For the first time ever it is I WHO SHALL CLAIM FIRST! HOW DOES IT FEEL? IT FEELS GOOD! (Seriously though so beyond excited for this one, my first ever proper army and codex talked about by the bestest of best dudes! :D )
I can't be sure, but I think GW justified the radical change in the Necron army by saying that the early Necrons were those just starting to wake up. So you could say the later edition of Necrons is Necrons with coffee.
@thecatboy7494 Not trying to be when there are actual fundamental differences to 3rd Edition & 5th Edition Necrons. One being the Pariahs disappearing from their ranks along with the C'tan not being full beings anymore and not influencing the galaxy and having their long-term plans for humanity and to comabt the Psychic races. It is a retcon.
It's the favourite strategy of tank factions (Warmachine's Khador faction used to have that as a core thing back in the day, I assume most Khador players throw in some mercenaries to minmax away that weakness these days)
This is the codex that made me fall in love with Necrons. I remember pulling it out of a hobby store's library about a year ago and buying it on the spot. While I definitely enjoy the imperialistic and ego-driven goals of the Newcrons, I miss their previous station as a grand, vaguely defined threat that sought to consume the galaxy, Tyranid-style. Though the idea of the Necron being mechanical echoes of a long dead race, and even the leaders grappling with their decaying engrammatic personalities is great for a bit of pathos, even tragedy within the metallic rank and file of their faction. Also, I adore the implication that if Necron were allowed free reign of the galaxy, they'd have that Chaos problem locked down in, like, a week.
The tragic fall, utter demise, and enslavement of a race seeking escape from death and pain through pacts with entities beyond their comprehension, is just so far more narratively compelling than anything the Newcrons represent. Personally, the Newcrons bore the ever-loving hell out of me. I was under the impression (now delusion, I guess) that the Necrons were the anti-Chaos, and the C'Tan were the material universe's mirror of the Chaos gods. That line of storytelling would have been monumentally epic, I think. But, yeah, having mastery of anti-immaterium blackstone can help you steamroll chaos real quick.
From what I understand, they're actually bringing back the thing of 'the Necrons are a threat to all life in the galaxy' and 'the Necrons could put Chaos in the ground no problem if they just settled in to actually do the thing' with 9th. The bits I've heard about what the Silent King is up to more or less state that he's planning to nuke every soul in the galaxy to get rid of the Chaos problem, use the humans as fodder for figuring out how to undo bio-transferrence, and take the Necrons (like, all of them) and sally out to deal with the Tyranids. Not necessarily in that order. So I guess 9ed Necrons kinda hybridize a bit?
The 'have your cake and eat it too' approach seems to be even deeper in the Black Library stuff. While there is stuff like Tanzyn and Orikan's Bizarre Adventure, there's also a specific Necron Lord who's gone out of his way to keep feeding a shard of the Deciever, purposefully making it more powerful, and the shard's able to push his influence over lower necron forms (it's described as them glowing gold in those cases). Add in there's hints that the current Necron Dynasties may not have remembered the War of Heaven properly, either manipulated by the C'tan or modified it themselves to hide something regarding the war. So, yeah, GW seems to continue to decide they got no soddin' idea what direction they want to go.
Codex Daemonhunters would be another good entry into the "3rd edition codex that Matt Ward basically ignored for the 5th edition release in 2011" category.
I recall being in my early teens and reading the new codex, certain that GW had not only created an unbeatable army but a race in the cannon that invalidated all others due to their sheer overpowered nature. After all, wraiths had a THREE PLUS invulnerable save! That had never been done before! The game was over now! I went on to play all of no games ever against third edition necrons due to no one local playing them and cheesing it up by playing IG Armored Company from Codex Approved like a gigantic prat because I was not a likable child. I've seen debates on the old cannon VS the new and I see both sides. There is a wonderfully foreboding nature to the entire codex, and Lovecraftian was exactly what they were going for in retrospect with constant outright statements that the galaxy was boned whenever they got off their metal butts and decided to eat it, with the only victories being the ones where humanity destroyed a tomb world before it could awaken. It was the 40k version of bombing the reef off of Insmouth. However, it also seemed to make it very clear that the universe would only end one way in 40k and outright stated that no one could step to these very special metal sues. The new version took the nerf bat to them in universe, making them another power in the galaxy, but not the end all beat all. They lost much of their foreboding mystery by being fleshed out (pardon the pun) but gained a great deal more character and agency, even demonstrating the sheer power of will their leaders would be known for after that by slaying their own gods and enslaving the pieces, which is a heck of a power move. Yes, they largely resembled Tomb Kings in space for a while, but I feel like the new models are helping give them more their own flavor and bring back some of their mechanical horror aspects. Overall, the lessons to take are: No army is invincible, the quality of fluff is always subjective, and you were always right to loath that kid who played only Armored Company. He really was just trying to never lose.
I think the new models for 9th edition look like they strike a good balance between the lovecraftian elements of the Old Crons while keeping the personality of the New Crons.
Man I still remember the general outrage that they retconned necrons to be Tomb Kings 2: Grimdark Boogaloo back when their... 5th? Edition codex dropped. In my heart they're still soulless robots.
i remember when my friend collected these necrons before i stopped collecting 40k models, the only time i ever beat him was when i borrowed the store managers ork set from black reach, not because of superior numbers or tactics, i just bull rushed my warboss through a building into melee killing a squad of warriors and then crushing his lord so badly he couldn't resurrect. good times. i definitely still prefer the old unknowable killing machine lore over modern lore despite my major appreciation of the new models...they shiny bois
Here's a fun fact! That White Dwarf issue that formally introduced the Necron Raiders into second edition came just after the issue of White Dwarf that formally introduced the Eldar Falcon. Those two introductions aren't directly connected; however the back cover of that issue had a short piece of fiction written as a report from a Mechanicus xeno-archeologist on the progress they were making excavating a Necrontyr tomb.
I was out of the hobby when Necrons came out and didn't return until after their retcon, so it's interesting to hear about their original form. Back then I did see a couple of people playing 40k, with one side being Necrons. The near invulnerability of the Monolith seemed to have afflicted the opposing player with the sort of listless depression is now associated with people exposed to the Pariah Nexus... spooky, eh? I do like the look of thos Pariah models, too! I like your choice of background music for this video and it's pegged at just the right volume.
