Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Ok so after lurking on here for a while and never posting, I felt this had to be done, so I created an account to share this. I've seen alot of people who apparently have no clue how 40k works and think the new necron codex is good, or even OP. I can assure you this is FAR from the case and that the new codex is GARBAGE from a competitive standpoint. Im not talking about fluff here, Im not talking about friendly games. Sure, its fine for basic hobbystore play. Im talking about straight up tourniment style competitive (think 'Ard Boyz). Me and 3 other friends who all went to this years 'Ard Boyz semi finals (And one went to nationals) agree on this pretty thoroughly. Allow me to do a unit by unit example of why this is such a bad codex (though it DOES have some nice stuff).

Necron Warrior - Ah the warrior. What is supposed to be the spammable flood part of the army. They took a nice hit going down to 4+ armor save and a 5+ RAP. So their survivability was hit twice, but instead of being a nice 11-12 points, their at a ridiculous 13 points per model. That 1-2 points might not seem like alot to some people, but look at it this way. For 2 more points, Space Wolves get a grey hunter with the same statline, 2 close combat weapons, counter attack, accute senses, +3 armor save, and the ability to take 2 special weapons in the squad. This has a lot to do with space wolves being pretty unfairly pointed, but making necron warriors crap doesnt help this problem. That 13 points gets pricey FAST, making them harder to spam and by only having a 4+ save, warriors are able to be mowed down in great numbers by very spammable things like Manticores, Heavy Flamers, Autocannons, Heavy Bolters, etc. Now your probably saying "Well thats why you put them in a Ghost Ark or Night Scythe, duh!" which brings me to my next point:

The Ghost Ark - WOW, just wow. 115 points. Seriously? This thing is RIDICULOUSLY overpriced. First off, it’s not a fast skimmer. Just a Skimmer. So there goes the hope of rushing quickly towards your target. Next up, it has CRAP for weaponry. 5 gauss flayers on both sides. Yeee haaaa. It’s not bad, but seriously, compared to the multi laser and heavy flamer that a Chimaera gets for 55 points, you have to be joking. Again yes the IG are rather ridiculous for getting a chimaera for 55 points, but again, making other Codex's choices crappy does NOT solve the power problem. Next, Open-topped. This would have been great, had you been able to put something that could assault in them (Flayed Ones, Lych Guard, Wraiths Triarch Praetorians, but no only Warriors). Its kinda cool to be able to fire all your guns out the top, but again since only warriors can take a Ghost Ark, were talking about 10 Gauss Flayers. Not that impressive. Again it would have been nice if they had been fast to get you into gauss flayer range before they all die, but against any competitive army such as IG, Grey Knights, Space Wolves, Blood Angel, etc, it simply will not happen. And at 115 points each, these are certainly NOT spammable. Seriously you get 2 chimaeras for cheaper (55 points each), or 3 Rhinos (35 points each). Their only nice part is the Quantum Shielding which makes them front and Side Armor 13, but that is not enough to justify 115 points. Maybe 90 points, but not 115. Because of this, their ability to reinforce squads of necron warriors is going to be largely useless. By the time they get into range to unload the warriors, have them fight and take losses, and want to spawn more, your opponent has killed the Ghost Arks (unless they are just bad).

Next Immortals – These are actually Ok. It sucks that they lost their assault 2, 24 inch weapon, but at 17 points per model and a scoring unit, their pretty nice. The problem is their lack of transport. They cant take Ghost Arks, and the Ghost Ark cant respawn them. So were left with the Night Scythe. Now the Night Scythe actually looks like a pretty decent transport, it’s a fast skimmer, its got a great transport capacity, its got amazing weaponry, and it can carry both Jump Infantry and Jet Bikes. The problem is when it dies, the embarked squad doesn’t get out, it goes into reserves and has to come on from the table edge. So basically, you cant rush a unit of immortals forward and sit on an objective in their tank, the same way every other damn army can (cept for nids, and daemons, oh well). And at Armor 11 with no Quantum shielding, they’re gonna get popped FAST. This means that your scoring units are now teleported back into your table edge and off of the objective! Yaaaaay!

Lych Guard and Triarch Praetorians – Nice ideas, awesome models, terrible for play. First off, 40 points per model for something with only a 3+ armor save and no invulnerable save is just silly. Sure you can give the Lych Guard a dispersion shield and get a 4+ invulnerable, but then there goes your war scythe (which is a fine weapon, it’s a little disappointing to lose the ability to ignore invulnerable saves, but Strength 7 power weapons with 2d6 armor pen is fine hehe). Oh and the whole bouncing back shots only works at 6 inches so it will very rarely ever get to be used. Also the whole Strenght 5 Ap 2 shot from the Triarchs is also only 6 inches, Assault 1, so yeee haaa there. Seriously at 40 points, these are ridiculously worse than saaaay Assault Terminators with Thunder Hammer/ Storm Shield, Grey Knight Terminators that get a Force Weapon of their choice and a nice storm bolter, Tyrant Guard, etc. If they could take a transport that actually helped them Assault this would help their survivability problem, but they cant. So you their get to march up the field and die, or take a Night Scythe, get half way up the field, get blown up and come in from the table edge, THEN march up the field and die.

The Triarch Stalker – The ball is still in the air on this one. I can’t decide if the Quantum Shielding is going to make this survivable enough for the targeting array rules (which makes your whole army twin linked when shooting at the same target it fired at) to matter. Its an awesome idea, but at 150 points its ridiculously expensive for something with only 11 armor (plus Quantum of course). So it synergizes well with a shooty army and will be a target priority for the enemy, but whether or not it will be survivable or at least enough of a firepower soak to matter is yet to be seen (though a model for it would be nice).

