Editing Necron (section)

== Game Play ==
[[File:Lord.jpg|300px|right|thumb|A mountain of metal, green glow and rape.]]

Necrons have strong weaponry, high toughness, but generally very little mobility. They're also expensive as hell in points.

=== Pre 5th edition Codex ===
Pre-5th edition, the Necrons competitively were monobuilt to all hell. Depending on what they were up against they would be THE virtually unstoppable shooty army, or easily countered. Essentially this came down to whether or not you had enough hard counters to heavy infantry. If you didn't, you'd get the infamous "March of Doom", which was basically a non-stop forward march of Necron Warriors, Immortals, and Destroyers to flatten the table. The Necrons' innate WBB (We'll Be Back) rolls ensured that the March was fuckhard to stop, especially in tandem with Resurrection Orbs, Pylons, Monoliths, and some of the cheesier Necron formations, since the tin-men had a very good chance of getting back up after being downed.

If you did have a counter to Heavy Infantry, you'd quickly crush the Necron infantry while ignoring the extremely resilient units like Monoliths and cause the Necron survivors to Phase Out, which means the Necron Player will auto-lose should their forces go down to 25% of the starting numbers.

Necron were also severely nerfed in the start of ''5th Edition'', due to vehicles being a bit more sturdy. In the previous edition, they could potentially destroy any enemy (including heavy vehicles) with just their default troops choice - Gauss weaponry inflicts glancing hits against vehicles on a roll of 6. Necron Warriors dispatching [[Land Raider]]s or [[Leman Russ Battle Tank|Leman Russ Tanks]] with these glancing hits was ''not'' unheard of, causing many veterans of 40K tabletop to rightly declare the Necrons to be [[Cheese]].

=== 5th and 6th Edition ===
[[File:Black crusade by yogh art-d5bqzc8.jpg|thumb|400px|left|Egyptians vs Egyptians: One are slaves to an [[Tzeentch|evil god]], other are [[C'tan|enslaving evil gods]].]]
In 5th Edition, due to the new Armour Penetration rules, Necron Warriors could still harass, stun-lock, and annoy all vehicles, but were much less able to gun down a heavy like a Predator Tank or [[Vindicator]] with simple massed Warrior fire, to the delight of non-Necron players everywhere. Massed fire from Necron Warriors ''can'' still kill a heavy vehicle, but it will take a veritable barrage of shots to do so now, making it a bit less likely that players can spam the shit out of warrior squads and come away triumphant. A smart NewCron player learns to not over-rely on Warriors now, using backup from a mix of Scarabs, Doomsday Arks, Barge Lords, Wraiths, and Harbingers of Destruction in order to pack quality anti-vehicle options.

However in 6th (due to 6th Edition's change with rapid fire rule and vehicle hull points), Necrons are back to fucking tanks in the junk. Yes, a block of 20 Necron Warriors will wreck a Land Raider in one turn, hands down, every day of the week, though they need to be within 12" for that to happen so they can rapid fire it (otherwise it only loses 2 Hull Points), and if you are that fucking stupid (12" is melta range for everyone else) you are going to lose your Raider regardless of who you are playing against.

[[Image:1227797058418.jpg|thumb|right|''5th Edition'' wrecked their shit.]]
The Necrons in 6th are still a very powerful and dangerous force. Due to VERY limited flyer defense and being able to take fliers as dedicated transports, their fliers ended up being insanely overpowered (though once everyone got reasonable AA defense that wasn't an issue) and thanks to the overall buff to shooting, the Necrons are very high tier in codex power.

Now the Necron army is all about synergy, with Overlords, Lords and Crypteks strategically placed in shooty units, and melee options like Lychguard and the infuriatingly tough-to-kill Wraiths. They also have somewhat useful Monstrous Creatures of sorts in the form of Canoptek Spyders and C'tan Shards.

Necron warriors are fairly reliable troops with near-Marine stats and a 4+ save, though they essentially have a delayed 5+ Feel No Pain Save with their "'''Reanimation Protocols'''" rule (4+ with a Resurrection Orb in the unit). Immortals are pretty much Space Marine equivalents.

The infamous [[Monolith]] is easily the most recognizable unit that the Necrons possess. It has 14 armour on each side (and thus no vulnerable spots), a main weapon that cannot be disabled with a "weapon destroyed" result and the ability to teleport your troops out of harm's way (or into it if you're badass). The Monolith is no longer the nigh invulnerable mountain of rape it used to be, as it can no longer ignore the Melta special rule, and the Monolith's combat performance is outstripped by several of their new vehicles. This means the once proud 'Lith has been relegated to Apocalypse battles. Good job, [[Matt Ward]].

