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Hey guys, I am a pretty novice player to begin with and I just decided to give Necrons a try. I have a friend who is dominating our little gaming group at the moment with a centurion heavy SM list. How would necrons cope with them? He seems convinced that I wouldn't stand a chance with a warrior/barge list I am drafting at the moment.

Thanks in advance

Is he running just centurions or is he adding independent characters to the mix? If it's just centurions, volley of fire, warscythes, and Destruct-teks all spell doom for them.

If he's adding independent characters to the mix (like Tigerius, chapter masters, or Tau commander) then things get a bit more technical on how to deal with them.

His HQ is just a bog standard captain just to fill the slot.

How would you delivery warscythes to them though? He could probably pick off command barges before they came near and if I used a night scythe to delivery lychguard or something, wouldn't they be vulnerable for a turn?

Suicide an overlord in a command barge. First turn go flat out towards them so you can sweep attack them the next turn if they don't blow it up. If they do, you should be within range of assaulting them.

Another option is wraiths which would do another number on them.

Does your friend run them with the grav cannons or with the non-grav weapons?

Non grav stuff, combination of lascannons, Rockets and Heavy bolters I think. They are usually guarded by assault termies too, but im less worried about them ironically.

How many Scarabs do you have? Cause that's actually a real option is to swarm them with scarabs. Take Nemesor, have some additional Spyders to add more scarabs. Give Scarabs hit and run with Nemesor.

Do you have any Deathmarks? A Cryptek? A Nightscythe?
If so, let me introduce you to the bane of every 2+ armor save in the game: the Death & Despair Squad™

5-10 Deathmarks
1-2 Harbingers of Despair
1 Nightscythe

Works like this-
• Deathmarks have a special rule called Hunters from Hyperspace (HfH), which lets them "mark" any enemy unit when they deploy. The marked unit will be wounded by any of your Deathmark units on a 2+, regardless of toughness.
• according to the FAQ, any characters attached to the squad will also be able to wound HfH marked enemy units on a 2+.
• the Harbinger of Despair (Despair-tek) has an AP1 template weapon that normally rolls against the enemy leadership stat to wound.
• however, if you attach a Despair-tek to a unit of Deathmarks, you now have an AP1 flamer that wounds on a 2+.
• stick the whole unit into a Nightscythe, drop them next to a big tough enemy unit, and light 'em up.
(If you've got multiple Overlord level HQs and can take two Royal Courts, you can attach 2x Despair-teks, making the unit super killy... possibly overkill, but YMMV).

Oh, yeah, and the Deathmarks themselves aren't bad, with their rapid fire sniper weapons.

 Diggory_x wrote:
Hey guys, I am a pretty novice player to begin with and I just decided to give Necrons a try. I have a friend who is dominating our little gaming group at the moment with a centurion heavy SM list. How would necrons cope with them? He seems convinced that I wouldn't stand a chance with a warrior/barge list I am drafting at the moment.

Thanks in advance

Centurions?

You mean invulnerable saveless doomscythe fodder right?

Outside of those, I'd also recommend the D&D squads and wraiths.

Devestator Centurions have absolutely feth-all for Close Combat. 1 Attack each, with no AP at S4. Get Scarabs into CC with them, they're totally and completely screwed without a counter-assault unit to save them.

If you do it right you can tie up the whole army with a mass disorganized charge depending on how he's spread out then just focus fire on the rest of his army while hit and running with the Scarabs.

Honestly that's not even a lot of points. take some spyders, take some scarabs. Done.

How about Wraiths?

THose are the big 2 wound 3++ things right?

Yeah Wraiths are awesome, something else that got a huge boost due to 6th edition is Spyders.

Sure they are monstrous creatures but they got all the nifty rules monstrous creatures get now so that's pretty great as well. being able to get them in squads of 3 is fantastic, and they add creatures to the game.

 Diggory_x wrote:
Non grav stuff, combination of lascannons, Rockets and Heavy bolters I think. They are usually guarded by assault termies too, but im less worried about them ironically.

Centurions NOT taking Grav-cannons? Seems like a rarity.
I went up against a list with Grav-centurions. I tried to hit them with scarabs, but it didn't work out so well. Granted, it was a small squad of them (only 4, I think?).
If he's not taking Grav-cannnons, see if you can amass a large force of scarabs to tie him up. They only cost 15pts apiece, so it won't be hard to overwhelm at even half the points cost of the centurion units. At worst, they'll tar-pit until the end of time, but that means you can concentrate on the rest of his army. It sounds like he's taking as many Centurions as a list could allow, so that means his troops and HQ suffer because of it. If that's the case, it'll be a cinch to wipe them out.

Another option would be to just go with a D&D squad, as others have mentioned before.

I'd like to know what the results are if/when you get into a match with him.

As with every Centurion list I've ever faced...if you stop or kill the Centurions...you pretty much won the game.

Decided to alter my list to include the deathmarks with a harbinger of despair (is that what D&D means?).

I'll see how that goes when I get a chance to play him.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

 Diggory_x wrote:
Decided to alter my list to include the deathmarks with a harbinger of despair (is that what D&D means?).

Yes, that's what D&D is short for ("Death(marks) & (Harbinger of) Despair")
Just make sure you stick them in the Nightscythe. Trying to deep strike close enough to use the flame template is just asking for a scatter/mishap.

D&D combo is a hard counter, as are wraiths. since their range is pretty short

Speaking to my centurion wielding buddy, turns out he has altered his list to literally have as many of them as possible. 3 full units of dev centurions all with a mixture of lascannons, rockets and heavy bolters.

He seems pretty confident that he can shoot anything that comes at him. He is prone to overconfidence but so far no one in my little gaming group has beaten him!

My D&D combo might threaten 1 unit but im pretty sure they will be dead the next turn. Maybe I should consider Death Scythes instead.

The only thing he thinks will threaten him is Lords of War & D-weapons, but we have a house rule to not use escalation stuff.

 Diggory_x wrote:
My D&D combo might threaten 1 unit but im pretty sure they will be dead the next turn. Maybe I should consider Death Scythes instead.

Heh, actually, "Death-Scythe" is the nickname of the army build that maxes out D&D squads embarked in Nightscythes.

I say, if he's gonna max out his cheesy units, you should too.
Full Death-Scythe list.
Triple D&D squads, all with double Despair-teks, all in Nightscythes = 765 (1050 if you max out your Deathmarks, but you wouldn't really need to, it's the 2x Despair-teks per squad which will be doing most of the killing).

There is no way his Centurions are going to survive that kind of murder... though your friend may stop talking to you for going maximum cheese tailoring.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, yes, D&D squads are traditionally viewed as kamikaze units: their main objective is to get in and kill something dead. They're not expected to live after that. If they DO manage to get out and kill something else, well that's just gravy.

You could always spam scarabs and piss him off. Keep his cents tarpitted and that's 800 or so points of his army that won't be able to contribute in any way whatsoever. Thats the route I would take as I try not to put down cheese unless the guy is really askin for it.