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I'm a starting player looking to use IG, what are some general tips? Advice on how to beat specific armies is also appreciated, especially Necrons

Belive me, you should have NO difficulty with necrons.


Ignore the Monoliths,

Shoot C'tan with Lascannons,

go for Phase out.

Ok, thanks. Phase out is the Necron player losing because they lose too many troops, right?

hellspawn22 wrote:Ok, thanks. Phase out is the Necron player losing because they lose too many troops, right?

Yep.
Kill to many of their standered troops and the rest go poof and disapper

I'm a firm believer that any problem can be solved with a sufficient quantity of lascannons. The difficulty is in figuring out what the proper quantity is

In general, there are two primary approaches to Guard - mechanized (melta/plasma vets in chimeras) or blob (units of 20-30 platoon infantry with a commissar and as many power weapons as you can put in the unit). Typically, the two approaches don't stack all that well, so it's often better to either see just how many tanks you can put on the table, or go for the 150 model-count army.

If playing a vet army, load up on the special weapons, and take advantage of the fact that chimeras have 5 firing points. You can put out a simply absurd amount of firepower. Also, Vendettas = the seks. Get some.

If playing blobs, well, as mentioned above, aim for high model count and don't worry as much about stacking gear on the individual troopers. Your best friend is the sheer volume of fire you have available.

give everything you can think of a lascannon, the lascannon is your best friend, i agree that either mech melta spam/vendetta melta spam is the favourite gaurd tactic, but if like me your a gamer on budget, settle for the humble armoured sentinel with lascannon and a missile, ive found them very handy along side my blobs

I'm probably going to go for the blob strategy. The thought of seeing so many under my command just warms my heart! Any estimate on how much that might cost?

Depends on how big an army you're looking to get...

I'd recommend starting with a battleforce or two, and then consider filling it in with some more infantry squads and/or HWS boxes. Expand to taste.

For blob armies, the battleforce is a great deal. You get a PCS/CCS, 2 infantry squads, and a HWS for a reasonable price, plus a sentinel if you want to fill out your initial force a bit or just play around with them.

Use battleforces to get the bulk of your army, then a few individual squads to flesh it out.

And make sure to get a few commissars! They are the main reason blobs work.

All told, you're probably looking at an initial investment of a few hundred, but like with any horde army, it tends to scale upwards rapidly as you expand.

Eh... cheaper than... a car or something. Probably gonna be a while before I've got a full army up and running, but I have to start somewhere. Anyone care to donate?

donate? i wouldnt ever give away something thats emptied my bank account multiple times

haha, i had to try. I can see where I might end up suffering the same problems. Maybe I can start selling lemonade after work.

I've easily spent 300-400, maybe more, so far going for the blob strategy. I'm at roughly 1150-1200 points, with what I have. After some conversion work I should have 2 blobs of 30 guardsmen and a commissar for each. Plus CCS, PCS's, LRBT and Bane Wolf.

Hope that gives you a rough idea of what you're getting into.

E-bay is your friend. you can get models for, sometimes far, below the retail price there.

Grey Templar wrote:E-bay is your friend. you can get models for, sometimes far, below the retail price there.

Bits box websites are also your friend in this endeavor

Piz wrote:I've easily spent 300-400, maybe more, so far going for the blob strategy. I'm at roughly 1150-1200 points, with what I have. After some conversion work I should have 2 blobs of 30 guardsmen and a commissar for each. Plus CCS, PCS's, LRBT and Bane Wolf.

Hope that gives you a rough idea of what you're getting into.

Thanks, it does. I'll get there someday!

And I'll go check out eBay. Amazon too?

i posted about these guys in another thread, but I've been seriously impressed with this ebay store:
http://stores.ebay.com.au/discountwarhammerfantasyand40k

These guys are also fantastic, and offer free shipping on orders over $75. Only problem is, you can't browse their GW products online. You have to email them for a price list. Their prices are some of the best around though.

http://miniaturemarket.com/games_workshop

Wow, the ebay link was great, thanks. I'll be certain to use them from now on as much as possible.

Grey Templar wrote:Belive me, you should have NO difficulty with necrons.


Ignore the Monoliths,

Shoot C'tan with Lascannons,

go for Phase out.

It's really not that simple. Many 'Cron players use minimal Warriors and keep them in reserve, so phase out isn't really an option. You then have to deal with masses of Destroyers (T5, 3+) that can't be denied FnP due to Lord's Resurrection Orb, and can be sucked through the portal for what is essentially a 3+ with a 4+ re-rollable. On T5, jetbikes with heavy bolters.

Necrons are dead easy to kill if you have assault-y units. IG don't pack many assault-y units outside of power blobs and Ogryns, and so you end up being drawn into a shooting match that starts out difficult, and just gets worse from there.

L. Wrex

EDIT: Oh, and most 'Cron players will keep their C'tan hidden behind a Monolith just to really aggravate things.

So the answer is to close your eyes and pretend they aren't there?

hellspawn22 wrote:So the answer is to close your eyes and pretend they aren't there?

It is not THAT bad, but it is an uphill battle. I have and play both armies, so I have a decent perspective.

One problem for IG is that they are a shooty army that faces a force whose primary weakness is in assault, as pointed out above.

A second problem is that Necrons have monoliths, which are particularly hard to kill and do not contribute to phase out but help the rest of the army immensely by blocking LOS, teleporting units, granting rerolls on WBB, and essentially being right in IG's face from the get go. So, they are difficult to ignore, but if IG does not ignore them, then the killy destroyers live long enough to put the hurt.

