Warhammer 40K: New Codex Necrons, New Favorites
This week we look at some of our new favorites, and also-rans from Codex Necrons.
Getting a new codex can be both exciting and frustrating. There is the excitement of see what changes were made to units that you had counted on in the past, along with the excitement of taking a look at the new units that Games Workshop had created for your army. On the other side of the coin there is the disappointment of having to buy another book, your old book being invalidated, and funny enough, seeing what Games Workshop changed to some of your favorite units so that they begin to sit on the shelf until the next codex or supplement.
Well this time we don’t just get one but two codex releases this past weekend. In both these codexes there is a lot going on, between new rules for the game and new units. There is already talk about how some of the new, and old, units have changed in the various Facebook groups and Discord chats. This week we will look at some of the winners and losers of some of the units from one of the codexes, Codex: Necrons
Reanimation Protocols – Winner
Okay, before I really start I just have to admit that the rule is somewhat confusing. After a few read through is started to make sense, in my mind, and I have to say that I like what I see, or at least think I see. The way I read it, you roll for reanimation protocols after an enemy units finishes with all their attacks. You then roll the number of dice equal to the number of wounds lost by the unit, not number of wounds inflicted, and roll to see how many wounds come back. For every 5+ you gain one wound back and if you fill a model’s total wound characteristic then that model returns.
Get used to Necron Warriors, you’ll be seeing a lot of them.
This is really good for models that only have one wound as they become a little more resilient and can possibly stay longer on the battlefield. I would not be surprised to see Necron armies with a lot of warriors in them. Although a large squad of warriors can still be wiped out in a single turn of shooting, I think that it will force your opponent to have to dedicate more shooting to that unit if those killed models keep coming back after being shot at by a different unit each time. Unfortunately there is a side affect that will affect another part of the army.
Multi Wound Models – Slight Losers
This is probably a slight loss but we will see as tournaments happen. As mentioned just above, I feel like reanimation protocols are pretty good. Where they are found lacking however is when it comes to multi-wound models. If a model has more than one wound for it’s wounds characteristic then you cannot place the model back on the table unless you rolled enough 5+s to bring back ALL of it’s wounds. Not sure why Games Workshop made this decision. Other armies have ways to bring back models and many times the model comes back with just one wound out of however many they have in their wounds characteristic. It can be extremely frustrating having to roll and seeing that you can’t bring a model back because you are short one 5+ roll, while your opponent just pays some command points or uses an ability and they get their large multi-wound model back with at least 1 wound. This doesn’t mean that those multi-wound models are not worth taking as what they can do on the battlefield could easily overcome this slight annoyance. Once we start seeing tournament results with this new codex we should get s clearer picture.
C’Tan Shard of the Nightbringer – Winner
There was once a time when players right feared the Nightbringer when facing off against it on the tabletop. It seems that we may have to fear it once again. There area few things that help with bringing that feeling back. A couple of them are that they have a 4+ invulnerable save and can regenerate one wound a turn. The most important thing about the unit though is that you can only inflict a maximum of three wound per phase. Now this doesn’t seem like a big deal but the fact that you have to dedicate a good number of attacks just to wound it in the first place means that you will either not have enough to do that much damage or you may overkill and commit too much in order to do jut 3 wounds. Although it can’t use the Look out, Sir rule, it can still hide behind obscuring buildings to try to get up close.
If you actually do let it get close, then you are in for a world of hurt as it has a close combat weapon that can either do 12 attacks or just 6 attacks but it ignores your invulnerable save. If that isn’t enough, Gaze of Death has a possibility of doing 3d3 mortal wounds to a nearby unit. I can see him wiping out Terminator and Custodes units with ease. I fully expect to see a lot of custom made Nightbringer models at tournaments soon.
~That’s all for this week. Hope you enjoyed the article. Let me know what you think, and what the winners and losers of the new Necron codex are, in the comments section below.
