All right.

Hello.

Hello to all of you listening in today.

This is the TTP Field Manual.

As per usual, I am your undying host, Joshy.

As always, I'm joined by my friend Johnny.

Hello.

Hello.

How we doing?

Yeah, I'm very excited.

I'm using today's episode as an.

As a birthday excuse for me to talk about my favorite faction and things I would like added or tweaked to the faction.

How does that sound to you?

I mean, as someone who started with Necrons, I'm sure we can have some fun options.

And I think you're a good candidate, having played the army for a couple of years now, to know what's going on a little bit.

That's a very interesting point.

I look at a couple of other armies.

You know, we looked at some rules for our recent episodes where we break down the factions, and it takes me, like, a little bit of time to understand if the stat sheet's good, if it connects with their, like, army rules pretty well.

But then with Necrons, I can, like, look at a stat sheet and think, oh, that would be good in this situation.

Or, that's not that good.

You know, it pays to know the army, right?

That's it.

And even when I'm playing the tabletop, sometimes now, I don't even have to check the statue.

Be like, how tough is your Locust?

Destroy.

I'm like, six.

How many wounds does he.

Does that thing have four?

I mean, they're numbers you have to bring up a lot so you get to know them after a little while.

I'm fighting your lichguard.

Oh, okay.

Are you using a strong weapon?

You will have minus one to wound.

Did you just check them, like.

No.

I know it doesn't help when you throw Crusade rules on top of it.

Oh, my gosh.

So those who do not know Crusade is the narrative side hustle of 40k, you have the core.

Like, matched play, tournament play, where everything's balanced around.

Then if you have a bunch of friends and you like to play regularly, you have Crusade.

Crusade has a couple of niche missions, and your units get to essentially, like, level up over playing multiple games.

And you get stacks, stacks of gear, stacks of abilities.

But, yeah.

Do you miss playing Necrons?

When I see just how hard it is to kill, I really do miss it a little bit.

Just that sheer tank.

But there's so much flavor in Chaos that I don't.

I wouldn't go back.

Last night, I was looking at the Sisters of Battle, like, stat sheets, and I found a character that Resurrects models.

And I just like had this big wicked smile on my face.

You're like my boys.

They're here too, girls in this instance.

But yes.

Anyway, we should get into today's Meet, or Living Metal.

I suppose this is going to be a few different sort of segments, this episode.

At first, I just want to talk about some internal balancing things.

Some things that I had in mind that would make a lot of the less taken or less viable units in the pretty expansive Necron range.

Just some updates to give them a boost, make everything a bit more viable.

You know, Necron's Codex released, I think, like third or fourth in the edition.

And those who don't really understand how Games Workshop does things.

A lot of the earliest codecs are actually written because of how long publishing takes before the actual edition, like releases.

And they get a lot of that, like, tournament sort of feedback of how armies go.

And so Necrons and a couple of the other earlier Codex factions, like Space Marines, have a little bit of an internal balancing issue.

Chaos and a couple of the other ones, like orcs, are a bit more fresh and have a bit more, I guess you could say, internal balance.

Yeah.

It's like they're built, as you said before, the edition comes out, therefore it doesn't have.

They don't really know the identity of what the edition is yet.

Whereas now that we're hit, codecs that have been written with 10th edition having personality and gameplay knowledge, they definitely are significantly better internally balanced.

I know that there was a big hurrah with the Chaos Space Marines, Codex people talking about how well it was balanced internally when it first released, even if it isn't performing as well as it used to.

Yeah.

At first there was a lot of people like Doom saying, I don't want my army's Codex.

You just make it worse.

Like Custodians, Genestealer Cults, Tyranids.

A few of those codices came out and were just objectively worse than what was already existing at the start of the edition.

Then you have armies like Blood Angels, Chaos Marines, Orcs.

For a while they came out and everyone was singing their praises.

Necrons have always had half of the army pretty good.

You'll just be able to take them, no worries.

And then the other half of the range, you just don't even think of.

All right.

You got some examples in mind?

Yeah.

Let's start us off for my first thing, Warriors.

I don't know.

Oh, man.

Warriors.

So in the index, the warriors reanimated D6 wounds or if they are on an objective, I think D3 plus 3 in the Codex, they are now D3, but you can reroll it so you'll average out like two models when before you could get like three or four.

And the thing about warriors is that they're not exactly damage dealing.

They're more of just like a chaff body that you just sort of throw at your opponent and tie them up a little bit.

So you want to run them in like blobs of like 20 as opposed to the standard 10.

And for the damage they actually do and the points they cost, what you want them to do is just be a nuisance.

And for me, taking away that D6 reanimation like really hurts this role that they've kind of created for them.

What do you think?

I think you're right for sure.

They definitely don't fill the role that they felt like they did previous editions.

But maybe you need to think about them in a different role.

Maybe instead of taking, you know, three to six units of 20 Necron warriors, it's like one to two is just people you can put on an objective to hold it for a couple of turns or use them as a distraction or to block pathing because they are still a very big chunk.

It's just.

Is it worth the point investment?

Yeah, that's.

That's the key component, no matter where you take the warriors is they don't really feel like the right price point.

You know, you say you got some backfielders.

There are other units that do it for a fraction of the points you like distraction pieces, there are other units that do it for a fraction of the points.

You know, the current meta is to run them with the wizard's attachment or the cryptex that give them aura buffs, which is interesting considering they're the battleline infantry of the whole faction and their best role is assigned with the crazy, you know, sorcerers.

I mean, they definitely don't do damage and I don't think they're meant to fill that role of doing damage.

They definitely need something to help them just like stick around a little longer so they can hold an objective essentially and be your like objective monkeys.

Yeah, but that's warriors.

I just think they need a little touch on whether it's the reanimation or the points.

Cryptothralls is what I had next.

They were almost an insane auto pick at the start of the game, the game's edition, they had the ability to join with a Cryptek cryptex, could lead various units and what the Crypto thralls would do is basically soak up the damage so that the unit themselves wouldn't really be hurt.

And the crypto thralls had like a 50, 50 chance to save like damage.

They would then have like a 33% chance to ignore the damage.

They then took with what's known as a feel, no pain, and they were just a nuisance.

But now they don't have an invulnerable save, where you can't have a save that's worse than a particular like number.

They don't have the feel, no pain, and they like doubled in cost.

