So 8th edition 40K is well and truly upon us, and early indications are that it’s given the game a real breath of fresh air!

What prompted this blog was the fact that after a month I’d finally finished painting up my Ghost Ark…huzzah!

This got me thinking about how effective this fascinating army is in the new edition. This is written purely from the point of view of looking through the new Index (including the Imperial Armour Index) and assessing it from that point of view. I may change my view after I’ve played…

The Pluses
Reanimation Protocols. Very different from 7th Edition, where RP were just treated like a second armour save. As long as a unit doesn’t disappear completely, you can roll a 5+ RP roll for every eligible figure lost every turn for the duration of the game. And that’s 4+ for every eligible unit within 3” of a Cryptek;
Living Metal. Eligible vehicles and characters automatically recover a Wound every turn;
Necron Warriors. Great value for only 12 points a figure (or 6 Power for a unit of 10);
Monoliths. For the first time since 5th Edition, it might be worth having one of these bad boys. The Portal of Exile (D6 mortal wounds any any attacking unit); the fact it can move and shoot heavy weapons; and the effectiveness of its Gauss Flux Arc and Particle Whip are all real plusses;
Imperial Armour. Some of the Forge World models are REALLY good, and add real depth and ability to a Necron army.

The Negatives
Points Cost. A lot of the key Necron models are now prohibitively expensive in terms of their points cost. Destroyers and the aforementioned Monolith are really expensive. Tomb Blades are now 39 points (assuming you give them Shieldvanes), a lot for a model with only 2 Wounds and a 3+ Sv. But the biggest lead is a Canoptek Spyder, now 81 points with a Gloom Prism (which you’ll need if the Necrons are to do any Deny The Witch rolls);
Gauss. Now enemy vehicles need not fear a Necron army. True, Gauss Flayers get a -1 armour save, and Gauss Blasters a -2, but no automatic wounds on a 6 I’m afraid.

I’d like to think the Pluses outweigh the Minuses but we shall see…

My Own Necron Army
I started collecting Necrons circa 2005, albeit slowly. I lost interest for a while, but in 7th Edition the army became awesome again, especially with the addition of the Decurion detachment. So I added a bunch more stuff: Tomb Blades, Immortals, a Ghost Ark and (from Forge World) a Tomb Stalker.

I went for a slightly unusual colour scheme. In the original Codex (way back in 2002) whilst most of the Necrons illustrated were in the standard Bolton Metal, I saw some interesting alternative paint schemes. One group of four examples were in “Ceramics”. This idea really appealed to me. Given their ancient armies, the Eldar, used a lot of heat weapons, Ceramics is a better material in dealing with heat than metal is, so that’s the rationale I gave myself. Plus, living and working in and around Stoke-on-Trent, the UK’s ceramic city, I wouldn’t resist painting them Wedgwood Blue!

What will I add to them next? Given the importance of Detachments, looks like I’ll need a couple more HQ types, and I’m definitely drawn to a Cryptek…