Building my Necron List Part 1
So, I’m still in the process of building and digesting what will be my Necrons for 2012. Thus far, most Necron discussion and lists I have seen doing well have been doing so, in my opinion, due to gimmicks. What I mean by that is that the list is/was doing well most likely because the opponent had little to no knowledge about the gimmicks. This type of “bear trap”, works great when you play against people who haven’t studied your codex and thus step right into it. When you play against people who know your book as well as you, it’s a whole different ball game.
The best discussion I’ve seen thus far on building that balanced Necron list comes from “The Voice” on the 40KUK blog. Most of the thoughts he suggests I’ve independently started to arrive at myself. Further, his list idea presented there is basically the same kind that I am arriving at. So, by this, I’m stating two things. First, he has beat me to it. Second, it’s another good resource for discussion.
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I should also recommend Mike Brandt's recap on the Necron codex on the Whiskey and 40K blog some time ago. This is also reflective of the thoughts I have arrived at, and he beat both Gary and I to the punch so far!
*edit*
Before starting on my thoughts about how I am going to proceed, let me cover a few bases first.
- A lot of the Necron models I want to play with haven’t released yet. This is SERIOUSLY putting a damper on some more vehicle heavy lists that I want to run because of the lack of a Night Scythe. Hopefully this will get fixed soon. Second, the Wraith has also not been released yet! AAARGH! Because that’s the other unit I really, really need in order to make a list without a Night Scythe work!
- Scarabs only work because people get lucky. The fact is, people have already started figuring out that the easy button way to kill Scarabs is to bubble wrap and kill them in assault. Scarabs get a lot of attacks, but when you need 4’s followed by 5’s, each base of Scarabs only produces about 1 wound on the charge. That means every 3 bases kills a single marine. A dedicated CC unit, usually swinging first, will destroy scarabs.
The other big deal is the terrible need for an FAQ for Necrons. For the record, here’s how I am assuming the rules will be FAQ’ed.
- You will not be allowed to put 2 members of 2 different courts into the same squad. The word “the” in the “the royal court” is intended to mean the entire court, as in both units. I’m 95% sure this will be faq’ed this way otherwise we have the first codex EVER that allows two sergeants in the same squad. If it doesn’t get faq’ed this way, that’s great too as it will give me more options, but I really think it will.
- I expect the chronometron will not be allowed to be used for Imotekh’s night fight. I think this is RaW already as the start of game turn is not a phase, but I digress.
- I actually do not think Writhing Worldscape will stack with Orikan or Tremor Staves. I hope it does! However, I don’t think it will.
So, using that as a basis, let’s move on!
HQ:
First off, right away, I think Anraykyr in a command barge has got to be one of the best choices out of the slot. I was laughing about him the other day as he is the only unit in 40K that has a chance, albeit ridiculously small, of destroying an entire parking lot, single-handedly, in a single game turn. The short is, he has a GREAT shot at killing 3 tanks in a single turn by doing the following:
- Command Barge Sweep Attack across one vehicle with S7 + 2d6 penetration on the rear armor, hitting on a 4+. He hops out.
- Controls a vehicle during his shooting phase to shoot and destroy another vehicle, highly likely in the rear armor with no cover because you will properly select the right firer.
- Assaults into another vehicle and destroy it with S8 + 2d6 armor penetration on the rear.
However, when I make a movie about Anraykyr and all his awesomeness, here’s what will happen:
- Anraykyr flies over a Vendetta and sweeps it to death, hopping out.
- He snags a Manticore and fires it off into the midst of a IG Chimera parking lot, getting 3 shots that scatter, hitting Chimeras on side armor, rolling 2d6 take the highest armor pen, and exploding, tossing Guardsmen everywhere who break and run.
- Anraykyr assaults the Manticore destroying it.
Anraykyr single-handedly destroy the entire Guard army. Flawless victory!
More seriously, the command barge, at least on paper, looks like one of the best units in the dex. Not only did they give you an easy button way to kill tanks, you can even snipe models like Sanguinary Priests or Power Fists, out of a unit. (Or Melta Guns which is important to protect all those 13 armor vehicles!)
What I really want to do in a lot of lists is run Anraykyr in a barge followed up by “Red”, his Necron Overlord buddy in his own barge with warscythe.
However, Imotekh may end up being a better choice. At first, I wasn’t a big fan of Imotekh, but the concept of him has started to grow on me. I’m not saying at this point I will or will not drop “Red”, but play testing will tell. The thing about Imotekh is the lightning. I, more than anyone, know what having to roll “6”’s means. I also know that in the mech heavy environment of 40K, most mech armies bring around 10+ vehicles. This basically means that the lighting attack will hit at least one vehicle a turn with a good chance at 2. Since you won’t get a cover save against it, and it is on side armor, this is a very compelling reason to take him. Since Imotekh can also be hidden, he’s basically like having an unstoppable Long Fang pack that ignores cover in your army. Yes, 225 is a bit much, but not if he snags 4-6 vehicles in a game. The other thing is that it’s roll of the dice. What about the one game where you go totally WILD, roll a bunch of 6’s, and destroy your opponents most important vehicles like Vendettas or Manticores on Turn 1?
