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I'm playing Necrons this weekend for the first time. I'm going up against Eldar and I'm not sure exactly how to tactically use my Monolith. Here are a few questions I have, though any tactics you can suggest would be great:

1) Do I Deep Strike the Monolith and then try and and warp in some Warriors that I hold in reserve?
2) Should I only deep strike if I go first, or only if I go second, or should I not deep strike it at all?
3) Can you use the Power Matrix AND the Gauss Flux Arc Projectors in the same turn?
4) Do you mainly use Power Matrix for shooting or should it be used to try self-repair units that failed their self-repair by porting the entire unit to the Monolith?

Anything else I'm not thinking of?

As I don't play nerons I can only answer #3.
Yes and no. If you fire the particle whip you can't use the flux arcs (see the FaQ). If you teleport guys you can use the flux arc.

I use them to block my warriors from being attacked and slowly move up with them, I never deepstrike them sice they are better being there turn one to eat up shots.

Use the Power Matrix if a squad of warriors had a bad WBB roll took alot of wounds or are in CC (cc shouldent happen if your warriors are behind the monolith) if you dont need to do that then particle whip away.

This is why its best to take more then one. You can use one to play the blocker and try for the WBB roles, and the other to DS into the middle of the opponents army. If it were ME playing the Necrons, Id probably just DS the lith right into the thick of it anyways, where you can get more shots on more units. Its a ap4 weapon, so that will KO alot of eldar and since it is what it is, the lith can take a SERIOUS beating before anything bad happens (unless your just unlucky)

Id play them very aggressive personally. I see to many necron players trying to hold back and keep warriors alive with everything else. Screw that, it might get your face kicked, but then again you might come out so strong itll take your opponent by surprise. I cant remember if you HAVE to bring in warriors from the reserves through the lith portal but if not, Id just have them walk on the table and take my time hiding them behind terrain and such. Id let everything else bring the pain.


What exactly is the list your planning on using anyways?



Also the particle whip is an ordinance weapons and therefore you can only fire it and only it. Look under the rules for ordinance in the rule book

The Monolith has amazing survivability, especially against Eldar. The only thing you need to be concerned with destroying it is his Fire Prisms. Take one or both out, and you're basically invincible.

Of course, this just means he'll be killing all your Necrons and trying to force a phase out. Do everything you can to prevent this, so keep your warriors in reserve.

As for Deep Striking the Monolith, I wouldn't bother. You'll need to get maximum usage out of it, and the longer it's on the board the better.

I have to agree on not deep striking the lith. The odds are that you'll NEED the monolith and it won't show up. You're best bet is to just play them on the field from the get go, even if you don't go first. I wouldn't hold the warriors in the reserve either, personally, only because if you do that just means your opponent will focus on your better fighters and you don't want them to go down right away. It does depend on the game type you're playing though, of course, and tactics will change drastically if it's an annihilation game versus a capture and hold game, not to mention if there are other rules in play like night fight, Dawn of war, some type of other special mission rules.

Thanks for all the advice. It will be an annihilation game. We're both getting back into the swing of things after taking a couple years off, so we're starting with something simple.

So Step 1 is to go after the fire prisms.

Now, I'm trying to figure out if I should keep my warriors in reserves. I have two possible armies I'm going with. Should I keep the warriors in reserve in either of these builds (or both)?

1 Monolith
1 Lord w/Resurrection Orb
30 Warriors
9 Destroyers
5 Immortals

Question 2 is do I have the Lord join the Immortals squad? Someone said yes, but staff of light is only 12 inches, while the Gauss Blaster the Immortals have is 24 inches, so should I have the lord join this squad or leave him out of it?

Second list is
1 Monolith
1 Lord w/Resurrection Orb and Phase Shifter
36 Warriors
9 Destroyers

In either instance, should I hold the Warriors in reserve?

I always have the lord with immortals, personally, because it he becomes somewhat of a CC deterrent for that squad or if you decide to rush you have all assault weapons and your only AP3 (if it matters against DE) weapon you get that isn't ordnance or paired with a crappy BS, plus power weapon in close combat. Not to mention the other benefits of possible wargear. Don't bother with the scythe, honestly (if you were thinking about it) it's far more useful to have 3 more ranged attacks than to have something that ignores invul saves (which are few and far between usually).

Just my .02 though, take with salt.

Take the veil of darkness also or even over a res orb - the tactical movement can pull you from melee. The monolith can give you extra WBB rolls aswell if you pull a unit through it.

