Scout tactics: Part 6 necrons

[greatcrusade08]

[center; background-image:url(http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/hq2.gif); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: 8px 2px; padding: 12px 8px 12px 8px; border: 1px solid #DDD; margin-left: 0 auto; text-align: left; color: #fff; text-indent:50px; font-size:130%; width:50%;">Scout tactics: Part 6 Necrons[/center]

This article will cover necrons as an opponent to playing an all scout army. Necrons are a tough opponent for any force to face, even more so if you elect to choose only scout units, in this article I will try to show the ways in which to improve your chances of victory through unit selection and tactics.

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/hq2.gif); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: 8px 2px; padding: 12px 8px 12px 8px; border: 1px solid #DDD; margin-left: 0 auto; text-align: left; color: #fff; text-indent:50px; font-size:130%; width:50%;">WBB: we'll be back rule

When a necron model is killed it is placed on its side, at the start of each necron turn you roll a dice for each model, on a 4+ they get back up. For this to work they need to be within 6” of another model of the same type or within 12” of a tomb spyder.
WBB can only be negated by double strength weapons, rending and CC power weapons, however a resurrection orb can be used to give these dead necrons their WBB roll.
Combined with their basic 3+ armour saves this makes necrons extremely difficult to kill.

Phase out

The best way to beat necrons is to make them phase out, to do this you have to destroy 75% of all models with the necron rule, these include:
Lords, Immortals, Flayed ones, Warriors, Destroyers and Heavy Destroyers.
Models not included are:
Pariahs, Scarab Swarms, Tomb Spyders, Monoliths, Nightbringer and the Deceiver.

Monolith

The necron monolith is a scary propostion for a scout army to face, it can deepstrike in the middle of your forces and can shoot at every unit within 12”, potentially decimating your army single handedly.
Unfortunatey there is little we can do to destroy a monolith as with AV14 and living metal rule even a melta weapon needs a 6 to cause a glance and then a 6 to destroy it, and in scout armies melta weapons are hard to come by.
The only good thing to facing a monolith is that your opponent has paid a lot of points into a model that doesn’t count towards his phase out total, also these ‘wasted’ points means you will have to kill fewer necron models to win the game.
Monoliths can teleport necron warrior units from other places on the board and have them disembark, it can also be used this way to allow models their WBB rolls.

Tactics: If the monolith does teleport near your troops, there is little you can do except whether the storm of fire, in the next turn its best to either keep out of its 12” firing arc, or enter CC and remove yourself as a shooting target. Of course making good use of cover and camo cloaks is also a good idea.
Another point to remember is that Monoliths cannot be destroyed by multiple weapon destroyed results, infact a weapon destroyed result wont stop his guns from firing.
If possible try to avoid firing at the monolith unless you have no other targets, and whilst you cannot destroy it directly without melta weapons a S8 krak missile is capable of immobilising it, making it easier to avoid its close range multi-shots.
Even a stunned or shaken result can keep its guns silent, so it may be of some use to try for the occasional glancing hit, but even when stunned or shaken the particle whip can still fire, this is a high strength single shot weapon, the flux arc the multi-shot weapon is affected as normal, which is fortunate as this is the most damaging to us.
The only viable tactic to taking down a monolith is to spam double melta LSS teams, a couple of these teams should be able to do some damage to it, but this does require an element of luck. Of course by choosing Vulkan as your HQ, you can then re-roll failed to hit rolls with your melta weapons increasing your chances even more.

Meltabombs

There is some debate on whether meltabombs roll 2D6 for armour penetration against monoliths, the wording of the rule does seem to allow it, but without an FAQ to clear it up, we have to assume its not the case when writing a tactica.

The plan is to take an LSS with multi-melta a 5 man scout squad with combi-melta and meltabombs, when the Monolith shows up, you can fire both melta weapons and then plant meltabombs, each such unit gives you 3 chances to damage the monolith, of course the meltabombs dont add +1 to damage table as they are not AP1 and the combi-meltas are only single use, so these units are reduced in effectiveness after the initial strike. Even if used this way the chances of success are not great, but it is possible none the less.
Filling your valuable fast attack spaces with anti-tank tank choices may not be the best way to go, but Multi-meltas can be very handy against most necron types so it’s a tactic that is worth considering as the unit can still play a part in the battle.
By far the best option is to keep your units spread out, and avoid it like the plague, use your shots and attacks on units you have far better odds of destroying instead.

