Hello everyone, Phaeron CytoSlide here with a brand new Necron series for your viewing and reading pleasure! Check the Tactics Corner for more great articles and tactics.
The Celestial Orrery
8th Edition Necron Primer Series
This series is designed to give new Overlords a resource for learning the basics of building a competitive Necron army in 8th edition 40k. Topics will range from basic unit overviews to in-depth analysis of each Dynasty, detachments, relics, stratagems and list building.
“Enough with the chit-chat Cyto, we’ve been waiting for over 60 million years . . . gives us the goods.”
Without further ado, I present to you the first of many resources:
8th Edition Necron Buffs – from Units
A quick article and resource designed to help get your Necron joints lubricated and your circuitry primed and ready for the more in-depth articles to come. Take a gander at the tables below and decide for yourself which buffs best suit your newly awakened Necron army. Peruse the left “Bonus” column to get an idea of the buffs our units can offer each other, then make sure to review the “Restrictions” column to see what the restrictions are for the specific bonus or buff. This column should be viewed in conjunction with the “Source” column, as different models have different restrictions for which units they can select as targets with their otherwise similar ability. Lastly, the “Points” column tells you what you’re going to pay out-the-door to get the specific buff. Since most of our Necron unit buffs come from HQ choices or Characters, they are rather pricey but fear not – Necrons have some strong force multiplies as well as defensive and movement related abilities in our stratagems, warlord traits and relics.
*denotes Forge World
Offensive
| Bonus | Restrictions | Source | Points |
| My Will Be Done (“MWBD) / Wave of Command (“WoC”): target Infantry unit within 6” (MWBD) or 12” (WoC) gets +1 to advance, charge & hit rolls until the beginning of your next turn | Necrons Infantry
Sautekh Infantry Necrons Infantry Nihilakh Infantry Maynarkh Infantry <Dynasty> Infantry <Dynasty> Infantry |
Imotekh
N. Zahndrekh Anrakyr Trazyn *Kutlakh Command Barge Overlord |
200
180 167 100 200 154 – 204 87 – 142 |
| Bloodswarm Necroscarabs: re-roll hit rolls of 1 for Flayed Ones | Friendly Sautekh Flayed Ones within 12” | Imotekh | 200 |
| Transient Madness: Roll a d3 at the beginning of your turn to apply +1A, Improve BS by 1, or re-roll failed charge rolls until beginning of your next turn | Friendly Sautekh Infantry unit | N. Zahndrekh | 180 |
| The Lord’s Will: Re-roll wound rolls of 1 | Friendly Sautekh Infantry units within 6”
Friendly <Dynasty> Infantry units within 6” |
Vargard Obyron
Lord |
140
76 – 119 |
| Mechanical Augmentation: End of your movement phase, roll a D3 to give a unit for the rest of the battle: +1 S, +1T, or Improve BS by 1 | Friendly Necrons Warriors or Immortals unit within 1”. A unit can only be the target of this ability once per battle | Illuminor Szeras | 143 |
| Lord of the Pyrrhian Legions: Add 1 to the Attacks characteristics | Friendly Necrons Infantry within 3” | Anrakyr | 167 |
| United in Hatred: You can re-roll wound rolls of 1 in the Shooting Phase for this model and other destroyer units | Friendly <Dynasty> Destroyer & <Dynasty> Heavy Destroyer units within 6” | Destroyer Lord | 113 – 156 |
| Targeting Relay: You can re-roll hit rolls of 1 for shooting attacks against a unit that has already been attacked by any Triarch Stalkers in this phase | Friendly Neconrs (shooting attacks, same phase, triarch stalker already attacked) | Triarch Stalker | 158 – 171 |
| Writhing Worldscape: Enemy units do not receive a bonus to their saving throws for being in cover | Enemy units within 12” of T. C’tan | Transcendent C’Tan | 225 |
Defensive
| Bonus | Restrictions | Source | Points |
| Technomancer: Add 1 to all Reanimation Protocol rolls within 3”.
