Phase out would have made no difference in this battle. In the other games I've played lack of phase out makes more of an impact and in my experience nearly always negative.
I had Dobbsy on the ropes after the first turn and he didnt have the activations to exploit any of my broken infantry units. The result had very little to do with ability of either of us tactically. It was to some degree luck, he failed many activations I failed none. Mainly what we both agreed was that the Tau list was a very underwhelming in its effectiveness as it was incapable of dealing with necrons. The strengths of the of the necron list play directly into the weakness of the Tau list. Tau are terrible at engagements and need to have range on the opponet to be effective but when your enemy can teleport their whole force into ideal positions to minimize range and maximize odds for engagments using troops that are specialised for engagement and can pop out just about anywhere needed. It was over before it started.
It made it worse that I had complete control of the air and yes a slightly differnt make up on the Tau list could have made a difference to a degree but I still feel it would have been more than a little one sided.
I'm not saying that the Newcron list is overpowered quite the opposite all my other opponets have had much more enjoyable matches against the list compaired to the Oldcrons. This was my first victory (out of the 4 games Ive played) using the list so far.

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Necron AC (click to see current Necron list threads)
Toronto Wargaming Group

Atension makes a very fair point. I guess I need more games versus them with different lists. But wow what a shocker of a first game!

Pics added now

sounds about as frustrating as my own experience against OldCrons last night!

a few thoughts:

- did the BTS FW start on OW? They could have protected much of the army and certainly themselves as nothing coming out of the portals could have weathered their AP. Instead they didn't seem to do anything of note

- Stealth suits. Probably better to wait until turn 2 to teleport them when there would be stuff to use their AP attacks on. As I'm sure you're aware AP disrupt vs Necrons is very good, especially vs newcrons.

- Stealth suits. Once they had been teleported surely you had to use them? even with a BM they would still be going in against an unprepared pylon on even terms. Get in CC and that's the worst it could be. Even when you had prepped the pylon surely it was worth risking the retain as even failing you could BM and break the pylon rather than leaving the stealth suits exposed?

- Recon. How were they deployed? Standard tau tactics round these parts, and even more so vs necrons, are to screen more expensive units with recon. In your game the necrons seemed able to move up and assault targets relatively unhindered.

- Intermingling - any army that intermingles 3 formations is going to have problems, but we all make these kind of mistakes!

Any list where you quickly lose 4 formations (5 including the railheads that were isolated to prep the pylon...), are not completely familiar with what your opponents army can do (and we've all been there!!), and seemingly make little attempt to stop him doing what he wants is going to have a hard time...

I'm also not sure about your terrain comment, I doubt using less terrain would have been any advantage to the Tau.... and looking at your pics, I think we normally use at least that much here in the UK... do you guys play TLoS or area terrain that all blocks LoS?

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BTS did start on OW, I kep peppering the unit with small amounts of fire from several activations to build up I think 6 -7 blast markers on the unit while maintaining the threat of a possible engagement. He couldn't use the OW on any of my less viable targets for fear of being assaulted. I just kept a unit of warriors in wait until he was out of activations. By that time enough of the unit was suppressed to minimize the OW effect.

The stealth suits was a mistake as he already mentioned he forgot about the portals on the fliers.

The recon was deployed as a screen but they took casualties early on and lost a few key stands in the screen line.

His left flank was a little exposed with only the rail gun guys and plenty of buildings in the area, I was able to sneak my monoliths around the corner to prep then portal in my immortals to clear them off the board. I had 6 activations with portals and had them placed in cover out of los for the most part across his entire front he couldn't make much head way one direction without be pounded from the other. He did unload a significant amount of fire into the liths which where for the most part placed to taunt him and soak fire ( which they did exceedingly well even for monoliths in this game.) Monolith group one statistically should have died twice over but somehow still had one standing right until the end.

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Necron AC (click to see current Necron list threads)
Toronto Wargaming Group

Somes like a one sided game, a pity We've all been there. Something is definitely not working for you with them but I've done well with the Tau list and seen it do well.

If I can offer a few suggestions:
Consider starting some units garrisoned on overwatch when facing Necrons? Trying to attack the Pylon with anti-infantry specialist Stealth Suits seems kind of wasteful of their abilities. I might have garrioned them in cover by an objective. If the Flayed ones attacked them then, they would have on average have killed 2 and broken the remaining ones as they came in. +25 for 2 Gun Drones is always well worth it with Stealths too.

Why not go full on castle and have your entire army set up in one small clump surrounded by scouts? It would stop him engaging your formations in the way he did. If he deployed further out it wouldn't matter - you'd outrange him and attack him with overwatch when he tried to close with you.Use of screening and scouts is vital to defend against pesky teleporting necrons.
2 Skyrays is very low for 3k, a third would have helped. Your placement of them seems odd too, Fusionheads are powerful, but need to get close to the enemy to attack and will often get attacked and be supressed or killed. A Skyray in the garrisoned infantry formation would have done well – Broadsides are tough LV and can be placed in a triangle around the skyray (which should also be out of sight behind something if possible) meaning you can have a tough, forward placed AA umbrella.
Personally I think you'd do better with less Hammerheads (particularly less Fusionheads) and slightly more activations.

I'm curious about the 'Newcron' list but not familiar enough with it to be able to comment on it.

I'm not sure I understand this below line?


The way I read that is that first the destroyers deploy? After that the warbarque makes a combined assault, but with which formation? With said destroyers that would have been illeagal as the destroyers had already activated.


I would much appreciate if you'd want to take them on again with a different list. The most important thing for me with the Sautekh list is not to add new units. It's rather to make a necron list that is more fun for both the player (more available tactics) but more importantly also for the opponent. It seems to me that a reccuring complaint after facing necrons (raiders) is that they feel unfair or over the top to play against with all their special rules and portal shennanigans.

At the same time coming out of portals sort of feel like what they should be about. It's a delicate balance. I hope the removal of face out and no more leaving the table through monoliths is enough. The list is still in an early stage and experimental so sweeping changes can be made.

This was written wrong, the destroyers were on the board from turn 1 they were used for a combined assault turn 2.

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Necron AC (click to see current Necron list threads)
Toronto Wargaming Group

Sounds like a brutal game. I've been on the receiving end of Atension's Necrons and know how you feel.
I think you played the Scythe's right - it's explained in the Net E:A TP rules/faq.
On the turn they activate and are flying in for their ground attack, you can shoot them with AA (or bounce them with CAP).
After their activation, once they are on the ground they are treated as AV with move 0. (You can't shoot them with AA, or Intercept them with aircraft). But they can be shot with AT/MW and assaulted, which makes them vulnerable to being broken since they cant withdraw.
I guess if they break but survive to the end of the turn and disengage, they would be treated as not broken any more and would have BM=formation size for the next turn?

Haha, you beat me the game we played, was close though 2:1 for your marines if I remember right?

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Necron AC (click to see current Necron list threads)
Toronto Wargaming Group

That's how I would play it. Possibly getting more BM if getting incoming AA during their disengagement move.

If an aircraft formation air assaults and loses the aircraft are automatically destroyed (unless fearless). Otherwise I guess they could get broken on the ground then fly off as an aircraft with that many BMs.