strategy
Have Necrons and can't win? Do you play against Necrons and just get stomped every time? Here is my Necron Strategy guide that can help you either learn to use your Necrons efficiently or to learn the inner workings of a Necron fleet in order to squash it.
(Copying and pasting is welcome and encouraged, just give me credit for what I write.)
Necron Strategy
written by: William Napier 07/18/03
Updates:
none at this time
Tips in general:
This appears to be the fastest fleet ever; faster than Eldar. Necrons
can move an extra D6 * 10 additional cm and make an extra turn for every 20cm
traveled. Use that to your advantage. Make hit and run attacks.
They also have an armor value of 6 with saving throws to represent 'living reactive'
metal hulls. In my summary of the fleet, I will include ranges.
This will be min to max effective combat range of each ship. What does
that mean? I am taking the movement value and adding the farthest reaching
weapon of that ship to attain it's combat range. That means that from
a standstill "so and so" vessel can reach out and touch someone x
cm away. That will be the min range. The max range is the best score
from D6 * 10 or 60cm added to the min. That part is luck so rely on the
min and gamble with the rest. Use this to calculate hit and fade attacks.
That is what this fleet was designed for. Don't worry about getting shot
at while trying to run away. The 6 armor plus a saving throw will give
you a high survivability rate. Do not ever disengage from combat.
If you do this you give your opponent a shitload of victory points. Let
the other fleets disengage when crippled. You just run run run til the
game is over. Come on, they cant catch you anyway .............including
the Eldar.
Another tip: Read other people's take on how to fight against Necrons. I went to Blackstone Six's site and found a well thought out tactic sheet on "how to fight against the Necrons" by Commissar Sonata Form and Lord Admiral Acoron. It is located at this link.
http://blackstone.outpost10f.com/articles/treatise002.html
Download the MSWord version on Fighting Necrons
If this link is broken, then I have made a MSWord doc out of it. I would suggest reading this as it has shown me some possible chinks in my armor. I assure you, as a Necron player, there is NEVER a need to "Brace for Impact". Essentially, the entire Necron fleet is at "Brace for Impact", just with no shields. Trade-off time: Do you want to stay at a long range or risk getting boarded (Teleport attacks due to no shields)? I would risk it. It is a nice trade off to simply let loose 4 Star Pulses (3 scythes and a Tomb), take your beating and run away. You might even pincers attack this way with a swiftly closing group of Jackals coming up from the rear.
My newly developed attack plan
"Fire Everything you Have and Run": (scythes and tombship)
Come straight in like an Ork fleet. Use the tombship or reaper to knock
down enemy leadership. Then use the Energy drain, If applicable.
Then Star Pulse (4 times!) taking out ANY escorts and pulling down capitol ship's
shields. Now, pick on only one big target with the Lightning Arcs.
They can fire left and right arcs (no rear) and always treat targets as closing.
ZZZZAAAPPPP!
A more refined and detailed version of this is where you deploy the slower vessels ahead and the quicker ones in back. This allows you to eventually get the quick escorts up front and personal to deliver lightning arcs to soften or cripple main ships. This is followed up with the eventual Star Pulses (x 4 or more if you can!).
Now, you should have at least crippled one capitol ship (destroyed if lucky) and you should have wiped out ANY escorts in range of the Star Pulses in just one turn! Not to mention any damage your escorts can add. Now what is the next step? RUN, of course. Get into position and hit again. Make your ships work together like this and you should be ok.
Ok, now moving on to my ship to ship analysis:
Cairn class Tomb Ship
500pts. (combat range: min=50cm max=110cm)
This is one nasty freak. I won't
mind paying 500 points to use it. This appears to be the mainstay of the
fleet. All attacks are short-ranged. The Lightning Arc can at least
fire up to 30cm away, but that's it. I would wait until the time is right
and then plunge this one right into the very core of the enemy's fleet.
I would flank this one with a Scythe class harvester and 6 Dirge escorts.
I may change my mind after playing a few games. Let the Scythe and the
Tomb ship fire off the Star Pulses while in the midst of a lot of enemy escorts
with only 1 shield a piece. The Scythe will bring down all their shields
and the Tomb ship's pulse can finish the job, or vice versa. And, that
is before you start the real shooting! This will also wear down cruiser
shields but not remove them. Unless you're fighting Orks. The 6
Dirges would then mop up any escorts or badly damaged cruisers.
Scythe class Harvester
275pts. (combat range: min=90cm max=150cm)
This is a really cool looking model;
my favorite in this fleet so far. If you take a Tomb ship, you must take
2 Scythes. For once, I agree with GW on this one. It is important
to use these very close to your Tomb ship to pop off 3 Star Pulses! That
is just wrong... haha. I have 3 Scythes and upgraded one to a Reaper class.
So as stated above, I plan to try out escorting the Tomb with only one Scythe.
These are pretty much universal in any role you would like to use them in.
In the spirit of the pirating nature of these speed freaks, I would use them
as a very strong flanking force. Group 2 together with 6 Jackels trailing,
and use that Inertialess Drive to hightail it to the enemies rear. Even
if your opponent knows this, there isn't very much he/she can do to stop it.
Have fun messing up there day. Shoot the opposing forces in the back and
then run before they can retaliate. It's a cowardly way, but that is how
this was designed. Use the 6 Jackals to pick on a careless enemy ship
that broke formation. hehe. it's mean.
Reaper class Harvester
350pts. (combat range: min=90cm max=150cm)
This is nothing more than an upgraded
Scythe class Harvester. The Reaper has the ability to project a nightmare
field just like the Cairn class Tomb Ship. Right now, I can't see enough
difference with the Reaper from the Scythe to warrant any different use than
you would get out of the Scythe. I upgraded 1 out of my 3 Scythes just
to play test it. It may or may not be worth the upgrade points.
With no real experience with this fleet, I just can't say right now.
Jackal class Raider
50pts. (combat range: min=80cm max=140cm)
This has to be one of the coolest
escorts in the game. The Lightning Arc str 5 and always treats the target
as closing! OH YES! I have a group of 6! Wowsers. I will probably
deploy these behind 2 Scythes and zip in for an undeniable flanking move.
Hit and Fade again.
Dirge class Raider
40pts. (combat range: min=70cm max=130cm)
This is a very strange escort.
Lightning Arc 2 with 6 ships can build up, but it also has 1 portal each!
How do I use this? Got me. I guess that I can place it near the
single Scythe and the Tombship for protection. If a capitol ship decides
to board using the portals, well the Dirges can just add to the fray, I guess.
I think these can be really cheap screens or just hang back with these until
the affore-mentioned Star Pulse trick and use the combined Portal attacks to
add to the damage.
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