Master Technomancer: Same as above, no stacking |
Sautekh units within 3”
<Dynasty> units within 3” Friendly Maynarkh Infantry units within 3” Friendly Necrons within 3” |
Orikan the Diviner
Cryptek Toholk Illuminor Szeras |
115
85 – 95 165 143 |
| Mechanical Augmentation: End of your movement phase, roll a D3 to give a unit for the rest of the battle: +1 S, +1T, or Improve BS by 1 | Friendly Necrons Warriors or Immortals unit within 1”. A unit can only be the target of this ability once per battle | Illuminor Szeras | 143 |
| Chronometron: 5+ invulnerable save against ranged weaponsMaster Chronomancer: 5+ invulnerable save | <Dynasty> Infantry units within 3” Maynarkh Infantry
Friendly Sautekh Infantry units within 6” |
Cryptek*Toholk
Orikan the Diviner |
95165
115 |
| Repair Barge: End of your Movement phase, make RP rolls for slain models from Warrior units within 3” (no stacking with Rez Orb or Orb of Eternity) | <Dynasty> Warrior units within 3” of friendly <Dynasty> Ghost Arks | Ghost Ark | 160 |
| Power Crucible: Provides one or both – 5+ Invulnerable save against shooting attacks & re-roll results of 1 for RP rolls | Friendly Necron units on the Tomb Citadel | *Tomb Citadel | 730 |
| Phase Shift Generator: 5+ invulnerable save | All Friendly Necron models within 6” | *Gauss Pylon | 550 |
Movement
| Bonus | Restrictions | Source | Points |
| My Will Be Done (“MWBD) / Wave of Command (“WoC”): target Infantry unit within 6” (MWBD) or 12” (WoC) gets +1 to advance, charge & hit rolls until the beginning of your next turn | Necrons Infantry
Sautekh Infantry Necrons Infantry Nihilakh Infantry Maynarkh Infantry <Dynasty> Infantry <Dynasty> Infantry |
Imotekh
N. Zahndrekh Anrakyr Trazyn *Kutlakh Command Barge Overlord |
200
180 167 100 200 154 – 204 87 – 142 |
| Ghostwalk Mantle: End of movement phase, move unit + V. Obyron so all models are within 6” of N. Zahndrekh and more than 1” from enemies | Friendly Sautekh Infantry unit | Vargard Obyron + Zahndrekh | 320 |
| Grand Illusion: Beginning of the first battle round but before the turn beings, move d3 other units from battlefield to anywhere more than 12” away from enemy models. These units cannot charge during your first turn | Other Friendly Necrons units | C’Tan Shard of the Deceiver | 225 |
| Eternity Gate: Monolith “transport-esque” ability, allows models to set up on a tomb world then teleport in from the Monolith before the Monolith moves during its movement phase | <Dynasty> Infantry units
<Dynasty Infantry Units |
Monolith
*Tomb Citadel |
381
730 |
| Invasion Beams: Night Scythe “transport-esque” ability, allows models to set up on a tomb world then teleport in from the Night Scythe before this model moves during its movement phase | <Dynasty> Infantry units | Night Scythe | 160 |
| Death Incarnate: If Kutlakh is your Warlord, Maynarkh Infantry within 12” may still charge in a turn in which they advanced | Maynarkh Infantry | *Kutlakh | 200 |
The above list does not include repairing abilities (Eternal Engines (Toholk), Fabricator Claw Array (Spyder), Canoptek Cloak (Cryptek)), relics, stratagems, rez. orbs or dynastic code buffs, as these will be covered in their own future articles.
Discussion
Expensive Buffs
The first thing to note about getting buffs from units is that the Necron models that provide buffs are relatively expensive. This = means the number of synergies and buffs each unit applies to other units will be fairly limited in both number of uses and in how much of the board we can spread these buffs to. At first glance this is a letdown, but it also reveals one of the strengths of a Necron force: we don’t require copious amounts of buffs because our units are strong and self-sufficient. Army wide Leadership 10, a powerful basic stat line and fairly potent wargear puts us in a good place.
It also forces Necron players look to other sources for buffs (relics, stratagems, dynastic codes etc.). Our cheapest buffs come in the form of a canoptek cloak Cryptek (85 points), a hyperphase sword Lord (76 points) and a hyperphase sword Overlord (87 points). Their status as our cheapest source of buffs from units is fitting as the buffs they provide are the two most core and basic buffs in 8th edition Necrons – My Will Be Done & Technomancer. These are the bread & butter offensive and defensive buffs, both because of how accessible they are, and because of how they interact with the army. The Lord’s Will is also solid as it makes for a great firebase that is slightly more powerful in melee when enemy melee threats close the distance.
