Imotekh the Stormlord
"Order. Unity. Obedience. We taught the galaxy these things long ago, and we will do so again."
"I am 4 Parallel Universes ahead of you."
- – Speedrunner Mario
Imotekh the Stormlord is the Phaeron of the Sautekh Dynasty and has fluctuated between being the obligatory "costs more than a Land Raider" character for the Necrons and having an actually sensible point price. Fluffwise, Imotekh was the greatest general of the Sautekh Dynasty pre-biotransference, and is today a commander rivaled only by Creed. His plans are, in fact, so clever and hyperlogical (this is the actual word Matt Ward uses) that the enemy must abandon all logic to fight him.
To be played on repeat whenever Imotekh is on the field.
Storm-Lore
Imotekh Does Not Serve
Imotekh's rise to power began in M41 when the Sautekh Dynasty's phaeron was found to have perished in the Great Sleep, so the resident Necron Lords and Overlords decided they'd turn the Sautekh crownworld Mandragora into Game of Thrones in SPAAAAACE trying to pick a new one. This infighting went for some time until Imotekh was raised by one of the nobles hoping to use him to win the war. After hearing about what was going on Imotekh killed the noble who rez'd him, raised his own army and proceeded to bitch and dick slap the rest of the nobility back into line and crowned himself regent. Since then, he has devoted all his time and effort into GETTING. SHIT. DONE.
If this sounds familiar to you, good, you're paying attention.
Campaigns
As phaeron, Imotekh commands the full might and resources of over 100 tomb worlds, plus the extra 500 or so slave planets forced to offer up tribute for their Necron masters. Turns out he scares the fuck out of the Eldar, since he's apparently completed their checklist for the Prophecy of Doom Arising out of the Book of Mournful Night (the big book of prophecies that was warning the Eldar since forever that they'd better do something or the Necrons would come back and murder everything. Thanks to millions of years worth of procrastination, the Eldar have a whole lot more than just Necrons to worry about). Whatever that means concerning his future is unknown, because the Eldar, as usual, haven't shared this critical information with anyone besides their Seer Council circlejerk.
A particularly popular battle in Imotekh's campaigns was when he led a small and greatly outmatched force of Necrons defending an awakening tomb world from the panicking Eldar trying to stop whatever important, critical event that other people should really know about from happening involving Imotekh. He instantly turned the tables on them and killed every last one, except for their leader, Eldorath Starbane (basically an Eldar version of M'kar), who he let go crying back to his craftworld after he took his hand. Thus was the first recorded instance of Imotekh's hand collection. While it's been said Imotekh will take whatever limb he feels like chopping off (he'd probably cut a leg off a White Scars Space Marine, if anything), he has a particular affinity for hands, probably because he needs to show off how superior his giant fireball hand is. This is just another reason Trazyn the Infinite is banned from Mandragora, because Mr. Collector is often forced to use counts-as models and proxies in his dioramas, so having at least a hand would add a bit more authenticity to the display. Imotekh has denied him this, but that doesn't stop Trazyn from showing up whenever he wants.
Imotekh has also conquered a number of Imperial worlds. During one of these invasions, whilst fighting against the Black Templars, he met Marshall Helbrecht, whom he beat up, behanded, told off, and threw from a building. Unfortunately for Imotekh, Helbrecht is now High Marshall, and thus has command over the entire second most fuck-ass mad Space Marine Chapter in existence to hunt down the Stormlord (first place goes to you-know-who). Helbrecht also got a badass cybernetic replacement hand, which makes losing the original not all that bad.
Personality
Imotekh's aforementioned fight with Helbrecht brings us to the first of Imotekh's two big flaws: pride. While he could easily obliterate an enemy without ever having to put a metal foot on the field, Imotekh has decided that he needs to beat them in close combat for no other reason than to prove how superior he is. This wouldn't be so bad if he actually killed them. Rather he humiliates them (usually by taking their hand) as a lesson and lets them survive so that they can come back as a challenge. How his logic can completely avoid potential Thunder Hammers to the face is beyond us; then again he has a Phase Shifter, and can potentially self-repair after a hit from a Demolisher cannon due to being a Necron (in fact, that's kinda how he beat Helbrecht; he just took all the hits and repaired himself until Helbrecht got tired). It should be noted that Matt Ward has stated that Imotekh isn't a close combat killing machine, but he sure as hell thinks he is. This is backed by the fact his staff works better as a gun than a melee weapon and has phantom pain from a busted knee which happened when he was still flesh and blood (since his new knee works fine and, like the rest of him, can go incorporeal and self-repair after being hit by an anti-tank weapon).
