How To Play Necrons
Welcome to Best Warhammer 40K Lists, where we take a look at lists for a given faction and break down what makes them tick and how they fared. Every entry will be pulled from a recent GT, and we’ll be going over everything from who played the army to how likely the army in question is likely to continue to perform as the game evolves.Today, we’re going to be taking a look at Necrons. Necrons are one of the less commonly seen factions at competitions that manage to place, so we’ll only have two lists to look at today. Necrons rely on being able to heal casualties from injured units from an ability called Reanimation Protocols to slowly grind their opponent out with their durability. They also have many specialized units which open up some unique combos and synergies. These all come together to give Necrons a very unique playstyle.Let’s begin with Josh Stuart, from the Desperate Allies GT. He took 6th place with a commendable 4-1 finish.
Let’s look at his list:Josh’s list comprises of an Airwing, a Spearhead, and a Battallion. Each of these detachments is sort of it’s own mini army that does it’s own thing largely independent of the other detachments. This is somewhat unusual to see in other armies, but is a rather common tactic in Necrons due to how they are structured. It should be noted that his entire army is from the Sautekh Dynasty, which means that he gets to ignore the movement penalty for heavy weapons and can advance and still fire all of his weapons.We’ll start with his Air Wing, which consists of 3 Doom Scythes. Doom Scythes have a decent mix of anti-infantry and anti-tank weapons on a fairly cheap platform.
This makes them flexible, and they also naturally benefit well with the perks that the Sautekh dynasty provides. They also have a potent Stratagem in Amalgamated Targeting Data. This Stratagem lets you more or less combine the anti-tank portion of 3 Doom Scythe’s to dump 3d3 Mortal Wounds to units within 3” of a point of your choosing.
At first glance, this Stratagem seems pretty bad since it’s random (like other Stratagems that this is similar to), and it can completely fail. However, it only costs 1CP when usually these kinds of Stratagems cost 2-3, and you can still shoot their Tesla Destructors when you use the Stratagem.
This means that the Doom Scythes can simply be drip fed CP over the course of a game and shred the opposition with Mortal Wounds if the Death Ray’s don’t have a good target.Moving along, we have the Battalion. It’s lead by Imotekh The Stormlord, a potent synergy piece and Mortal Wound machine. Necron Overlords have an ability to improve the performance of a single infantry unit near them every turn, and Imotekh can do this twice. On top of his potent support capabilities, he can also dump D6 Mortal Wounds into a single enemy unit within 48”.
After that, he has a small chance to cause D3 Mortal Wounds to enemy units near the unit that you inflict D6 Mortals on. Although this ability can fizzle out if you roll a 1 on the initial D6, it will usually result in lots of free Mortal Wounds. Coupled with Amalgamated Targeting Data, you can really rip your opponent apart with Mortal Wounds over the course of a game.The rest of the Battalion consists of an Overlord with a Veil of Darkness, 3 units of 10 Immortals with Tesla Carbines, and a full 9 man unit of Tomb Blades. Between Imotekh and the Overlord, you can make all 3 units of Immortals +1 to hit, advance, and charge.
Effectively, this makes the Immortals able to advance and fire at full Ballistic Skill while also increasing their mobility which makes them lethal at removing enemy infantry. If things get dicey, or a unit of Immortals need to be redeployed to go on the offensive, the Overlord can use the Veil of Darkness and take a unit of 10 with him while also keeping them buffed, leaving the other two 10 man’s with Imotekh. Finally, we have a huge unit of Tomb Blades to fly around and delete a priority target every turn. The Sautekh Stratagem, Methodical Destruction, let’s you mark a unit you damage for death by giving the rest of your army +1 to hit against it.
Combined with Tesla, you get fast moving anti-infantry that hits on a 2+, and every hit roll of a 5 or 6 causes 3 hits instead of 1. Talk about firepower!Finally, we have the Spearhead which has a Cryptek and 3 Doomsday Arks. The Cryptek can fly around and help keep the Doomsday Ark’s safe by improving their regeneration with his Cloak and shooting outflanking enemy units with The Abyssal Staff, which basically causes D3 Mortal Wounds to whatever you shoot at. The Doomsday Arks can then comfortrably sit back and shell with their 72” ranged weapons, or if the situation dictates they can move around and shoot their lower profile at no penalty while also bringing in some extra anti-infantry with their Gauss Flayer Arrays. The Doomsday Arks provide some serious grind potential to the list while the other two components do their thing.There was a lot to unpack with Josh’s list, but it has a lot going on.
It’s a highly mobile and intricate list with a lot of power to it. Most successful Necron lists will look like this, or similar to it.
The most interesting thing about this is that it doesn’t include Destroyers which are often a staple in Necron lists. However, due to how it’s constructed, Destroyers don’t really fit in well which helps explain their absence.Our other list is piloted by Kyle Perry, who went 3-2 at the Dicehammer GT. He ended up 17th, which isn’t too shabby out of the 48 attendees. Let’s check out what he was working with!Kyle’s list is a bit more typical, and it’s also far more cohesive. Like Josh, Kyle took a spearhead with 3 Doomsday Arks and a Cryptek.