My Will Be Done (“MWBD”)
An offensively agnostic buff, MWBD provides our infantry with a little bit of everything. Improved shooting accuracy, improved melee accuracy, improved mobility through +1” to advances and improved charge-consistently through +1” to charge rolls. Since it requires the target unit to have the “Infantry” keyword, MWBD is limited in its application to:
- Most HQ choices (all but the Catacomb Command Barge)
- Necron Warriors
- Immortals
- Lychguard
- Deathmarks
- Flayed Ones
- Triarch Praetorians
- Destroyers – and
- Heavy Destroyers
Important outlier units to note include Triarch Praetorians (which can only be buffed by MWBD from Imotekh & Anrakyr, as they specifically do not have a <Dynasty>) and the following units which are not infantry and therefore cannot benefit from MWBD – Tomb Blades (Bikers), Canopteks (Beasts, Swam, or Monsters) and C’Tan (Monsters).
It is very important to observe the targeting restrictions of each respective buff, as there is a lot of miss-information out there. I have personally read/watched dozens of youtube codex reviews, battle reports, and tactic discussions on blogs and forums which wrongly promote interactions which are against the rules. Even some of the GW Necron preview articles famously included improper references to providing Infantry-only buffs to non-infantry units. Our takeaway: Read and the re-read the wording of the desired ability and target unit before assuming the interaction will work.
Technomancer
This provides our dynasty units a +1 to their Reanimation Protocols (“RP”) roll if they are within 3” of the nearby Cryptek. Szeras, being the fancy cat he is, provides the same bonus but to any friendly Necrons within 3” which means he can cozy up to units regardless of dynasty and provide them with an RP buff. To keep the resource-train rolling, the following units have native access to RP:
- Necron Warriors
- Immortals
- Lychguard
- Deathmarks
- Flayed Ones
- Triarch Praetorians
- Tomb Blades
- Destroyers and
- Heavy Destroyers
*Canoptek units get a special note as they can access RP through the Repair Subroutines [2CP] Stratagem, which can be enhanced just like any other RP roll via Cryptek Technomancer.
With the basic RP roll being a 5+, having a Technomancer Cyptek within the required range allows models to get back up on a 4+. This is a fairly significant buff as it brings each model’s RP roll from a 33% chance to get back up to a 50% chance. However, with the downsides of RP, this buff is of questionable value as your opponent can negate your units ability to make any kind of RP roll if he kills all models in any given unit.
As a final note on how expensive and accessible buffs from Necron units are, it is important to note that almost all of them come from our HQ choices. This is both a blessing and a curse. It is good in that we are required to bring HQ units to fill out our detachments, which means the HQ “tax” is lessened when they are at least providing us an aura, single target or multi-unit buff. It is also reflective of the fact that non-HQ Necron units do not have to rely on or synergize with each other as much as other 40k armies do.
In Necron index lists, Triarch Stalkers were relatively popular due to their Targeting Relay buff, which provides the ability for units to re-roll shooting hit rolls of 1 when targeting the same unit attacked by the Triarch Stalker. However, now that we have our codex, many Necron players are viewing the price as too high (158 – 171 points) to get the buff from the Stalker. Instead, they are looking to the Nihilakh dynasty code as a “free” source of this same buff.
While undoubtedly a useful buff, the question Necron players face with Triarch Stalkers is the same they face with Necron HQ units that provide buffs: Is this model’s statline/ability to accomplish goals by itself, in addition to the force multiplying nature of its buff, worth its cost in points? A follow-up question is generally: Could I use the same points I am paying for this buffing unit to simply buy more models from the to-be-buffed unit, and get more for my points?
A classic example is the Overlord vs. Immortals debate:
- A dirt-cheap Overlord costs 87 points with a hyperphase sword, or 94 points with a staff of light.
- A unit of 5 immortals costs 85 points.
Which is better?
- The survivability & damage output of the Overlord plus it providing a unit with an effective +1 to hit buff; or
- Spending those same points on having an additional unit of 5 immortals.
The answer? It depends – but we’ll walk through the math on this in our Necron Warrior & Immortals Celestial Orrery primer article.
Shooting – Melee – Survivability: What are Necrons geared towards?
