Harvest the souls of the Warhammer 40 000 galaxy!
Dark Crusade Necrons Tutorial.
Awoken from your 60 million year slumber, you find the galaxy you had long ago ravaged infested with the souls of the living. Now, your star gods, the C'tan have chosen you to once again harvest the souls of the galaxy in an unstoppable genocide. Your methods are fearsome, without remorse. You have no mercy for the living, and will behold terrifying and unholy powers against your foes. You are the necrons, and there is no death for you. Go fourth, and purge the galaxy of the living scum!
The patch HAS ARRIVED!
I'll be updating this again for the new patch to help the poor souls still clinging to the abusive necron of the past; woot(!), necrons finnaly take some degree of skill to play! You will still be yelled at, people will still scream imba, and chances are they are right, but at least keep in mind, its not as bad as it was last patch! 
Updated for 1.2 so far:
Units list.
Building list.
Strategy walkthrough.
Micro/macro management tips.
Anti-Racial tips.
Contents:
1) Units list.
2) Building list.
3) Strategy walkthrough.
4) Micro/macro management tips.
5) Anti-Racial tips.
6) Replays & Build Orders.
Units List
Units List
Builder Scarabs:
Build from the monolith, the guys are arguably the most important unit in the necron race, because they build every necron structure. Not only that, but they are the only unit that can capture points, and repair vehicles and buildings. They are available at the monolith for 0 power and cost 0 power to reinforce. They are not very tough, however, and even the weakest opposing units (except perhaps un-upgraded stealth suits) will be able to kill them without much trouble. Since they have no attack of their own, you will almost never be able to capture contested points with them alone. A single enemy scouting squad will stop them in their tracks when you are looking for map control. An important thing about builder scarabs is that they can detect infiltrated units. Always remember: They're FREE! Provided your monolith isnt building something already, you should always try to pop a few out for scouting/capping/building/detecting purposes. Remember to try to take a few with your main force so you can decapture points which you destroy the LPs, and detect stealth in case they bring some. 0 pop, max 5.
Necron Warriors:
If your builders aren't the most important, these guys definitely are. They cost 0 power for the first 3, and 35 power for each reinforcement. Very cheap. They are excellent in both ranged and melee combat, are very tough, scale very well, and suffer only an 80% penalty on the move. Most other units are stuck at 15%! Their only real weakness is that they are have tiny range, and worseing that they are very slow. The only way to get around at any speed is their ability to teleport back to any friendly building other than a turret. However, this is a one-way teleport and takes a while to recharge. Use it wisely. They also build and reinforce fairly slowly, so getting them all killed quickly can hurt you really badly even if you have the money to get them running again. Always remeber, necron warriors take longer to build for each successive squad. The first is actually fairly quick, even at 1%. Later on, they take ages upon AGES upon AGES! This is why it is unwise to try and mass 6 NW squads. There is a 25% chance that these guys will re-assemble themselves at 50% health once they die. 3 inf pop.
The Necron Lord:
Necron leader unit. Available at the monolith for 175 power. This guy is great. He has an amazing amount of health for tanking in the early game, although he will do badly in 1v1s with other heroes. However, once you have built the forbidden archive, he gain access to amazing powers that will quickly show themselves to be game winners against other heroes. However, even without any upgrades, he is very good at harassment due to his high HP, teleport, and high damage to light buildings. He can also be used to tie up enemy ranged squads while your warriors pound everything. The most important thing to remember about him- DONT LET HIM DIE! he can be a constant thorn in your opponents side that is often the final nail in the coffen on your way to victory. 0 pop, max 1.
Chronometron- Slows down all opposing units near the necron lord. Is activated by pressing a button/hotkey. It recharges nice and quick (70 seconds) and this is great for enemies who are easily escaping the short range of warriors and flayed ones. 100 power.
Artifacts:
Phase Shifter- Makes the necron lord invulnerable for a short time. This also affects any nearby units. This is great when using your necron lord to spearhead an attack; an unwary enemy will waste a lot of shots on something he cant hurt. Activated manually. 75 power.
Lightning Feild- All units in melee with the necorn lord take in some damage. Passive. When attacking/getting attaked, it quickly charges up a strong attack activated manually. This can usually wipe out entire squads when fully charged. This is a MUST HAVE against chaos with berzerkers or orks with nobs. Eldar players using banshees, tau with mass kroot, or really any race but IG using primarily melee infantry will get mutilated by good use of it. 100 power.
