Rumors: Necrons(Labor Day Special)

If you're like me and you don't want a day to end, you'll somehow convince yourself that if you keep avoiding bed it won't have to end! It'll go on forever! Work tomorrow? Pfft, I'll deal with that when it gets here. For many of you tonight may be one of those nights. A lot of us, not including myself and Eric, enjoyed a holiday weekend and hate to see it fade away with the setting sun. Luckily for you, you've got a friend here at TLA that will assist you in extending this holiday out to its fullest extent. This evening I've got a complete list of the more reputable Necron rumors as we 'cron-lovers await our rightful destiny; a competitive codex. All of these rumors come from Blood of Kittens' and Bell of Lost Souls' blogs and their hard work compiling these rumors on a semi-regular basis. Enjoy!

-RELEASE DATE-

• Necrons in the October-November pre holiday timeslot (same slot as Dark Eldar were)

-FLUFF-

• Necrons have now fully awakened. All previously encountered Necrons were "bugs" in the reawakening program and were under the sway of the two rogue C'tan. Now fully awakened, the Necrons are ready for their advancing story arc in the codex. That said, they are effectively "Space Tomb King" with strong parallels in both unit back story and visual appearance linking them to that Warhammer Fantasy army book.
• Ctan: The C’Tan done got overthrown by the Necrons, they are the slaves. It’s actually pretty cool when everyone is done clinching their bums. The shards of those gods serve as weapons of war in service of the Necron Empire. Also, they might not all be dead, so you know, these are just the ones the Necrons dominated.

-SPECIAL RULES & WARGEAR-

• Reanimation: An updated variant of We'll Be Back. Models with this rule who were killed last turn roll a d6 at the end of each phase, regardless of what caused the wound (thunder hammer, etc...); standing back up on a 5+. Res Orbs makes this a 4+ roll if within 6".
• Eternal Life: for ICs, this  grants a Reanimation roll after the model loses its last wound. If successful, the IC stands back up with 1 wound and, if within 1"of enemy models is placed in assault with them.
• Living Metal: Crew Shaken results are ignored on a 2+, Crew Stunned results are ignored on a 4+. All other current codex benefits are removed.
• Gauss Weapons: Armor penetration rolls of 6 auto-glance, to-wound rolls of 6 auto wound.
• Vehicle Upgrade: Quantum Shielding (cost based on vehicle) - AV of vehicle Front and Sides is +2 until a Glancing or Penetrating hit is scored. Also grants Living Metal benefits.

-UNITS-

Monolith

• Everyone's favorite lunchbox of doom is said to cost roughly 200pts, and keep its current 14/14/14 Armor all round. It is a Skimmer, Tank that can Deepstrike as usual.  The Monolith can fire all its weapons regardless of movement. Its Living Metal (in its new form) remains.
• In big news, the four corner mounted Gauss Flux Arcs remain, but are said to each be able to split fire and nail separate targets in some manner. The top mounted Ring Pop is now a standard ordinance weapon without all the fiddly rules.
• But by far, the biggest change is said to be the glowy door, now renamed The Eternal Gate - which now has a nasty offensive ability.  The Gate can make all models within 3" take a Strength characteristic test - or risk being sucked into the gate and removed from play with no saves of any kind allowed.

Scarabs

• Fast Attack choice. Three models in base unit at 45 pts, with up to seven more at 15 pts per model. Fearless, Swarms, Beast, Entropic Strike. Fout attacks on the charge with 3+ cover save in terrain (which they ignore for movement purposes - like Harlequins) . Entropic Strike is a new rules accessable to several units in the codex. Against infantry on to-wound rolls of 4+, armor saves are ignored (Invulnerables allowed). Against vehicles on armor penetration rolls, each die that rolls a 4+, reduces the vehicle's armor by 1 pt on ALL sides for the rest of the game. Vehicles are destroyed when any of its armor values reach 0.

