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Hello Dakka people!-
I recently aquired some necrons and I have always wanted to play them. I know they are one of the worst armies out there right now but I like them and they seem pretty fun. Just dont have the push to win. My questions are as follows:

1) Are they still viable. Do you know someone who is able to win with them?
2) What are good lists, units, tactics to use?

Those are my questions regarding necrons. Please hammer me with knowledge for I am all ears!

You are in luck, sir. Just in the last week Dakka member Monster Rain wrote up a good tactica, and made it an article, and posted a battle report!

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/336072.page

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Necron_Tactica

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/337314.page

Not to mention Dash's recent success with them. Go give him a PM.

I think the correct question is

Necrons...can you beat them?

No one's beating my Necrons. =D

Necrons can do ok, but they are no means a top tier army. Also plan on lots of house rules to settle rules issues with an old codex.

However, if the rumors of a necron codex by years end is true, it may be a good time to pick some up on ebay cheap.

Has it been 6 months since the last round of 'how do I play Necrons' already?

Nothing much has changed, so just search the forums for the older threads. The basic thing to know is that Warriors are pretty vulnerable. This means you either take a lot and hope to win with weight of WBB bodies and bolter fire or take a handful, hide them, and try to cripple your enemy with Destroyers, Monoliths, Immortals, and a C'tan.

Dashofpepper wrote:No one's beating my Necrons. =D

Man I wish we played now... I'd beat your Necrons : )

The necrons lose by getting into a close combat.... As soon as they lose combat its over for them : (

Reading Norbu the destroyer's battlereports is also a good idea. He seems to be a great general with his Necron (and his Daemons).
Theres a report in de reportssection by him now...

Cilithan

vyndetta85 wrote:Hello Dakka people!-
I recently aquired some necrons and I have always wanted to play them. I know they are one of the worst armies out there right now but I like them and they seem pretty fun. Just dont have the push to win. My questions are as follows:

1) Are they still viable. Do you know someone who is able to win with them?
2) What are good lists, units, tactics to use?

Those are my questions regarding necrons. Please hammer me with knowledge for I am all ears!

They are great for games with friends and causal games at your FLGS. You don't see a lot of them in hard-core competition lists as they are an old codex. If rumors are correct, that will change soon.

With the latest edition of 40k, GW has been better about ramping up the power curve than they have been in the past. I will even say that the oldest,weakest codex is only 15% less powerful than the brand new-spiffy codex. That means that you have a good chance of beating players with your necrons. If you look at the people on this forum who play with them, you will see how they still pull off wins with them.

Now, if you take 2 chessmasters and give one of the a 15% advantage, they will win more often than not. That's the same reason why you don't see Necrons at the hard-core tournaments often -- its because people who want to win consistently want to even the playing field as much as possible.

labmouse42 wrote:

vyndetta85 wrote:Hello Dakka people!-
I recently aquired some necrons and I have always wanted to play them. I know they are one of the worst armies out there right now but I like them and they seem pretty fun. Just dont have the push to win. My questions are as follows:

1) Are they still viable. Do you know someone who is able to win with them?
2) What are good lists, units, tactics to use?

Those are my questions regarding necrons. Please hammer me with knowledge for I am all ears!

They are great for games with friends and causal games at your FLGS. You don't see a lot of them in hard-core competition lists as they are an old codex. If rumors are correct, that will change soon.

With the latest edition of 40k, GW has been better about ramping up the power curve than they have been in the past. I will even say that the oldest,weakest codex is only 15% less powerful than the brand new-spiffy codex. That means that you have a good chance of beating players with your necrons. If you look at the people on this forum who play with them, you will see how they still pull off wins with them.

Now, if you take 2 chessmasters and give one of the a 15% advantage, they will win more often than not. That's the same reason why you don't see Necrons at the hard-core tournaments often -- its because people who want to win consistently want to even the playing field as much as possible.

