Bonzi

The models are fantastic but I agree with the Goonhammer review that the unit at 100pts doesn't really give us anything we need. It's just another infantry unit competing for the same roles as Battle sisters, Novitiates, and Dominions. I do like how many flamers the unit can carry and there are some fun rules in there, especially the miracle lady who can open hand slap someone for 3 damage devastating wounds

Well, it looks like the balance update is in and we have a partial walk back of the miracle dice nerf, and a handful of units getting a welcome points cut. Now we at least get a miracle dice for every unit which dies so overall we are down by probably 1/3rd of our miracle dice rather than 2/3rds. Arcos, Repentia, Sacresants, Seraphim, Zypherim, and Dominions all taking a cut are welcome. The disappointments for me are Retributors and the Exorcist remaining inexcusably over-costed. I also think they should have taken back the nerf to Bringers of Flame range.

I think a lot of the points will get walked back and hopefully the rule nerf to Bringers of Flame. I don't think they'll fully walk back the miracle dice because it's very apparent from the Eldar changes and these nerfs, GW has real heartburn around the dice substitution mechanic. I would bet money that in the next edition the mechanic will be gone entirely. The shame of this is the entire codex is built around using miracle dice....you can't just take them away without revisiting every unit that uses or generates miracle dice. So we have a dex built around a mechanic that GW clearly wants to phase out which probably means we will be in some amount of limbo until a new edition drops.

I will say a month on from the nerf bat, I have put Sisters on the table in the last couple weeks and have had success. I have built skew lists just to goof off based around a few key assumptions. #1. Don't build around miracle dice, it isn't worth it and you won't get enough to matter. Spending points to improve or manage that resource is a waste of time. #2. Most of our units are too expensive and too fragile and our characters have too little impact to be worth the cost of adding them to units. #3. Hallowed Martyr has the best generic buffs and the most useful and affordable strats. In all my lists my biggest focus has been on spamming basic sisters squads, rhinos, and immolators as the core. 40-50 Sisters hitting the table with a lot of Rhino hulls for mobility. One to two characters max. I don't bother with Seraphim, Zephyrim, Sacresants, or Retributors....they all cost too much and dies to easy. I focus almost entirely around board control and performing actions for score. The lists can kill in aggregate, but individual units usually don't do much at all, just chip damage that adds up. Sisters are frail, but 40-50 3+ saves along with and 40-60 wounds worth of T9/10 vehicles takes time to chew through and most armies build units around taking down dangerous targets. Those units fail to make much impact when they can only kill a Rhino or 5 Sisters a turn. I have won the games I've played but even in winning, it doesn't feel very satisfying. It's hard not to ask your opponent 'you pay how much for that unit?' or 'your army rule lets you do what!?' and then feel upset at how bland or over-costed Sisters feel by comparison. Miracle dice feel...pointless. Granted some of that is that I didn't build my list to use or improve them...but I'm only using one per turn max, less if I'm only rolling duds. I love Sisters and I'm happy I have found ways to win with them in their current state and I did have fun making skew horde lists that surprised opponents. But I will say for every bit of fun I had, there was an equal measure of frustration or disappointment for how raw the faction is right now.

It makes a lot of utility choices strong on their own. Tomb Blades, Triarch Praetorians, and Triarch Stalker were able to do more than just complete actions and hold points. With the +1 to hit those units punched above their weight in the games I've played.

It's certainly the best detachment for them but at the end of the day, AnniBarges just don't do much that's unique or interesting. The splash mortals are nice but not reliable. +1 to hit vs targets on objectives is nice and the reroll 1s from a CCB lord is good too, but at the end of the day it's still only St 8 AP 0 attacks. Damage 2 is nice but with no rend you need volume and barges just don't have volume unless you're super hot on the 6s. It's a gun that's good against tough multiwound models that don't have good armor saves.....that's an incredibly narrow niche. The times I've brought a single AnniBarge this edition they've been nice chip damage and are pretty tough with a 4++ but I've always struggled to get my value from them. By contrast the Starshatter rules and reroll CCB can lift Doomstalkers and Doomsday Arks to some really high lethality and those units are dangerous enough to benefit from the durability strats of the detachment.

I played a game with it the day after it came out. I ran a 50/50 flying circus destroyers and vehicle spam (X2 Triarch & X2 Doom Stalkers, Annihilation Barge, Doomsday Ark, and a CCB). The buff for +1 to hit on enemies on objectives was far more useful than I ever thought it would be. It lets a lot of units that can't be joined by characters in an Awaked Dynasty really shine. The enhancements are game changers, especially the reroll aura on a CCB. The detachment is super CP hungry so I think Immotek is almost a must take as much as it irritates me to pay points just for a CP generator. This detachment unlocks a lot of units that can get character support due to the buff and the rerolls from the enhancement. I'm looking to try out Ophydians, Praetorians, and Tomb Blades. I think my biggest sadness is I wish there was something in here that gave a bigger nudge to AnniBarges. Assault on the guns and +1 to hit vs objective targets is nice but they're not useful enough to waste the durability strats on them. It feels like most of our other vehicles make more interesting gains from this detachment.

