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Howdy! Long time lurker, just joined!

So, I have a large Necron army that I built with some savings over the course of a month. Here's the list:
Built and painted:
22 warriors
1 lord + res orb
5 destroyers
11 scrab swarms
1 tomb spyder
1 destroyer lord (Not played this yet)
1 monolith (Not played this yet)
3 heavy destroyers
10 immortals


Still to paint/build:
1 Wraith-lord + res orb
1 Monolith
1 Night bringer
22 warriors
Couple of swarms


Just ordered a squad of 10 original crons from ebay which I'm going to throw in.


The problem:
I'm new. I've played probably 15 games in my life, most of those after getting my crons and I've NEVER won. The other games were as smurfs and I had even less idea of what I was doing (I had something like 22 marines, a heavy squad, some termis, a scout squad, a vindicator, a predator and a champion)

I've been learning against a space smurf friend of mine who has a huge army and kindly added lots of power and plasma weapons to his kit in anticipation of playing against crons. I started small, 500pts, 750, 1000, 1250, 1500 then 2000. I came close to crushing him on two occasions but had some really bad luck against his command squad and venerable dreadnaught and ended up phasing. I managed to ressurect my lord three times in a row, took his commander down to one wound and then that run of luck ran out.

I need some help to get some arse kicking in. I bought the army mostly for modelling and painting but would like to play. My mate has been playing with Smurfs, chaos undivided and dark eldar for YEARS so he has a huge advantage over me.


Help?


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I have just realised that this may seem like I'm being lazy by not using the search but it has only been so helpful and I'd like some advice that's specific to what I've got.

Any help would be MUCH appreciated!


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Nothing?

Personally, to me that sounds like a job for a Destroyer wing based Army. I've fought against Space Marines (Specifically Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Ultramarines, and another chapter that fails to come to mind), and have only lost 3 out of roughly 12 battles. Destroyer wing allows you to use destroyers to engage and kill softer targets from a distance while using heavy destroyers to kill whatever tends to be a heavy threat. Sometimes I'll replace a number of the destroyer squads with scarab swarms and tie up their light infantry while everyone else goes to work on the tough guys.

Also, I always, ALWAYS, deck out one lord with the warscythe and the Veil of Darkness. One of my favorite strategies with this lord is to get into combat with my main force, then teleport him along with heavy destroyers to the flank or rear of his force and hit him hard in the side, at the very least turning his vehicles into unusable hunks of metal.

Flayed Ones are also not a bad idea, I always infiltrate them close to the enemy forces for the sole purpose of tying them up. The Monolith and NightBringer aren't too bad of choices, however, I feel that they eat up to much points that could be better utilized elsewhere.

Gotta run, feel free to ask anything you want (except on how to beat nids, I'm still working on that one). I'll be back with more.

Ok well it is a tall order which is why I think you are seeing no responses.

First I really can not get Necrons to work under 1500pts. The mandatory 360pt warrior block is the handicap here. At 1500 you are able to take some of the more killy units and that can keep you on the table. That being said here is my 1500pt list. Again this is what I can make work on the table and is not the end all list find what units you like and use them. This is just a demonstration list and ill go over the pieces below.

HQ:
Deceiver
Lord-Destroyer Body, War Scythe

Troops:
10 Warriors
10 Warriors

Fast Attack:
4 Destroyers
4 Destroyers
5 Scarabs

Heavy Support:
Monolith

Some things to address first are some ground work issues. I play all point levels with 20 warriors. If my warriors are getting hit I've already lost the game. I rarely ever PO for my losses. 99% of the time I walk my warriors on from my table edge. This saves me a turn or two of fire and I can also come into play somewhere my opponent isn't. Always walk your warriors into cover, people will just give up on shooting them out when you go to ground for a 3+ armor/ 3+ cover then a WBB. (Assault is another matter though)

Changing your mind set when it comes to a Monolith is a must too. Sure its got a cool gun but it should have a big red cross on it since its 1st priority is a Necron hospital. Teleporting any unit out of a tight spot normally is better than the since plate you'll get. These are some tricks to avoiding PO.

Here is the #1 rule of Necron list building. If a unit has WBB always take 2 of the same unit. As you can see in my 1500 list the destroyers have a partner unit. This is because if one unit is wiped out from shooting they can still join the other unit if they make their WBB rolls.