C'Tan

C'tan are the necron “gods”, each one is a monstrous creature with a 4+ inv save, the two available to the necrons are the nightbringer and deceiver.
Ultimately the best way to deal with them is the same for any MC, hit them with snipers and missile fire until they stop moving.
You could choose to ignore them, as they don’t count towards phase out, but ultimately if you kill them they wont be able to employ some of their special rules and amazing close combat prowess to kill your own troops.
With thier higher WS, strength and the fact they ignore armour saves, these monsters are capable of killing a large number of scouts each turn.

destroyers

Necron destroyers are T5 and are fast moving skimmers with weapons that have a similar stat line to heavy bolters, these weapons are the bane of scout armies with S6 AP4 and must be avoided as much as possible, utilising cover and taking camo cloaks are the best way to survive these shooting attacks, and with their high Toughness, snipers would be best at taking them down.

Scarab swarms

A popular tactic for some necron players is to load up on scarab swarms, and use these to tie up your units until his troops can be within rapid fire range, these scarabs arent that tough but can turbo-boost and get a 2+ cover save for doing so.
It is possible to clear these away using shooting, especially if your opponent doesnt use his turbo-boost, at T3 and 3 wounds they can take alot of small arms fire, but S6 weapons can instant kill them, infact scout bikes grenade launchers are perfect for doing damage to these little critters. failing that with such a high cover save the only other method for shooting them is with flamers and heavy flamers, but you can only do a small number of wounds with these weapons.
The other option is to engage them in close combat where their cover saves count for nothing, this can be tricky as you are essentially doing what your opponent wants and tying yourself in CC with a large number of 3 wound scarab bases, however if you prepare for this and throw a large unit of ccw scouts at them, then they should be able to clear them quite quickly, especially with the T3 and 5+save of the scarabs.
Its important to remember however that scarabs are fearless and will require complete kills to shift them, they dont however get WBB saves and dont count towards the phase out total.

Wraiths

Wraiths are a troublesome unit for any army to deal with, they move similar to jetbikes and have a 3+ invulnerable save so will probably only fall to massed fire, once in combat they strike with S6 and although they dont have power weapon attacks they 4+ save of scouts will still result in casulties, if run in numbers these units must be addressed as soon as possible.
wraiths do count towards phase out so any fire you direct towards them is not going to be wasted.

Close combat

Necrons are primarily a shooty army, and are very good at it too. Most of their base units are slow and ineffective in close combat, and with their WBB rules, close combat is the best place to do the damage.
A unit of necron warriors has 1 attack each and Initiative of 2, this means scouts will get the first strike, whether or not you use power weapons instead of fists is personal preference, the PW will strike first, but the fist will do more damage, and with the low number of attacks back the fist will probably still be around to do the damage.
With the WBB rule you have to win combat and break the necrons, with their low intiative you should be able to run them down and remove their ability to repair themselves with WBB, the important facts to note are that necrons are Ld10 which means you would need to beat them well in CC to reduce this enough, although a combined assault using a large CCW scout squad and an LSS team will add the Cerberus launcher affect onto their Ld score.
Also note that a necron lord or tomb spyder may still be able to repair the dead necrons even though they were cut down, so these units are priority targets if you want to keep the necrons down for good.
Alternatively if the lord is in with a unit of necrons target his unit and attempt to kill 2 birds with one stone as it were, you may require your uber or HQ unit to take on the lord, as they come with power weapons and have a higher WS and S than basic scouts, Khans instant kill ability would be golden against a necron lord.
The problem with this tactic is that if the necrons have a monolith it can be used to withdraw the necron unit from CC and makes your unit vulnerable to shooting, the key is to hit them hard enough in one turn to destroy them thereby removing the chance of this happening.
The next obstacle we face with this tactic is that necrons are extremely dangerous at rapid fir range, if we try to get close for charges our delicate scout units will quickly be decimated, the options we have are first turn charges or the use of transports and mobile units to do the charging.

