Warhammer 40000: Tau and Necron

[Evil Sadistic Bastard]

I'm wondering if anyone has any good strategies for playing the Tau and Necron. I've got both Codexes and have thought of a few tactics, but I would like to hear some feedback from the veterans.

[Evil Sadistic Bastard]

Come on, guys!

[NecronLord]

Number one rule for necrons. warriors, and have lots of them. Tempting though a lot of the funky freaky nasty things are they are so much useless points if the 25% rule is tripped by having too few warriors. Take a Necron Lord equipped for close combat and give him a viel, a phylactery and whatever else you can afford (remembering the 100pts equipment rule)

Then advance implacably. Use the CCW lord to teleport and ambush isolated units. Go for those that can put down your warriors permanatly. If the unit with the lord is assaulted, protect him so he can beat a retreat next turn. Certain tanks such as the land raider (hint) cannot fire behind them. If you cn get the lord and his minions behind them then they can get X shots into the thing and then assault (make sure they have disruption feilds) with another X hits on the thing. This gives you a good chance of doing something unpleasant to the tank. even better if you face an inexperienced opponent who sets the thing up on it's own. Consider buying the CC lord a warscythe.

[Evil Sadistic Bastard]

Number one rule for necrons. warriors, and have lots of them. Tempting though a lot of the funky freaky nasty things are they are so much useless points if the 25% rule is tripped by having too few warriors. Take a Necron Lord equipped for close combat and give him a viel, a phylactery and whatever else you can afford (remembering the 100pts equipment rule)

Then advance implacably. Use the CCW lord to teleport and ambush isolated units. Go for those that can put down your warriors permanatly. If the unit with the lord is assaulted, protect him so he can beat a retreat next turn. Certain tanks such as the land raider (hint) cannot fire behind them. If you cn get the lord and his minions behind them then they can get X shots into the thing and then assault (make sure they have disruption feilds) with another X hits on the thing. This gives you a good chance of doing something unpleasant to the tank. even better if you face an inexperienced opponent who sets the thing up on it's own. Consider buying the CC lord a warscythe.

Interesting advice. Most of the starts I hear center around Deep Strike Monolith ---> billions of Immortals/Pariahs -----> jump up and down on enemy's corpse.

You are the first guy I've heard suggesting CC Necron Lord.

And why are you using the Nightbringer Avatar if you are the Necron Lord?

[SAMAS]

First, to state the obvious.

Crisis Suits are your friends. You'll notice that they carry most of the long-range and suppourt firepower in the army.

With the Crisis Suits being such an intregal part of the Tau army, you have to arm them properly.

Plasma Rifles are great. They may have a lower Strength than Imperial Plasma Guns, but they don't overheat. They're Rapid-Fire, but because they're suits, they can still fire twice at 12", even after moving. And they're still AP2, so they're a prerequisite against Marines and Necrons.

Burst Cannons would be good, except for the fact that this is a Tau army, and you already have S5 weapons in plenty. Leave these at home, unless you fight armies that like to overwhelm their enemies with numbers(Orks, 'Nids, etc...). Then the extra shots are worth it.

Missile Pods are also a must, as they're the only long-range infantry suppout weapon the Tau have. At least one suit in your army should have one. A little known fact is that Missile Pods make the Commander one of the few Indepentent Characters with a shooting range greater than 24". and Commanders are a lot more common.

Fusion Blasters are Melta Weapons. Use them accordingly.

Flamers... if you're not Cityfighting, more often than not, they're not worth it. If you're close enough to use a Flamer, you're likely to get assaulted in the next turn.

But of course, you can put more than one weapon on your suit. Sometimes the combination of weapons you use is as important as what weapons they are.

One of the most versatile configurations in the game is the Fireknife configuration. This consists of a team of three suits, each with a Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, and Multi-tracker. This allows them three shots at 24", one S6, two S7, and an additional S6 shot at 12". The Rifle allows them to kill marines and Necrons with ease, and the Missile Pod can kill most other troops at long range, as well as help against Lightly-armed vehicles such as Dreads, Defilers, and anything used by the Dark Eldar.

