Newcrons are out!

[BigToof]

Hi All,
New Necron codex is out!

Some buffs, some nerfs, some... sideways changes...

Buffs:
Tomb Blades can be 3+armor, S6 ignores cover small blast units and are MUCH cheaper
Triarchs are cheaper.
Wraiths are AMAZING for their points (BEASTS, ignores cover, T6)
Decurion detachment give buffs to RP rolls

Nerfs:
Only one Warscythe per army
Tesla bonus doesn't work on snapshots
Scythes of both kinds are much more expensive
MS Scarabs cause... a fear test.  In challenges.  Yeah...
Bargelords can't rotate wounds/saves as before
WS2 Scarabs...

Sideways:
Destroyers have 2 wounds... and are JSJ infantry (like XV8s)?

These were my big takeaways.

Anyone else interested in the new Metallic Dead?

Best,
-BT

[Narric]

In honesty I'm more interested in the models, due to a project I'm working on which require necron parts. Rules I'm only curious to use for comparison perpusoses so I know which parts I need.

The changes sound interesting, and I hope most older Flyers are getting the price-tag increase as well.

[Charistoph]

Wow, a few corrections for you.

Tomb Blades can be 3+armor, S6 ignores cover small blast units and are MUCH cheaper

Tomb Blades could always be upgraded to be AS 3+ and not MUCh cheaper, however, all the UPGRADES have gotten much cheaper by 80%!  Oddly, you can't fully equip them like before.  You have to choose between Ignoring Cover and boosting your own cover.  More importantly, and this is rare in the Necron army list, each Tomb Blade can be equipped with different equipment, allowing for a combination of Tesla, Gauss, and Blast.  They are also a minimum of 3, but can be fielded in squads of 10.

Triarchs are cheaper.

Oh, yes, they are, by a huge degree.  Range of Rod increased and the Rod is no longer Unwieldy.  The Voidblade has a better AP, but the Entropic Strike took a bit of a nerf to being a version of the old the Disruption Fields now.

Wraiths are AMAZING for their points (BEASTS, ignores cover, T6)

T5, actually.  Not as good as T6, but definitely better than T4.

Decurion detachment give buffs to RP rolls

Yeup, but you lose Objective Secured.  The size of everything makes for HUGE options, but the Formations can be large and clunky if you don't plan well.  But if you do, the force can be quite powerful.

Nerfs:
Only one Warscythe per army

Um, nope, you're thinking of the Relic.  Warscythes are under the Melee Weapons list which any Overlord, Lord, or Destroyer Lord can have.  Also Anrakyr and Obyron both carry Warscythes.

Tesla bonus doesn't work on snapshots

Yeah, but rather expected.

Scythes of both kinds are much more expensive

Night Scythe is more expensive, but the Doom is cheaper. 

The Doom's Death Ray is no longer a Beam, but a Blast, but gained Lance in the bargain.

The Night Scythe can no longer carry Jump Infantry or Bikes, it's just a regular one-way Transport now.

MS Scarabs cause... a fear test.  In challenges.  Yeah...

Yeah.  The actual finished product is actually pretty poor.  The occasions where you will really want it will be useless 75% of the time.  Now where's that Farseer or Ethereal to Challenge?  Forget about using against them against Marines.

Bargelords can't rotate wounds/saves as before

What?  Bargelords are still Chariots and that part hasn't changed all that much.  They HAVE gotten better by giving a morale bonus in an area, and the Phylactery gives IWND to both Lord AND Barge.  The Phase Shifter, also nerfed to an Iron Halo, only affects the Lord.

WS2 Scarabs...

Still the same.  I can't say about the pre-3rd version, but the last two versions of Scarabs have been WS 2.  Still Entropic Strike was changed from being an Armour Stripper to being just Gauss in melee.

Destroyers have 2 wounds... and are JSJ infantry (like XV8s)?

Indeed.  Weapons haven't really changed for them (Heavy on a Relentless model may as well as be Assault), but every Tau player knows how useful it is to Jump back in to Cover or Hiding. 

However, Destroyer Lords are also JPI, and so make keeping up with Wraiths and Praetorions difficult.  They do make great candidates for working with Flayed Ones, though.

Some other thoughts:
Reanimation Protocol is FNP+.  Will work against Instant Death, but is reduced by it.  This can be fixed by having the unit in a Decurion Detachment or in a unit with a Cryptek.  Doesn't work with Feel No Pain (but not a lot of sources of that in this codex, surprise).  This will actually make it stronger by helping to prevent Morale Checks that would cause a unit to run away from the fallen from Shooting or cause an Assault Loss to trigger a Sweeping Advance.

Quantum Shielding now ignores Lance indirectly, but is nerfed for the Forgeworld Tesseract Ark.

The Nightbringer can really hurt a low Ld unit, and may be able to destroy a Swooping Flyer with a lucky glance (and I'm not talking Snap Shot lucky).

A lot of people have been confused with just how the Decurion Detachment and some of the Formations work, so may accidentally (or obfuscate to) cheat with them.  The same could be said with the Powers of the C'tan. 

A single Decurion CAN field either 40 Doom Scythes or 10 Tesseract Vaults in one Detachment, though, after fielding a Lord, 2 Warrior units, an Immortal unit, and a Tomb Blade unit.  More if you double up on the Lord/Warrior/Immortal/Tomb Blade list.  If those didn't require Apocalypse point-levels to bring it to the table, it would be horribly broken.

