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Hello fellow necron players. Today I shall share with you my personal experience with 8th edition Necrons. So far I had about 30 games in this new edition and I have also seen other people playing them directly.
I try not to interfere when i watch a game, first of all because I would look like a d**k and secondly because I wanted to see how people have adapted to the brand new rules.
There is an excellent thread on this forum about unit grades and general tactics already and I advise you to check it out, but I'd like to give my personal Idea about the army. A quick and dirty rundown of the units as well as the general idea of how I play so, feedback is welcome.

Let's start by picking our best toys to play with in order of role in the battlefield. (forgeworld is left for last)

HQs
Named HQs

Orikan: Better than a regular cryptek in any way shape or form. Take him if you have spare points but if you have no CC units it may not be worth said points (his inv extends to melee)
Illuminor Szeras: Only way to buff Praetorians but even if you advance him he won't be able to keep up. Can be useful if paired with many blobs of infantry but otherwise a regular cryptek is better.
Other named characters: Either relying on gimmicks or a foot slogging overcosted or mediocre hq. Usually not worth the points unless you are playing for the lols which i fully respect.

Non named HQs
Overlord: Second best HQ in the index. Keep him near useful shooting like immortals. Equip him with warscythe and add a res orb if you have spare points.
Cryptek: Probably the best HQ. If you have a warrior blob and no cryptek you might as well not deploy them. Extremely awkward to keep him in range, if the opponent has snipers might as well not deploy him.
Lord: Useless. if you need to take a morale test you have to use command points most of the time. Take an overlord instead.
Command barge: Gauss cannon hitting on 2+ is nice. Same goes for being a character, quantuum shielding and added range. The lack of 4++ save hurts a ton sometimes so watch out.

Troops

Warriors: Take them in blobs of 20. They will be where all your command points are spent.
Immortals: People love tesla, but unless you are going to squat on an objective or dealing with hordes Gauss Immortals are better. Plus every army seems to have something that gives - 1 to shooting or more (see venomthropes/malanthropes + the horror)

Elite

Deceiver: Nice ability, useful for countering enemy deployement. Otherwise meh.
Nightbringer: Good against infantry but infantry is the only thing we are good against anyway. Otherwise gonna die easily.
Deathmarks: AMAZING. Wanna use them in groups of five to deep strike onto objectives? Wanna use them in groups of 10 and deep strike inside those ruins? Wanna finish off that annoying vehicle? Great versatility, just remember that you expect 3 mortal wounds on average (10 DM in rapidfire) so unless you want to use them to kill a veeeery squishy character don't use them for that. Also be careful when you feel tempted to use their interceptor rule. you might get shot to death immediately.
Flayed ones: Overcosted crappy unit. Gonna tear to shreads those conscripts but you are throwing away 400 points of models to kill 100 pts of stuff... great deal.
Lychguards: More like slugguards. You are either spending 175 points for a 5 men squad with shields that protects a 110-140 character or you are going to get in melee, maybe, by turn 5 with your warscythes (assuming you haven't been turned into a steaming crater already.)
Triarch stalker: Very good. Don't bother with heat ray. Take particle shredder instead for those sweet reliable 6 S7 shots or a twin heavy gauss cannon for the range. Great buff too, essentially a free markerlight.
Praetorians: Best melee infantry. Take voidblade (for the extra attack) and particle caster. No sense bothering with rods of the covenant. They are fast, they fly, they provide. Just try to keep them in cover or better out of LoS. They are likely the only CC unit that is gonna make its points worth in CC. (Mind you, a LOT of points)

Fast Attack

Destroyers: If you want S5 shooting with ap take immortals instead. Good on paper but a huge point sink.
Tomb blades: Very good for flanking, great guns (take blasters), lighning speed. Just stay away from heavy fire power and take units of 9. If you lose them you took a great hit tho.
Wraiths: The ultimate tarpit unit. You are not gonna kill anything but you can tie shooty stuff in combat forever. Throw them against those flamer tanks and watch them not being able to shoot for the rest of the game. watch out for mortal wounds dealers like psykers.
Scarabs: AMAZING. The ultimate tarpit unit's little brothers. They excel at: objective squatting, screening against melee, advancing and preventing deepstrike, keeping non flamer shooty units in combat for ages, preventing disembarking from transports.

