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Coming back from a couple of campaign games against the store owners Necrons, I noticed that he had become extremely frustrated trying to kill my TMC's I had a walking Tyrant, a Flyrant, and Two Gunfexes in a 1500 point game against his Monolith, 6 destroyers, Lord w/veil +eight immortals, and several warrior squads.  After he vaporized all of my small critters, the Fantastic Four stomped all over him, even one of the gunfexes had managed to get close enough to charge a unit with the walking Tyrant and knocked out his deepstruck Monolith in CC.  He just didn't have the firepower to down them.

  My question is,  what options do Necrons have against TMC's?  I want help the guy out, but all I could suggest was heavy destroyers.  I'd rather he have a fighting chance and a close game than forcing him to give up in turn five with his destroyers shot to death and his foot troops backed into a corner.

Not too much he really can do. Necrons don't have much in the way of high strength options and nothing else will do against the big nids. The short answers for him are play a different army or don't play at all.

The slightly more reasonable options would be something like wraiths. Lots of strength 6 attacks that are virtualy garenteed to get there and that also have a 3+ I save could help out.

Are they not very expensive though?
They didn't look too great to me- S6 is all well and good until he makes all his saves.

How about his very own "big nid" in the form of the Nightbringer?
(I have never played Necrons so my advice might be rubbish)

What I would do in a one off game would be different than what I would do in a tournament situation. Either C'Tan, or even Pariahs would be a choice for a one-off. In a tournament, I'd be Destroyer heavy, and just try and ensure they never reach my lines.

The best list I've seen was one that was at the Vegas GT for Necrons. I think it's actually the 'Crons best matchup vs. Nidzilla, but it's questionable vs other armies.

Deciever - The Cheaper, Better C'Tan. Instead of never being assaulted by just things that are naturally S3 or less, he just flat out leaves assault and moves 2D6" away from whatever hit him, in any direction he wishes. It'd be funny to watch your opponent try to assault the Deciever with the Flyrant or well, anything, only for you to leave CC with 2D6" movement closer to his big bugs and then your movement+Charge the next turn.

20 Warriors - Because you have to.

Orb/Veil Lord - Warrior insurance

2x5 Destroyers - You take these for other armies, vs. Zilla, shoot them at dakka fex's and whatever small bugs he's running.

3x2 Heavy Destroyers - Shoot at Flyrant and Heavy Fex's and run away from anything that gets close.

It all adds up to 1750 and I think it's the best thing that Necrons got to take out a Zilla list.

Posted By Da Boss on 07/05/2007 10:44 AM
Are they not very expensive though?
They didn't look too great to me- S6 is all well and good until he makes all his saves.

How about his very own "big nid" in the form of the Nightbringer?
(I have never played Necrons so my advice might be rubbish)

I think the wraiths have a couple of things going for them.  The most obvious is S6 and lots of attacks.  But there are a few other factors to consider.  The first is exactly how bad gun fexs are in hand to hand.  Sure they have good saves and high strength, but they have stupid low I and (as I remember) only 2 attacks.  So that should mean that you can stay in hand to hand with it for ever and not worry about your expensive unit getting shot to bits by the nids.  In addition that gun fex can't shoot while its in hand to hand.  The other thing is their speed.  Since wraiths move very fast and ignore terrain, it shouldn't be too hard to get them into hand to hand before the fexs can even shoot (at least the 2 twin linked devourer versions).  So give it some thought.

As far as the C'tan go, they could work.  What you will need to think about with them though is survivability and speed.  The C'tan is very very slow so getting into hand to hand will be difficult if your opponent tries to avoid it.  In addition the huge slew of high strength shots that the nids can put out (re rolling hits and wounds) have a decent chance of killing a C'tan before it can make it to hand to hand.  So I would think twice before I brought one to the field against nids.

My son plays Nids and I play Necrons so I feel for the 'Cron player.

My son's list:

Flyyrant
Shoot-tyrant with 2 guards
Shoot-flex
2x10 genesteelers
3 zoanthorps
2 Lictors
~12 gaunts

The only list that stands a chance against him:

Lord with veil
Nightbringer
10 Pariah
3 wraiths
20 warriors
3 Hvy Destoryers
Either destroyers or Immortals

The HDs focus on the flyrant.
The nightbringer and pariah work together on the genesteelers.
The lord can port the warriors out of CC.
The wraiths tie up the shoot flex.