Transports

• Transport ALPHA: Open-topped, Skimmer, 10 model capacity, AV:11 all round. @120 pts
• Transport BETA: Fast, Skimmer, 15 model capacity, AV:11 all round. @150 pts
• Transport GAMMA: Jetbike, 1 model capacity (for HQ-ICs), Gause Flayers/Blasters. @60 pts

Generic Lord

• At just under a hundo of points, this HQ is your go-to commander. You’re going to want to take him in most lists, as he unlocks a unit Crypteks and such to split up into your squads. Many of the specials also do this, but he’s nice and cheap for what he does.
• The tricky part is deciding whether to use him joined to a squad as an IC, or to give him the personal 1 man transport. At 3 wounds, he can fuel repairs to the vessel out of himself for quite a while, and with it’s sheer speed he can make drive by melee attacks all day. Watch out, though. Sure it’s got shielding, but by the time you start spending wounds to repair, you’ve lost it and are back down to Rhino armor instead of Predator love. It nearly doubles his cost as well, and makes him a big target.
• When it comes to his gear, however, you have quite a few options. He comes standard with a Staff of Light, but can swap that out (just like everyone else with a staff of light) for a Warscythe for free. That Warscythe is very tempting, especially if you are going with the drive by attack route. Strength 7 power weapon hits, this is really nice on a vehicles rear armor. It’s equally useful if you tool the Big Cheese Overlord out for melee punches. I don’t see many people choose the gauntlet option, a flamer is nice but it just isn’t as good as the Staff of Light. The two sword options also suffer, as a warscythe is cheaper and better, but they have their uses. I have a taste for running units lean and mean and so I don’t care for those two.
• As for the other options, you have your standard Phylactery, Orb and Phase Shifter. I always go with the Shifter, as having a hands free Storm Shield is extremely useful. The Orb and Phylactery aren’t much use to my style. I’d rather put the orb on a cheaper options, as making an IC a force multiplier makes him a big target. The Phylactery is nice and all, but it relies to heavily on him standing back up, so it doesn’t really help most games.
• Upgrading his armour to a 2+ isn’t bad, and it’s a pretty cheap option. But with a shifter there really isn’t much point. Small arms fire has a tough enough time getting past his Toughness 5 and 3++ shifter save. The brainshackles are a neat assault trick, but it’s just not a reliable enough way to make a model attack his own unit. Lastly, there one shot “Necron Hunter Killer Missile” is a lot of fun, but costs to much. I love one shot weapons (missiles, orbitals and deathstrikes) for the Apoc entertainment, but this is really an Apoc item, as it just costs to many points to be useful… even if it is the king of the one shots.
• This unit, in the end, really showcases the Science Monster feel of the Necrons. It’s going to be a very popular kit, especially if it comes out in Plastic or Resin here like it did for us. The most typical load out comes in fairly cheaply with a Warscythe and Phase Shifter… so be ready to see that as the building block HQ of every Necron Army.

