Asking for a friend...

[Brother Chaplain Tyranus]

Greetings Xenos scum. My faith in the emperor is forever unwavering but we heard that you may be harboring a fallen here so I figured I would come investigate (at least thats what the official report reads). I am most definitely not probably here because I have already started a Necron army and have no idea how to play it.  We could say I'm just here to tap into your vast pool of knowledge or whatever. If any of my brothers asks lets just go with something like that.

 

Seriously though. How do you guys play this army.  I started collecting necrons about 6 months ago and I love them.  I've been lurking here just trying to learn a few things and see what makes this army fun.  I've collected around 1600 points thus far and am looking to expand it some more.  I have played a few games with them and I love it.  I have some initial thoughts and I could be way off track so hopefully you guys don't mind a necron newbie coming in and asking some probably dumb questions. 

 

Rerolls seem to be the way to go in this edition but it doesn't seem like Necrons get a whole lot them.  How do you guys work with that?  I love reanimation protocols and res orbs.  Living metal and everything about this army is super annoying to my opponents. Love the wraiths with their 3+ invulns.  Warrior guns are stronger than bolters and cheaper.  Overall I really like it.  Is there various ways to play the army or is it just kind of the one strategy and mostly the same models in everyones armies? I think I saw that the codex is going to change the way that the necrons play to make them a little more diverse. 

 

Any thoughts or advice for a newbie would be much appreciated.  I will relay the information back to whomever it was that asked me to ask you guys for them...

[Tyriks]

There are a few common theme I've seen. The most popular seems to be massive warrior blobs with cryptek and ghost ark for those 75% reanimation successes. I have had a very hard time making a go of this, though. No matter how big the squad, it's still easy to wipe out and then your whole investment is gone. The cryptek adds an invuln but you usually don't need it on warriors because they won't get hit with a ton of high ap, they'll just get hit with a lot of shots.

 

I've had more success with a list I'm working on that stacks up a bunch of our faster and hardier units. Wraiths, destroyers, tomb blades. Use that relic from CA because that helps a lot.

[Yoyo ninja]

Following...

[NTaW]

Based on what I own and the various games I've played so far I have started using small units of Scarabs as bubblewrap for my two 15 man Warrior squads, who are accompanied by my Cryptek, gauss equipped Stalker, and a 2 man squad of Heavy Destroyers (these I try to keep out of LoS as much as I can since they get focused down very easily and can move/shoot effectively). I orbit the table with a Doom Scythe that often shoots the death ray at the same target as the Stalker and the tesla weapons at infantry. Outside of that block of deployment I use Wraiths to creep around out of LoS so they can jump out and tie up assault units that get too close to the rest of my army, or to try to run around into the enemy backlines to muck with objectives. Lastly I tend to maneuver my Overlord around with gauss Immortals and sword/shield Lychguard on the opposite flank of my Scarab screen.

 

I've only been able to use the Veil in one game so far, but I really want to use it on my Cryptek. If a unit of Warriors gets charged he can pull them out of combat to still shoot which can be very useful. Could potentially solve my issue of not being able to fall back effectively while in proximity to a Cryptek.

[Tyriks]

I had brought the veil a few times but never needed it, so I put it on a guy escorting Lychguard a few times and it has been great. Anything going after the lychguard is easy to escape, anything trying to hide is easy to pop in on. They've popped an Ork trukk and Auto killed the stuff inside by encircling it so they couldn't deploy. Also have torn up some gunlines for me. I need to try out more options with that, though.

[Brother Chaplain Tyranus]

does anyone use spiders?  The reroll on whatever its attacking seems to be helpful.  Also Ctan looks like a lot of fun.  That and wraiths.  That invuln save is crazy.  Do you guys even bother using them?  If so do you put other weapons on them or just leave them as they are?

[Arachnofiend]

does anyone use spiders?  The reroll on whatever its attacking seems to be helpful.  Also Ctan looks like a lot of fun.  That and wraiths.  That invuln save is crazy.  Do you guys even bother using them?  If so do you put other weapons on them or just leave them as they are?

Spyders are what happens when a character doesn't have character protection. It's a great utility unit in a vacuum but the fact of the matter is it'll be very easily shot up.

 

The Deceiver is great because Grand Illusion is great; I wouldn't recommend using the other two C'tan.

 

Wraiths are one of the better units we have, I think. They're very fast and very resilient, probably one of the few examples of a unit who's job is to just tie stuff up that can actually perform that job effectively. God help you if you try to run them against an army with a lot of mortal wound generation or a psychic power that can strip their invuln save, though. For equipment I usually prefer to keep them naked, though if you wanted to pick something make it the particle caster.

Edited February 21, 2018 by Arachnofiend

[XenoMechanicum]

 

 

does anyone use spiders? The reroll on whatever its attacking seems to be helpful. Also Ctan looks like a lot of fun. That and wraiths. That invuln save is crazy. Do you guys even bother using them? If so do you put other weapons on them or just leave them as they are?

Spyders are what happens when a character doesn't have character protection. It's a great utility unit in a vacuum but the fact of the matter is it'll be very easily shot up.

 

The Deceiver is great because Grand Illusion is great; I wouldn't recommend using the other two C'tan.

