When Dawn of War 2 came out with the information that armies would be commander-central, I wondered what kind of commander units that Necrons would get. The rumor is that the first expansion will raise the cap from 3 commanders to 4. (Probably all in the name of Chaos having a god-themed quaternary, an advertising ploy and overall laziness on part of the developers of stock DoW2.)

Most of the retarded low-brow neanderthals inhabiting message boards simply figure it’ll be a Necron Lord, a Lord Destroyer, Pariah and Immortal. Not only does this make little to no sense and smack of a lack of imagination, but it also essentially is just pooping DoW1’s system into DoW2 in ADDITION to ignoring three of the most important reasons why this is idiotic:

*Fifth edition rules for 40k have opened up Necron thematics so that armies are completely customizable: some Necron Lords in control of their armies have lost all sentience to the point that they’re featureless automatons, while others are completely insane, and have refashioned the entire bodies of their vast armies to resemble giant kittens or winged strawberries that vomit Gauss-enhanced spears. So what do most people think of when redesigning an army? DURRRR I guess I’ll make them BLUE DURRRRR Freaking idiots. A whole universe of possibilities - more than any other race due to the fact that Necrons can look like absolutely anything, being minds within a metal shell, and people just want to paint them a slightly different hue. You filthy savages. You make me sick.

*The incoming codex (slated Q2 2009) promises to make major changes to the races’ rules, canon and possibly even add new unit types. I doubt it, given GW’s incompetence in radically changing things without adding anything NEW of consequence, but the possibility exists. The odds of DoW2 Necrons being anything like DoW1 Necrons, based on fluff, is low. I’ll add a subpoint to that and point out that Necrons in DoW1 weren’t even LIKE fluff Necrons. They were nearly polar opposites. The plodding, low-cost Necrons of Dawn of War don’t match the average speed, very high cost, low-numbered Necrons of the Tabletop. So, ultimately, basing DoW2 Necrons off of the persistently-criticized and lame duck TT Necrons and ESPECIALLY the DoW1 Necrons is pointless. Once again, people have the chance to make suggestions for the race, but no one is using it.

*Third point: it’s asinine. That’s my point. I’ve already summarized why for the most part. Also consider that Necrons don’t even have commanders (yet). For the people that are just crapping out the idea of Lord Destroyer, Immortal and Pariah based on current information, this doesn’t even coincide with current information. Pariahs are converted humans and Immortals are the oldest type of Necron - the ones with the least amount of sentience remaining. Why would they even be in the running for a command position when they can’t even THINK? I’ll tell you why - they LOOK different. That’s all. Necrons are notorious for having almost no unit selections. They have two ranged infantry types: Warriors and Immortals. Both look almost exactly alike. They have Pariahs, Flayed Ones and Wraiths as melee infantry types. Flayed Ones are Warriors with meat on their backs. Pariahs and Wraiths look somewhat different than the base design, but all three types do basically the same thing at different speeds due to very minor rules. Being a “noob race” in that Necrons are easy to play and have practically no strategic options but Destroyer Spam and Warrior spam, absolutely everything is run through the Necron Lord. The NECRON LORD.

Whether he’s standing or a retard on a hoverboard (the Destroyer Lord - what a stupid looking design), that is the Necron commander, for the time being. Conceiving of any other type of commander using “well, that’s how it is!” logic is completely illogical. I’d be delighted to have a variety of commander types, but it’s not going to happen.

Or is it? Also consider from the new rule edition the fact that Necron Lords will now come in four (four. remember that number?) types: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. Okay, putting aside the fact that a 14 year old could have thought up this chain of command (ooooh, it’s based on metal values! Great idea, Bobby!), this does present us with four types of commanders. Or, at least, commander upgrades on-the-field. Necron Lords can change their appearance on the fly. Shoot, even new edition Necrons with enhanced Necrodermis are supposedly going to be able to transform into C’Tan avatars. (The current “real” C’Tan, which are even rumored to simply be crazy Necron Lords that have built huge, overpowered bodies are thousands of years, are being moved to the Apocalypse rules.)

Good enough for me. All of that to say this: I decided to design Dawn of War 2 commanders. I also decided they would all be Platinum-level capable commanders, one way or another, meaning they would either transform or have abilities that mete out the same value.

SO… I decided, hey… there are FOUR remaining C’Tan in the universe: the Nightbringer, the Deceiver, the Void Dragon and the Outsider. And guess what? They all have different abilities. The Nightbringer is the most aggressive of all of them, and considered to be the most physically powerful. The Deceiver is the weakest, but the most successful due to its subversion and …dur… deception. The Void Dragon and Outsider aren’t active, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t Necron Lords that are in their service. We saw as much when the Necrons tried to awaken the Vaul Moon-bound Void Dragon. The Void Dragon is the most powerful overall of the C’Tan, and heavily focused on the manipulation of technology. There were once numerous armies under his influence, all decked out with the best technology in the universe at the time. And that was before Gauss technology came around and the ancient Eldar precursor units to the Wraithlords managed to beat them back. The Outsider is locked away in a Dyson Sphere (allegedly). He supposedly went insane after devouring thousands of other C’Tan, many of whom still exist within him and his mind. The Outsider lives to sow misery and insanity. Those trapped within his realm are said to be driven nearly mad, but always kept on the brink of reason to enhance their suffering.

So how about we use these four guys for the four commanders? Oh, no, no. Let’s use a Flayed One. He wears skin, so that means he’s a master strategist. Morons.

Anyway, here’s the first one: the Nightbringer. Seeing as how the Nightbringer seems to be the template for contemporary Necrons, I just made him as stereotypical as possible, and used most of the current Necron Lord TT model.

I know scythes don’t actually make good melee weapons. Tell that to Games Workshop.

Rant over.

Oh, and I decided I was sick of looking at green, so I made the green glow optional. Night-lord Necron-bringer here glows freaking monochrome.