Site icon

The Celestial Orrery: Necron Dynasty Overview – Nephrekh

Cyto

Hello everyone, Phaeron CytoSlide here with another Celestial Orrery article for your viewing and reading pleasure! Check the Tactics Corner for more great articles and tactics.

The Celestial Orrery

8th Edition Necron Primer Series

 Celestial Orrery articles:

Necron Dynasty Overview – Nephrekh

The Mobility Dynasty

I know what you’re all thinking:

Cyto . . . Papa GW already did Dynasty Overviews on their Community Webpage, what gives with these unoriginal articles? Where’d our Thunderdome go 🙁 ?

Fear not my readers, these things will not just be rehashes. The GW articles were “Previews” that showed a couple of the special rules unique to the dynasty’s and 8th edition Necron Codex units.

These Celestial Orrery Overview articles are designed to get any Necron player quickly up to speed on exactly what each Dynasty brings to the table. They will serve as quick resources while list building so that players can find all of the unique Dynasty rules in one place so they can focus on their units and lists rather than on flipping back and forth between 5+ pages to figure out if their detachment is the correct Dynasty.

Dynasty Code

At first glance, it doesn’t look like the Nephrekh Dynasty Codex, Translocation Beams, actually makes Necrons any faster – it simply makes us more consistently maneuverable. Even without this Dynasty Code, our units can roll a 6 and advance around the board at the same speed as Nephrekh units. But from an army-wide perspective, Translocation Beams does make our army, on average, 2.5″ faster on turns where our units advance (instead of averaging 3.5″ by doing what plebeians do (rolling), Nephrekh units always get the full 6″). The fact that it keeps the My Will Be Done (“MWBD”) / Wave of Command (“WoC”) buff is a nice synergy, but was expected.

It absolutely makes our units more consistent and reliable on turns we advance, and it also makes everything more maneuverable in that our models can move across models (enemy and friendly) and terrain as if they were not there. This essentially means that all models benefiting from Translocation Beams have the FLY keyword when they advance. Moving through terrain and models is an especially big deal for our units that specialize in melee, since it lets them advance past screening units (and not even have to roll while doing so) or through cover that enemy units are hiding behind. But remember that this is not particularly useful on the turn we are looking to charge unless the melee unit can charge after advancing. Specific Synergies include lists led by Kutlakh the World Killer with his Death Incarnate ability and Canoptek units like Canoptek Wraiths, Canoptek Spyders and Canoptek Scarabs when they use the Adaptive Subroutines stratagem:

When it comes to shooting units, Translocation Beams makes advancing more palatable as we know we’ll be getting the full 6″ or 7″, which can ensure our units get to cover or an objective in a pinch.

Units that appreciate this the Nephrekh Dynasty Code the most include tesla Immortals with MWBD/WoC, Wraiths and Scarabs – but everything loves having a full 6″ advance and the ability to move past terrain and models on turns that they advance. Our HQs with aura buffs in particular (Lord & Cryptek) can make great use of the guaranteed 6″ advance to keep up with fast Nephrekh units.

Warlord Trait

This warlord trait is useful, but will probably only see use when it is taken on melee beat-stick HQs. If we deploy our units correctly to prevent deepstriking units and to screen from shooting attacks, our Warlord should not be getting shot or charged.

While Skin of Living Gold might not come up for most of our HQs or on most turns, it will be extremely relevant and helpful once our units/Warlord gets into melee. This trait also becomes more useful on our HQ options with more Wounds or that are more difficult to kill – meaning Destroyer Lords, Catacomb Command Barges (“CCB”), and Overlords get a shout out. It especially combines well with our Artefacts of the Aeons (“Relics”) that increase survivability, like the Sempiternal Weave, Nanoscarab Casket, Lightning Field, and The Nightmare Shroud. This trait competes directly with the Necron unique Warlord Trait Enduring Will, which reduces incoming damage on our Warlord by 1 (to a minimum of 1), and the generic Warlord Trait Tenacious Survivor, which on a roll of a 6, prevents the Warlord from receiving a wound each time it loses a wound. Skin of Living Gold deserves consideration as our Warlord Trait whenever you bring a CCB or Destroyer Lord, though if they are being built as a melee beat stick, they might be better off in a Novokh detachment where they can benefit from the very powerful melee oriented Dynasty Code.

Stratagem

Firstly, take note that his only works on Infantry and Swarm units, which include:

Infantry

Swarm

It is also only works on Nephrekh units, meaning it will not work on our Triarch, C’tan, or other Dynasty units. It takes a unit that is not on the battlefield and essentially puts them in reserves to be deployed during a future turn, so keep this is mind when determining whether you have half of your army deployed on the tabletop per the Beta Matched Play Rules:

Also remember that this stratagem allows us to bring the Translocation Crypt‘d unit into play at the end of any of your movement phases. This stratagem took a little bit of a hit with the new Beta Matched Play rules in that we cannot bring our units into play outside of our deployment zone on turn 1, but it is still very useful regardless:

This stratagem is one way to get our melee units up close and personal for a turn 2 assault (Lychguard come to mind, but they often prefer to be in a Novokh detachment for the better Dynasty Code). A unit that deploys via Translocation Crypt cannot move after landing, but they can shoot and charge.

