Shadow-slogging Necrons (2000 pts)

Toying around with a bit of theory-craft army building, I decided to try assembling a list that didn't feature the Stormlord in it. I came up with this:

HQs:

Nemesor Zahndrekh with Harbinger of Despair, Veil of Darkness. 245 pts.

Vangard Obyron with 5 Necron Lords, 5 Gauntlets of Fire, and 5 Harbringers of the Storm. 485 pts.

Necron Overlord with Phareon, Res Orb, Mind Scarabs, Semp Weave, and a Necron Lord with Res Orb, Mind Scarabs, and Semp Weave. 265 pts.

Troops:

Necron Warriors x20. 260 pts.
Zahndrekh's Harbinger attached.

Necron Warriors x20. 260 pts.
Overlord's Harbinger attached.

Necron Immortals x10. 170 pts.
Necron Overlord attached.

Necron Immortals x10. 170 pts.
Necron Lord attached.

Dedicated Transport:

Catacomb Command Barge. 80 pts.
Nemesor Zahndrekh embarked.


With the Nemesor in a barge, he can easily book 24" across the table, and sit himself down as a beacon for the Vangard who will deep strike in with his kill squad of Lords and Stormbingers. This will likely result in a popped tank, who's previous residents will now get to meet at least one of the Warrior squads who have come to evict them with their rapid fire. The Immortals would slog forward to provide support, and try to fill what holes may happen due to the fickle nature of deep strike. In the event of someone trying to tarpit the kill squad, the Nemesor can float near by so the Vangard can abuse his Ghostwalk mantle and deep strike out of the tar pit by 4-6 inches and re-flamer and voltaic staff the offending squad. So long as the Warrior squads don't get locked up in melee too much, they should also be able to deep strike back to objectives to hold them in the last round.

Thoughts?

It'd probably be fun to try, but it seems like a one trick pony to me. Basically it's concentrating most if not all of your army on a single vehicle/transport and trashing it... meanwhile the rest of your opponents army can calmly unload on you. The Command Barge would be an obvious target... the second it's down, the basic premise of the army breaks down.

Lore Weaver is probably the man to get some ideas from. Immortal in Night Scythes, Annihilation Barges and Scarabs seem to the good units, but I haven't followed THAT closely.

What's a bit beastly... well, downright scary... is the following.

Zandrekh on a Barge or in a NightScythe with a unit of Immortals (I prefer the NightScythe)...

He books it 36" across the table.

Obyron then ports an attached unit of Lychguard with Warscythes along with him (that unit has a Court Lord with a Res Orb, Scythe, and Scarabs attached).

Next turn, they're assaulting. You *could* give the Lychguard Sword & Board, but when you're guaranteed a turn 2 assault, I like the Warscythes.

You're opponent now *has* to deal with that unit, he can't leave them there. And they're *tough*, very tough.

Now, this, in and of itself, is not good enough on it's own. You have a little 1-2 punch action going on. When you're opponent is focused on that threat, your advancing a unit or two of 10 Scarabs, 6 Wraiths, or something else nasty that's going to wreck him next turn.

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Lastly, Rez Orbs are *awesome*, but don't feel like you need them in every unit. 4+ is only 16.67% better than 5+. I occasionally give an Orb to my Immortals, I always try to give an Orb to Lychguard or Praetorians, and I *only* give a rez orb to warriors if they're 20 strong (and even then, not always. With a Ghost Ark, I probably won't at all).

The 10 Immortal unit is *beastly* they always perform well for me. Even against John today, I think they took 8 plasma cannon shots to the face.

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I'd drop one unit of 20 warriors and replace it with a unit of 5 Lychguard with War Scythes. Drop a court lord, put Zandrekh with an Immortal Squad, don't take a command barge, and take a Night Scythe for the Immortals.

You can then swap your lord for a surf-board lord too, for 180 pts... he's kinda really good. Although, I like the Phaeron lord. He should only ring in at 225 though. (2+/3++, Orb, Scythe, Scarabs, Phaeron | 205 without Phaeron | 160 without 3++)

One thing you might want to consider is a transmogrification Cryptek with the Seismic Crucible, it'll help stop things from charging you.

New itteration on the list, should have a bit more punch now.

HQ:

Nemesor Zahndrek, with 2 Necron Lords (each with Orb and Scarabs) (one with a warscythe) and a Harbinger of Despair with Veil. 415 pts.

Destroyer Lord, with Scarabs and Orb and Necron Lord, Harbinger of Eternity, Chronometron. 250 pts.

Vangard Obyron. 160 pts.

Troops:

Necron Immortals Alpha x10. 170 pts.
Attach Vangard and 1 Necron Lord from each court.

Necron Immortals Beta x10. 170 pts.
Attack Despair and Eternity.

