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.

Necrons struggle, IMO the weakest part of the Necron faction is not the Troops as some claim or the Elites which nobody are taking at all, but the support units. Support units form the backbone of most armies, the bigger the game the more important the support units because they act as force multipliers. Force multipliers stack, but having enough pts to stack those multipliers and also have enough pts to actually include the units whose force you want to have multiplied only happens in bigger games. Necrons have the worst support units in the game IMO, this is especially a problem because Necrons already have negative force multipliers in the form of Reanimation Protocols and Living Metal. The larger the force you play against, the less likely your unit won't be entirely destroyed by a round of shooting and will live to benefit from those abilties. This means that inherently from those two abilities Necrons are at an advantage in small games, but that advantage slips away the bigger the game gets and as other armies get to benefit from more and better combos Necrons just get worse. Necrons need better combos more than anything, fixing Necrons here is safer because it's less likely to tilt small games too much in Necrons' favour if you were to simply buff the Troops and Elites of Necrons to be on par with that of competitive units from other factions.

Overlords and all their unique counterparts and Catacomb Command Barges. Adding 1 to Hit rolls for one Infantry unit on a BS 3+ unit will add 25% to that unit's damage output, 33% if Shooting at something with -1 to hit, 50% for Tesla Immortals. A Space Marine Captain will increase the damage output of all friendly units within 6" by 16%, assuming you have at least 2 units within 6" the Captain is better. But My Will Be Done or Wave of Command also increases Advance and Charge rolls by 1, this is sadly worth very little. As soon as you get up to 5 units buffed by a Captain the Captain is earning back his pts just by existing without doing any damage himself. Add to that the near guarentee that you'll have something left in your army to buff, compared to MWBD which becomes near useless as soon as your Infantry is wounded or gone and MWBD just isn't good enough to pay for the Overlord's pts. The Overlord is thought to be our second best HQ choice and a near auto-include in many lists, because it gets much much worse.
- Another problem is that the way it works it promotes taking several Overlords and for every Lord in your army, that's not very fitting fluff-wise but not really a problem with its design. I'd replace My Will Be Done's effect with a re-roll wound rolls of 1 aura for all Dynasty and Triarch units, there's less of an incentive to cover all your Tesla Immortals with individual Overlords and the ability is overall stronger if you build your army around benefitting from an Overlord, but also makes the Overlord less of a must-have in smaller games to improve Immortals.

The Cryptek improves Reanimation Protocol rolls from 5+ to 4+ for units within 3", that's one of the smallest auras in the game for a relatively expensive model with 4+ Sv and no invul, nobody is going to take this barebones version. The chronometron is okay, 3" 5+ invul vs shooting for Infantry would be amazing for Orks, but Necrons have a 3+ Sv on most of their Infantry, only on Warriors with a 4+ Sv is this good. The Chronometron Cryptek is more expensive than the KFF Big Mek which can improve the save of vehicles as well as Infantry with a 6+ Sv. The Canoptek Cloak has become the default loadout for me, because it's nearly the same price as the barebones version with more mobility, in addition it can also improve the Living Metal rule from 1 to D3 for a unit within 3" at the start of the turn.
- A pts decrease or an aura size buff for Reanimation Protocols and for the Chronometron would make it possible to either take more Crypteks or to cover a larger area with fewer Crypteks. I would also allow for both the Canoptek Cloak and Reanimation Protocol buff to apply to Triarch units, because both need a little love.

The Destroyer Lord lets you re-roll wound rolls of 1 for Dynasty Destroyer units within 6" in the Shooting phase. That's stupidly specific for a medicore ability, Space Marine Lieutenants allow all chapter units within 6" to re-roll wound rolls of 1 all the time, the Stormeagle Jetbike Custodes Captain allows you to re-roll hit rolls of 1 all the time for Custodes units within 6", which is mathematically the exact same buff (16% extra attacks).
- I'd give the Destroyer Lord the ability to add 1 to Hit, Advance and Charge rolls to every Dynasty Destroyer and Heavy Destroyer unit within 6" at the start of the turn, this would also lessen the need for and power of the Extermination Protocols Stratagem which allows a Destroyer unit to re-roll all failed Hit and Wound rolls.

