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Necrons, also known by some as Noobcrons, are the Tomb King expys of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. (Which rounds off the rest of the 40K universe being Fantasy races.... IIIIIN SPAAAAAAACE.)

Gameplay-wise, some used to consider the Noobcrons to have been unduly OP during their introduction. A respectable amount of evidence can be gathered to grant credence to this viewpoint. The rapid change in fluff between the 5th edition codex and its predecessor is controversial, to put it lightly, and while both versions of the Necrons' background have their fans, many would agree that the retconning was drastic and heavy-handed.

The Necrons received a long awaited codex update in 2011... from the hated Matt Ward. After having the Necrons and Blood Angels ~~secret lovers that the universe was not yet ready to understand~~ cooperate against the 'nids, after which the noobcrons proceeded to let the fucking SPEHSS MEHREENS get away without raep, fans worried that the Great Taint would spread to the robots, who had already suffered from GW's neglect, like every non-Space Marine faction.

But there is other good news. With the Necrons now being somewhat popular, they are about to get a new slew of Forgeworld loving, thanks to the announcement that they are scheduled to be featured in Imperial Armor 12 along with the Minotaurs Chapter Space Marines (meaning we may finally get Medusa V Tomb Stalkers and Megaliths, so we don't have to rely on Pylon, Scarab, Barge, Warscythe, and Heat-ray spam to down Titans).

Fluff

Fluff - Birth of the Angry Goth Terminators

A long-ass time ago (even before the Spess Elves) the Necrontyr lived on a planet blasted by radiation from their sun. Their short lives were punctuated from beginning to end with cancers, AIDS, and pain.

At the same time, a race of psychically-attuned forefathers called the Old Ones had built a vast civilization throughout the galaxy. They seeded many races (leaving humanity alone) and generally showed off. Oh yeah, and they are speculated to be immortal lizards.

[[Grimdark|The Necrontyr met the Old Ones and quickly grew to resent their neighbors, loathing how long their lifespan was by comparison. However the war ingnited only after the Silent king ordered the necrontyr to war to keep his folk whole, the Old ones were much stronger though, and repelled the Necrontyr assaults until the race was "Exiled" back to their Death-world and surrounding systems.

The Necrontyr found a force known as the C'tan, beings with immense power over the corporeal world. The realm of the Warp, which the Old Ones used extensively, was anathema to them, and they sought nothing less than the total separation of the real world from the Maelstrom.

The Necrontyr bargained with the Deceiver - yes, (He used another name back then, why do you ask?) - for eternal life. The Deceiver promised the living Necron race immortality if they'd sacrifice their bodies to the gods to be replaced with necrodermis. The Necrontyr agreed to The Deceiver's terms, and have their souls ripped out of their bodies. And thus, the Old ones realised why you help dying races that can rip apart time itself, as weapons, without cheating. As the Necrontyr of old poured out of their domains in Tomb-ships, dynasty after dynasty yet again, but this time as Necron, The Undying.

War broke out between the Necron and the Old Ones were slaughtered by their merciless advance. The Old Ones in order to defend themselves created warrior-race after warrior-race. And by using Psychic powers and races, they turned the warp it into the manifestation of their war we now know.

After the Old Ones strategy of creating psyker race after race until they attracted the Enslavers, who feast on psykers the C'Tan found themselves... No longer needed and the Wrath of the Necron Fell upon their "Gods" and slew them all and took their shards, artifacts that held some of their force that could be used to fight. except the void dragon, and the outsider.

Yet with no foes left to fight and too weak to fight, The Silent King, their lord ordered the Necron to sleep until the galaxy awakened them, and they were ready for war once more to rebuild their Empire.

However the Eldar, oldest among the races of The Old Ones survived and the ancestors of Alaitoc have been hunting the Tombs of the undying ever since, to stop their ancient foe...

All for naught, for behold, the Tombs now sing, the time of conquest has come, and the dead will rise to rule, once more...

Gameplay

Pre 5th

Pre-5th edition, the Necrons were virtually an unstoppable Shooty army. Their simple tactic of move-shoot-move-shoot in-tandem with their gauss weaponry capable of vaporizing anything (including heavy tanks) in front of them with impunity, and their Marine-like stats spawned the all famous "March of Doom", which was basically a non-stop forward march of Necron Warriors, Immortals, and Destroyers to flatten the table. And the innate WBB 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. But that was then...

