Like most who don't play Necrons, I have only a vague idea how all their special crap works. It's all very confusing. But I ran into this situation yesterday, and wanted to know the proper way to handle it, as we just started a campaign, and it's likely to happen again.

I was playing Nid's, my opponent was playing Necrons.

I was able to assault his 2 squads or warriors. 1 squad was assaulted by 2 four-bug squads of genestealers, and the other squad was assaulted by a single genestealer and a Lictor. Both warrior squads were within a few inches of each other, and within six inches of a lord with rez orb (destroyer body and war scythe) who was not in the combat.

My 2 bigger squads of stealers rended the 1 warrior squad into tiny metal pieces. Normally he can't WBB because rending is a CC attack that does not allow a save, but the Lord with rez orb is nearby.

So my questions are thus…

1) What happens to the warriors that stand up (remember, the squad was completely wiped out by the stealers)? Are they still engaged to the stealers, do they join the other warriors that are only inches away, join the Lord, or stand up anywhere they want?

2) Is the 6 inch rez orb rule on a model per model basis, or a whole squad? In other words, if one model of a squad is within 6, can the whole squad WBB? Or only MODELS within 6" of the lord?

3) Can the lord with rez orb, use the rez orb on himself? This really doesn't seem right, as this means the ONLY way to kill him is to get him to run from combat, and catch him in a sweeping advance.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for the quick replies.

Ok, so what happens to the destroyed warrior squad if there is no other warrior squad nearby? They can still WBB because of the orb, but there is no other unit (except the lord) within 12 inches. What happens then?

Edit:  Also, could someone point me to the appropriate rules section which tells that WBB is based on squads not models?

WBB may not be attempted by a model if it doesn't meet certain criteria, one of those being that there must be a unit of the same type within 6" (unless there is a Tomb Spyder within 12" of the model attempting WBB).

If that criteria isn't met then the model doesn't get to attempt a WBB. So in your example above, models in the wiped out unit would just be lost because there are no units of a similar type within 6", regardless of the fact that the Rez Orb allows him to ignore some other WBB criteria.

As for page numbers, I don't have the codex in front of me right now but all the rules for WBB are found in the front of the codex in one big section called "We'll Be Back!". You would also want to read the rules for hte Ressurection Orb too in the wargear section of the codex.

Ok, so if there is no similar model type within 6" then you cannot WBB regardless of to presence of an orb?

Then how does a Lord rez orb himself?

The Lord is specifically allowed in the rules to ignore the need to be within 6" of a model of the same type.

The Rez Orb rules themselves specify that it works on the Lord himself when he has one.

Those two rules together means that a Lord with a Rez Orb will always get to attempt WBB, no matter what (it's horrible I know. I hate it too).

Me too.

The amount of games I've played where I've killed the lord 3 or 4 times per game are unbelievable.

He's like a damn jack-in-the-box.

It seems to me that you think having a FNP save somehow makes Necron models somehow more resilient. On a model-by-model basis this simply is not true. Both rules give the model an additional 4+ save but with WBB the downed model is impervious to further shooting or assault damage until it stands back up.

Again, that ability makes it impossible for opponents to fully be in control of the game unless they are able to wipe out entire units of nearby Necrons at once (something that is not very easy to do).

Or another real-world example: I can't tell you how many games I've played against Necrons who have a Lord with Rez Orb. I may have 10 Lascannons with nothing better to do then shoot at the Lord but once he goes down to one Lascannon I cannot commit any more shooting or assaults to making sure he stays down. I simply have to wait and see if I get lucky on the 50/50 WBB roll at the start of the next turn.

You also keep talking about how the Necron player has "less models" until the next turn, but since the Necron player isn't able to use his models to deal damage in his opponent's turn (besides being charged or already engaged in close combat--something Necrons don't really excel in) this really is much more of a negative to an opponent rather than a positive.

I do fully admit that having less models on the table does make it slightly easier for Necron units to fail morale checks and definitely makes them a bit weaker in combat (and more prone to being outnumbered and run-down) but I strongly, strongly contend that these negatives are far outweighed by the amazing ability to control the flow of the game by constantly forcing the opponent to not know how many enemies they will be facing in the next turn.

Opponents have to constantly think and manuever with the thought in their head: "what will I do if 'X' many of those Necrons get back up next turn? What will I do if all of them stand back up?" etc.

But ultimately, the real piece of the puzzle comes down to what GW does with Tomb Spyders, the Rez Orb and the Monolith's portal. . .or if they even keep the Rez Orb and/or the WBB effect of the Tomb Spyder and Monolith portal in any fashion.

What GW decides to do with these things (or anything else that fills their current role) will definitely have a major impact on whether FNP turns out to be more or less useful than WBB.

Hell, with phase-out rumored to be removed I wouldn't be surprised if GW doesn't totally jettison the current Rez Orb concept and let the FNP rule stand on its own. If that's the case the ability to reliably ignore FNP with Instant Death weapons and close combat weapons that ignore armor saves is really going to make fighting Necrons a whole lot more strategic.

But regardless I completely look forward to FNP because I will finally be able to have more control in fighting against Necrons and not so much will be determined by the almighty 50/50 roll of WBB.