Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Necrons

This is the previous Edition's Necron tactics. 8th Edition tactics are here. 6th Edition Tactics are here. The Old Codex is here also.

Why Play Necrons

If you enjoy crushing people's hopes and dreams, then Necrons are for you. Necrons are effectively tomb kings in space. Undead robots with a somewhat Egyptian flavour and a reasonably unique style (by GW standards anyway). What is there to not love? Oh, and they aren't Marines. Honestly. Ignore their WS/BS/S/T 4 statline and their S4 AP5 Rapid Fire guns, they totally aren't Marines (though Immortals have a 3+ armor save, although their guns are better).

With recent editions adding transports and special units Necron mobility should not be underestimated, as such failure regularly catches unwary foes off-guard. From 20-man warrior blobs that can teleport across the board (without scatter if the Zahndrekh-Obyron combo gets rolling); mass skimmers; highly effective jet bikes; Wraiths, beasts with T5 W2 and a 3++; to the quickest transport in the entire game, the Necrons have lots of options to throw off the 'slow-moving gunline' assumption many players label them with. Many of these movement options allow unpredictable and unique ways to slip past your opponents or redeploy mid-game (including the famous Monolith's deep-strike-dimensional-corridor combo), leaving half an enemy army with no targets while simultaneously stepping in to deliver a killing blow to the other half.

And let's not forget that the Necron models look really nice, you have enough unit variety to pull off pretty much any style of play you want, and pretty much every unit can find a use in any army build without having to sink a ludicrous amount of points into them. Except C´tan; C´tan still suck. One day, one day... Ok, they are not that utterly bad, just mediocre, particularly when compared with everything else in the codex.

You have some of the nastiest HQ and Elite units in the entire game (a Destroyer Lord is basically a jetpack monstrous creature), your special characters are mostly solid and times are good once again for the zombiebots. Pretty much the only thing you lack is a close combat oriented troop choice, but you have so many absurdly deadly melee units in most other sections that this may not even matter. You can still troll mech armies with Gauss rules, tearing off their hull points, at which point your now numerous anti-armor units can simply just walk up, say "problem, commander?" and finish the job.

And unlike some armies you don't have any excess amount of trouble with any specific kind of army whether they be mechanized or foot slogging; few and elite or numerous and blobby; shooty or choppy, you can handle them all.

And you still hold the title of "most easily painted army ever."

Also for players that really do love to drink their opponents' delicious tears, necrons have the largest number of troll-tastic units out of any of the currently of released codices. Shooting your enemies with their own vehicles, killing whole hordes with a single punch from a special character who CAN NOT DIE, formations with free enhanced Feels No Pain, when you absolutely positively must troll your opponent, accept no substitute. Playing Necrons is likely to make you lose friends, or get your gaming table flipped in great frustration by an angry opponent.

What Did 7th Bring For 'Crons?

A lot. On the plus side:

• Reanimation Protocols have made Necrons undisputably the most resilient army in the game. Multi wound models are even harder to kill now and no longer will you be denied your RP rolls due to failing morale, which seriously alleviates the main two weaknesses necrons had, since the enemy can no longer kill an entire unit or frighten us out of CC to deny us our RP rolls. It is also easier than ever to get +1 to your RP with Crypteks (for perspective, we paid 30 points for the old Ress-orb without complaining) for individual squads and the Decurion detachment gets you +1 to RP for the entire army! Let's put it like this: an Immortal from a Decurion has a 3+ save and then a 4+ roll to ignore wounds, so if you're wounded 6 times you expect to save 4, reanimate one. So, effectively, your 17 point troops are Terminator resilient against small arms fire. Plus, the save is still a 5+ against instant death, which makes it amazingly better than FNP.
• The changes to Jink made the majority of Necron vehicles a hell of a lot more resilient, with a 4+ cover save for all flyers and skimmers except the Monolith. The wide use of skimmers, flyers and jetbikes means a lot of your army can always make cover. As a result, AV13 Wall army remains quite popular.
• Speaking of the death pyramid, the Monolith got a minor buff thanks to AV14 being that much harder to pop... still not enough to make it viable, though. A single Ordinance shot and some mediocre snap shooting per turn is not as useful as you think, then again it is pretty much the only ordnance blast you are going to get and it can snap fire at basically everything.
• The Ghost Ark got a huge buff. Not only does it benefit from the above mentioned improved jink save, but it has become super scoring, thanks to Objective Secured. With AV13 and 4 hull points, they're quite difficult to get rid of for most armies who aren't bringing dedicated anti-tank measures.
• The real star of this update is the Catacomb Command Barge. On one hand, it got a nerf in the sense that it is now restricted to only the Overlord (also, Chariots and their riders are now considered one model, so no more getting out of his ride). But on the other hand, if you stick your Overlord in this thing, he's going to be an utter bitch for your opponent to deal with. If properly tooled up (Warscythe, Phase Shifter, and an optional Resurrection Orb) he will have complete protection from all shots S4 or less, as he can elect to have the Barge's AV13 take the brunt. All shots that might harm the Barge (high strength/low AP), he can elect to take on the Phase Shifter's 4++ inv save. The only thing he really has to worry about is close combat, as the attacker can choose to hit either the Barge or the Overlord, and most units with Melta/Powerfists/Haywire are going to go for the vulnerable armor.
• If that wasn't enough to excite your ancient circuits, new formations fresh from the Tomb World are in the 7th edition codex, giving them move though cover and other nice stuff if you put them together in a new fancy way, that you already did in the first place. Some of them are very, very strong.
• Gauss weaponry got buffed, again. Now not only does it wreck vehicles with ease, any 6s to wound makes it an auto-wound, kind of like Fantasy rules on strength vs. toughness and Rending minus the AP2. Basically, it's back to 3rd edition for the Necrons. Though this isn't a very big buff since it'll only help against toughness 8 or above models.
• The 7th Edition Update had either price cuts or stayed the same from the 5th Edition codex. Still, compared to Space Wolves we got a point increase on our Cron-ssants. Some units such as the Lychguard and Triarch Praetorians took fuck HUEG point drops from 40 to 25 and 28 respectively, along with buffs. Wraiths got more expensive but their upgrades got cheaper, whip-wraiths are now effectively 2 points cheaper than before and gained +1 Toughness. Tomb blades got 2 points cheaper and their upgrades went from 5 or 10 points to 1 or 2 points. Destroyers got an additional wound with no price change and are now jet-pack infantry.
• The army FOC remains mostly intact but a few tweaks are in place now. Because Praetorians got an appreciable price-drop, it's possible to run fast melee units in both Elites and Fast Attack slots. Because one can now take Heavy Destroyers as a Heavy Support, in addition to running solo Heavy Destroyers in Fast Attack, you have lighter MSU-like antitank options at lower points levels, as well as the ability to double up on tank-hunters in an Allied Detachment. There is an extra layer of redundancy available that reduces some of the previous monobuild issues with the previous army. Plus, the new Decurion detachment rewards fluffy army building and gives you army wide 4+ Reanimation. Because, you know, ignoring half of all unsaved wounds is fun.
• The Doomsday Ark has a proper cannon on the front: strength 10 primary weapon large blast makes this unashamedly the strongest gun outside super-heavy, edging out the Death Ray for the title. On top of that, the Ark is now quite capable of firing on the move: S8 AP3 blast is plenty for anything not riding a metal box.

On the down side though:

• From a flavor standpoint, Reanimation Protocols now acts like a Fantasy ward save - for each unsaved wound a model suffers, it immediately makes a roll to negate the wound. This even works against attacks that say 'no saves of any kind' may be taken. Any Instant Death wounds lower the result of your die by 1 so you need 6s against it, and it can't be taken against Destroyer weapons or attacks that state the model is removed from play. RP is the new FNP. There goes the unique flavour of playing Necrons. Ever heard of streamlining, folks?
• Both the Annihilation Barge and the Night Scythe are now 30 points more expensive.
• Some staples of trolling were stripped to uselessness ala Tyranids. Mindshackle Scarabs come to mind.
• C'tan powers are still only used in the Shooting Phase like Psychic powers of old. No Denying bonuses outside the Adamantium Will upgrade. They're also lolrandumb and you need to pick a target before you fire.
• The Catacomb Command Barge took a hit in that the 4++ Phase Shifter only affects the Necron Overlord on it and not the barge itself. It also lost sweeping attacks. With the reworked Reanimation Protocols, no Catacomb Command barge coming back with its dead Overlord. A phylactery though makes slight compensation with IWND and the barge is now dirt cheap and still hits hard.
• The Monolith can only teleport Infantry and Jump Infantry, however this can be used with units in Reserve, Ongoing Reserve, or on the table as long as they are not locked in combat. Note that only your regular Necrons can use it as Wraiths are now Beasts. It also lost its "Test or die" effect when used offensively, along with the Exile Ray rule. Why they felt the need to make the Monolith even worse, who knows.
• Sadly, Tesla no longer affects Snap Shots, meaning that Flyer defence is now non-existent apart from other flyers who are now more expensive. Expect flying monstrous creatures to tear you a new one.
• The Crypteks were fucked hard, the Crypteks no longer get any equipment Overlords and Lords cannot get (besides the Chronometron) and the Armory has consequently shrunk due to the loss of harbinger leaving far less customization for crypteks, though there are more options for lords/overlords. The most sorely missed item is the Voltaic Stave, without which the Necrons rely increasingly more on their Elite slot for heavy anti-tank. You trade all of this for 1 extra wound and an old style resurrection orb effect - +1 to reanimation. Great, except it's pointless in a Decurion as you can't get better than 4+ RP anyway (though with the Mephrit Dynasty Cohort you replace the +1 with a reroll) and the trade off was all of the old flavour Crypteks used to bring (some day the leaders and technomages of our hyper-advanced race will have more than a fraction of the customization any basic meatling troop has...).
• The Royal Court is now a formation and has gotten smaller (down to 3 members of each max instead of 5).

Basically, when 7th hit it made this already strong army stronger. Then the 7th edition update took it to the next level. Necrons stay as a solid alternative to Space Marines as a beginner's army while compared to the other 2 Xeno codices (Orks and Dark Eldar) in 7th Edition, Necron players had better count their blessings!

Warlord Traits

1. Enduring Will - Eternal Warrior. It doesn't spread to your tin men and your HQs are already T5, but it does make your Warlord a tough force to remove with vindicators. Orikan and Trazyn get this.
2. Eternal Madness - Zealot. It at least makes the Warlord a little better at assault, but at I2, you best not be pushing your luck. More importantly, Fearless. Zandrekh begins with this.
3. Immortal Hubris - Your Warlord and any friendly Crons within 12" re-roll all Fear, Morale, and Pinning tests. A good buff, as LD10 with rerolls may as well be Fearless. Szeras gets this.
4. Hyperlogical Strategist - You can now add or subtract 1 from all Reserves and Seize rolls. Pretty good for a Croissant-heavy force or one relying on Flayed Ones or Destroyers.
5. Implacable Conqueror - Fellow Necrons within 12" of the Warlord now all have Relentless and Crusader. Enjoy your double-tap Gauss and Tesla now! Anrakyr gets this. 90% pointless in a Decurion where you'll get Relentless anyway.
6. Honourable Combatant - Your Warlord must now issue/accept challenges, and nobody but Obyron can intercept him. On the other hand, if your enemy ever refuses a challenge, then you gain Hatred for the rest of the game, this trait also gives rerolling To Hit in challenges. Just pray you're not on the same table as a CSM player, because he will strangle you for this.

Fighter Aces

In Skies of Death, you now have a bonus rule allowing you to pay 35 points for one of 3 special traits for any Flyer or FMC (FGC is still debatable).

1. Firing Protocols - +1 BS. Pretty nice grab.
2. Repair Subroutines - IWND. This is a real cool take on a flyer meant for the fighting.
3. Resurrection Vessel - Fellow Necrons within 12" gain +1 to Reanimation rolls, to a max of...4+. Seriously, it allows you to move a Cryptek around the table. Rather than buying a Lord or Overlord with a Res Orb for every squad (expensive), you can zip in a Resurrection Scythe to a unit under heavy fire, and then to the next one next turn. Was better in 6th, but now mostly replaced by Decurion buffs, though it could be good for units which can't be joined by Crypteks in a combined arms detachment.

Wargear

Ranged Weapons

• Staff of Light - The stock weapon of the Lords, it's an S5 AP3 gun with Assault 3, but only 12" range. It's the one thing your Lord should rely on unless you expect combat.
• Tachyon Arrow - A single-use 120" S10 AP1 shooting attack. Kind of expensive, but could be somewhat useful if you're lacking Anti-Tank. Which you aren't because your most basic gun glances on a 6 anyways.
• Gauntlet of Fire - It's a flamer, and just a flamer (not even the Heavy Flamer it used to be). It's also kinda not worth it for 10 points. Though, now that the Gauntlet does not keep you from taking a Warscythe, it may be worth considering, especially on a Barge for flamer overwatch. And it is after all the only flamer you can put onto your lord that you run along with your squad, if you feel the need to have a "special surprise" for those annoying tarpits that somehow get close to you.
• Heat Ray - The Triarch Stalker's chief weapon of doom, it's either a Heavy Flamer (and it actually is Heavy 1), or multimelta that shoots twice. Either way, trolltastic.

Gauss Weapons

This type of weapon always glances on a 6 when rolling to pen and will instantly cause a wound on a 6 to-wound. So back in 5th ed, even your basic Warriors could cause weapon destroyed or immobilized results on ANY vehicle. Yes, even a Landraider (or a Warlord Titan for that matter)! But then 6th came along and turned it up a notch. Due to the new hull points system, glancing hits strip off hps without rolling on the damage result table. But who cares! With some mathhammer, here's what a full Necron Warrior unit can do to a Landraider: 20 shots fired at BS4 means 13 1/3 hits. Rolling to pen needing a 6, 2 2/9 glancing hits. This means a Landraider is down to half its life in one round of shooting from your basic troops at 24" range. (For bonus points, Nemesor Zandrekh can sometimes give the unit tank hunter, so with Lady Luck on your side you will be one-shotting land raiders - but you'll need a nearby unit of enemy Tank Hunters to nab it from).

• Gauss Flayer - The basic gun of the Warrior, it's a bolter that can glance tanks to death.
• Gauss Blaster - It's a Gauss Flayer with S5 AP4. Keep it on Immortals in most cases. Remember, Decurions make them relentless, so this is a must keep whenever using one.
• Gauss Flayer Array - It's 5 Gauss Flayers slapped together, and it can fire at a different target from that of the rest of the vehicle's guns. These are what Ghost arks get and they're inexplicably salvo 5/10, meaning you will always fire 10 shots at 24" as vehicles are relentless.
• Gauss Flux Array - 24" S5 AP4, but Heavy 3 and can fire at a separate target. 24" heavy bolters, only for Monoliths.
• Gauss Cannon - 24" S5 AP3 gun with Heavy 2, mounted on your Catacomb or destroyers. Wrecks 3+ saves, otherwise a bit bland.
• Heavy Gauss Cannon - 36" worth of S9 AP2 Gauss goodness, though it's only 1 shot, and the Gauss rule does nothing for an S9 gun. It's a 36" lascannon basically.

Particle Weapons

• Particle Caster - S6 AP5 pistol. Yes, you are instagibbing Eldar with a FUCKING PISTOL.
• Particle Beamer - A 24" S6 AP5 Heavy 1 weapon with Blast.
• Particle Shredder - A bigger Particle Beamer, this can drop S7 AP4 Large Blasts in the same range.
• Particle Whip - The classic weapon of the Monolith, this is a 24" S8 AP3 Large Blast of Ordnance.

Tesla Weapons

Where the Gauss is loved for its potential in devastating tough enemies, the Tesla is loved for its ability to lay down lots of hurt. See, the Tesla rule grants a 6 to-hit two additional hits so long as it's not a Snap Shot. This means that a good roll can lead to a squad of Guardsmen being easily eradicated or a mob of Gaunts being chopped in half without thinking. The issue is that all Tesla Weapons are AP-, meaning you trade quality of shooting for quantity. Fun fact: at BS4 (aka almost all Necrons) you average one hit for every shot you fire. Yep, 5 Immortals firing tesla expect to get 5 hits.

• Ok, here's how it goes - 6 Immortals will roll 6 dice which on average means 2 misses, 4 hits and 1 of those hits generates 2 additional hits for a total of 6 which averages out to 1 hit per shot originally fired. 5 Immortals makes for less easy numbers - 5 shots equals 1.667 misses, 3.334 hits of which 0.8334 generates additional hits which on average means 1.667 additional hits per 5 shots, so the average number of hits is 3.334 + 1.667 = 5 hits. Sometimes you won't get any exploding shots but the average over a lot of shots is one hit per shot originally fired. 1 in 4 hits will generate 2 extra hit balancing out the 2 in 6 shots that miss.
• Tesla Carbine - A 24" S5 AP- Assault 1 gun. This is the tool of Immortals who like staying still, or assaulting without being in a Decurion.
• Tesla Cannon - A Tesla Carbine with S6 and Heavy 2.
• Tesla Destructor - A Tesla Cannon with S7 and Heavy 4.
• Tesla Sphere - A Tesla Destructor with a bonus shot. That's it.

Melee Weapons

• Flayer Claw - S User AP5 Melee, Shred. This is the only reason Flayed Ones aren't entirely shit (apart from their profile, and their rules).
• Hyperphase Sword - It's a power sword. That doesn't make it dreadful and it might be a reasonable choice if you are in a small game and want to save point while still making your lord dangerous to MEQ, but there are much better weapons available.
• Voidblade - AP4 Rending and Entropic Strike (Essentially Gauss in melee form). It's useful against GEQ but really the only argument in its favour is that it's cheap. Much like the Hyperphase Sword this suffers from a crippling lack of being a warscythe.
• Warscythe - Now we're talking. This is absolutely your default go to weapon in almost all circumstances. Though 10 points more expensive in 7th, you get a Two-Handed S+2 AP2 melee weapon with Armourbane. Anything that you move into base contact with will be cut to ribbons as long as the Overlord survives until his own initiative step. It's both powerful and versatile, ensuring that your Lord can chow down on whatever is thrown at him. You wound on 2+ against mariney boys, ID guard and eldar and have a 72% chance to pen an AV12 walker and even have the chance to one hit KO it since you have AP2. It's a Swiss army knife able to handle any challenge from dreadnoughts to terminators. Even against AV14 you have a 58% chance of damage and a 41% chance of a pen.

