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Hi Dakka Fans

I’m planning a new project with Necrons in 40k and looking for some feedback/advice. I have a plan for the general theme of the army but would like to know if I am missing out on any important units and combos. I play friendly and semi-competitive at my FLGS.

Overlord
Overlord
Cryptek
Cryptek
Immortals (Tesla) x10
Immortals (Tesla) x10
Immortals (Tesla) x10
Warriors x20
Tomb Blades x9
Doomsday Ark
Doomsday Ark
Doomsday Ark

Thanks in advance.

I am not 100% up to date with current Necrons, so someone correct me if wrong, but I would say:

1 - more gauss and less tesla

2 - need more anti-vehicle / knight fire power. Not that Necrons get much choice in that department. Consider using a pylon if points permit.

 NoiseMarine with Tinnitus wrote:
I am not 100% up to date with current Necrons, so someone correct me if wrong, but I would say:

1 - more gauss and less tesla

2 - need more anti-vehicle / knight fire power. Not that Necrons get much choice in that department. Consider using a pylon if points permit.

Why? Tesla is waaaaay superior at outside RF range and necron's don't really want to get within 12"(people get into close combat there). Even within 12"...Well let's see. vs space marine. Without MWBD 10 tesla immortal is 20 hits and 4,4444 dead marine or 8.8888 dead guardsmen. Gaus will be(at RF range) 5.92 marine and 8.888 guardsmen...waitaminit? Same marine dead and less guardsmen than tesla? Against 2+ it's 2.22 vs 4.44 in gaus favour.

With MWBD it helps tesla more. 6.666 marine, 13.33 guardsmen and 3.333 terminator wound vs 7.4 marine, 11,11 guardsmen and 5.55 terminator. S

So basically against guardsmen you are at equal(as long as no MWBD), against marines and terminators you have somewhat of advantage. Incidentally it's the IG troopers where you are at point inefficiency in shooting war. Sure you kill plenty guardsmen but they have lots more due to costing less than 1/3 of yours...Marine gun duel is less of a worry.

And that's without considering outside 12" where you are shooting most of the time so it's not above numbers but above numbers and 1-2 rounds from non-RF where tesla is same and RF is half as good. And with gauss no possibility of firing after advancing. 0 from gauss, tesla still shoots and with MWBD same as no-MWBD above.

edit: fixed math. Gauss starts to appeal bit more for tomb blades where at least you are fast. though for my dynasty, nephrek, tesla still has benefit of being able to zip full advance and shoot.

I'm looking to start necron as well. Having just read the last ~50 pages of the tactics threat I'd advise the following:

Gauss tomb blades should be enough, you could make a single immortal squad gauss if you take a veil of darkness.

You don't benefit that much from a second cryptek, 10 immortals are not that hard to kill in a single turn at this points level. In fact if it were me I'd consider dropping both crypteks and just running a single detachment.

Your DDAs would benefit from the reroll 1s from a gauss stalker

Pylons look like a flavor option, not an effective one (just compare them to DDAs or stalkers, or even doom scythes). That said I'm still planning to run a few, not every part of your list has to be 100% optimized when not playing cutthroat competitive games.

shortymcnostrill wrote:
Pylons look like a flavor option, not an effective one (just compare them to DDAs or stalkers, or even doom scythes). That said I'm still planning to run a few, not every part of your list has to be 100% optimized when not playing cutthroat competitive games.

Against 4++ knight you are doing about double damage vs 3 dda for about same price. So it's not so much as flavour option but against specific targets(titanic keyword targets with loooots of wounds. aka super heavies). It's less impressive vs say flyers with -2 to hit, non-titanic vehicles(especially inv save ones) etc.

Destroyers would help you deal with hard targets.

Wraiths are pretty good in melee, are fast and survivable.

Scarabs make good screening, board control and objective grabbers. They can also tie things up and are fairly cheap.

A Lord to reroll wound rolls of 1 can make your Tesla go even further.

-

These are the big things you don't have I would suggest you get.

I've been collecting for a while and experiment with other choices like Praetorians, which are fun but perhaps less competitive.

I'd replace an Overlord with a Lord. I'd also try to fit in some Destroyers, possibly by cutting down on Tomb Blades and the Warriors. Destroyers are probably the best unit in the Codex as they're so versatile and work quite well even without character and stratagem buffs. Big units of Warriors have the problem of being actually scary and a little expensive, and therefore dying a lot, while also suffering from morale. Units of 12-15 are a little better IMO. They're still quite dangerous but morale has less of an effect.

Scarabs are vital for protecting against Deep Strike units and I think you'll need some sort of melee unit like Wraiths to prevent you getting overwhelmed in close combat. Necron characters are terrible in combat unless you're fighting bikes or Terminators so they don't really act as a deterrent for enemies looking to get into melee like a SM Captain would, for example.

tneva82 wrote:

shortymcnostrill wrote:
Pylons look like a flavor option, not an effective one (just compare them to DDAs or stalkers, or even doom scythes). That said I'm still planning to run a few, not every part of your list has to be 100% optimized when not playing cutthroat competitive games.

