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I'm just a noob, and I'm trying to build an AM army. One of my close friend is enjoying Necron for years. While we can play friendly as much as we can, but it seems winning Necron with AM would be very challenging, even in fun game. Not to mention in competitive match... (based on my watching experience from LGS)

What should I need to prepare, and what plan / meta / strategies are useful against Necron if I go pure AM (IG) army?

Tanks will not stand against tons of gauss weapons, that I know for sure. Should I need to use lines of "guardsmen over guardmen"? Or should I need to go for mechanized infants + arty and play missions? Or use vendettas? What is the good way to deal with necrons?
Should I need to use GK/SM or IK allies to become comparable? (But I hope to stick with pure IG.)

Thanks

Best,

If I had a rough draft of his list I could do my best to help you counter it.

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
If I had a rough draft of his list I could do my best to help you counter it.

Thanks but I'm not exactly sure what his lists are. He has many units, so he can swap his list anytime he want.
In competitive, I saw him brought royalcourts, decurion detachment, stalkers + annhilation spams and etc... but I'm not a fan of necron and I'm just a beginner to 40k, so I'm not sure about details.

How about a rough guess of his last two lists and the point levels you ordinarily play?

The basis for fighting Necrons is pretty simple - focus on objectives first and foremost. Necrons are usually slow and are extremely durable, but if he's running Decurion he is sorely lacking in objective secured units which means if you can force him off of objectives with tank shock, you can wrack up points while he has to deal with your blocking units.

Generally large cheap scoring units will be hard for him to dislodge, and Necrons generally excel against tough targets with their basic troops, but won't be able to pump out a huge amount of shots to deal with swarms. Also leverage a range advantage where possible - anything with more than 24" range can fire without much retaliation, and ideally you want to engage outside of his ability to walk up and rapid fire.

Let's start with how many points do you usually play, and do you play more Eternal War or Maelstrom missions?

To be blunt, Necrons are a top-4 codex, while AM are a bottom... well... it doesn't much matter because the top 4 are head and shoulders above the rest anyhow. Bottom 4, probably. Arguments are made for AM, CSM, Orks, and DE.

So you're facing an uphill battle, no matter what. You'll typically be slower, less tough, less able to cause harm... generally outclassed in every way except for range. So the Artillery formation from Mont'Ka would be your best friend, to lay it out simply.

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
How about a rough guess of his last two lists and the point levels you ordinarily play?

 greatbigtree wrote:
Let's start with how many points do you usually play, and do you play more Eternal War or Maelstrom missions?

To be blunt, Necrons are a top-4 codex, while AM are a bottom... well... it doesn't much matter because the top 4 are head and shoulders above the rest anyhow. Bottom 4, probably. Arguments are made for AM, CSM, Orks, and DE.

So you're facing an uphill battle, no matter what. You'll typically be slower, less tough, less able to cause harm... generally outclassed in every way except for range. So the Artillery formation from Mont'Ka would be your best friend, to lay it out simply.

I wish to enjoy 1500pt, no more than 1850pt for near future, since I'm in the stage of building and planning army. I will start from 500pt, and will increase size. It seems my LGS people enjoy both of them, a bit more Maelstorm.
I remember my dude's last list were 3 annihilation barge + stalkers + some nec warriors, and other time, he used royalcourts + decurion (reclamation, maybe... ). It was both 1850 pt game.
Thanks greatbigtree, I was also considering at least 2+ wyverns. Anything else?

Is the AM army's only way to deal with necron is counter list?


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 RuneGrey wrote:
The basis for fighting Necrons is pretty simple - focus on objectives first and foremost. Necrons are usually slow and are extremely durable, but if he's running Decurion he is sorely lacking in objective secured units which means if you can force him off of objectives with tank shock, you can wrack up points while he has to deal with your blocking units.

Generally large cheap scoring units will be hard for him to dislodge, and Necrons generally excel against tough targets with their basic troops, but won't be able to pump out a huge amount of shots to deal with swarms. Also leverage a range advantage where possible - anything with more than 24" range can fire without much retaliation, and ideally you want to engage outside of his ability to walk up and rapid fire.

Thanks Runegrey. It seems I need lots chimeras + veterans + infantry platoons. I will keep in mind about range advantage.