Technoarcana (Special-Issue Wargear)

• Chronometron - A 5++ against shooting. Cryptek's unit Only. Look at this very carefully, it buffs your whole unit. It's not quite a Kustom Force Field, but a blob of Warriors or Immortals (or Warscythe-Lychguard if you're feeling gutsy) can make great use of this.
• Dispersion Shield - A Necron-flavour Storm Shield. Sadly, you can no longer troll them with having shots bounce back.
• Fabricator Claw Array - Turns your Spyder into a Techie, you exchange shooting to repair a vehicle. On a roll of 4+, you restore a Hull Point/Repair a Weapon Destroyed or Immobilized result.
• Gloom Prism - Gives allies within 12" AW. Pretty much the only way you can deny any psychic fuckery since your C'Tan aren't Psykers.
• Mindshackle Scarabs - No longer the glorious trolltastic power it once was, to the outrage of many a cheesemongering neckbeard. Now, it confers Fear in challenges which the opponent must test for on a 3D6. Sadly, all the Loyalist Marines can resist this without rolling. And Daemons, and Tyranids in Synapse range, and pretty much anyone else that'll actually charge you. Weirdly enough, the Fear your character gains applies to all enemy units in combat, not just the dude you've challenged. Still not worth it, but it can sometimes give your lychguard or wraiths the upper hand.
• Phase Shifter - Grants the wielder and ONLY the wielder a 4++ Invul. The days of Invul spamming Catacombs are over, even if the 25 point price tag didn't scare you.
• Phylactery - Gives you It Will Not Die. Unlike the Phase Shifter, this will work with the Catacomb, so now you have a regenerating ride.
• Resurrection Orb - A much-loved take, this now allows your Lord and his unit to re-roll all failed Reanimation rolls for a single phase of the game. For 25 points, it's now slightly less of an auto-take, but still capable of earning its points back with one good phase. It feels like they switched the rules between the Phylactery and the Res Orb. Not the point cost, just the effects.

Artefacts of the Aeons

• Gauntlet of the Conflagrator - A single-use S7 AP2 Gauntlet of Fire, this sounds like a handy way to scrub out a little mob of TEQ. However, its single use combined with relatively steep points cost means there are better options out there. Can be a nasty surprise when stuck on Destroyer Lord. Str7 and preferred enemy allows for 2+ wounds rerolling ones against most units and ap2 negates all armour saves. Combine with Solar Thermistate for Str8 instant death to characters and Grey Knight Paladins. Suck on that Apothecary!
  • NOTE: Destroyer lords can't get Solar Thermasite.
• Nightmare Shroud - Old 'dex players would recognize that this is a merging of the Shroud and the old favourite, the Sempiternal Weave; 2+ Armour and Fear. Also, once per game during the player's shooting phase, he can force a unit within 18" to test morale. Sadly, this is incapable of harming Fearless or ATSKNF. It's another insanely pricey tool at 35 points, but is now the only way to give a vanilla overlord a 2+ save.
• Orb of Eternity - A Rez Orb that also gives all Reanimation Rolls +1 even if they're re-rolls. The issue is that such a gift must also be ungodly expensive at 40 smackeroos.
• The Solar Staff - A Staff of Light with Blind. It also can remove Night Fighting once in a game and during that turn, anyone shooting the wielder's unit has to use Snap Shots. Even if you don't want to mess with Dark Eldar or other Night-Vision spammers, this is a decent way to give you at least a turn to move without worry.
• Veil of Darkness - Another old tool, this gives only the Bearer Deep Strike. It also allows you to leave the table once per game (even during combat!) in a Movement Phase and DS anywhere else they want. This is an incredible gift for any army, because this pretty much allows you to leg it from a bad firefight or send a surprise unit with Deep Strike in a bad flank in order to pump the enemy's ass full. But it is 25 points...
• Voidreaper - Supposedly the Nightbringer's own scythe, the Voidreaper is a Warscythe with Fleshbane and Armourbane and Master-crafted. Since you're already pretty crappy at Initiative, bringing a melee deathtrap like this can easily boost your killing ability with little loss. Costs only a little more than a warscythe, Fleshbane is used to cut MCs down to size and the Master-crafted is a godsend for an Overlord. Best on Destroyer Lords to whom the Master-crafted property is highly valuable (fits the fluff there too).

Tomb Blade Upgrades

• Nebuloscope - This little tool is what makes the stupid jetbikes awesome: Ignores Cover on all guns. Mutually exclusive with the Shadowloom on any given bike.
• Shadowloom - Grants the equivalent of Stealth, so a 6+ Cover in the open and +1 to all other cover. Note that shadowlooms don't actually give you Stealth. If you are able to gain that rule from somewhere (like night fighting), feel free to Jink yourself into a 2+ Cover Save.
• Shieldvanes - Boosts the Tomb Blade's armor to 3+. You should always be taking this, it increases their survivability by 50% against AP 4+ and means that you don´t have to jink against AP 4 weapons. The nebuloscope and shieldvane combo is what is most commonly seen in competitive Necron lists.

Vehicle Equipment

• Quantum Shielding - Comes stock on the Barges and Arks. Grants FA/SA 13...until you get penned, where it gets disabled.

Powers of the C'Tan

Unlike most other armies, the Necrons have no psykers, and the only thing they have to counter that is the Gloom Prism. Instead, the mandatory card set you need for them is instead randomized abilities for your C'Tan/Tesseract Vault to fire, each with their own properties. You have to roll this power after targeting an enemy, and these can't be snap-fired.

1. Antimatter Meteor - a 24" S8 AP3 Large Blast. The Vault doubles the range and makes it an Apocalyptic Blast. For when those Marines, Nobz, and Tyranid Warriors really need to die.
2. Cosmic Fire - a 24" S6 AP4 Large Blast that ignores cover. The Vault doubles the range and makes it an Apocalyptic Blast. Pretty much ideal for splatting a tough mob that thinks it's safe in cover.
3. Seismic Assault - a 24" S6 AP4 Assault 10 attack with Strikedown. The Vault doubles the range and number of shots. Pretty awesome.
4. Sky of Falling Stars - a 24" S7 AP4 Assault 3 Large Blast Barrage. The Vault doubles the range and makes it an Apocalyptic Barrage. Destroys anything that thinks it's safe in cover.
5. Time's Arrow - a 24" SD AP1 shot with Precision Shot. The Vault doubles the range and gives a bonus shot. Pretty much the only way you'll remove that annoying commander.
6. Transdimensional Thunderbolt - a 24" S9 AP1 Tesla shot. The Vault doubles the range and gives it another shot. The one time you roll a 6 to hit with this, you'll be laughing your ass off.

Rules

• Reanimation Protocols - The bread and butter of the Necron Forces took a major redo with the transition: Now more like a Ward Save but before he takes a wound. On a d6 roll of 5+ (suffering a -1 penalty if against ID), your guy negates the wound. The issue is that this can never be better than a 4+ but is still cumulative with other modifiers (a regular roll with +2 is 4+, and against an ID attack is still 4+). It can't be used against a wound caused by a Destroyer weapon

• Living Metal - A special rule that allows vehicles to ignore Crew Shaken, though they still lose a hull point. Heavy and Superheavy vehicles also gain a variant of IWND which regenerates a missing HP on a 6+. If you are in a Decurion this also allows you to ignore crew stunned. Enjoy your immortal monoliths and tesserect vaults.

Unit Analysis

HQ

• Necron Overlord - Your basic HQ choice, and customizable. Your basic Overlord will cost you the same amount of points as 80 searchlights, and there's a small list of wargear upgrades to choose from. In terms of sheer value, this is the best HQ in the codex.
• Catacomb Command Barge - Your Necron Overlord's personal pimp-mobile. He can blast suckas in drive-by shootings thanks to the Catacomb's built in gun, or simply drive closer to hit them with his sword (or Warscythe as the case may be). The Catacomb command barge is now a chariot which basically means it is a walker that moves like a skimmer and has d6 s6 ap - automatic Hammer of Wrath hits. Due to the way chariots work it is more durable than a dreadnought against shooting because you can allocate lance shots and the like to your overlord, however it is a little more vulnerable in CC because enemy units can choose whether they want to strike the Armour 13 barge (if they are anti vehicle) or the T 5 3+ armour save character on top, as soon as either one dies the entire thing goes. Should be used with caution and only against units that it has favourable matchups against, thankfully it is a fast skimmer which should allow for plenty of manouvering. Goes very well with Phaseshifter allowing a 4+/5+(4+ in a decurion detachment) against high AP/S shots you don´t want hitting your barge. Phylactery allows you to roll for both the barge and Overlord making it a must-have. Nice in a mechanized list, since characters no longer fit inside ghost arks, otherwise you should probably consider just bringing wraiths instead. With the changes to Jink, it's cover save for existing has gotten better at the expense of having to snap-fire its gun, but you want to CC with this thing anyway so who cares!? Another boost is that all Necrons within 12" can re-roll Morale, Pinning, and Fear tests, and if you have the Immortal Hubris WT, this gets upped to all units within 18". Douche Canoe.
  • Since most Necron lists will contain an Overlord of some kind the big question becomes how will he go about curb stomping those pesky sergeants. The CCB has some great value and is very threatening when properly tooled up but does leave your overlord exposed and at risk when engaging big things due to possible Explodes! results (keep him the hell away from str 10 weapons, unless you rolled eternal warrior on warlord trait in which case go nuts!). The safer bet is often to grab your footslogging overlord and give him a bodyguard (and maybe a cryptek friend to go pwn some scrubs with). Giving him veil of darkness gives you some great first/second turn board control when you deliver him right to the center of your opponents table edge and he's much more likely to live until the end of the game with some ablative wounds. Now warlord kill may only be one point, but that's your point dammit and nobody's allowed to stop your special snowflakes rampage! NOBODY!!!

• Destroyer Lord - He misses out on some of the wargear that the Overlord gets, and the +1 to WS and BS he now have, but on the other hand, he gains Jetpack Infantry, T6, Preferred Enemy (Everything!) which gets conferred to whatever unit he joins. Great as a beatstick thanks to his better Toughness; stick him with a unit of Destroyers who are also Jetpack Infantry, and provide a strong deterrent for your opponent, or kit him out to tank wounds on your extremely valuable, literal-murder-machines. Other wargear worth considering would be Res-Orbs.
  • Alternate View since he now is Jetpack Infantry, sticking him in jump units (Wraiths or Praetorians) slows them up. It could still be worth, but he now find a better use in a Lychguard unit or to dispense Preferred Enemy to Warriors or Immortals. Or just run him alone, and you have a T6 relatively fast fire magnet. If you want to be boring, you could just keep him stock on a Destroyer squad and provide the only fast firing your squad will get.

• Necron Lord - Basically a mini version of the Necron Overlord, with WS/BS4 2 Wounds and 2 Attacks (compared to the Overlord's WS/BS5 and W/A3) but they still hit almost as hard as any Overlord for 50 points base instead of 80, and can be kitted out similarly.

• Cryptek - Essentially Necron "priests/wizards" employed by Overlords to use their space magic (otherwise known as science) to assist in battle. Sadly the update ripped out any ability for fancy or fun new powers, with the only consolation being a +1 to his group's Reanimation Protocols, which is rendered mostly useless in a Decurion detachment (Reanimation Protocols are cumulative, so if you have a Cryptek who's in the Decurion and would be wounded by an Instant Death weapon, you'd still get a 4+ RP save) and the Chronometron.

Special Characters

The following are special characters. Unlike CSMs or Dark Eldar they are not here to be a close combat monsters (though some of them can) but rather buff your army. If you want an Abaddon-esque killing machine, it's better to take the Overlord and kit him appropriately.

• Nemesor Zahndrekh - The senile old coot is actually a surprisingly good tactical HQ choice (given that you can choose and swap your warlord traits), giving nifty bonuses to your units each turn as you can choose any warlord trait from the book, or the 40k main rule book. He's not very useful in close combat, but he works really well with Vargard Obyron, as described below. If you ever find a unit with Counter-Attack, Hit & Run, Furious Charge, Split-Fire, Stealth, or Tank Hunters, then he can steal it for his unit too.
  • Protip: - Note that Allies of Convenience count as enemies for all purposes except for being targetable by shooting/melee. This means if you were to grab an allied Tau Shas'o with Puretide Engram Neurochip or a Firebase Support Cadre...
  • Important to Note - You can only choose his warlord trait starting on the second turn, he always starts with Eternal Madness, thus preventing any deployment shenanigans.
• Vargard Obyron - The close combat HQ, this guy combines good WS with a Warscythe and strong hitting power, and every miss on him in a challenge generates an I1 attack from him. Needless to say, he and Zahndrekh work pretty well together. Obyron is an excellent character to have in a tarpit, since his high WS gets plenty of hits in with his Warscythe, while he has all the resilience of an Overlord. The only thing he lacks is a Phase Shifter, so be careful of Force Weapons and Monstrous Creatures. His Ghostwalk Mantle allows his unit to jump out and DS wherever he wants, and this will never scatter when within 12" of Zandrekh (though you can't cheese this to teleport a Royal Court with the two together flawlessly). His ability to auto-pass Glorious Interventions can easily make him a perfect bodyguard for a squishier HQ. Sadly, was badly nerfed in the latest release: he's only got two wounds, only builds up attacks while in a challenge, and the lack of an invulnerable save stings as bad as it ever did. The new RP rule helps him by essentially giving him FNP. Use carefully.

• Illuminor Szeras - It's like Dr. Frankenstein, except an undead spider robot. His statline is nothing special, just a standard Cryptek with 4 attacks; however, he does give a bonus to one unit of Warriors or Immortals in your army, giving them either +1 Toughness, BS5, or Strength for the remainder of the game (A full unit of immortals with +1 toughness will really live up to their name, especially if you have a resurrection orb nearby, seriously, they'll make plague marines look like pussies, combine with Anrakyr to really troll your opponent) and every unit within 6" of him gains the Cryptek +1 to RP. He also has a S8 AP2 Lance shooting attack; if there's a "shooty" hero unit in the Necrons codex, it's Szeras. He's also the cheapest named character in the codex.

• Orikan the Diviner - The other Cryptek character, who gives +1 to RP and re-rolls on 1s for saving throws to his unit, he has an AP 2 weapon that re-rolls to hit in assault, and on each turn you roll a d6 - if the die roll is less than the turn you're currently on (so on Turn 3 you'd have to roll a 2 or lower), then "The Stars Are Right", Orikan goes Super-Saiyan, and gains a massive stat boost (similar in power to a C'tan Shard, complete with a 'bwahahaha!' in the old codex rule description). The new Codex does him a BIG favor and makes the Empowered Orikan now permanent, which is insanity. Can be surprisingly murderous, as this half-price C'tan shard is probably still hidden in a warrior block.
  • OriKAN'T KILL ME a troll-tastic move with Orikan is to team him up with a Destroyer Lord bodyguard with the Nightmare Shroud, Phase Shifter and Phylactery (add in Resurrection Orb and the Solar Staff for added fun with re-rolls and Blind). You now have a unit that tanks shots on majority T6 with a re-rollable 2+ armour save thanks to Orikan, in addition to a 4+ invuln with the ability to re-roll 1s and reanimation protocols on a 4+ on top. Even if he takes a wound to the few things that can hurt him though all that (beware of Vendettas and Destroyer Weapons), he'll probably just shrug it off thanks to It Will Not Die. Now you have a slow but threatening DISTRACTION CARNIFEX that almost ensures Orikan reaches assault and hopefully turns into a mini-god. For added hilarity fill the rest of your army with Wraiths (take lots of Canoptek Harvest formations) and admire the look on your opponent's face as your insane assault threat bears down on him from all angles.
  • Orikan-star More survivable than the above, take Orikan, an Overlord with the Nightmare shroud, 10 Lychguard, a Destroyer Lord, and some lords with Orbs and scythes. As well as one shmuck with a viel of darkness. Enjoy your 3++ re-rolling 1's Lychguard with Preferred Enemy EVERYTHING.

• Anrakyr the Traveller - Comes with a Tachyon Arrow and a Warscythe, and gains the Counter-Attack and Furious Charge special rules. If you have Immortals, one unit of Immortals become "Pyrrhian Eternals" for no additional cost, which are basically just like regular Immortals but with Counter-Attack and Furious Charge, making them not quite so shitty in assault. They're still dead against dedicated combat units, but this can provide a critical edge against Tactical Marines and the like. His real strength is his ability to hack enemy vehicles, which means you can cause your mech-happy Imperial Guard opponent to shoot himself with his own tanks. WOLOLO. Be sure to thank your kind opponent for letting you borrow his vehicle. Unfortunately, this has dropped to 12", and selects a random weapon, meaning you'll usually end firing somebody's heavy bolter sponson or something. Still hilarious.
  • NOTE: Due to Furious Charge, in the first round of combat Anrakyr can potentially insta-gib anything thats Toughness 4 or lower!

• Trazyn the Infinite - aka "The Tarpit Breaker". Trollzyn is probably the best HQ choice you can get if you just love messing with your opponent. He excels at wiping out hordes, thanks to his Empathic Obliterator- if he kills a character in a challenge, he hits absolutely anything from the same faction (friend or foe) within 6" with an S4 AP- hit, usually resulting in many casualties in full strength hordes, though this makes things troublesome if you have units within that range and facing other Necrons. On top of that, even if he doesn't die, the weapon's S+2 AP4 and has Concussive, so you'll get a good chance to deck him down the next turn. If he dies and rolls a 2+, he can just possess another non-named Necron Character on the table and keep going with d3 Wounds. Issue with this is that you really won't have many characters to use (unless you're using the detachment with a Court), so it's usually only good for one drop. Use him against tarpits in a unit of Sword and Board Lychguard/Wraiths to cause empathic explosions while killing sergeants or Nobs, then your OTHER dedicated assault units move on tarpit free. Trazyn is not meant to kill other ICs in challenges, he's meant to take down Sergeants and Nobs to punish your foe for hiding his IC behind them.

Troops

• Necron Warriors - The closest thing the Necrons have to tarpits and cannon fodder, these guys are basically Cronscripts (get it?). They're the same as last edition except now their minimum squad size is 10 instead of 5. Just about as good as Space Marines at shooting, and a little cheaper too, but they suffer in close combat, where their I2 and 1 Attack make them worse than Tactical Marines. Interestingly, their newfound resilience during melee helps address their poor initiative: they will fight toe to toe with tactical marines, happily dragging out the fight so your real melee units can wade in. Perfectly capable of laying down the hurt on anything weaker than that. Great for parking on an objective or just swamping the field with bodies. And with gauss rules, you can quickly strip an enemy vehicle of its Hull Points. That's right, your basic troops can still glance a Land Raider into dust.

