REAL-LIFE BIOTRANSFERENCE: the Multiple REDESIGNS of the NECRONS! | Warhammer 40,000 Retrospective

The Necrons are major players in the evolving galaxy of Warhammer 40k - but they started out very differently, released as a curio, and they went through multiple BIG lore and design changes before they became the grumpy old robots we know today.
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Copyright: Unless noted in the video, all images © Games Workshop 1987-2022. Title music is 'Black Rainbows' by Karl Casey @White Bat Audio
#warhammer #warhammer40k #warhammerlore #necrons #spacemarines #history #lion #horusheresy #imperium #astartes #boardgames #tactica #letsplay #tabletopgaming #warhammer40k #warhammerworld #gamesworkshop #warhammer30k

[@Thesallerud]

What about Stargate as an influence? The movie came out in 1994, with Egyptian themed bad guys using staff energy weapons?

[@alexhamilton6188]

Was thinking that

[@odeegrotsniffer4166]

Probably not much my dude.

[@singtothesilence]

I always thought someone marathoned Terminator and the Mummy before going "I've Got It!"

[@euansmith3699]

@@singtothesilence "I've got it! The Mumminators!" 😄👍

[@grantpark9093]

I feel like they had a flying/hovering pyramid in that movie too... and the ancient alien skimmer craft are kinda like the Necrons flying croissants of doom... plus the whole "tech so advanced it may as well be magic" trope...

[@steverogers3696]

Ian you have just dated for me my entry into the hobby. January 1998 my dad took me to WHSmiths in Kings Lynn and brought me this very issue of white dwarf. I was 10 years old. I remember the shop, the necron on the front holding his rifle in the air looking very terminator. Thank you, absolutely made my day. Cheers Ian!

[@rhelyk7893]

I distinctly remember that issue being one of the first ones I borrowed from the kid in High School that introduced me to Warhammer. I bought the Eldar codex of of him and was thinking about getting started when 3rd edition was announced and we split the box. An amazing time to get into the game

[@justincoates4582]

Same here buddy!! Except it was later that year, here in the states, and I was nine haha.

[@martinconway8174]

Ian: “Yeah History of 40K is all well and good, but what about Historiography?”

[@alastaircollins1145]

What's the 40K equivalent of a Dramaturge? Hobbyturge? Nerditurge? Gorkamorkaturge? ... Hammerturge?

[@midorixiv]

man that 3rd edition necron codex art is still one of my absolute favourite pieces of 40k art, really sold the whole faction for me back then

[@LordOffal]

It’s still used all over the place. Also I’m not surprised, we had to look at it for 9 years 🤣

[@nakenmil]

It's a masterclass in mood building.

[@gabe9346]

Not to mention those 3rd/4th edition Necrons were game breaking OP.

[@MartyFreeze]

I love these features discussing iterations of lore and models through the years. Please do more!

[@robertmcelligott5223]

hard agree. I find the history and evolution of the game more interesting than the lore itself tbh

[@tombouric]

I second this, the retrospectives on how Warhammer evolved in real life are always a treat to watch.

[@Bluecho4]

It's some of my favorite videos to see from Ian. It's easy to just represent the lore as depicted in any given book. It's another entirely to show how "The Lore" is a living document, subject to change and revision as new writers appear and priorities shift.

[@andreasfallman9217]

I concur!

[@TeddysBoomgates]

Agree with this! These are my fave videos from Ian.

[@JJR_01]

Loving the incredibly telegraphed puns.

[@turtlemop8712]

While I totally understand why they wanted to give the necron more personality, I really loved the mindless mysterious horde of 3rd edition. While tyranids were like fast wild animals consuming every bit of biomass, necrons were like the slow methodical sociopathic killer constantly walking towards you. Their vibe really gave off a feeling of existential dread that the tyranids don’t. Everyone can understand an animal eating things, but watching a skeleton with empty eye sockets methodically slaughtering everything in sight while seemingly feeling nothing and having no purpose to its slaughter, and then all of them suddenly vanishing is a real special kind of existential horror.

