Special Characters:
Imotekh the Stormlord: 225 Points
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Phaeron - 220 Points
Gauntlet of Fire, Phylactery, Sempiternal Weave, Phase Shifter
Tachyon Arrow
So, factoring in Imotekh's special abilities. He's roughly the same cost as a regular Phaeron. However, Weave and Phylactery is mostly a waste of points anyway. Phaeron too, mostly.
So, what does he do?
Bloodswarm Nanoscarabs: Flayed Ones don't Scatter if they try and Deepstrike near a random unit. Flayed Ones are not Deathmarks, which means they aren't coming down after your opponent's first-turn Drop Pods. And Flayed Ones are...Flayed Ones. They don't even have Entropic Strike or Rending. Kind of crap. Since you shouldn't be using Flayed Ones in the first place.
Staff of the Destroyer: Like a Doom Scythe's Death Ray. But only S6 and you've only got one shot. However, Doom Scythe's generally only get one - or less - shot anyway. You're still wounding a lot of things on 2s (like S10), and anything that isn't particularly bothered by S6 probably has more than one wound.
Use a Chronometron to make the 2D6" go further.
Humiliating Defeat: What is a 'Character'? Independent Character? Monstrous Creature? Uniques? Doesn't process much because Stormlord doesn't have Mindshackle Scarabs or Tesseract Labrynths like other Lords. Which means you're spending points on regular Lords. Which gets kind of expensive when Imotekh is 225 already. Secondly, 'Character' probably means one of the aforementioned, and all the good ones are better than Imotekh, mostly because Gauntlets of Fire allow saves.
Hyperlogical Strategy: Not bad.
Lord of the Storm: Night Fight rules automatically apply during the first game turn which means both players. And affects other game turns. Necrons want to be shooting so Night Fighting is bad. Just take some Solar Pulses instead which don't affect your own side. Furthermore, the Lightning Strikes don't really do anything since it's too random to be effective. If your opponent has Meched up, D6 S8 to a vehicle's Side Armour isn't close to being bad. Good against Mech. Bad against Infantry.
Unlike Storm Crypteks. If a unit Deep Strikes, it's going to get hit. If a unit Assaults, it's going to get hit. Which is good because most units that Deep Strike are MSU or vehicles (Dreads, Dark Eldar vehicles, Land Speeders, etc.).
If Space Marines Combat Squad out of a Drop Pod, are both of them affected by Storm Cryptek?
Summary; Death Ray, bad Solar Pulse and a 'too random' version of Storm Cryptek, Gauntlet of Fire and Sempiternal Weave are sub-optimal. Above average.
Nemesor Zahndrekh and Varguard Obyron: 185 and 160 Points
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Overlord - 180
Sempiternal Weave, Resurrection Orb, Phase Shifter
Similar to Imotekh, paying only 5 points for all the extra stuff that Zahndrekh can do isn't bad. And the Resurrection Orb is one of the more useful things that an Overlord could take. Again, not having Mindshackles is annoying.
Staff of Light isn't the best.
Adaptive Tactics: This is very good. Mostly because it doesn't target the unit he's with, but, in fact any unit that you own. Furious Charge can mostly be ignored, but all the other abilities are very nice. Force Multiplying is good.
Counter Tactics: Take Dark Eldar/Blood Angels' Furious Charge. Make Space Wolves lose Counter-Attack. Use Solar Pulses and take away Dark Eldar/Space Wolves' Acute Senses/Night Vision.
Phased Reinforcements: Gives everything the Deathmarks' special rule. If you know your opponent is using Drop Pods, and has the first turn, you can almost deploy nothing on the board (except Zahndrekh and a few bits) and then have your opponent not know what to do with his stuff. Then after the first-turn Drop Pod, the rest of your army arrives. If you pair this with Imotekh and 20+ Flayed Ones, it's alright. But, you have to take this guy, Imotekh (225 points) and take Flayed Ones, which are mostly bad.
Remember, all Jump Infantry may Deep Strike.
