“Cast off the shackles of your slumber! The galaxy shall be ours once again!”
Throughout the Universe, there are few as strange and as unknown as the Necrons. They are the soulless creations and former servants of the C’tan, a people known only as the Star Gods of ancient myth by the Aeldari from more than 60 million years ago. And until relatively recently, they lay dormant and hidden on Tomb Worlds throughout the known universe, but now they awaken, ready to bring their wrath to all those of an organic nature, in order to bring vengeance towards their former masters and their ancient enemy the Old Ones alike.
Now that’s been established, hello there everyone! It’s Build Monkey here with another dive into the Combat Patrol series, this time, as I’m sure you’ve all already figured out, is a look into the Necrons and whether they’re value for money, as well as any good to play on the tabletop.
So, first things first, what do you get in the box? Well, with the Combat Patrol: Necrons boxset you get; 1x Necron Overlord, 10x Necron Immortals, 3x Tomb Blades and 1x Night Scythe. All in all, that’s 15 models. Not many, but more than the Grey Nights from my previous Combat Patrol review. Maybe the lack of numbers will give them some beef to balance them out? But who knows. Either way, what’s their value individually?
1x Necron Overlord = £19
10x Necron Immortals = £55 (2 boxes of x5 models for £27.50)
3x Tomb Blades = £35
1x Night Scythe = £42.50
Total = £151.50
Saving = £56.50
The standard RRP cost of this Combat Patrol boxset is £95, but if you buy all of the models it contains separately, then you’d be spending a total of £151.50. That’s quite a big price-tag, especially as the saving is only £56.50. But that amount is worth more than any one individual box of models that this Combat Patrol contains and would easily get you another 2 whole boxes of Necron Immortals, which is pretty damned nice… But are these guys really worth it on the tabletop? Let’s take a look.
Necron Overlord - Your primary HQ of this Combat Patrol boxset, the Necron Overlord is an… Interesting entity. It’s the leader of the troops and comes with an incredible sounding Weapon called a Tachyon Arrow that has an eye-watering 120” Range, Strength 12, and an AP of -5… But it can only be used once per battle. Other than that, it is more or less purely a Melee Fighter, leading the troops from the front with both Weapon and Ballistic Skills of +2 and a Strength of 5. This thing is somewhat of a beast… It also has access to something called a Resurrection Orb, which means that any destroyed friendly units within 6” of it can enter something called “Reanimation Protocols”, where they can potentially get back up again in order to continue fighting like the freaky little mech-zombies they are. Which is cool, I guess.
Necron Immortals - Immortals are the standard bulk shock troops of the Necron army and as such, they’re a bit… Lacklustre. Yes they’ve got good Range at 30” with a Gauss Blaster that is a Rapid Fire 1 Weapon, and this can be swapped out for a Tesla Carbine if you want which has an Assault 2 Typing and the ability to increase damage by 2 additional hits on an unmodified roll of 6, but they’ve only got 1 Wound… When compared to something like a Primaris Space Marine, who have Strength and Toughness 4 with 2 Wounds, these Immortals get 4 Strength, 5 Toughness and only 1 Wound. So they’re a little bit more tanky, but they’ll go down a lot faster I think… At least they can benefit from Reanimation Protocols I guess…
It’s worth considering though, that these guys can alternatively be built as Deathmarks. Now, these are worth something, considering they come equipped with a Synaptic Disintegrator which is a Heavy 1 Weapon that has a Range of 36” and can ignore the “Look Out Sir” rule, meaning it can target pretty much anyone with this thing and completely devastate them on the tabletop with unmodified rolls of 6 inflicting 1 Mortal Wound in addition to normal damage. They also benefit from Dimensional Translocation, so you can teleport these things in during play, which is nice.
Tomb Blades - Not unlike mobile turrets dangling from metal frames, the Tomb Blades are the sort-of bike units of the Necron armies, zipping around the battlefield and pulling off manoeuvres that would make any regular fleshy meat-bag either black out or throw up. Designed for, what is effectively hit-and-run actions to lesser defended positions these are surprisingly beefy, and not just because of their standard Strength 4 and Toughness 5 stats. They have an ability called “Evasion Engrams”, which means any Ranged Attack made against them has to subtract 1 from the Attack’s Hit-Roll. Add to that the fact they all come with Twin Gauss Blasters as standard, as well as the potential for something called a “Nebuloscope”, which basically negates Cover-Saves to their targets and you’re somewhat of a speedy little mincer on the battlefield. Top this off with the ability “Living Metal”, which gives these guys the chance to regain 1 lost Wound at the start of each of your Command Phases, as well as access to the Reanimation Protocols and they’re properly frightening.
Night Scythe - The Night Scythe (or as I like to call it, the Flying Mechanical Croissant of Doom) is the standard transport vehicle for any Necron army. It is large, has a decent transport capacity of 20 models (which is easily this whole Combat Patrol army plus extras) and it’s fast, having a base Movement of up to 50” at full health. It also comes equipped with a Twin Tesla Destructor which is a Heavy 10, 36” Range and a Strength of 7, that benefits from improved to-hit rolls as dice rolls of 6 gain 2 additional hits on their targets… Not sure why it’s described as Anti-Armour on the Gamesworkshop website though (me thinks someone just copy-pasted an old description of the other model you can build from this kit), and it has no AP. But with that many Strength 7 shots, you're going to kill something.
The Night Scythe can also be built as a Doom Scythe and now, this is Anti-Armour. It’s got a bloody DEATH RAY! Oh and the Twin Tesla Destructor that the Night Scythe had, but more on the Heavy Death Ray. Range 36”, Heavy 3, Strength 12, AP -4 and D3+3 Damage, this thing is going to melt tanks, characters and anything else that falls within it gun sights. It does lose the Transport ability though, but really, who cares? It's a flying Anti-Armour platform that is actually pretty good.
So, what are my thoughts on this Combat Patrol boxset… It’s… It’s meh. That’s all I can really say. There are a couple of good things about this boxset, such as the speed available to the Tomb Blades and the Night Scythe/Doom Scythe which gives them good benefits against to-hit rolls, but speed isn’t everything. I would have liked to see more variety in this boxset, even with the options of changing up some of the troop choices, perhaps in the way of a unit of Necron Warriors instead of 2 units of Immortals, but I doubt that would have made much of a difference overall. I am struggling to figure out whether I’m disappointed with the boxset, or with the Necrons themselves because they have such interesting lore behind them, but their overall execution on the tabletop is always somewhat… Uninspiring… They’re just lacking in bodies and numbers to bulk them out a bit.
Is this boxset worth it on the tabletop? If you like Necrons then sure, especially if you’re just starting out because there’s a decent little package of troops here that will give you good Attack Range and Speed as well as those potentially devastating Reanimation Protocols, but I would seriously consider picking up a box of Warriors and even some Canoptek Scarab Swarms because while you do get some nice enough models in this boxset, you don’t get that many. Personally though, I’d just give these guys a miss… They’re great for set-dressings, but that’s all I’d use them for…
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