For additional surviveabiliy, you can make your leader a Shas'vre, and either give him a HW Drone controller and Drones, or Hard-Wire the Multitracker, and give him a Shield Generator.

If you want to use them for long-range suppourt, you might want to go for the Death Rain configuration. That's Twin-linked Missile Pods and a Drone Controller with drones. Two shots should let them take on anything short of a tank, and the range is always a plus for taking out transports, which should be a priority.

One configuration which is popular in books and photos, but a little questionable in practice, is the Sun Forge, which is Twin-linked Fusion Blasters. The full configuration is all three like this, and with Shield Generators, but a common variant is a single suit within a squad with the blasters, and a Target Lock. The pros and cons of this configuration should be evident. Great for Tanks, but if you're close enough to use them to their full effect, you're usually too close.

If you fight armies like Tyranids, Orks, and Imperial Guard, you also might want to us the Blinding Spear Configuration, which equips the suits with Plasma Rifles, Burst Cannons, and Multi-Trackers.

The cofiguration I use for my one unit of Crisis Suits is:

Shas'vre with upgraded Fireknife(HW Multi-Tracker and Shield Genrator)

Shas'ui with Death Rain configuration, two Gun Drones.

Shas'ui with Plasma Rifle, Fusion Blaster, and Multitracker.


After Crisis Suits, the other important part of your army are the FireWarriors. You must have at least one squad in your army, but you need 2-3. FireWarriors may have terrible close combat ability, but their great weapons and decent Armor Save makes them one of the best basic troops in the game.

FireWarriors have a maximum range of 30", so make the most of them. Put them in an area with good lanes of fire, and leave them there.

Carbines may prove useful, buying your FireWarriors time by pinning your enemies, and their 18" range is good if your warriors have to evacuate on foot. But naturally, they decrease your long-range firepower.

Devilfish may prove useful to you. They can provide a way for FireWarriors to rapidly abandon a position that's in danger of being overrun, and/or reach a better/safer position.

I tried Pathfinders once, and found them to be useful. Their multiple Markerlights ensure greater chances of marking targets, and getting multiple marks. Remember, each Markerlight allows either a Seeker Missile to be launched, or any friendly model to hit that target on a 2+.

After all Seekers have been fired, Pathfinders still make good strike troops. they can move and fire with their carbines, allowing them to stay ahead of most persuing troops, or to get to a new area in case their 'fish gets destroyed.

Stealth Suits are also nice, even against Marines. Their high number of shots(18 from a full-sized squad) means that they'll even force a few failed saves against Marines. On other troops, they chop other squads up.

More later.

[Evil Sadistic Bastard]

SAMAS:

Thanks, for the advice, I'm glad there's at least one good Necron and one good Tau player on SD.Net.

I was wondering, is it worthwhile mounting Flame Warriors (I know they're Fire Warriors, humor me) in DevilFish? And what is the optimum squad size? I'm going for a big suit army (I'm trying to recreate a Hunter Cadre of jump suit troops from Damocles Crusade) and those Shas'la cost a lot of points when put into Devilfish.

Is there any benefit to playing Farsight Enclave apart from Farsight?

Are the Kroot any good besides cannon fodder?

IS it woth taking Hammerheads? I like submunition railgun blast (get f***ed Tyranids, Orks, rusher bastards, Dark Reapers, etc.) and Ion Cannon (Get f***ed Smurfs and Necrons) , but is it better just to take another bunch of Broadsides and say FIDO (F*** It, Drive On)?

Pardon my no0b questions, but I need to learn too...

[SAMAS]

SAMAS:

Thanks, for the advice, I'm glad there's at least one good Necron and one good Tau player on SD.Net.

I was wondering, is it worthwhile mounting Flame Warriors (I know they're Fire Warriors, humor me) in DevilFish? And what is the optimum squad size? I'm going for a big suit army (I'm trying to recreate a Hunter Cadre of jump suit troops from Damocles Crusade) and those Shas'la cost a lot of points when put into Devilfish.

If you want a small, but highly mobile army, go right ahead.

