Unit perusal: Canoptek Acanthrites

Good Evening Everyone!

Following on from me looking at some of the units from Imperial Armour 12, I have decided to look at the rest of the units presented for the Necrons as part of the Dark Harvest list for the Maynarkh Dynasty.

Today we will look at the Canoptek Acanthrites. A new addition to the mecha-bug aesthetic for Canoptek Constructs we have a locust-styled unit, comparable to a space marine captain statline, with standard power armour and an additional point of toughness, rounded out with the standard slow initiative that follows the fluff of the Necron race.

Starting as a unit of 3 at the cost of 30 melta bombs you gain a jump infantry unit,  with fearless, stealth, a void blade (this has the entropic strike special rule so follow the current codex ruling on this), and a cutting beam per model.  Cutting beams are s6 ap2 assault 1 and have the melta rule, so they do have a good chance to pop some vehicles, but your going to want to get up close and personal with max range the same as max charge range. You can also take a further 6 Acanthrites per fast attack slot past the first 3, though this would be an epic point sink for a single unit (almost a 3rd of your available points in a 1500pt game. Maybe a unit like this would definitely be suited more to either Unbound or Apocalypse. These units really want to be hugging the scenery,  running back field disruption.

As always with Canoptek Constructs they do not have re-an so their durability versus standard Necrons is slightly less. These units are fighting for the same slots as other strong units such as destroyers in the Necron Codex m,  where they can be taken,  and with the Maynarkh Dynasty. . I feel they would play great in a fluffy themed game for a Tomb raid,  where Scarabs,  Spiders,  Wraith, Stalkers and Sentinels are a protection force led by a Cryptek. Hmmm... I might just throw something like that together once I get a few of these in the future.

©Games Workshop 2017 

Model wise they look absolutely gorgeous,  as is the standard with Forgeworld, though I really hope the flying bases are pin mounted and not ball mounted as I have had some serious issues with these in the past,  otherwise there looks to be little fiddly bits past the levitation orbs and stalks on its back. You get a unit of 3 Canoptek Acanthrites for £42.00 plus shipping or your regional equivalent,  just stop by forgeworld.co.uk.

Next time we'll look at the brother of the Canoptek Tomb Stalker,  the Canoptek Tomb Sentinel!

Until next time
Jonathan

40k Birthday Bash 2.0 Update: Faction Decision! (...Possibly...) Part 3

Good Morning Ladies and Gents!
I hope you all got an excellent night sleep as we return to the horror of the Maynarkh Dynasty,  and the dread legions at they're disposal!

First things first,  Fast Attack and Heavy Support Choices. If you have read the previous posts we are looking at the choices as per my list for the Birthday Bash 2.0 Tournament, so once I've finished this set of rereviews I'll come back and visit the other units in these respective slots.

So I having selected to use X2 Heavy Necron Destroyers,  a Doom Scythe and a Doomsday Ark,  with the Imperial Armour book you are instructed to use the entry from Codex: Necrons,  so these will be the same as you all know and love.  Which leads us to...

The Elites
This is a fun section and presents units that may seem new to some:

Charnal Lychguard
Just like with the current codex,  Overlords can have their fluffy body guard unit.  A Maynarkh Overlord can take a single unit of these deadly close combat bots.  Rocking the same stat line as their codex counterparts,  Charnal Lychguard,  gain the rage and fear special rules.  Now I hear you cry out how can these be reasonable versus their counterparts? I'll tell you.  They cost an extra 22 melta bombs on top for basically rage and fear... In any other life I'd say drop that points value down to maybe another 5 melta bombs on top of the unit and you'd be grand,  but for now,  I think superceding the re-an special rule and leaving them as is,  is an excellent compromise for the tourney without being OP.

Canoptek Tomb Stalker
OMG A GIANT MECHA CENTIPEDE OF DOOM!!! 😝 The first ever Forgeworld model produced for the cash strapped customer (kudos if you have a Necron Pylon,  I secretly hate you lol) this is the beefed up cousin of the Canoptek Tomb Spider.  Rocking the Deep Strike,  Outflank,  Hit and Run,  Night Vision,  Rampage, Fearless,  Fleet,  Acute Senses, and War Construct special rules,  this beastie stat line comparable to a Carnifex,  hits just as hard,  but from many different directions. You can also purchase Sepulchral Scarabs for 4 melta bombs that give it IWND and it's a monstrous creature with X2 glass flayers.

So what is the War Construct Rule I hear you ask,  well it basically means any weapon that wounds on a flat value will only ever wound on a 6. This is a unit that can't be guaranteed to be poisoned to death. Now a lot of these rules really make it seem scary,  but like nid players know deep striking big gribblies into a tabletop can be very hazardous,  and as it draws a lot of fire,  getting isolated is a death sentence for the model with only the wounds of +1 over a base of Necron Scarabs. It's big it's scary,  but it can die very quickly and at the cost of 45 melta bombs.

I feel the unit is fine as it is.  Just like all Canoptek constructs this beastie does not have the re-an rule either so no need to worry about that here.

As I feel the unit is actually well balanced for its points,  and is more of a psychological terror unit for your opponent I don't think this needs amending and worst well within the bounds of the current codex,  but please,  please let me know if you think this unit is overpowered,  and if so what would you change? It's an amazingly sexy model and I think would be a great addition to the upcoming event.

Next time we will be looking at the final entry,  on Kutlakh the World Killer!

Until next time...  Game with the lights on...
Jonathan