Necron Review: Troops and Transports

TROOPS

Necron Warriors: Now 13 points from 18 the Gauss Flayer is still a bolter in with a different name with the Gauss rule. Every Pen roll of a 6 causes a glancing hit.

Necron Immortals: Are now 17 points and stand up better with a 3+ save over the Necron Warrior and will be the popular choice. To boot you get a STR 5 AP 4 instead of a STR 4, AP 5 that a Gauss Flayer can do. Hands down the Gauss Blaster is the better choice when it comes to weapons. Telsa Carbines are not worth the upgrade unless you plan to assault…yea right!

DEDICATED TRANSPORTS

Catacomb Command Barge: This is one of those toys you will see in an army if there are points to spare. It has a nasty pair of surprises including the Sweep Attack that can open up a vehicle on a sweeping pass without danger to the Lord. If it blows up, who cares! He is in a transport! The Symbiotic Repair rule is nice as it can keep the vehicle in the game at the cost of wounds to the character. We all know that in 5^th that a transport can be the difference of losing a unit or not.

Ghost Ark: Expensive, but worth every point you spend on them. Everyone is going to scoff them due to high point cost but they are better armored (with Quantum Shielding AV 13), two Gauss Flayer Arrays, Living Metal Rule (able to ignore Stun and Shaken results) and can aid to repair d3 Necron Warriors on a 2+. So combined with the usual 5+ (or 4+ with res orb) you can keep your units from being wiped out. Your opponent is going to have to disable the vehicles first before he can move on to the troops. Expect Ghost Ark spam.

Night Scythe: A mix of your standard fighter that the Dark Eldar got with some troop transports. It lacks any real major firepower compared to the Doom Scythe. Without Quantum Shielding it isn’t worth it as for 15 points more you get the Ghost Ark with better options short of being able to carry 5 more Necron Warriors. The saving grace is that there is no open top issue and in essence you have a flying Rhino. With the trend of MSU who cares about large units? The Night Scythe will be a rare thing on the board IMO. Also, in the event the transport is wrecked, you have to enter from reserves for those that it was transporting...or if you have a Monolith around. Unlike other transports, it is just a teleport beam in essence that deploys them around the fighter. That extra 100 points can start adding up quickly for a transport.

Compare it against a Rhino, it has better weapons, faster and carries more men. Against a Chimera, it is faster, carries 3 more men and weapons on the Night Scythe are only a tad more powerful. Worth the price jump compared to a Chimera? I think not.