Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Necrons (section)

==What Did 7th Bring For 'Crons?==

A lot. 
On the plus side:
*Reanimation Protocols have made Necrons undisputably the most resilient army in the game. Multi wound models are even harder to kill now and no longer will you be denied your RP rolls due to failing morale, which seriously alleviates the main two weaknesses necrons had, since the enemy can no longer kill an entire unit or frighten us out of CC to deny us our RP rolls. It is also easier than ever to get +1 to your RP with Crypteks (for perspective, we paid 30 points for the old Ress-orb without complaining) for individual squads and the Decurion detachment gets you +1 to RP for the entire army! Let's put it like this: an Immortal from a Decurion has a 3+ save and then a 4+ roll to ignore wounds, so if you're wounded 6 times you expect to save 4, reanimate one. So, effectively, your 17 point troops are Terminator resilient against small arms fire. Plus, the save is still a 5+ against instant death, which makes it amazingly better than FNP.
* The changes to Jink made the majority of Necron vehicles a hell of a lot more resilient, with a 4+ cover save for all flyers and skimmers except the Monolith. The wide use of skimmers, flyers and jetbikes means a lot of your army can always make cover. As a result, AV13 Wall army remains quite popular.
* Speaking of the death pyramid, the Monolith got a minor buff thanks to AV14 being that much harder to pop... still not enough to make it viable, though. A single Ordinance shot and some mediocre snap shooting per turn is not as useful as you think, then again it is pretty much the only ordnance blast you are going to get and it can snap fire at basically everything.
* The Ghost Ark got a huge buff. Not only does it benefit from the above mentioned improved jink save, but it has become super scoring, thanks to Objective Secured. With AV13 and 4 hull points, they're quite difficult to get rid of for most armies who aren't bringing dedicated anti-tank measures.
* The real star of this update is the Catacomb Command Barge. On one hand, it got a nerf in the sense that it is now restricted to only the Overlord (also, Chariots and their riders are now considered one model, so no more getting out of his ride). But on the other hand, if you stick your Overlord in this thing, he's going to be an utter bitch for your opponent to deal with. If properly tooled up (Warscythe, Phase Shifter, and an optional Resurrection Orb) he will have complete protection from all shots S4 or less, as he can elect to have the Barge's AV13 take the brunt. All shots that might harm the Barge (high strength/low AP), he can elect to take on the Phase Shifter's 4++ inv save. The only thing he really has to worry about is close combat, as the attacker can choose to hit either the Barge or the Overlord, and most units with Melta/Powerfists/Haywire are going to go for the vulnerable armor.
* If that wasn't enough to excite your ancient circuits, new formations fresh from the Tomb World are in the 7th edition codex, giving them move though cover and other nice stuff if you put them together in a new fancy way, that you already did in the first place. Some of them are very, very strong.
*Gauss weaponry got buffed, again. Now not only does it wreck vehicles with ease, any 6s to wound makes it an auto-wound, kind of like Fantasy rules on strength vs. toughness and Rending minus the AP2. Basically, it's back to 3rd edition for the Necrons. Though this isn't a very big buff since it'll only help against toughness 8 or above models.
* The 7th Edition Update had either price cuts or stayed the same from the 5th Edition codex. Still, compared to Space Wolves we got a point increase on our Cron-ssants. Some units such as the Lychguard and Triarch Praetorians took fuck HUEG point drops from 40 to 25 and 28 respectively, along with buffs. Wraiths got more expensive but their upgrades got cheaper, whip-wraiths are now effectively 2 points cheaper than before and gained +1 Toughness. Tomb blades got 2 points cheaper and their upgrades went from 5 or 10 points to 1 or 2 points. Destroyers got an additional wound with no price change and are now jet-pack infantry.
* The army FOC remains mostly intact but a few tweaks are in place now. Because Praetorians got an appreciable price-drop, it's possible to run fast melee units in both Elites and Fast Attack slots. Because one can now take Heavy Destroyers as a Heavy Support, in addition to running solo Heavy Destroyers in Fast Attack, you have lighter MSU-like antitank options at lower points levels, as well as the ability to double up on tank-hunters in an Allied Detachment. There is an extra layer of redundancy available that reduces some of the previous monobuild issues with the previous army. Plus, the new Decurion detachment rewards fluffy army building and gives you army wide 4+ Reanimation. Because, you know, ignoring half of all unsaved wounds is fun.
* The Doomsday Ark has a proper cannon on the front: strength 10 primary weapon large blast makes this unashamedly the strongest gun outside super-heavy, edging out the Death Ray for the title.  On top of that, the Ark is now quite capable of firing on the move: S8 AP3 blast is plenty for anything not riding a metal box.

On the down side though:
* From a flavor standpoint, Reanimation Protocols now acts like a Fantasy ward save - for each unsaved wound a model suffers, it immediately makes a roll to negate the wound.  This even works against attacks that say 'no saves of any kind' may be taken. Any Instant Death wounds lower the result of your die by 1 so you need 6s against it, and it can't be taken against Destroyer weapons or attacks that state the model is removed from play. RP is the new FNP. There goes the unique flavour of playing Necrons. Ever heard of streamlining, folks?
* Both the Annihilation Barge and the Night Scythe are now 30 points more expensive.
* Some staples of trolling were stripped to uselessness ala Tyranids. Mindshackle Scarabs come to mind.
* C'tan powers are still only used in the Shooting Phase like Psychic powers of old. No Denying bonuses outside the Adamantium Will upgrade. They're also lolrandumb and you need to pick a target before you fire.
* The Catacomb Command Barge took a hit in that the 4++ Phase Shifter only affects the Necron Overlord on it and not the barge itself. It also lost sweeping attacks. With the reworked Reanimation Protocols, no Catacomb Command barge coming back with its dead Overlord. A phylactery though makes slight compensation with IWND and the barge is now dirt cheap and still hits hard.
* The Monolith can only teleport Infantry and Jump Infantry, however this can be used with units in Reserve, Ongoing Reserve, or on the table as long as they are not locked in combat. Note that only your regular Necrons can use it as Wraiths are now Beasts. It also lost its "Test or die" effect when used offensively, along with the Exile Ray rule. Why they felt the need to make the Monolith even worse, who knows.
* Sadly, Tesla no longer affects Snap Shots, meaning that Flyer defence is now non-existent apart from other flyers who are now more expensive. Expect flying monstrous creatures to tear you a new one.
* The Crypteks were fucked hard, the Crypteks no longer get any equipment Overlords and Lords cannot get (besides the Chronometron) and the Armory has consequently shrunk due to the loss of harbinger leaving far less customization for crypteks, though there are more options for lords/overlords. The most sorely missed item is the Voltaic Stave, without which the Necrons rely increasingly more on their Elite slot for heavy anti-tank. You trade all of this for 1 extra wound and an old style resurrection orb effect - +1 to reanimation. Great, except it's pointless in a Decurion as you can't get better than 4+ RP anyway (though with the Mephrit Dynasty Cohort you replace the +1 with a reroll) and the trade off was all of the old flavour Crypteks used to bring (some day the leaders and technomages of our hyper-advanced race will have more than a fraction of the customization any basic meatling troop has...).
* The Royal Court is now a formation and has gotten smaller (down to 3 members of each max instead of 5).

Basically, when 7th hit it made this already strong army stronger. Then the 7th edition update took it to the next level. Necrons stay as a solid alternative to Space Marines as a beginner's army while compared to the other 2 Xeno codices (Orks and Dark Eldar) in 7th Edition, Necron players had better count their blessings!