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So, I am going to be facing down my buddy's 1500 point list of Necrons on Sunday, and am at a total loss as to what kind of list I should bring. I've yet to actually get a good idea of exactly how Necrons behave on the tabletop, beyond knowing that even their most basic units have Terminator levels of durability, and can wound/glance anything they shoot at, which has me seriously worried.

Off the top of my head, I am pretty sure that he will be bringing some combination of:
* Ghost Arcs & Warriors
* Tomb Blades (his favorite unit)
* 1 - 2 Night Scythes
* A Triarch Stalker
* Deathmarks
* A fully loaded Destroyer Cult
* A Judicator Battalion

I'll be running some combination of Blood Angels, Skitarii, and Imperial Knights, with the majority of my points (1000+) coming from the Blood Angels codex.

I've got at least one (in most cases several) of every Blood Angels unit (including several Forgeworld ones), along with a Knight Errant/Paladin, a pile of Skitarii Rangers/Vanguards, and an Onager Dunecrawler.

I'm thinking of trying to use the Knight, a Sicaran, and a Whirlwind to lob a good bit of firepower into him, before rushing forward with a big blob of Sanguinary Guard and/or Death Company, to try and run him down. I figured that a Storm Raven would handle air support (praying that he doesn't bring multiple Night Scythes!), and could help pick off weakened units.

So, any ideas/suggestions?

I would ignore his air. Stormravens are vastly inferior to his air power, so don't try to beat him there. Stormravens are almost always a waste of points in 7th.

Frankly, I think naked Sternguard would be good here; just drown a given target in wounds.

Gotcha. What do you think of this?

Combined Arms Detachment (640pts)

(HQ) Sanguinary Priest (100pts)
* The Angel's Wing (25pts)
* Lightning Claw (15pts)

(HQ) Sanguinary Priest (90pts)
* The Veritas Vitae (15pts)
* Lightning Claw (15pts)
* Warlord

(TRP) Raphen's Death Company (210pts)

(TRP) Scout Squad (65pts)
* Camo Cloaks (10pts)
* 5x Combat Blades

(HS) Sicaran Battle Tank (175pts)
* Lascannon Sponsons (40pts)

(Formation) Archangels Sanguine Wing (860pts)

Sternguard Veteran Squad (220pts)
* 10x Combi-Meltas (0pts)

Vanguard Veteran Squad (220pts)
* 10x Power Mauls (0pts)

Vanguard Veteran Squad (220pts)
* 10x Power Mauls (0pts)

Stormraven Gunship (200pts)
* TL Multi-Melta (0pts)
* TL Assault Cannon (0pts)

"(Formation) Archangels Sanguine Wing (860pts)

Sternguard Veteran Squad (220pts)
* 10x Combi-Meltas (0pts)

Vanguard Veteran Squad (220pts)
* 10x Power Mauls (0pts)

Vanguard Veteran Squad (220pts)
* 10x Power Mauls (0pts) "

That's actually a pretty slick idea. Power mauls are brilliant against Necrons. In this context, the Stormraven is basically free.

Thanks. Now, if only I had some way to eek out another +1S so I could ID those stupid robots and reduce their ReAP rolls!

 BrokenRecord wrote:
Thanks. Now, if only I had some way to eek out another +1S so I could ID those stupid robots and reduce their ReAP rolls!

You really can't. You just have to roll a lot of dice.

I'd give one unit of vets power.swords. why? Because alot of spiders/immortals are 3+.

 raiden wrote:
I'd give one unit of vets power.swords. why? Because alot of spiders/immortals are 3+.

That too. Although charging at S7 is pimp vs Wraiths.

The more I think about it, the more I'd love to field that Sanguine wing except for having to take a Stormraven. And jump infantry are still a bit fragile.

