The Tomb World Awakens: 101

Jolly good show getting here, gents!

Ah, welcome again to this chapter, a most sinister one indeed. This time, you'll see the largest of weapons available to most any arsenal, fearsome sights to behold which will strike terror into the heart of our foes.

Our series has at long last found itself in the Heavy Support section of the codex. When the codex first came out, there were many gripes about Ward being incapable of writing reliable anti tank into any part of a codex except the heavy support slot. As we delve into our review, we'll at least touch on a few of these quibbles, given that the codex was written with a foot in both editions. So for all of you big gun fans out there, here comes the heavy support!


Our first option comes from the dual kit with the ghost ark, the elaborate Doomsday Ark. It's got the same quantum 4 hull point qualifications of the other part of the kit and costs a scant few points more than 10 immortals. If it sits still, it can fire a S9 AP1 Ord Large Blast at 72". Talk about ruining someone's day. If it moves, that drops to an autocannon small blast, which isn't terrible, it's just not what you're paying all those points for. This is a monster if you can set up fire lanes for it, and it adds to your armor saturation if you're out to be rude to all those plasma toting imperials (oh please oh please not deep striking melta). With 6th edition the blast weapon got better, as did the fact that it is no longer silenced with a glance, but at the same cost as in 5th, absolutely no mobility. This is a piece that requires you to know how to deploy it and every time you fail to do so wisely, you'll know it. Ultimately, given that this is between a MBT and a Vindicator (yet more expensive than either) it'll take some building around, but it isn't impossible to use.

Last sight you will ever see

Next comes the Annihilation Barge. Last edition, you didn't start writing a Necron list without 3 of these as your heavy supports. Until the recent points hike on a dakka pred, these were a few points more expensive, but gave you a vehicle that was closer to another 5th mainstay, the rifleman dreadnought. 4 twin-linked S7 shots with tesla and arc were great, even if they were AP-. It still does an excellent job at pointing down rhino chassis, and has some manner of native crowd control, but I feel like this has tarnished significantly with the coming of 6th. It's not bad by any means, but the Night Scythe seems to shine just a bit brighter on the whole, trading quantum for flier rules, all while being a dedicated transport.

From there, we find a familiar face from the old codex, the Monolith. This has largely remained consistent with its previous rules, minus the the change to living metal and a change to its dimensional door. Previously, the door could allow you to simply pass all of your WBB rolls and/or use it as a teleportal to move quickly across the table or on from reserves. You can still utilize the teleportal, but its ability to help you rise from the dead has been replaced with a nigh-useless JotWW style of trick. In spite of that slight downgrade, it's still the land raider of the codex. If you're wanting to slip assault units or fire support across the table quickly and with some degree of impunity, this is your guy. Unfortunately, the armament is a bit lackluster, suffering from what Leman Russ chassis now face with ordinance rule and their sponsons. If Lychguard tickle your fancy, this is definitely a way to make them work, especially if you already have the model. Otherwise, it might simply find a place as a part of your display board.

Original artist sketch

Then we've got the Doom Scythe, which pays not quite double what a Night Scythe costs to swap out its nifty invasion beams for a death ray. Yes. A death ray. It's a random length "torrent" S10 AP1 line... which can't be shot at other fliers. I really wish they would have just locked the line into shooting either fliers OR ground forces. As it stands, it's a cool model, lets you pretend to be Goldfinger-tep, and will decimate parking lots, given that the death ray is the last word in firepower, short of a demolisher shot. Outside of those perks though, it's a piece to the 'cron air gimmick list that's been floating around for the last year, and that's about the only place I've seen it. It's not horrid, just very meta dependent.

Our last selection is a new twist on an old favorite, the Canoptek Spyder. This has been redesigned to "mother" Scarabs, and the former job of tending to warriors has been re-purposed over to the Ghost Ark. They cost little more than a terminator for a fairly standard monstrous creature statline. S6, T6, W3, 3+ save. They have a few interesting options which are largely useless. They can repair vehicles, but since you're open topped, anything that hits you is likely to break you. They have a half range psychic hood which denies on a 4+, which is only kind of useful since they're slow. Or you can spend half their cost giving them a particle beamer, which is a terrible option to consider. No, the only reason to bring mom is for scarab farming, and at that rate, 3 of these will cost you what 10 scarabs do. If your fast attack section won't allow for another unit, these aren't horrible, but you'll get 1, maybe 2 turns of makin' babies before they outrun mommy dearest and her primary function becomes outdated. If you need to finish the buggy family tree or plan on farming, they aren't awful but otherwise, I wouldn't recommend expecting much from them.