I fought Necrons once when I started during 5th and only played them again when I restarted in 8th. I can still remember that exact feeling when all of my shots didn't do jack or shit against that stupid monolith.
Pariahs ironically are one of my favorite concepts to come from 40k, and it does kinda make me sad that GW basically relegates them to the dustbin of Necron lore with the old c'tan days. Part of that probably is thanks to Dark Crusade, where an archaeologist turned pariah acts as the Necron's voice in the conflict, and his doom and gloom speeches are a special treat.
@@gratuitouslurking8610 Pariahs were the single best thing about the 3E Necrons, and they wrote them out! The Pariah/Culexus/psychic blank thing was tragically underexplored.
@@harbl99 eh I kinda don't like having Necron anti-psycher tech rely on a faction that didn't exist in the War in Heaven. That said, I love the general concept, and the second SoB book features a SoB pariah-like. Maybe make it like a general humanoid (attempts to undo transference) with the anti-psyker option as something you can buy.
That depressed Necrontyr should watch the "Trespassers" episode of Clone Wars. Featuring tribal aliens fight a more advanced race of blue aliens, because the head military guy insists the snow planet their fighting over is rightfully theirs and that the tribals are trespassers. Ignoring the fact the the other's are clearly indigenous... Also the blue aliens have Afrikaan accents.
4:48 "Free! Metal Necron Citadel miniature! No blister pack? It's probably just a coincidence, but the shop staff have lots of Necrons - why not ask them for one?"
After being told to "can it" one to many times by everyone. C=3PO: "Well if nobody is going to listen to me, not even Artoo, it is clearly time that I bring fourth my Gauss rifle."
I preferred the old Necrons because they felt like an existential threat rather than just another alien race. I also think making the C'tan into Pokemon was silly ("Nightbringer, I choose you!"). I think that they could have made sub-factions by adding a few more C'tan and making the Necrons of each C'tan a bit different (it would also give a narrative reason for mirror matches). I could see the C'tan giving some of the higher ranking Necrons a bit more autonomy to better prosecute their wars of extermination so that the characters could have a bit more personality. There could perhaps have been some independent Necrons who have managed to break away from C'tan control - at least temporarily. The power of the C'tan on the battlefield being brought down in line with, say, greater daemons, could be explained by the limitations of the necrodermis. Oh well. Nobody listens to me.
There is yes and nos to bot lore variants, though for an overall I do prefer the newcron lore better. With that said, I do kinda wish the concept of Rogue Shards and the c'tan personalities they reform into to become more prominent, and bring back a bit of the eldrich horror crons of the past when they wrestle some control back from their captors.
Fun fact, Imhotek the Stormlord was actually named prior to the 5th edition codex. I remember a bit of fluff in a White Dwarf launching the Medusa V campaign that had a necron lord called Imhotek the Stormlord. Nothing to suggest he wasn’t just another Necron lord tho Edit: wow this comment really said ‘naked’ instead of ‘named’ for 3 months lmao
I kind of miss the old horror aspect of old necron lore. Just horrifying, terminator robots, that you can’t understand, you can’t fight them, you can’t even beg for your life. And presumably, there’s some sliver of consciousness inside that thing, watching its own body March to the miserable annihilation of all life in the galaxy. Not to mention that, for whatever ungodly reason, these things were taking people, people that were already creepy emotionless wierdos, and melding their flesh with metal and turning them into robots. Why? Why would they do that? You’d never know.
Bit of a correction. Lords & Pariahs did have personality but it was fragmented and would come and go in sequences. Gave them much more mystery of who they could be before the bio transference.
The anominity of the Necrons was cool. Sometimes a hint of flavor out weighs a fist full of seasoning. Not to mention here we had new gods not associted with the warp. Which I think made GWs stock holders nervous as they think 40k is all about chaos and not much else (see ultramrine movie). Ultimately we could have gotten a huge array of C'tan with personality that could have fit the troupes GW fit new necrons with, like being colectors, while not destroying the living robot aspect. Ps i also notice some young uns thinking old necrons had no one inside the shell, they did, a tortured captured soul who was aching to be whole again but knew they never could be and so just took it out on everyone else. Which.....kind of fits todays world, perhaps a reason they changed the lore, that was too real and not kid friendly.
I remember when this codex first came out. Back then the Necrons were shadowy, soulless, and genuinely unsettling. I really miss the sense of mystery and dread fascination that was the hallmark of 3rd edition lore.
6:40 -- You can tell Snipe really, really likes the product identity version of the Tomb Spiders by the glorious high tempo fanfare. 9:47 -- That inverted comma is _clearly_ and _obviously_ intended to be a Xhosa (* click *) sound, and only a FakeFan wouldn't know that. So it's C-(click from the top of the mouth)-tan, not C-tan. I mean like "duh!" 11:08 -- Hammerstein of the ABC Warriors really took the Stallone _Judge Dredd_ film badly, didn't he? 11:40 -- Hotpants Eisenhorn? "You kinky bi-"
After the triple las Predator failed, I found the best and most satisfactory way to take out a Monolith back then was (somehow) get a Dreadnought or two up close and punch the bugger.
You know that it's coming. The everlasting work of Mattius Wardius, the legendary Liber Ultramarinus in it's wole 4th edition glory. You better do it justice.
So that is where the undead murder everything alive in the universe and we're subservient to the C'tan and Mainly just acted as metal shootier zombies Necrons came from. Maybe since psychic awaking came at the end of 8th so it will be valid in 9th you guys could try, Tau next? Them the imperial guard and tryanids are the only factions you haven't covered yet and Tau are making a big comeback.
I genuinely think it would be cool if Pariahs came back, maybe using the modern warscythes, making them a troops option, not giving them a reanimations roll, not giving them core so that they cant just be rezed by the Technomancer; and lastly only let them be taken if Illuminor Szaraz is in your army, since he made the process of Biotransfurance, it would make since in lore, and be a good way to balance them on the table top for being a troop with warscythes.
