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I have been looking around at many of the threads and many have Necron hate. Many complain that they are a losing army. I have only been playing a year or so but i have only lost like maybe 3 or 4 games, 2 due to phase out. I understand many might think i wasnt playing anyone competive but I play with some pretty powerful armies. (I really dont like BA ). I played this weekend against the tank heavy sisters and a Khorne army. (2000pts a game). In the sisters game we called it cause he didnt have much to do with and against khorne i actually felt bad and gave up two squads just as cannon fodder (granted two particle whips landed and killed about 30 bloodletters. Maybe I should do a battle report on both games. But i guess the point of the post is maybe im just a good general compared to others

Old codex.
Limited competetive builds.
Shiny metal robots.

My head hurts from reading your post, but I have to agree that the stragetic options for Necrons are very limited. The limited number of units coupled with a crippling army-wide rule makes the Necrons by nature a difficult army to field (if simple to play) in a competitive environment.

Well, their Phase Out rule is the biggest reason. I think the rumors say they'll lose it in the new codex, though. Other than that, they're quite a good army, even with an old codex and a limited number of units. I mean, they have one of the most powerful tanks in the game! Then again, you can just ignore the huge flying Monoliths and aim for a Phase Out...

Strategically There is a lot to keep in mind, but as a Necron player I i've found that there is some variety in possible builds. Sure, many of them aren't tournament builds, but they can often make your opponent second guessing what's in store.

You pay a premium for them having WBB and Marine stats but they fall apart in combat surprisingly fast considering;
1. They can be run down, unlike Marines.
2. WBB doesn't happen until after the combat, meaning it's easy enough to kill 4-5 or so and run them down without ever getting to use it.

Still, 15 Destroyers with 1-2 Monoliths and the rest in ResOrb Lords/Warriors is pretty formidable.

I do fairly well with my Necrons. One of my regular opponents took 6th nationwide in the 'Ard boys with his Orks and has only beaten my Necrons twice with them.
I've won a few tournaments with them, so I really don't have many complaints.
I'm interested to see what the new codex brings for sure, though.

Mephiston

Your entire army is now invalid.

Fafnir wrote:Mephiston

Pretty much this. Did you know Mephiston can quite single-handedly take down a Monolith, with relatively good odds? Kind of sad, but true. Thank you Matt Ward.

Fafnir wrote:Mephiston

Your entire army is now invalid.

Heh. Come at me, bro.

Mephiston didn't make Necrons worse. He made Pariahs better.

Monster Rain wrote:

Fafnir wrote:Mephiston

Your entire army is now invalid.

Heh. Come at me, bro.

Mephiston didn't make Necrons worse. He made Pariahs better.

WHY OH NO! A UNIT OF 6" MOVING PARIAHS IS COMING STRAIGHT TOWARDS ME? OH MY GOD, AND THEY HAVE ANTI-PSYKER POWERS! WOWEE! I'LL JUST GO CHARGE 18" AT SOMETHING ELSE!

I do not know if Necrons lose all lot.

But I know they loose all the time right now, due to them being a very out of date codex.

Mr. Self Destruct wrote:

Monster Rain wrote:

Fafnir wrote:Mephiston
Your entire army is now invalid.

Heh. Come at me, bro.
Mephiston didn't make Necrons worse. He made Pariahs better.

WHY OH NO! A UNIT OF 6" MOVING PARIAHS IS COMING STRAIGHT TOWARDS ME? OH MY GOD, AND THEY HAVE ANTI-PSYKER POWERS! WOWEE! I'LL JUST GO CHARGE 18" AT SOMETHING ELSE!

you mean 19-24" charge, as he is fleet, and can use Wings of Sanguinius to move as if he had a jump pack.

Monster Rain wrote:

Fafnir wrote:Mephiston

Your entire army is now invalid.

Heh. Come at me, bro.

Mephiston didn't make Necrons worse. He made Pariahs better.

Pariahs, much like the rest of the Necron book, don't stand a chance against Mephiston. And that's not even including the army that's walking up behind him.

In direct combat, of course they don't stand a chance.

Also, the Necrons have a "rest of the army" as well.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Mr. Self Destruct wrote:

Monster Rain wrote:

Fafnir wrote:Mephiston

Your entire army is now invalid.

Heh. Come at me, bro.

Mephiston didn't make Necrons worse. He made Pariahs better.

WHY OH NO! A UNIT OF 6" MOVING PARIAHS IS COMING STRAIGHT TOWARDS ME? OH MY GOD, AND THEY HAVE ANTI-PSYKER POWERS! WOWEE! I'LL JUST GO CHARGE 18" AT SOMETHING ELSE!

Hyperbole is amusing and all, but I bet if you thought really hard about it you could think of some ways to make it work.

Well I like pariahs... the models I mean. The warscythes are cool but...

Mephy is ridiculously overpowered anyway, even though he looks awesome. Anybody who uses Mephy in anything less than an apoc list can contest the master title.