• Immortals - These guys are basically what Warriors used to be, 3+ save and all, except they're 4 points more than base warriors and they have better guns. Start with gauss blasters, can take tesla carbines for free, both options provide nice anti-infantry dakka. Like Warriors, they're still terrible in close combat, but few things are more satisfying than looking at an opposing Tyranid player's face as a few squads of immortals wipe out pretty much all of his gaunts in one turn with Tesla carbine fire. If Anrakyr's on the field, Immortals can form a surprisingly effective melee hammer: trick them out with a cryptek or res-orb, tesla some unfortunate souls, charge, and reap the benefits of what mathematically amounts to a 2+ save. Just watch out for the real melee fighters: they'll still clean out your spiffy troopers.
  • Tesla vs. Gauss - One of the biggest decisions around Immortals is whether to field tesla or gauss weapons. Typically, the biggest deciding factor is the tradeoff between rapid-fire and assault weapon types: Gauss immortals can move and fire their Gauss weapons at full capacity (if within 12") and prove to be a threat to vehicles, while a group of Tesla immortals can be expected to either stay outside 12" or fire immediately prior to charging. Mathematically, discounting these two points, the Tesla carbine is equal or superior against all but 4+ armor: (the math still works out in favor of tesla just a slight bump in favor of gauss on 4+ armor then tesla wins again vs MEQ and TEQ)

Tesla vs Gauss Mathhammer (Expected wounds per shot, Toughness 4)
Armor Save	None	6+	5+	4+	3+	2+
Gauss Blaster	4/9	4/9	4/9	4/9	4/27	2/27
Tesla Carbine	2/3 (6/9)	5/9	4/9	1/3 (3/9)	2/9 (6/27)	1/9 (3/27)

• • Conclusion: If you know you'll be facing 4+ armor (ork 'ardboys, pretty much anything with warrior in the name (Tau Fire, Necron, Tyranid and most of the Aspect kind)), pack your bags with Gauss Blasters. If not, Tesla Carbines not only won't let you down, but occasionally rock much harder than expected.
  • Note: This is taking into account a similar number of shots. Once the Gauss Blasters are within 12" of their target, Rapid Fire kicks in and they are categorically better than Tesla against all armour types. If you expect to get closer to your opponents (dropping from a Night Scythe, for example, or a forward Objective Capturing squad), Gauss eventually becomes the much better option. It's also capable of damaging AV 12+, unlike the Tesla, and, in the incredibly unlikely event GW puts out a model that's T9 or T10, the same applies. (Troll that Hierophant, or that Iron Arm-protected GUO...)
  • Note the Second: Gauss works on Overwatch but Tesla does not (i.e. you cannot trigger additional hits), so if you care, the Gauss weapon also clearly wins out there.
  • New codex note: Now that Immortals are less afraid of melee combat and Tesla guns can't scare fliers, Gauss guns pretty conclusively win out. Rapid fire is not to be discarded lightly, and Gauss/AP4 helps bully the foes Immortals really want to be shooting (vehicles and lighter infantry). Unless your battle plan calls for a minimum-size objective-holder, keep those double-barrel glowsticks.

Dedicated Transports

• Ghost Ark - Good for ferrying a unit of ten Necron Warriors, it can be purchased for units above the ten-model transport capacity. It can broadside two different targets with gauss flayers, and even repair d3 Warriors from death. It is worth noting that the ark can repair units of warriors other than the unit it was taken with, so you can shove a unit of 10 in the ark for more protected firepower, and then have it run repairs on the block of 20 that it is sitting next to. Well, till eventually dice gods laugh and just wipe that unit off the map. Useful for drive-bys with Warrior squads, but unfortunately it can't carry any other unit types. Penetrating hits will blow up this thing up pretty easily because it's open-topped, but Quantum Shielding and Jink ensure that won't happen too often.
  • New Codex Restrictions - The Ghost Ark got something of a backhanded change this edition. It's cheaper, and the new salvo 5/10 (why not just make them Heavy 10, GW?) guns are definitely better. On the other hand, only warriors can ride. Warriors now have a minimum squad size of ten, so there's no way you could put a character in there with them. Once the warriors start dying, though, they could hop into the clown car. The result is a complete halt to the old 'nine warriors and a cryptek in an ark', despite making the ark itself better.

• Night Scythe (Attack Flyer) - Although it did take a hit in the price Department (Now costing 130 points), the Night Scythe is still a great flyer in 7th edition. It has 3 hull points, fires the equivalent of 4 autocannons (expected number of S7 AP- hits per volley: 14/3), and can teleport troops to the floor whilst zooming. It's also available to immortals, deathmarks, and lychguard. Mount up Lychguard with Hyperphase Swords and Dispersion Shields, drop those suckers right into the enemy ranks, and then laugh as your opponent shoots them and fails. However, it is not entirely a reliable buy. While you can disembark a unit if the Scythe moved no more than 36", the unit that disembarked can only fire Snap Shots if you move more than 24". Similarly, the scythe protects your unit from any damage, but if it ever crashes, the unit it was carrying must automatically enter Ongoing Reserves, which for the units you'll put in it is only slightly better than death. S10 AP2 is bad and all, but in many cases you'll wish that'd been the result (awesome mental image of half-dead lychguard rising out of the flier's crater completely aside).
  • Keep in mind that, even if the Scythe crashes and your unit goes into Ongoing Reserves, they can still be teleported into battle via a Monolith.

Elites

• Deathmarks - Deathmarks are Necron snipers with a twist; their Sniper Rifles are 24" rapid-fire allowing them to "move and fire", they can Deep Strike, and they get two special rules to make them even deadlier: Hunters from Hyperspace means that on the turn they arrive from Deep Strike, they automatically wound on 2+ (and this was FAQ'd to override Sniper weapons only wounding Gargantuan Creatures on 6s) meaning when they drop down, they will put down the hurt or force a lot of saves. To really mess with your opponent, anytime an enemy unit arrives from Deep Strike reserve, the Deathmark unit may then deep-strike DURING THEIR TURN and shoot at any enemy unit that arrived from reserves at the end of that movement phase, though doing this means they can't fire next shooting phase.
  • How to Use Them: Deathmarks find use either as an alpha-strike unit where a mass of Wound on 2+ shots can easily dent your opponent's plans, or as a defensive unit. The alpha-strike is fairly cut and dry: Deep Strike in, tap off a lot of shots, and hopefully kill a trouble unit. Note that you "could" use Ethereal Interception to auto-arrive if you're running Deep-Striking Allies of Convenience (such as Crisis Suits or Termicide) if you really want to put pressure on your opponent. On the other side of the coin, Ethereal Interception lets you blunt enemy alpha-strikes or set up your own traps; If your opponent is running Skyhammers, Haywire Scourges, or Farsight Bombs, D-Scythe Webway Portal Wraithguard or other similarly punchy "bomb" units, a pair of Deathmark units can deny such attacks in one go, before proceeding to make a nuisance of themselves during your turn. Note that although they cannot fire in the following Shooting Phase, there is nothing preventing them from assaulting another unit when their turn comes; while they don't hit hard in melee at all, they do have Reanimation Protocols and a 3+ save so they can tie up smaller squads or serve as "ablative wounds" for killier units in a multi-assault.
  • If you don't mind losing all your friends, take an HQ with a Veil of Darkness. Since this gives them Deep Strike, you can start them in DS reserve attached to a unit of deathmarks. Since the veil uses deep strike rules and Hunters From Hyperspace activates when the unit "arrives by deep strike", you can use this to get an extra round of 2+ wounds once per game. If you're fielding a monolith, you don't even need to leave the HQ behind enemy lines.
  • Deathmarks do not combine that well with the Veil of Darkness, actually. Hunters from Hyperspace specifically notes that it applies when the unit "arrives by deep strike reserves". The VoD only allows the unit to be placed according to the Deep Strike rules - no benefits of arriving from Resrves apply, hence Hunters from Hyperspace does not apply.

• Lychguards - Your terminator equivalents (ironic since the Necrons look like those time travelling robot assassins from a certain movie franchise) that took a very generous price cut (200 to 125? WOOT). For the cost of an Honour Guard member, you get T5, reanimation protocols, but only a 3+ save. Their main basic weapon is a warscythe, which is the same awesome can-opener that you can give to your Lords and Overlords. However, the better bet is usually to exchange the warscythe for a Hyperphase Sword and Dispersion Shield. The shield gives you a 3++ invul, which adds to your survivability. Terminator's wish they could take as much damage as these guys. To kill a single Sword and Board Lychguard you need to fire 18 strength 5 shots with BS 4. The best way to run these is to use them as an escort for your Overlord. Give your Lychguard Swords and Shields, and the Overlord a Warscythe or the Voidreaper. If you have the points, toss in a Necron Lord with another Warscythe and upgrade to taste. Make sure someone in the unit is a cryptek, or you are in a decurion, since even a single four rolled and you'll make your points back and then some. While they're a semi-competent melee unit, they are very slow unless put in a transport so most units can simply walk away from them. The real use for these guys is simply bodyguard duty to a combat Overlord. The limitations of Lychguard prevent them from being a truly competitive choice, and it's best to leave the heavy-hitting to Wraiths... unless you're rolling Obyron. In that case, go nuts.
  • Think about putting a few Lychguard and their O-lord into a Nightscythe, and drop em into your opponent's backfield. Chucking Orikan in with these guys can get some crazy results, as a 3+ invuln rerolling ones followed up by a 4+ reanimation is a nightmare to deal with, let alone when Orikan goes super saiyan.
  • If you ever wanted a unit that will never ever die and make an anvil to your hammer then these are your ultra lethal robots. Ten of these bad boys with their shields will run you 300 points, which isn't cheap, but if you're taking them there is a fantastically easy way to make them into a melee death-star. Step one, grab an overlord with veil of darkness, res orb, and warscythe (optional phase shifter and the veil is cheaper than a night scythe). Step two, grab a cryptek with solar staff (if you're feeling lucky save 25 points by keeping warscythes on lychguard and give the cryptek a chronometron). Step three, deep strike across the board turn one right in front of your opponents army; the more outnumbered your guys are the better. Step four, laugh maniacally as your opponent squirms underneath your unit that will take literally their whole army to take maybe two models off of any turn. Now this combo will likely run you upwards of 500 points which is pushing the limit on points for one unit but I personally can testify to it's effectiveness. Bonus points if you put Orikan in place of the cryptek to really make your opponent cry as you reroll all 1's on saves. If you give your overlord the Nightmare Shroud, he will effectively have a re-rollable 2+ save - this means that, with 4+ reanimation, it will take an average of 972 bolter shots fired at BS4 to kill him.
  • Things they are not: assault terminators. While they have the edge in toughness, they are woefully short in terms of offensive capability. They are much more vulnerable to assault than one might hope for such a unit, especially with challenges kicking in, and their cumbersome blades simply don't compete with thunder hammers or other "dedicated assault elite" loadouts.

• Triarch Praetorians - A close combat unit similar to Lychguards though slightly costlier, Praetorians are the sword to the Lychguards' shield. They're Jump Infantry, making them much more mobile than Lychguards, and bear an unusual weapon: a Rod of Covenant is an AP2 Two-Handed weapon with a 12" S5 AP2 shooting attack, essentially giving them another attack before they charge. Their alternate weapons are voidblades and particle casters - this gives their shooting attack better strength in exchange for much worse AP, while their close combat weapons gain Rending and Entropic Strike. While this doesn't initially seem as good as outright ignoring armor altogether, they do get a bonus attack for having a pistol and close combat weapon, essentially trading quality for quantity. Even with this extra attack they lose combat to Grey Hunters, Spiky Spess Mehrens, and pretty much any other half-competent combat unit. Two attacks and a 5+ RP save on a combat unit (Upped to 4+ if you use a Decurion, join with a Cryptek or just stick near Szeras) makes them pretty damn decent now.
  • Alternate take: voidblade-equipped Praetorians make acceptable vehicle-hunters, for they are fast and have entropic strike. While being not as deadly as warscythe Lychguards, Praetorians actually CAN catch even fast skimmers and glance them to death. Of course, a unit of Scarabs will do the same for half the points, but if you want to be a unique snowflake, go ahead and take these...
  • Alternate take the second: The Rod of Covenant is able to lay the hurt onto Elite infantry via AP2 shooting and CC, especially now that Praetorians dropped an amazing 12 points in cost AND they gained an additional Attack, taking them to 2 base. The Voidblade Combo is AP4 in CC, which people tend to overlook. Anything lower than a Marine, they mulch and anything Marine and up, they harass via Rending. In their formation, they gain rerolls to Hit, Pen and Wound, meaning much better shooting attacks (only in the shooting phase do you get the rerolls), enabling them to scare heavy stuff like Wraithknights or absolutely mulch their preferred prey.

• Flayed Ones - These guys have the basically the same stats as a Necron Warrior. Same save, same Strength, toughness,initiative, and point cost. However, they have no guns. To compensate, they have 4 S4 AP5 attacks in combat with Shred (yeah, each claw counts as a separate weapon). Like their former Counts As room mate the Mandrakes, the Flayed ones are usable now with their twin AP5 Shred claws, and Fear makes them hell on wheels against any non-daemonic or S.M. opponent. If they get into combat, which they likely will between Reanimation Protocols, Deep Strike and Infiltrate, they will mulch up anything of comparable cost up until they run into something they can't even wound/pen on 6s. But for that, you have Warriors, right? Right. 10 assault terminators with shields and hammers? With a full squad you get 100 attacks on the charge, 50 hits, and ~37 wounds due to shred, so mathematically 6 1/6th Terminators dead. You'll survive till next turn, and lo and behold, assault terminators mulched up by NECRONS. Keep also in mind that aforementioned Terminators cost the opponent almost as much as you would pay for Thirty-Five Flayed Ones.
  • However, more warriors tend to be the safer choice in Edition Ranged Combat.
  • Ridiculously easy to convert warriors into flayed ones with a few stabby bits, some repositioning and some imagination. No need to suffer those abominations GW has graced us with.
  • Also do not forget they are still Necrons, so they will still be hitting last against most dedicated assualt units and will be hitting on fours against most opponents with only a 4+ armour save and hopefully RP to protect them. Statistically Genestealers, Ork Boys (with a Pain boy will guarantee this), Wracks, Khorne Berserkers, Incubi, Nobs/Meganobz, CC equipped Tyranid Warriors, daemons, Lightning Claws Terminators (they are hitting first with shred, and Blood Angels ones will massacre them), CC equipped Grey Hunters, Death Company, or other close-combat specialists will strike first and could deal enough alpha damage to put them down. But still they are far from unusable now and are quite viable since they are cheaper then most of the squads that can reliably take them, and can still give these a degree of trouble (that list above, for example, tends to lose point-for-point if the flayed ones get the charge). Just remember to play to their strengths, they are now supreme light-infantry shredders and excellent for stalling tough cc squads and MC so that heavier hitters in your army can come and deal with them.
  • Faced with combatants the Flayed Ones are legitimately bothered by, don't throw them away. Death Company and the like will do them irreparable damage on a charge before they can strike back, which you do not want. Instead, try some fabian tactics, and only commit once your foes have chosen an untenable battle.
  • Fortunately, the Maynarkh Dynasty/"Dark Harvest" supplement (see below) now has to use the Flayed One profile (excluding what slot they're in) in Codex: Necrons, due to the fact that they are the most updated rules for them. The Minimum may be 10, but they are moved to Troops, which is worth the trade off. They can also take Flensing Scarabs, which are FUCKING USELESS as Flayed one Claws already have Shred.
  • Team a full squad up with two crypteks, give one (or both) of them a chronometron and the other one the veil of darkness. If you have followed the recipe, you now have a 440pt infantry-blender which can deep strike across the board with it's HQs along for the ride and saves on at least 5++/4+++ against anything weaker than a destroyer weapon and 4+/4+++ against such petty trifles as stormbolters. Heavy infantry get to shake hands with so many attacks that their invulnerable saves are wasted points, and weak troops just get puréed. Even the crypteks can come in handy with their six assault shots and four attacks zinging in from safety in the rear ranks (all at a nice marine-opening AP3). It's expensive, and risky, but it's bags of fun to let loose behind your enemy's line and the models are sufficiently unassuming that it's somehow the opposite of a distraction carnifex.

• Triarch Stalker - Basically the Necron Dreadnought in squads. Tough enough for most melee work, and packing high Strength and a good number of attacks in close combat which unfortunately doesn't ignore armour, Stalkers work well as all-rounders. The Heat Ray acts as either a heavy flamer or a two-shot multi-melta, great for killing tanks and infantry alike. Additionally, fellow non-vehicle Necrons within 6" gain +1BS (Not TL, but it still helps). If you want to specialize in killing infantry, the Particle Shredder drops a nasty pie plate at a decent range, while the twin-linked Heavy Gauss cannon is an option if you really need to keep your distance. The Heat Ray is this author's go-to choice, as it won't disappoint in almost any battlefield conditions. These are a solid pick for your elite slots, though the other options have made up a lot of ground in this edition.
  • Triarch Stalkers are notorious for being massive firepower magnets, so don't ever hinge a strategy on yours surviving; if your opponent is any definition of the word "competent", then he will make it his business to see that the Stalker does not live to see the end of the game. Once their shielding goes down Stalkers are rather vulnerable for their cost and combat role. For this reason, it can be worthwhile to keep a Canoptek Spyder or two with fabricator claws close by in case it needs repairing. Furthermore, the new codex drops their cost and lets you bring them in squads!
  • If you are actually able to make your stalker survive (taking multiple, hiding behind monolith or terrain, etc.), take Nemesor Zahndrekh as well and swap his warlord trait for the Target Priority (command trait that allows you to re-roll 1's with all units within 12" of him when shooting). This let's you hit with all your gauss goodness on 2+ re-rollable.
  • Use the Triarch to support a Destroyer Lord in a blob of Warriors or Immortals, suddenly you have a squad no one wants to get near that almost never misses. On average for every 40 shots you will miss one. Destroyer squads benefit every bit as much, throwing lots of incredibly-accurate dakka downrange.

• C'tan Shard of Nightbringer - In another slap to the C'Tan's face, there are no more simple C'Tan Shards, just Transcendents and the ancient Deceiver and Nightbringer Models. The Death God has WS6 BS4 MC Character and S7 T7 with Fleshbane, making him one you'd want in melee. He also has a special power that forces an enemy within 12" to take 3d6-Ld wounds at AP2 with Ignores Cover. This allows him to restore a wound if he kills at least one person, and makes it the nearly undisputed king of monstrous creature combat (usually killing Tyranid MCs before they even get to swing). Even if you dislike the randomized powers, this is still a decent grab if you want to focus more anti-vehicle while he takes out any elite infantry in ways the Maleceptor only wishes he could.

