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| Right in the wallet |
I've had some thoughts on how I'm going to organize my Necrons in the new edition. One question you should ask yourself is of course "Do I want to build around a piece of a star god that we captured and weaponized?" Do you like mortal wounds? Do you like dictating the flow of battle around one big piece that's terrifying and beautiful?
If you said 'yes', then you're in the right spot. We've got four options - The Nightbringer (for chopping up stuff), the Deceiver (because pre-game redeploys are fun), the Void Dragon (who hates vehicles and is pretty choppy), and you can take a Transcendent C'tan shard if you want to go cheaper and have vaguely custom options.
We'll take a look at what they have in common, how they differ, and then employment of them.
Common Traits
I. Durability
Necrodermis + Living Metal is what draws a lot of the attention here. You have 9 wounds at T7 and a 4+/4++, but the kicker is that Necrodermis means you can lose a max of three in a phase and you get one back during your command phase. You aren't worried about a volume of fire all at once, but the trick is that you can be papercut to death.
How nasty this is depends on the matchup - there are seven phases in a turn. - Command, Move, Psychic, Shoot, Charge, Fight, and Morale. We can pretty safely discount command and morale as phases where you see wounds happen. Movement matters if they have bombers, as those just need to move over you to threaten mortal wounds. The psychic phase, if applicable, should make you think about positioning relative to psykers - our psychic defenses are somewhat limited beyond Spyders, a stratagem, and killing psykers. The charge phase gets a mention just because overwatch happens here; a lucky shot or a good overwatch can knock off wounds.
II. Mobility
They're 8" move with the FLY keyword. It's not slow, but there's really no other way to speed them up. You get no buffs from the rest of the army because of keywords. The only way to go faster is to advance and hope for a good roll, but you'll maybe want to do that once because they turn off your Powers of the C'tan.
III. Powers of the C'tan
There are six basic powers, and each C'tan knows two. You pick when you build, but can spend a CP to change out a power. Note that the named shards have a unique power + a normal power, whereas the transcendant shard picks two. These are all damage-dealing powers with short to medium range; you're looking at 9-24" range. If you're not quite sure what you want, Antimatter meteor is pretty reliable for damage output with minor targeting restrictions, and Transdimensional Thunderbolt has solid range.
Note you can also pay a CP to use another random power - you use your powers, and then drop 1d6 and immediately use that power. There are worse ways to use CP than on more mortal wounds.
IV. Brawling
C'tan are all pretty nasty in melee, and outside of the Void Dragon, no one picked up a gun. You have a heap of attacks hitting on 2+ - the exact type of melee output depends on the shard you picked. Note that you can also ignore invulnerable saves with the Entropic Save stratagem. If someone kills you, you might also explode into mortal wounds. At least that probably won't happen during deployment.
In general, a C'tan's game plan is move up, unload powers, charge, punch stuff to death, unload powers, try not to die. It's not exactly subtle, but it does dictate the flow of battle because it's likely to last at least a couple turns.
V. List-building restrictions
Note that you can only fit one C'tan per detachment. You can take multiple, but you're down 600-700pts and some CP for them at that point. My initial preference is to take 0-1, but I suspect we'll see double-C'tan lists.
The C'tan Themselves
Shard of the Nightbringer
This is getting the most press. The Nightbringer is all about murder in the assault phase. Drain Life is half your money-maker here - enemy models can't ignore any wounds they would lose. This turns off stuff like Disgustingly Resilient and Necrodermis. The half is the six attacks with the Scythe of the Nightbringer. Either you try to clear a horde with the Reaping Sweep - you make two attack roles at AP-3 and 1 damage, which is a nice dozen dice - or the Entropic Blow, which is a beefy S14, AP-4 1d6 damage that ignores invulnerable saves.
This makes the nightbringer great at crushing vehicles - on the charge, you can expect to do an average of 14.5 damage to a T7 or lower vehicle. If you go into something T8, that drops a little lower - but you're still dropping 4-5d6 of damage straight to the wounds, unless the dice laugh at you.
The nightbringer can also do reasonably well at trashing smaller units - a dozen attacks with the sweeping blow is good for 8ish wounds.
His unique power - Gaze of Death - is noteworthy for being able to target characters. You drop 3d6, and each 4+ on those inflicts 1d3 mortal wounds. It's a little swingy and short-ranged, but mortal wounds are mortal wounds.
At the end of the day, the Nightbringer is at its best tearing vehicles apart and shredding smaller units - or forcing larger ones to fall back.
The Nightbringer should watch out for melee opponents that can do 3 wounds a phase reliably, and anything that can mess with wound roles - Transhuman Physiology in particular is annoying, as the nightbringer really wants to wound on 2+ or 3+ vs. multi-wound infantry.
