Editing Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Necrons (section)

===HQ===
*'''Necron Overlord''' - Your basic HQ choice, and extremely customizable. Your basic Overlord will cost you the same amount of points as 90 searchlights, and there's a nice list of wargear upgrades to choose from. Its like a Build-A-Bear workshop, except instead of a teddy bear, you're building a trolltastic homicidal robotic Egyptian Space Pharaoh Zombie Ninja. But seriously, you can kit out an Overlord for just about any situation. Well armed, he can take on Mephiston and win with ease. In terms of sheer value, this is the best HQ in the codex. For your convenience, here's a rundown on all the possible wargear options for your Overlord:
**''Weaponry''
***Staff of Light: S5 AP3 Assault 3. Unless your HQ is Vargard Obyron (''why would you do that?!''), take this as your go-to upgrade. It's 3 shots, and as a character those also can be precision shots. It's great for adding a bit of extra oomph to your shooty units. Default to this unless you ''expect'' your guys to be getting into CC.
***Hyperphase Sword: A power sword. A cheap upgrade, but for ten points more you get a Warscythe.
***Gauntlet of Fire: It's a flamer, and also a close combat weapon that allows you to reroll to hit and to wound. Not bad, but it's still not a Warscythe.
***Voidblade: Rending and Entropic Strike... but look, what have I been telling you about all the other close combat weapons? Just scroll down one.
***Warscythe: Now we're talking. For a measly ten points, you get a S7 AP1 close combat weapon (Not quite- you get a +2 on the model's strength, which usually resolves as S7 anyway) with Armourbane. Anything that you move into base contact with will be cut to ribbons as long as the Overlord survives until his own initiative step. Unless you're playing a purely casual game, don't take any other CCW.
**''Gadgets''
***Phylactery: Normally when an Overlord come back due to Reanimation Protocols, he only has 1 wound. If you take a Phylactery, he gets d3 on his first reanimation. It doesn't seem like much, but its a cheaper upgrade that will make your Warlord that much harder to slay.  
***Mindshackle Scarabs: Terminator Squads and Monstrous creatures got you down? This is your solution to making sure your Initiative 2, 1 attack squad doesn't roll over and die to dedicated close combat units. Every Necron Lord or Overlord that you expect to be getting into close combat should take this. You have no excuses, '''you want this upgrade'''. After you get assaulted but before any blows are struck, you randomly choose a model in base contact with the Lord or Overlord with MSS. That model takes a leadership test on 3d6. If it fails (which is 50% for Ld9), that model HITS ITS OWN UNIT D3 times INSTEAD OF ATTACKING. Oh, and if in challenge your opponent would hit HIMSELF with his super-optimised-for-a-challenge weapon. Out of all the troll-tastic things in the Necron codex, the funniest thing has to be watching a Hive Tyrant assault a lowly warrior squad, never get to actually attack, and then die after a few rounds of the Necron Overlord going "Why are you hitting yourself??". Even more hilarious against psykers, as they '''must''' activate their force weapon if they have warp-charge left - nothing is more satisfying than Mephiston or Swarmlord insta-killing himself the turn he charges.
***Sempiternal Weave: This gives you a 2+ armor save. For the 15 points you'll spend, you'll never regret taking it. If you're in a Catacomb Command Barge, you'll get +1 which unfortunately doesn't stack with the Sempiternal Weave, so may not be as useful if you're in the pimp-mobile until it blows up. Which it will. If on a barge (and feeling overly confident), you can skip this and take a Phase Shifter for a 2+/3++ without spending the extra 15 points.
***Tesseract Labyrinth: Makes it so that a model in base contact with the bearer has to take a wound test or automatically die with no saves allowed. One Use Only. Alright for the leader of a Monstrous Creature or Character hunting squad.
***Tachyon Arrow: A single use S10 AP1 infinite range shooting attack(Tau beware, we have even better guns). Kind of expensive, but could be somewhat useful if you're lacking Anti-Tank. Pro-tip: If you take this, put your Overlord in a squad with a Chronometron bearing Harbinger of Eternity Cryptek for the rerolls.
***Resurrection Orb: Covered elsewhere. This is a good one if you're putting your Overlord in a squad, as a +1 to your reanimation rolls never hurts. If you're using a Command Barge, use the points elsewhere.
***Phase Shifter: Costs an arm and a leg compared to the other upgrades listed, but usually worth it in all but the smallest games. The Phase Shifter gives you a 3+ invulnerable save. Now your Overlord is safe even from Tau Railguns.
***Phaeron: Gives him and his unit Relentless. Used to be bread and butter in 5th ed due to being able to move and shoot your rapid fire guns at long range. Now that you can do that anyway, this upgrade is almost worthless, unless you're in a situation where you actually ''want'' to charge with Necron Warriors... (Pro-tip: don't).

