Necron Rules

Merry x-mas, meatbags.

Got my first game in in ages. Dusted off the old Necrons and the one new unit I've managed to paint up. It was a great game against Deathwing against a great opponent. I even pulled off a win.

Scarab BS:
You've seen it. With every new codex there always seems to be some DB touting how you can do a 1st turn charge by either deliberately misreading the rules or intentionally ignoring the spirit of the law for the letter of the law.

In that vein, you get the Scarab BS.

If you see this, refuse to continue until your opponent removes head from ass.

I'm not even going to give it a trendy name because it does not deserve it. It works like this. You set up a unit of Scarabs with lots of Spyders around them. You use the Spyders Scarab Hive ability to add as many bases to the single unit of Scarabs as you can adding then end to end across the board. Since this happens at the start of your movement phase, the Scarabs, now stretching across the board, use their Fleet USR and 12" charge (because they are beasts now) to contact pretty much anything on the board.

By the letter of the law there is nothing wrong with this. No other unit acts like this so there is no precedent for how to add models to an existing unit. There are hints of how this is supposed to work in the Reanimation Protocols special rule for the Necrons where models that pass their WBB roll (call it what it is, people) are placed "...in coherency with a model from its unit that has not itself returned through Reanimation Protocols this phase." that to me says the rules that add models to units are meant to expand unit numbers and not expand unit reach. If someone is doing this, they are intentionally misreading the words, misrepresenting the rules and eviscerating the spirit of the game.

So let's say that you have the dubious honor of being across the table from someone that is enough of a DB to pull this crap. First, if you allow him to do this and continue the game, I have lost more than a measure of respect for you.

Second, it is not that brutal. Scarabs have quite a few attacks but also have low Strength and low WS. that does not make them formidable to many of the armies. Also, you are not going to be able to get all the Scarabs into contact. Some of them will be left behind or out of range and that will short the Scarabs attacks. Don't forget they this fragile unit is not in your deployment zone with no back up. I don't think that even Guard or Tau would have a hard time mopping them up quick.


I think that this will be FAQed on the first go. In this respect the DBs are their own worst enemy. The codex is not out a month and they are trying to break it. What's worst, they post it to the internet so all their DB friends can abuse it only to make it super-visible to the guys at GW (one can only hope that their fingers are on the pulse) so they can fix their oversight.

If they insist on assaulting a vehicle with this, you should insist that the vehicle can not be hit because it neither moved nor was it stationary on the previous turn because there was no previous turn. Letter of the law and all.


Entropic strike weirdness:
Scarabs have it. Lords have. Even some Crypteks have it. Let's have it. Let's have Entropic Strike. This one is kind of confusing and hard to explain, but bear with me.

When does Entropic Strike take effect? The rule says that vehicles hit lose a point off their armor on a 4+ "instantly." Does that mean that if 5 Scarabs charge a Land Raider, 25 attacks hit instantly (didn't move), 12.5 of those pass the 4+. What is the Land Raider's armor value when the scarabs roll to penetrate? Has the Entropic Strike already lowered the armor value at a part of the same assault? are the Scarabs swinging at a Land Raider with an AV of 14 or 2?

I am mostly OK with it however it works. Any more than 5 Scarabs are going to kill a stationary vehicle on the charge simply by virtue reducing it to 0 AV. In my game, I ate a Drop Pod like it was candy with just 4 bases. If the vehicle manages to survive the encounter, it is not likely long for the earth. Even as few as 4 bases is going to reduce a vehicle by 4 or more points and that is enough to turn a Land Raider into a Rhino.

If it does reduce the armor in the same round, that makes it more valuable on the Lords and Crypteks. If my Lord can take a swipe at your Ironclad and knock a few points off of it before I roll to penetrate, I'm cool with that. If he has to wait for the next round to use the lowered armor value, I'm less likely to take Void Blades.

The softer side of robot zombies from space.

Quantum Shielding and penetrating hits:
The problem with an army that breaks all of the rules is that there is no president to look at for guidance.

Quantum Shielding raises your AV by 2 on front and side facing (remember, no rear!) until you suffered a penetrating hit, but what does that mean? At what point have you suffered a penetrating hit?

My Catacomb Command Barge moves 24 inches and is then hit and penetrated by a Las Cannon in the following turn. The Barge makes its a cover save, but has it suffered a penetrating hit?

My opponent said no but shockingly I disagreed. I think that once the roll has been made and it exceeds your AV, you have suffered a penetrating hit. There is no need to suffered the results of a hit to be penetrated. He argued from the spirit of the law. the purpose of the cover save is that a fast skimmer is hard to even hit because of how fast it is moving. the spirit of the law is that the hit becomes a miss entirely as if the hit never took place.

Hard question and I can see both sides of it.

Lord and his boys:
This is not really a rules question so much as a love letter to my Lord with Warscythe and Resorb leading a squad of 20 Warriors. Wow, they are tough and effective. At first I was angry that they took away my 3+ save, but the Resorb giving what is essentially a 4+ Inv save, is awesome. Warriors are cheep and tough. They are the anvil that I use to crush my enemies against. I can't think of a unit that is capable of taking out 20 Warriors and a Lord in a single phase. That leaves the enemy unit open to counter charge from Lychguard, Wraiths, Triarch Praetorian, or anything other heavy hitter. Also this formation or 21 models is dirt cheep at 335 points. Just love them.


Sup, Dawg. Heard you Like Necrons...
Also on the subject of love, I adore the Catacomb Command Barge. The Sweep attack is brutal. With a Warscythe, it is deadly to vehicles. S 7 and 2d6 is like a three shot, 24" meltagun. Even hitting on a 4+ it is brutal. I'll take this set up at every chance.