Many players say that the Necron power comes from their No/Low cost units, others by their ability to swarm opponents in T1, etc...
But what about their weakness? Is it the slow movement? The rate of reinforcement? The range of their guns? NO!
It’s TIME! Their weakness lies in the procedure to produce, reinforce or move. Time is where Necrons fail and it is time where Chaos reigns. So what it takes to exploit this weakness? It takes few but important steps...
Step #1: All about scarabs...
Scarabs are the unit that Necrons use to capture Critical points, Strategic points, Relics, as well as build buildings and LPs, and they also can repair “wounded” troops. A vital unit indeed.
A scarab takes 18s to build and 40s to reinforce each member to a max of 3, which means that a scarab to be fully effective takes 98s.
A scarab squad needs 40s to capture a Strategic point and 90s for a Relic, both of them are decapped very fast though. A scarab with three members has 675hp and his armor is infantry low. Chaos space marines do 8.7 DPS vs infantry low with bolter pistol, and 9.5 with melee attack, that means that if you want to kill scarabs faster tie them up with melee and shoot when they flee. Also remember that scarabs are immune for several seconds when placing a “flag” on a Strategic point, so instead of shooting pointlessly move to melee them, by the time you get to the scarabs they will be receiving damage normally. A capped Strategic point offers nothing but a base for an Obelisk and takes 40s to cap and 25s to build.
So when you manage to decap a Strategic point and kill the scarabs that capped it you inflict 98s+40s=138s of time “damage” to the necron army plus no base for obelisk and no time bonus as well as another 18s and a place in the production queue if he wants to remake them. It is essential to understand that Necrons have one building from which not only they produce fighting troops but also their builders/cappers. So when killing a scarab you delay building time, capping time and efficiency as well as a place in the production queue.
Step #2: Deploying mayhem...
The best way to invest in their weakness is to produce one squad of Chaos space marines as soon as possible (Chaos can/must go fast!) and get into his base wrecking havoc among his scarabs, that way you force him to move them (delaying building/capping), let them die (major blow) or move them outwards his base (in this scenario you hunt them down with your initial cults+1 member=5) while he is occupied to take you out of his base. A Chaos Lord soon should follow, most probably in ranged mode so he can run around shooting.
In case you face a turret it is advisable to try and find blind spots and shoot from there until Chaos lord arrives who can withstand more damage and offers an alternative target for the turret, even if you lose 1-2 troops you only lose 50req, but the Necron lose much more. Remember that everything you do to Necrons early game has an effect later at the game whether it is little time bonus, unit cap or low eco. After the initial attack/harassment and the potential map control, it is advisable to tech up to T2 immediately while upgrading Listening posts to level2. At T2 you will find that KB can devastate Necron warriors as well as Flayed ones and with a poor time bonus or low eco it will be very difficult for him to advance to tier2 and be a real threat. Advancement to T3 will most probably ensure victory because of the Necron building order, remember that a destroyed Summoning core takes them back to T1 and a destroyed Greater summoning core makes him unable to produce vehicles.
Step #3:The little things...
It is important to keep your army moving all the time, scouting, destroying, killing is essential, avoid large army confrontations especially in early tiers. Necron lord can be very tricky with his relics and abilities. Split your troops and create many fronts, his slow moving army will be difficult to control all. Guerrilla warfare is advisable, try to do some damage and leave.
Try to deny him time bonus at all costs, this makes his units train faster, reinforce faster, and raises unit cap, however all you want him to go is...slower.
Khorne berserkers, Chaos lord and Chaos Sorcerer can tie up vehicles such as destroyers if they receive no other damage and take them down, although it is best to produce a horror squad and destroy buildings and any vehicle that may threaten you. 3 squads of Khorne berserkers plus a Chaos Sorcerer are enough to take down several squads of NW and Flayed ones, especially if the last receive little boost to their reinforcement speed.
The use of chains must be a cautious act as the Necron troops can teleport back to their buildings, however newly produced squads (deep stricken Flayed ones) cannot teleport right away and they can be a good target for Chains of torment ability.
