Necrons Presentation in Warhammer 40k V9 / Faction Focus

9th Edition is on its way, and with it, a whole host of changes for Warhammer 40,000's factions. With the release of the Munitorum Field Manual, the Faction FAQs published, and the first details of the Grand Tournament Mission Pack, it's a good time to start looking at what's changed for all our favorite armies. Today, Wings takes a look at one of 8th Edition's punching bags, the long-suffering Necron Legions, to see how they fare in the new edition.

In April 2018, buoyed by the enthusiasm of my first tournaments and the excitement of Forgebane's release, I made the bold decision to buy a Necron army so I could have more options than just Eldar for events. This... didn't work out very well.

While OVERLORD WINGS made occasional forays into the tournament world, the Necrons suffered from being one of the weaker factions in 8th Edition. They had a few halfway viable builds, and these were sometimes bolstered by the fact that they were good counters against the dominant forces of the metagame, but overall, fielding a bunch of creepy skeletons wasn't a good plan, and if you wanted the Necrons to work, you had to go through the horrible torment of painting multiple Arks.

Necron Warriors. Credit: Rockfish

But that's all in the past - a new edition is here and the Necrons seem to be at the top of the list to get some love, with new units already revealed in the Indomitus set and many more reinforcements announced for the near future. I live in hope that soon, finally, the army I bought two years ago will be ready to play in the big leagues.

However, we don't yet know the exact timelines for all of this, so for the time being, the Necrons are still working from their old Codex with just a few additional options from Indomitus. With many players eager to get back to the tabletop, today we'll take a look at how the metal legions are doing in 9th Edition.

The Necrons in V9

We'll start with what I believe to be a summary of the main positive and negative impacts of the new edition and the point changes for the Necrons.

The good ones

• Substantial winners in terms of PC.
• The point changes generally went well - the Necrons received a much-needed light touch compared to many factions.
• The smaller board works in their favor, making their close-range options more viable.
• Generally, they don't rely heavily on melee characters or heroes, so they are the big winners from these changes.
• Some useful new options in Indomitus.
• Smaller enemy armies increase the chances that larger units will survive to be revived.
• The fact that the "Kill More" score isn't a major part of missions helps their less popular units.

The bad

• Many shooting threats with FLY lose the ability to fall back and shoot.
• The lack of high-level melee "missiles" is a problem in missions.
• The lack of mobile INFANTRY is a challenge for some secondary units.
• It is still one of the weakest armies in the game.
• The default "Bows and Flails" list in 8th grade is weak in missions.

The impact

There's honestly a ton to like if you're going into 9th as a Necron player - I don't expect them to immediately jump to the higher tables or anything, but most of these elements are heading in the right direction, and several of the things that are challenges for them have at least some angles to work on.

It's worth saying, up front, that you should read the points changes for the Necrons carefully to get a sense of what they mean - like the Eldar, a very large portion of their unit equipment has been aligned, and there are a lot of changes to unit body prices that seem outrageous until you realize they're now all-inclusive. Once you've worked that out, the vast majority of units have been bumped up to or below the rate, and while there are a few changes that are a bit eye-catching (notably the Immortals going to 18ppm and the new Szeras immediately getting bumped up to the rate), the general rule here is that everything that was fundamentally good still is, and some things on the fringes look more attractive while everything else in the game increases in price.

You'll definitely see some new things tried and changes to list building, though. While a lot of the new Necron stuff is good, the "standard" list that emerged in 8th to try and counter their weaknesses—a heavily tilted build relying on Doom Scythes and a mix of Doomsday Arks, Tesseract Arks, and either Destroyers or Tomb Blades—will likely need significant changes to work in 9th, as it's not very good at sustainably fighting for mid-board objectives. Tomb Blades will likely stick around, as they're still effective, but I expect to see a number of Warriors (on Ghost Arks) and Wraiths dusted off as players look for ways to adapt, likely in place of Scythes. It's also possible we'll see something even more original - with the increased CP allocation that most Necron players will benefit from, perhaps spending 4CP to give Nihilakh's Lychguard a 4++ will finally, truly, be a success. Let's take a look at the unit list and see what stands out.

Units

HQ

First, there's been a massive simplification of gear - almost all weapons available to Overlords and Lords are now free, with only the Voidscythe retaining a high price. This generates one of the few minor drawbacks for Necrons from the points changes, as while Overlords and Lords only got a slight boost if you bought them a Staff of Light or Warscythe, many only wanted them for their buff auras and chose to give them a cheap Hyperphase Sword instead, making the price increases seem a bit bigger. This is less of an issue for units like the Catacomb Command Barge and Destroyer Lord, which generally wanted the best kit and had a higher base cost, but a significant hit for the cheapest options.

