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Ok, so i know almost everyone is going to laugh at the fact that i have to write an article about dealing with Necrons. That aside i actually do want some help with this one. My friend got some necrons. About two weeks ago he decided to drop like $400 on ebay and buy buckets of necrons for the reason of "Why not". (He normally plays tau). His current list is essentionally warriors, lord with rex orb, monoliths, nightbringer. Some destroyers to fill in the gap. That's a 1500 point list. Looking at my CSM codex i really don't have anything to handle the Nightbringer. S10, 5A, 5W 8T and ignore invul/armor means anything but Abbadon and Demon Princes will instant die to him or not even be able to wound him. What my friend does is start nightbringer as close to you as physically possible and just run him at you until he's in combat and kills everything. In objective games on turn 5 he teleports his lord and warriors onto your objective to contest and he holds his off by having monoliths block his so you can't get to it.

Now all of that is fine. It's a strategy but it's annoying. The thing that gets me is he tried to trick me into a 1000 point game with adepticon rules so he could play nightbringer and just sweep me. Lasscanons will hit on 3, wound on 3, and he makes a 4+ invul. I tried pumping buckets of the stuff into it and he just keeps walking.

IS there some trick to beating it? I've told him it's not fun to play against him in small point games because of how he runs it and his response is "The rest of my codex sucks so i have to run him". It's just annoying. The one thing i've been doing which is so annoying is dual lashing the nightbringer back but that's not even a fun game for me.

What do i do against nightbringer?

Simple answer? Lash him with a cheap sorcerer in a rhino. Play keep-away while pelting him with plasma and lascannons. You may not kill him if the dice conk out, but you'll make his big hitter a non-factor for the entire game.

You can make him really cry by killing with with a sorcerer of Nurgle with Warptime. That would be good stuff. ^.^ Typhus does the same thing, as well as Ahriman, if you wanted to do it in style. Using their force weapons, of course. XD Poor little Nightbringer doesn't have Eternal Warrior.

Typhus also has Feel No Pain, so you'll actually get a save!

Nightbringer is S10 and power attack so i dont get FNP. Right?

Also, with Str 4 doesn't hurt T 8. So... i can't even wound him with it.

Could be wrong, but I think Typhus has a poison roll, doesn't he? Seems like a lot of the nurgle stuff ignores toughness.

I'll 2nd the Lash though. I have a buddy who brings a C'Tan and the running joke is that it's a 300 point handicap. It's just so slow it never does anything, and one good lash can destroy 2 turns of movement.

1-UP wrote:Could be wrong, but I think Typhus has a poison roll, doesn't he? Seems like a lot of the nurgle stuff ignores toughness.

I'll 2nd the Lash though. I have a buddy who brings a C'Tan and the running joke is that it's a 300 point handicap. It's just so slow it never does anything, and one good lash can destroy 2 turns of movement.

As far as i know Typhus doesn't have a poison roll. That would be awesome though. He's Str 4 so he can't even hurt nightbringer. I'm just going to Lash him to death i guess.

Simple solution- Ignore him

Just focus on the warriors and the other support, and wait until you feel comfortable to deal with him.

Oh, and NEVER assault him. So just shoot him to death. Autocannons are nice, despite wounding on a 5+

C'tan are basically a distraction. They're incredible in CC but their ranged powers are crap. Their problem is that T8 and a 4++ isn't that hard to kill via shooting for most armies.

Abaddon will actually kill them in CC quite often, though it's a risk for both sides.

Best advice imho is probably what Samus said: Just ignore him and go for phase out. Lash him away if you need to.

Samus, if he plays his crons like me you cant ignore him mate.
Its usually a wall of lith's with the warriors in reserve or hidden, so they are off limits.

Which means you have him moving towards you.

Granted he is a complete beast and i run a C'tan every game, but they are easy enough to stop.

3 units of oblits and a lash prince are pretty "take on all commers" as it is, so thats a great start.

simply lash him backwards and blast away every turn.
9 lascannons per turn.
6 hits.
4 wounds.
2 failed saves.

Seems bad, but what else are you going to shoot at?


Saying that, you can allways run a rush list and just out move him every turn.
Zerkers are pretty solid at this, and with transport you should be able to get behind the liths and assault the warriors.

The player keeps Necron Warriors in hiding or reserve just so he doesn't phase out. Unless i'm not understand the phase out rule correctly.

How to beat necrons- 3 squads of obliterators and 2 lash sorcerors in rhinos
-squad of 15 thousand sons- sorceror with warptime

... My god... this would be horrific

Bertimismaximus wrote:How to beat necrons- 3 squads of obliterators and 2 lash sorcerors in rhinos
-squad of 15 thousand sons- sorceror with warptime

... My god... this would be horrific

I've played against a pretty close to that list before. It was pretty rough but Obliterators die to Monoliths fairly easily and if you've reserved your Warriors you're going to get to use that big blast a lot. And your Destroyers will be in cover getting a 4+ save against those thousand sons.

