After a good once through to the Necron codex I’m not unhappy with them. I think there are some good and questionable changes, but no real bad ones. So here is a quick overview of the book that brings my lovable Necrons to the front lines again, well possibly.
LOOKS
The cover is a bit 80’s metal band, but that isn’t all bad. Unless you dislike 80’s metal and then you are a weirdo. It has an Iron Maiden feel with the robots and a lot of over used red. I hear the opening to Caught Somewhere in Time, by Iron Maiden every time I look at it.
Internally I have to say the artwork is pretty crisp. There is an overall lack of John Balanche, which is good thing. I am not a fan of his stuff and after the Chaos Demons codex, who is? He has one pic and it is early and thankfully that was all that painfully assaulted my eyes. The rest of the codex is fairly pleasant to look at. There are a few cut and paste pics from the previous codex, but that isn’t uncommon so I can let that go.
STORY TIME
Now there was a giant change to ye ole Necron history. Does it bother me? The content didn’t bother me as much as the overall reason. I think the new back story is just fine. It gives the Necrons the motivation and history that almost everyone needs. I don’t care that they are basically weird Egypt meets Tomb King now. It is sort of become a G.W. thing to have their fantasy and sci-fi bleed over into each other. What is it that I don’t like?
Well it is the fact that “we” have to have aliens with a motivation and human tendencies. It is an incredibly common sci-fi thing that has really begun to bother me. Every alien species has to be similar to humans in some way. I guess if they just kill and move on all silent like it is just too hard to understand. Necrons had to be given personalities, quirks and multiple goals. They couldn’t just be metal bad asses who kill just because it is a Wednesday afternoon. I can let go of the talking now and personalities since they have awakened, but was it really necessary? If the goal was to fill a codex with more pages then yes it was. If the goal so people would want to play them, well no it was unnecessary. People usually pick armies because they like the models must have the newest army since it is the best, the internet speaks of some unbeatable list that this army can make, it isn’t Marines, and then maybe they like the exposition. Most people don’t care what the “fluff” says about a force. It is how it plays and looks that they seem to care about. If people cared for back story, then nobody would use Draigo, since his back story is frakking awful! So yes there is more about the Necrons in this book and I think it is both good and bad.
RULES
I think these are pretty tight as well. There isn’t a lot of wiggle or misinterpretation room in them. Now I’m sure some ass-hat has found some minor loophole or exploit for some random weird situation. There will always be that. It can and never be stopped. Still the army wide rules are clear and if people can’t understand the new “We’ll be back.”/ Reanimation Protocols, then there is really no hope for them. The same goes for the wargear and unit rules. It all seems very simple and straightforward, but there is always that guy who reads it his way for whatever reason.
I am really surprised that this codex has no use X and access Y unit. It is the first 5th codex to not have that option. I’m not sure what I would want to have swapped to another force organization slot, but to have no option at all is a bit strange. This isn’t the only codex without that option so at least the Necrons are not alone.
BIGGEST PROBLEM
There is always this problem with a G.W. codex, model support.
“HOORAY!! A NEW CODEX! LOOK AT THIS UNIT I CAN’T WAIT TO USE IT! Wait….there isn’t a model available? Well crap!”
Yeah it is sort of like that. There are a ton of new units and there are very few of them that have models. Heck even two units, Wraiths and Tomb Spyders, which have previous models, cannot be purchased now. Their models have been pulled. Why?
I get that G.W. wants to have a second release and all that, but why? I would have easily bought a Triarch Walker if not two if they were available now. Sadly, they are not. I’ll either have to wait or try and cobble one together from….well gods know what? This can be said for almost ½ the codex. The lack of models for new units is awful.
Heck even having existing units unavailable is just as awful. Why pull the Wraiths and Spyders before the codex release? Yes they might be getting Finecast or new models, but why pull the old models and force people to use proxies or nothing until the magical 2nd wave release. A 2nd wave release that isn’t always a 100% guarantee. Just look at all the Tervigon, Thunderwolf, Veteran Guardsmen and heck even Warbuggies out there. This is too uncommon and horribly irritating. It is a shame a new codex release doesn’t have full model support at the same time. Sadly this will never change.
TOTAL
This looks like a solid codex. It will make Necrons more fun to play, until people realize they aren’t marines and switch. There are a lot of good choices and some alright choices, but there really doesn’t appear to be BAD choice in the codex ( a.k.a. Pyrovore or Spawn Syndrome). I still think the Necrons will change the game about as much as Dark Eldar did, which isn’t a whole hell of a lot. Still I’m glad there is another codex out and it is near and dear to me. It makes me want to start building and collecting more of those soulless robots again.
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