In my head canon the Necrons or the C'Tan or possibly the enslavers are what caused the KT Extinction. Until directly said otherwise I'm going with it.
This was my first codex and army as a kid. I looked through the book all the time eyeing at the paint schemes, never quite sure how best to paint my army as best a kid could. Very easy to paint for a kid, but equally hard to assemble. All you have to do is spray paint black with hardware grade paint and throw on boltgun metal and dot the eyes green. This is of course after breaking half the models and covering them and your fingers with copious amounts of super glue because you had no idea what plastic glue was and this was just how minis were done.
I LOVE the idea of a working concept first appearing in a spin off. I dunno why, it just makes it kinda feel like you're discovering some old forbidden lore or something.
My favourite “mild vintage era” codex. Such great, dire implications through the lore that shake the foundations the of 40k universe, and it made you really feel like ponderous, faceless, ancient tide of doom that can only be delayed, but never stopped... Very disappointed with the newer incarnation on Necrons - they gained lots of character, but lost that unknowable, hyperadvanced, doom feel. Also, having a faction that has no individuality is kind of a unique feature that makes the army interesting in its own way. And of course, they retconned that awesome extra grimdark lore.
Well, Tyranids exist; I can't remember them having much individuality either... Maybe GW felt it was weird having 2 faceless horde armies in the one game system?
@@Wanten-the-stormtrooper So now they're a carbon copy of any other race with political tribal squabbles instead of being compared to another hive race? Come now...
@@Wanten-the-stormtrooperYeah, so now instead of being similar to the Tyranids, they're now similar to every other race with political squabbles. Great change...
I remember this Codex. I miss the old Necrons... Back in 3rd and 4th they were my best army. The rending of Gauss weapons and the old We'll Be Back rules were the best. The story of the Flayed Ones with the Guardsmen was my favorite and why I fell in love with them. Also RIP Pariahs. New Necron lore and rule names ain't as cool. Thanks for the video. The memories flood back! I remember trying to make the terrain. Really Miss old GW RP and artwork stuff. Also
Thank you kindly! 2nd edition Sisters of Battle and 3rd edition Necrons were my favourite Codexes (Codices?) as a youth, on the strength of their grim-dark fluff alone; watching your reviews of them in the last few months has been a pleasant trip back down memory lane!
Originalcrons had some really interesting 'what are they and what do they want' type lore. There was one short story/article about someone trying to figure them out based on where they appeared but the 'Crons weren't even consistent in that. They would appear anywhere from the depths of hive cities to agri worlds apparently randomly but would appear at 12:33am every second Tuesday (hyperbole, but it illustrates the point) on an airless rock with nothing but an automated listening post and then phase out again after a while. I like their new lore but the mystery of the old stuff was interesting in its own way.
Necrons back in those days were fun to fight C-tan, Pariahs, and Monoliths were not given the Necron rule so PHASE OUT rule didn’t count them. My friends would alway load up on these models I’d kill a couple of warriors and they’d Phase away. I’d laugh they’d yell.
This was my brothers first codex when he and I got into Necrons and Tyranids respectively. It makes me feel old that this is covered as history... I also miss when it was creepy skeletons vs creepy bugs... Everything is so colourful now lol
This is what I really liked about the old necrons. They didn't need to be "human-fied" with intentions, individuality etc. They were devoid of that, alien to what only others observed, a forced to be reckoned and completely unknown. They were to be feared because they were irreconcilable with any aspect humans would recognise. Thousands of droning cyborgs led by dark gods and would stop at nothing. They were what the grimdark universe embodied, before they decided to team up with blood angels. Like, you could have given all the units you wanted in the later editions and kept the lore the same.
I am mixed on it personally though I think they should flesh out two groups of crowns a bit more while keeping the new lore. it is lightly mentioned here and there some necrons still worship the can and let their shards lead them.-ie old crons the other group is a tomb world run by its tomb ai and wishes to kill EVERYTHING and is hitned that it may be affected by layer virus.
@@Yingyanglord1 but stuff like that is hinted because it's in the realms of speculation, which adds to the omounius take of what the Necrons embody. Nothing's really confirmed because no one can really understand them. They're an unknown force to be reckoned with, that's what makes them so fearful. If you begin adding in extensive lore to justify them, it diminishes that.
@@Yingyanglord1 That would be nice actually, and not unprecedented. I HATED the new lore for Seraphon (lizardmen) when AOS first came out. (for those who don't know, they made the lizardmen into Daemons of order. Purely existing as memories of the slann, who would conjure them up from their minds and deep strike them onto the battlefield). Their new lore however in the newest book splits seraphon into 2, those seraphon who remain in the realm of Azyr's high heavens (to appeal to the new fans from AOS) and the seraphon who settled on land, and basically became the same as Warhammer fantasy's lizardmen. I feel like if they did the same with necrons and having 2 factions as you said, one who want the C'tan back (or perhaps just a C'tan who escaped) and another who serve the Silent king would be a good move for the codex
Loved this, especially as it goes on and I realise we have basically identical cultural references in our lives. It was the Jason Plato reference that made us drift compatible though.
This was my very first Cron codex and to this day I think overall it's the best written.... It actually inspired me to play the army even though I really didn't care much for the very limited model count. It's funny how I can recall having SM players in tournament trying to argue that all they had to due to win was cause me to "phase out" by reducing my models down by 25% LOL....... During all those years of tournaments when that rule was still a thing no one ever succeeded forcing a phase out.................
As mentioned the Pariahs didn't have the Necron keyword, but the main problem there wasn't the lack of We'll Be Back; rather that they didn't count toward the number of Necrons you had on the board for phase-out purposes. Also, not being Necrons, they were ineligible to be teleported by the Lord's Veil of Darkness or the Monolith's Portal, so they had to foot-slog everywhere. I'd love to see them come back (and the Pariah book recently was SUCH A TEASE in that regard), but they had a whole lot of issues back then.
I loved the idea of the Pariahs being anti Pyker too. Like the one race that doesn’t have Pykers spent so much time and effort building a troop to combat them. It work super cool with their normal anti warp stuff too. Like they send in a troop of Pariahs into the Eye of Terror as shock troops.