Shard of the Deciever
This is the thinking ovelord's C'tan shard. Grand Illusion lets you redeploy up to three NECRON units in your deployment zone, or put them into strategic reserves. This guy also has deep strike, unlike the others. You redeploy before the first battle round begins, so you get to react to whoever has first turn. This will almost always be useful, because it makes your opponent worry.
The Deceiver also has a nice defensive ability in Misdirection - attacks targeting it take a -1 to hit penalty. Given the way that you can inflict no more than -1 to hit, this isn't as big a deal for some melee weapons like powerfists, thunderhammers, and other stuff - but it's not a bad thing at all.
Melee-wise, the Deceiver is decent and reliable. It has five attacks with S7, AP-3, 3 damage fists. It's not nearly as out-and-out murderous as the Nightbringer or the Void Dragon, but it's plenty workable vs. infantry and light to medium vehicles, but maybe don't go trying to kill a night.
The Deceiver's unique power - Cosmic Insanity - is fun enough. It's your Ld10+1d6 vs. the opponent's Ld + 1d6, and they take mortal wounds based on how much you beat them by. Supporting this guy with flayed ones isn't the worst you could do, as they're about your only leadership debuff in the book.
Shard of the Void Dragon
If you hate vehicles, and like punching stuff to death, this is your god-pokemon. It's the only one that starts with a gun - the Spear of the Void Dragon is essentially a lascannon that goes from 1d6 to 3+1d3 vs. vehicles. If you manage to shoot over a unit, that unit might take a hit as well, which is a neat extra. Or just a really dead guardsman.
The Dragon isn't a slouch in melee, either - S9, AP-4, 1d6 damage (or 3+1d3 vs. vehicles). The dragon also gets another 1d6 S6, AP-2, 1-damage swings with random Canoptek blades, so you've got something vs. larger units.
The other reason you go after vehicles is this is how the void dragon shard heals itself - kill a vehicle, drop 1d6, and regain a wound on 2+.
In case it isn't obvious, the Void Dragon murders armor - you're doing 4-6 damage per hit. Average damage on a charge is 12.5 unless you found a random T9 vehicle.
If you're fighting infantry, be mindful of how many you're trying to kill in a given phase and how many wounds they have; 5+1d6 attacks isn't going to kill a fresh squad.
Voltaic Storm is a pretty reasonable power - against infantry, it's 1d3 mortal wounds on a 2+. Now, if you're close enough to hit a vehicle, that goes up to 1d6 mortal wounds AND halves the number of wounds on the vehicle for purposes of the vehicle's profile.
Transcendent C'tan
First off - these are 280pts, vs. the 350 for named shards, so if you think you're getting less, there's a reason. You can tailor them a little - Fractured Personality lets them pick one, or roll for two at random and re-roll if you get doubles.
Your melee damage is lesser than the named shards - you swing five times at S6, AP-4, 1d6 damage. You're workable vs. infantry, and can help mop up vehicles. Your best source of damage output is taking Cosmic Tyrant and firing off two C'tan powers a turn.
The other traits are so-so at best - you can get some defense vs. a charge, slightly better melee power (+1S, +1A), or a deep strike. On the face of it, I like Immune to Natural Law, since it means wound rolls of 1-3 always fail - but this only really comes into play for S8+ weapons, and only really, REALLY inconveniences S14+, as you're already T7. You shouldn't be punching healthy melee knights anyway.
Where Shards Fit in a List
If you bring a Shard, you're building around it - named ones run you 350, and the regular one runs you 280.
Command Points
Save a few CP for these guys - you'll want to make that first charge, and you'll probably want to use Dimensional Destablization for extra wounds. You may or may not end up needing Entropic Strike - so that's anywhere from 1-4CP in a couple turns.
Deployment
Consider deploying them last, for two big reasons - first, you want to pick your targets and you're a melee unit; second, Necrodermis is something the opposition plans around - make them deploy as much as possible before you pick your spot.
The Deceiver gets a mention here - you can redeploy 3 units, including the Deceiver. It doesn't matter quite as much, but I'd still probably deploy the Deceiver. The redeployment option is also why, if I were going to take two C'tan, I'd probably take the Deceiver + one other, as placement is going to be crucial for them.
Your List
In general, the C'tan all want to operate with some support - they can hand out mortal wounds at short-to-medium range, and tear up stuff in melee. You should probably build a balanced list - the C'tan is a missile you're firing at a couple enemy units and the enemy's plan. Deploy near some of your anti-infantry support, as you'll want them to soften up your charge target, or clear a hole for you to charge something juicy.
Additionally, consider taking Protocol of the Undying Legions for turn two - getting two wounds back on living metal is bound to be demoralizing to the opponent, and may keep you alive for another turn. The longer the C'tan is alive, the more disruptive it is on the table.
I waffle between saying that the shards need to be built around individually, and thinking that they're all close-ish enough to appreciate a balanced list.
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