Right that’s it. This is possibly the longest I’ve gone without a game of 40k all edition.

If I go blind, so be it.

Welcome readers to my first time stepping up to the terrible Thunderdome that is Hear Me Out as contestant. I’ve subbed in before to provide a boring, centrist cautious voice telling Chase and Rob that interesting lists just weren’t possible, but it’s finally time for me to submit one of my own creations to face the constructively-critical scorn and ridicule of my peers. This coming weekend was supposed to be my next major, St. George’s Champion, and those who’ve been paying attention to the monthly hobby updates may have noticed that I have been painting some units outside my normal pointy-eared comfort zone, adding some new faces to my Necron army.

This was in service to making good on the promise I put out in my review of the Necron updates in Chapter Approved and trying to make a revised version of my C’tan spam list competitive. I had a lot of fun kicking around with that list last year, and the Chapter Approved changes make it considerably better, so having gotten a bit bored of kicking around elf lists the time seemed right to give it a go, and I’d been busily fighting the scourge of Finecast to get it ready prior to the Coronavirus coming along.

My tournament is, obviously, not happening but I’m now three weeks deep into 40K deprivation and willing to try some desperate measures. Specifically, I have a home 40k setup and our other contributors have spoken highly of the value that can be derived from running playtest games where you play both sides. When I’ve considered doing this before I’ve immediately run into the problem of “but where do I get the second tournament capable army from” but here I don’t have that excuse because if I want to test a Necron list I can’t really pretend that I’ll struggle to find a tournament elf list in my ham den. With the new ITC missions my main “cognitive” block to having a go at it (how to do alternating deployment against yourself) is gone too, so there’s never been a better time for some lockdown 40K.

The plan is to split this article into two parts:

Part 1: Today we’ll go through my list and get some thoughts from X on both the army in the abstract and how it’ll fare against the competition I’ve got lined up for it.

Today we’ll go through my list and get some thoughts from X on both the army in the abstract and how it’ll fare against the competition I’ve got lined up for it. Part 2: We’ll go through a blow-by-blow of how the game went, bringing in some thoughts at various points from the team, and talk about any changes we’d make to the list based on it.

Leading up the forces of C’tan skepticism for our show will be… checks notes… ah, dammit.

Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones: Well well well! LOOK HOW THE TABLES HAVE TURNED. NOW THE SHOE IS ON THE OTHER FOOT. PREPARE TO BE HOISTED ON YOUR OWN PETARD. ADDITIONAL FOURTH REFERENCE! Yes, now it is I who gets to be the one who is like “hmmm I’m not sure you want to bring a list that has ‘cool units’ and ‘may require painting something new…'” I look forward to asking you if you “are sure that you don’t want to just take more Thunderfire Cannons” or “don’t just want to switch to marines generally?”

In all seriousness, as our de facto Chaos Space Marines Hear Me Out Contributor, I’m more than happy to step up and hear you out in this time of need. Because I also miss the hell out of 40k right now and all the hobby time in the world isn’t enough to make up for the loss of games. Anyways, let’s get onto it. I’ve played against Necrons a whole bunch in 8th edition, and I’m ready to see how you’re going to try to combine the same 6 mediocre ingredients into something theoretically better than the sum of its parts. Also, C’Tan are rad so I’m up for any list using them.

With that out the way, on to the main event.

The List

The absolute key issue the previous iterations of the C’tan spam list had was an inability to deal with large amounts of heavy armour at range. Luckily, Chapter Approved has given us an absolute gift in that regard with the massive discounts to Heavy Destroyers, and that’s opened up some serious options, giving rise to the following list configuration:

Battalion Detachment – Nephrekh – 1248pts

HQ

Catacomb Command Barge w/warscythe, gauss cannon – Warlord, free relic Lightning Field – 134pts

