Dealing with Necrons

[Frostmourne]

How do i?

He is using a fairly balanced list with the Decurian style force. But how do i keep him on the back foot? 

[depthcharge12]

1.) Volkites

 

2.) MOAR Volkites

[defl0]

Hth can really damage necrons. Its difficult for them to get much in the way fearlessNess or combat res. With the reanimation protocol ignoring ID you can't really rely on low a either. So overusing them in hth can be a solid tactic

[Nusquam]

CC is only viable for hordes. With the new RP and Ld10, marines won't do well in CC. If they did then they're 3-4x the points of the squad you're attacking. It's just not efficient and you'll be on the losing end if you can't get that unit to engage multiple threats consecutively.

 

Volkites are designed for this. Any form will do well. The bigger the better, in terms of fire power and range. Glaives would do serious work too. Popping transports, blasting occupants, and scything down foot units.

 

Typhons will do work too. While they don't cancel RP, they will be worsened by 1 for most units due to S10.

 

Anything big with 36"+ range. Within 24" the Necrons have the advantage in every field of war. They will out-shoot you and they will outlast you.

 

Quadgun rapier batteries are the stars of this show. Frag to rack up wounds and shatter to pop quantum shielding. They also out-range 95% of the Necron armory.

 

Sicarans would do well against the Arks. Ignores their jink and has a fair chance at popping their shielding.

 

Better range and maneuvering is key. A good Necron player will keep his units close to support each other and roll through the enemy force. Isolate and destroy. If your force is a close range list then focus on getting close enough to isolate Necron units and focus on them. The rest of the Necron force will have to move in to retaliate. If you're just on the cusp of their range it will mitigate their response. If you absolutely have to commit to close range then approach from an angle that causes the Necron forces to bump into each other/get in their own ways to get a firing solution on you. The more skilled the Necron player the harder it will be, but if you can find that angle use it.

 

If you're dead set on CC, which I advise against, then rad grenades are your first stop. Anything to amplify wounds against the tarpit that is the Necron bulk. Modify the dice as much as possible. Forge Lord with rad grenades in termi armor attached to termis, all with mauls, popping out of a Storm Eagle. Throw in a Chaplain and you'll be able to sweep off warriors. But like I said, that unit costs way more than the warriors. Whether or not it's worth it depends on two factors: Objectives and re-usability. If it's a key objective like, the relic, it may be worth it if you have withering fire support to keep them safe. You're still in the 24" Necron death-zone so it will be uphill no matter how you look at it. If you can chain the unit, equip it to statistically kill average units of warriors or have withering fire support to cover them, and attack multiple units over the course of the game. That will be hard. A good Necron player will cut his loses, leave whatever you engaged to die and then blast you from 12-24" when you're exposed. To mitigate this you absolutely need some long range firepower.

 

Never use Land Raiders. Gauss doesn't care about flare shields. It will be dead in the water once you're within 24". Storm Eagles and Rams are your best delivery options. Necrons have no AA outside of flyers and fortifications. A Deredeo or two will put serious hurt on their flyers and tesla no longer works on snap shots. Still dependent on good fire support.

 

Now for general tactics:

 

Take out the Ghost Arks first. They protect warriors and replace loses. A battery of thuddguns will pop their QS in one turn if not wreck them outright. Then use the frags to pick them apart from range. Without the Arks they are footslogging and ineffective if they didn't get far.

 

Canoptek Harvest foramtion. A close second. Once you have their Arks dead this formation needs to die. Go for the Spyder first. Without it the Wraith and Scarabs are normalized. A shatter barrage from a thuddgun battery will reduce them to one wound. Prime picking for any other shooting. The frag shells will slaughter scarabs due to the swarms rule. Against Wraith a quad mortar battery can kill one a turn without RP. You will need other shooting to put the hurt on them.

Destroyers got a big shift in tactics due to being jet infantry and the new RP. With the Decurion giving them 4+ RP they don't need cover. They can deepstrike, unload with Preferred Enemy, and assault thrust away. The Decurion also gives them move through cover so they won't be failing any dangerous terrain tests. Like Wraith they need a lot of medium-high strength fire to bring down.

 

I already said Deredeos put the hurt on Scythes.

 

If you can hamstring the Necrons by taking out their Arks and Scythes with good AA and AT you will have a big advantage. The earlier you do it the better. That gives you time to take down fast moving units like Wraith, Scarabs, and Praetorians. Once you have accomplished those two actions then you will be in a good advantage to pick your battles and pick apart the Necron line.

 

Edit: Breachers would do well too. As with anything with a boarding shield. Necrons are very susceptible to weaposn with Blind. Oh and Darkfire cannons too.

[defl0]

Agreed. Necrons are kind of a check list army. You know you are probably going to see fliers, warriors/immortals and probably wraiths. Beyond that the new codex and maelstrom missions will likely popularize units like tomb blades. You also need a ghost arc counter in case they go that direction. 

 

another big thing about Crons is the HQs giving out multipliers. So you need to IC hunt a little to be successful. 

 

As for my previous point. Necrons really do fold in hth. Remember they are almost all I2. So you get to swing first and weapons with the "blind" rule absolutely ruins them. Not to mention the roll d6+2 to run away from combat.  

 

So darkwings would be exceptional if you can shut down their fliers. You really just need to amke them jink to shut down their fliers offense. So units like Hyperios, mortis dreads and Deredeos will help you get air supremacy. 

 

Finally, you do need a wraith counter. A lot of lists run 3 units of them. Knights, Typhons, Vindicators, or units that pump out wounds like volkites or a group of predators really helps. 

