to be honest, after the first dawn of war, they have made the chaos miles better, at first it was to easy to get the best units but now, its actually more challenging to get them, it takes longer which is good, as for going with the old difiler rush, i dont do that because it isnt very original, i prefer using my infiltrating chaos marines and keeping them in the enamy base for ages before smashing the enamy to pieces, its so much more amusing watching 3 groups of fully armed chaos marines taking out everything in sight

My favourite race was Eldar in Dawn of War and Winter Assault, but once they released Dark Crusade, I became an avid Necron fan. The revival prospect made it for me and it actually surprises me how many experienced gamers I have played against online forget that and walk past my recently downed squad of immortals with their weakened unit, only ot have them pop right back up and Gauss Flay their unit to Hell...
So fun...

i nearly made that mistake in the campaign with the space marines, i was the space marines, i'd just stormed the necron base and i had to quickly train three squads of marines and arm them up really quickly because a group of necron warriors came back from the dead and were marching up the hill to my base

The necrons aren't that cool with their resurrection and all. They have a small number of unit types, their close combat vehicle( the tomb spyder) is limited to 3 in the entire army plus if you fail an attack and your tomb spyders die at the enemy's gates you can give up....you lost since your precious tomb spyedrs will never live more than 5 seconds after they're created again. The same with the Necron Lord. Personally I find necrons to be way to straight forward for my tastes. I enjoy attacking with space marines and arm them with flamers....maximum number of flamers...and I call them pyro marines. All enemy squads are usually broken unless they are fearless. And if I find fearless infantry.....I'll give them a taste of my trio:Chaplain, Librarian and Force Commander...and maybe some grey knights.
And from what I saw and heard....the Monolith is the weakest relic unit after the Greater Knarloc(Tau) and the storngest is the Avatar of Khaine.

See, thats what I find most people think upon, the fact that the Necrons are a supposedly 'straight out and die' army. So many people think that way (I've found) that when you pull something out that they don't expect, their entire attack crumbles.
Using the Destroyers for instance, lots of people overlook the Lord Destroyers ability to possess enemy vehicles, so if (for instance) I was fighting a Space Marine army (complete with, as you said Zanmato, 'pyro marines') then they rarely expect their precious Hellfire (or regular) Dreadnoughts that most people use as an accompaniement to tunr on them and obliterate their 'pyro marines'.
That being said, I also find enjoyment playing as Space Marines, as I enjoy using Deep Strike to drop Hellfire Dreadnoughts and Terminators among my enemies while using a cheap inexpensive 'shield' unit (i.e. Infiltrated Scouts (with Sniper Rifles) to distract them...

EDIT: I only just now found out that Sisters of Battle are the second new race in DoW: SoulStorm...
DAMN IT!!!
I would have killed to get Tyranids put in...

i agree, the tyranids would be better than the sisters of battle but o well now we will have to wait for the next full expansion of the dawn of war series, i seriously want to kill the tyranids though

How can you say that you're not happy about the sisters of battle joining the slaughter? I am thrilled about it....I wanna see those penitent engines in action....also that living saint looks pretty awesome(mmmm...shiny sword). Tyranids aren't that cool. Yeah they remind me of zerg and the old days of playing starcraft...but...anyway....I am not gonna say DOW sucks when they will add the 'nids( I knida hate that race...it's something personal ).

Now back to the necrons topic....to tell the truth the lord destroyer isn't that cool....I mean it dies very quickly.....I rather use him as a specialised close combat unit who ties up weaker shooiting units like guardsmen, guardians, and other infantry specialised on shooting. As for possessing my dreadnoughts and turning them against my "pyro marines"....well...you usually have maximum two lord destroyers....one of them dies and with one you possess a dreadnought.....now I don't have 6 dreadnoughts in my assault force...but 5....very nice ....the lord destoryers are ok...but they could have been more useful if they weren't limited in numbers. And they take up quite a lot of squad cap(3). But the biggest problem about necrons is that you have only one production building...the monolith...while the other races have production buildings for vehicles, infantry, elite units and so on. To have more production buildings you need to build additional monoliths which isnt very cheap if you ask me. The best necron tactic is to mix up warriors, immortals and a lord with resurrection orb and march to kill your enemy...and maybe keep a couple of flayed ones squads in deep strike just in case.

