40K: Winning with Necrons - Part 1 Posted by Bigredat November 27, 2011 by Reecius

This is the first in a series of articles about pulling winning lists and tactics out of the Necron Codex.

It's been a good long wait, but our undead, metallic friends are back, and back with a vengeance. Don't let the internet poo-pooing put you off of your dreams of tournament victories, or just having fun games where you don't get stomped all the time, with the new Necrons.

The key to winning with Necrons with the new book is in planning and forethought. Much like the eons spanning plans of the Necron Overlords, you MUST have a plan and well constructed list if you want to have success with this army. As with Dark Eldar, this is an unforgiving, advanced level army that requires a significant amount of player skill to perform well with. However, when the learning curve has been worked through, you will be able to hang with any other army out there and not only win, but deliver crushing victories. It is very easy to make a bad Necron list, less easy to make a good one. This article will help you do the latter and avoid the former.

If you pay attention to the internet, you have likely seen a great deal of negativity about the Crons. We ourselves here at Front Line Gaming were underwhelmed on our first read through of the book. We thought it was a stillbirth of a codex and yet another failure on the part of Mat Ward. However, after extensive play testing at our shop and in local tournament play, we have completely reversed our opinion. We have been putting this book through the paces in a big way, and documenting our experiments, all of which is up on our web page for anyone who is curious so see.

What we have found in our extensive play-testing is that when built and played correctly, a Necron army can deliver the goods in a big way. We have found themed Necron lists that can stand with competitive builds, and a Necron list which has gone through top tier lists like a hot knife through butter. I personally was so impressed that I even publicly apologized to Mat Ward for putting him down! We are loving playing this book, pure and simple.

The devil is in the details, as they say, and this is especially true with the Necrons. The key to victory lies in the interplay between its various elements. The combinations of wargear, character and unit abilities and tactics combines to form a whole that is more than the sum of its parts. This is a thinking man's army and not one that allows for mistakes. The army has serious inbuilt weaknesses, but this is a good thing. Working through an army's weaknesses is what gives it flavor and makes for a challenging, rewarding game for both players.

Throughout this article series, we will break down the book's units and how they interact with the rest of the book. We will also present several lists we have found both effective and fun to play, one of which we predict to be a tournament winning build. We will also explore effective combinations as these can at first be quite overwhelming as there are so many of them. PART 2

In this article we discuss winning with the new Necrons starting with their troop choices. Lets dive in

As always, you can check our blog at www.FrontlineGaming.org for access to the practice games and data we used to write these articles. The first question you should ask yourself when building a list, with any book, is fundamental: how will this list win games? As I explained in a previous article, List Building 101, you must be able to answer said question when building a list or you will find it ends up being unfocussed and weak. As troops are fundamental to winning 66.66% of missions, and still important in the other 33.33% of the missions, this is where we will begin. Necron troops at first appear rather luck-luster. Warriors changed ( a stats nerf but massive point drop, which from a points efficiency perspective, means they got significantly better) as did Immortals. Immortals at first glance may look like the better choice as they have quite a bit more offensive capability and better defense, but in our test games we have found them to really pale in comparison to Warriors for our style of play. The reason why we prefer warriors is multi-faceted. For one, Necrons rely on their Troops to fill quite a few gaps in the overall book. Gauss weapons allow Crons to suppress or destroy any vehicle in the game, which when used properly, is incredibly powerful. Going from Strength 4 to 5 is of limited utility considering you need 6s to glance nearly any vehicle. The Gauss Blaster is much better against infantry, as is the Tesla Carbine, but the Cron book has a plethora of anti-infantry choices and therefore this isnt a gap that needs filling in most lists. Also, the increase in strength and AP in the case of the Guass Blaster can be overcome with volume of Warriors, which we will get to in a bit.

