Returning to Necrons

[Frostglaive]

I started 40k out with Necrons back in 5th edition. I played them for a little while in 7th before switching over to Adeptus Mechanicus. Now, thanks to Forgebane and nobody wanting to buy the Necron half from me, I've decided to return to my roots and play Necrons again.

 

So here's the deal: It's been a hot minute since I last played them. And I rarely see them around my local gamer stores (although they have been popping out of their tomb worlds a little more recently with this codex). So I don't know/remember much about them. What do I need to know?

 

- I'm picking up the codex this week. I have a Forgebane set and I'll be buying the Start Collecting box as well. What else do I need?
- Are there any units in particular I should get? I hear amazing things about Destroyers right now, so I'm going to try and find some of them. Are there any other "must buy" units?

- What about units to avoid like the plague? What sucks right now?

- I do want to try and avoid named characters as much as possible. Is this a good choice or bad? Are there characters I should absolutely have or am I okay without them? It's mostly to do with fluff reasons. With the exception of Cawl for my AdMech, I try to avoid named characters as much as I can so I can essentially make my own army fluff without having Character So and So a part of it. Forge my own path and whatnot.

- Like I said, I'm going to get the codex soon so I'll be able to go through all this stuff on my own. But I do want your guys' opinions. The Dynasties. I caught glimpses of them during the info leaks. Which ones are preferred, which ones aren't that great? In your opinions.

- C'tan. Worth it or no? When I played back in 5th and 7th, they never seemed worth it to me. Has that changed?

- Looking at the Forge World selection, is any of that stuff worth it and/or viable? Or should I avoid that stuff?

What else do I need to know?

 

When I started 40k, I jumped right into Necrons. Didn't ask any questions, just bought a bunch of stuff and hoped for the best. That screwed me over hard and I did terrible for a while. When I went back to them in 7th, I was a little more careful but still very impulsive. Didn't really focus on formations until late in the game, just bought whatever and hoped for the best. This time I want to actually think this through and make something impressive.

 

Any help appreciated. Thanks guys!

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

To answer your questions one at a time:

-Get armor support, and buff your squads from minsize to max to take advantage of RP. One annie barge is not worth much without other armored units to soak fire/be redundant, and min units get shot off the board before they can do anything.

-Destroyers yes, C'tan quite possibly. They can dish out amazing amounts of mortal wounds, and can change from game to game as you need. Get a transcendant if you can find one/convert one, as they have the fractured personalities, which can allow for multiple powers per turn used.

-I'm not a fan of flayed ones, they took a big nerf from the index to the codex, along with a price hike...plus the current models are godawful. Other than that, everything is usable and even the FO's are good if they aren't targeted down immediately, just not as good as they were.

-SC's are okay, if you want a story than you are always fine to run Anrakr and Szeras, they aren't affiliated with any dynasty and slot in wherever with good buffs.

-Personally I'm a fan of mephrit, esp. with the veil of darkness and the ability to pump 40 AP-2 guass flayer shots or 20 AP-3 guass blaster shots in the other guy's face and just delete something. Sautekh isn't bad, as it has the CP regen warlord trait. If you have gunline stuff (dday arks, etc) then get Nihilakh, and there's a RAW interpretation that makes nihilakh deathmarks reroll when they teleport to intercept, if you feel like being a rules lawyer (hasn't been FAQ'ed yet). The choppy traits certainly aren't bad, either, but I just don't know enough about them to be sure.

-C'tan are much better now. See my must-have comment.

-Forgeworld I'm not sure about. The new superheavy that's been previewed though is certainly enticing, and will probably be very good. Full-fledged Pylons though are good, but also a couple hundred pounds as i recall.

 

Overall, I think that you'll enjoy the new codex. Welcome back to the Tomb, Frostglaive. Perhaps you will commit your forces to the Necrons for ETL? We could certainly use you, and you seem to have some stuff around to paint.

[Arachnofiend]

I generally agree with what Lenoch has to say. For FW stuff, the Tesseract Ark is really good but fills an identical role with the Doomsday Ark, which is also really good. The Sentry Pylon (the little one) serves as our one source of dedicated anti-air. Up to you on how useful you feel that would be.