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I am pretty new to war gaming and I chose Necrons as my first army pretty much on whim, and advise from my friend. As we quickly discovered the necrons are at a loss since the 5th ed rules. I don't believe that my friend purposely misled me but just wasn't as informed as he thought he was since the 5th ed rules came out and how bad the necrons were nerfed because of them. Or it could be that I have been playing mostly against a Nidzilla army and it's just wreaking havoc with the Necrons.

I am looking for some solid Necron tactics or should I give up on them and look to another army. I really like the little fellas.

This is a good start for some Necron tricks:
http://www.yesthetruthhurts.com/2008/11/necrons-in-5th.html

Apart from that, your best tactic is to bombard GW with emails asking for a new codex sooner rather than later.

That looks plausible. Thanks

Never go with more than 2 monoliths if you must as taking the STR9 Destroyers is one of the few ways to actually destroy vehicles.

However someone pointed out in another thread while it is difficult now to straight out destroy a vehicle that is immobilized and has no weapons treats it as a Destroyed vehicle result.

Another thing to point out is the following units are worthless.


Pariahs

Wraiths

Never take them.


You can using monoliths however bounce wraiths all over the place with teleport and still assault.

Hollismason wrote:
Pariahs

Wraiths

Never take them.

I am going to make a reference to a game I played yesterday, in which 2 wraiths killed 2 warlocks, 20 guardians, 5 dark reapers, and a cc wraithlord. In other words they F'ed up my army pretty bad.

With 5th edition's harsh assault rules, in order for necrons to survive, you must do one thing: stay out of assault. There are several ways to do this, all of which have varying levels of success. You can:

a. take a destroyer heavy list backed up by a lord with res orb and simply be too fast to catch.

b. Take tons of scarabs and either tie up enemy assault units, or if there are too many to do this, use your scarabs to form walls around your troops which will buy you time to shoot the enemy.

c. use monoliths and teleport hop away or use the monoliths as walls.

d. Some mixture of the above.

I have found these tactics to be the most sound when using necrons in 5th edition. I hope this helps.

Thanks guys you have really helped and given me a lot to think about. I haven't given the scarabs enough credit and smaller units is a good idea.

Actually, Monoliths are decent at vehicle killing. Remember the hole on the template is AP1, making it one of the very few (only?) AP 1 ordinance weapons.

Wraths are a workable vehicle threat too, but I'm not sure that makes them worth taking.

extrenm(54) wrote:With 5th edition's harsh assault rules, in order for necrons to survive, you must do one thing: stay out of assault. There are several ways to do this, all of which have varying levels of success. You can:

a. take a destroyer heavy list backed up by a lord with res orb and simply be too fast to catch.

b. Take tons of scarabs and either tie up enemy assault units, or if there are too many to do this, use your scarabs to form walls around your troops which will buy you time to shoot the enemy.

c. use monoliths and teleport hop away or use the monoliths as walls.

d. Some mixture of the above.

I have found these tactics to be the most sound when using necrons in 5th edition. I hope this helps.

e. Take a destroyer lord with res orb and phase shifter, and warscythe, Mount him up with 2-3 wraiths and use them for fast counter assault.

I play 3000 points of Necrons almost always
few ideas
1. wraiths are S6 and hit tanks on rear armour due to 5th ed rules so this makes them ace tank busters for armour 10 rear
2. swarm list in 2000 points i run about 50 warriors or so and they are impossible to remove if you add a tomb spyder
3. scarabs moveing flat out/nitro(what ever you call it) get a 2+ cover save so i jet them into the middle of the enemy and freak em out.

i got tons more but thsoe i use alot
and i hate it when people say we got nerfed because we didnt we have become the best titan killer units in the game do to all the glancing we can do

Lord + Res orb + Veil of darkness
200 points

Squad of immortals
280 points

Monlith
235 points a piece.

Necron Warriors:
All the points you have left.

