# The Necrons are after me!!!



## Caterpil (Jul 2, 2008)

I have a Tau army of about 3000 points and i fight a lot of battles against a necron player. What i don't know is what to shoot first, i could hit the monolith and nightbinger. or i could hit the warriors lots and get them to phase out early. HELP.


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## darklove (May 7, 2008)

Are your games standard or Apoc?


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## Caterpil (Jul 2, 2008)

Our games are mostly just standard "wipe 'em out missions" 'cause my opponent doesn't have a large enough army but we sometimes play a low point mission with apocalypse rules.


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## darklove (May 7, 2008)

With a maximum of 3 Monoliths in his list I would not bother shooting at them. There will be a lot of Warriors and they will probably do more damage than the Monoliths. Kill Warriors is the best option, and as you will be Tau you can do it from outside their effective range.

Take a lot of high AP, long range, guns. The high S shots will also negate WBB for units out of the rang eof a RezOrb, so this will force the Necrons to bunch together for protection.


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## delta555 (May 27, 2008)

ya instant deth but dont let the nightbringer close to you
that would be like my foolish tau friend wiped out all his foot solders with yarric and a techpriest


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## Inquisitor Varrius (Jul 3, 2008)

Monoliths=bad. Kill the warriors. On the other hand, destroyers are pretty nasty too. My friends Destroter lord passed its "I'll be back" roll 12 times in a row! (on a mission that went by objectives, not turns.) If you use Darklove's advice and the Necrons bunch up, smash 'em with Template shots. I have no idea how good Tau template weaponry is, but it might work.


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## The Riddler (Jan 2, 2008)

Range is the key, some good advice in this thread.
Haven't faced a Monolith or Nightbringer as yet as most of the pts i've played against (using orks) have been 750 - 1300 range.
You should be able to pick apart a lot of the force with ranged weaponry....make Destroyers a priority target as i believe they can ping you with 3 shots each at 36".

I've only ignored Destroyers once.....bad move, never repeated.


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## fearlessgod (Jul 3, 2008)

In my experience, hammer the Destroyers and Heavy Destroyers first. After that, tag the Warriors to force phase out. I never waste shots on a Monolith when I could be taking out the Warriors. Power weapons (and fists) are your friends against Necrons. I know I'm rambling, but it's early. :crazy: I hope this helps...

~fearlesshod~


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## Caterpil (Jul 2, 2008)

Thanks everyone for the advice, one other thing, the opponent's necron lord is often armed with a resurection orb and included in a pariah squad, this is put in the middle of a warrior formation. Should i aim for this early or just focus on the quick units and warrior units.


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## PsychoXeno (Jun 23, 2008)

I absolutely would not let that anywhere near me. BUT, watch the rest of the table. When you focus on that make sure not to over look any other threats. Try to take the Pariahs out first then the Warriors. 


Had I any Pariahs this would be an awesome thing to do. The enemy would have to take a shooting priority over the Warriors to reach the inner squad. Applying the leadership 7 rule from the Pariahs when close can help your chances greatly. Hell, they may even run after being shot to death by 40 Flayers and 8-20 Blaster shots.

I love it!

I think Ill try something similar with my 5 Wraiths, Destroyer Lord, and 10 Scarabs for an all out assault.


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## darklove (May 7, 2008)

That will be a very different story in a week from now - there is no target priority in 5th ed.


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## PsychoXeno (Jun 23, 2008)

Is that fact or rumor? I haven't gotten to read the new one. If so Ill be an unhappy camper.


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## KrythosMJarenkai (Jun 16, 2008)

take photon nades. nasty little things....... i played 3 games with tau as a necron player, let me tell you, if he plays right, you are fucked man.

though if hes useing NB and pariahs, you shouldnt have much problem with him. just go at a range and shoot him out of the water. now, if he was reserving and deep striking, then you would be in trouble.


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## darklove (May 7, 2008)

PsychoXeno said:


> Is that fact or rumor? I haven't gotten to read the new one. If so Ill be an unhappy camper.


It's a fact. You can also target ICs now even if there are other units that are nearer. Although, if an IC is within 2" of a friendly unit it automatically joins it.


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## Caterpil (Jul 2, 2008)

As mentioned before my opponent's lord stays with the pariah squad. This lets him use his power to force my units to take a leadership test (of course with the pariahs my leadership is always 7). My battlesuits will normaly be out of range of this however a couple of squads of my fire warriors do not have devilfish and are often included as the necron line advances. Sometimes a battlesuit squad will be trapped and have to retreat 3D6 because they have jetpacks. what can i do against this tactic.


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## PsychoXeno (Jun 23, 2008)

darklove said:


> It's a fact. You can also target ICs now even if there are other units that are nearer. Although, if an IC is within 2" of a friendly unit it automatically joins it.


Sorry to kinda hijack for a sec but, can IC's be picked out when joined to a unit?

If not then I guess its alright but it really sucks if you can. Lords will have to rely on cover or no LoS to stay alive.


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## darklove (May 7, 2008)

ICs cannot be picked out of a unit that they are attached to, but if the unit takes enough hits it can force the IC to make saves and thus take wounds. It is possible for Necrons to pick out ICs with the P-Whip - If the IC is directly under the centre hole of the template then it must take the AP1 hit, another model cannot take the wound instead.


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## Daneel2.0 (Jul 24, 2008)

darklove said:


> It is possible for Necrons to pick out ICs with the P-Whip - If the IC is directly under the centre hole of the template then it must take the AP1 hit, another model cannot take the wound instead.


