# Fighting Necrons



## Ludoldus (Apr 8, 2008)

As the title implies, what are tactics for taking out necrons? Ignore the monoliths and go for the phase-out? Or take out those annoying res orbs? 
Just general anti-necron tactics are welcome, as well as more detailed for specific armies. So what are you waiting for? Post away!


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## Galahad (Dec 21, 2006)

Just FYI I altered the thread title. If you want to add a subject to the Versus suggestions pool then go ahead and post it in the sticky, but I'd rather not see people co-opting the Versus feature

Back to subject, the best thing to do is just try and force a phase-out. Generally anything that would work against marines is good here, with a particular emphasis on instant death.

For example: An attack bike with a Multi-Melta is a better choice than one with a Heavy Bolter because you're all but guaranteed one straight kill if you hit, whereas between the strength differences, the fact it allows a save and the fact it allows WBB, the heavy bolter is all but impotent in comparison.

Assault is your friend as well. That PF sarge is going to do a lot of damage against them


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## 3maverick3 (Jan 24, 2007)

Well in most cases I just focus on killing the troops one group at a time. If no one is left and there is not a troop of the same kind within 6" that troop will not be back. Also larg templates with twis the strength of the troops so st8 works well as well.


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## 40rending (Jan 3, 2008)

i always go for the phase-out because it is always a more efficient means to defeat them. i particularly like to use plasma cannons and big blast tank shells until his monoliths are deepstriked


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## morfangdakka (Dec 31, 2006)

I generally go for the phase out. Just pound the heck out of the troops, tomb spyders and destroyers are all I every concentrate on. Everything else is either not a necron that counts towards the phase out or is only one model that as long as I avoid them will not do much damage to my army. 

I always seem to get people that deepstrike their monolith right in front of my dreadnought with 3 strength 10 attacks then wonder how I killed it so easy.


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## Revelations (Mar 17, 2008)

Ludoldus said:


> As the title implies, what are tactics for taking out necrons? Ignore the monoliths and go for the phase-out? Or take out those annoying res orbs?
> Just general anti-necron tactics are welcome, as well as more detailed for specific armies. So what are you waiting for? Post away!


It's probably the only army in the game where you can design a Melee army to a large degree of success. Their melee capabilities are garbage, IG units stand about equal footing with them. 

High AP weapons work wonders as well as a concentration of Power Weapons. You don't even need PF since they have such low initiative. 

But really, it's the phase out that hurts them the most. Warriors make up the bulk of their army and are suprisngly easy to destroy with the right weapons and concentration of fire power. 

The hardest thing to deal with is the constant Teleportation. The Monolith can be easily avoided and ignored and their destroyer squads are only 5 wounds strong. Keep the pressure on the Necron army and they usual crumble pretty quickly.


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## Mad King George (Jan 15, 2008)

shoot / assault take out lord, win


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## Deceiver (Sep 19, 2007)

lords are kept in middle of sqds where they cannot be targeted in shooting or put in btb in cc on 1rst assult turn.
never have a phase out problem. 
You can try the strategies given,but they will be of no use. The necron horde is invincible.


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## Jezlad (Oct 14, 2006)

It all depends on the composition of the force.

You'll need to bring a different game plan to fight 3 Liths than you will destroyer spam.

I've personally had little trouble defeating Necrons, only one loss in 8 or so games. Don't concentrate on one specific target. Play the mission, destroy the targets that present the biggest risk to you achieving success. 

Sometimes phaseout is an option, against a good opponent though you'll find it very dificult. 

Shoot, Assault and keep the objecive in mind. Watch the deployment as well - lots of games are won and lost before a bullet flies.


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## TAU4298 (Apr 20, 2008)

well the tau is a really good army to fight necrons with the got the most fire power out of the other armys and all of those strength 10 weapons


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## Mad King George (Jan 15, 2008)

Deceiver said:


> lords are kept in middle of sqds where they cannot be targeted in shooting or put in btb in cc on 1rst assult turn.
> never have a phase out problem.
> You can try the strategies given,but they will be of no use. The necron horde is invincible.


you can use the torrent of fire rule and take him out


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## STATIC (Feb 11, 2008)

Dont fret dude. You'll take em down easily. :shok:


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## dizzington esq (Apr 24, 2008)

As a necron player myself, ultimately to claim a decisive victory the po option yeah. As for your heavy hitting double toughness weapons, if there is a lord with a res orb nearby then you still get wbb rolls. The codex should have the res orb as a standard part of the lords kit and just put him in at 140 pts. Res orb is so powerful and yet so cheap. You really must try to either isolate and/or kill the lord to make your big guns really effective. Oh by the way, whilst your hvy duty weapons are trying to get close enough the scarab swarm of death will float down from the heavens and tie you up in cc. :biggrin:


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## freddy-on-fire (Mar 15, 2008)

Okay, well I just played Necrons and I knocked off probably about 3 models where as he destroyed my entire army.

