Today I've been itching to do a Necron article, but haven't played with them for a while so didn't fancy doing a unit breakdown like my Orks. Instead, I thought I would address some of the things I would like to be seen done to the Necron Codex when it eventually gets updated for 5th Edition.
I think 1 article to cover this will be way too big, so I'm going to split them by Force Organisation and firstly for this article, the army as a whole.
We'll Be Back
We'll Be Back (WBB) has often been a source of misclarification amongst Necron players and their opponents and in my opinion needs simplifying heavily. Now to be clear, I have no issue with how it works currently, save for some clarification to stop people coming up with things like this:
The WBB rules only say if it's Double the Toughness of the Necron. Not if it's over Double their Toughness.The main problem I feel that is caused by WBB is that it acts out of sequence and can lead to more hassle than is necessary.
In the 5th edition codex, there is one real solution that everyone is pointing to - which is give them Feel No Pain, which I feel is a valid solution to solving the issues with WBB, as well as streamlining playing the Necrons.
Phase Out
Phase out is another touchy subject amongst Necron players, but has kind of been boostered and at the same time hindered by 5th edition play. Now with more emphasis on Necron Warriors, Phase Out numbers are higher.
However, Monoliths and C'Tan have been brought in to cover weaknesses in the army thus sapping valuable numbers from your Phase Out amount.
Personally, I can see Phase Out being removed entirely from the 5th edition codex, or at a push to try and still have this draw back, maybe an army wide Leadership test - like Kill Team's Bottle Test.
Gauss Weaponry
Gauss got completely bashed in 5th edition, with vehicles becoming significantly harder to kill, along with not being able to be killed from glancing hits (unless absolutely hammered with shots). Whilst this then lead to a lot of the Necron's problem solving solutions then having to be re-thought.
This combined with the ineffective nature of Heavy Destroyers and reliance on C'Tans for example, meant that the Necrons slowly get shelved.
There are 2 ways I can see to mitigate this:
#1 - The Simplest. Gauss Weapons inflicing Glancing Hits will be at -1, rather than -2 on the damage table.
#2 - Gauss Weapons gain Rending.
Both are good options in my view, I feel making them Rending would also solve some of the Necron issues in dealing with 2+ and 3+ saves, but Army-wide Rending I think would attact the beard and cheese that lives on some message boards into pimping this army out.
-1 instead of -2 for Glancing hits on the Damage Table will do me nicely thank you!
Additions in 5th
- Stubborn
Since Assaults in 5th edition got extremely tough, Necrons suffer... a LOT. One of the ways to get around this, I think would be by making them Stubborn, as opposed to Fearless.
Stubborn is a rule I don't think gets used often enough, and is a great, great help. For example, my Ogryn unit with Lord Commisar that is Stubborn LD10, I personally believe, is miles better than being Fearless.
Afterall, with Stubborn, there is still a chance the Necrons will flee, just a very small chance - as it should be for Evil Robots who just want to Harvest.
Slow and Purposeful
This is one that has caused controversy for a while now, but a lot of people are saying Necrons will likely get Slow and Purposeful USR to combat all these new found abilities. This is something I can take really, as the proposed changes are awesome.
The only thing I do not like however, is basing an entire army around a random movement value, but if it comes to it, I'm sure there will be plenty of new options to mitigate the 'Crons walking anywhere.
Conclusion
I'm going to try and cover each part of the Force Org chart over the next week or so, to discuss changes in 5th edition - both rumoured and my own ideas - and see what you guys think.
Opinions anyone?
SB
I agree with most of this, except for anyone who says "The WBB rules only say if it's Double the Toughness of the Necron. Not if it's over Double their Toughness." deserves to be punched in the jaw for being a complete git. It's obvious what it meant. other than that, I expect to see army wide rending and Slow and Purposeful but to mitigate the fact that now they have a 24" gun that rends and they can always shoot, the range should be dropped to 18" and rapid fire (though unlikely).
ReplyDeleteThey should be fearless, as a souless robot shouldnt be programmed to run away, they would stand and fight, this being a downside in combat for Necrons shoud negate the 24" rending across the board. The 'Crons are more likely to be overwhelmed in combat that gettting scared, running away and being caught.
The "Double Toughness" thing was an example of how people can misconstrue WBB and quite often, it gets misused by inexperienced Necron players.
ReplyDeleteSlow and Purposeful doesn't mean they can always move and fire the guns. That's Relentless. Although Relentless would make sense for the Necrons.
Necrons don't run away out of fear. The codex mentions this directly and it's something along the lines of "Necrons will never flee from battle out of fear, instead, their programming may have them retreat if it is tactically advantageous to do so".
To make them Fearless and remove Phase Out would be a bit extreme.
Slow and Purposeful grants Relentless (to make it not so horrid).
ReplyDeleteThousand sons, although Slow and Purposeful can shoot their rapid fire AP3 bolters AND charge, because S+P grants them Relentless. It's great.
I'll grant you the Stubborn then, good source searching!
Fearless is actually sort of a boring rule, because it completely negates an entire part of the game. I mean, how much fun would it be if there was a rule called "Unshootable" that made you immune to all attacks during the shooting phase? Blech. Stubborn is much more interesting, since it still allows the possibility of failure, just at a low chance.
ReplyDeleteAh didn't realise that. Thought it was maybe a TS special rule. Good to know.
ReplyDeleteI'm not keen on the idea of a S+P army, unless they can mitigate it by giving 'Crons lots of Transport / Teleport options.
Or maybe some Lord wargear that dampens the S+P effect, like having Sorceror with Thousand Sons.
@AbusePuppy
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you there. It got to the point during all our games that because of how many things were fearless, it was a rarity when 1 unit would have to take an LD test of any form, let alone a Morale check from shooting etc.
I'm all for giving more units Stubborn and an LD boost, as opposed to Fearless. Fearless should be used very sparingly for things like Chaos Daemons and Grey Knights.
i think WBB will become FnP. I think phase out being a unit thing would be cool (like failing moral test +byby unit) but then cron need stubborn. Rending would fix the problem with terminators killing half my army but might be over powered at 24” range so what about 18” assault weapons. S+p doesn’t work for crons though as there meant to be unwavering robots not randomly charging forward than dropping off in the next turn so what about them not being able to run as an idea.
ReplyDelete