Changing up your Detachments is a great way to have wildly different games with your lovingly crafted army, and the 500 Worlds: Titus supplement comes with three new ones each for the Space Marines and Necrons – all of which are also being added to their free faction packs soon.
However, like some people on the internet, we’re really bad at waiting for the full release before showing off what’s inside, so today we’re going to have a look at what’s in store for the metallic monstrosities following Nekrosor Ammentar.
If you looked at the upgraded datasheets we showed off for C’tan shards last week and thought “Great! I want to use all of them at the same time”, we have good news! The Pantheon of Woe is all about flooding the battlefield with Necron MONSTER units* and taking advantage of the way reality has a tendency to unravel around them.
DETACHMENT RULE
Pantheon of Woe:
COSMIC DISTORTION
The quantum dissonance and molecular erosion caused by multiple C’tan shards in close proximity is enough to fray the very physical being of the foe at an atomic level.
NECRONS MONSTER units from your army have the following ability:
Distortion Fields (Aura): While an enemy unit is within 6" of this unit, it is unravelling. While an enemy unit is unravelling, each time an attack targets that unit, improve the Armour Penetration characteristic of that attack by 1.
At the start of each phase, for each NECRONS MONSTER unit from your army, that unit can suffer 3 mortal wounds. If it does, until the end of the phase, the range of that unit’s Distortion Fields Aura ability is increased to 9".
Using even one at a time is a dangerous endeavour, so Crypteks have to use special bindings – in the form of this Detachment’s Enhancements – to leash their captive weapons. Letting a single shard run amok is completely out of the question, so unlike most other Detachments, these Enhancements are mandatory upgrades.
That’s really not a drawback, though, because they’re all pretty great. The C’tan Shard of the Nightbringer can scream into combat even faster than usual with its Quantum Goad, for example, while the Void Dragon’s Animus Damper amplifies its control over machines to shut down enemy Vehicles trying to shoot.
NECRODERMAL BINDING ABILITIES
Pantheon of Woe:
QUANTUM GOAD
The energies of this binding latch onto enemy targets and shunt the shard into alignment with them.
C’TAN SHARD OF THE NIGHTBRINGER model only. This model is eligible to declare a charge in a turn in which it Advanced.
ANIMUS DAMPER
This device bleeds off the Void Dragon shard’s energies and earths them violently through nearby machines.
C’TAN SHARD OF THE VOID DRAGON model only. Once per turn, at the start of your opponent’s Shooting phase, select one enemy VEHICLE unit visible to the bearer. That unit must take a Leadership test. Until the end of the phase, each time a model in that unit makes an attack, subtract 1 from the Hit roll and, if that Leadership test was failed, subtract 1 from the Wound roll as well.
It’s not just the C’tan shards that benefit, either, as other Necrons can take advantage of reality unravelling with their Stratagems. Mass Transmogrification is a particularly fun one that uses matter shorn from your enemies to regenerate your own troops, and if your shards end up being brought down in close combat, just blow them up with a Disharmonisation Cascade. It’s what they would have wanted.
MASS TRANSMOGRIFICATION
PANTHEON OF WOE – EPIC DEED STRATAGEM
The power of the C’tan rips the foe’s greatest assets apart and forcibly reknits nearby Necron soldiery using the stolen corporeal matter.
WHEN: Your Shooting phase or the Fight phase, just after a NECRONS MONSTER unit from your army destroys an enemy unit.
TARGET: One friendly NECRONS unit (excluding MONSTERS) within 6" of that MONSTER unit.
EFFECT: If that enemy unit was unravelling at the start of the phase, your friendly unit’s Reanimation
Protocols activate.
RESTRICTIONS: You can only use this Stratagem once per turn.
DISHARMONISTATION CASCADE
PANTHEON OF WOE – EPIC DEED STRATAGEM
Tear one shard suddenly from the complex web of atomic resonances and its severing triggers a violent energistic dissonance blast.
WHEN: Any phase, just after a NECRONS MONSTER model from your army is destroyed, before making its Deadly Demise roll.
TARGET: That NECRONS MONSTER model. You can use this Stratagem on that model even though it was just destroyed.
EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, your model’s Deadly Demise ability inflicts mortal wounds on a D6 roll of 3+ instead of on a 6.
It would be a sad time for Nekrosor Ammentar if he didn’t have a chance to show off his Destroyer brethren. As the big bad of 500 Worlds: Titus, it’s only fair that he gets a Detachment to revel in. Put simply, the Cursed Legion is all about being Destroyers and killing things with Destroyers – which is lucky because it’s the two things they’re best at.
DETACHMENT RULE
Cursed Legion:
COLD FERVOUR
The fury of the Destroyers and – by extension – of the cursed legion is not a wild or reckless thing. It is rather a ruthlessly methodical annihilation of the enemy, in which the Destroyers take the lead while ripples of their strange madness roll out to infect nearby Necrons and goad them, too, to greater efforts of tireless murder.
Add 2 to the Strength characteristic of weapons equipped by DESTROYER CULT models from your army.
The first time each turn that a DESTROYER CULT unit from your army makes attacks that destroy a unit or cause it to become Below Half‑strength, after that unit has finished resolving its attacks, until the end of the turn, add 2 to the Strength characteristic of weapons equipped by friendly NECRONS models (excluding DESTROYER CULT, MONSTER and TITANIC models).
Some Necron Overlords use tactics and planning to best their foes, and as far as the Nekrosor is concerned, those guys are cowards. Just slap a Destroyer Ankh Enhancement on their chest and watch them put that fancy voidscythe to good use, getting more Movement, more Attacks, and – thanks to the Detachment rule – more Strength on top.
We did the maths: this little boost makes a regular Overlord hit almost as hard as Roboute Guilliman. Whew.
ENHANCEMENT
Cursed Legion:
DESTROYER ANKH
Though it resembles a typical ankh, this chest piece fills its host with an insatiable need to exterminate the foe.
CATACOMB COMMAND BARGE or OVERLORD model only. The bearer has the DESTROYER CULT keyword. Add 2" to the Move characteristic of models in the bearer’s unit and add 2 to the Attacks characteristic of melee weapons equipped by the bearer.
As you might expect, the Stratagems are likewise designed for maximum slaughter and minimum fuss, handing out useful boons like the ever-popular Sustained Hits 1 from Methodical Murder. Trying to one-up the Cursed Legion in close combat is an even more dangerous endeavour, as their regular units can use a facsimile of Heroic Intervention, in the form of Unnatural Aggression, to charge anyone foolish enough to end up in their neighbourhood.
METHODICAL MURDER
CURSED LEGION – BATTLE TACTIC STRATAGEM
In the grip of the Destroyer madness, these Necrons strike and slay with inhuman speed and efficiency.
WHEN: Your Shooting phase or the Fight phase.
TARGET: One NECRONS unit (excluding MONSTERS and VEHICLES) from your army that has not been selected to shoot or fight this phase.
EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, weapons equipped by models in your unit have the [SUSTAINED HITS 1] ability.
UNNATURAL AGGRESSION
CURSED LEGION – STRATEGIC PLOY STRATAGEM
The android soldiery of the cursed legion are maddened with the desire to engage and slay their victims at close quarters.
WHEN: End of your opponent’s Charge phase.
TARGET: One NECRONS unit (excluding MONSTERS and VEHICLES) from your army that is within 6" of one or more enemy units and would be eligible to declare a charge against one or more of those enemy units if it were your Charge phase.
EFFECT: Your unit now declares a charge that only targets one or more of those enemy units, and you resolve that charge. Note that even if this charge is successful, your unit does not receive any Charge bonus this turn.
Now, we can’t show you absolutely everything that’s in the book, so you’ll have to wait until release day to find out what the Cryptek Conclave can do – though we’re pretty sure the name gives their general vibe away. You can give units Anti-Infantry 3+ when they shoot, it’s great!
Come back tomorrow to see what the Space Marines have to match against this metallic tide, including a certified Adeptus Astartes classic: the Drop Pod assault.
* From most factions’ perspectives, all Necron units are monsters, but we’re going with the keywords on this one.
