Necrons - How to beat the de facto forum list?

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.

**Unholyllama**

So after being on the forums for a while, the default forum Necron list appears to look something like the following:

HQ:
Destroyer Lord

Troops:
5 Warriors w/ Night Scythe
5 Warriors w/ Night Scythe
5 Warriors w/ Night Scythe

Fast Attack:
6 Wraiths - 2 w/ Whip Coils
6 Wraiths - 2 w/ Whip Coils
6 Wraiths - 2 w/ Whip Coils

Heavy Support:
3x Annihilation Barges

I play Necrons; however, I don't run this list (don't have the models). I am curious though as to what weaknesses does this list have and how would someone defeat it?

**Desubot**

Anti Air
Anti Tank
Str8+

Pretty much new Tau.

**Thariinye**

Each segment of this list has weaknesses that can be exploited.

While the Destroyer Lord is great in combat and everything, it's still a combat Warlord, so the list gives up StW quite often, unless a different HQ is brought.

Wraiths are comparatively weak to small arms fire -- against things like Pulse Rifles or Bolters, a single Wraith is no better than two marines, and we know how easy marines are to blow away if you have good torrent of fire.

Night scythes are great and all, but their defenses are middling for flyers. They're hardier than Dakkajets or Eldar Flyers, but less so than Heldrakes or Vendettas. A good AA force will ruin Night Scythes, and thus the ability of the Necron player to put scoring units upfield.

Lastly, Annihilation Barges and Nightscythes both carry the amazing TL Tesla Destructor -- amazing but for one weakness: 24" range. If you can outrange the Annihilation Barges, you can neuter a lot of the Necron player's firepower. You can't easily deal with the Scythe Destructors, but that's what your AA is for.

A well-optimized Tau army has a general advantage vs this Necron list. Broadsides or Riptides with Interceptor can put enough fire into Wraiths and Flyers to down them effectively and massed Fire Warriors can also down Wraiths especially easily, while most other things can outrange the Barges. Combine that with outflanking Kroot that can take objectives against 5 man warrior squads, and you have an army that Necrons are hard-pressed to win against.

Dark Eldar also can do well against Necrons -- night shields can really make the Necron firepower unable to hit the range of DE Raiders, Ravagers, and Venoms.

The Necron Net List is very strong. There are a lot of synergies to it, and it takes advantage of a lot of 6th edition meta trends. However, it's not unbeatable.

**Powerguy**

Yep its certainly not unbeatable, in fact I've seen it getting smashed quite a bit recently as people have worked out how to deal with it. The problem that most lists have with it is that they can't deal with all the elements of the list. If you bring the torrent you need to drop the Wraiths then you get shot up by the Barges and the planes drop guys on objectives late and win, if you bring heavy AT to kill the Barges then the planes run rampant and you get run over by Wraiths and if you go AA heavy then you can't deal with the Barges and will struggle with the Wraiths. Not many lists can deal with all three elements, but I've found that if you can deal with two then you at least bring games back to at least 50/50 odds (i.e the Necron player actually has to play well to beat you).

**ShadarLogoth**

I've found all foot lists have very little trouble against the Necron Net List if played competently. Take out the Wraits/DLords, and then focus on the ABarges. As long as you can control the board before the planes start dropping Warriors, the late game Warriors shouldn't have any meaningful real estate to nab by the time they come in.

Also, don't waist firepower on the Night Scythes unless you have Skyfire or all the ground targets are out of range/dead. I see this list win a lot of games because people stubbornly try to take down the Night Scythes with inefficient shooting.

**cowmonaut**

Lascannons and having something that can tie up the Wraith unit for several turns.

My last game against Necrons was basically against this list. Though his was more like this:

Spoiler:

My list (from the top of my head) was this:

Spoiler:

My list is accurate but his is from memory. Game was 1750 points, and I'll admit luck was more on my side and he went second. How things went:

Spoiler:

TL;DR

- Something enduring in combat can really tie up the Wraith. Fearless and Invulnerable saves is largely important when trying to do that. Otherwise volume of fire and shoot them down ASAP.
- Some Anti-Air or enough Twin-Linked Lascannons will be able to handle the Night Scythes.
- Annihilation Barges need to die. Lascannons help with that too.

Really though, the Warriors have to get out to claim Objectives, and the Flyers can't turn on a dime. Play the mission and take out those 15 Warriors and they'll have a harder time winning 66% of the time.

**necron99**

I guess it depends on how many points you're playing. I've stopped playing wraiths just because I've finally come the to the realization that, duh, 6E is all about shooting not CC as much anymore. I have found the NS to be a Godsend - right up to the point where you're playing against Tau

Recently I've resurrected my deathmarks and they've regularly delivered for me. I run a 5 man squad with a naked harbinger of despair in a NS. The NS is actually critical to how the whole unit works so I'm not taking it just to have a flyer on the table. In my current 1850 list I run three units like that. If I'm lucky they all show up at the same time - or at least two of them - and fly over and gang up on a single unit that's been marked for death. Nothing I mark ever survives three units and usually two will do the trick. So that's something you don't see on the net lists that often. I'm also starting to run more DSs now. Nothing like a S10 AP1 line of death to ruin your opponents day, eh?

I used to run the ani barges and in lower point games I definitely run anything that's AV13. Once you get around that 1500 point threshold though they start getting popped.