40K: Necrons – Return of the Warrior Horde
The Necrons are going to bring the pain in 8th – The Warrior Phalanx is BACK!
Games Workshop had another Faction Focus yesterday that looked at the Necrons. After taking a look at the rules they teased, I think the Necrons are going to be one tough cookie of an army to crack. Why? Because it sounds like the army is going back to it’s roots of tons of hard-to-kill models who won’t stay dead after you’ve put them down! Let’s take a look:
via Frankie (Warhammer Community)
“We should start with the most iconic Necron rule: Reanimation Protocols. This rule changes from a save to a roll to bring the model back to life each turn. When a Necron model with this rule dies, you keep track of how many in the unit have gone down. You will then be able to place models back into their units every turn on the roll of a 5+ per model lost. The models must be placed in unit coherency with the unit it came from. This rule is so powerful because it happens at the beginning of EACH of your turns. I want to say this again for emphasis: you roll for each downed model with this rule at the beginning of every turn unless the unit has been wiped out. So, if a Necron Warrior is killed in turn 1, you’d roll to bring him back turn 2, 3, 4, etc. until he either reanimates or the rest of the unit is destroyed.”
Yeah, that’s right – Reanimation Protocols is going to be good. Like, really GOOD. I know Frankie mentioned it twice but just let that sink in: “you roll for each downed model with this rule at the beginning of every turn unless the unit has been wiped out.” Now I hear folks start to say, “It’s only a +5 to get back up” – sure, until you stick Illuminor Szeras within 3″ of a unit which gives them a +1 to the roll. Suddenly that means EACH down warrior is getting up 50% of the time and you’re rolling at the start of every turn.
From everything that Frankie mentioned, it’s sounding like all the characters in the Necron army will provide some really nice buffs. Anrakyr the Traveller will allow a unit to get +1 to hit, charge, and advances – among other buffs he provides. And Szeras can also increase Warrior’s BS, Strength, or Toughness as well. The humble Necron Warrior is suddenly not-so humble! Check-out their Gauss Flayer:
Now, imagine if you buffed their BS by 1 and gave them a +1 to hit – at 12″ they are going to put out a bucket of shots that will probably be hitting on +2. And from what Frankie was saying in the article, you can have a full unit of 20 – which I would also recommend taking. The more models you have in your Necron Warrior unit, the harder it will be for the enemy to wipe them out. If they can survive to the next turn, then they have a +5 (or +4 if the Illuminor is around) to come back. I don’t know about you, but erasing 1/2 the work your opponent did at the start of every turn sounds pretty good to me!
I have a feeling we will see the return of the Necron Warrior Phalanx in a scale we haven’t seen since they had the old Phase Out rule. Here’s the thing: we’ve only really focused on what Necron Warriors can do – we haven’t gone into what the rest of the Necrons will be able to accomplish! I think that a great army starts with great troops as the foundation and the Necrons will have that covered. Then you start mixing in characters, support units, and maybe a couple of sturdy vehicle options…Well, you get the idea. And because it’s fun: Deepstrike Monolith!
The Return of the Unkillable Metallic Hordes! Necrons in 8th are Reanimating for WAR!