I can say they haven't had an invulnerable save as far back as 7th edition. The Decurion back in the day used to hand out a 4+++ feel no pain that was absolutely insane. Invulnerable saves must have been 5th Ed or earlier....back in the days of phase out rules maybe?

I had the chance to run a Bringer of Flame detachment yesterday in a 2K game against Grey Knights. The extra strength buff on things like flamer pistols and all of the bolt weapons was a big help and made some of our more humble weapons feel more useful. Even the buff on melta guns made a difference as I could wound T5 infantry on a 2+. While I did well remembering the strength buff to guns, I mostly forgot about the advantages of all weapons being assault. The real bummer is that before this most recent update, assault weapons were hugely helpful in completing objective actions even after running. Unfortunately assault no longer has that added bonus which brings the detachment down a bit. I got the most use out of the Dev wounds flamer, armor of contempt and basic overwatch strats. +1 to wound vs units on an objective was situationally useful. The two transport based strats didn't come up.

Very excited for the new book and the majority of the changes seem positive. The last remaining piece of the puzzle is what the actual unit costs are. The upshot there is I would rather have good rules and bad points than bad rules and good points (which is how I would define our current index). Points are easy to adjust in a few months but a bad rules have to wait an entire edition to be fixed.

I would point out there are (or were) 10th edition armies that did lean on their Battleline units. Necron players even at the tournament level made use of Immortals and Cryptek buffing characters. As a reward for having a good Battleline unit with character synergy, Immortals and Crypteks caught a points increase. It's hard to listen to GW bemoan how nobody takes Battleline when they make sure to nerf good Battleline.

I love the model. It was such a stunning glow up of his previous incarnation. I wish GW would take liberties like this when they refresh other OG models instead of holding so close to looks and poses of originals (looking at you Dante). I love a Necron army built around a core of hard to shift infantry and Sezeras delivers a great mix of defense and offensive buffs. I've never one had his aura buff expansion kick in when it would matter so I consider that part of his rules a dud. The only Detachment that really helps him is Canoptek because at least he gets rerolls, but I think he has a role in any detachment that favors battle line infantry.

I will say I just threw two squads of 20 Warriors down in an Obesiance Phalanx game vs Orks. Each squad had an Overlord and one had a Cronomancer and the other had Orikan. The warriors actually punched above their weight but did they do better than other units would have for the same points? Hard to say. I leaned hard into the utility of lethal hits and the Strat Enslaved Artifice which gives crits on 5+. I was tearing large chunks of wounds off of Killrigs and an entire unit of the newer Ork infantry (not Boyz). Both squads took charges from melee units and bounced them off and resurrected back to full health thanks to rez orbs and a Reanimator. I did spend four turns pushed back into a corner by endless waves of Orks but by turn 5 I had run of the board. Every time I've run warriors they have been surprisingly effective. They punch up vs tougher units where their lethal hits really shine. It's a call back to the days when Gauss infantry were a viable way to kill tanks. They will flail against 2+ armor saves. They also aren't great as infantry/horde killing without a lot of support, frankly Tesla does it better....but they have real tec into high toughness enemies.

Generically Necrons are in a solid place. The current dex is infinitely better than last edition. Necrons are still a top tournament army but the most recent point changes have put the army down to one really effective build. Canoptek leaning into Doom Stalkers and Wraith spam. If those units take a points hike Crons will probably fall off the top leader boards unless GW hands out some point cuts to other units. Now if you don't care about tournament meta the dex is fantastic. The Obesiance Phalanx and the Destroyer Cult detachments are poor to actively bad, but the other 4 are fun and offer a lot of different ways to build functional armies. Most of our units have some amount of play even and or interesting rules. If you love Warriors the army will be a little rough for you but it's not impossible. Warriors are too expensive to spam for a unit that doesn't really kick out damage on its own. They're purely for holding an objective and absorbing damage. As such one or two 20 man blobs is about the most you would reasonably want to bring. 10 mans are just too frail to be worth the cost. If you are set on Warriors look to Sezeras to make them more lethal, Reanimators to make them more durable or Chronomancers to make them more mobile. Awakened Legion and Canopetk Court or Hypercrypt Legion have the best rules to help them.

I ran one in a list just to try it out. I played against Guard so I found the deny cover ability to be the only useful thing about its shooting (I ran the heavy gauss cannon which is too weak for vehicles, but would likely shine vs Marines). In general the points are steep for such a generic unit and I'd rather have a more interesting synergy or leadership ability from a Triarch unit. The heat ray is probably the best all round gun for the model. The best ability it has is a scout move that lets you get on mid board objectives early. I have three and I plan on fielding them in an Obesiance Phalanx army to see if the +1 to wound and some of the Triarch keyword strats might make them shine. In general I find this to be one of the few Necron units whose glow up from last edition was very phoned in and lackluster.