"Their choices are so boring!"

Will soon be the rallying cry of Necron bang wagoners everywhere. It is also a good title for my first review.

Can we all guess what the first unit review will be for Necrons? Wait for it……

Troops! We should have all seen this coming because we read the tripe I write and know the adulation I have for the troop section of 40K armies. Well the Necrons have two such choices the Warriors and the Immortals.

Warriors are the poor Joe Lunchboxes that populated the Necrontyr so long ago. They are the civilians and other associated normals, hobos, civil servants etc. of the race. Well until they got pressed into service, or volunteered to be biotransferred, they got a new metal body. They are completely under the control of their Lord and do whatever they are told. However, they aren’t fearless for some reason. They have lost their individuality, mind, soul, body, etc.; but they did get a gun though. What is better than that?

Well the Necron Warrior is the cheap troop choice. They are basically Marines with Initiative 2, Leadership 10 and a 4+ save.  Now that isn’t awful, but it is a bit of a let down from the previous version that had a 3+ save and all the same stats. They come armed with a Gauss Flayer (bolter with the Gauss rule). They start as a five man squad at the cost of the normal Canadian retirement age and you can add up to 15 more for 13 points apiece. They can also buy a Ghost Arc or a Night Scythe for a transport (more on those later).

Immortals were once the battlefield foot soldier elite. Now they are the foot soldiers and have been downgraded from elite. Unlike the Warriors they have some sentience and can make some tactical and strategic reactions on the battlefield. They can still think, in limited capacity and are not the automatons the Warriors are. They are the smarter, better cannon fodder.

Now Immortals are the “expensive” troop choice. They come in a squad of 5 for the cost of the year Back to the Future opens in U.S. theaters. They have the exact same stats as a Necron Warrior only they have a 3+ save. They come equipped with a Gauss Blaster (24” S5 AP4 rapid fire).  They have the option to swap this gun for a Tesla Carbine (24” S5 AP – assault 1, tesla) for free!! They can add up to five more models to the squad for 17 points each. They can grab a Night Scythe for a transport option. This is their only transport option and that does blow!

Do I have to mention that both these units have Reanimation Protocols? Well they do, and we should all know or learn this from here forward.

There have been some big changes made here. The reduction in cost and armor makes the Warrior an attractive low threat unit. It also makes it crappy in the eyes of many. The fact it is that people seem to hate the 4+ armor. I lived and died with Warriors before and probably can again. I can live with the 4+ armor; it just means I’ll take a few more extra bodies. Their Gauss Flayers en masse can suppress vehicles and are over looked since they are “just bolters.” Well a wall of 10+ in rapid fire range can really surprise you with the damage they can do.  Still these guys will be over looked for the beefier Immortals.

Now I say beefier in jest, since these guys are just 3+ save Warriors. However, they have taken a bit hit from their previous incarnation both in points, weapon and toughness. They are now 11 points cheaper, but no longer have toughness 5 and an assault 2 Gauss Blaster. Still a slow Marine with a S5 rapid fire gun is not a horrible choice.  A base troop with a gun that strong was previously only seen in the Tau army. Now Necrons have a nice high strength basic troop gun. Now the free Tesla Carbine swap is nice as is the 24” range and assault ability, but it is only one shot and a hope for a 6 to hit. I’m not completely sold on that option. I’d rather have a 12” rapid firing line of 20 S5 shots, than 10 S5 shots from my squad with a hope of a lot of 6’s to hit(full squad size here duh).  Yeah the toughness 5 would still rock, as would the assault 2 gun, but it must have proved too deadly or game breaking awesome.  These guys are still only 4 points more than a Warrior, so why not take a few squads? I’m guessing most people will if only for the 3+ armor being better than 4+.

Sure there are the transports options and I’ll get to them. They offer a bit more flexibility, tactics or what-have-you to these units.

Personally I have soooooo many Warriors it would be hard not to use them. A pair of max sized Warrior squads is a good and bad idea at the same time. If it never gets into combat then it can put out a dizzying amount of anti-guy damage or suppress the heck out of a (if not glance to death) vehicles.  If it gets in combat it could get swept away easily byt a single  close combat beast, or hell five guys with a power weapon or fist. Then you have a 20 man squad wiped and for what? Still I'll probably try it at least once. Sure a squad that size costs as much as a tricked out Tactical Squad in Rhino, and cannot do ½ of their job, but they aren’t Marines. People need to remember that, some are just having a hard time with it, still.  

I do have some Immortals but not enough to fulfill my want to field 4-6 squads of them. Sure I can buy the new cooler and plastic models, but then my poor outdated metal models will go to waste on a shelf. That or I run small squads of Immortals and hope they don’t get wiped away easily. My Immortal filled army will probably not be happening.

That is another problem, but it was there before. If you get into combat with either of these units, hope the enemy misses a lot, or you roll a lot of 5+ Reanimations. These guys are tough and strong like Marines, but the lack of anything but a gun as a club and the speed of a snail make them very vulnerable. If you lose combat look for them to be swept a lot, just like before. Keeping them out of combat is good, it is just hard to accomplish, especially in my area.

I really like what they have done with these two units. I don’t dislike either unit and would take some of each in any Necron army I ran. Now where can I find some of the metal Immortals that don’t cost 3X what they’re worth?