[@bruhb7611]

You and codex compliant are probably the only channels to cover the meta development of warhammer. Love your work.

[@ianalexander7082]

Don't forget Jordan Sorcery!

[@Teiz83]

Necrons predate WD 217 in Jan 1998. They actually make their first appearance in Gorkamorka's "da uvver book" from 1998. A necron is pictured on page 17 with early lore about them in the sections about the Diggas and a bit about a Mechanicus expedition to some Necron tombs in the appendices.

[@PRAISE_HASHUT]

The use of translucent green plastic in the 3rd Ed range was absolutely inspired!!

[@JamesHodden-rk6ks]

If we're going to mention influences on the Necrons, it's probably worth mentioning Tomb of the Cybermen from Dr Who.

[@Gh0stClown]

The 3rd edition Necron codex is still one of my favourite codices ever just because of the amount of menace and atmosphere they managed to put into all the fluff and artwork.

[@ismael9914]

I'm curious about a timeline where instead of characterizing the necrons, they worked on the C'tan as characters They would be hard to parse as they are almost equivalent to chaos gods, but having gods on the table would be quire cool

[@Gh0stClown]

@@ismael9914 They tried that a bit with the Deceiver in some of the novels, but they kinda put themselves in a corner with there only being 4 confirmed surviving C'tan, of which one was purely genocidal, one was insane, and one was asleep. I understand the lore change since they probably couldn't have kept up the mystery forever, and they did kinda tread on the toes of the Nids as the "faceless unfathomable evil" faction, but I do still miss the old days.

[@ismael9914]

@@Gh0stClown Yeah but looking at the 5ed rewriting of necrons they could've redo them a bit, and make it so its not only 4 C'tans (maybe working on the shards thing and how each have a Nightbringer shard that kills to deny chaos of souls, while another is conquest and power) Again I love current necrons, but the what if shall forever be in my mind

[@nightshade2313]

One of the big complaints at the time with the 5th edition codex was that a lot of people felt like it had stripped a lot of the horror out of the faction and in many ways it had but more recently, particularly with the 9th edition indomitus launch, GW has made a lot of effort to inject those horror elements back into the faction which I am personally extremely grateful for.

[@nekrataali]

I always liked having multiple "soulless drone" factions (Tyranids and Necrons) because it showed just how big the galaxy is and just how much of it remains unexplored. There isn't just one group of aliens set on consuming all life in the galaxy, there's two (maybe more!). It lends itself well to concepts like the Dark Forest in 40k. How many other aliens are out there hiding from the Necrons? Are there other races that evolved into efficient killing machines because that's what survives in the Milky Way? That's fucking horrifying. It's like finding out there's multiple active serial killers in your hometown. Backtracking on the "mindlessness" of the faction in 5th. always felt like a cop out, instead of trying to come up with telling stories of the truly alien.

[@terraneaux]

No, the horror remains stripped out of them. They were made less imposing so space marines so they could be just more chumps for the boys in blue to beat up, having worse tech than the Imperium despite being the lore.

[@Squirrelsquid]

I still remember the White Dwarf issue that came with a free metal Necron warrior to promote them. good times!

[@uninvolvedthirdparty]

Always love the meta retrospectives of the game itself and not just the lore.

[@lloroshastar6347]

I remember when the Necrons first came out, there was so much mystery behind them, virtually little to no information. It was around that time I dropped out of collecting Games Workshop models, moved on to other interests. It wasn't until about 20 years later I dived back into the hobby to discover the Necron's couldn't have been more different. I guess for a lot of people that change may have been unwanted, I bet a lot of people would have felt too much had been revealed. For me, it was like finding the answer to an age old mystery from my past, made it more fun in a sense.

[@brya9681]

SHout out to Ian for agreeing on the fact that The Mummy is one of the best movies of all time. We all have a little Rick O'Connell in us.

[@davydatwood3158]

Personally, I think that Rick's "none taken" response to all the "Bloody Yanks! No offence." comments is because he's Canadian. Also, my library school class of 2002 voted it the best "librarian" movie of all time. :)

[@alexandrebelinge8996]

love a repair ability called "I'll be back" brilliant !!!

