Scoffer
The new edition of 40k has landed along side the new FAQs and while the internet in general seems to be grabbing flaming torches and pitchforks I figured I would do a constructive review of the changes to the Necron Codex and see exactly how the new edition will change how we play.
While Necrons are not really considered top tier on the tournament scene there are still a lot of options available within the Codex for viable builds and still lots of variation to suite any play style. The new edition has made lots of minor changes as well as (in my opinion) major changes to psychic powers, buildings and vehicles. So..where do we begin?
The Psychic Phase
How has this changed for our soulless robotic hoard of death? In terms of casting psychic powers nothing has changed for us, we don’t have any. While some of the other armies we might face have received significant boosts / nerfs (depending on who you talk to) this phase really only affects our chance to deny the witch. In the last edition this was 1 dice needing a 6 to cancel anything trying to target us. Now we simply have more dice, get to choose which power to try and deny and have an arguably lower chance to deny. As this new edition is still in its infancy I’m still not entirely sure what impact this will have. Certain powers will have a huge impact but more in the sense of what they do, to every army, rather than specific to Necrons.
Buildings
Buildings now have “hull points” same as vehicles and so are reasonably easier for us to deal with. Before when you faced an armor 14 building the only thing you had to rely on was scarabs, warscythes or wraiths getting lucky with the rends. With the changes your gauss weapons are enough to reduce that highly defensible position into nothing more than a smouldering crater. Hopefully a crater with squished occupants.
Tactical Objectives / Missions
Since everything can now score you may see more ghost arks taking the field since they will benefit from the objective secure special rule meaning they can grab an objective and not be contested unless its by another troop choice. That being said, the standard 5 warriors in a flyer will be at a huge advantage in the Tactical Objectives missions where you score at the end of your turn. Pick an objective anywhere on the field, flyer goes up to 36″ towards it, troops disembark 6″ and gain VPs.
Vehicles
Lots and lots of changes have happened to vehicles in this edition and it may lead to more enemy vehicles taking the field due to the fact that they have become more survivable. More survivable in that they don’t tend to explode as much but gauss and /or scarabs will still make that land raider a very expensive piece of terrain.
In 6th edition it was typical to move something half an inch and snap shot 1 weapon so that you got your jink save and were counted as WS1 as opposed to WS0 if you didn’t move. Not any more, all vehicles are treated as WS 1 unless its immobilized weather it has moved or not.
Skimmers in general have become more survivable due to jink saves now being 4+ and not being dependant on the vehicle moving the previous turn, with the downside being snap shots next turn. It will also mean you have the chance to jink on turn 1 if your opponent goes first. I have lost count of the amount of times I’ve lost 3-4 vehicles due to alpha strike armies going first…..Playing against Eldar it may now become a viable tactic to pepper it with gauss to reduce incoming fire next turn, suppressing them to the point of becoming almost useless. How has this jink effected our own skimmers? Very little surprisingly, Ghost arks will snap shot but not the 10 gauss toting individuals inside. Annihilation Barges? I actually did the maths on this one and realized while its less effective to fire snap shots its a lot higher than I thought it would be. Firing 100 tesla destructor shots (twin linked) worked out at 150 hits while the same 100 shots fired as snap shots worked out at 57 hits. Not bad odds for a 50% chance to take no damage from incoming fire! Jink will also effect the command barge but this will be covered further down in its own special section.
Ghost arks in particular have become much better with these changes due to it being less likely to explode, getting a 4+ jink and crew stunned/shaken now needs a leadership test to effect the troops inside. I’m not sure exactly how this will effect the living metal rule (ignore the results on 2+ / 4+) but presumably if the ghost ark ignores the stunned result the guys inside wouldn’t need to take a leadership. This wasn’t clarified in the FAQ but it maybe worth discussing with your opponent before the game.
Command Barges
These have now become immensely more powerful due to the changes made to chariots. To sum up, here is a break down of the new chariot rules:
• The barge and lord are now considered 1 model (can’t disembark)
• Shooting at chariots – The Necron player can allocate hits between the barge or the Lord.
• In assaults the chariots front armor facing is used and the WS of the Lord is used to hit the chariot (not the default 3+ to hit)
• D6 Strength 6 hammer of wrath hits when charging
• Immobilized results count as crew stunned
• Weapon destroyed counts as crew stunned (FAQ for Symbiotic repair)
• Re-roll one or both dice when determining charge range
• Not slowed by difficult terrain but will need a dangerous terrain test instead, if its immobilized it loses a hull point instead
• Can now be locked in combat but can make sweeping advances, pile in moves and consolidation unless its stunned.
• If either the chariot or the rider is reduce to 0 wounds / hull points the whole model is removed.
• Sweeping attacks gives you extra chance to kill things in the movement phase.
• Reanimation will bring the whole chariot back with 1 hull point and the Lord on 1 wound
Lets just let that sink in for a moment before we carry on.
Consider the following, Overlord with 2+ armor, 3+ invuln, mindshackle scarabs, warscythe and res orb rocks in at around 285 points which sounds a lot but considering the following:
• Hit with strength 6 shooting attack? Allocate it to the barge and nothing happens as they cant hurt it
• Hit with a Strength 7 shooting attack? Allocate to the barge and take the 4+ cover save
• Hit with a Strength 8+ shooting attack or hit in the rear ark? Take the lords 2+ armor or 3+ invuln and regardless it keeps the quantum shields intact.
• Those sneaky tau and Eldar hitting you with ignores cover? – Lord has 2+ armor or 3+ invuln…
• Made it into combat safely? anything that is less than strength 7 will have to hit lord as they cant hurt the barge but he gets 2+, 3++ and mindshackles to help
• Opponent is cheering because he just destroyed your barge? Roll a 4+ and put it back on the table. Don’t forget the smug grin.
Not to mention with its 12″ move, 18″ flat out move and scoring means it can easily grab objectives or line breaker as needed. This will still need to be used for hunting down small units rather than wraith knights (smash attacks will hurt) but having a monstrous creature charged by 2 of these, needing 2 mindshackle tests and then being hit with 2D6 hammer of wrath + 8 warscyth attacks before hitting itself in the face will still be funny.
Other Stuff
As for the other changes, Wraiths are no better or worse than they were before. The swarm rule has been clarified for scarabs meaning the double wounds from template weapons doesn’t apply if it also causes instead death. This means getting 3 hits with a strength 6 flamer will now only kill 3 bases rather than 6. Deathmarks maybe seen a little more now that characters have lost the precision shots rule as they may be needed to shut down psychic powers the only way the Necrons know how, shoot the caster in the face until he stops. For those of us with Sentry pylons or the apocalypse pylon they have taken a slight hit with skyfire needing to snap shot at ground targets but its a small price to pay for the boost in other areas. There has been a slight change to allies but nothing that will really effect us since we were not battle brothers with anyone to start with. Everything else is pretty much the same as before.
Subject: 7th Edition Necrons 
Fri Aug 29, 2014 11:21 am
