Topic: eldar strategy to defeat necrons

[eldradstarbane]

 I notices that the new necrons have lots of new weapons making their soldiers realy hard to kill so any strategy's to defeat them with the eldar

[magenb]

Necron armies are alot like our own, with specialist units. Take lots of S8 weapons as armour 13 is a right pain to crack. Use your long range weapons to your advantage, so walkers, vypers, etc. Close combat is generally a slow affair, this means you can really tie up a unit, but watchout for Lord/Crypteks as they can have some really nasty surprises.

You will need to focus fire, you can't wittle them down like a marine army.

They have some very nasty deapstrike tactics (such as monolith) so think very carefully about your deployment, luckily they don't have many template weapons.

[Ginger farseer]

I find the best way to rack open the ghoast arcs is Warmp spiders, due to highly manoverable, high st multiple shot units. They can hit it in the weak rear armour (no shielding there) jetbikes with cannons will probabally work there, but I haven't tried that.

Doom + banshees are quite good against almost everything, but watch out for wraiths they are highly manoverable, very durable and good in combat.

Oh, you'll probabally know this but scarabs eat vehicles!

other than that, I second all of what magenb said.

[enlg]

Note that most of what I say may be less relevant once the 6th Editions rules for 40k are made, but here is some general advice when facing necrons and building lists.


-Having long ranged units that can damage infantry. Most of their guns are 24", which means that scatter lasers, EML's, prism cannons, and doomweavers are all useful tools to dispatch their infantry.

-Assaulting their vehicles is the easiest way to destroy them, but their infantry can tarpit our squads somewhat easily because of their low saves, resurrection protocols and their high strength, toughness, and weapon skill (generally speaking).

-Jetbikes with farseers/warlocks can assault and destroy most necron vehicles easily, though its most safe to assault annihilation barges/doomsday arcs as these vehicles are not transports.

Basically I suggest that you have some long ranged shooting and at least one unit that can hold its own in close combat. Generally this would be a large unit of scorpions, harlequins, warlocks, or banshees with one supporting character (farseer is preferable, you could add in Yriel or a pheonix lord if you want to really invest in this unit).

[Lazarus]

Necrons are pretty decent for 6th at first glance ( I pick the book up in an hour or so).

Volume of fire looks to be the rule for 6th. This is a super shooty edition. Haywire greandes are very usefull as well as volume fire high strength stuff. Anything that can essentially strip away hull points and rapidly destroy the target.

[Erand]

A friend of mine is coming to stay in a few weeks time, we both have the week off work and we are going to run through the 6th ed versions of our army lists. I'm guessing over the week we will get in 10ish games, maybe more. I'm using eldar and dark eldar and he will be using necrons (I can't see him slogging a huge case of tau on the train but that might happen too). As a rule I'm not a fan of tailoring my armies to one fight, it means you only end up swapping stuff in and out and all the time so I tend to stick with a few variations of the same list.

I think wraithguard are strong against necrons at the moment, they are very durable and they strip hull points away pretty quickly from those vehicles that you will see alot of. Most necron players I have come across so far don't tend to take the combat units but that doesn't mean the one you face won't. A squad of harlequins is probably your best bet but they are strongest on the counter charge so you might have to sacrifice some of a unit to lure the enemy combat troops out.

My advice from previous games is don't let them devide your forces and definitely don't do it for them. If he comes at you with some of his army, concentrate all of yours on it until it is gone, then move on, don't defend with some units and attack with others. 

[magenb]

Eldar and Necron armies are similar by being an army of specialists, they, like our army can be built very differently.

Swooping hawks under 6th can be an awesome anti tank unit especially against AV13 gear, remember to take skyleap. While being a high cost per model, you don't need to put them into a tank, which would just get blown up any way.

Take multiple shots over single big shot guns, say war walkers with Scat lasers, guide works really well here too.

I believe there is only really 1 blast template weapon, which doesn't appear in too many lists, so you can keep your units tight and really get focus fire working for you.

Royal courts really boost their army, if they have spread them to command their infantry units, our pathfinders are just plain awesome, boosted massively by guide here.

[haunt]

Best way is any weapons with AP3 or AP2, concentrate fire on 1 unit bring them down and once the last model in that unit is dead then it shouldn't be able to come back, IF I remember it right.

[gangrel767]

I believe there is only really 1 blast template weapon, which doesn't appear in too many lists, so you can keep your units tight and really get focus fire working for you.

Two that I can recall off the top of my head. The Monolith gets the Particle Whip (essentially a short range battle cannon), and of course the Doomsday Ark. Both of these vehicles have 4 hull points so be wary of them as they can be a beast to take down, but the Doomsday has quantum shielding, so a bit weaker.

The main way to wreck Necrons is CC, and the Eldar have crappy CC now, so move, shoot, move... stay away from their Rapid fire non-sense, and use any and every bit of range you may have.

[Natinator]

A good way to annihilate anything that comes too close is a full squad of fire dragons (I would add Fuegan for extra punch but it depends on points) or two. With Guide or Prescience, these guys should wipe out an equal size squad of 'crons a turn. The only trouble is their short range takes you into rapidfire... so use them as a counter-attacking unit, or support them well (this is where two squads work well in tandem).

They can also obviously take out any big stuff that comes close.

Hawks are really good now against vehicles, so they are a must. Even a squad of 6 (including Exarch with skyleap) can take out a vehicle a turn, with the grenade throw and then follow-up CC. And their maneuverability means they can stay out of range of rapidfire.

Rangers/Pathfinders are decent now, so they can work.

Thats a few units, otherwise wieght of high str fire, and focus fire does the job

[Erand]

Necrons used to be a slow, short range fire power army, I would not argue they are a pretty fast firepower army.

My advice is make the very best of psychic powers and fortune in particular. They don't have a huge amount of low AP weapons so re-rolling saves makes a massive difference.

Yes HQ choices do add punch to units like fire dragons but actually fortune is so strong against Necrons I can't help but take two farseers.

I said it above but after a week of 6 games vs a very good Necron army I really have to stress the point not to split your army, split his. If you can get the bulk of your forces on one of his flanks and he has to move alot to get to you, it gives you time to take out a few units before you have to deal with the rest of his forces.

Jetbikes and shining spears are of huge value as they are fast and the 3+ save will really help you.

E