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As a Marine player i can say a few things about what i fear the most in a Necron list.

Immortals are bad news if i can't get into close combat. my advice for you, advance and shoot at the enemy, fall back as he gets close and keep shooting, assault after he is well and truly beaten.

Pariahs; SCARY, VERY SCARY. true no WBB rolls but with a CCW that ignores saves of ANY KIND is somthing that will put the hurt on any unit in close combat. large units are a good body guard for the lord (if he has a warsythe too it makes it even better) but with this and any other necron unit you should take at least 8-10 in a unit or not at all.

not sure why everyone hates Pariahs i think they are very dangerous

Moniliths; at least one, two if playing at 2000 or more. living hull will exasperate your opponents.(what do you mean my Multi-melta can only glance?)

Heavy Destroyers are good for popping tanks

General advice for necrons

Gauss is your friend. 20 warriors can throw out 40 shots a turn 20-25 will hit on average, with 3-4 rolling a 6 and those glances will at least stunn if not immobilize or weapon destroy whatever. Every unit in the army can pop tanks.

Stay out of CC except with Pariahs your low Initiave will absoultly kill you on sweeping advances and order of blows. remember power weapons will deny you your WBB roll unless you have a Resurrection Orb. Stay out of CCs unless you are absolutly sure you can win them.

(once I had a SM captain with LC, killed 2 necrons outright, made all his saves and sweeping advanced the whole unit of 18 plus the lord that was with them at the time)

Grey Templar: The reason why people don't like Pariahs is that, compared to immortals:
-They are more expensive
-They have a better CC weapon, but only 1 attack means you can't put out too many hits
-They don't contribute to Phase Out
-They cannot transport through the Monolith or with the Lord's VoD
-(The Most Important Reason) They can't WBB. In an army that can get back up (and thus accounting for the points costs), a unit with only a 3+ save and no way to get back up means that they are actually fairly easy to kill, and each one that dies is a large point loss (almost as much as a terminator)

So, in summary, for most circumstances (but not in every case) the 36pt cost of a Pariah is not worth it, especially compared to Immortals or even Warriors.

Thanks guys, some more good info there.

I have to agree about the Pariahs. The WarScythe is great, but the point cost is nasty and at 1000 points, this is going to severely effect the points I can spend on Phase Out models. (Plus I severly suspect they will be shot to &*%$ before I can get into close combat.)

Some good points about the survivability of Immortals vs missile, this is something which worries me about Destroyers.

Grey Templar, thanks for your post, I like to hear what other armies find troublesome .... but the one thing about your post which I found frustrating (not your fault, this is a frustration of mine with the necrons, after only a few games) ... is that you DONT get 40 shots with 20 warriors, unless you happen to be within 12" of the enemy. As both the Orcs and Tyranids can have an assault range of between 19" and 27" (with fleet and 12" assault) - you will be luckly to get 1 set of shots in, let alone rapid fire. With a good roll, the Orcs / Tyranids can be out of your LONG range (24") and STILL assault you ... thus getting you NO shots. Grrrrrrrrr !

I guess this is also a benefit of the destroyers ... at least they can shoot beyond that ridiculous assault range.

So ... for my extra 250 points, it is looking like an even closer tie, between Immortals, Destroyers or a Monolith.
(again, my ONLY opponents will be either ORKS, TYRANIDS or ELDAR - as I only play 3 other of my mates)

Monolith is essentially immune to all 3 of them except for close combat. Immortals will be better at taking out squads of guants and aspect warriors than destroyers, but also will be charged much easier. Against orcs, destroyers will outrange most of their guns and if you are playing on a normal battle field you can get away with scooting along the outside edges. Actually destroyers would be good against nids too. Against eldar they die much easier than immortals to shooting and since eldar have a large amount of 36" weapons you are going to have a tough time against them.
In my opinion if you are going against nids/orcs take destroyers, try to stay 36" aways from them and take potshots to destroy their mobility and lootas/barbed stranglers. Then just fly around and if anything gets too close turboboost out of the way.
Against eldar i would probably say go for the monolith, it is practically immune to everything the enemy can throw at it, unless he is running a seer council, then it dies, but so does everything else. also the d6 shots can ruin an eldar players day as well has pulling out of combat to shoot them again (if you dont get swept of course). Immortals are probably better than destroyers (who usually win because of their mobility/range but eldar can have that in spades, unless he runs all cc then destroyers>immortals) because they will actually cause more wounds at equal points cost and more resilient to shooting.

my 2 cents

Fletcher wrote:Thanks guys, some more good info there.

I have to agree about the Pariahs. The WarScythe is great, but the point cost is nasty and at 1000 points, this is going to severely effect the points I can spend on Phase Out models. (Plus I severly suspect they will be shot to &*%$ before I can get into close combat.)

Some good points about the survivability of Immortals vs missile, this is something which worries me about Destroyers.

Grey Templar, thanks for your post, I like to hear what other armies find troublesome .... but the one thing about your post which I found frustrating (not your fault, this is a frustration of mine with the necrons, after only a few games) ... is that you DONT get 40 shots with 20 warriors, unless you happen to be within 12" of the enemy. As both the Orcs and Tyranids can have an assault range of between 19" and 27" (with fleet and 12" assault) - you will be luckly to get 1 set of shots in, let alone rapid fire. With a good roll, the Orcs / Tyranids can be out of your LONG range (24") and STILL assault you ... thus getting you NO shots. Grrrrrrrrr !

I guess this is also a benefit of the destroyers ... at least they can shoot beyond that ridiculous assault range.

So ... for my extra 250 points, it is looking like an even closer tie, between Immortals, Destroyers or a Monolith.
(again, my ONLY opponents will be either ORKS, TYRANIDS or ELDAR - as I only play 3 other of my mates)

your very welcome,

thats okay about the number of shots. did'nt see that you only face horde armies. recommend the destroyers because they are fast and have the Str 6, Ap 4, heavy three gun. take as many as you can get for that 250 points (5 i think) also 5 destroyers are cheaper then 9 Immortals ($100 vs $119.25)

Remember that Destroyers are T5 not T4(5). D lords will also be T6 not T5(6) look at the entry in C;Necons, nice for avoiding ID

you will get more shots if you take the immortals (18 vs 15) but the better Str and Ap on the destroyers will serve you better against vehicles and Carnies. unless the orks have Dreds and Battlewagons you will have a good chance of penetrating.

against Eldar the story is diffrent (all those annoying upgrades) but i still recommend the destroyers first and then the monilith (brightlances hate them)

It's a good point about monetary cost as well Grey Templar.

250points is 5 destroyers. Thats £8x5, so £40
230 points monolith, £29

Weirdly, monolith is much cheaper on the wallet. Still a tough choice, I would like another unit of destroyers to help in WBB if unit is all killed ... but that monolith is a lot cheaper ......

look on ebay for the destroyers, they pop up pretty often because the battleforce has 3 of them. I bought mine at a really good price and they are completely unassembled, you just dont get a box.

I'd prefer taking immortals, scarabs and heavy destroyers.

Destroyers are just a little too pricey for what they do.