I think if you want them to be viable, you may want to give them back their save profile, but maybe because they're just like a little token piece, maybe get rid of their ability to reanimate and therefore you're just paying for a couple of extra wounds that you will not get back.

How's that sound?

I can see it.

I feel like cryptothralls was such a big deal in ninth edition.

You had to have them because they just were such good bodyguards and now they don't really do what they should be doing.

Yeah, Cryptothrals fall into a part where a lot of my generic internal balancing notes are, which is just nothing that overhauls the units, but just pushes them into a more, like, specific direction, gives them a bit more identity or it's just very minor things.

Lychguard would be my next point.

They used to be leadable by Cryptex and now they're only leadable by Nobles.

I don't hate it, but it does sort of limit putting Cryptex in a couple of the other detachments that focus around like your nobility.

I'm not sure what to make of that.

But their alternative unit build, the Triarch Praetorians recently got cheaper in the games balance update, but they're still a little bit of a niche pick.

They are unable to be led, which is not the end of the world, because they actually are a deep, striking, hit, fast unit.

But for their price point of 100 points, I'm not sure if they really earn their role in the army.

Maybe the Praetorians need to become a little bit cheaper or have some sort of reactionary rule.

Like if a Noble is destroyed near them, for example, or just on the battlefield, maybe they get to reroll hit rolls against the target that killed the Noble as a revenge unit.

In Lore, the Triarch Praetorians are your security guards at the mall.

Yeah, I think, to be honest, looking at Triarch Praetorians.

Your two arguments are if you compare them to like a standard jump pack space Marine or a Raptor or something like that, points wise, they're pretty close.

I know for a fact The Raptors are 90 points for five, whereas these guys are 100 points for fives.

They used to be 120.

And I think at 100 points, I'm looking at it and I'm like, yeah, they can fall back in charge, which means that they can get out of their shoot charge back in.

They've got a decent weapon, potentially with the Rod of the Covenant.

I don't see much issue with Triax at 100 points.

Yeah, I did write these notes before the balance pass.

It'll be interesting to see if people take Praetorians now that they are 100 points.

They are only realistically viable in one of the five Necron detachments, which is hypercrypt.

If they had some sort of leader ability, they would get buffs from a couple of the other detachments.

But yeah, as you said, they're very competitive to their equivalents of other armies.

I'm actually fairly optimistic about Praetorians at 120.

I wasn't.

We'll see how they go.

But on the line of this triarch and nobility detachment, we have the catacomb command barge CCB.

CCB.

I think it's about 130 points or 140 points.

120.

Oh, it got cheaper.

I think it needs to get cheaper still.

Maybe 110.

I don't think it has the noble keyword at the moment.

It doesn't.

It should.

Does it really?

The command barge isn't really meant to lead people.

It doesn't have to lead.

But the noble keyword will mean that it has a bit more of a presence in a detachment.

At least in one of them.

Yes.

Otherwise, where would you put it?

Because theoretically, it doesn't have much of a home.

That's it.

It doesn't have much of a home.

It's a.

Its damage profile is okay.

Its aura is okay.

It has a resorb that it can apply to a unit nearby one time.

That's it.

Which res orb is still pretty good.

In the obeisance phalanx, you can give it a detachment to reduce incoming damage.

So you can kind of make it a bit of a distract piece.

That's okay, but I think a little bit cheaper would be okay.

But nothing really more than that.

And maybe the noble keyword would convince me to actually take it in a list I have one.

I don't want to run it right now.

It's a pretty cool model.

Yeah, I like it.

I like it.

Psychomancer.

Ah, Daddy Psycho.

The Psychomancer doesn't really seem to fit like the other Cryptex do.

It doesn't give any particular buffs to units, even though it can lead them.

I'm thinking that it could get Lone operative, and that way you have this like, not very tanky yet spicy character that can start to play around with like battle shock and morale.

But it doesn't give any buffs to units that it leads.

Unlike the other Cryptex, the Technomancer heals.

The Plasmancer has better critical hit.

The Chronomancer allows you to move, shoot, move.

The Psychomancer is just kind of there.

I think Lone Operative could be an interesting way of putting it.

It kind of exists in this realm of you want it near the enemy, but at the same time you don't.

And I think the main reason that they gave it the leader keyword, as opposed to lone, is because of how short its auras realistically are.

Like you need it.

You need the bodies to keep it alive long enough to do its job.

It kind of feels like unlike the other Mancers, their job isn't to buff the unit.

The unit is there to bodyguard them.

Like it kind of works in the opposite way.

Which does put it in a really weird place in the Codex.

Yeah, when I see the Psychomancer, I want to play offensively with it.

Yes.

But I'm also hesitant to do that.

And a lot of the units that it leads isn't the most forward aggressive of units.

So what if it could lead Skorpek Destroyers and just have it?

Yeah, that could definitely be an interesting way to take it.

Or even just like Lichguard, something that's a bit tankier to keep it alive a bit longer.

Lichguard would be a good pick.

Or maybe.

Maybe it's the one that goes with Tria Praetorians.

That could be a fun one.

A very advanced strike at the heart of the enemy and then just give.

It the deep strike.

Speaking of Skorpekhs.

Yeah, why not?

Speaking of Skorpekhs, I think they need a touch of durability.

Maybe like a once per turn ignore, like an instance of damage.

Or maybe an invulnerable save when in melee.

That gets better.

Just something.

I've played a lot of matches with these guys, and they don't stick around very long, which is interesting because a whole detachment which we'll talk about in a bit, is like flavored around them.

And they just don't seem to survive as much as I would like them to.

I actually have stopped taking them because I feel like they don't survive as long.

I've tried the reserves.

I've tried sneaking them up.

I've tried running them in to weakened units.

And if they don't kill the unit weight of dice usually is not in their favor.

The crackback hurts, right?

But speaking of Destroyers, we also have the Ophidian Destroyers.

I knew these guys were coming up.

The Ophidian Destroyers are a tunneling unit.

They like to get from one side of the board to the next.

They are essentially there to harass your opponent, but for the exact same point value as a Skorpekh Destroyer.

I think they need to be like, their weaponry needs to be at least strength five because there's only three bodies and they're not that tanky.

At strength four, you might not really get a lot of wounds into a lot of the game's various factions who will hang around the toughness four mark.

I'm not sure that would push them over the edge too much, but I don't see anyone running Ophidian Destroyers any time of the day.

