Necrons at 1k?
So my boy Forsaken has been a little down on his luck recently. He ended up coming in dead last at our little 1k fundraising tournament this past weekend, willing the coveted ‘Smoking Crater of Shame’ award. He just can’t seem to get the Necrons to be functional whether at 2000, 1850, and especially at 1k. so.. I took the project upon my shoulders to see if I could come up with a list and a strategy that would allow the Necrons to be at least competitive at 1k. When you are dealing with higher point values, a Necron player can more readily sidestep the phase out with more models. However, at 1000 points, phase out all of a sudden becomes a huge problem.
Here are my thoughts about Necrons at 1000 points.
first priority – phase out. Can’t let this happen easily. + have to have 2 troops.. therefore we will throw in 2x 10-man warrior squads.
2nd – lets get an HQ. ok.. well the c’tan is out clocking in at 300 points.. yeah.. can’t really swing that at 1000 points when we already are required to take 360 points of troops. (I can take 2x 5-man tact squads with melta gun and TL lascannon razorbacks for the same price….. fail GW.. fail for the poor Crons). So.. we are taking a Lord. Lords are decent.. toughness 5, scythe is good for punking some ICs. We’ll get back to wargear later. I’m taking him on foot to save on points here.
3rd – Monolith – is a must for Necrons… it is the ONLY way to leverage the lame phase out rule in a 1000 point match. You MUST MUST MUST MUST MUST be able to take more than 1 will be back roll. MUST. Plus the ability to teleport your units out of close combat. Added to that the pie plates of doom, and the d6 shooty attack. Oh and who really is bringing something to take down a lith at 1k? not too much that you can easily keep it out of the range of. Most players won’t be firing at it either if there are some other baddies to hit first. Therefore it will be your WBB factory, keeping your men up and your list from phasing out.
Next lets take some long range threat. We already have some decent 24” range with the warriors and lith. I’m thinking… 1 squad of 3 destroyers and 2x heavy destroyers (in separate squads). So… these guys just hide behind the liths and warriors all day and take pop shots down field. These guys are for opening up those transports, so your lith and warriors can feed on the gooey inside. Also, due to the gauss weapons, these can also keep those pesky LRs and preds from shooting or charging at you. Keeping units stunned is just as good as wrecked in most games side annil.
Lastly, necron lord wargear. Lets just keep it simple with an orb. Some nice bells and whistles there but honestly we have run out of points. So.. lets just lame the WBB a little more and throw a rez orb into the mix. That gives out long range units a little more cushion to take some pop shots even with the cover saves.
Wait.. that leaves us with.. what.. 5 points or so? So… lets throw one disruption field on each warrior squad incase a pesky walker tries to tie it up, and you need to use your lith’s teleport for something more important.
The idea here is simple. Monolith in front, warriors on the flanks and long range in between. That’s right, lame the fact that the destroyers are taller than your warriors (granting no cover saves to your opponent) and still using the warriors to grant cover saves to your units. WIN. From deployment on, you simply slowly walk your units across the table, as a UNIT. Don’t break formation. Wait for your opponent to blink, and when he does, adapt and take him down.
Again, this is Necrons we are talking about here, so there isn’t really a lot to work with. I believe this is a start of a list that balances the strengths and weaknesses of the codex. I can’t wait to get out there and try it, you did remember about the Berks 1k Spring Assault tourney in May didn’t you?
Anyways, let me know what you guys think of this list and strategy.
Feedback is always appreciated.
Necrons 1k. HQ: Lord w/ rez orb
Troops: 2x 10-man warriors + 1x disruption field on each squad
Fast Attack: 1x 3-man Destroyer squad
Heavy: Monolith
Heavy: 2x 1-man heavy destroyer squad.
