Necron Codex Review Part III Vehicles

The number of vehicles available to the Necrons has greatly increased this time round, from the lone monolith to 7 additional vehicles of different kinds. First of all though a general overview of the available mech, apart from the monolith everything is armour value 11 on all sides, and apart from the two scythe vehicles everything is open topped. So from this it might sound like the Necrons are only slightly better off than the Dark Eldar paper skimmers, however it’s the rules for the vehicles that make them something special. 

Since I will be covering only 4 of the vehicles in this section, in subsequent parts of the review I will only go lightly over their placements in fast attack and heavy support etc. Again as there are so many I have highlighted the ones I think will prove most useful or interesting at first glance.

First up the one probably most people have been anticipating how it would be changed if at all...

The monolith

The monolith has changed in 5^th edition, it costs less (235 down to 200), the living metal rule has changed and the portal is now called the eternity gate for which the rules have changed. So the living metal used to mean you were not affected by melta, lance and monstrous creatures or anything else that rolled 2D6 for armour penetration. Now we find that you do get affected by these things however stunned results are ignored on D6 roll of 2+ and shaken on 4+. The eternity gate still has the dimensional corridor moving units from around the battlefield or bringing in units from reserve. The new rule though is called portal of exile, basically counts as firing a weapon with the following rules D6 range all units in range are hit automatically and must pass a strength test or be removed as a casualty with not saves of any kind allowed, roll separately for each model. This will doubtless be useful against certain foes and of course will work against walkers. For the other weapons they remain the same with the particle whip and 4 gauss flux arcs. So overall although the monolith still seems more vulnerable than it was in the last book AV14 on all sides is still as tough as a land raider and str8 v armour 12 from a lance still isn’t the deadliest weapon. The monolith is still a solid choice for the Necron codex and I can’t see a reason so far not to take one.

Triarch Stalkers

Triarch stalkers are the first walker the Necrons have ever had, like everything else armour 11 all round with quantum shielding and living metal, open topped plus it has move through cover! Which is very useful considering its only weapon is medium range 24 inches and can be fired as a multimelta with 2 shots or as a heavy flamer. So a bit of an stronger version of the imperial guard sentinel? Not quite, with its special rule targeting relay! If the stalker hits an enemy unit in the shooting phase place a counter next to it, all other friendly units shooting at that unit in the same shooting phase count their weapons as twin linked. So if you have something you need to concentrate on this stalker would definitely be useful to include. However it does take up an elite slot, unit size is 1, however cost is not too high at 150 points and it does have 2 other weapon options the particle shredder st7 ap4 large blast useful against troops or twin linked heavy gauss cannon st 9 ap 2 range 36. So a solid new option for the Necrons that will prove to add some synergy to the army and also a bit off close combat punch with strength 7 and 3 attacks base.

Ghost Ark

This is a dedicated transport for Necron warriors and can carry 10 of them; it has the same rules as the other vehicles and is classed as a standard skimmer. It comes with 2 gauss flayer arrays that can fire at separate targets with 5 gauss flayers each, combine this with 10 warriors shooting and you have quite a little gunship! What its good about the ghost ark not only the fact that now you have a faster transport for your warriors but that it can repair and replenish your warrior squads. Each Necron movement phase on the roll of a 2+ the barge can repair D3 warriors from one squad either on the barge or within 6 inches up to their starting strength. However if you roll a 1 then the ark takes a glancing hit with no saves allowed. This is useful for keeping more of your warriors alive especially if you are failing some of your reanimation protocols. At 115 points a reasonably priced transport for your warriors and quantum shielding will always prove useful I’m sure.

Annihilation Barge

After the monolith this is the heavy support choice I think I would always try to take in my Necron army. The annihilation barge is an anti-infantry / anti-light vehicle skimmer, with the standard Necron rules and wargear. The weapons it comes with are a twin linked tesla destructor and a tesla cannon, as we went over the tesla rule in the troops part of this review I won’t go over it again. The tesla destructor is strength 7, assault 4, tesla, arc, this means once you have resolved the shot roll a D6 for every unit within 6 inches of the target unit. On the roll of a 6 that unit suffers D6 strength 5 hits AP-. Potentially then this can cause mass damage to ranks of massed infantry and light vehicles. For 90 points this is an outstanding new addition for the Necrons and I can’t wait to see it in action.

Overall I am very impressed with the new vehicles the Necrons have, diversity is always a good thing and I don’t think at all that they will be too tough or too easy to bring down. They seem to be well balanced between their rules and point costs and the models out so far do look very nice indeed!

Next time I will be looking at the fast attack choices in the book and what I feel might be the best unit in the entire codex! Stay tuned!

Necron Codex Review Part II Troops and HQ

So the number of troop choices available in the new Necron codex has doubled! To 2, now immortals have been moved into the troops section! But before I get onto that, let’s first discuss the basic Necron warrior.