[@iceniwargames6347]

I miss the sense of the unknown from the 2nd / 3rd edition era version. Mysterious race of killer robots raiding isolated backwater worlds was cool. Back when the universe seemed big and a named character didn't crop up all over the galaxy for every major conflict.

[@cslassiea839]

You went the whole video without mentioning the Gorkamorka - Angelis link. There's a necron head in some artwork for the Diggamob expantion, and it is strongly suggested that the human faction were digging up a Necron tomb when the hulk crashed. Great video though!

[@PRAISE_HASHUT]

There’s a great finale scenario for Gorka, where all your warbands team up in an unwinable battle against endless Necrons. Beautiful.

[@PRAISE_HASHUT]

There’s a great finale scenario for Gorka, where all your warbands team up in an unwinable battle against endless Necrons. Beautiful.

[@JamesLaserpimpWalsh]

Stargate the movie was probably the influence. Early 90s film. Space Egyptians.

[@TheKsalad]

"Where are my faceless drones and unfeeling machines???" Uhm, you can still have that. My necrons are still faceless, unfeeling drones with no named characters and tons of warriors

[@terraneaux]

Nah, GW has made it clear that you can't run hordes of life-destroying Necrons controlled by C'tan. It was Ward specifically shitting on Andy Chambers' ideas since he left.

[@TheKsalad]

@terraneaux You needing explicit instructions on how to make up a story about your own miniatures is the exact problem, maybe try using your own imagination for once instead of following GW authors like a beaten dog.

[@terraneaux]

@@TheKsalad They specifically say that what I want is impossible within the setting. Which is fine, but let's be clear about what they say is the case. Also you should show some respect.

[@rugbymeat]

Man I remember when the Necron Codex came out, one of my mates had the Nightbringer, that thing was scary on the tabletop!

[@frankieh]

It still is. Which is funny because the scale has changed so much. He's still a bringer of death on the tabletop. Hopefully he and the Deceiver get a glow up and join big brother Void Dragon in modern plastic.

[@kienesel7]

As someone who only got into 40k semi recently, I love seeing how things have changed irl over the years.

[@KiwiSpartan01]

As a long time necron player, I still prefer the old lore with the continued Red Harvest. I've kept that lore with my dynasty where they still worship the Nightbringer and their goal is to cleanse the galaxy of the lesser weeds and sacrifice their souls to the Nightbringer. Hence why I prefer Destroyer Cult units

[@TheLofren]

Ive always taken the fifth edition “retcon” as the imperium learning more about the necrons, initially only lords and basic necrons awakened, so only that was written about, the imperium saw massive gods called the ctan and assumed those were the necronss’ leaders, not realizing those are mere shards controlled by unseen overlords No retcon

[@nekrataali]

Agreed. 40k doesn't do retcons or even have a canon because everything is canon, but not everything is true. Your buddy's fluff about his super-secret-special primarch legion where they're the best space marines ever using geneseed made from the Emperor and Horus and Vulkan and Custodes is canon, even though it makes your eyes roll. It can be explained as a guardsman's impressions of what a Space Marine is. He's bragging about how his dad works at the Imperial palace to his fellow conscripted around a campfire. Having conflicting stories about a race as alien as the Necrons makes sense. We've only uncovered a small percentage of the animals and plants that lived on Earth 65 million years ago. I can't imagine trying to excavate and research an entire civilization that spanned the galaxy.

[@terraneaux]

That's one way to explain it, but it is a retcon by the intent of the designers.

[@michaelgernes5583]

I suspect the 90's GW team heard the Judas Priest song 'Metal Gods' at least once before creating the Necrons. Love these retrospectives!

