Necron Codex Review: The Good, the bad, and the Ugly Part 3: Fast and Heavy

Reecius

10 years ago

Her everyone, Reecius here from Frontline Gaming to hit the third installment of the Necron Codex review.

Check out the Tactics Corner for more great reviews!

Let’s hop right back into it!

Don’t write when you’re tired! Haha, made a couple of errors in this one, which will be edited in red. Sorry for any confusion.

The Good

Night Scythe

It got toned down, yes, but it is still a fantastic vehicle. And–let’s be honest with ourselves–it was under-costed before. Now, it is at a fair price point. It is functionally the same thing it was before, although Tesla got toned down, however with the changes to Living Metal, you won’t be getting Stunned/Shaken as much unless you opt to Jink. Tesla shouldn’t have gotten better when you Jinked, anyway, lol. Comparisons to the past aside, the Night Scythe gives you a vehicle that provides solid firepower but more importantly, the ability to deposit a unit dang near anywhere on the table at game’s end to snag an objective for the win. So long as even a single Night Scythe is still operational with an ObSec unit inside, a Necron player still has a chance in an objective game. Fun fact: per raw, you cannot re-embark on a Night Scythe for lols!

Ghost Ark

Ghost Arks were good before, but wow, now they’re fantastic. I am bummed they can still only carry Warriors (it would have been fun to put Lychguard in there!), they are solid units. The Ghost Ark is cheap, weighing in at only 105pts, is a Skimmer meaning it can Jink and is fairly mobile, and has Quantum Shielding, Living Metal and 4HP, making it pretty dang resilient. Open Topped is it’s one downside, but totally fair at the price point. As an Open Topped vehicle though, you can toss in some assault Characters for some fun!

Now, when it makes new Warriors, it has no chance to hurt itself…awesome! This combined with all of the ways to boost RP (Reanimation Protocols) can make a big block of Warriors ultra durable. The Guass Flayer Arrays also got a boost becoming Salvo 5/10 and as Vehicles are Relentless, they always fire max shots, which is nice. Not amazing firepower, but a good boost. Units inside can shoot, too. If using a CAD or Allied Detachment, this vehicle chosen for a unit of Warriors also becomes ObSec, which is potentially game winning. Fun fact: take it as a dedicated transport in the Reclamation Legion formation and it too, gets Move Through Cover, which is fantastic.

In all, I really dig this vehicle. I see it being used best to support a big block of Warriors which have some RP buffing special rules to make them your go to objective taking unit. Alternatively, you could just run it with 10 Warriors inside to sweep up a flank as a self-contained objective grabber.

Canoptek Wraiths

In a book with relatively great balance, this unit stands out as a bit of a WTF? Canoptek Wraiths were already very good, and now they’re even better. It’s a bit annoying as they overshadow so many other units by so much that you are absolutely going to see Wraith spam lists all over the place which gets lame to play against pretty quickly. However, negativity aside, this is quite clearly an all-star unit. They got bumped up to T5, and kept their 3++. They have 3 rending attacks each and with Whip Coils, go up to I5. Wraithflight lets them move through anything, even through other units and impassible terrain so long as they don’t end their move “in” them. Oh, and they got changed to Beast unit type, too. Holy shnikeys. So, they’re lightening fast, ignore terrain, hit like a brick shithouse, are fearless, swing before most things, and are hard as hell to hurt with 2 wounds a piece. And the funny part is, they cost as much as a Terminator, lol! So yeah, they are a bit OP, and you will be seeing them all over the place, so prepare your list to deal with them. As a Necron player, these are a no-brainer unit. Almost every list will have at least one unit of them. Particularly taken in the Canoptek Harvest Formation, but we’ll get to that, later. You can upgrade them to have some interesting guns (one of which is instant death on a to wound roll of a 6, the Exile Ray) but as they are Beasts, they will typically be running.

Previously, you’d run them with a Destroyer Lord to beef them up a bit and give them PE. You can still do that, but as he is Jet Pack Infantry now, he is a little cumbersome to keep up with them as he has to move twice and string them out and they lose Fleet, but can still work. Honestly though, they don’t need him, anymore. They’re plenty tough enough to run on their own. They are probably the most powerful unit in this book.

