Your SW niche...

[chino]

I completely agree with Grey Mage on all points concerning the Necrons. I've played against them quite a few times, the majority of them against the Necron player in my gaming group. He's played with a multitude of armies, as we all swap sometimes, but he's been nothing but ruthlessly effective against mech lists. Masses of Destroyers constantly stunning/shaking really reduces mech mobility and Necrons are probably the best at this. Drop Pods counter this, but then you start playing rock paper scissors with your lists.

 

I understand your point, however, Jeske. Yes, they have one of the most under-powered army books, but in the hands of a smart player, they can compete. When you compare it to the Imperial Guard codex, you're argument is more than correct, unfortunately. That doesn't mean they can be completely counted out.

 

Back on topic however, I played against my brother's Tau last night and used three full squads of Blood Claws, two 5-man bike squads, and four Wolf Priests two of them on bikes. Try that out and see if any opponent complains, especially after decimating all of their vehicles with nothing but S4 on rear armour.

[Marshal Wilhelm]

The potential is there with a general who knows what hes doing and plays to the strengths of his army.

 

They seem particularly adept against the mech armies of the present day, with a plethora of glancing hits and alot of blunt force weaponry. Using Destroyers and Immortals to stop a mechanized rush before it even starts, and then hitting the footslogging squads that are the result as they move towards the phalanx.

 

Now there are some armies this obviously just doesnt work against- JPing blood angels for instance, and Tyranids besides. Even so, they have enough AP 5 and AP 4 firepower to take on many variations of the tyranids on equal terms, and BA armies will often be smaller in number then necrons- with the proper use of res orbs to counteract the effect of power weapons they can win a war of attrition, though not without difficulty.

 

There is also of course, 'ninjacrons' for larger games- say 2250- using a pair, or trio, of Monoliths to deep strike in and unleash warriors at point blank range, similar to a DP army, with a 3rd or 4rth army using the shroud to redeploy around the board at will.

 

I don't play larger games, so I'll have to leave that one.

 

I think, in theory, Necrons seem solid. However, I have found them to be easy to unravel, both when I have played with and against them.

 

Lets take Warriors. They are Marines-ish.

Bolters* with t4 sv 3+ and WBB.

In a shoot out with Tacs, they are not any worse and perhaps better with WBB giving them a 2+ save in effect.

 

10 Gauss shots

6.7 hits.

1.1 Glances [against anything]

Not bad.

 

+++

 

However, as soon as you get them in mêlée with other Marines TROOPS [such as GH, Crusaders, BA AS, Chaos], they go to pieces [albeit slowly if you don't have WBB trumping weapons].

Glancing will stop Vehicles from shooting, but if your Rhinos have Extra armour [which mine all need to anyway] then for 4/6 glance results, nothing really bad happens, '5' you lose your Storm Bolter and '6' is actually successful with that Immobilised result.

If he Immobilises you on T1, all well and good for him.

T2 it can still work.

T3 is too close and the Marines will be amongst them.

That means the Necron player is really hoping for early 6s, but after that the Wolves will be amongst the sheep, so to speak.

 

180 pts that might stop a Rhino ;)

 

It might take said squad a while to roll them once in mêlée, but you are almost assured of it eventually. When you are pitting equal points worth of TROOPS against one another, you don't want that....

 

Same goes with Immortals. 2 s5 shots at 24" is nice, but they still only glance Rhinos on 6s. Whilst they are more effective, you get about 3 Warriors per 2 Immortals. That lowers the Necron count.

 

20 ws4 s4 attacks:

Against Immortals; 10 hit. 3.4 wound. 1.1 failed saves. 0.55 failed WBB rolls. 15.4 pts dead.

Against Warriors; 10 hit. 5 wound. 1.67 failed saves. 0.83 failed WBB rolls. 15 pts dead

so they are not really any tougher in mêlée, and because of having lower attacks per point means more of your guys will not die, and so more of them will die in the long run.

 

Immortals are in fact an excellent target for a swooping assault [from a LR, or in your case also with TWC or FenWolves] of 21", or 19-24" because they are better than Warriors at >12" and worse in mêlée, point for point. Armour ignoring attacks are vicious on them, and your swooping assault guys have them.

LR can still move 12" even if Gaussed [unless he rolls that '6'] and Cavalry and Beasts can always make that long assault.

 

If Warriors are in big units, they cannot target many Rhinos per point.

If Warriors are in small units [10] they will get hammered in mêlée because they cannot offset being <Tacs with volume of attacks.

Greater margin of victory increases the chance of them testing to not be swept with i2 v i4

As you know, the cowards :P have to beat the victor's roll. That means they can only do so by scoring 3 higher than the Marines.

Marine rolls 1+4 = 5. Warriors need a 4+2 or better.

Marine rolls 2+4 = 6. Warriors need a 5+2 or better.

Marine rolls 3+4 = 7. Warriors need a 6+2....

 

Those are all slim chance of surviving, even if the Marine rolls on the lower side.

 

If the Necrons are not killed on the assault, so much the better. Wipe them out in their turn, dodge being shot at and get d6" extra move :D

 

+++

 

Anything that is not Necron is a delight. Pariahs, Monos and C'tan are expensive, not especially killy [especially if you are being wise in handling them] and have taken points from the precious Necron count.

 

Both Destroyers are reasonable, but get targeted by LC and ML. If the Necron player is wise, they'll be getting cover saves.

LC and ML:

hit 4/6

wound 5/6

failed cover save and WBB roll 1/4

20/144 or 13.9%

 

A Marine will kill another Marine by bolter on:

4/6 x 3/6 x 2/6 = 24/216 or 11.1%

 

They can be very annoying to tackle, imo. But if you have managed those precious T1+2 moves with your Rhinos, the Destroyers become a side issue as you have already 'beaten them'.

Even if you haven't killed the Destroyers in T1+2 and they have blown up your transports, you can then turn your HW fire into the Warriors the rest of your forces are approaching, as they yield easier Necron kills per shot [and as well as ignoring armour and shooting at a large squad who will hopefully not be getting 50% squad cover and being twice their toughness and so ignoring WBB]

 

+++

 

Imo, Necrons are have strengths that are fairly easily undone with rock-scissors.

Whilst they might be TEq tough against small arms fire, they are exposed to it from T1, unlike Tacs who are neatly tucked away in their Rhinos. Once you do get Warriors into mêlée, their killing power goes down the tubes. They even get out-classed by Tacs in mêlée. :)

 

Perhaps Marines who must use Tacs cannot press home this advantage, but BA, BT, Chaos & SW certainly can.

 

Destroyers are tough, but past T1+2, you ignore them in favour of Warrior bashing. The rest of the game they will rack up kills, but once you have the Phalanx in your grasp, it wont matter much even if it hurts :P

 

That is what I have found. When I did play them with DA, I did find it was the Deathwing [with power weapons] doing a lot of the killing, doing much heavy lifting. With BT, because they are Tacs² in mêlée, my whole army is joining in on the beat-down.

 

When you add in the Phase out rule, an army that, imo at least, are weaker than C:SM [lets pretend they are par for course], that makes it even easier to win against them. :lol:

 

 

I haven't fought them with Tau yet.... perhaps no clout in mêlée will have my crying broken ;)