[@Misadventures_85]

head canon accepted. it's one of their best songs

[@Jamin12day]

Chaos squats as a faction now please; it’ll be the new “reset the clock” meme! 😂

[@AaronOfYell]

I loved how the Necrons were incorporated into Gorkamorka and the Cthulhuesque nature of their first codex. I would have liked GW to have developed them more in this direction since I think that would have been more interesting than the Egyptian comedians that we ended up with. But maybe I'm just one of a certain group of people

[@joeyoung431]

The Necrons and the Tau reached New Zealand pretty much on top of each other and I remember saying at the time that the Necrons fitted into the game way better than the Tau. These days I'm haunted with a niggling suspicion that I was wrong; the War in Heaven seems to upset the strategic balance between humanity and Chaos, whereas the Tau fit into the mythos well as idealistic ninnies who don't realise what they've gotten themselves into.

[@jamescameron-clarke2560]

I still remember bobbing in to a Games Workshop on a school trip to Chester and having one of the redshirts tell us about the new Codex rumours coming out... We'd seen the earlier stuff, but cool new Necrons? STAR GODS? All we could talk about on the coach home.

[@matthewthomas5657]

Ian this is yet another series you are smashing out of the park! Really looking forward to more factions and tidbits

[@hakonsgaming535]

god I actually remember a lot of this, I was just getting into the game in 97. I feel old now.

[@seanaustin2965]

Space skellingtons! I was originally a necron player back in 4th then had a big ole break from the hobby. Imagine my surprise when it turns out that the hecrons suddenly had personalities!

[@OldSardine]

3:47 - Peak presenting!!! Love it!

[@leaguesmanoframsgate]

I would love to see a video like this for the changing nature of the T'au, including the addition of the Apostrophe Of Much Controversy

[@GayRage707]

Amazing video! Necrons were my first army, and I grew up pouring over that 3rd edition codex. The art in there is really exquisite and they do an excellent job emphasizing what an ageless and alien horror the necrons were in that iteration. My opinion is certainly bias, but I think something not touched on in this video was the drastic change in design philosophy the 5th edition codex brought and how the most recent necrons releases are returning to something closer to their original theme. The 3rd edition models had an element of body horror. Why drive a vehicle when you could be the vehicle? The old wraiths and destroyers are great examples and the monolith was basically a sentient pyramid with guns. The 5th edition revamp definitely brought character to necrons but it also made them very human. All the vehicles had pilots, the wraiths were big spider things now, and the necrons with modified bodies were the outcasts. The newest models have been fantastic and definitely go in the direction of the original aesthetic and feel for the necrons. Decrepit warriors, enhanced destroyers, twisted and alien cryptects, war of the worlds walkers. From an old guards perspective, it's been great to see the necrons get back a bit of that alien/body horror and lean into the idea of why drive a killing machine when you can be a killing machine. Again, really enjoyed the video! Great work!

[@SC1ENCEP1E]

Oooh perfect. Love some Chaos Androids

[@joshgrillo2482]

We need to see them again.

[@marrvynswillames4975]

​@@joshgrillo2482the recent Genefather novel got a chaos android

[@05Rudey]

I, from time to time dig out my Amiga 600 from the mid 90s and the game I gravitate towards is Space Crusade (Among others), I still can't believe how much the lore has changed since that game.

[@pgael7196]

I wasn't part of the online whining about the new necron lore, I understood the need for such an evolution. But I will simply say this : I miss the necron Pariahs. Loved the model and the idea

[@davydatwood3158]

I remember the 3rd edition codex coming out and thinking it was all brand new. I'd no idea there was as much history behind the Necrons as there actually is.

[@nohrianscum9791]

Chaos Androids that hew closely to the original designs could be a fun re-addition, possibly as either units that could be taken by Chaos Marine armies (definitely something up the Iron Warriors alley) or a Kill Team. Forgefiends already keep the idea of daemon-fueled machines alive.

[@Xick]

Could be daemon engine infantry for an Iron Warriors or Vashtorr book. And/or Chaos Ironkin maybe?

[@marrvynswillames4975]

The recent Genefather novel got a chaos android

[@nohrianscum9791]

@@Xick I was surprised Vashtorr didn't coincide with the reveal of a playable Dark Mechanicum faction

[@Veles343]

I still think of the Tau as the new guys, quite shocking how old they are :D

[@DexGattaca]

That was enjoyable. Thank you for that bit of lore history.