They are just as effective here, and they fill more or less the same role.The rest of the list is pretty different, however. For starters, he took a Catacomb Command Barge for his warlord. This guy can fly around and support the army at a safer distance thanks to the fact that his “My Will Be Done” ability has a 12” range instead of the usual 6”. He also took an extra Cryptek with a Chronometron for a 5+ Invulnerable Save bubble to keep his Immortas alive.It really diverges when it comes to the big units he took.
For starters, he has The Deceiver. This guy is a gnarly beat stick in melee and provides some Mortal Wound output thanks to his Ctan powers.
However, his “Grand Illusion” ability is what takes the cake here. It allows you to redeploy The Deceiver and D3 Infantry units anywhere on the board, as long as you stay outside of 12” of any enemy models. Although the units you redeploy can’t charge, they end up in much better firing positions, especially when we start talking about Destroyers.Speaking of, Kyle brought a full squad of 6 Destroyers as well. These badboys are rocking a 24” Heavy 3 Strength6 AP-3 Damage D3 gun, they re-roll 1’s to hit, and they even ignore the Heavy penalty for moving and firing. As if that wasn’t already pretty good, they fly too! Finally, they can re-roll all missed hits and wounds for just 1CP thanks to the “Extermination Protocols” Stratagem.
This is an all around great unit that can handle a variety of threats, and the Deceiver guarantees they get a good position from the start.Wrapping his list up, we have some Scarabs and a big unit of Wraiths. Scarabs are fast by Necron standards and hard to see since they’re so short. This lets them run around and take objectives or harass the enemy fairly easily and consistently. The Wraiths can follow up the Scarabs and bring some serious melee threat to the table.Each Wraith makes 3 Strength 6 AP-2 Damage 2 Attacks in melee, and can quickly get dug in thanks to their movement of 12”. For the turns where they just need to get there, they can advance and charge for 1CP thanks to “Adaptive Subroutines”. Wraiths can take a punch too, courtesy of their 3 Wounds and 3+ Invulnerable save.Kyle’s list is more straightforward, as it just tries to send a ton of threats downrange and shell the opponent with Doomsday Arks and Destroyers while they deal with the Wraiths and The Deceiver.
It’s definitely a solid list, and it put up decent results.All in all, Necrons are going to continue to be an underdog in the competitive meta. Their main gimmick revolves around being able to revive dead models in a unit, but they can only do that if at least 1 model from the unit is left alive. In larger games, most players have the punch to systematically take you apart one unit at a time, which in turn makes your ability to revive more or less moot.This is why both of these lists really didn’t lean on Reanimation Protocols. Instead, they relied on the other tools that Necrons have to try to overcome this weakness. Most successful Necron lists will also build to minimize their reliance on Reanimation Protocols like the lists here today did.If you loved this article, and can’t wait to get more awesome Nights At the Game Table Content, to join our Members Area!As always a big thanks to Games workshop for the images provided.
Let's start this one off with there are lots of ways to do it. This is how I go about it. It's maybe a little more work than the 'drybrush boltgun metal and wash' approach, but I think it's worth it.With the release of the new Necron Codex, I decided I would hit up my FLGS for some Necron models to practice on. Turns out, they were all swept up recently in anticipation of the new book hitting the stores.
I did find one of the guys in my gaming group who was more than willing to loan me his since I was going to be giving them back painted.A note about this particular process: Now that I painted this guy up and wrote the whole post, I've got to say it's not a conventional approach to painting Necrons. It involves some techniques that not everyone may use or be familiar with. As far as varnishing the model in the end, it may be difficult to do given the techniques used as well. That being said, I figure it's still worth sharing and folks can use what they want from it.Getting started on the right trackIt's important you don't prime your model and then just drybrush on the metal basecoat. It doesn't give you the same effect as if you painted it on properly.I've talked about what happens if you.
It just doesn't work. And since we're going to be making this guy look weathered, I need to start off right.
I need to start with a 'clean and undamaged' Necron warrior.A benefit that you get with painting each armour section is well defined shadows. It helps the viewer understand what they are looking at and recognizing what things are. Drybrushing brings out surface texture of something and doesn't always help define the shape of the object. It's only when the surface texture contributes to the shape that it really works.
Hair and fur are perfect examples.Making our Necron warrior look ancientThe first step is basecoating with GW Boltgun Metal. With our basecoat down, it's two washes with GW Devlan Mud followed by a last wash of GW Badab Black. This gets our warrior suitably dark from built up grime so that we can show the areas that are worn back down to clean metal due to operating.I start with two passes of the Devlan Mud finished off with one pass of GW Badab Black to give him a warm color and add some variety to the model.
You could do it with just black, but the model gets so flat looking to me in the end. I like the dark browns in the recessed areas later on.
