In my view, the current Index indicates issues on the rules design direction for Necrons that, if not addressed, could result in issues for competitive play that could be prevented and offer better gameplay for Necrons and their opponents. To summarize, some rules don't scale well and allow good opponents to easily ignore them hamstringing the Necron players ability to capitalize on their unique design. Others, like the wayt Necron transports currently are set-up, just plainly make such models unusable in competitive play due to liability they represent.
I'll start with what have been positive changes and interesting concepts for Necrons:
- Quantum Shielding: It's great. It sounds alien and is unique to Necrons, is a great rule that is relevant most of the time and feels very rewarding, even though it does result in enemy heavy weapons going somewhere else and doing even more damage there, but that's the whole point.
- Reanimation Protocols: Going back to a unique rule that actually puts models back in the table (as opposed to a plain extra save) was very welcome change from 7th that rekindles the feeling of the army back in its firt incarnations. The rule has issues that are discussed in detail below.
Reanimation protocols issues
- New rules wins: The new rendition of Reanimation Protocols (RP) feels very thematic, I love putting models back on the table as opposed to just passing saves back in 7th. As much as it feels great though, its current iteration creates some crippling issues.
- Negation Issue: The rule can be completely negated by an opponent if he manages to wipe your squads. There is nothing the Necron player can do to prevent this and it basically means that the premium in unit cost paid for the special rule is lost in several situations.
- Scale Issue: Reanimation Protocols (RP) as is has a scaling problem in where it is strong in small scale games and loses power significantly as the games scale up. The more power your opponent has to wipe your units, the smaller the effect RP has. The issue becomes even more significant if the enemy fails to wipe the unit, as then its power is at a peak efficiency due to all the rolls you get to make. This issue has to be addressed as it is the signature ability to Necrons and equals a premium on unit costing that has become a liability for Necron Players and opponents alike.
- Army composition issue: Due to its current design, RP encourages the use of large units to take maximum advantage of the ability (or even just to guarantee it won't be ignored by a unit wipe). The result is that Necron Armies have to pay a tactical tax on top of paying a unit point cost tax already. Larger blocks of warriors means costlier base tax for detachments. It all results in Necrons paying several interests on top of the base unit cost that compound into very limited actual build choices. This also results in the army losing in on Command points due to the high tax of its troops choices.
- Conclusion: The combination of being easily negated by experienced players and the fact that it heavily impacts list-building into either ignoring it (going for Canoptek units or Quantum-shield spam) or sinking points into huge squads that don't do that much (basic infantry with no special wargear) means that Necron Players have a small toolbox to work with.
- Proposed exploration: Allow rolling of RP after a unit wipe in some fashion. Maybe allow them to bolster other units already on the table (enemies have to wipe ALL warriors to deny warrior RP) or allow Necrons to roll for wiped units (resurrection orbs should do THAT and be recosted accordingly).
- Proposed Rules Draft:
- Reanimation Protocols: Remains as is.
- Phase-out: After dealing all wounds that would wipe a unit with this rule, but before removing the last model in that unit, make one reanimation protocol roll for each model in the unit that has been removed as a casualty. If they pass, place them in coherency with the model left on the table following the reanimation protocol rules. If no models pass their reanimation protocols, remove that last model from the game as a casualty. All models that fail cannot make any more reanimation protocols that game as they have phased out to their Tombworld. If a Character is returned in this manner, it returns with half it's wounds attribute, rounded up.
- Add Reanimation Protocol to all Necron Characters.
Tombworld Deployment issues
- Cool new rule: It should feel like you are the master of a legion that can teleport troops on a whim across the galaxy, but the actual inner workings of the rules makes them too much a liability.
- Lack of Transport keyword: The lack of this keyword on our transports means that units arriving from Transportation Beams arrive from reserves and can't move after arriving (unless clarified by a FAQ).
- Lack of character support: Since you can only bring 1 unit at a time it breaks any type of character synergy as troops are isolated and unsupported, unless the player dedicates extra resources on an additional transport for the supporting characters.
- Losing the transported units is too great a liability: Since we lose the emergency disembarkation rules and just outright lose our reserved units, on top of the issues above, Necron Players simply don't feel that investing in transports and putting precious points in tomb-world development is worth the risk of losing it all.
- Proposed exploration: Consider allowing characters to be beamed over alongside a unit deployed from Tombworld. Give every model able to teleport units onto the table the Transport keyword. Consider some alternative to emergency disembarkation or even just allow the units to safely disembark upon destruction and factor that in the points cost of a transport unit, something that makes Necrons feel even more advanced, ignoring certain perils that other races must consider when transporting units.
Lack of character synergy
- Destroyer Lords are melee beasts, but buff a ranged option.
- Necron Lords are near useless as Leadership 10 is hardly an issue and most players will auto-pass anything that manages to threaten morale tests.
- Overlords only buff a single unit, as opposed to something like SM chapter masters and their buff auras.
- Proposed exploration: Explore the Necron Hierarchy. Make Overlords be able to buff more units the more Lords you have, make Lords cheaper and allow them to enhance an Overlord's buffs. Something unique to Necrons. Overlords could get a secondary aura ability based on supporting lords/crypteks that are present.
Lack of Psychic power counters
- Necrons should be somewhat resistant to Psychic powers, especially mortal-wounds generators since they are so much resistant to damage.
- Proposed exploration: Allow Necrons a FNP against mortal wounds on the psychic phase.
Conlcusion
Necrons have greatly risen to the top hated lists to play against from the infamous ruling of reanimation protocols in 7th edition. This may be related to an over zealousness on the balancing of Reanimation Protocols that, as demonstrated above, are not a reliable resistance as it once was. The fact that some subtle changes could elevate these rules to new and interesting gameplay dynamics, to me, is a lost opportunity to keep the game diverse. Of course that unit costing can fix any issues, but using an approach of over or under-costing miniatures to compensate for mechanical depth only results in shallow gameplay mechanics. The resulting ever-shifting meta circles around the cheapest broken exploit instead of a healthy mechanics-based flow.