Cryptek, staff of light, chronometron – 95pts

Troops

10 Warriors – 110pts

5 Immortals w/tesla carbines – 75pts

5 Immortals w/tesla carbines – 75pts

Elites

C’tan Shard of the Deceiver – 180pts

C’tan Shard of the Nightbringer – 155pts

Fast Attack

6 Canoptek Wraiths w/vicious claws – 252pts

4 Scarab Swarms – 52pts

Dedicated Transport

Ghost Ark – 120pts

Spearhead Detachment – Nephrekh – 751pts

HQ

Lord w/hyperphase sword – 58pts

Heavy Support

Transcendant C’tan – 180pts

Transcendant C’tan – 180pts

3 Heavy Destroyers – 111pts

3 Heavy Destroyers – 111pts

3 Heavy Destroyers – 111pts

Not going to lie, it is very cool to see just how much stuff you can squeeze into a Necron list now when you branch out into some of the more out-there options, as the process for the CA adjustments this year basically seems to have been to discount anything not in the standard-issue Arks and Scythes list by 10-15% and see what happens. Given that Necrons still haven’t torn up the metagame that was almost certainly the right call, but I am hopeful that since the old version of the list kind of worked this new one might do even better. I’m also pretty happy that it’s a list where everything has a purpose, which is usually a good place to be.

TheChirurgeon: OK right away I have some questions. The first is: Are you actually going to build and paint 9 Heavy Destroyers? You know those are finecast, right? And each one has long gun arms with thin struts of resin that will arrive completely warped beyond recognition or use? You know these are some of the worst hellworld models, right?

Look at this chump who thinks I haven’t already painted them.

Otherwise, I see what you’re getting at. I think that in addition to the CA points drops, being able to take out several big vehicles isn’t nearly as big an issue as it used to be, and so Necrons potentially have that going for them too. On the other hand, these seem like easy Gang Busters points for your opponents, and are we sure the math works out that these are better than just regular destroyers?

The Overall Plan

The holistic strategy for this list remains the same – use various diversionary elements to provide a screen and distraction so that my C’tan can get in position, then go buck wild with C’tan powers and rip the heart out of the opposing army, all the while dominating the board through keeping them under constant pressure. The changes post-CA19 add some new angles on this, but the basic strategy hasn’t really changed – I’m just hoping that now it’s better than ever.

TheChirurgeon: I like the C’Tan as untargetable monsters, but it feels like Raven Guard (and their successors) are going to eat you alive.

Dynasty Choice

Although it’s a little bit more flexible now that the big block of Destroyers is gone, I’m still comfortable that Nephrekh is the right Dynasty for this army. While discounts have made them a smaller proportion of the list than they once were, being able to screen your C’tan to keep them in the game is super important, and the incredible mobility that the Nephrekh Dynasty code (making advances automatically 6″ and allowing units to move through other units when advancing) gives to the army is tremendously important for achieving that. Allowing Wraiths to threaten a first turn charge via Adaptive Subroutines is also very powerful, and the Nephrekh warlord trait (-1 to hit) provides a good “generic” choice for a Catacomb Command Barge that wants to make a nuisance of itself.

Deep Striking one or more units remains an option as well. Against an army with a large amount of high-powered shooting you could plausibly consider chucking one unit of Heavy Destroyers into deep strike just to ensure you had something in the wings to threaten a powerful vehicle. However, the list tends to operate under serious CP constraints, so my inclination is to avoid doing that unless I’m certain it’s necessary, and view not having to as an upside of the new version.

HQ Choices

The character loadout has changes a bit from the old version of the army, changing Illuminor Szeras to a regular Cryptek with chronometron and upgrading the Overlord to ride around on a Catacomb Command Barge.

The barge is pretty simple to explain – they’re priced to move now and once I’d mathed out the new list and saw I could afford one it was pretty much a no-brainer. One of the things this list sometimes needs to be able to do is to buy time and run interference on an opponent’s plans for a bit, something CCBs are great at. Taking the Lightning Field relic for a 4++ on top of the Quantum shielding makes them a pain to kill with everything except sustained volleys of mid-quality fire, which can be hard to bring to bear on something that’s a CHARACTER. It’s also fast by the standards of the army, able to go out and grab objectives in a pinch.

The Cryptek swap is down to the advent of the Heavy Destroyers and the reduction in troop numbers within the list. Destroyers of all ilks are INFANTRY so can benefit from the invulnerable save of the chronometron, and with nine of them floating around (and probably clustering around the Lord for wound re-rolls) I want access to that to increase the chances of a unit surviving a bit of firepower. Cutting out the 10-model Immortal squad the old list ran also makes Szeras less exciting, as landing the toughness boost on that squad was a big draw for him before. Now that the list doesn’t embarassingly lack long-ranged firepower his one lascannon shot is also way less relevant.

