Necron ships are very weak.

[gpavlidis94]

I started the necron campaign 2 days ago and I'm really diasappointed by Necrons. Their ship's get light and heavy ctitical damages way to easily and the star pulse ability doesn't do the 200 points damage as advertised. Is it just me or a general opinion?

[Falaris]

They don't feel beefy in combat at all, but at the same time, the scarab ability is really, really powerful in the campaign. Just jump in among an enemy fleet and watch it disintegrate in seconds. I'm a bit undecided, really, but I do like them.

[MEGA_N00B]

Yeah, stopped my Necron Campaign in midway. Their ships are very expensive for what they bring into play. They are slow, have bad boarding power, their weapons are pretty bad and most importantly since they have no shields even the first volley from the enemy ships could do critical strike on your ships.

Even vs Orcs I was getting critical strikes left and right nonstop in campaign also, even though I have yet to play vs them now, in the second beta every Necron player vs any fleet I got lost. Necrons feel like a way worse Eldar now. It is funny how imperial ships are way more tanky than those of Necrons.

[DarkFenix]

General opinion is indeed that Necrons are simply crap. Their ships are priced as though they're among the best, when the reality is they're among the worst. No mobility, poor boarding, firepower is nothing special, and terrible vulnerability to crits.

[MEGA_N00B]

Originally posted by Falaris:

They don't feel beefy in combat at all, but at the same time, the scarab ability is really, really powerful in the campaign. Just jump in among an enemy fleet and watch it disintegrate in seconds. I'm a bit undecided, really, but I do like them.

Around lvl 10 that ability becomes useless vs enemies such as Space Marines and Eldar. Pretty much all other races could bring more and better ships in hard mode and it is no fun at all.

[gpavlidis94]

Yes exactly! I mean especially versus orcs, which have very powerful, cheap ships I cannot do anything with the few expensive of mine. The Imperium campaign was much more balanced.

[p10k56]

One can easily realize that he has not enough dps to destroy or mutiny necrons fast enough.
Also necron escorts are so resiliant that amount of concetration to destroy them is rather big.

[Mr Plainview]

Necrons are really weak early on in campaign. The best thing I've found is once you can bring multiple ships with starpulse just teleport in the middle of the enemy fleet and trigger all your starpulses and you wreck shop. Under no circumstance do this to space marines though. Once you get to the point you can field cairn tomb ships then I pretty much steam roll everything I'm fighting. Two cairns and a scythe reaper and a I can just roll right through 3k strength enemy forces without much care. I would never bring such a fleet in multiplayer but in campaign it works wonders.

Also really focus on getting leaders that have the Pyramidal Reconstruction ability so you can repair. I don't remember the name but there is a leader skill that decreases enemy ships morale if you're using the reload stance. If you couple this with the cairn terror ability you can strip away enemy ships morale and have them mutiny in no time.

There are certainly some balance issues. With my Imperial campaign my fleet always fights better if I have a good mix of cruisers and escorts, but with Necrons it seems the fleets perform better just taking as many of the biggest bulkiest ships you can.

[audbob00]

I didn't really have any huge issues until I hit the Tyranid Titan. The Ancient One calls for reinforcements every so often and Lightning strike the hell out of me. As Necrons, I can't respond in kind as the titan has too many troops compared to my very limited boarding options. Every wave of reinforcements....more hulks. Quite frustrating. By essentially having one campaign playable by 3 factions, certain parts of the game are not balanced for certain factions. Not sure if this is a weakness of the Necrons, or just another example on boarding imbalances. every method of attack should have some method to counter. Boarding currently does not.

[Rainer Steiner]

the variety of ships is horrid!

[DarkFenix]

Originally posted by audbob00:

I didn't really have any huge issues until I hit the Tyranid Titan. The Ancient One calls for reinforcements every so often and Lightning strike the hell out of me. As Necrons, I can't respond in kind as the titan has too many troops compared to my very limited boarding options. Every wave of reinforcements....more hulks. Quite frustrating. By essentially having one campaign playable by 3 factions, certain parts of the game are not balanced for certain factions. Not sure if this is a weakness of the Necrons, or just another example on boarding imbalances. every method of attack should have some method to counter. Boarding currently does not.

You need a special fleet to win as Necrons there. Just build nothing but Cartouches, kite around using silent running and slowly board the Ancient One to death.