[Brofist]

I regularly play a necron friend and I've learned to treat them simlar to a legion army- lots of bodies with decent armor saves. He has a hard time dealing with my allied admech detachment. Castellax especially. Volkite culvrins are fairly effective for putting mass wounds on blobs, but the low AP template weapons are the best for that. A unit or two with interceptor is also helpful since it'll help mitigate deep strike shenanigans.

[Frostmourne]

See this is a problem that i have. I HAVE to use the Land Raider. 

Yes, i know its going to die, horribly, but i need it to make the list to 2k, and i dont have 260 points in other models that will help as much as a LR caning up the field and praying. 

I know he plans on using a Monolith, so i plan to focus that down turn 1 with my heavies

I do have a Deredeo (Some may have seen it), and a Mortis Contemptor with Kheres Assault Canons, so i dont think his FLyers will be a problem, and i know he plans to take them. Its the same with his Ghost Arks. I am more worried about the standard warriors. They are hard to kill.

And i cannot find a way to out maneuver him with his obligatory Tomb Blades, i dont have anything that fast, so i am tempted to try some bikes just to grab some of those objectives.   

[Slips]

Get a Typhon. S10 Large Blast that turns their 4+ Decurion save into a 5+ (or 6+ if not using it).

 

But...its a Typhon..so not cheap.

[Frostmourne]

With 350 quids worth of FW being delivered today. I don't have the time or money to get a Typhon in :(

[shandwen]

Monoliths are kinda bad now. Ghost archs and spyders are the worrysome army boosters, and wraiths and pretorians are the problematic cc beasts. If you can snipe out characters it can help as well (cypteks).

I would actually say cc is the way to go. Put cheap units into wraiths to hold them up, and put 2+ save peeps into pretorians (I believe they are ap3?). Otherwise power mauls will pay off, and the ravenguard relic to double wounds for combat resolution is hilariously funny.

[Frostmourne]

Yeah I know the guy I am playing is going to be using all of them *weep*. Just got to hope I can wreck some face turn 1.

[Emperors Teeth]

I've not played against the Newcrons Codex yet, but I was very successful in my last 1k game against the previous codex. Overwhelming firepower was what did it for me. Now, I'm aware I can't so easily wipe out units what with their Reanimation Protocols' rules being overhauled, but all it means is I need MORE firepower to do the same job. Approx 1/3rd more against an unmodified RP save.

 

That's a lot to ask, so I've had an idea. I don't have enough guns to reliably do this, so I need to mitigate the threat of the warriors whilst eliminating other units such as Arks, Stalkers and so on. I'm going to trial Photon weapons - on Thallax & Castellax. Three Thallax with a Photon Thruster or single Castellax with Darkfire Cannon will force blind tests on infantry and serve as emergency anti-tank in a pinch (come on FAQ, work in my favour!). That Initiative 2 will really hurt the average Warrior and Immortal, making the bulk of my vehicles much safer for a turn while they expose themselves to clear some vehicles off the board.

 

I'm considering switching to the Deredeo (without a missile launcher turret) from the Kheres Mortis Contemptor, also. It loses the quantity of shots and Rending, but is even more effective at knocking out those Flying Croissants, and still stands a decent of popping the Quantum Shielding on anything else. Plus, it's only 5 points more without the Aiolos Launcher so fairly easy to squeeze in.

[depthcharge12]

I've heard people saying stuff about the decurion deatachment...what's so scary about it, other than buffed up wraiths?

[Emperors Teeth]

I'm trying to get my head around it, myself. As far as I can tell a Decurion Detachment it an alternative to the Combined Arms Detachment (ie standard FoC chart of yesteryear). It's both a very flexible and very specialised formation, at least in smaller armies. They can take pretty much any unit type, with emphasis on large quantities of what would normally be HQ and Troop choices, but the minimum unit quantity restrictions mean committing a lot into taking that type of unit.

- Instead of Objective Secured, units from the Decurion get +1 to their Reanimation Protocls roll, PLUS the vehicles with Living Metal (ie all of them) ignore Crew Stunned & Shaken.

- Each of the Formations, such as 'Canoptek Harvest' (1 Spyders, 1 unit of Wraiths 1 of Scarabs) or 'Destroyer Cult' (Lots of, you guessed it... Destroyers of all types) have their own special bonuses on top of the above! I won't go into detail but they're all going to hurt you in exciting new ways.

I started writing a sample list but it was getting silly when I tried to explain all the rules interactions. Suffice to say you could easily have a 20-man unit of Relentless, Move Through Cover Warriors with a 3+ Reanimation Protocol Save (which also re-rolls 1's... though can you get a 1 if it's got +1 to the roll?) as long as there is a Cryptek in the unit and they're close to a particular Overlord.

 

*Oh ,and to add bonus confusion, some units appear in more than one formation, so you need to keep track of which rules apply to which! Overlords & Monoliths come to mind.

[Hesh Kadesh]

all useful info, like to point out that 4+ is the max RP roll.

 

And bear in mind that only formations listed can be in the Decurion Detachment, but that those same listed Formations are still formations in their own right and can be taken by people still using the battleforged rules.

L of course they don't really benefit from Decurion Detachment rukes, but when you can take 3 Super Heavies (Obelisks) and still be battleforged with ObSec Infantry, it can get quite hilarious.

[Emperors Teeth]

Thanks for pointing out the max 4+ on the RP roll, I had overlooked that.

 

It just occurred to me that Gorgon Terminators might be a worthy option to take on Necrons in Melee. Perhaps overkill as described above in several posts. Give some Power Fists to get the RP roll modified down a bit due to Instant Death and try and get Overwatched on the charge. As I mentioned before, Necron Initiative 2 means a good chance of failure.