Solar Pulse- All units within the (huge) cloud cannot shoot ranged weapons. Lasts a long time, and recharges quickly. Activated manually, 125 power.
Phylactery- Increases necron lords regeneration rate and greatly decreases the ranged damage he takes in. Passive. 150 power.
Ressurection Orb-Thid is a truely nasty one, almost always a game-winning move if done properly. Allows the necorn lord to ressurect all the defeated necrons in a large area. Units brought back will have only 30% health, however, and you are limited to 24/20 infantry cap. Activated manually. Has a passive ability that adds 25% chance for any unit within a radius of 25 to get back up. 275 power.
Veil of Darkness- Cloaks the necron lord and all necron units near him. Passive. 325 power.
Nighmere Shroud- Manually activated ability that will greatly damage morale, and cause units to flea. Even effects units who are capturing/decapturing points. 350 power.
Wraiths:
Tier 1.5 support unit, which means they can only be build after the summoning core. They cost 60 power. These guys are not an army on their own, and will need the warriors and lord to serve as a distraction for them, as they are very fragile. Enemies focusing fire on them will bring them down before they can get in close and show you their real power: Their amazing damage. These guys out-damage pretty much everything you can get, and will do some SERIOUS hurting to enemy units once they are in combat. However, that is once they are in combat. Getting them there is a rather difficult task at times. They can "phase out" in T2 to become temperarialy invulnerable. Since they can also decapture enemy points, this makes them ideal for decaping CLs to stop the take and hold timer. Builder scarabs can repair them, and they even detect infiltrated units. There is a 25% chance that these guys will re-assemble themselves at 50% health once they die. Wraiths are also morale immune, so enemies trying to flame you to death will have a harder time against them. While wraiths only have 500 HP, they have a 40% damage reduction from ranged damage, and in T2, it gets beefed up to an 80% damage reduction. That means 2500 HP against ranged units! Remember they are always stuck with 500 hp against melee. 2 inf pop each.
Flayed ones:
Once summoning core, which is your Tier 1.5, you can build flayed ones. They cost 120 power and are 30 for each reinforcement. They have EXTREMELY high damage and HP for when they arrive, and have a very sneaky ability: They will break the morale of enemy units very, very quickly, just by standing near them. They are not really a unit that works very efficiently on its own, though they do better than wraiths. Necron warriors supporting flayed ones are a very deadly combination in Tier 2. Another great thing about flayed ones is that they can deep strike from the monolith, which makes them a much better option then warriors for quick response to opposing units attacking. A tip with them would be to deepstrike them in your own base, and reinforce them to full before loading them back into the monoloth and deepstriking them behind enemy lines, trapping them between flayed ones and warriors. There is a 50% chance that these guys will re-assemble themselves at 50% health once they die. They can use their summon ability to zip back to your HQ for multiplr DSing. 3 inf pop.
Immortals:
Available after the first monolith upgrade, and costing 135 power for the squad of 3 and 45 for each reinforcement, they are your best anti-vehicle unit. The immortals aren't as tough as warriors, and don't do the same infantry damage, and share the same slowness of most necron units, though they are slightly faster. They do, however, have 2 major advantages: Long range, and an extremely potent anti-vehicle and structure weapon. They will do much better against vehicles than warriors, and even though warriors are great against vehicles, they may not cut it against an all-vehicle army. Their long range allows them to shoot out form behind your necron warriors, making them rather hard to target. They have really, really good melee damage to infantry, especailly for an AV unit. They actually do more damage than un-upgraded nobs! 2 inf pop.
Destroyers:
These guys are one of the first necron vehicles to hit the map. Available at Tier 2.5 which is after the greater summoning core, they cost 250 power. They are fast, fairly tough, and do very nice anti-infantry ranged damage. Perfect against players who are out massing your warriors. Not only do they do high damage, but they are very fast, making them ideal of a fast reaction to those sneaky things like jumping that people will try to pull on your generally slow army. One last thing to note is that they can be tied up in melee, unlike other vehicles, so you may want to keep them behind the warriors. While many argue that they are overpriced, I disagree for 3 reasons: 1, they have massive damage, 2, your army is extremely slow; A fast attack unit is much more valuble in your army than in that of another race, and 3, no one really expects them from you and therefore are rarely prepared with antivehicle troops. 3 veh pop.
