Removing Vehicles: Necron Anti-Tank Options

When it comes to building a list, there's a lot of things to take into account. How fast can I move across the board? How do I deal with Flyers? What do I have to protect against Alpha Strikers?

Today we're going to focus on Vehicles. "But Req!" you cry, "We have Gauss! We're the anti-vehicle army!". Bah, I say, Gauss is unreliable. a 1/9 chance to Glance is nothing when our army lacks Melta and Haywire. Last edition was different, 3 Stormteks with Night Scythes in an army and you were golden. No vehicle would come within 42" of your table edge lest they take 4 Haywire shots to the face.

But we live in a world where Knights exist, and can be slotted into any army. A world where Eldar lists can very realistically contain 5 or even more Wave Serpents. And vehicles in other armies, though not as heavy, still have to be dealt with effectively.

With the new codex changing units and losing Haywire, we have to think about what we have that can remove vehicles from the board, and do it effectively.

Gauss

I know what I said. It's still not reliable. But, if you put enough of it on the table, it can become so. Big blobs of Warriors and Immortals, especially in Rapid Fire distance, can start to be a very effective shooting unit. Dropping 10 Immortals or 15 Warriors near anything with Hull Points is scary, but getting them there is a problem. 15 Warriors in Rapid Fire range do 3.3 HP. 15 Warriors not in Rapid Fire range do 1.6 HP. That's the difference between removing a vehicle and just upsetting it slightly.

Obviously Gauss has to be taken into account, because any squad with Gauss that doesn't have a priority target can always be pointed at a low HP vehicle in the hopes of plinking off the last one. But it shouldn't be relied on.

Tesla Destructors

S7 with 4 Twin Linked Tesla shots is still pretty good. It can glance AV13, so it's ok there, but against lower AV vehicles it's downright terrifying. Unfortunately, two of the vehicles with them got significant price hikes, though the Doom Scythe is cheaper.

Again, S7 AP- is like Gauss. It shouldn't be relied upon. Against heavy vehicles and things with saves, it's not hugely fantastic. However, you're likely going to have at least a Night Scythe or two in your army, so, like Gauss, you're going to have it around as a "light anti-tank" option.

Doomsday Ark

The new update gave it a better gun and allowed it to ignore Crew Shaken (and Stunned in a Decurion). Both of these things are good. A slight price drop is nice too, but it wasn't enough to make up for the fact that it's still really expensive. Still, it's a very powerful gun now. S10 AP1 (Primary Weapon!) blasts are never a bad thing, and even when moving it has a Battle Cannon style gun as well. Both of those are powerful enough to make lighter vehicles quiver in fear, and the Stationary version is enough to give even the heaviest armor pause.

Still, I don't know how good it is overall. It's not Barrage, so it needs Line of Sight. It doesn't Ignore Cover, which isn't overly bad, but it does often suck on a one shot gun, especially one that can't move if it wants maximum firepower.

It's our only source of S10, and the longest range gun in our book (other than Tachyon Arrow), which might be enough to make it worth taking, or at least considering. Not a top choice, though. Especially when you consider the next option...

Doom Scythe

A favorite from the last codex, it lost the oddly worded laser profile and gained a small blast version of the Doomsday Ark gun, though minus the Primary Weapon and plus Lance. On a Flyer. For 10 points less.

I mean, sure, it's shorter ranged, and it starts in reserve, but all in all it's probably a better version of the Doomsday Ark in a lot of ways. If you're thinking of taking 2 or 3, you can even spare yourself the HS slots and put them in the Formation to gain a moderate shooting bonus and debuff.

Triarch Stalker 

Our cool walker got a nice change in this edition. First of all, a rather significant point drop is always nice. Secondly, the buff it got is different but I think overall better. BS5 isn't as good as Twin Linked, but now nearby units just have it rather than having to shoot at the same target. This gives a lot more flexibility, especially when you want to split your fire up.

As an anti-tank option, it works quite well. The Heat Ray is probably overall the best option, given that it doesn't cost anything, has 2 fire modes, and does good damage. A 2 shot S8 AP1 gun, even outside of Melta Range, is fairly scary to anything under AV14. Within melta range it's downright amazing for the cost, though you're never actually going to get this thing within 12" of a vehicle.