The Lord is still here, notable only in that he’s even cheaper while probably being better for the list than previously. Without a big squad of Immortals it’s less likely that I’ll be using the Veil of Darkness to teleport him around, but he still gives wound re-rolls to the Immortal units and now soups up the Heavy Destroyers as well. Lords continue to be weirdly terrible for ancient killer space robots, but at least they’re now costed appropriately!

C’tan

Still the centrepiece of the list but with a bit of a cast rotation. This army has always wanted to squeeze as many of the Star Gods in as possible, which previously meant the Nightbringer and three Transcendents, as the Deceiver sat at a lofty 225pts. That all changed in CA19, with a spectacular 45-point discount shifting him to sit at the same price as a Transcendent, at which point he’s basically a no-brainer. While he doesn’t get access to double tapping powers, his pre-game redeploy ability is an incredibly powerful one to have access to and gives the list quite a few options to speed up its game plan or put some early interference into play. It is important not to fall in to a trap of overextending with it – the hypothetical dream of an opponent deploying their entire army in a castle you can drop three cosmic fire casts on should never happen if they’re competent – but even just ensuring you can line up shots from your Heavy Destroyers turn 1 when you’re the attacker is tremendously powerful.

The rest of the C’tan are still all about doing as much damage as possible, and your power configuration will need to change game to game to best enact that (check out this week’s Hammer of Math to delve into what’s best in various situations). With only two Transcendent C’Tan rather than three you’re likely to choose to have double tapping powers on both of them most of the time, but against armour-heavy lists the option of switching both to 3++ saves remains relevent, as that can provide a real challenge for lists depending on killing stuff with powerful low shot count weapons. Cosmic Fire is still the power with the biggest potential output, so navigating your C’tan to situations where it can be used effectively is key to success – something the Deceiver helps out with.

Troops, Wraiths and Scarabs

I’m lumping all of these together because they share a role – occupy the enemy while the C’tan get into position. One of the best ways we can pull this off is with first turn charges, and there are two ways this list can pull that off:

The Wraiths using their 18″ advance and charge. The Warriors popping out of a Ghost Ark post-redeploy.

The latter is particularly devious and will hopefully catch at least some opponents out. The Deceiver’s redeploy stops you charging after using it – but effects on a transport don’t flow onwards to the unit inside (and indeed this specific case was addressed in the LVO not-FAQ), so if your opponent has deployed some infantry (Marine Scouts, perhaps) in an incautious position you can:

Redeploy the Ghost Ark with the Deceiver 12″ from the enemy. Disembark the Warriors at the maximum distance from the transport and move towards the target. Make your 3″ charge and wrap the enemy up.

Successfully pulling off an early wrap can give your C’tan space to move up the board way more openly than they otherwise might, letting them blast away with powers while closing in, which is tremendously helpful. The original iteration of this list post-CA still had the old troop configuration, but as soon as I realised I could use the Ghost Ark as a magic wrap bus I switched over to this build.

Beyond sneaky tricks, my experience of playing this army is that you need to carefully manage the rate at which your stuff is dying – it will die, but if it happens too early then you just get the characters blown off the board. Being able to have one extra Wraith and the rather sturdy chassis of the Ghost Ark will hopefully help with this, as will being able to ward off some directions with Heavy Destroyers in an emergency. Speaking of which…

Heavy Destroyers

The last major (and new) part of the list, and what I’m hoping is the special sauce that fixes some of the problems the army used to have, is three maxed-out units of Heavy Destroyers. These bad boys got a big cut in CA, going to 37 PPM, meaning that for 333 points you can get the maximum of nine of them down and that seems…great? They re-roll 1s to hit by default, and benefit from the Lord’s re-roll 1s to wound, which since what they’re firing are AP-4 lascannons means they’re on 3s re-rolling 1s on both against almost every relevant target. Given that the major Achilles heel of the original version of this list was being unable to blow up tanks at range and thus crumbling to something like the Eldar Crafters list, spending 333pts on these seems outrageously good for the army, and we’ll get to see first hand in the test game whether it makes facing down the Elf menace any more bearable. Having a bunch of T5 3W bodies that can be moved to screen off one angle of shooting into the C’tan in emergencies is also very likely to be relevant in some games.

