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Hi All,
I'm going to expand my fledgling Necron army up to 2k as a bit of a gaming challenge.

I can currently field:
12 Warriors
4 Scarab bases
3 Destroyers
1 Heavy Destroyer
1 Monolith
(I did say it was fledgling)

Does anyone have a solid list to take on the likes of 5th Ed SM and IG, as these are my usual opponents?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

PS No jokes that the word 'solid' and 'Necron list' appear in the same sentence

Necrons are the army that struggles most in 5th ed -DH can induct guard to save themselves from last place . That said if you do want to play them (gogo walking skeleton men of doom) the 'solid' units to build an army around are: Deceiver, Lords, Immortals, Minimal Warriors, Destroyers, Monoliths, Heavy Destroyers. This is for the standard army and you can do quite decently with such a list that uses these units as a base, ofcourse you are free to try to make any list you want, and some people have found a modicum of success with a CC necron army which is essentially: Deceiver, (Jetbike) Lords, Paraiahs, Minimal Warriors, Scarabs, Wraiths, Tomb spyders.

But for my 2 cents I would say it's very hard to go too wrong with destroyers, just don't send them after heavy tanks as much as you did in 3rd/4th

Thanks for the advice:

Heres my prototype list:

HQ-

Deceiver 300 or Destroyer Lord w/ WS, Res Orb 180

Lord w/ Res Orb, VoD 200

Elites

10 x Immortals w/ DF's 300

Troops

10 x Warriors 180

10 x Warriors 180

Fast

10 x Scarab Swarms w/ DF's 160

3 x Destroyers 150

2 x Destroyers 100

Heavy

3 x H.Destoryers 195

1 x Monolith 235

All suggestions gratefully received.

Drop Disruption fields off the Immortals. Destroyer squads are 3-5, so combine your two squads.

I personally think that you don't have enough for phase out.
At 2000pts you shouldn't have the bare minimum of Warriors.
At least 30-40

Immortals should be broken up into 2 squads of 5 so that you can spread their fire
They do not need DF, they are a ranged unit that can do more with their Gauss weapons then in CC ever

You can never go wrong with Destroyers, but I feel like you may have too many Heavy Destroyers.
I think you should remove 1 H. Destroyer, put the left over 2 in their own squads.

The lord will probably be with the immortals?
Not a terrible idea, but the lord won't really support them offensively too much outside of CC.

My recommendation is to put the Lord on a Destroyer Body with a Warscythe, a Phylactery, and a Res Orb(If possible). and run him with the Scarabs.
This way he has a TON of wounds to take out before him, not to mention they scarabs can glance a vehicle to death or even munch up some infantry. The Lord with that setup is nigh-unstoppable.
He brings some serious CC power in combination of your Deceiver.

SinSygon wrote:
The lord will probably be with the immortals?
Not a terrible idea, but the lord won't really support them offensively too much outside of CC.

My recommendation is to put the Lord on a Destroyer Body with a Warscythe, a Phylactery, and a Res Orb(If possible). and run him with the Scarabs.
This way he has a TON of wounds to take out before him, not to mention they scarabs can glance a vehicle to death or even munch up some infantry. The Lord with that setup is nigh-unstoppable.
He brings some serious CC power in combination of your Deceiver.

Yeah, the on Foot lord was basically a expensive way of teleporting the Immortals around to pick of isolated enemy units i.e. heavy weapons, artillery etc.

I like the Swarm Lord idea, thats a lot of ablative wounds to get through.

Would the army suffer from a lack of Res orbs though?

Sir Harry Flashman, VC wrote:

SinSygon wrote:
The lord will probably be with the immortals?
Not a terrible idea, but the lord won't really support them offensively too much outside of CC.

My recommendation is to put the Lord on a Destroyer Body with a Warscythe, a Phylactery, and a Res Orb(If possible). and run him with the Scarabs.
This way he has a TON of wounds to take out before him, not to mention they scarabs can glance a vehicle to death or even munch up some infantry. The Lord with that setup is nigh-unstoppable.
He brings some serious CC power in combination of your Deceiver.

Yeah, the on Foot lord was basically a expensive way of teleporting the Immortals around to pick of isolated enemy units i.e. heavy weapons, artillery etc.

I like the Swarm Lord idea, thats a lot of ablative wounds to get through.

Would the army suffer from a lack of Res orbs though?

