Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Me and a couple of friends started getting into wh40k. I picked space marines. We have been playing some games and whenever i play against my friend who is necrons i get destroyed. The max points we play with is 935pts, (the highest he can go). He has 1 monolith, 2 units of 14 warriors, 3 destroyers and 7 swarms, (he stubbornly refuses to buy an hq since necrons are coming out with a new codex soon.) His monolith keeps teleporting his men out of close combat which leaves my guys vulnerable to fire. My vehicles are useless too because of his glancing hits. What is the best strat against necrons? i know that i should ignore the monolith which i do. These are all the models i have:
3x Full Tactical squads
1x Devastator squad (5 guys)
1x assault squad (5 guys)
1x Assault terminator squad (5 guys)
1x Dreadnought
1x Ironclad with drop pod
1x land raider redeemer
1x whirlwind
1xlibrarian
1x sm captain


Out of that list what would be the best 935pt loadout? I have tried a few different configs but just fail. Ive tried assaulting with my terms in the land raider but its risky, and i dont like the fact that im relying on one land raider charge. And if that fails it doesn't leave me with much else because those 2 units are 450 points. Thanks

His list is illegal,gotta have 1 HQ and 2 Troops minimum for any army

As for advice, you got the ignore the monolith part down, i'd use the whirlwind to hit the scarabs (vulnerable to blasts so take double wounds), while the whirlwind does that drop the destroyers with the devastators, whats the load out btw?, then just focus fire on the warriors. If you kill 25% of models with the necron special rule they phase out,

Also, i'm not entirely sure on the legallity of this move but you could use the libby with his teleporting power while he's attached to the terminators?

And i'd include the dread so he can't deep strike the monolith on top of you and laugh at your S8

Don't play marines but i play against crons constantly so i hope this helps

Melee him, win by 2-3, break the unit, run it down. Game won.

Necrons are terrible at killing vehicles aside from the Monolith, so just rush him in transports, jump out at the start of a turn, and charge him.

Take the redeemer give it the brother chronus upgrade. put in 10 basic tactical marines give the sgt a powerfist, give the squad the captain with a relic blade.

drive the landraider right into his warrior squads its like a 90% chance to win combat lol all it takes is a single combat to run him down and destroy him.
and he will never get the chance to teleport them out. plus the warriors that die to power weapons will never get back up because he has no res orb.


not to sound mean but his army is garbage without an HQ just get into close combat WITH HIS WARRIORS and stomp his face.

with brother chronus you ignore all shaken and stunned his glancing hits will not stop you.

the rest of what you take doesn't matter.

Firstly, how on earth are 14 warriors surviving the combat long enough to get teleported out?

Secondly, without a lord or Ctan his list is illegal. Ctan and Lords are both pricy models in points, and you have to take one. Sub something in for a lord if need be. All the cool wargear is Lord only anyway.

Thirdly you only get WBB if you have another model of the same type on the field, and within 6''.

His destroyers should go down easy to heavy bolter fire or above, and if he has only one unit they won't be getting up again if they are all killed.

Powerweapon/fist the warriors. Shoot them up with melta/plasma. No WBB from that without a lord on hand.

LR Redeemers are absolutely ugly against warriors, with that ap 3. They can only get up again if there are more warriors standing there looking stupid right in next to the dead unit, which makes them prime meat for the LR.

Necrons are not hard to beat, especially with Marines, if the other guy is actually playing by the rules.

Don't forget Phase Out when he hits 25% remaining of his Necron models (monoliths and scarabs don't count).

Thanks for the replies guys. Yea me and my friend keep telling him to get at least a lord, which is what? $18? big whoop, anyway... I never thought of using the whirlwind on his swarms, il give it a try. Ive used it on the warriors before and it kinda sucked. It would maybe take out 1 or 2 guys, but then they will just WBB. Yes i am aware of taking out his destroyers that they cant WBB, but then he just ports them.

I have a few questions about necron rules if you guys could clarify so i could find out if hes cheating/playing wrong lol.

If you fail WBB rolls, can you use the monolith in the shooting phase to revive them again and bring them out of the portal? and if so, can those units shoot that turn?

Also, if i kill off 50% of a squad and cause him to fall back, can he use the monolith to port them, would that cause them to regroup or would they still retreat?

If he has a pinned unit, can he port them with the monolith? if he does are they still pinned or no?