Summary; Does what an Overlord should do. Force Multiply. And how! While Imotekh is trying - and failing - to kill things, Zahndrekh is boosting your army and providing a Resurrection Orb. Very good.
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Overlord - 115 Points
Warscythe, Sempiternal Weave
Destroyer Lord - 140 Points
Sempiternal Weave
Whoa. 45 points over a normal Overlord is pretty steep. The Destroyer Lord is there for comparison. And no Invulnerable on a 150+ point Character? Sad face.
But let's see how Obyron goes;
Ghostwalk Mantle: Not terrible. If you're running around with a stompy unit of Warriors or Immortals who don't want to be in combat, you can just teleport out. Unfortunately, this only works in your Movement phase, which means the enemy has already Assaulted you on his turn. And for some reason you lucked out and you didn't get killed immediately or you passed your Morale check. Doesn't get used often.
It's not even like he's a real Overlord, with access to a Royal Court and a bunch of Eldritch Lances.
However, again with Imotekh, if Obyron joins a unit of Flayed Ones (who start on the battlefield), he can jump straight to a unit which would be alright if he could Assault out of Ghostwalk or Obyron or Flayed Ones had any sort of ranged weapons...Just something to think about.
Cleaving Counterblow: He's still got I2. But, now we're in the no-Invulnerable territory. Your enemy isn't an idiot and knows this rule. He's not going to target your 2+ save. He's going to hit you with as many Power Weapon hits as he can manage (Sanguinary Guard) and this rule wont even take effect because Obyron will be dead.
Varguard's Duty: FUUUUUUUUUUUU-
Obyron doesn't get a choice. If Zahndrek is charged by a stupid unit (Ork Boyz, Hormagaunts, anything where a Warscythe makes no difference), Obyron leaves where he is and has to go fight them. Incredibly annoying. An Ironclad charges Obryon, cool. Immediately, Scouts charge Zandrekh. Obyron leaves the unit and stands next to Zandrekh. The Ironclad - now in Assault - is free to butcher your max-S5 guys.
Summary; Too expensive for an Overlord and doesn't even have good Wargear. Opponents can ignore him in combat, or completely target him down. He's also a very expensive Harbinger of Despair, and the thing that makes him more special than a Despair Cryptek generally happens too late to be any use.
You can take Zahndrekh without Obyron, but don't take Obyron without Zahndrekh. In fact, spend 160 points on a Destroyer Lord if you really want to be killing things. Or, if you've got Zahndrekh, spend 160 points on a Royal Court and Force Multiply some more instead of doing nothing.
Illuminor Szeras: 100 Points
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Harbinger of Destruction - 45 Points
Gaze of Flame
...What? You're paying 55 extra points for an Independent Character (get targeted) Destruction Cryptek that even takes up an HQ slot all to himself, and he doesn't even have what you take Destruction Crypteks for; Solar Pulses! Bad, bad, bad.
Mechanical Augementation: Hardened Carapace is the only useful thing. And, because Szeras doesn't even unlock a Court, it's not like you've got Resurrection Orbs on your units. Improved Optics? Meh. Use Triarch Stalkers to Twin-Link against your scary targets. If you really need the unit dead, the Heat Ray (Heavy Flamer version) auto-hits for many fun times.
Summary; Bad. Bad, bad, bad.
Orikan the Diviner: 165 Points
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Don't quite know how to stat out an equivalent Overlord, but 165 points for Orikan isn't exactly terrible. Considering Obyron is 160...Why would you take that guy? Sorry. We're not talking about him anymore. One thing to note about his stats is that he only has two wounds.
Invulnerable? Check. What? Transdimensional Beamer? Err...Okay. It's Heavy, which is a little bit annoying. But, you get to pick which model it hits. So you can pick out Power Fists, and then let Gauss weapons do the rest. Unfortunately, doesn't work against vehicles.
Staff of Tomorrow: Preferred Enemy (Everything!) and is a Power Weapon. Not bad.
Lord of Time: Get your Doom Scythes out of Reserves earlier so they can do their thing.
