The Tomb World Awakens: 10
Corvus back again with the long overdue second article in my dissection of the necron codex. Today we're back with the other compulsory part of every FoC, the troops! Included in this section will also be the remaining dedicated transports for the army.
About this time last year, as whispers of this codex on the horizon were growing louder by the day, one clear one stuck out to me: Necrons were to once again return to having some of the best troops in the game.
With the existence of CSM squads, Grey Hunters, and Purifiers, this notion was huge. How would it be possible to take the then "awful" Necron Warrior and make it one of the big dogs? In their previous codex, warriors were the only troops choice. And in 5th edition, 18 points a model was a real kick in the balls. They came in minimum squads of 10, had no upgrade options, no transports, and their weapons had lost much of their bite with the way vehicles worked in 5th. About the only thing they had going for them was their "we'll be back" which could be shut down much like FnP, only more so, given that models died and came back, rather than being allowed a second save.
With the new codex, we have seen the old Warrior hybridized with the Immortal and the both of these classes now permitted as troops. The basic Warrior got a little sleeker. He's learned how to show up with only 4 other friends, learned how to ride in a car, and slimmed his waistline down to a slender 13 points. His ability to stand back up checks at the end of the phase where he dies, and cannot be negated unless his unit breaks or is destroyed. All this cost him only 1 point on his save and 1 point on his resurrection. That was good, but only with 6th edition do we really see the power behind it. The rework to rapid fire, the addition of hull points, and the nerf to FnP have all made the brave little Warrior rise right to the top. He's still not customizeable, but an attached court member evens that out. Furthermore, the torrent of fire rules make it such that the warrior is fire and forget simple. You never really have to worry about positioning. Every one of your models is identical and capably equipped to shoot at anything in range, vehicle or otherwise. He's still afraid of the assault phase, but that's a fair trade.
All in all, the Warrior truly is once more a stellar choice. But his slot is not uncontested...
Ah yes, the Immortal chassis. Previously, these got their increased durability vs warriors in the form of being T5. Add in to that their S5 AP4 assault 2 guns, and for only 22 points a model, these guys were significant upgrades to their lower ranked brethren. This came also at the cost of them being an elite rather than a troop. With the way things sit at present, these play a little closer to the way old warriors did, but with better guns. And at 17 points a model and possessed of the same save, its a fair comparison in my opinion. But wait, what's this? They have a singular option. The ability to exchange their Gauss blasters for Tesla blasters. This was a strong option in 5th edition and has only slightly tarnished next to the Gauss blaster. If you intend to sit back, rather than skirmish, these are your guns, especially given their Tesla rule. Godfrey postulates that in the wake of transports, Immortals offer little that warriors are not capable of granting. To an extent, he is absolutely right. You're paying a premium for guns and a save which are only marginally better than their counterparts. I will contest that both have their place in a balanced list, the Immortal in either form, and the Warrior.
Next we come to the dedicated transports for the codex. The first is Warriors only: the Ghost Ark. These are real winners, if a bit expensive. They're a Quantum Shielded AV11 skimmer, open-topped, with 4 hull points. They're armed with two batteries of Gauss flayer arrays which can fire independently of one another. The only downside to these is that they cost just 15 points less than the maximum 10 Warriors they're allowed to transport. They can reassemble Warriors too, which is a huge boon to keeping the little guys alive. All in all, potent, compact, and effective. If you're bringing warriors, it's worth looking into at least one of these.
The last dedicated transport is a little more universal. It's the only flying dedicated transport in the game: the Night Scythe. It's armed with a single gun, a twin linked Tesla destructor. And it has invasion beams to teleport it cargo onto the battlefield. AV11 and 3HP. For a scant 100 points, this is pretty impressive. It's less valuable to you if you're taking only warriors, but if you're looking for a cheap flier, it's your man.
The troops and dedicated transports section of this codex really are a lean mean fighting machine and it's hard to go wrong with any mix of them in any capacity, keeping in mind that avoiding a MSU mindset will help you to get the most out of your resurrections.
I'll admit that being able to expect every nine shots from warriors to strip a hull point isn't too shabby. I'm still not sold on them being the best troops in 40k, but I will put them to top tier. The lack of weapon options can lead to easier movement decisions, which might be an advantage in tournament play with limited time.
ReplyDelete"You're paying a premium for guns and a save which are only marginally better than their counterparts." I would say that those are points well spent, especially in the mirror match up. Gauss blasters shred warriors, but plink off immortals, though both are able to stand back up.
If you're going for durability in troops, you can do a lot worse than the ghost ark. Would you mount up initially or have the warriors near the ark so that they present two targets and the warriors can benefit from the ark? Night Scythes are just awesome, next.
What would you put as better? Guard are cheaper, but they suck. Purifiers are amazing, but cost twice as many points per as warriors so that's a bit out too. That leaves us with either the base CSM squad, which is rife with options, or a grey hunters squad, which "suffers" from Ld 8. In either case, both squads lack the innate flexibility of warriors//immortals without spending additional points, or sacrificing points.
DeleteImmortals proved their worth at my last tourney. They ruin anything's day except marines pretty steadily. And even then, the only way marines outshoot them is if they're Sternguard or Purifiers. Both of which are significantly more expensive per model than the immortals and lack the resurrection, meaning i'm more likely to hold onto my points, even when I do fail my saves.
I usually kept the warriors mounted until turn 4 or 5. It's open topped so you don't waste the shots you pay for and don't have to give up hull points to replacing models.
And yeah. Invasion beamers > hover mode.
I wouldn't say guard suck when compared to their points cost in other troops, but that's a different point for a different time. I would put Grey Hunters above Necrons, but it's hard to beat that. It's mainly for their melee ability and their higher maximum ability at either anti-heavy infantry or anti-tank.
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