With the Lone Star Open coming up this weekend loyal Necron fans the world over have logged into their Best Coast Pairings app to see the latest meta shaking, ground breaking, major winning lists the heros of their faction have dreamt up for the sorry state competitive 40k is currently in. I have attempted to build some Necron lists that have a shot in the Admech meta, but if my game last night (94-60 something loss) is any indicator I have not unlocked the secrets of the Necron Codex quite yet. There are a couple of lists coming out of the LSO that may have unlocked the secret Necron sauce, and it is going to be exciting to see how they progress throughout the weekend.
First, we should take a look at a list that was created by Michael Timpe and is a fresh take on a triple Ctan build. The first thing that stands out to me looking over this list is the Dynasty Choice of Nephrekh. Giving his entire army 6+ invulnerable saves could keep something just alive enough to get to roll reanimation for it, but the bigger benefit from this Dynasty comes in the ability to auto advance 6 inches while ignoring other models and terrain. Unfortunately, this super move comes with a huge downside in the models making this advance cannot shoot for any reason after moving in this way.
This list also has a TON of mortal wound output coming not just from 3 Ctans casting powers, but also coming in the form of 3 Plasmancers, 1 Psychomancer with the Atavindicator, and the Voltaic Staff from the Catacomb Command Lord gives the option to use the Malevolent Arcing Stratagem. Interestingly, the Plasmancers can utilize the extra advance move from the Dynasty Trait and still get their 3 dice with 4+ causing a mortal wound. It is still the closest enemy model that takes these mortal wounds, but its an interesting trick for sure.
There are a few things that worry me about this list even if the mortal wound output looks to be strong. The Assassination points that it will inevitably give up are going to be plentiful and painful. With 9 characters, and only 2 Ghost Arks, 10 Immortals, 2 Crytothralls, and 5 Flayed Ones, to help keep the characters protected it is only a matter of time before opponents get to 15 points. The second sticking point I have with the list is the lack of metal boots on the ground. While the Ghost Arks are very durable this list may fall behind in Primary scoring quickly.
The next list I found interesting was from David Robson. This list is completely different from the first and really leans into high quality shooting vehicles with Quantum Shielding. Packing 3 Ghost Arks, 2 Doomsday Arks, and 3 Tesseract Arks is a lot of tough vehicle chassis that can only be wounded on 4+ and benefit from a 5+ invulnerable save. By choosing the Szarekhan Dynasty the vehicles gain even more resiliency in the form of a 5+ save against mortal wounds. Oh, and the re-rolling a single wound roll each time a unit shoots may come in handy for this list also.
This list has even less infantry models in play than Michael’s mortal wound spam list. With just a Lord, 6 Skorpek Destroyers, and 6 Ophidian Destroyers this list has a whooping 13 infantry models. I think this will be less of a problem with the 3 Ghost Arks in this army being able to flex into the role of screening units, objective holders, or counter charge units. The Ophidian Destroyers redeploy stratagem also makes secondaries like Retrieve Octarius Data a real possibility for this list.
Every Necrons list is going to have some downsides (we aren’t Admech after all), and this list’s lack of being able to fall back and shoot effectively worries me. While a Command Protocol can give the fall back and shoot ability for a single turn I worry that it might not be enough. Hopefully with the clever use of the Skorpeks, Ophidian Destroyers, and Ghost Arks David can keep his more shooty vehicles clear of enemy charges
Both of these lists have some interesting tech, and I have very excited to see how they perform over the weekend! Best of luck to you 2 total strangers who wrote these lists and good luck to all the brave Necron players at the LSO!
The Ark-ing Lot list will do well I think. Making those chicken walkers wound on 4s with a 4++(for 1cp) they may have what it takes. I mostly see this list with Obsec trait to play the missions so taking the King’s Dynasty is an interesting choice.
They will be a heavy tilt to beat Admech and DEldar so Mortal Wounds may be what you will see on every other table.
No matter what is happening in 9th edition, Necrons have never been in a truly bad spot. They keep finding a way to hang with anyone, proof of good forethought and design in most of these codices. AdMech isn’t broken – it’s just taking people some time to figure them out. (Though they could errata Rad boys to be a max unit of 10 instead of 20…)