9th Edition Faction Focus: Necrons

9th edition is on the way, and with it a whole raft of changes to the factions of Warhammer 40,000. With the Munitorum Field Manual out in the wild, the Faction FAQs released and the first details of the Grand Tournament Mission Pack shown on stream, now’s a good time to start taking a look at what’s changed for all of our favourite armies. Today, Wings takes a look at one of 8th Edition’s punching bags, the long-suffering legions of the Necrons, to see how they fare in the new edition.

In April 2018, buoyed by enthusiasm after my first few tournaments and the excitement of the Forgebane release, I made the bold decision to buy into a Necron army so I’d have more choices than just Eldar for events. That…didn’t work out so well.

While OVERLORD WINGS has made occasional forays out into the tournament world, Necrons have suffered from being one of the consistently weakest factions in 8th Edition. They had a couple of builds that were just about viable, and these were occasionally buoyed up by being good counters to dominant metagame forces, but by and large fielding a bunch of spooky skeletons wasn’t a great plan, and if you wanted to make Necrons work you needed to undergo the horrifying torment of painting multiple Arks.

Necron Warriors. Credit: Rockfish

All that is in the past though – a new edition is here and Necrons appear to be near the front of the queue to get some love, with new units already revealed in the Indomitus set and many more reinforcements teased for the near future. I live in hope that soon, finally that army I bought two years ago will be ready to hit the big leagues.

We don’t yet know exact timescales for all of that, however, so in the immediate term Necrons are still working off their old Codex with just the few extra Indomitus options. Since plenty of players are chomping at the bit to get back on the table, in today’s faction focus we’ll take a look at how things are shaping up for the metallic legions out of the gates in 9th edition.

Overview

We’ll start with what I think is a summary of the key positive and negative impacts the new edition and points changes have for Necrons

The Good

  • Substantial winners in CP terms.
  • Generally did well out of the point changes – Necrons got a much needed lighter touch than a lot of factions.
  • Smaller board is favourable to them, making their shorter range options more viable.
  • Generally not heavily reliant on melee or hero characters, so net winners from those getting nerfs.
  • Some useful new options out of Indomitus.
  • Smaller enemy armies increase the chance of large units surviving to reanimate.
  • “Kill more” scoring not being a major part of the missions helps their less popular units.

The Bad

  • Many shooting threats with FLY lose the ability to fall back and shoot.
  • Lack of top-tier melee “missiles” is a problem in the missions.
  • Lack of mobile INFANTRY is a challenge for some secondaries.
  • Still working from a start of being one of the weakest armies in the game.
  • Default “Arks and Scythes” list from 8th is weak at the missions.

The Impact

Illuminor Szeras. Credit: RichyP

There’s honestly a bunch of stuff to like if you’re going in to 9th as a Necron player – I’m not expecting them to immediately leap to the top tables or anything, but most of this pulls in the right direction, and several of the things that are challenges from them have at least some angles to work around.

It is worth saying, up front, that you need to fully read the point changes for Necrons to really get a picture of what they mean – alongside Eldar, they got a very high proportion of their unit’s equipment moved in-line, and there are plenty of changes to the prices on unit bodies that look outrageous until you realise they’re now all-inclusive. Once you actually shake everything out the vast, vast majority of units went up on or below rate, and while there’s a few changes that sting a bit (most notably Immortals going up to 18ppm and new Szeras getting an immediate above-rate hike), the general rule of thumb here is that anything that was fundamentally good is still good, and some things on the fringes look more attractive as everything else in the game goes up in price.

You will definitely see some new things tried and changes to list construction, however. While a lot of the news for Necrons is good, the “standard” list that emerged for them in 8th to try and counter their weaknesses, a heavy skew build leaning on Doom Scythes and a mixture of Doomsday Arks, Tesseract Arks and either Destroyers or Tomb Blades is likely to need significant changes to work in 9th, as it doesn’t do that well at durably fighting for mid-board objectives. The Tomb Blades will probably stay, as they remain pretty great, but I expect to see quite a few Warriors (riding Ghost Arks) and Wraiths dusted off as players look for ways to adapt, probably in place of the Scythes. It’s also possible we’ll see something even more out there – with the increased CP allowance most Necron players will be enjoying, maybe spending 4CP to give Nihilakh Lychguard a 4++ will finally, properly, get there. Let’s take a spin through the unit list and see what stands out.