Tomb Spyders:
You can only have a total of 3 of these guys on the field. They cost 250 power and are available at the monolith once the greater summoning core is built. Compared to a dreadnaught, these guys are not very tough, but have an incredibly strong melee attack. They will abysmally decimate any building they can get their claws on, and are great at tying up enemy ranged units and defeating enemy close combat units. They even have great morale damage. You can give them an ok ranged attack at the cost of some power and some melee damage. I would usually advise against this, but if you are just getting danced a lot, you can get it. Their ability to spawn scarabs and reassemble fallen necrons is also very invaluable. Note that if you can abuse shamelessly, they are able to spawn scarabs without losing health while they are performing a sync kill. If not, try sending in builder scarabs to repair these big boys when they are spewing out scarabs or spawning new units. 2 veh pop.
Attack Scarabs:
An infantry unit with vehicle amour, these guys are numerous and hard to kill. Most anti infantry weapons dont too much damage to them and most anti vehicle weapons will really overkill a single base. The only problem is that they have less than half the HP of a grot, meaning they usually go down to anything. With a nice amount of them however, you provide a huge pain the enemy’s side. Dont use them against infantry; They have nausiatingly high vehicle damage for their price, and even do good damage to buildings. Make sure they are attacking non-melee capable vehicles, or harrasing an opponents base. They can only be spawned from tomb Spyders. 1 veh pop, max 3. Reinforce for 25 power, in 2 seconds. Starts with 5 scarabs, max of 15.
Pariahs:
Your T3 hard-capped elite unit. Always get these guys, they are amazing. With 1000 health, a very powerful and effective melee attack and a potent ranged, these guys are always worth the trouble. They, like every single necron unit, have a decent ammout of disruption in melee combat. Their biggest advantage, however, is their ability to reduce the max health and speed of anything they attack. Once they have done that, it stays in effect until they are dead. Using them to slow down and weaken opposing elites is very nasty, especially for making slow terminators and obliterators nearly immobile. After the patch they are also necrons best counter to monster_med armour... err krootox. They have a whopping 1000 HP of heavy_high armour each (approx 1300 HP of heavy_med) and reinforce extremely fast. So long as you have a good ammount of cash at hand, they are almost unkillable. 4 inf pop, max 1.
Heavy Destroyer:
A T3 anti-vehicle version of the destroyers, available after the second monolith upgrade and costing 300 power. They are also tougher than normal destroyers, and have longer range. They are damned good AV for an uncapped unit. They are comparable to slightly weaker versions of the other races T4 tanks. Also, they are pretty good against infantry. The main speed advantage destroyers have remains though: A small troop of 1-3 of each destroyer type can quickly handle any situation needing a fast attack on opposing forces that are too far from your main (and still slow) forces. 3 veh pop.
Lord Destroyer:
T3 unit that functions like destroyers, though is doesn't have the great damage or toughness. It is 350 power. However, it can case some nasty spells that will stop large chunks of opposing units form doing anything, or possessing enemy vehicles. Since you can have 2, a great strategy for them would be to possess both of the elite tanks the enemy fields, gaining a large advantage on the battlefield until the enemy rebuilds their tanks. Use the stasis feild on the tank you want to posses, so that it cant escape, and you won't accidentally cripple it during the possesion process. Remember, they have commander armour, not vehicle armour, so they shouldnt fear missles,(and equvalents) and rather plasma(and equivalents). 3 veh pop, max 2.
Nightbringer:
While only a shadow of the true star god, this nightbringer is an ability researched at the T4 energy core for 750 power. Once summoned, it stays on the field for a limited time and is completely invulnerable. Great for tanking, because anything shooting at it is a waste, and it forces opposing units to run from its huge melee damage. It does nearly 400 dmage on its own to relic units of other races, and seeing as how they do none to him, try to keep him dueling the larger, more badass units the enemy feilds.. 0 pop max 1.
Monolith:
Final upgrade at the monolith for 1000 power (also requires a relic), the monolith lifts up off the ground and becomes a mobile fortress of destruction. It is very tough and strong. After becoming activated, it can still build units quickly into the battle. It is, however, very slow. It gets a single teleport that recharges fairly slowly. It uses just over half a teleport bar, however, and only needs half of it to teleport. The teleport is quite big however. It's important to keep in mind that FOs and NWs can still summon to it, so you can get an entire army in someones base in a few button clicks. 0 pop max 1.
Buildings List
Building list
Monolith:
This building starts buried in the ground, and is responsible for creating every unit you can field. If you have none of these left, you are dead. Don NOT let enemy kill this without a fight. Having this only is referred to as "tier 0". Building a second monolith is 350 power, and building a third is 700 power. It adds +10 to your power reasource.
