Assembling Your First Necron Combat Patrol

The Dynasty awakens to your command, Overlord, with a Necron Combat Patrol. Small scale battles introduce you to the basics of Warhammer 40,000 without breaking your budget. Maxing out at 25 Power (as shown on your unit’s Datasheet) there’s just a few boxes and options you’ll need to explore.

Necron Combat Patrol – First Box

Your first choice should be one of the two starter boxes, Recruit Edition or Elite Edition. Take the Elite Edition as your initial purchase. The Necron models included (see below) total 20 Power by themselves. More importantly, they include an Overlord. You’ll need him, and his Noble keyword, for Command Protocols. Don’t go without a Noble, just don’t.

Elite Edition – 20 Power
Necron Overlord – 6 Power
10 Necron Warriors with Gauss Flayer – 6 Power
3 Canoptek Scarab Swarms – 2 Power
3 Skorpekh Destroyers – 5 Power
1 Canoptek Plasmacyte – 1 Power
Warriors have the option of using a Gauss Reaper. Either is a valid choice, but I prefer the additional range.

We need a bit more Power to bring this force up to 25 for your Necron Combat Patrol. Take a look at a focused or diffuse approach.

Focused or Diffused

The focused approach involves buying one more unit to bring you up to 25 Power. The unit may have a 5 Power or 6, if you drop the Canoptek Plasmacyte. With 5 Power in mind, either Ophydian Destroyers, Skorpekh Destroyers, or Canoptek Wraiths would be good choices. As I’ve written before, I prefer the Wraiths over either Destroyer unit. However, including additional Skorpekh Destroyers add to your melee threat. Either as a second unit, or a a larger, more dangerous one. Let’s focus on that!

A diffuse approach would involve purchasing the Recruit Edition. This gives you multiple options to building your force instead of just one.

Recruit Edition – 12 Power
Royal Warden – 4 Power
10 Necron Warriors with Gauss Flayer – 6 Power
3 Canoptek Scarab Swarms – 2 Power

This addition allows you to fill the 6 Power gap listed above with another block of Necron Warriors. Warriors are much more likely to be affected by Reanimation Protocols than any other unit in your force. In a small battle, them returning to battle swings the odds to you. Alternately, you can drop out more to squeeze in the Royal Warden. His Relentless March and Adaptive Strategy ability buff Warriors and other Core units.

Let’s see how the various forces look.

Combat Patrol Approaches

The Focused force depends on melee to get work done. While the Overlord and Warriors control an objective, your Destroyers and their loyal Plasmacyte skitter around pushing opposing units off of objectives. The Scarabs are present to tie up a unit for a turn or camp on another objective.

The Diffuse Mixed force uses the two Warrior units to control different objectives. The Scarabs and Destroyers may initially seize an objective, or two, but lack staying power against a determined foe. Likewise, they’ll have to be used carefully to push enemies off an objective.

The Diffuse Warriors employs one, large, block of reanimating Warriors to capture a central objective and lay down withering fire after being buffed by the Overlord and Warden. Your Scarabs, on the other hand, lurk nearby to tie down an enemy assault unit or occupy a remote objective.

Indomitus

At the time of this writing (Nov, 2020), the Made to Order copies of Indomitus are trickling into retailers, but stocks will not last for very long. If you’re planning a Necron force, and can swing the extra cash, grab one of these. It has everything listed from the combined Elite and Recruit sets plus a few units that haven’t been released yet by Games Workshop.

Indomitus – 51 Power
Necron Overlord – 6 Power
Royal Warden – 4 Power
Plasmancer – 4 Power
2 Cryptothralls – 2 Power
20 Necron Warriors with Gauss Flayer – 12 Power
Skorpekh Lord – 7 Power
3 Skorpekh Destroyers – 5 Power
1 Canoptek Plasmacyte – 1 Power
Canoptek Reanimator – 6 Power
6 Canoptek Scarab Swarms – 4 Power
Both the Warriors and Scarabs may be split into 2 units with each at half their listed Power.

While you’ll only be able to build the “Diffuse” Combat Patrols, the extra units jump your total force straight to Incursion levels. Just drop the Plasmacyte. Additionally, Indomitus comes with the full edition of the Warhammer 40,000 Core book. It is quite the bargain while it lasts.

Space Marines

While this article has focused on building your Necron force, the Recruit, Elite, and Indomitus boxes hold more than Necrons. Each box has an almost equal value of Space Marines. We’ll be getting started with the Emperor’s Finest very soon.