Not at all.

I love the Destroyers, but.

Nah, the model is really nice.

I really like it.

I think if they were cheaper, maybe.

I don't know if 90 points is the way to go, but I do.

You can see what they're trying to do, which is be that like backline harassment, bouncing around the board, charging into an enemy and then leaving.

Like there's similar armies, have similar models that do the same job, just better.

But comparatively, they are cheaper than the other armies.

Options.

Okay.

AKA warp talons at 125 points.

Oh, yeah.

I didn't.

In all honesty, I didn't really look.

At other factions and that's why we're having the conversation.

Yeah, I didn't really look at other factions when doing this.

I was just in the context of would I take these in my list versus what I'm already taking?

And usually the answer is no, not really.

I have played now four out of the five detachments and anything Destroyer Coded is a bit of a niche pick in my eyes.

Outside of Heavy locusts, or do you feel the same about them?

I like heavy locusts, but they.

If they get shot, they're gone.

I think I like Heavy Locust because you don't have a similar option.

Yeah, they're your.

They're your heavy Weapons platform.

Yeah, a lot of people are running Heavy Destroyers or the smaller version, just the normal Destroyers to achieve a lot of the secondary and board presence.

You can move one model for 30 to 55 points and get victory points relatively cheaply.

But if you're playing at smaller games like we played a game this week and I lost 110 point blob to two Melta shots right away, it's going to happen.

I also made a similar issue and lost an entire squad in the first turn in the same fight because I skill issues, right?

That wasn't so much skill, it was mis knowledge of information.

I was unaware of my opponent's army enough due to crusade blessings and got caught out.

Little little gotcha moments.

Yeah, they sting a little bit, but it's fine.

And I wasn't salty or mad about it, but it was just an interesting thing to remember for next time is stay away from them.

I have nothing to really change about the Locusts though.

The Ophidians, definitely a unit that I think could have also a little bit of love is the Catacomb command barges alternative Build the annihilation barge.

Basically a Necron tank.

The annihilation barge, at least to me, seems to be an anti infantry tank.

However, whilst it does have a large volume of shots, I think giving it at least like 1ap on its weaponry might be a step in the right direction.

Make the armor saves of who you're shooting worse.

I ran one of these and the whole time I was thinking why did I not just bring my immortals?

Not having AP on your tank does feel bad.

It's the same reason why the Abominant is the worst Chaos Knight.

Because its gun doesn't have ap, it relies on crits and it's.

It's a similar issue to what people say about the annihilation barges.

It's a big gamble on whether or not damage actually gets done.

I mean, it's definitely a viable option.

I see its actual ability and I think cool.

But then I see its guns, I'm like, nah, I'll take something else.

Sorry, I'll take more Heavy Destroyers any day.

My Heavy Destroyers can get rid of an infantry squad without much worry.

The annihilation barge might tickle them.

And for the price point, Immortals have more use.

Absolutely.

That takes us then to another of the Necron vehicles, the Triarch Stalker.

Hot.

Oh man.

Hot model, hot model.

But good lord, it's the Necrons.

Crab Walker.

I'm a big fan of it, just not in the game.

The Triarch Stalker is like the Tank of the Praetorians.

I don't really see that.

But anyway, the Triarch Stalker needs a lot of love.

It may be.

It may be contender with the Obelisk for worst like data sheet.

Outside of, like, fortifications.

The Triac stalker.

I don't know what it needs.

I don't know if it needs more damage or if it needs more attacks.

A cheaper cost, maybe all of the above.

I don't know how you fix this model to a degree where people will want to take it.

It's a big model that will just get shot really quickly because it's relatively sizable and it's scary to look at.

Yeah.

But then I've actually, like seen people run Triarch Stalkers in battle reports and the opponent's like, oh, no.

Oh, was that it?

Yeah.

They're an interesting model that just doesn't do enough.

And I also don't know how you'd fix it, to be honest.

Yeah, I don't know.

I don't actually have a fix for this one, but I think we need to address it somehow.

I do have a fix in mind for the next model I want to talk about though.

The Canoptek Spider.

The Kinoptek spider is mainly there to actually bring your scarab swarms back to life.

Ironically, it's not fast enough to keep up with them.

And also, scarab swarms aren't as useful as they have been in the past.

If my spiders could reliably go up the board with the scarabs, I would be a lot more tempted to run scarabs.

I wouldn't even be mad if the spiders don't get tougher for their points value.

Just, I want them to be able to keep up with the things they're trying to actually, like, regenerate.

Like the same movement.

The Technomancer leads Canoptic wraiths.

The Technomancer is the only Cryptek with a speed equivalent to wraiths.

You know, like, that makes sense.

Yeah.

Canoptek spiders are meant to go with Canoptek scarabs.

They can't keep up with them.

They also don't lead in.

So you can't even attach them to the unit.

No.

That also is a bit of a question mark for me.

So I think play wise, you would want to keep your swarms close and use them as a distraction piece instead of using them offensively, which the new scarabs kind of want to be used offensively because they have that like, mortal wound land mine feel now.

Yeah.

I just think There's a little bit of a disconnect between those two units.

Yeah.

Neat thing, though.

It does have the ability to buff vehicles around it.

So maybe you could take one just to give your vehicles a feel, no pain.

6.

Again, that's relying on a crit though, and that might not.

Yeah, or a feel, no pain.

Five for Necron units within six against mortal wounds and psychic attacks.

Which means you bring it in if you're versing Thousand Sons.

And at that point the Thousand Sons play is a little salty because you've worked around his list or their list.

You just teched him out.

Yeah.

I could go on from here and talk about the aircraft and the fortifications, but there's no need.

This addition doesn't, you know, favor aircraft and especially not fortifications, so there's no point in me talking about them.

It's not a Necron issue, it's a 10th edition issue.

Yeah.

The last Necron model I thought to talk about though was the Canoptek Reanimator.

At the start of the edition, units within 12 inches of it gained an additional D3 wounds to reanimate.

Pretty spicy.

Especially when you have the whole like cryptothrall thing.

The warriors with their super reanimation.

In the Codex, its range went to 3 inches.

3 inches is basically touching.

Yep.

I don't know if we make it six or nine.

Or if we have maybe a caveat that if a cryptek is nearby, it maybe it's aura then expands.

Oh my gosh.

Imagine like for every cryptek nearby, it's aura goes up by three.

