Countering Necron Destroyers

Hello fellow Archons,

I faced off against Necron army in a 50power level game. I brought CWE
Autarch for rerolls, Night spinner, 2 wave serpents one with BL and one with AML's, Dark Reapers with exarch and tempest launcher, dire avengers, war walker with AML's, striking scorpions.

Necron player had
Cryptek
20 warrior squad
2x 4destoyers + 1 Heavy destroyer squads
3 model scarab

The cryptek gave 5+ invu and 4+ Reanimation protocol to 3".

Game proceeded about like this, I got seized , night spinner was reduced to 3hp in turn 1a. Warriors bubble wrapped Cryptek in large LOS blocking runes middle of the board and the destoyers were around and on second level of the runes. 1b my turn I removed 1½ destroyers, some bad to hit rolls there.
turn 2, necron player animated the dead destroyer, exploded my night spinner, removed dark reapers and removed few units from Dire avengers. I shoot off 3 destoyers from the field. Necron shuffled units a bit on his turn, but in practice was holding 3 objectives. Striking scorpions came from shadows, removed one scarab model, failed charge.
Turn 3, Necron player animated 2 destroyers. Removed some 9 hp from other wave serpent and removed my striking scorpions from field with warriors.
In my turn I removed 2 destroyers.
Turn 4, Necron animated 2 destoyers and removed some 10 hp in total from wave serpends and killed rest of the DA, leaving my WS to 4 and 3 hp, and killing off war walker. My turn I Removed 3 destroyers, charged with rest of dire avengers.
Turn 5, Necron animated 2 destoyers, reduced wave serpents to 3 and 0 hp, also finishing off Autarch.
Turn 5 me, well I have one ws on the field.

The thing that struck me most was that even without the seize I would have needed good rolls to remove on full destoyer group with invus, next turn they come back with RP 4+. They move fast, have infantry so +1 in cover line of sight blocking or not.

My plan at the start of the game was to use striking scorpions to charge the Cryptek but he was in too good place bubble wrapped in warriors and destoryers to make that charge and turn 1 and 2 not even possible to place models around it. Destoyers have fly so they cannot be stuck in close combat.

What are your experiences facing RP + Destroyer lists and how to beat them?

Best, WildCandy

I haven't faced that many Destroyers when facing necrons, but i have found that the strategy to endorse when facing necrons is totally different from what it was.

Before, i feel like you had to play it long and safe, kill models one at a time, and don't expect to wipe an entire squad in one assault.

Now, you basically have to wipe them in one turn, so there is no more "long distance poking" especially when they have their own "long distance poking". In my experience the best approach to beating necrons was packing a ton of gunboats with kabalites inside, driving to exactly 12" of my target squad, and wiping it out (with the help of 12 000 dissies). Kill them in one phase, or don't bother attacking them. Since they are super slow, you can attack one half of the army while being far from the other half. If he turtles up, play objectives and laugh at his ridiculously low speed.

I don't have any experience facing them but I do know some tricks that might help ... Destroyers have the "Infantry" key word which means that the wyches " no escape" rule works on them. Also ... Reanimation Protocol happens before the movement phase, so before the destroyers can try and fall back. Now RP states that the model has the be resurrected within unit coherency of a model that is still alive in the unit and also at least 1 inch away from enemy models. So if the unit is completely surrounded and they cannot place a unit outside of 1 inch of an enemy model the RP fails and the model cannot come back. Also the cryptek should not be a priority target, I know he makes RP better and gives an invuln save but if he was completely bubble wrapped by warriors he is worth ignoring. And if his aura is 3" then it should have been reaching the destroyers unless he was standing directly underneath them as each level of a building or ruin is considered to be 3" to reach the floor above. Or if you really wanna kill the cryptek ... Rangers, 2 units of rangers will more then likely do the trick after 2-3 turns of shooting (depending on how many rangers are in the unit) and illac might be a good one too, the cryptek cannot use RP on himself cause once the whole unit is destroyed the unit cannot reanimate and he is a one model unit.

This is a special Character Cryptek that can boost himself to 7W 7T during the game. If he does it early i doubt ranger will hurt him much...

Edited : Never mind, i thought only Orikan the Diviner gave 5+ invuln to the close models, while in fact every cryptek has this power. Which makes me wonder why my opponent bothered to pay for Orikan the Diviner ^^
So sorry, i didn't say anything.

Rangers can still wound that though as I think their weapons wound on a 4+ regardless of toughness ... I'll have to double check their rules as I haven't looked at them since the index came out and 10-20 rangers that cause mortal wounds on a 6 will still eat through 7w in 2-3 turns of shooting

Yeah, poured my 45 pl of shooting into one group at a time. Results were unsatisfactory Only ways to stop rp is to destroy whole group or surround it fully.

"Countering Necron Destroyers"

My last game VS crons with destroyers I played the range game for the first 2 turns.

He wanted to shoot with his destroyers so he had to move away from the cyptec's 3" bubble so he didn't have the 5++.
I wasted a whole unit at a time. Blasters and dissies melt them. In turn 2 I charged in some reavers to finish off the last 1 that wouldn't die to shooting.

Yes, I am sure I didn't use the movement to my benefit. Good advice Painjunky!

Archon_91 wrote:

Rangers can still wound that though as I think their weapons wound on a 4+ regardless of toughness ... I'll have to double check their rules as I haven't looked at them since the index came out and 10-20 rangers that cause mortal wounds on a 6 will still eat through 7w in 2-3 turns of shooting

They don't anymore. Sure, they will inflict mortal wounds, but will wound the rest on 5+, the IC will heal 1 wound per turn. And 20 rangers is just way too much for a 50 power level game (you dedicate a 20 power level unit shooting 3 turns to hope and destroy a 8 power level character).

Painjunky wrote:

"Countering Necron Destroyers"

My last game VS crons with destroyers I played the range game for the first 2 turns.

He wanted to shoot with his destroyers so he had to move away from the cyptec's 3" bubble so he didn't have the 5++.
I wasted a whole unit at a time. Blasters and dissies melt them. In turn 2 I charged in some reavers to finish off the last 1 that wouldn't die to shooting.

This is the best advice, I think.

Destroyers get much more vulnerable when not near a Cryptek and normal Destroyers only have a range of 24".

Dark Lances should hurt them greatly, as should Poison (and the latter doesn't care if they are near a Cryptek).

I'd suggest trying to outrange them for the first turn or so - try to lure them beyond the range of their cryptek. If they take the bait, that's when you get in closer and really concentrate fire on them.

One I was considering but situational tactic would ve charging warriors from multiple sides. Almost all eldar are flyers, and if surrounded properly warriors can not fall back from the fight giving relative safety to vehicles.