Please don't put a Lord with scarabs. As soon as they assault anything the scarabs will be targeted by a canny opponent and take a disgusting amount of wounds (t3, 5+) and all of a sudden you lost combat and need to take a bucket of no retreat armour saves on your expensive (and now fearless) lord; no it's best to run the lord either by himself or sheltered in a wraith squad. And it is generally best to run 20 warriors, they are essentially only in the army to capture objectives, they are not even good for raising your phase out number as they are so easy to kill (slow, short ranged and only T4, they get eaten in assault), but this low number of warriors means you do need to play defensively with them and its probably best holding them in reserve. If you aren't feeling comfortable running just 20 warriors after a couple of games you might consider running 30, but probably no more Keep in mind the 10 Immortals you have are much better for giving you some wiggle room on your phase out number.

If you are running your Veil Lord with immortals, it would be wise to give him a res orb, otherwise str 10 blast weapons will make you a very sad panda.

Good point with the Lord and the scarabs, and the Immortals and Res Orb.

Does anyone still rate the triple Monolith as a viable formation (although cheesy)?

Sir Harry Flashman, VC wrote:Good point with the Lord and the scarabs, and the Immortals and Res Orb.

Does anyone still rate the triple Monolith as a viable formation (although cheesy)?

Tri-Mono is fail. Necrons are mostly fail in 5th. They were still pretty viable in 4th, but 5th ed mech kinda just put an end to them.

Here is what I used for a bit in 5th:

Lord w/orb/veil
2 x 10 Warriors
3 x 10 Immortals
3 x 4 Destroyers

Phase out 15. Opponent needs to kill 47 necrons. Not an easy thing to do with the vast majority being t5 and 3+ armor. However, with all the mech IG out there, it's epic fail. Will shoot Tau right off the board and can be successful vs Rhino spam. Other than that, not much hope for this list or necrons in general.

That's 96 str 5-6 ap4 shots a turn with an effective range of 30"+. In 4th it was pretty devastating. In 5th it's only annoying vs mech lists.

I owned a complete Necron army. I had 30 immortals, 15 destroyers, 9 hvy destroyers, several lords of various configurations, Deceiver, lots of warriors, scarabs, wraiths, 3 monoliths, yada. I've tried the Destroyer Wing, Tri-Mono w/warriors, etc.

I believe Immortal/Destroyer spam is essential to even having a hope of competing with 'crons.

Tri-Monolith still works, but it can be easier to get Phased Out if you try to get too many other expensive toys. I personally have been doing Destroyer Spam to reasonably good success.

Give one of your Lords a Solar Pulse. With one in three games using the Night Fight rules, it gives you a great Alpha Strike opportunity with your Immortals and Destroyers, and a little bit of protection in non-Night Fight games.

IG have low Leadership, get a Destroyer Lord with Warscythe, Nightmare Shroud and Phase Shifter to parade around destroying tanks while forcing morale tests left, right, and center. You'll run them off the table while taking out the bulk of their strength. Give him a unit of Scarabs for combat support.

The Deceiver is a wonderful addition, I used him on Friday in a 2,000pt game, against Orks. He took down a Mega Warboss with 5 Meganobz on his own, then exploded and killed 25 Shoota Boyz when they assaulted him...ah good times.

Use the Deceiver and a Destroyer Lord.

Just about every Necron weapon can kill IG without allowing armour saves, because of the AP of Gauss. Just pound on shots while ripping through their armour and bearing down on them with the Deceiver and pounding them with Particle Whips.

Deceiver, Destroyer Lord (Scythe, Phase, Shroud) with 7 Scarabs; 2 units of 4 Destroyers, 2 Monoliths, 3 units of 10 Warriors.

Advance the Deceiver with the Monoliths covering your Warriors with Particle Whips into massed squads, and Destroyers popping shots from either flank. As your Lord and Scarabs tie them up at base taking out their tanks, running them off the board. If necessary get your Scarabs to assault heavy weapon teams so they can't lay down that fire power.

Then mince them with Rapid Fire and unleash the might of the C'tan.

....yeah.

imweasel wrote:

Sir Harry Flashman, VC wrote:Good point with the Lord and the scarabs, and the Immortals and Res Orb.

Does anyone still rate the triple Monolith as a viable formation (although cheesy)?

Tri-Mono is fail. Necrons are mostly fail in 5th. They were still pretty viable in 4th, but 5th ed mech kinda just put an end to them.

