2018 LVO and 40k ITC Champion Brown is back with a breakdown on the new Necron codex, a look at two lists if you’re wondering where to start collecting!
Hello, my lovelies! I finally got a copy of the Cron dex (I’m a bit late to the party I know) and man is it a good time to be a robot lover. From a first glance, Necrons have some really amazing tools at their disposal, and the depths of their combos are near endless. I’m going to review this book much like I did my T’au review and really just hit some cursory highlights, but honestly, that will only be about 50% of the ways this army can function. Much like Chaos Marines, the power comes from the details.
Allow me to first break down the Dynasties. The only 3 that really strike me as competitive are Novokh, Mephrit, and Sautekh. The only reason Sautekh even warrants it’s mentioning is that a lot of the special characters happen to be Sautekh, and there are a bunch of synergistic tricks and nuances you can do with them. I’ll cover some of these tricks a bit later in the article, but first I want to get right to the strong units.
Novokh and Mephrit really want you to polarize how you build your detachments, due to one being direct combat based and the other being directly shooting based. There is definitely value to mixing these two styles as well, but in general, I think you’ll find a lot of lists inherently favor one version and in turn focus on that respective dynasty.
Now that I’ve covered the main competitive Dynasties, let’s move onto different units and why they’re good.
Overlords– Really we’re looking at them because of My Will Be Done, which is an amazing buff ability aura which gives +1 to advance, charge, and to hit rolls. This applies to both shooting and combat but can be combined with the tesla rule to generate extra tesla hits on 5’s which is pretty fantastic.
Crypteks- These little guys are absolutely fantastic for their bonuses to reanimation and the 5++ they give Infantry against shooting attacks. Coupled with a res orb from a Lord or Overlord to reroll animation and they can really increase the longevity of your troops. They also fill the role of cheap HQ which will really help when trying to get Command Points.
Warriors- Specifically in blob forms, these guys can really turn into monsters that are a pain to remove. I’ve already covered how they can increase their Reanimation, but now let’s talk about offense. 20 Mephrit Warriors in rapid fire range (which is an easy feat to accomplish given all the teleportation tricks they can accomplish) can pump out 40 shots hitting on 2’s at S4 and -2AP. Alternatively, Novokh can buff their Warriors to 2 attacks each hitting on 2’s rerolling to hit at S6. This is an incredibly durable and versatile troop choice, and really gives Necrons awesome flexibility with their troops.
Deceiver- This is the hero that Necrons needed. Honestly, he’s just so good. He features the insanely broken character rule with just enough wounds to make it relevant, and he has access to the C’tan powers which you can leverage to really pump out mortals over the course of the game (basically Necron smite spam), but what really makes this guy stand out is the fact that he has a redeploy ability. This can let you set up alpha strikes into people (especially as nurglings and scouts are starting to become less prevalent in the meta) but it can also allow you to do insanely tricky stuff with Zandrekh and Obyron (this is really where Sautekh comes in).
To give an example of this, take the Deceiver and redeploy him and Zandrekh 12″ away from the enemy (after knowing you’re going first). Then move Zandy up 7″ away and teleport Obyron and a unit of 10 Lych Guard, Praetorians, or Flayed Ones to 1″ away from the enemy. You can also toss in 20-40 Warriors or Anrakyr for the attack bonus too if you want, depending on how good your roll for the Deceiver is. Rapid fire with the 20-40 Warriors if able, annihilate screens and chip up tougher targets and then go in deep and hard with the Lychguard/Praets/Flayed Ones. Is it just me, or it getting hot in here?
Wraiths– These pricey bad boys are crazy fast, durable, and hit really hard, especially with Novohk for rerolls to hit. These guys are a bit tricky due to their cost, but that’s what keeps them from being spammable. 3 wounds each with a 3++ means it takes 45 wounds to kill 5. Running 15 of these guys is only 825 points and I don’t think there’s an army of conceivable existence that could kill all that in a turn.
Destroyers– I’m not totally sold on these guys as they fall victim of that S6 threshold where happiness turns into bolters vs tanks. That said, they’re really durable, especially when you consider they want to be far from the action. Furthermore, they have Fly, can move and shoot no penalty, and, aside from S6, they have good offensive stats. Definitely a unit worth looking at.
Tomb Blades– These guys, much like Destroyers, are fast shooty guys with fly and reasonable durability. They’re a tad on the pricey side for what you get, but I think they’re worth it, especially when coupled with a bunch of Wraiths and Destroyers for tough target saturation. I’d load these out as Mephrit and give them tesla. Tesla really struggles due to its lack of AP, so Mephrit and tesla are like peanut butter and jelly.
Tesseract Vault– This insane behemoth is nothing crazy but coupled with the Deceiver and maybe a Transcendent C’tan, you can start pumping out a ridiculous amount of mortal wounds. I wouldn’t run this guy unless you’re going deep on the mortal wound plan, but I think it has real merit in that style build. Once you get past 6 chosen powers you can start to double up on the best ones and really let loose with mortal wound output by just casting the best few over and over.
So now that I’ve gone over the basic concept of Necrons being very polarized as far as army archetypes, and some really stand-out types of unit choices, let me move onto some sample lists. This time I’ll give you guys two totally different lists so I can demonstrate two different styles.
Mephrit Battalion
Anrakyr 167
Szeraz 143
Overlord- warscythe, veil, res orb 130
17 Warriors 204
17 Warriors 204
17 Warriors 204
Deceiver 225
Transcendent C’tan 225
Mephrit Super heavy
Tesseract Vault 496
Next, we have a Novokh/Mephrit combo army which my good friend Chad Layton, who has been trying out. He’s a diehard Necron fan and probably the only guy I know who didn’t quit on Index Crons so I definitely respect his opinion on the subject. A lot of this army concept was inspired by Nick Rose, former coach and current player on Team America. We’ve had a lot of back and forth discussion on a mortal wound pumping Cron army.
The basic concept here is a lot of ob sec, durable warriors standing in front of the characters and Tesseract Vault. You can choose one of each power, then double up on the best powers like Cosmic Fire, and Sky of Falling Stars. Your warriors can launch a barrage of AP-2 shots early with the Deceiver, and in combat they’ll be 2 attacks each, potentially hitting on 2’s and Szeraz will be giving another random buff. All that coupled with reanimation 4+ and a potential res orb and a veil to get out of sticky situations and your army is a mortal wound spewing, AP-2 pew pewing machine. Hehe, machines… Necrons… Get it…
Novokh Outrider
Command Barge- tesla, blood scythe, Crimson Haze 162
5 Wraiths 275
5 Wraiths 275
5 Wraiths 275
Mephrit Battalion
Overlord- Warscythe 95
Lord- Warscythe, veil 84
15 Warriors 180
15 Warriors 180
9 Tesla Immortals 153
5 Tomb Blades- shield, scope, particle beamer 145
5 Tomb Blades- shield, scope, particle beamer 145
This is a much more balanced army with a crazy combat command barge, a ton of Novokh wraiths and a lot of solid AP shooting in the form of Warriors, Immortals, and Tomb Blades. This one is way more balanced and dynamic than the mortal wound brick I posted, so naturally, I’m more inclined to prefer this list because I like balanced things.
So there you have it, folks. My breakdown of Necrons and all their mechanical glory. I’m really impressed with the way this book came out and the amount of unique and viable options in the codex. It has a lot of character. Hopefully, it’ll stand the test of time and prove to be a strong contender moving forward!
Brown Magic
About the Author: Nick Nanavati
