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.

Last time I played was in 8th and the disappointment. I tried 1 game of 9th and decided to shelf my army. With the release of the Necron Codex, I've dusted off my miniatures and decided to give 10th a try. Just giving an idea of how long I've been out of 40k. I've only had 1.5 games so far, and the second game was the big one where I ended up getting completely confused. I've since watched/read Batreps, talked it over with other Necron players, even had an open book discussion with the local Warhammer store rep.

Setup: All ONE unit
They were also covered by 'Convergence Starstele' that I brought just to try.

- Necron Overlord (Res Orb)
- Chronomancer
- Cryptothralls
- 20 Warriors

** This isn't exactly what I ran, but illustrates the confusion I experienced in my game.

My opponent ended up going first, and the Hellblasters took out 16 of the Warriors. He then split his snipers 5/5 to hit the Overlord and the Chronomancer. The Chronomancer survived with 2 wounds, and the Overlord was left with 1 remaining. (Thanks to the FNP provided by the Cryptothralls/Convergence). My opponent only has 1 unit of basic Marines that can still shoot them, which he decides to do. He then causes 6 wounds, which is where the questions started since I've been away so long, I had NO idea how it worked, and my opponent at the time didn't either.

Q1) Out of those 6 Wounds, do I have to assign them to the Warriors first? I know I CAN'T assign them to either of the Characters. We couldn't figure out any reason why I couldn't assign the hits to the Cryptothralls (who soaked 4 of the 6 hits), then the remaining 2 went on to the Warriors, killing 1. So I ended up with 2 Warriors, 1 Cryptothrall, and the 2 characters with their wounds left. I'm aware that once one of the Cryptothralls took a wound, I had to keep assigning wounds to him until he died, so there is no confusion there. Was I allowed to switch to Warriors after the first one died is the question? With only 2 wounds left in the pool, would I be forced to put them on the last Cryptothrall? Did I still have the choice to put the last 2 wounds on the last Cryptothrall to save more warriors? Legal or not, it simply felt 'off' and we rolled off for the sake of the game.

All of the models in the unit have 'Reanimation Protocols', which given the situation caused more problems than it solved.
Q2a) Are they all treated as one unit for RP, or do they all have to share the single D3? Most Batreps have them all sharing. I've also watched players who play them as independent, but I feel this is a habit from earlier editions where Characters were always separate units.
Q2b) If they are treated as sharing RP, then RP means I have to use the wounds to fill up the two leaders first. This creates a rare situation where I have 2(potentially 3) individual models 'not at full strength'. Per the RP rules, I have to pick 1 of them and assign all the RP wounds to them first. Just to cover all the bases, I'm pretty sure that I can't alternate between the 2 leaders. This makes complete sense from a narrative perspective. From a tactical perspective, I'm hurting the Warrior squad by having the characters in there at all, and do not see any advantage to ever putting a Necron Leader in a unit and expect RP to do any good. An opponent could simply assign minimum snipers to characters and direct the rest to the squad knowing that it's going to prevent Necrons from getting any attacks back, effectively defeating RP.
Q2c) Warriors have the 'Legion' rule which allows them to re-roll the D3. Not great, but the question is if they share the RP pool, then do I still get the benefit of re-rolling the D3 despite being forced to assign them to the characters first? The rules only seem to cover what benefits are unit gains from a Leader, not the other way around. (My opponent let me simply because it made sense at the time, and getting back 1 or 3 wounds made ZERO difference to the damage output my unit would be able to gain on my turn.) This brought my Chronomancer back to full, and once he was full, I had to put the last one on the Overlord.

I still had the Res. Orb which I didn't want to use yet. I lost a Reanimator, and so I wanted to move my remaining Reanimator in range during my movement phase. I was able to get them close enough to trigger the Res Orb.
Q3a) The Res. Orb actually triggers a units RP, so the first question is how does that interact with the Warriors 'Legion' rule? Do I get to re-roll the D6 if I want to or do I not get to use it because it's the Res Orb that changes it to a D6? Thankfully, this wasn't an issue as I rolled a 5 and wasn't going to risk it. This brought the Overlord back to full and returned 1 Warrior. This was where I first noticed that RP really hurt me because despite getting 8 wounds back at this stage, I only got 1 Warrior back out of all of it.
Q3b) Now that the Reanimator was in range and the unit's RP was activated an additional 2 Warriors were brought back. Just to make sure we're covering all the bases, it was pretty obvious to us that the Warriors 'Legion' ability did not combo at this stage, since it adds to the RP vs. activating it.

We ended the game after turn two having seen what Close Combat was actually like on a broad scale. It was at this stage we took the remaining time we had to look up the rules and see if we could sort some of them out. This is where the Cryptothralls threw some sludge in the pot and we could honestly see it going either way.