You might also consider Forge World Artillery Carriages. They are the same guns as your arty tanks, Earthshaker, Medusa, etc, but are artillery unit type, so T7, not vehicles and, depending on your groups interpretations, can take orders. They give you a not-tank platform for Earthshaker guns.

They also fit an infantry heavy army much more thematically.

I think the best loyalist rules for them are in Imperial Armor 2: Second edition, but I may be wrong. I use evil guardsmen.

Manticores - Eradicator, Executioner, Battle Cannon Leman Russes - Blobs with Auto Cannons - Wyverns - Psykers.

All of those are good choices in your list, I'd almost recommend a Hellhound or two but then you're getting within that 24" range of Gauss, but their templates remove Scarabs by the handful

That's IF they're using Scarabs.

The initial issue I'm seeing is that the Necron player is able to switch lists readily. Even with borrowed models I don't have enough lists to play with like that. Maybe 5 or so I'd use?

Main thing to remember is that, if you're using Blobguard and there's Flayed Ones and Wraiths in the Decurion, your blob is going to NEED Fearless to actually stay in combat. Therefore having Priests would be a start.

If you hold to 1500 points, the Decurion detachment is trickier to pull off, unless he's going for minimum-sized units. At least, he'll probably be held to a Rec Legion plus Canoptek Harvest.

The real issue, is that his basic dudes cost less than Marines, shrug off more damage than Marines vs every weapon except HB and AC, and then can hurt your infantry just as easily, but can then hurt your vehicles, as well.

If he goes down the route above, he'll probably have a couple of mobs of Warriors, maybe with one riding a Ghost Ark. That setup is handy, because you get an AV 13 vehicle [to start] that can repair dudes on the ground, while the group still outputs 25 Gauss shots at long range... 50 at rapid fire range. Of the ground-guys that you kill, he can put d3 back on the table each turn they're near a Ghost Ark. Cover-ignoring big-blasts are an ideal way to deal with most anything on the ground that Necrons can throw your way. Except Wraiths...

He'll also probably have a couple of units [Imortals, and maybe Lychguard?] in Night Scythes. They're flying transports that can deploy, even if they move very quickly. They're also generally armed with Tesla Destructors [Autocannons on steroids] plus a Gauss shot or two. They're quite points efficient, when used as Anti-Air, but also good at wrecking vehicles / poor save infantry. You'll want to take something to deal with those, if you expect he'll be using them.

Necrons aren't slow. They have excellent value flyers, and both Wraiths and Scarab swarms move as beasts. Tomb Blades are Jetbikes, and are needed for the Decurion. They first two units are both great / good value units, so there's little reason to not use any of those fast moving options. IG generally lose firepower by moving, but Necrons only have one unit that does. IG generally become more fragile by leaving cover, while Necrons generally don't need to worry about that thanks to RP.

Putting cheap infantry around your tanks will "bubble wrap" them, ensuring that they have a 5+ intervening model save. There's not much way to make our infantry "effective" against Necrons. It's kind of like taking down Assault Terminators, you just need to throw hundreds of shots at them, no matter what they are, you just need volume of fire. Ground vehicles start with AV 13, but drop to 11 if you get a Pen, so take some Lascannons with your AC, to drop AV and then strip HP. You'll need to worry about AV 11 flyers, if your opponent brings them.

So right now, you're basically hooped. IG don't really have much in the way of a "Power Build" right now, but artillery would probably be your best friend against Necrons, as an AV 12 tank is just as tough against Gauss as an AV 14 tank. It's a real mis-match, in my opinion.

Remember though that while Gauss CAN deal with tanks, it isn't guaranteed to do so, and can take a while. You only get the glance on a 6, so unless your opponent is rolling really hot its going to take quite a bit of massed fire to down a single tank. Which leaves the big question of 'Is he running a Triarch Stalker / Destroyer Cult?' If he's sticking mainly to warriors, jetbikes, and other lighter guns, then lower AV tanks can be just as good because no matter what you're only getting glances.

Watch out for heavy destroyers, stalkers, or other high power weapons if you're fielding lighter tanks - gauss might be a threat to any vehicle, but Necrons will gladly give you a solid pen and blow up your tank if need be. The downside is massed guardsmen are fairly solid against these low weight of fire models.