The C’tan Shard – Looks pretty cool if used in a support fashion. Considering its only toughness 7 and still does not have a 2+ armor save like most necron players would hope, only having a 4+ invulnverable, This would be fairly easy to focus fire if you used it in a pure combat role. It is also not fast, moving the same speed as infantry, so it has to march up the field. And at 200+ points, that is simply not practical. However, taking the powers that let you redeploy D3 squads, and the one that makes your enemies army treat all terrain as Dangerous Terrain, and all already Dangerous Terrain kill on a 1 and 2, it could be very nice in a support role. Most of the other powers are pure Meh.

Flayed Ones – Uhg. Soooo they still don’t have rending or power weapons, and their save went down to 4+ so even more will die before they have a chance to swing, and they still are not allowed to assault out of deep strike or anything…… No thanks. Nice models though.

Destroyers – Wow, just wow. Seriously a slap in the face. Not only did they lose their status as jetbikes, making them unable to turbo boost around for a better firing angle, but their gun was nerfed HEAVILY. It lost 12 inches of range, 1 strength, and 1 shot. Now at 24 inchs, 2 shots, strength 5 AP 3, it is basically an AP 3 version of the old Immortal gun. It also means that the destroyers have to get closer to use their guns, and are no more survivable than before. Still a 3+ armor save, but their RAP is now 5+ instead of 4+. So they are even less survivable. So surely they must be a good bit cheaper now…. Um no. Try only 10 points cheaper for basics (40 points) and only 5 points cheaper (60 points) for the heavies. Wow.

Wraiths – Again wow. I really cant believe this one. No more jetbikes here either. So they are even slower to get into hand to hand than before. Oh and they lost initiative 6! Reaaaaally. So now they not only spend more time getting shot before getting into hand to hand, they now don’t swing first when they get there. But oh wait, you can give them all upgrades to make their enemies initiative 1! Too bad that’s an additional 10 points per model bringing them up to 45 points each! That’s more expensive than they were and their slower and their RAP is worse than before. Gotta love it! The one plus is at least their rending now...

Scarab Swarms – Ok this one is pretty damn nice, gotta give them credit here. 15 points per base, Entropic Strike, 3 wounds 4 attacks, all around pretty damn nice. It sucks that they too are not jet bikes, but Beasts isn’t that bad. Cant complain about scarabs.

Doomsday Ark – I like it until I saw the point cost. 175 is a bit much. Considering IG get a Manticore for 160 that has more range, fires D3 Strength 10 Templates instead of 1 Strength 9 template, and the manticore can fire Barrage, the Doomsday gets a lot less for more points. Im sure people will be like “But its AP 1! That’s great!” Meh. Everything is in cover these days. So AP 1 rarely matters more than AP 2 or 3. Infantry can still just go to ground in cover and get a 3+ and just tough it out with their 4+. Would have been great if the Doomsday Ark ignored cover or something, but no. So its not bad, but there is much better out there and Honestly, there are better choices in the necron codex to use up your Heavy Support slots.

Such as the Monolith – Bah they did a number on this. Its still probably worth taking but they seriously nerfed the hell out of it. Biggest part is the removal of the old living metal. Admittedly it was kinda OP to ignore any extra D6 of armor pen and make your opponent bring something of Strength 9 or greater to kill you, but that’s what made it honestly feel like a big 235 point tank. Land Raiders are waaay too easy to kill for their point cost. So killing the monolith is much easier now. The particle whip also took a nerf, going from Strength 9 down to 8 and it lost the AP 1 on the center hole. So now its even worse at killing tanks. The Gauss flux arc also took a nerf. You no longer get to shoot everything within 12 inches with D6 Strength 5 shots. Now you get 4 separate guns that each fire 3 Strength 4 shots in 4 different directions. Oh boy. The increase in the range of the teleporter to include the whole board is cool, but now it can’t teleport units out of hand to hand so its best feature is gone. It also does not give another RAP save anymore. So its second best feature is gone. Finally most people seem to think the portal is amazing. It is absolute crap. First off the Monolith can only move 6 inches each turn. And considering range on the portal is only D6 inches (1 to six inches here people) its gonna be a loooong time before your close enough to use it, and when you are close enough, you will probably just get melta gunned. This MIGHT have been a nice weapon if the monolith was still allowed to push people out of the way when it deep struck on top of them, but it lost that too! So now deep striking the monolith ANYWHERE is gonna be pretty risky because it can mishap now! Wow, all of these nerf are sure worth the paltry 35 point price reduction……..

The Annihilation Barge – Not bad at 90 points for a Telsa Destructor mounted on a skimmer with Quantum Shielding. But seeing as it takes up a valuable Heavy Support Slot and you cant even take squadrons of them, they are not a very attractive choice compared to the monolith and the Doom Scythe.

Speaking of the Doom Scythe – Now this is a unit I can get behind. Its pretty amazing and definitely the best heavy support choice. First off it cost the same 175 points as the Doomsday Ark. However it is a fast Skimmer that can fire all of its weapons after moving at cruising speed. So it can move 18 inches over terrain and still fire all its guns. And boy is it armed. It has the same Twin-Linked Telsa Destructor as the Annihilation Barge but that is just its secondary weapon! Its main weapon is the Death Ray. It has a range of 12 inches. You then roll 3D6 and trace a straight line in any direction from the starting point 12 inches away. Any enemy unit touched by that line suffers a number of Strength 10 AP 1 hits equal to the number of units in the squad. This is amazing. It vaporizes hordes in a single shot and can blast lines of tanks on their side armor if their bunched up. You then get to fire the Twin Linked Telsa Destructor at whatever is left haha. It certainly needs this kind of firepower because as it is a flyer and only armor 11 with no Quantum Shielding, it is gonna die the second your opponent so much as looks at it funny, so your only gonna probably get 1 shot.