Q4a) If they all share RP, it appears it's perfectly legal to assign the last wound from the RP rule to bring back 1 Cryptothrall with 1 wound, instead of a Warrior. Or do I have to bring back all the Warriors BEFORE I can assign them to the Cryptothralls. My opponent agreed, but we also agreed that the wounded Cryptothrall would have to be assigned any additional RP wounds should I choose to trigger it again. It would also have to be the first model to die the unit takes any damage. Again, just covering all the bases for completeness.

Cryptothralls are not leaders, and are treated as a member of the Bodyguard unit. The retinue rule is worded in a way to attach them to the unit, and not the Cryptek that allowed them to join them.
Q4b) Let's say I have both my Cryptothralls soak up the first 6 wounds assigned to the squad. When it comes to RP, it's unclear if I'm able to bring them back or not. (ex. I bring back my 20th Warrior, have 1 RP wound left, what's stopping me from bringing a Cryptothrall back with 1 wound?
Q4c) IF Q4b is allowed, is the reverse also true? If they wipe out all the Warriors, then do the Cryptothralls allow Warriors to come back? If the normal character mindset is applied, you can see why this will feel 'off', and that is the general consensus amongst players, that the Cryptek, Overlord, and Cryptothralls would effectively detach from the Warrior squad when it's destroyed. None of the players could argue that it's not worded to reflect that.
Q4d) IF Q4c is allowed, Would I still get to use the Warriors 'Legion' rule if there are no Warriors present at the time the RP is made? Again, it's not clear how, or even if a unit's rules transfer to attached Leaders/Models.

None of this is game-breaking for the Necrons, and there is the potential for some Multi-wound shenanigans which could both hurt/help the Necron player depending on the situation. For me, it's finding the way that works and simply wanting to be consistent between games.

Ghost Arks:
Q5a) This is just to cover all the RP bases, but the Ghost Ark appears to actually activate the Warriors RP. Unlike the Reanimator which adds to an activated RP. So the Warriors would benefit from their 'Legion' ability, and get the bonus from a Reanimator if it's still around?

Protocol of the Undying Legions:
This is an 'Awakened Dynasty' Strategic Ploy Stratagem that activates a units RP. It's worded a bit weird saying that a units RP is activated and it's D3 (which appears that it might be specific to the Strat, and not RP.)
Q6a) If used on Warriors, would the 'Legion' ability be allowed to re-roll the D3? Or is it locked at D3 because of the Strat?
Q6b) It does trigger RP, so the Reanimator would be able to add D3 still? (Feel this is a solid Yes, but just covering all bases)
Q6c) I was informed that this stratagem is unable to use 'My will be done' for this stratagem? Any help here would be appreciated as I didn't write the exact issue down to bring here and have been so caught up in the Cryptothrall debate to remember asking others about it.

I've got 2 Solutions to playing. One is how I believe it works currently, which severely affects how I approach list building as I attempt to learn how to make any sense of 10th edition. The other is to simply keep it simply and treat each Dataslate as their own RP to keep it simple and clear.

Thanks.

So first things first. All models in a unit are considered a singular unit with all Keywords and, depending on wording, abilities. So your starting unit has a starting strength of 24 models consisting of a Bodyguard of 20 Warriors and 2 Cryptothralls, and 2 attached Characters.

1) You can assign the 6 Wounds how ever you want between the Cryptothralls and the Warriors before you need to start assigning to the Characters.

2a) RP applies to the unit. Attached Characters are considered part of the unit for all rules purposes. You roll 1d3 for your 24 model unit.
2b) You assign your 1d3 to wounded models 1st so your Cryptec or Overlord would be healed first before you could bring back any other models into the unit. Yes, damaging Characters in a unit with Precision attacks is a good way to reduce the effectiveness of RP for that unit.
2c) As long as 1 Warrior is alive you can reroll your RP roll and this includes if you need to heal Characters first.

3a) You can reroll the d6.
3b) You do not reroll the Reanimator.

4 You can bring back the Cryptothrall before the Warrior if you want but you do need keep assigning RP rolls to it till its a full wounds.

Cryptothralls had an FAQ for the Indexes that said when they were removed from a unit they could not be reanimated. When the Codex came out that change was not included and GW has not put out any FAQ for the Codex at this time. As the wording for Cryptothralls goes if either they, or the Warriors, are destroyed the unit is still a thing and you could RP them back. I'd say Legion only works as long as there is still 1 Warrior alive in the unit. Note: this part is mostly my opinion based on the wording for Cryptothralls and how units interact with rules. I'd say talk it out or roll a dice if it becomes an issue until GW addresses it.

5) Ghost Arks activate RP and trigger any related bonuses or abilities.

6a) You roll a d3 or d3+1 if there's an attached Character. If you have a rule that lets you roll a different value the Stratagem overrides it. (Index Warriors had a RP of d6 base)
6b) the Reanimator triggers as long as its in range.
6c) Any character that has an ability to make a Stratagem cost 0 CP can only use it for Battle Tactic type Stratagems unless its for a specific Stratagem like Overwatch. For the Awakened Dynasty the only Stratagems that can be used for 0CP are Conquering Tyrant and Hungry Void