40K Tactics: Out Of Sequence Necrons

Happy New Year to all the BOLS readers out there- here is to another year of wargaming and rolling lots of dice! Fritz is back with his Necrons, the tomb world re-awakened and rebuilt, so let’s get started with some straight up Necron tactica.

So we have all heard that Necrons are a 6th edition codex, written ahead of the release, and this kind of makes sense with some of the odder rules which we will just have to wait and see like preferred enemy on destroyers or deepstriking deathmarks in your opponent’s turn. But there is another trend hidden in the book which I think we will see more of in the “6th edition” books, so I want to take advantage of it now before it goes main stream and everybody is doing it…

Model removal is an important part of the game, we build our armies to optimally get through the randomness of the dice to cause losses to our opponent. Less models on the table for them means more space to maneuver and less to worry about when it comes to accomplishing mission goals.

Right now outside of Necrons and a single Tyranid unit (which I assure you was an afterthought) the active model of killing models is what armies have. You move in the movement phase to get into position, followed by shooting, and/or assault to kill stuff. You are actively involved until your opponent’s turn- which has you sitting back and waiting for your killy turn again.

So in an average game of six turn you have six chances to kill stuff.

Well, what if I told you Necrons have a chance to boost this up to 12 turns?

What if we could potentially remove models in our opponent’s turn?

Keep that in mind for a moment…

Necrons are the first army that can potentially kill models out of the normal movement/ shooting/assault phase, and when built with this in mind can really increase the potential killing power of your army. If you are playing at 1750 points it can be like throwing down an extra 300 or so points legally.

In building my army, and I hope yours, we want to take advantage of these out of turn sequences.

First up is Imotekh the Stormlord with his lightning attack. Is he a must have HQ choice or a waste of points? Arguments can be made from both points of view- points better spent on core models based on a random attack vs. a chance to rolls some lightning dice and get lucky.

He is the first layer in our out of turn sequence to kill more models with his lightning attack. A one in six chance to hit with D6 S8 attacks is pretty good odds- especially with all the MSU floating around on the tables. Nightfight is part of another build strategy and we’ll talk about that in a future article. The seize on the 4+ is almost always a “yes” since the lightning has the most potential to take out key units at the start of the game. On average we will get two turns of lighting unless you are a freak roller so for now (before it gets a similar Tyranids nerf-FAQ) we also want to attach a chronometron cryptek for some added insurance.

As the first layer of out of sequence Imotekh allows some unique shooting- if it is on the table it has the chance to get hit- no creative hiding or model facing, no night fight protection, blocking LOS, etc. Clearly we want to keep this going as long as we can.

The second layer of out of sequence killing is making it happen in your opponent’s turn though the use of a C’Tan shard and writhing worldscape. As long as that star god is alive there is again a one in six chance of your opponent losing models and immobilizing vehicles- and with a little pre-game setup the losses can add up taking out key or rather unlucky models who might be carrying special weapons, banners, wargear, etc.

In the normal course of a game how often do you move into terrain? Before a well placed C’Tan shard you probably never gave it much thought.

Depending on the army you play hugging cover might be important for armor saves- Tyranids need it to even try and win. Imagine facing Tyranids and setting up all your shots in one place of the table, stacking terrain and forcing your opponent to make a choice- run those space bugs though terrain to get cover saves- and take those worldscape losses, or skirt out in the open and get blasted with no armor saves.

Objective placement will help also with the out of turn worldscape killing- place them in cover, or at the end of a line of terrain that your opponent has to slog though.

Pre-assault losses- Necrons are bad in the assault, but getting your bots in terrain before they get assaulted means the potential loss of a model or two- all the better if it is the one with the power fist!

The final layer if we have the points is adding Orikan the Diviner for that extra potential first turn of killing stuff out of sequence.

As an overlord armed with the codex, I believe examining the potential to remove models outside of your regular game turn is an important strategy- one of many that need to be stacked up in your army…