Alternately, I could drop the CAD, and add in:

Oathsworn Detachment (405pts)

(LoW) Knight Paladin (405pts)
* Ironstorm Missle Pod (30pts)

Flesh Tearers Strike Force (235pts)

(HQ) Brother Corbulo (120pts)
* Warlord

(TRP) Scout Squad (65pts)
* Camo Cloaks (10pts)
* Melta Bombs (5pts)
* 5x Combat Blades

(FA) Drop Pod (45pts)
* Locator Beacon (10pts)


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 raiden wrote:
I'd give one unit of vets power.swords. why? Because alot of spiders/immortals are 3+.

Well, they get 1 power weapon each for free, so I might just do a few in each unit as Power Swords. Still, to my knowledge, I will not be facing Spiders, or more than 10 Immortals, so I think I'm okay. I did think about it!

Martel732 wrote:

 raiden wrote:
I'd give one unit of vets power.swords. why? Because alot of spiders/immortals are 3+.

That too. Although charging at S7 is pimp vs Wraiths.

The more I think about it, the more I'd love to field that Sanguine wing except for having to take a Stormraven. And jump infantry are still a bit fragile.

I have mixed feelings about the storm Raven. I feel like its to many points, but it DOES work better as an assault transport than a land raider, has more firepower, and has more carrying capacity. I've run the formation twice, and when I treat the Raven as a pure transport it worked out well. The firepower was just a bonus ha-ha.

Martel732 wrote:

 raiden wrote:
I'd give one unit of vets power.swords. why? Because alot of spiders/immortals are 3+.

That too. Although charging at S7 is pimp vs Wraiths.

The more I think about it, the more I'd love to field that Sanguine wing except for having to take a Stormraven. And jump infantry are still a bit fragile.

Yeah, unfortunately, 7th Ed. Blood Angels really seem to need Stormravens or Jump troops to use any of our decent Formations, so I don't have much of a choice!

I think it's better than a LR just because it can't immobilize itself on a "1". And lots of lists now have NO AA.

 BrokenRecord wrote:
Alternately, I could drop the CAD, and add in:

Oathsworn Detachment (405pts)

(LoW) Knight Paladin (405pts)
* Ironstorm Missle Pod (30pts)

Flesh Tearers Strike Force (235pts)

(HQ) Brother Corbulo (120pts)
* Warlord

(TRP) Scout Squad (65pts)
* Camo Cloaks (10pts)
* Melta Bombs (5pts)
* 5x Combat Blades

(FA) Drop Pod (45pts)
* Locator Beacon (10pts)


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 raiden wrote:
I'd give one unit of vets power.swords. why? Because alot of spiders/immortals are 3+.

Well, they get 1 power weapon each for free, so I might just do a few in each unit as Power Swords. Still, to my knowledge, I will not be facing Spiders, or more than 10 Immortals, so I think I'm okay. I did think about it!

Through in some axes too.

That said, don't tailor, its never fun to tailor.

 raiden wrote:


Through in some axes too.

That said, don't tailor, its never fun to tailor.

Why the axes? I'd much rather have more hits before he gets a chance to attack!

While I'm theoretically against list tailoring, I feel like BAs don't have a shot in hell against Necrons, if both players just make a generic list and face off. My buddy is a good player, so I can't rely on outmanuvering him, at least, not enough to offset the disparity between our codices.

Besides, we both have decent sized collections, so it's not like I'm SURE of what he is going to take, I just know what he is unlikely to take.

/My $.02

I've had good success with my BA against most armies (save tau, or eldar. Or skyhammer.... But I managed to draw that list once. Out of 3 games)

The axes give ap2 in case you need to fight his lord.