*'''Destroyer Lord''' - He misses out on some of the wargear that the Overlord gets, and can't take a Royal Court, but on the other hand, he gains Jump Infantry, T6, Preferred Enemy (Everything!) which gets conferred to whatever unit he joins, and a free Warscythe instead. Great as a beatstick thanks to his better Toughness; stick him with a unit of other Jump Infantry (like Wraiths or Triarch Praetorians) and send him into the thick of it. Remember to give him Sempiternal Weave so he can ignore petty AP3 power weapons. Other wargear worth considering would be Mindshackle Scarabs, Res-Orbs (he doesn't have access to a Phase Shifter, so this is the second best way to keep him alive longer), and if you're really desperate, the Tachyon Arrow (Preferred Enemy = reroll that 1!).


The following are special characters. Unlike CSMs or Dark Eldar they are not here to be a close combat monsters (though some of them can) but rather to add other ways of using your army with super special trolling rules. If you want an Abaddon-esque killing machine it's better to take Overlord and kit him appropriately.  It should be noted that if you take some of these, you need to build your army around them using their rules to the fullest if you do not want to be curb-stomped because you just blew 200+ points on a model you cannot use fully and now have a 200+ points handicap.


*'''Imotekh the Stormlord''' - The traditional 200+ point named hero unit. At first glance, he looks fantastic, but most of his abilities are mediocre. Imotekh comes with a 2+ armor save, 3+ invuln save, a Phylactery, and a Gauntlet of Fire. Oh and the Staff of Destroyer, which is a STR 6, AP2 weapon which is fired from a straight 2D6 line from his base!  One use only though, so it's not worth it anyway.  He can make Flayed Ones deep strike perfectly next to a single enemy unit, which would be great if you could assault after deep striking, but as things stand, Flayed Ones suck and dropping next to any unit will just ensure that they die during your opponents next turn. Imotekh can also summon bolts of lightning down to zap people, but this ability is too random to be of much use(put him in the same unit as a destroyer to make it better). His lightning storm works better in higher points games, but it have two major drawbacks: it would work only while night fight turned on (while your army is mostly shooty) and it would also zzap your allies as well as enemies if you try to bring some searchlight with them. One of his more useful abilities is to always start the game with night fighting turned on, and he can roll to keep it turned on in subsequent turns (unless you're versing Dark Eldar, in which case leave him at home). In addition, he always seizes the Initiative on 4+ except against Orks, who he can't seize Initiative against at all (CUZ GREEN IS BEST, YA GITZ!). He's overall a nasty motherfucker in an army full of nasty motherfuckers, but there's better options for his points. He is considered to be cheese in apocalypse games, however, where his night fighting and lightning bolts can be exploited to far greater effect.