Plasma generator:
This is your next most important structure. It basically generates the power resource, which are the only things the necrons use to build units. If you let the enemy kill all of these, you will have very little resource income and are probably finished at that point. They cost 0 power; however each one after the first takes progressively more time and power to build. The second is 20 power, the third is 40, and the fourth is 60, and so on. Each generator you build gives you +10 power, with no power gift for being built. There are 2 global upgrades: the first is 300 power and the second is 550 power. Both increase your power supply by some % for each generator you have. I would always advice to get these, as they are GREAT for your economy. They are expensive, yes, but getting to +150 and even +200 power income is almost ALWAYS worth it.
Thermo plasma generator:
A stronger version of the normal generator. Don't build it until you have 5 generators already, however, because it is not worth the power cost until that point(though you should have already made at least 5 gens before going to T2!). 250 power. This baby adds +30 power, and grants a +100 power gift upon completion. These are important, because after your second monolith, gens will start costing over 200 power each and simply take too long to payoff for it to be worth it- These let you bypass that handicap and achive huge power incomes.
Obelisk:
Build these on captured listening posts and relics. These increase your population and your other "resource" which is speed. You start at 1% speed, and after 1 obelisk, you have 20%. Each obelisk after that increases the % by 20. 5 obelisks are 100%. Once you have 7 obelisks, the necrons don't need any more at all, because at 6 they have 100% and both caps are full, and at 7 they get maximum reinforce speed for troops. 25 power. They also have 2 upgrades: the first, costing 75 power fives them the "wailing doom" attack, which can instantly kill swarm infantry. Very useful against IG. The second, at 150 power has a strong, long-ranged guass turret.
Forbidden archive:
This is kind of a necron armory. It contains upgrades to make the necron lord extremely powerful; however it does not help your tech at all, so if you plan on teching ASAP, you can skip this building. This can be referred to necrons Tier 1. 150 power.
Artifacts: (same as in necron lord entry)
Chronometron- Slows down all opposing units near the necron lord. Is activated by pressing a button/hotkey. It recharges nice and quick (70 seconds) and this is great for enemies who are easily escaping the short range of warriors and flayed ones. 100 power.
Phase Shifter- Makes the necron lord invulnerable for a short time. This also affects any nearby units. This is great when using your necron lord to spearhead an attack; an unwary enemy will waste a lot of shots on something he cant hurt. Activated manually. 75 power.
Lightning Feild- All units in melee with the necorn lord take in some damage. Passive. When attacking/getting attaked, it quickly charges up a strong attack activated manually. This can usually wipe out entire squads when fully charged. This is a MUST HAVE against chaos with berzerkers or orks with nobs. Eldar players using banshees, tau with mass kroot, or really any race but IG using primarily melee infantry will get mutilated by good use of it. 100 power.
Solar Pulse- All units within the (huge) cloud cannot shoot ranged weapons. Lasts a long time, and recharges quickly. Activated manually, 125 power.
Phylactery- Increases necron lords regeneration rate and greatly decreases the ranged damage he takes in. Passive. 150 power.
Ressurection Orb-Thid is a truely nasty one, almost always a game-winning move if done properly. Allows the necorn lord to ressurect all the defeated necrons in a large area. Units brought back will have only 30% health, however, and you are limited to 24/20 infantry cap. Activated manually. Has a passive ability that adds 25% chance for any unit within a radius of 25 to get back up. 275 power.
Veil of Darkness- Cloaks the necron lord and all necron units near him. Passive. 325 power.
Nighmere Shroud- Manually activated ability that will greatly damage morale, and cause units to flea. Even effects units who are capturing/decapturing points. 350 power.
Summoning Core:
This is the necron's Tier 1.5. It contains some upgrades for the necron warriors and wraiths, and is used to teleport your warriors to any building other than a turret. It is no longer extremely weak, so dont be too worried about where you put it. However, it is still required for teleportng, so if the enemy sneaks into your base and kills it, you will have to walk back! 120 power.
Greater Summoning Core:
Available after the monolith upgrade, which is Tier 2; this is the necron Tier 2.5. It allows necrons to further upgrade their warriors, and allows vehicle production. Required for the second monolith upgrade, which is the Tier 3. 250 power.
Energy core:
Once you are Tier 3, you can build this, which allows the nightbringer and the monolith to be created. It is the necron Tier 4. 500 power.
