I can’t remember the last time a Codex has had such a brilliant way of introducing new players to an army and the game. A blessing because fans of the race haven’t had to wait long for a brand new book, but a curse as sometimes the books can take a little time to ‘settle’ into the edition. In this book you’ll find the rules you need to play a Necrons army in games of Warhammer 40,000 – including narrative Crusade campaigns and Combat Patrol skirmishes – as well as detailed background material and stunning art showcasing their ancient origins, impossibly advanced technology, and dynastic courts.

Where you might consider this is on Enmitic Lokhust Heavies, as with a Lord it lets them rack up absurd numbers of hits, but even there losing the ability to try and chip vehicles hurts. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Any of your Necron units that fire at an enemy unit within range of said picked objective Ignore Cover, which is cool. They are without fear or mercy, soulless mechanoids who advance in eerie lockstep to lay down an annihilating storm. Other than that, and I say this having only really looked at units I own, I'm feeling positive about how the Codex is looking.Instead of providing full wound re-rolls as before, this now provides hit re-rolls of 1 within Half Range, or full hit re-rolls in Half Range if a Character is leading the unit. In addition to this, should the unit have arrived on the battlefield that turn (say, from Hyperphasing…see what they did there) then you get full rerolls to Hit. Codex: Necrons is an essential guide for anyone who wants to collect Necrons and display the might of their phaeron on the tabletop. Synergy: One of the coolest things about the Necron Index was how much of a toolbox it was thanks to the focus on Leaders.

Eldritch Nightmare is not as good for a brawling Destroyer unit, but still probably worth it – it forces a Battle-Shock test for all enemies that are in Engagement Range of the bearer’s unit at the start of the Fight Phase. In particular, the fact that two-model units (pretty common for light vehicles) can never be below Half-Strength is very silly. Diversity: This Codex does one of the best jobs we’ve seen so far of providing lots of different builds to try. Aside from the Awakening Dynasty detachment Warhammer Community have been shouting about the Hypercrypt Legion, and with good reason, because in my opinion for general army builds this is up there with the Awakening Dynasty. For this book, some nerfs to overtuned stuff from the Index (most notably some Reanimation bonuses and Lychguard deathbricks) also hit about right, which will help with encouraging people to try a wider range of options.

It explains what these technologies are and why we use them, as well as your rights to control them. For getting your toys around the table, Protocol of the Sudden Storm also comes back, turning your weapons Assault, and providing re-rolls on an Advance if your unit is being lead. The big use cases I can see are to hover some Lokhusts or Heavies with a Lord behind your key toys, or to just run the Silent King.

I’m relatively new to Necrons, picking up my first models following the Indomitus box for 9th Edition, and instantly fell for the army.The indestructible Lychguard deathbrick has been given a stern talking to, and Warriors no longer get additional wounds reanimated at baseline (they re-roll dice instead), so there’s a solid chance you get more value out of a one-time spike than a steady clip.