Reviewed by Marc Farrimond

A few years ago if you went into a Games Workshop store or your local games club and someone asked you what Warhammer 40,000 army you collected and you replied 'I collect Necrons', then the chances are you would more than likely been laughed out of the place, ridiculed and found it difficult for other gamers to take you seriously. For some reason there was a lot of bad stigma attached to being a Necron player, and I speak as a gamer who first collected the miniatures and has had an army since they where released.

Times change and ultimately move onwards and this month sees the launch of Codex Necrons the latest in the series of codices for Warhammer 40,000, along with a completely redesigned set of miniatures, both metal and plastic to accompany it. The Necrons have grown from their original background article in White Dwarf magazine and are now a force the be feared and in the near future I am more than sure that they will give nightmares to a great many players on battlefields the world over.

Coming in at 64 pages, Codex Necrons re-invents the history and background of this strange mechanical race and their thirst to wipe out all living creatures in the universe. The Necrontyr where an ancient race, who where at the peak of their civilisation before even the mighty Eldar walked upright. They where a doomed race however and life expectancy on their home-world was short and erratic due to the heavy radiation pushed out by their sun. The Necrons desired nothing more than life, but despite their technology they where still a doomed morbid race, obsessed with dying and death.

Enter into the picture a race as old as time itself, The Old Ones, and as a result war between the Old Ones and the Necrontyr, a war which the Necrontyr had no hope of winning. The Necrontyr discovered a race of star-born entities who lived in the very suns that caused their home world and those around it so much damage, and seeing in them an ultimate way to destroy the Old Ones they began to worship these 'Star Gods' or C'tan in their own language. The C'tan had been around for countless millennia, feeding off the proto-matter given out by stars, but their contact with the Necrontyr gave them a new thirst to quench, life itself. The Necrontyr received great powers from the C'tan and began on their road to perfection, purging their bodies and replacing them with mechanical ones. Soon almost nothing remained of the ancient race of the Necrontyr, and all that stood it in its place was the mechanical servants of the C'tan, the Necrons.

The war against the Old Ones was not as simple as either the C'tan or Necrons has believed it would be, and wars raged between the C'tan themselves, forcing the star gods to take shelter and slumber while they waited for a more opportune time to destroy what remained alive. The Old Ones created races to counter the threat of the C'tan and some of these young races still survive in the 41st Millennium. Millions of years of battle between the C'tan and their enemies the Old Ones, left the universe a barren and torn place and the Old Ones had little recourse than to speed up the evolution of the young races and use their mastery of psychic power and the warp to destroy the C'tan.

The C'tan and their metallic forces of billions of Necrons where eventually forced to seek refuge in stasis and await for a time when the young races had all but extinguished themselves, leaving the universe ripe for their domination. For millions of years the Necrons and their star-gods slept in their tombs, waiting for the right signals and time to strike back at the hated living and the Old Ones. Now the Necrons have begun to emerge from their tauper, only to find that there are now millions of life forms and new races in their place, and the circle of war will have to begin afresh.

As can be expected with a Games Workshop codex, there is a great deal of background information, artwork, and a complete army list featuring all the latest miniatures from the company for the force. Those used to playing with a Necron army will find a lot has remained the same, but there are some completely new troop choices and wargear that all add up to make this an army that can be nigh on unstoppable if used correctly.

Old favourites such as the 'We'll be back' rule are still around, but have been updated slightly to take into account changes in 40K 3rd Edition, and like the Terminator from the movies they have a nasty habit of getting back up again no matter how hard you hit them. They still get their extremely nasty Gauss weapons, which are capable of stripping a foe down to their basic atoms and render even the most powerful armour all but useless.

Troops
Now Necron players have more troop choices than ever before and even get a transport vehicle that makes a Landraider look like a matchbox, and for each new troop type there are all new miniatures, both metal and plastic, each illustrated in the book with both artwork and full colour photographs in the sixteen page colour section.

Necron Lords, Necrons, Scarabs, Immortals and Destroyers are names you will be familiar with, but new troop types such as Pariahs, Wraiths, Flayed Ones, and Tomb Spyders will soon be making life very difficult for players everywhere.

Pariahs are an Elite choice for your army roster and are excellent to field against races such as Eldar or Tyranids as the Necron/Humanoid hybrids can disrupt a psykers connection with the warp and are armed with a lethal Warscythe that will slice through almost anything. Pariahs make an excellent bodyguard for you Necron Lord, and can be fielded in units of 4-10, and they are excellent for reducing the high Leadership values of races such as Eldar causing them to flee in panic.

Wraiths are a Fast Attack choice in your army list and like the name suggests they move like ghosts about the battlefield, passing through solid objects and terrain as if they were not there, making them excellent for fast attack troops and they are always counted as if they are in cover giving them excellent saving throws.

Flayed Ones are another Elite choice on your roster and are grotesque creatures that are ideal when facing troops such as Imperial Guard or those with a low Leadership and morale value. These Necrons are infiltrators and will use the very flesh they have torn from their victims and drape it over their metallic hides, making them skulking parodies of both Necron and victim alike.

Tomb Spyders are an Heavy Support choice and are used to make repairs to Necrons on their Tomb-ships and as such can be used to repair Necrons on the battlefield and even create Scarab swarms. These mechanical beasts can be deadly in close combat and you are given the option of upgrading them to carry a particle projector, which works in much the same way as the Necron Lords 'Staff of Light'.

The Monolith is the only vehicle available for the Necron force, and is perhaps the most formidable vehicle in the 40K universe. It can act as both a transport and a powerful weapon, allow troops to regroup and rally and can even make repairs on troops. It has a 14-armour rating all over making even the most powerful weapons all but useless against it.

The C'tan
As well as the new Necron troops and vehicle you will now have the chance to field one of the C'tan in their corporeal from in your force. There are four surviving C'tan mentioned in the supplement but only two are named, Nightbringer and the Deceiver. Full rules are given for fielding these godlike creatures with your force and they are easily powerful enough to go one on one with any demon, chapter master or avatar in the 40K universe and still come out on top. Nightbringer is perhaps the most useful of the two characters and is very combat orientated, where as the Deceiver uses trickery and subterfuge to confuse his foes. It is hinted throughout the codex that the Omnissiah on Mars the Machine God is in fact a C'tan and this seems extremely likely and will set up things for the future of both the Imperial empire and the Necrons alike. Also another hint seems to have been dropped with the Deceiver character. Though it doesn't exactly state it in black and white, the Deceiver can take on many forms and has visited many races. Could this enigmatic godlike creature be the mysterious Ethereal who steered the Tau from destruction? The resemblance to this character and the Tau is striking, with the creature bearing the same gem like addition in its forehead. Mere coincidence?

Conclusion

The Necrons are now a very powerful force indeed, and have some really cool new troops which I will review elsewhere on Gamers Web. High points cost means that troops will be expensive to field (a Necron Trooper costs 18 points alone) but the key thing to using a Necron force is strength in numbers. Every time a Necron troop is destroyed there is a good chance it will come back using the 'We'll be back' special rule, but if you lose more than 25% of your entire force then the entire army will dissolve from play and victory will go to your opponent, no matter what victory points you have, so strength in numbers is a wise precaution.

The codex is littered with excellent new artwork, fiction and background information, with good layout, and excellent presentation throughout. No longer are the Necrons the laughing stock of the 40K universe, they are the new bad boys and with their new wargear for the Necron Lords, the Monolith and the ultra-hard C'tan characters, the next time someone asks you what army do you field you can hold your head up high and proud and say Necrons.