<![CDATA[Latest posts for the thread "[2000] - Necrons - help with competitive choices"]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/14.page JForum - http://www.jforum.net [2000] - Necrons - help with competitive choices
Overlord 80
10x warriors w/ ghost ark 235
10x warriors
5x immortals
3x tomb blades w/twin linked Gauss blasters + shield vanes + nebuloscopes
5x deathmarks



So im new to necrons and iam a competitive player. Im looking at the best 3 aux formations of judicator battalion, canoptek harvest and destroyer cult. Not sure how to build my list from here. Here are the things i would like advice on:

1) are ghost arks or night scythes worth it? if so do i need to take a few for target saturation
2) is lychstar mandatory for a competitive list coz i dont like it or even a royal court!! Then im not sure if taking zahndrek is worth bothering with!
3) should i at least get another squad of tomb blades for objective capping?
4) iam currently converting flayed ones but not sure to run 2 x 5 man squads or one 10 man or do i need even more?
5) are deathmarks worth it even with just one minimum squad?
6) is it worth squeezing in all 3 aux formations at minimum squad sizes or worth buffing this up with more night scythes/ghost arks/more warriors,immortals, deathmarks, flayeds..etc
7) is retribution phalanx competitive enough?

Thanks alot for any advice you can give!!!
]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/707324/8999136.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/707324/8999136.page GMT [2000] - Necrons - help with competitive choices
ise147 wrote:

1) are ghost arks or night scythes worth it? if so do i need to take a few for target saturation
2) is lychstar mandatory for a competitive list coz i dont like it or even a royal court!! Then im not sure if taking zahndrek is worth bothering with!
3) should i at least get another squad of tomb blades for objective capping?
4) iam currently converting flayed ones but not sure to run 2 x 5 man squads or one 10 man or do i need even more?
5) are deathmarks worth it even with just one minimum squad?
6) is it worth squeezing in all 3 aux formations at minimum squad sizes or worth buffing this up with more night scythes/ghost arks/more warriors,immortals, deathmarks, flayeds..etc


#1. Probably not. Necrons should avoid the flyers in a competitive case. I like the Ghost Ark the Draft FAQ reduces their effectiveness. If you do take them, you do need target saturation... I prefer to take 3 (but only in 'fun' games).
#2. No, I don't think that Lychstar is mandatory, but you need some way to deal with opposing deathstars. Renegade Knight would work instead.
#2b. Lychstar is effective at what it does, especially if you can bait your opponent into attacking it. Orikan is vital, Zahndrek is not... you could replace him with a normal Overlord or even Imotehk!
#3. Maybe? Another squad of tombblades would be good for grabbing maelstrom objectives. I wouldn't plan on camping with them, however... keep them moving.
#4. My current necron build has 24 Flayed Ones in groups of 8. Not sure if they are competitive yet, but they certainly mess with people! (Re-rolling scatter with them due to Imotehk). Makes a great mess of anything T3.
#5. They will be hit and miss. They are great against the horde of MC's out there.
#6. It really depends on your playstyle. I get more value from more numbers. ]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/707324/8999188.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/707324/8999188.page GMT [2000] - Necrons - help with competitive choices
1) Yes they are. The best competitive list I've seen so far include 2 Night Scythes instead of our beloved Ghost Ark. I don't play competition but I guess the mobility was his main interest there. Ghost arks do the job and I guess 2 of them should be good. I've only started using them recently.

2) Lychstar seems good but strangely I haven't seen a lot of list in comp play using them. Might just be me but I'd rather use wraith if I want a tarpit unit.

3) Tomb Blades are very good and haven't had the chance to try more then 3 to be honest. Might want to invest more points in destroyers thought instead of an extra squad of these.

4) Flayed Ones are loved by some, ignored by most. They can be good in numbers. But. No mobility and average endurance I think? So it's your call but I would call them risky in tournament.

5) If you have to field them use a squad 10 of them I would say. The risk they scatter out of rapid fire (or worse..) make them a bit unrealiable but they can do the job with luck. They are our answer to drop pods from what I understand.

6) Depend of your style of play and tournament meta.

The best 1850 pts list I've seen work so far is a decurion with 2 night scythes plus a destroyer cult. People who try to play Necron tournament list often complain they get rolled over at first thought so good luck and don't give up.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/707324/8999193.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/707324/8999193.page GMT [2000] - Necrons - help with competitive choices
1) there are 2 schools of thought on arks/scythes. Either a waste of points or extra mobility and shooting but the open topped rule of the ark may be problematic.

One person recommended just bringing extra warriors, offsetting the repair ability of the ark with more bodies to start with not to mention the already enhanced Reanimation Protocols.

2) I'm not a huge fan of deathstars myself! However with the shield setup giving the Lychguard a 3++ save in addition to their statline, they would be a terrible unit to try and force off the table.

10 sword and shield lychguard, your Overlord with the Veil of Darkness, Warscythe and res orb (redundant but I personally like redundancies) will run you 450 points. Just shy of 1/4 of your points but would be incredibly hard to kill.

As for the named character, I got nothing.

