After just one weekend of events with the new Nephilim Necrons we can see that their scoring potential is off the charts. It was widely accepted that their Secondary updates were going to make them an extremely difficult army to deal with, and since they are one of the most popular factions in the meta there is a good chance tournament goers will need to beat their way past these new high scoring machines. The good news is Necrons finished the weekend with slightly worse than a 50% win rate. The bad news is they finished with some events won, and had some podium places as well. Your opponent could be a Necron novice, or they may be a pro, but there is no mistaking you will need to score a boatload of points in order to win against these new Nephilim Necrons.
No Prisoners: The Necrons have a huge advantage in Secondary scoring against most armies, so one thing that can really help is picking a Secondary that can close that gap. The vast majority of Necron builds include a ton of multi-wound models, or large bricks of Warriors, who Reanimate. Each time you kill any of these models you will be raking in the No Prisoner points. During my time playing Necrons the opponents who took this against me nearly always maxed out their score in this Secondary. Necron units aren’t incredibly durable, and you will need to completely wipe out your opponent’s units in order to remove their ObSec scoring advantage. Might as well benefit from all that hard work.
Your Secondaries: Outside of taking No Prisoners your other Secondary choices need to be spot on. No 10pts safety pick is going to get you a win in a game against Necrons. Secondaries are highly army specific, but if you find yourself choosing between a potentially high scoring (but harder to achieve) Secondary, or a Secondary that is lower scoring and safer, you are going to need to go for the high score knock out in this matchup.
Primary Scoring: Almost all Necron players are running a custom Dynasty that gives all of their models Objective Secured, and this gives them a real advantage in Primary scoring over most opponents. Pairing this all ObSec army with their easily scorable Secondaries makes the amount of points a Necron player can score incredibly tough to keep up with. It is imperative to keep the Primary at least equal in these match ups, but if you want to win you will most likely need to outscore a Necron player here. Remember, after each player has one ObSec model on an Objective, scoring comes down to who has more total models. Necrons are generally slower, with no access to Advance and Charge abilities, so measure those threat ranges to keep the metal skeletons away from your Objectives.
Reanimation and Objectives: One thing you absolutely need to avoid is having your Necron opponent Reanimating ObSec models onto extra Objectives in their Command Phase with things like a Technomancer or Resurrection Orb. Primary scoring happens at the end of the Command Phase, so those resurrected models can swing an 8 Primary score to a 12 if you are not blocking off any Objectives that you can. Necrons cannot reanimate in engagement range of enemy models their unit is not already engaged with, so just keep a little ring of your own models at the very edge of the Objective ring to stop from losing out on Primary points. This may not come up every turn, but when it does you will be thankful you didn’t give your opponent free points.
Purge Vermin: Necrons really don’t want you hanging out all over the table if they pick this Secondary. Many Necron lists don’t have a ton of units on the table, so they can run into trouble when presented with multiple problems to solve per turn. If your army has the ability to move quickly into multiple quarters of the table, and stick there, now is not the time to be shy about doing this. Letting the Necrons bring the fight to your side of the table almost guarantees them a 15 for this Secondary.
Ancient Machineries: There are some missions where this is an auto 8 points, but anything past that can be tough. Don’t give your opponent room to simply walk models onto Objectives on your side of the table to complete this action. Use any units available to move block the Necron player from touching an Objective in their movement phase when this Action is started.
Code of Combat: This Secondary can just rake in points with no cap on the number of points scored per turn. Don’t let the Silent King get easy kills in the Shooting phase, but this is easier said than done. If your army has the ability to drop the Silent King early in the game take your shot. Even just bracketing the Silent King to 8 Wounds is a serious accomplishment, as he loses his re-roll aura for the Shooting phase, his Menhirs, and some Movement.
Necrons are a tough opponent, and it may seem like they are scoring points at will, but remember their datasheets/army rules aren’t all that great. Your own units should have the advantage of firepower/close combat output on the tabletop. My team believes Necrons are so good that they are questioning my sanity for leaving my Silver Tide at home this weekend in favor of my Genestealer Cults, but I think I can prove them wrong with some of the information I’ve shared. Hope some of these tricks work for other players this weekend. Good luck and have fun!