Detachment Focus: Awakened Dynasty (Updated November 24, 2025)

In this series of articles we take a deep dive into a specific detachment for a faction, covering the faction’s rules and upgrades and talking about how to build around that faction for competitive play. In this article, we’re covering the Awakened Dynasty Detachment for the Necrons.

The Tenth Edition release of Codex: Necrons gives the faction access to five detachments, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. These can dramatically change how the army plays, as each one tends to push players to build in a different way. In this series we’re diving deep into each Detachment and talking about what its rules are and how to play it.

Changelog

• 2025-11-24 (Current): Updated with dataslate updates and a new list
• 2024-05-28: Initial Publication

Detachment Overview

Awakened Dynasty is the Necrons’ “Index” detachment, returning in the Codex with a few tweaks but largely intact. Since release, it’s been somewhat eclipsed by the power of the Canoptek Court, Hypercrypt Legion, and Starshatter Arsenal Detachments, but despite that it has a surprising amount going for it – to the point that lists running Awakened Dynasty are perfectly capable of winning tournaments.

The key thing this detachment has going for it over the other two is the versatility of its tools – it can apply powerful boosts to a much broader range of units, and with access to powerful force multiplier stratagems for both the Shooting and Fight Phases it can be quite dynamic about how it does this. It also has a fairly strong suite of Enhancements that further augment this flexibility. Essentially, if you enjoy playing “toolbox” style lists that have a bit of everything in them, rather than leaning hard in any one direction, Awakened Dynasty has plenty to offer you.

Detachment Rule: Command Protocols

While a NECRON CHARACTER is leading this unit, each time a model in the unit makes an attack it gets +1 to its hit rolls.

This is good clean fun, and was an improvement over the index thanks to Wraiths being able to take a Leader unit. This obviously means that you want most of the units you’re investing serious points in to have a Leader, and that you should be wary of enemy Precision options that might take them out (though you do have some potential countermeasures for that, and Precision shooting tends to be anemic anyways). It’s also particularly good if you can get access to re-roll 1s to hit, as that combination of 2+ to hit with re-rolling 1s is huge. That means there’s good value to be had from the Silent King in this detachment, as his offensive aura (which lets you re-roll 1s to hit and wound) is even better than normal.

This Detachment rule is just generically useful, and that’s a big part of why this detachment is so flexible compared to some of the others; compared to Canoptek Court you add three flavours Destroyers and Lychguard to the set of units you can augment, while compared to Hypercrypt you can boost multiple units, rather than just whatever you put Arisen Tyrant on. In addition, as well as providing +1 to hit, quite a few of the Stratagems in this detachment get better on units that have a Leader, and several of the Enhancements help the unit they’re in – even more value from maintaining a proper command structure.

Enhancements

Awakened Dynasty gets a nice suite of enhancements to play with, giving a mix of buff and herohammer play.

• Veil of Darkness (20 points) – A time-honoured Necron classic, once per game you can pick up the bearer’s unit at the end of the opponent’s turn (as long as they’re not in Engagement Range), then set them back up outside 9” of any enemy units in your following Reinforcements step (including on turn 1). This is very powerful, and it’s good on Lokhusts, Immortals, or Warriors as the fancy takes you. You should have this in most Awakened lists.
• Nether Realm Casket (20 points) – Gives a unit lead by the bearer the Stealth ability. A nice-to-have if you’ve got the points, and strong on Wraiths in a heavy shooting metagame. For Warriors you likely just take a Chronomancer.
• Phasal Subjugator (35 points) – Provides the bearer with an Aura of +1 to Hit for non-Character units, allowing tanks and the like to get in on the hit boosts. In the Index, this saw some use in combination with Canoptek Doomstalkers, Doomsday Arks and the Silent King, usually sitting on the head of a Hexmark Destroyer to avoid getting shot. Since the Codex, Doomstalkers and Doomsdays have mostly ended up used in Canoptek Court and Hypercrypt Legion respectively, but I think there plausibly is still some mileage in this kind of build, people just haven’t tried it yet.
• Enaegic Dermal Bond (30 points) – A powerful Herohammer tool, giving the bearer a 4+ Feel No Pain. This is particularly good on a brawler tool like a Catacomb Command Barge or a Skorpekh Lord, and I particularly like it on the latter, since you can get the Lord back up the first time they die. It’s also a somewhat plausible reason to take a vanilla Overlord, since stacked on top of -1D you get something that does an impression of C’tan level toughness, but because they’re much slower and less impactful than the other two options I’m less keen on it.

Generally, the Veil of Darkness and the Dermal Bond are some of the active draws to this detachment, so if you can’t find something good to do with them, it’s worth stepping back and considering whether you’re using the right units.