Ive played against Decurion a few times as BA, lost the first one but the second time I was heading for a turn 4 tabling but he conceded.. I use a smaller model count BA army. My strat is to use 2 Deathstars. One is 9 Death Company in a droppod with 2 inferno pistols/2PF/1powersword with Mephiston. The second is your standard Dante/SP/Sang Guard. I start them on the board behind my Rhino/Baal Preds. With these two expensive but super killy units you can drop Mephy on a flank, pop a ghost ark, and split the necrons army in half as he has to get rid of Mephy and try to stop your main army advancing. By turn 2 you can start multicharging and splitting off ICs to basically engage his entire army

 Dioxalyn wrote:
Ive played against Decurion a few times as BA, lost the first one but the second time I was heading for a turn 4 tabling but he conceded.. I use a smaller model count BA army. My strat is to use 2 Deathstars. One is 9 Death Company in a droppod with 2 inferno pistols/2PF/1powersword with Mephiston. The second is your standard Dante/SP/Sang Guard. I start them on the board behind my Rhino/Baal Preds. With these two expensive but super killy units you can drop Mephy on a flank, pop a ghost ark, and split the necrons army in half as he has to get rid of Mephy and try to stop your main army advancing. By turn 2 you can start multicharging and splitting off ICs to basically engage his entire army

Hmmm, that does sound like a decent strategy. I'll play around with Battlescribe today, and see what I can come up with. Thanks!

Just a heads up, though: if he does end up bringing Destroyer Cult, don't expect to be making many armor saves with your marines.

Necrons really struggle with Knights, now that they've lost their Haywire Crypteks (anyone who tells you "oh, but they have gauss so they can kill anything in the game!" has never played Necrons. No 'Cron general worth his salt relies on rolling 6s to pen for their anti-AV), so if you REALLY want to give him a challenge, stick that Paladin in.
Step one: get something into combat with his shooters that can harm the Knight.
Step two: Knights runs around wiping out the rest of his army.

So, we bumped to 1850pts. How's this look?

Oathsworn Detachment (405pts)

(LoW) Knight Errant (405pts)
* Ironstorm Missle Pod (30pts)
* Meltagun (5pts)

Flesh Tearers Strike Force (1444pts)

(HQ) Mephiston (175pts)

(HQ) Sanguinary Priest (86pts)
* The Crown Angelic (10pts)
* Jump Pack (15pts)
* Additional Weapon (1pt)
* 2x Bolt Pistols

(ELT) Death Company Squad (225pts)
* 9x Death Company Marines (180pts)
* 3x Power Weapon (45pts)
* 9x Bolt Pistols
* 6x Chainswords

(ELT) Sanguinary Guard Squad (353pts)
* 7x Sanguinary Guard (231pts)
* Chapter Banner (25pts)
* Death Masks (7pts)
* 2x Power Fists (10pts)
* 7x Inferno Pistols (70pts)
* 5x Encarmine Sword

(TRP) Raphen's Death Company (210pts)

(FA) Drop Pod (35pts)

(HS) Sicaran Battle Tank (140pts)
* Dozer Blade (5pts)

(LoW) Commander Dante (220pts)
* Warlord

Necrons are one of the few enemies where Power Swords are valuable on the Vanguard. You won't run into 2+, and Mauls would only ignore armor on Warriors, who are likely going to be on the Ghost Arks.

List looks good but I would drop the Raphens DC squad for 10 tacs with heavy fllamer,flamer,combiflamer,meltabomb in a rhino for the same price. you can Combat Squad these guys while they are still in the rhino for 3 obj sec units with 3 flamers rolling around the board.

Get into assault. You're not going to be able to shoot him off the board; you want to sweep him in CC.

zerosignal wrote:
Get into assault. You're not going to be able to shoot him off the board; you want to sweep him in CC*

*only applies to shooty Necrons. If you try this with Wraiths/Flayed Ones/Lychguard/etc. you will be sorely disappointed.

Tabled by Turn 3. The Destroyer Cult tore the Sanguinary Guard apart in their first turn of shooting (partially because I was a moron and Infiltrated them, forgetting that they couldnt charge if they did this, after rolling that for Dante's extra Warlord Trait). The Knight killed two units over the course of the game; a single Warrior with shooting, and his Obelisk in close combat. The Sicaran wiffed every shot it took (even Twin-linked) and Mephiston only managed to kill a Ghost Arc before being drowned by Gauss fire.

