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Its time that I got serious and started running through all the 10th edition previews on Hive!

Hi. I am Zak Ludick and this is Warhammer 40,000. A tabletop wargame obsession of mine. We are getting a new edition and there will be a lot of changes in the new rules. However, this is just PART of the rules so we cannot make too many assumptions. bet let's see what there is to be seen from MY perspective.

I have done Space Marines, Tyranids and Chaos Space Marines and now it is time for the undying Necrons, the undead robo warriors of the 41st millenium.

Necrons Army Rule

First up is the Army Rule for all Necrons. There are likely to be many different Detachments, if not right away, then at least when the Necrons get a new Codex.

Anyway, Reanimation Protocols allows you to gain D3 wounds back PER unit, every turn and if you have all your wounds but were missing models in the unit, gain those models back.

Thus on a Monolith Tank, it will get back D3 wounds, while on 1 Wound Necron Warriors, they will get back D3 Models instead!

For me as a Space Wolf player this makes things simple: make sure you do not slightly damage everything in the Necron's army. Destroy a target or two at a time and wipe them out, negating their ability to regenerate wounds/models.

One oddity is that this ability works at the END of the Command Phase. Why, I can only guess. This will mean that there may be Stratagems coming up that will activate before Reanimation Protocals.

Detachment Rule

For the Awakened Dynasty Detachment, units being led by a Character get to add 1 to the Hit roll on all attacks. This means for shooting as well as melee. This should mean that it will be likely that a Necron player playing the Awakened Dynasty will seek to add in plenty smaller characters into units to gain this ability.

Monolith Preview

The Monolith was absolutely iconic when I was playing the game in the older editions. When I returned, there were not any Monoliths on the table. Just like the Land Raider, it looks like they are coming back!

Massive Toughness 14 and 20 Wounds this thing will not be going anywhere soon. Which cannot be said for its victims.

4x Gauss Flux Arc guns at 3 Shots each for a total of 12 S6 Ap-1 D1 Shots. Hitting on 3+ and wounding Marines and Terminators on a 3+, they also get DOUBLE their shots at half range with Rapid Fire 3. They also have Lethal hits, meaning 6's to HIT will auto-wound.

Then the big gun is the Particle whip with a 24" range, attacking 3D6 times with S8 Ap-1 and D2.

However, this is not all its power. In Melee it has 6 attacks that hit on a 2+! S8 Ap-2 and D3. I would NOT want to stick around long with a Monolith in Close Combat.

Additionally you can bring Necron Infantry units in Reserves out of the Monolith, deploying them within 6" of the Monolith. This would do well for surprise attacks and for catching some objectives.

Necron Warriors Preview

Necron Warriors look like a decent troop choice to keep around in your army. They seem to have two different gun profiles. Both come with Lethal Hits but the one is short range with high strength and some AP while the other one is weaker but at a longer range.

Their most outstanding ability is Their Number is Legion where they regain D6 wounds instead of D3 as usual. That means 1 to 6 Necrons back per turn. This would work great for them if they had large units of Warriors.

This ability gets even better when the Warriors are holding an objective, becoming D3+3. Meaning 4 to 6 will rise per turn this way.

See what I mean about focus fire?

Also a Character here would make their shooting that much more lethal!

Doomsday Cannon Preview

The Doomsday Cannon is a long range gun that does lots of high Strength shots. Massive AP and Damage as well. Then, when standing still those shots gain Devastating Wounds. Meaning Critical Wounds (wound rolls of a 6+) cause MORTAL WOUNDS instead! Thus bypassing Invulnerable Saves and Feel No Pain. Ouch!

Spear of the Void Dragon Preview

The Spear seems to be the C'tan weapon preview. It seems to be quite common to see a Strike/Sweep option. As always the Sweep is double the attacks at a lower Strength, AP and Damage.

5x S12, AP-3 and D6+2 with Anti-Vehicle (meaning wound on a 2+ permanently) Curiously the Strike hits on a 2+ while the Sweep hits on a 3+

10x S8, Ap-1 and D2. Good enough to deal with Marines really.

Protocal of the Hungry Void Stratagem

Lastly, the Battle Tactic Stratagem for the Awakened Dynasty. This tells us that this Stratagem is for this Detachment only and not for all Necrons.

This stratagem is to buff the Close Combat abilities for the Necrons fighting and has a further ability should there be a character leading the unit. The Detachment rule already gives you a buff for having a Character in the unit.

Let's break that down...

10 Necron Warriors charge 5 Space Marines.

I shall assume all units still gain +1 Attack on the charge. 20 attacks, hitting on 4+ (50%) so 10 hits on average. S4 vs T4 so 50% again, 5 wounds. AP 0 so the marine does 3+ armor saves. Statistically 1-2 wounds will be lost. So perhaps one dead Space Marine.

But in the Awakened Dynasty they shall get +1 to Hit if there is a character. Furthermore, with Protocol of the Hungry Void they get +1S and -1AP.

Thus 10 Attacks, hitting on 3+, S5 vs T4 so wounding on 3+ and -1AP so instead of 3+ armor, the Marines get a 4+ armor save roll.

Math-hammer would suggest that the marines now get hit 6.6 times, wounded 4.4 times and armors fail 2.2 wounds. Thus 2-3 wounds will not be caused. It is guaranteed that the Marine Player will loose 2 models or more... statistically.

I do, however think that this Stratagem will be used on a unit more suited to combat than a Warrior squad.

Conclusion

Well. That is all that I can say about the Necrons based on this preview. They look tough. We shall see what happens once all their rules come out in 10th Edition!

Thank you for reading!

Cheers!
@zakludick

Hive South Africa