Here is what I used for a bit in 5th:

Lord w/orb/veil
2 x 10 Warriors
3 x 10 Immortals
3 x 4 Destroyers

Phase out 15. Opponent needs to kill 47 necrons. Not an easy thing to do with the vast majority being t5 and 3+ armor. However, with all the mech IG out there, it's epic fail. Will shoot Tau right off the board and can be successful vs Rhino spam. Other than that, not much hope for this list or necrons in general.

That's 96 str 5-6 ap4 shots a turn with an effective range of 30"+. In 4th it was pretty devastating. In 5th it's only annoying vs mech lists.

I owned a complete Necron army. I had 30 immortals, 15 destroyers, 9 hvy destroyers, several lords of various configurations, Deceiver, lots of warriors, scarabs, wraiths, 3 monoliths, yada. I've tried the Destroyer Wing, Tri-Mono w/warriors, etc.

I believe Immortal/Destroyer spam is essential to even having a hope of competing with 'crons.

I agree whole heartedly. Did you try replacing the lord with deciever in this list at the cost of some immortals? I'm not saying it would be better, but I think it might add a bit more to what is, in my opinion, one of the better Necrons lists I have seen for 5th.

As to Tri-Mono; it is essentially a one (three lol ) trick pony, some lists simply won't be able to deal with it, and it will decimate players who are new and who don't know to go for phase out. Against sturdier opponents though Tri-Mono falls on its face as it has glaring weaknesses that cannot be easily covered, even with Deceiver playing goalie.

Yup, the more Destoyers and Immortals you field the better off you are.

The Deceiver is pretty nice.

A melee focused DLord still isn't that great a combatant. And I'm not convinced that you can get him in position to assault tanks or make good use of the Shroud without getting locked in melee against line squads or shot to death, invun or no invun.

Quick Fail units:
Wraiths: too small a unit size
Warriors: Don't do anything, assault bait
Flayed Ones: Do even less, still assault bait
Spyders: Too slow to keep up with Destroyers, easily shot and killed if the opponent is worried about them, not good enough in CC

HeavyDs, Scarabs, and Pariahs all have their uses and arguments. Scarabs are the best of the three. HeavyDs are as good as Destroyers against AV11, and better against 12. Pariahs are disposable, but expensive, and can threaten Termis. Nothing else in the army really can except a scythe Lord (sort of) or a C'tan.

While it is important to avoid Phasing Out, you need to do so through strategy, not numbers. Having 30-40 Warriors means you have 30-40 useless models. Stick to 20 Warriors, keep them in reserve, hope you roll low.

I still strongly advocate the 3-Monolith/Deceiver strategy at anything over 1500 points. This strategy is very 'rocks-paper-scissor' in that it can absolutely house some of the best Tyranid lists while getting crushed by Daemons. The Imperium's chances depend on whether or not they come bearing a lot of Lascannons or Meltas.

The Deceiver is the key to Necron success in 5th Edition. His stat-line is brutal enough but his abilities are nuts. Ignores all terrain. Forces fearless units to take Morale tests. Redeploy your army before the game starts. Ignore Armor & Invulnerable saves. Explode when he dies. He really is an unstoppable force.

My list @ 2000 Points:

HQ: Deceiver
HQ: Destroyer Lord w/Phase Shifter, Res Orb, Warscythe
TR: 10x Warriors
TR: 10x Warriors
FA: 4x Destroyers
FA: 4x Destroyers
HV: Monolith
HV: Monolith
HV: Monolith

This list has 25 points left to play with. You can toss in another Warrior or give one unit of Warriors Disruption Fields. Both of those are pretty useless things to do with 25 points. With 29 Necrons you phase out when there are 7 left, so if you can keep your Destroyers Alive by keeping them with the Lord and pulling them through the Monoliths to re-roll WBB you should be able to avoid phasing out. Warriors start in reserve and hide. This list packs a lot of heavy weaponry with the capability to destroy several vehicles per turn.

Alamoth wrote:Warriors start in reserve and hide. This list packs a lot of heavy weaponry with the capability to destroy several vehicles per turn.

You have to have start with at least two troop units on the board, as well as a HQ, if I have been taught correctly at my club, which i'm sure I have.

You don't have to start with anything on the table unless the mission specifically requires it, and none of the standard rule book missions do.

Aduro wrote:You don't have to start with anything on the table unless the mission specifically requires it, and none of the standard rule book missions do.