Tactics

Ulitmately our main priority to is to make the necrons phase out, even if we are losing on KP or objectives if they phase out we win!
To do this their units with necron rule must be destroyed, and to this end close combat is by far the easiest way to accomplish it.
As I have mentioned getting in close with units to assault will result in large losses to necron shooting, but mobile hard hitters like big units of bikes and LSS teams would be perfect for killing necron units and combined with a decent HQ charcter like Khan on bike they can hit hard enough to wipe them out, the LSS team will provide the Ld modifier once we win combat and Khans high intiative means they will almost certainly be run down.
The high strength grenade launchers will wound necrons on a 2+ and would help to bolster pre assault shooting from the bikes.
Now we know that killing them in CC is possible we have to look at keeping them down, as I pointed out certain units can still bring them back from the dead, necron lords and tomb spyders are the main culprits for this and must be dealt with early on to avoid our hard work being undone.
Snipers units would be reasonably useful in taking down the tomb spyder whilst the lord would be best dealt with by a strong CC unit, perhaps its best as described above to target him and his attached unit by your strong assault elements at the same time.
If taken solo he becomes vulnerable to shooting and can be dealt with by a single MM blast from an LSS storm.

Multiple assaults: Although its important to wipe out the necrons as quickly as possible, its also a good idea to prevent them shooting, in some cases tying up multiple units from a single charge may be a good idea, especially if they are crammed together for support.
In these cases the monolith cannot withdraw all the engaged units and you wont then be vulnerable to shooting, also if they didn’t take a monolith you can wear them down slowly or hold them in place until more units can be sent to help.

Heavy weapons: Of the two choices available the ML has a good bonus over the heavy bolter as it has AP3 and S8 which means it will negate normal necron armour saves and negate WBB on T4 necrons.
Although a far better use for heavy weapons is in with sniper squads to help bring down ctan, used with Telions voice of experience, a ML can be used to plant wounds on these monstrous creatures, needing a 2+ to hit and 4+ to wound, although it should be said the Ctan have a 4+ invulnerable save, still combined with the other snipers you should be able to score some wounds. also a hellfire shot can be used this way to wound on 2+, which more than outweighs the chance of scatter
The same tactic can be used to do wounds on necron warrior squads with Telions VOE ability, although in this case using the hellfire heavy bolter rounds to wound multiple necrons on 2+.
As for Telion with the exception of his VOE rule, its very unlikely you will get to utilise his other rules, like eye of vengeance, as necrons dont have upgraded squad leaders as such. He could be used to put wounds on necron lords with thier higher toughness, especially if they 'hide' in a unit. Telion can be used to soften him up before you CC units overwhelm him.

Combi-weapons: If you have read my previous articles, then you would know my stance on scout squads using plasma weapons, but in some cases i have pointed out that scout sergeants who have no other special weapons like meltabombs or power weapons, can afford to take the risk of Gets hot wounds.
Against necrons the extra plasma shot at rapid fire can often make the chances of gets hot wounds worth the risk, although if using a combi-weapon on an 'important' scout sergeant then the combi-melta has obvious benefits over the plasma, with S8 and AP1 it can instant kill most necron troop types and ignore WBB.

Non-scout units

Against Necrons it may be adviseable to add in a few non-scout elements into your army, a decent HQ gives you a few options to play around with for example:

Shrike: as mentioned in previous articles, Shrike gives you the option to take a hard hitting CC unit like an assault squad or vanguard and gives them infiltrate, this keep the scout theme of your army relatively intact and allows you to utilise the necrons CC weakness a little more effectively, and also allows for first turn charges.
With their power weapons and massed attacks these units are perfect for killing necrons and with jump packs are perfect for keeping clear of rapid fire range.

