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Hey all. A friend of mine plays Necrons, and is well aware of all the standard techniques for using them effectively (keeping your Warriors safe, smart application of Monoliths, etc.). He doesn't currently have any elite choices, however, and was looking into them.

Basically, which of the three elite choices are actually worth something?

I figure that Pariahs are a pretty scary unit, what with their toughness and strength five, warscythes, gauss blasters, and special morale rules, but I seem to recall them being expensive and unable to resurrect.

Flayed Ones seem like they could have some promise if you paired a Lord with Lightning Field and some other close-combat wargear up with them. Is this true?

Finally, Immortals just seem rock solid. Great toughness, great guns, not horribly expensive, and they can resurrect.

So, Dakka, what are your thoughts and/or experiences on the Necron Elite?

Immortals are propably regarded as best. Flayed ones as worst.

Flayed ones could be good but really needed to be troops.

It's Immortals for the win!! If you were going to take Parihas then it would probably be a good idea to only take 1 unit of them.

Pariahs suffer from I 3. This initiative is not enough to make them effective against anything but Power Fist Terminators or Mega Nobs and even then you have to kill enough of them. LC Terminators and other quick CC units will tear them apart before they even get to strike. If you use them, follow dignifiedsausage's suggestion and only take 1 squad and also screen them with something like Scarabs or Warriors.

Flayed Ones are, in a word, terrible. VikingScott was right, if they could be taken as troops they might be worth it. Even then though I'm not sure that they would be too good.

Immortals are amazing. The sheer amount of firepower they can put out, coupled with the strength of their guns makes them well worth the points. Their a fire platform, similar to Obliterators. Use them to take out lightly armored vehicles and masses of troops.

End verdict-Immortals are the best, Pariahs can be useful, Flayed Ones are a no no.

Flayed Ones are still better than the Pariahs IMHO.

Immortals are really about the only solid choice in the elites section, as others have said. Brutal firepower, T5, and the Necron USR mean you can almost always find a purpose for them. The only problems with them is they are fairly expensive and sometimes it's just too hard to get them to fit into a list without gutting something vital. Also, a Veil lord to ride with them is almost a requirement, so that's another pile of points and an HQ slot.

Pariahs first problem is they are CC troops that are fairly immobile. This was not so much of an issue back in 3rd edition when the Necron phalanx was still a viable setup and there was not as many brutally effective CC units. These days however, it just makes it too easy to avoid them. Add to this only 1 attack, low initiative, lack of the Necron special rule, and no inv save and even with the nice anti-psyker rules and wargear, you can't really justify the cost.

Flayed Ones really aren't that bad, but in todays environment, they hardly can be called "elite". Basicly in stats and cost they are assault marines trading the jump packs and special weapons for the infiltrate USR, deepstriking, move through cover, and terrifying visage. The biggest problems for them is again lack of mobility, and a lack of any sort of special weapon. You've got a lot of different ways to get them where you want them, but without fleet and without being able to assault after deepstriking/teleporting, they are also easily avoided.

Immortals are the only elite choice a necron player should take.

Everything else is bad and worse.

If the upgrades to their claws that you can buy gave them rending (and they had fleet), then Flayed Ones would be great. But they do not. Also, I have never gotten flayed visage to work. Ever. Why? Oh yeah, every army has ASTKNF. Or is fearless. Or has a rerollable LD10. Or is Tau.

Pariahs are too slow to be good against anything by PF Termies. They should be no more expensive than Immortals, really, given their other limitations. In the next book, hopefully Pariahs will be worth a damn in CC, or their psychic horror ability will work against something other than Sanctioned Psykers. Or they will be Necrons so they can be teleported. Or SOMETHING.

tl;dr: Immortals FTW.

Thanks for the feedback, more or less what I expected. This is good news for me, he plans on taking Flayed Ones.

Immortals are the most competitive option by far. However pariahs are deadly if you can get them into CC. Sadly without WBB this will take quite a bit of trickery and it's a bit of a point sink.

Flayed ones as stated before needed to be troops.

Immortals are the most competitive choice for sure, but I don't hate Pariahs as much as some people do. The batrep in my sig has them doing a pretty fair amount of ass kicking.

Flayed Ones have serious problems IMO, but some people do make them work.

Norbu's recent Batrep had the Pariahs doing very useful things too. They're overpriced and excessively fragile, lacking the Necron rule, but the Ld7 radius power can be extremely useful if you are able to hide them and keep them alive.

That said, most of the time, it's just Immortals.

Monster Rain wrote:Immortals are the most competitive choice for sure, but I don't hate Pariahs as much as some people do. The batrep in my sig has them doing a pretty fair amount of ass kicking.

Flayed Ones have serious problems IMO, but some people do make them work.

Pariahs have a bit less flexibility than Immortals, and for some reason, people hate Pariahs not doing what other Necrons do (WBB), so hence player reluctance to take them.

Just find the right synergy with them.

Attach 2 Destroyer Lords to the the Pariahs and for most intents and purposes they're Immortals, plus you get a Fearless unit for your Lords...

Considering Assault Terminators tend to be of the Thundershield variety, they can provide a much-needed deterrent (or roadblock at least), and secondary shooting. The inability to use a Monolith matters little too should you be stocking up on Heavy Destroyers anyway...