[Necrons] 5th Edition Revisions - Necron Lords

Morning all,

I was hoping to do an article on my first game of Spearhead over the weekend, but unfortunately I had to pull out of playing. So I thought I'd try to continue this series on what would be good to see in terms of a 5th Edition Necron Codex.

In this article, I'll discuss the rumoured changes to the only official HQ unit in the Necron Codex - the Necron Lord.

The Choices

Firstly, there is massive debate over whether there will be a system of Silver, Gold and Platinum Lord choices in the Codex. Personally, I think this is a bit of a backwards Step that GW won't take. It harks back to the old situation we had with Space Marine Captains and Commanders, Chaos Lieutenants and Lords, Witch Hunter Palantines and Cannonness.

The proposed idea is:
- Silver Lord, S and T 4 with 2 Wounds and 2 Attacks.
- Gold Lord, S and T5 with 3 wounds and 3 Attacks.
- Platinum Lord, supposedly wears a C'Tan suit and is a toned down version of old C'Tan.

To me, the Silver Lord is completely un-necessary and as I say, harks back to an older, less streamlined edition. Nowadays the key is "That's the official model, that's what rules it uses".

I personally think it will be a case of we get a Necron Lord and a C'Tan choice. Equivalent to how the Chaos Marines have a Chaos Lord and a Daemon Prince. This article is about how the Necron Lord will be changed in 5th edition so...

Stats
I would guess that the Necron Lord will stay mostly untouched in terms of the profile. First and foremost, the Lord is a Support Unit but his stats match, or better some Marine style HQ units, so it's tempting what to do with him.

Wargear
Now that the usual Armoury / Wargear section of the books have been removed, I feel the Necron Lord will lose a lot of their options around, especially now with the trend that most upgrades tend to remove a pistol / close combat weapon.

I think the likely starting wargear for the Lord will be the Staff of Light along with a "Free Hand". The freehand will be able to take one of the following:

- Resurrection Orb, same as currently. Will allow Feel No Pain (We'll Be Back updated) to be used regardless of situation, within usual distance.

- Gauss Flamer? This would be a cool option to see on the Necron Lord, one of the only models to be able to carry this and thin out some hordes or flush from cover. I'm thinking it's a Wrist mounted weapon - if you can imagine the Super Battle Droids from Star Wars... you'll see what I mean.

- Veil of Darkness. I would say this offers a cover save or Night fighting to the units, to avoid a Battlecannon shot blowing up the unit. I've got a feeling the Deep Strike use of this will be removed.

- Chrono-heart: A bit of a combination of Chronometron and Gaze of Flames from the current Codex. Reduces the threat of an easy Assault on a Necron unit.

Then we talk about the options to upgrade the Close Combat weapons:

- Staff of Light: Is as standard and how it is in the Codex.

- Warscythe: Make it more like the Pariahs with the built in Gauss Blaster. I do like this weapon though...

- Flayer Claws: Either 1, or a pair. Similar to Lightning Claws with with a twist?

Along with this, Invulnerable Saves are pretty much "As Standard" with most HQs. I think the likelihood is a built in Phase Shifter, with 4+ Inv, maybe drop this down to a 5+ Inv.

I'd also be some Movement options like:
- Destroyer Body: Move like a Jetbike
- Spyder Body: Attacks like a Monstrous Creature, loses Independent Character?
- Pariah Gene: Lord gains Fleet and Furious Charge?

I'm a bit short on ideas for Movement options. I've seen plenty of Spyder Body conversions knocking around that prompted the idea for Spyder body idea. The Pariah Gene option just makes me base the idea around changes to Pariah's I'd like to see.

Build Unlocking
The main thing as a support unit that the Necron Lord is, would be to unlock new army builds in what is a stale Troop section for the Necron army.

- Lord on Destroyer Body: Similar to Space marine captain on Bike. 1 unit of Destroyers become Troop choices.
- Flayer Lord: All Flayed Ones become troops.
- As standard: 1 unit of Immortals becomes Troops.
- Pariah Gene: 1 unit of Pariahs become Troops.

Conclusion
A lot of this is wish listing, ideas bouncing around in my head and a fair bit of emptying my Brain into the Blog Article.

What do you guys think? Any other ideas you may have bouncing around, or any critiscisms of what I've thought up?

SB