Editing Aza'Gorod (section)

==On the Tabletop==
Before the [[Matt Ward|Warddex]], the Nightbringer was the hardest thing to kill outside of Apocalypse with toughness 8, five wounds, and a 4+ invuln save ([[Wraithknight|Remember when that was impressive?]]). As a monstrous creature with S10 and loads of attacks that ignored invul saves, getting near him was a death sentence. The Warddex removed it entirely in favour of more customisable C'tan Shards. It was re-introduced in 7th edition, in a [[fail|weaker state]], in an edition with rampant [[Games Workshop|power creep]] and in a codex with the strongest Necron roster yet. The C'tan went from being one of the most cheesy units Necrons had, to one of the [[rage|weakest]]. Noticeably a Relic in the Shield of Baal makes the Nightbringer Toughness 8 instead of 7, making it no longer die to boltguns, which is sort of a big deal if your opponent isn't playing [[Dark Eldar]].

'''8th Edition'''

8th Edition is the return of the Nightbringer. While still at toughness 7 with 4+ save and 8 wounds, he is now a character and thus unable to be shot at if he is not the closest unit. This adds so much to his survivability and he can now actually make it to close combat. However, the biggest change is that now the Nightbringer can [[Rip and Tear]] virtually anything. His weapons are Gaze of Death (Assault D6, 12" range, -4 AP D3 damage) and Scythe of the Nightbringer (AP -4, D6 damage). Both of these weapons hit on 2+, thanks to the Nightbringer's Ballistic/Weapon Skill, and wound on 2+ thanks to their own special rules. On top of that, he gains 1 Power of the C'tan (now 2 powers with the Codex). The most useful one being Antimatter Meteor, which is basically a 24" range Smite. Time's Arrow can also be useful in certain situations where you want to snipe out an annoying character. Seismic Assault seems the weakest of the three powers, so it is not recommended to ever take it.

[[File:Nbringer-sm1.jpg|thumb|The Nightbringer pulling a surfin' bird.]]

''(Mathhammer time)''

Antimatter Meteor requires a 2+ to cast, and deal D3 mortal wounds to the closest unit, or D6 if the casting roll was a 6.
In short, a 1/6 chance to fail to cast (0 damage), a 4/6 chance to deal D3 (average 2 damage), and a 1/6 chance to deal D6 (average 3.5 damage).
<br>Average damage per use = 1.92 mortal wounds

Seismic Assault deals a mortal wound on a roll of 6 and rolls one die per model in the closest unit.
In short, a 1/6 chance to cause a mortal wound per model in the unit.
<br>Average damage per use against a single model = 0.17 mortal wounds
<br>Average damage per use against a unit containing 11 models = 1.83 mortal wounds
<br>Average damage per use against a unit containing 12 models = 2 mortal wounds

'''Antimatter Meteor is expected to perform better against units with less than 12 models, meaning that (in most cases) it should be preferred ahead of Seismic Assault.'''

Note: With its lower dice count, Antimatter Meteor additionally has the potential to benefit more than Seismic Assault from a stratagem re-roll.

===Rules (9th Ed)===
If you thought 8th Edition made the Nightbringer a must have, then prepare yourself cause 9th truly does make the Nightbringer deserving of his title as the embodiment of the reaper. Not only has he gotten a nice stat boost, giving him an extra point in strength and number of attacks compared to his other C'tan brethren; but the changes to his abilities has made him a league apart. His normal sweeping attack with his scythe will dish out 12 S7 AP-3 D1 attack like no tomorrow, but when you want something REALLY dead use the Entropic Blow profile. Hits with S14, AP -4 for D6 damage, ignores invulnerable saves, but most importantly ''bypasses any abilities that prevents wounds from being lost'' due to his Drain Life ability. Feel no Pain? You'll be feeling it now. Tough son of a bitch like Ghazghkull that doesn't lose more than 3 wounds at a time? They can fuck off and die like any other sod too. Other (lesser) C'tan shards doing the same because of their Necrodermis? They are just as dead as everyone else. The Nightbringer mathematically defeats basically every other character in the game one on one and in the vast majority of cases, it's not even a contest, just a very brutal, very quick slaughter.

Add in the fact that Gaze of Death has been changed from a shooting attack to a unique C'tan power exclusive to him (meaning he can use it even when in CC, and attack characters even if they aren't the closest model) with 3D6, doing D3 Mortal Wounds each on a 4+; and the Nightbringer is really feeling like the incarnation of death on the table like he was always meant to be.

{| class=wikitable
|- valign=top
! Name !! M !! WS !! BS !! S !! T !! W !! A !! Ld !! Sv !! Points
|-
| C'tan Shard of the Nightbringer || 8" || 2+ || 2+ || 7 || 7 || 9 || 6 || 10 || 4+ || 370
|}

'''Wargear:'''
*Scythe of the Nightbringer:
::{| class=wikitable
|- valign=top
! Weapon !! Range !! Type !! S !! AP !! D !! Abilities
|-
|'''Scythe of the Nightbringer (Reaping Sweep)''' || Melee || Melee || User || -3 || 1 || Each time an attack is made with this weapon profile, make 2 hit rolls instead of 1.

|- valign=top
! Weapon !! Range !! Type !! S !! AP !! D !! Abilities
|-
|'''Scythe of the Nightbringer (Entropic Blow)''' || Melee || Melee || x2 || -4 || D6 || Each time an attack made with this weapon profile, invulnerable saving throws cannot be made against that attack.
|}

'''Special Rules:'''
*'''Necrodermis''': The model has a 4++ invuln save. In addition, this model cannot lose more than 3 wounds per phase. Any wounds that would be lost after this point are not lost.
*'''Drain Life''': Each time this model makes a melee attack that is allocated to an enemy model, that enemy model cannot use any rules to ignore the wound it loses.
*'''Enslaved Star God''': This model can never have a Warlord trait, Relic, and it is not a Character for the purposes of Look Out, Sir.


'''Keywords''': Monster, Character, Fly, C'tan Shard, C'tan Shard of the Nightbringer

''(Mathhammer end)''

Bottom line, if you play Necrons you '''always take the Nightbringer.''' No questions asked, he is too good not to take and while he got a huge point cost increase, IT. DOESN'T. MATTER. The Nightbringer ignores invulns, FNP saves. It can slap EVERYTHING, sweep through tarpits and he'll do it while vomiting mortal wounds. Oh yeah, and he has a stratagem, Entropic Strike, where for 1 CP, his ''Reaping Sweep ignores invulns and FNPs. That's 12 attacks at AP-3 that, if your enemy saves at 4+ or worse, go straight through. Holy shit.''

Alternate take: The Nightbringer is great, but he isn't an auto-include. His main purpose is hunting down powerful melee beat/buff sticks that rely on powerful defenses (FnP, Invulns) which he excels at, but not every army is going to have one of those, and if you go up against an army without one of those, you're going to see a lot worse performance. Another thing to keep in mind is that unlike the other big melee beat sticks like the Primarchs or Ghazkhull, he doesn't provide any benefit to other units in your army. Consider: for the price you spend on him, you could include almost 30 additional Necron warriors, or 2 doomstalkers with ~100 points to spare. Do keep in mind however that there is basically no instance in which he's going to be a ''waste'' of points. His best use is for sweeping away durable centerpiece models like Mortarion, but he can clear out essentially anything else too. It's just that without a giant nut to crack, he's not doing much that other units can't do. He's the best there is at what he does, but what he does is a bit niche when compared to other Necron centerpieces like the Silent King.