Necron review elites, Flayed Ones

When the Necrons were doing their War in Heaven bit, they used the C’Tan. Well after it was said and done they thought it would be best to destroy the same C’Tan that helped them. One of these was Llandu’gor “the flayer.” He was obliterated by the Necrons, but before he was gone, he cursed them. His curse would spread like a disease through the Necrons and cause them to have a bit of his terrible hunger. After a while it was laughed off, if robots laugh. However, there were some Necrons who got all crazy, craved blood and got themselves blade fingers. They began to just appear during conflicts to revel in the blood and gore. Then they would disappear as the battle waned and the carnage subsided.

I made them, so I guess I'll need to use them

Well the Necron higher ups didn’t like this and started to hunt down these Flayed Ones to stop the spread of their curse. However, they tend to hide in a pocket dimension, but not the same one the Deathmarks use, and are hard to destroy. There even are some Necron leaders that like when the Flayed Ones arrive during a conflict. They sow discord and give aid whether it is needed or not. The Flayed Ones area blessing and a curse, or are they?

Flayed Ones are a bit better and worse than the previous codex.  They are already universally poo-pooed by Necron players and codex aficionados. They come with Warrior-ish stats: WS 4, BS 1, strength and toughness 4, initiative 2, 1 wound, 3 attacks, leadership 10 and a 4+ save. They have the infiltrate and deep strike rules as well. They even cost the same amount of points as a Warrior squad (the normal Canadian retirement age), come standard with five to start and may have up to fifteen more for +13 points each.

Now these guys have gotten cheaper since the last codex, have gained an attack and kept the special deployment rules. However, they lost the initiative 4, a 3+ save and the Horrific Visage rule (lower enemy leadership by 1 when in combat). Well cheaper and more attacks is good, but lower initiative and the loss of a 3+ might not be a good trade off. The bigger loss for me is the initiative 4. I can work around the 4+ save. Hey wait why a BS 1? Seriously G.W. you almost had it right with a unit that has zero ranged capability. If they had a BS 0 then they might be a point or so cheaper and that would just be crazy. Crazy enough for people to maybe want to use them!

The interwebs say these guys are drek and they might be correct. These are elite and besides their deployment options, they don’t seem very elite. A Necron Warrior with two extra attacks just doesn’t scream I’m elite. If they had; furious charge, counter attack, a better armor save, some power weapon option, defensive grenades, were fearless or even had crummy rending then I could see them as elite. Personally they seem like troops that got moved to elite for some reason. 

How can these best be used? Well a certain HQ can give them furious charge or counter assault (if they are on the board before the turn starts).  A squad of…say 8-10 with furious charge is an okay assault unit. That is abit of an understatement since there really isn't a good Necron assault unit. It is the Necrons, everything is going before them and we all know it.

The ability to outflank or deep strike to contest an objective or hit a “soft” target is descent. The problem lies with how soft the target has to be, if you get the right roll for outflanking reserves and /or you don’t scatter badly off the deep strike. Sure these are common reserve concerns, but they are concerns all the same. Now there is an HQ that allows a unit to be a Flayer magnet and gives a zero scatter chance, but more on him another time.

Being able to infiltrate is always something, but you’ll need a few squads or a big squad to ensure they survive being closer to the enemy from the start. Still it is a safer and more reliable way to get them closer to a location.

I guess a squad could work as a cheap counter assault unit or speed bump. They lack the staying power of a fearless unit, so the term speed bump is used loosely. A few bad rolls and they get swept and your opponent gets a free consolidation move. Hiding behind some troops to jump out and counter assault might be viable. Necrons are not the best fighters (coming in just ahead of Tau) and having a squad of Flayed Ones to pile into an embattled troop squad might be helpful.

Hmmmmm….how are these guys usable? Well they sort of like the Chaos Lesser Demons, only slower, cheaper and not a scoring unit. I’ll try them eventually, since I made a unit of these back in the day. I don't want to dismiss them as a terrible unit just yet.