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Warhammer 40k Meta Hotness – Necron CryptoThralls

5 Minute Read
Jul 19 2023
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Goatboy here with the 40K Meta hotness – Necron CyrptoThralls! The 10th Edition secret sauce to unkillable Necron Warriors!

Today’s little bit of nonsense is the true “Yeah” guy for a Cyrptek – the Cyrptothralls!  This is a major part of creating crazy bricks of Necron Warriors who never die.  With that – let’s jump into the pool that is 10th Edition Nonsense and break down why these guys are really good.

The Cryptothralls are those little weird kits from the 9th editions starter box.  They look like weird barrels with legs on them and they were initially designed to hang out with the Cyrptek bros, discuss digital currency, and just be a weird little pain in the butt.  Now they are really into crypto but they also really amp up that Necron Warrior blob in a lot of interesting ways.

Making them Tougher

When you build your army you can take a unit of these guys and add them to any unit being lead by a Cyrptek.  This gives that unit an extra 4 wounds that have 4+ FNP, are not characters, and even give the Cyrptek a 4+ FNP as well.  This is huge as they are added to the unit and not being a character allows them to come back.  So when shooting this of warriors you have to deal with a bunch of 4+ FNP as well as whatever armor save they have.  Heck it just means you have to put in so much damage that then just gets to come back from Reanimation and having more than 1 wound.

Add Them To All Sorts of Things

Lychguard seem pretty good to have a little unit of Cryptothralls in there with their 4+ invulnerable save, damage reduction, and then a 5+ FNP after the Cryptothralls die in a blaze of glory.  Really it is just giving the unit a nice little bank of 4 wounds to have in case of other issues.  You have few other Reanimators nearby to help bring the unit back and the whole plan of chipping damage becomes worthless.

Forcing Extra Shooting Into Units

A lot of the time a game can be won not by killing your opponent but instead just forcing them to do what you want.  Having a unit that takes way too much of your army to remove is a win as you end up living a turn or two longer than you would normally see for other armies.  Just having this bank of wounds lets you “get” wrecked, the unit stays alive, and you start bringing all your friends back to run around you.  It is one of the few armies where MSU isn’t needed as bricks of wounds just does better than being less effected by Blasts.

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A Sample List

Nick Jagiello won 2nd place at the TGX Warhammer 40k tournament – 86-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Mississauga, ON CA in July.

TGX (2000 points)
Necrons
Strike Force (2000 points)
Awakened Dynasty

CHARACTER

Hexmark Destroyer (100 points)
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Enmitic disintegrator pistols
• Enhancement: The Sovereign Coronal (Aura)

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Hexmark Destroyer (70 points)
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Enmitic disintegrator pistols

Hexmark Destroyer (70 points)
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Enmitic disintegrator pistols

Imotekh the Stormlord (105 points)
• Warlord
• 1x Gauntlet of Fire
1x Staff of the Destroyer

Overlord (110 points)
• 1x Resurrection Orb
1x Voidscythe
• Enhancement: Hypermaterial Ablator

Technomancer (60 points)
• 1x Canoptek Cloak
1x Staff of light

Technomancer (60 points)
• 1x Canoptek Cloak
1x Staff of light

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Transcendent C’tan (290 points)
• 1x Crackling tendrils
1x Seismic assault
• Enhancement: Sempiternal Weave

 

OTHER DATASHEETS

Canoptek Reanimator (95 points)
• 2x Atomiser beam
1x Reanimator’s claws

Canoptek Scarab Swarms (40 points)
• 3x Feeder mandibles

Cryptothralls (40 points)
• 2x Scouring eye
2x Scythed limbs

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Cryptothralls (40 points)
• 2x Scouring eye
2x Scythed limbs

Cryptothralls (40 points)
• 2x Scouring eye
2x Scythed limbs

Flayed Ones (70 points)
• 5x Flayer claws

Lokhust Heavy Destroyers (90 points)
• 2x Close combat weapon
2x Gauss destructor

Lokhust Heavy Destroyers (90 points)
• 2x Close combat weapon
2x Gauss destructor

Lokhust Heavy Destroyers (90 points)
• 2x Close combat weapon
2x Gauss destructor

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Lychguard (190 points)
• 10x Dispersion Shield
10x Hyperphase sword

Lychguard (190 points)
• 10x Dispersion Shield
10x Hyperphase sword

Tomb Blades (160 points)
• 6x Close combat weapon
6x Particle beamer
6x Shadowloom
6x Shieldvanes

Cryptothrall Tactics

You can see how this army sets up the crazy Lychguard bricks mixed with the damage ability that is shown in the Necron Codex.  The Hexmark’s are another unit to look out for in Necrons and something I will probably talk about in the future.  We’ll have to see as more and more Necron Space Daddies and Mommies wreck more table tops with their undead robot action.

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