Necrons Color Scheme and First Battle

The big news of this post is that I'm starting a brand new army: Necrons. I'm doing so mainly because my Eldar are the perfect mix of not motivating me and not enjoyable to paint. I've come to realize in flirting around so many fantasy armies that what I want is models that are dull in most spots, with splashes of color to make them "pop" for the viewer on the tabletop. I'm hardly a master painter; so-called "tabletop quality" is my main goal. I want to make it look good when viewed for gaming. So I thought a lot about what I would enjoy playing plus what I would enjoy painting. And I realized that Necrons were both a force I've never done before as well as a fun painting challenge (that suited my sensibilities). And thus, I picked some up and started.

After looking through lots of examples of amazingly (and underwhelmingly) painted Necrons, I knew two things: One, I didn't want to do the translucent green "Necrons are the easiest to paint ever" army. And two, I didn't have the airbrush skills to do something glorious such as the great stuff being put out by Awaken Realms. What spoke to me as a good middle point was the neat look of the newest fluff Necrons to be explored: The Mephrit Dynasty with their contrasting Greens and Oranges with occasional splash of Off-Whites or Light Blues. The more I read about the "sun killer" Dynasty, the more I liked it. The name of their current fluff leader, Zarathusa the Ineffable, was itself laughably appealing--I love the haughty presumptiveness of calling oneself "Ineffable". So I broke out some paints, did some trials, and found what I think to be a great scheme.

I also recently had a chance to try them out on the tabletop--just a small game against my friend Cemllyn's Grey Knights. So the following is a quick after-action battle report of the clash between us. If my pictures focus too much on the burning Transcendant C'tan Shard, well... that's to hide the fact that all the rest was only had their metal portions and base painted.  The game was 1,000 points per side, battling using the amazing objectives system that 7th edition 40k utilizes, with deployment zones from side-to-side rather than across.

The Necron forces. No doubt the blaze from their enslaved shard of a C'tan burned off most of their decorative paint left from the ages, as it was merely metal husks that pulled themselves from out of the ground to war against the Imperium. I fielded a big squad of Warriors (top right), a center line of Lychguard and Scarabs with the C'tan, and a small group of Immortals to do objective duty (bottom left). 

The Grey Knights brought two Nemesis Dreadknights and two small Grey Knight Strike Squads in Razorback Transports. They were led by a Grey Knight Librarian in terminator armor (he's hiding down in that building... I mean "giving tactical commands from a central observational point). While the Grey Knights were nominally going to take the first turn, the Necron Overlord's warlord trait added just enough bonus to the roll to "seize the initiative" to let their forces go first. 

Quickly it became apparent that the mobility of the Dreadknights and the Grey Knights force in general was going to give them an advantage on objectives. They were able to adjust quickly, nabbing some early superiority objective control results to give them a healthy lead. While the Necrons started to pour on the attacks, they couldn't quite finish off either of them. 

The Grey Knights infantry disembarked, ready to contest a central objective in a building. While they were each sturdy warriors amongst the elite of the Imperium, they were not prepared for the assault of the Lychguard's powerful melee attacks. 

However, the relentless shooting of the Grey Knight Dreadknights and Razorbacks continued to take their toll. With most squads reduced to a few stragglers or wiped out completely, it was the C'tan that was still keeping hope alive. He turned his sights on the Librarian, and closed on him to destroy him in melee. However, it was the great unharnessed might of the C'tan that actually did the Librarian in: manifesting a hurtling antimatter meteor that crashed straight out of the sky and crushed the psyker. His terminator armor failed to protect him and he was slain instantly by the massive strength of the impact. 

The second Nemesis Dreadknight had made easy work of the Necron Overlord in combat, which finished off every Necron model. Now completely unbound, the C'tan shard continued its rampage--slamming into the massive walker and tearing it to shreds, while suffering only paltry damage itself. It then went on to wipe out the last of the Strike Squads However, too much time had elapsed. The game ended with only two models left on the table: a Nemesis Dreadknight with one wound left and the half-wounded Transcendent C'tan. However, the Necrons were too far behind in objectives (11 for them, while 14 for the Grey Knights at end total), so their first outing was a defeat. 

All told it was a great first game for my Necrons. I'm looking forward to the challenge of learning how to field them effectively, as well as the painting project lying ahead of me. I'm going to focus on finishing up some core troops choices first--to avoid the mistake I often make with Warhammer Fantasy (painting the command first then burning out on the rank-and-file).

Battles (40k):
Total 2015: 1 (Win/Loss/Tie: 0/1/0)

Necrons:
1 Loss (Grey Knights 1)