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Gauss weapons now can kill my Land Raider if I get to close? 20 shots is bound to get some 6s.
Any infantry unit can get back up on a 5+ or even a 4+ with an upgrade? Welcome to free unit-ville, population Necrons.
Fliers for days which are incredibly powerful now in 6th ed.

I haven't played against them yet but I've been doing some research since one of my friends told me he's going to be fielding a Necron army and I'm wondering. Is this for real? Are these guys really as imbalanced as I think they are? If so, how can I counter that?

JaamDaMan wrote:
Gauss weapons now can kill my Land Raider if I get to close?

They've been able to do that since 2nd edition...

Any infantry unit can get back up on a 5+ or even a 4+ with an upgrade? Welcome to free unit-ville, population Necrons.

This has also always been there... but in the current codex is considerably toned down from previous versions. Warriors also have a worse save than they used to.

Necrons are strong no doubt about it. They have weaknesses though - low initiative and otherwise generally poor in melee. They have little long range support. Reanimation protocols can be beaten by killing the entire unit before the end of the turn, whereas Feel No Pain happens as each wound is rolled so that's a significant weakness.

Yonan is right about the Necrons weaknesses. This is where synergy comes in to double or triple their strengths.
The codex is really good. Each Necron unit is playable and can be given a role in the game (bar Flayed Ones).

Are Necrons as unbalanced as you think?

Probably more.

They are an army which covers most bases so effectively that their few weaknesses don't really matter.

Ally some Chaos Marines to gain a Helldrake.

Crons are extremely powerful. They probably have the naturally most powerful codex, they are very well suited for the 6th meta, and have several very competitive builds. That said, We'll Be Back and Gauss are not the root of the Necron's power. Necrons are powerful because they have tools to deal with virtually anything. Wraiths are either the most efficient or second most efficient Heavy-CC unit in the game. Night Scythes are hard to destroy transports in a world of easy to destroy transports. Annihilation Barges are incredibly effective mid strength shooting for killing tanks or infantry. Gauss can handle AV14. Tesla is very effective at snap-shotting. The list goes on.

Still, Necrons are far from unbeatable. Their troops are still somewhat expensive and they don't have great ways of pushing blobs off of objectives. What general gameplan does your friend have in mind?

If he is running AV13 spam then lascannons (which have gotten more useful in 6th now that MLs aren't great) are a great choice. If he is running Silver Tide then strong CC units or a Heldrake will make quick work of them. If he is running lots of Wraiths then S8 weapons and light weaponry are your friends. If he is running flyer spam then.... well there aren't that many great solutions to the flying bakery but allying into Tau and careful positioning can get you pretty far.

Yeah kinda got agree with a few statements here.
The crons are powerful but not because of the Gauss of getting back up.
Though a side not; they are the only basic troop in the game, that I know of, that can take out a landraider.

They have a few very broken units that are either broke on their own or become broke when taken in force (or with a surpporting unit)
Someone has already mentioned Wraiths but why they are so good is because they are so damn cheap (35pts per model gets you a S6, T4, rending beast that has a 3+ invul and 4 attacks on a charge. Without adding the pistol)

Another good example is Deathmarks. After deployment each unit of Deathmarks on the board can mark one of the oppositions units so that it can be wounded on a 2+ (Melee or ranged) where it gets cheesy is that the 2+ to wound applies to every unit of death marks not just the ones in the unit. It also applies to any characters within the unit as well. This is a force multiplier thing, the more deathmarks taken the worst it becomes.

Impotek is another who becomes deadly the larger a game gets. He has this lighting based attack at the start of each shooting phase where every enemy unit on the boards rolls a die and on a 1 (or 6 can't recall) it is hit. So again the larger points value a game the more units a foe is likely to have and the more cheesy it becomes.

I could go on but at the end of the day you just have to hope your oppopent is kind and brings a fluffier list

JaamDaMan wrote:
I haven't played against them yet

I think I found your problem

They're strong but not overpowered by any stretch. Their aircraft and some units like Wraiths are hard to deal with. Armies you haven't played against or have limited experience against can often seem very strong, but what you see on paper doesn't always compare to what you see on the tabletop. Try playing against them and see if that changes your tune.

Here's a hint: Assault them.

No, they are not imbalanced.
If I know that 20 Warriors can kill a Land Raider, than I keep my LR as far away as possible from those warriors.