 

Wraiths are one of the better units we have, I think. They're very fast and very resilient, probably one of the few examples of a unit who's job is to just tie stuff up that can actually perform that job effectively. God help you if you try to run them against an army with a lot of mortal wound generation or a psychic power that can strip their invuln save, though. For equipment I usually prefer to keep them naked, though if you wanted to pick something make it the particle caster.

I can't weigh in too heavily despite my love of the Necrons since I don't even have 1000 points ready for the table yet (waiting on the codex mostly), but I think Brother Chaplain Tyranus meant the spiders as in the Triarch Stalker? Pretty cool unit I look forward to using! I wasn't a fan of the White Dwarf for February since they put he Necrons up against the golden smurfs with the brand new codex - and those guys are so tanks with their invulnerable saves that rerollling the 1s to hit didn't make much difference with our relatively low Strength and inability to use our AP against them - definitely an army Necrons struggle against as is and probably will even after the Codex drops I think.

 

I love the Monolith and and plan to field a Battallion of 6 full size warrior blobs for sheer volume of fire and RP to keep them alive - but I have seen a lot of Monoliths get blown up pretty easily for what they cost which is sad.

[Tyriks]

I've never had a monolith last a full turn after landing. They've also never killed anywhere close to their points. So, I am not using it again unless it gets a boost or a massive price drop.

 

Stalkers are okay for their points. They do less damage than a neutron onager for more points but they can last a little longer against dedicated anti armor. Their Targeting Relay can be nice if it's equipped to work with other units.

[Brother Chaplain Tyranus]

I've never had a monolith last a full turn after landing. They've also never killed anywhere close to their points. So, I am not using it again unless it gets a boost or a massive price drop.

 

Stalkers are okay for their points. They do less damage than a neutron onager for more points but they can last a little longer against dedicated anti armor. Their Targeting Relay can be nice if it's equipped to work with other units.

See thats what I am afraid of.  I know with my Dark angels, I can take down something with 20+ wounds pretty fast.  Even with a FnP I was able to one turn Mortarion.  It appears that most armies are carrying enough firepower to drop something like a monolith in one turn and for the points cost, I wouldn't say it is an effective fire draw.  Especially if you put some dudes on the tomb world.  I played a game with one and my opponent didn't cover one side of the table so I basically dropped it in and let it hold an objective and shoot it's laser cannons.  I am not sure it would work as intented most of the time though.  With the box set coming, I hope they will be dropping the codex soon.  I really want to build more stuff for this army but I am not sure what to invest in next.  Ghost ark?  I have seen a few batreps using these and they just look really good on the field.  Doom scythe maybe?  Thanks for all of the information thus far.  For a race of warmongering alien robots, you guys are alright. Unofficially of course.

[Tyriks]

Ghost Arks are garbage as a transport, but they're a great support unit for warrior blobs. Scythes are very costly for what they do, especially the Doom Scythe.

 

The best stuff I've found for Necrons so far is using the Deceiver and Veil of Darkness together with deep striking stuff to get a ton of immortals or warriors into rapid fire range (or lychguard into charge range) turn one. It confuses opponents target priority and puts a lot pressure on their weak points.

[Bonzi]

Necrons are about synergy and working in phalanxes. You're looking for maximum combos like overlords 'my will be done' + a Triarch stalkers targeting relay rapid on a unit of immortals rapid firing into a target. 20 St5, Ap-2 shots hitting on a 2+ rerolling ones. Veil of Darkness Cryptek + warrior blob. Cryptek + ghostark backing warrior blobs. Ect. We don't have sledgehammer solo units, it's about an army with good weapons walking through whatever the enemy throws at them and refusing to die. If you can hang until turn 3ish when your opponents losses are starting to stack up and your units are just battered but are rebuilding their numbers...it's a win.

 

Necrons are not an alpha strike army, they are attrition based and you have to play that way. That means pulling back those last three warriors of a squad and hiding them so they can rebuild and be functional again later.

[NTaW]

Well :cuss me. Thanks for that post Bonzi I have been playing the Stalker very wrong. For whatever reason I thought it was the same bonus to hit as MWBD. Thankfully I've lost almost every game and the couple I've won have not been because of that; I've read statistically that giving a roll +1 offers more successes than re-rolling 1. Also now I can more effectively employ them together should the occasion arise.

[Brother Chaplain Tyranus]

Necrons are about synergy and working in phalanxes. You're looking for maximum combos like overlords 'my will be done' + a Triarch stalkers targeting relay rapid on a unit of immortals rapid firing into a target. 20 St5, Ap-2 shots hitting on a 2+ rerolling ones. Veil of Darkness Cryptek + warrior blob. Cryptek + ghostark backing warrior blobs. Ect. We don't have sledgehammer solo units, it's about an army with good weapons walking through whatever the enemy throws at them and refusing to die. If you can hang until turn 3ish when your opponents losses are starting to stack up and your units are just battered but are rebuilding their numbers...it's a win.

 

Necrons are not an alpha strike army, they are attrition based and you have to play that way. That means pulling back those last three warriors of a squad and hiding them so they can rebuild and be functional again later.

Great advice. I do feel the synergy. I have been looking at picking up a stalker for that reason. Maybe I'll get going on that. Thanks for the advice guys.