Canoptek Spiders (formerly Tomb Spiders) – Might have been nice considering they are now 3 wounds and create scarab swarms better than the old versions and can act as psychic hoods, but again they take up a Heavy Support slot which means less Monoliths or Doom Scythes. So not a good use of limited slots.

Catacomb Command Barge – So it’s a dedicated transport for your HQ. It only carries your HQ, and has no special effects other than you can make 3 attacks on something you flew over. Um yeah this is a big waste of points. Sending your HQ alone into the middle of your enemies army is never a real good idea, and considering it isn’t a fast skimmer, its gonna take a few turns just to get there. Pretty useless. Nice model though.

The Royal Court – It could have been pretty awesome if the lords had been allowed to all take a Tachyon Arrow or if the Crypteks special weapons were not limited to 1 per Royal Court. But because of this, it is fairly lackluster. Might have some cool combinations in the future though.

Imotekh the StormCaller – Honestly the only HQ choice anyone should think of taking. He is absolutely amazing for the 225 point cost. Nuff said, 1 actual good thing about this book.

So yeah overall this book is pretty much crap. I love the new models, its nice to see my favorite and starting army redone, but it makes me sad how bad it is. Almost everything is overpointed for what it can do, except for a few gems in the mud. So if we do see competitive tournament lists out of the necrons, it will be limited to those couple of units. Uhg. Ok Im done that’s enough typing.

You know, no matter how many posts like this you Necron players make, GW are not going to go and redo the codex to make you happy. Tyranid players know your pain.

There's two things to do. One, accept that they've made changes, and continue with the army. Two, sell it, and do something else.

But please, for the sake of everyones sanity, save the rest of the community from thousands of threads like this. Accept what's happened and move on.

edit - was it really worth quoting yourself? You just make yourself even more obnoxious.

-Loki- wrote:

edit - was it really worth quoting yourself? You just make yourself even more obnoxious.

Hehe sorry bout that, hit the quote button instead of the edit button to fix a typo

Eh, I like playing with "crappy" codexes to wipe those gak eating grins off of my opponent's or opponents' faces. Like back with the last codex when I apocalyptically exploded my opponent's baneblade 16" the first turn of the game with a squad of 3 heavy destroyers. We didn't even finish the game, by turn 3 it was obvious that I won.

Codices and SoB also shared this role for a while, still kind of do.

I haven't bothered looking at the codex yet, but really 4+ save on necrons standard? I figured if anything they'd stay 3+.

You got the Death Ray wrong. The unit takes hits equal to the number of models under the line, not takes hits equal to the number of models in the unit

I really think it is possible to make a necron list that has the Stormlord, 2 crypteks with solar pulses, 2 crypteks with tremor staves, and a c'tan with writhing worldscape.

It will usually be nightfight the ENTIRE game if you do that, you can force 2 units per turn into difficult terrain with the crypteks, which becomes dangerous.

Basically you force the enemy to stumble around and stub their toes in the darkness for the entire game, while you bring your super close range shootyness to bear. For added funsies, use nothing but doom scythes as heavy support, because with night fight permanently, its going to be MUCH harder to bring them down... and a few night scythes carrying immortals / lords / crypteks should give you manuverability to support your doom scythes.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Crevab wrote:You got the Death Ray wrong. The unit takes hits equal to the number of models under the line, not takes hits equal to the number of models in the unit

even still, its far and away the best gun in the army.

1 Solar Pulse. Crypteks can only take dublicates of their staves.


Not arguing that the Death Ray isn't awesome, just trying to keep people correct with this new material . Just helps to be correct whether you're lauding, decrying, whining or fanboying.

Crevab wrote:1 Solar Pulse. Crypteks can only take dublicates of their staves.


Not arguing that the Death Ray isn't awesome, just trying to keep people correct with this new material . Just helps to be correct whether you're lauding, decrying, whining or fanboying.

If you take a second lord, you can take a second court, and you can have another solar pulse in the second court.

See? always best to help correct mistakes

StormStrikr wrote:
Necron Warrior - Ah the warrior. What is supposed to be the spammable flood part of the army. They took a nice hit going down to 4+ armor save and a 5+ RAP. So their survivability was hit twice

Except keep in mind you can take RAP in every phase. Sure, each time it's not as good a chance, but you get it more than once a turn now. Putz a dangerous terrain roll? Before the necron would have been down until your next turn, now he can get up immediately and be useful again. Did an enemy shoot him? Well, he's back up again to help take the assault. Did he die in the assault? He gets to try to come back yet *again*.

but instead of being a nice 11-12 points, their at a ridiculous 13 points per model. That 1-2 points might not seem like alot to some people, but look at it this way. For 2 more points, Space Wolves get a grey hunter with the same statline, 2 close combat weapons, counter attack, accute senses, +3 armor save, and the ability to take 2 special weapons in the squad. This has a lot to do with space wolves being pretty unfairly pointed, but making necron warriors crap doesnt help this problem.

Grey Hunters are undercosted units with undercosted options. For a WS4/BS4/S4/T4 Ld10 unit with a 4+sv and S4 AP5 RF weapons that can glance any vehicle in the game and can pop back up again, 13pts is plenty fair.