The Second reason why we prefer Warriors to Immortals is durability. At first, Immortals appear to be the more durable choice with a 3+ save. If you are using Troops in an unsupported role, this is very true. However, if you have your infantry units running around unsupported, then you will easily be picked apart and destroyed. Warriors benefit from the support units in the Necron book to a greater degree than Immortals. Ghost Arks combined with Resurection Orbs in a large unit of Warriors (we prefer 20) make a unit that is incredibly hard to kill. With a 4+ cover in most cases (3+ with Zandrekhs giving them stealth), a 4+ reanimation protocols (and with a large unit, they are less likely to take a break check or get wiped out before taking the test), and D3 Warriors rejoining the unit at the beginning of each turn from the Ghost Ark, we have found these units to be almost invulnerable to shooting destruction outside of the opponent committing massive resources to them. If they are doing this in a properly constructed Necron list, you will be at the

advantage because your primary damage dealing units will be unmolested. Why Ghost Arks dont benefit Immortals, I cant say, but it is unfortunate as it would make those units far more appealing. What this means is that a supported Brick of Warriors is more resilient, puts out more shots at range against Infantry and Vehicles and is much, much harder to destroy. Also, a great tip that has saved our bacon many times in test games; if your unit of Warriors is falling back, block its path of retreat with other units (units falling back do so when they are activated to move, not at the beginning of the turn as many think) and keep the Ghost Ark nearby adding Warriors until they are back up to 50%, at which point they can rally. The final piece to the scoring puzzle as we are looking at it here, is to add a support character or two to the unit. A combat character is a great addition to the Brick to shore up their weakness to assault. A lord (or Overlord) with Warscythe, Orb and Mind Shackle Scarabs (and phase shifter in the case of the Overlord) is incredibly useful for making a Warrior unit resilient in combat. Careful model positioning is key to maximizing this amazing units effectiveness. The rule for the Mind Shackle Scarabs state that a random model in base contact with their bearer takes the test to attack his own unit. This means that if you position your Lord correctly, you dictate which model this will be. Do not place him in the front row as a canny opponent will stick a minimally important model on him. If you place him in the second row you can choose where to place him after compulsory moves to maximize the odds of taking a key combat character out of play and turning him on his own unit. This is especially good against solo beat-stick models like Monstrous Creatures, and Independent Characters. We have had this character cause Mephiston to kill himself, along with a slew of Daemon Princes and equivalent units, as well as making otherwise unwinnable combats winnable when combined with the weight of attacks 20 warriors can add to a combat. Phaeron either on an Overlord or the Stromlord, is mandatory for this unit. Relentless makes this unit exponentially better. It allows you to move and shoot out to 24 which keeps you at a healthy distance from enemy units, and it allows you to stay mobile, which as a scoring unit, it needs to be. It also allows you to double-tap into your target unit, and then assault if needs be. Which, when done with proper support, is not such a crazy idea as it may sound. A Cryptek is also a great choice for this style of play. We have found that the best combination for our style of play is the Harbinger of Transmogrification. The Tremor Stave is exceptionally useful, allowing you to control the board and hinder units from getting into your lines, and wreck havoc on Mechanized lists (particularly when combined with a CTan with Writhing Worldscape). The other key piece of kit is the Sonic Crucible, which reduces charge ranges by D3. This can completely stop assaults from occurring, which strands opposing units in their tracks, leaving them open to counter attack. You must be good at guessing distances to win with

Necrons, and so keeping your enemy in that critical 4-6 assault range is key. Keep a tally of enemy unit threat ranges in your head so you can see where to best move your units. We have also found that the 5 man Warrior squad, the Grot Squad as we call it, is a fantastic 5th edition unit. It reserves in every mission, and comes on to objectives late game, or hides in KP missions. This unit contributes next to no offensive power but it wins you games by playing to the mission.

