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My friend just recently got me into this game. I currently have a 500 point necron army, expanding to 750 and looking to go to 1000.

I currently own:
Overlord
Warriors (10)
Scarabs (3)
Immortals (5)
Stalker
Wraiths (3)

My 750 plan is all of the above plus a ghost ark. Overlord gear is Warscythe and Phase shifter and I use Gauss on the immortals.

For 1000 points I am thinking about Deathmarks and either 3 Heavy destroyers or Lychguard with Shields plus whip coils on the wraiths so my list would look like this:

Overlord (Warscythe / Phase Shifter)
10 warriors + Ghost Ark
5 immortals (gauss)
3 scarabs
3 wraiths (whip coils)
Stalker
Deathmarks
3 Heavy Destroyers (Or Lychguard with shields)

Currently we don't use flyers or formations. My biggest questions are with HQ choice, I have been thinking of trying to swap Overlord for a CCB or Illuminor Szeras. I am also debating putting in an Orikan instead of I go with Lychguard. And I am not super confident in the last chunk of spend, should I be looking at a doomsday ark or anni barge? Do I need spyders?

I am feeling pretty confident about the rules but I haven't played a lot of games and I don't know what all will be thrown at me. Just trying to make sure I have a well rounded list.

I'll chime in my two cents.

The Bad:
Doomsday Arks and, to a lesser extent, Ghost Arks are bad. S10 Large Blast sounds great until your opponent roles their cover saves and then proceeds to blow it up because it's AV13 and open-topped. If he makes you Jink then the Ark isn't firing, which is the same as being blown up. Ghost Arks used to be good until GW FAQed Jinking transports making passengers snap shoot. I would shy away from both of those.

CCB isn't great either. All it takes is a hidden Power Fist or Melta Bomb to put it down and it's not much more punchy than a plain Overlord with Warscythe.

Annihilation Barges don't really do much. The 24" range on the Destructor really limits them.

The Maybe:
Deathmarks aren't bad, but they aren't good either. I find they are one of those high risk-high reward units. Having to Deep Strike is what holds them back. I wouldn't put them anywhere near a 1000 point list. They can be good when you get to 1500+, but you need 8-10 per unit to make an impact.

Heavy Destroyers are meh. Yes, they are our only dedicated anti-tank unit (Gauss doesn't count as dedicated anti-tank in my books), but are very expensive for what are essentially 36" range Lascannons. Only use them if you have a tank-heavy meta.

The Good:
Orikan is very strong in a unit of Sword/Shield Lychguard. He makes them nigh unkillable and they can cut their way through 3+ armour pretty easily.

Yes to Wraiths with Whip Coils.

Next Steps:
I would get one more squad of Warriors. They're a good all-around Ob Sec unit. I also love Night Scythes and would recommend getting one to move around Lychguard or Immortals or even a 15 strong Warrior unit.

As for a Spyder, the only reason you get one is to form a Canoptek Harvest. 95% of Necron players will tell you to do this and they're also going to tell you to get Tomb Blades to form a Decurion. I am the 5% that won't because every bloody Decurion/Harvest army is the exact same and it's boring. Necrons are a cool faction that, unfortunately, always end up Decurions, Wraiths and Destroyer Cults. Don't fall down the competitive rabbit hole. The 40K world doesn't need more boring Necron armies.

I hope this helps!

Telling him not to get the things that would elevate his list from newb to entry level competitive?
Wow.

Yeah, OP, how about you pick yourself up a box of 3 Tomb Blades, a single Spyder, and 10 more Warriors. That way you'll at least have the option to make one of the more reliable armies the Necrons have at their disposal.
Granted, you don't NEED to play a Decurion, as all of the units I've suggested are good on their own... but it wouldn't hurt to have all the ingredients on hand to make a semi competitive force.

Using what you've got, plus the three things I suggested, you could make something like this: At this point level it's nothing amazing, but increased to 1000 points and you can start buffing it up to be something nasty.

 skoffs wrote:
Telling him not to get the things that would elevate his list from newb to entry level competitive?
Wow!

Getting angry at me for not being a competitive player?
Wow!

... angry?

Thank you for the tips. Currently we aren't really running anything other than CAD mostly to keep it creative on the army builds. I do like the idea of buying things that will work towards a detachment though in case I do want to try an actual tourny.

Well:
- it never hurts to have more Warriors.
- Tomb Blades are great, one of the best units in the codex (I'd recommend picking up more, but 3 should be fine for now).
- if you've got 2 out of the 3 units that make up a Canoptek Harvest formation already, might as well get the Spyder to complete it (you can always add the formation to a CAD, too, after all).

Do whip coils affect sweeping advance?

They increase your initiative... but why are you concerned with sweeping advance? Wraiths are fearless, they shouldn't be running away from anything in combat.

Jinking effecting crew is truly irrelevant since your warriors should be advancing forward in front of the Ghost Ark, not hiding inside. I'd advise against Lychguard at 1000 pts, but definitely plan on adding some beyond that as with the right characters they become the hardest thing in the same to kill aside from units with Inivisibility and rerollable Jink saves.

They increase your initiative... but why are you concerned with sweeping advance? Wraiths are fearless, they shouldn't be running away from anything in combat.

I meant if I win the attack phase, will the bonus initiative help me sweep my opponent if he fails leadership? Or is that considered outside the attack phase?

Ah, gotcha.
Unfortunately you have you use your unmodified initiative value, so afraid not.
(note: Whip Coils are not as auto-include as they once were. Still good to have, what with them being so cheap for a good buff, but if you're running low on points and need to shave some off somewhere, Whip Coils off of a Wraith or two is usually the first thing to cut).