Welcome reader to our second rendition of faction Focus! Today we are going to be covering everyone’s favorite cyborgs that won’t die, the borg! Wait, what blog is this, clearly I meant to say Necrons!

The Necrons are an ancient race that traded their souls for immortality with the Ctan to beat the old Lords. After they figured the Ctan weren’t the best people to join with, the Necron race captured them, and made them fight along with the undead ranks. All to be put into a long charge cycle, thanks to the silent king only having a micro USB charger!

As fate would have it, the Necrons would have fully charged their Batteries if the damn kids in the galaxy didn’t have their new fancy type-c chargers! This was when the Necrons, lead by the Silent King would awaken from their cycles, and once again walk the land of the living. This time they would be clad in metal exoskeletons, they would be relentless, they would eradicate all USB ports in the galaxy, and replace them with the superior Serial connectors!

Did I mention I don’t really keep up with lore? However they have always been around me since I started playing 40k. My best friend would always stomp me with his destroyer wing list, or just drop three monoliths down and have a good chuckle. Fast forward a few years later, I’m showing my future wife 40k and she falls for these little soulless guys. I’ve always had a good idea about what the Necrons are and what they bring to the table. When I started reading the index, some things really stuck out to me, this felt like 5th edition necrons a little.

Reanimation Protocol: At the end of your command phase for every unit with this ability reanimates d3 wounds, restoring wounds or models until at starting strength, in which case nothing happens. This is a very solid mechanic, but at first glance it looks underwhelming. Characters have a lot of really good activations with this ability, resurrection orbs let that unit roll for Reanimation in your opponents command phase. While the humble warrior will restore D6 wounds per turn, but on an objective making it a D3+3 that’s going to mean we have to focus fire units down

Command Protocol: While a character is leading a unit, add one to the hit rolls for the unit. This seems really strong as Necrons are stacked with all kinds of characters.

Stratagems

Protocol of the Eternal Guardian: After a character dies you can bring them back and half strength, as close to original spot, outside of 1″ of enemy models. Situational but bringing back a character at half strength that can heal back up can be enough to make a difference in a game.

Protocol of the Hungry Void: Add plus one to strength of models in a unit, add an additional ap if they are being lead by a character. This seems to be a really strong stratagem to use on a dedicated melee unit, now to figure out how to get them there.

Protocol of the Undying Legion: Lets you activate Reanimation Protocol for a unit that lost models in the shooting or fight phase, add one to result if lead by character. This seems really strong to help someone hold onto objectives or keep your beatstick alive until it can deliver it’s goods.

Protocol of the Conquering Tyrant: In your shooting phase you can reroll wound rolls if within half range of weapons, if being lead by a character you can reroll wounds at max range.

Protocol of the Sudden Storm: Convert your ranged weapons to ASSAULT, if being lead by a character you can reroll the advance roll until the end of the phase. This can be combined with the ability to advance and do actions, knowing this we can move into a poistion to perform actions.

Protocol of the Vengful Stars: If your opponent destroys a model in the shooting phase, once they are done you can shoot that unit back with your unit, if being lead by a character then you ignore cover.

Enhancements

Veil of Darkness: Once per battle, at the end of your opponent’s turn, select this unit and remove them from play, in the reinforcement step of your next movement phase you can deploy anywhere 9” from enemy models. Here is a great method to getting a squad into melee threat range, just mind the overwatch that will inevitably happen.

Hypermaterial Ablator: Grants bearer and unit stealth, and gains benefit of cover outside of 12”. This seems like a strong pick for a large squad of warriors, – 1 to hit and saving on a 3+ yes please.

The Sovereign Coronal: If units are within 6” of this bearer, it is counted as being lead by said unit. Now it does mention that this works for stratagems and for command protocol, I wonder if they intended it to work with something baked into the datasheet.

Sempiternal Weave: Give the bearer a 4+++. Making this necron just a little more annoying to kill, and when they finally do you can always bring them back again.

There are the basics of necrons, we can see that they want to play into not dying and buffing squads for greater effeciency. If you can keep squads hidden to where they can’t be removed from the table you can ensure you will always get a chance to come back. I will have to play a few matches to give a good idea for a basic list. Please stay tuned for that, and potentially an Orks faction Focus!

Going on vacation next week, I hope to have some time to sit down and work out some more content. Stay classy war gamers!