Then I have been misled, I'll pass this on.

Foldalot wrote:I agree whole heartedly. Did you try replacing the lord with deciever in this list at the cost of some immortals? I'm not saying it would be better, but I think it might add a bit more to what is, in my opinion, one of the better Necrons lists I have seen for 5th.

As to Tri-Mono; it is essentially a one (three lol ) trick pony, some lists simply won't be able to deal with it, and it will decimate players who are new and who don't know to go for phase out. Against sturdier opponents though Tri-Mono falls on its face as it has glaring weaknesses that cannot be easily covered, even with Deceiver playing goalie.

Tri mono fails as soon as you start seeing land raiders. Game over.

I did try the deceiver in the mix with my standard 2k list, but mech IG with all the las cannons and suicide melta just killed him. Then I played a random game vs drop pod stern guard and that made it even worse.

Keep it simple on the necron lists as they don't have a variety of good choices.

Er, why Land Raiders? Monoliths are the second or third best choice for killing them the Necrons have. Not that they are very good at it, but only the C'tan really does better.

Seems like the Necrons still have a bit of 'life' left in fifth, allbeit with rather rigid list types, on this note is this roughly a 2000pts Destroyer Spam list:

D.Lord w/ WS Res Orb, Phil.

2 x 10 Warriors

3 x 5 Destroyers

3 x 3 Heavy Destroyers

Then remaining points on???

Sir Harry Flashman, VC wrote:Seems like the Necrons still have a bit of 'life' left in fifth, allbeit with rather rigid list types, on this note is this roughly a 2000pts Destroyer Spam list:

D.Lord w/ WS Res Orb, Phil.

2 x 10 Warriors

3 x 5 Destroyers

3 x 3 Heavy Destroyers

Then remaining points on???

That is 1865pts. I like the idea of Destroyer Spam, although instead of a third group of Heavies, a Monolith would be nice support for the Infantry.

Destroyer Lord - 190 [Resurrection Orb, Lightning Fields, Gaze of Flame]
12 Warriors - 216
12 Warriors - 216
5 Destroyers - 250
5 Destroyers - 250
5 Destroyers - 250
3 Heavy Destroyers - 195
3 Heavy Destroyers - 195
Monolith - 235

The Grog wrote:Er, why Land Raiders? Monoliths are the second or third best choice for killing them the Necrons have. Not that they are very good at it, but only the C'tan really does better.

Because you only have 2 turns to kill land raiders, at best. After that, they have delivered their 'payload' and the enemies CC units are already in there swiping your necrons away. One you can handle, but two? That's not what you would call a 'good matchup'.

at 2000 points I usually take 2 monoliths, it's great to help alleviate the "do I teleport for more WBB roles or do I particle whip that termie squad?" debacles, as now you could do both.

Kevin949 wrote:at 2000 points I usually take 2 monoliths, it's great to help alleviate the "do I teleport for more WBB roles or do I particle whip that termie squad?" debacles, as now you could do both.

Well considering the ap of the whip is only 3 (aside from the centre), I wouldn't recomend shooting it at termies lol. Best to use the particle whip on vehicles rather than infantry I find, the AP1 centre is a rare commodity in a Necron force and is a decent -only decent- answer to physically larger sized tanks, Necrons will probably have plenty of troop killing potential already (Hello destroyers!) so the Monolith is best applied filling the AV role.

Foldalot wrote:

Kevin949 wrote:at 2000 points I usually take 2 monoliths, it's great to help alleviate the "do I teleport for more WBB roles or do I particle whip that termie squad?" debacles, as now you could do both.

Well considering the ap of the whip is only 3 (aside from the centre), I wouldn't recomend shooting it at termies lol. Best to use the particle whip on vehicles rather than infantry I find, the AP1 centre is a rare commodity in a Necron force and is a decent -only decent- answer to physically larger sized tanks, Necrons will probably have plenty of troop killing potential already (Hello destroyers!) so the Monolith is best applied filling the AV role.

It was just what came to mind. Heh. Don't terminators still have T4 though? If so, the whip will at least negate their extra wound for the unsaved wounds. For what it's worth anyway. I don't remember really. But yes, I agree that the lith is the best anti-vehicle option but I will gladly always take 10-40 warrior shots at any vehicle before I ever fire the whip at a vehicle, I seem to have better luck with that then with one hail mary shot. Granted, depending on the conditions at the time....