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Evening all,
Decided that my next pay cheque is going to have a portion set aside to start a Necron army. I had a few plans, but the main areas I need help on are HQ's and Heavy Support. I don't have the codex, so any Necron players that could roughly tally up the points for me would be appreciated.
But this is what I came up with:
Troops: 3x Necron Warriors. Not sure how many Warriors to have in a squad.
Fast Attack: Destroyers, I've heard 3 is a good number, I'm unsure though.
Scarabs, I was thinking 8 bases.
Elites: Necron Immortals, again unsure about numbers.
Heavy Support: I was thinking about Heavy Destroyers, I'm told Monoliths are quite overrated, but IDK.

Any advice would be ace, I don't know how effective the other things like Pariahs, Tomb Spiders, Wraiths etc are, so tips on how effective they are would be good.

Cheers all

Some random tips from a Necron player who has played a lot of games at GW against random people but has not played in almost a year due to irl school...feth! :

-Be sure to take a res orb on your necron lord.
-Lots of warriors are good.
-I don't think monoliths are overrated. You'll be hurting a bit if it gets popped on the first turn (this happened to me about 1/20 games) but not out. I've found it incredibly useful for being scary and also as the anchor of an army. Ah crap, my warriors got charged by something..oh it's my turn now? Re-roll wbb by teleporting the warriors to the monolith and rapid fire whatever just charged you.
-I would not recommend heavy destroyers. Mass fire of warriors/immortals/destroyers is enough to cripple a vehicle so that it will never do anything. However, in the new rules edition glaceing hits won't kill vehicles so heavy destroyers may have some use yet.
-Pariahs are considered one of the worst units in the game. Wraiths are also fairly ineffective for their point cost, although I've always wanted to try to make a CC necron for fun. If you are using lots of warriors/immortals/scarabs/etc (typical necron army) I would advise against them.
-Set aside some of that paycheck and BUY THE RULE BOOK. Buy it on eBay used if you are concerned about $$$. But it is pretty vital you have this.

I recommend waiting until a new codex comes out. The new codex is rumour to be due within the year. It pays to wait because you can spend your money on the army more eficiently, especially if there are brand new units or current units get neutered to worthlessness.
I don't mean to discourage you, but this point definetly needs to be added since any advice you get here can become worthless in under a years time.

SuperCow wrote:Some random tips from a Necron player who has played a lot of games at GW against random people but has not played in almost a year due to irl school...feth! :

-Be sure to take a res orb on your necron lord.
-Lots of warriors are good.
-I don't think monoliths are overrated. You'll be hurting a bit if it gets popped on the first turn (this happened to me about 1/20 games) but not out. I've found it incredibly useful for being scary and also as the anchor of an army. Ah crap, my warriors got charged by something..oh it's my turn now? Re-roll wbb by teleporting the warriors to the monolith and rapid fire whatever just charged you.
-I would not recommend heavy destroyers. Mass fire of warriors/immortals/destroyers is enough to cripple a vehicle so that it will never do anything. However, in the new rules edition glaceing hits won't kill vehicles so heavy destroyers may have some use yet.
-Pariahs are considered one of the worst units in the game. Wraiths are also fairly ineffective for their point cost, although I've always wanted to try to make a CC necron for fun. If you are using lots of warriors/immortals/scarabs/etc (typical necron army) I would advise against them.
-Set aside some of that paycheck and BUY THE RULE BOOK. Buy it on eBay used if you are concerned about $$$. But it is pretty vital you have this.