Stratagems

The Awakened Dynasty has a great Stratagem suite, and happily most of them are 1 CP, so you can use them fairly liberally. You’re already incentivized to bring Leaders, and Overlords being able to drop the cost of these to 0 is a big help.

• Protocol of the Eternal Revenant (Epic Deed, 1 CP) – You can use this in any Phase when one of your INFANTRY Characters is destroyed, and it allows them to get up at the end of the Phase on half wounds, as close as possible to where they died that’s outside Engagement Range. This whips, and is (fittingly for Necrons), one of the best versions of this effect in the whole game – no 2+ roll required, and if you die in the opponent’s Fight Phase then you get the benefit of Reanimation Protocols straight away to prepare you for a fight. It’s especially good with Illuminor Szeras or a Skorpekh Lord with the Enaegic Bond, as they’re complete nightmares to kill the first time. Just remember to save a CP for it, and watch out for stuff that can Battle-shock you. I have had Szeras die when Shocked while I had a CP floating once, and let me tell you it did not feel good.
• Protocol of the Undying Legions (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – Reactive reanimation – after the opponent Shoots (in their Shooting Phase, so not after Overwatch) or Fights one of your units, if at least one model was destroyed you can immediately activate their Reanimation Protocols, and get +1 to the roll if you have a Leader. This was widely loathed in the Index because it was (admittedly) kind of bullshit on Lychguard or Warriors as they were. Now it’s merely fine, but very much still worth using in plenty of situations (particularly to keep yourself above Battle-shock threshold), and it’s a strong incentive to still bring a Reanimator to sit with your Warriors or Immortals.
• Protocol of the Hungry Void (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Used in the Fight Phase, this gives a unit +1S, and also +1AP if they have a Leader (which doesn’t stack with any other AP boosts). This is great on Wraiths, as S7 AP-2 is a whole world of difference from S6 AP-1 in terms of what they can threaten, and it’s sometimes worth throwing on Immortals in a pinch for a bit of extra lift.
• Protocol of the Sudden Storm (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – This is used in your Movement Phase, giving one of your units Assault on their guns, and also providing an Advance re-roll if the unit has a Leader. While handy for positioning Lokhusts and good for getting some extra shots in range from Warriors in a pinch, one of the most common uses of this is actually just to provide reach for scoring an “Action” secondary, particularly in early turns.
• Protocol of the Conquering Tyrant (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Your unit gets re-roll 1s to hit against a unit within half range, or alternatively full re-rolls to hit if a Character is leading the unit. This gives you a solid boost if you can manage to close the distance required (it no longer gives full re-rolls at full range) and lets you full fish for Sustained, which does even more here than usual thanks to hitting on 2s. You can also do something similar with enmitic Heavy Lokhusts and a Lord.
• Protocol of the Vengeful Stars (Strategic Ploy, 2 CP) – The one Stratagem that isn’t frequently used here, this triggers when the enemy shoots and destroys one of your units in the Shooting Phase, and allows a CHARACTER unit within 6” to shoot back at the culprit. There are plausible situations where this could be good, they’re just rare enough (and other Stratagems appealing enough) that you rarely want to be actively saving the 2CP to use it. In general, be more proactive about doing so if you’re running the Silent King or Lokhusts with a Lord – the former in particular has a very real shot at one-rounding an unsuspecting tank if he’s got his re-roll aura on.

Playing This Detachment

Unlike some of the other Necron detachments which give you a very clear steer on what units you should be using, Awakened Dynasty is fairly wide open in terms of what you can do. I’ve found that you generally want to start with a couple of solid, durable units (e.g. big Warrior units with a Chronomancer and Szeras or Wraiths) then build in a suite of utility damage dealers around that. This is also one of the better places to still bring a Canoptek Reanimator along, as the combo with Protocol of the Undying Legions is still very good, just harder to set up position-wise.

Your damage dealers can be almost anything, but there are certainly some things this detachment does particularly well. Tesla Immortals are great because of access to Protocol of the Conquering Tyrant, giving you some very strong anti-horde, especially if you bring Szeras too – which you want to anyway in this detachment because of how annoying standing him back up is. Lokhust Destroyers work better here than most places – their footprint is still upsettingly huge, but access to the Veil of Darkness and Protocol of the Sudden Storm gives you some options to get them around the board, and +1 to hit means that they’re functionally on full re-rolls if they shoot the closest target. Alternatively, Lokhust Heavy Destroyers with enmitic guns love both the Veil of Darkness and access to fishing for full re-rolls, and in an Ork-heavy metagame they bring a lot to the table. Leaning heavily on AP-1 shooting between them and the Immortal/Szeras setup also makes Triarch Stalkers look pretty interesting here, as throwing out No Cover can help with chipping down units with a 2+ Save.

