Games Workshop - Warhammer 40,000 - Necrons Canoptek Doomstalker

Product Information

Zandrekh gives a random one of three buffs in each of your Command Phases, with the juicy high-roll being Devastating Wounds on a roll of 5-6. That can cause some nightmare swings in your favour, but the catch is that one of his three abilities is usually dead on the shooting of unit’s he can join. Helpfully he has a second effect of bringing a once-per-game cost increase for an enemy Stratagem, which is just generically great to have. This guy feels pretty plausible depending on where his price lands, keep an eye on him as an option. This is a very basic intro modelling set, but offers a bundle of some test models and a good spread of paints for the “standard” Necron color scheme. With 6 paint colors, 3 models, and a brush, this set works out to about the same amount as if you bought them on their own, although the Agrax Earthshade and Tesseract Glow containers are smaller than the retail versions which are more expensive so separately you’d get slightly more paint for slightly more money. Last of all we have the Sautekh. Like with the Nihilakh the faction trait here is a little underwhelming. The gauss reaper has moved to being an assault weapon, so essentially this is a boost of 6″ to the rapid fire range of gauss flayers and 3″ to blasters. That’s fine, but not spectacular. Re-rolling morale is also kind of only OK – Necrons tend to either be fine or dramatically past the point where a re-roll will do that much. Nephrekh: Models have a small invulnerable save and can translocate (teleport) long distances through objects and terrain (this gives up shooting) Canoptek Doomstalkers stride with eerie grace. Whether prowling their masters’ armouries as tireless sentinels or providing mobile fire support to the Necron legions, the Doomstalkers annihilate all those who dare stand against them with searing shots from their doomsday blasters.

C ryptothralls: The little trashcan velociraptors that could. Seriously Play some games with them. They are astounding. The Stalker's immense size combines with its natural capacity for regeneration to create a nearly indestructible war construct. Even beyond the more common warriors of the Necron legions, these insectoid creatures continue to thrash and fight with deadly ferocity despite damage or dismemberment. Protocol of the Undying Legions: Gain 1 extra wound from Living Metal OR re-roll 1 dice each time reanimation activates. Favoured by the Szarekhan.

The Book

There then follows a heady list of alternative NOBLE leaders, some of which you might want, some of which you probably won’t, cost depending. Notably, none of them bring the free Stratagem, so you’re very likely putting the basic Overlord in first. A brief rundown: Now, as they awake from their slumber, the Necrons find that instead of rolling over and dying out as expected, many other races have emerged to lay claim to large chunks of their galaxy – and the Tyranids have even arrived from another galaxy entirely! Overview The other big advantage of going this way is that many of the strong board control lists running as custom dynasties make use of many of the same tools, so buying in this direction gives you quite a bit of flexibility.

Warriors • Immortals ( Despotek • Guardian) • Pariahs • Deathmarks • Lychguards • Triarch Praetorians • Flayed Ones • Cryptothrall Gloom Prism – A Gloom Prism can generate cloaking fields of an unknown energy type that shield the Tomb Stalker from the effects of Warp-spawned powers, such as those wielded by psykers. In the initial phase at least, dust off your Technomancers (which you definitely have if you played 8th) and smash the buy button on a Chronomancer. Named Characters This is on top of any other abilities that your Leaders give their Bodyguards – you’ll want to make sure that you’ve got plenty of CHARACTERS hanging out with some metal minions to really make the most of this. Unit SpotlightIf you meet that, you reveal the protocol chosen for that round and choose one of the two effects. Any unit with the Command Protocols ability then benefis from that effect while it is within 6″ of a Necron CHARACTER. The Protocols The term "canoptek" is a play on the word "canoptic", an adjective used to refer to an ancient Egyptian vase, urn, or jar, often known as a canoptic jar, that is used to hold the viscera of an embalmed body. Necrons feel like they’re going to reward players who really get to know their army. There’s enough raw power and toughness here to be forgiving in early games, but a deep understanding of how best to use your forces is going to be needed to get the most out of them. The faction also has a lot of support for themed armies – powerful options are available that will reward going deep on either Canoptek constructs or Destroyer Cult units. This is also great news for existing Necron players – pretty much whatever set of tools you have access to, there will be a way to put them together that leverages the new book. The update is especially exciting if you favoured Warrior or Canoptek-based lists, both of which look vastly more interesting compared to 8th, where Immortals, Destroyers and vehicles were the main game in town – and on that note, let’s look at what the book covers. What’s in the Book? Times Arrow: Instantly deletes a model if you roll against the unit’s wounds characteric. Now tests against the lowest characteristic rather than the highest, helping in a few fringe cases. Indeed, only the massive use of force is capable of wounding a Tomb Stalker in the first place. Tomb Stalkers are devastating ‘living’ weapons; masses of shifting pseudo-metal, bladed limbs and razor-sharp armour plates.

Obyron can tag-team with Zandrekh, and provides Fight First for the attached unit. Fight First is super good in 10th, but my vibe is that it isn’t quite needed on any of the units you can join, and you’d rather have a durability buff. Just like most armies, Necrons have sub-factions each specialising in different aspects of warfare, in this case the Dynasties. Most units have a keyword, which you replace with the name of one of your choice when adding them to your army. Choosing to draw a whole detachment from the same Dynasty allows units in that detachment (other than Dynastic Agents and C’tan Shards) to benefit from a Dynastic Code, boosting their capabilities. If every model in an INFANTRY unit is on or in an Area Terrain feature with this trait, then it can either Hold Steady or it can Set to Defend (see below) when an enemy unit declares a charge against it. If all models in that unit have their starting number of wounds, but that unit is not at its Starting Strength, one destroyed model is returned to that unit with one wound remaining. Each time a unit's reanimation protocols are enacted, make Reanimation Protocol rolls for that unit by rolling a number of D6 equal to the combined Wounds characteristics of all the reassembling models. Each Reanimation Protocol roll of 5+ is put into a pool. A Reanimation Protocol roll can never be modified by more than -1 or +1.Annihilation Barge • Catacomb Command Barge • Doomsday Ark • Ghost Ark • Tesseract Ark • Tomb Blade • Monolith ( Doomsday Monolith) • Megalith • Obelisk • Tesseract Vault • Dias of Dominion and Triarchal Menhirs • Triarch Stalker Honestly, I’d say Warlord Traits are the one real area of disappointment in the book. I expect you mostly take either the Sautekh, Nephrekh or Szerakhan ones on your Warlord, buy your biggest melee nasty Enduring Will and maybe throw out Thrall of the Silent King when you have a use for it. Relics