Another option, but one we find to be less effective as it synergizes with the rest of the book slightly less, is to play MSU units with Crypteks with Eldritch Lances as a shooting component in an Alpha strike, or standard SAFH style list. This can be an effective build as it gives you a large amount of relatively durable (with cover and RP) units that can move and put a good amount of str8 ap2 shots downrange. Another variation of the same style build, is to spam Tremor Staves in these style units combined with the CTan with Writhing Worldscape, to maximize the effectiveness of this ability which can wreak havoc on many lists. Another tip which many may miss, is that vehicles will immobilize themselves on a 1 or 2 with this combo. Since the Tremor Stave shoots a small blast template, against packed armies you can quite easily get 2 or even 3 or 4 vehicles with a single shot and a little luck. Either Warriors or Immortals can serve this function, although again, I would take Warriors as you save 4pts per model, 20 pts per 5 man unit. This style build combines well with Imotekh (as we have found most competitive Necron lists do) as his Night Fight, Lord of the Storm abilities and increased odds of going first really help to make an Alpha Strike, MSU style army more potent offensively and more durable. We will dig further into these style lists further into the article series. Suffice it to say, they have a great deal more ranged, offensive punch than the brick style troop choices, but are severely less durable and often less mobile as they cant risk coming into close range the way a Brick style troop choice can. Lastly, we will briefly touch on the mechanized style Necron troops choices. As Immortals cant ride in Ghost Arks or benefit from their abilities, and Warriors dont function in our experience as well in the smaller units that would actually ride in a Ghost Ark, and Night Scythes are fairly unreliable in getting a unit where you need it to be (as with their rules, when they are destroyedand they are fairly easily destroyedtransported units go back into reserves) we have not found this style of army to be nearly as effective. Is it playable? I am sure a smart player could make it work, but we have found it to be a lack-luster competitive choice. Too many points, not enough punch, not enough predictability. You can pull some tricks with the Night Scythes, but for the points, you dont get enough reliability to use them in a tournament setting, in our opinion.

Part 3 Last week we explored the strengths and weaknesses of the Necron Troops choices as we have seen them so far in play testing. This week well dig into the HQ selections.

The Necron HQ choices are interesting tactically in that, much like Imperial Guard HQ choices, they exist more to enhance the army than to directly deal damage themselves. However, with the right match-ups, their HQ choices can be very powerful in combat in addition to their buffing abilities.

Lets start with what nearly everyone sees as the clear stand-out for competitive play: Imotekh the Stormlord, aka The Boss. Imotekh is absolutely fantastic. In nearly every list we build, we keep coming back to Imotekh. He adds so much to an army that lacks a great deal of long range heavy firepower, and that also needs to advance towards an enemy force in order to pack the biggest punch. Imotekh grants night fight (which may or may not be affected by a Crypteks Chronometron, we'll get into that later), which is very nearly worth his points cost for that ability alone. The reason why: it protects your units while they advance into their optimal threat range. His 4+ Seize the Initiative and Lord of the Storm ability put him over the top as an HQ choice for many competitive lists. The Lord of the Storm ability allows you to effectively have long range shooting in a list that otherwise may lack it. The Lightning Bolts are absolutely devastating to most armor, particularly against the light/medium mech spam we see so frequently in the tournament meta today. The 4+ Seize is brilliant, as well, for obvious reasons. With a Scarab Farm/assault oriented list, it gives Crons the drop on their opponent, producing as many as 9 more Scarab bases before the chance of retaliation - or advancing on the enemy unmolested for a movement phase. This also combos very well with an Alpha Strike shooting list. It increases the odds of pulling off the alpha strike to roughly 75% and mitigates not getting it through the protection night fight offers. Imotekh also allows Flayed Ones to deep strike off of an enemy unit without scattering. This combos with Zandrekhs ability well, as we will cover below.

Imotekh also has a 2+, 3++ which helps to make him very resilient; and he has Phaeron, which is an absolute force multiplier for Necron Infantry units, as covered in the previous article. Imotekhs Staff of the Destroyer is so-so. With an average 7 range, it really doesnt do much to get excited about. It is less effective in practice than it looks on paper. His flamer is, honestly, more useful in most cases. Strength 5 attacks in combat with rerolls to hit and wound are not bad, but nothing special, either. Imotekh holds his own in assault against non-dedicated assault units, and reliably soaks wounds but his real worth is in making the entire Necron army better. He is, not surprisingly, the top pick for a competitive Necron build in our experience.

Illuminor Szeras is a solid choice, particularly in a low points game. For the bargain price of 100pts, you get a character that has an Eldritch Lance (Str 8, ap2, 36 assault 1) and grants defensive grenades to the unit he is with. He also has a

random buff ability for infantry - 2 of which are really useful (+1BS or toughness), the third still partially useful (+1 Str). In a 1500pt shooting list, I would strongly consider him. But, again, Imotekhs night fight, Lightening and 4+ seize ability will often by more useful; but at a savings of 125 points, you could take a few Solar Pulses or Eldritch lances and mitigate that offset. Szeras doesnt want to be anywhere near combat, so keep him out of it - or watch him die quite easily.

