How do we fight Necrons?

[shortysl]

Got a game coming up but I'm unfamiliar with new Necrons. Any recommendations from my fellow veterans?

[Pyro X]

if they are running the troops in fliers (lots of people are doing this) then I'd fill out with green wing, lots of rockets and aegis defense line, as necros do lots of shooting. I know its not most DA players cup of tea, but think of this in a list. dev squad w/ 2-4 rockets w/ flak, scouts with a rocket/ flak, our fliers hit air units, librarian can control their fliers (without having to roll snap shots to get them), and the anti air weapon that can shoot the turn they come in. We have lots of options before you even think of taking allies. Big thing to think about is to play the missions unless you think you can wipe him off the board. It also depends on how many points your planing to use as well as what kind of list you want to field, green, deathwing, or ravenwing. Deathwing shooty wouldn't be to bad either mind you, come in 2nd turn drop down and have rerolls on shooting that turn at the gun boats helps alot but I would still got mostly greenwing and maybe even ally in some space marines if your really worried about the fliers. just my 2 cents.

[shortysl]

It's a 1500 points game and I'd prefer to go Green. Doubt there'll be much in the way of fliers as one opponent got his army off an auction site and the other just hasn't bothered with his Necrons for a long time. I know armour is effectively useless vs. Necrons but beyond that I'm uncertain. Do I try and close for assault? Form a gunline? Use Ravenwing?

[march10k]

They're playing without Fliers?  Deathwing, and get stuck in ASAP.  Plus a few bikes to provide telehomers, and a krak or las dev squad with a prescience/PFG libby to keep them alive and make them blow the freaking snot out of anything they shoot at. 

 

Should be able to fit in about three DWA squads plus belial for a smidge over 900, plus 300 for the libby and devastators, leaving 250+ to spend on six or seven black knights.  I'd take six black knights and lascannon devs over seven black knights and missile devs, but to each his own, and my points are only roughed out in my head.

[shortysl]

Ok, thanks brothers. I'll post the results Sunday evening/Monday morning in the Battle Tracker. With a little luck it'll be a win!

[Brother Captain Sirus]

I'm not a DA player but I have had the unfortunate luck to have a friend who played necrons, and in my experience you want to get them in the assault to counter that LD 10 stat they have and as they're I2 you'll hit first with everything bar power fist. Just watch out for warscythes as they are AP2. If you decide to go shooty just prioritise, take out one unit then move to the next target, nothing worse then a nearly destroyed unit getting back up.

I hope these help and good luck.

[Pyro X]

oo I just had an idea of what I am going to do for my 1850 list in my league. Here is the setup. Go balls out gun line with dakkapole. use an Aegis Defense lines (with or without gun) you can fit about 25 models or so in it. buy rhinos for the squads and part them beside it to deny 100% LOS from the sides so they have to come from the middle. Then be a real jerk and throw 2 Shrouds on either side of the behind the rhinos and every turn move max speed to replace the other on the other side (so they both get 4+ jink and they also have LOS from the rhinos. If they start getting ready to blast the shrouds, use the rhinos and pop smoke to block LOS from them. You now have a 2+ cover save with all this models and you are nasty at 24 inches. From here I would add in some scouts for 5+ toughness models, a dev squad for mech etc.

[hardimanm]

My best advise is keep shooting until they stop twitching.  

 

Now...some real advise.  Your best tactic is focused fire.  Remember that necrons cannot stand back up if the entire unit is destroyed.  Do everything you can to kill one unit at a time.  Do your best to stay our of their rapid fire range until you can charge them.  Another good rule of thumb is to take out telsa weapons first.  Those 6's really add up and can take a toll on an army.  Remember that Necron vehicles have those weird shields that give them +2 to armor facings until they are penetrated.  So make sure you bring some guns that can handle 13 front AV. 

Without fliers your job will be much easier.  Their fliers are cheap and pretty nasty.

