Any necron players?

Hey there,

Started painting my necrons under the novokh dynasty and then picked up the book of xenos 1 the other day. Turns out I can't utilize some of these unique characters. Curse me for wanting to play an uncommon dynasty! Suggestions on what unique characters I can choose from?

I am trying to determine which is better, a command barge or an annihilation barge? Praetorian or lich guard? I am thinking praetorian just because they have the flying ability. Death marks or immortals? Doomsday ark or ghost ark? They changed it so that these are not open top vehicles so I can't get all those shots off like in 7th edition, or so I have been informed.

Welcome to the forums!

Give me a moment to bust out my copy of Index Xenos 1, I've largely been focusing on Warriors in my games thus far when not playing Chaos.

Novokh Dynasty, home of Moon Killer? Cool! With any luck your dynasty will get fleshed out with the 8th Edition Codex Necrons, as GW is currently promising to give dynasties the same level of depth as Space Marine chapters, so hopefully that will round things out for you on that front.

Catacomb Command Barge vs Annihilation Barge: The two models serve very different purposes gameplay wise. The Command version often is leading at the front of your forces, sometimes even crashing into melee with a War Scythe. The Annihilation Barge on the other hand is a floating gun platform that hovers around the mid-field belching hell at your enemy. I haven't gotten around to fielding either this edition yet, but one perk to how the kit is assembled is that you don't have to glue down the main gun on the Barge, so you can freely swap between the two models between games. Also, apparently the Command Barge has been FAQ'd to be a Character, so it can hide behind other squads now.

Praetorians vs Lich Guard: These guys are a little closer together on their usage, both being elites. Lich Guard can be set up to be either super tanky (4++ on a 2-wound body that can stand back up!) or really painful in melee (Str 7, AP -4, D2) but at the cost of being slow. Praetorians, on the other hand, are twice as fast, but don't pack the same kind of punch, having a lower Str on their available weapons and only having D1 on their weapons as well. That being said, since they have the Fly keyword they can charge things like Hemlocks which tend to be middling on toughness anyway. Both have their uses, but I'd say if your goal is to get into the thick of it, Praetorians are much more likely to get there, by simple virtue of mobility. Going Sautech Dynasty with Obyron, however, makes a squad full of War Scythes suddenly have some lovely new applications.

Deathmarks vs Immortals: I'll be honest here, I love all these guys. Immortals are a very solid troops choice, especially when backed by a lord of some sort to push their Tesla to procing on 5's and 6's. Deathmarks, on the other hand, excel at turning off enemy HQs as their guns don't care about intervening squads of dudes for the purposes of the Character rule. Maybe don't build as many as I have, but a 5-man squad of Deathmarks could get you some mileage.

Doomsday Ark vs Ghost Ark: Honestly, I'd have to just say Ghost Ark here. It is cheaper to field and is such a force multiplier for your Warrior squads. Will it be dead by the end of turn 2? Almost certainly. But in all my games with it so far, it's soaked 90% of the enemy army's shooting (at 1000 points) for both those turns for it to happen. And on the other hand, for less than 100more points than the Doomsday Ark you could field a pair of Annihilation Barges for much more consistent fire power output (203 points for D3 shots plus 10 bolters vs 292 points for 16 Str 7 shots and 6 Str 6 shots, all with chances for additional hits). The consistency of thru-put just puts the Doomsday Ark to shame. That said, with some magnet work and opting not to put the "broken warriors" inside the Ghost Ark, you could always magnetize the gun option to swap back and forth in case they drop the cost in the future.