That 13 points gets pricey FAST, making them harder to spam and by only having a 4+ save, warriors are able to be mowed down in great numbers by very spammable things like Manticores, Heavy Flamers, Autocannons, Heavy Bolters, etc. Now your probably saying "Well thats why you put them in a Ghost Ark or Night Scythe, duh!" which brings me to my next point:

Yeah, heavy template weapons will suck, that's why they're cheaper now. Against the other stuff, that's why you have transports and cover.

The Ghost Ark - WOW, just wow. 115 points. Seriously? This thing is RIDICULOUSLY overpriced. First off, it’s not a fast skimmer. Just a Skimmer. So there goes the hope of rushing quickly towards your target. Next up, it has CRAP for weaponry. 5 gauss flayers on both sides. Yeee haaaa. It’s not bad, but seriously, compared to the multi laser and heavy flamer that a Chimaera gets for 55 points, you have to be joking. Again yes the IG are rather ridiculous for getting a chimaera for 55 points, but again, making other Codex's choices crappy does NOT solve the power problem. Next, Open-topped. This would have been great, had you been able to put something that could assault in them (Flayed Ones, Lych Guard, Wraiths Triarch Praetorians, but no only Warriors). Its kinda cool to be able to fire all your guns out the top, but again since only warriors can take a Ghost Ark, were talking about 10 Gauss Flayers. Not that impressive. Again it would have been nice if they had been fast to get you into gauss flayer range before they all die, but against any competitive army such as IG, Grey Knights, Space Wolves, Blood Angel, etc, it simply will not happen. And at 115 points each, these are certainly NOT spammable. Seriously you get 2 chimaeras for cheaper (55 points each), or 3 Rhinos (35 points each). Their only nice part is the Quantum Shielding which makes them front and Side Armor 13, but that is not enough to justify 115 points. Maybe 90 points, but not 115. Because of this, their ability to reinforce squads of necron warriors is going to be largely useless. By the time they get into range to unload the warriors, have them fight and take losses, and want to spawn more, your opponent has killed the Ghost Arks (unless they are just bad).

Yeah, it's a bit of a bum rap on not being able to take everything else, and individually 115pts might not seem like a lot, but once you start getting 3/4/5 Quantum Shielded units on the table with some AV11 units to go with them, they start becoming very powerful indeed. As for firepower, unless you're fighting an MC or AV10 vehicles, the flayer arrays are generally going to do more to infantry and medium/heavy vehicles than a Chimera's HB/ML will, especially at close range. Granted shorter range an side arcs, but dealable.

It's a tad expensive, but still very useful and not cripplingly expensive.

The bigger problem is the model, took a look at the sprues and all thoughts of building a Necron army went away and the thought of assembling and painting that thing.

Next Immortals – These are actually Ok. It sucks that they lost their assault 2, 24 inch weapon, but at 17 points per model and a scoring unit, their pretty nice. The problem is their lack of transport. They cant take Ghost Arks, and the Ghost Ark cant respawn them. So were left with the Night Scythe. Now the Night Scythe actually looks like a pretty decent transport, it’s a fast skimmer, its got a great transport capacity, its got amazing weaponry, and it can carry both Jump Infantry and Jet Bikes. The problem is when it dies, the embarked squad doesn’t get out, it goes into reserves and has to come on from the table edge. So basically, you cant rush a unit of immortals forward and sit on an objective in their tank, the same way every other damn army can (cept for nids, and daemons, oh well). And at Armor 11 with no Quantum shielding, they’re gonna get popped FAST. This means that your scoring units are now teleported back into your table edge and off of the objective! Yaaaaay!

Hold the night scythes with immortals in reserve, when they come on move flat out for a cover save after you've dealt with some of their ranged AT defenses.

Lych Guard and Triarch Praetorians – Nice ideas, awesome models, terrible for play. First off, 40 points per model for something with only a 3+ armor save and no invulnerable save is just silly. Sure you can give the Lych Guard a dispersion shield and get a 4+ invulnerable, but then there goes your war scythe (which is a fine weapon, it’s a little disappointing to lose the ability to ignore invulnerable saves, but Strength 7 power weapons with 2d6 armor pen is fine hehe). Oh and the whole bouncing back shots only works at 6 inches so it will very rarely ever get to be used. Also the whole Strenght 5 Ap 2 shot from the Triarchs is also only 6 inches, Assault 1, so yeee haaa there. Seriously at 40 points, these are ridiculously worse than saaaay Assault Terminators with Thunder Hammer/ Storm Shield, Grey Knight Terminators that get a Force Weapon of their choice and a nice storm bolter, Tyrant Guard, etc. If they could take a transport that actually helped them Assault this would help their survivability problem, but they cant. So you their get to march up the field and die, or take a Night Scythe, get half way up the field, get blown up and come in from the table edge, THEN march up the field and die.

Agreed, Praetorians are awful, it's like Ward thought "lets give a bunch of cool abilities to this unit and make it able to do lot of stuff, but not be good at any of it". The Lychguard aren't too bad. To be fair, TH/SS termi's are *grossly* undercosted in C:SM and C:BA, people would pay 50pts for them and still take them almost as often. The Lychguard with powerweapons and shield still get 2A base, 3 when charging, and all at S5. And they get back up, that's something that Terminators don't get to do.

