Aeronautica Imperialis - Faction Review - Necron

 

The Necrons are the sixth faction to be released for Aeronautica Imperialis. They are the first faction to be released entirely via Forge World, something I am not happy about. The miniatures do look fantastic, but I do not like resin miniatures, or for that matter the price of Forge World products. Having stated this, I do like more support for this fantastic game and in the future, the Necrons may get plastic miniatures, like the Necromunda upgrades. 

Within this article are some examples of aircraft with weapon loadouts. Each loadout provides the average amount of damage the aircraft can cause in a single round of firing.  

Faction review links:

• Imperial Navy
• Orks
• Tau Empire
• Aeldari
• Adeptus Astarte (Space Marines)
• Necron

This is the link to 'How I painted my Necrons aircraft'.

Also visit my YouTube channel (Jon Grant Miniatures)  for games

The Necrons

The Necrons are an ancient race who once ruled the galaxy long before humanity evolved on Terra. Their technology, rivalled only by that of the Aeldari, appears more mystical than science. Slowly, the Necrons are waking from their tombs to reclaim the empire that was once theirs.  

Their aircraft are fast, manoeuvrable, durable with incredible firepower, but all of this comes at a cost as each plane is expensive.  

The Necrons will need to close with their opponents quickly and engage at short range. 

How many models are available in the range?

Currently, there are rules for three Necron aircraft.

The three aircraft are:

• Night Scythe
• Doom Scythe
• Night Shroud

Night Scythe

The Night Scythe is an extremely fast, manoeuverable and durable fighter aircraft of the Necron Dynasties. It is also the Necron's transport aircraft, making it invaluable in some scenarios. It is, however, expensive points-wise and as such the Necrons will be heavily outnumbered. 

To begin with the Night Scythe is as fast and manoeuvrable as the Aeldari Nightwing. Like the Nightwing, it also has access to the Jink special rule, allowing the Night Scythe to position itself exactly where it needs to be within the Area of Engagement. Unfortunately, as this aircraft is so expensive (and it is still the cheapest Necron aircraft) it is going to be outmanoeuvered. This does not mean that it will not be able to get into a good firing position, but it will become an easy target. This is because it will finish its move before most of the opposing force has had their move, especially early on in a game. This is where durability will be required. With 4 structure points, the Night Scythe is now the most dangerous dogfighter in the game. This fighter, even if caught in an opponent's sights, is likely to survive a found of firing with ease, before manoeuvring into an attacking position of its own. 

In the firing phase, the Night Scythe is equipped with the fearsome Twin Tesla Destructors [8/4/2 4+(6+)]. This weapon is fantastic, especially as it can fire at all ranges and causes extra damage. At short range, the weapon is the most powerful in the game, with an average damage of 1.76 per firing phase.  

Finally, as already mentioned, this aircraft has a troop transport capacity of 2, which is further boosted by the special rule Jump Troops.  

Overall, a fantastic but expensive aircraft. 

Doom Scythe

The Doom Scythe is the second fighter aircraft for the Necron Dynasties. It has the same profile as the Night Scythe but trades in its transport capacity for even more firepower. As such everything about its speed and manouevrabilty are the same as the Night Scythe. 

The Doom Scythe gains a Heavy Death Ray, over the Night Scythe's transport capacity for the cost of an additional 3 points. The Heavy Death Ray [4/2/0 3+(4+)] is an immensely powerful weapon, especially at short range. When combined with the Twin Tesla Destructors that this aircraft has, the Doom Scythe should easily be able to shoot down any other fighter aircraft, in the game, in one firing phase. 

As with the Night Scythe, the Doom Scythe is extremely expensive and so will be outnumbered, but it is the best fighter in the game. 

Night Shroud Bomber

The Night Shroud is the Necron Dynasty's bomber and as such will be required by some scenarios to fulfill the list requirements.  

As with the other Necron aircraft it is fast and manoeuvrable, although less so than the Night Scythe and the Doom Scythe. It is more durable than the fighters but is still on par with the durability of Imperial Marauder Bombers. 

This aircraft is the most expensive of Necron plane but does not appear to bring much more to the table than the fighters, other than its access to bombs in the form of Death Spheres. The Death Spheres [4/0/0 2+(4+)], a standard weapon profile for bombs in Aeronautica. So, what makes this aircraft worth its cost? 

In addition to the Night Shroud's Death Spheres, it is equipped with the standard Twin Tesla Destructor. 

In short, the Night Shroud is as durable as a Marauder Bomber and as fast and manoeurvable as an Aeldari Bomber (or most other faction's fighters). Together these two features allow the aircraft to rapidly close with ground structures, but still out manouevre incoming enemy fighters. 

Upgrades

Overall, I am not a huge fan of upgrades, but the Necrons have access to some good upgrades, although most of them are one use only. Points should only be spent on upgrades to avoid wasting them. Do not waste point on upgrades when they could be better spent on more aircraft. The Necron aircraft are all very expensive, so it is highly likely that there will be a few spare points available.

Galvanised Nanoswarms allows for the repair of one point of structure damage on a 5+, for each dice rolled. One dice may be rolled for each structure point lost. With all Necron aircraft having at least 4 structure points, this is a very good upgrade, especially as the Necrons will have few miniatures to begin with.

I also like the Reinforced Necrodermis, which reduces the effectiveness of Extra Damage weapons, but it should only be used against certain factions, mainly the Aeldari, against the Orks and to a large extent the Imperial Navy it is next to useless.

Translocation Engines are an interesting upgrade. They allow the Necron aircraft to move two hexes in any direction, once per game. Combined with 'Jink' and the high manoeuverability of the Doom Scythe, it should be very easy to place this aircraft into a tailing position, or to avoid incoming enemy fire.

Conclusion

The Necrons are the most elite faction in Aeronautica Imperialis. Each aircraft is expensive in points and so each Necron force is going to be small and highly likely outnumbered. The Necron player will need to use their aircraft's speed, manouevrabilty, firepower and durability to apply the maximum force to the smallest area. Rather than spreading damage amongst the opposition, they should be aiming to remove one aircraft at a time. This will then allow them to take control of the initiative in the later part of the game. 

More of my Aeronautica articles  can be found here.

If you have any questions you would like to ask, please put them in the comments below. Thank you for reading and 'Always watch your six'.