Painting your necrons in eye-hurty colors and calling them "The Necron Flying Circus!"
Priceless.

Battle Brother Loken wrote:I play 3000 points of Necrons almost always
few ideas
1. wraiths are S6 and hit tanks on rear armour due to 5th ed rules so this makes them ace tank busters for armour 10 rear
2. swarm list in 2000 points i run about 50 warriors or so and they are impossible to remove if you add a tomb spyder
3. scarabs moveing flat out/nitro(what ever you call it) get a 2+ cover save so i jet them into the middle of the enemy and freak em out.

i got tons more but thsoe i use alot
and i hate it when people say we got nerfed because we didnt we have become the best titan killer units in the game do to all the glancing we can do

1. Wraiths are terribly fragile and simply too easy for your opponent to kill to make them a valid threat, and at 41 points a pop they are not cheap. Points are much better spent on Destroyers or scarabs

2. Necron warriors are very durable to small arms fire. No argument there. However they die in droves to high strength templates and they get steam rolled in assaults against semi competent close combat squads. Woe be you if your units get multicharged. Tomb spiders only bring one minor boost to WBB that makes splitting up your warriors viable, though this means that some of your squads will be out of your Lords res orbs range, good luck with that if you face an army that has at least one strength 8+ ap 3+ large blast. Also 900 points(then factor in support squads like lords, spyders.....) buys you 50 strength 4 shots at 24" and no shots over 24". Seems like there are much better options.

3. I agree scarabs are made of pure win

I lol'd at your obvious sarcasm about Necrons being the best tank hunters let alone titan killers, in the game; and how you think Necrons anti tank hasn't being nerfed in 5th..........wait, you where being sarcastic right? Right???

I have a friend that runs 2 units of 5 destroyers + nightbringer at 1500 and it works pretty well about 50% of the time. Since people are really scared of nightbringer they instead concentrate on killing him rather than the destroyers and or other necrons to cause phase out. I will say this 30 str 6 ap 4 gauss shots are pretty scary. Thats about all I can help with hope it helps.

Lordhat wrote:

extrenm(54) wrote:With 5th edition's harsh assault rules, in order for necrons to survive, you must do one thing: stay out of assault. There are several ways to do this, all of which have varying levels of success. You can:

a. take a destroyer heavy list backed up by a lord with res orb and simply be too fast to catch.

b. Take tons of scarabs and either tie up enemy assault units, or if there are too many to do this, use your scarabs to form walls around your troops which will buy you time to shoot the enemy.

c. use monoliths and teleport hop away or use the monoliths as walls.

d. Some mixture of the above.

I have found these tactics to be the most sound when using necrons in 5th edition. I hope this helps.

e. Take a destroyer lord with res orb and phase shifter, and warscythe, Mount him up with 2-3 wraiths and use them for fast counter assault.

Lordhat, that is my favourite way to run wraiths. The Destroyer Lord + Wraiths is absolutely brutal against most anything. Scarabs + Lightningfield doesn't work anymore, but 'Crons still need something that can dig you out of assualts. The above configuration + a C'tan is truly a scary CC to get in to.

Edit; The current 'Cron list I have been running looks like this.

Lord/Destroyer Body/Phase Shifter/Gaze of Flame/Warscythe
C'tan, the Deciever

3 Wraiths (They run w/ the destoyer lord and set up CC for Big D, yes I KNOW wraiths are expensive but necrons need some kind of threatening CC, and this set up is it.)

5 Destroyers
5 Destroyers

10 Warriors
11 Warriors

That's 1501

It's a Min/Max list

The Destoyers run in a pack next to each other, that way if one squad goes down, there is still a unit of the same type within 6" of most. These guys just shoot and back up vs CC lists, and shoot while moving a touch forward vs Ranged lists.

The Wraiths + Lord counter charge vs CC lists, and Turbo boost turn 1 against ranged lists, or do something equally as threatening. Big D follows in their wake.