Gauss turret:
Can be built anywhere. Provides some limited defense for a static location. Using scarabs to place them near contested points can be wise (but expensive!) so you can deny the opposing force LPs without using your main army. 125 power. It can be upgraded for 50 power to be a heavy gauss turret, and it deals much more damage to all targets as well as having great range. I'd always sugest getting the upgrade if you have any of these and are in T2.
Strategy
Strategy Walkthrough
I will divide this into 2 sections: 1v1/2v2, and 3v3/4v4. Each will have subsections for each tier.
1v1/2v2
Tier 1
To start out, you will want to immediately field 2-3 scarabs, followed by the lord or some warriors. I will get into more advanced build orders as I get to the replay section. There are 2 ways to start with your scarabs: capturing LPs first, or building power first. LPs first means you will have a slightly smaller economy at the beginning; however you will be able to build units quicker, possibly making a rush faster. Going for power first is the other way around. Either way, you will want to have at least 3-4 generators queued right at the start, and remember to keep building them as you tech up and fight.
Again, when it comes to military options, you have 2 immediate choices: necron lord first, or necron warriors first. Necron warriors are better when you expect some heavy harassment, which the enemy is likely you do, while the necron lord first is great for harassment himself. Once you have 1 necron warrior squad, getting the necron lord is probably your best choice, followed by more warriors, where if you get the lord first you can just queue a few warrior squads up after him.
The 1.2 patch also gives you the option to opt for a much earlier summoning core than usual and use flayed ones to stall an opponent to build up your economy and get the D-feilds for your NWs or perhaps some NL artifacts. I must insist that FO spam is not a good thing- Sure it can piss your opponents off and win many games at low levels, and sure it can be game breaking in team games with proper support, but in a 1v1, it NEEDS to be properly supported with ranged units else you will simply get danced to death. FOs wont land a single hit on an enemy with a brain and fast fingers.
If you are harrased, keep your cool- use NWs to fend off any attackers, and any scarabs under fire should run like hell! Do NOT leave NWs in melee with anything. Mabey let them use the knockback to slap the enemy away, but after that, get the heck out. NWs do not fair well when stuck in the fray. However, against raps/ASM, it may be worth leaving some high HP NWs in melee while a lord can make a casualty of an enemy jump troop. Just make sure not to lose any NW members yet, as reinforments take a looong time and losing your first squad early can ruin you.
If you arent harrased, push forwards with your NWs (unless you are reallly worried about harras, in which case you should still venture out somewhat but dont stray too far) and try to deny your opponent some of the map. The map control benefits them more then you, but if you can keep them off of it your jub is a whole lot easier- Most games won against necrons are done so with very good economy. Dont let them get that. NWs should push cappers away, scarabs decap, and the NL can destroy LPs.
Then, after you have done a few skirmishes to deny the enemy LPs, you have another decision: If you have still not faced any large force and expect to see a big one soon, get the forbidden archive and upgrade the lord with some artifacts. Remember, he is the worst dueling hero without them, and the best with them. With lightning feild, you can engage your hero in a 1v1 with any other hero and expect to do some serious damage, killing them if they stay in melee, and then you can use him to beat up ranged squads when their hero is dead or has fled. You will even get some nice charge on the LF to save up for later. Necron warriors can melee things that will outshoot them (fire warriors) or shoot things that will out melee them (kroot). The other choice, if you have already finished the main engagement and one hero has died, getting the summoning core is wise, because it allows you to tech up to the next level, and upgrade your warriors heavily, as well as getting real melee support in FOs. Even when you get the archive first, you need this to get to T2 later on, and even if you get this first, you will want to get the forbidden archive to equip your lord with some tasty treats. If you are facing heavy melee forces, the SC is vital, because FOs are the perfect melee counter. They are highly damaging, break morale, and can teleport back to your base and deep strike. They are tougher than warriors, but are slightly slower, so they are much easier to counter when you have them alone. Once you have a decent army, econ, and have fought your enemy a little, you should consider saving up the 300 power for T2. Any enemy vehicles means pausing all reinforcements and saving up for T2, as the longer it takes you to get AV the closer you are to death.