The thing about Imotekh is you can’t STOP IT. That’s why this idea is so very compelling. You can’t shut it down. You can’t deflect it or blow it off. The best you can do is smoke your tanks for a turn. Lastly, Imotekh will have a very fancy hole to hide in with Anraykyrs super duper special immortals.
I’m going to have to play test with Imotekh to see if I like him.
To wrap up, I need to discuss the royal court. This one is actually pretty easy:
- You are required to take 2 crypteks with Solar Pulse.
Don’t think about using your pulse at the start of the game, especially if you took Imotekh. Think about using them at the 5th or 6th turn, while you are holding objectives or barely winning on KPs, and now, your opponent can’t see you to do anything about it. Then, think about combo’ing it with this:
- Take 2 crypteks with Veil of Darkness.
I really think any list I take will consist of this. The Veil is just stupid useful for contesting, getting out of trouble, claiming, etc. Without a Night Scythe to work with, this is what you get for mobility.
The only issue now that I am having is running out of points! No matter which route I go, I sink a full third of my army into the HQ slot. Right now, though, this is what I am thinking:
HQ:
Anraykyr – 165
Command Barge – 80
“Red” – 90
Warscythe – 10
Command Barge – 80
2 x Pulseteks (crypteks with solar pulse) – 110
2 x Veilteks (crypteks with veil of darkness) – 120
Total: 655
OR
HQ:
Anraykyr – 165
Command Barge – 80
Imotekh – 225
2 x Pulseteks (crypteks with solar pulse) – 110
2 x Veilteks (crypteks with veil of darkness) – 120
Total: 700
More thoughts to come in another article!
A couple notes:
ReplyDelete1) At my FLGS we proxie Night Scythes with Wave Serpents, extremely roughly based upon looking at the pictures, they COULD BE the same size(?)
2) Scarabs are NOT AN AUTO WIN. The scenario you described is EXACTLY what's happened in my meta, and I've only ran the scarab farm 3 times thus far, I guess word travels fast. On that note, you don't need a whole lot of scarabs to ruin AV 14. In those three games I racked up 3 LR and 2 Monoliths. But against a dedicated CC unit, and my meta is still in love with the hammer, you hemorrhage bases, not wounds.
3)My meta has allowed the stacking of tremor staffs ( I know) and Writhing Worldscape, but it hasn't had as much of an impact as I had hoped, pretty lack luster really.
4) I am impressed with the tesla carbines, and I really wanted to not like them.
5) Wraiths are pretty great, so are spiders.
6) A 20 man squad of warriors with a phearon is pretty dang good
7) My meta allowed me to put JUST the royal court into a ghost ark
8) I really want to take a silly tooled up lord royal court against a hammer and see how that turns out.
One more thought, I don't think a 'serious' list can be put together until the codex is FAQ'd. There are too many unanswered questions that greatly effect how the army plays.
ReplyDeleteI think, at the end of the day, my list will probably have 1 squad of 10 scarabs, and I may take 3 spyders. That will be about it. What compels me to take Scarabs, aside from killing things like Land Raiders is that Scarabs will generate a threat bubble for tanks. The thing is, you can bubble wrap to prevent me from violently charging with my scarabs, but what if I don't charge? What if I just "lurk" around mid-field? What happens when you need to move? Are you going to stay out of your tanks the whole time to bubble wrap when I have a lot of anti-infantry fire? Are you going to try to move along with the bubble wrap?
ReplyDeleteI'll talk about that more in another article, but I can see them as presenting a compelling threat bubble.
The larger issue, Neil, is that your face is a threat bubble.
ReplyDeleteWell, that explains a lot about my life!
ReplyDeleteoh and your mom too....
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget about using your Tachyon arrow to bolt a 4th tank right after you Mind in the Machine something (it's S10 AP1 infinite range...to heck with Broadsides) as long as you don't move quite as far. I think you should consider leaving him in the barge, as you only need line of sight and the barge is open-topped so you can still sweep at combat speed for the 3+ hits, MitM a vehicle, and Tachyon arrow (and of course fire off your Tesla cannon for fun). I'd recommend doing this for the purpose of not having to re-embark next turn (you're assaulting into this so this could be tricky and maybe lose your sweep attacks) and for the extra defense Anrakyr gets from his A13 barge. Depending on how much your enemy has to fire back after you nuke 3/4 of their tanks, I'd consider doing the 3 hit combo first and then next turn following it up with the 4 piece combo. My only reservation is the loss of cruising speed but with good positioning you should only be gaining a super buffed chance of killing with your sweeps (3+ vs 4+ on 3 different attacks) and a Tachyon bolt for smashing in another tank.
ReplyDelete