But I suppose the fact that I felt it necessary to do that really highlights how bad the Necrons are. Their ships are terribly overpriced for their middling effectiveness.

[General Phoenix]

I do think they are a little under powered in the LC and C classes but once I get a continental breakfast (3 Cairn Class - Space Croissants) I can easily (and quite cheesily) go toe to toe with a 2,500 point fleet with zero losses.
The only exception to that, is that messed up Ancient one mission where you have to game the AI flaw (that it only follows one ship) to win.

[FroGG2]

i every single fight in the campaigne, i had to warp out half my fleet because all my ships were crited to death, yeah necrons are hard to kill but the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ship is worthless if all systems are out (i wish, i was exaggerating).
pyramidal reconstruction is only good if you roll an admiral which has it, and if this ♥♥♥♥♥♥ is sittingin the last ship to warp in it dosent really help

[Necroledo]

This might be a bit of an unpopular opinion, but as a Necron main (and huge fan of them lorewise) I don't feel they're as weak as some of you seem to think. Don't get me wrong: in the betas I felt they were too weak and made many posts about possible buffs (under a different username), but after playing with them both in MP and Campaign (and the very few buffs they did get) I have come to terms with their pros and cons, and kind of feel they are stronger than I used to think. I hope the following lists help a bit those who are struggling with playing Necrons. There still are a few things I'd like changed or added, but my general opinion of them has definitely improved over time.

Pros:
- Few ships mean an easier to micromanage fleet.
- Huge armor values. Not only means more tankiness, but also better capacity against being rammed.
- Hull self-repairs. It's not a huge repair speed, but if you take a damaged ship away from combat for a while chances are it will be at full capacity again later, especially when using specific upgrades.
- Light crits self-repair, and Pyramidal Reconstruction allows you to repair heavy crits too.
- Good quality boarding. This is how it's actually called ingame. They're no Space Marines or Tyranids, but they are above average, and can board in a 270º angle.
- All weapons have 100% accuracy and 270º angles. You don't have to worry about distance and angles nearly as much as with other factions.
- Attack craft are multipurpose. The same squadron will be able to take down torpedoes, attack assault boats and bombers, bomb ships by themselves, and defend you against fighters.
- Your big ships can remove all nearby attack craft and torpedoes in an instant (Star Pulse Generator), as well as do some damage to ships.
- All ships have an inbuilt teleport. You can instantly get into position to attack, away from danger, or bypass a charging fleet and reappear at their rear, where their armor is thinner.

Cons:
- Your ships are expensive, so you'll always be outnumbered. That also means 1) your enemies get lots of points for taking down a single ship and 2) there are more chances of your ships getting multiple boarding attacks or torpedo barrages each.
- No shields mean you'll be a target for lightning strikes all the time, so more chances for the enemy to crit or hulk you.
- You don't have assault boats. No long range good quality boarding for you.
- Weapons have a fairly low rate of fire.
- Ships are very slow to move and turn, and you only have one movement ability with a long cooldown. It has been reduced recently (from 90 to 75 seconds) and now Reload properly reduces it further, but it's still quite long. You won't be able to dodge torpedoes most of the time, so you depend on your fighter-bombers and Star Pulse Generator to take them down before they get you.

Things I'd like changed/added:
- More ship variety. They're by far the faction with the least options, and for no real reason, since other factions like Drukhari and Tyranids simply got, for a given hull, all possible weapon variations as separate ships. Why couldn't Necrons get the same?
- When Scythes survive their runs and come back to their mothership, they don't give you back a charge, like other factions do. So eventually you run out of squadrons even if they always survive. I'm willing to bet this is a bug, because there's no reason for them to not get it back... especially when we're talking Necron technology.
- Pyramidal Reconstruction should be an inbuilt admiral ability. As they're so easy to crit, it's pretty much a must-pick, and that removes tactical flexibility. Let's see how the new crit chances work out for them first, though.

[p10k56]

Necrons are not slow.
Ships cannot burn retros but necrons are faster then imperials in raw speed.
Chaos is bit faster and only some ships.
Also cheap escort has speed of 400 so it is fast as eldar one.

[Primagen]

The biggest problems with Necrons is that they only have 2 gun types thats it.... all their ships do the same thing they just get bigger and slower. So even if they buffed them... without differentiating the ships they will just be better but still boring.