My apologies on the delay in this review! a lot of big things have happened in the past few months! Today we will be diving into the new rules available for the Necrons. These metal bois have long suffered having the worst crusade rules out of any faction, and GW has finally given them some more options! A big part of this rules update involves specific rules for the dynastys, in a similar fashion to the Chaos Legions.
Szarekhan
These extra-genocidal crons get a version of my least favorite agenda. Basically, if you table your opponent every unit gets 3 exp. If your warlord is a noble, it also gains an epithet. They also provide you a hedge such that if you kill 75% of your opponent’s forces (counted using PL) every unit gets 1 exp instead. This is a more usable form of the kill-everything agenda but I still hate it. They also get a requisition to swap battle traits which is intriguing and great if you want to swap out randomly-rolled ones. Their battle traits can be summed up as: fight chaos/imperial knights. 1 option gives +1 to wound vs characters, another gives a unit 3 bonus exp if it kills a unit worth double its power rating, the last one allows you to use the Empyric Dampening strat for free. Lastly they get an amazing relic that allows you to pick an enemy unit and make it fight last (this is so good that it makes picking almost any other dynasty hard).
Sautekh
Zahndrek’s crew get a Necron version of the Eye of the God’s agenda which gives characters 2 exp for killing vehicles/characters and 4 exp for killing vehicles with 11+ wounds or warlords. This is a really good agenda, and if you kill the enemy warlord you also got D3 requisition points. What can you do with all these RPs? Well their requisition only works against other Necrons but after you beat an enemy Necron player you can spend 2 RP to carbon-copy one of their units. yes this means you get an identical version, relics, exp, scars and all. This is such a fun rule, and while narrow in use makes for some great moments. Their battle traits are decent bunch. The first makes the units models count double for controlling objectives, the second improves the AP of all attacks by 1, the third allows you to use Methodical destruction for 1 CP. Their relic allows you to inflict 1 mortal wound, in addition to any other damage in melee on an unmodified roll of a “6”.
Mephrit
The Mephrit get another intriguing agenda option. Each time a character kills an enemy model with a weapon that wastes damage (i.e. killing a 1 wound model with a 3 damage weapon) you give it a tally. At the end of the battle each character gets 1 exp for every 3 tallies it has. This even works for shooting and so might be a good option if you run a command barge. The Mephrit requisition allows a character to get D6 experience points by giving a scar to another character. While you can only gain exp once this way (per character) it’s pretty powerful for 1 RP. Their traits are broadly useful/ The first allows you to re-roll out of action tests, the second makes enemy units within 3″ subtract 2 from their leadership and the last allows you to use Talent for Annihilation for 1 CP. Their relic is a warscythe that is slightly improved and does flat 3D while getting +1 to wound vs warlords.
That will do it for today. I think these upgrades are a great set of rules for Necron players. I would also allow custom dynasty players to pick one option that fits their faction the best (thought the upgrades that reference specific strats are useless). Later this week we will tackle the other new dynastys!
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