Alright, here it is: the much-delayed final bit to the Necron review. Between going to a tournament, building a new army, doing some non-warham writing and work this past week I've been kept fairly busy, but I have managed to put together some kind of cap to this whole thing.
Previous articles have hit most of the really important parts about different units, but the way that things are put together can be just as important as the individual models, especially for an army like Necrons. Here we'll be looking at some of the ways that the army interacts with itself, my takes on a bunch of the lists (to greater and lesser degrees of detail) and some closing thoughts.
Major Synergies in the Necron List
The prime Necron ability is resilience, achieved through a variety of ways that work together. Necrons can field many independent units, each of which can shell out a non-ignorable amount of firepower and that take similarly-problematic amounts of focused fire to bring down and then make it awkward to target them thanks to a combination of suppression, Night Fighting, and more traditional toughness (from MEQ statline, etc.) All Necron builds, regardless of type, will need to play into this ability to shrug off enemy firepower one way or another or they will fail, as Necron shooting, by itself, is not enough to win most fights.
The second major point is suppression. Not only are Necrons themselves immune to it, but they are extremely good at suppressing enemy targets and are able to take good advantage of such vehicles- Scarabs especially will punish anything you can score an Immobilized or Stunned result on. With extensive Tesla (which must be considered suppression due to AP- ) and Gauss fire, not to mention more esoteric effects, Necrons have a powerful ability to shut down enemy vehicles when they must, regardless of size. This, along with their resilience, allows you to create lopsided battles even when forces are nominally equal- if you can shut down half the enemy's tanks, you effectively outnumber him if he can't do the same to you.
Third is melee strategies. This may seem odd in an army that is nominally weak in melee, but really that is only on their baseline units- Necrons have many melee specialists that are quite good at their jobs (as opposed to, say, many Tau or Eldar specialists) and can carve up their preferred targets. Moreover, these specialists can work together to bring down even tough targets- for example, Wraiths can slow enemies to I1 to let other Necrons strike first, or tie up an enemy melee hammer while Scarabs chew apart weaker targets. Taking the right combinations of melee units, if any are taken at all, can be a key point in Necron list-writing.
Fourth is the ability to properly handle a wide variety of targets. Necron guns, unlike those of the superficially-similar Grey Knights, are not well-equipped to handle all types of targets; Tesla spam struggles greatly with AV13+ and many monstrous creatures, most Gauss weapons can't realistically kill tanks, Lances are wasted on infantry targets, etc. A good combination of guns- or other threats, such as Scarabs, Warscythes, etc- is necessary to be able to handle different kinds of enemy threats. Building a balanced Necron list requires considering what types of units are a threat to it and what types of units can be handled with less-efficient solutions when they come up. The meta is very wide-open right now, so correct application of different types of forces can be a tricky balancing act to pull off indeed.
Sample Necron Lists
"The List"
1990pt Necrons
1 Overlord (Scythe, Barge)
1 Overlord (Scythe, Barge)
5 Cryptek (Destruction, 1 Solar Pulse)
5 Cryptek (Destruction, 1 Solar Pulse)
5 Immortals (Tesla, Night Scythe)
5 Immortals (Tesla, Night Scythe)
5 Immortals (Tesla, Night Scythe)
5 Immortals (Tesla, Night Scythe)
5 Immortals (Tesla, Night Scythe)
3 Scarabs
1 Annihilation Barge
1 Annihilation Barge
1 Annihilation Barge
This is, as far as my (admittedly limited) experience can tell, the current "best" list you can build with Necrons at higher point levels, although there are certainly a number of small tweaks that could be made to potentially make it better. The basics are very simple- cheap, efficient Tesla shooting spammed in maximum numbers to overwhelm the enemy while Night Fighting shuts down as much of their firepower as possible. Twin Bargelords give the list a way to deal with AV13/14 targets, although ironically opposing Necron lists, with their extensive heavy armor, are one of its biggest problems. They also enable paired courts, with take the Immortal units from "anti-infantry annoyances" to "DANGER WILL ROBINSON!", as two S8 AP2 shots on the move absolutely is nothing to sneeze at. With all of the units independent of each other, the list presents sixteen major targets to most enemies, all of them at least reasonably resilient and maneuverable. Heavy Destroyers would also be an excellent fit for this army, were the points available, but alas they are not, and the concept doesn't scale up or down terribly far- 1850 is probably the smallest you can support two Bargelords at.
