9th Edition Necrons - The Silent King

The Silent King is here! Aside from the fact this mini looks amazing, he looks like he will be a bad ass on the battle field as well. Can't wait to get my hands on this one, even if I am a little daunted by the task of painting him up lol. He's not cheap at £95 straight from GW but there are plenty of online stores offering up to 20% off (some with free delivery).

His characteristics change as he suffers damage so lets look at his stats (and his floating companions):

No	Name	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	A	Ld	Sv
1	Szarekh (9+ Wounds remaining)	8"	2+	2+	5	7	16	6	10	3+
1	Szarekh (5-8 Wounds remaining)	6"	2+	2+	5	7	N/A	4	10	3+
1	Szarekh (1-4 Wounds remaining)	4"	2+	2+	5	7	N/A	2	10	3+
1	Triarchal Menhir	8"	6+	2+	5	7	5	1	10	3+

Wounds are little lower than some big bads (Mortarion comes to mind) but he's still bad ass, hitting on 2+ (as expected) and his actual weapons/attacks seem to make up for his strength of 5. Talking of which:

WEAPON	RAMGE	TYPE	S	AP	D	ABILITIES
Annihilator Beam	36"	Heavy 1	12	-4	6	-
Sceptre of Eternal Glory (shooting)	24"	Assault 3	8	-3	2	-
Staff Of Stars (shooting)	24"	Assault 9	6	-2	1	-
Sceptre of Eternal Glory (melee)	melee	melee	+4	-3	2	-
Scythe Of Dust	melee	melee	+3	-4	3	Each time the bearer fights, it makes 4 additional attacks with this weapon and no more than 4 attacks can be made with this weapon.
Staff Of Stars (melee)	melee	melee	12	-4	6	Each time the bearer fights, it makes 3 additional attacks with this weapon and no more than 3 attacks can be made with this weapon.

His melee attacks have me admittedly a little confused at the moment (will have to do some research). Scythe of Dust for example says Each time the bearer fights, it makes 4 additional attacks with this weapon and no more than 4 attacks can be made with this weapon. So is this 4 free attacks or 4 off your 6 total plus the 4 additional attacks for a total of 8? Gut tells me the latter lol The 2 damage shots and melee should prove useful to pick off the Space Marines.

His two floaty companions come with an Annihilator Beam each, which I'm glad are a 2+ to hit as my heavy 1 rolls never land well lol With a strength 12 at 36" range should do some good damage with there -4 AP and 6 flat damage.

As you would expect, he has the Living Metal and Command Protocols abilities and many more:

Noctilith Beacons:

In your opponent's Psychic phase, Szarekh can attempt to deny one psychic power as if he were a Psyker.

Obeisance Generators:

At the start of the fight phase, if there any enemy units within engagement range of Szarekh, then until the end of the phase, those units cannot fight until  after all other eligible units from your army have done so.

Phaeron of the Stars [Aura]:

While a friendly Necrons Core unit or Triarch Praetorians unit is within 6" of Szarekh, each time a ranged attack is made by a model in that unit, you can re-roll the hit roll.

Phaeron of the Blades[Aura]:

While a friendly Necrons Core unit or Triarch Praetorians unit is within 6" of Szarekh, each time a melee attack is made by a model in that unit, you can re-roll the wound roll.

Relentless March [Aura]:

While a friendly Necrons Core unit or Triarch Praetorians unit is within 6" of Szarekh, each time that unit is selected to make a normal move or Advance, until the end of the phase, add 1" to the move characteristic of models in that unit.

My Will be done:

In your command phase, you can select one friendly Necrons Core unit or Triarch Praetorians unit within 9" of Szarekh. Until the start of your next command phase, each time a model in that unit makes an attack, add 1 to that attacks hit roll. Each unit can only be selected for this ability once per turn.

Phaeron:

This model can use its My Will be Done one additional time per turn.

Voice of  the Triarch:

Once per battle, at the start of any battle round, if Szarekh is on the battle field he can alter your command protocols. If he does, the command protocol that you did not assign to any battle rounds before the battle becomes active for our army for that battle round, instead of the one that you assigned to it.

Triarchal Menhir:

While this unit contains any Triarchal Menhirs models, it does not count as a character for the purposes of the Look Out, Sir rule and each time an attack successfully wounds this unit, that attack must be allocated to one of those models. The destruction of Triarchal Menhirs is ignored for the purposes of Morale tests. If Szarekh is ever destroyed, any remaining Triarchal Menhirs in this unit are also destroyed.

The Silent King:

if your army is battle-forged, Szarekh must be your army's Warlord. You receive 3 additional Command points if Szarekh is your Warlord.

Transtemporal Force Field:

Models in this unit have a 4+ invulnerability save.

Preservative Auto-torpor:

If Szarekh has 8 or fewer wounds remaining, it cannot make attacks with it's Staff of Stars and loses the Phaeron of the Stars ability. If Szarekh has 4 or fewer wounds remaining, it cannot make attacks with it's Scythe of Dust and loses the Phaeron of Blades ability.

Vengence of the Enchained:

When Szarekh is destroyed, roll one D6 before removing it from play. On a 4+ it explodes, and each unit within 2D6" suffers D6 mortal wounds.

Wow that's a lot lol +1 to hit on two units, floaty body guards and hit/wound re-rolls to name a few but the last act of defiance with a 4+ to explode doing D6 mortal wounds in 2D6" is a great (and often humorous) final blow lol.

So the Phaeron of the Stars and the Phaeron of the Blades are the two additional Necrons on the platform with Szarekh.The only question remaining is if that of the trapped C'tan shard as the Codex doesn't mention anything around it or why it's there? I can only assume he is there solely to power up The Silent King!