• C'Tan Shard of Deceiver - See above for the reason this exists. He's got WS5 BS5 S7 T7 and is better meant for screwery. He gets Hit & Run and forces enemies within 12" to take -2 Ld (SUCK IT SITW). He can also grab d3 units within 12" of him after Infiltration and Scout moves and either redeploy them or jump into Reserves if you think they'll need it.
  • One thing to consider is using the Deciever and the Nightbringer together with the Deceiver's Leadership penalty to nearby units, and the Nightbringer's AP2 Leadership dependent attack you could make some units even easier to kill *cough*Wraithknight*cough

• Tomb Stalker (Forge World) - A T7, 4 wound Monstrous Creature with all sorts of neat special rules. Poison and Fleshbane wound it on a 6 instead, so take 3 when fighting Dark Eldar. It can deepstrike or outflank with acute senses, so you have a few different ways to get it where in needs to go. It's got a good number of attacks and is as resilient as you should expect a Necron monstrous creature to be. Now that it's been moved from Heavy Support to Elite, it's definitely worth considering. The only drawback is that it's pretty expensive, weighing in at at 220 points after you purchase It Will Not Die, which you should always do. Another thing to note is that it comes in squads of one it can almost always make use of the rampage USR. Competes with the C'tan shards, but unfortunately comes up short: it neither beats them in melee combat nor has meaningful ranged weapons to answer their unpredictable-but-potent Powers, outdoing them only with its venom resistance and deployment options.

Fast Attack

• Canoptek Wraiths - 2 wound T5 Beasts with Rending attacks and a 3+ Invuln, and surprisingly good in assault thanks to their whips having an ability that boosts their initiative to 5, allowing them to hit before a lot of units in the game. They can also take particle casters (essentially S6 AP5 pistols) or transdimensional beamers, which is now a S4 AP2 gun with 6+ wound/Instant Death/penetrating hit. Unfortunately, beamers are heavy weapons, which aren't good on an assault unit like Wraiths - you're better served by the particle casters or the whip coils. At least they have toughness 5 now, which means that entire squads won't die to light bolter fire in one turn. Wraiths are great at protecting valuable units (e.g. Triarch Stalkers) from an assault. Their only downside is, as one of the 'Canoptek' family of machines, they don't have the Reanimation Protocols special rule, so are unable to come back to life. They come in a minimum squad size of 3; for what they lack in (relative) longevity (possibly no longer an issue as they are now TOUGHNESS 5 Beasts), they more than make up for in mobility.
  • In the Canoptek Harvest formation, however, they become absolute nightmares. Thanks to Relentless, the Transdimensional Beamer is now a very strong, if expensive, TEQ killer and thanks to Adaptive Subroutines they can have Reanimation Protocols (which thanks to the Decurion detachment can be upped to 4+ like normal), making them insanely durable with T5, 3++, 2W and a 4+ FnP that Instant Death only reduces to 5+.
    • Be careful with the Canoptek Harvest Formation however. In order to get Reanimation Protocols you need to stay within 12 inches of your Spider who can only move 6 inches a turn, which limits your mobility down to next to nothing. So yeah, be careful. (Unless you Run the Spyder).

• Canoptek Scarabs - One of the few units with the "Entropic Strike" rule, meaning that it can glance or insta-wound on a 6 to-wound/to-pen. Unfortunately, Scarabs have unimpressive stats (WS2, S3) and their weapons don't ignore armor saves. Flamers will also ruin their day, ignoring their measly armour and doing double damage against them, and S6 weapons will outright kill them. However, they are wonderful tarpits, with 3 Wounds per base and 4 attacks each. Sadly, it can no longer fuck up enemy armor values, but they're still fine tarpits with their likelihood of glancing or just lucking out on a wound and killing an unlucky bloke who failed his armour save. It's not like they can run either, as these little bugs are Beasts. Also unfortunately, they now cost 5 points more for a base and dropped two points off their armour save, making them pretty expensive for something that implodes when an Assault Cannon or flamer looks at it funny.
  • The Maynarkh Army List also turns them into absolutely deadly units against anything without an armour value at the cost of being much worse against vehicles. WS3 helps out quite a bit for hitting stuff and Shred/Rending is one of the most deadly combinations in the game. Go ahead, take a picture of the Tau player's face when he realizes that fucking Scarabs hit his Riptide on 3s, Wound on 6s but with rerolls and ignoring his armour save. And all of that for the exact same cost you now pay for your standard Scarabs.
  • Never underestimate scarabs. For some reason opponents always seem to assume they're not very dangerous and so they let them run right up to their vehicles or other units unmolested. Being beasts they can easily run from cover to cover and so they do become annoying to kill without str 6 or flamers but if they do get shot that's less damage on your more expensive units. If they can get even a single tank in their tiny clutches then they have already payed for themselves, especially if you manage to grab a baneblade or some other super heavy. Alternatively, opponents will focus them, which given how cheap they are, usually means double, even triple their value in shots will be dumped into them, leaving your more valuable units untouched. Either way, your opponent has had a bad day.
  • Ther Troof: They are distractions. Scarabs, like Wraiths, tarpit things and kill them through weight of attacks. They do not need to kill anything, they just need to stall it long enough for a more suitable unit to finish the job. Have a knight to deal with, but need your warriors somewhere else? Throw Scarabs at it until you can finish him off with Gauss/Warscythes later. Want to piss off Tau, and threaten their Marker Light support? Chase the Tetras and Crises suits, tie up the pathfinders. Scarabs are a Support unit, meant to harass specials, and strip hull/wounds off of vehicles and slow monstrous creatures. Use these guys to shepherd your opponent, and force their hand. But don't expect them to kill anything or survive if your opponent considers them a genuine threat.

• Tomb Blades - Jetbikes with twin-linked guns, capable of being upgraded with a 3+ armor save, and either Ignores Cover or +1 to cover saves. Great for zipping around the battlefield, harassing any stray infantry units, and particle beamers could even be used to take on light vehicles as well. Like many Necron units, it seems to be purpose made to make Tyranids and Chaos Daemons cry. What's that? Your hive guard's AP can't touch my jetbike's armor save and your Zoanthropes can't shoot far enough to hit them? Hahahahaha sucks to be you. Their cost dropped significantly, but if you want to buy the 3+ armour saves and Stealth and other goodies you're still running fairly expensive models. Unfortunately, while these guys are fast and moderately survivable, they have a hard time killing the priority targets you'd really want removed. The Particle Beamer is only an AP5 small blast, and if you don't take that then you get one of the same guns that Immortals get. Ignores cover is nice, but with a maximum AP of 4 you won't scare devastator squads or broadsides. Also, there's no way to give them a Resurrection Orb without slowing them down (although with the decurion this matters not at all).
  • Despite all the above, they can be a solid unit: if you want to take them, take a cheap squad (too many models makes them a priority target), plink shots into corners or exposed squads, and remember to turbo-boost to contest objectives late game. Another idea is to think of them as tougher, faster immortals with Ignores Cover. Twin-linked gauss blasters will hardly ever miss, so point them at those Tyranid warriors before they can hurt you too much (Note that they won't kill a whole unit in a single turn, they're best used for making your enemy think twice about assaulting you). The particle beamers help them do their job, tossing a few high-strength blasts into someone you want annoyed, and represent death incarnate to IG heavy weapons teams. Take 5 of them, add ignores cover, and you're looking at 100 pts for a squad of irritating little buggers. Don't be too afraid to assault, either: they can move 12", rapid-fire, then charge with hammer of wrath, while T5 and reanimation protocols will soak up melee damage from some unfortunate artillery team.
  • At just 2 points per model, it's almost always a good idea to give them the shield vanes for a 3+ armour save.
  • Surprisingly, a full squad can fit in a Night Scythe, if you want to stick them in a transport for some reason (though they cannot buy one for themselves).

• Necron Destroyers - They're not jetbikes anymore, they're not Jump Infantry anymore either... They're Jetpack Infantry! Jump shoot jump shenanigans are in at the price of speed. They have Preferred Enemy (Everything!), meaning that they reroll all to-hit & to-wound rolls of 1 in both shooting and assault, and one of them (or three in a heavy support slot) can be upgraded to a Heavy Destroyer (essentially lascannons on a jet infantry model). Regular Destroyers make Marines cry with their S5 AP3 Heavy 2 (But they have relentless so it doesn't matter...) guns, while Heavy Destroyers will blast tanks and Termies to shreds. Expect them to attract lots of fire in return, however, and don't let them end up in close combat, where they will die horribly like almost any other ranged 'Cron in CC. Luckily, your opponent's CC guys should rarely ever into contact with your Destroyers, considering how they can now Jump shoot jump like crisis suits except perhaps better (2 wounds, toughness 5... yeah, better). Like crisis suits, they are masterful at surprising enemy formations and then blowing the crap out of them. Regular Destroyers are best used in conjunction with your Infantry Phalanx (You... You are running multiple squads of max-strength Immortals with these guys, right? If you're using flyers as your bulk, using Destroyers is superfluous) to provide Hardpoint elimination, rapid-response teams, and Hero-hammer harassers. Nearby Stalkers will also boost their accuracy to an absurd 97.2% hit rate, and Heavy Destroyer squads (heavy support slot, unfortunately) can bring three Heavy Gauss Cannons instead of one.
  • Their vulnerability has decreased manyfold since last edition. Not only have they gotten an additional wound, they now also actually get to make use of reanimation protocols, in a decurion detachment they are effectively 4 times as durable as previously.

• Canoptek Acanthrites (Forge World) - Beefier Wraiths that specialize in busting vehicles and heavy infantry. T5, W3, and 3+. The have Stealth and carry Voidblades and S6 Assault 1 Meltas. Unfortunately, they don't have the invulnerable save that their Wraith counterparts have, instead relying on 3+ armor and Stealth. Their best place is in a list whose main troops consist of Tesla-Immortals to provide some much-needed anti-tank. Throw in a Destroyer Lord and eat Land Raiders for breakfast. Also, if you're thinking of running a Wraith-Wing army, consider an Acanthrite-Wing instead, since you can take these things in units of 9.
  • Alternate View: Unfortunately, as these came out during the last Codex, they are slightly overcosted for what they do, especially now that normal Wraiths have T5, too. Their main shtick is to melt vehicles, which your basic Troops can do better for the cost. Additionally, Stealth and Jump Infantry has little synergy, what with Dangerous Terrain tests if you land in area terrain. If you want to use them seriously, wait until Forge World updates their rules. In casual games or alongside Tesla Immortals, though, they're alright. Also, they have no place in a Decurion detachment.

• Canoptek Tomb Sentinel (Forge World) - A new Tomb Stalker variant that focuses on ranged combat rather than close combat. It uses an Exile cannon which works kinda like a Transdimensional Beamer, but bigger. It's neat, but it has fewer CC attacks than the Tomb Stalker for the same price, carries a gimmicky gun that will do nothing more often than not, and eats up a valuable Fast Attack slot. It still has Rampage and the Stalker's Deep Strike/Outflank option though, it will eat tarpits and light infantry blobs for breakfast and Its weapon auto-penetrates any vehicle touched by the template. Couple this last one with S10 from Smash and in a pinch it can also eat a tank or two to vary its usual diet of infantry.

Heavy Support

• Heavy Destroyer - If you're planning on running something akin to an Oldcron army and feel miffed by all these expensive aeroplanes and hovering chariots, you can settle with the Heavy Destroyer. Grab two more for a pack, and watch things pop open even faster with your fellow Destroyers. Tip: If you can manage to get a Triarch Stalker near these guys, like 3 Heavy Destroyers on each side of the Stalker within 6", it gives them all BS5, so hit on 2's, reroll 1's due to PE, then same for Wounds. Almost guaranteed 3 (or however many destroyers you can get near it) AP2 wounds. If these guys happen to be part of the Destroyer Cult formation you're looking at one of the best anti-tank batteries in the game (as they'll reroll all failed wounds and armor penetration rolls) - but unfortunately you will have to take a Destroyer Lord and 9 regular Destroyers as well (minimum 470 points), so don't take the Destroyer Cult just for the Heavy Destroyers.

• Doomsday Ark - Basically a Ghost Ark with the transport capacity removed and replaced by a big gun instead. Unfortunately, it has the same problem that Heavy Destroyers had in the previous codex; it's a huge gun mounted on a fragile platform. AV 13 with quantum shielding, and Open Topped do not make a good combination for an expensive model like this. Thankfully, the Doomsday Cannon has a long range in the stationary mode, so keep it in the back of your army where it can spit S10 AP1 pie plates at anything that moves. This thing got a curveball buff in the Primary Weapon special rule. Yes, that's right, the same special rule you see on Titan weapons: it rerolls armor penetration like an Ordnance weapon. In fact, this is basically Ordnance's hotter cousin. It is now decent on the move as it then fires a S8 AP3 blast at 24". Tip: Always shoot these first and ALWAYS target the most suitable (expensive) infantry squad (i.e: First you blast TEQs, then MEQs and work your way up from there) or vehicle. A full-power shot has a very high chance of completely wiping a Tactical Marine squad off the table so if you use these wisely, you can cause your opponent to have an epileptic fit by Turn 2. While it can certainly dish out the hurt, it can't take it. Armies that have problems with strength based instant-death weapons with high AP values and templates (tyranids), are known to pretty much spontaneously explode at the mere sight of this thing (NOTE: after their recent downgrade, Tyranids explode more or less on their own). Thanks to Primary Weapon, these things also turn mech-happy IG armies into powder turn one.
  • If you jink, you can't fire the main gun (firing snap shots and blasts don't mix), so be careful. Still better to jink than take a dozen lascannons, though...
  • Before you pop too many boners over the Ark ask yourself why you don't see vast numbers of vindicators and demolisher-russes. With great power comes a great big bullseye on your butt. Don't delude yourself into thinking you'll magically evaporate a squad every turn. You can certainly dish out the hurt but enemies still get cover saves and you are still vulnerable. A special rule that encourages the enemy to fire lascannons and krak missiles at you doesn't bode well for your survivability.
  • Obviously, not everyone can afford this option, and not every agrees to play with FW stuff, but I definitely recommend using these with a Tomb Citadel. A couple Doomsday Arks and Warriors to block the entrances makes for one hell of a shooting stronghold. Back it up with 2 Gauss Exterminators for anti-flier and you can kill just about anything other than Nurgle daemons in ruins. But hey, we have Tomb Blades for that. I always had trouble with nearly every army destroying my Arks (mostly bad luck, even had a Flyrant get lucky with a 6 to pen, and another 6 to explode) and this mostly solves the problem.

• Annihilation Barge - A Catacomb Command Barge, with the Overlord's pimp chair replaced with a big gun (seem familiar?). This used to be the bread and butter of most lists - it was just too good to not consider. As of now it's much less impressive: it's AV13 on front and sides thanks to quantum shielding, has living metal and costs 120 points. Oh, did I mention that it has a strength 7 weapon that fires 4 times but hits an average of 5.5 times, then for desserts either carries a strength 6 tesla cannon or a gauss cannon for killing marines, daemons and tyranids? Still an excellent unit, delivering more fairly-high-strength shooting than almost anything similar, at an increased but still reasonable cost. Great at taking down transports, monstrous creatures, or infantry with poor saves. Unfortunately, as Tesla no longer affects snap shots this thing can no longer effectively target fliers, while also losing a lot of firepower if it has to jink.

• Monolith - A big floating pyramid that blasts gauss death from every orifice. No longer as ungodly invincible as it was in third edition, the monolith suffers from a number of drawbacks including unwieldy size, hefty cost, and unimpressive offense, making up for it by being the toughest armour in one of the toughest armies around (until the Obelisk shows up, that is). The black brick can teleport Necron units through its Eternity Gate, blow holes in hordes, and snap-fire four banks of gauss blasters. If you take one, take it for its durability and dimensional transport, not its middling firepower.
  • The Monolith can deep strike, fire its whip and its flux arcs (although only snap shoot these) in the same turn it lands in the enemy's face. This isn't bad for 200 points (until you mishap) but most other Necron vehicles are probably still going to be more cost effective on offense.
  • Don't forget, this thing is a monster for blocking TLOS. Tactics using allies with barrage weapons do exist for this model.
  • Not mentioned above, the monolith isn't restricted with normal firing limitations of one target per shooting phase. With all 4 gauss flux arcs and the particle whip the monolith can technically fire at 5 different targets in a single shooting phase. Although independently none of the shooting attacks are particularly notable, it is an impressive number of targets one can engage at once. It is notable that due to the fire arcs of the various weapons, the monolith is never able to fire all weapons at a single target unless said target is a blob that for some reason decided to surround your giant fat ass tank.
  • If you still feel like taking it, take a Spyder too (or three), and kit it out with its gloom prism and fabricator claw array. Hide it behind the monolith, and when Abbadon gets too big for his boots and comes to smack you up a bit, jump out of the portal, shout 'BOO!' and make him run away again. Take wraiths with whip coils for added pain. The gloom prism will provide you with some very useful psyker defense (The only one you're going to get for the Necrons, mind) for your flying fortress, and that claw can repair you if your opponent tries to get rid of your guns.
  • 7th edition's change to the vehicle damage tables make the Monolith much tougher: as the only land vehicle you've got that isn't open-topped, the Monolith will find itself facing Explodes! results a lot less often than Annihilation Barges or Doomsday Arks, and Living Metal actually benefits it by granting 6+ IWND. Realistically, this thing is exceptionally tough: it shrugs off crew shaken and stunned results, has enough weapons that Weapon Destroyed results rarely matter (and its portal abilities aren't susceptible to Weapon Destroyed anyway), isn't reduced in AV toughness after suffering a penetrating hit unlike almost all other Necron vehicles, doesn't crash on immobilized results and doesn't need to turn anyway... The 7th edition also graced the monolith with other goodies such as changes to smash, vector strike, rending, blast template damage (this is a little lost since it is AV 14 all around), and the downgrading of many anti-tank weapons (broadside Rail guns anyone?). All together, the Monolith is still one of the toughest things you can buy with 200 points and when paired with a Spyder or two and their repair claws it can survive the whole game. Just don't overestimate it: this will not singlehandedly win you the war.
  • Given the Monolith receiving a toughness boost this edition, it could be interesting trying the Monolith out again as what it was intended to be, as a high strength beachhead maker by dropping in enemy lines and teleporting in high strength hitters from reserves and across the board. Be careful of things that can still hurt you such as meltas, some monstrous creatures (not as many thanks to the smash nerf), and of course deepstrike mishaps. Bring down the Decurion formation, and as long as your Obelisk doesn't fail the Monoliths won't scatter.
    • Deep strike scatter is not movement, thus skimmer rules aren't a saving grace by RAW any more than the fact it's a tank saves it by allowing it to "Tank Strike" (Tank Shock/Ram from [Deep Strike] Reserve)... Nope, it's a big box that has to worry about landing in small spaces. Even the formation just makes it easier to stick more big boxes next to one that's already wedged itself somewhere. Deep Strike with care.
    • Says who? "... in the Movement Phase during which they arrive, DS units may not move any further..." You wouldn't talk about moving "further" if you haven't moved at all yet, ergo DS counts as move. Basic English.
      • How about; "it's hotly contested and should probably (but likely never will be) FAQ'd"[1] [2]
  • Probably the best way to use this floating brick is in support of warrior spam. Take 3, fill out your troop choices with warriors and line your back field with monoliths. Dealing with Drop pod or deepstrike bullshit? Not a problem. Teleport your warriors from one monolith through another with its eternity gate. Against Tau and Imperial guard just deepstrike it and immediately march twenty warriors out of the front during the next turn (Same turn if it's in the Living Tomb formation). Really this thing is just a fire support bunker designed to help warriors and clear hordes. Just watch out for meltas and termi spam and you'll do fine.

