Codex: Necrons - First Glance

I picked up the new Necrons codex while I was out today and just finished my first read through the book. All I can say is wow, there's a lot in there! My first impression is that this is indeed a strong codex and a well deserved update for the old toasters. I didn't dive into all the fluff yet, but looking through the rules they certainly have some tricks up their sleeves, err, metal appendages. I was expecting to see a decent arsenal of shooty goodness, which is definitely there, but what I wasn't expecting was all the powerful effects the Necrons can have on their opponents. We're talking some really nasty "psychic" debuffs, but I'm not even sure these are technically "psychic" powers/effects... I'll have to dig deeper into this one as the Lady Malys over on my shelf just got all sorts of upset at the thought of becoming a target to some of these abilities. Speaking of Malys, the Necrons also have an ability to re-deploy D3 units after both sides deploy and before the game begins (she doesn't like having her thunder stolen).

And speaking of thunder, the Lord of Storm rules are just nasty! If the dice are in your favor, this effect can really impact the game: extending Night Fighting rules is annoying and that lightning strike attack can definitely thin out some infantry or wreck some vehicles. Sure, you need to roll a 6 for the unit to be struck (each turn of Night Fighting), so maybe this seems like a little thing. But from a first pass reading through the special rules, there seem to be a lot of "little things" to watch out for when facing Necrons. They feel a whole lot more sly and devious than my Dark Eldar even!

It's definitely going to take several more reads to process everything in this book, but I'm astonished at the number of things I've already seen that can majorly de-buff the most heavy-hitting stuff currently running the 40k tables. My first impression is high and my hope is that this book can restore some balance back to the 40k universe and thin out the troves of power armor lists we've grown accustomed to see at events/tournaments. This is what I hoped when Dark Eldar was re-released, and to a certain extent they did leave their mark (at least before Grey Knights showed up). But the Xenos are definitely still in need of their game changer, and in the hands of a savvy general, the Necrons may just be what the C'tan ordered!

Don't worry, my next army is still going to be Dark Eldar. But now that I have a son, I might as well start looking into revamping my other armies and making them into formidable forces so by the time he's ready to roll some dice (instead of try to eat them) we'll have some good match ups ready to go.

The new models are definitely a step up from the old ones I have lying around. I've recently been watching Battlestar Galactica and I can definitely see design similarities from the Cylon Resurrection ships to these new Necron vehicles (the Scythes totally look like Cylon Raiders as well).

How cool would a Cylon-themed Necron army be?