The named characters are also somewhat mixed. On the positive side, Imotekh only gained 10 points and Anrakyr actually lost 10 points (making him probably worth looking at). Less positively, Oberyn and Zandrekh still cost way too much, and the new Szeras got a probably unnecessary increase (though I'll still try it, I love my massive spider son).

But it's not just the old one we're interested in, the HQ slot is one of the places where we have some new friends. Firstly, for a 5pt premium over a regular Overlord, you can use the new Overlord datasheet. He swaps his melee weapon for a slightly worse version but gains a Tachyon Arrow and, crucially, a significantly improved version of his buff effect. Instead of only the unit selected for My Will Be Done getting a movement buff, now any unit starting within 6″ of the Overlord gets +1″ to their movement thanks to the Relentless March aura, with the MWBD now only providing the hit buff. This is also improved, having increased range and being able to target any Dynasty unit, not just INFANTRY. It's very likely that tesla will be modified to be usable on unmodified 6s when the Necron book is updated, but until then, using it on a blob of 9 Tomb Blades is really average. Between that and the increased mobility of the army in general, this new leaf seems powerful.

But it's not just the old lords... Then we have the Royal Guardian, which is perhaps(?) a replacement for the vanilla Lord concept? It certainly has the same (infamously atrocious) statline, but rather than packing a melee weapon, it has an RF2 D2 Gauss Blaster, which, given how totally pantsed the lords were in combat, is probably for the best. It doesn't have the re-roll 1 aura of a Lord though, instead it gets to pick a friendly unit within 9″ in your command phase to be able to fall back and fire/charge normally. At 80pts, it's not cheap, but the ability is pretty good - I started off a little cold on it, but with the FLY changes, it's becoming much more relevant, and while the old Veil of Darkness save is still available, this has a much wider range of targets in a mid-table ruck.

Third on the list is the Plasmancer, a new Cryptek type that focuses on explosions rather than healing your units, with a decent ranged attack, a Smite equivalent, and a combat-phase damage aura. I'm less sold on this type—adding character-based firepower and a non-C'tan source of mortal wounds is nice, but they're quite expensive and very fragile, and I'd probably prefer to spend my points and HQ slots on a buff character. We've already seen a glimpse of how the CRYPTEK keyword will become more important in the future, so this character will definitely be worth revisiting if the Codex introduces more of this kind of stuff.

Finally, the biggest and baddest of the lot, Lord Skorpekh. He finally gives the Necrons what they've been missing for a long time: a menacing, scary character who can anchor a line and contribute to the offense. He may lack an attack to be fantastic, but given the increased pressure to be able to hold his own in a close engagement, he's definitely worth a shot. Remember, you can make him even tougher with the Eternal Weave, or make him a real character butcher with the Honorable Fighter warlord trait. The only other thing really holding him back at the moment is that his reroll aura is based on the CULT DESTROYER keyword—and sadly, none of the existing Destroyers have it yet. Hopefully, that will change one day, because Destroyers continue to be excellent.

Overall, the Necrons have a lot of strong character options at this point—many of the good Named Characters are still usable, the basic Crypteks with Chronometrons remain powerful, and the new peppers of the improved Overlords, Skorpekh Lords, and Royal Guards will likely all be used. They're all still pretty expensive, but 9th thankfully means you'll never need to try to figure out how to include five of them again.

Troops

For an army with only two troop choices, there's a surprising amount to talk about here. Let's start with the Immortals. They've had a relatively rough time, with a three-point increase each, which, while not excessive for units in this price range, hurts the Necrons a little as it means their cheapest troop option is a 90-point Immortals squad. Expect to see them though, as I think you'll generally want to use a battalion or two patrols, but perhaps a little less often.

This is especially true since Warriors have received numerous boosts. They only get one point each, they're one of the most expensive units to get the "horde" treatment, and in their new Indomitus datasheet, they have a new weapon option and built-in 1 re-rolls for reviving. Add to that the fact that troop transports get better in 9th and it all looks appealing. I'm still not sure how I feel about the new cannon, as it pays for its power with its short range, but the fact that you can mix weapons within a unit means I'll definitely be giving it a try, maybe half and half in a large squad and maybe on a full squad of ten coming out of a Ghost Ark. Warriors still have the age-old problem, of course, that if your opponent manages to devour an entire squad, reviving doesn't do anything, and it may be that blast weapons prevent large units from being effective, but honestly, I'll take any excuse to at least try a big blob of warriors on the table. Otherwise, 2x10 in Ghost Arks and 10 Immortals is probably what I'd aim for in terms of troops.

