It isn’t a secret that the Necrons still need some help even after the rebalancing from Games Workshop gave many more units in the Codex the Core keyword.
Come the new Chapter Approved I expect to see some points drops on multiple units within the Necrons book, and this will be a huge boost in their viability in competitive 40k. GW also previewed something else that comes with every Chapter Approved over the weekend in the form of new Missions and Secondaries. These are going to change the way competitive 40k is played immensely, and the Necrons are no exception. The thing I am not convince on yet is if these new missions and Secondary changes help or hurt my silver metal skeletons.
Primary Change:
The Primary Objective was kind of the Necrons thing through the use off all Objective Secured lists, so anything that lowers the potential points Necrons can score through holding these objectives scares me. While the overall Primary score looks to be staying at 45 total for a game, the way you can get to that 45 has changed dramatically. The points from holding objectives is now 4/8/12, and while this means you could theoretically get to 45 over four turns of scoring the Primary it is extremely unlikely. Normally, a competitive game of 40k is about who can score that “hold more” on the Primary once during the game giving a player a slight points advantage over their opponent. During the normal course of a 40k game (that isn’t going terribly bad/great for one side) it is common to see extremely close Primary scores, but now by holding the same amount of Objectives as their opponent a Necron player will only score 32 Primary points. Even by holding more for one turn it only adds up to 36 which is less than the 45 that was possible previously (keep reading for more deep insight like this).
The way GW has “made up” for the lower Primary scoring is very interesting. They have taken away the mission specific Secondary Objectives and given up mission specific bonus points that are applied to the Primary. So far, the two we have seen are 1 point for killing an enemy unit (to a max of 3 per Battle Round) and holding a specific Objective. If I were a betting man I’d say that all of these will be capped at 3 points per round in order to get the Primary scoring up to 15 per turn as it is in the 2021 mission pack.
Mission Secondaries:
These are going add a lot more nuance to the scoring system, and make it much less predictable. So far, I like the points for killing enemy units because Necrons are extremely durable. Our army isn’t losing multiple units per turn in a competitive game, but we absolutely have the punch to take out multiple units of our opponent’s army. Hopefully the other mission specific bonus points are kind to the Necrons because sometimes we needed that third mission Secondary to have a viable third option!
ROD:
This change is very bad for us. Rolling at, or under, the number of models in the unit to be able to do the ROD action makes Cryptothralls not a unit that I add first to my army list. ROD was extremely easy for Necrons in the past with the tiny footprint of the 2 man unit of Cryptothralls, but those days are over. Our Codex still has other options, and maybe not more expensive ones after a points adjustment, in the form of 5 man units of Flayed Ones or Ophidian Destroyers.
Unfortunately, the change to Deploy Teleport Homers doesn’t make it a viable alternative to ROD for the Necrons. With our only Troops being Warriors and Immortals it is highly unlikely that these units will be performing actions inside, or near, your opponent’s deployment zone. Stick with ROD or Raise Banners in this category, and just use Flayed Ones instead of Cryptothralls.
No Prisoners:
I don’t know about you other Necron players out there but I give up A LOT of No Prisoner points. Our multi-wound close combat units bleed these points, and our single wound models that resurrect throughout the game give our opponent even more points. This one is going to be basically impossible to build a Necron list that doesn’t give a ton of points for this Secondary, but on the bright side other armies will be dealing with the same problem. It was already a problem for us, so welcome to the club Space Marines.
Overall:
I am extremely excited to see what other missions come in the new Chapter Approved, and I think it is good timing for a shake up in competitive 40k. I have to believe that the Necrons will be getting some much needed points decreases, and this, combined with all new missions, is going to make playing Necrons in 2022 feel like playing with a whole new army!