That closes out my outline of how the list is supposed to work – let’s see what Rob thinks

TheChirurgeon’s Thoughts

I’ve already groused a bit above, but generally my response boils down to “How is this better than the list that Stephen Christopher put together for a third-place finish at Hammer in the New Year back in January?

Steven Christopher’s Hammer in the New Year List

​Sautekh Battalion (+5 CP, 1,462 points)

HQ: Cryptek [5 PL, 95pts]: Chronometron, Staff of Light

HQ: Imotekh the Stormlord [10 PL, 140pts]

Troops: Immortals [8 PL, 135pts]: 9x Immortal, Tesla Carbine

Troops: Immortals [8 PL, 105pts]: 7x Immortal, Tesla Carbine

Troops: Immortals [8 PL, 105pts]: 7x Immortal, Tesla Carbine

Elites: C’tan Shard of the Deceiver [12 PL, 180pts]

Elites: Triarch Stalker [8 PL, 115pts]: Twin Heavy Gauss Cannon

Fast Attack: Destroyers [12 PL, 187pts] 3x Gaus Cannon, 1x Heavy Destroyer w/Heavy Gauss Cannon

HS: Tesseract Ark [13 PL, 200pts] w/ 2x Gauss Cannon

HS: Tesseract Ark [13 PL, 200pts] w/ 2x Gauss Cannon

Sautekh Spearhead (+1 CP, 538 Points)

HQ: Lord [5 PL, 58pts]: Hyperphase Sword

HS: Doomsday Ark [10 PL, 160pts]

HS: Doomsday Ark [10 PL, 160pts]

HS: Doomsday Ark [10 PL, 160pts]

++ Total: [132 PL, 9CP, 2,000pts] ++

Stephen’s list is planning some similar shenanigans with the newly re-costed Deceiver, but trades out the Heavy Destroyers for regular destroyers, plus some more reliable Doomsday Arks, which are now even better after the changes to Devastator Doctrine have made Imperial Fists opponents less common. I also like the Triarch here as a way to use Targeting Relay to boost the Arks, while the Destroyers act as their usual deep-striking menace. While yes, this isn’t technically anything like what you’re going for with your C’Tan-heavy list that is admittedly much, much cooler, my job here is to be the voice of boring old reason, and so you have to make the case for why your heavy destroyers are a better sell than the Doomsday Arks.

Wings’ Response

I mean it’s difficult to argue that the above list isn’t safer – Doomsday Arks are great, and Tesseract Arks are also pretty tasty (though crumble badly against some kinds of shooting). Newly discounted Imotekh and Triarch Stalkers also look good – both units already had quite a bit to recommend them, and are obviously even better at their new prices.

The big drawback of the Arks as firepower is that they’re almost impossible to hide, and just completely melt to some popular shooting options. The above list also doesn’t really have a way to project pressure outside the shooting phase, so if it’s confronted by a powerful melee threat that it can’t trivially delete off the board (Possessed or Paladin bombs spring to mind) it risks ending up on the back foot, which is particularly bad in the new ITC missions.

Ultimately, the above list is trying to win the game in the shooting phase and the C’tan list isn’t – the Heavy Destroyers are there to do enough damage early on that the rest of the list doesn’t just get shot off the board before the game really gets started – neutralising a few key threats will slow the clock down enough to let the vastly mid-table presence of the C’tan list begin to tell.

That’s the idea, anyway. I am painfully aware that Eulis Sanders (one of the world’s best Necron players) recently said that if you face Necrons and see Wraiths across the table you can probably relax, but that sounds like coward talk to me, and we’re going to try and make this thing work.

Oh, also, if you thought painting nine Heavy Destroyers was bad, it is like a tiny baby challenge next to painting three Doomsday Arks. Having painted one Ghost Ark, I have sworn that this is the one kit I will commission from someone with an airbrush if I ever need more of them. It is not fun.

The Matchup

The Competition

Obviously when playing a more out-there list the temptation is to softball the opposition to make it look brilliant, so in order to avoid that temptation what I’m going to put down as the opposition is the optimised version of my Battlefield Birmingham list that I wished i’d played if I’d had the revelation about my options that I came upon while driving him from day 1 around 24 hours earlier.