• Doom Scythe (Attack Flyer) - Another re-purposed transport vehicle with the transport capacity replaced with a massive gun- Just like the Doomsday Ark and Annihilation Barge (and the Vindicator, the Hammerhead and the Fire Prism...). Ridiculously fast with Supersonic, and carries a powerful 24" Death Ray (a S10 Ap1 Lance, Blast). And with the current flyer rules, this thing is INCREDIBLE: 6 to hit it, and has a cover save. Take two to make your opponent have a fit over having his expensive tanks explode at the same time. Take three, back them up with Night Scythes to simply throw all your enemy ground based anti-air out of table on turn two, and watch him weeping. However, although the Death Ray is powerful, remember that it doesn't ignore cover or take multiple wounds, so think twice about loading up on Doom Scythes if you're going to be facing armies that have a lot of skimmers or MCs. Not to mention the Chaos and DE vehicles that have invulnerable saves anyway. However, it very nearly ignores vehicle armour, since it never does worse than glancing on 2s and penetrating on 3s, with AP 1 to boot.

If you're used to the old Doom Scythe, make sure to remember it no longer draws lines - it's just a really nice gun now, following the normal rules.

• • Pro-tip: make sure to blast the Hydra and any other AA units off of table the turn your Scythe arrives. As long as it didn't get dicked over first that is.

• Canoptek Spyders - Cheap as dirt Monstrous Creatures that are T6 W3 3+, and can be taken in units of three. How cheap? Well, some armies have Terminators with a higher base cost. Yes, really. They can even create Scarabs, and can take some nasty wargear as well. Fabricator claws can repair Necron vehicles,and Gloom Prisms give Adamantium Will to the Spyder and all units within 12" of it. Can't stop buffs, but it can protect you from some witchfires. You can even take three of them for one Heavy Support slot, making them worth considering despite their stiff competition for the Heavy Support slot. The 7E codex toned down the cost of a few key upgrades, including the fairly excellent twin-linked particle beamer. They're tough as balls to kill, can go toe to toe with most threats, and are the cornerstone of one of the finest formations to grace a Decurion. They really are an excellent unit, and their primary competitors within the Heavy slot recently sidled out of the way. Welcome to the tabletop, Canoptek Spyders.

• Transcendent C'Tan - This 250-point tool is now WS/BS5 with S8 T7 and 5 wounds with EW. Its powers are randomized, and now the only reason you'd grab it is for some protection as Writhing Worldscape (which makes anyone within 6" of the shard act like they're in Difficult Terrain) is the only thing default for them and they're Monstrous Creatures. Mobility isn't an issue for them with the ability to bounce wherever they want so long as they're not moving into impassible terrain. Issue is that if it dies, anything within d6" takes an S4 AP1 hit, which can total any mobs nearby.
  • Alternate Opinion: Transcendent C'Tan are brutal. They can deep-strike, allowing them to disregard the meh range of their Powers. Sure, the powers are random, but 4 out of 6 are horde-killers, so you know what to point it at (though rolling Time's Arrow against a Wraithknight would be worth the gamble). IF anything is left standing, they can then try to assault the nice T7, 4++, 5W creature with Eternal Warrior, which is pretty tough to do considering Writhing Worldscape makes terrain around them difficult. If they don't bind it in combat, it gets to blast another unit to cinders and then charge an opportune target.

(It is worth noting that the Transcendent C'Tan from the Apocalypse/Escalation books are considered Lords of War and the Transcendent C'Tan from the Necrons Codex is considered a Heavy Support, both sources are still legal and are different entries even though they share the same name. At the most this is a technicality that needs to be FAQed, but for all intents and purposes both could be fielded).

• • Update: Games Workshop facebook has stated if a model has two different rules both rule sets are legal.

• Sentry Pylon (Forge World) - Fully autonomous artillery with three options: a 2 shot S10 AP1 melta pieplate, A death ray like the one on the doomscythe but that hits all models under the line TWICE and a 2 shot lascannon with Skyfire, Interceptor and 120" of range and Gauss for those pesky AV 16 models. With 3 wounds, 3+ armor and T7 it's also pretty tough. These can be taken in units of three, which will get expensive but you get quite a bit of firepower for the points. A trio of Pylons with Gauss Exterminators will make short work of enemy Helldrakes, will leave you less reliant on your own fliers for anti-air and can double as anti-tank artillery, but has only two shots per turn and still has problems with cover. On the other hand, the Focused Death Ray will deny huge amounts of territory to your enemy's units but actually hitting lots of models is more difficult than it sounds and does not discern between friend and foe, and the Heat Cannon is immensely powerful but relatively short ranged. You can give them either It Will Not Die to make them irritatingly resilient or Deep Strike for surprise buttsex (combine with Heat Cannon for pseudo-Mawloc/Breaching Drill shenanigans).
  • Alternate Opinion: Since the combination of Skyfire/Interceptor no longer works, the Exterminator is only good for Flyers and Skimmers, but boy does it get that job done. The Heat Cannon is the most costly option, but rightfully so. 36" + Melta + Two Shots + potential Deep Strike is the stuff Baneblades have nightmares about and if there's no tank left to melt, you have a great honking Fuck You against all those T5 FnP/Multi-Wound elite infantry units (Plague Marines, Obliterators, Biker Nobs). The Death Ray is extremely unreliable, though. You pick a starting point and THEN you roll how long the line will be, which means you may end up rolling too many inches, forcing you to swerve off course to avoid destroying your own stuff. Wait for an update to get this in line with the Doom Scythe Death Ray.

• Tesseract Ark (Forge World) - An AV 13 as per the new Quantum Shielding Rules. Dammit, GW.(Think about this, they changed the rule to simply make your AV 13. ONLY this model is affected by that change.)) barge with a really cool piece of swag. 5++, all units trying to assault or ram must take a dangerous terrain test and you can also shoot with it, with three different modes: Plasma Destroyer with a fancy name to kindly tell Gay Knights and TEQs to go fuck themselves, Fleshbane AP3 flamer to evaporate Marines and any fool that gets too close and an underpowered S5 AP4 mini death-ray that that slows you down (And is also Armorbane, which might be good for killing lines of light vehicles). Also, two Gauss or Tesla Cannons or Particle Beamers for dakka overload. 50 points more than a Monolith, and oh so worth it. Just be careful with your back armor. Once your Quantum Shielding goes away, this thing is pretty much dead.
  • Alternate Opinion: Never take the Particle Beamers as they are overcosted. As soon as you think it's time is up, drive it as close to the enemy as possible, because it has quite a good chance of going bang very enthusiastically under certain conditions. Also, the Beam mode of the gun is wonderful since it is basically a Beam power with 24" of range. Telekinesis' Primaris can seriously limitenemy movement with an 18" Strikedown beam, but this one is 6 more inches long. Sure, you won't be popping anything better than transports with it, but used right it's devastating. The Fleshbane Flamer, though hampered by Flamer range, is amazingly strong and best used when trying to provoke the opponent into blowing it up and the Not-a-Plasma Destroyer should be the main reason you use this thing. Also note that the Gravitational Flux forces disordered charges on models assaulting the Ark. That means no +1A bonus, no Rage bonus, no Hatred bonus and no Furious Charge bonus. And AV13 means Krak Grenades can't even glance it. In Melee, it takes a Carnifex to crack this thing open.

• Night Shroud Bomber (Forge World) - AV12 all round, 4HP, 5 bombs, S10, AP1, Large Blast, Blind, Pinning. Also a Tesla Destructor. 225pts. Seems good? Seems good. People scream op at the bombs, but really they'll likely be about as effective as the death ray. What you're really paying for is the extra durability. Despite the S10 these bombers are much better at reducing elite infantry than stopping heavier vehicles (that's the doom scythe's job), but don't let that stop you from striking targets of opportunity. Shred the enemy's dedicated anti-air and the extra armor will keep you flying around all game long.

Lords of War

• Imotekh the Stormlord - The traditional (he's now just under price of a Monolith) named hero unit that used to be an HQ and must now be LoW. At first glance, he looks fantastic, but most of his abilities are mediocre. Imotekh comes with a 2+ armour save, 4+ invuln save, IWND, and a Gauntlet of Fire. Oh and the Staff of Destroyer, which is a S6, AP2 Staff of Light! IMPORTANT NOTE HERE: Until it has been FAQed he has no close combat weapon making his attacks S5 AP-, as a result he is useless in assault. He can make Flayed Ones re-roll deep strikes, which would be great if you could assault after deep striking, but as things stand, dropping next to any unit will just ensure that they die during your opponent's next turn because Flayed Ones can't into shooting. (With the new reanimation saves, especially the across the board 4+ in a decurion and especially with a solar staff Destroyer Lord, a full squad of these guys wont be so easy to mow down. If nothing else a 20 man blob of robot zombies jumping in the middle of his army could be a good enough Distraction Carnifex for you to get your guns into that glorious 24" range). One of his more useful abilities is to always start the game with night fighting turned on, and once per game, every enemy within 48" of this guy will get shot on a 5+ and take d6 S6 AP- hits of lightning, though this shouldn't be relied on to remove a mob. He has at least dropped a couple of points.

• Pylon - A Super Heavy artillery piece. Great for putting holes in other Super Heavies with 3 S D AP2 shots that have incredibly long range (LOL WHAT BANEBLADES!?). Three of these can pretty much wreck a mech army in one turn. Now you see a healthy Leman Russ company, now you see nine smoking wrecks. They are unparalleled tank destroyers. And that's just the icing on the cake! With Armor 14 and the living metal rule, they are a bitch to kill. Their teleportation lets them be where they need to in a snap, their special effects are just sweet, and they allow you to use some really overpowered formations (5+ invulnerable saves for your whole army... your enemies can weep now.) And if anything gets close? No problem, it has a flux arc mode that fires 2D6 S6 AP3 shots. All that with Skyfire with interceptor, too.
  • Warzone: Damnos ass raped the pylon, adding 95 points to the cost and removing the interceptor special rule, meaning it's now just extremely overqualified flak-cannon, though you can use the alternative (read: better) rules from IAA:third edition, unless you're playing Damnos campaign (why would you?).
    • Even the FW ones suck now too, as 7th edition no longer has interceptor remove skyfire's inability to target ground units. Enjoy your overpriced flyer-killer!
      • In an edition where Eldar Wave Serpent spam is prevalent and Skyfire allows you to target skimmers at full ballistic skill, the pylon is rape incarnate against skimmer and flyer heavy lists. Combine with a Doomsday Ark to obliterate the units that spill out of wrecked transports. Have fun drinking your opponents' tears.
        • I contacted Forgeworld considering the Skyfire + Interceptor change. The customer support suggests to house rule it 6th edition style while they send the query to the rules team. Will update if I hear more.

• Obelisk - 300 points for BS4, Armor 14 all-around and 6 hull points on a Super-heavy Skimmer, alongside Deep Strike and Living Metal (Plus new living metal gives this thing a 6+ IWND). Its main guns are four Tesla spheres who shoot at S7 AP- Assault 5 Tesla(duh), even better, cheaper and tougher than three Annihilation Barges. But then you remember, wasn't this just described as an anti-air vehicle? It doesn't even have Skyfire! But then you read its special rule Gravity Pulse: ALL enemy Flyers and Skimmers (and Jetbikes) within 18" must test for Dangerous Terrain Move Through Cover lets you auto-pass tests, it doesn't prevent the test from happening, it is just automatically passed. Same logic here, sure FMC's have to take the test, but their MtC just makes them autopass... This effectively means that you have a 36" + Obelisk's width diameter circle where your opponent will not lightly put one of his Flyers inside of. And this is not a shooting attack, so feel free to unload the Tesla spheres into nearby enemies. But wait, there's more! The Obelisk also has the rule Sleeping Sentry: allowing it to start the game in a "powered down" state where it cannot move or shoot (including Gravity Pulse), but it has a notable 3+ INVULNERABLE save. You can power up at the start of your Movement phase, immediately allowing for movement and shooting. This allows you to keep your relatively soft Obelisk safe while the enemy draws close.

• Tesseract Vault - Now only a vehicle with essentially BS5 for C'Tan powers (the Tesla Spheres use its base BS4), but otherwise a 550-point Superheavy Skimmer with AV14 everywhere. While it is durable with that AV14, Living Metal, and 9 HP (with 6+ IWND), this doesn't mean that you can play this lightly (or at least as lightly as a Knight): If it dies, it always takes a Titanic Explosion, and that'll always be ruinous. So ruinous, in fact, that one player's tactic was to get the Vault WITHIN his enemies ranks. Then, they were all too scared of it blowing up to actually shoot at it.
  • Note recently games workshop has stated if a model has two different stats both are legal meaning the Vault in Escalation is legal jut have to play the extra points of it.

Fortification

• Aegis Defense Line - Keeps your objective camping Warrior squad safe from those pesky AP4 and under weapons. Necrons are a shooty army, and unless you're up against Tau or Guard, you're going to be the one playing the defense. Upgrade-wise, your best bet is the Comms Relay, since this army typically relies on it's own fliers for anti-air, and the reserve modifiers help with getting said fliers onto the table.

• Imperial Bastion - Can be decent depending on the matchup, although if you're embarked in the building then you aren't practising the time honored strategy of "Move, Shoot, Repeat". Note that this structure is large enough to get a cover save for your monolith.

• Skyshield Landing Pad - Can be used for some interesting tricks, particularly involving the 4++ that it confers when it's folded up.
  • Never. Ever. Field A Monolith with this set up. Let alone three. They are terri-bad, especially if you're just planning on having them sit there. Three Doomsday Arks on top of the Pad will be cheaper and give you more reach and fire power any day.

• Fortress of Redemption - No. You're not Imperial Guard. Your troops are not squishy enough to need to hide in this thing, and your guns have such short range that you can't afford to just sit in one spot the whole game. Besides, if you want to spend this many points on a fortification, just go the extra mile and get the Tomb Citadel.

• Tomb Citadel (Forge World) - Broken. Stupidly so. Two AV14 Structures, killed on a 5+ with a penetrating hit. One has Eternity Gate and Scarab Hive, the other gives everything (including the structures and emplacements) on it a 3++ invulnerable (does not specify Necron Units), and all Necron units on it a re-roll to RP of 1. This is ridiculous considering it is nearly 2x2 foot, so you can now reliably bunker down and NEVER DIE. It can have emplacements (up to 2) with Skyfire and Interceptor - Twin-linked Tesla Destructor for 65pts, or Gauss Exterminator for 100pts. The Fortification without the upgrades (and it can have Comms Relay for 20pts) is 300 POINTS. Give your Warriors a Lord with Resurrection Orb, stick them on here, and THEY WILL NEVER DIE.
  • For maximum cheese bring the lawbringer phalanx formation, give the praetorians particle casters, then stick a lord with as res orb in each unit. be ready to catch your models as your opponent flips the table in response to your 2+ REANIMATION, RE-ROLLING ONES!!!(NOTE: Sorry, new codex says RP can never be better than a 4+, but even then, a 4+ with re-roll on 1s still gives a 58.33% chance of success) remember, this thing is 2x2 feet so you can reach a pretty large area even with the praetorians crappy 12 inch range.
  • It's important to note for only 200 more points, you can bring a second one. A Tomb Fortress is only 500 points, offers you a second Power Crucible, which means if for some reason the enemy wants to remove the 3++ effect, they have to burn through both of them to do so. 2 Eternity Gates. 2 Scarab Hives. It's madness for only 200 more. And then finally of course, there's the City of the Dead, but at 1500 points, you won't be bringing it at sub-5000 games. Still a fun version though, since you deploy the City anywhere on the field, oh and that whole 4x4 Fortification is considered your deployment zone. Trolltastic.

Supplements

The Maynarkh Dynasty (aka: The Dark Harvest)

In Imperial Armor 12 is an army list to represent "the accursed and bloody Maynarkh Dynasty". It's specifically said to be mainly a flavor change to let you field an Oldcrons-style murderous legion of insane robot-monsters. It's a bit like a prototype supplement, and like other supplements the changes are not significant enough to warrant a separate tactica page, but it would be rude to let them out. Luckily, this FW supplement doesn't appear to have anything blatantly overpowered, with each new unit having a suitable points increase or weakness that can be exploited. Anyone claiming you won "because you used FW" is just a sore loser.

• HQ:Maynarkh Overlords and Maynarkh Lords cause Fear and are ready to go crazy at any moment. Every time they or their unit wipe out an enemy in combat or fail a morale check roll a die: 2-5 nothing happens; 1 they either make d3 attacks against their unit or lose a wound with no saves allowed; 6 they get Fearless and Rage for the rest of the game but give points to your opponent like they were destroyed. Also for 5 points they can buy Flensing Scarabs, a nifty item that lets them re-roll all failed wounds in the first round of combat they fight, once per unit per game, sorry. They also come standard with Hyperphase Swords instead of Staff of Light / Warscythe, and Res Orbs cost extra. Crypteks and Destroyer Lords are identical to vanilla Necrons. A Maynarkh Royal Court can be taken in place of an HQ: Maynarkh Royal Court - 1 Maynarkh Overlord (or Kutlakh the World-Killer) and 0-5 Maynarkh Lords, 0-5 Crypteks.

• Special Characters: You can't use normal necron characters but don't worry, you've got two of your own. Kutlakh the World-Killer and Toholk the Blinded (NOTE: these characters DO NOT have available models to purchase, you'll need to proxy or create your own).