Canoptek Scarabs

Canoptek Scarabs went up in points, and their Entropic Strike ability changed for the better in some ways and worse in others. In all though, they’re still an excellent unit. Scarabs are Fearless (like all Canoptek units), move like Beasts, are Swarms, and have 4 attacks each. They’re big shtick though, is that they wound anything on a 6 and glance any vehicle on a 6. This is slick as that plus Fearless means they are awesome for tar-pitting and grinding down big things like Super Heavy Vehicles and Monstrous Creatures. Stomps are still a big threat, though, but can be mitigated with the Canoptek Harvest Formation. With their speed, they are especially good at taking down vehicles that like to stay in the backfield. Spyders still make more of them, too, so the Scarab Farm is alive and well. This is a great tool to have in your list to deal with problem units, particularly if you have some Spyders to support and replenish them. Just be wary of Ignores Cover or Melee attacks at str6+, as they will mow through the little buggers.

Tomb Blades

I have always used and enjoyed Tomb Blades but wow, now they kick butt. They’re a Jetbike unit built on a Warrior stat line. The come stock with a twin Gauss Blaster which is solid, and can be upgraded to a twin Tesla Carbine, but I always opt for the Particle Beamer as massed, high strength 6 blast weapons can do some serious work. You stack those templates on Infantry that are clustered and you can easily rack up dozens of wounds and wipe a unit. At strength 6, they’re also a decent threat to MCs and light vehicles, too.

While I typically adhere to the “More Boys, Less Toys,” philosophy, with Tomb Blades I reverse course. I think in most cases you want to take all of the upgrades for them. The reason being that for one, they’re dirt cheap, and for two going from a 4+ to 3+ save is huge and protects them from most template weapons which are a big threat as all of their weapons are relatively short ranged and when combined with RP, makes them pretty damn tough. Edit: You may only take +1 cover OR Ignores Cover, and Ignores Cover is the obvious choice, here. +1 cover save is also awesome for obvious reasons, but particularly with the Beamers which you don’t want to Jink with. The Nebuloscope for Ignores Cover is, clearly, fantastic. That with the blast weapons will devastate light Infantry. Ignores Cover with the Guass Blaster makes these guys a nasty threat to Vehicles, particularly Skimmers that often rely on a Jink save, themselves. As a part of a Reclamation Legion, they also get MTC, which is fantastic. In all, this is a great unit, much improved, and gets past the previous problem I often had with them dying before being able to get an RP roll. Now, with the changes to RP, they are much more likely to survive to keep on fighting.

Destroyers

They also, are much improved! They flirt with the Ugly category, IMO, but are good enough to be tournament worthy in the right list and so go here. They got a big boost, going up to 2 wounds. That, plus RP being taken before the morale check helps units like this a lot as before, they would often get wiped and not get their RP roll at all. Now, they are much more likely to stay in the fight. They’re also now Jet Pack Infantry, which means you get to go Tau on the enemy and JSJ (Jump, Shoot, Jump) all over the place, which is fun. Their firepower output is solid, too, with 2 S5, AP3 shots+PE (Preferred Enemy) which makes them quite lethal. As stated in part 2 of this series, stick them next to a Triarch Stalker and they go up to an absurd 97%+ accuracy. The only real downside to this unit is that they are in the same slot as Wraiths, and their weapon is a bit short ranged (24″). With Jet Packs, they can mitigate this with assault moves, but it is something to consider. In all, a good, but not outstanding unit which can provide some nice AP3 shooting.

Heavy Destroyers

These are a solid Good! Unlike Destroyers, Heavy Destroyers all come with the Heavy Gauss Cannon, which is essentially a 36″ Las Cannon. They are also much more resilient now than they were and are actually a really good, mobile shooting unit. Stick them next to a Stalker for the win. Two thumbs up for the Heavy Ds!

Canoptek Spyder

Again, another great Necron unit! They really did an awesome job of making damn near every unit good. Spyders were solid before, now they’re even better. You get a criminally cheap MC that also can fix vehicles, provide psychic defense, shoot (a bit) AND make more Scarabs! What’s not to love? They always produce a Scarab base now, even when they roll a 1 on their Scarab hive rule. And, you can actually save against that wound now if you can give the Spyder RP, which you can do with the Canoptek Harvest Formation. The upgrades are very reasonably priced for the Spyder and bear consideration. If you plan on having it near your vehicles (or just have the odd points in your list), the Fabricator Array at 5pts is worth considering. The Gloom Prism is solid too, as it provides a 12″ Adamantium Will bubble, which can be really useful for Crons who can be vulnerable to psychic attacks, particularly those that attack morale. Lastly, you can slap a Particle beamer on a Spyder to give it some shooting, which isn’t a bad idea at all as they often play a bit defensively, farming up Scarabs until late game where a unit of 3 can go in and kick some booty in assault. I love Spyders and rarely play without a unit of them.