Crypteks are no longer as flavorful or powerful, can bring some interesting things to a unit, like increasing their RP roll or providing a 5+ Invul, but aren't as "must-take" as they used to be.  They can be your sole HQ in a CAD or AD now, though.

Over all, this codex seems to be built around using the Formations and Decurion Detachment to replace a lot of things that used to be Wargear for Lords and Crypteks.  Some of the combinations can be a little nasty, too, but the bulkiness of some of them hold back the power just enough, I think.

[BigToof]

Thanks for the reply!

Teaches me not to say stuff out of rumours and half-remembered details

Have you tried playing them yet?

I've heard Wraiths are seriously good.

Can you still do the madness with the Barges have a rotating 2+ armor save/3+ invul save nonsense?

Best,
-BT

[Charistoph]

Thanks for the reply!

Teaches me not to say stuff out of rumours and half-remembered details

Have you tried playing them yet?

No, sadly.  My collection is still in its infancy, and I have less time to model and play than I would like. 

I've been trying to sell my Marines to pay for them, but they have not been moving.  And I can't really afford to get much without cycling my collection.

I've heard Wraiths are seriously good.

Both better and worse, but mostly better.  Offensively, they are pretty much the same, but Whip Coils have changed to being AP: 5 weapons with Swiftstrike (yes, like the Tyranids Whips) which makes them faster in melee instead of making the other guy slower.

They also have a Special Rule that has them treat Difficult and Dangerous Terrain as Open Terrain when they move.  The question with them is, "Does that include the Charge?"  The answer usually depends on which side of the Wraith you are on.

Can you still do the madness with the Barges have a rotating 2+ armor save/3+ invul save nonsense?

Well, since it is a Chariot, Shooting at it is allocated by the owner.  That having been said, the only way to get 2+ AS is with a Relic, and the Phase Shifter is now an Iron Halo instead of a Storm Shield now.  But there is a base piece of Wargear that gives both Lord and Barge It Will Not Die.

[Fhanados]

I'm torn on the new book. On one hand, yes the Necrons received almost a completely new range of models not that long ago including lots and lots of entirely new things but on the other hand I would have liked at least one new kit or unit to play with. I'm equally torn by the rules. Yes they're solid, and some things got a much needed tweaking but I also feel that not much was really done to the army.

Still, I'm excited. And with the new Decurion detachment I actually have a solid hobby goal to strive for - make a full Necron Decurion (maybe not with max units, but full nonetheless!).

Anyway on to the book itself, I'm doing a comparison between the old and new books for my friends so I may as well put my thoughts here. I'm by no means a tournament Necron player, and my current collection is pretty much a 3rd ed list minus the wraiths, but I have played with and against the 5th/6th edition Necrons so I like to delude myself into thinking I know what I'm talking about!

RULES:
Reanimation Protocols: Completely different from the old book. It used to be after a model died it comes back on a 5+. If you fail it’s dead dead, and no roll allowed if the whole unit is destroyed. The new rule is basically a 5+ Feel No Pain equivalent that becomes a 6+ on instant death. Although not as cool (and psychologically scarring for your opponents) as putting models back on the table after removing them, it does give models the potential of absorbing more wounds and streamlining the process. Overall the new rule makes your Necrons more durable than before.

Gauss: Improved! Gosh I never thought that would happen. Still causes glances on a pen roll of 6, but now also auto-wounds on a wound roll of 6 regardless of toughness. The toughness thing is not usually going to come into effect – S4 from the Flayers will wound most high T models on a 6 anyway and everything else is S5 or more, but it’s nice to have.

Entropic Strike: Same as Gauss but in close combat.

Tesla: Still gives 2 extra hits on a 6 but doesn't work for snap shots, which is a shame but not terrible.

Living Metal: Better. It flat out ignores Crew Shaken (but not Crew Stunned) and regenerates hull points on Heavy and Super Heavy vehicles (Monoliths, Obelisks and Vaults) on a 6+.

Quantum Shielding: Same as before. Still great!


WARGEAR
Honestly I’m not too impressed with our new Wargear list. I get that the 2+/3++ MSS Warscythe lord was over the top but I feel that we lost a lot of kick here, especially with Crypteks (which I’ll cover later).

Staff of Light: Exactly the same as before. Default weapon for Overlords, Lords, Crypteks, Command Barges and a few characters.

Hyperphase Sword: It’s a power sword. This would be good, if only literally every other choice we have (including the default weapon) wasn’t better.

Voidblade: AP4 Rending and Entropic Strike. Not groundbreaking but Rending and Entropic Strike make a nice little combo. I like this better than the sword, unless facing power armour. Honestly though I don’t think I’d take either. I think the main problem with both the Voidblade and Hyperphase Sword is that they’re one handed melee weapons, but there’s no pistol to combo them with and you can’t take multiple melee weapons. I think taking a Voidblade in one hand and a Sword in the other would make for a very cool character, alas it is not possible.

Warscythe: The same as before but double the cost, which is still very reasonable for what it does! Still cheaper than a power fist, and in my eyes it’s much better.

