9th Edition Necrons - Command Protocols

Command Protocols are to Necrons what doctrines are to Space Marines. Essentially, if your playing the same Dynasty and your Warlord is a noble, those with the command protocols keyword can benefit from these additional mods. The unit must be within 6" of a character model (excluding a C'tan) in order to benefit and your Warlord must be on the field at the start of the battle round. Once your warlord is gone though, you can no longer benefit from the protocols.

There are six in total, selecting five and assigning each to a battle round, you have to select the order of your protocols after deployment but you don't tell your opponent. When the battle round starts you tell your opponent which protocol you are using. Each protocol has two directives, you choose one for that battle round and let your opponent know which one it is.

At the moment I usually take a Overlord (Indomitus) as he is Noble and can be my warlord for my army which is Sautekh. To get used to things, I'm playing the list as ordered in the example in the Codex, this will definitely change as I get used to them but it's fine starting point:

• Battle Round 1 = 2 (Sudden Storm)
• Battle Round 2 = 3 (Vengeful Stars)
• Battle Round 3 = 5 (Undying Legions)
• Battle Round 4 = 4 (Hungry Void)
• Battle Round 5+ = 1 (Eternal Guardian)

The Silent King does have a one shot ability that lets you swap out your current protocol for the one you haven't selected to use in the 5 rounds.

So lets break down the Protocols:

1. Protocol of the Eternal Guardian

Directive 1: Each time an attack is made against this unit, if it did not make a normal move, Advance or fall back this battle round, this unit receives the benefit of light cover, as described in the Warhammer 40,000 Core Book.

Directive 2: Each time an enemy unit declares a charge against this unit, if this unit is not in engagement range of any enemy units, it can Hold Steady or Set to Defend.

• If it Holds Steady, then until the end of the phase, any overwatch attacks made by models in that unit score hits on unmodified rolls of 5+, instead of a 6.
• If it Sets to Defend, then until the end of the phase, to cannot fire Overwatch, but until the end of the next fight phase, each time a model in that unit makes a melee attack, add 1 to that attack's hit roll.

2. Protocol of the Sudden Storm

Directive 1: Add 1" to the move characteristic of models in this unit.

Directive 2: If this unit is performing an action, it can still make attacks with ranged weapons without that action failing.

3. Protocol of the Vengeful Stars

Directive 1: Each time a model in this unit makes a ranged attack, on an unmodified wound roll of 6, improve the Armour Penetration characteristic of that attack by 1.

Directive 2: Each time a model in this unit makes a ranged attack that targets a unit within half range, the target does not receive the benefits of cover to it's saving throw against that attack.

4. Protocol of the Hungry Void

Directive 1: Each time a model in this unit makes a melee attack, on an unmodified wound roll of 6, improve the armour penetration characteristic of that attack by 1.

Directive 2: Each time a model in this unit makes a melee attack, if this unit made a charge move, was charged or performed an Heroic Intervention this turn, add 1 to that attack's strength characteristic.

5. Protocol of the Undying Legions

Directive 1: Each time this unit uses it's Living Metal ability, each model in this unit regains 1 additional lost wound.

Directive 2: Each time you make Reanimation Protocol rolls for this unit, you can re-roll on the dice.

6. Protocol of the Conquering Tyrant

Directive 1: Add 3" to the range of this unit's aura abilities (to a maximum of 12") and increase the range of the following abilities this unit has by 3" (to a maximum of 12"): Lord's Will; My Will Be Done; Rites Of Reanimation.

Directive 2: This unit is eligible to shoot in a turn in which it Fell Back, but if it does, then until the end of the turn, each time a model in this unit makes a ranged attack, subtract 1 from that attack's hit roll.

Noble Units:

The Silent King, Imotekh The Stormlord, Anrayr The Traveller, Vargard Obyron,  Nemesor, Trazyn The Infinite, Overlord, Lord, Catacomb Command Barge

The only units that don't benefit from the command protocols seem to be the C'tan shards including the Tesseract Vault and the Transcendent C'tan.

Reference Steps:

• Command Protocols only applies if every unit in your army is from the same dynasty (excluding DYNASTIC AGENT,  C'TAN SHARD and Unaligned units) and your Warlord is a noble.
• Before the battle, secretly assign one command protocol to each of first five battle rounds (no repeat).
• Start of each battle round, reveal command protocol and select one of its directives.
• Units with this ability benefit from selected directive if within 6" of friendly  NECRONS CHARACTER  unit (excluding C'tan Shards) and friendly Noble is on the battlefield.