Detachment Focus: Obeisance Phalanx

In this series of articles we take a deep dive into a specific Detachment for a faction, covering the faction’s rules and upgrades and talking about how to build around that faction for competitive play. In this article, we’re covering the Obeisance Phalanx Detachment for the Necrons.

If you're into the idea of playing Necrons but too good to associate with the commoners and peasants in the faction who couldn't afford shinier, taller robot bodies, the Obeisance Phalanx is for you. It's a Detachment based around running Nobles, Lychguard and Triarch, and comes with a solid bonus for running them. It has also had a surprising rise in recent months, with a strong showing at events recently.

Detachment Overview

The Obeisance Phalanx buffs your Noble, Lychguard and Triarch units, giving them their own miniature version of Oath of Moment. The ability saw a dataslate improvement It's the kind of generically powerful ability that good armies can be built around if they offer the right tools - and there are some solid tools here that boost some of the more interesting units in the faction.

By the way, "Obeisance" is a noun that means "deferential respect," i.e. "the warriors paid obeisance to their overlord."

Detachment Rule: Worthy Foes

In your Command phase, pick an enemy unit. Until the start of your next Command phase, NOBLE, LYCHGUARD, and TRIARCH units get +1 to Wound that enemy unit.

This is a solid ability that lets key units in your army punch up effectively. Triarch Stalkers in particular love it, as their Focused Heat Rays are often wounding targets on a 5+ thanks to having Strength 9, and that extra +1 is a big improvement in their output. It also helps them absolutely shred smaller vehicles. Praetorians also benefit in a big way, wounding T4 targets on 2+ and punching into vehicles more effectively  with their Rods of Covenant. And while we're on the topic, the Silent King himself is also a TRIARCH unit, and benefits just fine from getting +1 to wound, especially when he's projecting his aura to re-roll 1s to hit and wound.

While we're on the topic, let's review all of the Triarch, Noble, and Lychguard units in the army:

• The Silent King
• Imotekh
• Trazyn
• Overlord/Overlord with Translocation Shroud
• Lychguard
• Triarch Praetorians
• Triarch Stalker

That's a solid group to work around, and remember that attaching a character to a unit will give them the relevant keyword, so you're perfectly capable of getting Warrior and Immortal units that get to take advantage of that +1 to wound bonus. Tragically, Wraiths don't have a path to that at the moment, as Crypteks are more like elevated mechanics than lesser nobles in Necron society.

Overlord with Translocation Shroud. Credit: Pendulin

Enhancements

There are some interesting Enhancements here, and Honourable Combatant is truly unique and one of the most bonkers abilities in the game. It's a must take but you have two other very good options here. All four of these can only go on Overlords.

• Honourable Combatant (10 points): Overlord model only. Each time the bearer's unit destroys an enemy CHARACTER unit, your opponent loses 1 CP if they have any. This is a truly bonkers ability for 10 points, and completely hilarious when you remember that every big knight is a character. It won't always matter but for 10 points you can afford to take it just for the one or two times at an event where an opponent will have to go "wait, what?" Classic.
• Unflinching Will (20 Points): Overlord model only. The bearer gains [PRECISION] and [ANTI-INFANTRY 5+] on their melee weapons. It's cute that this combos with the DEVASTATING WOUNDS ability on the Overlord's blade but killing infantry isn't really that big a challenge for your melee units.
• Warrior Noble (15 points): Overlord model only. The bearer's unit gets -1 to be hit in melee. This is pretty solid, and great for avoiding the clap back from other melee threats, or just avoiding the downside of being charged.
• Eternal Conqueror (25 points): Overlord model only. Each time a model in the bearer's unit makes an attack targeting an enemy unit in range of an objective marker, you can re-roll the hit roll. This is pretty solid, and will combine with things like Tesla Immortals and the Enslaved Artifice Stratagem to create a ton of extra exploding hits. Pricey at 25 points, though.

Imotekh the Stormlord. Credit: Pendulin

Stratagems

All six of these cost you 1 CP, and they tend to be pretty limited to your units, though Enslaved Artifice and Nanoassembly Protocols have wider uses.

• Your Time is Nigh (Epic Deed, 1 CP) - Used in any phase after your opponent's Warlord is destroyed, targeting your own Warlord (so they don't have to have done the killing, but do need to be about). Until the end of the battle, all enemy units take -1 to their Battle-shock or Leadership tests. This is cute but unless you're up against Chaos Space Marines, it's not likely to do much and the hoop you have to jump through is pretty big.
• Enslaved Artifice (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) - Used in your Shooting phase or the Fight phase. One non-TITANIC Necrons unit in your army scores crits on unmodified hit rolls of 5+ for a phase. This is very good, especially because it's the only wide open Stratagem in your army. Tesla Carbines in particular love this but it's just as fun on Gauss weapons and can boost Flayed Ones in a pinch if their targets aren't below half-strength.
• Nanoassembly Protocols (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) - Used in your opponent's Shooting phase or the Fight phase, after an enemy unit picks one of your Vehicle units as a target. Until the end of the turn, incoming attacks on that vehicle are -1 Damage. This is very solid and a great way to protect a Triarch Stalker or the Silent King. It also makes this Detachment a pretty great place to use a Monolith especially as a lot of the other synergies are for Infantry.
• Sentinels of Eternity (Epic Deed, 1 CP) - Used in the Fight phase after an enemy targets one of your Lychguard or Triarch Praetorians units. Until the end of the phase, models in that unit can fight on Death on a 4+ if they haven't already fought that phase. This is a solid ability, and Necrons get more value out of fighting on death thanks to Reanimation Protocols.
• Suffer No Rival (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) - Used in the Fight phase on a Lychguard or Triarch unit from your army to give them [PRECISION] on their melee weapons. This one is whatever, but can be helpful occasionally for scoring Assassination.
• Territorial Obsession (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) - Used in your Command phase on a Lychguard or Triarch unit in your army. Add 1 to its OC characteristic, or 3 if it's a VEHICLE. This is cute, and suddenly increasing the OC of a unit of praetorians by 1 each can give you a lot of annoying flipping power. Meanwhile giving a Stalker +3 OC to take it to 7 will scuttle a lot of plans that involve holding an objective with five OC 1 goobers and an attached character.