AV13 Wall
1750 Necrons
1 Overlord (Scythe, Barge)
4 Cryptek (Destruction, 1 Pulse)
1 Triarch Stalker
1 Triarch Stalker
5 Warriors (Ark)
5 Warriors (Ark)
5 Warriors (Ark)
5 Warriors (Ark)
4 Scarabs
4 Scarabs
1 Annihilation Barge
1 Annihilation Barge
1 Annihilation Barge
This is probably one of the more "obvious" builds and the codex and it takes advantage of one of Necrons' prime strengths, resilience. Its plan is fairly simple: take all of the Quantum Shielding vehicles in the army and line them up in front of the enemy and rely on superior staying power to wear them down. Heavy suppression fire from the Arks and their contents can easily shut down most transports while Stalkers eliminate major threats and Barges deal with infantry. The customary Bargelord is, of course, present and doing his usual, although swapping him to a Phaeron and buffing up a Warrior squad by a few members is also an option. This list's scoring potential is much higher than the previous one's was, as all its troops are protected by tough vehicles rather than just relying on the enemy having too many targets to deal with. It also functions better against Land Raiders and other AV14 targets due to extensive Gauss firepower. This list scales up and down fairly well, as it has plenty of room for useful things to take and isn't completely hooked on a specific setup of models. Anything from 1000pts to 2500pts should be manageable.
Imhotep is Invisible
From here on the builds get a little more nebulous, as there are several possibilities. I talked about Imotekh a lot in his section of the review, but it's important to review his ups and downs when looking at a list: he's expensive, he limits your own shooting as well as the enemy's, and he can't realistically bring a Command Barge. So in order to be taking advantage of him, we need ways to take advantage of immobilized tanks (from our S8 strikes), a way around our inability to shoot, and a reason to be going to all this trouble to use him.
The first point means Scarabs, and probably quite a lot of them. Two units at the least, quite probably three. We may want to stick one unit of Wraiths in there in order to hold up an enemy melee unit so they can't get to the Scarabs, and Spyders to support the Scarabs are also looking likely. However, we want to save two of our other HS slots for Doom Scythes- these give us a way to break up parking lots when our lightning fails and aren't affected by Night Fight. For similar reasons we probably are going to use Night Scythes for our troops, although a Ghost Ark for one solid midfield scoring unit may be useful as well. Obviously we will be running Crypteks with our squads, but as to what kind it seems somewhat unclear- Storm (to further shut down tanks) and Despair (to massacre infantry) seem likely candidates.
Hybrid
Appropriately enough this looks like a combination of The List and AV13 Spam from above, using one or two Ghost Arks and the rest Night Scythes to hide behind them as well as all the other usual favorites. It is also the most likely list to want five naked Warriors running around the backfield to score an objective, as it runs much more of a resilience plan than many do.
Earth Rage
I thin Tremorstave is a very viable idea, but not with the C'tan involved- he's simply too much of a point sink and too likely to die. Nor does Orikan help this list out, since he doesn't bring a Court and doesn't otherwise add a lot that the list doesn't already do. I think running six troops and possible some Deathmarks and/or Lychguard to spread your Tremorstaves around is very important for this list; you want to be hitting as many targets as possible with your slowing effect. Deathmarks may be a good choice, as they want to be shooting at 24" anyways and could make a decent "front line" of guys to help torrent down infantry that disembark their rides. A strong presence of Scarabs and Spyders is also beneficial to annihilate the frozen vehicles and provide countercharge; indeed, this may be the list that comes closest to playing "scarab farmer" of all of the successful ones, as you can slow the enemy while building an army for yourself to interpose with them and keep them off objectives, etc.
Doubtless there are other lists I have missed or not listed here, including ones using Nemesor Zandrekh, Trazyn, Anrakyr, Orikan, Lychguard, Tomb Blades, Deathmarks, Doomsday Arks, etc, etc. Absence should not be taken as lack of potential.
Final Thoughts
Like all the other Xenos codices released for 5E, Necrons play a very different game than Space Marine armies do and must be looked at accordingly. This does not, however, negate the main considerations of building an army or bringing good guns, defenses against various major unit types, etc.
The lists I talked about above are the basics of the "best" things that can be put together, but thanks to the majority of their codex not being terrible, many other substitutions can be made and, indeed, may end up being even better than the versions I have here when all is said and done.
We may not have a terrible lot longer in this edition (perhaps three or four months at the outside), I believe Necrons still have plenty of life in them and, barring some devastating shifts, will fare well in whatever comes with the next edition. It is in most respects a very flexible army with good choices across different slots and units and is poised to fight with the very best of the other 5E armies for top spots in tournaments.