The Necron have since been severely nerfed in 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 caused (and still does) glancing hits on a roll of 6 (it used to cause automatic wounds, too, but they've done away with that ridiculousness). Necron Warriors dispatching Land Raiders or 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.

Post 5th

Post-edition update, due to the new Armor Penetration rules, Necron Warriors can still harass, stun-lock, and annoy vehicles - even heavy ones - but are 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, making this an improvement. 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 due to 6th Edition's change with rapid fire rule and vehicle hull points, Necrons are back again 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.

In spite of the nerf, Necrons remain a competent and extremely dangerous force to an infantry-based army (especially the Tyranids who are easily fucked over by Tesla weapons and Mindshackle Scarabs). A competently-run Necron army will be able to threaten heavy vehicles as well; one that continues to over-rely on Necron Warriors will find itself getting raped if a Leman Russ, Manticore Rocket Launcher, Deathstrike Missile Launcher, or Vindicator hits the table. Stat-wise, Necrons are rather similar to Space and Chaos Marines, though they essentially have a 5+ Invulnerable Save with their "Reanimation Protocols" rule (4+ with a Resurrection Orb in the unit). Back when they only had one troop type, and one vehicle, they were an army heavily-focused on shooting. Now it's 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 (Flayed Ones got nerfed bad, and are now the worst unit in the codex... at least until 6th Edition rules change shit up, maybe)(NOPE!). They also have somewhat useful Monstrous Creatures of sorts in the form of Canoptek Spyders and C'tan Shards.

The infamous Monolith is easily the most recognizable unit that the Necrons possess. It has 14 armor on each side (and thus no vulnerable spots), a main weapon that cannot be disabled with a "weapon destroyed" result, the ability to teleport your troops out of harm's way, and, in the previous edition, the only skimmer that would not crash when immobilized. In the current edition, skimmers only crash if they moved flat-out the previous turn - and the Monolith can't actually move fast enough to crash when it gets immobilized. However, the same update to glancing hits made it even harder to destroy. The Monolith is no longer the nigh invulnerable mountain of rape it used to be, thanks to its ability to shrug off Melta weapons being removed, but is still relatively decent... however, several of their new vehicles out strip it in many ways, so the once proud 'Lith has been relegated to Apocalypse battles only, in most cases.

Necron infantry are generally slow moving, hard hitting, much like the space marines, if the space marines were able to get back up after dying. They back this with annoying deep-strikers and fast-moving units that are designed to support the Necron player's advance. There is nothing - I repeat - NOTHING, scarier than a Necron player with almost-cheating luck.

An Example:

Player one has just destroyed player two's Necron warrior squad.

Player two, A.K.A. Kenny, makes his Reanimation Protocol roll.

Player one, A.K.A. Commander Numb-Nutz, is making odd sounds with his mouth, in mockery of Kenny.

Kenny, A.K.A. Rob, rolls ten 6's. Commander Numb-Nutz promptly stops making noises with his mouth.

Kenny A.K.A. Rob puts his Necron Squad back on the board, and promptly smokes Commander Numb-Nutz's ass from here to the golden shithouse.

Victories n' Whatnot

Necrons, though vicious in certain types of combat, aren't really great at winning, and are generally a hit-or-miss force, either outright flattening the opponent or getting steamrolled themselves.

If you want to win with Necrons, be prepared to do your fucking homework and learn how the different units in the codex interact with each other. There are now several competitive army list builds, each one utilizing a different borderline cheating tactic. These include:

-Warrior Phalanx: More or less played like the old way, use Warriors by the dozens, and be prepared to back them up with support like Ghost Arks and Lords with Res Orbs. These bricks are fucking hard to kill, and put out a metric shit ton of shots, especially if lead by a Phaeron.

-TremorCrons: Use fucking HQ + C'tan combo hax to stop your opponents from moving (or forcing them to lose a third of their models to dangerous terrain tests).

-Wraith Wing: MORE WRAITHS. MORE. (throw in a Destroyer Lord or two and eat Deathstars for breakfast).