Tier 2
Once the game has elevated to the second tier, you should have your lord and necron warriors up and kicking, and probably a FO squad or 2. Even if you have lost some engagements, you can hopefully teleport back to preserve your army. The only thing you can get immediately at T2 now is Immortals- But dont worry, they still do their job damned fine. If you have been really out teched and expect a lot of vehicles, get immortals, and lots(well actually 1-2 squads is usually enough). Warriors can deal with a few vehicles on their own, but if the enemy army is purely vehicular they will be cut down before they do their job. The patch worsens this effect, so taking on vehicles is not recocomended anymore, unless you have it vaaasstly outnumbered. Immortals do the AV job much better than warriors, but are not as tough and cant teleport back to your base. Your first building to get in T2 is the GSC, which allows further warrior upgrades and vehicles. Get it quickly is you are having trouble with large infantry armies. Consider the global economy upgrade if you have a large ammount of floating power.
Once you have your greater summoning core, the first thing to get is the second warrior upgrade (unless of cource you have no warriors!). After this, they can even deal with tier 3 units. It makes them very, very formidable. After that, you can either go for destroyers or tomb Spyders. Spyders make great base crashers when the need comes, but their harvest ability is extremely invaluble- It lets you build a NW army for much faster and cheaper then from an HQ. Destroyers are great against infantry masses- You may think its too expensive, but the thing you are really paying for is speed- A fast unit in a slow army is much, much more valuble then a faster unit in a fast army. If you havent done a double monolith build, getting a second monolith here could be a good idea- but only if you expect a really long T2. Against a chaos who is going for raps-zerks-psm, you deifnately want to be T3 more then you want the second mono- Same with other faster teching races. Still, it may be worth it if you feel T2 will last a looong time.
Tier 3
In a smaller game, you want to end it before here. Pariahs are the first thing to get, and some heavy destroyers are nice too. Pariahs can usually hold their own against other races elites, though you'd probably want them tanking for warriors/destroyers and tying up strong ranged squads like oblits or termies. HDs can counter T3 vehicles like predators great, and are extremely nessisary to defeat enemies who hit T4 and get heavy tanks before you. Going to T4 is a last resort, and only if you can't at all finish it here. You should probably get the second global upgrade ASAP once you hit this teir, as itll allow you to keep those pariahs coming and help when sacing for a monolith.
Tier 4
Get some lord destroyers to posses the enemy tanks, though against better opponents I'm not sure I'd suggest it- Its really hard to get that possesion to work against a wary opponent. Try to get a monolith and nightbringer running ASAP. Other than that, there is not much you can do but continue spamming up armies. The monolith is your main objective here, however, as it is the biggest game turner necrons have at this point. Teleport the sucker into an enemy base and summon your army long with it. The ensuing ownage is usually enough to laugh at.
3v3/4v4
Tier 1
This is expected to be over a lot sooner. Try to secure some contested points with a turret, and aim for getting the summoning core before the archive so you can get your tech on. These maps are bigger, and you won't generally be able to end the game T1 unless you are really higher skilled then your opponents. However, try to have a large mass of about 4 necron warrior squads before you go for T2, because they will be able to do a lot of devastation here. FOs can be used as replacement warriors- You simply want about 12 cap of some troop and the NL out.
Tier 2
I would go for more flayed ones to quickly support warriors and the lord if you are facing too much T1 resistance. The deep strike is excellent here, and running (slow) immortals all the way across the map becomes very irritable. Remember that immortals are still top priority if you see any vehicles, unless an ally has already handled it. Once you have 2 more squads of flayed ones/NWs, you can no longer use much more infantry cap (ideally you will be at 18-20 infantry cap, and this isn't hard is you massed generators properly) so once you have them, go for the greater summoning core than the warrior upgrades. Alternatively, go straight for the GSC and vehicles. Destroyers are probably the better option now because they are fast and there is a lot of map to clear. However, if you have already defeated your opponents army, getting in some sypder/scarabs (of both types) to cripple their economy and base is a nice way to keep your infantry on the move. You generally want to end the game here, but if that is not possible, you will have to tech again. Try to have the global power upgrade before you start the monolith upgrade. I like to have my 2nd monolith building around the time I go to T3.
Tier 3
Pariahs should replace some of your infantry now. Getting 3 of each destroyer type for the fast action army is great too. Before going T4, try to have a second monolith and both global power upgrades. Once you have T4 started, getting a 3rd monolith is nice, to make you are producing at maximum speed and you don't get removed from play by the loss of a single monolith.
Tier 4
Generally a game-ending tier, try to get the monolith and nightbringer on the field. You should be as offensive as possible here, and killing everyone is what you should be aiming for.
Tips
Micro/macro management tips:
-In a team game, always build 1 power generator in each ally's base, so you can quickly teleport your army into that base in case they get attacked.