IMO, what IG must do is use manticores, demolishers, and medusas to smash destroyers from the get-go (S10 prevents WBB on a T5 model, unless an orb is in range), because destroyers are the killers. You know, that is why they are called destroyers - their name is their warning - because they are the killers in the Necron list. While S10 is ideal, anything that has the range should hit destroyers as well, so use HWT LC and ML.

The melta blobs would be out of range, so direct their shots at the monoliths.

Also use psyker battle squads to lower morale before an assault or before destroyers and warriors test for 25% casualties. You may be able to run some squads off the map that way, particularly destroyers who as jetbikes fall back 3d6, but it may not work that well, because the necron player will teleport them back with monoliths if running off the edge becomes a threat. Also he will bulk up the damaged squads with models returned from WBB, which can put him above 50% and allow him to regroup. That is why, psykers are best used on a unit just before it is assaulted, because then if the necrons lose the assault, they will break and likely be killed in sweeping advance, which prevents them from rolling WBB.

So, there are ways for IG to be effective against Necrons, but you have to know them and have a blob/tank list.

From the Necron perspective, tanks are easy to shut down but hard to kill, because necrons cannot pen front armor. So, a tank-heavy force is hard to for a necron to deal with. Blobs are not a worry because they can be outrun, while a hybrid army will see its few tanks singled out and disabled. Necrons also fear S10 artillery, which is why they have to be so aggressive with the monoliths and particle-whip the manticores and medusas. I usually deep-strike them right in the middle of the IG army to maximize confusion, in-your-face, and the usefulness of the projectors. Warriors are few and put in reserve. One unit walks to the close objective while the other gets teleported by a monolith to a distant one.

use russes to go after the warriors. fewer shots with larger templates. if you can manage to keep the crons away from your tanks long enough (gauss weapons).

you can probably do a leafblower list and load up on firepower and just mow them down. if you kill the monoliths, you can hurt their ability to ressurect. it also keeps a bunch of killyness off your back.

i would avoid vehicles against necrons unless you can use said vehicles quicly and effectively. after the first couple of turns the necrons will target the vehicles. do the same, and watch your opponent's face when you kill the monoliths. hilarious.

AP3 weapons will make them drop fairly quickly even if they have a Rez orb.

remember that if you drop an entire unit they can't even attempt WBB if there isn't a necron unit of the same type(or a tomb spyder) nearby. Rez orb is useless if you drop the entire unit. Destroyers are in particular danger of this happening.

a Battlecannon will drop them instantly and then they are at the mercy of a 4+(assuming they are eligible to roll at all)

Agreed on the part about the res orb and tomb spyder. I would also make sure but I believe that any Necron unit in reserve has to come through the Monolith and it can only have one squad per Monolith. So a fun thing is if you have a LR demolisher drop the template on it (you still get to roll 2 dice and PICK which one you want for armor pen) and if you can destroy it the warriors are lost as well.

Akroma06 wrote:Agreed on the part about the res orb and tomb spyder. I would also make sure but I believe that any Necron unit in reserve has to come through the Monolith and it can only have one squad per Monolith. So a fun thing is if you have a LR demolisher drop the template on it (you still get to roll 2 dice and PICK which one you want for armor pen) and if you can destroy it the warriors are lost as well.

Necrons coming from reserves can but do not have to come through the portal. I walk my warriors in most of the time.

Perhaps you are confusing this point with the codex rule that says that if a unit is scheduled to arrive through the monolith, it has to arrive - you cannot choose to teleport instead a unit that is already on the map. The codex says you can teleport a unit only if there is no necron in reserve about to arrive through the portal. To minimize the confusion, the 2009 FAQ explained that if you put any necron in reserve, you have to declare at that time if it will be walking or arriving through the portal. Then the codex rule makes clearer sense.

Get two battleforces. you now have two fast attack 20 men, 2 command squads (i pcs 1 ccs)

BUY A CODEX

get one chimera.

If you want guys w/ lasguns, try to find the cheepish 5man sets that run 8 bucks..try to find them for 6. get a few of those its 5 guys w lasguns and nothing else.

use box sets for flamers, grenade launchers, commanders/sergants. Custom posing, vox caster. etc.


DO NOT BUY A GW CASE it is a waste. a tackle box will hold as much if not more. Sable makes good cases and so does battle foam. BF is expensive though.


Stay cheap= buy used, look for discounts and free shipping



hwy weapons....if it helps, put a mortar on a 25mm base, and put two guys from your army next to it on the table. be generouse when enemies are using blasts. now with one battle force you potentionaly have 6 hvy weapons.

other idea, shoulder mount the ML, put guy w lasgun next to him. Done.

As far a special characters

Cedd and KEll = good buy
Al'Raheem = good for platoon
Sgnt. Harkr= good for vets
Regimental advisors= not needed at beggining, but semi important.

Nice,t hanks for the info. I'll probably use that to start.

Speaking of being on the cheap, if you do not want to spring for bases on the HWTs, and you have a cat or a friend with a cat, use the caps on the litter containers. They are exactly the same size!

Another idea is to use the plastic blister frames as the tripods to mount the heavy weapons. Just take a T section, pull the ends downward, and then the T-junction will be where you glue the weapon. Then you can cut the three legs at an angle to attach correctly to the base. Since AC, LC, and HB all use the same tripod, this is a way to make more HWTs out of the same kit which includes all options.

Finally, if you are running low on bodies, you can use Tau legs and IG torsos, or IG legs and SM torsos to fill up the stands using random army bits. At least to me, it looks cool and custom. It is also on the real cheap, especially if you have the bits lying around from other armies or given to you by friends when they finish theirs.