The Triarch Stalker – The ball is still in the air on this one. I can’t decide if the Quantum Shielding is going to make this survivable enough for the targeting array rules (which makes your whole army twin linked when shooting at the same target it fired at) to matter. Its an awesome idea, but at 150 points its ridiculously expensive for something with only 11 armor (plus Quantum of course). So it synergizes well with a shooty army and will be a target priority for the enemy, but whether or not it will be survivable or at least enough of a firepower soak to matter is yet to be seen (though a model for it would be nice).

Having fought one this very day, it's a great unit, especially when used to get units with either large volumes of shots or that rely on tesla weaponry as rerolls give more chances for 6's.

The C’tan Shard – Looks pretty cool if used in a support fashion. Considering its only toughness 7 and still does not have a 2+ armor save like most necron players would hope, only having a 4+ invulnverable, This would be fairly easy to focus fire if you used it in a pure combat role. It is also not fast, moving the same speed as infantry, so it has to march up the field. And at 200+ points, that is simply not practical. However, taking the powers that let you redeploy D3 squads, and the one that makes your enemies army treat all terrain as Dangerous Terrain, and all already Dangerous Terrain kill on a 1 and 2, it could be very nice in a support role. Most of the other powers are pure Meh.

It's a great support unit, though it's upgrades seem to have been costed by throwing a dice at a board after taking a shot of jaeger each time. Why making all terrain on the table dangerous for the enemy is worth less than a 24" lascannon is beyond me. However, it is a good unit that can soak a lot of fire to keep heat off of other units and really putz the enemies battle plan. Not super amazing great, but a solid unit if built and used well.

Flayed Ones – Uhg. Soooo they still don’t have rending or power weapons, and their save went down to 4+ so even more will die before they have a chance to swing, and they still are not allowed to assault out of deep strike or anything…… No thanks. Nice models though.

I'm of the exact opposite opinion. 13pts gets you 4 S4 WS4 attacks on a charge that can infiltrate or outflank on a T4 4+sv unit that can get back up after being killed 33% of the time. Totally worth it. For what a basic tac squad costs, you can get 13 of these guys that'll get 52 attacks on the charge.

Destroyers – Wow, just wow. Seriously a slap in the face. Not only did they lose their status as jetbikes, making them unable to turbo boost around for a better firing angle, but their gun was nerfed HEAVILY. It lost 12 inches of range, 1 strength, and 1 shot. Now at 24 inchs, 2 shots, strength 5 AP 3, it is basically an AP 3 version of the old Immortal gun. It also means that the destroyers have to get closer to use their guns, and are no more survivable than before. Still a 3+ armor save, but their RAP is now 5+ instead of 4+. So they are even less survivable. So surely they must be a good bit cheaper now…. Um no. Try only 10 points cheaper for basics (40 points) and only 5 points cheaper (60 points) for the heavies. Wow.

Yeah, Destroyers got a putzing, yeah they're less effective, no RAP isn't worse than WBB because again, RAP happens immediately and can be done every phase.

Wraiths – Again wow. I really cant believe this one. No more jetbikes here either. So they are even slower to get into hand to hand than before. Oh and they lost initiative 6! Reaaaaally. So now they not only spend more time getting shot before getting into hand to hand, they now don’t swing first when they get there. But oh wait, you can give them all upgrades to make their enemies initiative 1! Too bad that’s an additional 10 points per model bringing them up to 45 points each! That’s more expensive than they were and their slower and their RAP is worse than before. Gotta love it! The one plus is at least their rending now...

They gained Rending, an additional Wound, and lopped 6pts off the top of the cost. Although you missed something.

They don't get RAP at all

But 35pts for a WS4 3A S6 Rending 2 Wound 3++Invul save Jump Infantry that ignore all terrain is bad? NOPE.

Doomsday Ark – I like it until I saw the point cost. 175 is a bit much. Considering IG get a Manticore for 160 that has more range, fires D3 Strength 10 Templates instead of 1 Strength 9 template, and the manticore can fire Barrage, the Doomsday gets a lot less for more points. Im sure people will be like “But its AP 1! That’s great!” Meh. Everything is in cover these days. So AP 1 rarely matters more than AP 2 or 3. Infantry can still just go to ground in cover and get a 3+ and just tough it out with their 4+. Would have been great if the Doomsday Ark ignored cover or something, but no. So its not bad, but there is much better out there and Honestly, there are better choices in the necron codex to use up your Heavy Support slots.

Yeah, it's a bit pricey, but it does give Necrons a long range fire support option.

Such as the Monolith – Bah they did a number on this. Its still probably worth taking but they seriously nerfed the hell out of it. Biggest part is the removal of the old living metal. Admittedly it was kinda OP to ignore any extra D6 of armor pen and make your opponent bring something of Strength 9 or greater to kill you, but that’s what made it honestly feel like a big 235 point tank. Land Raiders are waaay too easy to kill for their point cost. So killing the monolith is much easier now. The particle whip also took a nerf, going from Strength 9 down to 8 and it lost the AP 1 on the center hole. So now its even worse at killing tanks. The Gauss flux arc also took a nerf. You no longer get to shoot everything within 12 inches with D6 Strength 5 shots. Now you get 4 separate guns that each fire 3 Strength 4 shots in 4 different directions. Oh boy. The increase in the range of the teleporter to include the whole board is cool, but now it can’t teleport units out of hand to hand so its best feature is gone. It also does not give another RAP save anymore. So its second best feature is gone. Finally most people seem to think the portal is amazing. It is absolute crap. First off the Monolith can only move 6 inches each turn. And considering range on the portal is only D6 inches (1 to six inches here people) its gonna be a loooong time before your close enough to use it, and when you are close enough, you will probably just get melta gunned. This MIGHT have been a nice weapon if the monolith was still allowed to push people out of the way when it deep struck on top of them, but it lost that too! So now deep striking the monolith ANYWHERE is gonna be pretty risky because it can mishap now! Wow, all of these nerf are sure worth the paltry 35 point price reduction……..