And 20 warriors are "easily" countered.
If they make a fallback move, they don't reanimate.
You can easily get a Sweeping Advance and destroy them.

Cron-range is usually 24"
Stuff like Vindicators can easily take out a large portion of their army after which you send it troops to clear them.

And 2+-saves is dangerous to them, we hardly have anything against that.

Necrons are probably a little too good. Anni Barges, Wraiths, Night Scythes should all probably be a bit pricier. If the prices were appropriate, the army would be fine. But 18 Wraiths, 3 Barges and 4-5 Scythes is too much for most armies to deal with.

Necrons really are by far the best adapted army for 6th editions core rules.

When it comes to HP's, they obviously have the tools to strip them en-masse between Gauss and Tesla weapons for light/mid AV vehicles. They get lots of mitigation with AV13 shields and an extra HP on their basic transport.

Necrons have it really great when it comes to Flyers, with very good flyer units available en-masse and a special rule that negates pretty much everything bad about being a flyer transport.

They make great use of the new character mechanics from precision shots to challenges between Cryptek abilities/wargear and Mindshackle scarabs and the like.

Tesla weapons are absolute boss when it comes to snapshots, allowing what averages to be BS3 shooting with normal Tesla weapons and what averages to BS8 shooting with TL Tesla weapons when shapshotting.

Necron CC units also generally got better with 6E due to charge changes (beasts especially) and that they don't care about most of the things that really hurt most other armies CC units like assaulting from transports and/or reserves.

On top of that, NightFight plays a more active and powerful role than it did in previous editions and no army can manipulate that better, or force it on an opponent in the same way, as Necrons can.


So, ultimately, it's not so much a matter of individual units being "zomgwtfbroken" (barring the Stormlord), but rather the entire army as a whole being built largely to take more advantage of the 6E rules or mitigate their impact on the effectiveness of the army far more than other armies.

Warriors are far from the only basic troops that can take out a landraider.

Ork mobs or similar with a Powerclaw/fist can in CC, as can Plaguebearers w with their Touch of Rust.

Dark Eldar can pack three Darklight weapons into a warrior squad, or stuff a wych squad full of haywire for CC and a blaster for close range vehicle kills.



As to Necrons, they are a rough fight. They are a Warddex written for 6th, and are consequently a tad uber. They can still be beaten, as listed above. Get in CC with them, or focus your fire until the unit is destroyed, then move on.

I think he means basic in the sense there are no upgrades. Just stock weapon. All your examples include upgrades where as the basic warrior can hurt a LR. A basic ork, SM, guardsman, etc cannot.

But at the same time necron units dont get champions or heavy weapons.

Plaguebearers are stock, if you are using that interpretation.

Touch of Rust comes as standard.

JaamDaMan wrote:
Gauss weapons now can kill my Land Raider if I get to close? 20 shots is bound to get some 6s.
Any infantry unit can get back up on a 5+ or even a 4+ with an upgrade? Welcome to free unit-ville, population Necrons.
Fliers for days which are incredibly powerful now in 6th ed.

I haven't played against them yet but I've been doing some research since one of my friends told me he's going to be fielding a Necron army and I'm wondering. Is this for real? Are these guys really as imbalanced as I think they are? If so, how can I counter that?

No, they aren't.

Try playing against them for once, instead of posting a thread we already have enough of.

No.

They're twice as unbalanced as you think they are.

Dun, dun dunnnnn

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
No, they aren't.

Try playing against them for once, instead of posting a thread we already have enough of.

Worst idea ever!
Like many people he will focus on the wrong things, ignore the wrong things and basically counter them in a completely wrong way.
Then he comes back and claims they are indeed overpowered.

If Necrons were so overpowered, they'd top all the tournaments.
Fact is: They don't, because those people know how to counter Necrons.

Kangodo wrote:

If Necrons were so overpowered, they'd top all the tournaments.
Fact is: They don't, because those people know how to counter Necrons.

You sure about that?

At Adepticon, generally considered to be the biggest 40k around, of the top 10 lists, 5 were Necron armies and 2 others had Necron allies. 70% of the top 10 armies included Necrons.

 Vaktathi wrote:

Kangodo wrote:

If Necrons were so overpowered, they'd top all the tournaments.
Fact is: They don't, because those people know how to counter Necrons.

You sure about that?