How do you beat someone who has all his warrior squads bunched together with 2 lords (both with res orbs?)

I drop podded 2 Sternguard Veteran squads with Pedro on top of a Destroyer Lord with orb and 3 wraiths. I used hellfire rounds to get as many wounds as possible on them hoping that they'd be bound to fail atleast a few, seeing as how the vengeance rounds are useless on the wraiths and useless on the lord, and for 2 rounds I unloaded all these wounds onto them and they just continued to get back up. Those 4 models destroyed my HQ and 10 sternguard veterans after taking 2 rounds of heavy fire without a single casualty.

Apparently AP1 weapons and double strength weapons have no effect, and they still get to come back with the res orb regardless (he may have been lying, but I dont have the codex to check, and it was a Vassal game..) If what he is saying is true though, then I can't see how it's possible to beat necrons. 3+ armor saves with a 4+ WBB roll and immune to instant death from higher ap or double strength weapons? Somehow I feel like I've been fooled or necrons really are that rediculous. :angry::angry:


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## Someguy (Nov 19, 2007)

I've played against necrons a lot of times and never lost. I don't rate them.

The first thing you need to do to play against necrons is to understand the WBB rules. Read them, get the hang of the resurrection orb, monolith and tomb spiders.

The fix to the "phalanx" of necron warriors with a lord is to understand that it isn't going to die right away. You are not going to knock it out with a single blow by drop podding near it, hitting it with ordnance or whatever. However, its own firepower at long range is not very good, especially if it's mostly made up of warriors. It can't move about all that much.

My advice is not to do what a fair number of people have been saying, and going for instant kills or power weapons - at least in this case. To take the comparison of a multi melta or heavy bolter mentioned earlier, a multi melta hit is a kill on a lone necron in the open, but it's way less good if the necron is in cover with a res orb nearby. Often, you get the best result by spamming the necrons with fire, causing them more damage than they can take. They are going to get their WBB rolls, so make them take a lot of them. Heavy bolters can do this. 

Morale is key. Necrons have great LD but are not fearless and they can run off. You should aim to kill whole squads if you can, but if it looks like you won't then it can be worth spreading your fire around and forcing morale checks. The phalanx only works because all the necrons back each other up, which they don't do if a unit breaks and runs off. If they are below 50% of their starting number when they run, job done, and they may well run too far from their casualties for those to get their WBB rolls. The squad with the lord in should be made to take a test every turn, as if it runs off it takes the res orb away.

Close combat can work. You can approach this in two ways, either to kill units or to tie them up. If you hit them with a heavy CC unit the necrons will lose badly, and have some big modifiers on their ld check. You can often chase them down, thanks to their pathetic initiative.

Try to keep the phalanx moving. If it stands still it can shoot at you a bit but if it has to advance then its firepower really drops away. You may not win a direct firefight within 24", but if you stay further away and throw aoe stuff at it, you can break it without ever seeing it fire. The worst thing you can do is drop in next to it, fire ineffectually due to the res orbs and then get rapid fired by the whole phalanx.

The much-maligned thunderfire cannon (which I can't say I like much myself) would be pretty happy shooting at a necron phalanx. You just need to throw lots of wounds at it from far away, and be prepared for the fact that only one wound in 6 actually results in a dead necron.


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## darklove (May 7, 2008)

In all the games I have played as Necron it has been CC that is the great danger. Something worth noting is that if the Necron player suspects that you might go for a CC rush to sweep all Troops for Phase Out he might be ready to counter it. That counter is the C'tan. Almost nothing in the SM army can hurt it in CC, and anything that can will strike after it does. I have used C'tan in games from 1k upwards recently to test the effectiveness. A C'tan as HQ + lots of troops does not increase Phase Out risk, it instead makes Warriors much harder to assault and keeps them alive longer.
A balanced army with mixed shooting and CC is the best force to field - snipers and heavy weapon units as well as standard tac units. If the Necrons are expecting a CC rush they can really make you hurt, so don't just dive forward with all your jump troops, or DS your Termies in amungst them, but wait for the right time to strike.