how can you slate the necrons like that, they may be slow but by god they pack a punch when they get you, especially the necron lord and the destroyer lord, they are two of the best in the game and the special units are also useful for quick attacks, you can lure a couple of enamy squads into a trap area and set your flayed ones on them, so much fun and the monolith can just batter anyone that comes in the game and as for the standard warriors, they will just march on you and kill you no matter how much you run, you just cant have anything against the necrons at all.

as for the sisters of battle, they are just plain crap, they use machines alot more than troops to fight and they are always just leaving it for the saint to do the dirty work, they will just sit back and have a cup of coffee and watch the mayhem coming towards them before they even try to do anything about it in which case it is to late and they are getting stuffed by either the orks or the eldar or the chaos spacwe marines, they just shouldnt be put in the game

I've played the campaign and a lot of skirmishes with necrons and I know what they're made of. The necron lord is just like every commander unit of every race(with the exception of the pathectic Tau commander): he is a kickass leader with great close combat abilities. Just like every other commanders(with the exception above ). As for the lord destoryers...their only purpose is to possess an enemy powerful vehicle(baneblade or land raider are the most jucy targets) because on their own they simply suck( low HP, slow attack speed, commander armour which is a bit better than heavy infantry armour). Flayed ones are ok when fighting units with morale... but a fearless squad kills them quite easly(that's why flayed ones are so strong...because when fighting them...you've got no morale). The real close combat unit of the necrons are the pariahs...but...limited to one squad. The same thing with tomb spyders....limited to 3.
Also the necrons advance very slow when it comes to constructing bulidings or training troops(you need at least 5-6 strategic points with pylons on them to reach a better building speed) so they're very vulnerable to rush tactics(see cultist/slugga boy/guardsmen swarm).
The monoloith is the weakest relic unit when it comes to fighting....otherwise this weakness is compensated by the fact that it can produce units and teleport.
When I said that the only good tactic is that in which you mix warriors and immortals is the best, I said it because I've tried other tactics and I failed. Necron close combat troops are good but are butter next to other race's close combat specialists. The nightbringer lasts less than 5 minutes. The enemy sent a squad of marines in close combat with my nightbirnger and they kept him there until it expired( I had other units there that could help but they were tied up in close combat as well...so...I could simply watch and see my troops getting decimated by defilers and khorne berserkers....cause necrons suck in close combat....unless they're flayed ones/pariahs/tomb spyders).
I also tried a destoryer/heavy destoryer rush attack but I kinda got owned since I had like 6 of them and the enemy had quite the bunch of missile launchers on some of his squads. Also I will never underestimate the power of chaos raptors.....they butchered my warriors is such a manner...well...from that day on I always target the raptors first. They drain your morale just like the flayed ones( not that fast but still a good amount per second) and my 400 morale warriors started crying for their mommyes.

Weird how metalic constructs run away from a bunch of maniacs dressed like haloween birds.

the chaos aren't that god, i can kill two squads of them in close combat with two squads of flayed ones easily, and as for rush tactics, i dont use them, i just let the enamy build up and then i smash through with a combo of two warrior squads and the necron lord and tah - dah i win, its so simple, i haven't played online yet but i plan to soon, i will probabley lose quite a bit then but o well it makes me improve over time and it brings out new ways of thinking on how to win against people, all it takes is a few simple changes to your current tactics each time and your laughing, if you lose your army, then make sure you have got a god defence in the base and around it so that the enamy loses their army and then build up really quickly and smash them back, its time consuming but you feel good when you are in the enamy base slaughtering them like theres no tommorow, just try and make the changes to your tactics and see how you go