Khan: Khan is my all time favourite IC, his furious charge ability has it uses against most armies and he is flexible in that he can be taken on foot or mounted, this is unusual for a special character.
Against necrons Khans Initiative bonus may not make a huge difference, but against necron CC elements like flayed ones who have intiative 4 it can sway the battle in your favour, on bike he can be added into scout bike squads to from a highly mobile assault unit and the strength bonuses can only help to kill more T4 necrons.
Ultimately his strength bonus is best used to compliment a greater number of attacks, in the case of scout armies this means a scout CCW squad, this is a cheap option and can be upgraded to include a power weapon or fist for extra damage, the biggest advantage is getting 36 attacks at S5 and I5, which should be enough to beat most necron units and make them flee, again Khans high intiative will help to run them down.
The problem with this, is again getting footsloggers into range of his units without them being shot to pieces, a viable option is to include a land raider as a transport for your HQ, this adds other options to our game plan

Landraiders: The choice of LR for your HQ unit can affect your tactics, whilst a redeemer is by far the best option for taking down necrons with template auto hits, 2+ to wound and no saving throws, it can also be upgraded to include a MM, aswell as the assault cannon in comes with as standard, these weapons are excellent at killing necrons and the MM can be used to damage the monolith
But I must reiterate the point that it is far better to shoot at units you know you can kill, than to rely on lucky shots against the monolith. It is however a good option if no other units are in LOS or in range.
The other choice is a landraider with twin lascannons, these weapons can also be used to destroy monoliths and with BS4 and twin linked re-rolls can do it better than any other unit in a scout army.

Orbital bombardment: Generic or special characters with this ability can be used early in the game to score some much needed kills, although the OB is unreliable with its scatter, if it hits a large warrior unit its high strength and AP means it disallows WBB and saving throws aswell as wounding on a 2+, and at S10 can also be used to take out the monolith quite successfully.
Being S10 it can also be used to negate WBB on necron destroyers.

Overview

Helpers corner

My knowledge of Necrons is quite poor, so in attempting to write this article i recruited the help of many B&C members, its a testament to this board that people are willing to help so freely, and whilst there are too many names to list them all fairly, i do want to give some recognition to Captain Malachi, who has consistantly been helping me with my last few articles and has contributed much to this one.

Your first priority should always be to force a phase out, the necron army are strong shooters leaving close combat as the best way of forcing casulties, thankfully close combat is by frar the easiest way to kill necrons by making them flee and running them down with a greater initiative.
Mobility and transports are essential for getting into close combat without taking too many casulties, so bikes, speeders and perhaps even a land raider should all be considered in your lists..
A decent close combat character could very well turn a game like this, especially if mounted in a LR with a large unit of assault scouts, my own preference is Khan for furious charge, but go with what you know.
Remember to avoid things like monoliths unless you have no other choice, dont waste valuable shooting attacks on targets that you have little chance of damaging.

Hope this helps

GC08

[Brother Tual]

A necron lord (or two) is often the linch pin of a necron army - Necron lords have the stat line similar to a basic marine but come with a power weapon or a warscyth thing.. The have a few extra attacks but their main 'bonus' is Str and T of 5 - which means that a PF cant insta-kill them -

 

Khan still can though - his insta kill is not reliant of str vs Toughness - this could be important as necron lords dont have invul saves.. I wouldnt suggest you use this ability as a tactic.. you need to roll a 6 to wound, but it is something to be mindful of -

[Captain Malachi]

@Tual: Lords don't come standard with a warscythe, but it's pretty standard to upgrade to it. They do have a PW standard though. They are pretty nasty in CC but with only WS4 they won't hit too often.

 

As for Khan, even without his insta-kill ability, he should win in CC against a lord, since most lords are built for support and not combat. The problem of course is surviving to get in to combat.

 

@GC08: Thanks for the shout-out mate :tu: Overall the article looks pretty good now to me. Telion might be a good way to put a wound or two on the lord pre-combat, though my practical knowledge of scouts is limited so maybe not. I'll help out where I can with further articles, but I don't have the codexes for any more armies (except Blood Angels, but I don't know if you're doing them) so may not be as much help :)

 

I'd mention that the C'tan ignore INV saves, it doesn't affect the scout army hugely, but it is a surprise you'll want to be prepared for.

[Brother Tual]

@Tual: Lords don't come standard with a warscythe, but it's pretty standard to upgrade to it. They do have a PW standard though. They are pretty nasty in CC but with only WS4 they won't hit too often.

 

As for Khan, even without his insta-kill ability, he should win in CC against a lord, since most lords are built for support and not combat. The problem of course is surviving to get in to combat.

