# Lychguard- Warscythes or swords and shields?



## Iron Angel (Aug 2, 2009)

I'm looking at these Lychguard, and I cannot for the life of me decide what to use.

I want my Lychguard to be very smashy in CC against basically everything. As they get a less powerful 4+ invuln (In the form of RP) against everything, they could conceivably fight even specialized CC troops if armed with Warscythes. I plan to Veil them into range with Obyron, though, and nothing beats a Tau player railgunning himself in the face because of the shields.

Speaking of which, who would you say the best CC character? Obyron looks the best.


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## Day2Dan (Sep 30, 2011)

Iron Angel said:


> I'm looking at these Lychguard, and I cannot for the life of me decide what to use.
> 
> I want my Lychguard to be very smashy in CC against basically everything. As they get a less powerful 4+ invuln (In the form of RP) against everything, they could conceivably fight even specialized CC troops if armed with Warscythes. I plan to Veil them into range with Obyron, though, and nothing beats a Tau player railgunning himself in the face because of the shields.
> 
> Speaking of which, who would you say the best CC character? Obyron looks the best.


Don't think about the dispersion rule, because most of the time you don't even get to make the invuln save as you can only do it with ap3 or better weapons, and if you do get to make it a smart opponent will simply pick a different target (which is still good for their survivability!).

The thing to keep in mind is that Lychguard are I2. You are NOT attacking first. And your weapon can only be useful if the model is there to use it. I definitely prefer Swords/Boards on Lychguard because there are simply too many power weapons running around that will make short work of your Lychguard if you don't have a way for them to avoid the hit. You lose out on Str and the 2d6 to Pen, so you'll have a tougher time actually damaging MC and vehicles, but I think the higher survivability is much preferred for not dying to the MC and for dealing with general infantry.

Ideally, though, you'd have 2 units of 10 using both weapons so you could choose based on what you need them to target!


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## The Sturk (Feb 3, 2012)

As Dan said, the Dispersion rule is nice when you are close enough to use it, but don't rely on it. For survivability, go swords-n-board. The invuln save will hopefully keep you alive in CC against Power weapons and the like. 

As for Characters, Obyron is certainly the best in the codex when it comes to CC, but he has no invun save, so keep him protected or in a unit that has invun saves to take it for him.

However, in conjunction with the Nemesor, they can be even more deadly, as he can grant them furious charge for a turn, giving them I 3 and Str 6 as well as the added attack.


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## Iron Angel (Aug 2, 2009)

So obyron with sword and board Lychguard, and Zandrekh... Somewhere else.

Would Zandrekh be good to give a command barge?


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## Skari (Dec 20, 2011)

I am a big fan on the lychguard with shields. Yes, the warsythes are fancy and all, but I think that 4+ ivul is worth its weight in gold. Pair that up with a lord, or overlord with a warsythe and you keep decent capability against tanks and other vehicles. Now, the 4+ invul might not seem like a lot, but it will mean the difference between saving the squad and having them all die when faced off against units with a high number of power weapon attacks. 
When you then combine the invul and saves with the resurrection protocol + a res orb this means that even a small unit of lyche guard is quite resilient! All in all I do thing the shields are the better choice. Then there is their gimmiky bounce back, this can work very well against those who want to soften up the guard before they charge... if they use meltas, or anything big and nasty there is a chance that they will loose one of their own, and that even then the downed LG will just get back up. 

Regardless of how you run the LG I would recommend a cryptec with the re roll one dice per phase upgrade... this makes them ultra reliable! If you run a double court try the double re roll crypteks and watch you opponents cringe in anger and pain! 

All in all, the lych guard are very killy, but the shields play to the necron strength of battle of attrition making them super durable even against the toughest of the tough. Plus, those shields just look awesome. 

Cheers!


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## Day2Dan (Sep 30, 2011)

Zahndrekh just doesn't really gain a lot from being a command barge. He doesn't get take advantage of a Warscythe sweep, and his Adaptive Tactics can be used from anywhere on the board. Plus, he's got an Orb which begs for him to be with a unit. It might help you get a better view for Counter Tactics, but a straight Overlord with Warscythe would otherwise make better use of a Barge. I haven't used Barges a ton, though, so someone with more empirical data might know better. From what I know, though, you are probably better off keep Zahndrekh with a group of Warriors or Immortals where he can add to their shooting and utilize his Orb better.


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## Iron Angel (Aug 2, 2009)

Sounds logical to me.


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## The Sturk (Feb 3, 2012)

Day2Dan said:


> Zahndrekh just doesn't really gain a lot from being a command barge. He doesn't get take advantage of a Warscythe sweep, and his Adaptive Tactics can be used from anywhere on the board. Plus, he's got an Orb which begs for him to be with a unit. It might help you get a better view for Counter Tactics, but a straight Overlord with Warscythe would otherwise make better use of a Barge. I haven't used Barges a ton, though, so someone with more empirical data might know better. From what I know, though, you are probably better off keep Zahndrekh with a group of Warriors or Immortals where he can add to their shooting and utilize his Orb better.


Pretty much this.

With a standard Overlord, warscythe and a Command Barge, you have an excellent vehicle killer.

Zahndrekh plays better on the field. I'd personally keep him with Immortals with Tesla to complement his own shooting.

Which then I go to, if you do ever end up taking both Obyron and Zahndrekh, place obyron in the unit of lychguard (with shields), but toss in a lower Lord with a Res orb, as Obyron doesn't have access to one.


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## Iron Angel (Aug 2, 2009)

Alright, sounds like a good idea.


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## World Eater (Aug 31, 2008)

Hail,

Overall, I think the phase sword and shield is good, but then you will need an Hq type character to back them up for certain. Warscythes are brutal, but survivability seems to be an issue, how about a transport for those Lychguard? The Night Scythe is fast, and will stop small arms fire from targetting the Lychguard until they disembark. The speed is undeniable and it can host the whole squad and 2 characters. With the mobility, you can better position the squad to attack units that will be less likely to defeat them.

BFTBG!!

World Eater


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