Yes, I'm still alive and as Kirby doesn't fire inactive writers I'm even able to write something, yay! So, Necrons, not a surprise. Everybody seems to have ideas and opinions on them and I'm not any different. A lot of focus on Imhotek, other SC's, Scarabs + Spyders, Night fight and Telsa weapons so far. I'm gonna look at another thing possible in the codex: AV13 spam.
I assume everybody knows now what Quantam shielding does, but to be sure: It gives vehicles (who have the upgrade, duh) +2 AV untill they receive their first penetrating hit. +2 AV simply means AV13 as all the vehicles in the Necron codex who have this upgrade are AV11.
AV13 should be read as "hard to kill at range". S7 can only glance it (and cannot remove the Quantum shielding) whilst S8 glances as much as it penetrates. Ah yes, Necrons ignore stunned and shaken a lot of the time too, that's good. At short range (read: melta range and assault range) a high AV matters less. But as Necrons excel at short range shooting... not hard to see the potential here right?
Now, once you established that you want AV13 spam it's not that hard to get an idea about the list setup. It almost writes itself! Let's go through the slots and pick our AV13 from it:
HQ: The Overlord, including several SC's, has acces to a Command Barge. Most of the SC's have potential, but as I'm gonna try to fit in a lot of AV13 I'm gonna go with a relatively cheap Overlord for now. 90 for a Lord, 80 for a Barge and 10 points for the obligatory Warscythe. 180 points. Gives me a fast...anti-tank combat vehicle? It even has a cute little gun. Oke, sounds good.
Court: Even without looking at the list in total, I know I want a Solar Pulse. Fine, 55 points spend here.
Troops: Can we get AV13 here? Yes we can and it's called the Ghost Ark. What is it? It's.... Hmm... An open topped, non-fast, skimmer which only Necron Warriors can take. 115 points? Damn. Is it any good? Quite a few people seem do dislike it, I don't: It's tough for a transport, the unit can shoot from it as its open-topped and its got the firepower of 10 relentless Warriors itself(!). That's honestly not a bad amount of Dakka for a transport. And yeah, it has the 'bring d3 Warriors back' rule too, which I'm not too hot on but with reanimation protocols can make Warriors decently hard to remove. However, this implies you want to take big Warrior units (meh) and plan on being outside of your transport (meh).
Oke, I'll take 4 please. Min-sized Warriors units obviously, we want to spam AV13 remember? 180 points a piece, so 720 points spent. This gives us 4 AV13 vehicles, 20 Scoring bodies (protected by Av13) and..... 60 Gauss flayers which makes up for decent Anti-infantry and some desperate glancing goodness.
Elites: Only AV13 here is the Stalker. What is it? For 150 points you get an open-topped Walker. Oke, it does carry a Heavy 2 Multi-melta, has Move through cover (good, really) and is still AV13... Hmm... Good enough to take I'd say, shouldn't be hard to give these cover and with Night Fight these things should be able to see some action fairly often. Supplements our AV13 spam too ;)
I'll take 2 for now, 300 points spent and we got some good Anti-tank here.
Fast Attack: No AV13 here. Waaitttt.... so arguably the hottest contested slot in the codex I will leave unused? Something goes wrong here. Well who knows, I might have some leftover points for some Scarabs.
Heavy Support: Annihilation Barge, Doomsday Ark and Monolith Available here. So far we have a lot of anti-infantry shots, some heavy Anti-tank and some close ranged Anti-tank... Monolith wont fit this list, so I'll pass on him. Doomsday Ark would give us some quality Ordnance, but at a hefty price. The Annihilation Barge on the other hand gives us S7, meaning light Anti-tank which I lack, and as it's Tesla so it's decent Anti-infantry too. 90 points a piece? Sold, I'll take 2 please. 180 points spent.
We're at this now:
Overlord; Warscythe + Barge 180
1 Cryptek; Hod + Pulse 55
4x 5 Warriors; Ghost Arc 720
2x Stalker 300
2x Anni 180
That's 9 AV13 vehicles and all bases more or less covered. 315 points left. *ponders* We could easily getting another 2 vehicles, by taking a 3rd Annihilation Barge and either a stalker or a Lord. What I miss though is some more ranged Anti-tank and we have no Ap2 either (which I find annoying when going up against things like Broadsides, Oblits and the like). The Ghost Arcs are fine I think, but the warriors inside don't do much the first turns. See where I'm stearing towards? I want another 3 HoD Crypteks, so I get a mobile 36" Ap2 Missile in each Warrior unit.
That's 105 points more spent and only 210 left. This isn't enough for 2 extra vehicles.... 1 Doomsday Ark? Meh, I don't like singles, but it's not horrible either. Obvious choice is obvious: Another Overlord on a Command Barge - same setup! Singles problem solved. 30 points left. 2 options and I find it hard to say without playtesting what would be better: Another Solar Pulse (you got 2 Overlords and so acces to a 2nd court) or a 2+ save for both Overlords. I can see a 2+ save helping a lot when the Overlords lose their Barge (or disembark voluntary)... I also wonder how much benefit a 2nd Solar Pulse has for this list.
Which brings me to the final list:
Overlord; Warscythe, Weave + Barge 195
Overlord; Warscythe, Weave + Barge 195
4 Crypteks; HoD, 1 solar pulse 160
5 Warriors; Ghost Ark 180
5 Warriors; Ghost Ark 180
5 Warriors; Ghost Ark 180
5 Warriors; Ghost Ark 180
Stalker 150
Stalker 150
Annihilator Barge 90
Annihilator Barge 90
Total: 1750
I think it's a very decent list, viable at least, what do you think? Oh and for 2k you could just add another Stalker and Annihilator if desired; I don't mind playing with only 4x5 troops myself.