The lash Prince idea really is most effective. Most of the time you'll be dealing with a C'tan you can't really see as the Necron player will work hard to keep him out of LoS until he's ready to do his thing but the minute he wins a combat or pops out to try to charge and doesn't quite make it then you lash him backwards every turn.

Jesus, i never even thought of 1k sons until this moment... they're going to hurt him so good. I'm writing a 1.5k list tonight. I'll post it tomorrow.

If they have any fearless units, multicombat, destroy the scarabs/pariahs/tombspyders, and NB take no retreat wounds.

Awesome with scarabs if he runs them, but looking at that list, best bet would just be to blast away


Automatically Appended Next Post:
actually, any multicombat will force NR wounds

Jackal wrote:Samus, if he plays his crons like me you cant ignore him mate.
Its usually a wall of lith's with the warriors in reserve or hidden, so they are off limits.

Which means you have him moving towards you.

So true. The stock answer for how to beat Necrons is "ignore the big stuff and go after Warriors." The big stuff, if the Necron player is worth his salt, is going to be between the warriors and the opponent.

Lash is pretty good, but if he's running a fair amount of destroyers a prince isn't going to last long and a Rhino with a Sorcerer in it is going to die even faster.

Typhus does have a poison roll.
He has a daemon weapon, and MoN, so his Daemon weapon gives him extra d6 attacks, with a 4+ poison

Lash works very well against Necrons since they have no transports.
Whether you want to shoot them (thousand sons) or assault them (any CSM unit in a rhino), lash helps a ton against them.

Darien13 wrote:Typhus does have a poison roll.
He has a daemon weapon, and MoN, so his Daemon weapon gives him extra d6 attacks, with a 4+ poison

Lash works very well against Necrons since they have no transports.
Whether you want to shoot them (thousand sons) or assault them (any CSM unit in a rhino), lash helps a ton against them.

Are you sure about that? The Tyhpus thing i mean. It says "Treat the Manreaper as a normal deamon weapon..." I mean, I didn't think Kharn got the 2D6 attacks and not the 1d6. Or Arhiman got Deathscreamer. If i'm wrong though i'd be so happy.

Also,

9 1k Sons
1 Aspiring Sorcerer (Doombolt)
Rhino Extra Armor

9 1k Sons
1 Aspiring Sorcerer (Doombolt)
Rhino Extra Armor

9 1k Sons
1 Aspiring Sorcerer (Doombolt)
Rhino Extra Armor

Demon Prince
Wings
MoS
LoS
Demon Prince
Wings
MoS
LoS

Obliterator
Obliterator
Obliterator

1501 points.

Thoughts?

Tabo wrote:

Darien13 wrote:Typhus does have a poison roll.
He has a daemon weapon, and MoN, so his Daemon weapon gives him extra d6 attacks, with a 4+ poison

Lash works very well against Necrons since they have no transports.
Whether you want to shoot them (thousand sons) or assault them (any CSM unit in a rhino), lash helps a ton against them.

Are you sure about that? The Tyhpus thing i mean. It says "Treat the Manreaper as a normal deamon weapon..." I mean, I didn't think Kharn got the 2D6 attacks and not the 1d6. Or Arhiman got Deathscreamer. If i'm wrong though i'd be so happy.

Yeah, I'm sure.
It says "treats as a normal daemon weapon"
A normal daemon weapon for someone with mark of nurgle is the plaguebringer.
I think you may be misinterpreting Kharn and Ahriman however, neither of them have daemon weapons. They each have unique wargear, in Kharn's case, gorechild, Ahriman's, "the black staff of Ahriman" or whatever.
The rules for both of those are described in the character's entry.

Your list looks good, other than the extra armor. Normally I would recommend spending your points on something else (maybe better psychic powers for the sorceror's?) but it's not terrible against Necrons since they have a lot of glancing shots. In a general list though, there's better use for the points.
For tactics I would recommend lashing the Necron destroyers first, then plasma cannoning them to death. Have your oblits Ignore the Monolith until you kill those.
From then on, just play keep away and sit back gunning the warriors to death, and if you're feeling lucky, shooting lascannons at the monolith (if the player has one).

Darien13 wrote:

Tabo wrote:

Darien13 wrote:Typhus does have a poison roll.
He has a daemon weapon, and MoN, so his Daemon weapon gives him extra d6 attacks, with a 4+ poison

Lash works very well against Necrons since they have no transports.
Whether you want to shoot them (thousand sons) or assault them (any CSM unit in a rhino), lash helps a ton against them.

Are you sure about that? The Tyhpus thing i mean. It says "Treat the Manreaper as a normal deamon weapon..." I mean, I didn't think Kharn got the 2D6 attacks and not the 1d6. Or Arhiman got Deathscreamer. If i'm wrong though i'd be so happy.