You just surround it in cryptex, marched up the set.

You just move up in a blob.

Nah, we don't.

Don't do that Games Workshop.

That's overkill.

That's what I had in mind for specific units.

My last internal balancing note was that for the Annihilation Legion, you need to.

You need to just redo that one.

You need to redo that detachment.

Games Workshop again.

Annihilation Legion, like the detachment rule, emphasizes charging into things below half strength or below starting strength.

One of those two.

A couple of its stratagems also do this.

The Annihilation Legion focuses on Destroyers.

It only keywords Skorpek Destroyers.

The ones I already mentioned were a little bit squishy for my liking and Flayed one units of which are designed to finish off really injured units.

These are units I would never want as like a vanguard of my army.

And this particular detachment really doesn't emphasize anything.

For the Locust Destroyers, the ones that have guns or even the Ophidians, because.

It'S only on the charge.

Okay, well, I think the Ophidians do.

But do I want to bring them playing them?

Yep.

Yeah, just.

Just good concept, bad execution.

Try again.

Yeah, it just needs another paragraph, right.

Something to do with the rest of the Destroyer Cult faction.

Maybe, like, do the detachment rule as something like, you know, if they kill somebody, they get wounds back or maybe they have an invulnerable save in melee.

Or, I don't know, just something that encourages you to really like, spec into this playstyle of just Necron carnage.

I don't know what that looks like.

What if they gave Locust Destroyers a new kit with a melee weapon profile?

Interesting.

Just real tanky.

Just as like.

Then they also access the charge, give them something that's a bit more maneuverable, a flying mounted unit that can do its thing.

Because at the moment, all they have is the gauze cannon and a close combat weapon.

But just giving them something to do in melee, maybe the benefits from the Locust Lord might help.

I can't remember exactly what he does.

The Locust Lord really likes running around with big blobs of destroyers and giving them, like, either.

I think it was, like, feel no pain or invulnerable save or stealth, something like that.

He gives them five plus at ranged attacks.

It's the exact opposite of what you want with your Destroyer Cult detachment, man.

His best weapon is a war scythe, the Lord's blade.

Do you remember when you we played a game and I tried Annihilation Legion.

I brought my kit Bash Locust Lord, because you can't really buy it, and you charged me with like, Raptors or something, and then I murdered like four of them in melee.

And you're like, how did that happen?

I'm like, the Lord has a war Scythe.

And you're like, I thought these were gun guys.

Like, yeah, the Lord's not.

The Lord's not.

But also his ability is, which is crits on five Annihilation Legion in general needs a total rework.

Yeah, well, that's some of my notes for internal balancing.

Any thoughts?

Oh, I.

I think we covered everything as we went.

Mostly.

Like, I think a large part of it comes down to the data sheets that are used more regularly are just more efficient.

Do more rolls or outweigh the similar options.

Yeah.

Well, onto the next category of today's episode Crusade content.

I have a couple of ideas here.

Not gonna lie.

Necron Crusade looks a little complicated.

It's not as complicated as you would think in general, crusade content is a bit light for my liking.

You have a couple of like skill trees that you could go into and get a random like trait from.

If your units level up, your specific armies might have like one or two like subsystems tacked onto the core game.

You might have some relics that are just like fancy war gear for the most part.

That's like kind of it.

You don't have a lot of like nuanced sort of deeper development of your army, which maybe some of the earlier editions had.

For example.

I think it would be really neat if you could make your own custom like dynasty characters.

Like a custom overlord that's rising up into like a Phaeron, which is the supreme ruler of a Necron dynasty.

I don't know exactly how that would look, but you could sort of give them kind of a level up system I suppose and they sort of go through the various ranks of the Necron nobility, Regent, vizier, Void, Admiral, Harbingers, all those sort of lore deep dives that they love to stuff in here and there.

And then after a few battles, your generic noble overlord is all of a sudden like an Imotek the Storm Lord level character.

I think if you did something like that, you need to do something like that for the other armies.

Maybe that could be a whole crusade supplement of its own.

But I see so many people that just want to bring their custom guy like Osarek, the Keeper of the Gate.

That's my guy, but no, he's just an overlord.

I think custom characters would be cool.

You recently had a chaos guy that ascended into demonhood, which got you really.

Excited and it was a fun little system to have.

It did require quite a few steps to get there and some investment, but it's, it's a fun way of adding in a neat unit and also getting it some benefits it shouldn't necessarily have because it keeps some of the stuff that it had in life before it became a demon prince.

I think with Necrons it is a very good idea and there should be enough stuff to make your character feel like an epic hero.

Maybe they need to another tier of relics or something that focuses specifically on like different once a game abilities or aura effects or like those big epic hero like abilities.

I think an interesting way of having your.

Your like Faron maybe increase what it can lead or something like that could be cool too.

With the Necron focus on leading units, maybe now he can lead these other units as a potential way to take it as well.

Like I just think that they could really lean into what's going on.

Whereas I think it's all very basic and simple, right?

Yeah.

All the Crusade.

All the Crusade stuff, in comparison to what could be, I think is rather shallow and everything has to sort of not break the game.

But if everyone's playing Crusade, I think they could definitely like do a bit more.

You know, you got.

You could do like a Space Marine chapter master custom.

You could do like an Orc war boss custom, you know.

But I think if you were to start doing those things, you would need like maybe a bit more of a concentrated supplement that really gives everyone some options.

Not just like a faction here, a faction there.

Because Codex releases are staggered.

Maybe if they did like a boarding actions release, but specifically for Crusade, instead of having like a couple of detachments, they have a couple of new rules, like Crusade rules for each faction.

And then also having a narrative part.

Yeah.

For Necron Crusade at the moment, they have a few systems that you have to achieve, like miscellaneous objectives to actually like activate the systems of.

Once you've done it like three or four times, that's it, You've got the whole system unlocked.

Whether that's like reanimation, better teleport around the battlefield, or maybe your overlords get a bit stronger.

There's a few different systems you can spec into.

Do you only get one system or.

So how it works is you start with awakening points.

Your Tomb world is waking up, you get three of them.

Each system has.

There's three systems.

Each system has three abilities.

Each system has an agenda you have to complete.

If you complete it, you assign one of your awakening points into that system and you get to choose one of three buffs for reanimation system, which is what I've got.

I have a once per battle round reroll of a reanimation.

I have add one to the result of units below half strength for reanimation.