Gauntlet of Fire: Same stats as a flamer for 10pts, so it’s doubled in price. It doesn’t replace the Staff anymore, and can’t be used in melee. Not a terrible choice if you’ve got a few spare points and you’ve tossed the Staff to pick up a Sword, Blade, or Scythe.

Tachyon Arrow: Even at 5pts cheaper I still think this is an expensive item. It has had it’s range reduced to 120” so there is that I suppose. Without the rerolls the old Chronometron gave, I don’t see this being an overly reliable use of points.

Mindshackle Scarabs: Now cause fear on 3D6 in a challenge for 10pts. Nowhere near as good as before. I get that it needed changing so it wasn’t an auto-include but it’s pretty bad now. Most of the stuff you WANT to challenge with your T5 warscythe wielding HQs tends to be fearless or Space Marines, so the item is literally useless.

Phylactery: Same amount of points and gives you It Will Not Die. Pretty good on an Overlord, better on a Command Barge since it affects both the barge and rider. Again, not as thematic as your Lord getting back up after being taken off the table but it’s less risky and no longer a one-shot item.

Resurrection Orb: Went down 5pts. It’s now a one use item that lets you reroll failed Resurrection Protocol rolls for that unit. You get to choose to activate it AFTER your initial roll, so you can try to avoid a disastrous bout of dice rolling, but it’s not as good as improving your resurrection to 4+ like it used to. For a one-use item I think it’s pretty expensive and will probably only see use occasionally.

Phase Shifter: Dropped 20pts from the last book, but only gives a 4++ instead of 3++. Still good, I’m still going to take it but more and more it seems like only Space Marines are allowed to have 2+ saves and 3+ invulns.

Chronometron: Cryptek only item that's 10pts more expensive than last edition and completely different! It no longer gives you a reroll for anything, it gives the whole unit a 5++ against shooting. Could be good depending on what unit you put your Cryptek in.

Solar Staff: Artefact. It’s a staff of light that gives you Solar Pulse for 15pts. Solar Pulse now dispels Night Fighting for a turn and the enemy can only fire snap shots at the bearer’s unit. Not bad for 15pts, and Crypteks can take it.

Veil of Darkness: Artefact. 5pts cheaper than before and any Character can take it instead . Gives the bearer Deep Strike and lets you teleport your unit and Deepstrike instead of moving once per game. Cool thing is you can pull your unit out of combat now, where you couldn’t before but it is one use only.

Gauntlet of the Conflagrator: Whole new item! It’s an artefact that gives you a 1 shot S7 AP2 flamer. For 30pts it’s pretty expensive though, but it could be game changing against Terminators (without those silly shields) or units in power armour that just MUST DIE! Like most of the one use items in this book though I don’t think it will see much use.

Voidreaper: For an extra 10 points you can upgrade your warsccythe to have Fleshbane and Master Crafted! Pretty good investement but by now your Lord is probably looking a bit points heavy. I think this will pop up every now and then but it isn’t a must have item.

Nightmare Shroud: Artefact. Gives a 2+ armour save, which is great since our Sempiternal Weave is gone. On top of this it has a one-use ability to force a morale check on a unit within 18”. It doesn’t affect Fearless or ATSKNF and at 20pts more than Sempiternal Weave was it’s pretty hefty cost for a 2+ save. Still, it’s our only source of 2+ so it might see a fair bit of use.

Orb of Eternity: Artefact. For 10 more points than a Res orb you get a Res Orb that gives a +1 bonus to your roll when activated. Seems kind of cool but it’s very expensive for a one use item. I’d rather invest in more models, or other more reliable methods to add durability to my units.

Units to come!

[Fhanados]

HQ
I guess the first thing to be aware of is that the Royal Court is gone. It still exists as a formation but the old court is gone. You can no longer use Lords and Crypteks as unit leaders or to just add new capabilities to a squad – they’re all Independent Characters and no longer as cheap as they were. I think this is a huge loss. I LOVED the old Royal court, both as an idea and in practice. Yes there were a few things that were probably a bit over the top, and a few things that were useless, but using cheap characters to add something to a normal unit without having to use up valuable HQ slots was brilliant and something unique to Necrons which I really liked. Now they’ve been “standardised” as Independent Characters and a lot of options gone, but they’re still good choices.
 
Overlord & Lord: I’ll cover them both at once since there are very few differences between them. These are your killy guys. Overlord dropped 10pts and got a pip higher WS and BS. The Lord went up 15pts and gained a wound. They both have access to all the Wargear except Chronometrons. I like them both, but unless I was in a very low point environment I’d probably always choose the Overlord for the higher statline. I can see why people would opt for a Lord instead, but if you want a bare bones HQ I’d probably choose a Cryptek.
 
Cryptek: Boy has this little fella changed. Gone are the Harbingers and all their fancy weapons and crazy Wargear, which is sad. He gained a wound, as well as more than doubling in points. He gives a +1 bonus to Reanimation Protocol rolls, essentially giving his unit a 4+ feel no pain. He can’t take the normal weapons options, but he CAN take the artefacts. With a measly 1 attack the Voidreaper is definitely a bit of a waste but he’s a pretty good candidate for a Solar Staff. Pop him in a unit with a Solar Staff and Chronometron and you have a very shooting resistant unit, although you’ll be paying 105pts minimum for him and with a 4+ save and T4 he’s not nearly as durable as a Lord.
 
