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Unit of the Week: Lychguard


Captain Idaho

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...and at the head of my Legions will be the Lychguard. Unstoppable in the persecution of my will and immovable in the defence of my sovereignty. Those opposed to me must face them and know defeat!

 

Apologies for the delay all. I've been working extra hours and have been spread thin.

 

Lychguard

 

Things to discuss and consider, including but not limited to:

 

- What unit composition do you prefer?

- How do you use the unit/think these models should be used?

- How does the choice of Dynasty Codes affect this unit and your choices?

- Army build around the unit.

- Relics and Warlord Traits and their influence on this unit.

- Character support and delivery.

 

Personally I would go Sword and board. One of the things I like about Necrons is just how unkillable they are. A 4+ invulnerable save contributes to that greatly.

 

Protecting characters around you is legitimate of course, but probably often you won't get a chance to. Still, bringing fallen back to life is handy. Makes it feel like a free bonus.

 

As I'm Novokh inclined I'd try and link them up with my Warlord for more attacks. With rerolls. Yum.

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Happy to kick things off - though i am by no means an experianced 40k player, let alone Overlord.

 

i have been really happy with my 8-10 unit of sword and board. They seem to underestimated by opponents so they try to shoot them and i jump them with DISPERSION FIELD AMPLIFICATION, or charge them and find they are actually pretty tanky and cant just be swept aside. I try to deliberatly have them forward to bait the shooting attack;

A) aim for them to plan to focus fire down on them, and use DISPERSION FIELD AMPLIFICATION to force them into a bad choice (risk being fired back and shooting at a 3++, or swap to another target and have wasted shots)

B)if they do ignore them i can walk them up and have them camp an objective or charge into their lines where they become annoying to get rid of. or stay infront of the weapons platforms as the shield they should be.

 

This works for my as i try to build Necrons around forcing opponent into bad decisions. heres a smallish unit of Lychguard that should be easy to deal with, or heres a big unit of warriors or a big unit of tomb blades - just remember once you start dont stop till its all dead. Force them into going for the lychguard and by the time they realise that was a mistake its to late, giving the warriors enough of a break to survive for at least one more turn.

 

As i said though, this is a newly awoken Overlord - whoose mind was most defninantly damaged in the long wait - so read with caution.

War scythes can be pretty devastating once they get in. And I like the idea (haven’t used it yet) of the +1S stratagem against t4 elites or vehicles. I’m usually veiling them in with my warlord, but that charge is dubious even with the reroll trait. The biggest downside for the scythes is the lack of survivability.

 

Has anyone used them with night scythes? Beaming them in with a lord or overlord using the strat sounds good....

Personally I lean more towards sword and board (in a theoretical sense anyway, my only box of them is TriPraets and haven’t gotten around to getting a box), as you lose very little in terms of hitting power but gain massive amounts of staying power, which I think is more important. After all, a unit does no damage if dead, but at least a little damage if they’ve survived.

 

Given the stratagems dispersion field amplification and Disruption fields for +1 STR, while a hefty CP investment, is much more durable and almost as hard-hitting for a small points investment over a warscythe (less than +5 ppm over scytheguard)

 

When I pick forgebane up I suspect I’ll be building sword and board, as i believe even a min squad will take a hell of a lot on firepower to clear off the table and generally be annoying.

Sword & Board unit Via monolith in about the third turn in their back lines when my opponents close spaced units have been thinned/spread out or moved forwards to objectives ...and i arrive with the hammer unit :devil:  to start carving from their side back towards mine!!!.... well that's the plan and it works... at least more than 60% of the time :tongue.: (acceptable odds for an uncaring overlord :laugh.: ) 

i too have the forgebane box and need to put them together and stop using proxies. 

 

Cheers, Mithril 

Sword & Board unit Via monolith in about the third turn in their back lines when my opponents close spaced units have been thinned/spread out or moved forwards to objectives ...and i arrive with the hammer unit :devil:  to start carving from their side back towards mine!!!.... well that's the plan and it works... at least more than 60% of the time :tongue.: (acceptable odds for an uncaring overlord :laugh.: ) 

i too have the forgebane box and need to put them together and stop using proxies. 

 

Cheers, Mithril 

 

http://e.lvme.me/nzu2igx.jpg

The veil of time with an overlord using MYBD is an option? for an 8" charge turn 1. Or use Nephrekh for the strategem to teleport them in? Or third choice! the deceiver. Or a mix and match of the 3. there are ways

This is what I have been using and it is devastating.  Even if you miss your charge, my opponents have over reacted and put a whole turn of shooting into them.  Burn the stratagem and turn back mortal wounds on them.  They will either keep taking mortal wounds or leave them alone.  I haven't had an opponent wipe a 10 man squad with shields as of yet.  I still don't think that the monolith is worth the points cost so the deceiver/monolith/lg bomb gets REALLY expensive to make it work.  Overlord with Veil of Darkness has been what I have seen works the best.  Plus that gives your army some breathing room.  They can soak a lot of shots.