Necron infantry are generally slow moving, hard hitting, much like the Space Marines, if the Space Marine infantry units had Feel No Pain as part of their base rules and they forgot to take drop pods or transport vehicles. The Necrons back this with annoying deep-strikers and fast-moving units that are designed to support the main advance. There is nothing - I repeat - NOTHING, scarier than a Necron player with almost-cheating luck. But they all look like skellingtons and some of them wear the meat of their victims, they're MEANT to be scary.

===7th Edition===
The first thing people noticed about 7E is the Necrons got back their amazing glancing powers with Gauss. This causes squees among the playerbase. Seriously, if gauss weapons were this effective in [[X-COM]]: Terror From the Deep, players would be tugging themselves off about them.

The other big change to their army is the changes made to the Reanimation Protocols (RP). Now instead of being a means of bringing everything back from the dead, it's reduced to a FNP-alike that comes after all armor saves, except it can be used against ID (Though at -1 penalty). Resurrection Orbs now give you a turn's worth of rerolls for RP. Taking a postmark identity from a once cool army a revealing the Inquisitions plan all along to destroy the necrons by giving them a personality, destroying the Star Gods and when nobody is looking taking away the we'll be back. There are some other changes (MSS now useless, Wraiths now Beasts,<s> Crypteks losing everything fun</s>, Destroyers are Jetpack Infantry), but these are the ones that changed the most.

But the single most trolltastic weapon the Necron player has on hand is the one that doesn't even involve buying a central unit: The Decurion FOC. Simply put, this is an entire formation made of Formations, with a central one giving room for warriors, Immortals, Tomb Blades, Monolith, and a central Overlord, while giving options like the good ol' Royal Court, a formation for Canoptek-flavored cheese, a formation for Triarchs, and all be counted as Battle-Forged. The biggest change this brought was that, due to each individual component being technically a formation in it's own right, this lets you field some hilariously broken shit and still counts as battleforged; want to take nothing but wraiths and spyders backed by doomscythes? now you can and watch your opponent tears flow like the nile.

===8th Edition===
[[File:Necrons_Skullfucking_Tau.jpg|600px|right|thumb|First the [[Death Guard]] and [[Rape|now this.]] The 42nd Millennium has ''really'' not been kind to the [[Tau]]. Watch as [[Szarekh]] teach the young'uns a thing or two about applying [[Anal circumference]].]]
The gauss flayers are 24" rapid fire at ap-1, and the blaster is ap-2. Living metal is also an automatic wound recovery. Monoliths have 20 wounds, and can once again suck people into its gaping maw. Reanimation Protocols are now taken at the beginning of the user turn, and on a 5+ a model that has died is returned... no matter how long ago it got offed, no matter how many previous times you've rolled for it, as long as the unit isn't wiped out you can roll for it. Mortal Wounds can kiss Necron's collective shiny metal asses. So far, Cronz are gonna be just as durable and scary as they once were.

Reanimation Protocols: Roll a D6 for each slain model from this unit (unless the whole unit has been completely destroyed) at the beginning of your turn. On a 5+ return the model to the unit. This can happen in EVERY subsequent phase. So if a warrior dies turn 1, you roll turn 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on until it's back or the unit is destroyed.

Living Metal: At the beginning of your turn, this model recovers 1 Wound lost earlier in battle. Characters and Vehicles benefit from this rule.

Powers of the C'Tan: Before the battle begins, generate the Powers of the C'tan for each C'tan Shard using the following table. You can either roll a D3 to generate their powers randomly (re-rolling duplicates) or you can select the powers you want the C'tan shard to have. -(Why they have both options is beyond me.)

-1: Antimatter Meteor: Roll a D6; on a 2+ the closest enemy unit within 24" of the C'tan Shard suffers D3 mortal wounds

-2: Time's Arrow: Pick a visible enemy unit within 24" of the C'tan Shard and roll a D6. If the result is higher than that unit's Wounds 
characteristic, one model from that unit is slain.

-3: Seismic Assault: Roll a D6 for each model in the closest enemy unit within 24" of the C'tan Shard. For each roll of 6, that unit suffers 
a mortal wound.

HQ's
Common Abilities:
ResOrb: If this Model has a ResOrb, once per battle, immediately after you have made your RP rolls, you can make RP rolls for models from a friendly <Dynasty> Infantry unit within 3" of this model.
Phase Shifter: 4+ Invuln
[[Tomb Kings|My Will Be Done]] (either GW is throwing Tomb Kings fans a bone or making a jab at us/them): At the beginning of each of your turns, choose a friendly <Dynasty> Infantry unit within 6" of this model. You can add 1 to the Advance, charge and hit rolls of that unit until the beginning of your next turn. A unit can only be affected by this ability once in each turn.