We don't think they lose a lot, they just do lose a lot. I've played a lot of Necron players over the past five years, and I'm an average player who doesn't make very competitive lists. In that time I've lost to Necrons once, and that was a 500 point game where we just played till we killed each other and he had a veil of time Lord teleporting around with a bunch of destroyers where my sluggas couldn't catch him.

Necrons have a phase out rule where when they're down to 25% of their models they automatically lose. I was able to beat a Necron army in a tournament by causing this with my Guard, and I only lost a Chimera and a few men in an 1850 game. When I play Necrons with any Marine army, I can take confidence in the fact that if I get my tactical Marines in close combat, I've won the game.

Necrons are a joke.

The 2 armies I've played with my flesh tearers are necrons and Dark Eldar.

The necrons, I won within THREE turns. Deep strike, bolt pistols and flamers fire twice, assault, over-run. Phased turn 3.

Their troopchoices are severely overcosted, they can't deal with large numbers of transports and even the mighty monolith isn't that great.
Oh, and the phase out rule hurts them badly.

Opinions are divided, really. Some people think Necrons are weak, some think them OP. Personally, they give me a lot of problems. I think I've seen more victories for the Necrons than losses, though.

Jimsolo wrote:Opinions are divided, really. Some people think Necrons are weak, some think them OP.

I could buy this if you said it for literally any army in the game EXCEPT Necrons. I've never heard anyone call them OP, not in person and not online.

The last time I heard necrons described as OP was when they could glance something to death. The 5th ed vehicle damage system was the final nail.

Now they are objectively the worst current army in the game.

Cerebrium wrote:The last time I heard necrons described as OP was when they could glance something to death. The 5th ed vehicle damage system was the final nail.

Now they are objectively the worst current army in the game.

True that, not even with their Monos they can win anything now. Still, as I said before, they will be loosing their Phase Out in their next codex, if the rumors are true.

So a bunch of mixed messages here... and I appologize for the headache WarOne

I see both sides of it though. To make them even a threat though you do have to be a good general. Ive been playing for just over a year or so now and maybe im just lucky with rolls.

Play Daemons alot and most of the time I can take out more than half the army while only losing maybe 2 unit (costly though)

The green tide is something i struggle with but nothing 3 liths and a nightbringer cant handle.

Space Marines are a challenge, but i did end up blowing Mephiston to bits (total and utter luck though).

I have a lot of metal men though so maybe i have more options than your normal necron player who may only have one unit of something and at most 2 liths.

2maybe, never played a necron, but being equals to space marines basicly (+3 armor save) i dont rly see them losing

Iggyrocksall wrote:Phase out maybe idk never played a necron

Then why did you bother responding...?

Honestly, I would say Phase Out is their biggest problem. If you take the non-Necron choices in order to make for a stronger list, then you're just asking for the enemy to take down the Necrons quick, phasing out everything before you can even tackle the threats. On the other hand, if you take nothing but Necron choices to pad your Phase Out value, you're losing some effectiveness on the battlefield. Monoliths are powerhouses, and 3 of them can make people cringe, but then you consider that that's a solid 700 points that they've taken out, drastically reducing the Phase Out value.

Another big problem is that as survivable as the Necrons are, they are slow. They are sloooooooooow. Short of taking Monoliths to teleport squads around the board, or using a Lord to do it, they're pretty much foot-slogging it 7-12" at a time. With some armies' (Read: Wolves, Guard) prevalence to spam long-range shooting, the Necrons can't always survive to make it into shooting range.

I'll admit that a good general is going to be able to play Necrons well, and I have seen a brilliant Necron player do well in games before, but they're a really outdated force.

Iggyrocksall wrote:Phase out maybe idk never played a necron

Thanks for your input, this is a very informative post! Your wealth of experience really shows.

There's only 3 ways to win with Necrons.

1) Be an amazingly good 40k player. And, I do mean amazing. Like, winning major tournaments with a list 500 pts under good. Like, Dashofpepper good.

2) Play against a newbie. They need to be fielding things like Swooping Hawks or the Space Pope. They need to have no transports, and CC focused squads that are all S&P.

3) Play against another Necron army. Hope to get them to phase out before they get you to phase out.

Don't get me wrong. I really like Necrons. But, 5th edition has not been kind to them. They are incredibly underpowered, and can't deal with any competitive list. Hopefully, the new codex isn't just a rumor and it will give some much needed life to these dead machines.


To the OP: You played against a tank heavy Sisters army and a Khorne army? It seems like you were in category #2.

Nah it wasnt number 2. well maybe
It was well thought out with 3 very lucky blast templates. (3 blasts took out very nearly the first 3 squads bloodletters that deepstiked)
Not to mention the C'tan that was thought to be just outside of range from the bloodthirster.
Lol monolith with single lux arc hit for single glance for maw cannon destroyed.
But i did play it really smart making sure my liths were forming a wall for my warriors and a group of immortals teleporting around (though that did eventually end with a very miserable fate).
The sisters battle was kinda won the same way. Making sure to take out all the seraphin first though.

I win about 60-70% of my games with my necrons, and the losses are usually vicously contested battles rather than curbstomps.

I've played them for a long time though, so maybe that helps

Hehe, nice to see other Necron players out there winning games