Against 4++ knight you are doing about double damage vs 3 dda for about same price. So it's not so much as flavour option but against specific targets(titanic keyword targets with loooots of wounds. aka super heavies). It's less impressive vs say flyers with -2 to hit, non-titanic vehicles(especially inv save ones) etc.

Mostly correct, but pylon hits flyers on an effective 1+, so even at - 2 you're still hitting them on 3s. I'm thinking pylons are much more viable now knights are limited to a 4++.

Your list is pretty good, you have almost everything that is viable. As some have already said, you need scarabs and destroyers, or wraith. Cant have both, they are expensive units. Overlord, cryptek with destroyers (or tesla immortals). Use at least two DDA, better three. One is none, because of its highly random number of shots and damage. Tomb blades with gauss or tesla are really good. You need a full unit of nine models. Always try to max units, to get the most from RP, and make it harder for your opponent to wipe out units, and deny you RP.
Warriors work well if you have like 3x15 models, with a ghost ark, and a HQ who makes them immune to morale losses, preferably a cryptek, to get +1 to RP.

tneva82 wrote:

shortymcnostrill wrote:
Pylons look like a flavor option, not an effective one (just compare them to DDAs or stalkers, or even doom scythes). That said I'm still planning to run a few, not every part of your list has to be 100% optimized when not playing cutthroat competitive games.

Against 4++ knight you are doing about double damage vs 3 dda for about same price. So it's not so much as flavour option but against specific targets(titanic keyword targets with loooots of wounds. aka super heavies). It's less impressive vs say flyers with -2 to hit, non-titanic vehicles(especially inv save ones) etc.

Oops, I was talking about sentry pylons. Yeah the big pylon looks like it could hurt!

Thank you all for your helpful tips! I have taken your advice and re-worked my army project. I’m sure I will change my mind at some point

Although Destroyers and a Destroyer Lord look like fantastic options on paper, I really just cannot stand the aesthetic of the models - sorry!

Overlord
Overlord
Lord
Cryptek
Cryptek
Immortals (Tesla) x10
Immortals (Tesla) x10
Immortals (Tesla) x10
Warriors x20
Triarch Stalker
Tomb Blades x9
Scarab Swarms x3
Scarab Swarms x3
Doomsday Ark
Doomsday Ark
Doomsday Ark

I figure I could go with a Sautekh spearhead full of DDAs, stalker and Cryptek; then lump all the Tesla-love in a Mephrit gang.

Thoughts?

shortymcnostrill wrote:

tneva82 wrote:

shortymcnostrill wrote:
Pylons look like a flavor option, not an effective one (just compare them to DDAs or stalkers, or even doom scythes). That said I'm still planning to run a few, not every part of your list has to be 100% optimized when not playing cutthroat competitive games.

Against 4++ knight you are doing about double damage vs 3 dda for about same price. So it's not so much as flavour option but against specific targets(titanic keyword targets with loooots of wounds. aka super heavies). It's less impressive vs say flyers with -2 to hit, non-titanic vehicles(especially inv save ones) etc.

Oops, I was talking about sentry pylons. Yeah the big pylon looks like it could hurt!

Aaah well yeah those aren't quite as scary but at least gaus version can be used as flyer annoyance with average 3.11 wounds against normal flier. Couple those and fliers are dropping. Averages 12 wounds for 4 which is about what big pylon costs. Less effective vs non-fliers though. 2 more wounds for small pylons, no degrade but no 5++ either.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

karlff7 wrote:

Overlord
Overlord
Lord
Cryptek
Cryptek

I figure I could go with a Sautekh spearhead full of DDAs, stalker and Cryptek; then lump all the Tesla-love in a Mephrit gang.

Thoughts?

That's a LOT of HQ tax in faction where HQ isn't all that good.

Also why sautekh? The reroll 1's when stationary is better for dda as you generally want to stay still for big shots anyway. Remember the sautekh only removes -1 to hit modifier. It does not allow you to move and shoot the nasty fire mode.

karlff7 wrote:
Thank you all for your helpful tips! I have taken your advice and re-worked my army project. I’m sure I will change my mind at some point

Although Destroyers and a Destroyer Lord look like fantastic options on paper, I really just cannot stand the aesthetic of the models - sorry!

Overlord
Overlord
Lord
Cryptek
Cryptek
Immortals (Tesla) x10
Immortals (Tesla) x10
Immortals (Tesla) x10
Warriors x20
Triarch Stalker
Tomb Blades x9
Scarab Swarms x3
Scarab Swarms x3
Doomsday Ark
Doomsday Ark
Doomsday Ark

I figure I could go with a Sautekh spearhead full of DDAs, stalker and Cryptek; then lump all the Tesla-love in a Mephrit gang.

Thoughts?

That's too many characters. Necron characters are slow and not particularly good in close combat (only having 3 attacks on the Overlord really hurts) so their main job is buffing your units. I'd much rather have more units than the second Overlord. 2 Crypteks isn't bad if one is going with the DDA to heal them while the other stays with the infantry to buff them. I'd drop an Overlord for...something else, not really sure exactly what. MAybe just more Scarabs, or take some more Warriors instead and split the unit of 20 into 2 slightly smaller units.