Elites

The Elites slot is a strong point for the Necrons in this update. It benefits from a triple advantage: less pressure to aim for a double battalion, generous point changes, and new uses for certain units.

Starting with the C'tan named shards, both receive relatively small increases of 10pts each, meaning they continue to be quite good. The Deceiver in particular is excellent in missions - being able to throw something durable mid-board to contest objectives is extremely powerful, and mid-board rucks are a good place to drop Cosmic Fire. The Nightbringer's utility is a little flatter - it's still an aggressively priced killer, but it tends to be just an accessory in listbuilding and is therefore vulnerable to being ousted to free up points.

Next up, we have the mid-tier specialist infantry options of Flayed Ones and Death Marks, both of which seem more competitive than before and have more to offer in 9th Edition. Flayed Ones' ability to deal with volume threats in melee is fairly unique among the Necrons, and while their lack of AP means the price of entry is probably still too high, they're certainly closer to being worthwhile than before. Death Markers have only gotten a small point increase, and have the advantage that in these missions, anything that can manipulate who's on an objective during your opponent's turn is at least worth considering, and these can do so via their unique Intercept ability. This particular approach is one of the weaker options, and probably won't achieve their goal, but I can believe it's possible to try a five-unit squad at some point, both to do that and to hinder opponents trying to send small infantry squads to do actions. While both of these units have improved, they're still a bit disappointing for the price, so I don't think they'll be top-notch, but they're both much closer to the real thing.

Moving on to the super-elite infantry, the Lychguard and Triarch Praetorians, I think things are looking more interesting again in 9th. Triarch Praetorians have had a small points increase (3pts for staves, 1pt for pistol/blade) and so the pistol/blade build in particular gives you a pretty nifty bulk brawler. They're also a lot more mobile than most Necron options, able to get to the mid-board to perform actions unaided. They're still competing with a lot of things, but a ten-man squad seems like a semi-plausible thing to try that can operate in the mid-board without much help or support. Lychguard get a slightly bigger (but still modest) price increase of 4pts each, enough to make the warscythe look pretty paltry, but the shields are definitely worth a look now. Being able to sit indestructibly on an objective is a massive advantage these days, and Necrons now have a lot more CP to play with, making it much easier to devise defensive strategies for them. Notably, they never got rid of the Scatter Field Boost and Reclaim a Lost Empire combo (because what Necron list could afford to waste 4CP per turn before), so in Nihilakh you can push them to a cool 2++ vs. fire as long as they're near an objective (which, if you go first, can be almost immediately thanks to the Deceiver). It's pretty good, and definitely on my long list of things to try.

Finally, of the existing units, we have the Triarch Stalkers and (Forge World) Canoptek. The Triarch Stalker has always suffered from taking movement/draw penalties on all its guns, so it's immediately buffed (although the two heavy Gauss guns have gained an extra point). The Heat Ray build looks particularly interesting now. Like the Nightbringer, it suffers a bit from being a "nice to have" unit in a faction that is often starved for points, but with Quantum Shielding as well, it now becomes almost excellent in its weight class almost on pure rate, and provides a sustainable close-quarters engagement threat. As for the Canoptek Stalker, I'm pretty sure that the last time I wrote a faction review for the Necrons, I checked what it did and it turned out to be terrible. I checked what it does again. It is still, in fact, terrible.

Finally in the Elites - new friends. First up, my gorgeous trashcan-shaped baby velociraptors, the Cryptothralls. You don't need to use an Elite slot for these, being able to take exactly one unit in a detachment per Cryptek, but they do have the symbol next to them so we're talking about them here. While 40pts for a two-unit squad is no small feat, I really like these units, just because they give the Necrons something cheap with the INFANTRY keyword that can perform actions. In cover, with a T5 and a base save of 3+, they won't trivially melt under small arms fire, they have reanimation protocols, meaning your opponent is under a lot of pressure to take them both out at once, and if you choose to use them for the intended purpose of accompanying a Cryptek, they're threatening enough in melee and ranged to at least discourage pure chaff units. The downside of bringing small units to the table is massively reduced in 9th Edition tournament formats compared to 8th Edition, and while these units will still be easily taken out, they'll also generally be a good way to spend their points.