Heavy support

Annihilation barge: Mobile, fly keyword, but otherwise gonna do very little. mediocre unit
Spyder: Only non FW psyker defence, worth keeping around if you have vehicles otherwise kinda meh.
Heavy destroyers: Gigantic overcosted point sink. People love them, I don't.
Trascendent C'tan: NO. Please don't.
Doomsday ark: Our best anti vehicle. Extremely unreliable but at least has long range. Pair it with a stalker and eventually you might kill a vehicle. Maybe. Possibly. (why d3 shots is beyond me)
Monolith: Just don't. Unless you want the cool factor just don't take him. Overcosted, unreliable, underwhelming, and surprisingly fragile. Those 20 wounds aren't gonna help you if you have 3+ save, no quantuum and no inv. At least has bs 3+ now...

Flyers

NO. Don't even bother. Basically flying tin cans armed with wet noodle shooters. Your points are better spent elsewhere

Transports

Ghost ark: Not bad but don't treat it as a transport. if you look at the model i believe it whouldn't have been one to begin with. Basically a buff unit that you pay the transport feature cost in addition too. Or maybe use it as a transport and enjoy those 10 warriors get shot into fine dust the second they come out. Neat.

Lords of war

Tesseract vault: See transcendent c'tan
Obelysk: The guy who made the rules for this needs to drink his paint water. Just don't.

Forgeworld

Tomb stalker: Why bother? Take a tomb sentinel instead!
Tomb sentinel: Great punch in shooting and has the "I'm in your deployement zone please shoot me" factor. Amazing distraction.
Acanthrites: take tomb blades instead
Tesseract ark: Solid unit, great firepower, only unit with inv AND quantuum. Good value.
Sentry pylon: Great fire support, a worthy addition.
Night shroud bomber: Hands down the best flyer, but that doesn't make it very good still.
Tomb citadel: AHAHAHAHAHAHA. No.
Gauss Pylon: Best anti tank in the index. You have disposable income to throw away? No? Change hobby. Otherwise buy this. The inv bubble is great for other vehicles too.

====================================

Alright we went over every unit. Time to talk about tactics.

Deployement

Hq:
Must be protected and stay protected for the entire game. If the opponent kills them it's GG for you and that sweet warrior blob. Don't go into melee unless absolutely necessary. Try to make use of the auras but don't go overboard with it or you will deploy awkwardly.

Troops:
Warriors: Don't bother with cover. Those 20 warriors are not gonna fit inside a building anyway. Always have a cryptek around, Save all your command points to autopass morale and try to keep them screened from CC units either with scarabs or with another blob. If you manage to surround a full transport by charging it those models inside are not gonna be able to disembark for the rest of the game. Use blobs if you like holding that contestable objective.
Immortals: Keep them in cover if you can or far behind at least. They are MWBD targets as often as possible especially with tesla. if you wanna inch towards stuff absolutely bring gauss. If you gonna sit in those ruins chances are tesla is better.

Elite
Deciever: Alpha strike is not a necron thing in this edition and you cannot charge anyway unless you use some slowed portal combination that will just be a massive point sink. Use him to redeploy important stuff like DD ark and tri stalkers
Deathmarks: Keep them in deepstrike, use them to grab lone objectives and to be annoying in general. don't underestimate their power against even vehicles, but don't use them with too much confidence too. The job they do less efficiently is weirdly enough characters hunting.
Triarch Stalker: Use it to buff important stuff but keep in mind that even those 20 warriors wouldn't mind a buff either. Generally tho try to buff DD arks and such.
Praetorians: Use them to grab objectives and to kill Meq. Useful as a tarpit too but overshadowed by wraiths for that role. just don't charge melee specialists and try not to get blown of the planet.

Fast attack
Tomb blades: Put them in a flank, possibly out of line of sight if you are going second, ready to close in on objectives or to pulverize those MeQ.
Wraiths: You are never gonna get cover with them nor you need it having 4+ armor and 3++ inv. Try to form a wall to block transport movement, possibly charging and surrounding them (they can go through models and terrain). Don't bother with upgrades.
Scarabs: Same as wraith. Try to keep them out of LoS (very easy) charge shooty stuff, screen your ranged units or generally try to surround transports, so that on the next turn you can fall back a little bit, shoot at said vehicle and the units inside may have no space to disembark and die.
Tomb sentinel: Deep strike on that juicy juicy transport, kill it and try to charge it. Worst comes to worst you have forced your opponent to shoot it and leave your infantry alone for a change.