3rd Edition Necrons are the best Necrons. Not only did they have the feel of a Lovecraft creation, but their units were just better. Destroyers were just Destroyers and Wraiths were just Wraiths. None of this Canoptek, Hexmark, or Shadowhumper nonsense.
my favourite codex! this is the book I bought when I first got into 40k, absolutely love 3rd ed necrons. not a fan of how they are now. the cover art and first bits of text got me invested in the universe completely.
Same! I was lucky to score a copy off ebay along with an old Necron battleforce. It was great fun to follow along in the book with my fav warhammer couple
I think that GW should split the difference between this version of Necrons and current edition Necrons. All the characters are just names given to Necrons exhibiting certain traits, have almost all ttheir lore be written from recovered artifacts, and just have it where almost no one knows anything about them except how they are a tough fight.
Thank you for using the proper plural form of Codex. This is one of my pet peeves about 40k that people do that I just want to screech like an angry pterodactyl about.
You know, I totally forgot about it till right now, but I think this was the first Codex I ever read for 40k. My friend brought it with him to a ski lodge and I just read my way through it. Skipped all the crunch but loved the fluff. Then just completely forgot it existed till right now.
Ngl trying to kill the nightbringer back in 3rd Ed was a pain in the ass... Seriously still have nightmares of that thing tearing through my black legion to this day...
I miss this take on them, I enjoyed the universal dread that the War in Heaven's returning champions inspired. The 5th ed change really felt like they had killed the race in favor of _Tomb Kings In Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaace!_ as the meme goes. No longer do you have FTL outside of the warp, no more grunts with anti-infantry weapons that could gut tanks, no more casual teleportation for lords, no more implications that the Necrons controlled the puritanical side of the inquisition, no unified purpose, no horrifying implications of being able to LAND ON MARS, no more implications of the Dragon eating the souls of techpriests like Slaanesh does Eldar, no more omnicide. I'm glad that 3rd ed was the version that Dawn of War brought to life. I understand why they did the change and I'm happy that they're getting a ton of love right now but they're not the same over powered entropic monsters against whom the only victory was Pyrrhic that I fell in love with.
bloody loved gorkamorka. we had a campaign that ended with any scrap won came from a dodgy mine. if they had alot of scrap, well that ment they had quite a big necron problem. 😁
I was going through my Squad Leader training (management training) when Necrons arrived. I didn’t like that they changed the Eldar lore to fit them in but 22 years on (oh dear lord and I old) I think I do like the Lovecraftian theme. Thanks for another walk down memory lane!
Time to play my favourite game: settlers of C'Than
My new favorite pun
You, sir, are a genius
What exactly happens when you roll 7? I expect something bad, but...
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only wood for sheep.
That's comedy gold.
For the first time ever it is I WHO SHALL CLAIM FIRST! HOW DOES IT FEEL? IT FEELS GOOD! (Seriously though so beyond excited for this one, my first ever proper army and codex talked about by the bestest of best dudes! :D )
Thirst, surely. These are CTan Necrons
This was my first codex and army too!
Finally, the Chronicler has his day.
genuinely the funniest "first" comment I've seen lol. And it being from one so esteemed as yourself is the cherry on top
Is it a good pain blessed chronicler? DO YOU FEEL THE WARP OVERTAKING YOU?!
I can't be sure, but I think GW justified the radical change in the Necron army by saying that the early Necrons were those just starting to wake up. So you could say the later edition of Necrons is Necrons with coffee.
Still a retcon.
@@dr.feelgoodmalusphillips2475
A retcon with a plausible post-hoc Lore justification.
@@Edithae Not really.
@@dr.feelgoodmalusphillips2475 It is, you just want to be contrarian, you should like, cease.
@thecatboy7494 Not trying to be when there are actual fundamental differences to 3rd Edition & 5th Edition Necrons. One being the Pariahs disappearing from their ranks along with the C'tan not being full beings anymore and not influencing the galaxy and having their long-term plans for humanity and to comabt the Psychic races. It is a retcon.
“Walk forward, it your opponent’s problem now.” 😂
Isn't that more of a Deathguard thing nowadays?
It's the favourite strategy of tank factions (Warmachine's Khador faction used to have that as a core thing back in the day, I assume most Khador players throw in some mercenaries to minmax away that weakness these days)
Played Necrons a few months back. Still alive and well. 'oh look you killed 12 necron warriors. Oops I rolled average, they all come back'
This is the codex that made me fall in love with Necrons. I remember pulling it out of a hobby store's library about a year ago and buying it on the spot.
While I definitely enjoy the imperialistic and ego-driven goals of the Newcrons, I miss their previous station as a grand, vaguely defined threat that sought to consume the galaxy, Tyranid-style. Though the idea of the Necron being mechanical echoes of a long dead race, and even the leaders grappling with their decaying engrammatic personalities is great for a bit of pathos, even tragedy within the metallic rank and file of their faction.
Also, I adore the implication that if Necron were allowed free reign of the galaxy, they'd have that Chaos problem locked down in, like, a week.
The tragic fall, utter demise, and enslavement of a race seeking escape from death and pain through pacts with entities beyond their comprehension, is just so far more narratively compelling than anything the Newcrons represent. Personally, the Newcrons bore the ever-loving hell out of me.
I was under the impression (now delusion, I guess) that the Necrons were the anti-Chaos, and the C'Tan were the material universe's mirror of the Chaos gods. That line of storytelling would have been monumentally epic, I think. But, yeah, having mastery of anti-immaterium blackstone can help you steamroll chaos real quick.
That and you also probably played tomb kings way back in the 90’s eh? 😎☝️
@@HyperLethal0100 Yep, you got me down to a T. I do so miss my Dry Boys.
From what I understand, they're actually bringing back the thing of 'the Necrons are a threat to all life in the galaxy' and 'the Necrons could put Chaos in the ground no problem if they just settled in to actually do the thing' with 9th. The bits I've heard about what the Silent King is up to more or less state that he's planning to nuke every soul in the galaxy to get rid of the Chaos problem, use the humans as fodder for figuring out how to undo bio-transferrence, and take the Necrons (like, all of them) and sally out to deal with the Tyranids. Not necessarily in that order.
