Warhammer 40,000: Necrons Ascendent

The Necrons are coming and major changes are reported.

One of the scariest ones is the addition to the core Codex of the Transcendent C'Tan.  Some may know of it from Forge World dealings.  It's inclusion, even with a whopping 250 point base price tag is pretty scary and if the list of powers being floated out there as belonging to the Tesseract Vault is to be believed, you've got problems.  An Assault 6, apocalyptic Blast template at STR 7 AP 4?  Even if its weapon IS randomly determined every round, so what.  That's just crazy.  You better rush that Transcenent C'Tan or else.  Other weapons rumored to belong to the Vault are an apocalyptic Blast STR 8 AP 3.  Ever been hit with a death Strike Missile Launcher that DOESNT have to count down and doesnt have liimited ammo?  There are some other weapons it can bring to bear that are far less scary depending on what its aimed at but that Vault will rapidly become your priority, an objective unto itself.

Another rumor is 2 wound Destroyers.  Now this would really be interesting and appropriate.  While I can't say I saw that coming, if true it would propel the Destroyer back to its rightful place as a fear deserving unit worth its points.  As an opponent of the Necrons many times over, I can say that the Destroyers diminished sharply as time has gone on.  a Mechanized Necron force works so well that Destroyers simply became obsolete in a lot of ways.  Some die hards clung to them but you surely saw few if any at top tables.  That might change if the rumor is in fact true.

The Deceiver now has its own identity again and I am VERY excited about this rumor.  Strategically in Warhammer 40K there might not be anything more important than the Deployment of the army.  infinite terrain variations do make for interesting decisions and ultimately any opportunity for you to use the terrain against the opponent is awesome.  The Deceiver will now not only drop Leadership in a bubble around it but also will allow you to redeploy in almost the exact way Eldrad allows!  That's huge.  Going first ceases to be a problem when you can just shift two or three units after making the enemy line up "perfect shots" that will never happen or lining up their melee death star to land a blow it will never enjoy.

That naturally means the Nightbringer will ALSO have its own identity again.  After the Deceiver drops your Leadership, the NightBringer will Psychic Shriek you, only his ability isn't Psychic by the looks of it, so there's no stopping it.  at a hefty 240 points to start with I suppose one guaranteed Psyker power isn't too bad.  it will probably be a close combat beat stick as usual.

The Resurrection Orb  and Reanimation Protocols changed again.  This is one rule I wish they'd make up their mind on.  It will essentially be a Feel No Pain that works against any and all kinds of wounds except for removal.  So that matters because forcing morale on Necron units just got harder.  it wont matter what you hit em with they may not go down.  I'm thinking it takes a little bit away from how you envision it working but the mechanic is simple enough I suppose.  the Orb lets the unit RE-roll its Animation protocols for a turn.  Really cool.  One use though if I understand correctly.

One of the more painful possibilities is the Night Scythes are now Fast Attack choices s there's no need to take the attendant troops you might have otherwise.  Croissants in a Necron Bakery are very much a thing already and could be more of one now.  The Fast Attack slot will almost assuredly be more expensive now to occupy with Night Scythes which will limit it to an extent but KEEP IN MIND:  without the Troops inside you're saving 65 points.  So all in all it could actually be a net gain and more reason not to take Troops Choices in large numbers...

These are just my musings on the import of some of the changes coming.  We can't know for sure until the book drops officially or inevitably pages show up.  But the Necrons are Ascendant and you will want to start combing your lists and considering these new possibilities...