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Hi guys,
I had a game today against necrons and his Monolith turned out t be one tough bastard.
The rest of his army (consisting mainly of two larger blocks of Warriors) was hiding all the game and the monolith hovered forward wreaking havoc in my lines.

Short rundown of my list:

Avatar
Farseer
Fire dragons with Falcon
2x Dire avengers
Jetbikesquad with speerlock
Pathfinders
Dark Reapers (Exarch fast shot missle launcher)
Wraithlord (Brightlance/Missle launcher)

He also had a small unit of destoyers which i pounded with my Dark reapers in the first turn, two died after teleporting through the monolith, the last one later.

You have to realize that I blasted everything which could hurt him (mainly S8 weaponry, though) at his monolith, but it shrugged it off (i managed one crew stunned result, but what for?)

The one squad of his warriors (with orb lord in it) was marching along the side behind size three terrain, the other was hiding in the last corner behind size three terrain and waited till Turn 5 to teleport via veil in my deployment zone (which was the mission, recon?). I don't really know what I could have done differently. Maybe I should have marched aggressively towards his Warriors on the right flank which were coming to me and steamroll his units aside. But the Monolith was directly in the middle of the board so difficult to avoid.

In the last turn my falcon destroyed it with a lucky pulse laser shot, but before that it wasn't possible to roll a single 6 for armor penetration.

Maybe you have so advises for me.

Greets
Schepp himself

Wraithcannon and dcannon are about the only reliable ways that eldar have of penetrating the monolith, along with a singing spear.

Um, don't worry about the monlith at all. Just kill the rest of the army. The monolith just represents points that will phase out when you kill enough necs.

Otherwise I would suggest just putting your wraithlord on it and assault it. (I know you only hit on 6's but then you hit at S10) and throw your spear at it. This shouldn't take too many of your points away from killing regular necs.

You might consider using a vibro cannon battery (even one will autoglance on a to hit roll of 4) or some swooping hawks. Of this is a regular opponent then this can really help.

Orion

V-cannons (mentioned by Orion) are the best solution IMO. They won't kill it the quickest, to be sure, but they are the most points efficient, least risky way of taking it down. Most conventional tank-busting in the Eldar armoury is better off being directed at the skellies to try for phase out. As far as other unconventional methods are concerned, Wraithguard are too expensive and Hawks will usually all die if they fail (and often even if they succeed).

Swooping Hawks. Intercept means they hit it on a 4+ and special grenades to penetrate it.

BTW, Crew Stunned on a Monolith prevents the 12" guns from firing.

Units that can hurt the monolith the most; have such severe drawbacks that one can not take them in a tight competative list; most have been mentioned.

I've played a few games against necrons with my eldar. The first game this year I ran my wraithlords with brightlances into combat with it. I had eldrad with a witchblade, 6 fire dragons, 2 spearlok jetbike units, a falcon and wave serpent with a brightlance. From turn 2 until turn 5, I hammered on that thing and I never damaged it. In the meanwhile I lost my harlequins, my fire dragons, my jetbike unit, lost some wounds on the wraithlords and the wave serpent crashed too. On turn 6, the rest of his army marched up on my deployment zone and in one turn I turned all my firepower on his necrons and very nearly pulled a tie. We played another game right after, and I ignored the monolith entirely. He phased out after my turn 3. I've played Necrons a few more times since, they can be a tough match. You only go after the monolith if you have absolutely nothing better to do (including running away)

*** The lessson learned is that Eldar do not kill monoliths, you kill the Necrons, you get the phase out and that gets you the monolith. ***

 

You don't want to see what a Monolith does to the Eldar army with gauss flux arcs when you don't kill it.

Fire Dragons are the best way in terms of points-efficiency in a legitimate list (no d-cannons, vibro cannons or other such crap) combined with singing spears.

I don't recall of Swooping hawks get Haywire grenades, but if they do, their hit-vehicles-on-a-4+ would be your best bet really. Small squad of swooping hawks would give you pretty damned good odds. Assuming they get haywire grenades which I think they do.

fyi - a squad of hawks costs a lot less than a monolith. Their odds of blowing it up (e.g. explodes and kills them) are not terribly good, but even if they do and you lose half of them, it's still a good trade.

Of course Hawks get Haywire Grens. It's probably more than half of their reason for existing.

Yes, blowing up a Monolith at the cost of half a squad of Hawks is a good trade. The problem is that that's pretty much a best case scenario, and there are many other possible outcomes to that which are mediocre to terrible trades. Don't get me wrong, Hawks are good at the role (if not much else. . .), but it's risky, that's all.