-When attacking, make sure the lord is either killing LPs, or tying up ranged squads. If he is upgraded with some artifacts, he can kill the other hero too.
- WALK YOUR WARRIORS! Necron warriors have a small FoTM penalty; keep them walking around at all times if they are being engaged in melee. If your opponent is trying to pick you off at longer range, just keep walking into them. Stand still once you are in range though.
-Wraiths can't win battles on their own. Try to have some enemy squads busy with your lord and warriors before you move them in to get some kills. Many enemy units can simply kill wraiths in melee. However, tau and eldar can lose to nothing but wraiths/mabey a NW squad and the NL, so long as you hit T2 before them.
-At least 1 squad of scarabs should always be busy building a gen. If you keep your generators up you will be able to out-resource any other race easily.
-If you are floating power, SPEND IT! 120 requsition available? Get your summoning core up! floating thousands at the end of the game? Build some extra monoliths!
-Try to upgrade LPs and build a few turrets covering them so you don’t have to teleport a whole squad back just to stop some light harassment like vespids.
-Spyders can take dead units and get them moving for free... Always have them doing something.
-Necrons ignore all kinds of cover. Walk right through it, and try to push your opponent out of positive cover, and into negative.
-Remember the hotkeys for your important abilities, like summon and teleport. "J" is the hotkey for all teleportation/summing moves.
-Remember to use your summon ability! When a burna bomb or orbital strike finds it way amidst your slow-moving troops, GET THEM OUTA' THERE! Find yourself being heavily harassed? Give them a suprise. Flayed ones not making it to melee? Summon them back to the 'lith so you can deepstrike them back behind enemy ranks.
-99%turret trick: At the beginning of a game, build a guass turret untill theres just a sliver of a bar left- But DONT FINISH IT! After, proceed to making gens. If an enemy comes with nasty harrass troops, quickly have the scarab finish the turret- It'll sure help when being harrassed. If not- Delete it. You'll get a full refund.
-When it comes to getting artifacts for your lord, there are 3 ways I'll do it:
Assuming 1v1, don’t expect too much teching:
Pick 1
Lightening (if expecting a lot of melee) OR Phase shifter (if expecting shooting/general heavy punishment. This is generally to beat opposing heroes. PS wont beat an enemy hero, but itll help a lot. Combining these 2 can mean for lots of charging on the NL, but I wouldnt take up 2 slots so early unless you expect a lot of melee.
Pick 2
Chronometron OR solar pulse.
If I need to be doing some damage fast and want to end it T1 ASAP, chrono becomes very tasty because I can kill a lot more retreating troops when I win an engagement. Solar pulse is the best one to get if I don't have a big enough advantage to press T1, and need to stop a large T1.5-T2 army from whaling on me for a while.
Pick 3
Phylactery is a must here. If the game goes on to get it, always do. It makes him much, much tougher. If you get this and the phase shifter, he becomes near immortal... make him invulnerable when he is at 50 hp and he will be at 800 when it wears off.
Assuming techy 1v1 or perhaps a 2v2:
Pick 1
Phase shifter. To beat enemy heroes. I also need me lord to be top shape later on in the game when I am doing other nasty things. Might want to switch to lightning if he is going to be banged up in melee a lot.
Pick 2
Phylactery. Skip the stuff to beat opposing units, make the lord tougher. I need him to be taking in a lot of hits for pick 2 to work,
Pick 3
Resurrection orb. I'll leave the lord out of any main engagements and harass some LPs with him, and if my army dies, well, you know the drill!
Assuming larger team game with a lot of teching:
Pick 1
Phylactery. I love how much tougher this makes him. I usually try to win my T1 engagements with warriors here, and harass a lot with the NL, mostly so I can save up for some big game-winners later on.
Pick 2
Resurrection orb. Again, if it looks like I lost an engagement... I didn't!
Pick 3
Here is the game winning choice. I usually go for veil of darkness because it is AMAZING when the opposing force neglects to bring some detectors. 18 cap of warriors and flayed ones cloaked? Yes please. Cloaking monolith of eeemba? You know it.
If the party pooper brings in a lot of detectors post T3, I will go for the shout against a morale weak army. Having the enemy break is great, but making them run like chickens to the HQ is wonderful! Follow the fleeing units in with some flayed ones and they will never stop running.
Neat artifact combonations:
-Chronomotron and solar pulse. Teleport the lord in, make them incapable of shooting, and slow them down so they are stuck in it as long as possible.