And lastly, lets say i assault him during my turn, he assaults back, no one is completely dead yet so the assault continues into his turn. During the shooting phase he uses the monolith to teleport them out of close combat and puts the unit in front of the monolith's portal. If he does that, can those units shoot that turn?

Thanks guys, sorry for all the questions me and my 3 friends are still new, just trying to iron out some things that we are still not sure of.

dbgp wrote:Thanks for the replies guys. Yea me and my friend keep telling him to get at least a lord, which is what? $18? big whoop, anyway... I never thought of using the whirlwind on his swarms, il give it a try. Ive used it on the warriors before and it kinda sucked. It would maybe take out 1 or 2 guys, but then they will just WBB. Yes i am aware of taking out his destroyers that they cant WBB, but then he just ports them.

I have a few questions about necron rules if you guys could clarify so i could find out if hes cheating/playing wrong lol.

If you fail WBB rolls, can you use the monolith in the shooting phase to revive them again and bring them out of the portal? and if so, can those units shoot that turn?

Also, if i kill off 50% of a squad and cause him to fall back, can he use the monolith to port them, would that cause them to regroup or would they still retreat?

If he has a pinned unit, can he port them with the monolith? if he does are they still pinned or no?

And lastly, lets say i assault him during my turn, he assaults back, no one is completely dead yet so the assault continues into his turn. During the shooting phase he uses the monolith to teleport them out of close combat and puts the unit in front of the monolith's portal. If he does that, can those units shoot that turn?

Thanks guys, sorry for all the questions me and my 3 friends are still new, just trying to iron out some things that we are still not sure of.

1. Yes they can shoot once recycled
2. i'm not sure on this one, but once under 50% and running they can't regroup
3. Again not 100% sure, probly say yes, as pinned units can't do anything except stand up for a turn, he could then teleport them
4. Yes he can do that

Awesome thankyou. What i think is killing me is that whenever i kill his guys, he'll do WBB and if that fails he'll port them with the monolith. They keep coming back, i was thinking on maybe getting a vindicator. S10 AP2 large blast would prob make quick easy work of his warriors

dbgp wrote:Thanks for the replies guys. Yea me and my friend keep telling him to get at least a lord, which is what? $18? big whoop, anyway... I never thought of using the whirlwind on his swarms, il give it a try. Ive used it on the warriors before and it kinda sucked. It would maybe take out 1 or 2 guys, but then they will just WBB. Yes i am aware of taking out his destroyers that they cant WBB, but then he just ports them.

I have a few questions about necron rules if you guys could clarify so i could find out if hes cheating/playing wrong lol.

If you fail WBB rolls, can you use the monolith in the shooting phase to revive them again and bring them out of the portal? and if so, can those units shoot that turn?

Also, if i kill off 50% of a squad and cause him to fall back, can he use the monolith to port them, would that cause them to regroup or would they still retreat?

If he has a pinned unit, can he port them with the monolith? if he does are they still pinned or no?

And lastly, lets say i assault him during my turn, he assaults back, no one is completely dead yet so the assault continues into his turn. During the shooting phase he uses the monolith to teleport them out of close combat and puts the unit in front of the monolith's portal. If he does that, can those units shoot that turn?

Thanks guys, sorry for all the questions me and my 3 friends are still new, just trying to iron out some things that we are still not sure of.

You can't port the destroyers when the unit is wiped. It allows a reroll of WBB, but it doesn't grant it to a unit that wouldn't have had it. He's cheating on that one.

If you fail the WBB roll on a model and the unit that has the failed model as part of it gets ported you can reroll the failed WBB. If you don't port them the model is removed when it fails. If a whole unit is killed off within range for WBB of another unit of the same type (6'') then the ones that pass the WBB join that unit, and the fails are removed as casualties. You can choose to port that unit to try to pick up a few more WBB, but any fails are then removed. Don't forget that he can't port and Particle whip in the same turn. You can only port one unit per turn per monolith, and only if the Lith is in range to do so. A ported unit can shoot the turn it is ported.


If he ports a unit that's falling back at below 50% they will keep falling back.

A pinned unit that's ported would still be pinned, just in a different place (in front of the Lith) i think. Nothing about the teleport negates existing conditions (except for being locked in combat, as you can port a unit out of CC)

In CC you don't have to completely kill the other unit to win. Necrons are very vulnerable to losing combat and being sweeping advanced to death. If the combat comes out a draw, then yes he can pull a unit out of combat to a Lith. They can fire that turn.

