Thursday - October 18, 2007

The Necron Apocalypse

Well, I've reviewed the product, now I'd like to give a little commentary on Apocalypse from a more subjective standpoint.

Apocalypse offers a section in the book for every army. I looked at more than a few, but not all of them. I only play Necrons and have collected a bit of what will become a Raven Guard Space Marines army once I start painting them. These are the only armies I truly cared about, and the only armies I took the time to really read - and even then, only the Necrons got more than a glorified skimming. So, please, if you're formulating your argument right now on how "if you think the Necron's got screwed,  you should see <ARMY>!! You've got no room to complain," just give up now. I don't care what other armies got screwed. I'm merely going to assert that the Necrons got screwed.

With my hypothesis clearly stated, I shall now present evidence to my claims.

Exhibit 1 : The Pylon

Where I will admit that the Necron Pylon is a force to be reckoned with, I found it a little... uncreative. I was expecting something akin to an orbital defense laser, and got little more than a glorified monolith with a bigger particle whip.

Simply stated, this lack of creativity simply runs in concert with what I've expected to be true of the Necron army. I realize that the Necrons are supposed to be these soulless robots, but let's at least TRY to give them a little flavor, instead of such cut-and-pressed solutions using existing content.

Every other army has some form of variety... some form of customization... more than one unit in their entire army that can take wargear. Every other army has huge sections devoted to its customization, various factions and doctrines, special rules for special characters, and cool terrain pieces to add flavor to playing a colorful (colourful? GW is British...) army.

The Necrons get drybrushed Chainmail Silver, 1 troops choice, and some of the worst flavor support I've ever seen. There are nearly no web content entries for them on the official site, unlike all the other armies that get volumes of tutorials and special characters and the like. To me, the Pylon is just a continuation of this - It's an old, expensive Forge World model that got a slight buff to already pathetic rules and called a "new unit."

Frankly, for the cost, skip it. It's nothing more than a glorified Monolith.

Let's do a little comparison :

I would rest my case there, but I recently had occasion to poke over to the official Games Workshop page where the rules for the Imperial Defense Laser are posted. This is more what I had in mind when I thought of the Pylon. This thing is a terrain feature in and of itself, and can nullify your enemy's Orbital Bombardment assets. It's amazing. The Pylon? Not so amazing, especially given the cost. $173 USD + Shipping and Handling, GG.

Exhibit 2 : New Models

In preparation for this massive expansion, Games Workshop rolled out a whole line of new miniatures and new boxed sets to aid players in gathering the things they need to really get Apocalypse going! In addition to packaging existing models in new and expensive combinations that coincide with the new formations, many armies received all together new models.

The Necrons received this. A Necron Lord holding a Resurrection Orb.

Allow me to divert briefly - The Resurrection Orb, to most players, is simply an unavoidable expenditure. The benefits it provides make it nearly NECESSARY. Games Workshop might as well just make the Necron Lord cost 140 points instead of 100, and make the Resurrection Orb a built-in ability.

That said, there's no reason why this model hasn't been out for years now. Touting it as a new Apocalypse miniature is almost insulting.

Exhibit 3 : MOAR MONOLITHS LOL!!1

As stated before, all the armies got formations, special rules that could be either purchased (or simply used for free) that add certain special rules if you have the right combination of models on the table. For most armies, this involved infantry, heavy support, fast attack working in conjunction with heavy support, devastating fast attack combinations, etc.

The Necrons have Monoliths. That's it.

2 Monoliths on the table allow you to draw an imaginary line between the two - any shot that crosses this line (except for yours) has its strength reduced by 1.

3-5 Monoliths create a Triangle / Box / Pentagon. The sides function like the walls I mentioned above, and anything inside cannot use Psyker powers, and all Necrons inside get +1 to their We'll Be Back rolls.

Now, I'm not saying that these aren't VERY nice formations. What I AM saying is, "c'mon guys! We've got a whole army to work with here, and all you can do is entice us to take 5 monoliths into a game?!" What about cool formations with Tomb Spyders that allow for Resurrection Orb - like effects if there are more than 2 Spyders within a certain range? How about something like the Endless Swarm formation for the Tyranids, only using Scarabs instead? How about ANYTHING that would make the Pariahs feel like more of a tactical unit and less of a liability? (See? Not just a clever name!)

So, to sum up - Apocalypse, from the Necron player's point of view, seems like yet again, our beloved army is an afterthought. Games Workshop had the chance to do some truly great things with them to add flavor and strategy, and chose to tell us for a full page how Necrons get out of bed in the morning instead.