As you might know, the new Warhammer 40,000 book includes lists for all the major Warhammer 40,000 armies but not a list for the Necrons. This is because at the time the book was written we didn’t want to include a Necron list as the Necron race was (and still is) under development. Anything we might have written would have been subject to rapid change so we decided to leave things to White Dwarf. The lists and new rules in this article enable you to field a force of Necrons using the new Warhammer 40,000 game.

The story of the discovery of the Necrons and some insight into their long and disturbing history can be found in WD issues 217 and 218. To summarize briefly... ‘the Necrons are a biologically dead race that was wiped out in a galaxy wide catastrophe approximately 60 million years ago. Faced with extinction the Necrons constructed metal bodies as repositories for their hyper-advanced minds. To weather the impending galactic bio-meltdown the Necrons constructed huge stasis chambers to shelter inside. They have been there ever since, resting until a such time that the galaxy was safe for them to emerge.’ The discovery of some of these stasis chambers has triggered the emergence of isolated groups of Necrons all over the galaxy. Quite what their purpose is remains something of a mystery. Necrons confine their activities to raiding and taking captives. They are known to perform grizzly biological experiments upon human prisoners. Some believe that the Necrons, possessed as they are of a vastly superior scientific knowledge, are attempting to rebuild their race in biological form. Others hypothesise that the Necrons are no longer possessed of rational minds. Some say that millions of years of stasis has degenerated the Necrons’ electronically encoded personalities so that only crude instincts and half-remembered purposes remain to drive their metallic bodies.

The Necron army isn’t finished yet! The models currently available are just the start of what will eventually be a complete army to which we plan to add plastic models, vehicles and a range of troop types. We fully intend to make special pieces and everything you’d expect from an army. Right now we’re still trying out new ideas and dreaming up new troops and machines. Some of these are a bit too raw and bleeding to be wheeled into public view just yet. So, please take this list for what it is… a working copy of a list for a new Warhammer 40,000 race which is still in development.

White Dwarfs 217 and 218 included a variety of special rules for Necrons. Many of these were designed to make Necrons work in the old WH40K and are not needed in the new game. In other cases we’ve changed the way the Necrons work because we wanted to or because there seemed an overwhelming response from players to have them work a certain way.

Necrons have four different kinds of gauss weapons: the gauss gun carried by Necron Warriors, larger gauss blasters carried by Necron Immortals and the heavy gauss cannon, mounted on Necron Destroyers. These were described pretty thoroughly in previous White Dwarfs, except for the blaster which is new. The fourth type of gauss weapon is the gauss grenade. Unlike most other weapons, gauss weapons have the ability to ‘flay’ chunks of metal from even the most heavily armoured vehicles, and this gives them a certain amount of penetrating power beyond what might be expected. To represent this a hit on a vehicle from a gauss weapon will always score a Glancing Hit on the score of a 6, even if the target’s armour value is greater than could normally be penetrated. Necron Lords carry a staff of light – a mysterious, short ranged weapon with the profile shown below. Gauss grenades are used in assaults against vehicles. Any hit inflicted on the target by a unit equipped with gauss grenades (gauss grenade has the same parameters as a krak grenade) will score a Glancing Hit on a D6 roll of a 6 regardless of the vehicle’s armour value. However, as with krak grenades and melta-bombs, only 1 attack can be made per model. No bonus attacks are added from additional weapons, charging, or anything else.

In the new 40K the loss of unit morale representsthe way a unit falls back under fire, rather thanturning on its heels and running off in a completetizz as in the old game. Although Necrons areunlikely to panic or flee, they will retreat wherecircumstances make it sensible, logical, oradvantageous to do so. For this reason Necronstake morale checks as described in the gamerules.A broken Necron squad that is assaulted regroupsautomatically – the Necrons reconsider theirwithdrawal in the light of the immediate danger.This also applies if an enemy advances after aNecron unit after breaking them in an assault – thebroken Necrons regroup at the end of their fallback move, just like Space Marines. Note thatNecrons can be destroyed in a crossfire, in whichcase the models are removed immediately. TheNecrons are not actually destroyed orsurrendering, they use their internal teleporters toremove themselves from the battlefield before theycan be seriously damaged.When it comes to regrouping, ignore therequirement for a unit to be at 50% of its startingstrength. Necrons can always attempt to regroupalthough they must still pass a Leadership test todo so.

Although Necrons are not affected by panic ordisaffection, being for the most part mechanical,they can still recognise a hopeless situation. Oncethe number of functioning Necron models is downto 25% or less of the original size of the force, theremainder will automatically phase out using theirinternal teleporters. Any models which are out ofaction do not count towards the remaining force,and will automatically phase out together with therest. This is the only way to drive away a Necronforce – destroy at least 75% of them!

Scarabs now work in quite a different waycompared to the earlier set of rules. They nowcome in units and they can fight in close combat.They also explode! As this makes them moreconventional in most respects, they are covered bythe army list entry.

If a Necron Warrior, Immortal or character modelshould be ‘killed’ do not remove it from the tabletopbut lay the model down instead. The model is ‘outof action’ but, being a Necron, gets a chance tomake a comeback in its following turn.At the start of the Necron player’s turn roll a dice onbehalf of each ‘out of action’ Necron Warrior orNecron Immortal model that is within 6" of at leastone other ‘living’ Necron model of the same type.Any Warrior or Immortal models which are ‘out ofaction’ but not within 6" of a functional Necron ofthe same type will automatically ‘phase out’ andare removed from the game. The Necron playercan also roll a dice on behalf of any Necron Lordsthat are out of action, regardless of whether thereare other Necrons nearby. Necron models hit by aweapon which inflicts instant death (ie: weaponswith twice the Strength of the Necrons’ Toughness)are totally obliterated and are removedstraightaway – there is no chance of them self-repairing.