Engage in melee when you can, but accept that you'll probably not have a unit *leave* melee unless they're really good at fighting. Non-dedicated CC Necrons generally don't have a high volume of attacks to break CC, but generally doing enough damage to beat them is rough.

Greatbigtree has said it all but I'd add some details.

To beat the Necrons with IG, too much cheese is never enough.

- I'm a fond of Earthshaker Artillery carriages + orders. With a priest/commissar with them, these guys will never miss an order and would issue big plate Ordnance 1 S9 AP3 Ignore Cover shots that are always a good thing. You will also roll 2D6 and keep the highest result against armour. Use your artillery to pound them at range and destroy their most dangerous units like Ghost Arks (these would murder anything if they come at Rapid Fire range), Destroyers and so. FW artillery platforms are more competitive than Leman Russes IMO; they are dirt cheap (75pts), durable and would not suffer from stuff like Crew Shaken. Plus you'll never be out of range so you don't really need the (limited) speed of a tank.
- Manticores are nice too if you are lucky and don't forget the Wyvern, one of the best units of our codex .

When you got them softened up, you can assault their footslogging units and damaged vehicules with:

- DS units (Scions with Meltas/Plasmaguns) and Vets/ SWS in Valks/Vendettas. Used as suicide squads, these guys can seriously threaten any Necron Vehicule since they can bypass Quantic Armour and shoot their rear.
- Flyers with LC can be good if you avoid Rapid FIre Gauss and seek for weak spots.

If you neutralize their support early with limited losses, you will be able to focus your fire on slower and softer infantry units latter. Obviously, no battle against Crons never happen so perfectly but I think it is the line to follow.

When it comes to kill their grunts, nothing is better than mass of fire and that's fine because this is what IG do best :
- A hundred guardsmen FRFSRF-ing is hard to weather, especially when your support has been removed of the table earlier. Respect the 2'' separation between models, use cover wisely and don't hesitate to fix them in place with Commissar/Priest-led squads while the rest of your infantry secure the objective.
- Template weapons like flamers can be nasty if you ever come at range. Just like an Outflanking Hellhound or a Banewolf (with its 2+ to Wound AP3 template). Situational but useful to clear enemy DSers and couter-attack.
- Use cheap Divination Psykers to ehance your accuracy, have a look on Inquisition Allies in the said codex to add some exotic anti-alien stuff and Stubborn Characters to your infantry.
- Talking about mass of fire, you can blindly take a Vulture Gunship from FW : for 155pts, you got a BS4 Vector Dancer vehicule issuing 20 TL S5 AP- shots at 24'', which is hardly beatable for any army in the game. And this beast has plenty of other configurations you might be interested in.

To conclude :
- Maintain heavy pressure with your artillery while striking accurately with specialized units. He would be forced to rush for the objectives just to be welcomed by your infantry.
- Never think you will table them and don't even try to do it. Select your targets very carefully; force multipliers like Arks and Spyders are top priorities and then Destroyers and maybe Flyers.
- Forget the "elite" IG army with limited numbers of Guardsmen.
- Last but not least: play objectives.

Hope it will helps.

Get some primaris psykers and lay down as much misfortune and 4++ invulns as you can.

A 4++ WOULD help the durability of your vehicles considerably.

9 Wyverns.

maceria wrote:
You might also consider Forge World Artillery Carriages. They are the same guns as your arty tanks, Earthshaker, Medusa, etc, but are artillery unit type, so T7, not vehicles and, depending on your groups interpretations, can take orders. They give you a not-tank platform for Earthshaker guns.

They also fit an infantry heavy army much more thematically.

I think the best loyalist rules for them are in Imperial Armor 2: Second edition, but I may be wrong. I use evil guardsmen.

Thanks. Looks like good choice for more arty fire power. Maybe I could bring some when in competitive games. I thought that it is the same with the Earthquaker platform, but it is not.


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 Gibblets wrote:
Manticores - Eradicator, Executioner, Battle Cannon Leman Russes - Blobs with Auto Cannons - Wyverns - Psykers.