Units

HQ

First up here, there’s been a massive simplification of equipment – almost all of the weapons available to Overlords and Lords are now free, with only the Voidscythe keeping a price premium. This generates one of few minor downsides for Necrons from the points changes, as while Overlords and Lords have only gone up slightly if you were buying them a staff of light or warscythe, many only wanted them for their buff auras and chose to give them a dirt cheap hyperphase sword instead, making the price rises look a bit bigger. That’s less of an issue for units like the Catacomb Command Barge and Destroyer Lord, who generally wanted the better kit and had a higher base cost, but a blow for the cheapest options.

The named characters are also somewhat of a mixed bag. At the positive end, Imotekh only went up 10pts and Anrakyr actually came down 10 (making him honestly probably worth a look). Less positively, Oberyn and Zandrekh still cost way too much, and new Szeras got a probably unnecessary above-rate increase (though I’ll still be trying him, love my massive spider son).

The Indomitus Overlord. Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

It isn’t just the old we’re looking at though – the HQ slot is one of the places where we get some new friends. First up, for a 5pt premium over a regular Overlord you can use the fancy new Overlord datasheet. This trades their melee weapon for a slightly worse version but gains a Tachyon Arrow and, importantly, a substantially improved version of their buff effect. Rather than only the unit selected for My Will Be Done getting a movement buff, now any unit starting within 6″ of the Overlord gets +1″ to their move thanks to the Relentless March aura, with MWBD now just providing the hit buff. That’s also improved, having increased range and being able to target any dynasty unit, not just INFANTRY. It seems very likely that tesla will change to go off on unmodified 6s when the Necron book updates, but until then using this on a blob of 9 Tomb Blades is real mean. Between that and just increasing the army’s mobility in general, this new sheet seems powerful.

The Royal Warden. Credit: Wings

Next up, we have the Royal Warden, who is maybe (?) a replacement for the concept of a vanilla Lord? He certainly has the same (sadly atrocious) statline, but rather than packing a melee weapon he has a souped up RF2 D2 Gauss Blaster, which given how utterly pants Lords were in combat is probably for the best. He doesn’t have the re-roll 1 aura of a Lord though, instead getting to select one friendly unit within 9″ in your command phase to be able to fall back and shoot/charge as normal. At 80pts he’s not cheap, but the ability is pretty good – I started somewhat cold on it, but with the changes to FLY it becomes a lot more relevant, and while the old Veil of Darkness save is still available, this has a much broader array of targets in a mid-board ruck.

The Plasmancer. Credit: Wings

Third on the list, the Plasmancer, a new type of Cryptek focused on blasting stuff rather than healing your units, packing a decent ranged attack, a Smite equivalent and a Fight phase damage aura. I’m less sold on this guy – adding some character based firepower and a non-C’tan source of Mortal Wounds is nice, but they’re pretty expensive and very fragile, and I’d probably rather spend my points and HQ slots on a buff character. We’ve seen a preview already of a way in which the CRYPTEK keyword will matter more going forward, so this guy will definitely be worth a review if the Codex introduces more such things.

The Skorpekh Lord. Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

Finally, the biggest and meanest of the lot, the Skorpekh Lord. This finally gives Necrons something they’ve long been missing, which is a broadly scary threat character that can anchor a line and contribute offensively. He’s maybe one attack short of being fantastic but given the increased pressure to be able to hold your own in a close engagement he’s definitely worth a shot. Don’t forget you can make him even tougher with the Sempiternal Weave, or making him a true character butcher with the Honourable Combatant warlord trait. The only other thing really holding him back right now is that his re-roll aura keys off the DESTROYER CULT keyword – and sadly none of the existing Destroyers yet have this. Hopefully that’ll change down the line, as Destroyers continue to be excellent.

