Millions of years before Humanity first looked up at the stars and imagined their conquest, an interstellar war of cataclysmic scale raged between the mechanical Necrons and their hated rivals – the Old Ones. Living metal legions carved a great swathe through the galaxy, and ultimately even turned on their eldritch creators – the star gods who had gifted them the technology of immortality, and damned them to an eternity as soulless constructs.
With the galaxy humbled, the lords of these once-living dynasties retreated into immense tomb complexes, where they would slumber until the time was right to renew their dominion. That time is now. Here’s everything you need to know if you’re thinking of starting an army of these ancient and undying tyrants.
New to the world of Warhammer 40,000? This quick-fire primer will get you up to speed on the deathless dynasties of Necrons – what they are, how they look, and the way they play on the tabletop.
For those unlucky enough to encounter them, the Necrons are death incarnate – skeletal, lifeless automatons that shrug off grievous damage and strip matter down to its constituent atoms with eerie beams of emerald-green energy. Most who encounter them never realise that they are more than mindless metallic killers – in fact, Necron society is made up of complex, hierarchical, and deeply territorial dynasties which are only now beginning to reclaim the worlds they once held.
The Necrons were not always the soulless legions who stalk the 41st Millennium. Once, they were the Necrontyr – a bitter and ambitious people who strove to transcend the weakness of their mortal flesh.
It was in the pursuit of power and immortality that their ruler, the Silent King, made a bargain with strange alien star gods known as the C’tan – and doomed his people. In a process known as biotransference, the minds of the Necrontyr were moved into bodies of living metal, even as their souls were consumed by the leering C’tan. Only those in positions of influence retained any semblance of free will or individuality – the rest were reduced to husks in unthinking thrall to their noble masters.
Aeons of slumber have not been kind to the Necrons, and many have awoken to fresh madness or obsession infecting their mechanical minds. Whether driven by insanity or ambition, the Phaeron masters of the Necron dynasties have struck out from their tomb worlds to reclaim their former domains, sometimes rising from stasis chambers hidden beneath populated worlds in a sudden attack.
Necron technology is extraordinarily advanced by human standards, with devastatingly powerful weapons backed up by resilient vehicles and trans-dimensional teleportation. Most shockingly of all, seemingly destroyed Necrons can self-repair, their damaged bodies reknitting and standing back up after even the most devastating salvo. The Imperium of Man struggled for years to capture Necron remains for study – those shells too damaged to return would simply phase out from existence, returning to their tomb for repair.
In games of Warhammer 40,000, Necrons live up to their reputation as undying conquerors. Their innate resilience coupled with steadily resurrecting troops makes them a very forgiving army to play for newcomers, with a diverse range of powerful tools for experienced commanders.
Once the lowest citizens of the Necrontyr empire, the wonders of biotransference transformed the Necron Warriors into perfect, mindless servants. Phalanxes of Necron Warriors obey commands without hesitation, and their bodies are resilient and – importantly for a front-line unit – easy to repair.
While much of the Necron warhost is composed of orderly, disciplined automata, the Destroyer Cults are anything but – afflicted by a degenerative madness that turns even the most sophisticated noble into a raving monster viewed with mistrust or outright scorn by their fellow Necrons. The cults wish only to destroy every form of organic life in the galaxy, and many prefer to commit this slaughter up close in a whirling onslaught of deadly hyperphase blades.
Overlords may call upon a wide assortment of vehicles to support their infantry – the sinister Ghost Arks and Monoliths are most infamous, hovering on unnatural energies to deliver glowing green death from above.
However you choose to array your dynasty, there is a unit that fits the bill – and with so much metal on display, they’re a doddle to paint up to tabletop standard. Our painting guides have plenty of tips on how to get your living metal gleaming quickly and easily.
Combat Patrol is a game mode perfect for beginners and veterans alike, in which bite-sized forces clash in fast-paced and balanced games. With a fine balance between quality and quantity, and soldiers who specialise up close and at range, the Necrons are powerful combatants in these games and have the tools to face any enemy.
The forces of Amonhotekh’s Guard stand ready to defend their leader, the eponymous Overlord Amonhotekh. Ten Necron Warriors and three Canoptek Scarab Swarms form a solid core, forcing the enemy to destroy them again and again as they regenerate. Engage vital enemy targets with the glowing blades of three Skorpekh Destroyers, and wield the awesome might of a massive doomsday blaster atop the powerful Canoptek Doomstalker.