So I guess 9ed Necrons kinda hybridize a bit?
The 'have your cake and eat it too' approach seems to be even deeper in the Black Library stuff. While there is stuff like Tanzyn and Orikan's Bizarre Adventure, there's also a specific Necron Lord who's gone out of his way to keep feeding a shard of the Deciever, purposefully making it more powerful, and the shard's able to push his influence over lower necron forms (it's described as them glowing gold in those cases). Add in there's hints that the current Necron Dynasties may not have remembered the War of Heaven properly, either manipulated by the C'tan or modified it themselves to hide something regarding the war. So, yeah, GW seems to continue to decide they got no soddin' idea what direction they want to go.
10:38 Did I hear " Oh my god, far too much gold" ? There is NEVER far too much gold. That is simply impossible.
Certainly not if you ask The Emperor
"Too much gold?"
* agitated Custodes noises*
Dwarf detected!
Codex Daemonhunters would be another good entry into the "3rd edition codex that Matt Ward basically ignored for the 5th edition release in 2011" category.
those new necron warrior models actually look pretty damn close to that old artwork thinking about it, dayum.
Honestly considering making an "Oldcron" army using the old metal Lord and the new Warriors/Scarabs.
Watching this makes me realize how dry the game has become. Still love it but you know.
I recall being in my early teens and reading the new codex, certain that GW had not only created an unbeatable army but a race in the cannon that invalidated all others due to their sheer overpowered nature. After all, wraiths had a THREE PLUS invulnerable save! That had never been done before! The game was over now! I went on to play all of no games ever against third edition necrons due to no one local playing them and cheesing it up by playing IG Armored Company from Codex Approved like a gigantic prat because I was not a likable child.
I've seen debates on the old cannon VS the new and I see both sides. There is a wonderfully foreboding nature to the entire codex, and Lovecraftian was exactly what they were going for in retrospect with constant outright statements that the galaxy was boned whenever they got off their metal butts and decided to eat it, with the only victories being the ones where humanity destroyed a tomb world before it could awaken. It was the 40k version of bombing the reef off of Insmouth. However, it also seemed to make it very clear that the universe would only end one way in 40k and outright stated that no one could step to these very special metal sues.
The new version took the nerf bat to them in universe, making them another power in the galaxy, but not the end all beat all. They lost much of their foreboding mystery by being fleshed out (pardon the pun) but gained a great deal more character and agency, even demonstrating the sheer power of will their leaders would be known for after that by slaying their own gods and enslaving the pieces, which is a heck of a power move. Yes, they largely resembled Tomb Kings in space for a while, but I feel like the new models are helping give them more their own flavor and bring back some of their mechanical horror aspects.
Overall, the lessons to take are: No army is invincible, the quality of fluff is always subjective, and you were always right to loath that kid who played only Armored Company. He really was just trying to never lose.
God I remember reading when Ciaphus Cain went up against them. The feeling of pure dread was pant poopingly palpable.
I think the new models for 9th edition look like they strike a good balance between the lovecraftian elements of the Old Crons while keeping the personality of the New Crons.
I'd prefer if they'd keep the Old Crons personality too, throw in a fully functional C'tan while we're at it.
Man I still remember the general outrage that they retconned necrons to be Tomb Kings 2: Grimdark Boogaloo back when their... 5th? Edition codex dropped. In my heart they're still soulless robots.
i remember when my friend collected these necrons before i stopped collecting 40k models, the only time i ever beat him was when i borrowed the store managers ork set from black reach, not because of superior numbers or tactics, i just bull rushed my warboss through a building into melee killing a squad of warriors and then crushing his lord so badly he couldn't resurrect. good times.
i definitely still prefer the old unknowable killing machine lore over modern lore despite my major appreciation of the new models...they shiny bois
Ah, Codex: Skeleton Wars. My favorite.
There is some very H.R. Giger element, to the artwork of the original Necrons.
Here's a fun fact! That White Dwarf issue that formally introduced the Necron Raiders into second edition came just after the issue of White Dwarf that formally introduced the Eldar Falcon. Those two introductions aren't directly connected; however the back cover of that issue had a short piece of fiction written as a report from a Mechanicus xeno-archeologist on the progress they were making excavating a Necrontyr tomb.
I will always love the 1998 necron immortals model, theyre skeleton-y enough to be necrons but clunky enough to make them look intimidating
Yeah they're great. The early Necron models had a lot more character than 'literally just a skeleton', apart from the ugly flying loungers
Me every time Wnipe and Sib mentions GorkaMorka: GORKAMORKA!!! GORKAMORKA!!!
*DIGGANOBZ!!!*
They need to bring Gorkamorka back. And hopefully actually print enough copies of the damn thing.
@@Del_S Dang skippy they do!
@@weldonwin Greenface? Daz disgustin'!
I was out of the hobby when Necrons came out and didn't return until after their retcon, so it's interesting to hear about their original form. Back then I did see a couple of people playing 40k, with one side being Necrons. The near invulnerability of the Monolith seemed to have afflicted the opposing player with the sort of listless depression is now associated with people exposed to the Pariah Nexus... spooky, eh?
I do like the look of thos Pariah models, too!
I like your choice of background music for this video and it's pegged at just the right volume.
I fought Necrons once when I started during 5th and only played them again when I restarted in 8th. I can still remember that exact feeling when all of my shots didn't do jack or shit against that stupid monolith.
Pariahs ironically are one of my favorite concepts to come from 40k, and it does kinda make me sad that GW basically relegates them to the dustbin of Necron lore with the old c'tan days. Part of that probably is thanks to Dark Crusade, where an archaeologist turned pariah acts as the Necron's voice in the conflict, and his doom and gloom speeches are a special treat.
@@gratuitouslurking8610 Pariahs were the single best thing about the 3E Necrons, and they wrote them out! The Pariah/Culexus/psychic blank thing was tragically underexplored.
The pictures make those models look much MUCH better than they actually were believe me I was there Gandalf.
@@harbl99 eh
I kinda don't like having Necron anti-psycher tech rely on a faction that didn't exist in the War in Heaven.
