There is a blinding green flash. The earth reels, rocks, and goes black. When you come to, there are shadows moving through the smoke—skeletons marching among the freshly dead—not human. The shattered metal bodies picked themselves up. No matter how many times they are put down, they just get back up. They kill everything, and then they are gone. Vanished.
They are the Necron.
In the right hands, the Necron can become an unstoppable force on the battlefield of Warhammer 40,000: Dark Crusade. Using these mechanized horrors effectively requires a full understanding of their abilities and development.
The Necron Tech Tree and Infrastructure
The progression along the Necron tech tree is fairly simple and linear. The ultimate goal being to fully activate a monolith: the Necron super weapon. Focus should remain on upgrading and enhancing your infantry and the Necron Lord.
- Immediately build a summoning core and forbidden archive. These buildings will grant you access to infantry units and upgrades for the Necron Lord.
- Always be sure to research the resurrection orb upgrade for the Necron Lord. This skill is critical in buffering your losses on the battlefield and resurrecting units well over the unit cap.
- Build as many plasma generators as possible. The Necron do not consume requisition to train units or construct buildings, only power. Be sure to upgrade your plasma generators in tandem with your monolith upgrades. This extra resource extraction, combined with numerous plasma generators, will be needed to fuel your late-game battle.
- Build obelisks on all strategic points. By doing this you not only ensure that your opponent will not be drawing off resources from the strategic point, but you will also be constructing a fortified building on the map that your units can teleport to. Upgrade obelisks to make them more difficult to destroy and capable of attacking enemies.
Necron Battle Tactics and Movement
The infantry units of the Necron have superior firepower and durability, especially when they are fully upgraded. Crypt Warriors, the basic infantry unit of the Necron, do not cost any power to summon, only to add squad members, so you can raise a sizeable army fairly quickly.
- Deploy Flayed Ones from the monolith. These units are quite versatile as you can deploy them anywhere on the visible map. A simple yet effective strategy is to engage a group of enemies with ranged infantry, then deploy Flayed Ones behind and within the enemy ranks. Their powerful attack, combined with their morale-draining presence, make them challenging opponents and perfect for sneak attacks.
- Be sure to use the resurrection orb when you have reached your infantry unit cap. With proper timing, you can resurrect enough fallen units to nearly double the strength and size of your standing army.
- Make use of teleportation. Most infantry units, including a fully activated monolith, can teleport across the map. Infantry units can teleport to Necron-owned buildings, including monoliths, making them quite capable of surgical attacks and tactical retreats. Thus, even though Necrons are among the physically slowest moving units, they can travel across the map instantaneously.
- Necron artillery is among the swiftest in the game. Use these units for hit-and-run strikes, to manipulate or break up enemy formations, and to support your own engaged infantry units.
With enough practice and intimacy with their dark abilities, the Necron can be wielded in such a way as to be unstoppable. They are feared in the world of Warhammer 40,000, justly, bringing fear and unrelenting death with them.
Aaron Guzman - Aaron Guzman currently lives in Eureka, California and works as a freelance writer. He spends his spare time writing fiction, playing ...
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