Would Necrons be a good choice ?

[Chaplain Elijah]

Hello,

 

I was wondering which army i would do in the futur when i'm done with Dark Angels and evil xenos seemed a good choice... so i ended up looking after Necrons.

 

My meta is 1000pts relatively competitive games with :

 

Imperial Guard = 2 Leman Russ and lot of infantry

Dark Eldars = Lots of flyers with some infantry

Eldars = I don't know yet

Taus = I don't know yet

Orks = mass infantry

Deathwatch = infantry + dread

Imperial Fists = primaris + dread

Mechanicus = infantry, castellan robots and a dunecrawler

Thousand Sons = psykers spam

 

So are Necrons a good choice and what would you play with them in my meta ?

[Kaldoth]

Well, Necrons aren't super competitive right now, but they also aren't completely terrible. Very middle of the road army. If you're looking to play competitively, you're gonna be rocking a cookie cutter tournament list that pretty much everyone uses. If you're okay with semi competitive and casual games, Necrons are a great choice.

 

There are few big issues with our army that keep us from being top tier competitive. There are a fair few others, but the big ones are:

 

1. Not being able to use Reanimation Protocols. This is the backbone of a necron army and what makes them scary. Problem is the rule isn't that scary anymore with how easy it is to wipe units wholesale. Necron units have to have at least one model on the table to get their RP rolls. Wiping a unit of ten immortals or twenty warriors isn't a hard task, so it's rare that you actually get to use the rule. Given that over 50% of our units are costed fairly high because of the in built rule it means you've gotta play and position very intelligently to get your units up the board without them dying. CA 2019 eased the cost burden a bit, but it didn't help solve the root problem. Shooting is a powerhouse this edition and necron guns are all fairly short range.

 

2. Lack of transports. We only have one decent transport option, the Ghost Ark. It only carries units of ten warriors. The ghost ark itself puts out better more reliable shooting than warriors do, and its way more survivable, so it's kind of a "why bother taking warriors" kind of issue because they cost about the same. The monolith is still grossly overcosted given that it's incredibly easy to take down. Same with our night scythes. Now on the flip side, we do have two options in the codex that can be used to devastating effect to teleport troops around: the deciever and the veil of darkness relic. These two things can shift the tide of battle entirely and devastate key enemy units. Definitely read up on them.

 

3. Units are very single purpose. There isn't a necron version of the flamer you can put into a warrior blob, or a necron missile launcher you can throw in an immortal squad. If you want anti tank, you buy an anti tank unit. If you want anti flyer, you buy an anti flyer unit. Losing a unit can cripple your force, so you've gotta have back ups if you're going to stand a chance on the board in later turns.

 

4. Anything over T7 is tough to crack. Our anti armor department is very swingy because the majority of our big guns are D6 shots. Heavy Destroyers went down significantly in points so might be worth taking now to help ease the pain. The majority of our big guns are also fairly short range. The only one that can fire outside of 36 inches are doomsday arks. The rest are 36 or less. You've gotta be smart with your heavy support options and again take multiple if you wanna have a shot at staying in the fight until turn 3.

 

5. Anti character options are limited. This isn't really too big a deal, but without psychic powers and our only sniper weapon being s4 AP -, taking out those lynch pin reroll bubble characters can prove troublesome. Luckily we've got a good selection of units that can move through/over terrain and other models and nifty tricks through stratagems to get the killy stuff where it needs to be. Just takes a little more thinking than other armies. That unit that can sit in the back and harass characters all game doesn't exist for us.

 

Now for the units you can take that will do the most work. I can't stress enough how awesome blobs of destroyers are. They mince absolutely everything with the extermination protocols stratagem. 1 CP to reroll all hits and wounds is nasty. Take them in max sized squads and watch your opponent's face go white when they unleash absolute hell. Plus they do get RP as well, so if they die theyll stand back up if the unit isnt wiped. As previously stated heavy destroyers got a significant reduction in points, so in 1000 point games they might be a good choice for your anti tank option. I personally prefer the forgeworld tomb stalkers over the doomsday arks for my big anti tank units but that's a matter of preference. Canoptek wraiths are an absolute nuisance in close combat. Deadly fast and a native 3+ invul save make them hard to take out, and their attack profile is nothing to sniff at. Plus you can use a stratagem to give them RP as well, so just when your opponent has finally whittled them down you can stand them back up and let the dice fly again. For troops, I prefer Tesla immortals over anything else. When backed by an Overlord using My Will Be Done, their Tesla shots explode on 5s. Absolutely devastating to anything due to sheer volume.

 

Last but of advice I can give is don't be afraid of taking lots of characters. Necrons need characters to survive. Crypteks add +1 to RP rolls and a 5+ against shooting with a Chronometron. Overlords give My Will Be Done. Lords give reroll 1s to hit. You're gonna wanna keep the troops and vehicles as bubbled up as you can to maximize their firepower.