Destroyer Lord: 15pts cheaper, comes with a Staff of Light as standard instead of Warscythe so to kit him out the same as the last book you actually end up paying 5pts more. On top of that he is now a Jet Pack Infantry unit instead of Jump Pack. I…. Don’t know what to do with this. Before you could hop him around with Wraiths and Praetorians quite comfortably but now they’ll outpace him pretty easily. Jet Pack is great on shooting units, but he isn’t a shooting unit! He has full access to the same Wargear as Overlords and Lords now, but I still have no idea how to use him!
 
Catacomb Command Barge: It’s… different. It’s no longer a 1-man transport like it used to be, which was super cool. Now it has the rider built into the vehicle the same way as the Daemon chariots. If the Barge dies so does the Character, and he can no longer sap wounds to fix it! The new Command Wave rule allows you to reroll most kinds of failed leadership tests on units within 12”, which is kinda cool but given Necrons are LD10 across the board I don’t see it being fantastic. Granted it is significantly cheaper than an old Overlord/Command Barge combo I still think it’s far too flimsy for my liking.
 
TROOPS
Necron Warriors: Minimum unit size is 10, which means you can no longer start with a unit of 9 and a character sitting in a Ghost Arc. Other than that the Warriors themselves are the same. Same stats, same points, same weapons, same options. The improvement to Gauss and the new Reanimation Protocols justifies that their points didn’t go down (like almost every other troop choice this edition). That said, Ghost Arcs went down in points and Night Scythes went up – so exactly how people choose to field them may be a bit different.
 
Necron Immortals: Exactly the same as before. The only differences are the buff to Gauss, Tesla no longer working on Snap Shots and the points increase on Night Scythes. Because of the Tesla change I don’t think these guys will make a great assault deterrent (which is what I used to use them for), but if you want to squeeze in some Night Scythes a squad of 5 Immortals is the cheapest way to access them.
 
ELITE
Lychguard: These guys got significantly cheaper -15pts per model. That’s almost half of their old cost! Other than that they’re pretty much the same. You have Warscythes as standard and can pay to swap them for a Hyperphase Sword and Dispersion Shield. The shield doesn’t do that funny reflect thing anymore, it’s just a Storm Shield but Necrony (which is better, if less thematic)
 
Deathmarks: Dropped one point per model and changed a little bit. Firstly, they no longer have their 2+ wound marker. Instead they wound whatever they shoot at on a 2+ on the turn they enter via deepstrike. This is ok, but I prefer the old rule. Secondly, they can still deepstrike in your opponent’s turn so long as an enemy unit has also arrived from Deep Strike. If you do this you get to shoot at the end of your enemy’s movement phase, but you cannot fire in your next turn. No longer do your Deathmarks teleport in for the kill only to diddle around while your opponent blows the crap out of them before they can do anything about it. On the downside you can no longer use marks to manipulate enemy movement so they’re more of a surgical strike unit now as opposed to a tactical threat. If you combo them with a Veil of Darkness character though you could get some good mileage from them.
 
Flayed Ones: Exactly the same, but with some small buffs that make a big difference! They have fear now, which is nice but not game changing. The also have two Flayer Claws, which gives them AP5 and Shred. Also, they get TWO of them. You know, two single handed melee weapons. With a base statline of A3 that gives them 4 attacks, 5 on the charge. Suddenly their S4 isn’t so bad. They’re still I2 so they’ll hit last against most things, but DAMN they scary!
 
Triarch Praetorians: These guys dropped in points almost as much as Lychguards. Their Rod of the Covenant gained 6” range, gives AP2 in combat and is no longer Unwieldy. They also gained an attack on their profile! This means with Voidblades and Particle Casters you get 3 attacks each. I really like these guys and Lychguard now.
 
Triarch Stalker: Dropped 25pts and stayed mostly the same. The Gauss option is 5 points less now, and the Targeting Relay is different. Now, any non-vehicle unit within 6” of a stalker gains +1BS unless snap shooting. Not game breakingly good, but along with the points drop I think these guys are really viable. They can also be taken in units of 3 if you feel that way inclined.
 
C’Tan Shards: These guys have changed a lot. There are now two distinct Shards – Nightbringer and Deceiver. Both clock in at the same points cost, which is the equivalent of an old Shard with Pyreshards and Time’s Arrow. They are Unique Monstrous Creatures (so only one of each allowed) and still have Eternal Warrior, Fearless, Necrodermis (4++ and explode upon death), and treat all terrain as open ground. The statlines are very similar to the old Shards, with Nightbringer gaining an extra point in WS and both have some rules that make them unique from one another. Nightbringer has Fleshbane and a leadership based shooting attack (at AP2 with Ignore Cover) that regenerates wounds. Deceiver reduces leadership from nearby units by 2 and can redeploy D3 units within 12” after Scout moves have been made. The biggest change is the powers. You no longer pay points and get what you choose, you roll a D6 on a chart to randomly determine your shooting attack each phase. The powers are quite good, ranging from high strength blasts, 10 mid strength attacks, and single shot snipe/anti armour powers. The problem is you have to choose your target before you know what power you get. You target a tank then roll a S6 AP4 blast? Too bad. Target an infantry platoon blob and roll a single Strength D shot? Unlucky. If you got to roll your power THEN choose, these guys would be great. As is though, I think they’re decent but the points are best spent elsewhere. If I had to choose I’d use the Nightbringer, then at least I can rely on his leadership based power.