• • Kutlakh the World-Killer

Kutlakh is the Maktlan of the Maynarkh Dynasty, which roughly translates to "Supreme Battlefield Commander". The Lore sets him as half flayer-crazy, only lusting for war and killing, and therefore unfit to be Phaeron. He may be taken in place of a Maynarkh Overlord in a Royal Court. He comes stock with an AP2 Instant Death dealing sword called "The Obsidax", grants himself and his unit Fearless, Fear and Relentless (Maynarkh Overlords also grant Relentless) plus he must be your Warlord which grants Crusader to his unit too; mein gott, he grants 4 special rules to his unit. Comes stock with a Phase Shifter (4+ invuln), Phylactery (It Will Not Die) and Sempiternal Weave (2+ Armour Save... wonder why that didn't make it to 7th ed.?) and a Staff of Light. He also has a special rule called "Splinter of Madness": When in challenges you must compare your Leaderships and +D6, for every point higher Kutlakh is, then you minus that to your opponents WS. Pretty badass.

• • Toholk the Blinded** ("the Blind" implies that he is simply 'blind', the supplement clearly says 'blinded' inferring that he was forcefully made blind, which is what happened. Quit editing this to read "the Blind", because that's wrong).

Toholk the Blinded is a dirty cheap 125pt Cryptek which comes with a Sternguard stat line but has Toughness 5, 2 Wounds and the obligatory Necron I2. He does have Slow and Pureposeful which in essence is even more Relentless for your army BUT prevents Ogrewatch which can hurt a very shooty(but can be deadly in melee) army. Has a fluff weapon called an Aeonstave which is a standard melee weapon with one ability: an unsaved wound caused by this weapon lowers the wounded model's WS, BS, I, and A to 1 for the remainder of the game, and removes 'fleet' if they had it (useful only against models with more than one wound) as a side note, challenge your opponent's Daemon Prince/Primarch. Drop stats. Laugh.; Timesplinter Cloak which gives Toholk a 3+ Invulnerable Save; and a Transdimensonal Beamer which is a 12" range, Heavy 1 with the Exile Ray special rule (Any roll of 6 to Wound cause Instant Death and ignore armour or an auto Pen vs vehicles). Toholk also has a rule called Chronomantic Sight which grants Night Vision and a complete immunity to the effects of Blind to himself and his unit. Furthermore, Toholk or his unit may re-roll a single D6 in each friendly turn. The "Eternal Engines" special rule which grants D3 Vehicles taken within the Dark Harvest Detachment "IT WILL NOT DIE". Super Monoliths activate with their 6+ Living Metal and their 5+ IWND.

• Troops: Guess what? Flayed Ones as troops! Now your dream of having an assault-oriented Necron army can finally become reality! Unfortunately they come in 10-20 units so willing or not you'll have to bring lots of them. Maynarkh Warriors are the same as standard, with the addition of Flensing Scarabs as a +10 point option for the whole unit. Maynarkh Immortals are rare and act more like enforcers and taskmasters, so by rule they cannot be taken as a mandatory troop choice. They can also buy Flensing Scarabs at 10 points per squad.

• Dedicated Transports: Exactly as in Codex: Necrons.

• Elite: Charnel Lychguard cost 5 points more per model (compared to standard Lychguard) for Rage and Fear. Also, they can take the flensing scarabs for +10 points for the whole unit. Otherwise, all changes in Lychguard from 6th to 7th edition are considered in effect (meaning that sword + board Charnel Lychguard get a 3+ invulnerable save with that old deflection ability gone). "Soldiers of the Bloody Court" only allows a single unit of Charnel Lychguard to be taken for every Maynarkh Overlord in the army, so no Maynarkh Overlord, no Lychgaurd. For the rest you can use all other necron elites (Except C'tan Shards: no pokégods for you) plus the excellent Tomb Stalker to troll Dark Eldars and counter the opponent's own Monstrous Creatures.

• Fast Attack: Regular Scarabs may be upgraded to Charnel Scarabs at 5 points each, gaining +1WS and trading Entropic Strike for Shred and Rending. This turns your GODLIKE vehicle-chewers into surprisingly effective infantry-eaters.

A new unit are the Canoptek Acanthrites which are your ranged Wraiths which lose -2 Strength, -1 atack and lose all the Wraith upgrades but do gain +1 Toughness, +1 Wound, a Voidblade and Cutting Beam (12", Str6, AP2, Assault 1, Melta). Furthermore they have Stealth but lose the ignoring terrain goodness of Wraiths. Although these are your ranged guys, people still don't want to try to tie them up since they have Voidblades (Rending & Entropic Strike) so they can still pack some punch against 2+ or 3+ saves but only with 2 attacks each, you kinda still want to keep them out of melee.

You can also field Tomb Sentinels, a monstrous creature with scary stats and a big gun that hits twice (blast), the first hit not allowing any saves of any kind, and removing any model that fails a strength check.

• Heavy Support: no change except for three new toys: the Tesseract Ark, Nightshroud Bomber and Sentry Pylons.

• Allies: Allies of Convenience with regular Necrons, Desperate Allies with Marines, Guard, Orks and Chaos Marines and "Come the Apocalypse" with everyone else.

Warlord Traits

1. Predictive Strategy - You may add or subtract 1 to any Reserve roll while the Warlord is alive.
2. Dust and Ashes - If your Warlord survives you gain an extra victory point.
3. Blood of Ancients - The Warlord must always issue and accept challenges, but for every IC he kills you gain an additional Victory Point.
4. Unbending Will - The Warlord and his unit may reroll for Reanimation Protocols while within 3" of an objective.
5. Fire of The Heavens - Every turn, a Vehicle or Artillery unit get +1 Strength on one of its weapons.
6. Death Incarnate - Crusader for the Warlord and his unit.

• Tactics: In the book the Manyarkh Dynasty's strategy is described as super-aggressive short range engagements, with close air support to bomb everything back to the Precambrian era before ground troops swoop in and finish off whatever survived, and Stalkers/Sentinels and wing of Acanthrites to break strongpoints or outflank.

(standard player opinion, too messy to edit, take with grain of salt): Alright, seriously, the two (three if you count the warlord traits) highlights of this list are the higher close combat proficiency and the new toys. Flayed Ones are by no means an exceptional unit but at least now they don't clog up an elite slot. Deep Strike and Infiltration don't work as well as in the codex list due to bigger squads, but you can still use them as choppy footslogging meatshields to complement or substitute the shooty footslogging meatshielding of Warriors. If you really want them to get some shit done, Kutlakh, with the Obsidiax, in the Flayed One blob can make them order of magnitude scarier, and probably will quite like the large amount of regenerating ablative wounds and supplementary attacks. The change to Overlords and Lords is mainly a fluffy one: Fear is relatively useless as always and most necrons units have low chances to fail a morale check or completely wipe out an enemy unit in assault, and 2/3 of the times it happens it does nothing. Charnel Lychguards are a nice upgrade, and most of the times you would have taken only one unit anyway. Flensing Scarabs are extremely cheap (half a point per model on a 20 strong squad) and will assure the users will inflict the maximum amount of wounds in their first fight; the obvious clients are Flayed Ones and Lychguards, but Immortals could use a little anti-assault deterrent. Or you could just ignore all of the above and go for the shiny new Forgeworld goodies, analyzed more in detail overhead. But since you could very well use them with a normal necron list, the only reason to play Dark Harvest sans Close Combat is the Warlord Traits, and seriously if you like random charts so much there's this new codex here...

(non-biased analysis): Forgeworld units CANNOT be taken with Decurion Detachment (as the Decurion is an army made of specific formations listed in the codex, none of which contain FW units). Further, the Dark Harvest can be used as an allied detachment alongside Necrons (normally something not allowed). This makes an allied Dark Harvest a means by which you can field FW units alongside a Decurion Detachment. Further, the Dark Harvest is built following a CAD formula, making it less confining than a Decurion. While FW units can be used in a standard CAD Necron army anyway, using the Dark Harvest allows use of the Maynarkh Warlord trait table if you like that one better (but will subsequently cut-off use of the Necron Codex unique characters / standard Overlords / Lords, and C'Tan Shards). Finally, the Dark Harvest allows Flayed Ones as a troop choice, giving this Necron Army a melee troop choice which all other Necron armies lack. While many players downplay these points, it is akin to taking one chapter of Space Marines over another: style choices and slight tactical differences.

Mephrit Dynasty

Coming from the Shield of Baal: Exterminatus book, you now have the a way to represent the Necrons who decided to help out the Blood Angels fight the Nids. Sadly, there is no way to play out the Silent King or his one-night stand with Dante.

Mephrit Dynasty Cohort

They have a special FOC that makes you take another compulsory Troops slot, but gives you 8 total slots for Warriors and Immortals. Aside from the generic WT re-roll, you also get to re-roll 1s when rolling Reanimation Protocols for Troops (which is one of the few ways to really boost your RP trolling). Other than that, you're free to take anything you want except for the Tesseract Vault.

Warlord Traits

1. Eternal Will: Eternal Warrior, which is a handy thing, especially if up against a Knight or something.
2. Override Protocols: Melee Weapons have Haywire, making them trolltastic against vehicles.
3. Immortal Arrogance: Warlord and other Necrons within 12" re-roll Pinning and Morale. Decent enough, really.
4. Mental Subroutines: Adamantium Will, which at least gives the guy a slightly better chance to Deny.
5. Scorn of the Ages: Hatred for the warlord and His unit
6. Repair Nanoscarabs: IWND. Jesus damn, consider yourself lucky if you grab this. That said, it's not certain if this stacks with the new Phylactery (Though odds are that it's a negative)

Relics of the War in Heaven

• The God Shackle - Cryptek only. He gets to give a C'Tan Shard +1 S/T while he's still standing. That makes the shard practically unkillable now. Issue is that you'll need to shell out for said shard, and then 10 more for this tool. Oh, and for the Cryptek too, but you've already got one most likely. Note that all of the relics from the book are unique and 1 per army, explicitly written before any of the datasheets in the book.
• Edge of Eternity - Overlord only. A redone Warscythe, it's a Two-Handed S+2 AP2 weapon with Armourbane and Precision Strike. It's essentially giving you a warscythe with free Precision Strike.
• Solar Thermasite - Cryptek or Overlord only. The user gets +1 S to all weapons, which is totally badass, and re-rolls Saving Throw rolls of 1. Yeah, anyone thinking of mixing this with the Nightmare Shroud, you're doing it right.
  • You DEFINITELY can't take multiple of the same Relic, but I'm inclined to believe you can take both the Solar Thermasite and the Nightmare Shroud. They're two separate Relic lists. Playing a Mephrit FOC lets you take any of the RotWiH, and the codex lets you take ONE of the AotA.
  • Relics are a bit wonky. Some supplements can take both their own relics as well as those of their base codex, some can't. In the case of Mephrit Dynasty, I've seen the ruling that you can take only one relic per character, although you can take it either from Mephrit or base codex (provided your character is from a Mephrit Dynasty formation, of course), but that isn't an official GW FAQ.
  • First draft of USRs indicate multiple relics equipped to the same character will be forbidden. Though it's not confirmed, do keep this in mind.

Decurion Detachment

Remember how the Wardex explained that the entire operations of a Dynasty was essentially split into a whole ton of different little nodes that all connected to each other? Yeah, the GW Design Team decided to run a formation made of formations as the new FOC of the Necrons and it's honestly kinda evil because there are ways to easily circumvent normal restrictions thanks to the limits of the Decurion. It also doesn't help that doing this allows Living Metal vehicles to now ignore Crew Stunned and all members gain +1 to RP (meaning that Crypteks now feel kinda silly because now their job is pointless (Not Really. RP is 6+ vs ID. Back to 5+ in Decurion and 4+ again with a Cryptek. Sounds pretty shiny to me, especially when you're re-rolling 1's as below)).

• Reclamation Legion: Your mandatory force, this gives you an Overlord (anyone except for Imotekh), 0-2 Lychguard, 1-4 Immortals, 2-8 Warriors, 1-3 Tomb Blades, and 0-3 Monoliths. Yeah, you need to use the silly little jetbikes. However, getting this set up gives Move Through Cover, Relentless, and all members within 12" of the Overlord can re-roll 1s on their Rezzes. Unfortunately, the only thing Relentless actually gives any of these units is the ability to charge after firing Rapid Fire guns.
  • Alternative Opinion - Tomb Blades aren't really silly anymore. With their cost going down (albeit only by 2) as well as unit capacity going up (from 5 to 10), and all of their upgrades costing no more than 2 points per model? Before 5 Tomb Blades with Shield Vanes and Nebuloscopes was 175 points. Now 5 Tomb Blades with the same gear is 110 points. They might not be competitive, but I wouldn't say they're laughable. Give them all particle beamers and watch horde armies cry because of 5 S6 blast weapons. The salt can get very real. Taking chunks out of MEQs is pretty fun. Get about 15-20 hits on them; they may get their armor save, but those bolters don't do jack-diddly against T6, 3+ armor, and 4+ RP when they fire back. Go nuts.
• Royal Court: Only allotted 1 per Reclamation Legion, this locks in an Overlord (who can be replaced with Imotekh), 1-3 Lords (one of whom could be Obyron), and 1-3 Crypteks (named or no). If the Overlord is Warlord, he can re-roll his WT.
• The remaining forces are all locked to 1-10 per Reclamation Legion. And some of them are just MEAN.
  • Destroyer Cult: Destroyer Lord leads three squads of at least 3 Destroyers each and an optional squad of Heavy Destroyers. The Destroyer Lord here can re-roll his WT if chosen and the Cult can re-roll to-wound and to-pen. This isn't too useful considering they all have Preferred Enemy anyway, but nothing to scoff at, especially when a Heavy Destroyer shoots at tanks.
  • Judicator Battalion: Triarch Stalker joins 2 squads of Praetorians. This grants the models Move Through Cover (though only the Stalker kinda needs it. Which is interesting, since the Stalker already has it by default. Wonder why they did that.) (It's so the praetorians don't have to take dangerous terrain when using jump packs and can ignore the difficult terrain penalty when charging), and the formation can now re-roll to-hit, to-wound and to-pen one unit the Stalker can see BUT only in your shooting phase (remember, praetorians have a range of 12" with their ranged weapons...). So, you will probably hate this formation because now, you MUST pay 2 squads of praetorians for EACH unit of triarch stalker you want to play in a Decurion Detachment. Ouch ! So, if you like praetorians, this formation is ok, but if you prefer to have a lot of triarch stalker unit (to give nearly all your unit a BS of 5 !) or simply don't want 2 squads of Praetorians, better include them in a Combined Arms Detachment. Note: Due to FAQ Night Scythes taken as dedicated transports for the Praetorians, also benefit from the re-rolls.
  • Canoptek Harvest: A Spyder joins a pack of Scarabs and Wraiths. Sadly, you can't spam Scarabs until the cows come home without grabbing those other gits. They all gain Move Through Cover and Relentless and during the Movement Phase, members within 12" of the Spyder can either pick RP, Fleet, or Shred. All are neat, but shredding Scarabs is hilarious. Relentless Wraiths are also more than just hilarious, because now they get to fire their Transdimensional Beamers before charging. If you decide to keep the Wraiths cheap with Whip Coils, turn on Reanimation Protocols and laugh as anything that is not S10 or Destroyer harmlessly bounces off of 3++/4+ RP.
  • Annihilation Nexus: Annihilation Barges join Doomsday Arks in blowing stuff up. If the Doomsday Ark's Quantum Shields are out, then a Barge within 6" can shut their shields off to restore the Ark's shields.
  • Star-God: You can field the Nightbringer, Deceiver, a Transcendent C'tan, or a Tesseract Vault - but usually you'll be better off grabbing a separate detachment of Conclave of the Burning One, of course.
  • Flayed Ones: They're Flayed Ones. Nothing else.
  • Living Tomb: Obelisk comes with 0-2 more Monoliths. The Obelisk always enters Turn 2, and Monoliths don't scatter within 12" of it. Whenever a Monolith Deep Strikes, a unit of Infantry/Jump Infantry can jump from Reserves. Which is great because you cannot deepstrike and use the portal otherwise. Plus, Obelisks have smaller base sizes which means your monoliths are more likely to actually survive deepstrike.
  • Deathmarks: They're Deathmarks. What were you expecting?
  • Deathbringer Flight: 2-4 Doom Scythes. Pretty much your chief source of AA. Attack Flyers, so strictly for taking ground targets. Enemies within at least 12" of at least 2 of the Cronssants get -1 Ld and if one of them fires at something, the others gain +2 BS for each Scythe that fired on it. With DftS, can now do Attack Patterns, potentially getting BS 6 for the Leader, 7 for the rest of the wing, if they shoot the same weapon at the same target (effectively BS 10 with Tesla Destructors), on top of Ignore Cover and Tank Hunters. Bawkses will be crushed.

Important Note: Do keep in mind that you can run any of these formations alongside a normal Combined Arms Detachment. For example, if you want to free up some Elites, you can simply field a Judicator Battalion. Since Elites gain no bonus in a Combined Arms Detachment, you lose nothing, but gain three free Elites, a useful special rule and a reason to take your Praetorians out of the display case. The same trick can be used to gain some extra Heavy Support choices by using an Annihilation Nexus or a Deathbringer Flight.

Other Important Note: This detachment is good. Really, really, really good. It effectively makes your entire army 33% tougher than they would be otherwise, and overall twice as hard to kill as any other army would be with similar statlines. Your boys will be incredibly hard to shift no matter what you do with them; you will likely never be tabled, even against other tournament-grade armies. Unfortunately, combined with the general high quality of Necron units, it's too good, right up there with Riptide spam and Craftworld Cheese and Macaroni - many players will outright refuse to play against it. Score one for GW. Now you have all those models and nothing to do with them. Except not play Decurion and learn to take a loss or two.