Take the veil and orb, but I would never take a foot lord with no orb if he's attached to a unit.

If I take the Veil I basically have to drop a Destroyer. Is that worth it?

It's your call. try it w/o the veil and see how it goes, see if your game would have been better with it. I would take the veil if you had a full squad of immortals but at half squad I don't think I'd risk it as you're much more vulnerable in CC with only 6 models and you'll be having your destroyers doing most of your work for you anyway with the list you mentioned.

Drop a warrior or 2 instead. The veil is very much worth it for what ti does. DS a whole squad anywhere on the table? Hell yea that comes in handy. Being able to shoot until its too late and then teleport out, only to be able to still shoot your next turn is awesome.

Ok if take veil of darkness I could do:

(without Immortals)
Lord w/Resurrection Orb and Veil
9 Destroyers
34 Warriors
1 Monolith

OR (with Immortals)
Lord w/Resurrection Orb and Veil
8 Destroyers
29 Warriors
5 Immortals
1 Monolith

Both come out to 1497. First one has 44 models, second one has 43 models, both not including the Monolith so pretty much the same as far as phase out. Thoughts?


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Actually the one with Immortals won't work unless I do a squad of 10, and a squad of 19 since squads have to be 10-20 each. I don't think I want one normal squad and one ginormous squad of warriors so I would end up having to drop destroyers down to 7 (from 9 without Immortals). That would leave me looking like this:

Lord with Resurrection Orb and Veil
7 Destroyers
32 Warriors
5 Immortals
1 Monolith

So it looks like it makes more sense to do the one without Immortals, but get 2 more destroyers and 2 more warriors.

Or you could just do 10/10/9 for warriors. Or just do 10/10 for warriors and beef up the immortals squad. I didn't do the math on it.

Warriors will be far less useful than you think.

You can't do 10/10/9, that's what I mean. Squad size in the Codex is 10-20 :(

Great advice in this thread...

Just wondering , are immortals very much worth it over Warriors with Rapid Fire? Sorry I'm new to the game I just want to know what perk the immortals assault 2 has over rapid fire other than the weapon having a point higher in strength and the immortal has a point higher in toughness... is there anything else?

ikky2win wrote:You can't do 10/10/9, that's what I mean. Squad size in the Codex is 10-20 :(

Er, doh, brain fart.

So do 15/14

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Cryage wrote:Great advice in this thread...

Just wondering , are immortals very much worth it over Warriors with Rapid Fire? Sorry I'm new to the game I just want to know what perk the immortals assault 2 has over rapid fire other than the weapon having a point higher in strength and the immortal has a point higher in toughness... is there anything else?

Rapid fire MUST stay still to fire 1 shot at 24" or if you move you can only fire at 12" but get two shots. You cannot assault after shooting a rapid fire weapon (pistols excluded along with other special rules, none of which necrons have). Assault weapons allow your full rate of fire whether you moved or stayed still, at the full reach of the weapon and you can assault after you have shot. This is also explained in the rulebook which you should have.

Kevin949 wrote:

ikky2win wrote:You can't do 10/10/9, that's what I mean. Squad size in the Codex is 10-20 :(

Er, doh, brain fart.

So do 15/14

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Cryage wrote:Great advice in this thread...

Just wondering , are immortals very much worth it over Warriors with Rapid Fire? Sorry I'm new to the game I just want to know what perk the immortals assault 2 has over rapid fire other than the weapon having a point higher in strength and the immortal has a point higher in toughness... is there anything else?

Rapid fire MUST stay still to fire 1 shot at 24" or if you move you can only fire at 12" but get two shots. You cannot assault after shooting a rapid fire weapon (pistols excluded along with other special rules, none of which necrons have). Assault weapons allow your full rate of fire whether you moved or stayed still, at the full reach of the weapon and you can assault after you have shot. This is also explained in the rulebook which you should have.

Thanks for the clarification man!

Yeah I just got into 40k this week and read through the rules the last few days (albeit, it was at 2:00 am when I finished reading it last night lol) so sorry for the occasional nub question

Only take 20 warriors. More warriors = easier phase out.


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Immortals are definately worth it, T5, Necron rule, good shooting etc

I agree on the Immortals, if you going to shooty builds. They are pretty damn tough and rock at shooting. Specially if you stick a Lorb in with the veil of darkness, you just shoot until its too late, then the next phase teleport them (or pull through a lith for more WBB rolls) out of harms way to keep on shooting.

But if your idea is fast and take the fight to the enemy, then I see Immortals being left out for other options. But they are certainly worth it in the right builds