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## Spot The Grot (Jul 15, 2008)

only problem with bringing ctan is they are expensive and it means youve got buy another hq ie the lord with a ressrection orb if you want your guys to live better and longer lives .The ctan due to being expensive make phase out more likely


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## darklove (May 7, 2008)

I've been using them as a solo HQ for the last month and things have gone really well. I beat a BA army by turn 3, having killed Dante and jump pack assaulty marines in black armour with a chaplain (death company?), a furioso dred, and a 5 man assault termy unit were all dead. How much damage had I taken? None. Not a single model was dead. It was the C'tan and the Monolith that did most of the killing, They protected me from Phase Out because I did not give the enemy a chance to get near anything that counted as Necron.


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## Black Crusader (Mar 17, 2008)

As necron players I feel it is our resposiblity to give all the other inferior races some tips on how to kill an undying legion. Simply kill one unit at a time. If the entire unit is dead and there isnt another model of the same type within 6 inches of that unit then they get no WBB rolls regardless if they have a RO. So kill off one unit at a time and any TS that are on the board.


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## Neccies rule (Jul 14, 2008)

if you think your going to face a c'tan take poisoned weapons, sniper rifles work best, the amount of times my nightbringer has been killed by stupid little ratlings


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## theevilleon (Apr 26, 2008)

I have been playing around with cheesy ways to kill Necrons lately. I feel like it's only fair to fight cheese with cheese.

One cool thing is to charge them with units that aren't quite effective enough to kill them all. If you win assault by 9 or more and leave 1 or more standing they fall back on anything but snake eyes. Then you can sweeping advance or just keep chasing them off the board. If they don't make enough WBB to go back over 50% they will just keep running anyway.

This works even better if you assault a squad that has a Necron lord in it, because you can be more creative about where your attacks go. Maybe a few go at the squad, a few go at the lord. We'll see what dies before we decide where to swing any powerfists. I encourage all of you to be total jerks and roll your power weapons, then your regular weapons seperately too, you know, because you don't have different colored dice.:wink: Maybe somewhere in there you decide the regular swings should go at the lord. Maybe not. People who play Necrons deserve this kind of treatment.

Necron players get cranky when you chase their lords off the table.


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## keytag33 (Apr 20, 2008)

I play Necrons and have had some what serrius (sp) losses, by the opposing player simply doing what Jez suggests and play the mission. The cc route and the high strength/shooty method will work, but if your dealing with an experienced Necron player they can work around it. Never lose sight of your objectives and play the mission you'll win more than lose.


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## darklove (May 7, 2008)

I recently played a kill point mission with my Necrons vs a CSM Slaanesh army in a tournament. He was trying to do the very thing that theevilleon suggested, even using Lash of Sub to get to my units faster. He was using termies, 2 daemon princes, 2 vanquishers and lots of blast weapons. I won 8 to 1, he resigned on turn 5. I was not even using a Lord in my army, so no RezOrb.


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## BrainFreeze (Oct 9, 2008)

theevilleon said:


> I have been playing around with cheesy ways to kill Necrons lately. I feel like it's only fair to fight cheese with cheese.
> 
> One cool thing is to charge them with units that aren't quite effective enough to kill them all. If you win assault by 9 or more and leave 1 or more standing they fall back on anything but snake eyes. Then you can sweeping advance or just keep chasing them off the board. If they don't make enough WBB to go back over 50% they will just keep running anyway.
> 
> ...



So Necrons are cheesy though they are pretty easy to kill off for anyone with a gradeschool strat, and any army can do it? I guess that works but dont try to justify it as anything other then being a jerk.

As far as fighting Necrons, it really depends on whom your using but every army can kill them if you know your going to fight them. Template weapons are usually your best bet, followed by quick moving CC troops. Watch for the scarabs tying up your units in CC, also destroyers can cause alot of damage quickly.

The C'Tan are strong but they also have the disadvantage of being slow as all hell. Also you dont have to kill them off to win the game.

Also as other people have said, watch your objectives. Play the mission and you can usually win the game, while the crons have a few fast moving units, for the most part it is a slow moving army. Also if you decide to go for phase out you are forcing the crons to focus on your forces that can remove alot of models in a single turn.

Given equal firepower on both sides the necrons will lose, they have to remove your army, you only have to get them to 25%.