[@Ashura_Lex_Veda]

Necrons were my second ever faction in 40K, and it was because of White Dwarf 217 and my Aunty's copy of Space Crusade. Really good video and trip down nostalgia lane!

[@DoomStroller]

Really enjoyed the terminator look of 2nd edition. Definitely agree with the Stargate influence comment. And I believe it was a 60 million year nap not thousands. Not trying to be a dick. Enjoyed the vid Ian!

[@Lumen_Obscurum]

I still haven't gotten back into Necrons since the second codex, which is probably a shame. I love their new lore, but what I enjoyed about playing Necrons was the vibe of steadily increasing threat their awakening posed. The idea that the Galaxy had to deal with a threat that to me reprensented entropy as well as one that is basically a galactic scale introduced species. Two threats that ultimately have the same outcome but from completely different directions. Ultimately, I feel for the business the Necrons turning into Space Tomb Kings is the better option. You can't have stories about C'tan and have them interact with your normal scale people. It blows the entire story out like a birthday candle and an LED light in the same shot blows out the brightness, you can't clearly see either because of the vast difference in capabilities. There is a lot more ability to have characters in the modern Necron faction than there was in their first codex, it's why in Dawn of War they had a Pariah as the narrator for the Necron faction. They couldn't have anyone else.

[@hallstuart6604]

You know Ian I really enjoy your videos! Thank you.

[@Leinad44]

Looking at how lore has been changed and iterated upon over time are my fav videos you do. It's so interesting.

[@megapizzadragon2397]

This is great. I started playing 40k when necrons were new. They were my first army. Honestly I really enjoyed the first codex. They were so scary and perfect and advanced that they didn't need chapters. Like the Terminator movies. The lack of factions feels very soulless and creepy like a machine. And the lack of personality just kinda worked. Their only units with personality were the gods of death and deception. That isn't a mistake. That's a souless machine to a tee. Idk, maybe I'm in the minority but the first real interpretation of these guys were so creepy. The lack of info made them feel so much more powerful. And they were just waking up. Not even at full power and already terrifying.

[@barryhall1109]

Great stuff. But I'd assumed the Doctor Who story Tomb of the Cybermen (1967) had a pretty big influence on all this. British sci-fi, whether 2000AD, or Moorcock's novels of the '60s and '70s basically informed Rogue Trader. That's in no way a criticism, just demonstrably true. And it explains the whimsy of the early days.

[@karlarden6260]

Historiography at its best. Fantastic video, Arbiter!

[@shaunmorrison6448]

I remember the OG Necron models and I always thought they looked like Preston from Wallace & Gromit, only just realised they were both riffs on Terminator.

[@Amdor]

Just fun fact: chaos android (in dormant state) appears in quite new book Genefather :)

[@krzysztofkoacz8078]

This channel is a very interesting thing for me, personally. I love all the work put into the videos and all the details presented. But so very often I have different opinion on the particular topics. Like her - for me the 3rd edition Necros were way better. They had a specific character, and later just became similar to other factions. Super advanced aliens with little traits that differentiate them. Eldars are also super advanced, ancient aliens. Now we have Leagues of Votann, who are also super advanced, but not really alien. Having named characters and sub factions indeed defines the 40k factions, but it also makes them very similar to each other. I liked the idea of nameless undead machines. And I always feel a bit sad when this kind of opinions (like, some past things had character) is described as bickering. Or being old. Well, maybe I am old. Either way, a lot of great work was put into this video, as always!

[@proyectoutopia]

I've been collecting necrons since 3rd ed. Now that i have a 3D printer i'm really looking for the first terminators, it's really teh best design the unit ever got, but they are so few online and never cheap.

[@timothylyons5686]

It was mentioned in third edition that the Necrons commanders were merely bronze level lords. Silver, gold and platinum lords had yet to be discovered. Take your pick as to what levels the named characters are but lmotekh is definitely platinum.