Actually, that isn't true anymore. There is no AP1 monolith sniping. One model in the squad must take an AP1 hit, but it could be any model in the squad, not just the one under the hole.

As to leadership, I hope your friend runs a Nightmare Shroud with his Pariah lord, otherwise it isn't really worth it. The choice of a res orb in a pariah unit is a little troubling as well, unless he keeps his warriors close since pariah don't get WBB.

As to tactics to defeat the necrons, that all depends on how your opponent plays his monolith. If he uses the monolith as a MBT and constantly particle whips, then ignore it. If he deepstrikes into your back units, pulls warriors from 18" or reserve through the portal and (on the next turn) opens up with the Flux Arc you don't have much choice but to kill it fast. Fortunately, your single best unit against both tactics is the same - Railhead. The single shot takes down the monolith with fair ease and the sub munition deals with necron warriors or destroyers pretty well.


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## BloodAngelZeros (Jul 1, 2008)

PsychoXeno said:


> I absolutely would not let that anywhere near me. BUT, watch the rest of the table. When you focus on that make sure not to over look any other threats. Try to take the Pariahs out first then the Warriors.
> 
> 
> Had I any Pariahs this would be an awesome thing to do. The enemy would have to take a shooting priority over the Warriors to reach the inner squad. Applying the leadership 7 rule from the Pariahs when close can help your chances greatly. Hell, they may even run after being shot to death by 40 Flayers and 8-20 Blaster shots.
> ...


Here's an idea. Unit of flayed ones around a unit of Pariahs w/ a lord w/res orb. CC bashes into the flayed ones first, forcing a leadership test on attacking unit, Pariah's dropping that leadership to 7 (sounds nasty against pretty much any army except orks, who all have a 7 anyways). Flayed ones' higher initiative (compared to warriors) means a decent amount of time they're be striking at the same time. Lord w/ res orb saves the WBB rolls and if the flayed ones fall, the pariahs are there to finish the job. At the same cost as regular warriors, flayed ones are pretty cheap (granted they don't have gauss, but they're suppose to be the CC equivalent of warriors in my eyes at least). Only problem is both units are elite. 

But yeah, my advice for the order of how things should be taken out:

1. Heavy Destroyers (they're pretty good at messing up tanks) 
2. Destroyers (Really, they're tied with the above, but the lower strength usually means glancing against vehicles instead of penetrating hits, but the multiple shots make up for it)
3.Warriors (with high strength or low AP weaponry. Blast templates are even better)
4.Everything else if you can't spare the shots for the above (out of range or for whatever reason). 

Most of the time, in small games, if there's a monolith, don't bother with it. You could have used the firepower falling more warriors or destroyers and getting closer to the phase out. If there's a nightbringer, again, don't bother with it, he leaves with the phase out as well. Also, a cheap strategy for dealing with the nightbringer, if you deploy second, put most of your units on far end away from the nightbringer. Your opponent will be hard pressed to move the nightbringer fast enough to do any major damage. The long range of most tau weaponry means you can camp out there for awhile and still inflict some damage before the nightbringer becomes any real threat. Remember, he can move up to 12" a turn (this includes the run, which means he can't assault the same turn he ran).


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## BloodAngelZeros (Jul 1, 2008)

darklove said:


> If the IC is directly under the centre hole of the template then it must take the AP1 hit, another model cannot take the wound instead.


As Daneel2.0 said, that's not true. The template simply means that it determines the number of hits/wounds allocated and what types of hits/wounds are allocated. I can choose to take off a model that wasn't even under the template just so long as the wounds are allocated evenly. So unless an IC is by himself, you can always allocate the stronger hits from a blast template to a weaker model. Usually what ends up happening is that if it's a low ap or high S weapon and their IC has a decent invul save, they'll allocate that to the IC and chance it with the save in an attempt to save more wounds. It doesn't happen all the time, but with armies that have high troops costs they try and save every model they can, but in armies like the nids, there's so many throw-away units it doesn't really matter as much.


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## Daneel2.0 (Jul 24, 2008)

BloodAngelZeros said:


> Most of the time, in small games, if there's a monolith, don't bother with it. You could have used the firepower falling more warriors or destroyers and getting closer to the phase out. If there's a nightbringer, again, don't bother with it, he leaves with the phase out as well.


That depends on the firepower. If you have a couple of Broadsides, forget the necron warriors. The 2 guys you zap aren't worth however many get to redo their WBB from the monolith portal or the tank you lose to Nightbringer's lightning arc. If you have a Railhead, ignore the monolith and pie plate the warriors 



BloodAngelZeros said:


> Also, a cheap strategy for dealing with the nightbringer, if you deploy second, put most of your units on far end away from the nightbringer. Your opponent will be hard pressed to move the nightbringer fast enough to do any major damage. The long range of most tau weaponry means you can camp out there for awhile and still inflict some damage before the nightbringer becomes any real threat. Remember, he can move up to 12" a turn (this includes the run, which means he can't assault the same turn he ran).


And this is why nobody really ever plays C'tan. They are *so* easy to neutralize like that. Just keep in mind that Nightbringer can hit with Lightning Arc from 24". So if he is deployed at the 15" mark that's a turn 1 45" range hit. 

The most common counter to this is placing him in the center front of the army. Since he is supposed to be a fire magnet anyway . . . 
:angel:


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