All in all, Necrons have plenty of strong character options at this point – quite a few of the good Named Characters are still usable, basic Crypteks with Chronometrons remain powerful, and the spicy new hotness of upgraded Overlords, Skorpekh Lords, and Royal Wardens will all probably see some use. They’re still all pretty expensive, but 9th mercifully means you don’t ever need to try and think of ways to include five ever again.

Troops

Necron Immortals. Credit: Corrode

For an army with only two troops choices, there’s a surprising amount to say here. Let’s get Immortals out of the way first. These had a relatively rough time of it, going up three points each, which while it isn’t wildly out of line for units in the price range, hurts Necrons quite a bit as it means their cheapest possible troop option is a 90pt Immortal squad. Still expect to see them, as I think you’ll usually want to either run a Battalion or two Patrols, but maybe a bit less often.

That’s especially true because Warriors got a lot of boosts. They only go up one point each, one of the more expensive units to get the “horde” treatment, and in their new datasheet from Indomitus get a new gun option and built in re-roll 1s for reanimation. Add in the fact that transports carrying troops get better in 9th and this all looks like attractive stuff. I’m still not certain what I make of the new gun, as it definitely pays for its potency with its short range, but the fact that you can mix and match weapons within a unit means I’ll definitely give it a try, maybe half and half in a big squad and possibly on a full squad of ten coming out of a Ghost Ark. Warriors do still, of course, have their eternal issue that if your opponent manages to chew through a whole squad then reanimation does diddly squat, and it may prove that blast weapons keep big units from being able to be a thing, but I’ll honestly take any excuse to at least try a big Warrior blob on the table. If not, 2×10 in Ghost Arks and 10 Immortals is probably what I’d aim for troop wise.

Elites

The Elites slot works out as a particular high point for Necrons in this update. It gets a triple whammy of there being less pressure to aim for a dual Battalion, generous point changes, and renewed use for some of the units.

The C’tan Shard of the Deceiver. Credit: Wings

Starting with the named C’tan shards, both of these get relatively small increases of 10pts each, meaning they both continue to be pretty good. The Deceiver in particular is excellent in the missions – being able to start something durable mid board to contest objectives is extremely powerful, and mid-board rucks are a good place to drop Cosmic Fire. The Nightbringer’s utility is a bit more flat – it’s still an aggressively priced killer, but tends to just be a nice-to-have in listbuilding so is vulnerable to getting squeezed out to free up some points.

Next we have the mid-tier specialist infantry options of Flayed Ones and Deathmarks, both of which look more competitively priced than they used to and have more to offer in 9th edition. Flayed Ones’ ability to deal with volume threats in melee is pretty unique in Necrons, and while their lack of AP still means the price of entry is probably still too high, they’re certainly closer than they used to be to being worthwhile. Deathmarks went up minimally in points, and have the upside that in these missions anything that can manipulate who’s on an objective during your opponent’s turn is worth at least thinking about, and these can do that via their unique intercept ability. This particular flavour of doing so works out as one of the weaker options, so probably doesn’t get them there, but I can believe trying a squad of five out at some point, both to do that and to mess with opponents trying to drop small infantry squads in to do Actions. While both these units got better, they still end up somewhat underwhelming for the price, so I don’t think they’ll be top tier, but they’re both much closer to a real thing.

