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So, While I was getting bored of playing only necrons and am planning to start Chaos, I do kind of wanna build some more on my necrons.. But I dont want to just build aimlessly, I want some flavor and mayhaps a theme! The first step, I want a special character to lead my necron force so why not build a theme arround one of them? (Just like my friend plays Ultramarines second company lead by Sicarius, And Iyanden Eldar with lots of wraith bone cronstructs) So, I was thinking and thinking,.. And I just cant come to a solution, What themes do you all think fits the various necron special characters?

Well, seeing how Imotekh and Zandrekh are the most generic leaders and their armies are pretty much the least 'original' I will ignore them for now. The codex does actually provide players with a few very nice themes for their armies, most notably:

-Trazyn's treasure hunting expeditions whose only goal seems to be claiming artifacts for their master as he loves to collect all the fun stuff from all over the universe in his 'little' museum. If you want to stylize your army, you'd probably be looking for spyders, wraiths, warriors, tomb blades and scarabs - everything that would help him search the planets.

-Anrakyr's great unification expedition - Anrakyr the Traveller has a grand plan to unite the Dynasties through diplomacy and warfare. He's the wise man there with a great goal. If you want to stylize the army, you'd most likely be looking at anything Triarch - stalkers, praetorians - he'd most likely be bringing the 'officials' with him and try to look very diplomatic.

-Szeras' Sick Science - Szeras is a mad scientist and his great goal is to ascend into C'tan-like godhood(because daemonhood is too mainstream) and he wants to become a god. He's also the one who took biggest part in turning the Necrontyr into living metal Necrons. Style ideas - Cryptek courts, flayed ones, Immortals(because he likes quality stuff). Think Haemonculi Coven but undead and with Immortals as their bodyguard.

If you're going for the more generic Necrons, aforementioned Zandrekh and Imotekh are best choices unless making up your own Dynasty. With them the choices are straightforward with Imotekh maybe favouring more balanced armies with everything in them(and some scythe Lychguard bodyguard for prestige and swag) and Zandrekh favouring mobile armies embarked on Gost Arks for some relentless tsunami blitzkrieg tactics supported by flying croissants, possibly liking a few sword&shield lychguard to stand around him as he doesn't fight himself too much, leaving it to Obyron.

I hope it helps a little! Also don't forget the mad Phaeron that leads a dynasty almost wholly made of mad Flayed Ones!

How about making a Necron force where they are about to reach their humanity or what ever they were before they became machines. You can even use other miniatures to show they got into corporal bodies.

Or even make a force when they were before Machines.

Davor wrote:
How about making a Necron force where they are about to reach their humanity or what ever they were before they became machines. You can even use other miniatures to show they got into corporal bodies.

Or even make a force when they were before Machines.

The problem with this is that they were very weak physically before biotransference, also before they were the necrons they were known as the necrontyr. Also if you wanted to play that army fully, they would lose their biggest advantage reanimation protocols. Which would make almost all of the units over-priced because reanimation protocols is factored into their base cost.

Going with Anrakyr the traveller as your general as well as main theme could be very cool since he recruits necrons from all kinds of dynasties, so instead of having an army were everyone is painted in the same way you would have Anrakyr and a large unit of Immortals as the focal point and then pick maybe two or three other colourschemes that you would use randomly in your army. Then as Klerych said some Preatorians could also be very nice since he's on official work, and naturally they would all be painted in the same way.

I wanted to go with a Zahndrekh/Obyron army. I always loved the fluff behind this pair. I even love the long-suffering look of Obyron's model. Zahndrekh's madness lends itself extremely well to an army theme, too. Were it me, I'd go with either a heavily corroded theme (because Zahndrekh just doesn't notice) or paint them in bizarre colors, perhaps greenstuffing rags onto them, as though Zahndrekh has ordered them clothed/painted in the colors of their uniforms.

Hmm.. I think Trazyn would have many lords and Lychguard in his army.. And thanks for all the tips and ideas! Hmm...

Two words: looted necrons. Just kidding! But seriously I like Jimsolo's idea it could make for a really neat army. Or you could do a Szeras force and have all sorts or strange "prototype" crons, hulking immortals or centipede spinal colum warriors, embrace your inner Frankenstein.

Dark Harvest is a nice little thematic Necron variant. Their rules are a bit different, but they've got interesting HQ choices in the form of Kultekh the Worldkiller (a real melee beast of a Nemesor with a massive hate boner for anything living) and Toholk the Blinded (a renowned inventor and Harbinger of Eternity that sees through temporal sensors instead of eyes and repairs your vehicles through localized reversal of the flow of time around damaged parts).

As an army they're a lot more assault oriented than regular Necrons and can take Flayed Ones as troops, though they lose access to C'tan shards as they're the one Dynasty that killed a C'tan.

Hmm.. I am thinking of getting The Fall of Orpheus.. But.. The book is rather expensive.. Is it worth it for the necron list for normal non apocalypse matches against friends?