 

So, I know that seems like a lot, but overall it isn't once you get into the swing of things. Necron armies can be incredibly powerful in the hands of a good player that knows how to use deployment and cover/LOS blocking terrain to their advantage. You've gotta out think your opponent to get the most out of your forces. If you're a good strategist, then Necrons can do very, very bad things to people :tu:

Edited December 31, 2019 by Kaldoth

[Chaplain Elijah]

1. Yes i understand it's a tricky rule, good on paper but in reality... Though given i play low point games (1000) it should be harder for the opponent to erase my units in one go ?

 

2. I don't have the codex yet so looking at Battlescribe the army does feel slow indeed. Not DG kind of slow but still.

 

3. That's what strike me the most compared to my Dark Angels so i'll have to learn how to make specialized units combine well with each others.

 

4. Looking about that the Doomsday Ark seems pretty much mandatory to me (recently i didn't come to most games without a x4 Lascannon Contemptor). As for the Heavy Destroyers unfortunately i don't like the models at all... am i shooting myself in the foot or can Necrons do well without them ? Looking to rest of your post maybe i would... oh well...

 

5. We don't play a lot of characters in my meta so i don't mind that for now...

 

 

 

When backed by an Overlord using My Will Be Done, their Tesla shots explode on 5s. Absolutely devastating to anything due to sheer volume.

 

Interesting !

 

---

 

Yesterday before reaing your post i did my first list using Battlescribe, here it is :

 

Lord with Warscythe

Cryptek with Staff of Light and Chronometron

///

x9 Immortals with Tesla

x14 Warriors

x14 Warriors

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Triarch Stalker with Particle Shredder

///

Annihilation Barge with Tesla Cannon

Doomsday Ark

 

The plan would be to get the Start Collecting Box, 3 box of troops + Stalker & Ark.

I wouldn't be going for Immortals spam yet as it is quite expensive in €.

What do you think of that ?

[NTaW]

I play Warriors as my core and do well against every army in your list of opponents (plus Tyranids) except I don't know anyone with Space Marines (all flavours) and Guard so I can't speak to those matchups. Mostly because I don't feel like building 20-30 tesla Immortals but also because they have been effective in my games. I get the added bonus of people not wanting to shoot at my Warriors over the rest of my army but once 30 Warriors buffed by a Lord and ChronoTek get to where they need to be they can quickly become a problem against most infantry; I use Mephrit so that once I get to rapid fire range those 3+ save infantry have a better chance of being removed. If they get killed other parts of my army didn't take those shots and if they make it to where they need to be they usually hold objectives or pick off the scraps the rest of my army has left handily.

 

At this points level, and with the recent points drops, I'd say that Heavy Destroyers are a good bet for solid anti-tank. I built my pair using the heavy gauss cannons from the Stalker kit because I didn't want the noodle guns that come in resin but it has left me wanting a third but having to watch the used bins at the local game shop. A full sized squad of Destroyers are solid and can be babysat by an always-advancing ChronoTek for the savety of a 5++ v. shooting but is costly compared to a DDA, but given the D6 shots there a pair is sort of required for proper reliability. I only have one and even rolling 3-4 shots every single turn for shooting it can be very underwhelming if your enemy has a model with an invulnerable save you need to kill. Destroyers are very reliable for putting wounds on things with the Extermination Protocols stratagem but at 30% of your list it gets harder to spread out your threats and make it easier for your enemy to capitalize on the weakness of Necron's lack of wargear that Kaldoth pointed out.

 

In your meta tesla Immortals would really shine against Orks and be only decently useful against the rest since it looks like you're up against a lot of 3+ saves. They really want My Will Be Done as well, and can even be buffed to 4+ tesla attacks if you use the Sautekh Code coupled with the Methodical Destruction stratagem. 

 

I recently made a list at 1k because smaller games are better than no games, this is what I came up with (I would be proxying the third HD which makes me sad but ah well). Since we're using very similar units maybe it will save you a couple minutes clicking things in Battlescribe.

 

Mephrit Battalion

 

Lord - warscythe, resOrb

 

Cryptek - chronometron

 

20 Warriors

 

10 Warriors

 

10 Warriors

 

Triarch Stalker - particle shredder

 

DDA

 

3x Heavy Destroyers

 

The Lord is my warlord using the Immortal Pride trait to keep the Warriors safe from morale and maybe stop the odd power going off. I usually take Veil of Darkness to make sure I can get my unit of 20 Warriors out of combat or to where they could be more useful but given their need of both characters I may use the Lightning Field on the Lord to give him a bit of extra protection. Resurrection orb is to fill points and give me a second chance rolling RP on the big unit at a critical moment. Since I'm not using Scarabs (probably the first time) the two smaller Warrior squads will be the blocker/screen units for the rest of the army.

 

Hope this helps get a thought or two going, Necrons are/can be a really fun army despite not being top-of-the-meta in the current iteration of the game.