Editing Necron (section)

== How to Play (and Fight) the Necrons ==
The current state of 9th Edition has S-tier armies sitting at a much, much higher power level than anything ranked below them. If the likes of Tau, Custodes, Tyranids and Harlequins are 10/10, A rank armies like Drukhari, Genestealers and Admech are 7/10. Necrons are currently considered A tier. Solid, but not really broken in any real form or fashion. Which is to say, compared to S tier armies, you're going to feel really outmatched.

In a vacuum, Necron troops are still pretty damn durable, and the current form of reanimation protocols favors single wound infantry- especially Warriors with their reroll. However, don't think you can just march up and shoot all game. Plenty of things out there that can wipe out your unit in one go. This is why you always bring cryptek support if you can afford it. Technomancers bring back 1d3 Warriors every command phase (1 model otherwise. Great for small multiwound units like Lokhusts/Heavy Lokhusts/Skorpekhs. Chronomancers provide a 5++ invuln save to just about anything, even Monoliths. Crypteks can all take special artifacts called Cryptek Arkhana on top of standard artifacts. If using Technomancers or Chronomancers as pure support, get the Hypermaterial Ablator; it bestows light cover on a Core unit if the shooter's beyond 12", perfect for a unit marching and shooting. The final piece in the puzzle is the Canoptek Reanimator, one of the new War of the Worlds-esque spider walkers. Keep it hidden and safe, because its Command Phase ability allows it to provide a +1 buff to Reanimation Protocol rolls to a unit within 6". Combined with the above buffs, a fully kitted out Warrior unit will induce unheard-of levels of salt from your opponent.

Necrons reward a solid, well thought out gameplan with Command Protocols. If you're a [[Just_As_Planned|Just as Planned]], you will love playing Necrons. You don't have to set the order you'll use these until just before the first round, after you've had a chance to see what you're up against and what kind of scenario you're playing. If you can line up your buffs juuust right, you'll be very hard to deal with. [[Silent_King|Szarekh]] provides a bit of wiggle room here; with him in your army, you use one less Command Protocol but you can use one twice, and once a game, you can swap out one of your command protocols with one of the two you have not used this game. Great way to use this is to leave out a command protocol you know you'll want to make use of in a pinch but not necessarily -need-. When the turn that you really need it comes, just swap it in without worry. Unless it's a Dynastic Agent or C'tan Shard, try to never let your units stray further than 6" from any character. They must be within 6" of a character to benefit from Command Protocols when they activate!

Everyone in 9th edition love stacking buffs. Necrons are admittedly more rigid about it. Command Protocols cannot be swapped out without the Silent King; several factions can do it with strategems, psychic powers, etc. When it works, though, it ''works''. Warriors and Flayed Ones suddenly having 7" movement. Skorpekhs getting a 10" move in the same situation. If you have a feeling that you're going to get shot at a lot one specific turn, give everyone who won't move cover and use a the Ablator to give one particular unit cover out in the open. Spend a bunch of CP, an Overlord Buff, and a command protocol to make Warriors able to hit on 2+, auto wound on 6's to hit, cause extra hits on 6's to hit, get extra AP on a 6 to wound, and if you can afford a Lord, reroll on 1's.

C'Tans are digustingly good, and some competitive lists love throwing three at them at opponents. Just keep in mind that some armies, like Thousand Sons and Grey Knights, can easily wipe them out in one turn if they consistently inflict three wounds on them on the Psychic, Shooting, and Fight phases. The damage only gets ignored per PHASE. They are peak [[distraction carnifex]].

Aircraft suck this edition, try not to take them; they can't hold objectives, buffs/debuffs max out at +1/-1, and terrain rules more or less ignore aircraft. You can't hide them, they WILL be shot down extremely quickly. Best you can do is reserve them, fly them in to do take down one thing, and hope they survive a turn. Night Scythes are at least decent for a quick, unexpected attack vector to redeploy units from. The Monolith is also good for this.

Speaking of, don't let the Monolith's 2+ armor save fool you. '''It does not have an Invuln save!''' It has 24 wounds, but absolutely no way to guarantee a save without a Chronomancer babysitting it! It's also a Lord of War, making it much harder to field one! What buffs this thing got are greatly offset by what's going against it. Four death rays and a particle whip are nothing to sneeze at.

Your best anti armor options are basically the following: The Silent King, Heavy Lokhusts, Canoptek Doomstalkers, and the Monolith. The Silent King's Menhirs deal a horrifying 6 damage each and pack extremely high STR and AP. Heavy Lokhusts fire only one shot, but they get a reroll, pack good hitting power, high AP, and most importantly, D3+3 damage. They also get the extremely important Lokhust-only Strategem that lets them reroll wound rolls. Canoptek Doomstalkers are 30 points cheaper than Doomsday Arks. They lack quantum shielding and are less accurate. However, the Doomstalkers can squeeze into areas the Ark is too long a boi to, and the Technomancer with the Canoptek Control Node buffs them to a 3+ to hit if they stay close enough. Also, a free overwatch vs a charging unit of that unit charges an unengaged ally within 6". Doomsday Cannons may be relatively pillowfisted (D6 if standing still compared to d3+3), but you get D6 shots per Doomstalker. If RNJesus is on your side, Doomstalkers can potentially pump out more damage.

As it stands, army has way too many interesting Elite picks. Tons of stuff you want to take, and you can't take them all.

Scarabs are nowhere near as deadly as they used to be aside from the auto-wound on a 6+ to hit. When paired with a Dynasty that grants obsec to everything, they however, become an extremely effective objective grabber. They are also useful for denying potential Deep Strike landing sites.

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How to best deal with Necrons? Bring enough massed fire to wipe out Warrior blobs in one go. Expect them to be fully buffed, because if you leave even one up, that's 19d6 that will resurrect a Warrior on a 4+. Then on the following turn, the Technomancer and Res Orb will bring back the rest. It's extremely demoralizing.

If you see the Reanimator hanging out in the back, blow it the fuck up before anything else; it dies to a stiff breeze and once it does, those Warriors will no longer reanimate on 4+.

Bring snipers. Tons of snipers. Take out their nobles in particular. Characters are also important, but without Nobles, Command Protocols will become unusable. '''Even better now that Bodyguards got nerfed to merely having Look Out, Sir!''' Undead armies live and die by their leaders buffing the shit out of their troops. Necrons are no exception.

Bring psychics. Lots of psychics. Necrons can't deny them if they don't have Szarekh or a Spyder with a gloom prism. Even then, it's just max one denial per aforementioned model. Mortal Wounds caused by psychic powers and abilities also ignore Reanimation Protocols. If an army is really good at delivering damage outside of shooting and melee, you're in for a rough time.

Bring tons of AP- Invulnerable Saves are actually pretty rare in this army due to the Chronomancer being able to hand it out like candy. Take advantage of that; those big, scary Destroyer units absolutely crumble to anything higher than -2 AP.