Know Thy Enemy

[Canew]

Getting back to the OP's question, I've never played with (or against) sisters, so most of my knowledge of them is Theoryhammer(TM) but here's my advice on Necrons:

General Notes:

The Necron codex is much harder to play with in 5th edition, mostly because it is now, in effect, impossible to destroy a vehicle by glancing it to death. It has really put a spotlight on the reality that there's really only one single dedicated anti-tank weapon in the entire codex--the heavy destroyer--whereas with the Gauss rule (all gauss-equipped Necron guns cause glancing hits on a roll of 6 to penetrate, regardless of target's AV), massed warrior fire used to be able to pretty reliably wipe out a Land Raider in 4th.

Having said that, one thing that players continue to forget, even in 5th edition now, is that one does NOT have to destroy a vehicle to take it out of the game. The primary purpose of transports, for example, is to carry something over a distance. If you can IMMOBILIZE a transport, it might as well be dead. If you look at the vehicle damage table, and consider that most "cheap" Rhinos have only one mounted weapon, you'll see it's not as hard to bring one down. No, you can't blow it up, but if it's immobilized and its bolter is gone, it's nothing more than a 50-ton paperweight.

The same is true for those Immolators. One lucky glancing hit, and you've turned it into a Rhino. Bottom line: Just because we don't have lascannon heavy weapons teams, obliterators or railguns, don't think your vehicles are perfectly safe. They may be safer than they are against, say, mech IG, but they're not safe. We haven't even discussed the Monolith's particle whip yet, either.

The other general concept worth mentioning is the "safety in numbers" philosophy. I won't bury you in ranges of things like the resurrection orb, Tomb Spyder's artificer ability, the Monolith's teleport ability or other support tools, as it's easy for them all to blend together even for me, but I will say this: ALL of those abilities rely heavily on units that are CLOSE TOGETHER. When units are close enough that their special abilities overlap, they can be surprisingly resilient, however, even experienced Necron players will find it is inevitable that some units will get "separated from the herd" as it were. ANYTHING you see doing this is a prime target, as they won't necessarily have the help of the rest of the army. More than ever, the "lone wolf" units are vulnerable. A smart Necron player will ONLY allow high-speed long-range units like destroyers, big, tough things like monstrous creatures and monoliths, or warrior units camping on objectives to stray too far from support.

One more thing: Don't forget "phase out." Ask your opponent what the phase-out number is BEFORE the game begins. Often, the best way to fight the "big" stuff is to ignore it, and take out the more squishy stuff. It's not the most elegant solution, and you may lose a lot of stuff in the process, but if you're quick enough, you'll wipe him out, even if he has three Monoliths.

Specifics to Watch For:

The "Flying Circus": Basically a Necron Lord equipped with the Veil of Darkness (and possibly the resurrection orb) attached to a unit, typically of 5-10 Immortals. This little strike-and-fade squad can teleport anywhere on the battlefield at any time, can insta-kill GEQ units, penetrate most rear armour, and even put out enough fire to worry Battle Sisters and Seraphim squads. If that's not bad enough, the whole squad can teleport out of close combat (yes, they can), the immortals are one point tougher than warriors/MEQs, and will likely have the Lord's orb ensuring a WBB roll.

The good news: The teleport scatters, which means the Necron player has to be careful where the Lord goes. Hug terrain or the table edge if you suspect he's gonna hit you. Also, the current rules indicate the whole unit arrives in a neat, base-to-base cluster that fits nicely under a pie plate. Also, if you can take out ALL the immortals in a single turn, and he has no other Immortals on the table (very likely), no WBB, res orb or not, leaving the Lord somewhat outnumbered.

Destroyers: The 5th edition workhorse unit. Regulars can penetrate rear armour, a 5-man squad puts out 15 shots, and all he needs to do is STOP your Rhinos, NOT destroy them. You do the math. Plus they shoot as accurately as MEQs, and against MEQ toughness will wound even more easily. Not pretty.

