Sezeras & Friends WIP

[Bonzi]

Just a gallery of my current efforts on painting the Necrons I have in anticipation of the Necrons to come. Color scheme is because 1). I wanted to try the new contrast paints, 2). I didn't want to do metallics, 3) I'm lazy and don't super enjoy painting Necrons so I wanted a very easy and straight forward pallet that would put speed over outcome.

Sezeras and a 3D printed objective marker I asked my friend to make. Sezeras is the first Necron model to make me regret having a simple color scheme. It's amazingly atmospheric model and easily one of the best character updates that GW has done in recent memory. My scheme doesn't do it justice.

Let me know your thoughts.

[Tyriks]

Looks better than mine so far!

[Marshal Loss]

Damn dude those are some funky Necrons. Very memorable, nicely done

[MithrilForge]

I do love the yellow on the power weapon 

 

Mithril

[Dread]

Wow, I like it. You got contrast paint-a-palooza going great. The base is really cool, wish I had seen this 10+ years ago, I'da stole that idea. Great stuff!

 

I'm getting him later this week, excitment!

Edited July 8, 2020 by Dread

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Impressive work. The red-and-orange are unexpected colors on a Necron; do they symbolize anything, e.g., fire, blood, devotion to Khorne (as unlikely as that may be), or Aztec culture?

[Bonzi]

Impressive work. The red-and-orange are unexpected colors on a Necron; do they symbolize anything, e.g., fire, blood, devotion to Khorne (as unlikely as that may be), or Aztec culture?

The origin of the scheme was a clay/terracotta aztec sort of theme. There was a fluff blurb about Necrons being made from a number of materials because their science could rework anything into impossible durability and strength. I liked the idea of a dynasty heralding from a jungle world with no mineral wealth or diversity, just jungle and clay. So I wanted my dynasty to look like the red orange color of cheap clay flower pots. I wanted them to look like a terracotta army with that blue green glaze tied with yellow gold energy which is a very aztecesque color pallet.

 

The Gryphound Orange is a bit more orange than I would like but the other closest colors were too brown or too red. The nice thing is the contrast paints on flat surfaces make a very mottled and uneven look which is actually fitting for a pot made of inconsistent material or glaze.

 

I liked the idea that Necron science was so advanced that they could basically turn mud into unkillable bodies that could slay the old ones, break the Ctan, and give the galaxy a reason to fear.

Edited July 8, 2020 by Bonzi

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Alchemic transmutation (changing the clay into metal) may be technology the Necrons have; the terracotta color is probably a coating the Necrons applied to prevent rust and corrosion (which Daemons of Nurgle can inflict upon Necrons, if the Daemons are powerful enough).

[Bonzi]

Some additional pics of my progress. Some of these have been shared before on other threads.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Beautiful work, even as WIPs. I love how vibrant the colors are.

[Dread]

Would you please take a picture of illuminor Scezar from the back? I'm having a hard time figuring the instructions out on this guy. Thanks in advance.

[Bonzi]

Would you please take a picture of illuminor Scezar from the back? I'm having a hard time figuring the instructions out on this guy. Thanks in advance.

Sorry for the delay Dread, haven't been to the hobby table in a few days. Hope this helps.

[Dread]

Thanks so much, major great help. I'll post up pics soon. Thanks again.

[Doghouse]

Those look really nice, I especially like the bright colours.

[Get Thokt]

Curious to know. How do people plan on transporting Szeras to their tabletop games?

[Bonzi]

The time of the Chopcrons is here! Soo many more to do.

[Dread]

So true. I've got 3 built and 3 more to build. The models are amazing, let's hope they play well. Again, love the colors!

[Debauchery101]

Have you ever tried using a shiny or chrome undercoat before using the contrasts? I did it for my corpse grinders and plan to do it for the new necrons

[Bonzi]

Have you ever tried using a shiny or chrome undercoat before using the contrasts? I did it for my corpse grinders and plan to do it for the new necrons

I have seen the effect and it is fantastic for making a candycoated metallics look and it would look fantastic on a Necron army. For myself, I set a goal of making a 100% non-metalic Necron army so it wasn't something I tried.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

I like how the "Chopcron" looks in such bright and dynamic colors.

[Bonzi]

Well I got my first game of 9th Ed in with the Necrons. Tried out some different things to see what would stick. Game was 2K vs Salamanders playing Eternal War Scorched Earth? mission.