When looking at the buffs units provide each other, there is no clear winner as to what form of war Necrons favor. MWBD provides a bonus to hit rolls, advances and charges. The Lord’s Will provides re-rolls to wound rolls of one. Illuminor Szeras & Nemesor Zandrekh’s “roll a d3, apply a buff” also provides “variety buffing” (with a twist!) in that their buff could help melee (+1 Attack or reroll failed charge rolls or +1S), shooting (Improve BS by 1), or survivability (+1T).
While some buffs solely benefit shooting (Targeting Relay, Writhing Worldscape, United in Hatred) others are melee-only buffs (Bloodswarm necroscarabs, Lord of the Pyrrhian Legions) and then there are equally many, if not more buffs that are solely defensive (Technomancer, Chronometron, Repair Barge etc.).
Takeaways
Necrons are not pidgeon-holed into playing any particular playstyle. Units that provide buffs are varied in their application, and we have access to enough force-multipliers through relics, dynastic codes and stratagems that Necron players can still get a well-rounded force regardless of which buffing units we take in our army.
Even if a Necron army focuses solely on shooting, our army can still do well in melee thanks to the dual-nature of our buffs – this is especially true once we get into our Necron stratagems.
Even though necron armies (and in particular, our troops) tend toward the slow-end of the movement-speed-spectrum, we have access to a fair amount of movement buffs that put some pep into our steel-toed steps.
Necrons are geared towards durability with our core defensive buffs (RP-enhancing Technomancer & Chronometron) favoring defense against shooting rather than melee. Indeed, one good way to try to make sure RP cannot be negated is to hide at least a couple of models from a given unit behind LOS blocking terrain and hope that the opponent won’t be able to target the hidden models with other units that end up being needed to finish them off. This tactic doesn’t help in melee.
Our unit-provided buffs are important, but they are absolutely not the whole story.
Stayed tuned for our next 8th Edition Celestial Orrery installments, including Dynasty Overviews, Necron Detachments Guide, and a much anticipated: Necron Troop Choices -Warriors v. Immortals & Gauss v. Tesla.
And remember, for all your 8th edition Necron needs, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
Glad to finally see a necrons article! ?? looking foreword to the next one.
Thanks Twydell, glad to see more and more tomb worlds awakening! Have a teaser for the next article, ready & raring to go:
Necron Thunderdome.
Finally, Tau and Necron need love too.
I got you covered on the Necron front! #Xenosunite
Yeah, great stuff from our new writer, Cyto!
Man, I have been LOVING Crons in their dex, they are so strong, fun to play and with loads of options.
Destroyers are absolute murder machines, too.
NECROOONS!
Thanks for the article. Quick question: if I use the Monolith or Night Scythe to bring in troops can they (the troops) move after being brought in? Both units lack the “Transport” Keyword but they have to set the troops up at the Beginning of the movement phase. If they can’t and it acts like a deepstrike can my opponent use something like Eldar “Forwarned” and blow away any unit coming out of a Mono or N Scythe?
With the max move of a Mono being 6″ and N Scythe being an easy one turn kill why are these units even in the game at all? For the price the offence is laughable.
Hope you can clear this up, Cheers.
They can move, yeah. If they come in at the end of the Movement phase they cannot move.
Hi Pyrothem, thanks for your question! As Reece already outlined, Necron models can move in the turn they are brought in by a Night Scythe or Monolith. As you correctly pointed out, neither of them have the Transport keyword meaning the Transport rules in the sidebar on page 183 do not apply.
Instead, look to the model data sheets on pages 102 and 98 in the Necron codex. Since the Infantry deploy before all models [including the night scythe and monolith] have moved, the unit deploying via eternity gate or Invasion Beams can move in the movement phase the turn it deploys.
I would also recommend you take a look at some night scythe and monolith related strategems on page 111. Enhanced invasion beam, emergency invasion beam, and dimensional corridor [pg 112] are ways to make Night Scythes and Monoliths more effective at transporting our troops!
Check out the Reinforcements rules on page 177 of the main rulebook. It looks like since the Monolith/Nightscythe don’t have the transport keyword, and the Tomb World rules never say the units are considered embarked, they would not be able to move after you set them up within 3″ using the Monolith or Nightscythe rules. The Monolith stratagem gets around this because it says you can treat them as disembarking, but in general it looks like they’re stuck within 3″ of the Monolith/Nightscythe.
