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There is no beating around the bush, the Necron Night Scythe has got a massive boost with the new Flyer rules in 6th Edition, or at least, it now does what GW intended it to do when they first introduced it into our robotic army. So what is the best way to use the Night Scythe? I am not talking about making a spammed out Scythe army with Night and Doom Scythes all over the place, that is more like a themed army as such. I am talking about fitting one or two Scythes into a generic army, and how best to make them work...
From my point of few, and from what I am seeing from other Necron players, the Rapid Fire Gauss Flayer is too good, and too cheap, for Warriors not to make a massive come back as the number one troops choice. Sixth edition seems to dictate that you need to be maxing out with five or six troop choices, with less cover saves and more objectives to hold in most missions. This is great, as there is nothing like having a mass of 60+ Warriors in your Necron Phalanx walking towards your enemy. It just looks epic, but where does this leave the Night Scythe in our army?
Well, I am thinking that just one or maybe two Night Scythes is the way to go, Warriors are cheap enough to allow for this and still maintain their numbers. A single Night Scythe is going to be annoying enough for anyone, even if they are Skyfire ready. Talking of that, if you are facing an army that has lots of Skyfire, and you only have one Scythe in your list, at least that's only one thing they can take down with the points they have spent to get the Skyfire, unlike if you had six or more Scythes. Plus, if our single Scythe does go down, at least we have the benefit of the unit inside just go into reserve if it is destroyed. Moving a Flyer is probably the only thing that you need to worry about, when it is zooming, you have to be moving at least 18" and you can only pivot on the spot 90 degrees, so most of the time you are going to have to circle your enemy to be able to shoot the Tesla Destructor. So what is going to come out of your Night Scythe portal?
For me, the obvious choice is a big group of Immortals, I like the idea of having troops in it for a start, and the Immortals stronger gun and better save is going to win over Warriors, as you never know where you will need to get out and what you will need to take down. The Scythe movement is where we are going to be able to take full advantage of having troops in it. Being able to unload and Rapid Fire our Immortals to target isolated groups is the number one use, or if that is not needed, we can just unload them in the last few turns to take objectives.
The Necron FAQ states that we can move 36", disembark and shoot Snap Shots, or Disembark at 24", shooting at normal ballistic skill, not forgetting we can move the unit six inches as well from disembarking. This means we can effectively move and Rapid Fire anything that is 42" away at full ballistic skill, nothing to stiff at! The only issue with the portal is you cannot embark back on the Scythe once you are off it, this is understandable, as the thing is moving very fast, so it does make sense. So now we are out on foot and have destroyed our isolated target, now what? Enter the Veil Cryptek!
EDIT:
The new FAQ now lets you embark on a Night Scythe, but I still think this Cryptek idea is valid and still works well...
The Veil Cryptek has just changed the one hit wonder Immortals, into a very mobile unit that can move around the board targeting and distracting other units, and if still up at the end, Veil in to hold or contest any objectives, including the Linebreaker. He also adds another dimension to the unit if the Scythe had been destroyed and the unit has been placed back into reserve. I know you cannot deep strike back in the next turn, but at least you will be back to full movement around the board the turn after that!