*'''Nemesor Zahndrekh''' - The senile old coot is actually a surprisingly good tactical HQ choice, giving nifty bonuses to your units each turn and even taking away nifty bonuses from enemy units. He even has a Resurrection Orb. He's not very useful in close combat, but he works really well with Vargard Obyron, as described below. Something to consider is that this guy is only 5 points more than a standard Overlord with the same wargear so if you were going to build a similar Overlord anyway you could consider paying the 5 extra points for his ability. His debuff is surprisingly potent against certain units. For example, get him to remove Furious Charge from a big blob of Boyz and suddenly you're just being charged by Guardsmen with CC weapons. And his Phased Reinforcements rule is more perfect than Trazyn if you love messing with your opponent. Basically, hold as much as you can in Deep Strike Reserve, wait until your opponent's second turn, and then as soon as that flyer of theirs comes in (or anything else for that matter), basically dump everything you can behind their line. You're basically forcing them to react to a ton of threats and completely abandon their current strategy. Then whatever survives (Scarabs that come in this way ''will'' die horribly, but who cares?) will continue to fuck your opponent over. This approach usually works better in higher point games, and not even a greater god can help them if you're playing Apocalypse.


*'''Vargard Obyron''' -  ''The'' close combat HQ, this guy combines good WS with a Warscythe and strong hitting power, and can even make counter-attacks against enemies that miss before he attacks, up to a maximum of 9 attacks total(!). He can also teleport around the battlefield thanks to his special mantle, and perfect Deep Strikes if he lands next to Zahndrekh. Needless to say, he and Zahndrekh work pretty well together. Obyron is an excellent character to have in a Command Barge, since his high WS and Cleaving Counterblow ability ensure that he gets plenty of hits in with his Warscythe, while he has all the resilience of an Overlord. The only thing he lacks is a Phase Shifter, so be careful of Force Weapons and Monstrous Creatures. Unlike a Veiltek, Obyron is an IC and can join any unit, so get creative with him. Drop Zahndrekh and his unit out of a Night Scythe, then drop Obyron and a huge unit of Warriors right beside him. Join him up with a unit of Spyders and teleport them across the board. If you have access to the new Sentry Pylons, do the same thing with them for far greater effect. Or if you are fighting a vehicle heavy army then there is one particularly cheesy tactic. Stick him with a royal court consisting of five cryptek harbingers of the storm, and one lord with a ressurection orb. Turn one teleport them up the board and unleash 20 haywire shots into that pesky land raider. The lord is to keep them alive longer. for added cheese add a lightning field to the unit to make them less chargeable.


*'''Illuminor Szeras''' - It's like Dr. Frankenstein, except an undead spider robot. He's a Cryptek character and not an Overlord, so he can't take a Royal court. Sadface. His statline is nothing special, just a standard Cryptek with an extra wound; however, he does give a bonus to one unit of Warriors or Immortals in your army, giving them either +1 Strength, BS, or Toughness for the remainder of the game (A full unit of immortals with +1 toughness will really live up to their name, especially if you have a resurrection orb nearby, seriously, they'll make plague marines look like pussies, combine with Anrakyr to really troll your opponent). He also has defensive grenades and a S8 AP2 shooting attack; if there's a "shooty" hero unit in the Necrons codex, it's Szeras. He's also the cheapest named character in the codex, and would probably see more play if only he could take a Royal court.


*'''Orikan the Diviner''' - The ''other'' Cryptek character, Orikan suffers from the same basic flaw as Szeras: Lack of a Royal Court. So why use him? Well, he can re-roll reserve rolls for one turn, has an AP 2 power weapon that re-rolls to hit, and forces your enemy to go through Difficult Terrain on turn 1. Also, on each turn, you roll a d6- if the die roll is less than or equal to the turn you're currently on (so on Turn 3 you'd have to roll a 3 or lower) then "The Stars Are Right", Orikan goes Super-Saiyan, and gains a massive stat boost (similar in power to a C'tan Shard, possibly even better in close combat due to his 3+ invulnerable save), complete with a 'bwahahaha!' in the rule description. However, if you roll less than or equal to the turn you're on a second time, Orikan powers down, and goes back to his original profile. Kind of a mixed bag, but beastly if you have Lady Luck's favor. Combine with a C'tan with Writhing Worldscape (turns difficult terrain into dangerous) to cause your opponent to lose approx 1/6 of his army in his first movement phase. Or not, because dangerous terrain tests allow armor saves in 6th. Still devastating against Hordes, but not so much with MEQ and elite armies.  Always stick him with a Chronometron: keeping him in empowered mode for even one extra turn will pay back the crpytek's cost if he's in melee combat.


