Necron Tactics and Army Choices

Yesterday I used I played a 2000 point game against Scott, and decided to use my Necrons. This was the first game over 1000 points that I have played with them since the new codex came out, so I was not sure of how the units would do as my list was based on the old rules.

It was a ranked game and I only destroyed 1070 points of Scott's Eldar army and only had left 125 points on the board but fortunately still managed to pull a draw out of the bag.

I thought that I would post my thoughts on the units that I used. I am sure that many other players will disagree with my choices but it might prove useful to someone just starting out with Necrons!

First up was a unit of scarabs, which I had seen do very well in previous battle (unfortunately when I was on the receiving end!). Scott was very aware of the damage this little critters could do to a tanks armour and concentrated a lot of fire on them, eventually killing them to a devastating 'bladestorm'. This meant that they actually did nothing at all! This said however they are a very strong choice, as they are cheap and very quick and if deployed correctly can destroy tanks in one round of combat. A definite for any Necron list!

I had also taken a unit of 2 spyders as a heavy choice, primarily to produce more scarabs. I chose to arm them with particle beamers. This was probably a waste of points as I inflicted wounds producing scarabs and missed each time I fired.

I took two units of destroyers to make up the remaining fast attack slots. One unit had a
heavy destroyer and a destroyer lord which I planned to be my main attack unit! Having made an error with this unit in a previous game against Paul's Space Wolves this Sunday, I was determined for this unit to do well.

However an other error on turn one where I tried to get close enough to have an effective shooting phase, miss judged it and fell short by less than an inch and then lost the whole unit to 24 shots from a war walker unit! The reduction in range in weapons from 36 inches to 24, even with the increase in AP to 3 is something that I need to really consider when deploying. These will probably still  feature in my army (mainly due to me liking them rather than them being particularily good) but I may look at wraiths for one fast attack slot instead! The lord is good, a warscyth, 12 inch move and preferred emeny (everything) is great!

My two remaining heavy choice were monolith's. These are brilliant for 200 points you get a armour 14 vehicle, ability to transport units, a strength 9 weapon, deep strike, potential to ignore stunned and shaken results and the ability to remove models from the game regardless of wounds if they get too close!

For elites I chose lychguard, which I thought would give me a needed close combat unit, these did quite well and I particularly like the shields that not only gave me an invulnerable save, but allowed my to deflect the shot back onto Scott own units if they were within 6 inhces!

I also choose deathmarks, which did not do as well, there ability to deepstrike in the enemy turn was good, but as Scott only had one unit in reserve, I wasted this deployment and with the range of the weapons being only 24, they did not make much of an impact on the outcome! At 10 points less I think I will stick with a troop unit of immortals for my next game.

The final elite choice was a c'tan shard which I had done well with in previous battles! This time no such luck it did not get close enough to cause much damage and once I lost my destroyers on turn one, it took heavy fire for a couple of turn and removed after only claiming 2 dire avengers! For me the points are too high, and could be spent on another monolith!!!

Warriors are my unit of choice as the imagery of a massive army of robot creatures advancing on enemy lines is what I think that Necrons are all about. The fact you can take them in 5's is good for transporting through the monolith to claim objectives, but the reanimate roll of 5+ make them much weaker!

There are many other great choices in the codex and for me a command barge and a couple of annihilation barges would give my army that extra edge! I have another game later this week, which will hopefully go much better! I hope that I have learned from my mistakes!

Gary of Team Gambit