At 200pts for an AV14 all around tank with a teleportal, weaponry that can hit in any direction at multiple targets, and an AP2 Battlecannon, can Deep Strike and if close enough kill enemy units no matter how tough, are you really going to say it's not worth it? Sure, the old one was way better, but it was also drastically undercosted. For 200pts, not a bad buy.

The Annihilation Barge – Not bad at 90 points for a Telsa Destructor mounted on a skimmer with Quantum Shielding. But seeing as it takes up a valuable Heavy Support Slot and you cant even take squadrons of them, they are not a very attractive choice compared to the monolith and the Doom Scythe.

Long range, multiple shot S7 fire. A tough transport killer for a relatively low cost. They're awesome, though a bit short ranged.

Speaking of the Doom Scythe – Now this is a unit I can get behind. Its pretty amazing and definitely the best heavy support choice. First off it cost the same 175 points as the Doomsday Ark. However it is a fast Skimmer that can fire all of its weapons after moving at cruising speed. So it can move 18 inches over terrain and still fire all its guns. And boy is it armed. It has the same Twin-Linked Telsa Destructor as the Annihilation Barge but that is just its secondary weapon! Its main weapon is the Death Ray. It has a range of 12 inches. You then roll 3D6 and trace a straight line in any direction from the starting point 12 inches away. Any enemy unit touched by that line suffers a number of Strength 10 AP 1 hits equal to the number of units in the squad. This is amazing. It vaporizes hordes in a single shot and can blast lines of tanks on their side armor if their bunched up. You then get to fire the Twin Linked Telsa Destructor at whatever is left haha. It certainly needs this kind of firepower because as it is a flyer and only armor 11 with no Quantum Shielding, it is gonna die the second your opponent so much as looks at it funny, so your only gonna probably get 1 shot.

See, this is a unit I'm actually not very excited about exactly because of this last point, too easy to kill for what it costs with that short ranged deathray.

Canoptek Spiders (formerly Tomb Spiders) – Might have been nice considering they are now 3 wounds and create scarab swarms better than the old versions and can act as psychic hoods, but again they take up a Heavy Support slot which means less Monoliths or Doom Scythes. So not a good use of limited slots.

You'll notice they have an extra wound with higher WS/BS and are 5pts cheaper and you can field up to 9 of them. Throwing lots of T6 W3 50pt MC's at an opponent is harsh.

Catacomb Command Barge – So it’s a dedicated transport for your HQ. It only carries your HQ, and has no special effects other than you can make 3 attacks on something you flew over. Um yeah this is a big waste of points. Sending your HQ alone into the middle of your enemies army is never a real good idea, and considering it isn’t a fast skimmer, its gonna take a few turns just to get there. Pretty useless. Nice model though.

It's a great Warscythe delivery barge and meatshield for transports. It has its place.

The Royal Court – It could have been pretty awesome if the lords had been allowed to all take a Tachyon Arrow or if the Crypteks special weapons were not limited to 1 per Royal Court. But because of this, it is fairly lackluster. Might have some cool combinations in the future though.

The Crypteks synergize wonderfully with the rest of the army however.

Imotekh the StormCaller – Honestly the only HQ choice anyone should think of taking. He is absolutely amazing for the 225 point cost. Nuff said, 1 actual good thing about this book.

He's broken good, like, don't expect people to have fun playing if you take him good. Probably the one great failing of the book.

So yeah overall this book is pretty much crap. I love the new models, its nice to see my favorite and starting army redone, but it makes me sad how bad it is. Almost everything is overpointed for what it can do, except for a few gems in the mud. So if we do see competitive tournament lists out of the necrons, it will be limited to those couple of units. Uhg. Ok Im done that’s enough typing.

It's a humongous boost to the old army. Did it do everything right? No. If is it perfect? No. Does much of the fluff (especially on the Doom Scythe and Stormlord) look like it came out of a tween's internet fanfic? Yes.

But, is it an upgrade to the old book that has a lot of cool tricks and versatility that is going to put Necrons on a much better footing than they were previously and help shake up their background to make it a bit more interesting? Yes.

For what it's worth, I'd like to thank OP for actually putting effort into explaining why he's taking his stance on things.

Very informative read. I don't know why people are saying that door vortex on the mono is anything special. Even when I assumed that it was a six inch weapon it still wouldn't be that big of an issue. However, being D6? Yeah, it's even more insignificant. I was also under the impression that it still just pushed troops aside when it landed, good to know that was wrong too. The profile on that thing is massive, I look forward to seeing how successful people are at deepstriking with it in the next few tournies (provided I see crons).

I'm still annoyed that I'll have to equip my power blob army with search lights now. If I don't take them I'm at a huge disadvantage when I play nightcrons. However, when playing just about anything else it's wasted points.

Necroshea wrote: tournies (provided I see crons).

I'm still annoyed that I'll have to equip my power blob army with search lights now. If I don't take them I'm at a huge disadvantage when I play nightcrons. However, when playing just about anything else it's wasted points.

If you have any vehicle that isn't a sentinel, it already has one.

Sounds a bit like Dark Eldar from what you're saying.

Vaktathi, check the RaP again. After you roll at the end of the phase, you remove the counters.

Crevab wrote:Vaktathi, check the RaP again. After you roll at the end of the phase, you remove the counters.