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## darklove (May 7, 2008)

BrainFreeze said:


> The C'Tan are strong but they also have the disadvantage of being slow as all hell. Also you dont have to kill them off to win the game.


Slow? They move up to 12" per turn and are not slowed by terrain. They are now as fast as jetbikes but don't have any difficult terrain issues.


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## Someguy (Nov 19, 2007)

theevilleon said:


> I have been playing around with cheesy ways to kill Necrons lately. I feel like it's only fair to fight cheese with cheese.
> 
> One cool thing is to charge them with units that aren't quite effective enough to kill them all. If you win assault by 9 or more and leave 1 or more standing they fall back on anything but snake eyes. Then you can sweeping advance or just keep chasing them off the board. If they don't make enough WBB to go back over 50% they will just keep running anyway.
> 
> ...


Well I suppose I have to reply to this. It has a sort of a half-arsed flamey feel to it aimed at necron players which isn't appropriate.

I don't think the word "jerk" has a place in tactical discussions. There are three reasons for this. Firstly, it opens up the discussion to areas of whether such and such a tactic is being a "jerk", rather than whether it's actually a viable tactic. This board is for discussing tactics, not "jerks". Second, I don't really agree with the premise that any tactic is necessarily jerk-like. I think that people are either "jerks" or "not jerks", regardless of how they choose to play with their plastic spacemen. Thirdly, use of the word "jerk" reminds me of a whining little American kid in a shitty feel-good film complaining that a bigger American kid (who we can assume will get his just deserts later on in the film) has stolen his lunch money, or maybe his girlfriend. I then have a hard time taking the rest of what you say seriously at all, so please try to select an insult that might be used by a grown up in future.

As far as your tactic goes, you suggest beating the necrons up in close combat and having them run away. Yes, ok. I'm not sure that I'd call that an especially cheesy tactic to be honest, it seems fair enough. However, if it feels a bit too unfriendly you might try politely asking the necrons to leave, and then backing off if it looks like things might turn nasty. That ought to show them.

What's all this stuff about rolling power weapon attacks seperately as well? You are allowed to do that. It doesn't change anything about how the hits are finally allocated. You are entitled to have some guys attack the lord if you want, assuming they are eligible to do so according to the rules. What are you trying to achieve by doing this? It vaguely seems like an attempt to cheat, though I'm not quite clear how. Cheating is not acceptable, by the way, if that's the intention. Again, this is the tactics forum, not the cheating forum.


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## theevilleon (Apr 26, 2008)

It's not an attempt to cheat. Lots of players roll their attacks that way anyway. I'm just suggesting that you do so in case you're one of the people who don't.

Our only local Necron player is an infamous jerk. So I get kind of angry now whenever I see them.

I understand why people seem to be completely on one side or the other when it comes to necrons. Certain armies (mainly ones with lots of big guns) kill them dead every time. Other armies (even armies that normally do really well) don't stand a chance from turn 1. There really isn't any list that stands at 50/50 odds of beating Necrons and that is boring and kind of aggravating. It is nearly always obvious who will win as soon as models go on the table.

Their general strategy irks me too.
Turn 1: Shoot.
Turn 2: Teleport out of any close combat. Shoot.
Turn 3: Repeat turn 2.
It's so boring, and yet so effective. It can be made even more effective with C'Tan or more Monoliths. It is also a huge myth that Necrons are slow. They are very mobile if they have veil or liths.

I suppose if you want a really fool proof strategy against them just take lots of long range/high strength firepower. Target destroyers or units that are out of WBB range as a priority. Ignore any C'Tan. Hold objectives if there are any.


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## Someguy (Nov 19, 2007)

That's much more like it. Good post.


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## BrotherNuprin (Oct 13, 2008)

*Any mention of troop selection?*

I'm just curious if troop selection within your respective armies would differ if you know you're facing off against Necrons.

I myself play a pure 1000 sons CSM army and have faced Necrons only a few times. In all three times, I won, but only because my opponent didn't know much about the Inferno bolts / Slow and Purposeful special rules.

How would your armies change up if you know you're playing Necrons?


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## MajorChaos (Oct 9, 2008)

In some of the books they say you can kill them with meta and plasma weapons


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## darklove (May 7, 2008)

Melta and Plasma are good vs Warriors, but not much else, because they are usually strong enough to negate WBB if there is no Orb. But because most other things in the Necron army are T5+ or don't allow you to roll extra AP dice they are best used as purely anti-Warrior.


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