And the third one is like a once per game.

Like as soon as you take someone below starting strength, you can do reanimation.

So no matter what, you only ever get three points.

Once you've assigned all three awakening points, you get access to master systems, which is essentially on the same level of those abilities, but just maybe a step above, I suppose.

Like a once per battle effect.

Well, it actually is.

So whatever you've assigned points into, you get to choose one of those master systems.

For me, I'm entirely in reanimation at this present point in time.

I can only do the reanimation's master ability once.

I've done that.

I then roll D3 and the result is the amount of awakening points I have left, whatever is taken away from me, I have to then complete the agendas again to get that ability back.

And that's the entire loop.

There's nothing more than that.

There's nothing more than that.

For all of the Necron Crusaders, besides the generic battle traits and relics that.

You can unlock, that's it's not even once per game.

It's like once every couple of games.

Oh yeah.

Interesting.

Which is why I'm.

Which is why I'm so in favor of extra stuff.

Yeah.

If we were to expand the crusade stuff, I had a couple of ideas.

Cryptek Arcana was a thing in 9th edition where you could basically spend some points of your army and the Cryptex gain a bit more stuff.

In 10th edition, you don't have that.

I think it's a pretty easy way to add a bit more juice to your cryptex.

You could add a couple of stuff that they could unlock.

That pertains to various disciplines.

In law they say that Necron Cryptex specialized in like hundreds of things.

And in the game we have Chronomancer, Psycho Techno and plasma.

That's four.

There's apparently hundreds of disciplines.

In the lore they have confirmed that aethermancers exist, which are like storm callers, as well as geomancers, which really play up terraforming and messing around with molecules and matter.

So you already have a couple of ideas there and you have the various relics and stratagems.

Like the Veil of Darkness is actually a psychomancer tool.

In the Canoptek court you have a couple of stratums called Dimensional Sanctum and Solar Flare.

Those are plasmancer tools.

In 9th edition you had a Cryptek Arcana called the Counter Temporal Nanominds.

That's a chronomancer tool in boarding actions.

You got Mindshackle scarabs.

That's another Cryptek Arcana.

And they've even confirmed in the lore some things, such as the antithetic disciplines, which are essentially Necron taboo stuff.

You got like exploration of like the C'tan mythology and their powers.

There's something that like some Cryptex study which they refer to as quantum mechanisms of socio political conflict.

Like there's the spectrum here is insane.

They have given like the briefest of notes to things such as dimensionalist cryptex who are all about like your dimensional gateways observation are Cryptex Voidmancer Cryptex which manage black holes just casually.

And then they've listed other things such as datamancers, astromancers, atomancers, paradomancers.

My favorite one though, Photochromancer.

There's a lot here you could add just to make your Cryptex like Pharaon's a unique thing.

It just isn't a thing.

Something that does have a lot of background is the dynastic codes, though.

9th edition really liked sub factions.

Whether you're a Space Marine, a Necron, a Chaos.

Your rules were bloated because instead of detachments, which gave you a very specific deck of cards, you had all of the cards available in 9th edition.

And then sub factions gave you a couple of more.

And so you would have like, I think it was six Necron Dynasties that they allowed you to spec into.

You had the Zarakan Dynasty and their whole thing was uncanny artifices.

For example, in like a 10th edition context, you would be able to get like feel no pain, five ups on mortal wounds.

You'd be able to like reroll a wound roll here and there.

Their actual unique stratagem, because every sub faction got a unique stratagem, is called Empiric Dampening, which is you can deny a psychic attack made on the unit on like a D6 result of.

But then you also had the Saltek Dynasty, which is Imotex.

They were all about relentless advancing, which in 10th edition context could be battleshock, reroll, rapid fire weapons, having an easier time shooting more.

That's a couple of them.

I have a bit more I could suggest to you, but what do you think of Cryptek Arcanas and Dynastic Codes being other crusade things you could unlock with the dynastic codes maybe being a skill tree, much like the Tyrannic war stuff.

I think having the Cryptex have unique buffs based on their which field they are in would be very interesting and unique for those four specific units.

The only problem is it's four models.

You know, the other option is maybe on top of that, having a requisition to give the Cryptek keyword to your leader or like your main character or you know, an overlord or something like that.

To then allow them to step down that path could be an interesting way to take it as well.

I think the dynastic traditional way of doing it is a good idea.

There was White dwarf supplements for 9th edition that did a similar thing, adding on extra crusade stuff based on the detach the.

Well, the detachment.

So it's definitely something they've done in the past and therefore could definitely be something they do again, they would obviously have to rework it a little bit to make it fit because they stepped away from the Dynasties.

Yeah.

In my headcanon way of how would you be able to easily introduce dynastic codes is again, like I said, like a Skill tree.

And maybe you are limited to actually representing a singular dynasty.

In 9th edition.

Each sub faction gave you two unique perks that really played around with, as I said, feel no pains rerolls.

And then they had a stratagem.

You could have your skill tree be like, all right, this blob of warriors, if you spend an RP, will gain Zarekin Tier 1.

And if they do a thing, they get Zarakin Tier 2, Tier 3, and that's it.

But maybe you can only take Zarakin.

But there's so many options.

As I said, Saltek, where you're militant, they don't care if you shoot them.

They're just going to keep coming for you.

The Nihilac Dynasties, what was called aggressively territorial, they had, like, sticky, objective stuff, which the Necrons sorely lacks.

The Nephrek Dynasty was all about, like, translocation and actually teleporting across the battlefield.

So like auto advancing the Mefrit.

Your boys, the Solar Fury, were really about increasing the range of their guns.

And if they were actually close to you, it hurt more.

Novok Dynasty was all about, like, murderous awakening and getting increased perks on charging into melee.

Those were things that were actually represented.

I had a couple of ideas for other ones.

The Thokt Dynasty are the blue ones you've seen here and there.

They have a rad radiation.

They had a radiation vibe to their dynasty.

So maybe like Death Guard.

If you're close to them, you have less toughness.

There is Haunted Legion.

They are considered to be severed from being able to be, like, controlled.

And they serve this, like, shadowy master protocol that could be like, maybe like auras are expanded, you know, rather than being a bit more like.

Instead of three inches, that unit is able to be targeted if they're six inches away.

The Maenarc Dynasty really liked their vehicles.

Maybe vehicles crit on 5.

