Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: Necron Army of Renown Review – Annihilation Legion!
Goatboy here with a quick review of the new Army of Renown showing up in the latest White Dwarf – the Necron Annihilation Legion!
First I love the name as it is simple, doesn’t have the word blood in it, and feels very Necron like. It also indicates this is an army built of the models I like in Necrons – all the Destroyers, crazy Necrons, and options to boost them up. Let’s get onto the quick review and then an army list to read over.
Necron Annihilation Legion 101
The is an Army of Renown so it has some unit choice restrictions – naming it can only have Destroyer Cult, Flayed Ones, and Canoptek Plasmacyte units in it. They all have to be drawn from the same Dynasty, and they all lose the Command Protocols Ability. They all get the Annihilation Legion keyword, a Vanguard Detachment that has the warlord in it cost 0CP, Destroyer Cult gain the Cult of Annihilation ability, Flayed ones that are 10 or more models at start of the game count as Objective Secured. Hexmark Destroyer units have HQ battlefield role versus Elite. Each Skorpekh Lord or Lokhust Lord unit lets you take a Hexmark Detroyer unit without taking up a battlefield slot. A lot of words to basically saying this is going to be a Destroyer Cult army of doom.
The Cult of Annihilation gets a few rules added on too – if you are attacking a unit that is below starting strength (starting amount of models) you get +1 to hit. If the unit is below half strength you also get a +1 to wound against units as well. This seems to really set up your army to weaken a lot of units to try and buff up the rest of your shooting in hopes to explode out your damage as much as you can.
Warlord Traits & Relics
You get some Warlord traits and relics with the warlord trait letting you get 2 exploding hits on a 6 to hit with a melee attack. You can see how your Skorpekh Lords could go crazy into a unit with exploding 6’s of death. You get 3 relics with the coolest one being a Skorpekh lord option that lets excess damage not go away. It is a -4 AP/D3 weapon so you could see how you set up a really insane monster of death the skitters into your line. There is a super pistol for you Hexmark Destroyer option that can do a lot of damage in a line of death. I wish the distance was 18″ as it could easily be used to snipe out things – but of course I don’t get everything I want all the time.
Annihilation Legion Protocols & Stratagems
The army gets some Annihilation protocols like the Necron book has. These are new and while you don’t get the super boosted one from the Dataslate balance. The ones that look cool are the armor save bonus options that is mixed with Toughness option. You have a lot of movement buffs as well as some fun can still do stuff while completing an action. All of them seem good and the better general will be able to figure out the order they need to crush the enemy in Annihilation.
On the Stratagem front we have an advance and charge option which is always good. It is 1 CP so it feels very spicy when you need to get some creepy guys into your opponents line. You have an option to remove the ignore wounds roles of an enemy which is situational but when it works it is great. For 1CP this is a perfect option. You have a Flayed one reroll wounds option if they are in terrain as well. Of course you have some Lokhust destroyer damage option that lets you get a +1 to the damage roll for an attack – perfect for adding more annihilations. There is a rebuilt a Canoptek Plasmacyte option too which could be useful to get a quick body on an objective or just a way to buff things. You have a charge ability to cause Mortal wounds with Destroyer Cults and even an option to turn on objective secured on an Annihilation Legion unit which seems good to “steal” and objective.
Overall it seems like a neat little army that feels very fluffy. It won’t overtake the current “best” Necron list but it sure feels like an army I would enjoy a heck of a lot more. A ton of Destroyer Cult jerks with creepy flesh wearing robots sounds like a heck of a lot cooler army. With that in mind let’s throw out a list real quick.
Annihilation Legion – Vanguard Detachment – 0CP
-HQ-
Lokhust Lord – Res Orb – 130pts
Skorpekh Lord – Warlord (-1CP) – Furious Destructor, Relic (-1CP) – Nightcull Scythe – 130pts
Hexmark Destroyer – Relic (-1CP) – Mask of Obliteration – 65pts
-Elites-
Canoptek Plasmacyte – 15pts
Canoptek Plasmacyte – 15pts
Flayed Ones X 15 – 150pts
Flayed Ones X 15 – 150pts
Flayed Ones X 15 – 150pts
Skorpekh Destroyers X 6 – 150pts
Skorpekh Destroyers X 6 – 150pts
Skorpekh Destroyers X 6 – 150pts
-FA-
Ophydian Destroyers X 6 -150pts
Ophydian Destroyers X 6 -150pts
-Heavy-
Lokhust Destroyers X 6, Lokhust Heavy Destroyer X 1, Guass Destructor – 285pts
Lokhust Heavy Destroyers X 3 – Gauss Destroctor X 3 – 150pts
PTS: 1990 CP: 4
It’s a basic pile of Necron destroyer nonsense filling out everything I can. Will it work? Who knows – it will at least be cool as heck to play with.
May the Dynasties rule forever!
