Fixing Necrons: The Lazy, Wasted Knights Way.

Necronoob and I have been talking about how to give Necrons some love while we wait for the update to their 10-year-old codex. With Dark Eldar getting updated as early as November (if the rumors are true), Necrons are now officially the low man on the totem pole, with the rumor mill suggesting that their update will come in March or April of 2011.

So we here at WK have some poorly-planned, half-formed ideas for bringing the Necrons up to par in the interim. This represents a straightforward, modest step forward for the 'crons, to be play-tested and evaluated. If needed, we'll throw some more buffs their way soon.

1. No more Phase Out.
2. New Warrior cost: 16 points per model (the old cost was 18).
3. New Flayed Ones cost: 16 points per model (the old cost was 18).

Here's our thinking:

No more Phase Out: In addition to weakening the army across the board, the Phase Out rule also makes the Necron player worry that his low model-count army isn't horde-y enough. It also unfairly penalizes the Necron player for taking some of his most interesting units (like Pariahs and Tomb Spiders), just because they aren't "Necrons," and props up the marginal Warriors, by giving them the dubious distinction of being the cheapest actual Necron (at 18 points a model - no paltry cost).

New Warrior cost: 16 points per model (the old cost was 18): This reduced cost reflects their lower effectiveness against vehicles in 5th Edition, as well as their total lack of upgrades.

New Flayed Ones cost: 16 points per model (the old cost was 18): Guardsman currently pick these things up (carefully...) and take them to their Imperial Petting Zoos (Slogan: "Come look at the Xenos before the next bi-weekly invasion of 1.2 million Space Wolves and 340 Njals!").

Rules to be playtested this Saturday, with a Battle Report to come...

Gluing Metal Models

Necessity is the mother of invention and she delivered a small but healthy baby to me tonight. I was attempting to super glue the arms on two lictors and I spent more time separating my fingers than anything else. The dang arms just wouldn't stick on. Metal doesn't like sticking to metal for whatever reason and on some nights it just seems to be worse than others. I know a lot of people advocate greenstuff in this situation but I've never been impressed with the bond. Using pins seems like a huge pain in the ass.

So what to do? For no reason I can think of (other than the bourbon) I stuck a small piece of paper towel in between the metal parts and then put a moderate amount of super glue on the piece of paper towel. Hold the metal/paper towel/super glue sandwich together tightly for 30 seconds... and it sticks together! I tested the bond about 30 minutes later and it seems strong.

No more holding metal pieces together for 5 minutes like a dope for me. Thank you, mama necessity.

Lictor? I hardly know her.

So I finally got 3 lictors and I'm excited about it. A lot of people think the latest codex ruined what was already a bad unit. For me, it's not that lictors are bad, it's just that they compete with Hive Guard and Zoanthropes for the elite slots.

Still, I like the fluff, love the model, and think the rules are fine. So you can't assault the turn you arrive? They give you a 2 shot S6 attack to compensate. Sure CC would be better but 6 S6 shots from 3 lictors aren't bad.

The deployment rules are great - just stay 1" away from any other model and you can place them wherever you want with no deviation. Buh-bye AV10.

The pheromone trail rule is kind of useless as the +1 doesn't kick in until the turn after the Lictors arrive. I suppose they had to do that though. The Hive Commander rule grants +1 to reserve rolls, as does the Swarmlord. Adding +3 to reserve rolls would be nasty. It would have made the Lictors much more useful had GW just given the Swarmlord Hive Commander and allowed the Lictor's +1 to kick in even if it is not on the table. That would make a lot more sense fluff-wise too.

Still, the Lictor gets some great special rules, is S6, and has 3 wounds/3 attacks. I'm happy.

What a difference a day makes...

My weekend goal was to finish the Fire Dragons and their ride. For the first time ever, I seem to have  accomplished my mission.

Here are the Fire Dragons and the Wave Serpent:

Here is a "before and after" - the Serpent on the left is for the Dire Avengers. It's what the Dragon Serpent looked like this morning.

The pictures don't really convey the difference, unfortunately. The yellow of the model on the left is much improved by three coats (!) of Desert Yellow on the model to the right. It's a low-pigment color that takes a lot of work to cover anything, and I was beginning to wish I hadn't used it. But now I'm glad I have something to tone down the Iyanden Darksun - otherwise it's just too yellow and garish next to the Olive Green.