Orikan the Diviner is a cool, fluffy HQ choice with a lot of character. He has a str4 power weapon that re-rolls failed to hit rolls in combat and a 3++, but really isnt much of a beatstick. His ability to go Super Saiyan is really fun (giving him the stat profile of a CTan while remaining an infantry model), but far too random to consider for most competitive builds. His real benefit to a tournament build is the combo he provides for first turn shenanigans. All enemy units count as being in difficult terrain on turn 1, subtracting D6 from their move through cover roll if they actually are in difficult terrain. This is really powerful against a lot of armies. Combined with a CTan with Writing Worldscape - this means that you can effectively shut down or greatly impede first turn movement for your enemy as a great deal of infantry will be killed due to dangerous terrain rolls - and vehicles will be immobilized on a 1 or 2! Where this really becomes problematic is for Dawn of War deployment. This means that, unless your opponent is a very bold soul, he will have to reserve all of his vehicles or see 33% of them destroyed as they try to come on the board. Even infantry rolling poorly could block other units from coming on the board where you want them. It is an incredibly powerful combo for that deployment type. Even normally, with solar pulses or Imotekh, you can effectively take a turn away from your opponent. Personally I would not take him in a competitive list, but I can see a place for the Diviner in a creative and or fluff oriented army.

Zandrekh is a very effective choice, as well. Zandrekh has seen a great deal of time in our competitive builds for his buffing, and debuffing abilities. He allows one Necron unit on the board to gain one USR from the following list: Counter Attack, Stealth, Hit and Run, Furious Assault, or Night Vision. He may also, every turn, take one of those USRs away from an enemy unit in LOS. These can be incredibly powerful abilities, and allow for a great deal of game changing combos. Giving Furious Assault to Scarabs makes them even more devastating assault units, but we have also found Hit and Run [with a little luck] to be very useful. Tank Hunters can make a unit of Immortals brutal against light mech, and can even grant a doom scythe an effective strength 11 attack! (Strength 10 Death Ray with +1 on the pen roll to come out to effectively strength 11.) Zandrekh is a great HQ, and in my opinion, second only to Imotekh in terms of overall utility as he opens up so many combinations for the smart player. He is also highly resilient, with a 2+, 3++ and a res orb. Zandrekhs ability to allow any deepstriking reserves to enter play on the enemys turn is interesting. We have not tried it yet, but it seems to me to be an ability that, like Deathmarks, will make more sense in 6 th edition. However, in 5th, it allows you to react to enemy reserves - ensuring that otherwise slower models will be where you want them to be, when you want them to be there. The first combo that pops out with this, is to also take Imotekh with 3 full squads of Flayed Ones and then deepstrike them in the enemy phase without scattering. This could be a cool combo to pull off. That said, Flayed Ones - not being able to take attached Lords or Crypteks - really limit the utility of this combination. On their own they dont hit hard enough, and will often be run down in combat or shot to bits before doing anything. In certain match ups it could be very powerful, though. In a truly competitive setting: probably not.

Part 4: The Other Special Robot Dudes Vargard Obyron Obyron is the only Necron special character with any real teeth in combat. He is able to deal a lot of damage, but lacking an invulnerable save, still must be careful or be cut down before he can swing.

With WS 6, he will hit most enemy units on a 3+, and his 3 attacks plus Warscythe means that he will be formidable against pretty much any target. His Cleaving Counterblow ability also allows him to stack attacks, up to 6 extra, so long as he lives long enough to use them. Again, as with many things in this codex, the devil is in the details. You must be very mindful of where you position Obyron as power weapons can spell his doom. You want to place him in combat in such a manner as to avoid weapons that bypass his save, and allow him to rely upon his 2+ armor to stack up those bonus attacks. Using him wisely means he can really turn into a killing machine. Poor use means he will often die before contributing much.