[@terencefitzgerald1693]

I'm glad you're doing retrospectives on 40k armies. Lore is easy to find, but production history is obtuse and I always feel left out of conversations with gamers who saw how factions changed and evolved in earlier editions.

[@gandalf1379]

Wow I had forgotten about those Space Crusade models. Still remember being a boy and seeing that Space Crusade advert for the first time it was my introduction into the world of 40k. Ah nostalgia

[@D0pam1n]

Yeah, I remember being very excited seeing my old Space Crusade androids coming back as something quite different and I was absolutely one of the people who disliked the change from evil, quiet waves of Terminators to Tomb Kings in space. But I also thought there always was a bit of the Stargate movie in the early Necrons, so I eventually was kinda OK with the sweeping changes to the faction. It certainly helped that through the Total War video games, I started to like the Warhammer Fantasy lore of the Tomb Kings a lot more. Still, I want my standard Necrons to be mindless and hopeless thralls of a conniving ruling cast.

[@LazyPictures]

What a wholesome video! I wish this could be a series for other factions

[@TheMrFishnDucks]

Nice video. It was nice to learn about space robot skeletons. Thank you for making this video concise. Keep up the good work.

[@alastaircollins1145]

Great video, loving the retrospectives. I'll point out that, at least in Australia, there was a massive interest in Egypt at that time (which, asking around, no-one remembers why) which properties like Stargate and the Mummy (also, yes, best film) capitalised on. For a while in early primary school, this cultural obsession was so prevalent that most of the kids in my year level, including me, were determined to be Egyptologists when we finished school... the one (1) other option was Marine Biologist. I blame "Ocean Girl".

[@m41282]

There was a big Tutankhamun that came to the Australian museum in I think in the late 90s? I believe it was huge because the actual death mask was on display and was one of the few times it had been loaned out. I remember the huge lego exhibit that was done at the same time which was massively popular with schools.

[@alastaircollins1145]

@@m41282 Y'know, I vaguely remember that... you might be right, but it might have been like a "Cool Japan" type tourism push by the Egyptian government which culminated in the loan or something? I dunno, hard to say given how young I was.

[@elainegallagher6015]

I have some of those old metal skellies, including the lord and a scenery piece with a scarab on a dissecting board. I don't know where it fits in the timeline but they show up vaguely in Gorkamorka as a source of gubbinz

[@thetraitorguardsmen.5321]

You forgot MorkaGorka. They was in that game. They shown of the destroyer for a white dwarf magazine game. Before the white dwarf codex.

[@zachschreck]

As someone who was definitely among the loud and angry the Necrons were suddenly more than soulless soul harvesting Terminators, there's just no arguing they're so much cooler now.

[@tomukuruzu]

great series! would love to see an admech retrospective!

[@flemming999]

They were also present in Gorkamorka

[@sean4929]

I love these retrospectives about the history of warhammer 40k. With the recent release of the end and the death, perhaps you could do one on the portrayal of emperor or the imperium.

[@ogremark5]

Ian, if you are looking for the Necrons predecessors in miniature, then you should google The Machines faction in the game Legions of Steel. Many of the Machines leader units also have an Egyptian styling. And they appeared in 1992.

[@paulcollett762]

Loving this approach to lore. Great work!

[@haircutdeluxe]

Looking forward to this, thanks for all you do, Ian.

[@Daleksaresupreme1]

The Forge World Chaos Decimator looks somewhat like the old chaos android art, so that makes might be considered a continuation of the concept

[@davebowman9000]

Thank you for this! As someone who discovered Warhammer as the 8th Edition pettered out, I find this incredibly interesting! Please keep doing videos of the Meta history of 40k!!

[@gr8tbigtreehugger]

Many thanks for this fascinating video!

[@boduke8175]

Trying to remember the book about the Death Korps and a Necron awakening on a hive world. Can't remember the name for the life of me, but lord that was good.

[@funnydreadking9237]

Book:Dead Men Walking.

[@tomtelford3435]

Love a cheeky bit of retrospection. Real world influences and changes. Phwor!