The Stars Are Right: Gets progressively easier to do. And gets progressively harder to keep around. Particularly annoying if you get it on the first turn (you wont be in Assault) only to have it immediately leave. Sometimes its an Ace in the Hole, sometimes it does nothing because the game is basically over by Turn 3 (or Orikan gets killed early somehow). Not amazing. But it is a unique power not seen anywhere else in the game.
Temproal Snares: First game turn. Which means you don't need to go first. If you do actually go first, you can hopefully hit your opponent with a Tremorstave (Orikan does not unlock Royal Courts), or use a C'Tan with Worldshape (why not?). When this guy is paired with Imotekh (225 points, geez), you can Night Fight so your opponent can't shoot, and then Temporal Snare so your opponent can't move. But that's expensive, and only lasts one turn. Stall!
...If you can unlock a Tremorstave or two, you can unlock a Solar Pulse.
Summary; Not great. Not terrible. Better than Obyron and Szeras (what isn't? lol). If you need it, Lord of Time can make this guy worth it just for that ability. Still pick Zahndrekh first.
Anrakyr the Traveller: 165 Points
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Overlord - 130 Points
Warscythe, Tachyon Arrow
*shrug* I'm not impressed. Missing crucial wargear.
But let's keep going.
Mind in the Machine: 18" isn't very far. You get to control Rhinos, and maybe the odd Plaserback that has moved into your DZ for some reason or a Drop Pod that maybe has a Deathwind Launcher. Don't expect to be getting Leman Russes or Predators. The game just doesn't love you like that. You can use a Despair Cryptek and teleport to a unit which is hopefully near a vehicle if you want. But then your opponent takes a turn and blows you away (if you haven't already killed yourself with unreliable Deep Strike). And even then, you still need to roll a dice to take control. You're probably better off shooting the Tachyon Arrow. And an Overlord can do that...
Of particular note, is if you take control of a Baal Predator, or Razorback, or even a Redeemer with Heavy Flamers or Flamestorms, you can turn that back on your opponent. Get a C'Tan with Lord of Fire. If you shoot, you can fry some models, if it doesn't, you just exploded Heavy Flamers and Flamestorm Cannons which are basically instant wipe on your Warriors and Immortals.
Pyrrhian Eternals: Do Immortals need Furious Charge (I3!). Maybe they can take out a Tervigon. Counter-Attack is sometimes useful.
Summary; Not exactly bad. But Zahndrekh is 20 points more and can make Pyrrhian Eternals too if he really wants to and does a whole lot more besides.
Trazyn the Infinite: 175 Points
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Phaeron - 135 Points
Mindshackle Scarabs
Even factoring in abilities, Trazyn is way over-costed.
Empathic Obliterator: He's still got I2, and it isn't a Power Weapon. Your opponent is likely to get his attacks in first. If you do get it off, models only have a 50% chance to take a wound, and they still even get an Armour Save.
However, wounds caused this way count towards the Assault Result. Which means swarms of Orks and Tyranids, and even blobs of Imperial Guard are actually going to get smashed (because they have bad saves). But, overall, this weapon is mostly random and can be devastating or ignored. Depends on your opponent.
Excellent! Another Piece [...]: Trazyn can Score. Whoop-de-do. If he already isn't hanging around with Warriors or Immortals you've probably messed up somehow. Probably by 'porting him into a unit of Lychguard with...
Surrogate Hosts: Similar to Obyron, it can actually be bad if this 'works'. Trazyn has Mindshackle Scarabs and a weird weapon. Go back over your standard-build Over/Lords and your Crypteks. Do you really want them replaced for Mindshackle Scarabs? Doubtful. You probably don't even want your Lychguards replaced by him either.
Zahndrekh > Everyone else.
Orikan is useful at times for Lord of Time and Temporal Snares. No Royal Court.
Imotekh I'm still on the fence with. Night Fighting is great. But not when you have to do it too (Necrons are for Shooting!) and Solar Pulses already exist.