All of those are good choices in your list, I'd almost recommend a Hellhound or two but then you're getting within that 24" range of Gauss, but their templates remove Scarabs by the handful

My friend may has some scarabs, I will note this.
If I use tanks, I may need to hide them well behind the covers, shooting from the max range as possible....


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
That's IF they're using Scarabs.

The initial issue I'm seeing is that the Necron player is able to switch lists readily. Even with borrowed models I don't have enough lists to play with like that. Maybe 5 or so I'd use?

Main thing to remember is that, if you're using Blobguard and there's Flayed Ones and Wraiths in the Decurion, your blob is going to NEED Fearless to actually stay in combat. Therefore having Priests would be a start.

I will not forget about the Priests. Thanks.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 greatbigtree wrote:
If you hold to 1500 points, the Decurion detachment is trickier to pull off, unless he's going for minimum-sized units. At least, he'll probably be held to a Rec Legion plus Canoptek Harvest.

The real issue, is that his basic dudes cost less than Marines, shrug off more damage than Marines vs every weapon except HB and AC, and then can hurt your infantry just as easily, but can then hurt your vehicles, as well.

If he goes down the route above, he'll probably have a couple of mobs of Warriors, maybe with one riding a Ghost Ark. That setup is handy, because you get an AV 13 vehicle [to start] that can repair dudes on the ground, while the group still outputs 25 Gauss shots at long range... 50 at rapid fire range. Of the ground-guys that you kill, he can put d3 back on the table each turn they're near a Ghost Ark. Cover-ignoring big-blasts are an ideal way to deal with most anything on the ground that Necrons can throw your way. Except Wraiths...

He'll also probably have a couple of units [Imortals, and maybe Lychguard?] in Night Scythes. They're flying transports that can deploy, even if they move very quickly. They're also generally armed with Tesla Destructors [Autocannons on steroids] plus a Gauss shot or two. They're quite points efficient, when used as Anti-Air, but also good at wrecking vehicles / poor save infantry. You'll want to take something to deal with those, if you expect he'll be using them.

Necrons aren't slow. They have excellent value flyers, and both Wraiths and Scarab swarms move as beasts. Tomb Blades are Jetbikes, and are needed for the Decurion. They first two units are both great / good value units, so there's little reason to not use any of those fast moving options. IG generally lose firepower by moving, but Necrons only have one unit that does. IG generally become more fragile by leaving cover, while Necrons generally don't need to worry about that thanks to RP.

Putting cheap infantry around your tanks will "bubble wrap" them, ensuring that they have a 5+ intervening model save. There's not much way to make our infantry "effective" against Necrons. It's kind of like taking down Assault Terminators, you just need to throw hundreds of shots at them, no matter what they are, you just need volume of fire. Ground vehicles start with AV 13, but drop to 11 if you get a Pen, so take some Lascannons with your AC, to drop AV and then strip HP. You'll need to worry about AV 11 flyers, if your opponent brings them.

So right now, you're basically hooped. IG don't really have much in the way of a "Power Build" right now, but artillery would probably be your best friend against Necrons, as an AV 12 tank is just as tough against Gauss as an AV 14 tank. It's a real mis-match, in my opinion.

Well, I agree that there are not too much things could try or attempt as AM when it comes to a game against necron.... I will try to keep guardsmen line + meat shield guards around the tanks and artys + arty fire power. If I use tanks, then I will keep them hidden behind covers, keeping maximum fire range.


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 RuneGrey wrote:
Remember though that while Gauss CAN deal with tanks, it isn't guaranteed to do so, and can take a while. You only get the glance on a 6, so unless your opponent is rolling really hot its going to take quite a bit of massed fire to down a single tank. Which leaves the big question of 'Is he running a Triarch Stalker / Destroyer Cult?' If he's sticking mainly to warriors, jetbikes, and other lighter guns, then lower AV tanks can be just as good because no matter what you're only getting glances.

Watch out for heavy destroyers, stalkers, or other high power weapons if you're fielding lighter tanks - gauss might be a threat to any vehicle, but Necrons will gladly give you a solid pen and blow up your tank if need be. The downside is massed guardsmen are fairly solid against these low weight of fire models.

