Learn how to harness the power of the new Necron Decurion!
In a follow up to my Army Construction post, I wanted to focus on the Necron Codex and their options. The Decurion is very different looking and a bit confusing when it comes to Detachments. That said, it works like other Detachments in terms of how it fits into the Army List.
What makes the Decurion different from other Detachments like the CAD, or even the Mephrit Dynasty Detachment, is that it does not use the traditional Force Organization Structure, where the units within the detachment are selected by Battlefield Role (that is, HQ, Troops, etc).
Rather than having slots based on Battlefield Role like Mandatory 1 HQ and 2 Troops, there are three types of options in the Decurion: Core, Auxiliary, and Command. For purposes of the Decurion, treat these as the same as HQ or Troops.
The Decurion consists of 1+ Core, 0-1 Command per Core, and 1-10 Auxiliary per Core.
The Core of a Decurion consists of a Reclamation Legion, a formation included later in the book. The Command is an optional addition to the Detatchment which consists of the Royal Court Formation.
Finally, the Auxiliary is made up of 1-10 selections from the listed 9 Options. Clearly, since there are only 9 possibilities, these options are not limited. That is, each formation or unit listed is not 0-1 per Decurion, but are the options available. Think of each of the nine options as an Elites unit, and the Auxiliary are 1-10 Elites.
The next source of confusion is also whether or not the Formations, which are also options in the Decurion, can be taken outside the Decurion. Again, they are Formations in their own right and can be taken in your army as a Formation Detachment, or as a selection within a Decurion Detachment.
Now, let’s look at some list building scenarios to illustrate how these work. First, let’s look at Adepticon army construction, which makes all Detachments 0-1, but no limit on total Detachments.
In this format, I can take a Decurion, a Royal Court Formation, and a Necron Combined Arms detachment. Specifically, in my Decurion, I could take a Royal Court and then have the Royal Court formation as well, giving me 2 Royal Courts in the army but still adhering to the 0-1 restriction for formations. This army looks like this:
- Decurion:
- Reclamation Legion
- Overlord: Voidreaper
- 3 Tomb Blades: Nebuloscopes, Particle Beamers
- 5 Immortals
- 10 Warriors
- 10 Warriors
- Royal Court
- Cryptek: Solar Staff
- Lord: Veil of Darkness
- Overlord: Warscythe
- Canoptek Harvest:
- Spyder
- 3 Scarabs
- 5 Wraiths: 2 Whip Coils, 3 Transdimensional Beamers
- Reclamation Legion
- Combined Arms Detachment:
- Destroyer Lord: Nightmare Shroud, Warscythe
- 5 Immortals
- 5 Immortals
- Royal Court:
- Nemesor Zahndrekh
- Vargard Obyron
- Orikan
My Decurion has 1 Core (the Reclamation Legion), 1 Command (the Royal Court), and 1 Auxiliary (Canoptek Harvest). The army consists of 3 detachments overall.
Now, let’s look at NOVA format, which only allows two Detachments, but Detachments are not considered unique. For this army I could take two Decurions if I wanted (though I can’t think of why you would). I could also take two formations from the book outside the Decurion. For example, I could take two Destroyer Cults. For this example army, I will take a CAD and a Royal Court:
- Royal Court:
- Nemesor Zahndrekh
- Orikan
- Cryptek: Solar Staff
- Vargard Obyron
- Lord: Veil of Darkness, Warscythe
- Combined Arms Detachment:
- Destroyer Lord: Warscythe, Nightmare Shroud
- 10 Lychguard: Dispersion Shield and Hyperphase Sword
- 5 Immortals
- 5 Immortals
- 5 Wraiths: Whip Coils
- 5 Wraiths: Whip Coils
- 5 Wraiths: Whip Coils
Finally, let’s look at just creating an army using the Decurion only. The Core is a required choice, which consists of the Reclamation Legion Formation. This formation has 3 Troop units, a Fast Attack unit, and an HQ, with the option to add units. For this example, let’s add a Monolith as well as Ghost Arks for the Warriors. I’ve already used the Royal Court a couple times, so this time I’m going without and not taking the optional Command slot in the Decurion. Now I just have to add 1 or more Auxiliaries. Let’s go with a unit of Flayed Ones, a Canoptek Harves, and a Judicator Battalion.
That leaves a list looking like this:
- Core: Reclamation Legion:
- Nemesor Zahndrekh
- 10 Immortals
- 10 Warriors: Ghost Ark
- 10 Warriors: Ghost Ark
- 3 Tomb Blades; Nebuloscopes and Particle Beamers
- Monolith
- Auxiliary: Canoptek Harvest:
- Spyder
- 3 Scarabs
- 3 Wraiths
- Auxiliary: Judicator Battalion:
- 5 Praetorians
- 5 Praetorians
- Triarch Stalker
- Auxiliary: 12 Flayed Ones
I hope this helps illustrate that the Decurion Detachment, while organized differently than traditional Battlefield Role based detachments, still operates in a similar way when it comes to army list design. It also opens up a ton of options for Necron players. Let me know if you have any questions below or any other 40k topics you’d like to see me cover.