I think he's saying that a Necron model can die in any phase and reanimate to still be useful in the next phase, as opposed to the old rules, where a model would die and then be useless until the start of the Necron player's next turn. While yes, the model does die if it fails the roll even once, if it does stand back up, it can die and have another chance to do so in the same turn, not the beginning of the turn.

Durr, yeah I think I jumbled the last line he wrote on warriors

Just to note, I don't think it's exactly fair or worthwhile to access a unit based on its points and weapons compared to what other codices' have, especially when cherry picking...It's better to access it in terms of its synergy within its actual codex.

Isd their anything to cancel out RAP/WBB rolls in this edition.I know in the last one that if they were ID they don't come back without a res orb.

Deadshot wrote:Isd their anything to cancel out RAP/WBB rolls in this edition.I know in the last one that if they were ID they don't come back without a res orb.

The only way to do it is to wipe the unit out completely. They can be killed by absolutely anything and still come back now - the resurrection orb just improves their chances from a 5+ to a 4+.

Edit: Durr. RaP is also canceled out if the unit falls back, mentioned in the first paragraph of the rule.

Deadshot wrote:Isd their anything to cancel out RAP/WBB rolls in this edition.I know in the last one that if they were ID they don't come back without a res orb.

Yeah ID is the only thing that cancels RAP in this ed. And surprisingly, a Res Orb doesnt negate this like in the old codex, just makes RAP a 4+ for the squad who has it.

Also I've gotta get my codex back out of the car but Im pretty sure the deathray works like I described. It is essentially a bigger version of the Staff of the Destroyer that Imotekh has.

RaP is not canceled by Instant Death. It's only canceled by the unit falling back and the unit being wiped out.

Does the WBB get cancelled if the squad has one wound, such as Warriors, or does a Psyfleman still keep them down?

Thanks for making this post, I dont agree but im glad you did a run down as to wh you feel that way instead of just crying.


one main thing you got wrong that I think you dont understand which is one of the main features of the army is the royal court.

the crypteks you upgrade get the weapons for their upgrades its the 2 wargear items that you only get one per court. This is important as anyone with half a noggin should be looking to take 10 crypteks and immediately saying 'HARBINGER OF DESTRUCTION!!" i get 36" str 8 ap 2 assualt 1 rods of awesomenes?!?!? this option only costs you 35pts for the cryptek as well (coincidentlt this is the harbinger that gets you solar flares which are just pure I win!)

I will take 10 please!! THEN you can hide them in units! its how necrons do special/heavy weapons in troop choices and i personally like it.

thats just looking at one option! what about the Harbinger of despair with his template str 8 (vs leadership) ap 1 flamer that is also the harbinger that gets you the veil of darkness! Take a few of them witht he templates and even take some of the lords with gauntletes of fire (template str 4 ap 5) who can just teleport around the map and even flame down terminators...

How about the harbinger of trasmogrification with the tremor stave that is a blast weapon putting dudes in difficult terrain (if you dont see the combo with these fellas and the ctan that turns difficult terrain into dangerous.....AWESOME!!

If you cant see the power of the royal court I suggest you take another look....


The last thing I would like to point out that I find as evidence that Necrons can be competetive is hulksmash plans to play them and is excited about them. His first go at a list was rather impressive

2 basic lords with warstaves (to get 2 courts) he didnt even take the storm lord!
10 crypteks with the eldtrich staves listed above and 2x solar flares
2x10 immortals (tesla carbines)
4x5 warriors
2x5 wraiths
8 scarabs
3 tomb spyders (on turn 1 and 2 they add 6 bases to the scarab swarm!)
2 annhilation barges

2000pts

He thinks its competative, and I am going to agree!

I'm sure the doom scythe can't go 18" and fire everything. That is moving flat out (it can go 24" and shoot nothing). Surely it goes 12" and fires it's tesla destructor and death ray as it has the same special rules as the dark eldar fighters!

I think alot of people get the C'Tan power "Writhing Worldscape" wrong.

That power changes difficult terrain to dangerous terrain. And it changes dangerous terrain to "more" dangerous terrain (1 or 2 on the dice). It does NOTHING to open ground. If it isn't difficult or dangerous to begin with, that single power will not change it.

There's other powers in the book, including another C'Tan power which works only on vehicles within 6", there's a SC that does difficult terrain for the 1st turn, there's that Cryptek staff that lets you hit a unit making it move like difficult terrain, etc.., but a blanket-all-table-difficult terrain is not in the book.

Zweischneid wrote:I think alot of people get the C'Tan power "Writhing Worldscape" wrong.

That power changes difficult terrain to dangerous terrain. And it changes dangerous terrain to "more" dangerous terrain (1 or 2 on the dice). It does NOTHING to open ground. If it isn't difficult or dangerous to begin with, that single power will not change it.

There's other powers in the book, including another C'Tan power which works only on vehicles within 6", there's a SC that does difficult terrain for the 1st turn, there's that Cryptek staff that lets you hit a unit making it move like difficult terrain, etc.., but a blanket-all-table-difficult terrain is not in the book.

this is how ive understood it as well, dunno where people got the everywhere is difficult thing?

its still awesomely powerful, especially with paired with crypteks with tremorstaves

Necroshea wrote:For what it's worth, I'd like to thank OP for actually putting effort into explaining why he's taking his stance on things.

I agree. It's nice he explained everything.

Not going to stop me from disagreeing with him on every point for one reason: Phase Out.

They could have just reprinted the old codex with a bunch of white out over the phase out rule and it would have been a massive buff. Instead, they gave us units with options.

