question about "competitive" necrons

[eosgreen]

I'm going to be choosing an army for a competitive list and im deciding between nids and necrons but the deciding factor is always how the army looks (bad idea for competitive army i know). my question is, for hq choices is a regular necron lord at all viable or is that battlebarge something that i would rather take (i just hate how it looks frankly) because i just LOOOVE the new plastic lord any i just want to NMM the **** outa him lol

[SnakeChisler]

We've had a load of games against Necrons recently and a quite a few things have sprung up

Objective secured on progressive missions is still very valuable but the reclamation Legion is so tough you just have to take it

Their still slow plodding across the battlefield and suffer from most stuff being 24" range

In terms of Battlebarge v Lord then I'd go with Lord coz he can join units such as Lychguard who are big winners with 3 + 4+ you've then got the double resurrection artifact the invisibility artifact and the s7 ap2 flamer artifact.

[eosgreen]

We've had a load of games against Necrons recently and a quite a few things have sprung up

Objective secured on progressive missions is still very valuable but the reclamation Legion is so tough you just have to take it

Their still slow plodding across the battlefield and suffer from most stuff being 24" range

In terms of Battlebarge v Lord then I'd go with Lord coz he can join units such as Lychguard who are big winners with 3 + 4+ you've then got the double resurrection artifact the invisibility artifact and the s7 ap2 flamer artifact.

so lychguard AND lords are pretty solid atm. thats great to hear. are there any other "better" hq choices. ive read some good things about the special characters

[Mister Disco]

I personally run an Av13 heavy necron list and Catacomb Command Barges are pretty much god-tier in that build. They are extremely hard to kill with most shooting and hit like a truck in melee. They don't fair so hot against knights in melee... But let's be honest, few things do.

With Necrons your HQ will depend heavily on your build, a few examples:
Lords/ Overlords: These are solid utility choices if you are building a Decurion list. You can kit them out as you need based on what function you want them to have in your army. They serve as solid melee deterrents in warrior and immortal squads and can fill the role of the heavy hitter in flayed ones/ lychguard squads. These guys will fit into most any list you write and can be really flexible in what they give ya.

Destroyer Lords: I love these guys, they go great in a foot heavy list. They serve many of the same roles as Lords and Overlords, but they grant the units they attach to preferred enemy, which is a huge damage boost. They Go really well in max size warriors blobs and units of lychguard. They operate at slightly reduced effectiveness in flayed on units due to flayed ones already re-rolling wounds but the re-roll 1s to hit on 40+ attacks is nothing to bat an eye at.

Crypteks are a solid choice if you are building a non-decurion list. That +1 to reanimation protocols is amazing.

Zahndrekh is a great flexibility warlord. His ability to pick and choose his warlord traits as the game goes on can be invaluable. He seems like he will be at the top of the list for competitive named HQs in the Necron world.

Orikan is a great choice for a nightscythe heavy list. He goes great in a unit of Immortals that you can shove down your opponent's throat and wreak havoc with while he acts as a charge deterrent/ melee threat.

Szeras seems like he could be a nice support HQ but I haven't really playtested him at all to really have an opinion.

Catacomb Command Barges are the go-to choice for Av13 heavy builds since you generally won't have any units on foot worth putting a normal lord in, and you can't put deploy independent characters in troop choice ghost arks anymore. The Command barge is an especially good choice due to bringing up target saturation and filling a hole you would otherwise have in your list.

The other HQ choices are alright, but are less well rounded than the options I've listed above. They really need to do something that your list needs in order to justify their inclusion.

Hope that helps. I've only played about 30 games with the new codex so I'm still trying to get a feel for it all at this point.

[Sam]

Most of the special characters are good. Orikan in a squad of sword and shield Lychguard makes the squad practically unkillable.

[Mike X]

Every Necron opponent I've faced has fielded either a generic Lord or one of their special characters - and their SCs really change the dynamic of the game.

[Djbz]

Most of the special characters are good. Orikan in a squad of sword and shield Lychguard makes the squad practically unkillable.

Very very tough unit.
Does need a warscythe character as well though or any armour 12 walker can charge them and hold them up for the entire game(Or eventually kill them with sweeping advance) thus rendering them useless

[Wizzardx3]

Orikan is very good, but I'd like to voice support for Zahndrek.
Not only does his starting warlord trait give you Zealot, he can choose to change his warlord trait to any of the ones from the main book at the start of the turn. That is really really powerful if played correctly.