Engage in melee when you can, but accept that you'll probably not have a unit *leave* melee unless they're really good at fighting. Non-dedicated CC Necrons generally don't have a high volume of attacks to break CC, but generally doing enough damage to beat them is rough.

Not sure the tanks will do fine, but I will try some LRBTs if I have a chance. If I use them, I may hide them behind the cover or in the blob of meat shield guards.


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 RazgrizOne wrote:
Greatbigtree has said it all but I'd add some details.

To beat the Necrons with IG, too much cheese is never enough.

- I'm a fond of Earthshaker Artillery carriages + orders. With a priest/commissar with them, these guys will never miss an order and would issue big plate Ordnance 1 S9 AP3 Ignore Cover shots that are always a good thing. You will also roll 2D6 and keep the highest result against armour. Use your artillery to pound them at range and destroy their most dangerous units like Ghost Arks (these would murder anything if they come at Rapid Fire range), Destroyers and so. FW artillery platforms are more competitive than Leman Russes IMO; they are dirt cheap (75pts), durable and would not suffer from stuff like Crew Shaken. Plus you'll never be out of range so you don't really need the (limited) speed of a tank.
- Manticores are nice too if you are lucky and don't forget the Wyvern, one of the best units of our codex .

When you got them softened up, you can assault their footslogging units and damaged vehicules with:

- DS units (Scions with Meltas/Plasmaguns) and Vets/ SWS in Valks/Vendettas. Used as suicide squads, these guys can seriously threaten any Necron Vehicule since they can bypass Quantic Armour and shoot their rear.
- Flyers with LC can be good if you avoid Rapid FIre Gauss and seek for weak spots.

If you neutralize their support early with limited losses, you will be able to focus your fire on slower and softer infantry units latter. Obviously, no battle against Crons never happen so perfectly but I think it is the line to follow.

When it comes to kill their grunts, nothing is better than mass of fire and that's fine because this is what IG do best :
- A hundred guardsmen FRFSRF-ing is hard to weather, especially when your support has been removed of the table earlier. Respect the 2'' separation between models, use cover wisely and don't hesitate to fix them in place with Commissar/Priest-led squads while the rest of your infantry secure the objective.
- Template weapons like flamers can be nasty if you ever come at range. Just like an Outflanking Hellhound or a Banewolf (with its 2+ to Wound AP3 template). Situational but useful to clear enemy DSers and couter-attack.
- Use cheap Divination Psykers to ehance your accuracy, have a look on Inquisition Allies in the said codex to add some exotic anti-alien stuff and Stubborn Characters to your infantry.
- Talking about mass of fire, you can blindly take a Vulture Gunship from FW : for 155pts, you got a BS4 Vector Dancer vehicule issuing 20 TL S5 AP- shots at 24'', which is hardly beatable for any army in the game. And this beast has plenty of other configurations you might be interested in.

To conclude :
- Maintain heavy pressure with your artillery while striking accurately with specialized units. He would be forced to rush for the objectives just to be welcomed by your infantry.
- Never think you will table them and don't even try to do it. Select your targets very carefully; force multipliers like Arks and Spyders are top priorities and then Destroyers and maybe Flyers.
- Forget the "elite" IG army with limited numbers of Guardsmen.
- Last but not least: play objectives.

Hope it will helps.

Thank you very much for the detailed explanations and suggestions. I will try to follow your view. Guardsmen line + priest , lots of arty, tanks / hellhounds + meat shield guards, and maybe consider Vulture gunship. I wish to stay in pure AM, but if it is desperate, I may consider inquisitors as allies.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

Martel732 wrote:
Get some primaris psykers and lay down as much misfortune and 4++ invulns as you can.

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
A 4++ WOULD help the durability of your vehicles considerably.

Ok, I will put some psykers in the future list. Thanks


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 raverrn wrote:
9 Wyverns.

Thanks is too much wyverns Well, I will try to mix with FW arty carriages.

Thank you very much for the detailed explanations and suggestions. I will try to follow your view. Guardsmen line + priest , lots of arty, tanks / hellhounds + meat shield guards, and maybe consider Vulture gunship. I wish to stay in pure AM, but if it is desperate, I may consider inquisitors as allies.

You're welcome. This is no panacea because you'll have to face a mountain of metallic cheese.