Moving up to the super-elite infantry, the Lychguard and Triarch Praetorians, I think things once again look more interesting in 9th. Triarch Praetorians got a tiny point increase (3pts for rods, 1pt for pistol/blade) and the pistol/blade build in particular thus gives you a pretty nifty volume brawler. They’re also much more mobile than most Necron options, able to actually make it to the mid-board to perform actions unaided. They’re still competing with a lot of stuff, but a squad of ten feels like a semi-plausible thing to try that can operate mid-table without much in the way of help or support. Lychguard get a slightly bigger (but still modest) price rise of 4pts each, enough to make warscythe ones look pretty garbage, but the shield ones are worth a real look now. Being able to sit indestructibly on an objective is a pretty big upside these days, and Necrons now have way more CP to play with, so powering defensive stratagems for them is much easier. Most notably, they’ve never gotten rid of the Dispersion Field Amplification and Reclaim a Lost Empire combo (because what Necron list could afford to blow 4CP a turn before), so in Nihilakh you can push these to a cool 2++ against shooting as long as they’re near an objective (which if you go first, they can be pretty much straight away thanks to the Deceiver). That’s pretty good, and certainly on my long list of things to try.

Triarch Stalker. Credit: ZuultheCat

Finally from existing units, we have the Triarch and (Forge World) Canoptek Stalkers. The Triarch Stalker has perpetually suffered from the fact it took move/shoot penalties on all its guns, so gets immediately considerably better (though the twin heavy gauss picked up an extra point hike). The heat ray build seems especially interesting now. Like the Nightbringer, it suffers a bit from being a “nice to have” unit in a faction that’s often point starved, but with Quantum Shielding as well it’s now getting on towards excellent in its weight class almost on pure rate, and provides a durable close-engagement threat. As for the Canoptek Stalker, I’m pretty sure last time I wrote a faction review for Necrons I checked what this did and it turned out to be terrible. I have checked what it does again. It is still, in fact, terrible.

Finally in Elites – new friends. First up, my beautiful trashcan velociraptor babies, the Cryptothralls. You don’t actually have to use an Elite slot for these, being able to take exactly one unit in a detachment per Cryptek, but they’ve got the symbol next to them so we’re talking about them here. Although 40pts for the squad of two isn’t nothing, i actually like these quite a lot, just because they give Necrons something dirt cheap with the INFANTRY keyword that can perform Actions. In cover, with T5 and a base 3+ save they won’t melt trivially to small arms fire, they have reanimation protocols so your opponent is heavily pressured to wipe both at once, and if you choose to use them for their intended purpose of accompanying a Cryptek they pack enough melee and ranged threat to at least discourage pure chaff units from having a go. The downside of bringing small units to the table is massively reduced in 9th compared to 8th ed tourney formats, and while these are always going to be easily cuttable, they’re also usually going to be a fine way to spend their points.

Next up, sadly, is much more of a miss – the Canoptek Reanimator. I honestly look at this unit and I’ve got nothing – it’s awful for the price, presenting no real threat, applying a buff to what is still, ultimately, a very weak ability in a highly telegraphed way, and being incredibly squishy for the price to boot. Seriously, you can have a Triarch Stalker with a heat ray for only 15 more pts, and you should go ahead and do that.

Skorpekh Destroyers. Credit: Wings

Finally, the most eye-catching new Elite, the Skorpekh Destroyers. These look awesome, and I’m gradually coming around to them in game terms, mostly as I confront the fact that I basically want the Deceiver in every list, and that every Marine player and their dog is going to be ramming Infiltrators onto mid-board objectives at game start. While you can’t charge turn 1 if you redeploy with the Deceiver, just putting these behind some terrain mid-board at game start makes trying to take the centre very risky for your opponent, because if these hit combat they can make their points back on the spot against a lot of targets. With their 8″ base movement, boostable to 9″ with a new Overlord, they’re also able to straight up walk over and try a charge on anything holding the board centre too. It would be even better if you could take these in units of 6, but the more I look at them the more I’m keen to give them a go. When I do, I’ll almost certainly bring a plasmacyte for 15pts extra. The melee buff is something you’ll sometimes want to blow – although there is a frisson of risk, it makes the unit absurdly more deadly, and does so to the point that even if you lose a model, the output of those that remain still ends up pretty on par. The main reason I want one, however, is to eat the first lascannon shot that comes my way – for which I’m pretty happy to pay 15pts on top of a premium unit.