If one side beats the other on unsaved wounds in combat it forces a LD roll, with a -1 per unsaved wound on the test. If the test is failed the unit breaks and is likely to get run down, especially if it is I 2...

He can only port one squad per game turn, it sounds like he's doing it multiple times
Crons shouldn't be a problem, vindicators are pretty viscious against them, also they can take out the monolith pretty well since its S10
Just pack alot of power weapons and double strength weapons, anything he can't WBB against. Keep in mind once he's down to 7 necrons he loses

Another note, necrons that are swept in CC can't take WBB or be portaled or even join another unit within 6", they're done

Vindicators are absolute death to lordless Necrons.

It should be enough of a shock to make him get a lord, as WBB doesn't work on shooting attacks at double model toughness, or close combat attacks that allow no armour save (dread CC weapons, powerweapons etc)

Try podding the dread down near his lith too, and then break it open in CC

But if you have won combat and they have fallen back, HOW IN THE EMPEROR'S NAME did you NOT manage to catch him in a sweeping advance?!

Necrons have piss-poor initiative! SM initiative is godlike compared to theirs! Heck, if he rolls a 6 you only need a freakin' 4 to kill him. So statistically, you should ALWAYS run him down!

Just charge the warriors, sweeping advance them, and enjoy the massacre due to his silly illegal army!

I usually run my dev squad with a lascannon, rocket launcher, and plasma cannon.

Are you saying i can actually assault his monolith with a dreadnought? base strength of a dread is 6. I have the dreadnought close combat weapon equipped so his strength is now 10. But the monolith has a special rule called living metal, which allows it to not take additional damage modifiers on weapon strengths. So i would only be doing a S6 attack then wouldnt i? If i am able to assault it with S10 this will make my day

DCCW works. It's a dreadnought sized powerfist. It doesn't augment the strength of the dread (well, it does logically, but not in game terms) but doubles it's base strength (making it 10).

Powerfists work on Liths. DCCW work fine too. By one argument on the rule they shouldn't be able to (doubling something is still modifying it, logically) but FAQ's have declared that they work, as GW aren't all that long on logic

A well aimed Powerklaw is about the only thing bar ramming that orks have that will kill a Lith (semi) reliably.

If you want a better chance of downing the Lith equip the devs with all lascannon.


Living metal is good, but not a catch all feth-you. It blocks a fair selection of attacks, and people are always trying to argue their favorite attacks around the rule, but it doesn't stop powerfists, emp grenades, wraithcannon, haywire blasters ....


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Linky to the Necron FAQ :

http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1490294a_FAQ_Necrons_2009.pdf

Sweet thanks! This changes everything! Guess im gona rush it with my 2 dreadnoughts next game My ironclad is equipped with the seismic hammer, so +1 to damage chart too.

I am still pretty new at 40k but i could equip my whole dev squad with lascannons?? i thought you could only have 1 diff weapon each

You can equip the dev squad with the same heavy weapon several times. Spacewolves in particular are fond of dirt-cheap missile launcher spam. I think the Sarge doesn't get a big gun, but thenn i'm a Necron and Ork player, not a SM player

Podded dreads are a severe PITA for Crons. Monoliths are slow as hades, and can't run away fast enough. They can only go 6'' a turn, so even if he moves you should be able to outpace him and hit him on 4's.

Good hunting

Learned so much from this post thanks for all the help guys! That multiple weapon thing for the dev squad could i do that with a tac squad as well? such as having 1 squad have 3 rocket launcher?

Not with a tactical squad,

In the codex it says something along the lines of: "up to 4 weapons" meaning any 4, including multiples. For the devastators
While for tac squads it'll say something more along the lines of: "replace bolter with a weapon from the list" "if the squad consists of ten models then you may choose another from this list". The only weapons tac squads can have two of is plasma, melta and flamers i'm pretty sure

I see, id look it up in my codex now but its at my friends house, time to buy more lascannon bitz

I used to face necrons as my only opponant, and I have to say... my vindicator is his most hated foe. Throw a siege shield on it, drop it into the best cover you can find and nuke 'em. Use your whirlwind as a vindi instead, as whirlwinds really kinda suck. As well, as cool and usefull as a LRC is, at that points lvl that's over a quarter of your forces tied up in that one unit, and it can be glanced to death by any gun he can field. If you're still going to use it, fill it with assault troops and use those flamestorm cannons to decimate him. I wouldn't actually use the Termies against him in this case either, as they can't sweeping advance. Use them against the monolith or something else squishy you don't need to sweep.
I've had a lot of luck with my long fangs and giving them a razorback with las/plas. I rarely use it as a transport though, rather as an annoyance of the monolith, or to blast at his units that have low numbers.
Plasma vs Necrons is a godsend as well. Plasma cannons on my LF to blast away at his troops, perhaps with something else like ML or LC. But at your point lvl...:/ Tell him to get a HQ, even if it's just one of your spare dreadnaughts. if he moans about the size difference... tell him to just get a HQ of his own then.

