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With the new campaign getting off to a start and armies seeing new models, I feel it’s time to address the Necron problem. Sure, there are many things that the Necrons need such as effective anti-armour being more commonplace, but for me they really need something decent to paint.

This may seem a silly suggestion, but from the perspective of the building and painting side of the hobby, Necrons are just boring! However the appeal of a new model could address this issue with a nice new C’Tan model. This model would give them some great artistic licence, the kind of which is only really seen in AOS and you never know - stick some nice rules with it to make the thing closer to a Primarch and you have got yourself a winner. Think of the story of the CTan. It doesn’t have to be a shard, it could be one of the unknowns or even just redo the Deciever / Nightbringer with some kind of story around a combination of many of its shards.

Whatever the outcome though, for the love of god, give us something decent and challenging to paint.

This might offend some people, but Necrons are one of "the big three" (Tyranids, Necrons, Orks) who are simply always going to languish compared to other races. These are the races that GW struggles to write decent fluff for...struggles to write novels involving them (often for good reason), struggles to justify including them in random campaigns - where they frequently feel wildly out of place, etc.

One of the GW authors said a few years ago "no one wants to write Ork novels..." and I suspect there are simply races in 40K which are not primary movers/shakers for GW. Necrons are almost old enough now to get a full army revisit...but will they? How high are they on the priority list? It'd be nice if you get at least something more than the single-character you've gotten in the last...3-4 years? I mean, Eldar got a kit in plastic for crying out loud...so everyone stands a chance!

 Elbows wrote:
This might offend some people, but Necrons are one of "the big three" (Tyranids, Necrons, Orks) who are simply always going to languish compared to other races. These are the races that GW struggles to write decent fluff for...struggles to write novels involving them (often for good reason), struggles to justify including them in random campaigns - where they frequently feel wildly out of place, etc.

One of the GW authors said a few years ago "no one wants to write Ork novels..." and I suspect there are simply races in 40K which are not primary movers/shakers for GW. Necrons are almost old enough now to get a full army revisit...but will they? How high are they on the priority list? It'd be nice if you get at least something more than the single-character you've gotten in the last...3-4 years? I mean, Eldar got a kit in plastic for crying out loud...so everyone stands a chance!

Is it that no one wants to, or that know one is clever enough to?

Given the amount of trash C rate stores the BL puts out, I'm willing to bet they just don't have any clever writers that can tell a story about something not 10 foot tall and clad in powered armor suits.

You'll have to ask the authors that.

See, I think all three of those races make for fantastic foes for a novel. Necrons and Tyranids especially can have a real aura of existential doom if written well.

Considering how TFS is currently making a role play series where they play as Orks, and considering how damn good it is, I'll just chalk up Black Library's inability to write anything that's not Imperium related to incompetence.
TFS doesn't even know the lore all that well. I think only a couple of them play 40k, and they still do a better job covering orks than GW.

Also, Xenology was a thing. Necrons are the monsters and villains, imo, and you can write good villains and monsters. They don't just have to be cannon fodder.

Yeah I can imagine how boring many of those books would be.
Tyranids
Hive Mind: Eat
Hive Mind: Yes, eat

Necrons
Human: cool, he looks like one of those things from those films 40,000 years ago - I love those films
Necron: what is love?

 Elbows wrote:
You'll have to ask the authors that.

We could probably look at the trash like Hellforged, The World Engine, Hammer & Anvil, to get a good idea without having to ask anybody anything...

Sumilidon wrote:
Yeah I can imagine how boring many of those books would be.
Tyranids
Hive Mind: Eat
Hive Mind: Yes, eat

Necrons
Human: cool, he looks like one of those things from those films 40,000 years ago - I love those films
Necron: what is love?

You don't write from their perspective, obviously. Or if you do, you keep it minimal and do it well.


"what is love?"
baby don't hurt me
don't hurt me
no more

 Insectum7 wrote:

Sumilidon wrote:
Yeah I can imagine how boring many of those books would be.
Tyranids
Hive Mind: Eat
Hive Mind: Yes, eat

Necrons
Human: cool, he looks like one of those things from those films 40,000 years ago - I love those films
Necron: what is love?

You don't write from their perspective, obviously. Or if you do, you keep it minimal and do it well.


"what is love?"
baby don't hurt me
don't hurt me
no more

devestation of Bhaal had some great tyranid stuff, but yeah IMHO 'nids wouldn't work as a protagionist. they're pure antagionists. they'd no more work in a novel series then Jaws would work if written from the shark's POV

Asking for something interesting to paint sure sounds unique as a request

Even though I'm not collecting them, I would love to get more lore about the remaining C'tans in the galaxy. Maybe something to give them the menacing aura back that they had in their 3rd edition Codex.


