Necron 2nd Wave, Making Crons more Competitive?

So the Necrons get their 2nd wave finally.  Can't say I was surprised that May won't see the long awaited Chaos codex, I was disappointed, but surprised?  Not so much.  I should state that I had the inclination to start a Necron army for a while, it never got past buying 2 Annihilation barges because I made up my mind that I wanted a Scythewing army.  That won't be happening now since there are no Scythes of any type in the 2nd wave.  The other models in the 2nd wave though are really needed for the list to work in the competitive arena.  More after the break.


The list of what is in the 2nd wave for Necrons is actually quite long:

Triarch Stalker – Full Plastic Kit (1 per box)
Tomb Blade – Full Plastic Kit (3 per box)
Canoptek Wraith – Full Plastic Kit (3 per box)
Canoptek Spyder – Full Plastic Kit (1 per box)
Nemesor Zahndrekh – Finecast
Vargard Obyron – Finecast
Illuminor Szeras – Finecast
Destroyer Lord Upgrade Pack – Finecast Bits
Heavy Destroyer Upgrade Pack – Finecast Bits

The prices are actually quite high:

Necron Triarch Stalker $47.00
Necron Tomb Blades $41.25
Necron Canoptek Wraiths $47.00
Necron Canoptek Spyder $33.00
Nemesor Zahndrekh $19.25
Vargard Obyron $16.00
Illuminor Szeras $21.50
Necron Destroyer Lord Upgrade Pack $10.00
Necron Heavy Destroyer Upgrade Pack $8.25

If I am going to talk about the competitiveness of the army why bring up the prices?  Because cost matters, we learned that with Grey Knights.  Moving on.

No Scythes GW?  REALLY!?

Zahndrekh and Obyron make appearances in many of the Lychguard Deathstar lists that are doing well so having actual identifiable models will be nice!  This doesn't necessarily make the list more competitive but custom modelling for HQs is a hurdle to some players.  The Triarch Stalker has forever been the want of many Necron players who state that having access to it and a melta weapon will allow for a more competitive build.  I am not sold on the Stalker, I have played against a few players who made wonderful conversions for them, and a few proxies, they just don't have the power people really expect.  The Destoyer Lord has some potential but it really is a back seat unit in the current codex, mostly thanks to it's prevalence in previous editions of the game.  Heavy Destroyers fall into this category as well, they are relatively cheap and spamming them doesn't take up HS slots so they aren't totally bad.  Tomb Blades look awesome but I have no experience against them and they look fairly "meh" on paper.

Wraiths and Spiders are where it is at for Necrons at the moment.  Scarab farm lists are not the be all end all of the Necron codex but having a few Spiders pumping up 2 swarms of Scarabs that are dicing up vehicles while Wraiths eat through most infantry in the game is a potent combo.  These are going to be the two most common buys for the 2nd wave, and look, they are super expensive to make a whole unit.  Not really a wonder there, GW priced making units of the best units thus far in the codex the most expensive price wise to make.  Looking back on the different codices you can tell, for the most part, which units are the best in a given codex by seeing how expensive it will be to make it price wise.  Nob Bikerz, Thunder Wolf Cavalry, Paladins, Assault Terminators, Hydras (hell a mech IG army period), Obliterators, the list goes on.  I think this release will really punch up the number of Necron players around the tournament circuit which is good, there are too many IG, GK, SW, BA, DE, and Ork players.  I play against similar armies most of the time and I really want to play against Necrons more, for experience, and the entertainment of something new.  

While this wave won't increase my chances of starting a Necron army it certainly helps a lot of the fledgling Necron lords out there fill there rosters with effective units.