Advice against those pesky Necron

[adamv6]

Meeting up with my mate at the weekend for a couple of game. He is a Necron player, with a 3000 point army, but we are intending on fielding about 1750 - 2000 each.

 

I have played him twice now, but both times with my sons Wolves. This is the first time using my GKs. Each time we meet one of us sets the battle rules up, this time its his turn. He msg'd me this morning saying we will play "capture and keep". Normally this involves a bastion pretty much central on the board, which is the only objective.

 

Anyway, back to my questions;

 

I an intending on fielding something like;

 

1 x GM

1 x Librarian

2 x SS's (10 man squad)

1 x Purg (5 man)

1 x Paladins (5 man)

1 x Vindicare

1 x VenDread

 

With the add-ons (psybolts, lib powers and servo skulls, pyscannons) its about there.

 

I intend on putting the skulls, 1 as a decoy, 1 within 18inches of the bastion.

 

My plan is to use Spear of Light, and put the vindicare and Purg squad straight onto the bastion, where they can start knocking out his big shooty stuff and take advantage of the +3 cover save (+2 for the lovely Vindi :()

 

I want to run the libby up undercover to within 12 of the servo skull(placing him somewhere between the skull and the bastion), and the next turn summon the Paladins, followed by a squad of SS's the turn after.

 

My questions are;

 

Can you see any flaws that may render my plan ineffective?

 

Apart from The Summoning, what other libby powers are going to be effective against the Necron army I face? (I was thinking might of titan and the shrouding)?

 

As Necron Initiative is fairly low shall I stick with sword / hammer on my Paladins?

 

He normally fields scarabs, should I run with incinerators to maximise my potential to kill them before they eat my armour?

 

Thanks in advance

[Drachnon]

I've only played Necron so far and that was with Orks so my advice might not be the best.

My experience with Necron is that in a straight up fight they are pretty weak but they have lots of tricks up their sleeves that can mess up you plans.

 

With my Orks I had problems taking out the Necron vehicles with shooting because I lacked reliable high S weapons which cost me the game luckily you have a Vindicare so that shouldn't be much of a problem just make sure he's not in range of rapid fire from a warrior squad turn one.

Yes to incinerators, not only his scarabs are vunerable to it but normal Necron warrior have a 4+sv nowadays giving you a nice 2+ to wound and no normal save.

 

Tactics wise I would suggest keep your forces together, necron squads are very hard to kill thanks to them getting back up and their transports that replenish their numbers don't divide fire and take out every last model of a squad.

Close combat should be easy, most necron units are pretty bad at it but the lords that can be attached can deal some damage with their special equipment. Especially if you use a small squad they can be very effective.

There's a few Necron squads geared towards close combat (I think it was the lychguard that had power weapons and something similar to storm shields) but those are expensive and you should be able to bring them down with concentrated fire from storm bolters and psycannons.

 

Your librarian could take warp rift, it might circumvent the necrons ability to stand back up except that of lords but you should check to rules on that.

[spartan249]

My advice is to take high density units with lots of attacks and shots to guarantee that you have enough firepower/armpower to destroy entire squads in a single shooting phase. This is key to keeping Necrons down, as otherwise you know what happens.

 

In a rather broken scenario as the one you described, I'd take control of the center and wait for your opponent to come to you. Necrons operate largely at the mid-range band, and that's where GKs dominate. I say you take advantage of the fact that he has to move to the center to win and pound him to oblivion before he ever gets close.

 

I suggest against taking high durability low model count units like Paladins.

#1: They don't have enough firepower to contribute for the points invested.

#2: Necron close combat banks on you using units like Terminators so that they can bring Mindshackle Scarabs into play. This could prove annoying, if not fatal, if the wrong Paladin's caught by it, not to mention disastrous to your damage output.

 

And lastly, choose either the Librarian or the GKGM to use. Using both means you're spending 400ish points on 2 models that don't have much damage output at all. Reconsider your list to include more bodies and shots, as it's what'll really make the difference in a fight with most common necron builds.

[Murcielago]

The guys above me have hit the nail on the head so far. All I have to add is don't waste points on halbreds, because every model is I2 unless its a C'tan which would be a daemon for us so it becomes I1 if you charge it.

[Reclusiarch Darius]

Do you know what list he is running? That will impact how effective your strategies will be. Necrons are not powerful as such but they have even more insane rules and combo's in their codex than we do. Haxxing is their forte.

 

1 x GM

1 x Librarian

2 x SS's (10 man squad)

1 x Purg (5 man)

1 x Paladins (5 man)

1 x Vindicare

1 x VenDread

 

Is this all the models you have? Without too many upgrades or transports, thats only 1.5k of stuff.

[adamv6]

Reclusiarch Darius, I have other troops, was just trying to have some fun using different troops for different jobs.

 

Excellent advice BTW guys. I launched my plan perfectly, and he never took the bastion off me. His obsession with trying to remove the Vindicare (+2 cover saves :D ) was probably his downfall, and your advice to clear out squads was invaluable.

 

He had some remarkable good rolls on Imotek however, and I probably got a little obsessed in hunting him down.

 

Carnage and good fun was had by all :)

[GOFADK]

The guys above me have hit the nail on the head so far. All I have to add is don't waste points on halbreds, because every model is I2 unless its a C'tan which would be a daemon for us so it becomes I1 if you charge it.

 

Why is the C'tan a daemon?

[TheDarkOne]

Warp rift from the librarian would be pretty devastating to the low inititive Necrons...

 

Anything AP4 makes them pretty sad if he's running warriors... Incinerators, Psycannons, Hv bolters form Psybolted razorbacks...

 

And I can speak from experience, Mindshackle scarabs suck to fight against...

[Reclusiarch Darius]

Why is the C'tan a daemon?

 

Magnets

[Malus the Destroyer]

Thier initiative is deceptive. Wraiths with a Destroyer lord with Mindshakle will beat you in CC. Your halberds will still go first, so make sure to take some. Castle up, and don't let them surround/envelop you. Make sure every unit can support damn near every other unit. If he is using Deathmarks (and internet be damned, he should be) 2 strike squads to blanket warp quake would be a good idea. Don't get over zealous and jump into that 24 inch range early or piecemeal. Both armies that's the sweet spot, but we can out shoot them easily if squads support each other and use rhino bunkers for cover. Pick a good spot, dig in, and liquify anything that steps into that range.

 

There are honestly only 2 target priorities, otherwise it's first come, first served with a face full of stormbolter and psycannon rounds. Scarab swarms and Wraiths + a lord or 2. Scarab swarms WILL kill any vehicle they hit, bar NONE, and if he's running a pack of Tomb Spiders, they can get to out of hand numbers fast. Keep in mind, they are REAL fast, have fleet, and can 1st turn assault if you deploy wrong. A base cost Purgation squad with 4 Incinerators is a REMARKABLY cheap suicide squad that does bad things to alot, ESPECIALLY Scarabs.

 

The other priority is the wraiths. All models in base contact are reduced to init 1, before init modifiers like Halberds. So those are still good to keep around. And Mindshackle Scarabs make CC undesirable if he has a Lord or 2 chillin with them.

 

Abuse Rhino mobile cover to angle shots, deny shots you don't want to save vs, and get cover saves all day. Just because we're good at CC, doesn't mean we have to charge into it. GK's outshoot EVERYTHING at 24 inches.

[GOFADK]

Why is the C'tan a daemon?

 

Magnets

 

I don't get it?

[*Furyou Miko]

As far as I know, the C'tan is not a daemon. However, it may specifically say in the GK book that it counts.