Is there any benefit to playing Farsight Enclave apart from Farsight?

You essentially become Imperial Guard with better guns, and only one tank. Ironically, it is now impossible to fill the Force Org. Chart with a Farsight army.

But I have heard rumors that:

A: You can take Crisis Suit squads as Troop choices. I haven't seen any confirmation on this, so I doubt it.

B: GW is coming out with new Battlesuit designs, which may be only for the Farsight Enclave.

Are the Kroot any good besides cannon fodder?

up to 20 guys with WS4 S4, always have two attacks in Assault, and a gun that's almost as good as a Bolter. Their only real weakness is their lack of an armor save, unless you spring for a Shaper and armor.

They're actually not bad against Guardsmen, Basic Eldar, and maybe Orks. Marines, they're iffy against unless they bring Hounds(and even then, they'll get stomped by Assault Squads), and you really don't want to send them against Aspect Warriors, either. Against those, they are pretty much a speed bump, but may still save you. Dark Eldar is also a little iffy. In all cases, keep 'em in cover until needed.

Kroot Hounds are always usable, as you rarely need more than one unit of each of Pathfinders or Drone squads. Take as many as you can.

Krootox are unlucky. They give Kroot squads some needed firepower in both shooting and CC, but you have to give up a Heavy Suppourt to use them. You'll want to use them, but a Hammerhead or Broadside squad is aways a better deal.

IS it woth taking Hammerheads? I like submunition railgun blast (get f***ed Tyranids, Orks, rusher bastards, Dark Reapers, etc.) and Ion Cannon (Get f***ed Smurfs and Necrons) , but is it better just to take another bunch of Broadsides and say FIDO (F*** It, Drive On)?

A Hammerhead is always worth it.

Broadsides are great if you take more than one, but they can't move. More often or not, after the first turn, the enemy is either scrambling to kill them, or getting the hell outta their line of sight. That's why a Hammerhead is good against everything but Necrons. Hammerheads, especially if you give them a Multi-Tracker, can zip out and paste a tank real fast, just make sure they can't easily be hit in the first turn, in case you lose that.

There's also a neat little vehicle upgrade that's not in the Codex: Landing Gear. It's only 5 pts in VDR, but the Hammerhead and Devilfish have it for free. Basically, it means that if the vehicle did not move in your previous turn, Immobilized results only Immobiize it, as opposed to destroying it like other skimmers.

Funniest things that ever happened to my Hammerhead:

In one battle, against Speed Freeks, the Hammerhead spent the entire battle in a slugging match against a Looted Basalisk. Neither of them could destroy each other due to bad rolls.

Another time, I was using two Hammerheads, I lost the first turn. Thusly, my Hammerheads both got shot first. One(that I had borrowed) was destroyed, and the one that was mine had its railgun shot off. That Hammerhead went on to be a nusiance to the enemy, harassing units with it's missiles, and absorbing an ungodly amount of firepower.

Arming them is another question. Railguns are aways good against anything, and submunitions are great agaisnt any non-marine troops. Ion Cannons are better against Marines and Necrons.

Just keep in mind that the Hammerhead wields one of the biggest guns in the game, and as such will be fired upon by pretty much anything that has a chance of killing it. Protect it accordingly.

[Evil Sadistic Bastard]

Hmmm... words from the wise indeed... I respect your superior judgement, Shas'o. Tau'va.

[NecronLord]

Number one rule for necrons. warriors, and have lots of them. Tempting though a lot of the funky freaky nasty things are they are so much useless points if the 25% rule is tripped by having too few warriors. Take a Necron Lord equipped for close combat and give him a viel, a phylactery and whatever else you can afford (remembering the 100pts equipment rule)

Then advance implacably. Use the CCW lord to teleport and ambush isolated units. Go for those that can put down your warriors permanatly. If the unit with the lord is assaulted, protect him so he can beat a retreat next turn. Certain tanks such as the land raider (hint) cannot fire behind them. If you cn get the lord and his minions behind them then they can get X shots into the thing and then assault (make sure they have disruption feilds) with another X hits on the thing. This gives you a good chance of doing something unpleasant to the tank. even better if you face an inexperienced opponent who sets the thing up on it's own. Consider buying the CC lord a warscythe.

