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!