The Warrios are held in reserve most games, they are a phase out buffer and a last minute objective grabber, if things are going according to plan.

The Deciever absolutley OWNS the nightbronger for what he brings to the table, Misdirect and Decieve are two of the most useful tricks the 'Crons have access to, particularly with people HANDING you the first turn so often now.

Thank you guys you rock!!

You can always try something like:
2xMonoliths
2x20 Necron Warriors
and then add scarabs and/or spiders to protect them.
- If you are playing at larger than 1500 points, you can add immortals OR destroyers.

Other option is spamming as many immortals, destroyers and heavy destroyers as you can.

Anycase, this are the units you should always work with IMHO:
- Immortals
- Destroyers
- Heavy Destroyers
- Scarabs
- Spiders
And sometimes
- Monoliths, but only if you focused your army on them, that meaning using at least two, and two big units of necrons.

I usually find using 1 lord, 1 or 2 elite units, a monolith and the rest warriors is pretty solid depending on which army you play. At around 1500 pts anyhow, not much choice in a small necron army...

As Loken said, using a "Wraith Wing" as folks call it, which is a few wraiths and a Destroyer Lord, is a great tank hunting tactic. The Immortals are great for chewing through normal/moderately armored infantry and glancing tanks of course. The warriors are decent at shooting (Although they need SnP now) and can kill light infantry or glance tanks to death. Just don't get them into melee with MEQs! Flayed Ones are super fun but are just NOT worth their points 90% of the time. Monoliths are fun and can scare opponents when multiples are fielded. Destroyers are as Immortals but faster and have more shots per(Not per pt however)

Flayed Ones are super fun but are just NOT worth their points 90% of the time.I've have uses for flayed ones.

I have two uses for flayed ones, if I run them it's in two 5 man squads.

1) Deepstriking in as objective contesters against slower, close combat oriented opponents. I do this because these armys tend to send 90% of their army straight at you, as this is how they generate damage. This leaves a measley 10% worth of soft troops behind, and hopefully lots of space to deepsrike. With two seperate small squads of flayed ones it's very likely one, if not both will survive the inital return fire, allowing them a decent chance of contesting. This works against medium speed close combat armys because the mainstay of their force isn't able to react the threat effectivley. It even works against shooty armys if you get a decent deepsrike and the opponent isn;t able to react due to terrain/wreckadge contraints.This allows you to get stuck in CC against opponents you are sure to butcher. Then you go to ground, hopefully in terrain on the objective and hope for contention.

2) Deepstriking them in as 'speed bumps' to give you an extra turn of shooting. Dangerous CC units absolutely rape necrons, we've all felt the pain. a 90 pt deepstriking squad of flayed ones deepstrike then run spreading out in a congo line. Often times this will force the opponent to take a risky fleet (or be forced out of range entirely) and catch their original targets, or suck it up and butcher the flayed ones. At 5 man sized, any killy CC unit should munch all of them in one turn, leaving them ready to target in your turn. It's a 90 pt sacrifice that can save expensive shooty guys and let them do what they do.

Buy the Deceiver, field him exclusively, that is all.

Yeah he's damn amazing in 5th. If anyone thinks otherwise then please read his special rules again and think of the advantages they offer.

I looked at the rules after seeing El Deceivo being used so much now and was amazed.

Battle Brother Loken wrote:
3. scarabs moveing flat out/nitro(what ever you call it) get a 2+ cover save so i jet them into the middle of the enemy and freak em out.

Scarabs move as jetbikes, but they don't actually have the Turbo boosters rule. So they don't get to move nitro for the cover save.

Exarch_Nektel wrote:

Battle Brother Loken wrote:
3. scarabs moveing flat out/nitro(what ever you call it) get a 2+ cover save so i jet them into the middle of the enemy and freak em out.

Scarabs move as jetbikes, but they don't actually have the Turbo boosters rule. So they don't get to move nitro for the cover save.