Formations

• Retribution Phalanx (Start Collecting Necrons pack): An overlord takes a Stalker, some warriors, and some scarabs. The warriors and scarabs become effectively immortal, as they always redeploy next to the overlord any time they get wiped out. Which is a total pain in the ass.
  • Alternative Opinion: Unfortunately, its ultimately useless if you don't use them as suicide squads. Cronz never die to begin with, and good luck losing an entire squad before turn 5. What ends up happening is you get whittled down to 2 or 3 models and then ignored for bigger, juicer targets where the enemy's shots aren't wasted.
• Resurgence Decurion (White Dwarf 47): 1 Monolith, 2 units of warriors and 2 units of immortals. Each turn the monolith can resurrect D6 warriors or D3 immortals from one of the squads within 6" of it, much like the ghost arks. Take the ghost arks with the 20 man blobs of warriors for added fun!
• Acquisition Phalanx: Why would you have this many Lychguard? It’s cool that they and Trazyn could generate more VP’s, but these guys are pricy as all get out! the fact that if you have at least 20 lychguard with shields the ENTIRE FORMATION has the dispersion shield for a 3+ invul WITH REFLECT makes getting anywhere near them a much more frightening prospect.
• Infinite Phalanx (Apoc): If you have 100 warriors lying around with no idea what to do with them, call them one group! They get a 4+ reanimation (3+ if you bring over 150), Relentless, Fearless (and Fear if you go over 100), and just won’t die! You can also really fuck with people by adding a Res-lord, and a solar staffed chrono-tek to survive your opponents first two turns of shooting almost completely unscathed. Use this unit to hold the line while everything else sits in reserve (living tomb(s) and scythe spam, anyone?) to force them to waste their shots. Then kill a superheavy a turn with massed guass fire. Obviously support this unit with ghostarks.
  • Troll your friends and stick Obyron in the unit to no-scatter teleport 200 fucking warriors around Zahndrekh
• Baleful Necropolis (Apoc): 1 Vault, 8 Monoliths. Your standard floating doom city. This thing is expensive! Who has that much money and monoliths lying around? Field it if you have it, I suppose.
• The Royal War Council of Mandragora: Expensive as all hell to get out for the individual models (You need Imotekh, Orikan, Zandrekh and Obyron, an Immortal squad and a full Court). Combine with two or three Gauss Pylons and you can auto-win about any game. All those cool gimmicks? You can use them all at once! 1 free asset for being a high command during the break, plus one more for each of the three conditions won in the game. Oh and d3 victory points for satisfying all 3 conditions.
  • The conditions are rolled for in the beginning of the game. You must either kill a whole formation, kill an IC, pen their superheavy vehicle, make an enemy fail morale once, kill 3+ vehicles in a single turn, or keep the council whole for one turn without losses.

Warzone: Damnos Formations

• Translocator Flight: Drop in 3-5 Night Scythes. Brought to you by Damnos: The Grave-Maker! On the off-chance you have units that can’t deep strike for whatever reason, use this. The minimum 3 Night Scythes lets you use the 15” pie plate to take d3+1 units across the table. So, for 4 inches between each base, with 12 more for any of those units within a given Nightscythe +72” in base translocation could take you between 92” and 104”. Or an inconceivable 7 and 8.5 feet! Per turn! 300 pts never tasted so good.
  • Really, you could DS epic hordes of Warriors/Immortals, without scatter thanks to the right asset, right in front of enemy lines as long as a substantial portion of them are under the template. Even just 2 Night Scythes lets you use the 10” plate. This will wreck games and make folks flip tables.
• Doom Scythe Deathbringer Flight: 3-5 Doom Scythes to be fired.
• Perfect for wrecking vehicles or hordes of units for +1/2 against their number in S10 AP2 hits.
• Canoptek Swarm: Join 1-3 Spyders with 3-6 Scarabs, with one of the Spyders to be leader.
  • Play this on the first turn. See Damnos book. Buy some instant mold and some sculpt dough, then save the cash to buy the Canoptek spyders and bases if you can’t mold things. Perfect formation for trashing enemy fortifications. 2-3 of those, with 40-60 scarabs total, should provide enough chances to destroy nearly all enemy cover/buildings. Expect to see more of mountains and forests for future boards as a result of this formation. As an extra bonus, when they DS, they get Shrouded.
• Lawbringer Phalanx: A Stalker joins 2+ Units of Praetorians.
  • I suppose if you have the models...in any case, for the white dwarf version over the Warzone: Damnos book. Use the white dwarf version, if at all. The stalker could get void shields, extra AV and help the stupid praetorians not die.
• Ghost Strider Phalanx: 1-3 Ghost Arks, 1-3 Warriors, 1-3 Tomb Blades.
  • As above, except the damnos one is ok. White Dwarf is still better. Can deep strike as a group once per game. Pair up with the Precise Coordinates strategic asset and you can potentially wreck a Titan. Use the white dwarf version instead. Quantum Shielding allows arks to have AV 15, but you need to roll 2+ to pass hits of any kind [even destroyer hits] onto the Tomb Blades.
• High Court of Damnos: The Court has unique characters: An Overlord with Warscythe and Phase Shifter, an Overlord with the Staff and Tachyon Arrow, an Overlord with the Staff and a Rez Orb, and a Harbinger of Transmogrification with a tremorstave and harp of Discord.
  • The Shifter lord gets +2 on his Ever-Living rolls and gives all Warriors and Immortals within 24" Fearless. He's meant to get in the thick of it and ensure that those goons do too.
  • The Arrow Lord must roll a d6 for every enemy within 18" of him. On a 6, the enemy takes d3 random S8 AP5 hits (Which hit on the side armor)
  • The Rez Lord gives everyone within 24" Stealth. Kinda...meh compared to the others, but it gets the job done.
  • The Cryptek gives everyone rerolls on failed saves while he's alive.
• Court of the Flayer King: An Overlord joins some Flayed Ones. WHY? Read on ahead!
  • Warzone Damnos gave us the impossible: A reason to play with Flayed Ones! One pack and an Overlord gets you a high command unit. Which means you could cheaply get a high command formation and free strategic asset with some spare ghost ark bodies and green stuff.
  • With the new Flayed Ones, this formation is pretty nasty. You don't even need to have the Overlord join the Flayed Ones. Infiltrate them in and soak up all the fire from your 4+/3+ FnP. Next turn charge in with your 6 attacks EACH, re-rolling because of Hatred, then re-rolling wounds because of Shred. Obscene.
• Host of the Red Harvest: A Destroyer Lord joins 3+ squads of 3+ Destroyers for mass destruction.
  • Something you do with an extra Destroyer Lord and too many destroyers. The normal ones get to fire all-together to make a flamer template and the heavies can fire together to make a STR: D weapon. Maybe not that great, but then again, since they count as one unit according to the book, they’re harder to route...
• Warzone Damnos Pylon: A variant of the traditional/Forgeworld pylon. Use the Forgeworld book instead.

Shield of Baal: Exterminatus

• Conclave of the Burning One: Two Crypteks must join a Transcendent C'Tan. On the plus side, you get to use the shard's beefy T7 when rolling to-wound against this. The Shard also gets 5+ FNP, which gets dropped to 6+ FNP if a Cryptek dies and leaves altogether if the Shard is left alone. That said, stick the God Shackle on this and the whole unit gets T8!
  • This can be an absolutely amazing formation, for starters it's very minimal, if you were going to field a Transcendent C'Tan anywhere in your army you should consider saving the Heavy Support slot and taking this instead.
  • Veil of Darkness would allow you to teleport a C'Tan to where you need it most.
• Zarathusa's Royal Decurion: Overlord, a unit of Immortals, 2 Warrior squads, A Ghost Ark, a Doom Scythe, Praetorians, a Stalker, a squad of Deathmarks, and 2 squads of Wraiths, all assembled in a mini-army. The Overlord gets to give the non-vehicle units Crusader, Counter-Attack, Fearless, or Monster Hunters for a turn. That said, if he leaves, the formation loses these rules too.
• Anrakyr's Royal Decurion: Anrakyr joins a unit of Immortals (which you should upgrade), 2 Warrior squads, A Ghost Ark, a Doom Scythe, and Deathmarks. Sadly, all you get is a re-roll on Seize and a re-roll on Reserves while Anrakyr's still alive.
• Guardians of Perditia: All formations slapped together. Everything's the same as it is, and the overlord of Zarathusa's formation also gets to give the special rules to any unit in this mob.

Former[?] Apocalypse Formations

RIP Previous Formations from books which have largely been superceded. Here’s how you can resurrect them for your gaming group.

• Monolith Phalanx: one of the most HATED tactics in apocalypse, simply plonk 2-5 monoliths on the field and watch as all of your troops gain 5+ invulnerable saves which usually isn't much but consider that every, single freaking Necron will have it and gain bonuses to their RP rolls (revs on a 2+ lol) and you'll have an army that will simply refuse to die no matter what's thrown at it. Since Monoliths are absurdly durable and a large number of them is bound to ruin even a Titan's shit (especially if one or more of them is a doomsday monolith), you will win almost all the time even with 5th edition gauss weapon nerfs. If you convince your opponent to play with 3rd or 4th edition vehicle damage rules then you will be pretty much invincible. Keep a troll face on at all times while using this tactic and watch your opponents rage impotently. Monoliths are no longer as impervious as they once were, but have dropped in price significantly (35 points is significant?), so now you can compensate for your less durable Monoliths by fielding even MORE shit. Combine this with the Pylon formation to make your enemies cry.
  • No longer a formation, so unless your local group is very friendly and lets you not only count WBB as RP but also use things that don't really work and are outdated, you're SOL. Farewell Monolith Phalanx, the single best formation in Apocalypse. Dude, it’s totally valid. Just change the words “we’ll be back” to “Reanimation Protocols” because it’s the same thing! Still, ask your group.
• Resurrection Warcell: Is fine. Just drop the Resurrection Scarabs as a strategic asset and it should run just fine. Found in Apoc. Reloaded. This all-immortal load out allows you to summon spyders and/or scarabs on every turn and deep-strike them in. /notbadface/
• Stormcaller Warcell: Found in Apoc. Reloaded, and great for counter-attacking other deepstriking units. A barrage template that’s STR 7 and rending? Yes please! Just change the Necron wraiths to Canoptek wraiths and then explicitly make the Necron lord a destroyer lord, because you would have had to buy the upgrade for this unit in the last edition anyway.
  • Not to mention how totally boss it is to have wraiths with 2++ saves, a 2-foot bubble of Deep-strike denial [50/50 chance of mishap], just strike the strike-force rule and slap the new ‘battle formation’ label on it. And have fun with it.
• Undying Legion: 40 warriors and a Pylon. Functions a lot better than the Endless Phalanx. Free Resurrection Orb upgrade for all of them. Give them ghost arks for support and enjoy the lolz. Or use that Translocator Flight as mentioned above. Found in the 2008 Imperial Armor Apocalypse book.
• Gauss Pylon Network: Wait, how is this out of date? Just put 3 of them together and you have monolith phalanx. With pylons. Imperial Armor Apocalypse book. Then tell your opponent to hide their kids, hide their wife and hide their husband, cuz you’re blastin’ errbody up there! Buy old world globes and Necron parts.

Allies

Necrons don't particularly want to spend extra points on allies, but they can occasionally be useful.

Battle Brothers

None. Except yourself.

Allies of Convenience

• Tau - Shooting, cheap bodies and big nasty suits. Take a squad of Fire Warrriors as the compulsory Troop with a Cadre Fireblade as the HQ to get the most out of them via Volley Fire, then pick something from one of the other slots: mean ol' Riptides from Elites, slippery Seeker Missile-shooting Piranhas from Fast Attack, the magnificent XV88 Broadside from Heavy Support... whatever tickles your fancy. You already have pretty good shooting and much sturdier bodies on most everything, but Tau have plenty to offer you as long as they fill in the holes in your army rather than doing the same as your Necrons but lacking Reanimation Protocols.

• Chaos Space Marines - Lots of overlapping stuff. Chaos Marines are lesser than your own Troops, but can bring Special and Heavy weapons, which Necrons can't anymore since losing 5th ed Royal courts. Cultists are cheap objective squatters, but a min squad of 5 Immortals is more durable than 10 Cultists. Everything else we have an equivalent version of or better version of, other than maybe Heldrakes and Daemon Princes. Still, they are the easiest way to get Psychic Dice and have some nasty psychic abilities.

• Renegades and Heretics - Chaos Imperial Guard, more or less. A decent option. If you're running heavy vehicles, they can bring some of their own that are cheap and effective, like Hellhounds or Basilisks. AV Overload! They also have a lot of cheap bodies, same as Cultists but even less points. Can get some really good artillery options, which is something that Necrons lack overall. Better than CSM, that's for sure, and less overlap than Tau. Check if your meta allows Forge World (they should).

• Dark Harvest Necrons - So crazy and homicidal that other Necron Dynasties avoid them, the IA 12 supplement (page 102) allows you to break the rules and use these Necrons as an allied detachment to your standard Necron army (or standard Necrons as an allied detachment to a Dark Harvest army). Used mainly for Flayed Ones as these guys use them as Troops instead of Elites, but also useful for fielding FW models alongside a Decurion on the cheap.

Desperate Allies

• Orks - Again - lots of bodies. But here, tougher and better in a fight. Making a green tide (not necessarily the formation) followed up by Necrons is a decent tactic, as is using kitted out Meganobz for 2+ armor and Powerklaws, sort of an alternative to Lychguard. Still, Necrons have a lot of really good assault options in this codex, so you don't necessarily need someone else to do it for you.

Come the Apocalypse

• Tyranids - If you want to bring them, you're probably bringing Flyrants. Which are good, but you should feel bad for doing this.

• Eldar - Our age-old enemy brings Jetbike troops and Psychic power. That's not necessarily bad, but it's also nothing special. You need to dump a lot of points into them to get any of the "fun" stuff (Wave Serpent spam, Wraithknights).

• Dark Eldar - Actually workable. Perfect Deep Striking means you don't need to be close, and you can bring a lot of special weapons that Necrons lack, like Meltas, Poison, and Lance weaponry.

• Daemons - Lots of MCs, lots of Psychic Dice. You can take a small/cheap contingent of them, but to get any of the fun toys (Princes, Greater Daemons, Deathstars), you need to throw a lot of points into them. Pass.

• Space Marine (and DA/SW/BA/GK) - You already have a lot of the same stuff. There are a few fun first-strike options here that Necrons don't get, though. Scouts give you snipers that can start shooting while the rest of your army is slogging across the battlefield or waiting to come from (deep strike) reserves. A pair of tactical squads in drop pods gives you a first turn set of immortal-equivalents already in the fray and a second set that will get to plant safely wherever, each for a total cost less than the Night Scythe you'd plant real Immortals with. If you're already in the area, the Stormraven is well worth the price of a Monolith with vastly superior mobility, firepower, and the ability to do anti air. Take Iron Hands chapter tactics, which gives a baby Reanimation Protocols to most Marines and It Will Not Die to vehicles in the detachment, and model them as alt-crons for luls and rage. (I suppose those would be MEq'crons.)

• Imperial Guard - Why not play Renegades and Heretics? If your group doesn't allow Forge World, then this is a poor, poor substitute.

• Knights - Well.... Knights are never a bad thing. Take three while you're at it. Necrons are ok missing points for cheap Superheavies. Bonus points if you combine AdLance with an Obelisk and troll your opponents with 24 Superheavy Hull Points, all of which can have Invuln saves.

Building Your Army

Painting

• Dry Brushing - The only technique you will need to use to paint any sized Necron force.
• Dip - An alternative to Dry Brushing. Spray everything chrome or a shiny metallic color. Then dip all the models in a brown wash. Blam, done. After assembling, you have any sized Necron force done in 30 minutes. Put some green as an added bonus.
• Alternatively - The fact that Necrons are so commonly speed painted does not mean that's your only choice. Don't feel you have to paint them up as T-800 endoskeletons to be doing it right.

Buying & Collecting

The best and easiest way to start is the Battleforce + Catacomb Command/Annihilation Barge combo. This nets you everything you need to play a decent match at 700-900 points depending on how you set up your vehicles and Overlord. The trick is that the Command Barge comes with what amounts to a free HQ character in the included Overlord. That Command Barge alone is one of the best deals out there in the entire Games Workshop lineup. Alternatively and with Start Collecting! boxes you can start with one Overlord, 12 necron warriors, 3 scarab swarms and a Triarch Stalker, which seems like it's going to be the replacement for the Battleforce box.

HQ Choices: Your best bet will be a generic Overlord. One of these guys decked out in the right wargear (sometimes riding a Command Barge) is probably the most popular HQ selection. Nemesor Zahndrekh is pretty much the most useful named HQ in most circumstances, now, what with his bag or tricks. If you're looking for someone to lead your combat Deathstars, Vargard Obyron, Orikan, and the Destroyer Lord are your guys. Anrakyr isn't all that great anymore, and Trazyn is now garbage, thanks to them not giving him objective secured and removing his ability to take over Lychguard bodies (do you REALLY want to be losing your fully decked out Overlord just to bring Mr. Useless back from the dead?). If you're going on the cheap, just take a naked Lord and hide him with Immortals. Alternatively, you can go with Szeras, who may potentially boost a blob is the dice gods favor you with a +1 to toughness. Imotekh is a LoW, now, so you'll only be seeing him in the higher points games... he's not bad, though.

Keep in mind that Necron HQ and the Royal Courts they can unlock are incredibly good at buffing your army. Whether it be Anrakyr's Pyrrhian Eternals, Szeras' upgrades, or the Overlord's Phaeron ability, each HQ is tailored for both specific tactics or general enhancement. (Don't start out with Imotekh though. Sure deep striking Flayed Ones may seem nice, but the Stormlord's abilities are grossly overrated.)

Troop Choices: Warriors are dependable and you can have many of them. Problem is, your opponent will most likely charge them as she/he/it will know Warriors die when assaulted. Many will argue that Warriors is the way to go, while others praise the Immortals more. Truth of the matter is, you need both. Your Warriors should be your objective holders or mid line support, while your Immortals should be at the forefront capturing contested objectives or taking the fight to the enemy (better done with Anrakyr's upgrades.) Use both Troops choices.

Elite choices: Most of these are on the lower end of mediocre, but there are a few exceptions and niche uses for them. Deathmarks are your best bet to start out with, since they're good at taking out MCs/heavy infantry that the rest of our army has problems with. Lychguard are alright in larger games when you have a combat Overlord who needs an escort (Trazyn, Obyron, and Anrakyr are good for this) and as tempting as the Warscythes are, the Sword and Shield is usually the better call. Triarch Praetorians are terrible, and you should avoid them. (Usually, but they can give you some needed mobility in mid point matches!). Ditto for Flayed Ones. (Not correct anymore, they can be very hard shock troops if you look at their point/power value in the current codex!) C'tan also suck, but are fluffy and can be entertaining if you want to try out a Tremor-Crons list. The Triarch Stalker is a model you'll either love or hate. It's twin-linking is useful, but only you can decide if it's worth the points. (It IS worth the points, but usually a #1 Target.)

Heavy Support choices: Monolith is tough, but not recommended for low point games. They cost a lot but can do a lot, too. If you absolutely need it, take only 1 (for now). Spyders are decent in close combat, but they're best served in a support capacity. Good for both repairing your vehicles and spawning more Scarabs. Doomsday Arks are powerful, but fickle. Doom Scythes have the strongest weapon the Necrons have at their disposal, but are also the biggest target. If you absolutely have to take it, take two. The Annihilation Barge is one of the best units in the codex. Spam them, if you can.

Fast attack choices: Arguably the best section in the codex. Scarabs are shit at destroying vehicles, although they will come for free basically with your Warriors. Wraiths are realistically the best combat unit Necrons have. Take them if you have the points, or if you want a threatening counter-assault or deep-strike melee threat. Destroyers are great, too (sorry Tomb Blades, it's just too expensive to make you good <- this is bullshit due to their lower costs in the latest codex. Field them if you want. They are the only Necron unit that can cheaply ignore covers.). It's hard to know what to take and what to leave from this section. Unless you're going with scarabs and spyders, pick your Fast Attack slots to cover and complement your other choices, not the other way around.

