A Home for my Necron HQ's?

[ZenPaladin]

I was reading the 3++ Necron review and noted in it that Abuse Puppy suggested running Necron Overlords in a barge or a foot unit and suggested that Destroyer Lords should be used with Wraiths. He also said that the Overlord shouldn't be placed into large warrior units as this was to many eggs in one basket.

Which made me wonder. If you were not going to use the Pharon ability to make the most models possible relentless (IE large numbers of warriors) Where were you going to use it? To me the big warrior unit seemed like a fun idea because of it's resilience and because it presented such an obvious assault target. IE if you know where those assault termies/thunderwolves ect are going you can much more easily deal with them. (assuming you can in fact deal with them.)

As for the Destroyer Lord. He might lose some speed but is there anywhere else he might be handy? I thought about putting him in a unit of Destroyers and deep striking them to the flank or rear of the enemy to get side and rear shots on incoming tanks. If he was given a tachyon arrow he could join in the shooty fun for one turn before peeling off to go chew on back field units. In this way he can also absorb a few wounds or provide a res orb to help keep the Destroyers up.

Any thoughts? Where do you think these guys fit in best?

[Chumbalaya]

For me, the default HQ choice is an Overlord with warscythe in a Command Barge. Only 180 points for an AV13 fast skimmer that can turn any vehicle into a smoking wreck with such reliability as to make the meltagun jealous. The Overlord himself can hop out and tie down/mop up smaller units and protect your vulnerable backfield. And, perhaps most importantly, it unlocks a Royal Court. Dangerous, efficient, take-all-comers HQ.

Any other HQ choice, SC or otherwise, would have to fill a more specific role or support a particular unit/build.

[Vashtek]

For me, the default HQ choice is an Overlord with warscythe in a Command Barge. Only 180 points for an AV13 fast skimmer that can turn any vehicle into a smoking wreck with such reliability as to make the meltagun jealous. The Overlord himself can hop out and tie down/mop up smaller units and protect your vulnerable backfield. And, perhaps most importantly, it unlocks a Royal Court. Dangerous, efficient, take-all-comers HQ.

Any other HQ choice, SC or otherwise, would have to fill a more specific role or support a particular unit/build.

This man, he speak truth.

I usually also take a destroyer lord. He either goes with wraiths, but depending on the circumstances, he sometimes teleports with immortals into the opponent's back lines. This way he can get a turn 2 charge off against a gunline list such as tau or imperial guard. Having a veiled immortal unit is nice anyway, so having this option is great and you don't have to spend points on things you don't really need (normal destroyers) or have to worry about reserve rolls.

[Calypso2ts]

The problem imo with using a Phaeron with Warriors is he does not bring that much to the table. You gain a relentless unit, but the other benefits can be filled out using a standard Necron Lord. Also, 20 S4 shots with a 30" range if you include the move is not super impressive to me. If Necrons had a unit with Heavy Weapons similar to a Devastator style squad it might be worth it.

With a large unit of Warriors I would do - Lord, Orb, Scythe and Cryptek w/ veil

[ZenPaladin]

So the general consensus is double barge-scythe overlord and any sort foot overlord is pretty much a waste.

Well it sort of puts a dent in my hopes for a foot/horde army but maybe 6th will make the mech less viable. Thanks for your responses.

[Chumbalaya]

Well, no. Barge Lords are great all-comers picks and a good default choice, but other choices fit different, more specific builds.

Footcrons are doable, you just have to compensate for not having Barges flying around. Warriors are begging to get run down in combat, so you'll need tarpits/screens/diversions. Losing the reliable AT of Barges means you need AT elsewhere, be that Stalkers, Doom Scythes, Scarabs, or massed lances.

[Nachodragon]

I have played a couple of games with a phaeron lord and every game I got assaulted and lost combat and ran. One game I was swept and another they ran straight off and the others I had a turn to lament the fact that the unit was useless and my powerful overlord didn't have a chance to do anything remarkable.

You might be saying, why didn't you shoot the piss out of them. Well, I did, but when you go against a strong unit of 2+/3+ it makes it even harder to have your shooting be effective. With FnP.. well.. I don't have strong enough words to use.

I have had a phaeron with immortals too.. and yeah, they ran too.

The first game I played with a Phaeron was the best but still quite unremarkable. I deployed (what i thought was good at the time) bad and had to march across the field. The extended range of the guns helped a little, but being a huge unit I only had a couple be able to shoot at first and it took a couple turns to get everyone in range. You may think you just need to add a Veiled Cryptek.. but well, we wont' talk about the time I deepstriked off the board.... yay, double 6's.

If there were some simple changes to the Necrons (that won't happen now...) they could be useful. Stubborn would be a huge one and would make it almost worth it.

[deviant_cadaver]

Destroyer lords work with wraiths because of their speed , but I have not found them needing the extra close combat punch and they also have to start rolling for terrain then.

[ZenPaladin]

Hmm. Well as a previous poster pointed out Assault Termies and especialy those with FNP will make mince meat of the Foot Lord and his unit with out speed bumps as pointed out by Chumby.

So these are the units I've ID'ed as possible speed bumpers.

Scarabs, Flayed Ones, Tomb Spyders.

All of them are cheep. Somewhat good in CC.

The scarabs are really wanting to go out and eat vehicles. But they spyders? A line of them could do a good job speed bumping right? It would take a little meat to get through several of them. Then you could Shoots more right? And they can't farm much past the first few rounds anyway.

[Jenn]

Tomb spyders as a speed bump for assault termies? I maybe could see it for Lightning claw termies... but for fist/ thss termies? Oh god no. They would kill 1 maybe 2 marines if your lucky, then the marines would be hitting on threes then wounding on 2s without armour saves... Scarabs are even worse, they would take 3-4 instant death wounds, then have to take 9-12 resolution armour saves on top of that. Thats assuming they get a kill and are facing a 5 man squad... anything more and they would fair even worse.

Wraiths on the other hand are my go to counter assualt unit. I like to run one foot lord and one destroyer lord. I throw the foot lord in with my warrior blob and my destroyer lord in with my wraiths. Turn one wraiths and d-lord move up towards the enemy line towards backfield long range fire support where available, this causes the enemy to make a choice: use their assault units to intercept my assault force or ignore them and head towards my line (or if they have multiple assault units split their forces) Ideally I will be able to get the unit somewhere between the squishy/ boxy target for my lord and the assault unit that the wraiths will hunt down. I would then disconnect the lord to wreak havoc on the enemy back lines while the wraiths move up to distract the enemy assault forces. I really like running my d-lord in with a unit of wraiths mainly because he makes the unit considerably more surviveable by absorb incoming missile fire with his 2+ while the wraiths absorb the higher ap fire. Granted this combination is essentially a slower version of the command barge but it is slightly more resilient to anti-vehicle fire and less of a giant moving target for enemy anti-tank when running a foot list.