If you go gun line make sure you have alot of 36"+ weapons.  Necrons have a ton of 24" rapid fire weapons but lack much long range support.  Devastators, dreadnoughts, predators, ect will soften them up as they try to get into range.  Focus on anything that has long range then focus fire on a unit till its destroyed before moving onto the next unit.  The nephilim might not be a bad choice since your opponent will not have much to counter it.  And the nephilim armed with avenger mega bolter, missiles, and heavy bolters will help wipe out entire units.

 

Hope it helps.

[Brother-Sergeant Bohemond]

CC is where Necrons die. Fast.

 

Basically, get in their face turn one with Deathwing and smack them as hard as possible as fast as possible. Only Tau can outshoot a Necron army, even with the Banner of Devastation we cannot, quite, match them. But they suck in CC where we have units that excel. 

[marvmoogy]

1850 vs necrons...here's my thinking: (and these are rough costs - I don't have my 'dex to hand)

 

Termie chaplain with some DWKs deep striking...maybe add in the MoR

1 x full tactical squad and  behind and a 5 man dev sqad behind an ADL with a libby & PFG along with command squad and dakka pole

1 x full tactical unit combat squadded with a rhino for objective grabbing

What's that, about 1100 points ish?

 

so, 750 points of hurt.....

 

1 dreadnought (TLLC & DCCW) in a drop pod  

1x scout squad 

10 company vets in a drop pod either all with combis (mix of plasma and melta) or throw in some power weapons

5 man assault squad

 

Basic tactics = hammer and anvil

 

Set up your gun line.  Use the Assault guys and the deep striking units to make a mess of their army from the rear as they approach your gunline....and use the scouts and the combat-squadded tacticals to objective grab

[Brother-Sergeant Bohemond]

what about a LRC and charge out of it with the DWK?

[marvmoogy]

When I last played 'crons, they didn't like my LRC....to the point of making it priority 1 on their shooting list.  It was 250 odd points wasted as the guys inside had to foot slog...and then they did pretty much nothing...so more like 700 points wasted.....in a 2k game :(

[Polythemus]

<p>when fighting necrons there are several things to keep in mind. the most important is to understand their rules.</p>

<p>the net list du jour has wraiths, troops in nightscythes, annihilation barges, with destroyer lords to lead them. this type of list is very difficult to counter and you will need to have a good way to bring down flyers to combat it. this type of build is usually heavy on telsa and light on guass (which wrecks vehicles.) you said your opponent has very few flyers so that is good.</p>

 

<p>wraiths - no way around it, this unit is a nightmare. rending 2w jump troops that ignore difficult terrain and can bring you to initiave 1, and a 3++. our best solution is massed boltgun fire or rad grenades with black knights. Missle launchers may also work here.</p>

 

<p>understand the everliving rule - necron players love the everliving rule which allows them to stand back up on a 4+ after dieing. they must place a counter on the table where they died and must come back within 3" of said counter, but cant come back within 1" of other models. to counter this spread out (especially if defeated in CC.) to be within at least 2" from the counter in all directions, and the guy is auto eliminated.</p>

 

<p>catacomb command barge - tough to deal with this unit. as hull points can be absorbed by its rider to have wounds placed on him, and it counts as a chariot with quantum shielding (av [13,13, 11] til penned') melta AB in the butt is your best bet. you'll still have to deal with the lord after but the guy wont get auto attacks just for moving over you (see rules for chariots).</p>

 

<p>the ghost arc is another popular tough unit but is open topped so again consider the multimelta or melta gun. these vehicles can add models to squads who have lost some of their number not unlike tervigons birth guants. be wary of this if squads have been wittled down but are not all the way dead.</p>

 

<p>tomb spyders and scarabs are also dangerous vs vehicles and as tarpits since they are multi wound models. scarabs they are beasts so they ignore terrain. however they take double wounds from blasts and templates so be sure to direct those weapons at this squad type. tomb spyders are monstrous creatures so black knights can help against them.</p>

 

<p>there is a slew of wargear that necrons can take that will befuddle you but the units above are the ones that will cause you the most problems just remember to consider the list and the mission. kill the troops.</p>

[shortysl]

Didn't get to play after all. Real life intervened :-(

[SvenONE]

Little late to this, but the key to fighting necrons is keeping your cool first, but also having a solid list.  Necrons are a pure shenanigan list that will probably have the most ERPT (eye-rolls-per-turn) than any other matchup.  It's without a doubt one of the more frustrating armies to face (considering how old their codex is and how new ours is).

