Email in: Necron army list

"Hi Kirby,

I'm fairly new to W40k (picked up Assault on Black Reach in November, but didn't really start playing until January), and I recently started reading your blog. One article led to another, and I've lost count of how many pages I've read. I tried my hand at putting together a Necron list for 1750 points, and was hoping to get some feedback from you.

HQ

Overlord, Warscythe, Command Barge w/ Gauss (180 points)


Troops

5x Warriors, Lancetek w/ Solar Pulse, Ghost Ark (235 points)
5x Warriors, Lancetek (100 points)
7x Immortals w/ Tesla, Lancetek, Night Scythe (254 points)
6x Immortals w/ Tesla, Lancetek, Night Scythe (237 points)
7x Immortals w/ Tesla, Lancetek, Night Scythe (254 points)

Heavy Support

2x Annihilation Barge (w/ gauss) (180 points)
2x Canoptek Spyder (100 points)

Fast Attack

6x Scarabs (90 points)
2x Heavy Destroyer (120 points)

Total: 1750 points

In rough order of importance, I've broken my units down into:

Tank suppression: Annihilation Barge, Night Scythe, Warriors/Ghost Ark
Tank killing: H. Destroyer, Lancetek, Overlord, Scarabs
Defense/Bubblewrap: Scarabs, Spyders
Scoring: Warriors, Immortals
Infantry killing: Immortals, Annihilation Barge, Warriors/Ghost Ark

My offensive plan is to have all immortals on foot wandering around the board with their lanceteks, doing what tesla immortals and lanceteks do. The warrior units hang back and shoot with the lancetek, or if enemy units get too close then participating with the warriors and ghost ark as well. The annihilation barges and night scythes float around breaking or suppressing low AV transports while providing the immortals with as much cover as possible (really it's the annihilation barges doing it). The heavy destroyers jump around shooting at the highest priority mech (low AV transports => low AV mech => high AV Land Raider-equivalents). The overlord on the barge zips around taking out heavy mech or lone units that have wandered off on their own, as appropriate.

I have:

* 15x 24" S4 AP5 gauss shots per turn (30x at RF range)
* 21.5x 24" S7 AP- tesla shots (+5 arc chances)
* 20x 24" S5 AP- tesla shot
* 5x 36" S8 AP2 shots
* 2x 36" S9 AP2 shots
* 8x 24" S5 AP3 gauss shots (in the unlikely chance the barges move slowly enough to fire their underslung gauss cannons)

Being rather new to the game and only having familiarity with a few codexes, I can't tell if this is a good amount of shooting. Am I missing coverage in any particular area?

My defensive plan is to keep the scarabs and spyders close by my slow vehicles while generating more scarabs. If a vehicle gets too close, or if there's a particularly important target to wear down with entropic strike (e.g. Land Raider), then I'll send my scarabs out but they're otherwise meant to keep enemy melta units out of range. The spyders are also ready to hop into CC to tarpit anything that gets too close.

What holes are there in my plan? Should I be swapping out some units? AbusePuppy doesn't seem to like heavy destroyers (or destroyers in general), but I've got a bit of a soft spot for them. Mathhammering vs. MEQ, a 200 point unit of destroyers kills 40/9 (~4.4) marines per round of shooting, versus ~1.78 marines with 204 points of immortals with teslas. There are of course other factors (survivability, movement potential, scoring, etc.), but having a unit that can get guaranteed kills vs. MEQ seems like a reasonable choice. Is this line of reasoning incorrect?

Please feel free to be as brutal as you'd like; while I don't play competitively (I have laughably few models and proxy almost everything with orks and SM models), I'd like to evaluate the list from a competitive standpoint so I can learn how to play well.

I've really enjoyed your articles, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of them. Keep up the great writing!

Thanks!"

Solid but worth a few changes. I wouldn't bother with the Spyders - they offer some nice counter-assault elements but unless there are multiple scarab squads to buff (in case one of them dies), it's a very easy combination for your opponent to pick apart, particularly given the Scarab's vulnerability to S6 and blasts. Either run more Scarab squads so the Spyders have more options or just don't run the Spyders and get another Barge instead.

The 2nd Warrior squad could also use a GHost Ark or transform them into another Teslamortal squad. It gives them more durability against ranged shooting and more firepower as your opponent gets closer.

The Heavy Destroyers are a fine choice - mobile S9 shots are always welcome but depending upon how you run your Scarabs, splitting them into more squads to get greater suppression and anti-tank potential out of them wouldn't be a bad thing though you do increase your easy KP count. Regular Destroyers though are generally overshadowed by other options - they maybe efficient against MEQ but less so against your bog standard targets and unlike Immortals, aren't scoring, etc.

So man things are to play around with what you're doing with Fast Attack + Spyders and how that will interact with your army. Get that more concrete and the core of Teslamortals + Barges will serve you well!