Goatboy’s Warhamer 40K: All Hail Our New Necron & Sisters Masters!
Goatboy here again and the current meta is really being bullied by the new Necron update and Sisters of Battle!
Dancing along those edges are Nids, Aeldari, and Harlies with a lot of strong options and interactions. It is pretty interesting how far Necrons got pushed with just a few tweaks in the current matched play book as well as the balance data slate.
Mighty Mighty Necrons
So why are Necrons doing so well? The new Matched play book completely flipped how armies utilized Secondaries and Necrons have access to a powerful set of them that are easy to score and require very little need to interact with your opponent. This is huge as the army can be set up to basically occupy your enemies time as it still scores throughout the game. I don’t think this is really the best way to “balance” an army as while it is great they are winning – it isn’t in a way that is very exciting.
Danger Will Robinson!
The game should be built on both players doing something to the other players army. Whether that is killing their units or just scoring some kind of imaginary points in some way – the game is a back and forth match between the players. Currently it doesn’t feel that way as while you are dealing with the robotic elements that move extremely fast into your business there is no way to stop those elements from scoring points. Thus putting you further into the hole. While you might be killing stuff – you are not really doing much to stem the avalanche of scoring that the metallic toasters are piling onto you.
Necron Secondaries Need Tweaking
This will most likely get a tweak coming as while the Secondaries are printed in the book they could go back and remove some things from the Balance data slate. I would most likely look at how the two custom traits work with Necrons – with the pregame move plus Objective secured most likely being too powerful. I would probably look at the Objective Secured or limit core choices to try and eliminate some of the extra scoring potential they have. Heck you can see this in a lot of Necron list that don’t run any troops as they usually take the Silent King and a detachment that gives them the best “bodies” for the cost. They all end up having Objective secured so while a Warrior might come back easier with Reanimation protocols a ton of Lychguard or Destroyer bodies end up being a heck of a lot better.
I would also look at tweaking their Secondaries to either not allow first turn scoring on some or include a “has” to hold an objective. On top of that probably look at some of the weird “not a unit” but a unit options that gain Objective secured but don’t really do enough to keep it. That would be the Plasmacytes and other fun things. Thankfully they can’t do RND anymore or it would be a ton of powerful scoring abilities for an army that just don’t care what you do.
Sisters are Back!
Sisters are starting to fall into that too just they need their troops to be effective. They have powerful Secondaries that feel a bit too easy to score. This mixed with an army full of units and you have a ton of ways to get to that sweet 80 point spot to take over a game. I am not sure what do with them but feel the better choices would be to mess with their point costs. They all punch up and are starting to feel a bit like the Dark Eldar in the way they can trade assets. I know GW likes armies to be big but the delicate balance of having too many good options might be too much for the current environment.
Sisters Secondaries
Heck really the big issue with any book right now is do they have 2 Secondaries they can easier score 25-30 points with. If they can do that and control the primary they have a really good shot of getting into the 80+ territory with is a win in a lot of games. Of course this isn’t the case with Necrons but we can’t all play with the metallic warriors. A 100 point game should always be dug into but Necrons seem to be able to do it easily with a secondary that hits 15 points very quickly.
The Usual Suspects
This is probably why CSM is going to struggle as while they can do the Primary it is their Secondary game that gets hurt. This is the same with Aeldari and Nids as while they can do the primary well their other choices get difficult to hit that 25-30 spot that you need to ensure you keep up with the Jones and their cascading waterfall of easy points. It also means those other armies that might have better matches into Necrons – say Knights and Chaos knights – just due to how they can pour out damage will be at a disadvantage as they are trying to scavenge some kind of secondary score that is worthwhile.
Terrain Still Matters
While we talk about this the game is still trying to work things out. We have different levels of Terrain at events where one army does well with say the GW terrain (Aeldari and D Cannons) but struggles in the player placed options. I know personally I like the GW layout a bit more just due to the nature of getting started in a game faster as well as having a better “layout” to throw out objectives.
What do you think? Is the game alright or should we see more tweaks to help balance some things out? I know I have had a lot of fun playing 9th lately but I think it is more so I accepted I won’t get towards the top and instead just play what I want. I look for interactions that give me fun stories and hope for a good time.
What do you think of the rising Necrons & Sisters?
