My favorite Warhammer 40K army just got a whole lot better

Necrons don't care about Christmas, because apparently, we get all our gifts in January. The 500 Worlds campaign book is on the way, kicking off the beginning of the end for 10th edition Warhammer 40K in style — with a big brawl between the Ultramarines and the Necrons.

Those big, stupid blueberries got some new toys, including an updated model for Space Marine 2's Captain Titus, but as a die-hard Necron player, I'm here to talk about the shiny new toys for my shiny old boys. And let me tell you, fellow overlords, the star gods have blessed us.

I'm normally a fairly active tournament player, but I've been cold on playing my Necrons for the last few months. Not because we're bad, per se; there are some decent builds, but they all revolve around the same game plan of "get shot a lot, and just hope you don't die." The army had very little agency, and no backup plan when being big, tough boys isn't enough. That all changes with the 500 Worlds, though. Now, we get to go on the attack.

New models

Two new models are the headline act: a brand new Destroyer special character called Nekrosor Ammentar, and a resculpt of the C'tan Shard of the Nightbringer, aka Death Himself. Games Workshop kindly sent us both models, and they are simply stunning kits to build and paint, but it's their tabletop rules that're oiling my servos.

The Nightbringer has always been our most murderous unit, and nothing changes on that front. He still hits like a truck, but the rest of his stat line has seen a serious upgrade. He now moves 10" (up from a piddly 6"), which means he can go find the fights a lot easier. He's also somehow gotten tougher… kinda.

His Necrodermis ability has actually been nerfed from "half all incoming damage" to simply "minus one damage". A downgrade to be sure, but he's gained 4 extra wounds to make up for it, and when you do the maths, you realise that this new profile is vastly superior against all but the largest guns.

Even more good news for fans of the star gods; all of the C'tan get this upgraded defensive profile, and the others all get upgrades to the offensive output too, making them even more deadly than before.

The other new addition — Nekrosor Ammentar — is arguably even more exciting, as he checks off a bunch of boxes for tools we were missing. For one thing, he has the "Fights First" ability. That means if you charge him, he gets the first swing, and with his melee beatstick profile, chances are good you won't still be standing there when he's done.

He's not just about killing fools, though; he also helps other units kill fools, too, thanks to his 6-inch aura of sustained hits. And if all that wasn't enough, he's got a protective aura against mortal wounds. What a guy!

New rules

Beyond the new units, the Necrons have also received three new detachments that finally let us go on the offensive: the Cursed Legion, Cryptek Conclave, and Pantheon of Woe. Also, while all these rules are contained within the 500 Worlds book, the new datasheets and detachments have been released for free on the Warhammer website. Nice one, GW.

The standout detachment is the Cursed Legion, which is focused on Destroyer units. Necrons already had a destroyer-focused detachment — the Annihilation Legion — and it's one of the worst detachments in the game. Rather than trying to fix that hot mess, GW has just gone for a complete do-over, and the results are very tasty.

All Destroyers get +2 strength (shooting and melee), and it comes packed with cool enhancements and stratagems that make a full melee pressure build genuinely viable. We finally have access to advance and charge, and you can even make Overlords and Crypteks into honorary destroyers. The other detachments both have play, but my money is on this one seeing the most competitive play.

The Cryptek Conclave is a bit of an oddball, offering shooting buffs to units led by crypteks… which is precisely three units: warriors, immortals, and wraiths. Competent units to be sure, but none of them are rocking the kind of firepower you'd want to build an army around. Still, it offers a chance to run Necron warriors as an offensive tool, and not just a punching bag, so it's a big thumbs up from me, and some spicy combos are hiding in there.

The final detachment is the Pantheon of Woe, which focuses on the C'tan, and the rules team has been smart here. Instead of just improving the C'tan, here the C'tan buff other Necron units, giving you a reason to bring some conventional forces along too, instead of building the "oops, all C'tan" lists that we saw earlier on 10th Edition.

Make no mistake, though, it does buff the C'tan too; they get extra AP against nearby foes, and each Star God gets an enhancement that adds a powerful new ability to their datasheet. But unlike other enhancements, these are mandatory, which does crank the points of each model up significantly.

New ways to play

There's a lot of cool stuff to unpack, and more than I can talk about here, but what's most exciting about this update for Necron players is that it offers us new ways to play. Most Necron builds focus on durability, through necessity more than anything. Outside of a couple of units (the Doomsday Ark has been carrying us all edition), we didn't have great damage dealers, and we had even worse tools for making aggressive plays.

Both of these units change that in a big way by ramping up our speed and destructive power on the tabletop. Combine them with the new detachments — all of which focus on offensive power — and we finally get to bring the pain to our opponents, instead of just sapping their will to live by reanimating that one warrior brick back to full health for the fourth time in a game.

This galaxy once knelt before us, and it will do so again.

These new models are up for pre-order now alongside Titus and the Wardens of Ultramar, ahead of a January 24 release. In the meantime, you can always keep yourself busy with the best board games or the best tabletop RPGs.