How To: Necrons (inc. why Monos shouldn't be used)

Well, our first link back to the H-O forums! I’ve generally been impressed with the content and expression of ideas/replies compared to Warseer/Dakka/etc and I think Chumb as gone around ruffling a few feathers but let’s pluck the whole false robot chicken. This is of course the monolith! From the Necron codex. Yes it exists. I’ve always liked the Necron models & fluff (walking robots, seriously), especially the green glow stick (I’d prefer blue...) and Destroyer bodies. So on H-O it was asked what units the guy should buy to start collecting a Necron force and Chumb said no Monos which made someone unhappy. Let’s get to it then...

Haven’t done anything on Necrons for this blog yet so this is a first. Chumb has written what I assume is a decent Necron review here (I skimmed the important units and it seemed right :P) so I recommend you read that. Since I haven’t done anything on Necrons before, I’ll give a brief run-down of their army. Necrons have always been hampered by Phase Out, it’s a stupid rule but like Kill Points, it’s there. WBB is a sort of de-buffed and yet buffed FNP but can be made much better w/a Res Orb and Tomb Spyder. This means natural high toughness is important. Necrons really suffer in 5th edition combat due to low I and no fearless/stubborn. Necrons also suffer in 5th due to the reduced damage of glancing hits. In previous editions Necrons could glance vehicles to death but the amount of firepower needed now is significantly higher. This is very, very important for army construction. Now many people will argue for the Monolith but let’s look at army construction for Necrons. They really only have one list variant, so we’ll go through that and explain why the Mono isn’t used or useful at the end.

With these concepts in mind here are the units that jump to mind as good and “must haves.” Destroyers, Heavy Destroyers, Tomb Spyders, Necron lord w/Orb. Destroyers are T5 which means even w/o an Orb, they’ll be rolling WBB unless in close combat or against S10 (how common is that?). Add in they also offer fast platforms with the only anti-tank guns (3 shot S6 & 1 shot S9) and these guys are must haves in any army. Tomb Spyders and Lord w/Orb also enhance the WBB process and overcome its major drawbacks. Spyders in particular allows units to be wiped out in combat and come back (much better than the Monolith’s ability). Spyders are also capable of pooping out Scarabs to act as screens w/the Spyders & Lord backing it up.

However, you obviously need Troops & some improved anti-infantry. Necrons are generally bad at combat and we want to focus our FA & HS slots on Destroyers/Spyders. Scarabs are certainly a usable entry for screening, delaying and annoyance. Disruption fields can severely add to this annoyance against vehicles. Wraiths were some of the earliest units with a 3++ (it’s the new black) but are combat units and not fantastic at it even though they are impressively survivable. Flayed Ones and Pariahs also fall into this list of being combat units (and pariahs not Necrons at that). The C’Tan are ridiculously expensive and will die to massed firepower whilst taking a huge chunk of non-Necron points out of an army. This leaves us with Warriors & Immortals (Monoliths covered later).

Warriors have to be taken and are essentially Marines w/guass weapons and even worse combat ability + no special/heavy weapons. They’ll do nicely for anti-infantry though and even though they are Troops, they can let the more dangerous units keep firing as acting as bait. Immortals are like buffed Warriors abusing WBB w/T5 again and getting a bigger, more anti-infantry based gun. Whilst they can offer some suppression fire as well due to S5 & Guass status, Immortals are quite expensive and good at taking out small infantry units.

This means we are left Necron Lord, Immortals, Warriors, Spyders, Scarabs, Destroyers & Heavy Destroyers as the options for a good Necron army. Here is a good example done by Stelek and how to use the army. I generally go for more bodies over the Scarabs and rely on the extra Warrior bodies as screens but Scarabs are a good unit and shouldn’t be overlooked. So let’s take a look at the Mono now.

We’ve already established how important the H. Destroyers & Tomb Spyders are for the Necron army but what does the Monolith provide? Guass arc = meh anti-infantry due to max of 6 shots, reliance on lots of units clumped around Monolith and spread out amongst units. Focus fire is a much better option. Particle whip is either a S9 AP3 Ord blast (not really scary, how many similar shots do IG put out?) or teleport. The teleport adds some mobility and increases WBB joy but 235 pts? Not really. The Ord blast is okay at anti-infantry but really not good anti-tank which you need if you’re losing H. Destroyers. The main selling point for the Mono is the awesome survivability it has but due to the Phase Out rule, most people will ignore the Monolith and phase your army out or just take its puny attacks. For the Monolith to be impressive, it needs more firepower.

So anyone got some cool Necrons to show? Won’t really cover them more until the new codex is released but if anyone has some requests or models would love to hear/see them. After all, fighting robots = win. Check here for some lols from stjohn’s blog.