Imotekh the Stormlord:

Overlord: 7 Points
M 5"/ WS 2+/ BS 2+/ S5/ T5/ W5/ A3/ Ld10/ Sv3+
Equipped with Staff of Light, Living Metal, Phase Shifter
Can take any Melee
May take ResOrb
My Will Be Done

8th edition necrons are also almost impossible to shift from morale with army wide Ld10. The changes to vehicles have nerfed Gauss weapons into oblivion though, as although absolutely everything is now capable of wounding vehicles, the amount of wounds needed plus the low chance of wounding at all results in you needing hundreds of shots to destroy them.

===9th Edition===

8th Edition Necrons were pretty bland, all in all. 9th sought to fix that and delivered in some very good ways.

Every army in 9th has some sort of Combat Doctrine-esque gimmick. The Necrons have Command Protocols. These are orders issued out by your highest-ranking noble and repeated by every character in your army. Reflecting the Necrons' discipline and rigidity, these protocols come in the form of six different cards with two different effects; you pick five of them at the start of the game and arrange them in a very specific order. Each card is then revealed every battle round, and depending on the situation, you pick the effect that suits you best. If you play as one of the main dynasties, they each favor one of these protocols and can choose both options! After which, a unit has to start within 6" of a character to receive these protocols and benefit from them. There is a Fortification that also transmits these protocols, but it sucks ass. Don't bother with it.

Crypteks are no longer just "Crypteks". They now represent four different disciplines that they are known for. They are known as Psychomancers, Plasmancers, Chronomancers, and Technomancers. Those tiles hanging off their necks? They're totally Maesters from Game of Thrones. In space. The Infinite and the Divine even confirms they're made out of a material relevant to each Cryptek's area of expertise, and even aid in enhancing their techno sorceries! Totally not magic, you guys.

The common, rank and file warriors have a shorter ranged Gauss gun, called the Gauss reaper, which shoots at assault 2, 12", ap-2 and dmg 1. They also now have the ability to REROLL 1s ON REANIMATION PROTOCOLS. This. Is. Huge. And potentially friendship breaking... like you have any.

Speaking of Reanimation protocol: It now works... differently. You do not roll per model, PER WOUND. But that is not all. During the shooting and fighting phases, you roll on reanimation protocols every time an enemy unit finishes attacking one of your units with Reanimation Protocols and has killed at least one model in the unit, unless the entire unit got destroyed. (Not abilities, morale tests or psychic fuckery) This is also all or nothing- if a model has multiple wounds, you need to succeed (on a 5+. 4+ if affected by a Reanimator) on all of the wounds a model has to bring it back.

Single wound models like Warriors and Immortals reanimate the same as always, one die per guy since they are only one wound each. Remember the reanimation reroll on Warriors!

For multiwound units: For example, you have a unit of 10 Lychguard. They have 2 wounds each- that's 20 wounds in the unit. During your opponent's shooting phase, your Lychguard encountered the business end of a [[Stormlord|vulcan-mega bolter]]. Thankfully, it only killed 5 of them, and the rest of the weapons took down an additional two.

Seven Lychguard died, and the Stormlord's shooting is complete. This means 14 wounds. So, you roll 14d6. Set aside results of 5+; for each one, you can regain one wound. A Lychguard will not revive until you heal all of its wounds; any left over are lost. Let us say you rolled really well and got 6 fives and 5 sixes. That's 11 wounds back. This is enough to equal the wounds of 5 Lychguard, so you bring 5 Lychguard back from the dead. The single wound left over is not enough to bring back another Lychguard. Eight Lychguard remain.

Reanimation Orbs now allow a once-a-game reanimation roll for a given unit based off the base number of models they started the game with. This gives you one last chance to bring as many back as you can.

Did I mention Technomancers just straight up bring back a model with their Rites of Reanimation ability? Because they can. They can bring back one Infantry model, and if it's a Warrior unit, 1d3 Warriors, during the Command Phase. Stick one behind a unit of Heavy Destroyers and give an opponent fits.

There are now melee destroyers! To differentiate them, the classic hovering destroyers are called Lokhusts, while the melee variant are called Skorpekhs. They walk on three crab legs and are basically 40k versions of the Ossiarch Bonereapers' Necropolis Stalkers. Even their weapon options are similar. Skorpekhs even get their own Lord! These boys can melt through a Marine's armor like a hot knife through butter. If you ever felt Lychguard were too slow and lacked natural rerolls, this unit is the unit for you.

The Monolith got a fancy new resculpt. It is now a Lord of War and is extremely expensive both IRL and ingame. It has a new anti-armor loadout that replaces its gauss arrays with Death Rays. DEATH RAYS. They even got bumped up to a 2+ armor save. They still die surprisingly quickly due to not having any save vs Mortals, no FNP, and no built-in invuln save. Pair these with a Chronomancer.