Obyrons other ability is the Ghost Walk mantle, which allows he and his unit to deepstrike anywhere on the table, even out of combat. As we continue to play test this codex and uncover more and more combos (the book really is a thinking mans playground), we have found veiling units to be wonderful additions to the army. Obyrons is the best, plus if you take Zandrekh (the two of them count as a single HQ choice) Obyron can deep strike to Zandrekh without scattering as if he were a teleport homer. This gives you a lot of maneuver tricks and really encourages baiting tactics (using Zanrdekh as bait) and grand strategies as it allows you to rapidly reposition your forces.

An interesting rule for Obyron is that if Zandrekh is assaulted, Obyron MUST teleport into his combat to try and protect Zandrekh. This can be a weakness as a clever opponent may use that to pull Obyron away from where you want him. It could also be used by a clever Necron player to deliver Obyron from one point of the board to another by baiting an enemy unit into assaulting Zandrekh.

Ultimately, Obyron is a character that adds a lot of punch to a Necron army, but also adds a great deal of mobility. Pairing him with units such as Lychguard can help a great deal to get them up field where their Dispersion Shields can cause a lot of damage (although we have yet to really make Lychguard work in a way that makes them a viable competitive choice). We have found that the best use for him is as a third Veil of Darkness for a high mobility Immortal list who also happens to be very good in combat.

Trazyn the Infinite Trazyn is an interesting HQ. He has some really cool rules, and has potential to be devastating, but for a trim-all-fat competitive list, probably wont be seen as he is not reliable enough. He has Phaeron and Mind Shackle Scarabs which

make him a great addition to a unit of Immortals or Warriors. However, he has no invulnerable save, nor does he have much of a combat profile.

He does, however, have a very cool combat weapon: the Empathic Obliterator. The weapon allows him to hit all like models of the type he has killed. This means that he could really do an incredible amount of damage to a unit if he manages to kill a model (it is like a toned down Cleansing Flame), but lacking many attacks or a power weapon, this is not incredibly reliable. His Mind Shackle Scarabs do mean that he has good odds of stopping a special weapon from swinging but if they dont, Trazyn is going to get hit hard.

He is also a scoring unit, which is cool, but since he will most often be with troops, not incredible. With Surrogate Hosts (his ability to inhabit another random friendly model upon dying on a 2+), even if his squad gets wiped out there is a chance he will be able to rise again to claim or contest an objective, if he takes over the right model (and there is one for him to inhabit). Possibly game winning but, again, not that reliable.

Anrakyr the Traveller Anrakyr is an awesome character! He has really cool rules, and can be very powerful on the table top. He lacks an invulnerable save, which is his only real weakness, but he packs a serious punch. In combat, he has a Warscythe, Furious Assault and Counter Attack. This makes him the second best combat special character behind Obyron.

He may not pack quite the punch, but he has one very big advantage: he can take a Command Barge where Obyron cannot. Command Barges are fantastic in general, but for a character like Anrakyr, they are amazing. Why? The Command barge allows him to fly around, chopping vehicles in half (hits on a 4+ or 3+ no matter how fast the target vehicle moves) and is a fast, open topped, AV:13 vehicle for delivering him into combat. Against min/maxed or non dedicated assault units, such as Long Fangs or IG squads, he is more than enough to tear them to shreds. However, the Command Barge also allows him to get into range to fire his Mind in the Machine ability more rapidly.

Mind in the Machine allows him to fire an enemy vehicles weapons as if it were a Necron vehicle on a 3+, so long as they
are within 18. Moreover, the vehicle ignores any shaken or stunned results for that shot, and fires as if it were stationary. Wow. Imagine what you could do with that? Very awesome ability, and anything that can turn Psyfilmen Dreads on one another is like a little slice of heaven in my mind! With Ever Living, even if destroyed, he will often be in the enemy back lines and can rise again to be a persistent pain in the butt. Very cool character, and definitely a solid choice for a competitive list.

40K: Necron Scarab Farm Tactics

Posted byReeciusatWednesday, December 28, 2011

Howdy BoLS fans, Reecius here again from www.frontlinegaming.org . Were shifting gears in this Winning with Necrons Article Series and jumping right into some List and Tactics choices.