The Lord has the same ability except it applies to all Dynasty Infantry units within 6" all the time. So that's good right? WRONG. Because Necrons pay vastly more than Space Marines do for their Lieutenants and it still only applies to Infantry. What do we get for 30 pts and an ability that doesn't benefit vehicles? -1 M +1 T +1 S and Living Metal, Lords still die to a stiff breeze because they have no invul, the +1 S and T is irrelevant and Living Metal is irrelevant against almost every army, there are very few armies with enough snipers and targeted psychic abilities to even take out a Lieutenant and even then the difference between the two means that the Lord still dies to any dedicated psychic or sniper assault.
- I'd give the Lord the ability to add 1 to Hit, Advance and Charge rolls to the closest Dynasty Infantry unit within 6" at the start of the game, this would represent the Lord forming his own personal retinue from the brightest Immortals around and would encourage taking more Lords than Overlords. I would also change the Phaeron's Will Stratagem to allow a Lord to change his retinue at the start of your turn. The Lord would also need a pts decrease, around the cost of a Lieutenant.

The Canoptek Sentinel and Canoptek Tomb Stalker have both become useless after the Deep Strike beta rules were introduced, so while paying almost no pts for a chance to deny a psychic ability each turn is perfectly fair, the thing they're mounted on is too pricey to bring in the first case.
- They really just need pts decreases to factor in the fact they don't do anything before T2 in Matched Play games.

The Deceiver is amazing at what it does. It's a bit too random perhabs, but that's a matter of taste.
- I wouldn't change anything, I think it's fitting that C'tan are random, if anything I'd make C'tan more random.

Triarch Stalkers were popular with the index and their most popular weapon even got a small pts decrease with the codex, but it not being able to benefit from Dynasty codes and inability to be healed by the new Canoptek Cloak means that in relative power level to the rest of the Necron units it didn't actually go anywhere. The ability for all Necron units to re-roll hit rolls of 1 against a unit that has already been shot is often nothing to write home about, likewise 2 lascannon shots with a 170 pt model is tough to swallow, it's amazing against things which you 1: want to shoot with your main gun 2: that survives that main gun 3: you want to shoot with other units that aren't Destroyers. Here's the problem with the Triarch Stalker, it's ability doesn't benefit Destroyers one of our best units currently, this is gak. For 22 pts you get the more survivable Doomsday Ark. The Doomsday Ark also has Fly, is better at standing still and shooting, better at being aggressive and shooting and can't be locked in combat. The Triarch Stalker does compare pretty well against Venerable Dreadnoughts, but that's ignoring the support systems (re-rolling hit and wound rolls of 1 if not re-rolling all hit and wound rolls) that makes the Venerable Dreadnought not entirely trash, the Triarch Stalker needs to be better or needs to benefit from more support units or needs to support Destroyers.
- I would improve the pts cost for the Heat Ray and the Particle Shredder, and would otherwise rely on the improved Overlord and Canoptek Cloak to make the Triarch Stalker up to par.