That said, I love the general concept, and the second SoB book features a SoB pariah-like.
Maybe make it like a general humanoid (attempts to undo transference) with the anti-psyker option as something you can buy.
That depressed Necrontyr should watch the "Trespassers" episode of Clone Wars. Featuring tribal aliens fight a more advanced race of blue aliens, because the head military guy insists the snow planet their fighting over is rightfully theirs and that the tribals are trespassers. Ignoring the fact the the other's are clearly indigenous... Also the blue aliens have Afrikaan accents.
Based
4:48 "Free! Metal Necron Citadel miniature! No blister pack? It's probably just a coincidence, but the shop staff have lots of Necrons - why not ask them for one?"
10:39- C-3PO doesn't talk about his rough patch between films
After being told to "can it" one to many times by everyone.
C=3PO: "Well if nobody is going to listen to me, not even Artoo, it is clearly time that I bring fourth my Gauss rifle."
"Artoo i keep that thang on me! I'm grabbing the nine!"
Its a hit business!
The 3rd edition necron codex was/and still is, my favourite codex of all time. I just remember reading it when I was 14 and loving every second!
The Chaos Androids in Space Crusade were really Necrons…that would explain the bonkers ED209 looking dreadnaughts !
I preferred the old Necrons because they felt like an existential threat rather than just another alien race. I also think making the C'tan into Pokemon was silly ("Nightbringer, I choose you!"). I think that they could have made sub-factions by adding a few more C'tan and making the Necrons of each C'tan a bit different (it would also give a narrative reason for mirror matches). I could see the C'tan giving some of the higher ranking Necrons a bit more autonomy to better prosecute their wars of extermination so that the characters could have a bit more personality. There could perhaps have been some independent Necrons who have managed to break away from C'tan control - at least temporarily. The power of the C'tan on the battlefield being brought down in line with, say, greater daemons, could be explained by the limitations of the necrodermis. Oh well. Nobody listens to me.
I listen, and I agree! We just need a time machine to go back and prevent the 5th edition codex taking the route it did...
There is yes and nos to bot lore variants, though for an overall I do prefer the newcron lore better. With that said, I do kinda wish the concept of Rogue Shards and the c'tan personalities they reform into to become more prominent, and bring back a bit of the eldrich horror crons of the past when they wrestle some control back from their captors.
They were way more creepy before they started having personalities and monologuing all the time …
Fun fact, Imhotek the Stormlord was actually named prior to the 5th edition codex. I remember a bit of fluff in a White Dwarf launching the Medusa V campaign that had a necron lord called Imhotek the Stormlord. Nothing to suggest he wasn’t just another Necron lord tho
Edit: wow this comment really said ‘naked’ instead of ‘named’ for 3 months lmao
I kind of miss the old horror aspect of old necron lore.
Just horrifying, terminator robots, that you can’t understand, you can’t fight them, you can’t even beg for your life.
And presumably, there’s some sliver of consciousness inside that thing, watching its own body March to the miserable annihilation of all life in the galaxy.
Not to mention that, for whatever ungodly reason, these things were taking people, people that were already creepy emotionless wierdos, and melding their flesh with metal and turning them into robots. Why? Why would they do that? You’d never know.
Pariahs werent for fight warp oponents? After all they were blanks before being turned
Bit of a correction. Lords & Pariahs did have personality but it was fragmented and would come and go in sequences. Gave them much more mystery of who they could be before the bio transference.
The anominity of the Necrons was cool. Sometimes a hint of flavor out weighs a fist full of seasoning.
Not to mention here we had new gods not associted with the warp. Which I think made GWs stock holders nervous as they think 40k is all about chaos and not much else (see ultramrine movie).
Ultimately we could have gotten a huge array of C'tan with personality that could have fit the troupes GW fit new necrons with, like being colectors, while not destroying the living robot aspect.
Ps i also notice some young uns thinking old necrons had no one inside the shell, they did, a tortured captured soul who was aching to be whole again but knew they never could be and so just took it out on everyone else. Which.....kind of fits todays world, perhaps a reason they changed the lore, that was too real and not kid friendly.
I still own a copy of the codex myself and reading along was actually pretty fun, and I'd say its secret feature as a hat is a huge plus.
I remember when this codex first came out. Back then the Necrons were shadowy, soulless, and genuinely unsettling. I really miss the sense of mystery and dread fascination that was the hallmark of 3rd edition lore.
6:40 -- You can tell Snipe really, really likes the product identity version of the Tomb Spiders by the glorious high tempo fanfare.
9:47 -- That inverted comma is _clearly_ and _obviously_ intended to be a Xhosa (* click *) sound, and only a FakeFan wouldn't know that. So it's C-(click from the top of the mouth)-tan, not C-tan. I mean like "duh!"
11:08 -- Hammerstein of the ABC Warriors really took the Stallone _Judge Dredd_ film badly, didn't he?
11:40 -- Hotpants Eisenhorn? "You kinky bi-"
This was awesome. I remember starting a necron army, buying some warriors, losing half the green rods and giving up.
Daniel Laében-Rosén I think one of my brothers had a similar experience. 😂
@@--enyo-- they can be suprisingly hard to find once dropped 😂
After the triple las Predator failed, I found the best and most satisfactory way to take out a Monolith back then was (somehow) get a Dreadnought or two up close and punch the bugger.
or as a tau player just spam the old S10 railgun broadsides.
You know that it's coming.
The everlasting work of Mattius Wardius, the legendary Liber Ultramarinus in it's wole 4th edition glory.
You better do it justice.
Ah, an awesome codex. I loved this one. The Lovecraft vibe was great, I was gutted when they changed that back in the day.
Love the mechanicus background music :)
So that is where the undead murder everything alive in the universe and we're subservient to the C'tan and Mainly just acted as metal shootier zombies Necrons came from. Maybe since psychic awaking came at the end of 8th so it will be valid in 9th you guys could try, Tau next? Them the imperial guard and tryanids are the only factions you haven't covered yet and Tau are making a big comeback.