-Scarab Farm: Shit tons of Scarabs, and about 9 Spyders to shit even MOAR Scarabs out every turn. Overwhelm EVERYTHING with the little buggers (HOPE YOU WEREN'T PLANNING ON USING THAT LANDRAIDER THIS GAME!)

-Maximum Threat Overload: Too many threats to deal with, opponents have trouble prioritizing which to kill first (Command Barges, Wraiths, Scarabs, Doom Scythes, LanceTeks). Usually ends with tables being flipped in frustration.

Alternately, one can play Apocalypse and use the Monolith Phalanx, which is one of - if not THE - cheesiest bullshit since 2nd edition Tyranid bullshit (eg. Tyranid Apocalypse formation "out of ammo sarge!"), but as that formation has been errata'd, the Cronz now hold the uncontested title of cheesiest formation ever... until IA12 hits, that is, and the circle of nerf is complete.

In Battlefleet Gothic

They are still totally fucking overpowered in Battlefleet Gothic though; their cruisers can crush many other race's battleships without much trouble. Moving on!

The Harbinger of update

Incidentally, the first sign of the new fluff changes was a Black Library novel called Fall of Damnos. Instead of the usual soulless abominations who just walk forward in silence and shoot you, the Necron PoVs showed off a complex royal hierarchy featuring the Cryptek Ankh's political machinations and various competing and jostling Lords who all have their own ambitions and problems. Most notable is the Necron "afflictions", where Necrons who long for their flesh will go crazy and become Flayed Ones, hunting for new skins. Meanwhile Necrons who go a bit too far towards the machine-end end up mutilating themselves into Destroyers. It's all very wacky, and the Necrons are actually pretty talkative too, where the Lord Tahek Voidbringer has some momentary banter with Tigurius during their battle. There's also Sahtah the Enfleshed, a "Flayer Lord" who happily gallops across the icy world of Damnos in his quest for a new face, and the Undying, a very old Lord who constantly forgets where he is in time. You also get weird shit where Necron Warriors let out metallic cries when they phase out, An abandoned and empty throneroom complete with ornate mirrors and empty throne underground, and the fact that Necrons can open their mouths, shrug, and laugh.

On the one hand, the new fluff from Damnos feels very "Tomb Kings in Space", however on the other, it does do a decent job of fleshing out the until-this-point C'Tan lackeys a bit (and Tomb Kings fluff is pretty legit, so ripping it off might not be too bad). However, according to the new Codex, the Necrons themselves did away with the C'Tan and now do their own thing, employing their former masters as nothing more than genies in bottles.

POETRY AND SHIT

The heavens cry upon the tarnished earth

In search for its lost and forgotten spirit

Humanity had long left its homeland

Leaving a hollow shell of its dreams

A lost soul remains in purgatory

Forever encased in a tomb of metal

As light dawns on the world once more

Time itself would be reset

Reasons to be a Necron

You never die!
You have arguably the best dakka in the whole game
You look completely badass
Remember how awesome General Grievous was the first time he appeared? That's how necron overlords fight in fluff, up to the point they could bring low heavyweights like captain Cato Sicarius, or 2 CSM lords in terminator armour and their retinue at the same time if "Fall of Damnos" or the Word Bearers novels are any indication.

Gallery

Suddenly, Monoliths just got even more awesome.
Angry Marines can really fuck your shit up.
Necron players are well-known for their carefully planned tactics of "move-shoot-move-shoot".
Thanks to Matt Ward this is now canon. Give thanks to our spiritual liege for Thaszar the Invincible!
IN THE GRIM DARKNESS OF THE 41ST MILLENNIUM, THE ARGUMENT STILL RAGES
Here we see the humble Lolcron, irritably drawing away.
Lolcron and lolicron - know the difference!
The funk of 40,000 years.
Lolcron is a lazy bum these days.
Necron update 2011 in a nutshell.
The Necron's ace in the hole.
Damn space commies.
Goddamnit.
This is what we call a xeno double-down.
Monoliths are known to inspire great songs.
Flayed Ones are adept at finding ways to maintain a nice figure.
Phaeron Imotekh in all his egotistic glory.
Flayed Ones, the fashion icons of the 40k universe

Flayed Ones, the fashion icons of the 40k universe