Necron Codex Mini-Review

Hey guys, I've had a decent run-through of my local gaming stores' open copy of the new Necron codex and first impressions are absolutely high! Even if one ignores the incredible buffs the army (seemingly unnecessarily) received that sees them as probably the strongest 7th Edition codex overall, the codex itself marks the return of unit specific artwork in colour; each unit in the codex gets two separate pages, one with background and full-colour artwork and the second with all of their rules. Two of the biggest complaints about the new "stream-lined" 7th Edition codices is that they mostly removed unit artwork to instead have more organized unit entries, while the rules were generally middling in turn with stronger "balance" but less true stand-outs. The new Necron codex is pretty much the opposite in that it has the artwork back in - and yes, it looks awesome - while the entire army has essentially gotten way better, with almost no units or abilities actually "nerfed" saved for those that absolutely needed points increases such as the Annihilation Barge and Night Scythe.

Still, there are so many amazing changes in the codex that I absolutely must go through in a future review; Reanimation Protocols becoming a super Feel No Pain roll, Decurion detachments and their associated formations providing ridiculous army-wide buffs, "Jump Shoot Jump" and 2 Wounds on Destroyers with no points change, Flayed Ones with 5 Shred attacks each on the charge with a Space Marine profile (less Initiative 2), Toughness 5 Wraiths that received no other changes or points increases, cheaper Triarch Stalkers that can be taken in squadrons and now provide +1 Ballistic Skill to all friendly Necron units within 6" and so many more. Even with just one look through the codex, it can be safely said that this is the best codex Games Workshop have done since at least the Eldar one in terms of rules, while it stands far above the other 7th Edition codices released so far in terms of artwork and actual print quality.

While I had little chance to really study the updated background, I assume it mostly borrows off of the groundwork the 5th Edition rework of the Necron "fluff" - I like both the old and new Necrons, so I'm happy either way in that sense. I also feel the codex has flavour in spades unlike the other 7th Edition codices with the unique Decurion detachment, all of the remaining army-wide special rules that have somehow improved with no downsides (unlike Synapse, Mob Rule and so on), superior Gauss weapons, each unit being competitive and useful in their own right and cool upgrades that make sense with the army. I can't wait to play against the re-imagined Necrons now as their 5th Edition codex already provided a pretty hefty challenge in 7th Edition, making all of the apparent buffs even more crazy in retrospect. In any case, I'll be doing a Unit Overview series for Necrons shortly after my Grey Knight review and I hope this mini-review has at least encouraged you all to take a look at the new codex and give it a try; you won't regret it!

Grey Knights - Unit Overview Part I

Greetings fellow Sons of Titan and welcome to my latest Unit Overview series, focusing this time on the Grey Knights - a Space Marine Chapter shrouded in lies and secrecy. The latest codex for the Emperor's Finest was met with an almost overwhelming negative reception due to huge swathes of the codex being removed entirely and various units not seeing the buffs they needed to remain competitive, though once put into practice many players have found great success with the army. I feel that the Grey Knights are in a far better place than they were with the old codex purely at a top level with regards to a few specific builds they are capable of putting out, while having stream-lined rules and unit entries makes it a far more appealing codex for new or inexperienced wargamers. In any case, I hope you enjoy this set of articles!

Space Wolves - Unit Overview Part V

Hello there everyone and welcome to the fifth and final addition to my Space Wolf Unit Overview series! This set of miniature reviews is designed to compress my thoughts and competitive rating of each unit in a codex so that I can cover the more recent releases without falling even further behind than I already have. So far, I've been displeased with the rate at which I put out articles but I guess I'm satisfied when it comes to the content; as long as I get back on track before another new rule-set comes out, I'll be one happy war-gamer. In this last Space Wolf oriented article for a while at least, I have elected to cover the Lords of War, Formations, Relics of the Fang and Warlord Traits; I hope you find my random musings either entertaining or helpful!

Space Wolves - Unit Overview Part IV

Greetings everyone and welcome to the fourth addition to my Space Wolf Unit Overview series! This set of miniature reviews is designed to provide prospective and veteran players alike with a general guide-line for their army composition; I hope it has proved useful to you so far! Today, I'll be covering the Heavy Support section specifically and am pleased to report it is chock full of strong or at least decent choices. Sorry for the delay.

Orks Tactica - Meganobz

Hello there everyone and welcome to my first look at one of the more brutal Ork units around, the awesome Meganobz! I've been looking forward to this particular unit review for my Ork Tactica series more than most of the other past or future articles, not just because they have epic new plastic models but also because I feel they are really coming into their own as an alternative to regular Ork Nobz. It definitely helps that they make Space Marine Terminators feel even more over-priced by comparison; in any case, I hope you enjoy this article!

Space Wolves - Unit Overview Part III

Howdy there fellow war-gamers and welcome to the third part of my Space Wolf Unit Overview series! I have elected to focus solely on the Fast Attack choices this time around and have been mightily impressed with all or most of them in a competitive sense. I hope you enjoy this article!

Space Wolves - Unit Overview Part II

Greetings my fellow Scions of Fenris and welcome to the second part of my Space Wolf Unit Overview series! I'll be reviewing all of the Troops and Elites choices in this article, sections that include some of the most crucial units in the codex for several editions running. I hope you enjoy my work and find something of use here!

Space Wolves - Unit Overview Part I

Greetings everyone and welcome to the first article in my Space Wolf Unit Overview series! It has been a long time coming with the codex having released almost half a year ago now; I have failed to adequately keep up with Games Workshops' hellish release schedule, but I am now endeavouring to remedy this in an appropriate manner. I hope you enjoy these long delayed mini-reviews of all the Space Wolf units and formations!

Return to Unit Overviews

By now, I'm sure you have all realized that I've been well behind schedule on my Warhammer 40,000 reviews; I am yet to reach the half-way mark of my Ork review and haven't even had a chance to really go over Space Wolves, Grey Knights, Dark Eldar and Blood Angels. The rumours point to Necrons and End Times: Thanquol releasing in the next month or so and I want to keep up with those as best as possible; I am absolutely sick of falling behind. With my ill cat and lots of other stuff happening lately, I think it makes more sense to just do Unit Overviews for each codex and army book until I catch up with the concurrent releases, then continue with my full reviews from there as a diversion. However it goes, I'll be sure to post a proper article up soon. Thanks again for the support!