I genuinely think it would be cool if Pariahs came back, maybe using the modern warscythes, making them a troops option, not giving them a reanimations roll, not giving them core so that they cant just be rezed by the Technomancer; and lastly only let them be taken if Illuminor Szaraz is in your army, since he made the process of Biotransfurance, it would make since in lore, and be a good way to balance them on the table top for being a troop with warscythes.
In my head canon the Necrons or the C'Tan or possibly the enslavers are what caused the KT Extinction. Until directly said otherwise I'm going with it.
This was my first codex and army as a kid. I looked through the book all the time eyeing at the paint schemes, never quite sure how best to paint my army as best a kid could. Very easy to paint for a kid, but equally hard to assemble. All you have to do is spray paint black with hardware grade paint and throw on boltgun metal and dot the eyes green. This is of course after breaking half the models and covering them and your fingers with copious amounts of super glue because you had no idea what plastic glue was and this was just how minis were done.
I LOVE the idea of a working concept first appearing in a spin off. I dunno why, it just makes it kinda feel like you're discovering some old forbidden lore or something.
My favourite “mild vintage era” codex. Such great, dire implications through the lore that shake the foundations the of 40k universe, and it made you really feel like ponderous, faceless, ancient tide of doom that can only be delayed, but never stopped... Very disappointed with the newer incarnation on Necrons - they gained lots of character, but lost that unknowable, hyperadvanced, doom feel. Also, having a faction that has no individuality is kind of a unique feature that makes the army interesting in its own way. And of course, they retconned that awesome extra grimdark lore.
I know those feels.
Well, Tyranids exist; I can't remember them having much individuality either... Maybe GW felt it was weird having 2 faceless horde armies in the one game system?
@@Wanten-the-stormtrooper So now they're a carbon copy of any other race with political tribal squabbles instead of being compared to another hive race? Come now...
@@Wanten-the-stormtrooperYeah, so now instead of being similar to the Tyranids, they're now similar to every other race with political squabbles. Great change...
Ah, gauze blasters! They're great when you need a bit of necron first aid...
I remember this Codex. I miss the old Necrons...
Back in 3rd and 4th they were my best army. The rending of Gauss weapons and the old We'll Be Back rules were the best.
The story of the Flayed Ones with the Guardsmen was my favorite and why I fell in love with them.
Also RIP Pariahs. New Necron lore and rule names ain't as cool.
Thanks for the video. The memories flood back! I remember trying to make the terrain. Really Miss old GW RP and artwork stuff. Also
The font makes it look like that Ctan is called the nightbanger.
Thank you kindly! 2nd edition Sisters of Battle and 3rd edition Necrons were my favourite Codexes (Codices?) as a youth, on the strength of their grim-dark fluff alone; watching your reviews of them in the last few months has been a pleasant trip back down memory lane!
This was the first Codex I ever bought, back in... 2008? Kid me was a potent combination of creeped-out and fascinated, so cool to see you cover it.
"..and too much gold" aka Pimp-cron
I did mine with Tin Bitz and one of the others in our group did the two-tone silver arms/legs and red bodies.
Originalcrons had some really interesting 'what are they and what do they want' type lore. There was one short story/article about someone trying to figure them out based on where they appeared but the 'Crons weren't even consistent in that. They would appear anywhere from the depths of hive cities to agri worlds apparently randomly but would appear at 12:33am every second Tuesday (hyperbole, but it illustrates the point) on an airless rock with nothing but an automated listening post and then phase out again after a while. I like their new lore but the mystery of the old stuff was interesting in its own way.
Necrons back in those days were fun to fight C-tan, Pariahs, and Monoliths were not given the Necron rule so PHASE OUT rule didn’t count them. My friends would alway load up on these models I’d kill a couple of warriors and they’d Phase away. I’d laugh they’d yell.
This was my brothers first codex when he and I got into Necrons and Tyranids respectively. It makes me feel old that this is covered as history... I also miss when it was creepy skeletons vs creepy bugs... Everything is so colourful now lol
This codex was the first I remember owning as a child. The nostalgia is real with this video.
one of my favourite yt things is finding out what snipe will greet me as and I don't know why
This is what I really liked about the old necrons. They didn't need to be "human-fied" with intentions, individuality etc. They were devoid of that, alien to what only others observed, a forced to be reckoned and completely unknown. They were to be feared because they were irreconcilable with any aspect humans would recognise. Thousands of droning cyborgs led by dark gods and would stop at nothing. They were what the grimdark universe embodied, before they decided to team up with blood angels.
Like, you could have given all the units you wanted in the later editions and kept the lore the same.
I am mixed on it personally though I think they should flesh out two groups of crowns a bit more while keeping the new lore. it is lightly mentioned here and there some necrons still worship the can and let their shards lead them.-ie old crons
the other group is a tomb world run by its tomb ai and wishes to kill EVERYTHING and is hitned that it may be affected by layer virus.
@@Yingyanglord1 but stuff like that is hinted because it's in the realms of speculation, which adds to the omounius take of what the Necrons embody. Nothing's really confirmed because no one can really understand them. They're an unknown force to be reckoned with, that's what makes them so fearful. If you begin adding in extensive lore to justify them, it diminishes that.
@@Yingyanglord1 That would be nice actually, and not unprecedented. I HATED the new lore for Seraphon (lizardmen) when AOS first came out. (for those who don't know, they made the lizardmen into Daemons of order. Purely existing as memories of the slann, who would conjure them up from their minds and deep strike them onto the battlefield). Their new lore however in the newest book splits seraphon into 2, those seraphon who remain in the realm of Azyr's high heavens (to appeal to the new fans from AOS) and the seraphon who settled on land, and basically became the same as Warhammer fantasy's lizardmen.
I feel like if they did the same with necrons and having 2 factions as you said, one who want the C'tan back (or perhaps just a C'tan who escaped) and another who serve the Silent king would be a good move for the codex
@@heraissilly the best thing about the new Seraphon lore is that you can say "Holy space dinosaurs!", and be litteraly describing what they are.
You can do that, just say the protocols of one or more dynasty bugged and they're all locked in the kill mode, like the Severed
I will now find a necron lord and put a box of fruit loops on his base
Loved this, especially as it goes on and I realise we have basically identical cultural references in our lives.
It was the Jason Plato reference that made us drift compatible though.