 

Cool - I thought they had a choice between the two weapons - is it cheap to upgrade?

 

Ws 4 is golden vs scouts.. thats a 3+ to hit and a 3+ to kill... when you need or are going for a good combat res to break a unit that is going to seriously hurt your chances.. they have 3 attacks each? a lord?

 

The T5 is pretty important - most marines are looking for 5+ to wound... and with 3 wounds they are fairly tough.. I would not count on khan with 5 attacks hitting on 3+ and 4+ to wound in scoring all 3 wounds.. over two combats or so he might get him but khan will be wounded for sure - more so vs the warscythe - and with a res orb that lord can just get up and have another dig... no such luck for khan when he goes down...

 

Its not really critical, but its something that GC08 should know and others should know..

[Captain Malachi]

10 points to get the warscythe, the downside is that the lord swaps his 3 shooting shots for ignoring INV saves. Personally I'd probably keep the normal weapon, but most necron players go for the scythe. Yeah it's three attacks, and WS4 is good vs scouts but I was thinking more about captains and such like. You're right though, there's no single unit in the codex that will kill him quickly, except for Lysander with his S10 thunderhammer. Worth noting is that if he gets a destroyer body he gets T6 base, so even Lysander won't be able to insta-kill him.

 

The T5 is pretty bad, which is why I suggested Telion, but like I said, I don't really know how well that would work.

[greatcrusade08]

Thanks to you both, ill add both these points in, when trying to kill the enemy in CC with basic scout units a lord can surprise you..

So ill suggest using your own uber unit against his lord, ill also add in a little about Telion..

 

GC08

[foster]

Are you sure if that unit takes a destroyer base it'll be immune to strength 10 instant death. I would of thought it would be the same as a charactor on a bike in that it'll have a 5(6) toughness. Toughness 6 is used against usual attacks but toughness 5 is used for double strength attacks.

[Captain Malachi]

Normally yes, but the rules actually say he becomes immune to instant death from S10 weapons. He is just T6, same as destroyers are just T5 straight off.

[Mal]

Are you sure if that unit takes a destroyer base it'll be immune to strength 10 instant death. I would of thought it would be the same as a charactor on a bike in that it'll have a 5(6) toughness. Toughness 6 is used against usual attacks but toughness 5 is used for double strength attacks.

 

Your exactly right, the base Str stat is used to determine the Str required for insta-gib.

 

You may also want to note with the landraider... Taking ANY armour against a necron army is a risky thing to do... glances on 6+ for most of their army... how I hate gauss weaponry...

[Captain Malachi]

@Mal: I'll assume you missed my above post, so I'll direct you there. :P

[Mal]

Yeah I missed that bit, I didn't know he was immune to ID however...but still the rule stands... it just doesn't apply to this guy...

[Captain Malachi]

For clarification, he isn't immune to instant death, his toughness just becomes six. Effectively making him immune to instant death from S10 weapons. Force weapons etc. will still kill him outright.

[greatcrusade08]

Ok those few points were added in, and i think its just about done for the time being..

As with all my tactic articles it will remain open for C+C for quite some time, so if you have anything more to add, then please let me know so i can get it written down.

These tacticas are for the use of all gamers so i want it to be fully complete before i sign it off.

 

Thanks for all your hard word peeps.. <_<

 

GC08

[Mal]

I would add in a section about trying to avoid mech when facing off against 'crons... lets face it the more armour you put on the board the easier it'll be for them to win....

[Captain Malachi]

It's a trade-off, they may be able to take down vehicles easier, but you end up a LOT faster than them, which is good. Especially when all the weapons they have that need gauss effect to hurt tanks are short ranged. The longer ranged weapons are all high enough strength to bust light armour without needing gauss.

[greatcrusade08]

Yeah i agree, id quite easily accept the loss of a few transports if it means getting me into choppy range of the little metal blighters :P

 

GC08

[Pinky Narfanet]

One thing I've noticed that probably should be addressed is that the Particle Whip can still fire even if the Monolith is stunned or shaken. The Flux Arc is stopped as normal.

 

And while Lords don't automatically come with invulnerable saves, they can get them through the Phase Shifter.