Thoughts?
You got it right Rob. But remember that the models aren’t “stuck within 3″ ” of the Monolith / Nightscythe, they can still charge.
For the Monolith you’re referring to the Dimensional Corridor stratagem – which specifically states “That unit counts as having disembarked from the Monolith this turn and can move normally,” meaning this is a good way to get a Infantry unit a way to both move and charge after teleporting up/out of a Monolith. This stratagem is used at the start of your movement phase, which unfortunately means that it cannot be used the turn you “deepstrike” a Monolith via its Death Descending ability (which occurs at the end of any movement phase).
In the future we will absolutely do an article on Necron transportation options.
Hey guys, good questions here, I will get the answer for us as soon as I can but my reading of it is that they deploy units as if they were a Transport but those units may not reembark, thus they lack the Transport Keyword.
It is a bit confusing though, I agree. But as I said, I will find out and relay the answer.
So wait,
Does that mean there are no longer any restrictions on what a unit arriving by Invasion Beams/Eternity Gate can do the turn it arrives on the table? (can move/shoot/charge that same turn).
Good catch Skoffs – Necron Infantry cannot move after deploying from the Night Scythe or Monolith despite the fact that they come into at the beginning or middle of the movement phase. The special rules for Invasion Beams & Eternity Gates does not prevent it, and the models also don’t have the Transport Keyword – However – the reinforcement rules still apply to them (pg. 177, right side bar).
“Units that are set up in this manner cannot move or Advance further during the turn they arrive . . . but they can otherwise act normally (shoot, charge, etc.) for the rest of their turn.
This actually makes it desirable for the Night Scythe to be destroyed so that the transported unit (be that Scythguard or Shieldguard) can use Emergency Invasion Beam, and then and only then, be able to move & charge during their next turn. Whereas if the Night Scythe is not destroyed, the unit deploying from Invasion Beams will only be able to shoot & charge the turn they arrive.
The Veil of Darkness happens at the end of the movement phase, so it effectively disallows moving after the “teleport/deepstrike” and the Deceiver’s Grand Illusion allows for moving, but disallows charging.
The codex did little to fix all of the clunkiness of our “transports”. Even the Ghost Ark remains annoying with its 10 model capacity and the inability to fit a character in with the minimum Warrior size of 10…
So then this part-
“As Reece already outlined, Necron models can move in the turn they are brought in by a Night Scythe or Monolith.”
-is not actually correct, then?
(if so, you may want to edit that part in the above comment you made earlier, lest people get the wrong idea)
Well if Reeces says they do that means they have been play-testing it that way so that should be GW’s intent. We just need the codex faq/errata to make it clear. I hope someone at Frontline with GW’s ear will let them know that this needs clearing up.
Well, bear in mind, I am a mere mortal and sometimes just straight up make mistakes, too. In this case I don’t think I am and I am reaching out to get an answer but also remember that when we are testing things can be separated from the release date by a significant amount of time and I may forget/misconstrued something so please do not take anything I say as official GW policy, intent, or whatever because it isn’t necessarily so.
You do not technically have to “deep strike” to trigger forewarned. All that is required is for the unit to be set up arriving on the battlefield as an reinforcement. What is a reinforcement? Good question, BRB 177 Reinforcement sidebar, “Many units have the ability to be set up on the battlefield mid-turn, sometimes by using teleporters, grav chutes or other, more esoteric means. Typically, this happens at the end of the Movement phase, but it can also happen during other phases.” Match play rules, BRB 215 Tactical Reserves, “Instead of being set up on the battlefield during Deployment, many units have the ability to be set up on teleportariums, in high orbit, in Reserve, etc., in order to arrive on the battlefield mid-game as reinforcements.” From the BRB FAQ, “Q: If a unit uses a rule that removes them from the battlefield and then sets them up again, such as the Teleport Homer ability or the Gate of Infinity psychic power, does that unit count as having moved for the purposes of moving and firing Heavy weapons? A: Yes. Treat such units as if they are arriving on the
battlefield as reinforcements.” And finally, the pool for summoning creatures is called Reinforcement points.
It seems to me that any unit arriving on the battlefield no matter the means after the game has begun is a reinforcement. No they cannot move (see above) as they have arrived as a reinforcement and are considered to have been moved already.