Next tip is to change your mind when it comes to anti-tank. Necrons don't have the big guns other armies have. You need to change your mentality from destroying tanks to neutralizing the threat they pose. Example...

opponent has vindicator set up 12" from his table edge directly across from you. You #1 priority is to keep it from shooting through glances, ideally you immobilized it at say 30" from anything important because even though its not destroyed its out of the game.

Finally stick to a solid target priority, spend 100% of fire to immobilize those vindicators at 30in then move on. Or focus fire a LR with Assault termies in it before it crashes your lines.

Playing conservatively and with a plan is what it takes to counter PO. Also remember leveraging your nasty units can keep the heat off your warriors. I shield my warriors with a C'tan and Monolith, this forces the enemy to deal with them before my warriors.

Necrons are like playing a game of "Operation" anymore takes really steady hands and a unwavering focus on the mission to really be successful

There are pretty much three viable Necron builds.

Wraith wing, destroyer wing, tomb spyder wing.

Wraith wing:
Destroyer Lord
20x Warriors
9x Wraiths
3x Monoliths
Fill points as available (Deceiver for me at 2k + 3 warriors)

Destroyer Wing:
Destroyer Lord
20x Warriors
10-15 Destroyers
3x Monoliths
(fill points as available)

Tomb Spyder Wing:
Destroyer Lord
Regular Lord
30x Scarabs
9x Tomb Spyders
Fill points as available (I use immortals x8 to go with the foot lord who has veil)

Pick a theme and flesh it out to your tastes.

Dash has the top of the line lists correct.

If you don't feel comfortable fielding those lists, 10 destroyers + 1-2 Monoliths + Immortals is next in line. Neither Wraiths nor construct spam works well if you don't go all out with it, in my opinion.

Don't feel afraid to go for top of the line power with Necrons. It's likely that you'll need the help. Also note that there are a number of models that have no easy answers outside of a C'tan: Demon Princes, Land Raiders full of melee troops, Flying Tyranid Monsterous Creatures, and such.

Absolutely brilliant advice here thanks guys!

I did forget about his landraider...damn.

I've been reading and planning and I've come up with a list that's somewhere in between whats been recommended.

I've thought about a destroyer heavy army but I just need to scrape together some cash for another 5 destroyers.

I was looking at a 2250 game next:

HQ:
Lord+VOD+Res Orb

Lord+Destroyer body+Res Ord+Phase shifter

Elites:
10xImmortals - Babysitting the foot lord - Heavies/tank busting

Troops:
1x20 warriors - Pushed in to cover ASAP or held at the back
1x20 warriors - Reserve

Fast attack:
5xDestroyers - Escorting the D-lord - Heavies busting
5xDestroyers - Heavies busting
10x scarabs - Disruptor feilds - Bogging down his dread/land raider or slowing his troops

Heavy support:
Monolith - Tank busting
Spyder - Baby sitting the warriors


I was thinking about parking the immortals and the lord behind the monolith and slowly pushing in to range of his expensive units so I can engage the HQ/heavies with my monolith and VOD the immortals in behind them and take a chunk out of them there. I was going to wait 2/3 turns before VODing my immortals in behind him so I can leave time for him to run towards cover so I can drop in to a gap large enough to stop him assaulting my too quickly.

I was going to target his heavies/HQ from the beginning with my two destroyer wings.

The spyder and the warriors will be positioned on one of the flanks and were going to be pushed in to cover ASAP, with the scarabs between them and any threat (he likes to use his dread on the flanks).

Do you think its best to have the warriors behind the monolith and have the immortals+lord where those warriors would have been? I've had some good luck keeping my immortals alive with the lord and they got some good hits in but he did see their potential to cause head aches and jumped on them pretty quick.

I see that there are only 20 warriors in these lists, should I dump 20 and take some more immortals or destroyers?

Last time he used his plasma cannon to wipe my H-destroyers out in two turns. I managed to hit his dread with some decent fire power but only served to turn it in to an Assault cannon turret. He also likes to force C&C, either assaulting me ASAP or forcing me in to a situation where I'm being pounded as I retreat or I'm forced to assault (which, stupidly I did do one time).

Thanks for the help guys, very much appreciated!!


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Also, Can I keep my warriors in reserve from the start? I thought I had to have at least one squad on the table at game start if not both?