At Adepticon, generally considered to be the biggest 40k around, of the top 10 lists, 5 were Necron armies and 2 others had Necron allies. 70% of the top 10 armies included Necrons.

Probably because they are the most recent 40K Codex released that you can actually read without risking brain seizure.

Necron are a good army with a few overpowered units such as Wraiths and their flyers. I run a Silver Tide list and it's very fair and balanced list.

 Vaktathi wrote:
At Adepticon, generally considered to be the biggest 40k around, of the top 10 lists, 5 were Necron armies and 2 others had Necron allies. 70% of the top 10 armies included Necrons.

I know, but I also looked at 5 random other big tournaments.. They were mostly IG or CSM.

Kangodo wrote:

 Vaktathi wrote:
At Adepticon, generally considered to be the biggest 40k around, of the top 10 lists, 5 were Necron armies and 2 others had Necron allies. 70% of the top 10 armies included Necrons.

I know, but I also looked at 5 random other big tournaments.. They were mostly IG or CSM.

Most big US GTs have more Necron showings than anything else.

IG, CSM and Necrons do good for one reason: overpowered flyers. That's it. Take those away and you'd have a lot more variety.

 Sigvatr wrote:
IG, CSM and Necrons do good for one reason: overpowered flyers. That's it. Take those away and you'd have a lot more variety.

I dunno about that, Necrons are still better adapted to the game in terms of snapshots, character rules, Nightfight and HP's than any other army in the game, and have a much easier time getting their assault units in position relative to many other armies that rely on closed top transports or reserves/outflanking.

We will take over this galaxy......

OP, dont get to worked up! Have fun with the new challenge.

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:

JaamDaMan wrote:
Gauss weapons now can kill my Land Raider if I get to close? 20 shots is bound to get some 6s.
Any infantry unit can get back up on a 5+ or even a 4+ with an upgrade? Welcome to free unit-ville, population Necrons.
Fliers for days which are incredibly powerful now in 6th ed.

I haven't played against them yet but I've been doing some research since one of my friends told me he's going to be fielding a Necron army and I'm wondering. Is this for real? Are these guys really as imbalanced as I think they are? If so, how can I counter that?

No, they aren't.

Try playing against them for once, instead of posting a thread we already have enough of.

thanks for that, it really does get a little old. I understand that we may have some "undercosted" units (scythes being specifically what i find the worst) but the fact that we can cover most roles does not make us over powered. it just means we dont need to take allies as much (even then we have limited s9 and s10) Gauss is NOT as reliable as people think for destroying vehicles. a unit of 10 anythings mathematically gets 2.12 glances per turn on vehicles (yes this is rapidfire). Sure you can roll lucky, but tht isnt going to destroy any vehicle in one round of shooting save for DE venoms IIRC

 Vaktathi wrote:

 Sigvatr wrote:
IG, CSM and Necrons do good for one reason: overpowered flyers. That's it. Take those away and you'd have a lot more variety.

I dunno about that, Necrons are still better adapted to the game in terms of snapshots, character rules, Nightfight and HP's than any other army in the game, and have a much easier time getting their assault units in position relative to many other armies that rely on closed top transports or reserves/outflanking.

...and on the other hand, Nightfight was nerfed in 6th, Necrons still are terrible in cc most of the time and all of their vehicles are open-topped, making it very easy to take them out. A droppod list, e.g. is a huge threat to Necrons.

Sigvatr wrote:

...and on the other hand, Nightfight was nerfed in 6th,

Only in some regards, stuff like ordnance barrage weapons under the old rules could still hit the whole board whereas they can't now, and if you were spotted under the old rules you didn't get huge cover save bonuses.

Necrons still are terrible in cc most of the time

Wraiths, Scarabs, Lords with warscythes and MSS, cheap tomb spyders, they make for fearsome CC power if the Necron army desires it.

and all of their vehicles are open-topped, making it very easy to take them out.

AV13 shields say otherwise (at least, relative to most everyone else's equivalent vehicles), you need at least an S8 weapon for the open-topped to even potentially come into play. AV13 Open-Topped (even if only AV13 until penetrated) is going to last longer on average on a 6E table than AV12 closed-topped.

A droppod list, e.g. is a huge threat to Necrons.

Depends entirely on the list style you're playing, but that's also one of the few SM list types that didn't get smacked hard by the 6E rules.