This Combat Patrol fields a respectable number of bodies to help capture objectives and weather enemy attacks. Their Reanimation Protocols army ability will recover lost minions and slowly build an advantage over your opponent, while the doomsday blaster annihilates anything in its way – it’s one of the most powerful weapons available to any army in Combat Patrol games.
All you need to play is a few dice, a ruler, and the downloadable rules below – the Core Rules show you how to play the game, the Combat Patrol Datasheets provide a balanced army that’s ready to play, and the Combat Patrol Missions give you some thrilling objectives to fight over.
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Necron armies are commonly painted in lustrous metallic colours, which are great for large forces as you can paint dozens of miniatures very quickly using fairly simple techniques. It’s by no means exclusive, however – you can also choose to paint your warriors clad in more exotic materials, hinting at alien stone, marble, or ceramic-armoured carapaces.
Metals are nevertheless a great base to get your miniatures into the fray, so the Warhammer 40,000 Painting Team have concocted a list of their favourite paints to bring your Necrons to life.
If you’re mulling over a few ideas, the brass Szarekhan dynasty featured on many Necron boxes are an awesome place to start, as a relatively simple colour scheme to practise with. However you decide to illustrate your shambling squadrons, these few basic tips will help you get acquainted with the common elements of many Necron miniatures.
We’ve also prepared a quick how-to guide using a minimum of paints and simple techniques to get your undying legions Battle Ready in next to no time.
Once you have a few Combat Patrol games under your belt and you’re ready to go from an awakening warband to a full dynastic legion, you might be wondering where you want to go next.
Your first stop is Codex: Necrons – the essential companion to the faction, containing plenty of background lore and gorgeously painted miniatures, as well as rules for 47 different units and plenty of different ways to play them. Together with a copy of the Warhammer 40,000 Core Book, you’ll have all of the rules you need to start playing full-size games of Warhammer 40,000.
The Necron roster offers firepower, durability, and melee prowess in spades. Immortals lay down blistering volleys with gauss blasters and tesla carbines, with armour and accuracy on par with the elite Space Marines.
The Lychguard are elite troops who protect Necron Overlords in battle, boasting incredible durability with dispersion shields and augmented living metal bodies. Packs of frenzied Flayed Ones prowl ahead of the main warhost before rushing into bloody melee, draped in the skins of the victims who fall to their razor-sharp claws.
No war machine strikes as much fear into the hearts of mortals as the imposing Monolith. These ominous hovering battle stations bristle with crackling gauss and can weather massive punishment, but it’s their portals – known as Eternity Gates – that are the true terror, disgorging endless legions of Necron infantry from far-off pocket dimensions at their Overlord’s whim.
The crescent Doom Scythe is a harbinger of Necron invasion, terrifying defenders with their wailing engines while a heavy death ray carves searing gouges through enemy formations. If that firepower isn’t enough, Doomsday Arks are a great pick for tackling enemy armour, as their huge doomsday cannons blast apart whole squadrons of vehicles from the opposite side of the battlefield.
The Infinite and The Divine by Robert Rath is, at its core, about a quarrel between two intellectual masterminds over a priceless artefact. That its protagonists, Trazyn the Infinite and Orikan the Diviner, are immortal and stretch their grudge across millennia is a minor detail for a race with such a long-term attitude, and their constant feuding is a fantastic accompaniment to a tale of unexpected twists and turns.
As another victim of court intrigue, the Necron Lord Oltyx has found himself exiled to an Ork-infested world for centuries, far from the dynasty that is rightfully his. In The Twice-dead King: Ruin by Nate Crowley, he finally begins the long road to reclaiming his birthright, and discovers a dark secret at the centre of his domain with profound consequences for the entire Necron race.
Oltyx’s problems continue in The Twice-dead King: Reign, as we get a rare view of war against the Imperium from a xenos perspective. Trapped aboard a crippled battleship, he must limp away from a ruined tomb world with the Imperial armada on his tail, but even darker problems lurk within his own ship – as the mind-destroying flayer virus emerges...
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