[Fhanados]

FAST ATTACK
Night Scythe: Primary flier and Dedicated transport to pretty much any infantry unit in the codex (except Flayed ones, because **** those guys). Our flimsiest vehicle due to only having 3 HP and no Quantum Shielding. They jumped up in points pretty significantly, but considering how prolific they were in the last codex I’d say that’s a good thing. Invasion Beams is a bit more clean cut and it lost Deep Strike, but no change really.

Ghost Arc: Necron standard vehicle stats with quantum Shielding and two Flayer Arrays. Dropped 10 points and the Flayer Arrays became their own weapon instead of being a hodge-podge of Gauss Flayers and some special rules. The only differences are in the points and weapons, everything else is the same. The key thing is that the Flayer Arrays are Salvo (bye bye cover saves) and have the fancy new Independent Targeting rule – so you can potentially target three separate units with one Ghost Arc (one unit with each Array, and one unit with the embarked Warriors). The ability to repair dead Warriors is also a tad more reliable, instantly restoring D3 instead of having to roll a 2+ or suffer a HP damage.

Wraiths: Went up 5pts each and are now units of 3-6 instead of 1-6. They’re also beasts – so they lose Hammer of Wrath. Honestly I’m not familiar enough with Beasts to judge what other implications this has and I don’t have access to a rulebook right now to check it. Whip coils aren’t as crazy good – adding to the wraith’s own Initiative rather than altering the enemy’s but they’re still a very good option. Particle casters are OK, but given how expensive Wraiths are they’ll probably not make the cut. Transdimensional Beamers are still awful.

Scarabs: went up 5pts per base and their save dropped to 6+ but more or less stayed the same (albeit with the new Entropic Strike).

Tomb Blades: The base cost went down a little, but the upgrades became infinitely more affordable. I think they’re a very good choice now, especially with the cheapness of particle beamers. You can really put the hurt on infantry with these guys.

Destroyers: Same points cost but became Jet Pack Infantry and gained a wound. Only one model can be upgraded to a Heavy destroyer now. I think Jet Pack on these guys works. Now you can go back and fro, moving forwards, shooting then ducking back or behind terrain in the same way as those infinitely annoying Crisis Suits. A decent improvement I think, I’ll just have to remember they’re not jump units anymore!

HEAVY SUPPORT
Doomsday Ark: Same stats as the Ghost Ark but replace the transport capacity with a big ass gun. The points dropped by 5pt and it gained +1S on both the low power and high power shots. It suffers a bit from what I call “Vindicator Syndrome”, it has one big nasty gun but if it misses or if that gun is destroyed then it’s a bit useless. It has Quantum Shielding so hopefully you won’t lose the big gun too often!

Annihilation Barge: The Command Barge’s gun-toting twin. This went up a lot of points and lost a bit of punch – no Tesla on Snap Shots means it’s not as potent in an anti-air role and lost the Arc special rule so it’s slightly worse against infantry than it used to be. Still a really decent firebase and suffers less from Vindicator syndrome than the Doomsday arc due to the large number of shots, twin linked and the secondary weapon having a not-too-bad strength.

Heavy Destroyers: Only 10pt more per model than a regular destroyer, you can use up to 3 heavies as a Heavy Support choice. With Preferred Enemy letting you reroll 1s, these guys are a prime candidate for cruising around with a Triarch Stalker. Their lack of shots is a problem though, and I’ve never had much luck with these guys in the past so I don’t think much will be different now. Still, the Stalker/Destroyer combo could work.

Spyders: Same points cost, stat line and unit size as before. Their Scarab hive can only add to existing scarab swarms now, and new models can only be placed within 6” of the Spyder. This gets rid of the stupid stupid scarab farm conga line stupidity. Upgrades all round are cheaper and roughly the same. Gloom Prism grants Adamantium Will, so it’s nice and simple. Fabricator Claw either repairs a Hull Point, or a damage result on a 4+. I’ve never used them, but I think they’re pretty dandy.

Doom Scythe: Went down a few points and the Death Ray is now a S10 Lance Blast weapon instead of one of those silly argument inducing beam weapons.

Monolith: Same points cost and stats. Gauss Flux Arc went up to S5 with independent targeting, but most of the time you’re only going to be able to fire 2 or 3 of them. Particle Whip is the same as well. Being a Heavy vehicle is good, it lets you shoot the Whip and regenerate hull points. Portal of Exile is gone, but the Eternity Gate is better. You can instantly bring in a unit from reserve without rolling for them and disembark them from the Monolith. Alternatively you can teleport Necrons from anywhere on the table to the Monolith as long as they’re not locked in combat. Since deep striking is less hazardous than it used to be the Monolith could be useful, but I’ve never been able to make them work.

Transcendent C’Tan: From what I’ve heard these things were godlike under the Apocalypse rules for them. I’ve never read the Apoc rules, but these ones are OK. At 10pt more than a C’Tan Shard you gain +1S and +1W. You also get Writhing Worldscape – which makes all enemy units within 6” treat open ground as difficult. By the time they’re that close it probably won’t matter though, but hey it might help. Like the Shards the powers are random and that makes this guy unreliable, but the extra 10pts for the stat boost I think makes him on par with the others.

