The Warhammer-community team brings us a preview of the new Necron Codex for 9th ed 40k!
The Necrons have awoken and are getting ready to reclaim the galaxy. That’s not going to be easy – they’re going to need some new units and rules. So, today we’re taking you through some of the options in the new Necron codex that will take you from mere Necron Overlord to galactic ruler.
Rule Them All
The new codex features Dynastic Codes for six Necron empires, including the Szarekhan Dynasty for the first time, along with options to create your own.* We’ll be taking a closer look at those rules tomorrow.
Today, we’re focussing on the range of rules and army-wide abilities that benefit your force regardless of which dynasty they belong to. For example, Reanimation Protocols have always been a huge part in the way that Necron armies play and they have undergone a slight change in the new codex. Your Necrons can still come back from wounds that would take any other warrior out of action, but now you roll when models are destroyed rather than at the beginning of your turn.
This change means that if your opponent wants to prevent you from making any Reanimation Protocols rolls, they’ll have to wipe out your unit in a single attack, which for most Necrons units is easier said than done!
Something brand-new for Necron Overlords to unleash upon the galaxy are command protocols. Before a game starts, you secretly assign one of the six protocols to each of the first five battle rounds. Then, when you reach the relevant battle round, you choose from one of the two directives associated with the protocol to be active for that round and any unit within 6 inches of a Necron Character can benefit from it.**
For example, you could select Protocol of the Sudden Storm to be active in Battle Round 4, which you could then use to make a last-minute dash to claim an objective or perform an action AND still use your ranged weapons.
The command protocols offer some exciting tactical options to your Necrons army, and they’re flexible enough to ensure that there will always be a directive that you can take advantage of.
Robotic Reinforcements
It’s not just been the Overlords coming up with new schemes to reclaim their rightful domain – the Crypteks have also clearly been busy, as there are tomb-loads of new units for your Necrons army.
They say that quantity has a quality of its own and that’s especially true when you come armed with six(!) guns. Hexmark Destroyers were once Deathmarks, but now go into battle carrying multiple enmitic disintegrator pistols.
As if six shots isn’t enough, they get to fire more when they take out an enemy model.
We hear that the Kelermorph has asked to postpone its planned duel with the Hexmark Destroyer…
While not technically a new unit, the Monolith is getting a new model and has had enough of an improvement that Overlords will almost see it as new. Not only does it have an additional four wounds, but its weapons have also undergone an upgrade, and there is even a new option – the death ray – which you can take in place of the gauss flux arc.
Enemy units won’t want to go anywhere near these fearsome floating pyramids.
It’s not every day that an actual god (or at least the shard of one) takes to the battlefields of the 41st Millennium. With the addition of the C’tan Shard of the Void Dragon to Necron forces, there’s a massive shift in the galaxy’s power dynamics. As you’d expect from the fragment of a Star God, the C’tan Shard of the Void Dragon has impressive characteristics.
When you combine that profile with the power granted by the Spear of the Void Dragon, this C’tan Shard will be easily cutting its way through enemy units in the name of its Necron enslavers.
The C’tan Shard of the Void Dragon also has two abilities that make it extremely difficult to kill. Its Necrodermis lets it shrug off god-killing levels of punishment.
Meanwhile, its Matter Absorption rule means that this fearsome entity can devour the very essence of destroyed enemy vehicles to keep itself fighting.
With devastating attacking power and incredible defensive abilities, the C’tan Shard of the Void Dragon is a perfect fit for almost every Necron army.
That’s just a taste of what’s on offer in the incredible new Codex: Necrons, which is available to pre-order from Saturday. Make sure that you join us over on the Warhammer 40,000 Facebook page to let us know what you’re most excited about.***
* Please note that the book does not contain instructions for biotransference.
** This represents the superior Necrons having a certain level of control over their legions.
*** Of course, Necrons don’t really do excitement – it’s more of a cold detachment.
I see what they were trying to do with the new RP but I guess it is really ok for 1 wound models.
1W model dies. = Odds of rolling 5+ on 1 dice is 33%.
2W model dies. = Odds of rolling 5+ on BOTH dice for the 2W model is 11%.
3W model dies. = Odds of rolling 5+ on ALL THREE of the dice for the 3W model is 3.7%.
Also any models killed by bombing runs or explosions or psykic powers don’t get RP at all. (like using the Plasmacite on your destroyers).
Crossing my fingers for really aggressive point cuts.
90% of the game has been painting a coverting so I guess it really doesn’t matter IF the Necron Codex is not really competitive.
Look at it this way, you lose two 3-wound models, you need to get three 5+ rolls to get one of em back.
Yeah and we don’t have all the rules so this is just the main piece.
Maybe the Reanimator lets you repair wounded units with the left over unusable successful rolls. Or something to do with how many dice you throw out there.
I just want to believe there is a place for the War of the Worlds Walker because with the Hard rule cap of only +1 to RP rolls they are one very sad hunk of 110 point junk.
Agree. It seems silly for the signature Necron rule to really only effect troops. Especially when they are making new multi wound-units that can only go up to 3. I hope there is something to huff this a lot; otherwise new necrons are just bad nurgle. FnP would be a lot better.
“It’s all about the STRATAGEMS boys!!” John Goodman
I kind of like the new reanimation protocols rules. It was so frustrating to dump a ton of firepower into a unit of Destroyers, just for most of them to get back up as if nothing happened. For most infantry models, this works out better for them, but it does hurt the multi-wound models a bit more.
Yes, but the vast majority of the codex is multi-wound models, so overall this is a big nerf.
When has anyone ever seen this happen? I’ve always seen destroyers focused down hard and fast with little to no chance of getting back up.
Am I stupid or is this mostly a really complicated Feel no Pain?
Kind of there are some steps first .
If a unit is not wiped out you get to use the rule, so things like Agressers blowing through a Warrior block in one go (they are core of course) or an Eliminators (also core…) melting a destroyer squad with ease means that unlike Disgustingly Resilient the ability you pay for in points never gets rolled.
If there a unit is not wiped out in one units attacks then those that were lost you roll dice for each models wounds that was lost. So for single wound models it is like old RP just need one 5+ to get back up but for everything else you need to roll +5 equal to the models wound count.
Example:
One warrior shot with damage 3 gun (like what Marines just got)
Disgustingly Resilient: roll 3 5+ to save the model
RP: after attacks are done and there are still models left roll 1 5+ to get one model back
Same thing verses a 3 wound model like a destroyer.
Disgustingly Resilient: just need 1 5+ to save the model
RP: if there are models left in the unit you need 3 5+ to get one model back.
So the math(so far) is clear RP is for 3 units: Warriors, Immortals, and Flayed Ones. All other units have it but when you are dipping into 3.8% chance of it happening it might as well not be a rule for them.
Really strange way to do RP. Blowing up units of 1 wound models with one big unit’s shooting is heavily rewarded and not too hard to do with some anti-infantry vehicles/Knights/Aggressors. On the other hand, against multi-wound Necrons chipping them down 1 model at a time seems to be rewarded, since the dice pool is limited to that one model’s wounds but all the dice need to be 5+. I think this RP will end up being a much worse version of Disgustingly Resilient unless there are some insane stratagems to go with it. Really it just needs another remake though in my opinion…..