There’s lots of stuff to work with here, and I expect people will gradually try it all out. Even with the changes to list building, Necrons still don’t have a tonne of points to throw around, so experimentation will be pretty slow, but expect a bigger variety of units to be seen in the wild – a big win.

Fast Attack

Another strong slot here. We’ll get the Forge World nonsense out of the way first. Canoptek Acanthrites are one of the few things in the list to go up relatively quite a lot, picking up 9pts each, and while they’re cute they don’t do any one thing well enough to account for their relative ease of eradication, and don’t have the INFANTRY keyword like Skorpekh Destroyers to be able to play around in Breachable ruins. Canoptek Tomb Sentinels come out rather better, as the removal of the move-shoot penalty from monsters makes their specific schtick of popping up and unloading with a potent heavy weapon much more attractive for non-Sautekh dynasties. They’re still probably a tiny bit overcosted, but with built-in deep strike (and dodging one under the threshold for giving up 3pts for Bring it Down) they’re plausibly a real unit. There, I said something nice about a Forge World unit. Have fun with that.

Moving back to plastic, we have Tomb Blades. These were one of the better units in the army in 8th, and they’re still real good – arguably even better in the short term. They’re mobile, durable, and can pack a truly eye-watering amount of Tesla firepower (going up four points each with that gun) to benefit from improved My Will Be Done. When doing that, they also benefit from the fact that the Solar Pulse stratagem removes all benefits of cover, not just armour saves, so you can counteract the negative hit modifiers Dense cover imposes when needed. A big squad of Tomb Blades isn’t cheap, but it’s very useful in a number of ways, and one of the most resilient things you can throw out in an attempt to benefit from reanimation. Do just watch out for them getting bully charged, though charging into Tesla is always a bit nerve wracking for an opponent.

Wraiths are another winner with a small asterisk next to them. They only went up three points each, and their cheapest gun option (the particle caster) became free so…sure I guess they’re all packing heat now? I think I still have the bits somewhere. The main reason you want them is that they’re a fast and durable threat that can hold their own in melee, and they’re very difficult to protect vehicles from. Now that FLY doesn’t provide free fall backs for shooting, these are a real spoiler threat, and just like Lychguard you can push them to a 2++ if you run them in Nihilakh. The only issue here is that there’s been a screw up in how their FAQ changes have been worded which has stripped their ability to fall back and charge, making them slightly less useful – hopefully that’s swiftly fixed. Wraiths have been perpetually nearly good, and the 9th edition missions favour them enough that we’ll probably see more about. If nothing else, their general operational mode of “an opponent can kill them but has to spend a whole turn doing it” gets better with fewer turns in the game!

Destroyers
Destroyers. Credit: Wings

Destroyers probably work out as mild losers here. They only go up 5pts each, but that’s on top of a price tag that was pretty high-end already, and losing fall back/shoot is a big deal for them. On the flip side, it is very good that you can now reserve these in dynasties that aren’t Nephrekh, with a full squad coming in just under the 2CP threshold. They’re pretty much the perfect unit for reserves – short ranged, dangerous, and fast enough once on the board that if they turn up and survive a battle round, they can probably strike out for your choice of two objectives. 315pts for a full squad (with a heavy destroyer) is still a big ask, and directly competes with a squad of 9 Tomb Blades, but they’re coming from a position of being a unit people actually use, and gain some flexibility to make up for their losses.

Finally, Scarab Swarms. They get a small-ish point increase and a substantially improved datasheet from Indomitus, gaining a wound and replace their “always wounds on a 5” ability with auto-wounding on hits of 6, which is better against every toughness bracket. The tradeoff here is that they can now only take up to 6 bases per squad. Overall this is still a big buff though – your capacity to take a maxed out squad as a wound sink is reduced, but because every base has an extra wound you only lose three from your ceiling, and pay fewer points for the privilege. Buying a random squad of these as backline objective holders was generally fine, and it still should be – the only thing to bear in mind is that if you have a Cryptek, you might be better with Cryptothralls in the slot, as though they have far fewer wounds their T5 and 3+ base save means they’re quite a bit more durable against volume fire if they’re in cover.