As for the heavies, well, it's the Necrons' most potent anti-tank unit. A group of three of these is your Exorcists' and Land Raiders' worst nightmare. They're basically lascannons mounted on skimmers that count as jetbikes.

The good news: They're expensive. A five-man destroyer squad takes up a quarter of a 1,000-point list, and heavy destroyers are even MORE expensive, so don't expect anyone peppering the battlefield with these unless he's given up on any of the bigger, scarier stuff like C'Tans and Monoliths (and this may be a good thing for you).

Also, since they move so fast and have such long range, it's not uncommon to catch these guys far away from the rest of the army, probably angling for a shot at your side or rear armour. If you can engage them in cc, they're done. Yeah, they have a higher than average toughness, so they'll last a while, but any turn that these bad Larrys aren't shooting is a turn where they might as well not be on the table at all, and if they're far enough away, your opponent will feel helpless watching them get all snarled up.

C'Tan: Yikes, are these guys scary or what? Big, intimidating models, cc attacks that deny ALL saves (even invulnerable!) and monstrous creature stats that can make a carnifex quiver! On top of that, the Deceiver has some nasty abilities to mess with you!

The good news: They don't have fleet. They are tough, but high strength weapons still have a good shot at wounding them, and since the Necrons have no vehicles you can do any REAL damage to, I guess you know what to do with all those meltagun-toting squads, now don't you? Also, putting vehicles in the C'Tan's way, even just an empty Rhino, will give you at least one extra round of shooting before he hits you. Also, the Deceiver's special abilities look scary on paper, but remember that he relies on low leadership for them to work well. Without companion units such as pariahs, the sisters should do better against them than you might think.

CC-oriented Necrons: A most unusual build, but one worth mentioning. Expect a lot of flayed ones, along with Tomb Spyders, a destroyer lord with warscythe, scarabs, wraiths, and maybe even pariahs and a C'Tan (see fear list below).

The good news: Flayed ones are basically warriors with one more attack, and no guns. A good sisters player knows how to get close enough to maximize firepower, but far enough away to avoid cc. This tactic is deadly to flayed ones.

Scarabs are tough "tarpit" units, but in 5th edition they don't work nearly as well at this as they used to. Your opponent will need a LOT of them to tie you down. Scarabs are also very vulnerable to templates (like the ones at the tips of your flamers. Geddit?).

Tomb Spyders are good defensive weapons (that extra scarab swarm is a pain), but offensively they don't work well. They also do surprisingly poor against vehicles, and are at their best attacking en masse.

Wraiths are scary on the charge, but don't do well in a protracted combat, especially since they only come 3 to a squad max.

The Lord is tough, but only if he is attacking with a full unit to help him. Otherwise, he's an OK assault unit.

Oh, yeah: None of the cc units mentioned above can take objectives. Knock out his warriors and no matter how long he slices and dices, the Necron player can only hope for a tie in 2/3 of all games.

The "fear" list: Another uncommon build. Expect large squads of pariahs and flayed ones, backed by a C'Tan (most likely the deceiver) and, well, since all that costs a ridiculous number of points, not much else. The pariahs can lower leadership enough to make the Deceiver's special abilities a lot more potent, and if the Necron player is sharp enough to smoothly combine the C'Tan, pariahs and flayed ones well, any unit they hit will be in BIG trouble.

The good news: This is an extremely rare sight, and for advanced Necron players only. A newbie is just not going to understand how to use this right, plus the key units will cost a third (at MINIMUM) of a 1,500-point list, and that's just the C'Tan and Pariahs. There's a good chance there will be no Monolith, and a minimum of warriors. All good news for you. Also, the fear list is impressive, but really geared toward psyker-heavy armies, which you won't have. This is far more of a seer council-killer than anything, I think.

The Monolith: Most players have at least one. By far the best defensive armour in the game (your meltaguns won't even scratch it). If you don't have Exorcists or a Land Raider, you simply won't be able to harm it. It also has a VERY mean template weapon (the particle whip), and the gauss flux arc will hit every (not just any... EVERY) unit that's close enough. If that's not bad enough, it gives SOME models an extra WBB roll, can teleport SOME models, and it can deep-strike and bring in reserves, too. That is one angry pyramid!

