Now & Later

For anyone who’s enjoyed this tasty candy comes today’s delicious article on the latest things to talk about in 40k: Necrons and 6^th Edition. Now, I haven’t gotten a look at the leak myself but I’ve kept on a close eye on those rumors I see circulating, and I’ve looked the Necron codex over in great detail (mainly because it’s my first army outside of my beloved Ravens.)

With this in mind, I’ve noticed something very interesting and that is how the Necron codex is one of the last codices of 5^th edition any way you slice it. Knowing GW and that such codices as Deamons and Orks were fully written with 5^th in mind, I began to look into how the Necron codex has been written with 6^th in mind. If the rest of the blogosphere has anything to say about it, the Necron codex is good but still lacking and limited. Sites will advocate the use of tesla weaponry extensively and tell you to utilize the court of the overlord for harbingers of destruction to ensure that you have enough ranged anti-tank to crack open the other player’s metal boxes and zap their dudes with...

Certainly these lists are capable, even in the wake of the FAQ telling them that scarab farms are good, just not stupid good. Needless to say, GW is pleased to see that Crypteks and the boxes to make your own are selling like hotcakes, in addition to the very impressive Ark model (it’s awful to build but extremely rewarding.) That said, when we examine some of the 6^th edition rumors, we see that GW has marketed this codex in a remarkable fashion. First and foremost among these rumors is the fabled remake of rapid fire. In 5^th edition, rapid fire is on the “less than good” scale of things in many peoples’ opinions. It means that unless you have something like S&P or outright Relentless, moving neuters almost all of your effective ranged firepower. For armies like Necrons and Tau who don’t hold up well in close combat, having to wait until charge range until your squad fires at full effectiveness is a bitter pill to swallow. The rumor for 6^th edition is that rapid fire will be altered such that if you move, you can either take one shot at maximum range or two at up to half range. If your unit sat still, it can fire two shots at maximum range. What this means for the Necrons is that while at present, many people gobble up the Tesla-mortals, due to the relative uselessness of the gauss blaster variety, come 6^th edition, they will either break all of their pretty models, or head out to buy more immortals to build for the new meta.

Whilst still on the subject of the immortal box, it is worth noting that many of the rumors surrounding 6^th edition will make deathmarks very much worthwhile. Right now, they’re good, but far from amazing. At 19 points per model, you really are paying for a few tricks that don’t quite work yet. In order to capitalize on their Hunters from Hyperspace rule, you’ll want multiple squads so that they’ll pick up on each others’ targets. This means that their points tend to add up very quickly. But what toys will 6^th give them to make them more enticing? The first is that their ability to reactively deep strike when an enemy enters from reserves will, in theory, translate to some manner of overwatch type of action. Suddenly the predators leap out from their ethereal suspension to disintegrate the synapses of their foes. With their weapons of choice now referenced comes the second half and that is the rumors of sniper rules allowing the firers to influence the wound allocation of their victims. Imagine a Blood Angels player bringing in his troops swiftly on the wing, only to find that his undying foe has laid a cunning trap for him. In the chaos of deep strike, suddenly the deathmarks have slain the sergeant, sanguinary priest, or meltaguns.

From here, we touch on a final closing rumor. Recall that the internet says that the Necron codex lacks reliable ranged anti-tank, save for harbingers of destruction. This is not necessarily the case. Heavy Destroyers are still present in the codex and still have a gauss lascnnon strapped to their now jump infantry bodies. They may be taken mixed in with standard Destroyers at no more than 3 to a squad, and take a fast attack slot now. That said, they cost 60 points per and have a rather perplexing special rule: Preferred Enemy: Everything! For those of us familiar with 5^th edition, we were befuddled at why a so obviously ranged combat specialist model set was outfitted with something to help in close combat. This rule lends credence to the rumor that Black Templar got bumped up on the update schedule to make sure that they got their vows doctored before Preferred Enemy begins applying to the shooting phase too. I don’t know about you, but buffing the already solid shooting capability of a very durable and mobile firing platform sounds like a win to me. Add to the fact that right now, the best source for this kind of a buff is a model that doesn’t yet exist (the Triarch Stalker, which I’m sure GW hopes to sell), and you’ve got some strong argument as to some the turns 6^th edition will be taking with everyone’s favorite metal zombies.