Interesting advice. Most of the starts I hear center around Deep Strike Monolith ---> billions of Immortals/Pariahs -----> jump up and down on enemy's corpse.

That is a valid tactic but everyone knows about it.Immortals are better for your 'assault team' though, as they gate to fire 2X shots and then strike X times. Pariahs are of course even better, but i try to use as little as possible that isn't necron (25% rule, heard too many tales of people loosing despite there only being a squad or so a guard left in the enemy army )
I'm old school. I appriciate that the usefulness of having the best basic troop in the game Anyone who dares challenge me on this shall suffer greatly + large numbers = killy killy

You are the first guy I've heard suggesting CC Necron Lord.

And why are you using the Nightbringer Avatar if you are the Necron Lord?

I upgraded myself when I became a horseman, His similarity to the biblical death horseman was too much to give up. Now I am a Lord of Necrons as opposed to a Necron-Lord. (Drains passing troll of life) P.s. a note about doing that to tanks. There is a slight risk of them exploding in your face when you do that.

Another use for them is pissing people off by using them to invoke the crossfire rule as your necrons close. Ideally have another necron lord at the front with a nightmare field(or is that the BFG 10,000,000 KM version?) and using it to brak a hole in the enemy's more expensive infantry, then teleport behind them the turn after they flee (you can do it before, but this tends to clue people up to your sick plan). Then as they retreat they get gunned down.

[Evil Sadistic Bastard]

D4 3v!L! Indeed the Nightbringer is l33t. Necron crossfire... hadn't thought of that. 2 Necron Lords seemed pretty beardy to me, though a perfectly viable winning strategy.

Now if only NecronLord Warscythes came with free gauss blaster (LIke Pariah Warscythes). Ah well. Can't win them all.

And your oldschoolness warms my heart... You think like a soldier...

[white_rabbit]

I dont know if its been mentioned, but in certain scenarios, phase-out dosnt applie..cue massive deployment of Necron uber units.

[Evil Sadistic Bastard]

Really? And what scenario would that be?

[NecronLord]

If the necrons are defending something important e.g. a seplcure they would not give it up.

[Evil Sadistic Bastard]

The Old One's mastery of the warp was now countered, and the enemies of the Necrons suffered greatly in the slaughter that followed.

Reminds me of a joke I heard once:

Imperial Army General and Imperial Navy Admiral were puffing chests.

General: Here is our Order of battle, and here are our AT-ATs, and (yadda yadda yadda) and we show only a 2% deviation from projected fleet strength! Now how about you?

Admiral: Well, this star system is screwed up, and that too, and (yadda yadda yadda) so we don't exactly have all our forces where they need to be, though we can get them there when needed.

General: (laughs) Why, the Navy is such a mess! Surely you cannot compare yourselves to the discipline of the Army, can you?

Admiral: True, true. (Grins) Thus we can only content ourselves with the utter mastry of known space.

[white_rabbit]

Really? And what scenario would that be?

Meatgrinder I believe.

[NecronLord]

The Old One's mastery of the warp was now countered, and the enemies of the Necrons suffered greatly in the slaughter that followed.

Reminds me of a joke I heard once:

Imperial Army General and Imperial Navy Admiral were puffing chests.

General: Here is our Order of battle, and here are our AT-ATs, and (yadda yadda yadda) and we show only a 2% deviation from projected fleet strength! Now how about you?

Admiral: Well, this star system is screwed up, and that too, and (yadda yadda yadda) so we don't exactly have all our forces where they need to be, though we can get them there when needed.

General: (laughs) Why, the Navy is such a mess! Surely you cannot compare yourselves to the discipline of the Army, can you?

Admiral: True, true. (Grins) Thus we can only content ourselves with the utter mastry of known space.

Ditto.

[SAMAS]

Really? And what scenario would that be?

Meatgrinder I believe.

Actually, it's just that the Sustained Attack option(which does pop up in Meatgrinder) overrides the Phase out rule.