Oh, and we don't really say AM. Saying 'Imperial Guard' will bring you more luck

I wonder how massed mech would fare?
Gauss has to throw down a ridiculous amount of shots just to hope for a single glance (very inefficient) so it's typically never relied on for primary anti vehicle duty and is usually only used as cleanup/backup to strip final remaining hull points after the actual anti-AV (eg. Stalkers, Heavy Destroyers, etc.) has done its job... but if they haven't brought any dedicated anti-AV and only have the bare minimum required Warrior/Immortal allotment, then they're not going to be able to handle a table full of tanks.

 RazgrizOne wrote:

Thank you very much for the detailed explanations and suggestions. I will try to follow your view. Guardsmen line + priest , lots of arty, tanks / hellhounds + meat shield guards, and maybe consider Vulture gunship. I wish to stay in pure AM, but if it is desperate, I may consider inquisitors as allies.

You're welcome. This is no panacea because you'll have to face a mountain of metallic cheese.

Oh, and we don't really say AM. Saying 'Imperial Guard' will bring you more luck

I really love your last mention regarding the glorious Imperial Guard. I will follow for more luck


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 skoffs wrote:
I wonder how massed mech would fare?
Gauss has to throw down a ridiculous amount of shots just to hope for a single glance (very inefficient) so it's typically never relied on for primary anti vehicle duty and is usually only used as cleanup/backup to strip final remaining hull points after the actual anti-AV (eg. Stalkers, Heavy Destroyers, etc.) has done its job... but if they haven't brought any dedicated anti-AV and only have the bare minimum required Warrior/Immortal allotment, then they're not going to be able to handle a table full of tanks.

My friend definitely has some Stalkers and Destroyers. I'm not sure what he will bring to the table in our "friendly" match for "friendship", but I guess he will try to be balanced. Or he may try royalcourt and bakery, who knows.... I just wish to prepare for general situation as IG against Necrons. But it seems really challenging. I will try some tanks though, try to keep max range fire. Maybe under some proper arty fire support and proper positioning behind cover, tanks would hit home run. Thanks

 skoffs wrote:
I wonder how massed mech would fare?
Gauss has to throw down a ridiculous amount of shots just to hope for a single glance (very inefficient) so it's typically never relied on for primary anti vehicle duty and is usually only used as cleanup/backup to strip final remaining hull points after the actual anti-AV (eg. Stalkers, Heavy Destroyers, etc.) has done its job... but if they haven't brought any dedicated anti-AV and only have the bare minimum required Warrior/Immortal allotment, then they're not going to be able to handle a table full of tanks.

It doesn't really work. My buddy plays necrons primarily for fun but still uses some of the good detachments from time to time. If you spam mech vets they may not be able to wipe out vehicles each turn but your also not putting out lots of shots. If you're running a chimera with multi laser and heavy bolter there's a good chance you're gunna fire the heavy bolter at full bs so you remove one of his saves. The multi lasers still allow the 4+,4++ double saves. Las gun arrays will do the same as the multi laser except they won't wound as easily. Then as you fire only 2 weapons out the top hatch the crons are still getting 4++ from rp. If your firing melta your in his rapid fire range then and he's probably going to light your vehicle up the next turn. Melta means he's got a 5++ next turn while the plasma is still grants 4++ save.

As for blast russes and wyverns. I typically run an eradicator with heavy bolter hull and sponsons as its a great xenos killing tank and I do still like to run the standard battle tank. Both russes are great against crons. The battle tank has great range and doesn't have to get close to the gauss shots to be threatened. The battle cannon also removes it's 4+ save and makes its rp5++ on his standard units. The eradicator gets rid of one save and their rp will still be 4++ but it does ignore cover saves which the battle cannon lacks. The battle cannon also has a chance of penning the vehicles that have that 13 armor, needs a 6 on 2d6 but with your range it's a shot I would certainly take.

The wyverns still grant 4+,4++ double save. So you have to stack lots of wounds for them to be successful.

Now for the wyverns and blast russes. The issue then comes down to if your opponent spaces out the maximum 2". If he does the effectiveness of all your blasts go down as your possibly only hitting 3-4 models. Wyverns now will do little to no damage but they are still cheap enough to take.