The good news: It's expensive, almost as much as a Land Raider. If it deep-strikes, that's 200+ points worth of army that's not on the battlefield for at least a turn. I find the teleporting has too short a range to be really helpful for me. Ditto for the WBB boost. It also takes a crazy (or stupid) player to purposefully put units close enough to get hit with the flux arc, and it's only as strong as a heavy bolter. The particle whip is nasty, but it scatters, often making it less attractive vs. vehicles, and only has the range of a demolisher cannon. This thing won't be sniping your Exorcists from across the board! It also only moves as fast as standard infantry, and cannot run, so it's easy to avoid. As with other "big" things, it's often better to not bother attacking it at all, and just going for phase-out or knocking out his scoring units.

Whew! Sorry that got long. PM me for any other questions.

[Fizzics]

people play necrons?


kidding.. of course... thanks for the great post.

[Canew]

people play necrons?

Grrr...

*charges up heavy gauss cannon, warms up antigrav engines*

[A.T.]

If facing necrons be sure to read the FAQ first - lots of little things in there, such the monolith being unable to fire both weapons in the same turn, what happens when a fearless unit gets decieved, various clarifications on things that stop necrons getting back up, and so on.

[ikbuh]

because it is now, in effect, impossible to destroy a vehicle by glancing it to death.

Hate to break it to you, but that's false. If you can't remove a weapon or immobilize, it is bumped to wrecked. Every weapon in the necron codex is capable of killing a vehicle because they're all gaus weapons which auto glance on a 6. Doesn't seem like much, but a squad of warriors at the very least will stop a vehicle from shooting and will wreck it at best.

[The Prince of Excess]

If someone let's you sit there and 6 their vehicle to death at 12-24" with no reprisal, god help them. It's impossible unless player stupidity comes in, which it often does admittedly.

[Canew]

Hate to break it to you, but that's false. If you can't remove a weapon or immobilize, it is bumped to wrecked. Every weapon in the necron codex is capable of killing a vehicle because they're all gaus weapons which auto glance on a 6. Doesn't seem like much, but a squad of warriors at the very least will stop a vehicle from shooting and will wreck it at best.

True but in 5th, your warriors usually have better things to do than gang up on a vehicle. In most other cases, you don't have enough shots to wreck something in a single volley, which means a unit trying to glance a vehicle to death will probably be tied up doing that for several turns, and I'm sure the vehicle won't, you know, LET said unit just sit there and plink away.

[ikbuh]

I had my LR destroyed by a lord who used nightshroud and put him and a squad of warriors in range =/ He deepstriked them on one side and they shot, immobilized it, and blew off the LC on that side. It wasn't wrecked but it was enough.

[Canew]

I had my LR destroyed by a lord who used nightshroud and put him and a squad of warriors in range =/ He deepstriked them on one side and they shot, immobilized it, and blew off the LC on that side. It wasn't wrecked but it was enough.

Exactly. Stand on the damaged side of it, and it's nothing more than a piece of terrain.

But most players don't think of that. If the Mathhammer forbids a "destroyed" or "explodes!" result, that means to them that said weapon is "useless" against vehicles. Granted, the Necrons do need more AV weapons in their arsenal, but it's not like we're powerless. Like I said, watch how fast a five-man destroyer squad flanks and nails your Rhino from behind, or maybe a teleporting Lord with seven Immortals?

[The Prince of Excess]

Those would do damage for sure, you don't even need Gauss, it' just the proper strength. The problem is those units would be pretty vulnerable doing that and they don't do anything more against big tanks than Warriors.

It's mostly a lack of range/ability to get range and how WBB isn't so hot with specialized units. 5 Destroyers aren't hard to kill and unless you have another unit nearby, they're gone. Same for that DS squad, and really anything that isn't Troops.

Necrons aren't helpless but against a player who knows their weaknesses against armor, they're probably tied for worst against it. Just to many ways to get around them.