I think they add to the grime effect and contrast well with the highlights.Highlighting the modelIn this case, I'm not highlighting as much as I am showing all the edges that the grime has been worn away and all that's left is the 'clean' metal underneath.This is done with two things. First is a pass with Metallic Iron weathering powder from Secret Weapon Minis to bring out the general areas and then a regular pencil along the edges of the armour plates.Here are two posts that look at these techniques a bit closerThe powder is applied to the larger areas of the model to represent areas that might be kept 'clean' due to movement and such. Same goes for joints that operate that grime will not be able to collect on the metal surfaces. The pencil is to really make the edges pop out and add some scratches and such to the armour plates themselves.Adding the rustSince these guys lay dormant for hundreds or thousands of years, they are bound to rust. That's my take on it.
So I wanted to add that effect to my model. The other thing it does is add some contrast to all the metal figure.I went through and added another weathering powder called Rust Red.
Most of the time, you want three shades of a color for variety, but in this case, I went with only one. I didn't want any 'new' rust and just wanted to add a touch of the effect to him.It gets applied to almost all the joints and any overlapping armour plates. Don't put in every single joint since you'll want some variety throughout your squads. Necrons will rust in different places at different rates depending on what they have been exposed to over time.Painting the Gauss weaponryAnd the final touch to this guy.
I wanted to keep him in line with the classic or regular look of Necrons as most folks know them. Since I did not do much along the lines of actually painting him (he's just a chunk of highlighted and rusted metal). I wanted my Gauss weapons to have that extra touch and make the model appear to be painted to a higher standard overall.I did two things to make the weapon stand out. I added a lightning effect and did a little bit of object source lighting.The lightning effect1. I added some lightning effects to the glow rod itself. Not terribly hard to do with a fine tipped paintbrush. A few squiggles starting at one end in white paint that are carefully gone over with a yellow wash (thinned bright yellow paint).
Using white paint for the lightning makes them stand out from the brightness of the glow rod and the thinned bright yellow wash makes them appear to be part of it. You want the contrast, but you don't want them to appear out of place.Object source lighting2. To make the glow rod appear to be glowing, I added the effect onto the model. Using all the principles I outlined in the, I went through and added a very slight glow to the weapon.
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I didn't want some huge glow from the weapon, but just enough to catch your eye and let the viewer fill in the rest of the effect.I also did this to his eyes. I was hesitant to add too much 'glow' to the model and settled on just the barrel of the gun and his eyes. I did not make any cables or ribbed chambers look like they were glowing.
I wanted just a touch of the effect. It needed to enhance the model, not overtake it.The glow itself is painted with successive layers of GW Snot Green. On it's own, it's a semi-transparent color so it takes a few passes to get the color strong enough to be seen.
I was able to use this to my advantage.I thinned my first few passes and then used it at full strength as I got closer to the source. For right next to the gun barrel, I added tiny touch of the bright yellow to lighten the Snot Green up.I opted to make the very end of his barrel appear to be glowing as well. It's not a part you usually see highlighted or turned into a glowing effect, so I thought I try to see if I could pull it off.The basing and finishing the modelI set this guy on a resin base and kept it's tones muted. It's slightly lighter since the model is somewhat dark in order to provide a little contrast. The last thing I did to the model was go over the weathering powder effects with some alcohol to 'set' the powders in place and prevent them from rubbing off so easily. For those wondering about that,All in all, he went real quick up to the point of the OSL. That effect took longer than it did to paint the rest of the model and the base together.
You can always leave the effect off your model and crank these out in an assembly line fashion. It'd take no time to get a squad of these guys done then.Make sure to check out these posts as they might help:GIf you've got any questions about something in this post, shoot me a comment and I'll be glad to answer. Make sure to share your hobby tips and thoughts in the comments below!
AnonymousLove the source lighting work - can't wait to try it myself. As for the rust, I have an issue. Looks great but completely silly. Any advanced society that transforms itself into living metal isnt going to do so using material that rusts when there are metals are extremely rust resistant. I can only imagine those worlds with oxygen would otherwise have nothing left to revive after only a thousand years - even perhaps 10 years - check out what happens to exposed steel after just a few years. I apologize for the editorial. Damn logic getting in the way again.
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KynikosI'm gonna give it to Ron on that. They may be covered in this necrodermis with its magical properties, but they are not.always. active, quite the opposite, they spend centuries sleeping in their hidden catacombs. So why not some grime and dirt?
Looks organic, a logical consequence of their hibernation, if you're into logic.I'm gonna give it a chance and pretend they come out all dirty and rusty until they are fully activated and then the whole magic regeneration happens. And brand new necrodermis! But until then, those weathering powders sure are working a magic of their own. Knox: Fixing the weathering powders can be tricky. I have a couple posts on it.
I did not 'fix' them on this model. I did go over them with alcohol though to help set them in place and provide a little bit of durability.And the colors on the base. I don't remember the exact names of them. It's a brand X light grey color with a thinned wash of Agrax Earthshade and then a light drybrush of the same grey with a bit of Ushabti Bone (or white for a bit more contrast) added to it to lighten it some.Hope this helps a little bit.