The battle tank needs to do a lot more damage to really make its points back. The eradicator with heavy bolter sponsons actually will wound a little bit more on top of its large blast but make sure you don't get too close.

I'll second the Hellhound suggestion. Two or three will cause some serious problems for Warriors and Scarabs. Even with RP their survivability drops to only 50% at best, which is about the best you can hope for. They also deal with jetbikes of all sorts very well, and put wounds on other things. Also, if you feel saucy, the Vindicare assassin is extremely good at dealing with all the Necron force multipliers.

Friendly reminder: if your goal is to try to kill all the Warriors, you're gonna have a bad time.

(do IG have any fast units that can get into CC quickly? Preferably with ObSec. They don't have to be good at combat, necessarily, they just need to be able to tie up Warriors and not immediately die (which, seeing as how they're only S4 AP- A1, shouldn't be too difficult). Basically, if you've stopped their troops from moving or shooting, you've essentially remove them from the game, as far as being useful goes. I repeat: the goal is not to kill them, just to tarpit. Doesn't matter with what, so long as it can survive a few rounds of combat against mediocre offence).

Eh, that's dependent on who gets the charge. People will overlook the Relentless bonus. I manage to charge my Warriors all the time. Arks are open-topped but VERY durable.

Hi there. In a 1500 point game you should add to the list the emperors wrath artillery company formation from warzone damocles.

1 command squad in a chimera or taurox
1 enginseer
1 manticore
1basilisk
1 hydra

It's about 500 points and allows you to give ignore cover orders to any of these tanks and they get twin linked if they shoot at one enemy unit of your choice that is in 18 inches of one of your own units that has vox caster. Whatever points you have extra, just keep adding more basilisks and use the ignore cover order and twin linking to wreck everything. To make it even better, just add another company command squad in a chimera/taurox, or a tank commander, to upgrade to the hammer of the emperor detachment and that lets you issue three orders with the command squads from this detachment at 24 inches using three dice.

For troop choices and just more bodies, the same book has really nice formation choices that should fit in the 1500 points limit, especially the one with three veteran squads that get objective secured and preferred enemy.

For allies, I'd bring a inquisitor in terminator armor with a priest, psyker, some power axe crusaders and as many death cult assassins with power sword and axe combo as can fit in a land raider crusader and just dump them in whatever is his strongest melee unit.

My favourite unit at the moment is from the imperial armour book is a manticore missile weapon platform with camo netting.

Three off these in a unit firing a barrage is going to make some big holes in the opponents army

 skoffs wrote:
do IG have any fast units that can get into CC quickly? ...they don't have to be good at combat, necessarily, they just need to be able to tie up Warriors and not immediately die (which, seeing as how they're only S4 AP- A1, shouldn't be too difficult).

Sentinels are probably a good option. And since they are so flimsy, Gauss isn't nearly as valuable against their mediocre AV.

I think its been mentioned above but arty is your best friend... Thudd Guns are great for sheer numbers of wounds, same as wyverns but if you aren't careful they can get gaussed to death... earthshaker/medusa carriages etc all these are great for tearing through Necron phalanxes - sure you get nice saves but lets see you save 100 - It works for me... good luck whichever way you go...

Special mention for Manticores ... Has anyone noticed all Guard arty tanks are named after mythical beasts?

I am a necron player and what would frighten me is as many bodies as you can put on the table. Necrons are an anti-elite force, I have struggled with mob armies.

Lots of platoons to go forward with orders, carrying heavy flamers if you can. At least four or five platoons of lascanons to pop necron vehicles early on. I really wouldn't bring much armour, necrons excel at popping it. Bodies. Lots of bodies. Those superb guass weapons are just wasted on a 4pt guardsman.

Ffyllotek wrote:
I really wouldn't bring much armour, necrons excel at popping it.

Really?
Excel at popping armor, do we?
While i must admit Cult Heavy Destroyers are pretty good at that job, they're only single shot on a unit incapable of splitfire. So at most that's only one vehicle a turn. If someone rolls up with mass tanks, as Guard are known to do, there's not a hell of a lot Necrons are going to be able to do to deal with that apart from, what, aiming Warriors at them and hoping for sixes? Not exactly something most experienced players are going to find worrying...