When I first wrote the Winning with Necrons piece, it was comprehensive and put together right after the book came out. It was quite long as it was written from the perspective of a reader with little to no knowledge of Necrons and so included a lot of basic level information. However, coming out in a serialized format here on BoLS the chunks are too small and infrequent to have the impact the article in totality did. Also, the internet has moved past a lot of the basic this is what this unit does, type of information. So, were scrapping that, and starting fresh; jumping right into the lists and tactics weve found to work. I will assume that the reader is familiar with all of the Necron units.

Were going to start right off with the list we have found to be most effective so far, and a list (or derivation of) that you have likely seen making the rounds on the interwebs. We called it the Scarab Farm list, and the name seems to have stuck. The list is built around what is arguably the best unit in the book: Scarabs.

Scarabs are phenomenal. Fast, fearless, absolutely obliterate anything with an armor value, and arent shabby against everything else. Considering that your typical opponent in the current tournament meta will be a mechanized army, and that the big four you are likely to see at the top tables of an event are Mech IG, Mech Wolves, Purifier Spam, and Mech Blood Angels, youre playing the odds with this army. Were still running it through its paces and honing it, finding what combination of units works best for us, but so far the core of the army remains the same: 10 scarabs, 3 x 3 Spyders with Gloom Prisms. (Note: We DO NOT play the conga-line Scarab Bases across the board while creating them with Spiders

rules interpretation. Our tactics assume this will not be accepted at tournaments and will get FAQd.)

That chunk of the army does all the heavy lifting, and the rest of the list is built around it. Now, as we always say: we present data and opinions. What works for us in our area may not work for you in yours. So take this information as a starting point and work it to fit your local meta and play style. However, you can be sure to include that core and be happy with the results in almost any situation.

What makes that combination of units special? The Spiders will spit out 9 Scarab bases a turn. The reason we call it a Scarab Farm list is because we have found that it is best to sit back and build the unit up to a critical mass over 1-3 turns, and then unleash the little devils on the enemy in an unstoppable horde of bugs. Thus the Farm analogy. You must be patient with this list, and wait for the best time to strike. With enough Scarab Bases, you simply overwhelm your opponent, and it makes it easier to keep them in range of the Spiders for Psychic defense and for reinforcements by stringing a line of them across the board back to the Spyders.

So, the Scarabs eat tanks like they were cupcakes, and drown most infantry in bodies. Seems pretty simple, right?

It is, but achieving that critical mass is what takes skill. The first time someone plays against this list, it may be easy to get caught off gaurd. However, a canny opponent will know how to beat it: strike while the Scarab mass is small and at its weakest. If your opponent can hit the Scarabs early with template weapons that double them out (str 6 or greater) you can find yourself neutered before you can do anything to counter it. Therefore, you MUST defend the little buggers before they can be destroyed.

The best form of defense is a good offense, as the saying goes. That is why we have found Imotekh to be the guy for this lists primary HQ selection. He provides a roughly 75% chance to go first, which means that in 3 out of 4 games you start with 19 Scarab bases, essentially doubling their resiliency. In the other 25% of your games, Imotekhs night fight really helps to increase your defense. His Lightning Bolts, while not something to be relied on, can be utterly devastating to light mech armies when your dice are hot. He is a bit of a putz in combat but he can be game winning by himself, and his special abilities are crucial. As a change of pace, you can take an Overlord kitted for combat, and a Cryptek with a Solar Pulse to achieve a somewhat similar effect.

Deploy your Scarabs conservatively in most games as you really cant risk losing them. With a 3+ cover save, they are tough to kill using anything but blast or template weapons. The Spyders should also be deployed defensively as they are the second most vital element of the list, but they are naturally a lot harder to kill and as such, can be exposed if you run out of hiding places.

These units must be close to each other. Both for Gloom Prism protection (Cleansing Flame and JotWW are brutal to Necrons) and for reinforcing the inevitable casualties you will take as the Scarabs absorb fire power. You must become proficient in model placement (as you must be with most Necron units) and be mindful of keeping some of your Scarab bases near the Spyders at all times. Particularly during assault, you must be careful of how you move models in order to keep all of your Scarabs from piling into an assault and out of range of support. Likewise, Spyders cant produce more Scarabs when locked in combat and as such, must be kept out unless you absolutely need their muscle added to a combat (and if you can get 6-9 in to a combat, they will do some serious damage).

