Necron Unit of the Week Series: Canoptek Wraiths

[NTaW]

NECRON UNIT OF THE WEEK SERIES

Welcome to the Necron Unit of the Week series for 10th edition! Each week will see a different unit from the Codex, Imperial Armour, and Legends datasheets featured for discussion. The goal here is to discover and chronicle tactics for the featured unit so that new players and veterans alike can use this database to inform their strategies with the wider knowledge of the forum. The game of Warhammer 40,000 is ever changing though, and as the rules evolve throughout the edition everyone should feel free to return to older threads with the release of new FAQs/errata, changes in points values, information gathered from games played, and of course the Codex being released. These threads are also great places for newcomers to the Necrons to post their questions about tactics related to the featured units.

Please note that the purpose of this series is not to lament what the current meta deems “ineffective”, or that another unit “does it better”. Those units will get their own threads.

 

This week’s unit is:

Canoptek Wraiths

 

What role do they fill in your list/strategy?

Do you take units of 3 or 6?

Do you take any wargear options?

Are there any worthwhile character auras to consider?

How useful is the Wraith Form ability?

 

 

Series Index

[NTaW]

I've been really enjoying Wraiths for tying up enemy units with their resiliency. Despite having decent attack potential I haven't had them pulling models off the board very quickly but their toughness, wounds, and invulnerable save makes them a wonderful speedbump. I haven't been able to leverage their movement ability, but am content with my unit of 6 operating on my army's vanguard to intercept deep striking units or jump up when assault units are approaching.

[NTaW]

How has everyone been enjoying Wraiths since the Codex was released? Personally I look forward to attaching a Technomancer and using them in either an Awakened Dynasty or Canoptek Court Detachment. They've never had much damage output but with the Cryptek regenerating wounds and giving a 5+ FnP I think they'll really get stuck in (barring mutinous dice, of course). With Necron combat I've always considered it a war of attrition, where I more expect to tie up a unit indefinitely and if I destroy them it's a bonus.

[Prot]

When the codex first dropped, I saw the 'regular' hyper competitive Youtubers, and player base in general really hyping these.

 

Luckily I got mine ordered in well before the super hype train started. I just wanted 6 for my own Canoptek court. However, I noted that all the competitive types soon realized this wasn't a great idea.

 

What I've noticed is what's been already mentioned. They simply don't kill very much. So this puts them in a tarpit role. And they're very good at it, but the Technomancer is extremely important; if he gets sniped out for whatever reason, this diminishes the role substantially.

 

I like one squad, but they are replaceable. They feel fluffy and cool at the same time, but if your opponent isn't aware of them, you'll get much more mileage out of them. I've had smarter players just let them tarpit a troop squad and make a wide circle around them. 

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

On 2/12/2024 at 5:19 PM, NTaW said:

How has everyone been enjoying Wraiths since the Codex was released? Personally I look forward to attaching a Technomancer and using them in either an Awakened Dynasty or Canoptek Court Detachment. They've never had much damage output but with the Cryptek regenerating wounds and giving a 5+ FnP I think they'll really get stuck in (barring mutinous dice, of course). With Necron combat I've always considered it a war of attrition, where I more expect to tie up a unit indefinitely and if I destroy them it's a bonus.

I played a game of Crusade, 1500 pts, against a mate's Dark Eldar, in a canoptek Court. Gave em beamers to go with the coils they're modeled with, and stuck a technomancer with Dimensional Sanctum in with them. Deployed them on the center objective, forced him to try and deal with them. He managed to get them down to 2 models plus Techno at the end of his turn one. By the end of the game they were back to full strength. 3+/4++/5+++ and reanimate plus heal is a HELL of a thing to try and shift, especially with 24 wounds. They didn't kill much, because most of their melee opponents were DEldar boats, but they darn sure tarpitted him like crazy. Them plus Scarabs tied stuff up enough long enough for my Teslamortals with Plasmancer to absolutely ANNIHILATE anything that came within 24 inches. And my opponent was FULLY aware of what they could do, but he just didn't have much of a choice BUT to deal with them when they were occupying the center of the board with short-edge deployment zones--they literally threatened the entire midboard, even on a 4x6 board (since both my opponent and myself refuse to play on 44x60). He tried shooting them to death, but that didn't work, and then he tried meleeing them, but that didn't work well ENOUGH and DEldar melee units are SQUISHY, which is exactly what whipcoils are good against. Dunno if he'd have managed to wipe them in a 2000 point game, or if they'd still survived (given their poison weapons are Anti-INFANTRY, and wraiths are Beasts), but they were definitely whittled down.

 

I'm very lucky that I've had them for a few editions now, and haven't had to try and compete for them.