I agree with quite a bit of what SuperCow said but I would also like to contend a few of his points. In my experience there are two main types of Necron armies that are relatively common, The Warrior Phalanx and The Destroyer Wing. In the phalanx you have what SuperCow describes, plenty of warriors, lords with res orbs, Monoliths for support and a few destroyers thrown in for long range fire power as they are the only things that shoot over 24". Under 5th ed this type of list suffers quite a bit as warriors are significantly weaker (can't hurt vehicles nearly as well with glancing, will be hurt then chased down in any assault against half decent enemy troops) and a lack of mobility hurts them in objective based games. The other main option is the Destroyer Wing, lots of standard destroyers, a couple of heavy destroyers, 20 warriors (perhaps 30) and maybe even a C'tan, the Deceiver is the better choice here by the way. Clearly there are many other configurations between these two extremes, but I feel these are the two most commonly seen and also that the Destroyer Wing is quite competitive.
@ SuperCow: Even though I hate Heavy destroyers given the lousy strength of glancing hits in 5th ed I believe that they are worth considering if not a necessity, as I said earlier Monoliths won't be able to teleport squads out of close combat effectively either as most assaults nowadays end in the first round due to the huge negative leadership modifiers, this affects even ld 10

Tao wrote:
I recommend waiting until a new codex comes out. The new codex is rumour to be due within the year.

I wouldn't hold my breath if I was you, you will most likely suffocate. There has being no official mention of any Necron releases or updates, only the hopes of self sustained rumour threads abounding in forums. I do hope like hell that you are correct but I highly doubt it.

Why doesn't anyone ever mention Wraiths? Those are the Necrons best unit.

bristot wrote:Why doesn't anyone ever mention Wraiths? Those are the Necrons best unit.

Firstly this thread is only 3 posts long, don't freak out with "omg never mentioned lolol" just yet. Best unit?..............No, at least not from a gaming persective, perhaps you love the imagery or fluff behind the models and I can respect that but please don't ever try to convince me that paying 41 points for a 1 wound model with toughness 4 and a 3+ save is good value. Far too fragile. It doesn't matter how fast they are if they can't kill anything in assault or if they are swatted down in assault after one round of 3 or four attacks.
Destroyers are the far superior choice when it comes to the need for speed.

Several things to say. First off, buy and study the codex before you make any purchases. With 5th edition, Necrons have become an army that you really have to think about how to play in order to win with them.

To make a good Necron list now a days there is one thing you must realize. It is that Necrons fold in close combat. With the new combat resolution, Necrons rarely stick around to be summoned away next turn or to leave combat with veil. Your models only have one attack, so anything with the slightest CC ability will roll right over you, IF, it gets there. That is why I have found that nowadays you must design a list that is built around the idea of staying out of Combat. There are a few ways to do this depending on the points level:
In general, Scarab squads make great walls to protect your necron units. Monoliths as well are so massive that they can prevent the enemy from getting to you. use these together, and you have quite a lot of protection.
If you are trying to wall, then your best bet is maxing out on Immortals. 20-30 depending on game size. You can throw in a C'tan for extra help, but this is more of a handicap than a help in games under 2000.
The other school of thought is to take a force that is so fast, that it cannot be caught. This works equally well and there are a few ways to do it.
One is to simply max out on destroyers and heavy destroyers and take a small group of warriors with a Lord and res orb. I have had mixd results with this list, but it is sound in principle and I will test it more.
Another way to do it is similar but slightly different. Multiple squads of immortals and destroyers. Take a lord with res orb and veil of darkness. This gives you a group of about 20 necrons that will never be assaulted if you move them correctly. This build is deadly, and even now in 5th, allows you to bring to much firepower to the table, that you can shooty enemies right off the table and you are protected from being crippled by assault.
I hope this helps.

@ SuperCow: Even though I hate Heavy destroyers given the lousy strength of glancing hits in 5th ed I believe that they are worth considering if not a necessity, as I said earlier Monoliths won't be able to teleport squads out of close combat effectively either as most assaults nowadays end in the first round due to the huge negative leadership modifiers, this affects even ld 10

Good points. I used to use the teleport out of combat and blast away tactic in 4th all the time because usually a whole squad wouldn't be wiped out, but now you're right, with the massive leadership loss one gets from CC they warriors very well may die the first round of CC.

Firstly: How many points is the army?

Right, Heavy Destroyers are good, very underrated, but you'll need three. Monoliths are good, but work best in pairs or threes. Tomb Spyders are good in large point games because they are overlooked and slow, but when they're the last thing you've got and they've made their way up the battlefield, they'll kick ass, then die. You need loads of things with the Necron Special rule, to stop phase out.