Yeah, I'm sure.
It says "treats as a normal daemon weapon"
A normal daemon weapon for someone with mark of nurgle is the plaguebringer.
I think you may be misinterpreting Kharn and Ahriman however, neither of them have daemon weapons. They each have unique wargear, in Kharn's case, gorechild, Ahriman's, "the black staff of Ahriman" or whatever.
The rules for both of those are described in the character's entry.

Your list looks good, other than the extra armor. Normally I would recommend spending your points on something else (maybe better psychic powers for the sorceror's?) but it's not terrible against Necrons since they have a lot of glancing shots. In a general list though, there's better use for the points.
For tactics I would recommend lashing the Necron destroyers first, then plasma cannoning them to death. Have your oblits Ignore the Monolith until you kill those.
From then on, just play keep away and sit back gunning the warriors to death, and if you're feeling lucky, shooting lascannons at the monolith (if the player has one).

Your right. Damn. He's insane it seems.

Thanks. I'm hoping it'll go well.

Also, it's not like CSM have access to hidden power fists or anything. 2 berzerker squads with fists should clean the nightbringer's clock in a single charge. Even without this setup, he's still got to take a couple of turns of chopping before he can touch the fist.

Bertimismaximus wrote:How to beat necrons- 3 squads of obliterators and 2 lash sorcerors in rhinos
-squad of 15 thousand sons- sorceror with warptime

... My god... this would be horrific

Oh my goodness... That's delectable

Also, it's not like CSM have access to hidden power fists or anything. 2 berzerker squads with fists should clean the nightbringer's clock in a single charge. Even without this setup, he's still got to take a couple of turns of chopping before he can touch the fist.

Keep in mind that he can drop a large blast on himself in combat.
Which at S4 and no saves will do alot of damage.

Also, keep in mind that you will need to hit, wound and make him fail a 4++, which isnt all that great when you have limited fist attacks.



CC against him really isnt the best of ideas.
Granted alot of units can hurt him, but your still losing a unit doing so.

He is big and slow, which means cover hopping wont be easy for him.

Just fire away at him and keep moving.
This makes Ksons worth thier weight in gold.

Jackal wrote:This makes Ksons worth thier weight in gold.

Did I miss something?

Could you explain to me why Ksons are good against the Necrons?

I'm guessing it's because of the AP3 on their guns. Nice, but not amazing, I'd say. It's not like it prevents We'll Be Back.

Remember, the Gaze of Death runs on 3rd ed template rules. You must be completely under the template to be hit, else it's a 4+.

Nightbringer's Chosen wrote:I'm guessing it's because of the AP3 on their guns. Nice, but not amazing, I'd say. It's not like it prevents We'll Be Back.

Definitely doesn't but preventing a 3+ armor save helps a bit. But you have Destroyers with longer range guns to slow the advance of their transports and if they're footslogging it then you have Destroyers who just eat them for lunch at range anyways.

From all the Necron players who I have played against, talked to, and read about it's the ones that put their Warriors on the table at the beginning of the game or try to use them offensively who struggle to win games or phase out the most.

The Grog wrote:Remember, the Gaze of Death runs on 3rd ed template rules. You must be completely under the template to be hit, else it's a 4+.

True, but two squads of berzerkers are going to have a lot of guys packed in there.

The nightbringer is a 400 point model, and if you absolutely have to get rid of him, there's a few ways I can think of:

A greater demon is a fraction of the cost and also has a pretty good chance of tarpitting, wounding, or even killing the NB under auspicious dice fates.

You can also tarpit him with lesser demons and drive around him in your transports.

Several groups of ML havocs or several predators concentrating fire on him should also merk him quickly and that long range firing base can then concentrate on destroyers (or monoliths) while your troops zip around the flanks to get the juicy warriors behind. With troops on either flank, it will be hard for the Lord to transport the warriors anywhere without exposing them to fire from somewhere on the battlefield.

hemingway wrote:A greater demon is a fraction of the cost and also has a pretty good chance of tarpitting, wounding, or even killing the NB under auspicious dice fates.

You can also tarpit him with lesser demons and drive around him in your transports.

Considering that the NB is S10 with 5 attacks and ignores invulnerable saves I have to disagree. Daemons of any size won't keep him busy for long.

Monster Rain wrote:True, but two squads of berzerkers are going to have a lot of guys packed in there.

True, but...

hemingway wrote:The nightbringer is a 400 point model.

You're not going to make a 400 point omlette without cracking a few eggs.

I mean, it's possible to just load WAY up on havocs and get some plasma termacide, etc. and try to kill it before the nightbringer is able to kill something, but then you're spending way more points to take down the nightbringer than the necron player spent on the nightbringer. This seems like a bad move.

I'd just accept that, with all its craziness, the c'tan is likely to cause a fair amount of damage. With this as a given, it's a matter of what you can do to minimize the strategic impact.

And also...

stalkerzero wrote:Definitely doesn't but preventing a 3+ armor save helps a bit.

It helps a lot, actually, It's the difference between needing to shoot 9 CSM with bolters to get a single warrior to stay down and only 3.

Plus, with res orb, it's not like you're ever going to actually deny WBB anyways...