Thursday 10 November 2011

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.

8 comments:

  1. However you fail to mention how cool it is to have a dude shooting lightning bolts from his hands. Though it might not really that effective, the idea is pretty awesome when you think about it.

    I think your analysis is spot on about how to trim some points from your list!

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  2. Cheers Brandon.

    I imagine, a beam of lightning surging to a dark cloudy sky. Then the clouds get electrified and there is electrical charges everywhere. Cool concept. Still bad rules wise :P

    What about point trimming, I didn't get it.

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  3. Give me a warscythe for my S5 overlord. S7 power weapon, with 9-17 armour penetration. Put him on a barge and watch heads roll and tanks explode. Phylactery for D3 wounds to be restored when the overlord is down, and resurrection orb to make reanimation on 4+. 125 points.

    Cryptek with all 3 options for a Harbinger of destruction. 36" S8 AP2 shooting. He and unit have defensive grenades. Solar Pulse. 70 points.

    Total= 195 points for two models.

    30 points remain. Tachyon arrow? Or mindshackle scarabs and sempiternal weave? You could even get 1 tomb blade with 10 points for an upgrade.

    3 models for the price of 1. Storm lord not worth it.

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  4. That's what I am talking about Mr.T (was that what Stillfrosty was talking about too?) there are much better options for the same amount of points.

    However I think you are spending a bit too many points on your upgrades on the examples you gave, I usually prefer my units cheap and cheerful.

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  5. Very true Mr Antipope. I was only showing how much you can get for 225 points. Tachyon arrow is 30 points for 1 shot and thats it. Why pay 30 points for a 2+ save when you're riding around on a quantum shielded barge?

    For the record, I like the stormlord model. I'm already thinking of a conversion.

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  6. Model is sweet indeed. When I got the coin I want to buy one just to paint it and use it for a generic Overlord or even as himself for some more fun oriented friendly games.

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  7. I really like the finecast Overlord, but I also like the stormlord. So I did get a feeling of 'HOW DARE YOU!' when I thought of this simple conversion. Take overlord left hand/arm holding resurrection orb to replace stormlords left hand/arm. Snip the top of stormlord staff, and replace it with the overlords warscythe top.

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  8. Correction to an earlier statement. My Necron overlord on barge remains as is at 125 points. But I have enough points for 3 scarab bases. 5 tomb blades,immortals or deathmarks. 7 flayed ones or warriors! This exludes cryptek.

    So, potentially 8 models for the price of 1.

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