Transports: Catacomb Command Barge is considered one of the greatest vehicles in the game. No exaggeration. If you've got an HQ with a Warscythe, get him on one of these. You will not be sorry. Ghost Arks are great, but are for Warriors and Characters only. Keep in mind they can only fit 10 models inside, too. (NOPE. They can only be added to warriors - min. 10 per group - and carry max. 10 models. So if you don't want to waste turns entering it, no way to get a stronger squad with a character inside.) They're nice support if you're fielding lots of Warriors. The Night Scythe is for everything else. Move them flat out 3 feet into the enemy and unleash 10 Immortals with a barrage of fire. (Of course, they will have to fire Snap Shots unless you move less than 24").

Extra Elite Units

Want to get some extra units from the bitz of your battleforce? Build the immortals and then take the pieces of the deathmarks, get some greenstuff, thin wire, and 5 lollipops, eat your candy and keep the sticks, use one as a backbone to paste the deathmark back and head, then with some green stuff sculpt the chest of the deathmark (try to use a card for the rib marks), since this is going to get covered by the deathmark's rifle it doesn't have to look perfect, just enough to look decent (alternatively you can use plasticine and then cover it with a bit of varnish for extra hardness), paste the arms and rifle, then use 2 wires to add some detail in the back of the deathmark and the lower backbone, finally with some additional green stuff make a simple whirlwind and put the deathmark over it, now you got a deathmark phasing out of hyperspace! Add bright white-blueish/greenish colours to the whirlwind or black for extra effect. If you did well this means from now on you will always get 5 elites along and 5 troops from your battleforce or immortal set box! (or just build the deathmarks and use the immortal guns with warrior bodies, if you feel like spending a bit of money in bits.)

Building On Points

Start out anywhere between 750 pts to 1000pts. As you get used to the army, add in a Barge or two, some Wraiths/Destroyers/Tomb Blades and so forth. The choices above are just to get you used to the shooting and assaulting potential of the army. Obviously at 750 pts you won't be able to fit 1 HQ, 2 Troops, 1 Elite, and a Heavy Support choice. So take the HQ and Troops first. Also, if you're going to take a Royal Court, make sure you know what role would best suit your units. The Court is going to support whatever strategy you form as you learn the army. Take a Necron Lord with a Warscythe, Mindshackle Scarabs and a Res Orb for your Warriors, a Harbinger of Destruction with a Solar Pulse and Gaze of Flame for your Immortals, and you should be fine for now, if possible try the tip explained at the 'Extra Elite Units' section.h

Tactics

Tactical Objectives

11 - Thrall of the Silent King

You gain a bonus TacO. Achieving it with your Warlord grants +d3 VP on top of whatever it was originally worth. However, if you ditch this card, you also lose the bonus TacO.

12 - Dust and Ashes

Nominate a Necron character. If he survives to the end of the game and isn't falling back or jumping into reserves, then you win a 1 VP.

13 - Reclaim and Capture

Roll a d6. On odds, you need to capture all the odd objectives. On evens, you need to capture all even objectives. Either way, you win d3 VP.

14 - Age of the Machine

1 VP if you total an enemy gun emplacement, building, or vehicle during your turn, d3 VP if you kill 3 of more. If you kill a Superheavy vehicle or Mighty Bulwark, you gain 3 bonus VP for your balls of Necrodermis.

15 - Slaughter the Living

1 VP if you eliminate at least one enemy unit during your turn. Easy money!

16 - Code of Combat

1 VP if you issue a challenge. Pretty easy for your basic Scythe Overlord.

• Croissants of Doom - Utilize the awesome spammablity of Necron Fliers. Max out your Heavy Support slots with Doom Scythes or take Night Shrouds if you have the points and money, and put your all Troops in Night Scythes. If you STILL feel you need more fliers, take some elite units (like Deathmarks or Lychguard) for even more Night Scythes or perhaps an allied detachment of Blood Angels for access to Stormravens. With very few codices having access to good AA, you'll clean house. Be careful to plan out your movements carefully, as moving fliers can be tricky, especially when you have six or more of them on the board. Be particularly careful with this list, use it responsibly against players who deserve it. Also, with the new IA Vol 12, you can now take one of the most overpowered fliers in the game! Plonk down 3 of the Night Shrouds and engage trollface. But beware of new Tau! Their markerlights can now boost BS for snap-shots, and their new Riptide can hit you with crazy amounts of Interceptor shots, and with 90" range there's no avoiding it. Not to mention that almost anything in this army can glance av 11 to death just by massive amount of S5 shots (or rending in case of Kroot snipers). This army can and will take down your Night Scythes and make it difficult for you to win. Cry about this. I dare you.
• Wraith Wing - Fill up your Fast Attack slots with Wraiths, and give most (if not all) of them Whip Coils. For HQ, take two Destroyer Lords with Warscythes. You have a lightning fast army that can take on just about anything in combat. Put your troops in Scythes, but don't load up on them. Your real points should be in your Wraith units. Take Warriors in this list, Immortals are expensive and you need the Gauss for dealing with AV13-14. For fire support, take an Annihilation Barge or three.
• Silver Tide - Look at the cover of the old Necron Codex. Then use that as a base for your Necron army. Toss in as many Warriors as you can (140 Warriors and a two Lords with Resurrection Orbs at 2020). Then practice the time honored tactic of stand and shoot. Worked very, very well in 4th edition and was pretty much unbeatable in 3rd edition as the sheer number of gauss weapon rolls would slaughter any vehicle through glancing hits and murder any infantry through auto-wounds. In with the addition of hull points in 6th edition, the Silver Tide is back with a vengeance. Take four squads of 20 warriors, and two squads of 10. Give the squads of 20 Lords with Res Orbs, and give the squads of 10 Ghost Arks. This plus an Overlord with a Catacomb Command Barge, Warscythe, Sempiternal Weave, and Mindshackle Scarabs will give you 2000 points even. The warriors on foot will march across the board with the Ghost Arks providing fire support, mobile cover, and additional resurrections as needed. The Overlord, meanwhile, will fly around and make a nuisance of himself. Watch your opponent flip the table after being unable to get even a single warrior to stay dead. It is recommended you play this song if you feel like really trolling your opponent.
• Scarab Swarm/Farm - Exploit the cheapness of Scarab Swarms. You simply fill your Fast Attack slots with Scarabs instead of Destroyers. Attach a Destroyer Lord with close combat supporting Wargear and watch the Scarabs scratch away at your opponents and tarpit any infantry unlucky to encounter them for the entire rest of the game. This build is not the most effective, but it is one of the most entertaining builds for a Necron player. The new version of Scarabs in the Necron Codex means that everyone should run it at least once, just to watch them rape vehicles to death in a single round of close combat. If your opponent has a vehicle, even a Land Raider, and you have one or more units of Scarabs, you might as well put on Yakety Sax right now (unless it's a Land Raider Redeemer or a Baal Predator, or any other tank with a flamer on it, which ruins Scarabs' day...). Including 3-9 Spyders means you will have plenty to replace them with, however. Taking Imotekh as your HQ for his night fighting ability will help to ensure your scarabs make it across the table without being obliterated.
• Speed Cron: Perhaps one of the strongest glass hammer lists in the game, this list focuses on using the fastest units possible in every. single. FOC slot. Put your Overlords in Catacomb Command Barges. For elite, either go with Triarch Praetorians with particle casters and voidblades, or stick a ton of Deathmarks in Night Scythes. For troop, whether you bring Immortals, Warriors, or both, shove them into Nightscythes. Fast Attack, bring out the Tomb Blades for jet biking fun. Heavy Support, Doom Scythes. Your opponent will hate you for all the cover saves, warscythe drive by's, twin linked tesla weaponry, and S10 AP1 lines of death you'll be bringing to the battle.
• AV 13 Wall: Sometimes known as the Pirate Fleet or Ark Wing due to the appearance of Necron Ark vehicles, this list places emphasis on AV 13 vehicles a-plenty. Take preferably 2 Overlords and stick them both into Catacomb Command Barges. Fill the Ghost Arks with warriors, take as many as possible. Then either take 2 Annihilation Barges and 1 Doomsday Ark, OR 2 Doomsday Arks and 1 Annihilation Barge, OR 3 Doomsday Arks and no barges. Top it all off with a couple Triarch Stalkers (one with Heat Ray, one with Heavy Gauss Cannon) from the elite section to grant 1+bs to all your heavy fire power(now redundant dosnt work on vehicles). The Amount of AV13/13/11 vehicles that you'll be throwing onto the field should be plenty enough to give your opponent a really bad day.
• C'tan Hammer: Simple, fill up your elite slots with C'tan. Roll for troll-tastic powers. Profit.
• Indestructo-Lord: While hardly a game winning tactic alone, this is glorious for never losing a wound for your Overlord again. Take the Mephrit Dynasty Cohort, get an Overlord and give him a Phylactery for IWND, Phase Shifter for the 4+ invuln, Solar Thermasite for re-roll 1s and bonus Strength, Nightmare Shroud for 2+ armor and Fear, and Res Orb because you can. Stick him with a Cryptek and laugh as 98% of AP3 attacks bounce off him and 87.5% of AP 2 attacks (95% when the RO is popped). If he does take a wound, have no fear, as long as it wasn't Instant Death, he will regain his manly wounds thanks to IWND. This guy with be the immovable object upfront of your warriors, who can also be supported with GA. This will literally walk across the field and give no craps.
• Imotekhs Immortal Court: Since both Imotekh, Zahndrekh and Vargard Obyron all have 2+ armour saves, when joined by Orikan you have 8 wounds with 2+ rerollable armour save.
• Immortal March: Try bringing Anrakyr alongside several full-strength groups of immortals, with a bunch of flayed ones up front (possibly fifteen to twenty), all wrapped up in a Decurion. Your warriors stand on objectives and shoot, while Anrakyr hands out melee buffs like candy: your gauss-blasting immortals are relentless for rapid-fire charges, the one group of Eternals has furious charge, Anrakyr's instant-killing most ICs on a charge, and the whole group has Crusader (especially delicious for those flayed ones). If you're worried about really tough combatants pack Orikan into the bunch: he'll turn into a budget c'tan shard that rerolls to-hit, and your team is now rerolling ones on only on Saves (armour and invulns), because RP rolls are no saves. All this setup really needs is some covering fire, something Necrons don't really have trouble providing.
• Decurion!!: classic decurion: reclamation legion, destoyer cult, judicator battalion, fill all with minimum units//maybe a couple nightscythes (definitely a couple nightscythes, as we've got no other good native anti-air). fill rest of points with what ever you want.
• Nice and Deep-like - For 1500 points flat you can be deep in your opponent like an intimate lover! Take Vargard Obyron, an Overlord with: The Veil of Darkness, Warscythe, Tachyon Arrow, Solar Thermasite, Mindshackle Scarabs, Phase Shifter, Phylactery, and Resurrection orb, 2 units of 10 Lychguard with Hyperphase Sword & Dispersion Shields, 2 units of 5 Immortals (dealer's choice on what weapons) and 3 units of 3 Canoptek Wraiths. Attach Vargard and the Overlord to their own Lychguard unit, so now they can go in or out of combat by deepstrike and your wraiths blink right up the battlefield to either join them or act as distraction Carnifexes. Feel free to do whatever you need to with the Immortals. Ahh...good times...
• Resurgent Mephrit and the Ever-butthurt: A simple multi-formation build that focuses on concentrating your forces together to attack as a mechanized mass. Field the Mephrit Resurgent Decurion, a Royal Court, and a Canoptek Harvest. Purchase Anrakyr, Sveras, and a Scythe Lord, then join them to the squads of Immortals. Put the Warriors in ghost arks, then equip the Wraiths with Whip-Coils and the Spyder with a Fabricator claw. Congratulations, you've a self contained force of relentless, crusader infantry that replace 1/3 Immortals and 3/9 Warriors a turn. March up the center of the field, stop counter assaults with the Canopteks, and dakka the fuck out of everyone else.
• Mindshackled Knight: Really just ally with a Renegade Knight. The knight generally becomes a crutch for the whole army, they have what we lack: a D weapon (in melee, but still), AP2 shooting, a reliable super-heavy, an anti-air weapon and an anti-tarpit in the form of stomping. Still, don't get to close for you are still allies of convenience.

Apocalypse Tactics: Necrons

General:

• Pylon spam: Pylons are probably the single most rapetastic unit to ever grace apocalypse. They're very durable for 420 points at AV14 6 HP, they can deep strike with the worst possible outcome as losing a single HP, they can reach across the board with a ridiculous 120" range strength D main gun that does not care about any saves, aircraft are no safer against it than anything else, and if anything gets even moderately close to it, it can unleash an unholy amount of flux arc shots at absolutely every enemy near it. A trio of pylons is capable of obliterating almost any single unit (on average 3 do 24 HP/wounds - that's 2 Biotitans, 3 Hierodules or a Reaver Titan). Here are some instructions on how to build the things for stupid cheap if your group lets you scratch-build stuff. Site is dead. =( Fortunately, you can just build some using old bits and globes. Use the old FW rules or just the IA12 set. The new pylon is a variant.

• Transcendent Assholes: With new rules comes new dickery. Necrons have become substantially better in new Apocalypse with the addition of Transcendent C'tan. Why? They get an Str D hellstorm and 12" (18 if u splurge for more) move. Necrons can also force night fighting, which means enemies are limited to 36" range. That means that anything 30.5" away from the C'tan (i.e. most of what can shoot at it) can be hit with Str D automatically. The real benefit though comes from the shield generator - run 4 side by side and hide them with a shield. As soon as possible, run them into combat then retreat everything else the fuck away. Why? When a Transcendent C'tan dies, it hits everything within 4d6" automatically at S10 AP2. Essentially, you use them as suicide bombers - rush to the enemy as they can't ignore the Str D, then watch it blow up a ton of shit because it died. That's right, this is a shooty combat unit that punishes your enemy for killing them. Did I mention the models are really small too (as small as a normal C'tan model) so you can just hide them too?

• The Deep Strike: This thing has more punch than Rihanna’s face! Take as many psychomancer Crypteks with veils of darkness (one...) as you can. And anything else that can deep strike, like jump pack units. Go first or second at your choice. Then use your strategic asset on “Precise Coordinates.” Then jump on the maddafakku like a hungry hobo—deep strike next to his HQ units with Deathmarks and get the easy SVP’s. Attack behind enemy lines in the perfect counter-deployment BY STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO THEM ON THE FIRST TURN. Prepare to lose friends over this! It is now the most single game-breaking tactic for Necrons. You only need to really be afraid of Tyranids/IG for sheer number of bodies and Grey Knights, who hate deep-strikers with a passion.

<tabs> <tab name="10th">

Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (10th Edition)

General Tactics	General Weapons Terrain
Imperium	Space Marines (Black Templars, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Deathwatch, Space Wolves) Grey Knights
	Adeptus Mechanicus Adeptus Titanicus Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Sisters of Battle
	Adeptus Custodes & Sisters of Silence Imperial Agents (Inquisition, Rogue Traders, etc.)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons World Eaters)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Chaos Titans
Eldar	Eldar (Craftworlds, Corsairs, Harlequins, Ynnari) Dark Eldar
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults
Votann	Leagues of Votann

</tab>

<tab name="9th">

Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (9th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications Tactical Terrain Weapons Apocalypse
Imperium	Space Marines (Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Space Wolves) Grey Knights
	Adeptus Mechanicus Adeptus Titanicus Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Sisters of Battle
	Adeptus Custodes & Sisters of Silence Inquisition Officio Assassinorum Rogue Traders
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons World Eaters)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Craftworld Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins Ynnari
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults
Votann	Leagues of Votann

</tab>

<tab name="8th">

Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (8th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications Apocalypse
Imperium	Space Marines Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Talons of the Emperor (Custodes and Sisters of Silence) Adeptus Mechanicus
	Adeptus Ministorum (Sisters of Battle and minor factions) Adeptus Titanicus
	Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Inquisition Officio Assassinorum
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults

</tab>

<tab name="7th">

Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (7th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications
Imperium	Space Marines (Siege Assault Vanguard) Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Adeptus Custodes Cult Mechanicus Skitarii Adeptus Sororitas
	Imperial Knights Inquisition Officio Assassinorum
	Imperial Guard (Armoured Battlegroup Death Korps of Krieg Assault Brigade Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment Elysian Drop Troops D-99)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines Khorne Daemonkin Chaos Daemons Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins Corsairs
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks Ork Dred Mob
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults

</tab>

<tab name="6th">

Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (6th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications
Imperium	Space Marines Blood Angels Dark Angels Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Adeptus Sororitas Inquisition
	Imperial Guard (Armoured Battlegroup Death Korps of Krieg Assault Brigade Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment Elysian Drop Troops) Militarum Tempestus
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines Chaos Daemons Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Corsairs
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks Ork Dred Mob
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids

</tab>

<tab name="All">

Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (All)

General Tactics	General (8th) Movement (8th 7th) Psychic (8th 7th 2nd) Fortifications (8th 7th) Tactical Terrain Apocalypse (8th)
Imperium (8th)	Space Marines (8th 7th 6th 5th 4th 3rd) Blood Angels (8th 7th) Dark Angels (8th 7th) Deathwatch (8th 7th) Grey Knights (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd, AKA Daemonhunters) Space Wolves (8th 7th 6th 5th)
	Talons of the Emperor (Custodes and Sisters of Silence) (8th 7th) Adeptus Mechanicus (8th 7th) Adeptus Ministorum (Sisters of Battle and minor factions) (8th 7th 6th 3rd, AKA Witch Hunters) Adeptus Titanicus (8th)
	Imperial Knights (8th 7th) Imperial Guard (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd) Inquisition (8th 7th 6th) Officio Assassinorum (8th 7th)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (8th 7th 6th 5th) Death Guard (8th) Khorne Daemonkin - 7th Edition Thousand Sons (8th) Chaos Daemons (8th 7th) Chaos Knights (8th) Renegades and Heretics (8th 7th 6th)
Eldar	Eldar (8th 7th 6th 5th) Dark Eldar (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd Revised) Harlequins (8th 7th)
Necrons	Necrons (8th 7th 6th 5th 4th)
Orks	Orks (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd) Ork Dred Mob - 7th edition (6th 5th) Ork Kult of Speed - 3rd edition Feral Orks - 3rd edition
Tau	Tau (8th 7th 6th 5th)
Tyranids	Tyranids (8th 7th 6th 5th) Genestealer Cults (8th 7th)

</tab>

</tabs>