Doomsday Arks are still one of the better shooting platforms in the game and while they don’t benefit from the Detachment ability, they’re good enough to slot in here as your shooting support.

What else? Access to Protocol of the Hungry Void is handy for boosting up Wraiths, but also broadens the impact of Lychguard and Skorpekh Destroyers, both of which are decent here. The latter as an MSU with a Lord and the Enaegic Dermal Bond is an especially strong package, sufficient that it’s an active draw to the detachment. For 185pts, you get a unit that will slam into something hard once, then has a Leader that is ultra hard to see off for good, and can reliably cause some mischief till dealt with. Alternatively, a Catacomb Command Barge is a potent long brawler with the Bond, but doesn’t have quite as much impact as the Skorpekh most of the time, so usually stays on the bench.

If you want to go heavier, the Silent King and C’tan are both strong here as well. The former enjoys providing re-rolls to stuff that’s also at +1 to hit, providing great reliability, while the latter are just generically excellent, even at higher points. You can also take the Phasal Subjugator and some shooty hulls if you like, but you’re probably better off just going with Hypercrypt if that’s the core of your plan. There have been some successes with Monoliths with this too, but mostly pre-Dataslate, so jury is out on whether that’s still worth doing.

Finally, add some utility units – Necrons have plenty of these, and you want some to score and screen. Flayed Ones are particularly nice here, as you don’t otherwise have much that pushes out positionally.

Strengths

• Offensive Output. Being able to give your non-Vehicle units +1 to hit is pretty big, and as mentioned combos well with the Silent King to produce some nasty levels of accuracy. You have good additional stratagems for boosting output as well.
• Versatility. The Detachment rule here is pretty generically useful, and the Stratagems and Enhancements don’t lock you into a specific set of units.
• Defense and Reanimation. Between Dermal Bond, Protocol of the Undying Legions, and Protocol of the Eternal Revenant, you have some solid options for keeping units around, and that can be very annoying.

Weaknesses

• Leader-Locked. You need leaders to get the most out of this Detachment, and that means you need to spend more on your units to make them do their thing. It also leaves you vulnerable to losing those units.
• Character Focus. You’ll likely be vulnerable to Assassination in most games as a fixed secondary mission, and your units are going to run more expensive.
• Vehicle support. While you have some options that work on vehicles, they’re not going to get much out of this Detachment.

Sample Lists

Awakened Dynasty Lists are still perfectly capable of winning events, and their versatility means they can run multiple builds and still find success.

Adam Brule’s Awakened Dynasty List

Adam took this list to a 5-0, first place finish at the BOLTERCON 2025 GT in mid-November, showing off a build of the list that does not include the Silent King. Adam beat Sisters, Chaos Space Marines, Death Guard, Starshatter Necrons, and Spearpoint White Scars to claim the top spot, showcasing the versatility of the list.

The list - Click to expand

This list is built around two surprisingly deadly units of Wraiths joined by Technomancers. They’re incredibly durable tarpit units, but with +1 to hit and the boost from Protocol of the Hungry Void they become real threats. Normally Death Guard are able to completely stonewall Wraiths by giving them -1 to hit with the Skullsquirm Blight Contagion but in Awakened Dynasty they can shrug that off and still operate at normal efficiency. This build eschews the Veil of Darkness and runs purely with the Nether-Realm Casket on the Warden and Warriors, who at 20 models are too large to actually fit in the Ghost Ark, but benefit from its Repair Barge ability all the same. The three Doomsday Arks give the list some powerful anti-vehicle punch at range.

Lasse Tilrem’s List

On the other hand if you want a Silent King build, look no further than Lasse’s list, which finished 5-0 for a second place finish at the Exterminatus 025.M3 GT in Oslo in mid-November. It’s a more traditional list, and beat Tyranids, Death Guard, Leagues of Votann, Dark Angels, and World Eaters en route to an undefeated run.

Lasse's list - click to expand

Once again there’s a large unit of Canoptek Wraiths with a Technomancer to build around here, but only one this time – the Silent King eats a lot of the points you’d need to invest in the second unit. That said, the Technomancer is running the Casket for added durability. Lasse’s list also opts for more melee punch with two units of Skorpekh Destroyers, both led by Skorpekh Lords, plus a unit of Praetorians. There’s a solo Imotekh here for extra CP and a Doomsday Ark for some added ranged support.

Final Thoughts

Awakened Dynasty is a tonne of fun to play if you enjoy toolbox lists, and in the current metagame has some real promise. If you’re looking for something with more generic power that won’t bog you down or force you into a specific build, give this Detachment a look.

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