How to beat TSK

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Any advice is appreciated !

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

I'm guessing this is the Silent King you're asking about, given the acronym in your title. 

 

As a necron player, I'll address ways that you probably don't want to try and kill him, and/or things that he will laugh right off if you try and kill him with.

 

First off, psychic powers. Szarekh is incredibly well protected against psychic mind bullets. He can innately attempt to deny one psychic power, right off the bat, like he was a psyker. Secondly, he has access to a stratagem that allows a <SZAREKHAN> unit to deny a psyker within 18 inches on a 4+. He, quite understandably, has this keyword. He is the Phaeron of the Szarekhan dynasty after all! Additionally, whenever he loses a wound to a MW, he can ignore it on a 5+. This applies to his Menhirs as well, who you will have to chew through before you can get to Szarekh himself. Mindbullets simply won't work on him, and at best you can hope for a couple debuff powers to go off if you're incredibly lucky.

 

Secondly, for shooting. T7, Sv3+/4++, and Living Metal. The King is incredibly tanky against shooting, and high-damage or variable-damage attacks like lascannons and missile launchers just as likely to splash off of his transtemporal force field as they are to do damage, and you might get simply unlucky and spike your 6-damage lascannon from a tactical squad onto a one-wound menhir. Two-damage or 1d3 damage shots are likely your best bet to whittle away at him, but bear in mind that Living metal can and will regen wounds every turn that he's not dead, and a technomancer can easily keep him healed up if you don't kill that model--though you'd be hard-pressed to given Look Out Sir. Tanks aren't a great option due to the counter-fire the King will put out between the menhirs and the King's own shooting attacks.

 

Thirdly, Melee. Just don't. The King can and will annihilate whatever you throw into combat with him. He will go before your melee units, due to his Obeisance Generators forcing your units to fight last, and any canny Necron player is going to have a countercharge unit well positioned to take advantage of that buff. He also puts out a very lethal number and statline of attacks, all of which except the staff of stars and the menhir's own Str 5 attacks will oneshot any marine you put into the melee grinder. His attacks also hit on twos, and barring a T5 unit, are going to wound you on twos, and ignore most of your armor. Thunder hammer and storm shield terminators or Vanguard Vets may be a decent option, but you'd best hope that they don't get ground down past usefulness before they get to swing.

 

However, despite his powerful abilities and statlines, he represents anywhere from half to a quarter of your enemy's army depending on how large of a game you are playing. Your best option might not be to kill him, but go around him and play to objectives. That said, he moves 8 inches a turn (or more!) and his antitank weapons have a long reach, so he will be engaging you at turn three at the latest unless you let him paint a 72-inch wide exclusion zone. His buffs also have a decent bit of range given his model's sheer size, and he can buff a lot of units with a large number of abilities. Another option is going to be whittling down the units he is force-multiplying so his buffs aren't so impactful.

There is also the wild card of command protocols, which Szarekh provides plenty of options for adjusting on the fly and provide you new and interesting challenges to overcome.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I just want to know his main weaknesses to exploit.

[Prot]

I wish I had some helpful advice. I’ve seen him played against by White scars and UM a few times including Guilliman (whom was ultimately killed by the SK ). His only weakness is he costs enough that he can cause a problem, for the necron player covering ground and having enough units in play. So you often see warrior spam with him. 
 

If you feel it’s best to take him on I suggest getting rid of the Menirs with low end firepower. And this is where I like blade guard. You have to hope you get lucky sandbagging him with transhuman and blade guard. Very similar to handling Mort.  

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I have to use my PriMarneus list. Based on what y’all have said I’ll try to focus on killing the rest of the army.

[Gederas]

He, quite understandably, has this keyword. He is the Phaeron of the Szarekhan dynasty after all! Additionally, whenever he loses a wound to a MW, he can ignore it on a 5+. This applies to his Menhirs as well, who you will have to chew through before you can get to Szarekh himself. Mindbullets simply won't work on him, and at best you can hope for a couple debuff powers to go off if you're incredibly lucky.

Yeah, but doesn't he not benefit from his Dynastic Code because he's a Dynastic Agent, which, RAW, never get Dynastic Codes? This came up in a game Wednesday I was watching and when we flipped through the codex, we saw that bit as it came up because the Necron player was using Mephrit (iirc) and we thought he got his Dynastic Code.

 

But then we came to the section on Dynastic Agents and it says they never get Dynastic Codes....

 

And it wasn't on his datasheet, nor was there an errata in the FAQ about it.

 

Then again, this wouldn't be the first time GW makes a unit not benefit from their own faction's special rules :lol:

Edited January 30, 2021 by Gederas

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Ahhhhhh good to know.

[Prot]

So what specifically does he not benefit from as an Dynastic Agent?

[Gederas]

So what specifically does he not benefit from as an Dynastic Agent?

RAW? He doesn't benefit from his own Dynastic code, which is this:

• Dynastic Code: Uncanny Artisans: 5+ FNP against mortal wounds and one re-roll to wound every time a unit fights or shoots. Additionally, when Protocol of the Undying Legions is activated both of its Directives will be triggered instead of just one.

Kind of a big omission when the leader of a faction doesn't benefit from their own faction's specific trait, no? :lol:

Edited January 30, 2021 by Gederas

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

 

 

So what specifically does he not benefit from as an Dynastic Agent?

RAW? He doesn't benefit from his own Dynastic code, which is this:

• Dynastic Code: Uncanny Artisans: 5+ FNP against mortal wounds and one re-roll to wound every time a unit fights or shoots. Additionally, when Protocol of the Undying Legions is activated both of its Directives will be triggered instead of just one.

Kind of a big omission when the leader of a faction doesn't benefit from their own faction's specific trait, no? :lol:

I’ve been bamboozled!

 

Do note, though, everybody, that he still has the keyword, and can still use the strat to deny a power.

 

This might be worth an email to whatever the GW FAQ email is to see if that was intentional. It would be like Guilliman not benefiting from the Ultramarine tactics!

[Prot]

I’ve been bamboozled!

 

Do note, though, everybody, that he still has the keyword, and can still use the strat to deny a power.

 

This might be worth an email to whatever the GW FAQ email is to see if that was intentional. It would be like Guilliman not benefiting from the Ultramarine tactics!

 

 

This was indeed the case for a considerable amount of time. I would email GW sooner rather than later if you think it's a mistake. 

 

Knowing he can't deny mortals really doesn't mean a heck of a lot though. Warrior screening is a big thing and it's not like Ultra's have much access to it.

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

In today’s installment of stupid things Daimyo says....

 

LOL. Somehow as soon as I hit post I knew that that would be the case. Guess I’ve got an email to write.