 

One of your biggest advantages you have is knowing that you'll even be playing them.

 

One thing I can say is that dealing with their flyers also requires movement like most other flyers.  You have to exploit the fact they HAVE to move their 18".  A bike list does really well against this, simply because you can put the pressure on your opponent by being right in his face on your first turn, and keeping yourself safer from flyers.  

 

A ravenwing list with, sigh, a nephilim or 2 actually isn't that bad.  An ADL, even though I think it's ruined the game, is of course the cheapest best defense.  Same goes for the Mortis pattern Dreadnought if FW models are allowed.  If you play kill points or relic, you might be in trouble -- Necrons just do so well at protecting things.  The more objectives for you, the better.

 

If you have the points, a scout squad with a heavy bolter to cover an objective is never a bad idea.  Good luck!

[shortysl]

I don't usually bump topics but there is a reason for this:

 

As previously stated, I didn't get to play vs. Necrons in the end but I have a 1500 point game against them coming up this weekend. I'm sticking to Battle Company elements for this game but what I do know is that he's trying an assault-heavy list which obviously goes someway toward negating their brutal firepower. The army list I'd put together included as much in the way of fast moving assault elements as I could considering I'm not using Ravenwing or Deathwing but now I'm wondering if I should try a standard Dakkapole list?

 

With the dilution of their firepower and our ability to put out more small-arms fire than any other Marine army, could the gunline be the way to go?

[InstantKarma]

I'm not a DA player but I have had the unfortunate luck to have a friend who played necrons, and in my experience you want to get them in the assault to counter that LD 10 stat they have and as they're I2 you'll hit first with everything bar power fist. Just watch out for warscythes as they are AP2. If you decide to go shooty just prioritise, take out one unit then move to the next target, nothing worse then a nearly destroyed unit getting back up.

I hope these help and good luck.

Cannot stress this enough. Pick a unit, point your guns at it and chant with me 'Focus Fire, Focus Fire, Focus Fire'. This is usually a good tactic to begin with but it becomes more important with crons for the reasons Br. Capt. Sirus mentions. If the unit is wiped out, they do not get to make their Arnold Schwartzenager roll.

I also do not know how many cron players run this, but the Royal Court Deathstar is one I have played against a few times. It's scary but if you can burn it down, it can be a big liability/points sink for the cron player. The trick of course is burning it down

[shortysl]

I'm not a DA player but I have had the unfortunate luck to have a friend who played necrons, and in my experience you want to get them in the assault to counter that LD 10 stat they have and as they're I2 you'll hit first with everything bar power fist. Just watch out for warscythes as they are AP2. If you decide to go shooty just prioritise, take out one unit then move to the next target, nothing worse then a nearly destroyed unit getting back up.

I hope these help and good luck.

Cannot stress this enough. Pick a unit, point your guns at it and chant with me 'Focus Fire, Focus Fire, Focus Fire'. This is usually a good tactic to begin with but it becomes more important with crons for the reasons Br. Capt. Sirus mentions. If the unit is wiped out, they do not get to make their Arnold Schwartzenager roll.

I also do not know how many cron players run this, but the Royal Court Deathstar is one I have played against a few times. It's scary but if you can burn it down, it can be a big liability/points sink for the cron player. The trick of course is burning it down

Didn't see this post, answered my question in one fell swoop. Oops..............

[InstantKarma]

My experience is with my Tau so in many ways, I have no choice but to pick and unit and declare it the target of half of my guns, but it works. The Royal Court is nasty because it can be ridiculously tough (high T and 'We'll Be Back' combined with lots of ++ saves) and it is tactically flexible with nasty shooting and CC, and so has always caused me problems even with my plethora of plasma/fusion blasters.

Have never had the unfortunate experience of the Cron Flying Circus but rumor has it that a certain army with lots of Skyfire/Interceptor has put that list on hold for the time being