I play my 5 Lychguard with the sword and shield option in conjunction with an Overlord (voidscythe, resurrection orb) sporting the Crimson Haze warlord trait. It is so effective at what it does even at minimum squad size every opponent I play has learned to move away from them a little too well. In the past I've played the Veil of Darkness on a Cryptek, intent on ferrying 20 Warriors across the board to shoot something up using the Talent for Annihilation stratagem, but now I am pretty much sold on using VoD with my Overlord/Lychguard to keep them relevant and Dispersion Field Amplification to keep them alive once they've arrived. I have yet to do so in a game but if it goes as well as it seems like it can (nice to hear it working for fellow Overlords to be sure) I may even beef the squad to 10 models despite my concerns about morale (and having to paint more of those shields :lol:) and the cost in points.

I would still be very cautious about playing them so aggressively against psychic armies like Thousand Sons, Grey Knights, or Tyranids. I've had mortal wounds take 5 Wraiths off the table in a phase, even a full health Doom Scythe just because the way I played had them closest to the enemy psykers. Mortal wounds are another of our greatest enemies with how sadly few options there are to stop psychic powers going off.

yeah with all the psychic armies out there...we need Pariahs:cool.:  back... the gloom prism on a Canoptekh spider doesn't really cut it anymore...:confused: 

will have to try the Sword N Board boys with Overlord-Void scythe/Res orb combo next time...:devil:

 

Cheers, Mithril  

For psychic defense, I think it would make sense if every Necron unit got a 6+ DtW role against offensive powers. Just straight up 16% of not being hurt by them. No matter how many powers are thrown at them. Kind of the inverse of how Gauss worked in 7th. After all, isn’t the very materials Necrons use to build stuff supposed to be anathema to warp shenanigans?

 

As for Lychguard...I have not used either (yet) but academically I lean towards the Warscythes b/c to me Wraiths fulfill the 3++ criteria and are a bit more independent with their speed and extra wounds.

Something worth mentioning for Lychguard is their guardian protocols rule. It can be a little rough at times v. high damage weapons but having 10 extra wounds for my Overlord that can regenerate (ResOrb handy for that at crucial times) has been very handy.

Late to the party on this one but boy oh boy. I played these for the first time (sword and board) with my overlord using veil at the weekend against a knights list. I jumped them forwards to secure an objective scoring me 4 points in the first turn after which the knight shot them with a volcano cannon causing itself a whole mortal wound and killing a lychguard before charging them. it basically bounced off of them killing only one more of my novokh lychguard. I put a lot of hurt on the poor knight mainly with the Voidscythe. in my turn the nightbringer joined the fight and the two dead lychguard returned to life allowing me to bring down the first of three knights I was facing with my melee crons. in the following turns the absorbed two turns of being shot by one of the new knights with the relic plasma thing and every other gun in the guys army before finally falling to him in combat. I love these! other then destroyers I try to make them auto include every necron army I play especially when im playing novokh dynasty.

@ Boltgun Metal -  You already had me at Novokh :wub: ... I'm doing a trade to get some Van Saar shields so i can make a 5 man Borg Unit of Sword and Board LychGuard ...:biggrin.:  apparently it seems i'm kitbashing human auxiliaries for my necron army...first an Armiger Triarch stalker...now it's mind scrubbing humans for cheap bodyguards :teehee:.

 

Mithril   

I’ll take full credit for your transformation into caring somewhat for your human auxiliaries. :D

 

But it’s good to know that my idea sparked a whole host of creative paths for you. Makes me glad to have been on here to know I’ve been useful to someone else.

 

*ahem* back on topic,

It’s kinda a shame that Lychguard only benefit from a few dynasties...Novokuznetsk NOVOKH* for the melee code, Nihilakh for their dynasty specific stratagem, and Nephrekh for getting to close quarters...i think only Lychguard, flayed ones, and scarabs have this issue...but honestly, if you’re trying to run mass of any of these, a bad dynasty code is probably the least of your issues, now that I think about it. (He says while dreaming of a mass scarab list with a bunch of cloakteks.)

 

*bloody autocorrect....

Anrakyr with Nihilakh Lychguard charging an objective would be a fun time. MWBD and re-rolling the charge on the way in, use the Reclaim a Lost Empire stratagem to make your opponent's turn extra spicy. Want to fall back and fire your weapons, feeble mortals? Dispersion Field Amplification for a 2++ and mortal wound potential. Maybe deliver them via (a pair of) Night Scythe(s) or hope for a 2 with the Deceiver?

Novokh. Reroll to hits and the ability to attack a second time.

 

The Nihilakh dynasty doesn’t help CC, and the stratagem is used at the end of your turn. This lets your opponent negate it by falling back from that combat or possibly throwing more cc units at them to kill them before they get to attack.

If your opponent falls back and shoots you, use the DSA stratagem and you have a 2++ save that dishes mortal wounds back on a 6. If anything is (still) in combat with you that turn each Lychguard will have 4 attacks still hitting on 2+ thanks to MWBD, while still maintaining a 3++ in combat.

 

Novokh is great, just trying to figure out other options.

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