My 40K Armies Part 3: The Necrons

For the third part in this series, I'll talk about my third army, my second most played, and my fourth largest at just under 3,000 points, the Necrons. I started this army sometime after 2005 and before 2007. This army really was just an old 3rd edition Wraith, some Pariahs, and a destroyer lord. It wasn't until 2011 when the 5th edition codex came out that this armies growth exploded and it jumped to where it is now. At that time though, I was actually more engaged in playing the game as part of the hobby, whereas for the previous years, I only played less than a handful of games a year. Being part of a gaming community made me push to make this army playable on the table top at regular points levels, such as 1,500 and 2,000.

Necrons Spring 2013

The Necrons paint scheme has changed only once. Originally, the army was pure copper with white face plate and shoulder pads. This color scheme however was not really inspiring for me and while searching for inspiration, focusing on sci-fi robots, I landed on my favorite game at the time, Mass Effect. In that game there was a group of sentient robots called Geth. They were the main villains in the first game. A quick Google image search resulted in a picture of some red Geth. What drew me to it was the shiny red metal bodies with contrasting blue circuits and power cables running through their bodies and the very clean look overall. So, from there, I started testing my ideas on some of the Pariah models and settled on what the color scheme is now today.

The color scheme changes

A fun fact I discovered is how the color scheme I've applied relates to the newer background of the Necrons in their newest codex with respect to societal rank. The Necrons new hierarchy puts Overlords/Lords on top, followed by Crypteks (advisers), the military groups (Lychguard / Immortals ), and the common person (warriors). These social rankings seem to reflect my ration of light to dark red. The lower the social rank, the more light red. As you rise through the ranks, there becomes less and less light red until you reach the top where there is no light red at all. This was not a planned part of my painting scheme. It just happened and I noticed it while looking at the army and it just clicked. The other part that was a little planned was that all Triarch units would have white faces to denote their removal from the social hierarchy.

Triarch Praetorians and Stalker

This army will definitely see more growth over the next while though perhaps not as rapid until the 6th edition codex comes out. I have plans to add more Immortals to my army to fill out those squads but as I add more armies to my collection and as Games Workshop keeps upping their release schedule, there are a lot of project vying for my attention.