Necron Warriors Alpha x8. 104 pts.

Necron Warriors Beta x7. 91 pts.

Elites:

Lichguard x8 with Sword and Board. 360 pts.
Attach Nemesor and Necron Lord with Warscythe. Toss everyone into Night Scythe.

Fast Attack:

Heavy Destroyers x3. 180 pts.
Attach Destroyer Lord.

Dedicated Transport:

Night Scythe x1. 100 pts.


While the Vangard presents himself as a melee beast, I think he has a lot of potential as a shooting facilitator. His mantle lets him teleport out of melee, allowing him to step his squad out of melee and into perfect rapid fire range. The other part of his mantle lets him cheat, being part of a melee heavy squad when the Nemesor gets assulted.

By combining Eternity and Despair you can reroll one of your scatter dice, if need be.

The two small squads of warriors float around to hold points as needed, or otherwise just pester the enemy.

The destroyers help give a hammer to go along with what the two other HQs are doing on the other side of the field, opening up a tank so the Vangard can say hello to the occupants.

Edit: Did not realize that the Vangard did not qualify for a court until it was pointed out in the GW Necron FAQ thread. List has been altered to accomodate that fact. In the process, the 1 floating point has found a use.

Destroyer Lord doesn't grant you a court.

Also, Obyron should be porting the Lychguard, as he can stop them from getting stuck in combat.

8 Lychguard is too many, 5 is enough.

Sword & Board configuration is best used with Trazyn, otherwise, the Lychguard should have Warscythes. Warscythes are deadly. (I might grab another box so I can have 5 with scythes.) Sword & Board is also for painters.

Once you get a couple games in, Necron list building will make more sense. :-)

Lets see how well direct copy/paste from excel holds up.

HQ 760 WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv Point Value 1997
415 Nemesor Zahndrekh 4 4 5 5 3 1 3 10 2+ 185
Necron Lord x2 4 4 5 5 1 2 2 10 3+ 70
Mindshackle Scarabs x2 30
Resurrection Orb x2 60
Warscythe 10
Harbinger of Despair 4 4 4 4 1 2 1 10 4+ 30
Veil of Darkness 30

185 Necron Overlord 4 4 5 6 3 2 3 10 3+ 90
Mindshackle Scarabs 20
Necron Lord 4 4 5 5 1 2 2 10 3+ 35
Harbinger of Eternity 4 4 4 4 1 2 1 10 4+ 25
Chronometron 15

160 Vangard Obyron 6 4 5 5 3 2 3 10 2+ 160

Troops 522 WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
170 Necron Immortals Alpha x10 4 4 4 4 1 2 1 10 3+ 170
Attach Vangard and 1 Necron Lord from each court

170 Necron Immortals Beta x10 4 4 4 4 1 2 1 10 3+ 170
Attach Despair (from Nemesor) and Eternity (from Vangard)

104 Necron Warriors Alpha x8 4 4 4 4 1 2 1 10 4+ 104
Attach Overlord

78 Necron Warriors Beta x6 4 4 4 4 1 2 1 10 4+ 78

Elites 200 WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
200 Lychguard x5 4 4 5 5 1 2 2 10 3+ 200
Attach Nemesor and Necron Lord w/ Warscythe, in the Night Scythe

Fast Attack 415 WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
180 Heavy Destroyer x3 4 4 4 5 1 2 1 10 3+ 180

235 Canopteck Wraiths x5 4 4 6 4 2 2 3 10 3+ 175
Whip Coils x3 30
Particle Caster x5 30

Dedicated Transport BS F S R
100 Night Scythe 4 11 11 11 100

Much better list.

One small thing, Mindshackle Scarabs on a foot lord is 15 points, not 20.

Upon reviewing math, it seems I somehow paid for six Particle Casters on the Wraiths instead of five. Teach me to do math in the wee hours of the morning. Between those two corrections that gives me 13 points to play with, so Warrior squad Alpha gets another member.

End model count comes to 52. That's a fair amount of painting. That's also a fair amount of coin...

Maybe I'm already too Jaded by the net lists...

But i would have reservations abut fielding an I2 CC oriented army with no scarabs, no melta, and my only tank busting capability being warscythes?

I look forward to being proven wrong, however!

I am jealous of the amount of S/T 5 stuff necros can field with warscythes.

Yeah, not enough shooting. If your close combat guys get there and the enemy are all still in their boxes it will be a long game. 2000 points is a big game and big games mean a lot of vehicles on the board. 3 heavy destroyers are not going to do the job.

Ya... Surfboard Lord is kinda really good. Anni barges are also really really good.

Destroyers are terrible. 1 wound model for 60 points, and his "meatshield" is 40 points per model.

Triarch Stalkers are OUTSTANDING. Just don't downgrade their weapon for 5pts.