The Uruska dynasty has the Celestial Orrery.

Maybe you could give them, like, infiltrators.

Like, there's a lot there that you could play around.

And man, people who play crusade would go nuts just being able to be like, I am these guys.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I definitely agree.

There's.

And it's not just Necrons.

Like, there's so many factions that have all this, like, niche lore that you don't get to see anymore.

That would work so well in Crusade.

Yeah, I could talk a lot more about the individual dynasties and, like, what you could get out of them, but that will take us, like, three hours.

Maybe in the future we could even design our own supplements if that's something people would be into, but right now it's all just hyperbole.

Do you have any notes on the Crusade stuff before I go to our third and final segment?

It's not so much the Crusade stuff, but I would really like a range of models specifically for the flayed ones and rules to go with it.

And I think that will be a very good segue into what we're about to discuss, which is, what do you want to see out of this force in the future?

Well, it's very funny you mentioned the flayed ones, because I did have a separate, like, wish list here that I thought we could talk about later down the line of, like, adding other factions to the game or, like, an allied system.

But flayed ones would be so cool.

And yeah, to add them into the Crusade discussion, maybe having a skill tree esque line to show your army going down the Curse of the Flayed and seeing them fall into depravity and be able to build on that for your whole force as well.

Well, off the back of that request, would we like me to talk about, I guess, my wish list for adding to the model range?

For sure.

Give us a couple of models slash characters that you think would come across very well in the game and also fill in some niche gaps.

So I approach this from the perspective of the actual, like, various detachments.

Yeah.

So starting with Awakened Dynasty, there's not really any, like, epic heroes that really seem to embody this better than Anrakir the Traveler.

An'rakir the Traveler is a Legends data sheet.

He's fine.

Maybe he's a little costly.

He basically makes Immortals tougher.

He makes vehicles near him maybe a little bit weaker, but he's okay.

I think if they re sculpted him and a couple of others I'll mention along the lines of what they did with Orican and Imotech, a lot of people would be down.

He's not so popular on Rakir, but you will see that this edition, we lost a few epic heroes to the Legends, and that's just unfortunate.

I would love Anrakir to come back.

He could even have, like, a box set with him and his specific legion of immortals known as the Pyrion Eternals.

And that could be a Nice anchor into the Awakened Dynasty as well.

I think we could make use of what Space Marines have, which is like a generic character sprue that makes a few different options.

I think we could easily bring back the character Lord or the Lord, like just regular lord that serves underneath the Overlord that was lost to legends.

He gives auras.

Maybe his sprue also builds a couple of the other roles of the Necron military.

The Nemesaurs, who are your generals.

Maybe they give like keyword attacks or reroll attacks.

Or you can make a Vagard, which is usually a cheap bodyguard unit that you actually assign to a Noble to take that initial precision attack.

That's what I had in mind for Awakened Dynasty.

What do you think?

I like it.

Having one kit that can build a couple of characters would also give people good reason to buy the same kit a couple of times just to get Unrikir and Oberon and all of this.

And then also having options to just make it a default lord or maybe a very well customized Overlord.

So that's not the same sculpt every single time.

Yeah, yeah.

I think Games Workshop is unfortunately going away from kits that have a lot of bits and you're locked into a single pose or a single loadout.

And people love having options.

You know, if you can make your lord have this scythe or that blade, or you make like, that character have this orb or this shield, People love that.

Moving on to the Canoptek court.

We do have a couple of epic heroes already in Orican and Xerath, so we don't really need to add too much in terms of characters.

But Kill Team does have a unique cryptex sculpt called an apprentech that has no rules in this, like, main Warhammer game.

The apprentech is supposed to empower Cryptex.

I don't know how that would look in 10th edition, but give him some rules.

Come on.

A couple of other ideas would be to give a couple of resculpts to the Forge world Canoptek units.

The Archon Thrights are a deep, striking sort of anti elite unit.

You also have the Canoptek Tomb Sentinel Slash Tomb Stalker.

They are a deep, striking, huge canoptics like Centipede unit that actually was teased in the Space Marine 2 video game.

A couple of other ideas are things that don't exist in the artwork.

I keep seeing these, like, Canoptic.

I'm calling them beetles.

They're like small canopic reanimators that seem to be, like, hovering over, like, warriors and, like, just scanning them, and it's so evocative.

And I think having like a.

Like a flying drone unit that could maybe give like a feel, no pain, six aura or something would be a nice little mechanic because you'd have to, like, focus them down or maybe you just, like, ignore them and, like, hope for the best.

I don't know as well in the lore, I've seen all this artwork of this massive, humongous, like, canopic doomstalker thing, but it's huge.

It towers over everything around it, and there's just this one overlord standing on top of it.

And I think it'd be so cool to have this non C'tan titanic unit that you could run maybe as an alternative to the Silent King and call it the Canoptic Throne or something.

Because the Tyranids got the Norns, they look really cool.

But the Necrons really only have the Silent King and then the C'tan.

That's what I had in mind for the Canoptek court style of Canopteks and Cryptex.

What did you think of those?

I think they're all very good options.

I think, as you said, like, they've got their characters down pat pretty well for Cryptek with all of the mansas and a couple of unique characters.

So, yeah, they definitely just need some more support elsewhere.

Cool.

For Annihilation Legion, I think they could definitely use the epic hero, Sun Baker.

I'm pretty sure their name is Zun Bakir, but I call them Sun Baker, the Mother of Oblivion.

She is the Faerak of the Maenarc dynasty, a Forge World dynasty that brought in those Canopic sentinels, the Arcanthrites, as part of, like, the Forge World Necron range.

So they've talked about this character already, a almost hyperviolent Feyrak that is able to just basically tell her dynasty to get their crap together and just shake off the worst parts of the Destroyer Cult virus.

And I think she'd be such a cool centerpiece model in amongst an Annihilation Legion with all the Destroyer bodies.

I don't know what she looks like.

I don't know if she has any official art.

I've seen people do like 3D sculpts that make her this very, like, slender Necron with like, a long spear and maybe like a long flowing cape.

Really evocative idea, just having this Necron character that's able to actually reign the Destroyer Cult in for a more efficient purpose as well.

I did see artwork of what I'm calling Mantic Destroyers, a sort of mantis like platform that combines a lot of the design language of like the tomb blades with their spherical design.

