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Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Necron 6th Edition Tactica Part 1: HQ's (Non Characters)


Something about evil robots that spent sixty million years in a tomb just biding their time really strikes my fancy. That's why I place this wonderful army we call Necrons. I'm sure you all have similar reason for loving them and you can't wait to hear how I like to field these lovely silver killing machines. 

Necron Overlords
As far as non character HQs go in the Necron book you have two options, smash things in CC or be a jack of all trades. Overlords are your jack of all trades. You can kit these monsters out to do anything. They can soar across the battlefield on a Catacomb Command Barge popping vehicles and dealing some serious damage to heavy infantry or even MCs. You can have them do anything you want, but not everything at once.

The Overlord really needs to be broken up into a few different categories. The first of which is going to be your defensive capability. Deciding early on what kind of targets you want to engage with your Overlord really decides what kind of armor upgrade you want to take. Take the Sempiternal Weave when you want to slice through infantry, Phase Shifters for terminators and other heavy infantry that will make a mockery of a 2+ save and Command Barges for when you want to run this guy by himself. (Phase shifters with Command Barges are also worthwhile). Phylactery just ins't a great use of points. A lot will swear by this extremely situational piece of wargear but too often do you find yourself not standing back up after being killed or standing up with only one wound due to the only  66.6% chance this will be any use. (If you pass your reanimation protocols). 

Offensive capability is next up and you'll find the Necron lord is not lacking at all when it comes to this category. Being that Necrons are a very short ranged army and are by the majority terrible in CC most players will love to charge you. Fear not! That's where our Overlords shine. The Overlords love to get into combat with basic troops because we can either overwatch with a Gauntlet of Fire or let our Warscythe taste their sweet, sweet blood. Also, there is nothing more frustrating than getting into a challenge with an Overlord with Mindshackle scarabs. If you intend on seeing CC Mindshackle scarabs are mandatory, an average roll will make your opponent fail their leadership test and be forced to attack themselves while your Overlord prepares to thrust his Warscythe in them for the killing blow. Tesseract Labyrinths are pretty pricey, but can easily remove a pesky Swarmlord or similar threats. Tachyon Arrows are useful, but only if you have really  built a slow low ranged Necron army, even then, I wouldn't rely on this fluffy point sink. The only option for weapons that I find  really doesn't have a place with the Overlord is the Void Blade. The Warscythe can perform any job that the Void Blade does, only better and for the same price!

Necron Overlords don't bring as many utility powers as HQs from other books can, but they can still be extremely useful. Unfortunately we only have two, and they range from one of the more frustrating pieces of wargear in the game to useless. Resurrection Orbs are an extremely common thing to find on Lord and Overlords alike. They make your evil robots stand back up on a 4+ instead of a 5+. This makes your Overlord and his squad, much harder to move and gives you a sick sense of satisfaction when your opponent pours in as many shots as he can muster to finally end their miserable existence  The other option is Phaeron. 100% useless. 


Royal Courts
Royal courts can only be taken for every Overlord or Overlord character you have in your army. You can run them as an immovable deathstar or by attaching each member to different squads.

Necron Lord
A scaled down Overlord, but they still pack quite the punch. Give them a Warscythe for chopping and a Resurrection Orb for annoying. 

Vanilla Cryptek
Comes stock with a staff of light that can be a decent upgrade to a squad's shooting capabilities, but you should really look into a harbinger to bring a lot more utility to your squad.

Harbinger of Despair
Ever wish your Necron units could easily become the most mobile unit in the game? Well, that's what Veil of Darkness is for. Veil of Darkness gives you the ability to make your Deathmarks appear exactly where you need them once they've destroyed their marked target or even make it so your Lychguard can assault as soon as possible. Despairteks provide an excellent utility to your army and allow you to take control of the battlefield.

Harbinger of Destruction
One of the more common Crypteks people like to field for their "long" range Eldritch Lances. They really shine to give Warriors and Immortals a bit more of a punch against enemy armor. The major ability these guys can take is Solar Pulse, this allows you to control when night fighting rules are in effect. With our extremely short range, we often find that a bit of cover goes a long way in closing that gap. In the instance of fighting lots of units with night vision(I'm looking at you Tau and Dark Eldar), we can take away their advantage and allow for our long range guns to begin hammering them.

Harbinger of Eternity
Pure nastiness. Not because of a major damage output, not because of a massive amount of defense (although, the Timesplinter Cloak does make them a great deal survivable) it's the Chronometron. You need to know how to use this insane piece of wargear. It can be extended to any member of his unit once per phase, plan out your most important roll. Maybe you want to save it for that Overlord that you took a gamble on with Phylactery, maybe its saved for Imotekh's Lightning, or even Orikan's ability to Hulk out. Save it for when it's needed most and you will always be laughing manically at your poor opponents expense.   If you have a Royal Court, you need to have a Chronometron. 

Harbinger of the Storm
The Voltaic Staff provides more anti-tank weaponry to our army that is already filled to the brim with it, to top it off it even comes with an even shorter ranger than we're used to. The Ether Crystals are situational at best and the only time I really see them coming up is a really terrible scatter or a mishap that lets you place the enemy unit within 6" just to hit them with your wargear. Lightning Fields are nice as a shield to stop an enemy from wanting to assault you, but even then, it won't always stop them. Maybe I was a tad hash when it came to the ol' Stormtek. They take a gentle touch to use. The best way to have one of these guys destroying enemy armor is isolation. If you have them in a transport and can move them to a lone enemy vehicle, they are worth their weight in gold. Be wary of making those fast suicide runs. 