*'''Anrakyr the Traveller''' - Comes with a Tachyon Arrow and a Warscythe, and gains the Counter-Attack and Furious Charge special rules. If you have Immortals, one unit of Immortals become "Pyrrhian Eternals" for no additional cost, which are basically just like regular Immortals but with Counter-Attack and Furious Charge, making them not quite so shitty in assault. They're still dead against dedicated combat units, but this can provide a critical edge against Tactical Marines and the like. His real strength is his ability to hack enemy vehicles, which means you can cause your mech-happy Imperial Guard opponent to shoot himself with his own tanks. WOLOLO. Be sure to thank your kind opponent for letting you borrow his vehicle.
NOTE: Due to Furious Charge, in the first round of combat Anrakyr can potentially insta-gib anything thats Toughness 4 or lower! 


*'''[[Trazyn the Infinite]]''' - aka "The [[Tarpit]] Breaker". [[Troll|Trollzyn]] is probably the best HQ choice you can get if you just love messing with your opponent. He excels at wiping out hordes, thanks to his Empathic Obliterator- if he kills a model in a unit, he wounds other units like the one he killed on a 4+. This means that if he kills even a single Ork Boy, ''every single other Ork Boy in the mob'' takes a wound on a 4+, usually resulting in 10+ casualties in full strength hordes. On top of that, he can cause the Orks' Nob to go nuts and hit his own Boyz, further adding to the carnage. If he dies, he can just possess another Lychguard, Cryptek, Necron Lord, or Necron Overlord on the table and keep going as normal. And the cherry on top? ''He's scoring.'' So if you want an objective-taking unit that just will not die, stick Trollzyn into a full sized group of Sword and Shield Lychguard and add a Lord with Res-Orb for good measure. Bonus points if you do this during an ''Emperor's Will'' mission and watch your opponent fail to knock out this unit after shooting everything he's got at it for literally the whole game. Unfortunately, sticking him on a Command Barge does not allow his hammer of wrath and sweep attacks to benefit from the Empathic Obliterator (though it does allow him to get to objectives quickly to score late game).
'''Royal Court''': Any Necron Overlord or Overlord level special character (Imotekh, Zahndrekh, Anrakyr, or Trazyn) can take a Royal Court, which is composed of up to five Necron Lords and/or up to five Crypteks. Royal Court members can either be left together in one unit, or can be individually split off to join your squads of Warriors, Immortals, Deathmarks, or Lychguard; thanks to the FAQ, if you take 2 overlords you can double these up in squads. And in higher point levels, you can now take FOUR Overlords and FOUR Royal Courts. This can get expensive, both in points and in money, but giving every one of your Warrior Squads four Eldrich Lances will ensure that they can make mincemeat of anything that comes within 36" of them.  Remember a Destroyer Lord is ''not'' an Overlord and cannot take a court.


*'''Necron Lords''' - Basically a mini version of the Necron Overlord, with 1 Wound and 2 Attacks (compared to the Overlord's 3 of each) but they still hit as hard as any Overlord at a fraction of the cost, and can be kitted out similarly (though misses out on the Tachyon Arrow and Phylactery). Basically equivalent to sergeants in Imperial armies, or Ork Nobz in a squad of Boyz.

