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So I just played with the old crons against my bros SM tonight and barely won, and it was only due to a cheap drop in and snag the objective with some scarab swarms. I know a new codex is due out soon, but what the heck, what do you guys usually do to take on SM? I always find it hard to take them out, let alone win the game.

And this is the way it is, even when you do manage to take them out its still hard to win because you are slow and have stayed far away and cant catch up to the objectives. Crons simply put, challenging. Not for power gamers, not for whiney babies, for people who want to play with the game set to difficult.

I don't play regular Marines that often.

I'm usually up against the 'alternative lifestyle' versions like Space Wolves and Blood Angels.

You have a mix of fast and slow units in the dex. If you could give me a list of your available models and his list as far as you recall it i'll try to help

There are a few very dirty tricks you can play on everyone's 'favourite' race, but yes, Necrons are for those folk who actually like a challenge in their battles, as codex creep and rules changes have left them a little behind..

As one of the vanilla players that you want to take on, Wraithwing style lists like DashOfPepper runs are very annoying to deal with. Destroyerwing can also be very painful, it's not for the faint of heart though. Specially since when the next codex comes out, necrons will get drowned with "Necrons are OP!" threads for about six months.

The particle whip that the monolith uses can splat marines pretty good.

A lord w/ a res orb, veil and a mob of immortals will teleport around, and drown exposed infantry in saves.

Necrons main issues come from the fact that they suck in CC, and space marines can often outshoot them as well. A monolith phalanx will probably be key to victory.

Particle whip as I mentioned earlier will provide killing power, and the portal on the monolith can pull you out of unfavorable combats, and allow you to reroll WBB rolls on squads that have taken serious punishment. Also if you have 2 or 3 monoliths you can make a wall to hide your vulnerable warriors behind.

Necrons main issues come from the fact that they suck in CC

Necron HQs are horrifying to marines in CC. Necron fast attack has tools that will quite nicely tarpit a unit or two until said HQs can get in position to break things, necron FA also has the tools to de-rhino space marine squads with gusto. What necron CC sucks at is the ability to spam and win.

I thought necron CC sucked too, once upon a time. A pair of destroyer lords hitting my TH/SS units and causing on-charge wipes broke me of this notion.

SOFDC wrote:

Necrons main issues come from the fact that they suck in CC

Necron HQs are horrifying to marines in CC. Necron fast attack has tools that will quite nicely tarpit a unit or two until said HQs can get in position to break things, necron FA also has the tools to de-rhino space marine squads with gusto. What necron CC sucks at is the ability to spam and win.

I thought necron CC sucked too, once upon a time. A pair of destroyer lords hitting my TH/SS units and causing on-charge wipes broke me of this notion.

I will have to admit that warscythes are good and mean in CC but when only 2 guys in your army have em, it kinda limits the damage they can do.

But now that you mention it, 2 destroyer lords w/ 3 wounds a piece and T6 (they are T6 w/ the destroyer body right??) rocking the 3+ turbo cover save can be hard to remove before it hits something.

Hey, with all the Grey Knights around, pariah's are viable. And they've got warscythes iirc.
But the things that always are a pain for me are wraiths, monoliths, and occasionally scarabs. Yes scarabs. If they survive the blast/templates and actually manage to get to a tank, or a non-cc unit they _eat_ said unit/tank. I play space wolves though, so YMMV

CoI wrote:Hey, with all the Grey Knights around, pariah's are viable. And they've got warscythes iirc.
But the things that always are a pain for me are wraiths, monoliths, and occasionally scarabs. Yes scarabs. If they survive the blast/templates and actually manage to get to a tank, or a non-cc unit they _eat_ said unit/tank. I play space wolves though, so YMMV

lol an army that has all powerweapons vs crons ... hmm sounds terrifying tbh

I would have to find a post by myself, click a link in my signature, copy the thread, and link you to you here which is a lot of work...

Instead, I'll just tell you that I've got a guide to using a Necron Wraith Wing in my signature. It's monstrous, horrifying, nigh-unbeatable in the hands of a good general unless you're playing against a list tailored for killing Monoliths....

Give it a read and see if it fits your style.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

jdjamesdean@mail.com wrote:

CoI wrote:Hey, with all the Grey Knights around, pariah's are viable. And they've got warscythes iirc.
But the things that always are a pain for me are wraiths, monoliths, and occasionally scarabs. Yes scarabs. If they survive the blast/templates and actually manage to get to a tank, or a non-cc unit they _eat_ said unit/tank. I play space wolves though, so YMMV

lol an army that has all powerweapons vs crons ... hmm sounds terrifying tbh

That's what the Deceiver is for! All those instant death causing weapons are STR4 and can't hurt him. If they choose to active Hammerhand to bump up to STR5, then they can't active their force weapons, and that's all kosher too. For the few instances (stacked ICs that will let a unit do both) where something can force weapon him to death...he can just jump out of combat and go play somewhere else.

Not to mention that rending Psycannons can't scratch the paint on a Monolith.

Right now, I have:

1 Necron Lord
1 Necron Destroyer Lord
1 Nightbringer
20 Warriors
6 Destroyers
5 Scarab Swarms
3 Wraiths
1 Tomb Spyder
1 Heavy Destroyer
1 Monolith

and one lucky set of dice themed to my necrons

I really don't want to buy anything more for now, especially not any metal models since we'll probably get new models within a few months. And the whole slamming Necron Lords into SM troops never worked out well for me, a sgt with a powerfist always seems to get lucky.

And the whole slamming Necron Lords into SM troops never worked out well for me, a sgt with a powerfist always seems to get lucky.

I believe dash`s guide deals with exactly that problem. Read it, it's good info.

