Assuming that the blank isn't cloned and that for any one blank you can only make one pariah, why the heck would they just be thrown into battle as they are? Obviously a group of four isn't that many but at max per unit and taking only pariahs as your elite choices you can get 30 of these guys! These guys are rare! I've heard of people having a campaign mission of collecting a blank off a planet. If an army of necrons is coming to pick up one guy I sure as hell wouldn't put him or others like him in with the rest of the general army.
It would only make sense to me that a pariah would be an HQ choice. Not only are the pariahs great at taking down enemy psykers because of their aura, but they were once human which would make them more cunning leaders. Further more, pariahs should be named characters because they used to be human. I think an upgrade from a lord to pariah would be a cool thing to do in the new codex, it would be possible to keep the pariahs in the new codex as elite choices by saying that they were weaker blanks whereas the lord was a very strong psychic blank.
I may be totally off base here and if I am please tell me so in the comments, however after reviewing my codex and reading wiki pages a large potion of the lore makes me believe that these blanks are hard to come by and therefore the pariahs would be a more highly valued unit.
I think having pariahs as an elite choice is consistent with GW's assumed take on game play and lore. If you think about how each match you would is just a battle, and the universal race is not being fully represented in this one match it doesn't make any sense at all. For instance, most people run 2 HQs in their army list (depending on size). I run Dark Angels and in my army I include both the master of the deathwing and the master ravenwing. logically these two would probably not be in the same battle and most certainly would not be involved in every confrontation to which the dark angels were engaged. However, this is how GW has chosen to represent each race on the field. Another for instance, I can field (3x) venerable dreadnoughts in my army per 3 elite limitation. Dreads are supposed to be of the highest order containing the dying ancient librarians of the Dark Angels. Thinking logically, how would you ever get to see 3 of them in one force? you wouldn't. but it makes the game fun and epic. do you really want to be pushing around warrior spam vs. tactical marine spam just because it would make the most logical sense of how the forces would be aligned. hell no! just enjoy the epicness for epicness' sake.
ReplyDeleteare you going to be fielding any pariah's at the next club meeting?
I don't know, I think pariah's are pretty rare, even with the way GW is using them. On the table top we are basically looking at a small part of a larger battle, like a front of the battle. By the lore, battles would be immense, planetary scale wars.
ReplyDeleteWe are either watching small recons forces battling it out or a section of a larger battle. That being said, Pariahs are still elite and unique. Think about it, if we are playing out a very critical part of a larger battle, wouldn't they send their best troops to make sure its done.
I don't think a Lord should upgrade to a pariah. From what I understand, and I could be wrong. Lords are far more advanced than all the other necrons. I think pariahs are just the most recent 'upgrade' of the necron.
I hope you do field them next game, you need some melee. Plus they get warscythes, and those are totally amazing.
Lore wise, I think that pariahs are well placed in the codex. You argue that Pariahs should be HQ choices because they were once humans. The necrons used to be some form of race, obviously humanoid. The lords were the leaders of this race and thus are the leaders now.
ReplyDeleteI think of this much more in terms of cultural viability than anything else. The reasons why Lords are actually the leaders is because they are the highest on the cultural ladder. The necron warrior is the troop choice because they are the lowest on the ladder of grunt. They provide the bulk of the army. The monolith, heavy destroyer and tomb spyder are the heavy supports because they fulfill that role. Pariahs fit well into the elite choice because they are elite, they are not leaders.
This is evident in the military today. Generals are not necessarily the most efficient fighters in the military but they have leadership ability (like the Necron Lord). Picture the Pariah as a special forces unit of the military. Just like the real military you can picture them as the super soldier (something like Master Chief in Halo??).
As far as gameplay goes I think that Pariahs are generally overpriced but can be used with a lot of effectiveness when combined with a lord using veil of darkness. Just my 2 cents.
wow thanks for all the response everyone. Gray Knight Luke the bit about the pariahs being special forces makes a lot of sense. Thanks everyone for commenting it really helps to have people giving their input. Glad to see a new face on the blog thanks for reading Gray Knight Luke.
ReplyDeleteya no problem! currently in Laramie, WY, USA. Started a blog up with FTW and just checkin out what other people are writing up! consider your blog subscribed. This isn't a plea to check out my stuff but if you are interested its www.nowhere40k.blogspot.com
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