Games Workshop - Warhammer 40,000 - Necrons Canoptek Doomstalker

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Melee is good now! Being able to compete in the fight phase is proving essential in 9th, and this book gives Necrons the tools to deal with their opponents up close. Wings: I have confirmed by doing this against Liam that opponents love this, and you should do it often. Datasheets Dimensional Translocation: A generic rule for all units that can deep strike in the reinforcement step. It’s the standard 9″ distance, and it’s nice to see it codified centrally. I’ve definitely already noticed this impacting my list-building choices, and it’ll also have a big impact on positioning during games, as there’s going to be a real trade-off in some turns between staying in range for protocols or going out hunting. New and exciting for the Necrons, we have custom dynasties. Two lists of traits ( Dynastic Traditions and Circumstances of Awakening) are provided, and you have to choose one effect from each list.

You’ve got your hands on some core characters and troops, now where do you go? Necrons have a number of different angles to play and some of them are quite competitive. Let’s discuss a couple possible options among many that are available and how you might branch into them. We’re going to focus today on the content that’s relevant for matched play – our Crusade specialists will be bringing you their thoughts on the new rules for narrative campaigns next week. The Five Best Things About This BookThere 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: Sometimes, of course, your Lychguard and Warriors will need to get straight onto objectives, and this is where having a Technomancer with a Canoptek Cloak in the unit is ultra valuable. You generally need just over 8” of movement from the line to make it to an objective, so on these 5” move units you’d need to roll a 4+ on an Advance to do so, far from a sure thing. The Canoptek Technomancer has a 10” move and a 50mm base, however, which lets you solve the problem – position two of the models from your unit on the line as close to the objective as possible, put the Technomancer next to them, and then if you move those models 5” forward you’ll be able to place the Techomancer with their base tagging the objective while still coherent with two other models from the unit. Overall, I am pleased about this change. While it hurts some units, most notably the large Destroyer squads that were staples of older builds, I’m reasonably convinced that the payoff in making the core 1W infantry much, much better is worth it, and it being rolled out for free to a bunch of Canoptek stuff is just gravy. Command Protocols None of these are unwinnable matchups by any means, and Necrons are very much still an OK faction, but a softening of the very top matchups has definitely been traded for a more uphill experience into mid tier stuff, and the army has definitely dropped-off in power overall. What Are the Must-Have Units to Start This Faction? Unless you’re up against Tau or Chaos Space Marines, who are upsettingly capable of just lifting the unit, it’s very, very common for such a unit to end the game at or near its full starting strength as opponents simply give up trying to clear it out. It’s also reasonably deadly, in a grindy sort of way – the Lychguard don’t do explosive damage, but because they’re so durable they’ll tend to gradually win a fight they get involved with. Protocol of the Hungry Void is also very good with them – it pushes their strength to the key break point of 7, at which point they’re wounding most things on 5s at worst, ensuring that even Knights will eventually fall to their blades. The price tag on all this is pretty steep, and after the Q3 2023 Dataslate you’re looking at over 400pts for the full setup,

With the new book in play, Necrons play pretty much how you’d expect just from looking at them. Legions of durable infantry lumber up the board, surrounded by a panoply of strange and terrible damage dealers, whether they be viciously be-clawed constructs, robot space wizards wielding arcane relics, imprisoned star gods or looming ancient war machines. Your core forces are extremely durable, while your specialist units are exceedingly effective when deployed in the right situations. The tradeoff for all of this is that you have to think ahead. Many units are relatively ponderous, while the powerful Command Protocols have to be planned out before battle is even joined. Get your strategy right and you can grind your foes before you. Get it wrong, and the pesty galactic usurpers will run rings around you, forcing you to make a tactical withdrawl to your tomb world rather than be undone.There are plenty of small, elite units that are priced to move now, so it feels like there are places to take the Szarekhan – but as above, expect to see some of it on the table a lot as the Silent King flexes his considerable muscles. Nephrekh

Five Pteraxii Sterylizors provide a potent deep strike threat with their phosphor torches, and three Serberyrs Sulphurhounds are fast, flame-spewing cavalry who can trade up into tougher foes. Inside the Codex is a guide on how to get your Purge Corps Deltic-9 painted in the livery of Mars, and some tips for tipping engagements in your favour. What are your personal opinions on these two units? Since they’re both heavy support, do you think one will be more popular over the other? Example: Matts army is led by an Overlord (a NECRONS CHARACTER), and every model in it is from the same dynasty, therefore he must assign command protocols. He selects the following, writing them down on his army roster:The real power here is the defensive Crypteks though, all three of which are very strong and likely to be staples of many lists. The Technomancer pairs extremely well with Lychguard – they provide a 5+ Feel No Pain to the unit they’re leading, which is super strong on 2W models. More subtly, they also help with mobility – you can take a Canoptek Cloak on one, which gives them Lone Operative if they fly solo, but doesn’t stop them joining a unit. Having a model with a 10” Fly speed that you can project out in whatever direction you’re planning to charge is massive –the base is quite big, so it can legitimately offer you 3” of extra reach that your opponent won’t see coming. A 5+ Feel No Pain is obviously great in general too, so good on Warriors. Those are the ones I’ll be looking at with most interest as I try and figure out how to really optimise this effect. If the number of dice in that pool is greater than or equal to the Wounds characteristic of any of the reassembling models, select one of those models to be Reanimated. A Reanimated model: