit of 10 Marines, how about:
• 8 Destroyers (two units of 4)
• 2 Lords + 5 Crypteks (in Ghost Ark)
• 8 Deathmarks + 2 Despair-teks (in Nightscythe)
• 3 Spyders (1x Particle Beamer) + 10 Scarabs
• 4 Wraiths (2x Coils) + Destroyer Lord (MSS, Weave)
Of the above options (and I didn't even include what Annihilation Barges would do), the Wraiths would fair the worst, but still they would be better at taking down the squad of 10 Marines than a unit of 5 Sword & Shield Lychguard.
...
Can you see why people don't really use them very much anymore?

I keep getting sold on the idea of Deathmarks, that I should make those instead of Tesla/Gauss immortals

Err, I got some bad news for you, as far as purchasing goes: they're both really good.
If you run a Deathscythe army, be prepared to buy boxes and boxes of the guys.
...
(unless you can figure out how to make molds/cast resin copies)

Or you do what many people do:
Take the snipers and the heads and put those on Necron Warriors