They got like the crab legs of the Skorpekh Destroyers and they've kind of got like these sort of gun platforms that look like big Tesla weaponry, but it's like this one unit.

It's not like a vehicle, it's not a walker.

It's like this one, like body of a person's melded into this walker gun platform construct.

And I think that'd be cool.

Maybe a backfield artillery piece, more so than what we have with the Destroyers, which tend to be used as like singular operatives going across the battlefield.

What do you think of those options?

I think Sunbaker is sick.

From what we've heard, what you've told me, and what we know of her, she seems like a really fun character and I think she could make for a pretty cool model.

And I definitely like that way of going with Annihilation Legion, having someone who might be able to just like, rein in some of the worst of it.

Yeah, I'll take us to Hypercrypt Legion.

They're fine.

They're already pretty good.

But I think Trazen the Infinite has a really missed opportunity to go into this detachment.

I knew we were going to talk about Trazen.

No, I completely agree.

Did you notice how I avoided talking about him at the start?

Trazen the Infinite is like everyone's favorite Necron character.

Everyone has soft spots for Imotek, Anrakir, etc.

But Trazen is everyone's favorite.

He is the biggest kleptomaniac to ever exist.

But his rules suck ass.

His whole ability is basically taking over the body of another character so that he doesn't die.

But his damage and his profile isn't enough to warrant you getting rid of another character in his plays.

He does offer his unit sticky objective, which is an incredibly rare thing for the Necrons.

I had a couple of ideas to make him a bit spicier.

His weapon is called the Empathic Obliterator.

There is rumors that it's like old one technology that when in law you kill someone with that weapon, it sends this like sort of psychic feedback that like hurts things of like a similar physiology.

How cool would it be if that weapon is like a precision attack, that if it kills a character the squad around it takes mortal wounds?

I see.

He would have to be way more expensive.

Oh yeah.

And I also see how they've attempted to replicate that in the profile with Like a really big sustained hits profile with the sustained hits D3, which is obviously them attempting to do a very similar issue with it.

I feel like objective control isn't necessarily what he should have focused on.

I know that you've come up in the past with the idea of him being able to like grab enemy units and put them into Deep Strike, which I think could be a really interesting way of doing it.

Yeah, I still think we should do that.

I think that would be a very unique mechanic in the entire system and could make for some really interesting plays and tie in with that hypercrypt Legion side of things.

Of putting things into Deep Strike.

I just.

I think it's very weird.

He doesn't quite sit where in lore he should be.

Kind of feels like they had to throw some rules together just to like get him out there.

It's weird because he's one of the old character sculpts, like among the range that was discontinued.

Unrakir, Nemesaur, Xandrek, Vargaard, Oberyn.

They were all discontinued because they were all made of crappy resin.

Trazen is still got rules because he's popular, I would say, but his rules do not make you want to bring them.

It's more of like a fan service thing.

Yeah.

Which is interesting.

They definitely could have given him a model.

Maybe his model just wasn't done in time.

Maybe they were going to bring him out because they brought Orykin out and Oricon and Trazen have a very popular novel where they co featured together.

I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to make a Trazen and they just couldn't get him done in time.

But if you made him more deadly and maybe more expensive, the Imperial Vindicare assassin's like 150 points.

I don't think that's, you know, ridiculous to maybe raise Trazen up to around that ballpark.

Yeah.

Just do something with employees and maybe if fortifications get better, you could bring in the like Necron Sentry pylons as well.

Perhaps that will take us final note.

With his ability with his like law side of kind of being a bit of a hermit and all of this.

Instead of giving him leader, why not give him lone operative?

Yeah, right.

He obviously wouldn't be able to do the oc things that he does, but that then he could just be this lone operative running around the board.

Give him Deep Strike so he can like jump in, Pokeball, someone get out like these sort of things.

I think it could be an interesting place to put him as Like a disruption piece as opposed to holding your back objective.

Yeah, I like it.

Let's do it.

They'll take us to the last of the actual detachments and then maybe I'll give you my ideas about the Bone Kingdom.

All right.

So, Obeisance Phalanx.

Where the heck is my boy?

Nemesaur, Xandrek and Vargaard, Oberon.

They're hiding in this little hole we call Legends.

They're good.

They're actually like Legends data sheets that I look at.

I'm like, yeah, I'll take that.

I looked at Unrikir and I'm like.

I looked at these guys and I kit bashed them.

Like next week.

Yep.

And then I ran them.

I ran them and they were fine.

They were good, actually.

A squad of 10 Lichguard with invulnerability shields.

You could put them in as options with the multi build kit for the Lord Nemesaur and the VA God.

I'm sure you saw that coming.

Yeah, I sure did.

There's a unit that we could add to Triarch Praetorians.

There is a unit, well, a character in the game, oh my God, in the lore, called a Triarch Adjudicator.

And they're like the leader of a Triarch Praetorian grouping.

Where's he?

We could easily add one of those.

Maybe we even do like a split sprue.

Again, the Adjudicator with like a Royal Executioner, which could be like a death mark hq, because we don't have one of those either.

The last two I had in mind was to do with the Pariah Nexus.

I think it's a missed opportunity that Crusade supplements don't bring a couple of more units in.

Usually you have these long campaigns at the end of editions, four or five books long, and they always bring units.

But so far, Crusade supplements seem to be a bit lacking.

We could bring back the old unit Pariahs.

Yep.

Pariahs were a discontinued retconned out of existence Necron unit that combined human physiology with the Necron Biotransference.

Like half of the way.

You ended up with this unit that didn't reanimate, but was like an anti psyche, like blank that would walk around and turn off this sort of psychic presence.

They would walk around with like halberds that have like little gauss blasters built into them and looked like this weird body horror of like bone, but living metal.

And I think there is a place for that.

Necrons don't really have any anti psyker shenanigans.

Considering their technology.

Blackstone turns off the warp and they have nothing that really messes with Anti Psyker.

Not that we need that in the game, but everyone seems to have it.

And Necrons don't.

You know what else they don't have?

Psykers.

That's true.

So why wouldn't they bring some that can turn it off?

They have a literal psychomancer.

No Psykers.

Psychomancers are all about the.

About social studies.

And yeah, yeah, I know something that we could add.

The Technomandrites of Magistracy.

We're on video of each other chat and Johnny looks a bit confused by what I just said.

That's a hell of a name.

