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The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Necrons [Broken HTML]

Submitted By: Date: May 31, 2006, 07:56:14 PM Views: 4381
Summary: <p class="body">Greetings readers, this article will be a basic overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the necron army. If you are considering getting a necron army or are curious about the necron army or want to know how to beat a necron army then read on. This information is the result of my experience as a necron player for several years, it is not written in stone. I will try and not reveal any specific rules so as to not violate copyright laws. So, here we go.</p>

<p class="heading">Strengths of the Necron army:</p>
<p class="body">There are three words which describe the strengths of the necron army: Firepower, resilience and the monolith.  The necron army is primarily an army which excels in close and medium range firepower.  Almost every single model in the necron army is capable of taking down the strongest vehicle and creature, everything from a land raider to a wraithlord.  This is due to the special weapons which most necrons carry, guass weapons.  Each guass weapon is capable of damaging the strongest vehicle and the toughest creature.  The guass weapons are also almost entirely assault or rapid fire weapons which makes them deadly at short and medium range.  The sheer volume of firepower that a necron army can dish out can devastate any enemy that gets to close.
   The second thing that makes necrons so powerful is their resilience.  Necrons have a special rule called “We’ll Be Back”.  Does it sound familiar? Just think of the movie “Terminator”.  Remember how hard it was to keep that guy down.  He just kept going and going.  Now imagine an army of terminators…that is the necron army.  When a necron is killed under most circumstances he doesn’t always stay dead.  There is a 50% chance that the model will get back up as good as new in the following turn and there are ways to improve this chance even further.  In short, if the necron player is lucky he can go through a game without losing hardly any of his troops.  There is also the fact that necrons have good toughness and armor so it is hard to get them down in the first place.
   If you don’t know what the monolith is I am sorry that I cannot fully describe its potential.  The monolith is the only vehicle the necron army has, but it fills in the roll of just about all vehicles in the game and more.  It can deliver devastating blasts of firepower in two ways.  It is a skimmer which makes it very difficult to take it down from the ground and has special armor rules which makes it virtually impossible for some armies to destroy it at all.  It can also teleport certain necron units and improve their repair abilities.  It is one of the most infamous models in the game.  The very sight of it on the battlefield usually causes cries of “cheese” from the opponent.  It is awesome, it is fearsome, it is the monolith: the necron trump card.  It is also a really fantastic looking model.<br />
   Another strength I should mention is great leadership.  Every single model in the necron army is Ld 10 and some of the models are fearless.  This makes a very reliable army.  Your squads almost never fall back, even in the toughest situations.  Again think of an army of terminators, it is kind of hard to imagine them fleeing for the hills.</p>

<p class="heading">Weaknesses of the Necron Army:</p>
<p class="body">Now, while the necron army is certainly powerful it does have its weaknesses.  Prepare to take notes all you enemies of the undying army.  Ok, I would say the necrons have three main weaknesses and one minor one.<br />
   The first weakness is the “Phase Out” rule.  Every army is supposed to be balanced so this is the counter to the powerful “We’ll Be Back” rule.  If a necron army is reduced to below a certain number of necron models then it simply disappears.  Basically necrons have very high tech teleportation abilities so if they see a battle going against them they pull out the remaining troops.  So, if a necron player loses a certain number of models that actually count as necrons (some models in the necron army don’t count as true necrons so they don’t effect the number) then his army phases out.  This basically means his army disappears of the table and he usually loses the game.  I really can’t think of a situation in which a necron player can win when he has no army left.<br />
   The second weakness is expense.  I am not talking about money I am talking about points.  The necron army is very expensive point wise.  The basic necron warrior is more expensive that the elite troops in many armies.  Necron armies are almost always outnumbered except in very rare circumstances such as if they were going up against an imperial guard armored company.  As a result a necron player has to be careful with what he does with his troops as every model counts.  Tyranid and Imperial guard players can throw away whole squads without worrying about it.  If a necron player is unfortunate enough to lose a squad due to a problem with deep striking or a really bad shooting phase then he will feel the hurt.  It is the simple concept of quantity and quality.  The necron army is all about quality.<br />
   The third weakness is the lack of good AP (armor piercing) ranged weapons.  There are extremely few ranged weapons in the necron army that have AP3 or better.  In my last tournament army I had exactly 2 weapons that were AP3 or better.  That should give you an idea of what I am talking about.  Necrons can usually make up for this lack of good AP by the sheer volume of fire that they can pump out.  Their weapons have good strength and deliver a large amount of shots but they simply don’t have great AP.  This is no problem for necrons when facing tyranids, tau, imperial guard, orcs and other armies.  But if stuck up against a deathwing army made entirely of terminators then there could possibly be problems.  I’m not saying a necron army could not beat a deathwing army but it would certainly be challenging.<br />
   The minor weakness I mentioned is the fact that necrons do not excel in close combat.  For one thing necrons have low initiative in general.  The highest initiative in the army is 4 and the average initiative is 2.  There are some special units in the necron army which do specialize in close combat such as wraiths and flayed ones and they do their job well.  I am not saying necrons are bad in close combat, it is simply that the average necron does not do much damage in hand to hand.  As I mentioned before necron armies are pretty small and since the normal warrior is slow and only has 1 attack he will not do a terrible amount of damage.  Fortunately for necrons they have ways of getting their squads out of close combat so they can make the most out of their firepower.  This is why I consider their weakness in close combat a minor one.  However, if you can get powerful squads into close combat with a necron army and get rid of their teleportation abilities then the necron army will generally not do well.<br />
So, that is my rundown on the strengths and weaknesses of the necron army.  They are pretty generalized but should give you an overview of the army.  I realize that I made it so that the necrons have exactly 3 major and 1 minor strengths AND weaknesses but that is simply how I view it.  Again, this article is based on my experiences with the necron army and should not be viewed as god’s word (although if you want to view it that way feel free).  Simply use this as a guideline and then play with or against a necron army yourself and draw your own conclusions.  Good luck gamers!</p>

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