But now that you mention it, 2 destroyer lords w/ 3 wounds a piece and T6 (they are T6 w/ the destroyer body right??) rocking the 3+ turbo cover save can be hard to remove before it hits something.

Yea. Made even more annoying when you factor in that there are jetbike-speed units you can hide him in. He is like a mini-trygon. If trygons actually scared TH/SS units.

Don't forget that you "could" add the 4+ invul save to your jetbike lords as well. Helps against those nasty power weapons.
personally I forgo the warscythe and keep the staff of light. It's hard to pass up three St5 AP3 shots on the assault.

My units would much rather face a staff of light lord than warscythe. They stop ignoring my stormshields, and stop 2d6 penning my dreads and land raiders. I'll eat the S5 shots gladly in trade.

SOFDC wrote:My units would much rather face a staff of light lord than warscythe. They stop ignoring my stormshields, and stop 2d6 penning my dreads and land raiders. I'll eat the S5 shots gladly in trade.

There is still far more times where a staff of light is more useful and potentially more deadly than the warscythe. The 2d6 pen still isn't that great on a str 5 model considering you just have to move the rhino over 6" to basically negate that (6+ to hit) and the dreads WS + 12 armor makes it a gamble as well. 50/50 on 3 (maybe 4) attacks to hit and then 50/50 to pen on those? I'll just take my 20+ gauss shots instead.

Power weapons and AP 3 don't mean much to termies, You are trading win combat w/ walkers or kill vehicles (maybe not a high chance), for the ability to drop a marines save from a 3+ armor to a 4+ cover.

3 S5 AP3 shots MAY kill a space marine, or MAY (even longer shot) kill a termie. 4 Warscythe attacks WILL kill a terminator (possibly even 2).

Thaylen wrote:Power weapons and AP 3 don't mean much to termies, You are trading win combat w/ walkers or kill vehicles (maybe not a high chance), for the ability to drop a marines save from a 3+ armor to a 4+ cover.

3 S5 AP3 shots MAY kill a space marine, or MAY (even longer shot) kill a termie. 4 Warscythe attacks WILL kill a terminator (possibly even 2).

Terminators aren't the only thing in the field. And no, it's not really "win combat with walkers/vehicles", I've found that massed gauss fire from warriors/immortals will have a much better chance of disabling them then 4 attacks on the charge from a lord. Depends on the vehicles, of course, but I'm just saying that having that extra three AP3 shots before assaulting "anything other than terminators and vehicles" will further guarantee you more kills as you're hitting on 3+, wounding on 3+ with no armor save. "Maybe" they'll have a cover, "maybe" they won't. But there's no dealing with initiative for shots and you have to be close enough to use the staff of light where you should be assaulting after shooting it anyway. Terminators should be shot at by heavy d's or assaulted by c'tan. Or did they change the storm shields now where they work for shooting AND close combat? Well either way, my mileage with the staff of light has been droves better than with the warscythe and there have been so many times where I've found myself saying "if I only had a couple of AP3 shots...."

Also, this isn't saying to NOT take one, just don't need it on every lord in the field. You also have to remember that the only other marine punching firepower we have are heavy d's (which are expensive and vulnerable) and the monolith...that's it. Oh, and the ranged weapon on the tomb spyder but that thing is a joke. So, it's not really something to take lightly.

Yeah, Stormshields are now 3++ all the time.

heavy D's? HEAVY D'S?!!!?!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Ya know what, if your opponent takes a SINGLE heavy destroyer, you've already won the game, cause they are completely worthless.

If your just playing a noncompetative SM player, you'll do fine with a Two Towers Warrior Phalanx like so

*****---*****---*****
*****---*****---*****
------------*****
------------*****
Lith-----------------Lith

Otherwise, a destroyer spam with Two Towers works or you can try the ever popular (and always a failure) anti-leadership flayed ones/pariahs/Gaze of Flame/Nightmare Shroud/Deceiver Mix
The Wraithwing is the most effective, though it is kinda powergaming.

The thing with the Wraith Wing is that it would require me buying a lot more Wraiths

Actually one of my most effective Necron Army Builds involved Fast Attack filled with Destroyers and Heavy Support filled with Heavy Destroyers. Perhaps 1 S9 AP2 shot isn't that scary, but 9? Even just three can be frightening. I mean hell, perhaps it's just luck but I blew up (apocalyptically) my opponent's Baneblade on the first turn with 3 Heavy Destroyers, they all hit, they all pen, and one got wrecked the other two got explode, and then apocalyptic explosion.

Just saying, in my experience, Heavy Destroyers have done more than their fair share of getting someone to have a very very bad day.

Config2 wrote:heavy D's? HEAVY D'S?!!!?!


Ya know what, if your opponent takes a SINGLE heavy destroyer, you've already won the game, cause they are completely worthless.

If your just playing a noncompetative SM player, you'll do fine with a Two Towers Warrior Phalanx like so

*****---*****---*****
*****---*****---*****
------------*****
------------*****
Lith-----------------Lith

Otherwise, a destroyer spam with Two Towers works or you can try the ever popular (and always a failure) anti-leadership flayed ones/pariahs/Gaze of Flame/Nightmare Shroud/Deceiver Mix
The Wraithwing is the most effective, though it is kinda powergaming.

You say that like I don't know they're worth crud. But they're our ONLY OPTION for AP2 firepower.

MY Tactics for beating vanilla marines:

Warsythes, Warrior spam, Lith spam. If you can drop even just one lith into battle, then every turn you can get 10-20 (15 is my sweet spot) warriors and a supporting foot lord with ressi-orb, phylactery, and warscythe. also, give your warriors diruption fields if he's using multiple vehicles.

Good luck

Why would you give your warriors d-fields? Their gauss weapons are better at the job and as long as he moved 1" or more they'll hit more often as well. You give d-fields to scarabs, not warriors.