Necrons and Night Fight

Curses, foiled again! I was going to write about Solar Pulses, Night Fight and Imotekh today but I got ninjaed by Kirby.Go read his article over here. It's very good as always and I share all his views (albeit a bit more strongly). I wanted to say this since I first read the codex (I call Leonidas for a witness) and I guess it doesn't really matter sincer anyone with half a brain would come to the same conclusion.Stay here for mine now, my comical broken English are much more fun to read anyway (read in a voice somewhere between Super Mario and Christopher Walken in "The Continental").

As you may know, Necrons have the unique ability to manipulate the Night Fight rules. That can be done by either including a Cryptek with a Solar Pulse in your army or Imotekh. One is a good choice, the other one is bad. Let me elaborate.

Imotekh has the unique privilege of being the only unit in the game (from the top of my head at least) to have two special abilities that don't work with each other (even cancel it's other in a way). That's Hyperlogical Strategy and the other is Lord of The Storm. The first lets you seize the Initiative on a 4+ and the other puts the 1st turn under Night Fight rules with the potential to continue it for further turns. Oh, and some random lightning strikes.

Everyone who's been using Vect or even Coteaz and Sicarius will tell you that they are very helpful during deployment. Even if you lose the 1st turn roll you will force your opponent into a more defensive deployment, denying him the confidence of a potent Alpha Strike or if he is careless you could Alpha Stike him instead. Good times. So Imotekh must be good right? Well not really, since his other ability cancels the benefit out. Your opponent can now deploy the way he wants knowing that he will be protected by Night Fight. Necrons don't have Acute Senses or Searchlights so it buggers them worse than almost any other army out there.

That's my first and most important point against Imotekh. But let's see what we are buying with this guy. He is a whooping 225 points, in par with the most expensive Special Characters in the game. Hyperlogical Strategy and Lord of The Storm cancel each other so we shouldn't count them in the bargain. The lightning stike part of the latter can be somewhat useful but it's way too random to be relied upon. Bloodswarm Nanoscarabs is a cruel joke I think. If the Flayed Ones could assault after Derp Striking it could work but right now it doesn't.

Guy doesn't even have a warscythe and Staff of Destroyer is only S6 with a very limited range. That means his drive-bys, if you put him in a Barge, against vehicles won't be very effective. He is not even good in regular close combat so you are paying for a useless Gauntlet of Fire, Phase Shifter and Sempiternal Weave. That's a lot of points down the drain. Bottom line is, stay away from him.

For 10 points more you can get an Overlord with a Warscythe riding a Barge and a Harbringer of Destruction Crypter with Solar Pulse. The first is a very annoying (for your opponent) unit that could kill 2 vehicles every turn and the second gives you a reliable item to induce Night Fight.

Since the Solar Pulse will stay on for just a player turn, you can use it on your opponent's turn and leave him in the dark. This means that you don't care if you start first or second. Having said that it will actually be better to start second in many cases (where there are objectives involved). If your opponent deploys very defensively (far back on the board or in reserves) then you still have the option to use the Solar Pulse on a different turn of your liking and delay your Alpha Strike to the point it will be most potent.

That's why the Cryptek is so important in my list (and generally in every other Necron list out there). Saturation of AV13 vehicles plus Night Fight will make you endure most of the enemy shooting for the first few turn until you are in range (with your relative close range weapons) to shoot him. There is enough fire power to neutralize a lot of enemy vehicles (stun locking/destroying them) so they won't pose a threat. In later turns you will start popping transports with the Stalkers/Overlords in Barges and access the juicy content for even more shooting. I think it will work well.