3) I really like the rules of the tomb blades along with the model. Their wargear, rules and sneaky tactics sold me on them. Three tomb blades with partial beamer, Shield veins and Nebuloscope gives 3 small blast, ignores cover shots with a 3+ save. At the price tag of 72 points!

I'm planning on running 3 three man squads with this set up in my 1750 list.

4) after reading the flayed ones again, 10-15 guys seems to be a good "sweet spot". If you take the Overlord I listed in #2, you could deep strike in, drop ALOT of attacks (4 each...) and teleport out even if your locked in close combat.... mind you, you can only do this once but that would cause the enemy to potentially focus fire on the flayed ones until every last one of them are dead.

5) a small (5) man squad of death marks costs 90 points, their anti-deep strike abilities causing them to take shots after the enemy movement phase could prove quite nasty. If you get a lucky scatter dice roll, you could end up firing 10 sniper shots from your deathmarks.

Personally, I would field them as 5 man squads and intend on them dying the turn they arrive. It would be much easier to try and kill 90 points worth of enemies vs attempting to kill 180 points before they get murdered horribly.

As for the number of squads, do you only expect your opponent to deep strike 1 unit? You could probably get away with using a guard players mentality of if it's worth taking one, field two or more.

6) again, going back to my 1750 list, I was intending on fielding 2 Canoptek Harvests. At 2k you should be able to field 3+ Auxiliary formations. I was recommended to do "Wraith spam" along with the following from Anpu-Adom:

"There is a reason that most competitive Necron lists focus on the T5 and T6 units... Destroyers, Lychguard, Praetorians, and Wraiths. Not only are they tough as nails, but they also have the relative firepower and rerolls to help them out."

Posting from my phone at the moment but I hope this help out or gives you food for thought.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/707324/8999255.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/707324/8999255.page GMT [2000] - Necrons - help with competitive choices
Second you are right with the best formations. Those are the best 3(flayed ones are good also).

More tomb blades is a good thing. They are great for the points and the mobility is a must for an otherwise slow army.

So what are you really going for? Because most necron competitive armies concentrate on the t5 models.

Let's answer your questions first.

1 - Generally speaking no. Warriors are phenomenal in theory with the ability to be bs5(with stalker support), have mass guass volleys, regen with ghost archs. However in practice in competition they are bad. Why? Because I2. They get ruined in cc by anything capable and nothing is worse than loosing by 1-2 wounds and then watching the whole squad get overrun. With ghost arch support a 20 man warrior squad is nigh invincible to shooting.

Warriors are only great with rapid fire range, so night sythes might seem like a good idea, but sadly while they are fun they are 130 points invested into troops and a twin linked tesla destructor. Tesla is one of the only things that got way worse for necrons in this codex. You could MAYBE justify the cost for say a squad of pretorians however they are jump infantry and therefore cannot get in flyers. Until GW FAQs this there is no real answer so not for competitive lists.

All in all transports for warriors sounds good but it's too many points to put into troops when 130 points could be 3 wraiths with whip coils or 3 destroyers etc.

2 - lychguard are not required for competitive play. They are great bodyguards and not terribly expensive to generally prevent slay the warlord as even without orikan they are a bitch to kill. 3++ t5 4+++ with re rolls to 1's is pretty great.

3 - yes you should get more tomb blades. They are fantastic units. Most people like guass but I actually like the particle Beamer especially with genestealer cult. They are also the only unit that can ignore cover we have. Shield veins and neb-scopes always.

4 - flayed ones are fun and can really murder weak things(tactical marines and such) in cc. Against massed attacks like say a wolf star they die fast and easy. I like them in small squads since you can have up to 10 aux choices(unless prohibited by the tournament). They are not as strong as lychguard in my opinion.

5 - Deathmarks sadly aren't reliable enough to get in that top tier of units for me. They can't not scatter or reduce or re roll. The bigger the group the worse the problem. But you need those extra shots to kill say a wraithknight by wounding it on 2+(handy trick). And then you're stuck in a nice ball for any blasts or really vulnerable to cc.

6 - it is not worth trying to get a justicar, canoptek harvest, and destroyer cult in the same list I think. Better to go with harvest spam or harvest with strong legion(lychguard) or the justicar and destroyers. BS5 destroyers with preferred enemy is too good to pass up.

That's my $0.02
]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/707324/9001441.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/707324/9001441.page GMT [2000] - Necrons - help with competitive choices
If the players agree to using the current Draft FAQ, the Praetorians are able to use the Night Scythes. If you do the Judicator Battalion, you fly in disembark within 6" of the Scythe, then the ability to Twin Link/Shred with the Praetorians and getting Shred on the Scythe are great.

An Overlord with Warscythe and PhaseShifter is 150 points, which is equal to Nemesor Zahndrekh.

Nemesor Zahndrekh is good for Reserves manipulation, switching to the re-roll trait or +1/-1 trait. This works well with either the Judicator or the Destroyer Cult if you want to deep strike them.

Destroyer Cult is the most destructive shooting formation we have. Normal PE does not affect glance/pens, while the formation does.

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