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So this isn’t really a tactics post it’s more of a hey what should I watch out for type thing. I’m playing in a tournament and there are randomly a bunch of new Necron players. I’ve been playing for almost 20 years and I’ve never gone against them before. It’s a 2000 point game. The local meta is typically 1-2 super heavy and lots of terrain 12-16 medium to large pieces on the board. So because if never played against them I don’t know what the extra Killy stuff is that I need to look out for. I’m not looking to list tailor or anything like that I play IG and I don’t want to walk into it blindly. Thanks for any help.

I don't think you can go wrong.

One necron HQ will have a teleportation device that lets him bring a unit along.

Apart from that just ask him what his stuff does and adapt. Gunline down things you deem scary.

There used to be a thing about finishing off units to avoid them reanimating back, but the general damage output is so low that it's not really important. And necron players seldom use their tactics on reanimating at all cost.

Loon wrote:
So this isn’t really a tactics post it’s more of a hey what should I watch out for type thing. I’m playing in a tournament and there are randomly a bunch of new Necron players. I’ve been playing for almost 20 years and I’ve never gone against them before. It’s a 2000 point game. The local meta is typically 1-2 super heavy and lots of terrain 12-16 medium to large pieces on the board. So because if never played against them I don’t know what the extra Killy stuff is that I need to look out for. I’m not looking to list tailor or anything like that I play IG and I don’t want to walk into it blindly. Thanks for any help.

If super heavies are common, watch out for the Gauss Pylon. It will mince your own ones.

Otherwise: Necrons don't have particularly great anti-tank ability. They're pretty decent at killing infantry, all things considered, but they struggle to deal with armor. That at least has been my experience, use that to your advantage.

Big blocks of warriors are most effectively dealt with by focusing them down. Be careful leaving just 3 or 4 alive and expecting morale to take care of the rest unless they're out of CP, otherwise you're liable to be right back to square 1.

Other units to watch out for are the Annihilation Barge and Lychguard. The Annie Barge is like a dreadnought, and is surprisingly hard to kill for what it is, and outputs fairly solid firepower. Lychguard tend to get teleported forward, and can make a mess when they hit, although as Imperial Guard this isn't as big an issue.

Is Forge World allowed at this tournament? Most of the really dangerous stuff in the Necron list comes from Imperial Armor, most notably Mommy and Baby Pylons and the Tesseract Ark. For GW stuff expect your guardsmen to get melted by tesla immortals.

 Arachnofiend wrote:
Is Forge World allowed at this tournament? Most of the really dangerous stuff in the Necron list comes from Imperial Armor, most notably Mommy and Baby Pylons and the Tesseract Ark. For GW stuff expect your guardsmen to get melted by tesla immortals.

Yes forgeworld is common. Thanks for the help guys I appreciate it.

Also watch out for Wraiths, they can be troublesome buggers at times.

Some other Tricks to look out for:

Quantum Shielded Vehicles: Hit them with good AP (outside of HQ, armor is only 4+) that only deal 1-2 Damage. Quantum Shielding lets them roll less than the damage amount to negate the whole amount. i.e. Lascannon that you roll a 6 for damage, they roll 5 or less to negate.

Wraiths: They do not care about AP at all due to their 3++ save. They are a melee unit (rarely do they pay the cost to put guns on them) at ST6 AP-1 they eat soft targets. They are used mostly as a tar pit unit like what I did last tournament, I ran them right at a "parking lot" of tanks multi assaulting as many as I could to force fall back limiting shooting next turn. IG has good ways to negate that, SM did not. This unit is much harder to kill now that the 2point Stratagem to give canoptek units reanimation protocol exists.

Pylon: Large gun that deepstrikes in and then does not move. It's main weapon can put out enough damage in one round to kill a Knight, Baneblade or anything "Titanic" with good rolls. It has 30 wounds and repairs one per round, trick them into landing it in a bad spot and you can ignore it after it kills something they thought was scary.

Small Pylons: Teleporting in and the better gun has Melta like damage with a base range of 36", so at 18" better damage potential. The second popular gun has the newer version of "skyfire" with less damage potential. They are going to go after tanks. Very bad when facing lots of troops.

Overlord parked with Tesla Immortals: Overlord will be able to make them Hit on 2+ and proc the additional hits on 5+. Their weapon has no AP, but has a massive amount of hit potential. My last event, a full squad of Immortals (10) would get at least 30 hits after Tesla procs (20 base shots, hitting on 2+, 5 and 6 results give 2 extra hits). This will be targeting your foot troops. The immortals have a base 3+ save and cover gets that to 2+. With no cryptek nearby they only come back on 5+. This overlord might be the one they give the Veil of Darkness to, which let's them teleport the whole group somewhere else.

I've only played against the Index Necrons once under this edition and I was crushed. What I should have done in hindsight was focus fire and make sure a unit was annihilated. I just couldn't stop them reanimating and I was eventually overcome. I don't know if that helps you at all but it might be worth considering.

Bring lots of plasma, CC specialists and a few long range Lascannons and you will be fine. Kill whole squads, dont get distracted.

Just focus down one unit at a time even one model left is taking a risk half will stand up.

Keep your distance their average range is 24 so use the first few turns well before they get a shot in.

You shouldn't have too much of a problem. Necrons at the moment are widely accepted as one of the worst armies - no doubt this will change with their codex release next month.

They struggle against vehicles as most of their guns are orientated to deal with infantry more than anything else.

Focus on one unit, keep shooting them until you wipe the unit. You deny them the RP which is baked into their cost already putting them at disadvantage. Worst thing to do is to spray against 4 units taking a few models from each for a third (or half if near Cryptek) to stand up again.

When shooting their vehicles it's best to hit them with 1 or 2 damage weapons to get the wounds through. Quantum Shielding is exponentially better at multi damage weapons (the higher the dmg the higher chance of them negating it)

Most of their guns with a few exceptions are 24"-36" range and as you play IG you shouldn't have any problem outranging them for the first 2 turns removing a chunk of their army.

In theory necrons should dominate late game through sheer attrition as any casualties will just come back whilst their opponent's casualties won't.

In practice they will rarely reach that stage, especially against a competent opponent, as they lack the damage output to capitalize on this tactic and they don't really have anything in the army that buffs RP. The options they do have are extremely limited and tends to come with a serious downside.

Show up and roll dice? Necrons are laughably bad right now so any halfway decent army will probably win without much problem. If the Necrons have some Forgeworld stuff they're a bit tougher but still manageable.

Being a bit more serious, concentrate fire to negate Reanimation Protocols and take out things like Destroyers and Wraiths with your serious anti-tank because Quantum Shielded vehicles shrug off lascannons and krak missiles quite easily but the 2-3 Wound models are very susceptible to being deleted by a single Devastator squad or equivalent.

Necrons are supposed to be great at mid-range shooting but they actually don't have to firepower to challenge anyone at any range. One unit a turn can often be quite dangerous with +1 to hit and maybe re-roll 1s from a Stalker, but even then the damage is usually limited to a single one of your units, maybe 2. Guard should just have too many bodies for Necrons to kill and if you have any number of tanks above 1 they'll really, really struggle to do anything to them.

Finally, always remember you can ask your opponent about any of their rules, which is just a good idea in general at a tournament. Always make sure you know what units can and can't do.

Focus fire on one unit at a time until it is destroyed to mitigate their reanimation and living metal rules.

Further advice would depend on which army you are playing. Edit: Sorry, you said IG. I'd only say bubblewrap well to stop Monoliths dropping on your armor/gunline.