Ok,
Thanks for all the ideas first and foremost.
I use this list "tournament-style" so no gearing towards necrons or tyranids or whatever.
Therefore I don't think that I want to use swooping haws, first because they aren't the best allround choice imo, and second, because I don't like their style (I prefer Warp Spiders).

In this game, the Monolith was pretty much in the centre of the table slowly slmbering towards my lines while the rest of the army was either a) completely hiding (as in the far end corner, unreachable with my rather slow eldar force) or b) behind heavier cover.
I realize now that I should have used every gunshot at his warriors slightly exposed and should have tried to avoid the monolith all together, but I didn't thought it would be that hard.

First game against necrons, though, and apparently, I lerned my lesson well.

Thanks for the input!

Greets
Schepp himself

Not bad, i haven't thought about that before... Sadly I don't have any Prisms.

I ended the game with a draw, just for your information, so I drama queen a bit.

Greets
Schepp himself

Fire prism v. monolith is a horrible idea. Necrons have no problems at all denying you shots with glancing hits. You'll get maybe half your shots, and rarely ever two simultaneously...and you have to give up falcons.

Noe sir.

I think that the ignoring plan is the best way to go too. I know, however, that I have a devil of a time not firing an Exorcist or two at such an imposing model!

I feel your pain man. Few battles of "I know I shouldn't, but I desperately want to!" are as difficult as that.

Posted By Longshot on 09/11/2007 1:48 PM
Fire prism v. monolith is a horrible idea. Necrons have no problems at all denying you shots with glancing hits. You'll get maybe half your shots, and rarely ever two simultaneously...and you have to give up falcons.

Noe sir.

Weren't you just a few posts before suggesting swooping hawks? Fire Prisms are an entirely viable choice. But I wouldn't take 2 fire prisms just to kill a monolith. With that said in tournament play I generally run 1 fire prism.

I have used fire prisms on occasion and I really like them, there are just a few other things I usually like more. And as far as a balanced list to prepare for any opponent Vibro cannons are completely viable in tourney play. Especially coupled with Eldrad so you can move them after your opponents deployment to ensure nailing the vehicles you want. And hitting multiple units for d6 S6 shots ain't too shabby.

Orion

Speaking from a necron players perpective I find that ignoring a monolith is a bad idea for an Eldar player. The gauss flux arc doesn't just hurt it quickly destroys anything thats not a vehicle in pretty much one turn. Also I find that swooping hawks are the bane of its existance if it cant kill them before they get to close bye bye monolith. If you cant fit them into your list and do plan to ignore monoliths I would suggest spreading out to minimise the damage of the flux arc.

Well guided Fire dragons ought to do the job.

Did you remember that fusion guns are AP1 and thus always penertrate?

Rgds

I know they have been discussed and dismissed as too expensive but I run wraithguard in my eldar army (not enough else painted) and our local necron player is terrified of ever putting his monolith anywhere near them.

I would say that it's probably the most reliable way of killing it (in the game not just for eldar).

Then again I usually run a squad of 6/7 with warlock, with singing spear.

You could keep 3 as a body guard unit for your farseer (If you have one in your list) in the centre of your lines and if he does DS his monolith, it's at his own risk. It would make him think twice though.

The only other way I've had any success with is the firedragons (don't own swooping hawks). AP1 is very nice.

I have experienced the Monolith DS into my fire base and pretty much wiping out half my army. It's not nice and something you can't ignore.

Oh damn, I forgot the AP1 part... I just thought everything was just basic S and nothing else.

One little idea came to my mind today: what about tank hunter with my fire dragons? It's 27 points more expensive with my standard 5 man squad and it gives the monolith some serious trouble, namely doubling the chances to penetrate it.

Greets
Schepp himself

IIRC, Tank Hunter does not work against Monoliths. I believe this is what really hurt Chaos Havocs w/ Autcannons.

The AP1 is pretty critical with Melta Guns.
Hawks if you can fit them into an army (I can't, unfortunately)
Warlocks w/ Singing Spears.

Although Wraithguard sound useful, it's pretty easy to avoid them unless they are in a Wave Serpent, and that starts to sound expensive. Better off with Fire Dragons in my opinion. (No mathammer to back this up, just personal feeling).

I also find the same problems with my own Eldar. Necrons are simply the hardest army for me to defeat at this point.

Sarigar is right. No TH bonus against the 'lith.

Fire Dragons are a decent solution, but only because they're cheap enough to lose. Their actual chances of taking it out are not so hot (3+ to hit, 6 to pen, 6 shots. . . meh).