Librarium Online Forums banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

Shooty Necrons 101 - Tactica

4K views 9 replies 6 participants last post by  Canew 
#1 · (Edited)
WIP Shooty Necron army 101 - A tactica by Gauss_Storm


Overview
- Necrons are a simple army in they're nature but complex in application.They exercise two main strengths; resilience, and fire power, obviously I am focusing on using the Necron fire power in conjunction with resilience. So the weaknesses and strengths of this list are as follows.

Weaknesses
- Vulnerable to close combat
- The core fire power moves slow without the help of Monoliths
- Lacks the ability to punch MEQ armour.

Strengths
- Good medium strength fire power
- Can slice through infantry of all kinds
- Can still remain mobile with the addition of monoliths and destroyers
- Very resilient and can take major punishment

List Construction
- For the shooty Necron army several choices that you should focus on, mainly the Necron Warrior, the Immortal, the Destroyer, the Monolith, the Necron Lord, and a very exclusive close combat unit the scarab swarm. Each of these units are made to work together; without each other the army would fall apart. I will break the army down into four parts for my explanation.

Hq choices


- Necron lord, this is vital part of the shooting army; the most common war-gear for the lord is the Resurrection Orb. This will provide a fairly cheap HQ that will help your armies survivability in close combat and further the resilience of the list. The best use of your lord is too keep him close behind your foot slogging warriors and immortals this will keep them covered and prevent your enemy from firing at your lord (check IC and line of sight in the BGB). I would suggest preventing from attaching the lord to a unit as then he and his squad can be singled out.

Troops and Elites


- Necron Immortal, the Immortal is very tough with toughness (5) and are alot more flexible than the warrior with his 24" strength 5 , AP 4 , assault 2. this means that you can move and fire, and will get 2-3 more turns of firing than a standard warrior. So coupled with your lord you can provide a mobile and extremely powerful fire base which will stay alive without anything short of a Imperial Guard shelling.

- Necron Warrior, even taking a basic two squads of 10 will add numbers too your phase out count and still gives you a tough unit that can screen your lord and immortals and add enough punch especially when they can get to rapid fire. They are the perfect unit to use with a monolith which is the easiest way to get they're rapid fire to use.

Fast attack


- Necron Destroyer
, will provide a insane amount of high strength long range covering fire, they can act out of formation often on the flank, if you keep out of assault range with they're speed your opponent will keep chasing them but never catch up.

- Scarab Swarms
, are a basic unit and are best for tying up expensive enemy units. With so many wounds most squads (especially ones geared for shooting) cannot handle them being dragged down and destroyed or getting tied up for the majority of the game. Most opponents seem to have a grudge against scarabs so they can soak up shots which would other wise go to your more expensive "Necron" unit.

Heavy support


- The Monolith
, this is the nerve-center of your army adding mobility, resilience, and a way out of close combat. The monolith is used by players in two different ways. First is a passive support unit typically deployed with the army that trails behind your immortals and warriors to keep them up or out of close combat. Secondly is a aggressive style which uses it's deep striking ability. This second use can cripple certain more fragile armies and since its kept in reserves it will give you time to deal with any anti-tank (Tau railheads come to mind) However there are a few risks in both these tactics.

Also, the 18" range on the power matrix is a nice way to surprise opponents by moving squads of warriors or immortals to it, catching units previously thought to be safe.

Passive Monolith

Cons
- It can die, (yes it's really true all you space marine players) one semi lucky lascannon can turn it into a flaming wreck
- Your squads will always loose close combats so sweeping advances can be a headache
- Your weapons will often find themselves out of range
- Monoliths are expensive if used passively or aggressively

Pros
- Is hard to kill if the army is lacking in strength 9 weapons
- Keeps your expensive warriors and Immortals standing
- Gives you a way to get out of close combat
- Most opponents do choose to ignore your monolith although don't count on them doing so

Aggressive Monolith

Cons
- Deep striking can go bad, although the monolith is less likely to do so boards edges can still kill it so keep away from them
- Deep striking can lead your monolith from entering the game way to early, or way to late ruining your plans
- whenever the monolith is not on the board that means the less re-rolls of your WBB you get, which means more of your army dies
- Expensive point-wise like I said before

