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New player entered our local gaming community and is the first necron player (over 14) I will be facing.  I have a pretty good selection of models to choose from so any advice is golden and appreciated.

You need a team of Broadsides with ASS to take on any monoliths, and the other two Heavy slots should be Ion Cannon Hammerheads as they are really good against Destroyers.
Crisis with plasma/missile are the next best thing as they can take on destroyers and infantry well.

If you have any pts left over after that then Vespid can be used nicely against Immortals that teleport too close, although they will die right afterwards. Kroot can be used as a counter-attack threat, but most necrons are really bothered by cc as they can teleport out again.

Thats it really, a team of BASS, 2 Ionheads and FK spam. If your opponent uses more than one 'lith then you can always drop an Ionhead for another BASS team. If you go with two BASS teams then Farsight is really good as you aren't losing anything, but gain a kick-ass CC unit.

It depends how he builds and plays his list, but Tau have a lot going for them against Necrons.

Necrons are a mid ranged shooty army that's very hard to kill. Tau are a very shooty army at all ranges, that are fragile. Unless either of your lists departs from that stereotype, you should be able to shoot him off the table. This will be particularly true with a suit heavy list, as the bulk of his troops are very slow, and you can pick them apart.

Railheads are about as good a Monolith killer as you can get. Broadsides are nice as well, but easier to avoid. Ionheads are certainly going to be great against Destroyers, their statline is perfectly tailored for the job, but I'm guessing you're like most players and have a Railhead or two.

The main threat I'd worry about would be VoDing Immortals getting around cover to shoot up your suits, and Destroyers moving to compromise that cover. The key there will be to keep other units around, perhaps some Kroot, who can hit the shooters. He'd have to be pretty dopey to let you get some Kroot into his Immortals or Destroyers, but if you could, you'd come out nicely for it. Otherwise, I the best plan would be to keep your units spaced so that if anything moves to pick on a unit, everyone else can attack it en mass.

A good trick with Necrons is to watch for a unit to stray from the others, and then lay everything you can into it. With no Necrons of the same type around, you can deny a whole unit WBB rolls. Tomb Spiders effect this rule, so be aware of them.

As always with Necrons, learn all the WBB and Phase Out rules, and keep them in mind every turn. Where's his Orb, where are his Spiders, who's within 18" of the Monolith, etc. etc. I can't tell you how many times I've played people who didn't seem to even know the Necron rules, and were all dumbfounded when stuff would stand up after getting shot down, disappear from combat, ignore their melta weapons, whatever.

Railheads are good against the monolith, however Necrons are masters at keeping tanks shaken for the whole game, I don't think there is a single army better at it than them. And if your tanks are shaken they can't shoot the 'lith. Broadsides however cannot be shaken and Necrons have a really big problem dealing with 2+ saves, so your BASS aren't likely to die.
Two units of 2 BASS are also really hard to outmaneuver.

If you do take them then you really need Kroot to keep stuff like wraiths, scarabs, etc out of cc. That really is the main reason to take Kroot, keep the small things away from your units.

Another good reason to take BASS is they way they kill Destroyers if there is no Res Orb nearby.  I would even be tempted to take 3x2 BASS and just blow the destroyers out of the sky, even if there is a Res Orb.

Thanks for the tips!!  Another quick question or two;  I have the option of using an Ionhead or the Skyray, which tends to be more effective? (I know I lose 1 shot with the Ray but st is increased as well as range and accuracy)  As well, I don't have Broadsides yet, would Sniper Drones and/or Railrifle pathfinders suffice?

I would be inclined to recommend two teams of 3 Broadside suits with gun & shield drones. Let them shoot at you, let them have to shoot through your drones at long range.

Back them up with some sniper drones, the best way to kill destroyers in my opinion.

I listed HS first as this is the real core of your army.

Now help their aim with some Pathfinders (full team of eight). Possibly get two teams.

Add a Commander and plenty of fire Warriors and battlesuits of your choice.

Don't bother with any vehicles except the mandatory Devilfish for your Pathfinders.

Shoot the destroyers first. the get to work on the brick.

Anything with a 4+ save will die in droves to 'crons, so FW and PFs are a really bad idea. Destroyers will shred them. You're much better off spending those pts on Crisis suits.



Hmm, the Skyray won't help you much. Then I'd almost be inclined to take 3 Hammerheads with Ion Cannons and just focus on phasing out the necrons. Keep your army spread out and when/if 'liths arrive just run away from them.
You really need to get some Broadsides, they've become a really good alternative to Hammerheads now.
Don't bother with stuff like sniper drones, pathfinders, Firewarriors, etc. It all just distracts from the units that are really good: Hammerheads, Broadsides and Crisis.

Sorry, got to disagre with you there.

Pathfinders are needed to make the heavy support shooting count.

Broadsides yes, but Hammerheads are just waiting to die. I also recommend against ASS, the 'expose yourself only to the target' principle works against most armies, but not Necrons as they tend to clump together.

Sniper drones dont have a good save but they do have good range and can't easily be shot, which counts for more iMHO.

As for Fire warriors, they are survivable enough, most Necron guns are Ap5 and the destroyers have far more important targets. I would rely on the fact that the your HS (including Pathfinders) are long range sit at the back types, so long range Necron guns cant afford to shoot the basic Fire Warriors. Back them up with Fireknife or stealthsuits and you are ready to face the bots.

If you have the model flexibility, which it seems that you probably don't, you want to stay away from vehicles. The standard mech tau list suffers against necrons because there are simply too many ways for necrons to glance vehicles, since all of their weapons can do that.

The better alternative is to increase the number of 2+ and 3+ saves, since necrons have only 2 weapons that are AP 3 (particle whip, staff of light), one weapon that is AP 2 (heavy gauss cannon from the heavy destroyer), and one weapon that is AP 1 (particle whip, for whatever is under the hole of the template). The rest of the weapons are AP4 and AP5.

If I were to build a tau list from scratch to deal with necrons, it'd include at least two squads of broadsides (my preference is the TL plasma guns instead of the SMS) with the ASS and two shield drones, two full squads of fireknifes with a single shield drone to round them out to 4 models, and a full squad of stealth suits.

As a parting note, the one thing you absolutely need is a plan to deal with VoD when a lord shows up with 10 immortals in your rear.