Heavy Support

Doomsday Ark
Doomsday Ark. Credit: Rockfish

Where there was some real improvements of value in many slots, Heavy Support is a bit more static. Mostly – if something in this slot was already good, it probably still is – Doomsday Arks go up 20 and stay high value, especially as they gain Blast on their big guns and are difficult to lock up with chaff thanks to their massive number of anti-horde shots, while Heavy Destroyers get an extremely generous 3pt increase, continuing to be a cost effective way to pack big shots onto the board (and like Destroyers, worth considering for reserves as each unit comes to 9PL). The Tesseract Ark also goes up a pretty modest number of points (20 for gauss, 24 for tesla), but does end up looking unhealthily expensive at its new total and is unlucky in that it doesn’t get blast on its big gun (most likely because it has a flamer mode). Probably still fine, but I’d expect more drift back to Doomsdays.

Elsewhere, a decided “meh”. The Monolith comes down in points a bit, which is a small sop to anyone unlucky enough to hold them dear in their hearts, but nothing short of a full re-write is going to sort them out. Hopefully, with what tantalisingly looked like a new kit on the horizon, they’ll get one. Transcendent C’tan go up a bit more than their named cousins, and as the world’s leading expert on running these in lists I can tell you that the change to all pre-game abilities going on your list is a disaster for them – they desperately needed to be able to flex between 3++ and two powers depending on the matchup. I expect to shelve them, to be honest. Annihilation Barges keep a pretty low cost, but they’re close enough to the substantially better Triarch Stalker that I don’t think I can ever see myself taking one. Finally, Sentry Pylons continue to exist. The heat cannon even gained Blast, which is pretty nice, but the price on one of those is big, and it also means you can’t shoot in combat. Still a firm “nope” from me.

Flyer

Of the units here, only the Doom Scythe really saw play, and is almost certainly a net loser – they go up 20pts each and you really want to take three, but doing so means committing a very large chunk of your army to units that can never contest objectives. My gut instinct says we see the triple of these a lot less, even if they do benefit from Blast on their big gun and being able to move/shoot outside of Sautekh without penalty.

The Night Scythe will continue not to be used – there are still way too many hoops to jump through to get good value from its abilities.

Dedicated Transport

Ghost Ark
Ghost Ark. Credit: Wings

Ghost Arks were already pretty great, and while their price went up 20pts it was from an outrageously pushed floor, and with the increased value of transports in general in 9th, expect to see more. They don’t even mind getting bully charged by chaff, for much the same reasons as the Doomsdays. I am even now mentally preparing myself for having to paint a second one, and desperately hoping that the new codex somehow saves me from this fate.

Lords of War

Seraptek Construct
Seraptek Construct. Credit: Kamichi

There actually is some shuffling around of value here, but overall it probably doesn’t change much about how often they’re seen. The Obelisk, community voted worst unit in the entire game, goes up by 40pts, ensuring that it will continue to get nowhere near a table. The Tesseract Vault, on the other hand, goes down a few points to 550. I’m squinting at this just the tiniest bit and wondering if I should finally finish mine, but realistically that’s still too many points to place into one basket, especially at a high CP cost.

The Seraptek construct also fares OK, staying steady at 625pts. This is, obviously, a lot, and it remains firmly a gatekeeper unit, but I guess you can MWBD it with a new Overlord and really ruin someone’s day if you get the first turn. Do just check that it actually fits in all the deployment zones in the GT pack first though – I have a genuine fear it might not, and skipping turn 1 is, according to my notes, real bad.

Finally, the Gauss Pylon, mightiest toilet plunger in the galaxy. Ughhhhh. It only went up 25pts so it’s probably still fine in skew builds I guess. It can also teleport straight onto an objective and actually hold it. If that’s your jam, go wild.

