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.

Hello dakka

my usual opponent plays chaos and just picked up a bunch of crons today. I've never played against crons but from looking at the codex and listening to him talk there doesn't seem to be a weakness to them. My question is; what's the best way for tau to deal with them?

Crons have plenty of weaknesses, ESPECIALLY against tau.

They are nearly completely unable to deal with 2+ MCs at range. I would use HBC Riptides with Skyfire and Interceptor to bring down Night Scythes.

To counter Wraithwing, massed FWs with an ethereal should be able to dakka them down.

That resurrection protocol sounds like it would deal with it pretty well and he doesn't have flyers yet

necrons don't much like fire.

 the shrouded lord wrote:
necrons don't much like fire.

AP 1-3 fire...

 Byte wrote:

 the shrouded lord wrote:
necrons don't much like fire.

AP 1-3 fire...

at other kind is there?

AP 4, which warriors and crypteks don't much like either.

So just how good are crons?

Brutal Viking wrote:
So just how good are crons?

Necrons are still top tier. But against Tau and Eldar they could struggle depending on the theme of the list.
Their tesla annihilators can be devastating (also able to inflict wounds to nearby units).
You need to deal with their flyers asap.

Necrons are very, very good.

However, Necrons are also vulnerable to assault and long-range shooting, since they only have something like three weapons in their whole codex that have a range of more than 24". Their main mobility comes from teleporting, which makes them vulnerable to Interceptor fire.

Sadly, they are no longer vulnerable to being run over by tanks, which was their original achilles heel..

Basically, Necron armies are split between warrior-heavy and immortal-heavy. Warrior-heavy armies are vulnerable to heavy bolters, autocannons and heavy flamers while immortal-heavy armies are vulnerable to plasma cannons and guard artillery.

Just like any army they have weaknesses, everyone's posted what they are already so just capitalize on them and you should be fine.

I LOVE taking a flamer heavy army when Necrons come to town, back it up with some AP3/2 weapons and you'll sweep'em.

 the shrouded lord wrote:
necrons don't much like fire.

Pretty much. Flanking Necrons with Heavy Flamers can be painful to the Cron player.

But overall, Necrons are pretty high up on the list. Watch out for Wraiths and take down their vehicles ASAP.

Thank you all very much for the input none of it will be wasted

And if he runs massed immortals, I've found the Ion hammerheads to be doing a great job at killing them, or at least making them hide a bit and giving you a breather.

As a Necron player, I am here to tell you we really, really hate Riptides. If you can keep our Wraiths away, we basically have no good way to deal with them. So beating Necrons as Tau can definitely be done. Bring those Riptides and use Firewarriors to kill Wraiths. Game over.

Uh, CrazyCryptek, you realise mindshackle scarabs work on Riptides, right?

Edit: follow them up with a pokeball.

As a tau player, you should laugh heartily at nercons.

Simply blast units down one at a time, stay out of melee, and stay focused. Dead robots stay down.

 Byte wrote:

 the shrouded lord wrote:
necrons don't much like fire.

AP 1-3 fire...

Necrons LOVE AP1-3 fire.
Because when you are spamming AP3-weaponry, you're paying a fee that allows you to ignore SM-armour.
Necrons go "trolololol" with Reanimation Protocol.

 TwinWolf wrote:
Watch out for Wraiths and take down their vehicles ASAP.

And never forget that those AV13-vehicles are open-topped!

What av13 vehicles do they have? I know the monolith is a flying land raider but isn't the rest av11. And what's the open top relevance in this situation?

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Uh, CrazyCryptek, you realise mindshackle scarabs work on Riptides, right?

Edit: follow them up with a pokeball.

That involves getting into close combat with the Tau. You ever tried assaulting a Tau gun line in 6th edition? Yeah....

Can't say I have, I'm the only Tau player I know

Brutal Viking wrote:
What av13 vehicles do they have? I know the monolith is a flying land raider but isn't the rest av11. And what's the open top relevance in this situation?

Necrons have special wargear on almost all of their vehicles except fliers that give the +2 to their front and side armor

Brutal Viking wrote:
What av13 vehicles do they have? I know the monolith is a flying land raider but isn't the rest av11. And what's the open top relevance in this situation?

All necron vehicles that aren't flyers or the monolith have special wargear that gives +2 AV to front and side...making pretty much everything AV13/13/11. That said, once a penetrating hit occurs, they regress to 11/11/11.


You mentioned Ressurrection Protocol - as a cron player, I wouldn't worry too much about it. 5+ normally and 4+ if there's a character with a Resurrection Orb in the unit. While it makes Necrons resilient, it isn't a guaranteed revival. Also if you can destroy the unit, the counters go away so they can't come back (characters are the exception to this). Along with RP though are Ghost Arks. These are our ground transport vehicle and they can repair Warrior each turn, returning D3 Warriors per turn for a unit within 6".

Riptides suck for us and really require us to get into base to base with them. So in a nutshell, you should be able to stay away from us.

Overall - Tau can take out Necrons pretty well. They out-range Necrons and have better AP weapons to thin our ranks well.

Generally speaking:

-3++ multi wound models that rend in CC
-Flying melta bomb chariot that can target nearly anything, that can attack two targets per turn if properly placed
-almost everything (if everything) is ld10
-AV13 nearly all around on basically all vehicles
-insane dakka boats that can fire 5? rapid fire guns on each sides + open top so the guys inside can do so as well
-Flyers out the wazoo, that can deepstrike units with minimal problems so last turn contest like no ones business.
-Ap2 flamers that wound on 2s (despairmark combo)

Basically Tau can deal with most of it but nearly every list will have trouble with it. a good alpha strike can deal with it as well (drop pod)

If you are really worried about the AV 13 vehicles just take a hammerhead with Longstrike, S10 w/ Tank Hunters will at the very least get one pen hit in and drop their armour if not outright kill the vehicle.

Don't forget about that pesky jink save (if i had a nickle for every 5+ something that a necron player has gotten, id probably buy a full 2000k point necron army my self by now /rage)

Tau have Superior range and fire power to necrons. Keep them at range and you should be fine.

If he plans to have an air force, broadside teams or riptides with the velocity tracker will make short work of them.

Brutal Viking wrote:
What av13 vehicles do they have? I know the monolith is a flying land raider but isn't the rest av11. And what's the open top relevance in this situation?

Most scary vehicles have AV11 but Quantum Shielding gives them +2AV on front and sides.
What many players seem to forget is that they are also open-topped, which gives you another +1 on the damage-table.
(Once I got my opponents to remember that, the vehicles went down rather fast!)

Assuming you pen.

For the most part what alot of people bring are auto cannon lv shots/ missile sides, plasma etc.

even St 8 has a weak chance of penning it.

Tau are lucky in that they can bring strong shots but over all do you have enough high strength to kill 3-6 of these before they roll up and barrage you on 3+ 2+?

Its the same issue as serpent spam but not as bad.

I've only played serpent spam once and got utterly destroyed, I'm gonna start a post asking for tips on dealing with that if any of you have advice on that;

I want to thank you for all the advice and tips for dealing with crons I appreciate it greatly and I'm no longer as worried about going against them