The next one, unfortunately, is much more of a dud - the Canoptek Reanimator. Honestly, I look at this unit and I have nothing - it's horrible for the price, posing no real threat, applying a buff to what is still, ultimately, a very weak ability in a very telegraphic way, and being incredibly limp for the price to boot. Seriously, you can get a Triarch Stalker with a heat ray for just 15 points more, and you should.

Finally, the most eye-catching new Elite, the Skorpekh Destroyers. They look great, and I'm slowly getting used to them in terms of gameplay, especially because I'm facing the fact that I want the Deceiver in every list, and every Marine and their dog will be rushing Infiltrators into mid-board objectives in the early game. While you can't charge on turn 1 if you redeploy with the Deceiver, just putting them behind mid-board terrain in the early game makes trying to take the center very risky for your opponent, because if they hit the fight, they can recover their points there against a lot of targets. With their base movement of 8", boostable to 9" with a new Overlord, they are also capable of walking straight in and attempting a charge on anything holding the center of the board too. It would be even better if you could take them in units of 6, but the more I look at them, the more I want to give them a chance. When I do, I'll almost certainly bring a Plasmacyte for 15pts more. The melee buff is something you'll occasionally want to skip - while there's a thrill of risk, it makes the unit absurdly more deadly, so much so that even if you lose a model, the output of the ones that remain is roughly the same. The main reason I want one, though, is to eat the first lascannon shot that comes my way - for which I'm quite happy to pay 15pts on top of a premium unit.

There's a lot to work with here, and I think people will gradually try everything. Even with the changes to list building, the Necrons still don't have a ton of points to throw around, so experimentation will be pretty slow, but expect to see a wider variety of units in the wild—a big win.

Quick attack

Another good spot here. We'll get the Forge World nonsense out of the way first. Canoptek Acanthrites are one of the few items in the list that scale relatively much, gaining 9pts each, and while they're cute, they don't do enough things well to justify their relative ease of eradication, and don't have the INFANTRY keyword like Skorpekh Destroyers to play in breakable ruins. Canoptek Tomb Sentinels fare rather better, as removing the monster movement shooting penalty makes their specific trick of popping up and unloading with a powerful heavy weapon much more appealing to non-Sautekh dynasties. They're probably still a bit overcosted, but with built-in deep strike (and the one-hit-dodge below threshold to give 3pts for Bring it Down) they're plausibly a real unit. There, I said something nice about a Forge World unit. Have fun with this.

Returning to plastic, we have the Tomb Blades. These were one of the best units in the army in 8th, and they're still just as good—or even better in the short term. They're mobile, tough, and can pack a ton of Tesla firepower (which increases by four points each with this gun) to benefit from the My Will Be Done upgrade. In doing so, they also benefit from the fact that the Solar Pulse stratagem removes all cover benefits, not just armor saves, allowing you to counter the negative hit modifiers imposed by dense cover when necessary. A big squad of Tomb Blades isn't cheap, but it's very useful in many ways, and one of the toughest things you can throw at them to try and benefit from reviving. Be careful they don't get bullied, though Tesla charging is always a bit nerve-wracking for an opponent.

Wraiths are another winner with a little asterisk next to them. They only got a three point increase each, and their cheapest weapon option (the Particle Launcher) became free, so... sure, I guess they're all packing heat now? I think I still have the bits somewhere. The main reason you want them is that they're a fast, durable threat that can hold their own in melee, and they're very difficult to vehicle-proof. Now that the FLY doesn't provide a freefall retreat for shots, they're a real spoiler threat, and just like the Lychguard, you can push them to a 2++ if you use them in Nihilakh. The only issue here is that there was an error in how their FAQ changes were worded, which removed their ability to retreat and charge, making them slightly less useful - hopefully this is fixed soon. The Wraiths have been perpetually almost good, and the 9th Edition missions favor them enough that we'll probably see more of them. If nothing else, their general "the opponent can kill them but has to spend a whole turn doing so" modus operandi becomes better with fewer turns in the game!

Destroyers are probably slightly the loser here. They only gain 5 points each, but that's on top of a price that was already pretty high, and the loss of withdrawal/draw is a big deal for them. On the other hand, it's a very good thing that you can now reserve them in non-Nephrekh dynasties, with a full squad coming in just under the 2CP threshold. They're pretty much the perfect unit for reserves - close-ranged, dangerous, and fast enough once on the board that, if they survive a battle round, they can probably hit one of two objectives of your choosing. 315 points for a full squad (with a heavy destroyer) is still a big ask, and it's in direct competition with a squad of 9 Tomb Blades, but they come from a unit position that people actually use, and gain a bit of flexibility to make up for their losses.

