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.

Right so yes be very careful about the vindicare, and also I'll have to be careful about s8-10 blasts as well, fortunately you can Look Out Sir on a 2+ for the vindicator blasts etc.

You can often avoid line of sight on the vindicare which is cool. Or better yet take the Thermasite which only allows snap shots turn one.

Knights have a 2 shot s8 blast so they'd be troublesome too.

How would you guys recommend playing against tau as necrons? I feel like Tau would not be such a bad match up for necrons.

DaKKaLAnce wrote:
How would you guys recommend playing against tau as necrons? I feel like Tau would not be such a bad match up for necrons.

Tau are rather tame in 7th edition, honestly. Bring some tarpit units for the Riptides (Because we all know they'll have multiple) and whatever you can't tarpit, just ignore. Then use your Tomb Blades to pick out their Fire Warriors and Pathfinders with markerlights. Pretty easy.

Ok that sounds good. I didnt know if anyone had any problems with them, so I can know what to watch out for.

Thankfully enough, they don't have a whole lot of AP3 weaponry outside of things like Plasma/Melta suits and Riptides. Immortals, Tomb Blades (with Shield Vanes), Destroyers, Lords, etc, will basically never die.

Actually, that's a pretty good way to deal with nearly any army in the game at the moment. Put as much 3+ saves on the table as you can and ignore all the fire with RP, especially in a Decurion. We're the hardest army in the game to remove from the tabletop, with our 17 point Immortals being basically tougher than Terminators in the Decurion.

My first game in about 15 years was against Tau, and so I didn't have any of the fancy new troops yet. He did not at all enjoy getting hit with destroyers. In the end, I had to get out of my old school thought of "Necrons should avoid CC at all costs" since Tau are even worse at it. Once you tarpit Tau they're next to useless, so even charging with a unit of 3 destroyers ended up being a smart move.

Haha yeah Tau are full of fail in CC, ironically except for the riptide when it doesn't want to die. Charging them is almost always a good idea (and you have to remember that Crons have a lot of viable CC options)

So I bought a Tomb Stalker off of Forgeworld. It seems to be the best option of the current Forgeworld Necron models:

-Acanthrites are pretty bad now that Wraiths bumped up to T5, which was kind of the only thing they had going for them.
-Tesseract Ark got screwed over by Quantum Shielding rules and was also pretty expensive for what it was
-Nightshroud is cool, but expensive and I think outclassed by book options
-Sentry Pylons are pretty darn expensive, and the cheapest option (Gauss) got messed up by the change to Skyfire/Interceptor
-Tomb Sentinel feels really gimmicky to me. Compared to the Stalker, trades close combat power for a gun that is mostly meh but occasionally will snipe off a couple things. Doesn't seem to be worth the points as much as the killy Stalker.

I think Assaultcrons are going to be a thing now. Flayed Ones are really really good, Wraiths are amazing per usual, Orikanstar is mad durable and kills things pretty well, Nightbringer is making the rounds as really strong (especially as part of a Conclave), so I think having an Outflanking MC with Acute Senses and 4 attacks + Rampage is quite a good addition to that.

Requizen wrote:
So I bought a Tomb Stalker off of Forgeworld. It seems to be the best option of the current Forgeworld Necron models:

-Acanthrites are pretty bad now that Wraiths bumped up to T5, which was kind of the only thing they had going for them.
-Tesseract Ark got screwed over by Quantum Shielding rules and was also pretty expensive for what it was
-Nightshroud is cool, but expensive and I think outclassed by book options
-Sentry Pylons are pretty darn expensive, and the cheapest option (Gauss) got messed up by the change to Skyfire/Interceptor
-Tomb Sentinel feels really gimmicky to me. Compared to the Stalker, trades close combat power for a gun that is mostly meh but occasionally will snipe off a couple things. Doesn't seem to be worth the points as much as the killy Stalker.

I think Assaultcrons are going to be a thing now. Flayed Ones are really really good, Wraiths are amazing per usual, Orikanstar is mad durable and kills things pretty well, Nightbringer is making the rounds as really strong (especially as part of a Conclave), so I think having an Outflanking MC with Acute Senses and 4 attacks + Rampage is quite a good addition to that.

I mean, I've actually been so much more into 40k lately I've thought of ordering Forgeworld stuff, specifically the Sentinel. But only after the book gets updated. You can't go by current rules, as a lot of them don't fit well now. But, if the Sentinel's gun turns into what the Transdimensional Beamer does, I will certainly get one. S4 AP2 blast with ID and auto-pens on 6s? Yes please....

The only FW models that is confusing with rules changes is the Tesseract Ark with QS changing from "+2 AV" to "AV set to 13". Everything else works fine in the context of the current edition, other than maybe the Gloom Prism on the Stalker/Sentinel using the old wording.