Pros
- Your opponent cannot shoot at it giving you time to eliminate anti tank
- Deep striking a monolith gauss 'arcing and a quick teleport of your warrior or immortal squads into the heart of a army is a attack to be reckoned with.
- Actually I find opponents (and myself sometimes) forget about enemy units in deep striking. So your enemy will make they're plans around a monolith not even being on the table, but when the big 'Lith comes on the board you can really catch someone off guard. (I've seen the light at the end of the tunnel way to soon before fighting marines..... only to find out theres terminators on the way)

- Heavy Destroyers, these are a highly debated unit which I can see they're worth. Best used in 3 squads of 1, since Oblit's have been nerfed and all those nidzilla armies the heavy destroyer has finally seen some use. Be careful with this unit though one average round of shooting can see of three dead. Pick your targets wisely, mainly static tanks, monsterous creatures, Terminators, Choas Obilit's.

Deployment

-Deployment to this list is everything, beware lash Chaos! I can often see my victory or my defeat in my deployment. Here are a few run of the mill Necron deployment strategies.

Phalanx
- The standard phalanx basically involes clustering all of your force into a small area and marching them up each unit supporting each other and when the time is right bring all of your fire power on one part of the army. It's pretty hard to go wrong with this tactic and is a solid tried and true way to play your Necrons

Denied Flank

- Here is my personal favourite, this deals with putting your main infantry force into one corner of the table (denying flankers from the side of the table) and your destroyers and scarabs covering the other side (also denying flanking on the other side) For assault/hybrid armies this forces them to wade into the firing lane you have made (and lets face it most assault armies are hopeless they just have to move forward) Shooting armies will have a heck of a time taking this force out since during deployment they'll ethier spread they're army on the table making a large part of it useless and out of range, or cluster they're force on the same side as you thus allow you to shoot more. Basically this also invovles bring all of your might onto a small portion of a enemies force.

Split Deployment
- I've used this one before a couple times, it involves splitting your force into half and essentially sacrificing one flank to get more rounds of shooting 'nuff said.

and the list goes on and on I just gave you a small taste of the options, be creative add your own flavour and find what works best for you.

Firing discipline

- This is key to any shooting army, develop hardened discipline and you will find yourself casually shrugging of your opponents "distraction units" and getting to the stuff that really matters to them. Stick to your strategy and keep calm, take out the opponents force section by section and it will crumble.

Conclusion

The shooty Necron list is a very powerful list if used properly will tear a enemy apart with no chance of victory. Although the smallest mistake can lead to your defeat, it is just one of the many viable options for a army that is dismissed by many as nothing more than a "Beginners" army.

Thank you, and I wish you all good gaming and happy harvesting.
 
See less See more
#2 ·
My only real issue is the spelling/grammatical errors...

Also, you might want to mention the fact that you can move a squad of warriors/immortals 18 in. by getting the monolith 16-18 in. in front of them and then using the power matrix to teleport them to it. It's a great way to catch your opponent off-gaurd.

All-in-all, great guide!
 
#3 · (Edited)
Eek, sorry about the spelling & grammar (notepad does not have a spell checker so I'm not fully aware of common typing mistakes) I'll proof read it right now.

Edit// I skimmed it over, it's probably still riddled with errors still. Sorry to all the English teachers in the crowd.
 
#4 ·
Nice job :) Only one thing to point out, its more of a language error than anything. 'Prone to close combat'. Prone is the wrong word.. makes it sound like its something that just happens to us in turn 3, even if facing a gunline :p id just change it to...vulnerable i think. Vulnerable to Assault.
 
#8 ·
Maybe I'm mistaken... But if I remember correctly--when Deep Striking, a vehicle counts as having moved at "Cruising Speed" (of which the Monolith is completely incapable anyway... o_O) but doesn't that mean it can't fire its Gauss Flux Arc Projectors on the turn it arrives? I ran into this issue this past Saturday--dropped my Lith right in the heart of a Dark Eldar army and shot its Raiders to pieces with my flux arcs... But several turns later looked up the rules again for Deep Strike and realized it was probably illegal. What's your take on this?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top