Xenology was a great book by the way, I wish I could remember where I put my copy

a_typical_hero wrote:
Asking for something interesting to paint sure sounds unique as a request

Even though I'm not collecting them, I would love to get more lore about the remaining C'tans in the galaxy. Maybe something to give them the menacing aura back that they had in their 3rd edition Codex.


Xenology was a great book by the way, I wish I could remember where I put my copy

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the dynasty Necron / C'tan Slave route and basically canning the old 3rd ed lore.
I think it would have been better if there were more possibilities. Like, you have your Dynastic Necrons, but you also have rogue C'tan shards controlling Necrons like they used to and renegade AIs like the Empire of the Severed.
The necrons could be engaged in a huge civil war, with the Dynastic Necrons trying to contain C'tan and AIs, the C'tan trying to reclaim their errant slaves and the AI just running amok. It would explain why they Necrons, for all their power and advanced tech, just haven't steam rolled the galaxy yet.

I was hoping to see faction traits that would represent the Severed, but unfortunately no. In fact, I think the last time the Severed was mentioned was in the 5th ed book, which is a pity.

 Insectum7 wrote:
See, I think all three of those races make for fantastic foes for a novel. Necrons and Tyranids especially can have a real aura of existential doom if written well.

I quite like how the Necrons are portrayed in the Cain books, especially Caves of Ice - the protagonist will face most opponents equally unhappily, but bricks it any time Necrons are mentioned, or even if a green glow is referenced...

For me. Being a Sad Old Grognard?

Toughness. To be so incredibly ridiculously tough, even down to the ‘basic’ Necron Warrior?

T4, 3+ with a chance for casualties to return.

Also, make Gauss Gauss again. And give Tesla a form of AP.

 Dysartes wrote:

 Insectum7 wrote:
See, I think all three of those races make for fantastic foes for a novel. Necrons and Tyranids especially can have a real aura of existential doom if written well.

I quite like how the Necrons are portrayed in the Cain books, especially Caves of Ice - the protagonist will face most opponents equally unhappily, but bricks it any time Necrons are mentioned, or even if a green glow is referenced...

Yeah, the Ciaphas Cain books are good. Probably not entirely fluffy, but they are a fun read, and I don't recall there being space marines getting their chainswords oiled by the author.

 Dysartes wrote:

 Insectum7 wrote:
See, I think all three of those races make for fantastic foes for a novel. Necrons and Tyranids especially can have a real aura of existential doom if written well.

I quite like how the Necrons are portrayed in the Cain books, especially Caves of Ice - the protagonist will face most opponents equally unhappily, but bricks it any time Necrons are mentioned, or even if a green glow is referenced...

Thanks for the rec I might check that out.

... something?
... a better treatment by GW?
Marines are in the focus of GW - more than ever.
Xenos bring less sales I guess and so have to wait until there is enough time between two Marine releases.

Crons at this point are the xenos race with the least attention given to them, assuming the eldar and dark eldar box is a precursor to a wave of new minis for them. since th starts 6th edition every xenos army has gotten a decent number (more then a single unit or something) of minis. except necrons. given that necrons through blackstone are set to be an important element of the setting I suspect we'll see 'crons take center stage down the line. my gut is they'll be front and center in part of PA.

They need more functional Dynasty codes and Resurrection Protocols needs ri be at the beginning of each turn at minimum.

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
Considering how TFS is currently making a role play series where they play as Orks, and considering how damn good it is, I'll just chalk up Black Library's inability to write anything that's not Imperium related to incompetence.
TFS doesn't even know the lore all that well. I think only a couple of them play 40k, and they still do a better job covering orks than GW.

Who or what is TFS? Link to the product where they cover Orks well?

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
Yeah, I'm not a fan of the dynasty Necron / C'tan Slave route and basically canning the old 3rd ed lore.
I think it would have been better if there were more possibilities. Like, you have your Dynastic Necrons, but you also have rogue C'tan shards controlling Necrons like they used to and renegade AIs like the Empire of the Severed.
The necrons could be engaged in a huge civil war, with the Dynastic Necrons trying to contain C'tan and AIs, the C'tan trying to reclaim their errant slaves and the AI just running amok. It would explain why they Necrons, for all their power and advanced tech, just haven't steam rolled the galaxy yet.

I was hoping to see faction traits that would represent the Severed, but unfortunately no. In fact, I think the last time the Severed was mentioned was in the 5th ed book, which is a pity.

The Severed still appear in the fluff and it has actually gone from one from several if I remember 5th correctly it was only 1 Tomb World AI. Make Spyders HQ Characters and you can represent the Severed, they don't really need a unique Chapter Tactic IMO. I think Dynasty Necrons are the most interesting, I'd like maybe one or two C'tan based Dynasties and maybe rules for a Severed Dynasty, but the old fluff was a little too close to the Nid theme IMO. Something very old and powerful waking up and something very powerful and alien coming from another galaxy, those two fears aren't really that different IMO. Dynasty Necrons are one of the most unique factions in the game now, not just Tyranid wannabes.

