Welcome to part 2 folks, which covers all the non-HQ datasheets save for formations. These are brief reviews basically looking at what's changed rather than how to use the units and so don't expect an in depth analysis. The more I've read through the book, however, the more Necrons have turned from the army I love to hate into the army I want to love.
Warriors - completely unchanged
save for a limit of 10-20 per squad rather than 5-20.
Immortals - again, completely
unchanged.
Lychguard - got a massive and
much needed points drop. The stats, wargear options and special rules are
unchanged, but the wargear itself changed somewhat. Hyperphase swords remain
the same as AP3 melee weapons, warscythes are clarified as S+2, AP2, 2-handed,
armourbane and the biggest change is that dispersion shields now grant a flat
3++ save. So you can either go for a very tough unit that can dice through 3+
armour easily, or a unit capable of ripping apart vehicles and 2+ armour that
is a bit cheaper but more vulnerable to AP3 and below weaponry.
Deathmarks - 1 pt cheaper per
head. Hunters from hyperspace changed very slightly in that no nomination of
units is needed now in order to wound on a 2+. Ethereal interception also
changed in that now it is clarified that you can make a shooting attack when
you arrive but cannot shoot in your following turn.
Flayed ones - a much needed
improvement. For the most part everything remained the same (save for gaining
fear - whoo!) except that these chaps now come armed with 2 flayer claws each,
granting an extra attack, AP5 and shred. A much needed boost in melee but may
still not make them that desirable.
Triarch Praetorians - like the Lychguard,
they also got a lot cheaper. They gained an extra attack and access to a night
scythe as a dedicated transport. Rods of covenant are S5 AP2 weapons in melee
and gained an extra 6" on their ranged attack also. Particle casters are
the same and voidblades are now AP4 base with the new rules for entropic strike
(covered under scarabs). Now a much more attractive choice.
Triarch Stalkers - a power fist
cheaper and now in squadrons or 3. All else is much the same except the
targetting relay now changed so that all Necrons within 6" add +1 to their
BS except if firing snap shots.
C'Tan Shard of the Nightbringer -
Shards are now separate entities rather than build your own. Probably an IP
protecting move but sadly I think it takes away from the uniqueness of the
unit. Whereas before you could build a C'Tan to suit your fluff, now you're
limited to the 3 that have models. Nightbringer has a slightly different
profile to before with WS6/BS4 and retains the eternal warrior, immune to
natural law and necrodermis rules. He also gains fleshbane and has gaze of
death as standard. This works differently now and rather than being a melee
attack is now a shooting attack. A single unit takes 3D6 -Ld AP2 wounds that
ignore cover. If 1+ wounds are inflicted Nightbringer regains a wound. Probably
a bit cheaper now that his rules are incorporated and not upgrades but still
not a great choice for the points - T7 4++ just aint that tough thesedays. Add
to that the randomness of the C'Tan powers which I'll cover under the transcendent
C'Tan.
C'Tan Shard of the Deceiver - Same
cost as Nightbringer, just shy of a land raider. This chap retains his stats
from before and gains a few new rules. Grand illusion is pretty much the same
but now he can also hit and run and has dread, meaning models within 12"
-2 from their Ld. Less of a beatstick than the Nightbringer and much more of a
strategic model to outmanoeuvre and rout the enemy - probably better against
slow, low Ld armies.
Night scythe - much needed points
increase to make it more balanced, the scythe now has the invasion beam rule
clarifying unit disembarkation. Also, the change to tesla is much needed and
now clarifies that snap shots do not generate more tesla hits.
Ghost Ark - a bit cheaper and some
changes to repair barge meaning you can no longer damage yourself and simply
roll D3 to restore models to a unit of warriors. It retains quantum shielding,
which is now a fixed 13 for front and side until a penetrating hit is scored.
The Gauss flayer arrays are now salvo 5/10 and have independent targetting
making them more useful. Speaking of gauss, in addition to auto-penetrating on
6's they now auto-wound on 6's also. Nasty.
Canoptek wraiths - in almost any
codex there will always be one unit that stands out above the rest. Already a
strong contender in the previous book, the canoptek wraith has gone from good
to amazing. A straight 3++ now, plus all the same stats as before including an
upgrade to T5, making it much more durable. It is also now a beast unit rather
than jump infantry but retains wratihflight in order to bypass intervening
terrain. All for a very modest points increase. Whip coils now add 3 to
initiative rather than affecting the enemy's initiative value. The
transdimensional beamer changed to a S4 AP2 heavy 1 weapons which causes
auto-wound/instant death on a 6 and auto-penetrates vehicles on a 6 also.
Canoptek Scarabs - these chaps
mostly retain the same stats but have gone up in price a bit and had their save
reduced from 5+ to 6+. Also, entropic strike has changed dramatically so that
now it is just effectively the same as gauss but in melee. Not as good as
before obviously but many would argue they were too good then.
Tomb Blades - stats remained the
same but they got slightly cheaper and all the upgrades got significantly
cheaper. What's more, all the upgrades are now useful. Shield vanes remained
the same upgrading the blade to a 3+ (so now for the same cost as the old model
you get a 3+ save), nebuloscopes now grant ignores cover instead of a pretty redundant
(on a TL weapon) BS5 and the shadowloom grants +1 cover save rather than
stealth, so presumably it can be stacked with stealth. Several subtle but
needed changes mean they're likely to be more commonly seen, especially now
they're a compulsory choice in a decurion detachment (more on that later).
