Necron review elite, C'Tan Shard

The C’Tan were the creators of the Necrons, well they made the Necrontyr into the super cool robots they are. They also used them to fight the Old Ones and everything else. Toward the end of this conflict the Necrons realized the C’Tan were D-bags and destroyed them by blowing them into pieces or obliterating them completely. Now the C’Tan are just shards that are kept by the Necrons. Even as shards these guys are still powerful and are only ever released in the direst of situations.

Once they are unleashed they turn from a piece of whatever, into a big monster being that can do all sorts of coolness. They might look like the Grim Reaper, a horned smiling clown, a large and moving Torg or that of a giant Slor! They can melt tanks with a glance! They can rip apart and reshape the very ground you walk upon! The can crush armies into Goron dust! Then they can cut a tomato without squishing it. Then after the fight the Necrons wrangle up this piece of a star god and put him back in the cupboard and lock the door.



"Why is there female genitalia in the middle of my forehead?"



The C’Tan shard is the Necron big bad unit. It has the stats you see in many monstrous creatures: WS 5, BS 5, strength and toughness 7, 4 attacks wounds and initiative, leadership 10 and a 4+/4++ save. They have all the usual pomp that goes with being a monstrous creature. They are also fearless and have the eternal warrior and Immune to Natural Law rules. They only other thing they have is a Necrodermis. They cost a base cost of the atomic number of an element temporarily called Unoctpentium.

 Immune to Natural Law- allows the C’Tan to ignore difficult and dangerous terrain while moving.

Necrodermis- is what houses the power of this monster. It gives it a 4++ save. Also when the C’Tan loses its last wound the Necrodermis will crack. The released power will damage everything near the dying C’Tan. Everything within D6” will suffer a S 4 AP 1 hit. Wait that is it? A creature filled with phenomenal cosmic power (itty bitty living space) and when it goes BOOM! It is only a S 4 hit? Come on!

Now when you take a C’Tan they look descent up front. Then you see the real rub. They must also purchase two powers. That sounds alright, but is it? On top of that little bit, the powers cannot be duplicated. See each C’Tan is different, so they all have differing powers. Isn’t that just wonderful and pretty damn useless.

Ok the list of powers and points……………..

Entropic Touch- well this is self explanatory. +10

Lord of Fire-flame and melta weapons if fired within 12” of the C’Tan explode! Well on a D6 roll of 1 these weapons will explode. This is rolled for after the to-hit roll and is done every time the weapon fires. If a 1 is rolled, the shot is lost and the model is removed with no saves. If this is a vehicle weapon, then the weapon is destroyed. +10

Pyreshards- this is a shooting attack with 18” S 4 AP – and assault 8. +15

Swarm of Spirit Dust- this gives the stealth rule, assault and defensive grenades. +20

Moulder of Worlds- this is another shooting attack with 24” S 4 AP- assault 1 large blast. +25

Sentient Singularity- this power makes terrain dangerous for vehicles within 6” of the C’Tan. If a unit deep strikes within 6” of the C’Tan they will suffer a mishap if a double is rolled on the scatter dice (even if they roll a hit). +30

Writhing Worldscape- while the C’Tan is on the battlefield all terrain that is difficult is now dangerous. If it is already dangerous, then you fail on a D6 roll of 1 or 2. +35

Grand Illusion- after deployment and scout moves you roll a D3. That many units will be able to be re-deployed. This may be used to place units or take units from reserve. +40

Time’s Arrow-after assault moves, but before blows you choose one enemy model. This model must pass an initiative test or be removed from play with no saves. +40

Transdimensional Thunderbolt- this shooting attack with 24” S9 AP 2 assault 1. + 45

Gaze of Death-this assault based power is used after blows have been resolved in the C’Tan’s combat. You then place the large blast template over the C’Tan. Any model touched takes a S3 hit with no armor saves allowed.  Any model that is killed by this gives the C’Tan a wound back (if it had lost one earlier). Any losses do not count toward combat resolution. +50

Wow that is quite a list, a list of mostly crap! Let me break it down.

Entropic is pretty pointless, unless all you see are other monsters or models with 3+ wounds. Taking their saves away would be helpful. Vehicles shouldn’t be a problem for a unit that is S7 and gets 2D6 on the penetration roll. This should be free instead of +10 to make people interested.