Mephrit Dynasty:

Command Barge: Tesla cannon, voltaic staff, merciless tyrant

Skorpeth Lord: sepitemral weave

Plasmancer

5 Immortals

5 Immortals

10 Warriors: gauss reaper

-Ghost Ark

3 Skorpeth: plasmacyt

3 Skorpeth: plasmacyt

Triarch Stalker: twin gauss

Triarch Stalker: heat ray

Triarch Stalker: heat ray

5 Scarabs

Doomsday Ark

Anni Barge: gauss cannon

Doomscythe

Vs

Salamanders

Bladguard Captain +2Str, +2T warlord trait

Bladguard Lieutenant

3 Bladguard

Bladeguard Ancient

-Impulsor 4++ shield

5 Intercessors

5 Intercessors

5 Tactical Marines

5 Aggressors: flamers

Relic Sicaran: punisher and 3 heavy bolters

3 Eradicators

Repulsor

Repulsor

It was our first game of the edition and it was mostly to throw a bunch of stuff at the wall and see what stuck. We both dug into our vehicle armory and units from Indomintus mostly. We both picked Bring it Down for one secondary. I choose raise the banners for my second while he chose the Raze secondary from the mission.

My friend called it quits at the bottom of the fourth turn when it was apparent that I had the game in hand and nothing he could do would change it. We ironically both of us had the same strategy of running our close combat up the flanks and letting our armor and troops slug it out for control of the center.

The cliff notes version is that Quantum Shielding carried the day, limiting and reducing all his antiarmor choices. He had tons of punisher and onslaught Gatling cannon shooting but he never had enough in one place to bring down my key units. I ended up losing one Stalker on a sacrifice play and his Eradicators swatted my Doomscythe out of the sky turn two after it had basically one shot one of his Repulsors. I flooded the center of the board with Stalkers, Barges and the Ghost Ark, trusting to saturation and shielding to carry me through and it did.

The big letdown units? Skorpeth Lord and Skorpeth Destroyers. My friend had a much stronger flank strategy than I did and the only thing that saved me was absolutely impossible dice rolling on my Lord's saves. I rolled something like 8 of 10 4++ saves to keep him alive when he should have just died. The Lord killed his Captain and took 6 wounds off the Impulsor. One squad of Destroyers killed his Bladeguard, the Ancient, and the rest of the Impulsor. The other squad did nothing because I played them foolishly and failed two charges with them.

The Surprise Winners:

#1. Reaper Warriors + Ghost Ark. Did huge work and exceeded expectations. I was in the camp that Reapers were garbage but man do they work if you get them to point blank range and hold them back until you can drop the hammer. Broadsides from the Ark and the Warriors swept two Intercessor squads off their objectives and guaranteed that I was going to get 15 points a turn on primary objectives starting turn 3. If I didn't hate building and painting Arks I would probably get a second.

#2. Plasmancer. Another unit I was completely unimpressed with who played way harder than I thought. I left him in the back near my Doomsday Ark as a bodyguard and let him potshot at all the units fighting for the central objectives. Of the 12 dice I rolled for his mortal wounds ability I succeeded on 11. With his shooting he accounted for something like 3 Aggressors and 2? Eradicators. The Aggressors were getting buffed with a lot of damage reduction strats but the mortals just ate right through.

The Stalkers and Doomsday Ark were the solid performers I knew they would be. If you can swamp the board with mobile Quantum Shielding you can dominate the center of the board very effectively with Necrons.

Silly pictures of the battle.

A Stalker very carefully charging only the Repulsor because I knew he would use strats to kill me with overwatch if I declared against the Aggressor. The stalker legs are still moveable so I adjusted it to look like he's reaching out to just touch the Repulsor.

A picture close to the end of the game.

Edited August 1, 2020 by Bonzi

[Bonzi]

Another 9th Ed prep battle today. I used my previous list but flipped out the Anhialation Barge for 3 Tomb Blades. I also made my Skorpeth Destroyer Lord, Mr. Tickles, my warlord and gave him Nightmare Shroud and the -1 damage warlord trait.

 

This game was against an aggressive Blood Angel Primaris army. We played no-mans land and he took Attrition and Engage on All Fronts for his secondaries while I took Character Killing and Domination for mine. I won the game but it did last until the last turn and I didn't really pull away until the fourth and fifth turn. By that point I had removed or reduced all his character escorting units to the point where I started the unrestricted targeting and killing of his 5 characters which gave me a big point swing. It would have probably been closer down to the final turn but in the 3rd round he failed almost all the charges he had set up which let me reposition and counter punch.

