Necron Unit of the Week Series: C'Tan Shard of the Nightbringer

[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:

C'Tan Shard of the Nightbringer

 

How are you using the Nightbringer in your lists?

How durable is it, does it need support from other units?

Are there any Detachment or Stratagem rules of specific use?

How useful has the Drain Life ability been?

 

 

Series Index

[N1SB]

On 1/16/2024 at 5:04 AM, NTaW said:

How are you using the Nightbringer in your lists?

 

I use him alongside other C'tan, only because my experience taught me never to take just 1 of a big unit like this, or a fancy Dreadnought or Tank, because taking just 1 makes it an obvious target.  If I were to recommend to people at the Warhammer Store, it'd be Nightbringer is the 1st choice as he's generally the MVP, the Voidbringer probably 2nd or a Transcendent C'tan.  This is a personal preference, because...

 

...the competitive Necron player in our Meta does ONLY take the Nightbringer.  In his words, it's a guided missile.

 

In both our cases, the Nightbringer is used to target whichever is the biggest threat in the opponent's arsenal.  The Void Dragon is Anti-Vehicle?  The Nightbringer is Anti-Everything  He's such a potent threat that he'll prevent the opponent's best unit from going all out on your army, force him to play more defensively.

 

It's a case of offense being the best defense.  That said...

 

On 1/16/2024 at 5:04 AM, NTaW said:

How durable is it, does it need support from other units?

How useful has the Drain Life ability been?

 

Expect to "hide" the 1st turn in good Intervening Terrain, don't rush the Nightbringer out in the open, but otherwise he's very durable.

 

The best thing about him, and why my friend fields him alone, is that he doesn't need much support.  Just a reminder, in addition to being really hard to Wound with his high Toughness, 4++ Invuln Save and now a 5+++ FNP, he also has Reanimation Protocols.  So those Wounds your opponent sweated to inflict, he can heal back.

Although I use a 2nd C'tan out of principle, the Nightbringer is such a MVP just his looming threat forces the opponent to take more care.

 

Drain Life is pretty useful and not a gimmick.  If you're bringing Nightbringer, even though he's probably worth his points in most match-ups, he does cost a lot, so you'll likely be outnumbered generally.  Drain Life kinda turns your opponent's superiority of numbers against him, like my friend said, a guided missile.

 

On 1/16/2024 at 5:04 AM, NTaW said:

Are there any Detachment or Stratagem rules of specific use?

 

Anything that'll help the Nighrbringer's speed is helpful.  We've got the Hypercrypt Detachment so he could Hypercreep on people, but if we get something new to use in the upcoming Pariah Nexus Crusade books that help with maneuvering him, I'd be open to that.

 

On that note and a final thing, the Nightbringer has a small "footprint".  He's like a 40mm base for what's basically a super duper Daemon Prince.  I was just looking at some Kill Team terrain at the store this weekend and he could comfortably fit on walkways even bigger Infantry units, like a Space Marine Centurion, has trouble fitting.

 

The Q1 2024 Balance Dataslate and Field Munitions Manual came out with no rules or points or anything nerf on the Nightbringer.  Our Meta's considering 6 Wraiths + 1 Technomancer as an alternative option, but I'm keeping Nightbringer in my list, usually the MVP of every game I have.

 

Big damage in a tiny package.