Heavy bolters can be life savers sometimes vs Necrons, while Khorne berserkers are more than capable to destroy Necron warriors or Flayed ones, a Flayed one spam is hard to counter with only 2 squads of Khorne and a Chaos sorcerer. That's why it is essential to try and forsee a spam and have some Chaos Space Marines with Heavy bolters and plasma upgrades (for Aspiring champions) researched.
Heavy bolters can also take down buildings such as generators or Obelisks easilly, especially if the Heavy weapons upgrade has been researched.
But remember to NOT reinforce your Chaos space marines to their full because only 2 or 4 members can carry Heavy bolters or Plasma pistols. For more info about specialized squads you can find in Solar_Neos' guide
Have also in mind that the Chaos lord deals 44.5 to vehicle medium armor (Destroyer, Heavy destroyer, Tomb spyder) with his initial DPS, and thus it is very important to attach him to a Khorne berserker squad when fighting vehicles. Attention! If left alone UN-attached he is an easy target for the enemy!
I'd just like to point out that Berzerkers do not beat flayed ones in melee. On most maps, necrons will probably have enough time bonus/gens to ensure that their flayed ones do not lose. He can also simply throw a necron lord with lightning field at the berzerkers, which will deal a lot of damage to them. Flayed ones will tear the chaos sorcerer to pieces, as well.
Heavy Bolters, on the other hand, beat necron warriors AND flayed ones, and solar pulse can simply cause you to retreat, as opposed to creating an enemy hero who you cannot actually hurt. While berzerkers + sorc are very effective in most other matchups, against Necrons they just don't fare as well.
The vanilla CSM harass can work wonders, however the disruption fielded necron warriors + turrets allow a competent necron player to largely ignore them.
Heavy Bolters -> Horrors -> Destruction of base is really how things should go. in a necron matchup, unless the necron player does something unexpected.
I'd also like to point out that aspiring champions with power swords will allow you to beat wraiths in melee, so if he decides to spam them against your marines, get those champions ASAP.
thnx man good points! Although i have seen KB beat flayed ones many times, with the necs having a 80% bonus, HB also work wonders. A combined strat of those 2 provides you with immence firepower and a cc wall by KB, CS is also good at chaining NW or FOs so you can shoot them.
I think that scarabs have full building capacity with 2 in a squad, the third scarab is essentially a spare to soak damage. so scarbs are not effective at 98 seconds but 58 seconds. Not entirely certain of this, pls check.
Great guide, it's always good to see ppl trying to solve a problem rather than just complain about it.
.
Many players say that the Necron power comes from their No/Low cost units, others by their ability to swarm opponents in T1, etc...
But what about their weakness? Is it the slow movement? The rate of reinforcement? The range of their guns? NO!
It’s TIME! Their weakness lies in the procedure to produce, reinforce or move. Time is where Necrons fail and it is time where Chaos reigns.
So what it takes to exploit this weakness? It takes few but important steps...
Step #1: All about scarabs...
Scarabs are the unit that Necrons use to capture Critical points, Strategic points, Relics, as well as build buildings and LPs, and they also can repair “wounded” troops. A vital unit indeed.
A scarab takes 18s to build and 40s to reinforce each member to a max of 3, which means that a scarab to be fully effective takes 98s.
A scarab squad needs 40s to capture a Strategic point and 90s for a Relic, both of them are decapped very fast though.
A scarab with three members has 675hp and his armor is infantry low. Chaos space marines do 8.7 DPS vs infantry low with bolter pistol, and 9.5 with melee attack, that means that if you want to kill scarabs faster tie them up with melee and shoot when they flee.
Also remember that scarabs are immune for several seconds when placing a “flag” on a Strategic point, so instead of shooting pointlessly move to melee them, by the time you get to the scarabs they will be receiving damage normally.
A capped Strategic point offers nothing but a base for an Obelisk and takes 40s to cap and 25s to build.