Lychguard. Credit: Rockfish

Playing This Detachment

The good news is that the Detachment ability here is really straightforward: +1 to wound is a solid buff and doesn't require a lot of thought. What you're going to need to worry about most here is picking your units. You want a good mix of the Detachment's key units - Lychguard, Praetorians - supported by standard solid units like Doomsday Arks. And while the Silent King does benefit from some of this Detachment's rules, he's not necessarily a must-take, especially if your plan is to sink 500+ points into Lychguard and another 600 into Doomsday Arks. Of the two units, Praetorians are stronger and faster, but far less durable when you compare them to the shield option on Lychguard and lack the ability to be led by an Overlord. Worth saying that Praetorians have gotten real cheap through consecutive buffs, and a squad of 10 with the pistols and swords is a pretty good all-rounder piece, and MSUs with the staffs are legitimate threats out of reserves.

Strengths

• Melee. Praetorians and Lychguard are some of your better melee units, and this Detachment really helps them shine.
• Triarch Stalkers. They go overlooked but these little melta-equipped murderers can be a nightmare for opponents, who need to plan for a Scout move and a lengthy turn 1 rush to get into melta range or risk losing their vehicles.
• Character support. You've got some good enhancements here and those make Overlords worth taking.

Weaknesses

• Character-Dependent. You're kind of depending on your NOBLE units to elevate key threats here.
• Unit Selection. The Triarch/Lychguard units in the Necron Codex aren't bad, but most of them don't show up in lists outside of this Detachment.
• Mobility. This is one of the less mobile Necron Detachments, with no extra tricks for moving around. If you're taking Lychguard, it can be a bit of a slog.

Triarch Stalker. Credit: Chris Cowie

A Sample List

Right now there's really only one list to look toward for this Detachment, and that's Idavoll Heimdall's list. Idavoll took this list to a 5-0, first-place finish at the Kippers' Melee event in mid-October before bringing it to the World Championships of Warhammer three weeks later, where we went on to start 3-1, then finish 3-1 in his bracket for a 6-2 finish against some of the world's best players. Notably, his losses were to Ben Cherwien's Black Templars in round 3 and Samuel Pope's Invasion Fleet Tyranids in round 8.



The core of this list is three units of ten Lychguard armed with Sword and Boards. Two are joined by Warlords, one of which gives his unit -1 to be hit in melee, while the third is joined by Imotekh, who gives the army extra CP and can throw out extra mortal wounds once per game. Imotekh is otherwise a solid but not amazing fighter. The big thing to note here is the support - a lot of points are invested here in keeping those Lychguard on the table. Between the two Overlords and Catacomb Command Barge you have three Resurrection Orbs (once per game D6 Reanimation instead of D3), a Canoptek Reanimator, a Canoptek Spyders unit for the Feel No Pain against mortal wounds and psychic attacks, and a Convergence of Dominion to provide a 6+ Feel No Pain to nearby Infantry.

For ranged support you have three Doomsday Arks and two Annihilation Barges, decked out with Twin Tesla Destructors to take advantage of that Enslaved Artifice Stratagem. If there's a challenge here it's that the army is very light on action units, without even so much as a unit of Flayed Ones to rely on. Spyders and the Lokhust Heavy Destroyer can fill in there, but take on a lot of weight as a result.

Final Thoughts

The Obeisance Phalanx offers an interesting twist for Necrons players, pushing the army into more of an elite melee build that can do real damage instead of just putting a tarpit of 18 Wraiths in the middle of the table. Though your Lychguard can absolutely be a big tarpit in the middle of the table if you want them to be one.

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.

Latest

---

• Goonhammer Hobby Round-Up: March 2026
  by Soggy, SRM, einherjarvalk, Rich "Cronch" Nutter, May "Rockfish" Herrington, Vincent Curkov, Acetronomer, Magos Sockbert, Roxin, Beanith, MasterSlowPoke, Kevin Stillman, Colin Ward, Bair, Sky Serpent, Jefferson Powers, NotThatHenryC, Sam Isaacson (not Josh), Variance Hammer Eric, Jackie Daytona, Mike Bettle-Shaffer, Ezekyle Catbaddon - Apr 07 2026
• Goonhammer Reviews: Tribal Conquest
  by Jackie Daytona - Apr 07 2026
• Conquest: Weaver Courts Gemred Knights and Scaile Dancers Model Review
  by rachelnertia - Apr 07 2026

Patreon

Support us on Patreon to get access to our Discord and exclusive App features.

Thank you for being a friend.

Already a Patron? Login with Patreon.

Fashion Accessories

Visit our incredibly official store on RedBubble.