The last couple games I played, I had a Lord res orb/VoD and stuck him in with 10 Immortals. Ive gotta say if you keep them out of CC, that unit does some serious damage.

Oddly enough today Im playing against SM for the first time with my Necrons, so Im a bit iffy to see how I do, speaking of Ive gotta go work on some lists. Nids though Ive pretty much got it pegged on how to beat them. Basically you just sit and shoot the hell out of them. I used a couple smallish scarab swarms for bait and sit. Set them up so scary unit either charges or has to go around them. When they get charged, they lose combat pretty easy against Nids, then the nids are set up nicely after consolidation to get the hell shot out of them by near by units. Destroyers REALLY come into their own against nids as well, they are too fast and shoot to far for ANYTHING in the nids dex to counter

Too many warriors. You should only field more than 20 total if you feel you simply cannot hold/deny objectives and avoid phaseout at all. Even if you do, 10 man squads only. 20 just means you lost twice as many when a melee unit contacts you.

Scarabs are weak against moving Land Raiders and Dreadnoughts. They need to be hitting immobile targets. Remember, 40 attacks. 20 hit vs. a walker or a vehicle moving 6", 3 glances. So you have to hope for a immob, or a weapon destroyed on the Dread, and the Dread will relieve you of 2 bases per round.

Spyders only allow you to WBB if there are no models of the same kind within 6". There is no point to one escorting warriors. The point is to have a Destroyer unit hang around near one so if they all get knocked down they'll go to join the other Destroyer squad.

If you deploy a Warrior squad forward, it will almost certainly die. It is unlikely you will be able to shoot down all the melee threats before they reach it.

Rez orbs are generally wasted on Immortals, and using the Veil is very risky these days.

Yes MSU is what is needed with warriors. Using cover and reserves + objective placement to your advantage 10 will be difficult to kill with shooting.

The real issue is sweeping advances and assaults. Thats way warriors die, shooting they are durable enough to but sweeping advance will wipe whole squads.

So in this way 20 warriors dies to sweeping advance just as fasts as 10 do. Where 10 warriors are already hard to shoot to death you shouldn't need the added complication of 10 more bodies. Also makes cover harder to get for the larger squad.

Revised:

HQ:
Lord+VOD+Res Orb
Lord+Destroyer body+Res Ord+Phase shifter

Elites:
10xImmortals - Babysitting the foot lord - Heavies/tank busting - Vodding as KingCracker did

Troops:
1x10 warriors - Behind Monolith
1x10 warriors - Reserve

Fast attack:
5xDestroyers - Escorting the D-lord - Heavies busting
5xDestroyers - Heavies busting
10x scarabs - Disruptor feilds - Slowing his troops

Heavy support:
Monolith - Tank/Dread busting
Spyder - Sits with second wing of destroyers

That gives me 1890 - What do I do with the other 110 points?

As I'll be avoiding C&C with my lords, I see no point in giving the warscythe - correct?


I'll focus my destroyers on his Heavy weapons squad first to remove the plasma cannon then shoot the gak out of his command squad. After this it's troop splatting.

I'm not sure I like the idea of Vodding my immortals close to his tanks so I'll use them to support the destroyers unless termis popup in which case the immortals have a new job.

I'm still deciding what to do about his armour...

Add a heavy destroyer. True if you have only one with one shot per turn it may seem kinda useless, but the mobility of a destroyer body means you can usually get to hitting side armor of any vehicle if you move right, and that one shot can make a big difference.

I did consider adding a destroyer because it allows me to take pot shots at his dread from 36" rather than the 24" of the particle whip and has potentially better results than the 36" range the destroyers offer.

I might add it just to make up points. Still leaves me with 35 spare points though!

You are likely to only get one shot with a HeavyD. Anybody familiar with how WBB works will leap on small units. If you have more Spyders that is an option, but they are not much more that so-so in melee. But they are expendable.

Add a few warriors. There is little else you can do with that few points (the 35), as I think you maxed out both Lords on wargear. A Warscythe on the D.lord has some benefits. The staff of light is so short ranged, and T6 is sufficient to let you grind down some units in melee. It won't happen fast though, unless you get lucky, as he doesn't have the WS or A for it. It's also a decent tank killer in 5th, assuming the tank wasn't moving more than 6". Putting one on a foot Lord is usually a waste of points, imo.

Thanks for the advice!

I think I will just throw in some more warriors!