So are you saying that I as the necron player have the advantage due to an older/crippled codex or the oppenent would have the upper hand because the newer codex has that 15% "bonus" you were talking about.

vyndetta85 wrote:So are you saying that I as the necron player have the advantage due to an older/crippled codex or the oppenent would have the upper hand because the newer codex has that 15% "bonus" you were talking about.

The necron player is at a minor disadvantage to the newest codex's.

I recently met my first Necron player who actually turned out to be a friend of my gf that I never would have thought knew what 40k was, yet has been a cron player scence 3rd.

After a couple games with him I can say that while winning tourneys will be hard they are definitely more usable than I previously thought. You just gotta use your noggin and think on your toes using somewhat unorthodox tactics at times but there is definitely some power there.

If nothing else though they are fun to play with and against.

They are very fun to play... I really like the models honestly. Marines are so abundant and you see them everywhere... The Necron models just strike me somehow.

I was going to get to test them in a tournement this month but they moved the date of the tournement and now... I cant make it. Oh well... Theres always another somewhere else.

I have pretty much been told that the Destroyer list is basically it. 15 Destroyers, 2 Warrior units(maybe 3), a Monolith, and a Lord(with some fun stuff)... Theres some points left over for a few other things... but not much.

How do people feel about Heavy Destoryers?

I have been collecting necrons for a while, but am just now starting to play them more often. I have the old metal warriors, immortals, and destroyers (arm chair destroyers ftw!), as well as some of the new mini's (I have at least one of all the 3rd edition stuff).

I have 2 heavy destroyers that I use in a squad (soon I will buy a 3rd to complete the unit), and I do like them quite a bit, but they're pricey on the point side, and a little bit crunchy (as in, favorite target for lascannons and such).

- Get 2-3 Monoliths
- Hide your 20-30 Warriors behind them or in reserve
- Pick a C'tan, hide him there too
- Get some destroyers, hang them around the flanks of the monoliths and shoot enemy transports
- Advance the wall towards A) Things you need to kill, or B) The area of the board with the highest proximity to objectives.

Scarabs are nice, and Tomb Spyders are also really cheap for what they do. Don't take Pariahs....ever. Not a fan of Immortals either.

Read the Monoliths rules over and over again. Understanding how to use the portal for deployment of reserves, teleporting, and additional WBB rolls is important.

A really dirty trick is to literally land a Monoth on top of the objective. If you plop the Mono right, your opponent will be unable to get within 3" of the objective. Teleport a unit of Warriors out of the other side, hug the monolith, and there's a last turn objective snatch.

Griever wrote:- Get 2-3 Monoliths
- Hide your 20-30 Warriors behind them or in reserve
- Pick a C'tan, hide him there too
- Get some destroyers, hang them around the flanks of the monoliths and shoot enemy transports
- Advance the wall towards A) Things you need to kill, or B) The area of the board with the highest proximity to objectives.

Scarabs are nice, and Tomb Spyders are also really cheap for what they do. Don't take Pariahs....ever. Not a fan of Immortals either.

Read the Monoliths rules over and over again. Understanding how to use the portal for deployment of reserves, teleporting, and additional WBB rolls is important.

A really dirty trick is to literally land a Monoth on top of the objective. If you plop the Mono right, your opponent will be unable to get within 3" of the objective. Teleport a unit of Warriors out of the other side, hug the monolith, and there's a last turn objective snatch.

Had that happen to me, god are monoliths hard to kill.

In response to the OPs question, you can win with a good list, but you will need a certain degree of luck if you want to stand up to IG tourny lists. There isn't much mech IG doesn't trump though.

Necrons in 5th, for the most part, need a list that can reliably keep them out of CC, or sheild them from excessive shooting. One way to do this is monoliths. However, if your opponent can reliably kill Monoliths, then you are in trouble. For example, 40kenthusiast had a lot of success with his Necrons at tournaments, but met defeat against good ork players with deffrollas, because the deffrollas simply obliterated the monoliths.

Also, I ran Necrons a lot 2 years ago, but I had a game with a freind of mine who used lots of manticores, and he had no trouble killing all of my monoliths very early on.

So yes, you can have success, but there will be some games out there that that will be extremely hard to win.