Finally, the scarab swarms. They get a slight point boost and a substantially improved skill sheet from Indomitus, gaining a wound and replacing their "always wound on a 5" ability with an automatic wound on rolls of 6, which is better against all resistance categories. The tradeoff is that they can now only take 6 bases per squad. Overall, this is still a big advantage - your ability to take a squad at most as a wound well is reduced, but since each base has an extra wound, you only lose 3 of your cap, and you pay fewer points for the privilege. Buying a random squad of these units as backline objective carriers was generally fine, and still should be - the only thing to keep in mind is that if you have a Cryptek, you might be better off with Cryptothralls in the slot, as although they have far fewer wounds, their T5 and 3+ base save means they are a bit more durable against volume fire if they are in cover.

Heavy Support

Where there have been real value improvements in many slots, heavy support is a little more static. Primarily—if anything in this slot was ever good, it probably still is—Apocalypse Arks get a 20 point boost and remain great value, particularly because they gain blast on their big guns and are hard to block with chaff thanks to their massive anti-horde fire count, while Heavy Destroyers get an extremely generous 3 point boost, continuing to be a cost-effective way to put big guns on the board (and like Destroyers, they're worth considering for reserves as each unit comes in at 9PL). The Tesseract Ark also gains a fairly modest number of points (20 for the Gauss, 24 for the Tesla), but it ends up looking unhealthily expensive with its new total and is unlucky because it doesn't have a blast on its big gun (most likely because it has a flamer mode). Probably still good, but I'd expect more drift towards Doomsdays.

Elsewhere, a decided "meh." The Monolith loses a bit of points, which is a small victory for anyone unfortunate enough to hold it dear, but nothing can save them without a complete rewrite. Hopefully, with what looks so much like a new kit on the horizon, they'll get one. The Transcendent C'tan scale up a bit more than their named cousins, and as a world expert on their list usage, I can tell you that the change that makes all pre-game abilities go to your list is a disaster for them—they desperately needed the ability to flex between 3++ and two powers depending on the matchup. I expect them to be shelved, to be honest. The Annihilation Barges keep their cost pretty low, but they're close enough to the significantly better Triarch Stalker that I can't see myself picking one up. Finally, the Sentinel Pylons continue to exist. The thermal cannon even won the Blast, which is pretty good, but the price of one of these is high, and it also means you can't fire it in combat. Still a firm "no" from me.

Steering wheels

Of these units, only the Doom Scythe has really been used, and it's almost certainly a net loser - they gain 20pts each and you really want to take three of them, but that means committing a very large portion of your army to units that will never be able to contest objectives. My gut tells me we'll see triple these units much less often, even though they benefit from the blast effect on their big gun and the ability to move/shoot outside of Sautekh without penalty.

The Night Scythe will continue to remain unused - there are still too many hurdles to overcome to take advantage of its capabilities.

Dedicated Transport

The Ghost Arks were already pretty awesome, and while their price increased by 20pts, that was from an outrageously high base, and with the increased value of transports in general in 9th, expect to see more of them. They're not even afraid of getting charged by glitter, for the same reasons as Doomsdays. I'm even mentally preparing myself to have to paint a second one, and I desperately hope the new codex will save me from that fate.

Lords of War

There's actually some redistribution of values ​​here, but overall, it doesn't really change how often you see them. The Obelisk, voted by the community as the worst unit in the entire game, gets a 40-point boost, ensuring it'll continue to go unseen on a tabletop. The Tesseract Vault, on the other hand, drops a few points to 550. I'm squinting a bit, wondering if I should finish mine, but realistically, that's still too many points to put in one bucket, especially with a high CP cost.

The Seraptek build also does well, remaining stable at 625pts. This is obviously a lot, and he remains firmly a guard unit, but I suppose you could MWBD him with a new Overlord and really ruin someone's day if you get the first turn. Just check that he fits into all the GT pack deployment zones - I'm really afraid it won't, and skipping the first turn is, according to my notes, very bad.

Finally, the Gauss Pylon, the most powerful toilet plug in the galaxy. Ughhhhh. It only got a 25pt boost, so it's probably still good in skew builds, I guess. It can also teleport directly to an objective and hold it. If that's your thing, go for it.

Translated from the Goon Hammer website