There are only a few ways to stop WBB.

Strength double Toughness.
CC hits that allow no armor save.
No models of the same kind within 6" when the wound is taken.
Wipe the unit out. (i.e. if the last model of the unit doesn't have a model of the same kind within 6" the whole unit stays down)

Monolith Portals are used during the Movement phase, and allows a reroll on WBB. Doing so prevents the large blast weapon from shooting.

Assault the Warriors, shoot the Destroyers. It's only 3 T5 wounds. That should be easy, even at 1000 points. Necrons are generally believed to be pretty terrible at 1k.

At 1k my victories over the necrons were pretty crushing. The higher the points, the nastier they get. Still takes a good player/huge mistakes of the opponant for them to be a huge challenge. Or the dice don't like you... I blame that for at least 2 of my losses otoh, my opponant says the same thing for those games, and we laugh:p
I swear cultists pray dark prayers of unluck over my dice when I'm not looking...

The high cost of necron units makes any game below about 1250 heavily slanted against the Necrons. They have to sacrifice 360 + points to suboptimal Troops (warriors) and have to buy a lord (100 + gear) or Ctan to lead them (300+ )

Destroyers are spendy, though good if 2 units are taken, wraiths cost a fair bit, and come in small units, but are pretty good.

Necrons lack decent heavy support (Monolith is about all that's good) although occasionally tomb spyders will suprise you. I had a game yesterday where a Tomb Spyder held up 3 units in CC (including a powerfisted HQ) for several rounds, while another ran down and ate an annoying APC I may have to field them more often

As a matter of principle, you should refuse to play against an illegal army. You are letting him get away with it, which is not healthy. The points that he must spend on an HQ are spent on other units, which unbalances the game.

Besides, you can tell him I said he is being a jerk fielding an illegal army, and an idiot refusing to use an HQ. Necrons make a hell of a lot of good use of their HQ. The Lord in particular is especially important with his equipment loadup - veil and orb are the best, followed by the scythe (not count towards the 100 pts of gear) and the phase shifter. If he is too cheap to buy a lord, he can proxy with an empty base, or he can get one used from ebay for 8 bucks. The argument about the new codex is stupid as well, because while the Ctan may be move to apocalypse only, the lord is here to stay.

Regarding beating his stupid ass, park a tank in front of the portal. He cannot teleport the warriors unless they emerge within 2 inches from the portal and outside 1 inch from enemy units. Also, he cannot teleport them if he moves first, so if the portal is blocked, he cannot move to unblock it and then teleport the unit. If he just pivots but does not move, he can still teleport in principle, but if you put your vehicles right, he will not be able to pivot without first moving.

Another advice is stomp him in close combat, as others pointed out. Terrible initiative means warriors die in sweeping advance. So, do not use terminators. Just win the combat and make him roll LD. If there is way you can lower his leadership the way IG psyker squads can, it is murderous to Necrons. I've felt it on my own Necron army.

Finally, power weapons disallow WBB. He can only counter that with an orbed Lord, which he is too stupid/stubborn to take. A sergeant with a power fist will give you 2-3 dead warriors outright with no WBB and a corresponding modifier on his LD roll (warriors are LD10 but not stubborn).

I second the idea about wiping out the destroyers. Only 3 models are easy to down. If all are down, no WBB even if an orb is present.

To answer the other questions, yes, he can teleport pinned and falling back warriors. Yes, they can move and shoot rapid fire within 12 when they emerge. They cannot emerge and shoot at 24 because the teleport counts as them moving zero inches but still moving.

Now, some bad news for you - necrons may be able to regroup units fallen under 50%, because models that make WBB can join other units. So, say one unit falls down to 6 models from starting 14. He is now below 50%, so a normal unit would never be able to regroup, but if some models from the other warrior unit make their WBB and join this unit, they count as part of it, so he CAN come back over 50% and become eligible to regroup.