Best Uses: Destroyers using Translocation Crypt to both keep themselves alive during turn 1 and to get a targeted alpha strike on your opponent’s strongest units. The downside of using this stratagem on a unit of Destroyers is that you lose out on turn 1’s shooting phase (unless you use the stratagem turn 1 to deploy your Destroyers in your deployment zone) and it obviously costs 1 CP, but in return you are guaranteed that your unit of Destroyers won’t get shot off the board. It can also be useful for a unit of Warriors or Immortals to get them immediately into rapid fire range, but remember that if a unit comes into play from this stratagem it won’t be benefiting from MWBD or WoC. The absolute best use for Translocation Crypt would be on our Tesseract Vaults, but as mentioned above, this is not a legitimate use since it only works on our Infantry and Swarms. Some other fun ideas include putting our Nephrekh Lord or Cryptek’s into the translocation crypt and then deploying them up near a Veil of Darkness’d or Ghost Ark-transported unit of infantry to apply their respective offensive and defensive buffs/auras.

Artefact of the Aeon (Relic)

 

The Solar Staff is a pretty neat Relic that can be brought by any of our non-named, non-C’tan Necron Characters wielding a staff of light, which makes the list of eligible models fairly broad with:

Assault 6, AP-3 is extremely powerful even with its average S5 and D1. This staff will melt whatever you aim it at, especially if it is on a CCB or Overlord (which come standard with BS 2). It has an extremely unique ability, but keep in mind that it only works on enemy Infantry, and only works during your shooting phase (so not during overwatch). When it blinds the enemy Infantry unit, it prevents them from performing overwatch attacks and it forces them to subtract 1 from their hit rolls until the end of the turn.

Since it only lasts until the end of the turn, it will not carry over into your opponent’s shooting phase, so it essentially only matters against enemy Infantry units that you are charging into (since the ability only takes effect during our shooting phase). Them not being able to overwatch, and then having to attack back in the fight phase at -1 to hit is pretty amazing at neutering your opponent’s ability to defend themselves against units charging into melee. This is a very good option for a relic if you don’t need The Veil of Darkness (since Nephrekh units are more mobile & they have access to the Translocation Crypt stratagem) and don’t have a strategy centering around a melee-oriented Warlord beat-stick, and while the basic Staff of Light costs 10 points on the base model, upgrading it to The Solar Staff is free, and it is a strict upgrade.

Named Characters

There are unfortunately no named Nephrekh Characters at this time.

Sample Detachments

Nephrekh Outrider (+1CP) – 689 pts

A small unit of wraiths and a max units of scarabs to take advantage of potential turn one and all-but-guaranteed turn 2 charges. The Destroyers will be placed into reserves/deepstrike via the Translocation Crypt stratagem and will drop down and use the Extermination Protocols stratagem to delete an enemy unit. The Cryptek will take advantage of the Dynasty code to advance into place and provide RP support for our wraiths and scarabs (via stratagem if needed) and then get in position to provide a 5+ invulnerable save (and RP bonus) to our unit of destroyers once they land.

Another good option would be to drop the wraiths (and perhaps bring them in a Novokh detachment instead)and just take the x6 Destroyers and  two min units of Scarabs to bring the detachment cost down to very health 473 pts.

Nephrekh Battalion (+5CP) – 744 pts

This battalion is base 444 points for just the required 2 HQs and 3 Troops. The main idea here is we are trying to bulk up our access to CP – which since the “Big FAQ” means we really want to fit a Battalion or two into our armies. The Tesla Immortals love being able to freely advance 6″ every turn and still sling their tesla shots. With MWBD, they end up scooting around the battlefield at a pretty absurd 12″ per turn while still shooting their tesla carbines at effective BS3 and with exploding 6s (thanks to the +1 MWBD negating the -1 to hit from advancing penalty). MSU is inherently discouraged when making necron lists, especially with troops, since it makes it a lot easier for our opponents to negate an aspect of our survivability (RP) – but having a few bite-sized Immortal units tearing around the battlefield at jet-bike speeds and grabbing objectives or screening/preventing deepstrikes is still incredibly useful, which makes the base 432 points feel like less of a “tax” to get those tasty 5 CP from the Battalion. Our Translocation Crypt destroyer unit also likes having access to the Overlord’s MWBD buff if they survive past the round they deploy on the table.

Conclusion

The Nephrekh Dynasty is very useful on the tabletop. In terms of what Detachments it should be used in, it strongly supports being used for Outrider detachments. Destroyers love using the unique Translocation Crypt stratagem, and wraiths and scarabs love having the consistent 6″ advance, especially since they can charge afterwards using their own unique stratagem. Putting the Solar Staff on a generic HQ is a flat out upgrade over a Staff of Light and can help support our melee-oriented units (even if they are in another detachment or Dynasty!). I  also see Nephrekh being chosen for Battalions, because having more mobile troops is great for objective grabbing and for closing the distance to get within our 24″ shooting band or 12″ rapid fire range. The Nephrekh Dynasty is arguably a core competitive Dynasty – you will very likely see competitive Necron tournament lists featuring at least one Nephrekh Detachment, even if it is only to get the Destroyers deployed in the translocation crypt. Being able to keep Destroyers safe and to allow for their precision application is just that good.

Stayed tuned for our next 8th Edition Celestial Orrery installments!

And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!

Exit mobile version