Imotekh's other big flaw is that his impossibly brilliant plans can all be foiled by a single Ork. While he tries to account for everything, Orks are too random and illogical to plan ahead for and always ruin his plans. To this end he desires to see every single Ork in the galaxy vaporized. Exactly why he can't account for Orks is a little unclear; nobody else in the galaxy seems to have much problem with figuring them out: they want to smash stuff up. Then again, it’s actually possible that the Old Ones designed them specifically with Imotekh in mind, since he was presumably leading the Necrontyr/Necron forces against them in the War in Heaven. Thankfully Imotekh's replacement Nemesor has no such problems, and happily mops up greenskins that piss his Regent off, in no small part because he's not much saner himself.
The Spookening
Recently Imotekh realized that fear is just as potent a weapon as his troops' disintegration beams. To this end he will let terrorized enemy troops escape capture, letting them run back to their buddies and spread panic and fear, while also infecting them with bloodswarm nanoscarabs so that any Flayed Ones nearby can hone in on a finely seasoned meal, pop out of the ground, and rip them to pieces. As if that wasn't scary enough, this mofo carries around his own personal Lightning Storm into battle. Yup. Through some powerful Necron technology or sheer badassery, Imotekh can summon a dramatic lightning storm in battle. Now, as if fighting genocidal, self-repairing robots with lasers while your buddies are rambling about how scary they are while more and more are coming to vaporize you, recreate Fruit Ninja, or make you the unfortunate object of an episode of "Will It Blend?" wasn't bad enough, you also have to worry about getting struck by fucking lightning.
Imotekh and The Silent Kang
According to the 9th edition Necron codex Imotekh ain’t too happy about the return of ‘ol Szarekh. Imotekh, with good reason, sees himself as ‘the great uniter of the Necron people’ and so having his thunder (get it) stolen by the very being who fucked things up and then left them with a fractured empire to begin with is mildly aggravating for the guy. One might even go as far to say that he is peeved irritated and maybe even slightly ticked-off. How this bodes for the future of the Necron story is unknown; after all, Imotekh is not a stranger to rising up against his superiors for what he believes to be the right thing.
On the Tabletop
| pts | M | WS | BS | S | T | W | A | Ld | Sv | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Imotekh the Stormlord | 140 | 5" | 2+ | 2+ | 5 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 10 | 2+ |
Like last edition, Imotekh is more focused around making the most of his special rules instead of singlehandedly massacring hordes of enemies. With a point drop all the way down from the 200 he started with in 8th edition to 140, the true challenge in working Imotekh into an army nowadays is that he's still made of fucking finecast. Aside from that, he's practically a must-have for Sautekh Necron lists.
His equipment is a bit better than your standard Overlord, trading the option to take a Resurrection Orb to cast Dnd Fireballs that automatically hit, and getting what's basically an upgraded Staff of Light with some more range and -AP.
Now onto the real good stuff. First, having Imotekh as your Warlord in a Battle-Forged Army activates his Grand Strategist ability, giving you one extra command point (and you'd better know Imotekh likes his command points). Thanks to the Sautekh Warlord trait Hyperlogical Strategist, every time you spend a Command Point, Imotekh has a chance of performing a Jimmy Neutron brain blast, getting it back on a 5+ roll. Because of this, Imotekh can potentially take even just one or two command points in smaller lists and turn them into three, four, or more with some good rolls. In larger games, give him a Battalion or Brigade and watch him go.
Another plus Imotekh has over a standard Overlord is the ability Phaeron of the Sautekh Dynasty, letting him cast not one, but two My Will Be Done abilities in a single turn (meaning you can either cast it on two Infantry units, or one Infantry unit plus Imotekh himself so the old man can keep up). When charging into battle alongside his Warriors or Immortals, Imotekh also has some abilities to tank that extra damage he'll inevitably receive, getting a 4+ invulnerable save and 1D3 wound regeneration from Living Metal (a big potential increase compared to the +1 wound regen the standard Necron peasantry gets). Imotekh also gives Flayed Ones some extra use, as they can re-roll hit rolls of 1 when within 12" of him thanks to Bloodswarm Nanoscarabs, giving the things some more viability (though it seems reasonable that Flayed Ones really should be Infantry instead of Elites).
Of course, Imotekh is called the Stormlord for a reason. Once per battle, he can invoke the spirit of Emperor Palpatine (the fleet destroying Legends version, of course) upon some poor enemy (non-character) unit within 48". On a 2+ D6 roll, that unit suffers a number of Mortal Wounds equal to whatever number you roll. As if that weren't bad enough for the enemy, you then roll a D6 for every other unit within 6" of the first target, and getting a 6 causes the unit rolled for to take 1D3 mortal wounds. Of course, you could always roll a 1 and have this awesome ability just decide to not work.