Canoptek Spyders are fairly expensive, very slow and do relatively little in close combat for such a slow and vulnerable unit. They try to make up for that by being able to heal every Scarab unit within 6", that's good and would be amazing if Scarabs weren't vastly faster than Spyders. Spyders have a couple of good options, the anti-psyker upgrade it shares with the Sentinel and Tomb Stalker which is relatively amazing if it wasn't on such a useless body and the Fabricator Claw Array which lets a Spyder restore D3 wounds to a Dynasty Vehicle for almost no pts. Those two upgrades are amazing and if you can get it into close combat it isn't bad. The problem is the Spyder's survivability which is about as bad as it gets per pt invested, as soon as your opponent thinks it's a problem it's dead. There's no reason to take a unit of more than 1 because they can't work together in any sort of way, the upgrades are so cheap compared to the main body that taking additional Spyders for ablative wounds is ludicrous since you're getting no damage from them on the first two turns and your opponent can just ignore those several hundred pts worth and shoot Scarabs and Vehicles until they die, leaving you with an expensive investment having done nothing before they get shot down as soon as your key units have been eliminated.
- I would change the Scarab resurrection rule so that it's the Spyders that add back one for every Spyder in the unit instead of Scarabs spontaneously spawning new models if they are close to a Spyder, this would be make taking a Scarab farm style list with lots of Spyders more viable, instead of the idiocy of crazy Phaerons. I would also give Spyders the character rule, if C'tan can be characters then Spyders can as well. Lastly all Necron units within 6" of a Spyder should ignore Morale, Spyders used to enable moving casualties from one unit to another when a unit died to allow the other unit to Reanimate more models back with the third edition codex, Spyders are supposed to be the masterminds of the Canoptek workers which have maintained the Necron legions while they slumbered, this is supposed to represent this. Alternatively adding 1 to Ld for every Spyder within 6" if the other option paired with getting the Character keyword is too strong.

Monolith. Even though it has Fly with a M of 6 it can still get locked in combat. It's not very tough for its cost. It's not very killy for its cost. It's anti-charge ability is easily by-passed. It's deep strike is 12" instead of 9" for no reason. Its support ability to psuedo transport/Deep Strike a unit cannot be used the turn it deep strikes, leaving one turn to get a unit out before all Reinforcements are automatically destroyed.
- It needs to be able to shoot out of combat, you need to be able to shoot into a combat with the Monolith. Monoliths need to be Lords of War, they're Titanic, Helverins aren't. What gives? How come a 1200 pt Detachment with 3 Monoliths and a Cryptek gives 1 CP? Monoliths used to be part of a Formation with an Obelisk. Units on the Tomb World need to be deployed on the turn the Monolith Deep Strikes, in return for not being able to move after getting out, this would also present a reason for the Monolith to DS more than 12" away. Lastly even with these changes there's room for a sizable pts decrease to make its cost more in line with its durability and firepower.

Night Scythe suffers from some of the problems of the Monolith. It's just too expensive for what little it does.
- A pts decrease or the ability to get out of this thing after it moves, if the Imperial Guard can drop troops within 10" after moving and then move within 4" then Necrons should be able to drop within 2".

Ghost Ark. It allows you to make Reanimation Protocol rolls for every Dynasty Warrior unit within 3" at the end of your Movement phase. It can Transport 10 HQs or 10 Warriors, it is not Open-topped though, whatever the model suggests. Rolling Reanimation Protocols again at the end of the Movement phase is very all or nothing, in 1000 pt games you're much more likely to lose zero units and be left with a few Warriors in a single unit than in 2k games, where you're more likely to lose an entire unit and then lose a few models from the next unit as well. It's a win-more unit, if your units barely survive and get to heal, they get to heal even more, but it provides almost nothing to any units that only suffered a few casualties.
- It shouldn't be open-topped, having a ton of Warriors inside Ghost Arks isn't a Necron army, it's DE with a different paint job, I'd remove the transport capacity entirely though because it doesn't make sense you can sit inside and not shoot out. Alternatively have it be able to transport Triarch Praetorians and Lychguard to make those units more viable. Lastly I'd change it to repair D3 Warriors from a single unit within 3" at the end of the Movement phase like it used to in 7th, then give it a cheaper cost, it shouldn't be able to heal an unlimited number of Warriors and taking multiple Ghost Arks should be an option.