What about the rest of the list? Weve been playing around with a lot of combinations and have found the following units to work best for us.

Troops:

A 20 strong Warrior squad to roll with Imotekh as your primary Scoring unit. This unit needs Cryptek and or Lord support to not just be an easy target. We have found that a Cryptek with a tremor stave and sonic crucible is a good defensive

set up so long as you also have a Lord with Mind Shackle Scarabs, Res Orb and a War Scythe. This unit is tough, can fight back in combat and is a solid scoring brick. However, it lacks mobility.

What I have been using lately, and have found to be cheaper and better in many ways, is a Cryptek with Veil. This allows the unit to simply avoid trouble, and becomes hugely mobile. You can forgo a lord in this setup to save points, as well. The veil is amazing in that it allows you to redirect the flow of battle, bait enemy units to one side of the board, then go to the other, or to trick your opponent with deployment strategies. Force a flank, let him deploy opposite you, then go to the other side of the board. There are all kinds of fun tactics to be had with this piece of kit. With Phaeron, you can also be sure to deep strike at safe range, away from misshaps and out of assault range while still being able to pour 20 shots onto a target unit.

The second troop unit is really up to you and your play style. I typically take a 5 man unit of Warriors (the Grot squad!) to reserve in every mission and hop onto an objective late game and keep their heads down. For 65pts, it wins you the game on a regular basis, although is obviously vulnerable. You must play this unit smart, or it evaporates quickly.

I have also been using a 10 man Immortal unit with Tesla Carbines with a second veiling Cryptek to great effect. Spacecurves has also been using this combination and has told me it is his go-to Troops selections. Either way, experiment to see what works best for you. The 5 man Warrior squad works fantastically for me, others may have difficulty making it work.

The second key unit to this list is 6 Wraiths with Whip Coils. Wraiths are the business, pure and simple. I use mine as the free safety of my army. They are mobile, fearless, fast, and hard hitting. Perfect to go to where they are needed to turn the tide of a failing front, or to attack key enemy units. To ratchet this unit up to premier assault unit status, toss in a Destroyer Lord with Mind Shackle Scarabs and Weave (2+sv) and you have a unit that brings the pain in a big way. He soaks missiles and Psyfilmen shells on the way in, they provide the Invulnerable Save and pseudo-grenades (whip coils) he lacks and the Lord packs a big punch in combat. Great, great unit.

Lastly, I have been using a unit of 5 Tomb Blades with Particle Beamers. This is another highly mobile unit that is multipurpose. Five S:6 small blasts are amazing, and on a fast platform, largely overcomes their short range. This unit can shred infantry and light armor alike, and is great for contesting objectives late game, all for the crazy low price of 150pts.

What you get, is an army comprised of units that each have a function to fill in the list as a whole, are mobile, and do their own job extremely well, but only their job. You must orchestrate all the different elements well, or see your army get smashed pretty easily. However, against your average Mechanized tournament list, you will have a very large list advantage.

We have found a few match-ups that stink, though. Draigowing can be rough if they have a Dreadknight with Heavy Incinerator and Teleporter. Nids are also tough as they largely dont care about Scarabs and a single unit of Wraiths isnt going to fight through their entire army. Of the two, Nids arent a real concern for a true tournament list as they are so seldom seen now the odds of pulling them in most events is low. Draigowing though, is a lot more popular. However, since most Draigowing lists dont have Dreadknights, and you can simply avoid the Draigostar, smart play can mitigate this match-up. Play to objectives!

Give the list a try and experiment away. Anrakyr can also work well in this list, so go crazy and see what works for you.

40K Tactics : Maximum Threat Overload Necrons

Posted byReeciusatWednesday, January 11, 2012
Reece here from Frontline Gaming to share how I recently had the pleasure of getting my teeth kicked in by a very well constructed Necron list piloted by my friend, Jy2. Here is the list and tactics he used.

Jy2 is a very skilled competitive 40K player. You may not have heard his name before because due to his work schedule, he doesnt have the time to play in large events. At any rate, I felt the list was very solid, and could easily be piloted by a newer player to good effect. As such, it would provide a great starting point for someone wanting to jump into competitive Necrons.