Probably the single worst loss I've ever had lol

sounds more like bad luck than bad list. But, personally, in anything below 2k points I would never run mephy + Dante.

 raiden wrote:
sounds more like bad luck than bad list. But, personally, in anything below 2k points I would never run mephy + Dante.

Pretty much this.

Dante Star is one unit that is really hard to get where you need it. If you DS, you get caught with your pants down and shot into oblivion before you do anything. If you run it up the board, you get caught with your pants down and gak into oblivion before you do anything. I haven't found a good way to get it into the CC it needs to be in.

Ouch.

It does sound like you were packing too many pointy units/characters.

Dante and Meph make up a significant chunk of 1850.

What list did you opponent run in the end?

D

 BrokenRecord wrote:
Tabled by Turn 3. The Destroyer Cult tore the Sanguinary Guard apart in their first turn of shooting (partially because I was a moron and Infiltrated them, forgetting that they couldnt charge if they did this, after rolling that for Dante's extra Warlord Trait). The Knight killed two units over the course of the game; a single Warrior with shooting, and his Teseract Vault in close combat. The Sicaran wiffed every shot it took (even Twin-linked) and Mephiston only managed to kill a Ghost Arc before being drowned by Gauss fire.

Probably the single worst loss I've ever had lol

Welcome to C:BA. Seriously, my best 1850 pt lists have two priests with very little gear and then MOAR guns.

evildrcheese wrote:Ouch.

It does sound like you were packing too many pointy units/characters.

Dante and Meph make up a significant chunk of 1850.

What list did you opponent run in the end?

D

Yeah, I was worried about that, but struggled with building a list where I thought everything could at least contribute; thus, a more pointy list. In hindsight, it was a bad move, but I had a hard time justifying the use of units that statistically could not hope to do any meaningful damage to his list.

I've attached both lists to this post, as html files. *EDIT* Whoops, just realized that the lists have all of the points and rules on them, so I'll have to pull them down until I can edit them!

Martel732 wrote:Welcome to C:BA. Seriously, my best 1850 pt lists have two priests with very little gear and then MOAR guns.

Yeah, my recent games (which are usually against a pretty broad range of armies/codices and players of different experience levels) have really reinforced that I picked a pretty rough army to get into the hobby with. In hindsight, I should have stuck with my initial plans to start a Black Templars or Space Wolves army!

Ah well, I'm adding a lot more flyers and Drop Pods to my army, and, if it comes down to it, I can just run some of the more generic units as C:SMs units with C:BAs allies.

Hey All, I'm the friend that he played against! I just wanted to chime in and say that overall, the list wasn't terrible. Largely he ran into trouble by infiltrating at the start while I had first turn. The other main problem was luck for sure. I definitely had all of it that game. He wasn't landing anything he needed, including failing charges multiple times, and I was scoring tons of kills that anyone would have considered lucky.

The purpose of our lists was basically because we both wanted to field our Super Heavy vehicles for the first time, but in the end, the Obelisk didn't really perform that well (kind of expected). It definitely didn't recoup it's 300 points, but did 4 wounds to the Jump infantry to finish that squad, finished his Sicaran's last HP and did 1 HP to Dante. I love the model, but I'm probably not going to field the obelisk unless i run the full 2 monolith formation for shenanigans. The Tesseract Vault might be used at some point, but it's so expensive that I'm not sure i'll be doing that any time soon.

On top of that, my turn one shooting took out 3 models from his deathstar AND did 2 wounds to Dante, which was really big because of their 2+/5+ FNP. I was able to hold them in combat later solely with my destroyer lord because of their lack of attacks by the time we were in combat.

In the end, I think it came down to an unfortunate turn 1 for him and some solid luck on my rolls. We may have a rematch with some slight differences in our lists to see how it plays out without such a disparity on luck.