About this time the lictors pop in and kill something I really needed and the zoanthorps finish off my HQs.

It's all down hill from there...

Perhaps a combo of wraiths and C'tan is the answer. The wraiths pin down the big guys and keep them from shooting long enough for the C'tan to get up there to finish them off. Sound like a plan?

Depends on what's running as the "little'unz" in the Zilla list. If he's got stealers or even gaunts really, he can counter charge and down the wraiths easy. You don't need rending or anything, just lots of attacks and the wraiths go down. And if he fails his saves on the TMC swinging, then they don't get back up.

All of the nid players I know feel crons are a cakewalk for a zilla army.

They just don't have what is needed to take it down.

Nine Heavy Destroyers, 15 Destroyers, 20 warriors, and a Lord with  a Veil will TOTALLY out manouver a nidzilla list.

 

The Heavy Destroyers should focuss-fire into one monsterous creature at a time, starting with the fastest/closest. Make sure you kill one thing a turn. The normal destoryers and warriors should be used for anti-horde tactics and taking shots of opportunity at monsterous creatures. Keep moving and stay out of line-of-sight of the the big-bugs as much as possible.

There was a "different" necron list posted a while ago, with the heavy choices maxed out with tomb spyders.  The fast attacks were teeming with scarabs. 

The spyders aren't high in WS, but compared to the fexes, it isn't a bad matchup.  having 3 on 1's going on should do some damage, I would think.

ZF-

Especially if they have disruption fields for the T7 'fexen.

A fex is not a vehicle.... no effect.

Tomb spiders might not be a bad idea. They are only, what, 50 points, IIRC? not bad for taking on shooty fexes, espcially if they gang up on them.

I always thought that a good tactic may be to take a bunch of scarabs and use them to just tie up the big bugs and focus all other firepower on the little bugs and dakka fexes. A squad of 10 scarabs should hold up a big shooty bug the entire game failry easily. Let them chew on the scarabs, killing less than one a turn, and you should be able to win through straight VP's. The only problem with that is if he just counter charges the little buggers and then you cant shoot anything.

No matter what, it is a tough match up though. Maybe a destroyer lord with a warscythe and invul save to take out the gunfexes?

Dakka fexes will kill 5 scarabs a turn from shooting (assuming in range) a sniperfex should get 4 a turn.

th atis a good point, but scarabs are SO much faster and move like jet bikes, i would say that they should have pretty good odds of getting a turn 2 or 3 charge with minimal exposure to fire.

I was discussing the topic with a necron player and he had a strategy that he claims is effective versus nidzilla. I have not seen it used, but this is his claim:
10 scarabs ties up one gunfex
3 wraiths and lord w/ destroyer body attacks a second gunfex
6 heavy destroyers targets the flyrant
5 destroyers target the genestealers/gaunts
20 warriors and lord w/ veil hop around shooting/staying out of trouble
2 tomb spyders

Obviously this requires getting the first turn, 2 rounds of shooting from the nids would do enough to reduce the crons staying power effectiveness in assault if those units suffer casualties prior to hth. What do you think? Sound theory or pipedream?

Posted By coredump on 07/20/2007 11:17 AM
A fex is not a vehicle.... no effect.

I do believe that the second part of the "gauss" ability is that a wound will be scored on a roll of a "6" to wound, even if it is not normally possible to wound, in the case of S3 vs. T7, for instance.

ForceVoid

It is, but disruption fields don't give the gauss affect to your CC attacks. They just allow you to glance a vehicle on a 6. Similar but different.

Oh, thanks for the catch!

Posted By cuda1179 on 07/20/2007 8:17 AM

 The normal destoryers and warriors should be used for anti-horde tactics and taking shots of opportunity at monsterous creatures. Keep moving and stay out of line-of-sight of the the big-bugs as much as possible.

Regular destroyers are murder on Dakkafexes.  Like always, they should be the primary target.  The heavies should go for the flying tyrant then anything with a 2+ save (Then the dakkafexes). 

I've faced a destroyer flying circus with my zillas before.  Was the hardest game that I ever had with them, and I got some lucky rolls in (rather, unlucky for him.  Kept on pinning some of his heavy destroyers.) and won though.