Still, it's a good anti-tank gun that brings a buff to your army, particularly Destroyers who it essentially makes Twin Linked. It has the downside of being a heavy fire magnet ("That's buffing his things? Kill it!") and Open Topped means it's at least somewhat likely to explode against anything that can pen it.

Heavy Destroyers

Here we go, my favored option in the book, especially when part of the Destroyer Cult. S9 AP2 with rerolls To Pen? How many things can stand up to the likes of that? Not much, trust me. And with Jet Pack JSJ, they're likely to be out of Line of Sight of any retaliation that might come their way.

Outside of the Cult, they're still a pretty good option. It's a 50/50 to get a hull point off of AV13, and lighter vehicles are basically just going to roll over. Not to mention they're still good at picking off Terminators and Monstrous Creatures.

C'Tan

Unreliable, but reliable. If that makes sense. 2 of the 6 powers (Time's Arrow and Transdimensional Thunderbolt) are fairly hard anti-tank. 2 other ones (Sky of Falling Stars and Antimatter Meteor) can still take a HP or two off of AV13 if you roll well. Seismic Assault is pretty great against AV12 or lower, though you don't see that very often.

In Assault, we're looking at 4 S7 Attacks, which will crush most Rear Armors. It can't do particularly a lot against Knights, but again, what can? If you give one a boost with the God Shackle (you should, it is that good), S8 will make short work of anything it can reach.

Assault

Necrons actually have a handful of Assault options that can wreck vehicles. Warscythes being the obvious - S7 Armorbane destroys any vehicle it touches. Unfortunately, our Warscythes also have the issue of being on very slow bodies. Lords, Overlords, and Lychguard are not nearly fast enough to threaten most vehicles, unless they drop out of a Night Scythe. DLords are slightly faster, but have trouble attaching to any sort of retinue.

A Warscythe CCB is a good option. It can get to backline vehicles and open them up like that's it's job. Unfortunately, that doesn't really work against something like Knights or Assault-focused Walkers, who are just going to kill it before it does anything.

Wraiths and Scarabs also can destroy vehicles. With Rending and Entropic Strike respectively, and both having a high number of attacks, they can tear down a vehicle with decent reliability, though you're still beholden to rolling those 6s to get there. But, while it's unreliable compared to something like Warscythes, both of these units can get across the board and onto their targets much easier.

I rather think shooting is a better option for Necrons when it comes to removing vehicles from the board, but there's a high likelyhood that you'll have some of these options on the table anyway, so keep them in mind.

Allies

Again - we live in a world of Allies and Detachments. And there are some very decent options if you want to call an audible and bring in some non-robot tank killers.

Tau, again, are fairly easy to slot in. And with things like Broadsides, Riptides, and Hammerheads, they have a lot of anti-tank options that they can provide our army with.

Orks are a funny option that can put in things like Rokkit spam, though I wouldn't call Ork allies reliable by a long shot.

CSM are our other AoC option... and they don't really bring that much in that department which we don't have a better version of. Obliterators? Pale imitations of our Heavy Destroyers.

Assassins are easy to slot into an army, and the Vindicare is a pretty solid option if you want one. A bit on the expensive side, but you can just plunk him on any sort of objective or back line placement and fire at anything within 72" (read: most things on the board). S10 AP2 Ignores Cover is a pretty decent gun for shooting at vehicles, though it always has the likelyhood of not doing anything in particular. Take at your own risk.

Conclusion

Knights exist. Wave Serpent spam is a thing. Perhaps not in your local meta, but in a general scale, these are things that have to be thought of when it comes to building a list. While it's not necessary to make your entire army anti-vehicle, including a few redundant options is always a decent thing to do. I personally thing Heavy Destroyers are the way to go - they're durable, mobile, and can strip most vehicles to husks with relatively little effort. Doom Scythes place next for me, since Flyers that can erase vehicles from the board are never a bad thing to have.

However, you might find success with other options. In a vehicle heavy list, Doomsday Arks and Stalkers are killer. If you have enough of them and can get them from A to B, Warscythe Lychguard will kill nearly anything on the board with ease. There are a lot of choices in the new book, so try them out and see what works for you.