The Technomandrites of Magistruck were a coven of essentially like Necron Tier scientists that survived Biotransference and basically became arms dealers for the various Necron dynasties throughout like the whole war in heaven and stuff.

But they got so ahead of themselves that a lot of the Necron nobility were like, these guys are like war criminals.

Like the weapons they have, the things they are capable of is too much.

And so various Necron Dynast, including the Silent King, basically like tore down their cabal, like sent them scattered to the winds.

But in the modern setting with the Pariah Nexus, because chaos is such a problem, the Silent King, who also is in the process of guilt tripping his faction out of being metallic bodies and is trying to reverse the biotransference, is finding himself in a Necron civil war with those that actually are pretty okay with being metal now.

And so he needed some support.

He basically pardoned the Technomandrites and they have been seen as the ones dishing it out with the Doomsday tech against the Admech.

Okay, they're the ones like blowing stuff up and activating black holes and all this crazy doomsday.

Sci fi topics.

I was inspired by the Thousand Sons.

They could be like a squad of three aspiring sorcerers that are the pillar Men from Jojo's and all these very dynamic poses.

And maybe they've got black stone pillars around them and they're just real hard to deal with.

They're just like stratagems.

I don't think so.

Battle shock test.

You failed.

Make them way expensive, but just really represent them as this powerhouse, like a pocket sized catan.

But it's just three dudes.

Yeah, it's an interesting way to take it.

I think because of the length of the episode, we could actually leave the Bone Kingdom to a later discussion.

Maybe we do a whole episode on the Bone Kingdom and the Flayed One.

That's it.

But what do you think of those last couple of things?

The Obey sinks, the Pariah staff.

What do you think of adding more to an already pretty expansive army?

I'm always keen for more.

You look at Space Marines and you see just how many models they get, how consecutively and consistently they get models.

And then if you're playing any other faction, you definitely get this feeling that once your book's out, that's it.

That's all you're gonna get.

Come back to us in four years.

So it would be.

I'm definitely for increasing model ranges beyond their Codex.

Especially with the way that 10th edition is handling, like model release on Codex being like one or two characters for the most part.

I think it could be a very good idea to use the Crusade supplements and stuff like that to increase what an army has available and focus on who's in the narrative.

Maybe release Crusade supplements a little more regularly.

Have a team dedicated to Crusade, have.

A big fat book of custom character options and other Crusade rules on the wavelength of boarding actions.

Really make Crusade its own thing rather than a tacked on chapter.

Yep, I like it.

And do like quarterly releases or something.

Yeah, quarterly.

Half yearly.

Prior Nexus came out roughly half a year.

Ish.

Maybe less after Leviathan.

And then it's been like almost a year since that came out.

I'd have to find the exact time.

I'm not sure.

But the release schedule is not consistent, I tell you that.

It sure isn't.

They've had a couple of very interesting opportunities.

They could have done like a Sisters versus Genestealer cults like War of Faith.

They could have done.

Perhaps.

Maybe next year they'll have the Year of Chaos with the Imperial Guard and the Aeldari having to push Chaos back.

But I'm not so optimistic that they actually have any plans for Crusade, considering how much Crusade has been pumped out from White Dwarf lately.

The magazine supplement to Warhammer.

To give you an answer nine months ago.

Wow, February 3rd is when it came out.

Okay, so it was this year just.

And it's almost next year.

Without any announcements, with no knowledge of what's coming.

Yep.

Well, maybe a potential project for us down the line could be designing our own stuff.

For sure.

We definitely have the ideas and we're.

Planning on taking this as far as we can.

We can't pay all this stuff because Games Workshop will come after our ass.

But at the end of the day, I just want people to get as much from this hobby as they can.

This like thinking about Internal Balance and Crusade stuff and what else could be added to Units.

Because everyone's always kid bashing stuff and be like, this is my triarch behemoth, you know.

But there's no real support and people make their own stuff.

Like everyone likes this stuff.

Yeah.

And my brain's always thinking of this stuff.

So why not turn this stuff into something tangible in the future?

But for today, I just wanted to.

Essentially like nerd out about Necrons.

Yeah.

Did you enjoy today's topic?

Yeah, it was interesting.

It was a good little thought process as well, to like try and be try and like justify or explain or debate a little bit about some of the things that you want changed and that are the way they are.

And it was a good bit of fun.

Yeah.

I don't want Necrons or any faction to be like the strongest thing ever.

I don't want people to not want to verse Necrons.

But I want to be able to take everything in Necron in a list and feel okay about it.

Yep.

And then Crusade is just a wish list.

More Units is always a wishlist.

The rule of Cool is such a big deal in hobbies in general.

But yeah, big thing in.

And it's a big thing that people suggest as well.

It's like when you're starting the hobby, find something you like.

And obviously some of these models will appeal to different people.

And if you see for instance, an Affidian Destroyer kit and you're like, that's a really cool model.

And you purchase it and then realize later that it's very bad in game and you're like, oh, well, I guess I need to completely redo everything I thought about this because the model that I resonated with is not as good as this other option that's just straight up better.

You see that a lot.

People hum and ha about pulling the trigger on this hobby because it is expensive.

And then you see people on especially Reddit, maybe Instagram, they're like, I just bought this Blood Angels Dreadnought, but I can't find the rules for it.

And it's a Legends data sheet and you can play it, but it's not going to get updated.

It's not going to be that competitive.

People will be like, what is this?

And it's a discontinued model that someone sold them because they didn't want to spend full price.

Yeah.

But Space Marine 2 is actually a particularly egregious version of that.

One of the six classes is essentially the space Marine Reaver.

Yep.

The guy with the grappling hook and the combat knife.

Reavers suck ass in this edition.

They're like, they're like the worst space marine unit.

They don't do a bloody thing.

And very popular in the video game.

Yeah, you can like run a couple of other tactical option space marines that are just by and large better options.

Get your stuff together, Games workshop.

Please listen to us and take our feedback into firm consideration.

I think we'll wrap it up there for today though, Jonny.

All right, well, thank you so much for taking me on this journey with you.

Ah, anytime, my friend.

So listeners, you are now part of my dynasty.

Thank you for following your phaerons, Joshy and Johnny.

We'll be back at you next week with some random other topic.

Maybe a discussion on what armies we like to play in our various collect.

It could not even be about that.

You'll have to just stay tuned and find out.

Thank you very much.

Good night.

Happy hobbying.

See you all later.

Enjoy it.