-Phylactery and phase shifter. Between these 2, nothing can kill the lord. If he losses a lot of health, make him invulnerable and watch him real right back up.
-Resurection orb and Veil of darkness. Teleport in your lord, resurect your army, which will now be invisible.
-Lightning and phase shifter. This is GREAT against zerk rush or generally when facing a lot of melee. Use your lord as bait, and try to get their whole army on it if you can. Activate ohase shifter right away. Not only will he be immortal, but enemy units will recieve 90% of the damage they would be giving to themselves, and the lightning ability should be fully charged by the time the phase shifter wears off. When it is fully charged, let it rip on the mob of melee units. This will seriously SMASH most units, and leave even T2 melee tanks with such low HP that your NWs will walk all over them.
Anti-Racial tips
REPLAYS & BUILD ORDERS:
Space Marines
SM do pretty well against crons compared to most other races- They will be one of your harder matchups. Things to be wary of are scout harrasment killing your scarabs, ASM build slowsing you down enough for SM to tech, HB walls, scout plasma, and GKs. Scouts can be stopped by simply getting a NW squad after your 1st or second scarab- They do great damage against scouts. ASM are more tricky- You migh want to do the 99% turret trick against SM in case you see ASM. HB walls cant really be touched by lone NWs and FOs, especailly if they have rhino support- You'll need to combine the NLs solar pulse to cover the NWs march in, destroyers to cut off escape and cause damage, and possibly immortals if theres a rhino scooting them around. FOs DSing can cause the SM some trouble too. Against infiltrated scout plasma, remember to bring some scarabs along! They detect at huge range, and you should be able to do fine as long as they are alive. Dont let scouts sneak up on them.
Against GKs, a lord with LF/PS can help- The GKs will charge that LF like no tommorow, usually enough to wipe the GK squad out in 1 go with just the duration of PS.
Chaos Space Marines
CSM probably do better then SM, and IMO, are probably the toughest MU for 'crons, mabey tied with orks.
The biggest threat here is the feared raps-zerks-PSM builds- chaos will always feel one step ahead of you. You'll want to do the 99% turret trick for sure, and NWs first to keep raps/cultists from harrasing you. Try to get the lord on some LPs, and remember denying economy is vital. I dont know how some chaos players manage to pull PSM money out of their ass on 2-3 points, but at least if they have 3 points it wont be as fast. Early archive and LS/PS is a must to counter zerks. Upgrading some LPs to level 2 and even 3 can be very helpful when zerks are chasing you around your base.
Eldar
You'll have it pretty easy against eldar- Get the SC quick, and only 1 (if any) NW squads, then proceed to spam wraiths. Chase reapers/rangers/GUs/whatever down to your hearts desire. The FS can MW and kill a wraith, but usually it isnt enough. Masses wraiths will simply keep eldar on its back for long enough for you to make loads of gens and hit T2. While you are chasing reapers, feel free to use spare wraiths and the NL to destroy LPs/gens. At T2, get the wraith upgrade, then beeline to destroyers. This'll pretty much end the game.
Orks
Another hard MU for necrons. Keeping the ork off map control is priority- If they get too many points, big shoota massing will rip you apart. Try to get a FO squad or 2 as well as the lord with solar pulse to mess up those shootas. Killing banners can really hurt the ork tech- I wouldnt advise going deep into their base to kill some, but if the ork has some on oulying points, killing them with the NL/FOs can win you a game.
Imperial Guard
If the IG is turtle teching, you shouldnt have too hard a time- The NL can RIP turrets apart, which means killing and decapping their points shouldnt be hard. You biggest worry is fending off the CS... Can be done by the 99% turret trick or simply chasing it around. Make sure to hit T2 quickly so HHs or chim mass dont screw you around.
Tau
Not much different from eldar, though you may want a NW squad paired with a wraith to kill SS. Dont let wraiths get stuck on traps- They detect them and have a very tiny footprint. If youre getting trapped your just not paying attention. Killing the TC is still very important, however.
Necrons
This is a preeetty boring matchup. Tech to flayed ones, spam flayed ones, try and get the NL with LF/PS... Killing gens is top priority. Make sure youve killed more of his gens then he has of yours, and you should be able to outmass him and control the game. The first person to T2 wins. A TS or a destroyer will completely turn everything around. It is probably wise to get an immortal squad after the first vehicle in case your opponent matches your tech speed.
[DC 1.2] Harvest The Souls of the Living: Necrons Tutorial. Finished for 1.2!!!!
Originally Posted by dreddnott