Have a look at the fall of Damnos if your friend plays ultramarines

Also have a think about your warlord, and also think about the weather, I know it sounds odd but Necrons do have technonlgy that basically allows to utilise the weather, so think if your overlord has a particular favoured weather and huzzah you have a theme and now you can grow from there..

For example I have always thought of making a Necron force, with a winter snow/ice theme so I thought of a particularly morbid and cold overlord that just has a hatred for life in general so wants to go to as many worlds full of life and freeze them over using tech to manipulate and portals from other ice-worlds that had been conquered to perform this new ice-age upon the planets he attacks as reflection of his cold personality

That my idea but hopefully this will help you develop your own ideas, like an overlord which has an affinity to water, or fire and molten worlds, or an overlord with an affinity for dead worlds and just wants to atomise all the worlds he sees turning them all to LV-426, planets (yes that is the world from Ailens).

Hope this helps

Dark Harvest lists allow you to build a "crazed" army list, with flayed ones as deep striking troops. Flayed ones as troops does increase their usefulness IMHO vastly. Especially if we get the consolidate into combat rule come in in 6.5/7th edition and you bring in Zandrekh as an ally (phased reinforcements!).

Biggest problem I got with the Flayed Ones is the price.. 310 kronor for 5 models.. If you want a full unit of 20 thats 1240 kronor.. So expensive..

Merellin wrote:
Biggest problem I got with the Flayed Ones is the price.. 310 kronor for 5 models.. If you want a full unit of 20 thats 1240 kronor.. So expensive..

Or you get warriors and some greenstuff, leave out the weapons and make rags and pieces of flesh from the greenstuff

My greenstuff skills are unfortunately, Non existant.. Best thing I could do with my ability would probably be kitbashing some space marine lightning claws on Necron Warrior bodies.. XD Would probably look so stupid.. And it would be 275 kronor per 5.. So a slight improvement but not a big one..

Hmm.. Or maybe use warhammer fantasy ghouls.. Or for slightly more, Necron Warriors with ghoul arms.. XD Ghaa.. So hard to get good ideas when you suck at converting..

There are some good tutorials out there for using plasticard to adapt the hands of warriors and create flayed ones. Very simple. If you have the time. I've definitely considered it.

Merellin wrote:Hmm.. I am thinking of getting The Fall of Orpheus.. But.. The book is rather expensive.. Is it worth it for the necron list for normal non apocalypse matches against friends?

Fall of Orpheus is an amazing book- worth it for the fluff and artwork alone IMHO. In terms of rules it gives you the rules for running Dark Harvest (which got me seriously considering trying to snatch a few units of Flayed Ones off of ebay), rules for Krieg and Minotaurs in case some of your pals are Imperials and might want to try them out, 7 new Necron units (not counting characters and slightly modified units such as the Charnal Lychguard), 6 of which are fully legal for regular Necron armies in standard 40k and the last being a LoW, plenty of new units for SM and IG as well (though I don't remember most of those very well) and extensive rules for a thematic Orphean Salvation campaign including optional rules for persistent ICs across missions over the course of the campaign, rules for 5 different warzones on 5 different planets, each with the option to play "standard" missions with planet appropriate modifications and a "legendary mission" that is a unique and highly thematic scenario specific to each planet (one of them is a survival mission that has the defenders holed up in ruins in the middle of a swamp while twice their point value in Necrons emerge from the murky depths around them via deepstriking like some kind of zombie apocalypse ).

The book also has the rules for Zone Mortalis, which are meant to simulate combat inside enclosed and possibly hazardous spaces.

Did I mention the fluff is AWESOME ?

happygolucky wrote:Have a look at the fall of Damnos if your friend plays ultramarines

Also have a think about your warlord, and also think about the weather, I know it sounds odd but Necrons do have technonlgy that basically allows to utilise the weather, so think if your overlord has a particular favoured weather and huzzah you have a theme and now you can grow from there..

For example I have always thought of making a Necron force, with a winter snow/ice theme so I thought of a particularly morbid and cold overlord that just has a hatred for life in general so wants to go to as many worlds full of life and freeze them over using tech to manipulate and portals from other ice-worlds that had been conquered to perform this new ice-age upon the planets he attacks as reflection of his cold personality

That my idea but hopefully this will help you develop your own ideas, like an overlord which has an affinity to water, or fire and molten worlds, or an overlord with an affinity for dead worlds and just wants to atomise all the worlds he sees turning them all to LV-426, planets (yes that is the world from Ailens).

Hope this helps

In FoO the Maynarkh Dynasty extinguished the sun of an Imperial star system-

[...]
EMERGENCY ADDENDUM:
Reports from Drucila Majoris indicate sunrise as observed by primary Hive overdue 18 hours. I repeat, THE SUN HAS FAILED TO RISE. Catastrophic temperature decrease globally in effect.

Also, the Inertialess drive is back in business baby!

Hmm... I think I'm going to run Zahndrekh and Obyron, And have Obyron in a full unit of Lychguard, And maybe try a unit of Flayed Ones, And have a unit of Wraiths.. So... Melee heavy.. XD