This was my very first Cron codex and to this day I think overall it's the best written.... It actually inspired me to play the army even though I really didn't care much for the very limited model count. It's funny how I can recall having SM players in tournament trying to argue that all they had to due to win was cause me to "phase out" by reducing my models down by 25% LOL....... During all those years of tournaments when that rule was still a thing no one ever succeeded forcing a phase out.................
Oh, i so love your Codex Compliant Series
Fantastic work yet again! 10 bonus points for use of the beautiful Mechanicus soundtrack.
old necrons are best necrons!
Can you guys cover an Imperial Guard Codex next please? It would be cool to see all the old metal regiments again.
Another good Codex Compliant, guys! Wib, loved how you worked in a Star Trek reference. Snipe, love you pencil sketch of a depressed Necron. :)
As mentioned the Pariahs didn't have the Necron keyword, but the main problem there wasn't the lack of We'll Be Back; rather that they didn't count toward the number of Necrons you had on the board for phase-out purposes. Also, not being Necrons, they were ineligible to be teleported by the Lord's Veil of Darkness or the Monolith's Portal, so they had to foot-slog everywhere. I'd love to see them come back (and the Pariah book recently was SUCH A TEASE in that regard), but they had a whole lot of issues back then.
I loved the idea of the Pariahs being anti Pyker too. Like the one race that doesn’t have Pykers spent so much time and effort building a troop to combat them. It work super cool with their normal anti warp stuff too. Like they send in a troop of Pariahs into the Eye of Terror as shock troops.
@@saxinator143Still a chance they could return.
I hated the Monolith and never managed to take it out. I used to call it, "the flyin' Land Raider" XD
until matt ward gave blood angels deep striking land raiders in 5th edition XD
Spooky Scary Skeletons.
Read along with them in that very codex ive had since middle school. Feels good man.
This was one of my first codexes... It's amazing to think i picked it up 15 years ago. I still have it on my shelf.
3rd Edition Necrons are the best Necrons. Not only did they have the feel of a Lovecraft creation, but their units were just better. Destroyers were just Destroyers and Wraiths were just Wraiths. None of this Canoptek, Hexmark, or Shadowhumper nonsense.
but the roster was lacking. crypteks, lychguard, praetorians, stalkers, and arks all bring a lot of seasoning to the table.
my favourite codex! this is the book I bought when I first got into 40k, absolutely love 3rd ed necrons. not a fan of how they are now. the cover art and first bits of text got me invested in the universe completely.
Here it is, the only book in the series so far which I actually own!
Great job with the video 👍👍
Same! I was lucky to score a copy off ebay along with an old Necron battleforce. It was great fun to follow along in the book with my fav warhammer couple
I think that GW should split the difference between this version of Necrons and current edition Necrons. All the characters are just names given to Necrons exhibiting certain traits, have almost all ttheir lore be written from recovered artifacts, and just have it where almost no one knows anything about them except how they are a tough fight.
Love the streetlight poster - best concerts I’ve ever been to
I once saw Wib wearing what I thought was a streetlight manifesto shirt.... that was confirmed in this episode. Thanks.
The *REAL* Necrons.
Every edition Necrons get retconned
Trazyn doesn't just want stuff, he *covets* it
This is my necron codex, the only version I ever played, a great fun faction. My first ever 40k army.
this video came out on my birthday, what a nice present to wake up to
Thank you for using the proper plural form of Codex. This is one of my pet peeves about 40k that people do that I just want to screech like an angry pterodactyl about.
I hope you guys get round to doing a Matt Ward retrospective lol
You know, I totally forgot about it till right now, but I think this was the first Codex I ever read for 40k. My friend brought it with him to a ski lodge and I just read my way through it. Skipped all the crunch but loved the fluff. Then just completely forgot it existed till right now.
Jason Plato's 1990s Renault Laguna is my favourite official Necron colour scheme of all!
Excellent video, thanks for all the lore/back ground.
Ngl trying to kill the nightbringer back in 3rd Ed was a pain in the ass...
Seriously still have nightmares of that thing tearing through my black legion to this day...
Just noticed the streetlight manifesto poster in the background. you have good taste!
Aahh back when GW knew how to write fluff instead of just regurgitating it in an endless cycle of dilution.
and the page design was a lot prettier than the 5th edition necron codex that gave them more fluff but mostly just in form of walls and walls of text.
I miss this take on them, I enjoyed the universal dread that the War in Heaven's returning champions inspired. The 5th ed change really felt like they had killed the race in favor of _Tomb Kings In Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaace!_ as the meme goes. No longer do you have FTL outside of the warp, no more grunts with anti-infantry weapons that could gut tanks, no more casual teleportation for lords, no more implications that the Necrons controlled the puritanical side of the inquisition, no unified purpose, no horrifying implications of being able to LAND ON MARS, no more implications of the Dragon eating the souls of techpriests like Slaanesh does Eldar, no more omnicide.
I'm glad that 3rd ed was the version that Dawn of War brought to life. I understand why they did the change and I'm happy that they're getting a ton of love right now but they're not the same over powered entropic monsters against whom the only victory was Pyrrhic that I fell in love with.
3rd edition Necrons are so much better than Space Tomb Kings 5+ Necrons. Just look at the way they were used in Ciaphas Cain novels.
This has some of my fav art of the Necrons have to agree there!
This thing was my first 40k army! I played for many years with these guys...
bloody loved gorkamorka. we had a campaign that ended with any scrap won came from a dodgy mine. if they had alot of scrap, well that ment they had quite a big necron problem. 😁
I was going through my Squad Leader training (management training) when Necrons arrived. I didn’t like that they changed the Eldar lore to fit them in but 22 years on (oh dear lord and I old) I think I do like the Lovecraftian theme. Thanks for another walk down memory lane!
3rd edition was my edition.
I replayed the Enslavers scurrying across the screen many more times than I would like to admit.
That was one of my first 40k codices ever! So much nostalgia...
"You can use this book as a hat" best line ever!
Love this Vid guys. Im in the process of building a Necron Fayled ones inspired army right now :)
Loving that DOS organ music at the end.
Best video you have done yet!