Necrons: My Current 1850

It feels like it was only days ago and not almost a year ago that Necrons were the kings of short ranged fire power. Tau have usurped our prestigious role with their amazing ability to put out just an absurd amount of shots at medium range. This forces us Necron players to become a tad more creative than we used to have to be, its no longer move-shoot-move-shoot...

Here's the list I've been taking as of late that is what I would call a bit more on the creative side of things. Basic idea is simple, my silver skeletons are going no where any time soon.

Necrons:
HQs
Nemesor Zahndrehk
Destroyer Lord w/ weave, res orb, warscythe and mindshackle scarabs
Royal Court consisting of a Harbringer of Despair w/ Veil of Darkness

Troops
20x Necron Warriors
19x Necron Warriors
10x Necron Immortals w/ Tesla Carbines in a Night Scythe

Elites
10x Deathmarks in a Night Scythe

Heavy Support
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge

Fortification
Aegis Defense Line w/ Comms Relay
+++++++++++++++++

The overall strategy of the list is to place the Aegis Line up about at the half way point so that when my Warriors advance they still have some very reliable and powerful cover. While on the move to my trusty comms relay I like to use adaptive tactics to give the entire twenty man blob stealth to help mitigate even more damage. Doing this makes most anti infantry weaponry do very little and forces my opponent to pour what ever they have into my barges. Being an AV 13 skimmer, they tend to survive a few volleys. If I'm able to use terrain to deny my opponent the ability to shoot all but one of my barges I will toss Stealth on the lone barge to help tank the anti tank shots I'm going to have to weather.

I do my best to have the Zahndrehk blob draw the majority of the fire while going for the comms relay. While Z's squad is slowly, and I mean slowly, getting whittled down, I have the Destroyer Lord and his good friends from my other Warrior blob advance as far up as possible. Perhaps the biggest reason I want the Destroyer Lord so far up is because he is not only a good force multiplier for the unit he occupies, but he is one hell of a beatstick. Destroyer Lords excel at popping vehicles open and engaging Monstrous Creatures because of the Warscythe and Mindshackle Scarabs. Almost consistently I will advance this unit while pouring tons of Gauss shots into anything I can with my added Preferred Enemy thanks to the Destroyer Lord. In reality, all I'm doing is waiting to launch my Destroyer Lord out of the unit and have him beat up a high point, high priority target.

Annihilation Barges unfortunately suffer from a pretty short range that plagues the Necron army as a whole. This crippling flaw can be mitigated by either turbo boosting turn one or moving 12 inches to help close the gap a bit quicker. Reducing the distance between you and the opponent is extremely important for the simple fact that nimble armies such as Eldar and Tau can have a pretty easy time dancing around you if you are not careful. Luckily, we have Night Scythes to even further close this gap. Obviously, I take a comms relay to help make sure my Scythes show up as soon as possible.

When the Scythes arrive I do it in one of two ways. I either bring in both the Deathmarks and Immortals or I start the Deathmarks on the table to really take full advantage of the Veil of Darkness. Deathmarks really excel at being able to remove other pesky scoring units that are going to be tough to dislodge. When deep striking I always go for the high risk high reward route. I never scatter so it's pretty easy for me. (I'm not joking. I've been playing this game for about nine years and JUST found out that scatter dies have only two direct hit sides. Blew my mind). Using Deathmarks this way really allows me to throw a wrench in my opponents plans. This also gives my opponent something new to focus on as the rest of my army advances. Unfortunately, unless your target is extremely isolated, the Deathmarks are not long for this world after they let loose on their marks.

Scythe number two has a simple job. Drop off the Immortals on or near an objective. Immortals need to either claim an objective or shoot someone off of one. That's really all that they do in the army and I am more than fine with it.

Zahndrehk spends most of the game at the front of his blob tanking wounds like some sort of unkillable monster and while he does he picks on a unit in the enemy army that he can take their rules away. This is extremely helpful in making your opponent feel likes they wasted a bit of points on something that Zahndrehk just decided they don't have anymore. Rolling on the Personal Table for his warlord trait can be even more entertaining. Seriously, making him either scoring or having him and his entire blob have FNP while claiming an objective is amazing.

So far the list has lead to some super close games and been a ton of fun to play. I'm starting to theorycraft some changes to it, but I'm not quite sure where I want to take it without just spamming Scythes. Perhaps dropping the comms relay and picking up another cryptek of some variety. Let me know what you guys think down in the comment section.