*'''Crypteks''' - Essentially Necron "priests/wizards" employed by Overlords to use their space magic (otherwise known as science) to assist in battle. The stock-standard versions are nothing special, but they can be upgraded to Harbingers, which at this point they gain nifty special wargear that nothing else in the codex gets. Unfortunately, apart from the cool staff each Harbinger initially comes with, you can not give the same piece of awesome additional wargear to two Harbingers from the same Royal Court. You ''can'' however take a second Overlord in your army, which would give you access to a ''second'' Royal Court as well. And a third. And a fourth. This allows you to take multiples of the same piece of epic gear without worrying about the whole "two girls wearing the same dress to a party" syndrome.

**''Harbinger of Despair'' - Mostly equipped with crappy Morale-effecting abilities (pro-tip: attach him to a unit of Deathmarks to make one of those abilities <s>significantly better</s> trolltastically broken as fuck). Comes equipped with the Nightmare Shroud, an ability that can choose any enemy unit within 18" and force them to take a Morale Check which, while it is useless against Fearless models or high-leadership Models (half chance against Leadership 10), it is rather funny to see a bunch of Terminators or blobby units run away until they regroup! Can also take the awesome free (Well somewhat expensive but worth it)-deep-strike item, the Veil of Darkness... though, Obyron's Ghostwalk Mantle is a lot better.

**''Harbinger of Destruction'' - Exactly what it says on the tin. Equipped with a nasty shooting weapon, defensive grenades for the squad, and the Solar Pulse, which turns night fighting on or off. When playing with super heavies in an Apocalypse game, using Solar Pulse is an "I Win" button. Oh look, that Baneblade can't see far enough to shoot for a turn. But my Pylon still can! Using this essentially gives you a turn where the enemy can't touch you at range. It can also be used to turn the night fight off, in case your opponent benefit from it more than you (i.e. he have a lot of Night Vision units or [[METAL BOXES|dirt cheap expendable vehicles with searchlights]]).

**''Harbinger of Eternity'' - Put one of these in your anti-monstrous creature squad. He comes with a close combat weapon which comes with some severe debuffs if you wound an enemy with it. He can re-roll any single d6 roll that his unit makes per phase, which is always handy, and can get 3+ invincible. Never take this. It's a ton of points for a 3+ invun on a single wound model. He's also the only Cryptek that has a melee weapon instead of a gun. The melee weapon, as mentioned earlier, does cause some severe debuffs if it causes a wound, which it never will, since the Cryptek holding it has a single Attack at Initiative 2, and the stick doesn't have an AP value. He is only useful for his D6 re-roll. A way to use his aeon stave better is to get a few scarabs on his trail, as they have entropic strike. Afterwards, just say attacking The hive and the scarabs have wounded him, this will make the aeonstave wound the hive (as the hive has no invunerable save). The aeonstave can be effective if you just get that bonus to it.

**''Harbinger of the Storm'' - Disgustingly good against armor, as his Haywire stick will make vehicles drop hull points faster than 1d4chan drops puns. Armies that like to deep strike and assault are also not fond of this guy, as his other wargear can fry anyone that gets too close for comfort. Which looks good on paper (both are D6 Str 8 AP5 but the Ether Crystal gains one more attack if there is another Ether Crystal - Fancy a well cooked Ork or roasted Guardsmen?) but you'd need to consider that Ether Crystal only works when the enemy has deepstriked within 6" of the Cryptek, but the Lighting Field is good against charging units. While absolutely deadly against AP5+ both may struggle against MEQ or TEQ.

**''Harbinger of Transmogrification'' - Should be left to protect the centre of your gunline. Can equip an infinite-range weapon which screws over your opponent's armour, the ability to slow down enemy assaults, and a staff which makes difficult terrain. Combine with Writhing Worldscape for the lols.

**''Basic Cryptek'' - Yeah, you don't have to upgrade them. They each come with a Staff of Light as basic equipment, that S5 AP3 Assault 3 gun is well worth their cheap cost. The downside is that they don't do much else if you don't upgrade them. Still, having 5 Necron Lords and 5 Crypteks, all with Staffs of Light, riding around in a Ghost Ark will cause plenty of tears from Space Marine players; 30 AP3 shots will kill anything that isn't terminators.