Heavy support
Annihilation barge: If you really want to bring it keep it behind terrain. Not the worst objective grabber either.
Spyder: Try not to get it killed. Not worth using to reanimate scarabs, use it for vehicles instead.
DD ark: Keep it in a corner, deploy it last and go to town from afar. It can fly but if it has to fall back becomes garbage.
Tesserect ark: same as annihilation barge but best used against vehicles because we don't have much that can kill them as reliably.
Sentry pylons: Keep them at max range. Myght be wirth it the -1 to shoot to deepstrike them so that they don't get destroyed.

Flyers
Nah doug.

Transport
Ghost ark. Best kept behind warrior blobs and empty. Use it to rianimate them and mostly to take firepower in their place cos the opponent will try to kill it first.

LoW
Gauss Pylon: No reason to deploy it on the table. always deepstrike it on your backline, possibly in a corner, and go to town.

====================================

Tactics

Here's the thing you want to do with necrons.

Don't die.
If a unit of infantry is blown off the table you paid a ton of points for an ability you didn't even get to use. People say use 15 warriors. I always remain with 1 warrior left so I say you save those CP and reanimate 9-10 warriors on average (14-15 with ghost ark/ orb)
Make clever use of cover when you can, keep you distance feom CC units, try to screen your blobs with stuff (even other blobs) and pick your targets carefully when charging. Mortal wounds? Scarabs. Lots high ap shots? Wraiths. Few powerful attacks? Praetorians.

Take objectives
Necrons are great at holding objectives but bad at taking them. Here's how you grab them:
Wraiths/ Praetorians/ Scarabs: just run and grab them, charge moves can be really useful to boost your movement further than advancing can.
Tomb blades: Fast and reliable. Move up, shoot, possibly charge if you have necrodermis balls.
Deathmarks. Our primary and most relieble way to grab objectives especially in units of 5 (100 points for a victory point is not bad)

Kill stuff
Flowchart: Is it a Meq? >warriors
Is it a Teq? Immortals/ tomb blades
Is it a Vehicle? Stalker and DD ark or if you can't kill it just tarpit it into oblivion.
Does it have a crazy inv save? Deathmarks.
Be weary that you are only gonna have a field day against firewarriors. That Ghostkill isn't going down anytime soon.

Remember this with necrons. The longer that blob stays alive the less stuff there will be that is able to wipe it out. That is why at 1000 points necron often win and at 2k they struggle. You are playing a war of attrition but you can afford no mistakes, especially in deployement because if you screw it up chances are you are doomed to fall. Positioning, objective gaming, target priority, as always is the key, but even more so this time around.

That is mostly it. I'm open for debate of course as I consider myself a mediocre player at best. Just love my necrons and wanted to share ideas with you!

P.s. Oh and if you are fighting against admech castellan spam... just be sure to bring some water for all the you'll have to eat.

Are you sure the cryptek is worth not paying for warriors instead?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I mean let's say you're focus fired down to 1 warrior, the cryptek bonus to RP gives you 3 extra models back, ie 36 points. Next turn you're focus fired of of the board likely.

And you are unlikely to receive high volume fire with less than - 1 AP, those shots likely go elsewhere, meaning the invul has limited utility


Automatically Appended Next Post:
If you have an Orb or barge nearby you're looking at a bonus 5 warriors back from RP (again with the unlikely extreme case of 1 surviving warrior), still a few points away from making your points back


Automatically Appended Next Post:
At least this was the consensus in the necron tactica thread. And the isolated math is sound

The decievers redeploy is amazing, especially paired with massed scarabs. You will deny half the board to DS armies, and force CC armies without DS to be tied up for half the game with 117 point units.

Pair 9 scarabs with a c'tan for an 35W character that is also a beatstick.

Flayed ones are good, you just cant be frivolous with them. Use wraiths to catch what they want to eat after the DS.

Tesseract ark is hands down our best vehicle, its better in every single way than the DDA. Out damages it at every range, is tougher and more survivable and stays healthier for longer.

Tesla immortals are probably the best unit points for points in our index, especially with MWBD. they are legitimate flyer defense, and put out enough shots to kill a dreadnought with storm shield in 2 volleys...

I run my army like this, I stick tesla on the immortals, and gauss on my tomb blades. Why? Tesla on the tomb blades makes them very mobile, allowing them to advance and fire, however, i find they are in rapid fire range alot, meaning they put out more damage with the -2 ap over the tesla. The immorals are slower, so you want their damage asap, which is what tesla is for. Remember that with MWBD you can ignore the penalty for moving and advancing with heavy weapons and you get an extra 1" on their advance, meaning its a 6"+D6" move, and shoot normally. Very nice.

torblind wrote:Are you sure the cryptek is worth not paying for warriors instead?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I mean let's say you're focus fired down to 1 warrior, the cryptek bonus to RP gives you 3 extra models back, ie 36 points. Next turn you're focus fired of of the board likely.