The codex isn't trash.

Warriors: These guys are now the biggest tarpit-shooting unit in the game. Take a max-sized squad and add a lord with a rez orb. That unit will suck all the firepower your opponent can bring to bear and not go away.

Immortals: Add an overlord with Phaeron and they're better than they were in the old codex.

Ghost Arks: If you've only got one or two of them, and they're the only vehicles in your army, they're not going to make their points back. However, if you've got more valuable targets for your opponent to shoot at with his AT and they live to revive some fallen warriors, they only need to revive 6 warriors before they buy back enough of their cost to be effectively cheaper than a vanilla rhino. That's two rounds of reviving if you roll good. Also, you seem to be under the impression they can only transport warriors, which is incorrect. They can transport anything a 10-seat transport can take. They can only be *taken* by warrior squads, and they can only *repair* warriors. You could shove immortals into them if you wanted after the game had started (don't know why you would want to. If you're taking them for their transport capacity you're taking them for the wrong reason. They're there to repair warriors and broadside enemy units).

Praetorians: Combo them with whip cord wraiths. The new codex was written around unit synergies. Triarch Praetorians playing bodyguard for a destroyer lord with a rez orb is a scary unit. Does the Rod of the Covenant only have a 6" range? Sure...but they're jump infantry. If they need more than that you're doing it wrong. Don't overlook their AP2. They're like our old wraiths only way more dangerous IMO.

Lych Guard: I'm honestly not sure how you can have a problem with these guys. Strap a lord with a rez orb to them and break out the shields. If you're running two courts, give them a lord from one and a cryptek from the other. They'll work great with Despair, Destruction, or Eternity. Take the rez orb, shields, and eternity. You've got a 3+ armor save, 4+ invuln save, 4+ RP, one reroll a turn, a hidden S7 power weapon, and a 3+ invuln cryptek that can reduce a nasty multi-wound model to a mewling baby if he wounds them and they fail the save.

Triarch Stalker: If he gets blown off the board before he can be useful, you didn't have enough armor on the board or your opponent got lucky (or he was just that important to kill). Upgrade his weapon to a gauss cannon and hide him during deployment. With move through cover he'll be able to mark something before he goes down, and he's cheap enough that marking the right unit will more than make his points back. Breaking even should not be hard if you have enough other high-value targets for your opponent to shoot at.

Flayed Ones: Yeah...no argument there. They still suck. If they were troops I would defend them out of pure fanboi-ish-ness. Alas...

Destroyers: Don't knock AP3. It's a magic number to be sure. Also, they shouldn't be nearly as high priority for your opponent as they used to be so they'll be much more likely to earn their points back than they were before. They'll easily be a mainstay in smaller games, and still have a large role to play in larger ones as well.

Wraiths: Go read them again. Seriously. They're a vital unit now. Their presence on your list tells me you haven't even tried to figure out what they'll be good for. Hint: They'll make all your other nasty-except-for-the-I-2 CC necrons go first. Triarch Praetorians, Lych Guard, Lords, Immortals, Warriors...doesn't matter. If it's in B2B with a wraith, the necrons go first in CC. For 45 points, they're a steal.

Doomsday Ark: One of like 3 guns in our codex that can fire beyond 24 inches. They don't suck, and with AV13 they'll be more survivable than most big guns barring IG russes. In the context of the necron army, they need to be more expensive. IG don't get back up when you kill them. We do. If they were cheap, they would be severely OP. Same if they could be taken in squadrons. They're not UP. They're in a really vital spot for us, IMO, without being OP.

Monolith: Kinda OP? Kinda? If we had the old living metal rule in our new codex we would be way beyond the GKs. Way beyond. I'm not even going to continue on this one. You have to be trolling if you think the monolith nerf was unfair in context with the rest of the new codex.

Annihilation Barge: Did you read the WD battle report? Their barge wrecked left and right (including a few of their own immortals...). Combo with a Triarch Stalker and your opponent will be QQing so long as the dice gods don't completely hate you.

Spyders: MCs that come in squads of 3. *That can repair vehicles*. If you take enough vehicles to make your opponent sweat, you will want a trio of these guys with one of each upgrade and an extra gloom prism to cover two nearby 'cron units with psychic resistance.

Catacomb Command Barge: You haven't been paying attention. This thing is awesome for AT work, and can snipe sergeants. It's also got a tesla cannon and is amazingly durable with an IC on board (give them a phylactery).

Royal Court: Really? I mean really? The ability to have sergeants in our squads with rez orbs and "magic" is "lackluster"? Why did I type this much? If I had read this entry by itself I would have known you hadn't actually read the codex yet.

Arandmoor wrote:

Necroshea wrote:For what it's worth, I'd like to thank OP for actually putting effort into explaining why he's taking his stance on things.

Lych Guard: I'm honestly not sure how you can have a problem with these guys. Strap a lord with a rez orb to them and break out the shields. If you're running two courts, give them a lord from one and a cryptek from the other. They'll work great with Despair, Destruction, or Eternity. Take the rez orb, shields, and eternity. You've got a 3+ armor save, 4+ invuln save, 4+ RP, one reroll a turn, a hidden S7 power weapon, and a 3+ invuln cryptek that can reduce a nasty multi-wound model to a mewling baby if he wounds them and they fail the save.

I quoted the part I care about, as I agree wth everything you have said!....and Im reading royal court again...and i think you might be right! Is it other peopels opinions? if I have 2 royal courts can I stick a guy from each court into a unit? so we can get 2 into each unit?

Yes, you can do that.