[Fhanados]

LORDS OF WAR
We have three Lords of War: Two superheavies and Imotekh. I’ll leave Imotekh for my comparison on Special Characters. The Superheavies are new to me. Like I mentioned with the Transcendent C’Tan I don’t know the old Apocalypse rules for them so this will pretty much be my first impressions of them. Given their price (both points and money) I’ll probably not use either of them for a very very long time so if anyone has more experience or insight into them by all means fire away!

Tesseract Vault: The Super Monolith with a C’Tan in it. Clocking in at over half a K in points it’s pretty hefty, but puts out a lot. It has 9 hull points (yes, 9. As in one less than 10) and living metal. It has four Tesla Spheres, which each put out 5 S7 Tesla shots each (and correct me if I’m wrong, but Super Heavies can target different units with each weapon right?). On top of this it gets the same C’Tan powers as the Shards and Transcendent C’Tan, but with double the range and more shots or a larger blast. Also the model is freaking sweet. I like it, and the Tesla Spheres kinda make up for the unreliable C’Tan powers – but you’re still paying top points for them.

Obelisk: Monolith’s big brother, but the Vault’s little cousin. Same stat line as the Vault but with 6 Hull points at a little under half the cost. Like the Vault it has four Tesla Spheres and Living Metal. It also has the Gravity Pulse rule, so all floaty units (Flyers, Skimmers, Jetbikes, Flying MCs) treat open terrain within 18” as dangerous, and if a Zooming or Swooping model must take a Dangerous Terrain test if they move within an 18” bubble during the movement phase. It doesn’t really sound too impressive. When you deploy it you can either deploy normally, deepstrike, or deploy it in “sleeping” mode. When sleeping it can’t move or shoot (Gravity Pulse still works) but it gets a 3+ invulnerable save. For 100pts more than a Monolith I think this is a decent choice.

SPECIAL CHARACTERS
There's a distinct pattern with our characters now - they're mostly much cheaper but also not as good. Some only lost a little and are still perfectly viable given their new cost. Some are... well not so good. I think for the most part they're all decent, but we no longer have any of the hardcore build-your-list-around-him characters that we used to.

Imotekh the Stormlord: Boy did he cop it! He has the same stat line and got a 35pt decrease but man did he get worse. He kept his 2+ save despite Sempiternal weave disappearing, but his invuln dropped to 4+. Hyperlogical Strategist is just the Warlord Trait, which isn’t as good as stealing the initiative on a 4+. He lost Humiliating Defeat, which was a cool rule and since the Gauntlet of Fire is no longer a close combat weapon he doesn’t actually have a close combat weapon… He has two ranged weapons though! One is the gauntlet – so a standard flamer, and the other is his Staff of the Destroyer – which is a Staff of Light with extra strength and AP. Lord of the Storm now triggers automatic Night Fighting on first turn, and gives a 1 shot ranged attack that hits all units within 48” with D6 S5 hits on a 5+. Yeah, not so good really. On the plus side Bloodswarm Nanoscarabs are a bit better!

Trazyn the Infinite: Better WS and BS before and a steep drop in points but that’s where the improvements end. His Empathic Obliterator was admittedly a bit over the top (if situational) in the last book but the new one is just bad. Now he has to win a Challenge or it’s pretty much useless. For some reason although Mindshackle Scarabs were nerfed he lost them. On top of this his Surrogate Hosts ability can’t choose Lychguard as targets anymore. This means you can only pop Lords, Crypteks, and Overlords to bring him back, all of which are significant points investments to bring back an average character.

Nemesor Zahndrekh: Again better WS and BS with a drop in points. Also not as good as he used to be, but still pretty decent. He gets a 2+/4++ and a Staff of Light. If he’s your Warlord he can CHOOSE his warlord trait at the beginning of each turn (although he’s stuck with Eternal Madness for the first). Not just from the Necron book mind you, he can choose from the Necron book OR the core rulebook. You can only use each trait once, but if there’s one you like you can keep it. If any enemy units within 24” have Counter Attack, Furious Charge, Hit and Run, Split Fire, Stealth or Tank Hunters then Zhandrekh and his unit get them as well! So if you have a few enemy units with a few of those rules each, Zhandy and Co get ALL OF THEM! It might not come up often, but it is pretty damn cool and he’s quite affordable. He lost his Resurrection Orb though, which would have been icing on the cake.

Vargard Obyron: Can no longer be taken as a partner for Zhandrekh, so he always takes up his own HQ slot. He’s fairly similar to his old self, same stats (including that glorious WS6 and 2+ save) minus one wound and same gear but with a few changes. Cleaving Counterblow now only happens in a Challenge, but the extra attacks strike as I1 so you don’t miss out on extra attacks from models missing you simultaneously. Vargard’s duty is likewise challenge-based and allows him to automatically pass the test for Glorious Intervention. Ghostwalk Mantle works the same as a Veil of Darkness, except it doesn’t let him deploy via Deepstrike and he doesn’t scatter if he lands within 12” of Zhandrekh. He’s not QUITE as good as he used to be, but at 40pts cheaper he’s still a good combat character.