Doom Scythe

I know I will get some flakk for this, but that’s cool. I still think the Doom Scythe is a good flyer despite the perceived nerfs. Taken for what it is, you get a lot. A fairly durable flyer that can ignore some of the damage table and has a good AA weapon as well as a powerful AT weapon at a reasonable price point? Yes, please. A lot of armies out there would kill for a flyer with this stat line (looking at you, Dark Angels), although I know a lot of Cron players are upset. The Death Ray is a powerful weapon to be mounted on a flying unit and the Tesla Destructor is still solid.

Transcendent C’Tan

While this was the most massive nerf I can remember, it is certainly for the better! The previous version of this unit was stupidly powerful. This version is much more reasonable, but still quite good! Very good, actually. The critical difference between he and the other C’Tan is the following: T8, and Deep Strike. Edit: The Transcendent C’Tan has S8 and T7, not T8 as I wrote. Sorry for the confusion. ~~T8 puts him out of the threat range of many of the basic weapons of the game~~, and Deep Strike gets around the C’Tan weakness of being so slow. Against most opponents baring Tau with massive Interceptor, or an Assault army that is coming at you, I would always Deep Strike him. He then comes down into a threatening position, can use his Powers of the C’Tan immediately, and his Writhing Worldscape power will come into effect much sooner (6″ Dangerous terrain bubble). While he is still not a melee bad ass, being T7 ~~T8 means at the least,~~ means that most things either don’t hurt him or hurt him on a 6 which makes him very good for tar-pitting units. As he is a Character, too, he can play the challenge game. In all, this is a solid unit for the points. Just be wary of units with lots of high strength shooting, as a 4++ and 5 wounds won’t last very long!

The Bad

Monolith

Le sigh. My poor Monoliths! Gah, I have three, and two of them I think I am just turning into terrain. They actually managed to make them worse than they were! I couldn’t believe it. They can still get immobilized going over a hedge, which is silly, they can still deep-strike misshap, which is silly, and they still snap fire everything if they fire the Particle Whip–which is ordnance–still can’t Jink and is slow as dirt as the Monolith is Heavy…Sigh. Oh, and for extra lols, the Eternity Gate can’t be used offensively, anymore to suck enemies off the table and spit them into space. Why?! Haha, it’s bad comedy. In a book that fixed so much, they just gave the poor old Monolith the cold shoulder. If the Monolith were a Super Heavy Vehicle, or deep struck like a Drop Pod, or the particle Whip weren’t ordnance, or it at least had MTC (which it mercifully can get in the Reclamation Legion Formation), or was an Assault vehicle it would be decent. But it’s not. It’s a giant turd in this edition whose best use is to be a mobile LoS blocker! Such a missed opportunity. It has a glimmer of hope though, in the WD Formation a while back that allowed it to res units like Warriors and Immortals, so there is some hope for the Old Gal, yet if you go that route!

The Ugly

Annihilation Barge

Yup, still good, but not amazing. And again, what it was before at 90 points was ludicrous. It is fairly priced, now. You still get a AV13 vehicle with powerful shooting, mobility, and the awesome Living Metal rule for a very reasonable price point. Will you see folks spamming 3, now? No, but that is not a bad thing. As a mobile fire platform, you get your money’s worth with the Anni barge and won’t be unhappy with it. The only reason it goes in the Ugly category for me is because there are other choices in the heavy slot I’d much rather take and I’d rather field a Tesla Destructor on a Night or Doom Scythe. However, running one of these next to a Stalker would be good fun. Edit: Gah, I was on fire when I wrote this one, lol. The Triarch Stalker does not work on vehicles. Again, sorry for the confusion. Don’t write when tired! haha

Doomsday Ark

Better, but still not that good. A vehicle that can’t move and shoot for good effect simply doesn’t cut the mustard, even when that weapon is the ultra powerful Doomsday Cannon (Str10, AP1, Primary Weapon, 72″). Unless you play on a table with very sparse terrain, this weapon will not fire that frequently or only on targets that are not optimal for it. It’s simply too easy to hide from it or out maneuver it. Plus, it can always miss, too, which is the curse of high power, single shot weapons. It is a durable vehicle though, and certainly not bad, but I don’t think we’ll be seeing many of them at tournaments. If you do field one, though, it can be devastating when everything comes together and you get a few good shots off with it!