Acanthrites still work fine, but now they're just severely outclassed by Wraiths, especially Wraiths with Beamers in the Harvest.

The Sentinel's gun is still a small blast that forces STR tests or removal from the board (no saves allowed of any kind), or an Auto-Pen on Vehicles/Buildings. I don't know if that will change to match the Transdimensional Beamer now, but it might.

For the Stalker, the only thing I could see changing is the Gloom Prism changing to match the current one (I won't be using it anyway) and maybe points changes.

Really, all I need is for forge world to release one single sentence via FAQ/Pdf update/whatever.

"Gauss Pylons: instead of having the Skyfire special rule, gauss pylons may elect to use the Skyfire special rule each time they fire"

I'll take three please

Acanthrites are your Drop Melta. No scatter reduction, but it's the unique thing they can do. Unit of four works best for that I find. They work particularly well on Tau as wraiths are overkill on an army with no combat options whatsoever.

As for the Tesseract Ark, the drop is bad, but beforehand it was basically a Land Raider cost actual Tank. Not an overbulked troop transport, but actual firepower.


Tomb Stalker: I have never got my points back on this thing. People see a cool centipede and it has to die.

Yah same here was so excited after building my stalker (which was a giant pain to build) to run it in games. But I quickly learned its dreadfully slow and has basically zero durability. Every game I've ran it in it was toast in roughly 2 turns of being shot at or whomped in CC.

It looks cool and is as useful as a carnifex with talons in all honesty.

I don't think the intention is to get the stalker in CC. My use for it is a mobile platform increasing the BS of nearby units. I used mine for the firs time last night and completely annihilated multiple units in no time. Destroyers with WS5 (hitting on 2s) preferred enemy (rerolling 1s) and then the ability to re-roll armor penetration is huge. I took out a Morkanaught and a pimped out battlewagon on first turn without any real skill at all.

xghostmakerx wrote:
I don't think the intention is to get the stalker in CC. My use for it is a mobile platform increasing the BS of nearby units. I used mine for the firs time last night and completely annihilated multiple units in no time. Destroyers with WS5 (hitting on 2s) preferred enemy (rerolling 1s) and then the ability to re-roll armor penetration is huge. I took out a Morkanaught and a pimped out battlewagon on first turn without any real skill at all.

They mean the tomb stalker (forge world), not the triarch stalker. I don't think anyone would want a triarch stalker in cc!

Lol wrong stalker my friend. You are thinking of the triarch stalker what is being discussed is the tomb stalker haha.

Similar name completely different use. Its the FW metal centipede rather then the crab walker.

Ooop ninja'd lol

Yah triarch stalkers do NOT want to be in CC lol.

Though it is worth noting that by making it a walker with no AP, they basically made you pay for minimal close combat power the unit will never get any use out of.

Kind of a joke. More reason to combine walkers and Monstrous Creatures into one category I guess.

So which of the FW centipedes is worth getting?

I just got the Night Shroud and the Tesseract Ark and looking for more resin models to fill my ranks

 BrotherGecko wrote:
Yah same here was so excited after building my stalker (which was a giant pain to build) to run it in games. But I quickly learned its dreadfully slow and has basically zero durability. Every game I've ran it in it was toast in roughly 2 turns of being shot at or whomped in CC.

It looks cool and is as useful as a carnifex with talons in all honesty.

Have you just been marching it up the table? The second I saw that its rules included Acute Senses and Outflank I knew there was no way this thing was designed to be put on the table turn 1.

The reason I never considered using it in the previous edition is that there was really only one other decent assault unit outside of HQs, the Wraith. Assault units need other assault units to synergize well together, and just slapping a Tomb Stalker in a shooty Necron army would never work.

But now, there's lots of Assault choices. Flayed Ones, Lychguard, Wraiths, Conclave C'Tan (I still am dubious about regular Shards and the TC'tan), even Praetorians are overall more worthwhile. Like I said, Assaultcrons are a thing, and adding an Outflanking MC to that is going to be very, very deadly.

Unfortunately, with the exception of the Wraith, all of those options come from Elites. However, you can easily sidestep that with multiple detachments. For example, I want to try running a small Decurion with Lychguard and Flayed Ones, then plug in a CAD with the Stalker as the Elites option. 7th Edition makes this really, really easy for us!

Requizen wrote:
Have you just been marching it up the table? The second I saw that its rules included Infiltrate and Outflank I knew there was no way this thing was designed to be put on the table turn 1.

Oh, how I wish it had Infiltrate.

I tried outflanking mine a lot of times, and it never once paid off. It just has too much difficulty arriving in a timely manner right next to something it would be useful for it to charge, and of course needs to wait a turn to charge.

I abandoned even trying after a while, and actually had the most sucess running it up the table just because it being a bullet sponge is marginally more useful than it failing to show up at all.