Illuminor Szeras: One of two Cryptek named characters, and one of my favourites. He went up 10pts and maintained his stat line. Interestingly he has 4 attacks despite being pretty rubbish in combat. Mechanical Augmentation can still only target Immortals or Warriors and randomly increases T, BS or S by 1. He lost Gaze of Flame but grants +1 to Reanimation Protocols rolls for all units within 6”, which is very cool. He’s also the only Cryptek that managed to hold on to his Eldritch Lance – all the others seem to have misplaced theirs. He’s fairly cheap, is a good augmentation to any force and has a nifty anti armour gun. Could be fun can opening tanks with him and charging in to combat with buffed up Immortals or some Lychguard.

Orikan the Diviner: Another Cryptek character, and another really cool model. He lost his Transdimensional Beamer but kept the Phase Shifter. His staff is the same, rerolling hits and being AP2. He lost Lord of Time and Temporal Snares but his Super Saiyan mode got better – once he’s empowered he doesn’t lose it. He lost a fair bit – especially with the changes to C’Tan Shards but also dropped 45pts, so I think he’s still decent even though he doesn’t bring that much to the table anymore.

Anrakyr the Traveller: He’s basically exactly the same. Better WS and BS, same Wargear (Warscythe and Tachyon Arrow), same Special Rules. Mind in the Machine isn’t AS good, but it could still be fun to steal your opponent’s vehicle for a round of shooting – but since the weapon you get to use is randomised you’ve got to hope you don’t wind up with a pintle mounted stormbolter or heavy stubber. You get to upgrade a unit of Immortals to gain Furious Charge and Counter Attack (which he also has) for free. Combined with Szeras you can have a pretty solid unit of Immortals! Probably one of my favourite looking models too, he’s pretty much an auto include for me because of awesomeness.

[Narric]

I need to get a copy to help improve the conversions for my Necrostartes

[Fhanados]

I'm almost done I swear! Just this post and one more about the warlord traits and Decurion and I'll shut up.

FORMATIONS
You cannot look at the new Necron codex without taking the Formations into account. They become a key part of your army, particularly when using the new Decurion detachment. Our codex has 8 formations; some small, some large and all can significantly alter what you bring to the field. I found this particularly grating at first, and really hard to wrap my head around. I’m very “traditional” I suppose in the sense that I still choose my armies using Combined Arms detachments and I generally dislike formations but I really think that by excluding Formations from your list building process can really restrict what you can do with this army. A lot of armies I still don’t like formations for, but the Necron ones are not bad and make use of models you’ll probably be fielding anyway.

Reclamation Legion: This is the big one. It has an Overlord, a unit of Immortals, a unit of Tomb Blades and 2 units of Warriors as minimum. You can also take up to two units of Lychguard and 3 Monoliths on top of that and add more core units too. So this is probably what you would take for your Troops and HQ choices anyway, and Tomb Blades are pretty decent so it’s not a points sink to add them. For taking this pretty standard group of chaps you get Move Through Cover, Relentless and re-roll 1s for Reanimation Protocols. If you can fit in a Cryptek or two in from elsewhere (*cough* Royal Court Formation *cough*) then you have some really really tough little guys.

Judicator Battalion: A unit of Triarch Stalkers and two units of Praetorians. Choose a unit within line of sight of a Stalker during the shooting phase and all members of the Formation reroll hits, wounds and armour penetration rolls against it. At first I thought this was a bit naff, but I now realise that because it doesn’t have to be the target the stalkers are shooting at – so you can have your praetorians bouncing around the other side of the board shooting off their rods (giggity) and particle casters while the stalkers hang back or wander around somewhere else. Pretty good if you like Praetorians and Stalkers, and remember you can take three stalkers as a unit now so you can get a LOT of re rolling multimelta or heavy gauss cannon shots. Oh and you get Move Through Cover.

Destroyer Cult: A Destroyer Lord, three units of Destroyers (minimum unit size of 3) and an optional unit of Heavy Destroyers. If it’s your primary detachment you can reroll the Warlord Trait on the Lord if picking from the Necron traits. The traits aren’t great and it’s unlikely you’ll use this as a primary detachment so that rule’s less than good. What is more than good is that all units in the Formation re-roll failed To Wound and Armour Penetration rolls for shooting. All. The. Time. Combo this with a Judicator Batallion for the +1BS from a Stalker and nearly your whole army is rerolling pretty much everything. I’m going to stock up on Destroyers and add this to my Combined Arms force as an extra detachment. The only downside is DAMN that is a lot of Destroyers, and hence a lot of points and a lot of table space. You’ll have a tough time zig-zagging these guys through cover.

Deathbringer Flight: Nice and small, 2-4 Doom Scythes. You get a +2BS bonus for shooting your Death Ray at the same unit as another Doom Scythe and enemy units within 12” of a Scythe suffer -1 Ld. It’s nice if you were going to use more than 1 Doom Scythe anyway, but not worth going out of your way for I think.