Destroyers - Now jet pack
infantry which is great as they can use the old Tau tactic of move-shoot-move. The
cost remains the same, but now destroyers are a much needed 2 wounds rather
than 1. The unit size maximum is now 6 and only a single model may be upgraded
to a heavy destroyer for half the points cost of before. But.....
Heavy destroyers - ...they now
have their own unit to compensate in the heavy support slot. A 1-3 unit and
each is effectively 10 points cheaper than before and, as above, has jet pack
and an extra wound. Destroyers are looking like an attractive option this
edition.
Canoptek Spyders - Same points as
before but with cheaper upgrades. The Particle cannon and fabricator claw are
the same, whereas the gloom prism now grants admantium will to all units in
12". The scarab hive is pretty much the same except that the scarab base
is automatically generated now regardless of whether you roll a 1 and wound the
spyder. Slightly better due to the points adjustments, though the scarab nerf
may make them less desirable overall.
Doom scythe - Slightly cheaper
than before, the doom scythe has had the same tesla-snap-shot nerf as other
units, but has also seen changes to the death ray. Instead of drawing a line
3D6 long, you now simply fire with a 24" range. It is still S10 AP1 but
now has blast and lance, making it even more deadly for a single vehicle or
heavy infantry unit.
Monolith - This unit may have
gotten a little worse. It's the same points cost and has the same weapon
profiles but is now officially counted as a heavy vehicle, meaning pretty much
the same as before and it can attempt to regenerate thanks to living metal. The
eternity gate can be used to transport friendlies still but not to kill enemies
anymore.
Annihilation Barge - this chappy
saw a much needed tone-down in the new book. Not only did tesla get changed to
not apply its special rule to snap shots, but the points cost for this unit
shot up 33%. Much more balanced this way.
Doomsday Ark - never a
particularly popular choice in the old book, the Ark has only gone down in cost
marginally and has had a few tweaks to its doomsday cannon. It's main fire mode
still needs the Ark to remain stationary, but is now a S10 AP1 large blast
which has the primary weapon rule for the penetration bonus. It's secondary
fire mode is also improved somewhat, being S8 AP3 blast now. These slight adjustments
may make it a bit more popular now.
Transcendent C'Tan - This chap is
now a heavy support choice and is markedly toned down from his previous
incarnation - a good thing IMO as he was overpowered before and cropping up
regularly at tournaments as a result. He has the same base rules as the other
C'Tan (fearless, eternal warrior, necrodermis and immune to natural law) and a
better stat-line than the other two, with 5 wounds and S8. Writhing worldscape
is incorporated into his rules now and makes open ground within 6" of the
C'Tan difficult. He also has deep strike for when you want to ruin your
opponents day. The C'Tan powers now have a very random mechanic to them. You
roll a D6/pick a card AFTER choosing a target each turn and then apply that power.
This is pretty poor IMO and would work much better if you got to choose the
power and then designate a target, as some powers are good against certain
units and terrible against others. All these powers are available for all 3
C'Tan and have a range of 24". Here's a rundown:
1 - Antimatter meteor - S8 AP3
large blast
2 - cosmic fire - S6 AP4 large
blast ignores cover
3 - Seismic assault - S6 AP4
assault 10 strikedown
4 - Sky of falling stars - S7 AP4
assault 3 large blast barrage
5 - Times arrow - SD AP1 precision
shots
6 - Transdimensional thunderbolt
- S9 AP1 tesla
Obelisk - A monolith with 2 more hull
points that is also a skimmer and packs 4 tesla spheres. It's 50% more
expensive than a monolith and can either deep strike or lay dormant, the latter
of which gives it a 3++ until you decide to activate it. Tesla spheres are
reasonably potent, each being S7 heavy 5. The other perk of an Obelisk is that
it has a gravity pulse, which makes all non-ground based units take a dangerous
terrain test if within 18". I'm not really sure how effective an Obelisk
would be in-game by looking at the stats. It would be tough to shift and an
annoyance for your opponent but not
really a game changer unless you came up against say a Saimm-Hann list.
Tesseract Vault - A lord of war
and the most expensive unit in the book. Effectively an upgraded Obelisk with 4
Tesla spheres, 50% more hull points and, most importantly, the ability to use
the coalescent powers of the C'Tan. These are all BS5 and fired from the C'Tan
itself using better profiles than the regular C'Tan with twice the range.
Antimatter meteor and cosmic fire are apocalyptic blast, Seismic assault is 20
shots, Sky of falling stars is assault 6 apocalyptic barrage, Times arrow and
Transdimensional Thunderbolt are assault 2 instead of 1. It's intimidating for
sure, but when the powers are so random it's a lot of points to invest. If it
ever gets to the point of exploding though beware as it always blows up big!
Imotekh the Stormlord - Now a
Lord of War, Imotekh is essentially an Overlord with a badass staff of light
(S6 AP2 assault 3). He also packs a phase shifter, gauntlet of fire and has it
will not die. Bloodswarm nanoscarabs allow more accurate deep striking for
flayed ones, whereas his lord of the storm rule grants both auto night fighting
on the first turn and can hit every unit within 48" with D6 S6 hits on a
5+ once per game. He retains his 2+ save and is a bit cheaper than before but
note that he lost some other rules as well as not being able to access a Command
barge. He's not bad, but not great either.
That's all for part 2, part 3 will cover formations, the decurion and supplemental material. Cheers.
No comments:
Post a Comment