C'tan

• So, they start off at a bit under 200 points, their stats are more or less the same as before. They have everything a monstrous creature needs (Eternal Warrior, Fearless) and there are nearly a dozen options for them to take. You can use those points to create the C’Tan you’re used to seeing, or you can mix and match as you see fit. Who knows what god your particular Shard came from! The abilities range from 10 to 50 points, so I’ll tackle them in some random and useless order.
• First is the ability to decay vehicles and armour like some other Necron units. Considering the power of a monstrous creature against both armour saves and vehicles, this one isn’t so hot, but it is cheap.
• I often wish I could look at someone and kill them. Like you, the person reading this right now. Well that’s how this gaze works as well. Slap the large blast down on top of the C’tan and you hit everything but the C’tan with a str 3 hit, no armour allowed. Then, if you kill at least one dudemans you get a wound back.
• The classic Illusion power of the deceiver still allows you to redeploy 1d3 units after scouts moves. I like that one a lot. Lets you deploy first, put a big line of 20 warriors up front, shoves the enemy back… then BAM, they back with the phalanx.
• Some god’s really like fire, and can make any flame/fire/heat/warm/dutch oven weapons explode like plasma weapons. It’s particularly good against all the close range melta that put wounds on a C’tan.
• Two shooting attacks aren’t bad at all, and the C’tan can take a large blast or an assault 8, both at strength 4. It gets the job done and lets them effect the battle field before they can assault. A thirds one is a bit bigger, clocking in at lascannon stats at half the range.
• Another neat trick its jabbing with the world, causing everything within assault distance of the C’Tan to test dangerous terrain, or to mishap more often on deep strike. It’s a clever way to put some wounds on a horde.
• Kick up some dust and you get assault and defensive grenades, as well as stealth. It may not sound that useful, but defensive grenades really slow down the “loads of attacks” approach to killing a C’tan, and stealth is better than you think, considering that a 4+ invulnerable isn’t better than most cover… but a 3+ cover (when it happens) is nice. Oh, and Monoliths are big enough to block.
• Like monsters that mess with temporal anomalies? Then look no further. Rip em up with C’tan, if they fail a single initiative test BAM, no saves of any kind… one model of your choice is just gone (in the assault). Say goodbye to that pesky warboss or nidzilla monster.
• Last, but not least, or maybe least. No this one is awesome. How about the whole battlefield is difficult and dangerous terrain? Yeah… yeah I like that one too. Makes the C’tan a pretty big target though.
• So all in all, if you took every ability, you’d be dropping 505 points on a single C’tan. Obviously that would be silly, but if you accept a Land Raider level price tag you can get a powerful monster that really shapes your battle plans. Or better yet… 3.

Wraiths

• The basics haven’t changed much, strength of a dreadnought (without a fist) and a pair of wounds each. The same cost as a terminator, same save as a terminator with a shield. Squad can fit in a razorback. All in all, a solid unit. Oh, and rending, that’s the big melee upgrade. You can also give them whips, with combined with their save can let them attack some of the enemy first, thus negating the suckage of  necron initiative.
• In addition to that they can have guns!
• First is the Exiler. This bad boy is a heavy single shot with pistol ranges. Rather than dealing damage it makes the unit pass a strength test or die. There is a bit of wonkyness in my memory, PFD and all, so that might get shaken up some as we go forward. It’s the most expensive of the options, clocking in at grey hunter prices.
• Lastly you can give them a pistol, it’s got the same strength as their attacks, so that’s a nice touch, just an extra whammy before you assault. Also good for cracking open a transport. Bit expensive as it jumps them up 25% in cost.
• So with fearless, the crazy save and rending, they can do a bit of damage. They only have as many attacks as a purifier, but hey, that’s still a hat trick on the charge. In games I’ve played against them they do really well against heavy hitter squads. Moving through terrain without taking tests and slamming into problem units with relative ease. A dozen wounds can hold for a long time against their equal, and you can even pull some minor wound allocation tricks (although, limited). I’m a big fan.

Unnamed Transport

• Like a Rhino on all sides, this vehicles is ready for even the most trying of circumstances. Made of the same material as the big pyramid, this bird can still move as fast as a razorwing! It’s two weapons make for a quick delivery of damage as it swoops down on the fleshy fleshy prey. While the main gun may be limited to pistol ranges, it more than makes it up for in oomph, rocking it at maximum strength and allowing none of those pesky armor saves (a big help against enemy vehicles too!).
• But wait… there is more! Act now and you’ll also be able to fire all your weapons while cruising around the battlefield. All your weapons? Yes! Even the troop crushing destruct-o-magics! Once you’re taking fire from bolters, these would make even Edison blush, as they give autocannons are run for their money, even if they can’t even break an Orks leather. With a rate of fire comparable to the assault cannon, these weapons can hit multiple units, ruining all those multiple small units days.

Soon...soon we'll be back.