Hi all,
You might be scratching your head and saying “wait did the Necrons get a new codex?” Nope! I just never did a proper review of some of the earlier crusade rules so I thought I would play catch up while we wait for the Eldar codex to roll through. This was the first set of codex-specific rules to roll through and it serves as proof that GW doesn’t balance the narrative rules for all codexes at the same time. This codex and the main Space Marine codex show some unique signs of a very different approach to crusade rules then later books.
Army Special Rules:
In order to not bury the lede this is the main difference from later army crusade rules. The Necron and Space Marine codexes don’t have any true army special rules. Rather, they give you a way to add names or honorifics to a character. After every third battle you win you get to pick a new ability. Unfortunately, most of these are just terrible, some options give you the ability to use certain stratagems for free once per battle, the best is the one that allows you to get two Necron agendas, but even then you will run out of options pretty fast. Furthermore you can only use these abilities on your warlord, AND they increase your crusade points by 1 each time.
Battle Traits and Scars:
The battle traits are fairly tame for the Necrons, with one or two good options for each of the four tables (Noble, Core, Cryptek, Canoptek). Canoptek units get the best results with the two being mostly useful, and the third being situationally helpful. Unfortunately, these tables are useless to some units (reanimators) and none of these upgrades is really worth hunting for more then once or twice. Even more unfortunately the weapon enhancement tables are also pretty bad, each has one decent option (Tesla: exploding hits on a 5+within 12″, Gauss: exploding hits of a 6+) but the others aren’t great. I think the table should be changed to allow Gauss to get to use the auto-wound on 6+ to hit stratagem for free (which it currently does) but also allow it to be used twice in a phase. Even more strangely, the battlescars are arguable better then any of the battletraits. While not fully beneficial you can gain access to a lot more powerful buffs and if you want to build a melee destroyer lord you need to make sure you pick up the “Creeping Madness” scar.
Relics:
Okay so the previous section wasn’t great, let’s take a look at the relic options. Right off the bat you get the best artificer relic in the game: Free quantum shielding on any character model. The other one removes battlescars but we have already shown that you probably don’t want that. Going to the next level the neuroexcruciator is fun if you are running C’Tan as it makes them hit and move harder which is amazing. The Legendary Relic is also really good, making your character a mortal wound machine, giving out a MW for each hit and when you die you can explode. This set of rules does push players towards melee beatstick lords (goodness knows it doesn’t buff much else) and this relic will make them pack a heck of a punch. One of the best parts about this relic is that it unlocks what I call the BDSM C’Tan build. There is nothing stopping you from making your warlord a C’Tan (as far as I know) load it up with other enhancements (most Necron-specific things are locked out) then have your lackey follow your shard around the board with this relic buffing him via pain.
Agendas and Requisitions:
Things continue to look up for the Necrons when you look at their Requisitions. For 1 RP the Glory of Subjugation is the best requisition in the game, after a win: 5 exp for your lord and you get to use Fresh Recruits for free, insane! Cunning Advisors allows you to level up new Crypteks immediately and Eldritch Artifice allows you to give out free weapon enhancements. Finally the last requisition gives you the ability to turn Necron Lords into a Destroyer Lord
For agendas you have two really good options: Inescapable Retribution: create a new objective that you can get 3 VP and a free relic if you complete an action. Territorial Imperative is also good giving 1 exp for every enemy unit destroyed within 3″ of an objective, and for completing an action by an objective outside your deployment zone. The only downside is that it doesn’t apply to characters. The Unending Tally is decent but you only get the experience if you kill 2+ units a turn which is a hefty ask for most Necron units. Supremacy Through Annihilation is also decent but you need to completely wipe out fully healed units in one turn, good against MSU armies but not much else.
Summary:
This is very odd set of rules. While they aren’t as much fun or as narrative as other books they do allow you to craft a pretty good melee warlord. Unfortunately, if you don’t want to do this, or want to expand on a character other then your warlord the book doesn’t help you do that much. At the same time you can get several pretty good agendas that are the un-nerfed from of later abilities and if any army doesn’t really care a lot about the inner lives of its foot soldiers it is the Necrons (and the Nids).
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