And you are unlikely to receive high volume fire with less than - 1 AP, those shots likely go elsewhere, meaning the invul has limited utility


Automatically Appended Next Post:
If you have an Orb or barge nearby you're looking at a bonus 5 warriors back from RP (again with the unlikely extreme case of 1 surviving warrior), still a few points away from making your points back


Automatically Appended Next Post:
At least this was the consensus in the necron tactica thread. And the isolated math is sound

This is True, but with necrons you are planning for the long run. I feel that the fewer characters you include in your army the better so the choice is up between a cryptek and an overlord or two overlords. I usually play a cryptek when I have two 20 men blobs of warrior and i put them in such a way that the back blob is in a compact formation and the front one is wider and wraps around a little. That way only the front blob gets charged and in a pinch I can even switch them. Also you would think the opponent wouldn't focus all of his guns into warriors but being reanimation protocols the way they are usually means that if a group has few models left and he is out of firepower even the lascannons will try to finish it off to deny my RP. Of course if you run mainly immortals the cryptek is way less worth it.

Klowny wrote:The decievers redeploy is amazing, especially paired with massed scarabs. You will deny half the board to DS armies, and force CC armies without DS to be tied up for half the game with 117 point units.

Pair 9 scarabs with a c'tan for an 35W character that is also a beatstick.

Flayed ones are good, you just cant be frivolous with them. Use wraiths to catch what they want to eat after the DS.

Tesseract ark is hands down our best vehicle, its better in every single way than the DDA. Out damages it at every range, is tougher and more survivable and stays healthier for longer.

Tesla immortals are probably the best unit points for points in our index, especially with MWBD. they are legitimate flyer defense, and put out enough shots to kill a dreadnought with storm shield in 2 volleys...

I run my army like this, I stick tesla on the immortals, and gauss on my tomb blades. Why? Tesla on the tomb blades makes them very mobile, allowing them to advance and fire, however, i find they are in rapid fire range alot, meaning they put out more damage with the -2 ap over the tesla. The immorals are slower, so you want their damage asap, which is what tesla is for. Remember that with MWBD you can ignore the penalty for moving and advancing with heavy weapons and you get an extra 1" on their advance, meaning its a 6"+D6" move, and shoot normally. Very nice.

Redeploying scarabs is a very fun Idea especially cos there is a GK player I know would get very pissed at this ahahah.
Flayed ones are not bad, but they are incredibly expensive for being a warrior with 4 attacks and if you charge something after deep striking chances are you either fail the charge or you get shot into oblivion next turn. They need kinda of the perfect storm to really shine.
Tesseract ark is our best vehicle, yes. It just so happens that I have 2 convertible DD arks and used them quite a lot. I will buy another tesseract maybe since the math is on its side and looks cool as hell!
Tesla immortals are cool, I just don't like the fact that if you are shooting at, say, marines in cover, only 1/6 of the wounds will go through. I'm always on the edge about immortals but I fight a lot of armies that have access to -1 to hit so i guess i am kinda biased. Also you have to use one overlord per immortal unit to do what you say and I don't know if it is actually worth it. Gauss immortals seem more independent to me.
I agree 1000% to using gauss on tomb blades, they move 14" (plus the extra 3" you get from tactical reanimation ) after all!

Tesla Immortals are much better than Gauss Immortals. It's not an "on paper" thing but rather something in actual flowing gameplay. The biggest issue with Gauss Immortals is no clear way of getting them across the battlefield. They are slow and with rapid fire weapons, are only at max effectiveness at 12" for double tap range. At that range, unless you kill what you are shooting, you will likely get wiped next turn in CC.

Tesla Immortals are assault weapons so you are still getting full effectiveness at 24". It keeps you safe from most assaults and gives a crazy number of attacks. Even shooting units with good saves, you can pretty much math them to death.

Weight of fire in this edition is just better than smaller number of higher effectiveness shots, unless you are targeting high toughness good save units.

Tesla Immortals are also much better when you are involved in special situations that affect firing rolls. With MWBD, you are still getting 3 hits on a 5+ against people like Culexus Assassins and getting 3 hits on a 6 against flyers. Overwatch also gives 3 hits on a 6.