 

Once again I played my Skorpeth foolishly, hanging them out to dry by stupid positioning and over aggression. My Skorpeth did serve to bait out all of his close combat heavy hitters and dismount all his characters but it wasn't through any great planning on my part. I think all told my Destroyers and Lord accounted for one blade guard and most of the three impulsors so about a break even performance this time rather than dead weight.

 

My MVPs:

 

Reaper Warriors + Ghost Ark. This combo hits hard and is really good at midfield objective control. These guys got murdered in the end, but they definitely gave better than they got, accounting for a partial kill on a Primaris Death Company squad, most of the Outriders Squad, all of an Intercessor squad and a Judicator who they beat to death in close combat.

 

Doomscythe. I killed the Eradicators first thing this game which let this guy fly unopposed for the entire game. He sniped characters and reduced a lot of squads. These guys are very strong, but only if you can suppress or draw enemy fire away from them.

 

Triarch Stalkers. Their new mobility and durability makes them prime midfield control units. These guys make sure my backfield units stays safe by making the battle all about the center of the board. They are decently killy but their biggest value is that they guarantee the rest of my army can do their jobs.

 

Honorable Mention:

 

Plasmancer. He's just delightfully stupid to use. He's not threatening enough to draw attention but he's always there stripping wounds off of models and finishing off the crumbs. He shouldn't work but he does.

 

The irony of this whole list is that I made it because Reanimation Protocols are total garbage. I made a list that doesn't rely on silver tide and because I did, my Immortals and Warriors are living longer and doing more than they ever did when they were the heart of my army. I play with no reanimation buffs and invest no points or effort into it and suddenly it works better for me than it ever did because my vehicle units draw so much fire my infantry gets mostly ignored.

[MithrilForge]

Thanks for the detailed bat reps !, I really like your two storey building on the right of the pic , looks cool.

Glad you won your games!

 

Cheers, Mithril

[Urkh]

I really appreciate your goal of a 100% non metallic necron army. I want to do that as well, and seeing yours makes me more willing to do so. I will be going in a completely different look though,so we won't be similar in any other way hahaha

[Bonzi]

Played another 2K game this weekend vs a cool Scion Air Wing army. He had three Valkyries, two Vultures, and three Taurox Primes plus assorted Scion units.

 

It was a quick game as he called the game after the end of my third turn when it was obvious he wasn't going to be able to stay alive or score enough points by the end of the game. He's a younger player playing a very cool but high skill lists so the game was mostly a trial run for him. I had dialed back my list and run a more balanced / silver tide style list but.

 

I ran:

 

Indomintus Overlord

Sezeras + 2 Cryptothralls

Royal Warden

 

10 Gauss Immortals

5 Tesla Immortals

5 Tesla Immortals

10 Flayer Warriors

10 Reaper Warriors

-Ghost Ark

 

Gauss Triarch Stalker

Heat Ray Triarch Stalker

Reanimator Walker

 

X3 Wraith

X6 Scarab

 

Doomsday Ark

Anni Barge

 

My takeaway is that Sezeras and Cryptothralls are a lot of fun but at the moment I don't see his role in serious lists. His buff rules are random but fun, I buffed a 10 Immortal squad to T5 and a 5 Immortal squad to T5 as well which was pretty clutch, but after that there was nothing close enough to buff and it wasn't worth running across the table to get to more units. I just turned him and the Thralls loose and let them turn Scions into meatpuppets, which they did very very well.

 

The Warden didn't see much use as my opponent didn't have melee units he was trying to tie me up with.

 

The Overlord handed out MWBD and failed to wound a Vulture with his arrow and failed to wound a Taurox with his Glaive.

 

The Reanimator takes the cake for new dead weight unit in the Necron arsenal, being only slightly more useful than the current Tomb Spider. He helped Reanimate two Immortals, he put one wound on a Valkyrie with shooting and stepped on one Scion in close combat. I LOVE the look of this model, but his buff is too restrictive to be generally useful and he is waaaaay too easy to kill if he ever was in a position to actually be useful. He survived my whole game because A) he was no danger to my opponent and almost no use to me, and B) I made crazy lucky saves against the attacks that did target him. For real, he took one wound the whole game but krak missiles and hotshot volleygun attacks kept bouncing off his armor on 5+ saves.

 

My Stalkers and Doomsday Ark carried my whole list on their backs. It was a fun and funny game but it did highlight the current failings of the Necron lists as it revolves around Reanimation Protocols.

 

The most noteworthy aspect of the game was that I would have rather played my opponents list than my own. Running a more bland and classic version of a Necron army lists made my Vostroyan and Blood Angels armies cry out to me to be played.

Edited August 23, 2020 by Bonzi