Necron Codex Review Part V: Elites and Overall Impressions

So to quote one Shawn Gately ‘’so this is where all the good stuff is!’’. The elites section contains 6 choices, so straight away you are spoilt for choice, which is great, but gets frustrating sometimes if you are like me and can’t decide what to take because you just want it all! So let’s jump right in!

  

Flayed One Pack

These are a very basic infiltrating assault unit, fairly decent with 3 attacks and low cost at 65 points for 5. Although they are cheap, can infiltrate and deep strike the elites slot in this book are quite competitive between one another so I can see these guys coming in towards somewhere at the bottom of the pile.

C’tan Shard

These are basically watered down C’tans of the old book, however they do get some very interesting upgrades. First I’ll cover the profile, strength and toughness 7 with 4 wounds they won’t be two easy to take down, they also have initiative 4 which doesn’t sound like much but it is for Necrons! 4 attacks and WS 5 being a monstrous creature they should do fairly well against vehicles and elite infantry. They come with a necrodermis as their only piece of wargear, giving them a 4+ invulnerable save, and when the C’tan shard dies all models within D6 inches suffer a st 4 ap 1 hit. So overall it seems quite tough to take down and fairly strong in combat, now for the upgrades. There are 11 in total so I will just go over the ones I think will be most useful upon first glance. Grand Illusion this is similar or the same as a rule from the old book whereby you may redeploy D3 units, for 40 points it is an expensive upgrade but worth the cost in my opinion as it may give you a good strategical advantage from the beginning. Next up its writhing worldscape at 35 points a little cheaper, and what this does is make all difficult terrain count as dangerous, and all dangerous terrain count as failing on a 1 or 2. Very useful indeed and definitely one I think will be useful if you are playing a defensive list. Now on the more aggressive side of things some close combat upgrades, times arrow costs 40 points and allows you to nominate any model within base contact of the C’tan and force them to pass an initiative test or be removed from play. Is a risk at 40 points as most of the time you will probably want to be taking that special character with high initiative, although maybe that stray powerfist might be taken off the board? Finally the most expensive at 50 points Gaze of death, this is great for hoard armies, after combat centre the large blast template over the C’tan all models touched suffer a strength 3 hit with no armour saves allowed. It is expensive but if you’re up against tyranids, guard or orks I would definitely take it. The C’tan shard may only take 2 upgrades from the list and each one may only be taken once per army, at 185 base it does become and expensive elite choice if you choose the higher end powers but could be well worth it in my opinion.

Deathmarks

The first of the new elite units for the Necrons, slightly more expensive than the flayed ones (95 points for 5), however they serve quite a different purpose. Deathmarks are the Necron snipers, they have two special rules that make them quite useful hunters from hyperspace and ethereal interception. Hunters from hyperspace grants them the ability to select a non-vehicle unit when they deploy and will always wound them on a 2+ shooting and close combat, ethereal interception after an enemy unit has arrived from reserve any Deathmark units in deep strike reserve may choose to deep strike that turn. So basically you can show up right after the enemy and give them something else to think about before they begin shooting or assaulting.  The weapon they carry is the synaptic disintegrator, st X, ap 5, rapid fire, sniper, 24 inches. So wounding normally on a 4+ with rending is useful. Overall I think these guys will make it into some lists, I feel they come kind of close to the flayed ones in terms of popularity but their special rules give then the edge.

Triarch Praetorians

These guys are toughness 5 fearless jump infantry that carry the rod of the covenant, a power weapon with a st 5 ap 2 assault shot at 6 inches. At 200 points they are expensive however and they still suffer from the low initiative and 1 attack base. But with their speed, toughness and fearless I do think they will be able to survive a fair few attacks before being taken down therefore getting to strike back. I find this a hard unit to place in terms of how likely you are to choose them over flayed ones or Deathmarks, I feel they could be a great attacking unit, but at the same time I fear there are a lot of things out there already that would pick on them.

Lychguards

I think these will be the staple of every Necron army, the same stats as the praetorians but with an extra attack and armed with the warscythe. They are normal infantry, the warscythe gives +2 strength so that’s st 7 and gives 2D6 penetration vs. vehicles, they are not fearless but for 5 points can exchange the warscythe for a hyperphase sword and dispersion shield. The hyperphase sword is a basic power weapon, so they lose the +2 st and 2D6 vs vehicles, but the hyperphase shield grants a 4+ invulnerable save that if passed deflects the shot onto an unengaged enemy unit of the Necron players’ choice. The shot hits automatically with strength and AP equal to that of the firing weapon. So Lychguards are definitely the top choice in my opinion just edging out the C’tan shard for first place, they are tough to take down and can hit very hard, making the perfect bodyguard for your overlord.

So overall the elites I would rank something like this

1.       Lychguard (tough and strong)

2.       C’tan Shard (Many army building influences)

3.       Triarch Stalker (covered earlier in the review)

4.       Deathmarks (Effective assassins)

5.       Flayed Ones (Distraction unit)

6.       Triarch Praetorians (can’t quite see where these guys fit in yet

      Overall Impressions

I for one am very satisfied with the new book for Necrons, I think increasing the number of options they have available has done them the world of good. So far there is nothing that really changes the game too much, but obviously time will tell. However you look at it you will definitely have to reconsider how you play or play against this army in the future. Over the next few posts I will be looking at some different builds and initially what units I think will work very well together. Oh and on a small side note I might be getting to paint some of the models for my local GWs Necron army, should be finding out more about that this Thursday so stay tuned!