It needs a 12 inch move. It just doesn't work without it no matter how many outflank, deep strike or whatever options are piled onto it.

Whoops, typo. Meant to say Acute Senses and Outflank. Which is, for all intents and purposes, really damn good as I was saying.

Yah they don't have infiltrate unfortunately.

An I concur, even with outflank any juicy unit will move away and then something will either kill it with shooting or smoke it in CC. Its talent is squishy non CC units. Anything fast and durable will pound it. With out an Invul or a 2+ it goes down fast to.

Requizen wrote:
Whoops, typo. Meant to say Acute Senses and Outflank. Which is, for all intents and purposes, really damn good as I was saying.

You'd think so, but in practice turning up wherever you like on the left or right table edge on turn 3 is still miles away from most of the action.

The best mine has ever done was the one time I fielded a Pylon just to try it out, and the bubble of 5++ invulnerable allowed the Stalker to tarpit some character or other in a unit of Grav Centurions for three game turns.

To reiterate: That's the best thing it's ever accomplished. Tarpitting a shooty unit whilst a Lord of War was buffing it.

I got it to assault a russ squadron where it killed one. Then the guy figured out what was going on and smoked it real quick.

That was the most I've ever got it to kill. Which is to say that was the only thing its killed.

Its weird, scary and rare to see on the table. Once your opponent asks what it can do (in it perfect situation) he will remove it quick.

xghostmakerx wrote:
So which of the FW centipedes is worth getting?

I just got the Night Shroud and the Tesseract Ark and looking for more resin models to fill my ranks

Neither is particularly good, but the sentinel is more fun and will occasionally do something awesome. It has the only real remove from play weapon we still have.

 Nilok wrote:

Oberron wrote:

Tekron wrote:


S8 will ID the crypeks despite only wounding on 4s, so you need to keep the C'Tan nearest to heavy firepower. A vindicare could be a decent counter so watch out for them, because it could kill the shackle tek in one shot.

The crypteks use the C'tan's toughness in all cases.

Incorrect, it is only when rolling to wound.

the opposing player must always use the C'tan Shard's Toughness when rolling To Wound models in this Formation.

Since this is limited to only wounding, resolving S8 wounds against a Cryptek would still cause ID. On the other hand, since there is two Crypteks, they would still have a 4+ RP, so not totally left out to dry.

Ah so it is. How is the vindicare assassin making the S8 shot? looking through the dataslate I don't see any options other than it's sniper weapons?

DaKKaLAnce wrote:
How would you guys recommend playing against tau as necrons? I feel like Tau would not be such a bad match up for necrons.

Bring a Catacomb Command Barge! It's hilariously powerful against Tau. With AV13, jink and a T5 3+, 4+++ (re-rolling ones) rider, it's nearly impossible to shoot down, especially since the average Tau army is full of S5, 7 and 8. Moving up to 30" a turn you can have it in their face on turn two, forcing them to dedicate their entire force to take it down, or lose a unit that probably cost more than it did. The only unit they have with a real chance of one-shotting it is railgun Longstrike with markerlight support, but even he's hardly in every army, and even he still only has a 48% chance of scoring a penetrating hit, and a 24% chance of actually killing it.

The only unit that can touch it in close combat is the Riptide, but first it'll take D6 S6 AP- hits followed by four attacks that hit on 3+, wound on 3+ and ignore its armour save. Then, if the Riptide is still around, it'll have to smash, but with a single attack, hitting on 5+ and needing another 5+ on the damage table to destroy it, the chances are pretty slim.

Sure, it will go down eventually, but not before you've been given the chance to get Wraiths and Praetorians within assault range and your Warriors unmolested up the midfield and onto the objectives.

I really really like Catacomb Command Barges, if you couldn't tell.

Any love for the random Tranny C'Tan? I kinda want to run one as area denial/distraction unit along with my Scarab Farm+Wraith Wing CAD.

 Deuce11 wrote:
Any love for the random Tranny C'Tan? I kinda want to run one as area denial/distraction unit along with my Scarab Farm+Wraith Wing CAD.

He's best backed up by a huge Deep Strike force in my opinion. But, now that I think about it, running scarabs and Wraiths up the board could be enough of a distraction for him to be a threat. I'd have to try it.

 krodarklorr wrote:

 Deuce11 wrote:
Any love for the random Tranny C'Tan? I kinda want to run one as area denial/distraction unit along with my Scarab Farm+Wraith Wing CAD.

He's best backed up by a huge Deep Strike force in my opinion. But, now that I think about it, running scarabs and Wraiths up the board could be enough of a distraction for him to be a threat. I'd have to try it.

If he deep strikes T2, the rest of the force is right there. 12 inch beast movement plus running means these guys might as well have deep struck.

But is the TC'Tan any good? all six of those shooting powers are powerful but very different. I guess you just stay 24 inches away ad shoot the most important enemy unit and see what happens?