Harbinger of Transmogrification
There seems to be a theme with Crpteks that they either bring extremely short ranged firepower, or longer than average range for the Necrons. The Tremorstave is one of those longer range weapons. It also comes with a pretty interesting ability. Any unit(s) hit by the small blast are counted as being inside of difficult terrain the following turn. This gives you a great way to help slow down those assault units and even force some dangerous terrain tests on units like bikes and jump infantry. One of the most fun ways to use these is with a C'Tan Shard that has Writhing Worldscape. The Harp brings an even larger range (infinite) and  is a nice upgrade, but you'll find it doesn't always make it's points up. However, it is really nice to knock a point of armor off something before you rip it apart with your bigger guns. The Seismic Crucible is nothing more than a great idea, but a waste of points. 

Catacomb Command Barge
While not technically an HQ, it does belong in this section. For all intents and purposes this is an upgrade to your Overlords and Overlord characters. This allows them to move extremely fast and attack units they pass over while they do it. I really recommend using a Warscythe while you do this to just annihilate vehicles when you pass over them. This also gives you a fun ability that few units in the game can do. Blow up a transport and then attack the occupants. The other major merit this barge gives you is it makes you not have to take Sempiternal Weave because it improves your save to a 2+. Making this an excellent unit to charge even heavy infantry with and do some serious damage. Don't forget you hammer of wrath!



Destroyer Lords
Robots that have gone completely mad and are obsessed with slaughtering any and all life in the galaxy. What could be better? Well, he imparts his madness on his squad with Preferred Enemy (Everything!) so that's a start. Best way to run one of these maniacs is with a Warscythe, Sempiternal Weave, Mindshackle scarabs and big bodyguard of wraiths. Getting to re roll your ones when you already wound on 2+ pretty often is a lot of fun. The only weakness to a destroyer lord is also it's greatest strength, it doesn't do much of anything other than smash. (That and it can't have an invulnerable save)

Let us in our what has worked for you guys in the comments below. This is only round one of my Necron Tactica, next up we have named characters. Be on the look out for it real soon!


4 comments:

  1. Well, well, it's a nice and long compilation, but I'd like to add a few things :)
    Let's break it down.


    Necron Overlords
    Phaeron is still good, as you can charge after firing point-blank at your enemy. Sometimes it is better not to grant your enemy the +1 attack by letting him to charge you.


    Harbinger of Despair
    The greatest thing with them is the AP1 flame template, which will wound on a 2+, if he is with a unit of Deathmarks, and shoots at a marked target.

    Harbinger of Destruction
    It is also nice to combine the solar pulse with a Destroyer Lord's tachyon arrow. You hit on a 3+ (rerolling 1s), and wound on a 2+, also rerolling 1. With S10 AP1 and precision shot you have quite a chance of eliminating something important, even by night-fight.


    Harbinger of the Storm
    they are still very nice units, though I rarely have the points to spare on them. I like to run them as a suicide, tank-busting unit, so the rest of my army can shoot at something else.

    Harbinger of Transmogrification
    It lost many of it's effectiveness, since you can throw armour save against failed dif.terrain test. It would be much better, if we could fire it's weapon in overwatch, but as we cannot, it remains an interesting, but fairly useless weapon to me. The harp is usually too expensive, but the Seismic Crucible worths the points. Standing behind a difficult terrain the average charge distance is 4,5" (3D6, discarding the highest), so even D3 inch can mean the difference between success and failure.


    Catacomb Command Barge
    Sadly the CCB became much less useful than in 5th edition, since you can turbo boost only in the shooting phase, thus cannot make any sweep attacks. And the 12" is usually too few to fly over something, and wreck it. If the enemy has any intelligence, it directs the attacks against the rear AV11 of the barge, and wreck it.

    Destroyer Lord
    Mindshackle Scarab is mandratory for this bad guy, otherwise, I agree with you, he is a great force multiplyer.

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    1. Really appreciate the criticism, but let me butt my head with you.

      Necron Overlord
      I humbly disagree, I find that Phaeron, even to steal the charge, is not very worthwhile.

      Harbinger of Despair
      This is a subject I felt more worthwhile to cover under the Deathmarks section of the tactica. Veiling around with Deathmarks is a strategy I love to make use of.

      Harbinger of the Storm
      I agree that they can get the job of downing vehicles pretty easily, but I find it pretty rare that I want to throw them away along with the unit that they're attached to. I've run them this way and it's too often that I regret the loss of them and their squad.

      Harbinger of Transmogrification
      While I agree that it did loss some effectiveness because of the dangerous terrain change, I disagree that it lost most of it's effectiveness. It's still excellent for slowing down units and the once in a rare occasion of immobilizing a vehicle. Anything that can manipulate the battlefield like this is always a plus in my book.

      Catacomb Command Barge
      Less useful, but don't discount it. The Barge can still do some massive damage even if the range of the sweep attacks have been slightly nerfed.

      Destroyer Lord
      Complete oversight. Never fielded one without Mindshackle scarabs.

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  2. Another option with the destroyer lord is to start with a large squad of immortals, as preferred enemy works on shooting. Then when the enemy gets closer he can join a nearby wraith unit to enter close combat.

    I agree with everything, apart from I think the odd one of two harbringers of the storm are worth while. 5 warriors with one (90 pts) in a nightscythe is nice. Necron shooting doesn't deal with av13 and av14 that well.

    Rathstar

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    Replies
    1. I definitely like the idea behind having a Destroyer Lord with the Immortals. The only downside is how I play Necrons, I can't do that. I play an extremely aggressive force that never sits back and waits. I'm always on the advance to compensate for low weapon ranges and avoid the occasional castling of the enemy.

      Okay, maybe I went a bit hard on the Stormtek. I like him, I really do! I just have a hard time stomaching a suicide unit and he tends to shorten a unit's lifespan. Although, he really can knock out that heavy armor when it's needed most. Some changes were made under his entry to highlight his ability a bit more.

      Delete