Now, the actual game doesnt tell the whole story. I was using a derivation of a meta-game busting IG list I have been playing which I recently won a local RTT with (report here). My list was designed to counter the current competitive meta of str 6-8 spam by providing only Av14 tanks and hordes of infantry as targets; thereby rendering the points spent on those weapons largely wasted. The concept has proven successful against your average tournament lists, and a lot of fun to play.

Jy2 wanted to try his Necrons against my list at 2K so I threw in a few off the wall units just to jump up from 1850 (what we tend to play in my area). The only reason I offer up this explanation is because I know there will be people who think the list I was using (since it contains units that the internet thinks are not optimal) will undermine the points I am about to make. I acknowledge that my list wasnt optimized, however, I dont think that in this case it is all that relevant.

I feel that the list Jy2 constructed was very, very good. While one game doesnt prove anything unequivocally, I feel that this is a list that bears serious consideration for those who are looking for a competitive Necron build. While I honestly think it has less pure power than the Scarab Farm list, it is also a lot less gimmicky. The Scarab Farm provides overwhelming force that tends to crush your average tournament list. The Maximum Threat Overload list is more of a well rounded list that doesnt have the weaknesses that the Scarab Farm list has.

So what is it?

HQ Anrakyr Catacomb Command Barge 1x Cryptek - Harbinger of Destruction, Solar Pulse Necron Overlord - Mindshackle Scarabs, Phase Shifter, Warscythe, Weave Catacomb Command Barge

1x Cryptek - Harbinger of Destruction, Solar Pulse Troops 5x Warriors 5x Warriors 5x Warriors 5x Warriors Fast Attack 10x Canoptek Scarabs 6x Canoptek Wraiths - 3x Whip Coils, 1x Particle Blaster (Raveners) 5x Canoptek Wraiths - 3x Whip Coils, 1x Particle Blaster (Raveners) Heavy 3x Canoptek Spyders - Claw Array, Gloom Prism Doom Scythe (Vendetta) Doom Scythe (Vendetta)

The list is predicated around the concept of overloading your opponent with threats that are on him turn 2. The Warrior squads tend to reserve and hide, going for objectives and generally keeping their heads down while the rest of the army does the heavy lifting. Those little squads may look weak, but due to the plethora of much higher priority targets and reserving tactics, are often ignored.

The reason I think this is a fairly easy list for a beginning Necron player to use, is that it is very straight forward. You bum rush the other player in nearly every situation. If you go first, your opponent has one turn to try and stop you before you are multi-assaulting with Scarabs, Wraiths and the Overlords. If the Necrons go second, the Solar Pulses help to mitigate any incoming fire. There are also a large number of high priority threats to increase survivability of each unit through target saturation.

It is also has a mini-Scarab Farm, giving you all of the strengths and weaknesses of that list in miniature.

The Doom Scythes are essentially sacrificial units. They have an intimidating weapon array that in this day of light mech spam, can be deadly. However, they are not the real damage dealing units of the list. They cant be ignored though, and as such, are excellent distraction units.

Anrakyr is a great addition to this style list as he is just so useful, being able to potentially destroy 3 units in a single turn with his special ability and the Command barge. The second Overlord is incredibly durable and has the ability to walk through tanks and non dedicated assault units with ease.

In my opinion, this is a great list. I think it would struggle with any army that is superior to it in combat or that dont have many vehicles, such as a Fatecrusher Daemon list or certain Tyranid builds. However, Daemons and Bugs are typically very rarely seen in tournaments and as such are an acceptable weakness.

A fast, shooty army could also prove problematic such as Mechdar or Mech Dark Eldar. With high rates of fire, and lots of str 6-8 on mobile platforms, that could be problematic. Particularly Dark Eldar with Night Fight to cut through the solar pulses. These match-ups are much more common and we will definitely play them out to see if the Maximum Threat Overload Necrons can stand up to them.

Jim has recently played this list against a tournament Draigowing and Purifier Spam list, and defeated them both. Again, this is not definitive data, but it certainly goes a long way to proving both the flexibility and power the list has.

We need more data to ascertain the real power of this list, but I believe it is solid, and a great place for a Necron player to start in the competitive scene. From this foundation, it would be fairly easy to fine tune it into a list that suits your local meta and play style.