The Gauss Pylon is very good against Knights and Leman Russes, okay against things with a 3+/5+, bad against things with no armour save, horrible against 1 W models. It has a 5" invulnerable granting bubble, which is why it sneaks in here. This bubble is fine and works as it should since it's more of a secondary thing.
- I wouldn't change the 5+ aura, but improving its alternate profiles so it becomes less of a one-trick pony seems like a good idea. From 3D6 S 3 AP- at range 3" all the way down to a meagre D3 shots with the pitiful S 3 AP- profile when its down to 1-4 wounds doesn't compare with D6 S16 Macro shots at AP-4 with Dd3+6 at range 120". Neither does the third profile with 2D6 S6 AP-2 D1 shots at 18". So how do we fix this? If the 3" pistol is actually supposed to be scary before the Gauss Pylon gets wounded then it needs an order of magnitude more shots, 100 Guardsmen and 4 Company Commanders cost the same as a Pylon and will unleash 360 shots at 12" with BS 4+, the Pylon shooting 60/50/40/30 (with 16+/10-15/5-9/1-4 wounds remaining) shots isn't really outrageous for the same amount of pts, keeping in mind that its BS is going to degrade from 2+ to 5+ while also losing the shots, you could go as high as 100 I think since it would only target one unit within 3", but that is probably too much to deal with for armies without anything to soften the Pylon up before engaging. I would also change the 2d6 shots at range 18" to target every enemy unit within 18" including Characters, but reduce the Strength to 5 to match the profile of Immortals and apply the +1/-1 modifier depending on whether the target has Fly or not. Knights have pumped up the level of Titanic units and after the 75 pt nerf it received in the last CA the Pylon isn't even amazing in a relatively Titanic heavy meta and with Orks being the most recent codex the weaknesses of the Gauss Pylon really reveal themselves.

I do agree that monoliths should be able to shoot even when there are enemy units within 1". This should be built in to ita Flying Fortress rule.

It should be treated as a mobile fortification without the capacity to transport except for its innate eternity gate ability.

The character rules are frustrating as they are not only mediocre but mostly flavourless too.

Cryptek's need their Harbinger options back so they can do wacky technomancy on the battlefield.

Lords and Overlords on the other hand... before the codex I was daydreaming about them having a system similar to the Guard, where the Lord/Overlord has a suite of "__ Protocols" they can activate on nearby units, to portray the rigidly top down command chain of a race where pretty much only the aristocracy bear sentience.

These protocol activations would be singular buffs to movement, overwatch, charge, attacks etc. "Invasion Protocols" for example could add 3" to movement and also advance rolls. Only one could be activated on a unit, so choice would be important.

Crypteks need their harbinger options back, keep the base package, let them spec into different support options to support different playstyles. Buff the technomancy bubble to 6 inches. Make them t5.

Overlords should have a BUBBLE of MWBD. Each squad within 6 inches gets +1 to hit, +1 advance, +1 charge. Or at the very least, make the buff be granted at the END of the movement phase so they can shuffle around to grant it to the right squads. That, and for the love of god, can we get a 4th attack please? Why 3 attacks? its obnoxious. Lords have 3 attacks. Overlords should get 4, easily.

TBH, the lord is great for a phalanx playstyle. I enjoy using one already. I'd just give them an item they can get to buy a invuln save.

Triarch stalkers are solid at their new points cost, no changes needed there, minus maybe a bloody 3+ armor save.

Tomb Stalker and Sentinel both strike at str6, which SUCKS for a monsterous creature. Even if they get in there, with a handful of attacks at d3 damage, they won't kill it. They should be str/t 7, and flat 3 damage at that price point.

Spyders are in the running for the worst unit in the game. They are beyond fixing in the current meta. Not touching this one. They contribute nothing to the army in a meaningful way.

Ghost Arks have so much potential. For the size, their carrying capacity should be larger. (15) They should be open topped. And they ought to be able to carry any infantry model. Not just warriors for some bizarre reason.

Night Scythes problems boil down to 2 things after CA, their damage output (abysmal) and their disembark rules (die if you can't disembark) Make the Tesla Destructor a d2 or 2 damage weapon, and make units coming out of them take the normal tests (1s kill a model)

Monolith....needs a 2+, should regain d3 a turn, and fire 2d6 shots with the particle whip (which should be 3 damage, not d3). There. Fixed.

Mostly agree, iGuy, but a +1 hit in an aura would be crazy OP.