Living Tomb: An Obelisk and up to two Monoliths. Everything MUST deep strike. The Obelisk automatically turns up Turn 2, and any Monoliths that come in within 12” of it don’t scatter. You can also disembark reserved units from the Monoliths on the turn they arrive instead of having to wait a turn. To make this work out you’re investing a LOT of points into it and putting at least 5 units in reserves (the formation and a unit for each Monolith) so you won’t have much on the table on turn 1. Also you lose the option to deploy the Obelisk in sleeping mode, which can sometimes be useful. Another problem I have with this formation is that monoliths are butt ugly. The model has not aged well and doesn’t stand up at all next to the new Necron vehicles.

Annihilation Nexus: A Doomsday Ark and two Annihilation Barges. When the Ark loses its shield one of the Barges within 6” can give it theirs. Good for protecting your Ark, but given that the Ark has a long range weapon and the Barges are only 24” if you’re sitting them with the Ark then you’re not using them to their best ability.

Canoptek Harvest: A single Spyder, a unit of Wraiths and a unit of Scarabs. The whole formation gets Move Through Cover and Relentless, so maybe those Transdimensional Beamers aren’t so bad now right? The main perk is that the Spyder can choose to give all units from the formation within 12” (including itself) either Fleet, Shred or Reanimation Protocols. Scarabs, Wraiths and Spyders with Reanimation Protocols? Hell yes! The only downside is the Spyder is slower than the rest of his crew, but careful deployment and clever manoeuvring should mean you still get to use this rule to get some bang for your buck.

Royal Court: Well it still exists as a formation. 1 Overlord, 1-3 Lords and 1-3 Crypteks (or their Special Character equivalents). You get the standard Move Through Cover and Relentless. If the Overlord is your Warlord you can reroll warlord traits from the Necron codex. This is different from the Destroyer Lord in the other formation in that this doesn’t need to be your primary detachment. This isn’t a bad way to hole in a bunch of Characters into your list, but given the points increase on Lords and Crypteks you still won’t fit many in.

[Fhanados]

DECURION DETACHMENT
This is the first detachment of it's type that I'm aware of. Instead of using a modified HQ/Troops/Elites Force Organisation Chart it introduces its own: Core, Auxiliary and Command.

You must have one Core choice. For each Core selection you get 0-1 Command selections and 1-10 Auxiliary. This in itself is a bit different, but what makes this stand out is that some of those "selections" are Formations, not units!

The Core choice is a Reclamation Legion formation and the Command choice is a Royal Court. The Auxiliary choices are the remaining formations, a C'Tan shard (of any variety, including the Vault), a unit of Flayed Ones and a unit of Deathmarks.

Overall it's not as flexible as choosing a few individual units to fit a Combined Arms detachment, and you don't get Objective Secured. What you do get is a +1 bonus to Reanimation Protocols and Living Metal ignores Crew Stunned as well as Crew Shaken. In combination with the benefits given from the formations themselves this is pretty damn good! I think it will see a lot of use in higher points games, but in low-mid games not so much, since there's very little room to trim the fat.

WARLORD TRAITS.
They're ok. Not fantastic, but I like them more than the Chaos Space Marines ones. The standout traits are Hyperlogical Strategist, which lets you adjust your reserves roll and roll to steal the initiative by 1 either way, Immortal Hubris which gives you the Command Wave that the barge has (or extends it to 18" if your warlord is the barge) and Honourable Combatant which lets you reroll failed To Hit rolls in a challenge and if your enemy refuses a challenge you gain Hatred for the whole game.

Well that's it. I'm finally done. I really think we'll see more boots on the ground and less french pastries in the air. Lychguard and Praetorians are now pretty tempting choices, and I really hope that people will use them more but other than that the army is still very much the same as it used to be.

[Charistoph]

Good review Fhanados, just a few points if I may.

Quantum Shielding: Same as before. Still great!

Not quite the same.  The base result is the same, but the change from being an Additive Modifier to a Set Modifier delivers some interesting connotations.  It is a nerf for the IA: 12 Tesseract Vault (who had a base AV of 12, so went from a modified AV 14 to a modified AV 13).  It also starts interacting with Lance, since they both do the same thing to the AV of the Vehicle.

Ghost Arc: Necron standard vehicle stats with quantum Shielding and two Flayer Arrays. Dropped 10 points and the Flayer Arrays became their own weapon instead of being a hodge-podge of Gauss Flayers and some special rules. The only differences are in the points and weapons, everything else is the same. The key thing is that the Flayer Arrays are Salvo (bye bye cover saves) and have the fancy new Independent Targeting rule – so you can potentially target three separate units with one Ghost Arc (one unit with each Array, and one unit with the embarked Warriors). The ability to repair dead Warriors is also a tad more reliable, instantly restoring D3 instead of having to roll a 2+ or suffer a HP damage.

Going to Salvo from Rapid Fire also ended up doubling up the fire from the Flayer Arrays to its full range, instead of just half.  Very mean transport this one is.

Doomsday Ark: Same stats as the Ghost Ark but replace the transport capacity with a big ass gun. The points dropped by 5pt and it gained +1S on both the low power and high power shots. It suffers a bit from what I call “Vindicator Syndrome”, it has one big nasty gun but if it misses or if that gun is destroyed then it’s a bit useless. It has Quantum Shielding so hopefully you won’t lose the big gun too often!

The Doomsday Ark's main gun changed to Primary from Heavy when not moving.  So it has all the benefits of Ordnance without the drawbacks.