So when you manage to decap a Strategic point and kill the scarabs that capped it you inflict 98s+40s=138s of time “damage” to the necron army plus no base for obelisk and no time bonus as well as another 18s and a place in the production queue if he wants to remake them.
It is essential to understand that Necrons have one building from which not only they produce fighting troops but also their builders/cappers. So when killing a scarab you delay building time, capping time and efficiency as well as a place in the production queue.
Step #2: Deploying mayhem...
The best way to invest in their weakness is to produce one squad of Chaos space marines as soon as possible (Chaos can/must go fast!) and get into his base wrecking havoc among his scarabs, that way you force him to move them (delaying building/capping), let them die (major blow) or move them outwards his base (in this scenario you hunt them down with your initial cults+1 member=5) while he is occupied to take you out of his base. A Chaos Lord soon should follow, most probably in ranged mode so he can run around shooting.
In case you face a turret it is advisable to try and find blind spots and shoot from there until Chaos lord arrives who can withstand more damage and offers an alternative target for the turret, even if you lose 1-2 troops you only lose 50req, but the Necron lose much more. Remember that everything you do to Necrons early game has an effect later at the game whether it is little time bonus, unit cap or low eco.
After the initial attack/harassment and the potential map control, it is advisable to tech up to T2 immediately while upgrading Listening posts to level2. At T2 you will find that KB can devastate Necron warriors as well as Flayed ones and with a poor time bonus or low eco it will be very difficult for him to advance to tier2 and be a real threat. Advancement to T3 will most probably ensure victory because of the Necron building order, remember that a destroyed Summoning core takes them back to T1 and a destroyed Greater summoning core makes him unable to produce vehicles.
Step #3: The little things...
It is important to keep your army moving all the time, scouting, destroying, killing is essential, avoid large army confrontations especially in early tiers. Necron lord can be very tricky with his relics and abilities. Split your troops and create many fronts, his slow moving army will be difficult to control all. Guerrilla warfare is advisable, try to do some damage and leave.
Try to deny him time bonus at all costs, this makes his units train faster, reinforce faster, and raises unit cap, however all you want him to go is...slower.
Khorne berserkers, Chaos lord and Chaos Sorcerer can tie up vehicles such as destroyers if they receive no other damage and take them down, although it is best to produce a horror squad and destroy buildings and any vehicle that may threaten you. 3 squads of Khorne berserkers plus a Chaos Sorcerer are enough to take down several squads of NW and Flayed ones, especially if the last receive little boost to their reinforcement speed.
The use of chains must be a cautious act as the Necron troops can teleport back to their buildings, however newly produced squads (deep stricken Flayed ones) cannot teleport right away and they can be a good target for Chains of torment ability.
Heavy bolters can be life savers sometimes vs Necrons, while Khorne berserkers are more than capable to destroy Necron warriors or Flayed ones, a Flayed one spam is hard to counter with only 2 squads of Khorne and a Chaos sorcerer. That's why it is essential to try and forsee a spam and have some Chaos Space Marines with Heavy bolters and plasma upgrades (for Aspiring champions) researched.
Heavy bolters can also take down buildings such as generators or Obelisks easilly, especially if the Heavy weapons upgrade has been researched.
But remember to NOT reinforce your Chaos space marines to their full because only 2 or 4 members can carry Heavy bolters or Plasma pistols. For more info about specialized squads you can find in Solar_Neos' guide
Have also in mind that the Chaos lord deals 44.5 to vehicle medium armor (Destroyer, Heavy destroyer, Tomb spyder) with his initial DPS, and thus it is very important to attach him to a Khorne berserker squad when fighting vehicles.
Attention! If left alone UN-attached he is an easy target for the enemy!
Here are 2 replays showing this technique.
In this --> A good early harass takes place, with decaps and scarab killing, but also it shows how strong KB are, when backed up by horrors
And one showing Heavy Bolter action, that can turn the tide of battle.
This post has been edited by Uriel-: Aug 23 2007, 08:08 AM
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