 Insectum7 wrote:

Sumilidon wrote:
Yeah I can imagine how boring many of those books would be.
Tyranids
Hive Mind: Eat
Hive Mind: Yes, eat

Necrons
Human: cool, he looks like one of those things from those films 40,000 years ago - I love those films
Necron: what is love?

You don't write from their perspective, obviously. Or if you do, you keep it minimal and do it well.


"what is love?"
baby don't hurt me
don't hurt me
no more

I haven't seen it yet but my sister said the new Joker movie is good. You can do villain centric stories well, my favourite web novel Worm is villain centric as well. Code Geass and Death Note are some of the most popular manga and anime and they are both villain-centric. We also have shows like Lucifer, Legion, The Boys and Preacher which all seem villain centric although I haven't finished any of them and Game of Thrones is villain centric more often than not for the simple fact that most of the cast are villains in some form.

The Zerg were controlled by the Overmind and yet the Zerg missions in Starcraft 2 were my favourite story-wise, transferring control over to a mostly human protagonist helped, but you can still give the Tyranids semblances of human emotions, like annoyance when your food is denied to you or loss when an important piece of biological engineering is lost and has to be recreated at a loss for the fleet. The horror at all the food being burned when the Imperium uses exterminatus.

Necrons aren't really bigger gits than the protagonists of Code Geass and Worm, they just have different ideas of what is right and wrong. Is it okay to rule through fear caused by the threat of extermination? To eat people's crotch off with insects or to control people's bodies? Am I talking about Necrons or the protagonists of these two stories?

Skin, Necrons need skin. There, I got ya fam.

 vict0988 wrote:

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
Considering how TFS is currently making a role play series where they play as Orks, and considering how damn good it is, I'll just chalk up Black Library's inability to write anything that's not Imperium related to incompetence.
TFS doesn't even know the lore all that well. I think only a couple of them play 40k, and they still do a better job covering orks than GW.

Who or what is TFS? Link to the product where they cover Orks well?

Team Four Star, or at least a few of their members, are doing a ork RPG campaign using wrath and glory, they did a fantasy flight game a few years back for the same deal, first of their recent episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXegPU0MQcQ

But it boils down to guys having fun being stupid and violent while putting on bad accents in the grim darkness, which is really the majority of being an ork.

 vict0988 wrote:

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
Considering how TFS is currently making a role play series where they play as Orks, and considering how damn good it is, I'll just chalk up Black Library's inability to write anything that's not Imperium related to incompetence.
TFS doesn't even know the lore all that well. I think only a couple of them play 40k, and they still do a better job covering orks than GW.

Who or what is TFS? Link to the product where they cover Orks well?

Team Four Star
A group of voice actors.

I like the Necrons visual style, but a lot of their models are such a ballache to build/paint. Doomsday Arks, Tomb Blades etc.

Our look is fine, we just need a complete rules overhaul because we're so hilariously bad compared to everyone else (except Grey Knights). Maybe the silver armies have to suck, it's like a law of 8th edition?

From a gameplay perspective, I think they need indirect fire; they simply don’t have a good way outside of melee to deal with stuff out of LOS. The other change they need is a way to make Gauss good against vehicles again; I think either 6’s to wound causing additional damage to vehicles or even a mortal wound would make them terrifying again to vehicles. Also giving Scarabs some kind of anti-vehicle tech as well would be good.

Mortal wound to everything would be better rather than just vehicles. Keep in mind they had to use small guns when first introduced to attack anything above T6.

Another idea would be to steal what Infiltrators have, and hits of 6+ score auto wounding. It would be a start and less broken than mortal wound mechanics.

As far as I can remember, gauss never had anything special against monsters or stuff like terminators. It was strictly against vehicles, and was highly effective depending on the edition.

 greyknight12 wrote:
As far as I can remember, gauss never had anything special against monsters or stuff like terminators. It was strictly against vehicles, and was highly effective depending on the edition.

It used to auto wound on a 6, which most people forget because, granted, it didn't pop up a lot.

A really strong cup of coffee?

In seriousness, new warrior sculpts are in desperate need. They haven't aged well.

And make the monolith worth taking, it is an iconic unit for the Necrons.

I think gauss weapons and scarabs need unique rules again. Scarabs shredding wounds of vehicles in combat out side of attacks would work, like a MW per base in contact.

Prob have to be MW for gauss too. But need something like that. Other than that plastic flayed ones and a nice new C’tan and we are good. Love playing my necrons in 8th.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I think gauss weapons and scarabs need unique rules again. Scarabs shredding wounds of vehicles in combat out side of attacks would work, like a MW per base in contact.

Prob have to be MW for gauss too. But need something like that. Other than that plastic flayed ones and a nice new C’tan and we are good. Love playing my necrons in 8th.