Army Lists

It wouldn’t be a faction focus without a couple of lists. First on the docket, this is what I’ll probably be trying out if I cave and dip an entire second Ghost Ark in a big vat of Dark Angels Green Contrast.

Big Destroyer Energy

Sautekh Battalion

HQ

Skorpekh Lord, Warlord – Implacable Conquerer, Veil of Darkness 130
Overlord (Indomitus) 90
Orikan the Diviner 110

Troops

Warriors w/gauss reaper x10 120
Warriors w/gauss reaper x10 120
Immortals w/tesla x10 180

Dedicated Transport

Ghost Ark 140
Ghost Ark 140

Elites

The Deceiver, Cosmic Fire, Antimatter Meteor 190
Skorpekh Destroyers w/Plasmacyte 135

Fast Attack

Tomb Blades x8 w/Tesla, shieldvanes, 1 also w/Shadowloom 285

Heavy Support

Heavy Destroyers x3 120
Heavy Destroyers x3 120
Heavy Destroyers x3 120

Total – 2000pts, 12CP

This army aims to provide a generalist build. It’s got units that can comfortably push the centre, with the option of the Deceiver shifting up one or both of the Ghost Arks early on, or stashing the Skorpekh Destroyers in some terrain somewhere. It has ranged threats in the form of the Heavy Destroyers, who can probably atomise a key target early, and optionally come in as reinforcements if the enemy has units especially good at murdering them like Crimson Hunter Exarchs. The Tomb Blades provide board control and premium anti-horde. Finally, the opponent has to deal with the ever present threat that the Skorpekh Lord and his Destroyer buddies can teleport across the board and throw out some coin flip re-rollable charges.

Arks for Days

What if you are already a cool ark-haver though? How might we go about using those?

Nihilakh Battalion

HQ

Overlord (Indomitus) – Veil of Darkness 90
Cryptek w/Canoptek Cloak, Warlord – Immortal Pride  – 95

Troops

Warriors w/gauss reaper x10 120
Warriors w/gauss reaper x10 120
Warriors w/gauss reaper x10 120

Dedicated Transport

Ghost Ark 140
Ghost Ark 140
Ghost Ark 140

Elites

The Deceiver, Cosmic Fire, Antimatter Meteor 190
Lychguard x10 w/sword and shield 300

Heavy Support

Doomsday Ark 180
Doomsday Ark 180
Doomsday Ark 180

Total – 1995pts, 12CP

Necrons can have a little bullshit, as a treat.

Doomsday Arks already kind of want to be Nihilakh, and are largely self-sufficient from there. That means that it’s a pretty easy jump to combining it with the 2++ Lychguard nonsense that the Dynasty also unlocks, which also helps shore up the fact you’re spending a quarter of your points on units that aren’t great for fighting for the mid board. If you go first with this list, you chuck the Lychguard onto a mid board objective, (or on some maps two, even with the coherency changes) activate their defensive strats and see if your opponent can muster the firepower to go through 20 T5 wounds with a 2++. If you go second, shift them up so they’re in cover somewhere and in a position to move onto an objective on your first turn, and you’re golden. Obviously you need to shift this up slightly if your opponent has top tier melee threats, as your poor Lychguard will be packing a mere 2+/3++ in combat, but you can probably find a way to adapt to the situation. The rest of your army provides enough mobility and flexible damage output that, with an objective likely under your semi-permanent control, you can probably pick up enough points to win.

I would be astounded if any sort of 2++ combo survives a new codex, so if you have the Arks and the Lychguard, enjoy it while it lasts! (Your opponents might not).

Wrap Up

That brings us to the end of looking at Necrons – for now. Just the points section of Chapter Approved tells us two new units are on their way soon, and both the Void Dragon and Silent King are on the way, so I’m sure we’ll be back. In the meantime, between a good chapter approved and some units playing particularly well in the new missions, I think things have noticeably improved from the tail end of 8th edition for anyone who wants to play with a broader range of units, so get out on the tables and have some fun! If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, give us a shout at contact@goonhammer.com.