Hoodwink wrote:
Tesla Immortals are much better than Gauss Immortals. It's not an "on paper" thing but rather something in actual flowing gameplay. The biggest issue with Gauss Immortals is no clear way of getting them across the battlefield. They are slow and with rapid fire weapons, are only at max effectiveness at 12" for double tap range. At that range, unless you kill what you are shooting, you will likely get wiped next turn in CC.

Tesla Immortals are assault weapons so you are still getting full effectiveness at 24". It keeps you safe from most assaults and gives a crazy number of attacks. Even shooting units with good saves, you can pretty much math them to death.

Weight of fire in this edition is just better than smaller number of higher effectiveness shots, unless you are targeting high toughness good save units.

Tesla Immortals are also much better when you are involved in special situations that affect firing rolls. With MWBD, you are still getting 3 hits on a 5+ against people like Culexus Assassins and getting 3 hits on a 6 against flyers. Overwatch also gives 3 hits on a 6.

Guess I will switch over to tesla then. I was not 100% sold but now i guess i kinda have to admit I were wrong

 jimifender wrote:

Guess I will switch over to tesla then. I was not 100% sold but now i guess i kinda have to admit I were wrong

No-no, you "gauss" you kinda have to admit...

ba-dom-tish!

torblind wrote:

 jimifender wrote:

Guess I will switch over to tesla then. I was not 100% sold but now i guess i kinda have to admit I were wrong

No-no, you "gauss" you kinda have to admit...

ba-dom-tish!

I hate everything about this post, but mostly that I didn't think of it first

Hoodwink wrote:
Tesla Immortals are much better than Gauss Immortals. It's not an "on paper" thing but rather something in actual flowing gameplay. The biggest issue with Gauss Immortals is no clear way of getting them across the battlefield. They are slow and with rapid fire weapons, are only at max effectiveness at 12" for double tap range. At that range, unless you kill what you are shooting, you will likely get wiped next turn in CC.

Tesla Immortals are assault weapons so you are still getting full effectiveness at 24". It keeps you safe from most assaults and gives a crazy number of attacks. Even shooting units with good saves, you can pretty much math them to death.

Weight of fire in this edition is just better than smaller number of higher effectiveness shots, unless you are targeting high toughness good save units.

Tesla Immortals are also much better when you are involved in special situations that affect firing rolls. With MWBD, you are still getting 3 hits on a 5+ against people like Culexus Assassins and getting 3 hits on a 6 against flyers. Overwatch also gives 3 hits on a 6.

Night Scythes are gonna get a price drop. This is a given. Once that happens, Gauss Immortals are gonna have their delivery system back.

Don't commit to just one weapon yet.

Godeskian wrote:

torblind wrote:

 jimifender wrote:

Guess I will switch over to tesla then. I was not 100% sold but now i guess i kinda have to admit I were wrong

No-no, you "gauss" you kinda have to admit...

ba-dom-tish!

I hate everything about this post, but mostly that I didn't think of it first

Is it bad that i am laughing my ass off?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

Hoodwink wrote:
Tesla Immortals are much better than Gauss Immortals. It's not an "on paper" thing but rather something in actual flowing gameplay. The biggest issue with Gauss Immortals is no clear way of getting them across the battlefield. They are slow and with rapid fire weapons, are only at max effectiveness at 12" for double tap range. At that range, unless you kill what you are shooting, you will likely get wiped next turn in CC.

Tesla Immortals are assault weapons so you are still getting full effectiveness at 24". It keeps you safe from most assaults and gives a crazy number of attacks. Even shooting units with good saves, you can pretty much math them to death.

Weight of fire in this edition is just better than smaller number of higher effectiveness shots, unless you are targeting high toughness good save units.

Tesla Immortals are also much better when you are involved in special situations that affect firing rolls. With MWBD, you are still getting 3 hits on a 5+ against people like Culexus Assassins and getting 3 hits on a 6 against flyers. Overwatch also gives 3 hits on a 6.

Night Scythes are gonna get a price drop. This is a given. Once that happens, Gauss Immortals are gonna have their delivery system back.

Don't commit to just one weapon yet.

That is true. At the moment I have 10 gauss immortals and 10 tesla immortals but usually my opponent has nothing against if they are not wysiwyg. It just comes down to "they all have gauss/ tesla" so there is not much to get confused about as say, being an army that has options

I agree, its stupid to have 40 painted immortal models around (they dont magnetize easily), just so you can field the flavor of the month

I also agree on laughing asses off whenever possible!