New codex ramblings

[Ahzek451]

This may or may not be the type of rant you were expecting.

As with most new codex releases, you will always find a trend of folks split on opinion. Is it a bad codex? Is it a good codex? What makes a good codex? You will find this opinion battlefield of brutish comments littered on no better place than facebook. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Someone likes the new reanimation rules, someone else does not. Do we know why? Someone thinks the codex is great, another does not. This argument will never end because a perfect codex will never be made. Duh. Anyone that has spent just a few years in this hobby knows this. But it is fascinating to see the arguments swing back on forth on what makes a codex good or bad. Is it…good because it fixes a lot of issues and because the army can stay top tier with a handful of certain units or maybe even just one build? Is it…bad because some units seem wildly or even mildly underpowered?

It’s a weird balancing act.

We have already seen the trend. Monoliths, reanimation protocols(notably on MW units) and any rules that have to do with bringing back models, command protocols, the reanimator, the hexmark, the obelisk, tesla, and anything else I may have missed. All seem to keep popping up as common complaints.

 

But while I agree with a lot of these complaints, the one that drives me bonkers with the new book is the lack of fluff. And yet I don’t see this brought up very much. I will admit, when I excitedly open a new codex for the first time the first thing I do is briefly look at each page for about 3 seconds. After this, I do not go straight to the rules. I start with page 1. I get stoked to read the standard codex fluff. While normally a lot of it is known knowledge and repeated from before, I still appreciate any re-writes and hidden or subtle changes. With this codex I was bitterly disappointed. I say bitterly because jeez…this has been the BIGGEST update to necrons since ward sunk his teeth into it. The KING WAS BACK! With a new dynasty and a TON of new units and models. I was so excited to read about all of it. And yet…while we did get a few paragraphs on the king and his new dynasty. That was it. Is this the most you cold muster up GW? What I missed the most was the unit descriptions. A page or 2 dedicated to each unit describing its background and fluff. I was thinking WOW, I can’t wait to read up more on the void dragon, destroyers, monolith, etc. I want to read MORE about what the void dragon is like on the battlefield. Let’s hear more about the canoptek thing on its back. How about why there are so many more destroyer cults and what they are like. I want to read more about how the hexmark stalks its victims and targets foes. And for pete’s sake…WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE MONOLITH!

 

Brand new model. Drastic changes in all forms except for its basic shape and gateway function. Now we have this thing that is no longer one solid object. For anyone that has put one together, it is essentially a floating pillar with an energy ball on top, with massive cables connecting to separate hollow walls and then separately connected to 4 massive blackstone slabs. And it’s got a canoptek critter on the back! GEE I can’t WAIT to read the unit description on this big boy. Like, what’s with the massive blackstone slabs? What the hell is the robot bug doing on it’s back? Is it controlling or maintaining the energy sphere? I must know these things! And what did we get? Forget the whole LOW, cost, and lack of defense arguments. No real unit description. Nada. It’s just there. And at the risk of sounding like a broken record, let’s dive into the rules a touch.

Blackstone.

 For necrons its huge now. It is the common and biggest ingredient to the new changes besides the king, all the destroyers, etc. Narrative-wise it is our anti-warp weapon. Szeres has a small chunk and can make psykers hurt themselves. Nifty. The king has two floating slabs and 2 smaller pillars attached to his dias. They can deny a power. Cool, but with that much blackstone I was hoping for a touch more considering tomb spyders can do the same thing and have these tiny crystal things underbelly, but whatever I’ll take it and be happy. The monolith. Has theeee biggest chunks of blackstone ever seen on anything. And there is nothing. No rule, no description. Zilch. Why GW? I just don’t understand how this could be overlooked. It seems like a massive missed opportunity.

And while this is mostly meant to be a rant about the lack of fluff, I do want to dive into one more aspect of the monolith. I understand a lot of folks want a simple fix of quantum shielding on this guy but as much as I would love to see that I don’t think it would be a good fit. I personally get the impression that QS tech is unique to the small lighter war machines of the necrons. Monoliths, obelisks, vaults, etc. not meant for them. But dang this is missed opportunity for GW. A lot of folk probably don’t know that living metal originated with the monolith. From it’s inception to pre-9^th the monolith always had some of the best unit descriptions for living metal. Why not build on this? Why couldn’t the monolith have it’s own unique form of living metal? Perhaps a damage reduction rule and/or repairs d3 instead of just 1? Screw it, just give it QS :P.

 

I digress. I just wanted to rant about a part of the codex that was omitted, and I personally feel this was a very large omission. I was so looking forward to reading about what various dynasties were up to, more interactions with each other and other races, more details about the king. Unit descriptions. This is not a good codex(to me) in this regard. I understand that I have the luxury to complain about this during a messed up time. But this is just my simple criticism for a codex standard. Maybe there is a reason why it lacked fluff and it was a design choice at the time. Who knows. So I don’t really take this to heart as an angry super nerd. I just see it as something to acknowledge and for GW to work on.

 

Brilliant artwork though. Top notch.

 

Side note: played another game. Another notch into the “why command protocols” belt. I think it would help a lot if you keep the rule that says you lost command protocols if there are no nobles on the table. But get rid of the range limitations. Make it army wide until the nobles are down.

Loving that void dragon. Vs. some knights. It’s pretty unfair for them.

 

 

What do you guys think? Did I miss something? Love what we got for fluff? Hate it?