Apparently the last one went over well. So I get to do more of them! Any time internet guys stop complaining about Matt Ward long enough to complain about me… I like to do that thing over again.
Did I mention how much I love the Matt Ward hate? Cus most of it is ridiculous… like complaining about his balance in the same sentence as they complain about Space Wolves and Imperial Guard. OOOH, or whining about his terrible fluff when it holds up just fine to all the rest… I mean… there is an entire army of Football Hooligans. This game is INSANE, why so serious?
But I digress. Time to dig into my bag of dice and drop the trusty d6 and pic an Elite. Mmm savory-savory elites. Over on the REAL Earth we love elites. Most armies fill up all 3. Maybe it’s a different metagame, maybe it’s our love of fried cucumber. I don’t know and I don’t pretend to know.
So yeah, who wants to hear about the new jump infantry? Well to bad, I rolled up C’tan. Shall I start with the part that will freak people out? The C’Tan done got overthrown by the Necrons, they are the slaves. It’s actually pretty cool when everyone is done clinching their bums. The shards of those gods serve as weapons of war in service of the Necron Empire. Also, they might not all be dead, so you know, these are just the ones the Necrons dominated.
So, they start off at a bit under 200 points, their stats are more or less the same as before. They have everything a monstrous creature needs (Eternal Warrior, Fearless) and there are nearly a dozen options for them to take. You can use those points to create the C’Tan you’re used to seeing, or you can mix and match as you see fit. Who knows what god your particular Shard came from! The abilities range from 10 to 50 points, so I’ll tackle them in some random and useless order.
First is the ability to decay vehicles and armour like some other Necron units. Considering the power of a monstrous creature against both armour saves and vehicles, this one isn’t so hot, but it is cheap.
I often wish I could look at someone and kill them. Like you, the person reading this right now. Well that’s how this gaze works as well. Slap the large blast down on top of the C’tan and you hit everything but the C’tan with a str 3 hit, no armour allowed. Then, if you kill at least one dudemans you get a wound back.
The classic Illusion power of the deceiver still allows you to redeploy 1d3 units after scouts moves. I like that one a lot. Lets you deploy first, put a big line of 20 warriors up front, shoves the enemy back… then BAM, they back with the phalanx.
Some god’s really like fire, and can make any flame/fire/heat/warm/dutch oven weapons explode like plasma weapons. It’s particularly good against all the close range melta that put wounds on a C’tan.
Two shooting attacks aren’t bad at all, and the C’tan can take a large blast or an assault 8, both at strength 4. It gets the job done and lets them effect the battle field before they can assault. A thirds one is a bit bigger, clocking in at lascannon stats at half the range.
Another neat trick its jabbing with the world, causing everything within assault distance of the C’Tan to test dangerous terrain, or to mishap more often on deep strike. It’s a clever way to put some wounds on a horde.
Kick up some dust and you get assault and defensive grenades, as well as stealth. It may not sound that useful, but defensive grenades really slow down the “loads of attacks” approach to killing a C’tan, and stealth is better than you think, considering that a 4+ invulnerable isn’t better than most cover… but a 3+ cover (when it happens) is nice. Oh, and Monoliths are big enough to block.
Like monsters that mess with temporal anomalies? Then look no further. Rip em up with C’tan, if they fail a single initiative test BAM, no saves of any kind… one model of your choice is just gone (in the assault). Say goodbye to that pesky warboss or nidzilla monster.
Last, but not least, or maybe least. No this one is awesome. How about the whole battlefield is difficult and dangerous terrain? Yeah… yeah I like that one too. Makes the C’tan a pretty big target though.
So all in all, if you took every ability, you’d be dropping 505 points on a single C’tan. Obviously that would be silly, but if you accept a Land Raider level price tag you can get a powerful monster that really shapes your battle plans. Or better yet… 3.