9th Edition Necrons - C'tan Shard of the Nightbringer

So the Nightbringer, I bought this guy when I started playing again towards the end of 8th edition and man, how good is he now with 9th edition!?!?

Amazing changes, his entropic blow is unstoppable! Max 3 wounds lost per phase (psychic, shooting and fight) gives him at least two turns or more when going up against something heavy if you are lucky. Couple that with the fact that invulnerable saves can be ignored and abilities like disgustingly resilient can be ignored, the Nightbringer is a force to be reckoned with.

I've played a couple of objective games now since the release of the new codex and he proved to be my main damage guy whilst my warriors secured objectives. With a movement of 8, he could pretty quickly move around whilst remaining in some cover.

Needless to say, my brother is not happy with how powerful he is lol future games will probably see squads ganging up to take him out early but that will only give me time to reposition my remaining troops.

For any necron players out there, the Nightbringer is now a must have, regardless of army size even at a hefty 350 points.

Lets look at what's changed:

8th Edition

No	Name	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	A	Ld	Sv+
1	C'tan Shard Of The Nightbringer	8"	2+	2+	7	7	8	4	10	4+

9th Edition

No	Name	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	A	Ld	Sv+
1	C'tan Shard Of The Nightbringer	8"	2+	2+	7	7	9	6	10	4+

Wounds have increased by 1, this really helps when you think about the Necrodermis ability.
Attacks have also increased,by a massive additonal 2 attacks. I say massive as this is a lot for attacks and really helps, especially with Entropic blow.

So let's look at his new weapon skills:

WEAPON	RAMGE	TYPE	S	AP	D	ABILITIES
Scythe of the Nightbringer	Before selecting targets, select one of the profiles below to make attacks with.
- Reaping sweep	Melee	Melee	User	-3	1	Each time an attack is made with this weapon profile, make 2 hit rolls instead of 1
- Entropic Blow	Melee	Melee	x2	-4	D6	Each time an attack is made with this weapon profile, invunerable saving throws cannot be made against that attack

Awesome new skills, Reaping Sweep gives you a massive 12 attacks in total with still a decent -3 AP, which can be great against a large unit of marines.
Entropic Blow (my preferred profile) lets you go up against those tough characters and ignore their invunerability saves, with a -4 AP, most opponents won't even be able to roll any saves against the attack.

Now lets break down his abilities:

Necrodermis:

This model has a 4+ invunerable save. In addition, this model cannot lose more than 3 wounds in the same phase. Any wounds that would be lost after that point are not lost.

This is a great new ability and extends the life of the bringer. Granted, if your opponent knows what they are doing they can take him down in one turn through the psychic phase, the shooting phase and the fight phase if they are lucky. However, now he has Living Metal, chances are you will be taking out a few units before he gets taken down.

Enslaved Star God:

This model can never have a Relic or a warlord trait. In addition, enemy models can ignore the Look Out, Sir rule when selecting this model as the target of a ranged attack.

Ok, so this is probably the only downside but you can't have all that power without some weaknesses. This effectively makes him open to attack at any time for range attacks, so use the terrain to your advantage!

Drain Life:

Each time this model makes a melee attack that is allocated to an enemy model, that enemy model cannot use any rules to ignore the wounds it loses.

Another great addition, this effectively means that abilities like Disgustingly Resilient and Feel No Pain can't be used, looking forward to taking on the other twin's Death Guard with this one!

Reality Unravels:

When this model is destroyed, roll one D6 before removing it from play. On a 4+ it explodes, and each unit within 6" suffers D3 mortal wounds.

Right so not a new one but still worth a mention as if they do manage to take the Bringer out, he can at least take some down with him easier than a vehicle can (Note: vehicles usually explode on a 6+ whereas the Bringer is a low 4+).

Living Metal:

At the start of your command phase, each model in this unit regains 1 lost wound

Another existing ability but a new one for the Nightbringer in 9th Edition!

The C'tan Shard of the Nightbriner still knows two C'tan powers both of which he can use at the end of his movement phase if he didn't advance or fall back, however, in 9th one of them is always Gaze of Death. Which to be fair still ain't too bad:

Gaze Of Death:

Select one enemy unit within 9" of and visible to this C'tan Shard. Roll three D6s: for each 4+ that unit suffers D3 mortal wounds.

Not a bad range attack in my opinion.

He does have a choice for his other C'tan power:

1. Antimatter Meteor:

Roll one D6, adding 1 to the roll if this C'tan Shard is a Tesseract Vault: on a 3-5, the closest enemy unit that is within 24" of and visible to this C'tan Shard suffers D3 mortal wounds; on a 6+, that enemy unit suffers D3+3 mortal wounds.

2. Time's Arrow:

Select one enemy unit within 18" of and visible to this C'tan Shard. Roll one D6, adding  1 to the roll if this C'tan Shard is a Tesseract Vault: if the total equals or exceeds the wounds characteristic of any models in that enemy unit, your opponent selects one of those models to be destroyed.

3. Sky of Falling Stars:

Select up to three enemy units within 24" of this C'tan Shard. For each of those units, roll one D6: on a 1-5, if the dice result is less than the number of models in that unit, that unit suffers D3 mortal wounds. If this C'tan Sahrd is a Tesseract Vault, that unit suffers 3 mortal wounds from this power, instead of D3.

4. Cosmic Fire:

Roll one D6 for each enemy unit within 9" of this C'tan Shard: on a 4+, that unit suffers D3 mortal wounds. If this C'tan Shard is a Tesseract Vault, units usffer 3 mortal wounds from this power, instead of D3.

5. Seismic Assault:

Select one enemy unit within 18" of and visible to this C'tan Shard. Roll one D6 for each model in that unit, adding 1 to the roll if this C'tan Shard is a Tesseract Vault: for each 6+, that units suffers 1 mortal wound, to a maximum of 10 mortal wounds.

6. Transdimensional Thunderbolt:

Select one enemy unit within 24" of and visible to this C'tan Shard (an enemy character unit with a wounds characteristic of 9 or less cannot be selected for this power while it is within 3" of another enemy unit, unless that character unit is the closest visible enemy unit). Roll one D6: on a 2+, that unit suffers D3 mortal wounds. Then, roll one D6 for each other enemy unit within 3" of the selected unit: on a 4+, that unit suffers 1 mortal wound. If this C'tan Shard is a Tesseract Vault, roll for each other enemy unit within 6" of the selected unit, instead of 3".

It's dealers choice when it comes to which power you use, I'm personally using Antimatter Meteor but I'd be interested to hear what other people use and why? Let me know in the comments below what you think of the new changes to the C'tan Shard of the Nightbringer, do you think this is a justified upgrade or a nerf waiting to happen?