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!