The Necron warrior

First off cost, this has been reduced by 5 points down to 13 so quite a significant reduction. Especially when you consider only one other thing has been reduced, the armour save to 4+, so all in all looking quite good for value. The rest of the stats are the same 4s across the board with initiative 2 and leadership 10. So they will be fairly resilient, hard to hit in combat and not easy to wound against other basic troops. The weapons remain the same as before the basic gauss flayer, however we will be looking at weapons in more detail in a later section. Really not much to say for the troops here, a reduction in cost and armour save so overall much better value than the previous edition. And of course they have reanimation protocols special rule, and options for dedicated transport.

The Necron Immortal

4 points more expensive than the warrior but can pack a much greater punch. With the same stats as the warrior but with an armour save of 3+ they are a stronger defensive unit, however it’s the weapons they can carry that will make the difference in game. The basic weapon of the immortal is the gauss blaster strength 5 armour penetration 4 rapid fire 24 inches, so already quite lethal to most infantry. But for a small cost of 0 points you may choose to upgrade the gauss blasters to tesla carbines, strength 5, armour penetration -, assault 1, tesla, 24 inches. So you do lose 1 shot and the AP4, however the important part to note is the tesla rule

‘’Tesla shots have a chance to strike several times with a single shot. For every to hit roll of a 6, the target suffers 2 additional automatic hits’’ Games Workshop LTD 2011.

So potentially 3 hits per weapon at strength 5, with a potential range of 30 inches. I do concede that the roll of a 6 is needed however in units of 10 immortals this should be effective. Plus as with all books games workshop is producing these days little changes and new rules here and there are making the game more diverse an interesting without going overboard on complexity.

Overall?

Overall for the troops in the Necrons codex, although the choices are limited to 2 they are both different enough from one another to use different army builds. One designed to be resilient an win a war of attrition units of 20 Necron warriors, and one designed to shred infantry and light vehicles units of 10 immortals with tesla carbines. That’s not to say the gauss blaster should be overlooked, with its AP of 4 it will have more success against light and medium infantry granted it can make it through all the cover out there.

Necron HQ choices

Where to begin??? Maybe with the basics first off the nightbringer and deceiver are gone from this part of the book so to speak. The total number of HQ choices for Necrons is now 9, plus the option of being able to take a royal court for certain characters and the Necron overlord. So first off who appear to be the big hitters in HQ? Well first of in terms of points we have Imotekh the Stormlord at 225 he isn’t the most expensive character to appear in the 40k universe but does have some interesting rules to boot. The rest of the characters range from 185 to 100, with your basic Necron overlord coming in at 90 points. As there are 9 choices to pick from I will not go over all of them in great detail but just highlight the ones that on first glance seem to be the most interesting of effective. The 3 I will look at the most are Anrakyr the Traveller, Nemesor Zahndrekh (with Vargard Obyron) and Orikan the Diviner.

Anrakyr the Traveller

The special rules of this character are what makes him stand out from the rest; however most of the HQ choices in this book will be made to stand out via their special rules or war gear, as most share a very similar stat line. So the rules for Anrakyr, first and foremost he has an ability to take over an enemy vehicle within 18 inches at the start of your shooting phase on the roll of a 3+. You may then shoot with the vehicle as if it had not moved and ignoring any crew stunned or crew shaken results, destroyed weapons cannot be fired and the vehicle cannot be moved in any way. Once the vehicles shots have been resolved it returns to the control of the enemy and you may shoot at it. So this is quite decent new ability and again does something a bit different for the game.

Secondly Anrakyr can buff a unit of immortals to have the furious charge and counter attack special rules at no extra cost. This is a great little plus for a unit making them slightly better in close combat!

The wargear of Anrakyr is limited but useful; he has a warscythe, power weapon with +2 strength and 2D6 armour penetration. Then he has the Tachyon Arrow, this is a one use only shooting weapon with the following profile strength 10, AP 1, Range infinite, assault 1. So it is just a single shot but could prove to be a crucial one against a certain vehicle or character. Overall for the points (165) Anrakyr seems to be a very good deal, although he does not have a huge amount of wargear he does do some things differently for the game.

Orikan the Diviner

Orikan is the next of the HQ choices that caught my eye, at 165 he costs the same as Anrakyr but can potentially pack more of a punch with his 2^nd profile. First off wargear, Orikan has the phase shifter (3+ Inv.), transdimensional beamer 12 inch range, if you hit a unit one randomly selected model must pass a strength test or be removed from play with no saves of any kind allowed. So again here we have the potential for targeting monstrous creatures, walkers, lone characters etc! Next Orikan has the staff of tomorrow, a power weapon that lets him reroll failed to hit rolls in close combat. Special rules are where it gets interesting for Orikan. Starting at the top Lord of Time, once per game you must reroll failed reserve rolls for a single turn, basic but a nice touch. The stars are right, this is the interesting one that can provide Orikan with more of a punch in close combat. Basically every turn of the game you roll a D6 and if it is equal to or lower than the current turn Orikan goes from

BS 4 WS 4 S 4 T 4 W 2 I 2 A 2 LD 10 SV 4 +

To

BS 5 WS 5 S 7 T 7 W 4 I 4 A 4 LD 10 SV 4+

So quite an increase in his stat line, however once he has powered up you must continue to roll and the same rule applies as above except he will turn back to his former self. Also wounds taken are transferred between transformations so there is the possibility for him to die when he changes back. His final special rule is temporal snares, this can prove to be quite useful for 2 reasons that I will cover in a moment but for now the rule itself.