Lord of Fire has a use, but a 1-6 chance is turd! Unless you are me, you pass “Gets Hot” rolls 90% of the time and you’ll pass this as well. Cool if it works (vs. Fire Dragons, Melta vets or anyone who can take 3+ melta guns) but don’t count on it. At +10 it is at least cheap.

Pyreshards is a descent shooting attack for the +15 cost. It only sucks since it is AP-. Why not just have it AP like a bolter?

Swarm of Spirit Dust is probably worthwhile if you want your C’Tan to get to go before initiative 1 in combat vs. cover. Remember it ignores terrain for moving, not assaulting.  If it ignores terrain for assault movement, then why is the assault grenade option even here? Stealth is a nice bit of ok, but good luck getting it being a big ole monster.

Moulder of Worlds is ok if it wasn’t S4 and AP-. I would pay the +25 if it was S5 or AP 4, but a AP – storm bolter-like large blast? No thanks!

Sentient is descent, but a bit pricey. The chance to have a unit fail a terrain check when trying to assault you is alright. Yet they have almost as great a chance to pass that check. The deep strike mishap chance would be worth it if it was more than 6”. I guess the chance to of really screwing over deep strikers is only viable for Grey Knights.

Writhing Worldscape is worth the cost. It can really screw with screw footsloggers or possibly irritate mech (without dozer blades). The ability to slow the enemy is great, just hope they roll at least one dice (or two) low for their movement through cover.

Grand illusion is a waste for the points. A once per game ability and is a random number of units on top of that, no thank you! Seriously +40 points for 1-3 unit redeployment is insane!

Times Arrow is expensive, but at least I can see why. The “remove from play” bit can really screw with an opponent. However, he has to fail an initiative test and that shouldn’t happen often. This is something to use on multi-wound face beaters, but they should have a greater than 50% chance of passing this test. Cool if it works, but pretty useless in my opinion.

Transdimensional Thunderbolt well a lascannon with half the range sounds alright, but not for what it costs. I know it be fired on the move by the C’Tan, but no way am I paying +45 for a lascannon. Get bent!

Gaze of Death is better and worse than the older Nightbringer version. Sure the large blast hits all that it touches, but it is only S3. It was at least S4 before. Once again I see why this is +50 points since there are no armor saves allowed and it can regenerate some wounds. Personally I wouldn’t pay for it on an already pricey model.

Now that is another issue with the C’Tan. They are already an expensive unit. Then you have to add two powers. The cheapest these guys can be is 205. That 205 doesn’t give you much either. Why the hell do they have to take two powers? If they could be fielded bare bones, or have the option to take up to two powers, then maybe they wouldn’t be so bad.

The lack of duplicate powers sticks in my craw as well. Imagine if Dreadnoughts couldn’t field the same weapons as each other. What if only one Demon Prince could have wings or one non-duplicate psy power? What if Long Fangs, Havocs (or their more flamboyant Astartes counterparts) or Veteran squads could take the same weapon upgrades? I guess having no duplicates for C’Tan wouldn’t be such an annoyance, but that is not the case. It is an annoyance. All C’Tan are special snowflakes and the rules force them to be. It also makes them pretty suck-tastic!

Then there is the fact these guys are footsloggers. They can do all this awesome stuff, except fly or hell even jump. They can be ignored for a few turns since they are only really scary in close combat. Does anyone see these guys getting across the board? I don’t. Every Long Fang, Auto cannon, Obliterator and anything else that can shoot will ruin these guys. Sure they are multi-wound and have a 4++, but that isn’t great. Yes a 4++ is usually good, but not when your base armor is 4+. A single unit of Long Fangs with the 5x missile load out should wreck a C’Tan in a turn if not two. Even if it saves some wounds, it will likely be down to 1 or two by the time it is in range to threaten anything. The same range of rapid firing and melta weapons. A monstrous creature is scary if it can get in your face soon and relatively unscathed. A C’Tan Shard isn’t going to (and shouldn’t) do that.

I have the Deceiver model and he was too expensive and useless last codex. He is even more so this codex. You want another bad in the Necron codex? I give you the C’Tan Shard!