[greatcrusade08]

One thing I've noticed that probably should be addressed is that the Particle Whip can still fire even if the Monolith is stunned or shaken. The Flux Arc is stopped as normal.

 

Which weapon does what, one is high strength and the other is multiple shots isnt it??

 

GC08

[I AM THE AWESOME]

One thing I've noticed that probably should be addressed is that the Particle Whip can still fire even if the Monolith is stunned or shaken. The Flux Arc is stopped as normal.

 

Which weapon does what, one is high strength and the other is multiple shots isnt it??

 

GC08

 

 

Particle Whip is the Demolisher Cannon wannabe.

 

Flux Arc is the Megauberrapidfireheavybolter-esque weapon.

 

EDIT: 500 POSTS!

[greatcrusade08]

Thanks Awesome, ill get that up asap... congrats on the posts...

 

GC08

[Brother Tual]

Hey - I remember playing a guy with a necron list at a tournament when I first started playing competatively.. This was in 4th ed. but I imagine that it would still work... I havent seen anyone do it since.

 

 

He had two lords in a unit of 10 immortals - both with the staff of light - one with a res orb and something else and one with the phase shifter thing (teleport) - I think both had the multiwound res? - this unit was insanely tough (everything has T5) and with that many str 5 shots he would destroy units whole... and if you caught it (he has a 24' range) he just shifts out of combat... but it still had 6 str 5 power weapon attacks... Back field he had 3 units of warriors a monolith and a few small units of destroyers - ever since I have developed a healthy respect for immortals - He would use the range on the destroyers to stun your gun tanks (Vindis) whilst his warriors got the objectives backed up by the lith -

 

I dont know how this helps with your tactica, but to assume that you are faster than a necron army is false - they can be very fast - and whilst they are not that strong in combat, they have enough options and means available to avoid or deny combats... assuming a necron army will crumble because it is in combat is not true - you have to have the means to break the unit and then run it down - Using scouts, only large units with high numbers of attacks will achieve this..

[greatcrusade08]

Yeah definately some good points, i do think i need show that necrons are quite hard, they are space marines with a lower intitiative, but get a FNP equivalent...

Keep stuff like this coming, i may be able to use it, ill think on it a little see how i can make it relevant.

Right now im having a cuppa tea and a toasted teacake :(

 

Thanks mate

 

GC08

[Captain Malachi]

Immortals are probably one of the best units in the codex, amazing shooting, can be stupidly fast with the teleporting lords and monoliths, and are decent(ish) in CC. And they're pretty cheap for what you get. Nasty unit against scouts.

[Mal]

Hey - I remember playing a guy with a necron list at a tournament when I first started playing competatively.. This was in 4th ed. but I imagine that it would still work... I havent seen anyone do it since.

 

 

He had two lords in a unit of 10 immortals - both with the staff of light - one with a res orb and something else and one with the phase shifter thing (teleport) - I think both had the multiwound res? - this unit was insanely tough (everything has T5) and with that many str 5 shots he would destroy units whole... and if you caught it (he has a 24' range) he just shifts out of combat... but it still had 6 str 5 power weapon attacks... Back field he had 3 units of warriors a monolith and a few small units of destroyers - ever since I have developed a healthy respect for immortals - He would use the range on the destroyers to stun your gun tanks (Vindis) whilst his warriors got the objectives backed up by the lith -

 

I dont know how this helps with your tactica, but to assume that you are faster than a necron army is false - they can be very fast - and whilst they are not that strong in combat, they have enough options and means available to avoid or deny combats... assuming a necron army will crumble because it is in combat is not true - you have to have the means to break the unit and then run it down - Using scouts, only large units with high numbers of attacks will achieve this..

 

 

Sorry to contridict you... but in 4th edition you could not attach 2 characters to a single unit. So while its a valid tactic now, back then your opponentn was cheating.

[greatcrusade08]

Sorry to contridict you... but in 4th edition you could not attach 2 characters to a single unit. So while its a valid tactic now, back then your opponentn was cheating.

Tauly doesnt miss a beat, he probably meant he had two units of 10 immortals each with a lord, either that or it was within the tourney rules B)

 

GC08