The Tomb Reawakens [Necron]

Yes it's all happening for my 40k armies at the same time, and my Necrons have resurfaced.

With increasing family requests on my time, and realising that I have way too many 40k armies and mini projects that I am never going to get round to, the Necrons were on the edge between becoming one of my main armies or being destined for ebay.

With their new codex they were undeniably a strong force in 40k now, but to stay as one of my main armies they had to be able to be played in a playstyle that I like.  My favourite is my Dark Eldar, I also like my Wolves who rush accross the board to get in close combat, while even my Tau is based around moving the infantry forwards to get them in range for the Ethereal to do his Storm of Fire ability.  So basically gun lines are not for me, and I like mobile armies.

Looking at the units which are fast in the Necron army, Destroyers stood out as having a pretty good buff; they went from 1 wound models back to 2 wound models, which I think is one of the biggest buffs in the codex, and that's before you put them in the Destroyer Cult to give them (effectively) Monster Hunter and Tank Hunter in the shooting phase.

Luckily my army had quite a few destroyers, a unit of heavy destroyers, and a second unit if heavy destroyers that needed to be repainted to my paint scheme.  So first game repairs:

 Not surprisingly with years in storage, even in good cases, there were a few repairs.  unfortunately the last destroyer (at the front) had lost the arm connecting the torso to the weapon, but luckily this last model wasn't needed for my first provision army list).

So to start the core of my mobile Necron force below is the Destroyer Cult:

[extra flying bases have since been obtained]

After my first couple of games I decided to lose the Heavy Destroyers in the small Destroyer units for normal Destroyers to keep the unit focused on one range, maybe it was just the Tau commander in me wanting standard weapons across the unit.


Early Test Games

I've had a few games down my local GW with my Necron force.  At 1200 points I've just used the Destroyer Cult along with an Canoptek Harvest, which makes a very small 30 model force.  Currently at this points level I am running:

Canoptek Harvest (430 pts)
1 Canoptek Spyder
7 Canoptek Scarabs
6 Canoptek Wraiths

Destroyer Cult (770 pts)
Destroyer Lord (Voidreaper) - Warlord
6 Destroyers
3 Destroyers
3 Destroyers
3 Heavy Destroyers

The list has nice mobility, and against the right targets (in one game I played a Raven Guard assault marine force) it can be devastating to MEQs (once they come out of cover).  However I need to see it against horde and mech forces.

Expanding the force I just add a Combined Arms Detachment, and even without the 4+ reanimation protocol of the Decurion Deatchment it has performed well, and more importantly the speed of the force has been nice to play with.

[GW's Reclaimation Legion Boxset]

A Quick Note on the Decurion

I've been avoiding the Decurian Detachment, as the main elements are slow foot troopers (you need at least 25 infantry models), and I can't have anymore of a model I really like (but more on that later).

The decurian core detachment gives a slow very resilient force, which I'm not sure I would enjoy playing, maybe sometimes, but definitely not all the time.  At 479 pts for a minimum Decurion Core detachment when I only normally 1500 or 1750 points, it's a bit much in models I don't really like (or to form the core of my army).  I don't mind a cheap Lord and 2 Warrior Squads (at the much cheaper 310 points) which allows me to spend more points on the models I like.

So expect a few more posts in the future on how I'm finding the Necrons.  The biggest advantage they have over my other armies is that the full 1750 point army fits easily into one standard KR case because I'm not using any vehicles (so are easier to carry nto work).  My case even contains 20 Immortals & 9 Lychguard I haven't used yet, and 10 Flayed Ones that have only had one game,


So how are you finding the Necrons, and have you seen many non-Decurion armies ?  Have you seen any unusual army builds ?

Rathstar