Necrons, The Decurion, and Tournament Formats

The aspect of the new Necron Codex that certainly stands out the most is the abundance of formations and the Decurion Detachment. The decurion creates a new way of forming a Battle Forged army that is arguably bordering on Unbound. This is because, while the mandatory selections are expanded, the flexibility after fulfilling those restrictions is endless, and allows numerous formations in a single detachment, with some very strong bonuses.

At first glance, the Decurion seems to tip 2 Source tournament formats, like LVO's and the proposed format for NOVA, allowing Necron players to essentially take 3 or more detachments (read: Formations) in a single detachment.

However, once I started pointing out the minimum requirements plus some of the more appealing formations like the Canoptek Harvest and Royal Court, it quickly became clear that the formations are all expensive, making spam a bit difficult. If anything, it seems like the Decurion formation could reinforce the need for restriction of detachments, as without limit, Necron armies could skip troops entirely, taking the numerous small formations available to them to form a hard hitting force.

In the Adepticon format, a Necron player could take a Royal Court and a Canoptek Harvest outside the Decurion detachment, and then add in a CAD to supplement that force. That said, with the price hike to Night Scythes, it will be harder to fit them in, making the Objective Secured/Objective grabbing elements to move around the board.

Early on, the list concept that sticks out to me (and I think a lot of people), is the Wraith-star. With a Decurion and a CAD, there won't be much room for anything else, but it creates a super durable unit with a pretty massive footprint that will handle just about anything it runs into. A quick stab at this list might look like this:

• CAD:
• Destroyer Lord: Warscythe
• 5 Immortals
• 5 Immortals
• Decurion Detachment:
• Reclamation Legion:
• Overlord: Voidreaper
• 5 Immortals
• 10 Warriors: Ghost Ark
• 10 Warriors: Ghost Ark
• 3 Tomb Blades: 3 Particle Beamers, 2 Nebuloscopes
• Royal Court:
• Nemesor Zahndrekh
• Vargard Obyron
• Orikan the Diviner
• Cryptek: The Solar Staff
• Canoptek Harvest:
• Spyder
• 3 Scarabs
• 6 Wraiths

The idea here is that just about all of the characters go with the Wraiths to create a super durable unit that, so long as they begin the turn within 12" of the spyder, will have a 3+ (always 4+, even to Instant Death Wounds) Reanimation Protocol to go with a 3++ that re-rolls 1s thanks to Orikan. The unit can also go Invisible for one turn thanks to the Cryptek's Solar Staff and has Preferred Enemy from the Destroyer Lord. 

The rest of the army is somewhat small and lacking punch, but because they are Necrons, will be super durable, particularly the Warriors backed up by Ghost Arks. 

I have been toying around with lists, and focusing on what I could field with somewhat limited purchases. That said, I am eyeing two of the Tomb Awakened bundles from GW. That box set is a great jumping off point for an army, so I built an army largely around two of them, along with some odds and ends.

• Mephrit Dynasty Cohort:
• Cryptek: Solar Staff, Chronometron
• Orikan the Diviner
• 10 Triarch Praetorians
• 2 Triarch Stalkers
• 10 Immortals
• 10 Immortals
• 5 Immortals
• Annihilation Barge
• Annihilation Barge
• Canoptek Harvest Formation:
• Spyder
• 7 Scarabs
• 6 Wraiths

This list is largely built from the contents of those two boxes and forms a pretty solid army in my opinion. The Cryptek and Orikan can support the Praetorians or the Wraiths, while the Stalkers boost up the Annihilation Barges' and Immortals' shooting. 

All told, new from GW at retail, this army would be $471.25, which isn't a bad overall price point, and would quite easily fit in our next round of the Hobby Challenge.

What do you think of the lists and the book so far? What stands out for you?