Has anyone tried out a 3 tesseract vault list yet? I saw one played online and it can dish out ALOT of mortal wounds and shooting. Paired with deciever’s redeploy ability you can possibly even pseudo deep strike them.
Hi Marandamir, I have not had the chance to playtest it [vaults are hard to come by and expensive!] But you identified its strongest synergy: Deceiver using its Grand Illusion to put the vault(s) 12″ feom enemy models for a turn 1 mortal wound bloodbath. Synergistically, the Deceiver also loves having a Vault to screen, as with its T7, W28 and new 4+ invuln, the T.Vault is now incredibly difficult to take down without mass concentrated firepower.
T.Vaults are extremely powerful in the codex, but remember that per. The Powers of the C’tan rules on page 113, you cannot take the same power twice (even on different models) until all 6 powers are chosen at least once etc. This makes it a little more difficult to spam the favorite powers (Cosmic Fire & Sky of Falling Stars when you’re up close near the entire enemy army), but can be overcome by letting powers be selectes randomly instead [and cross your fingers for the duplicates and triplicates of what you want!].
Finally a necron tactica!
Another rule that debates a lot is if you can combine the emergency invasion stratagem with the enhanced invasion stratagem? I.e. can you deploy 2 units with the emergency stratagem if you also use the enhanced stratagem?
I think it’s not possible but I’m not sure.
Hi Martin – I agree with both you and JoshBob1985 – the stratagem Enhanced Invasion Beam cannot be used when you use Emergency Invasion Beam.
Enhanced Invasion Beam’s requirements include “Use this stratagem before you set up a unit from a tomb world using the Invasion Beams . . . or the Eternity Gate ability . . .”
Emergency Invasion Beam does not involve using the Invasion Beams or the Eternity Gate abilities. It simply allows you to “immediately set up a friendly unit still on their tomb world . . .”, after being triggered by the last Night Scythe and/or Monolith is destroyed.
This unfortunately means that you cannot deploy a 2nd unit via Enhanced Invasion Beam after you have just used Emergency Invasion Beam : (.
But we haven’t received an errata or FAQ for Necrons yet so we can still hold out hope that some of the Necrons’ issues with transportation get smoothed out.
@Martin. That doesn’t work sadly although it could do with an FAQ for clarity. Same with units coming out of the mono/scythe; RAW they can’t move but I still hold out hope that was not the intent.
The 3x Vault + Deceiver list mentioned above is nice because you would be choosing 14 C’tan powers, meaning you can choose 2 of them 3 times. So all three Vaults would get the 2 best powers.
Hope GW will faq NS ☺
OK guys, got an answer for everyone. The units coming out of a Night Scythe or Monolith can indeed move again after being placed on the table as we thought. Now of course, that is not official but I can assure you all that that is the right way to read the rule.
So, carry on!
Thanks Reece this might open up use of these units again. Just need to find a way to keep ether the Mono or the N Scythe alive for one turn. So far in all my 1500-2000 point games I have yet to see a N Scythe or a Mono stay one the table for more than one turn.
Happy to help! I actually really like the Monolith, he’s quite good, now.
Is it nearly 400 points good, though?
Eh, it is expensive in an expensive army, for sure, but I never regret taking it when I do.
How do you ever keep it alive for more then one turn? It is so big you can NOT hide it behind anything. Just a 3+ save it just melts to any real fire power. It is a Hell Blaster squads favorite treat and cheap Lascannons laugh at T8. 😛
If you have it deep strike it can not be used as a transport and will be shot at for doing so for 1 cp and its firepower is a big meh.
I am truly interested in how you can make them work because they are such an icon of the army it is a shame to never see them.
Since according to RAW this ISN’T the case (meaning from RAW they cant move after deploying from a monolith or nightscythe) will GW be adding an errata to make it so. People cant simply say reecius says GW says they can when an opponent can point to rules that dont say that at all!
Yeah, fair enough. I hope they clear it up soon but that is the way it is meant to be played.
Could you pass on to the same person who told you that they can move etc after disembarking a monolith/nightscythe that the rules contradict that intent and an errata is needed to make the rules match the intent / ask if they are going to do this?
I mean if they aren’t then for all intents and purposes then they CAN’T move after leaving monolith/nightscythe since that is what the rules ACTUALLY say!