Uhhhh......
http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1180146_Necrons_FAQ_2004-08_5th_Edition.pdf

Necrons Faq wrote:
Q. As Scarab Swarms move like jetbikes, do they
also have the turbo boosters universal special
rule?
A. Yes, they may make use of the turbo boosters special rule – though they may not move through
difficult terrain while doing so.

I like SsevenN's use of the flayed ones, for 90 pts they could hold up a unit for a vital turn. Also I have read the deceiver's rules again and he is very good. The only problem is him being able to be picked out by any unit, that could be annoying, especially with snipers... :/

A good tactic is to take Flayed Ones, Pariahs and a Lord with a Nightmare Shroud...

The Pariah's soulless rule mean that anything within 12" gets their leadership reduced to 7, unless its already lower...

The Lord's Nightmare Shroud means that any enemy within 12" has to pass a leadership test or fall back...

Anything which is still stood there will again have to pass a leadership at 7 or less in order to hit the Flayed Ones... and is going to get charged by the Flayed Ones, and a bunch of Pariahs and a Lord with warscythes which ignore all saves, even invulnerable ones, and hit at strenght 5.

This is of course assuming anything survives the shooting from your Warriors, the Pariahs and Destroyers.

I cant agree.. there are no good tactics that involve the use of pariahs

Perhaps there are "tactics that can be used to some effect"... but any tactic that uses pariahs can be done better by simply killing the enemy with the pts you save to take something better

I'd have to disagree...

If you combine the above tactic with a Lord with a Veil of Darkness or a Monolith to teleport a unit behind the enemy before forcing a fall back, and give the Lord with the Pariahs and Flayed ones a Chronometron, so they get a huge sweeping advance, you can assualt any units falling back.

Considering they will be making their regroup test against a maximum of leadership 7 its a good bet that they will scattered and destroyed.

Taking only 4 Pariahs at 144 points you can devastate the whole flank of an opponents army or smash out its centre.

It works well against units like terminators, assualt marines etc...

The problem is if you face random opponents you're gonna run into lots who just ignore that sillyness

Chaos - fearless (on units that are useful)
demons - fearless
marines - can be all stubborn and have ATSKNF.. also have a mix of fearless units
sisters - stubborn
eldar - transports.. council has embolden.. or avatar
dark eldar - transports
guard - transports and reroll with standard
gk - fearless
orks - fearless
tyranids - fearless

once again LD tricks only work well against one army and that is

T
A
U

See the pattern here? I guess one off games are fine as long as everyone plays armies with no LD protection .. too gimmicky for anything else

Really the only ones it won't work against are the chaos armies and orcs...

Nids are only fearless if within 12 inches of a synapse creature, so target these with your shooting and you can still force a fall back...

ATSKNF means that the marines will automatically regroup, but their battleline will be disrupted meaning that the necron units can pick off their assualt units one at a time. With the warscythes ignoring their armour saves and hitting with str 5 they'll be picked off fairly quickly. And any units still standing will have to face the same tests in the next round.

Any transports are going to crash and burn quickly against Necrons with the glancing hits from any guass weapon. Even a strength 2 Scarab can take out a Land Raider with a disruption field.

Even if the fall back test isn't of any use 4 Pariahs are still throwing out 8 str 5 shots per round and charging with 8 str 5 hits in close combat, combined with the Lords 4 str 5 and up to 30 str 4 attacks from the flayed ones, thats 42 cc attacks in the first round of combat (if charging). Anything that is able to reach the Necron line through their rounds of shooting is going to be pretty depleted and so get cut up pretty badly, while the Necron line should be in fairly good condition with the WBB roles, especially if you have a Lord with a Resurrection Orb.

In games bigger than 1500pts I'd consider throwing in a C'Tan as well, The Deceiver can use the Deceive power to force a fall back or pinning test on any unit, even fearless ones. Given that this would also be at leadership 7, this would generate further chaos in the enemy lines.