See Chapter Approved ‘Questions and Answers’ section for rules on how to work out victory points for combined units.

It is unknown whether these powerful Necron Lords are the leaders of the Necron attacks or whether they exist for another more sinister purpose.

Weapons: The Necron Lord carries a staff of light.

Special rules: A Necron Lord is an independent character as covered by the rules in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook.

Necron Lord Wargear: A Necron Lord may be upgraded to include one of the options shown below, at the points cost indicated:

Necron Immortals are heavily armoured, extremely tough Necrons, who carry the terrifying gauss blaster weapon.

Squad: The squad consists of between 5 and 10 Necron Immortals.

Weapons: Necron Immortals are armed with gauss blasters.

Options: The entire squad can have gauss grenades at a cost of +2 points per model.

Necron Warriors are super tough robotic killing machines of unknown origin, armed with the deadly and equally mysterious gauss gun.

Squad: A squad consists of between 5 and 10 Necron Warriors.

Weapons: Necron Warriors are armed with gauss guns.

Options: The entire squad can have gauss grenades at a cost of +2 points per model.

Necron raiding forces are accompanied by swarms of aerial attack vehicles or Destroyers.

Squad: The squad consists of between 3 and 5 Necron Destroyers.

Weapons: A Necron Destroyer is armed with a gauss cannon.

Options: See ‘Heavy Gauss Cannon’ below.

Destroyers: Destroyers are equivalent to jetbikes and are covered by the Bike/Jetbike rules in the main rulebook. This means that they can mount heavy weapons and shoot as if stationary and, of course, they get the +1 Toughness bonus as shown on the profile. Check page 94 of the rulebook for rules covering bikes.

I’ll Be Back: If a Destroyer goes out of action it cannot make a self-repair and come back as a Destroyer. However, its rider can make a return as a Necron Warrior assuming it is within 6" of a Necron Warrior unit. When a Destroyer falls casualty place a prone Necron model over the spot and make the I’ll Be Back roll as normal.

Necron raids include large numbers of small beetle-like robots, dubbed Scarabs by the Imperial Guard. These Scarabs latch themselves onto enemy machines before self destructing in spectacular explosions.

Squad: The squad consists of 3 to 5 Scarabs.

Scarabs: Scarabs move and fight in the same way as jetbikes, as covered by the rules for bikes and jetbikes in the main rulebook. They do not get a +1 Toughness bonus. Check page 94 of the rulebook for rules covering jetbikes.

Destruct: Instead of attacking in close combat a Scarab can self-destruct instead. This causes one automatic hit on each target in base contact at a Strength of 3 and armour piercing value of 2. Against vehicles this causes 3 + 2D6 penetration. The Scarab is destroyed as a result (and can’t save!). Work out damage on the target as normal.

Some of our playtesters felt that the Necrons’ lack of a heavier weapon put them at a disadvantage overwell armoured forces such as Imperial Guard. In part this is because the Necrons are light raiders by nature, and in part because we’d like to do a heavier weapon variant later! Meanwhile, we’ve added this option to upgrade Necron Destroyers with heavy gauss cannons. Up to ONE Necron Destroyer per squad may upgrade its gauss cannon to a heavy gauss cannon at a cost of +10 pts.

*As with other gauss weapons, a hit will always penetrate armoured vehicles on the roll of 6 even if the armour value is 16+(!).

When fighting against Necrons, use the following Force Organisation charts and Mission Generator. These represent surprise attacks by Necrons or enemy forces stumbling on a Necron stasis chamber.

Both players pick their forces from the Force Organisation charts given here, to an agreed points value.

Set up the terrain in any mutually agreeably manner, taking into account any special features due to the mission being fought.

"We had been readying ourselves to raid an isolated human settlement on the desert world of Naogeddon, when the soulless ones attacked. The strike came as swiftly as it did silently. Before any of us knew it, one hundred or more perfectly synchronised, silver nightmares had risen from the sand surrounding us. All we could do was defend ourselves as they advanced methodically upon us, tightening the circle and bringing their ancient guns to bear.

I personal defeated enough to make them withdraw - they had however achieved their apparent goal. I was the only survivor of the ambush, the bodies of my fallen warriors were dragged away beneath the sand, a twisted parody of what I had intended for the human survivors of my own ill-fated attack."

If you wish to play against a Necron army, but you haven't prearranged to do this (you've gone to a club or whatever) you may find that your army is not allowed within the Force Organisation given above. If this is the case, any excess units in your army represent additional forces that are close by to lend a hand. For example, if you had three Heavy Support choices in your army,

only one would be in your main force, the other two would be reinforcements. You may choose which of your excess units are the reinforcements, and these must be placed in reserve, even in missions which do not normally allow reserves. If the scenario normally uses reserves, these reinforcing units suffer a -1 modifier to their dice rolls when testing to see if they turn up, otherwise the reserve rules are used as written.

In scenarios which do not normally use reserves, when your reinforcements arrive they may move on from any table edge within your deployment zone. In a Breakout (where you have no table edge in your deployment zone) your reinforcements will arrive from the centre of one of the long table edges - roll a dice for each unit when it arrives to see which edge it moves on from.

After choosing your armies roll a dice:

*The Necrons are the defenders.

**The Necrons are always the attacker (even against Dark Eldar).

***Use Strategy Rating to determine attacker. As Necrons can be encountered at varying levels of dormancy, they have a Strategy Rating of D3, rolled for every battle.