Warhammer 40K: New Marine and Necron Detachments – Ranked
Goatboy herre to dive down and rank the new Space Marine and Necron Detachments from GW. Who’s really the best of the best?
There can’t be a new miniature release without a pile of detachments. This time around the 500 Worlds brings us 3 Marine detachments and 3 Necron ones. Thankfully the Space Marine options don’t feel as good as the ones they have now. The Necron options do have some spice especially with the new C’Tan one as well as the Destroyer Cult update. Let’s sit down and rank them while tomorrow I will build out a C’Tan list to look at.
1. Pantheon of Woe – Necron Detachment – aka C’Tan Party
This is probably the most interesting of detachments in this update. It pushes you to take as many C’Tans as you can fit as each named one can get an enhancement that really amplifies their power. They just get this power and it isn’t limited to only having 3 Enhancements either. I really like this as it gives an interesting way to change any army. The one main army rule besides the Enhancements is Cosmic Distortion that gives a 6” aura to your Monsters that grants an extra AP on attacks to enemy units within 6”. You can increase it to 9” if you want to have your C’tans take 3 Mortal wounds which is neat. The Deceiver extra power gives you a 12” +1 CP bubble. The Nightbringer can Advance and Charge. The Void Dragon can cause an enemy vehicle to be less effective. The regular C’Tan can deepstrike within 6” but can’t charge. This really is just the most interesting detachments of the new ones and probably someone will field all 4 C’tans in a monster mash army at some point.
2. Cursed Legion – Necron Detachment – aka new Destroyer Cult Team
The next one I think that is interesting is the new Destroyer Cult detachment. This is Nekrosar’s favorite place to hang as it powers up those models who just hate everyone. The Detachment rule gives Destroyer Cult units +2 to their strength of their weapons and if they kill something or brings it below half strength they let all other Necron units get +2 to their strength. This is an interesting rule and will see if pushing the strength value helps them out in the long run. You get some neat enhancements with one of them letting a Cryptek become a Destroyer Cult member and let them join up with a unit. They also have a lot of buffs to Destroyer unit options as well. I wish we had gotten new Destroyers to add to this but it feels like a detachment that could do some work.
3. Bastion Task Force – Space Marines Detachment – Making Battleline Matter
This is an interesting option from the Space Marines as it is all about your Battleline units getting better. This one allows your Battleline choices get the ability to advance/shoot/charge, fallback/shoot/charge, and fallback/advance/action all at the same time. This feels like an interesting set of rules that really pushes making Battleline work for the Space Marines. I think it might do some work with Heavy Intercessors as they are extremely bulky and mean if they could do all these things. You also get the ability to grant reroll 1’s to hit if a Battleline unit has already hit an enemy unit with an attack. The enhancements seem a bit nutty too with one granting a non Battleline unit that the character joins the Battleline keyword. Another gives the unit precision attacks for the Battleline unit they are attached too while another gives them +1 AP. All the stratagems are really pushing Battleline options and the wild thing is this one doesn’t have Armor of Contempt.
4. Cryptek Conclave – Necron Detachment – Techy Friends help their Buddies
This is an interesting one as well as just like the Destroyer Cult option this is pushing those with the Cryptek keyword. You get a set of options to that give all your Cryptek models shooting weapons assault and lets you pick from a pile of rules when you shoot like Anti-Infantry 3+, Anti-Mounted 4+, Assault, Heavy, and Ignores cover. You get some more shooting options in the enhancements as well. I don’t know how much this one will get used as the other Cryptek based Detachments might be better. It is still something to think about if you set up an army of shooting Necron Nerds that want to do some damage.
5. Orbital Strike Force – Space Marines Detachment – Deep Strike is Cool!
As you can tell from the byline on this one – this detachment is all about deep striking. You get to put more units into Deepstrike and when they come in for the turn they get to reroll a wound roll of 1 and if they came out of a Droppod they can reroll a hit roll of 1. All of the enhancements and stratagems are pushing Deepstrike and getting abilities after you show up. You can reroll charges with an enhancement. Another one gives the unit a 6” scout. You can even get people back into deepstrike as well. The wild thing is again Armor of Contempt is gone from this option as well. I don’t see it really changing things for Space Marines but it does feel fluffy with the push of new Assault Terminators.
6. Reclamation Force – Space Marine – That’s My Objective!
Hey if you want a detachment that is all about holding objectives this is it for you. It is full of rules that care about holding onto that spot on the battlefield and gain rules from it. This is an Ultramarine Detachment as well and the rules gives you +1 AP if you are shooting from a controlled objective and minus 1 to wound if you are on an objective and the attack is greater in strength. The interesting thing in this is you have a fight on death stratagem for 1CP as well as a Sticky Objective stratagem for 1CP. It is a very weird detachment and I don’t see it being used as again it loses Armor of Contempt as well as just the sheer power Gladius and a pile of other options they give you.
Which Detachment will you be using first?
