Necron Unit of the Week Series: Illuminor Szeras

[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:

Illuminor Szeras

 

How are you using Szeras in your army?

Do you prefer Warriors or Immortals for the Mechanical Augmentation ability?

Do you find the Illuminor to be tough enough for combat?

Is there a Detachment that benefits Szeras more than others?

 

 

Series Index

[Bonzi]

I love the model.  It was such a stunning glow up of his previous incarnation.  I wish GW would take liberties like this when they refresh other OG models instead of holding so close to looks and poses of originals (looking at you Dante).

 

I love a Necron army built around a core of hard to shift infantry and Sezeras delivers a great mix of defense and offensive buffs.  I've never one had his aura buff expansion kick in when it would matter so I consider that part of his rules a dud.  The only Detachment that really helps him is Canoptek because at least he gets rerolls, but I think he has a role in any detachment that favors battle line infantry.

[N1SB]

Boarding Actions is popular in our meta, and if it is in yours, Illuminor Szeras is an absolute top tier meta-pick.

 

The idea is Boarding Actions is an Infantry game with some other units (like Wraiths, Scarabs), but not Vehicles.  Szeras is practically like a Dreadnought sheerly by his statline, like his 8 Toughness and 9 Wounds...then he's got an 4++ Invuln save AND a 4+++ Feel No Pain.  He's like a loophole around the normal rules.

 

Szeras is not the only one like that...iirc you can take the likes of Abaddon and the returned Primarchs...but he is priced much more competitively, 175 points at this time whereas the others I mentioned are around 300.  This lets you build a complete list with Szeras to actually play Objectives rather than be a novelty.

 

The main reason not to take him is that it's so unsportsman-like, he kinda spoils the game for others.