Necrons FTL?

[IamCaboose]

So tonight I got to play the new Necrons in two games. I wasn't super impressed in either. The guy I was playing is the same guy I generally see in the 1st place game at our local tourny and he usually beats me. For the first game I used my new all terminator Loganwing army. I never expect this army to win, I just really like our terminator models. Both games were 1850. He used the same army both games: 1 character that takes away USRs, 1 character that teleports to the other guy if he's even in CC, 30ish immortals (20ish tesla and 10ish gause) crypteks and lords in squads for whatever it is they do, 2 monoliths and 1 doomsday barge.

 

The army was

 

Logan Grimnar- 275

 

Wolf Guard(6)- 283

2x Wolf Claw/Storm Shield-53 each

2x Wolf Claw/Combi-Melta-43 each

1x Chainfist/Heavy Flamer-53

1x Wolf Claw/Storm Bolter-38

 

Land Raider Crusader-275

Extra Armour, Multi-Melta

 

Wolf Guard(5)-255

2x Wolf Claw/Storm Shield-53

1x Wolf Claw/Combi-Melta-43

1x Power Weapon/Combi-Melta-38

1x Wolf Claw/Assault Cannon-68

 

Wolf Guard(5)-395

1x Arjac-188

1x Powerfist/Combi-Melta-48

1x Power Weapon/Combi-Melta-38

1x Wolf Claw/Combi-Melta-43

1x Chainfist/Assault Cannon-78

 

Drop Pod-35

 

Land Raider-275

Extra Armour, Multi-Melta

 

1793 Not really sure what else to put in the army.

 

It was dawn of war and 3 objects. I kept everything in reserve, he deployed 1 tesla unit and put the two monoliths in reserve. I won the roll for sides and gave him first turn. So his first turn sees his barge in a corner with its back to the short edge, a tesla unit in front of it, and the gause unit walk on at the other end near the far left objective. I pod in, causing his 2 monoliths to DS in b/c of the character, and 3 combimeltas drop the barge from outside 6" with ease killing 2 immortals in the explosion. First blood. His 2nd turn he veils the far unit within 6 of his special character HQ so he doesnt scatter putting him within 12 of Arjacs squad. For some reason he put the monoliths in the middle and far left, my only unit on the board was on the far right. So he shoots 3 squads at Arjacs squad and manages to kill...2. You'd be surprised how much fire 1w wound allocation terminators can soak up. My turn 2 has Logan and friends arrive in their crusader. He misjudged that veil unit and put them in charge range of Logans squad and Arjacs. Squad wipes and the character fails his protocols. From here it's a lot of him failing to kill land raiders and terminators. Game ends with having a weaponless crusader, Logan, and the 5 man terminator squad sitting in their untouched land raider. He's left with 1 lord(stood up after Logan assaulted him), and 8ish immortals.

 

Second game I decided to try a list I've been looking to use in tournys. I never put termies in 1850 lists so figured I'd try it. It's a rune priest, Arjac with 4 wound cheese terminators in a land raider, 2 long fang packs with 2 las and 3 missles 1 gets a CML termie, 3 GH squads 2 with WG combimeltas, 1 with 2 plasma all in rhinos. It was spearhead capture and control. This game was boring since he deployed thinking I was going to rush headfirst into him. Instead I walled off my own objective and waited. So around turn 3 he realizes I'm not going anywhere and starts teleporting over. Game ended in a draw. He has 1 crytek that stood up from jaws on his objective, an immoblized barge that killed a rhino all game, and 8 tesla immortals. I had 4 long fangs, a land raider missing a lascannon, rune priest and the WG that led his pack, Arjac and his terminators, and the full plasma pack and 2 rhinos.

 

So overall I'm not impressed with Necrons. Other than getting up all the time they're pretty boring. Having all his units be able to teleport around did cause me to play more defensive than I prefer. Monoliths that don't ignore melta=useless. In CC the entire army falls apart. Nothing better than killing off 2 special characters because their squad ran from combat and you run them down. The doomsday barge is USELESS. What a piece of junk. Oh well, maybe I just got really lucky two games.

 

Caboose

[eyeslikethunder]

good to see our old list holding its own against the new codexes. Your list does look like the sort of list that would be good against them . ie not dependant on mechanised shooting good in cc. Not sure he took the strongest list not a lot the new vehicles (maybe not surprisng this early on) or any counter assault units or scarabs to support his horde. Its an old list with the new codex normally GW makes not very effective to make buy more minatures.yeah the monolith has taken major hit needs to be in melta range to be effective but now very vulnerable to it

[Coverfire]

Interesting reading, but don't count the Necrons out just yet. Just like when our codex came out Necron players have a lot of new things going on and have to work out what the best combinations are. I know I went through a few teething issues, so I can imagine what they're going through. We can't really tell what was in his list or if his list was optimise at all or even the experience level of the player (you mentioned that his tactics were flawed).

 

I had my first game against them this past week and etched out a draw, but my opponent made mistakes with his rules (misread or possibly rumour ingrained) so I would have had an easier time of it but until I get a few more games against them I don't intend to feel comfortable just yet.

[Simo429]

I have a suspicion that Necrons could really move to the top of the pile come September when we see the introduction of 6th.

 

I expect the way that combat resolution is sorted to be totally changed giving them much more survivability

[Wulfebane]

From what I hear, Necrons need a handful of spyders and scarab swarms to make their opponent break out the lube. Otherwise they just have a few new special rules to figure out how to counter.. like perma-nightfight, etc.

[the jeske]

he didnt take a storm lord 0_o and took immortals in 10 man squads instead of 5-6man x6 all with tesla , if one takes them at all . And no scarabs . What kind of a necron army was that?

 

also monoliths x2 . lol. like playing nids with fexs.

 

Its not that the necron are bad or unimpressive , its just your opponent having a bad list .

[greatcrusade08]

i kinda agree with the above, the necron list was sub-par.

i played a chap the other day who used 3 x 5 scarabs and 3 x20 warriors, he used a cryptek with veil and a monolith to jump the huge units about and wipe out targets with massed fire.

the discussion i had with my friend about necrons is the same kinda attitude i have with space marine scouts, you cannot apply space marine logic to them.

the army list your opponent took tells me thats what he has tried to do, and he failed, and rightly so.

 

necrons are a highly versatile army now, once people learn the nuances they will be alot tougher to face

[Ghent]

I played a game against Necrons last night expecting to just run right through them. They were tougher than I expected, especially if the Necron player is Immortal heavy, because they're 4/4/3+ just like Marines. It was really just a pain in the ass to knock them out, especially in squads that have res orbs.

 

Really, if you can tie them up in CC, you'll win eventually because you simply just out attack them.