New to Necrons

[Madmark666]

Hey gang, I'm starting a small necron force (probably ~1000 points) and just looking for tips from anyone with some experience.

 

I'm planning to play a lot of zone mortalis games against narrative armies so I don't need to be hyper competitive. I like the idea of Nephrekh dynasty rules and favor immortals as troops based on model preference. I was thinking of leading a battalion with an overlord and cryptek and some lychgurd bodyguards. I'll definitely be running wraiths and some scarabs, and even though they don't seem to be rated highly was thinking of a pair of canoptek spyders. In general I like the theme of the elite force with a horde of canoptek servants.

 

Any tips or necron life lessons would be appreciated.

[Tyriks]

Welcome! 

 

I know you already touched on this, but I'm not sure how competitive "not hyper competitive" is: Spyders are bad right now.  They don't really do anything that other units can't typically do better.  So, I'd say if you really like the model and want to bring some, try out just one before you buy a bunch.  I like the model but seeing it just sit on the table throughout the game until your opponent deigns to kill it is not my idea of fun (and I also don't play very competitively).

 

Immortals are a good choice - the model is far superior, I think, and much more fun to build.  Tesla is usually the way to go for them (with My Will Be Done it's mathematically stronger in almost every situation, even without AP), but I still like to bring a mix just for variety.  

 

To make the best suggestions, I need to ask - what kind of things do you find fun in a game?  For example, I like bringing Triarch Praetorians even though they aren't great just because I love fast, punchy units. 

[Madmark666]

Thanks for the reply Nemesor.

 

So regarding level competitiveness I'd say it's really low in my local group. If someone is struggling to compete other players will tailor lists to not be as heavy handed. Overall a very cooperative group and more narrative focused than anything else.

 

I've been playing ultramarines since the beginning of 8th edition and am looking for a change in playstyle and general theme. I definitely enjoy my games more when I play my army "in character" so I'm hoping to be a cold calculating villain as a necron overlord. What I'm hoping for is a mostly foot army that still has some ability to be mobile and some units that can also take and deal a little punch in close combat.

 

I'm also glad to hear necron immortals are a good choice. They've been the troop unit that I find most inspiring. Was thinking of doing 3 Tesla squads and 1 gauss. Is a 5 man squad viable or have you had more luck with larger squads? It's hard for me to fully gauge if they'll be able to survive long enough to take advantage of reanimation protocols.

[Tyriks]

That's good, that sounds a lot like the people in my group I enjoy playing against.  We usually share our lists ahead of time to make sure there aren't any accidental bad matchups.

 

A lot of people see RP as kind of a trap.  It seems good and you try to build a list for it with lots of Ghost Arks and Crypteks... and the unit gets wiped easily.  Our most durable troops are probably Warriors, but 20 T4 4+ wounds aren't that many.  I've lost full Warrior squads in a single turn more often than not when I bring them, so I stopped planning on RP at all.  If I get it, it's a bonus, but you can't pin your plan on your opponent making bad choices (which in most cases they have to do to leave a unit alive).  

 

That said, I do like larger units typically because of MWBD.  +1 to hit on 10 Tesla Immortals is a LOT of hits (usually you get more hits than there were shots) so it's a lot of fun to see.  But ultimately it gets expensive, so I usually bring some small squads and some big ones.

 

For mobility, the easiest options are the Deceiver or the Veil of Darkness relic.  Our transports are, generally speaking, at weird disadvantages compared to others (Ghost Arks can only take minimum sized Warrior units, making them supremely useless as a transport, and Night Scythes / Monoliths are very easy to destroy, meaning the unit inside is lost unless you spend cp or have redundancy).  The Deceiver is a lot of fun, I think, but not as strong as the Veil (generally).  If you like fast and punchy definitely try Praetorians.  If you play against marines or sisters, they're AWESOME.  Against armies like Orks they's expensive and ineffective, but against Power Armor they can do a lot of damage.  I run mine with Void Blades and Particle Casters because I was too annoyed trying to build them with Rods  Note though they don't have Dynastic Codes or keywords so they can't benefit from pretty much anything other units bring to the table, so no MWBD or Crypteks keeping them up.  If you're shooting for 1000 points, 10 Praetorians might be kind of overkill, but I can't really say.  I did bring a unit of 10 to a 1000 point game once recently and they seemed unstoppable, but the rest of my army more or less evaporated in the first two turns so I am not sure how indicative that match was.

 

I'd also say check out the Catacomb Command Barge.  It is like an Overlord with more speed, higher Toughness, Quantum Shielding, and some decent firepower.  I love running one with some Praetorians or Lychguard because it's really hard to kill and can carry its weight in close combat a bit better than an Overlord on foot as a result.  Again, not the strongest option, but fun.  It's like the 40k equivalent of running your enemy over in a golf cart.

[BaconCouch]

Welcome new Necron Lord.  My zone mortalis rules are rusty...but 

Necrons probably like zone mortalis. We don't tend to have a lot of long range, and tend to thrive in the 12-24 inch range bracket.
Big blocks of fearless warriors with a cryptek to give them a 5++ makes them stick around a long time. They are worth consideration if you want to lean into that synergy. At 1k, opponents will likely find it a challenge to remove them. Otherwise, as everyone has said, Telsa immortals are basically plug-and-play, and will mulch anything that doesn't have a 2+ save.

Regarding defensive counter charge units, Lychguard are good at that  (They are also some of my favorite Necron models). I find that with shields, they tend to slowly grind through targets, while with scythes, they kill a thing, and then get shot to pieces. YMMV.  If you want a melee unit with speed, wraiths can, and will be the way to go. a Native 12 inch move, more attacks, 2 damage attacks, and the ability to move across (and through) terrain and models as if they were not there would probably be invaluable.

[NTaW]

Ah, Zone Mortalis. It's been a while since I've played, my experience was in 7th with only a game played in 8th on it just using 8th rules, but I seem to recall seeing a restriction on using units with the FLY keyword. Are there any unit restrictions you're under in the type of games you're playing?

 

Wraiths will be a star unit for you. Their ability to move through terrain without movement penalty is excellent for getting around in a ZM setting. I'd also give a shout-out to Lychguard with sword & shield because they are a very reliable unit and if/when they get caught out in the open the Dispersion Shield Amplification stratagem comes in very handy. I'd say that two Cryptek would be a good fit to lead your force; one with a chronometron to stay with your infantry and one with a cloak to advance with your Wraiths (assuming you take Wraiths and assuming you can take units with FLY).

 

Just to toss out some point values, 3x 5 Immortals and two Crypteks as I've mentioned is 405. Lychguard and Wraiths are expensive at 280 and 252 points respectively for max sized units, I'd probably choose one or the other at 1k depending on how much Canoptek gribblies you want to include.

[Emicus]

Wraiths are absolutely mad in Zone Mortalis. Phasing through terrain is gold!

[Madmark666]

Thanks for all the input everyone. Based on what people are saying I'm ditching the canoptek spyders in favor of more wraiths for now and will add spyders when I start to scale the army up. I've already got 5 sword and board lychguard so I may double up on them since I love the models.

 

Regarding Zone Mortalis, I wasn't very clear but my group just plays standard 8th Ed rules and often creates our own missions, so we'll probably create some good necron narratives to place them in the depths the of a hive city.

 

I've also doubled down on immortals so I can run small or large squads. Sounds like large squads with Tesla can really lay down the pain.

 

Thanks again everyone! Can't wait to get these models painted and get out of the house for a few games.