In the first turn of the game all enemy units that move count as moving through difficult terrain, if they are already in difficult terrain then they pick the lowest of the dice they roll not the highest. So for tyranids they will be slowed down, fast moving mech assault armies could get a few immobilisations as difficult becomes dangerous for vehicles. Another interesting rule that will force your opponent to make some decisions when it comes to deployment and the first movement phase! So again I think Orikan is very reasonable for the points cost and will prove to be useful in the game and as always adds more variety to the Necron race!

Nemesor Zahndrekh & Vargard Obyron

When taken together Vargard Obyron is a separate HQ choice from Zahndrekh but does not take up a slot of the force organistation chart. Obyron is essentially Zahndrekh’s personal bodyguard, however the two do not have to be deployed together. Instead Obyron is an independent character that has a piece of wargear called the ghostwalk mantle, this works like the veil of darkness allowing him and his unit to teleport to anywhere on the battlefield during the movement phase. Furthermore if Obyron chooses to deep strike within 6 inches of Zahndrekh he will not scatter, also if Zahndrekh is assaulted by an enemy unit Obyron will move from anywhere he is on the board and pile in to that combat. This will prove to be very flexible in the game and again creates more variety in the new book. Obyron comes with a warscythe and WS6 making him very useful in close combat, and Zahndrekh has an ability to buff a friendly unit every turn and weaken an enemy unit every turn by taking special rules away from them, counter attack, furious charge, acute senses, hit and run, stealth and tank hunters. So although it is early days I would have to say at first glance these two are the most interesting HQ choices especially when combined, but at 345 points it does make a pricey HQ choice when there are many less expensive options available.

Overall

The HQ choices in this book are very diverse, so many more options than the previous book and with named characters with unique rules and wargear makes army building very interesting now. I think players will have the chance to be much more creative and expressive with the new Necron codex and surely this is only a good thing! Next time I will be taking a look at the vehicles.

Necron Codex Review Part I

This is the first of a multi-part review for the new necrons codex, just a brief overview of the book and general necron special rules!

Power?

Firstly let me just say that I have the following view when it comes to ‘’over-powered codices’’. At present all of the 5^th edition codices are balanced with one another, I do agree that as the game changes out of date books will suffer disadvantages with each new book that gets released. But in warfare you have to adapt in order to survive.  So to conclude this brief introduction, I will not be assessing whether or not the new Necron codex is ‘’over-powered’’.

The physical book

The book is pretty standard these days for GW, nice quality paper back, close to 100 pages, not full colour yet but not the end of the world. The colour section is 16 pages which is nice and includes a cool double page spread. Overall it feels like you get what you pay for!

Necron special rules

The general special rules of the Necrons have changed significantly from the last edition, the most notable of which being the removal of ‘’phase out’’ from the book. This was the greatest weakness of the old codex and no longer haunts Necron players! So what are the changes to the old rules?

We will be back!

Now known as reanimation protocols, the rule has basically changed to a 5+ roll at the end of the phase in which the Necron died. So although the roll needed is one higher than before, now it is no longer ignored or cancelled out by power weapons and weapons that ignore armour saves etc. So in this way is a big plus!

Ever living!

The rule for characters, more or less just to do with the placing of the model if it comes back to life, no advantage over reanimation protocols as they still require the 5+, however there is the possibility for the character to join different units depending on coherency.

Living metal!

Arguably has been negatively affected with the change to the rules, as it is now affected by lance and melta weapons, however has the ability to ignore stunned and shaken results on rolls of 2+ and 4+ respectively. However as we shall see later there are new rules to certain armour elements that make up for this loss!

Entropic Strike

This is a very interesting new rule, against characters with multiple wounds and monstrous creatures it will be very effective (sorry nidzilla players). Mostly though this will affect vehicles as there is still a great deal of mech in the game right now! Basically if a model suffers an unsaved wound they lose their armour save for the rest of the game, for vehicles each hit the suffer on a D6 roll of a 4+ they lose a single point to the armour value (all facings!!!) for the remainder of the game! Obviously this rule is rare in the codex, however scarab swarms do have it!

So this is the beginning of the review, next time I will be looking into the troop choices and HQ!

First unit of incubi

First time with OSL, so obviously not quite there yet but happy with how

they have turned out so far! Apocalypse battle report being played tomorrow!

Incubi Test Model

So my first go with a bit of OSL, working on the rest of the squad this afternoon, just wanted to see what you guys think! 

Army Update!!!

 Hi guys, been nearly a month I know but I started driving lessons and been looking for a job so painting was put on the back burner for a lil while! But now I got some more units finished!

So here we go

Raider with crew

 First of two razorwing jet fighters

Fully magnetised missiles

Reaver jet bikes squad of 9 complete