[@wyrd_psyker]

Glad we finally got this video! Very interesting legacy. One of my mates and I were really big into Necrons during 3rd and 4th. We were very happy about the change and often sighted that they were no different than Tyranids (my other army at the time.) Good stuff as always Ian, keep it up!

[@phantasmrain]

Excellent history video, Ian!

[@JackieBot3000]

I’d love to see one of these videos about the orks! WAAAGH!!!

[@sonicwingnut]

I have to admit while I left the hobby toward the end of 2nd edition I was aware of the Necrons becoming a full faction shortly after, but coming back in 9th edition was the first time I thought they were actually cool.

[@andreasfallman9217]

Love this format, I want more!

[@euansmith3699]

"Necrospective", nice. I like the note on the cover of Whitedwarf #217, "No Blister Pack? It is probably just a coincidence, but the shop staff have lots of Necrons - why not ask them for one?" (or maybe it is a bit passive-aggressive management bollocks?)

[@zenosAnalytic]

Love that you mentioned the Chaos Androids; I happened to get into GW's stuff right when Chaos was introduced to Epic and used to run a Thousand Sons army at that scale which was, tbh, MOSTLY chaos squats and androids because their stats were so much better than Chaos Space Marines XD XD Also, wasn't there a time when the backstory was that the Men of Iron rebellion was caused by mass-demonic possession with some of the Chaos Androids being surviving MoI? Idk maybe my brain just made that up :T

[@Lloyd-Johns]

Damn, this one was good. Cheers from New Zealand

[@lloroshastar6347]

I assume Stargate influenced the Necron's on some level, the original film came out in 1994, I always assumed it was a mix of Stargate and Terminator that were the chief influences outside of the Undead in Warhammer fantasy.

[@joeblazer3820]

I can’t believe I’m as old as the first necron codex!

[@volkarve]

Man I still have a pile of those old chaos androids! Great video as always cheers all

[@RufusEggers]

Great video Ian!

[@kieranbeecroft8414]

I was a Necron player in 2nd, and the Dark Times of 3rd when I stopped playing. I saw the new Necron stuff in the Recent edition and could not mirror that with my shambling hordes, as I had missed their evolution. This explanation was great and makes me want to dust off my "Terminator" models and see how well they compare to the newer stuff

[@Plague-speaker]

Ngl, the biggest surprise is Graham Mcneill used to have hair (11:52)

[@basileerla]

Lovely video as usual!

[@nakenmil]

I'm one of those who never quite got onboard with the "newcrons". I think it's mainly because I wanted them to use Necrons to explore the phenomenon of artificial life instead of making them yet another faction of, well, dudes. I was influenced by a tabletop minis gamed called AT-43 at the time, which had this horror-themed posthuman cyborg faction called the Therians. They had a bunch of lore talking about how they mostly existed in their own cyberspace, then would download into individual bodies to fight, etc. There were stories of new individuals emerging from different code builds from others merging and splitting, and how combat was almost like a game to them. I thought was really interesting, and more unique than what we later got with Necrons. I REALIZE I AM A WEIRDO.

[@PrincessOzaline]

The Ciaphas Cain novels get a bit of the "we are leaning more," where Cain has a conversation with a Necron in one book and he was like, "never met a Necron that had a personality and wanted to do anything but kill. And Inquisitor Vail does state this as recently learned information.The odd thing is it chronologically comes before anther book where the characters don't bring this up (Vail says she wonders why, but she doesn't either)... and the latter book also mentions Sanctuary 101 as the first confirmed encounter with the Necrons.

[@istooptoconcur1593]

love the channel, great deep dive here, though I might have hoped for some spurious detail like the controvesy around the green transperent plastic guns (the agony) etc. and, perhaps a breif discussion of the cultural influences had on the necron backstory, c'tan etc. I always look forward to your deep dives keep up the good work

[@abendoso7267]

I am reading the first Gaunt trilogy (as per your recommendation) and when he encounters the “Men of Iron” (spoiler) I kept thinking that they sounded exactly like Necrons. Considering that the book was released 3 years before the first Necron Codex I guess there was an idea to have “terminator” (the film, not the WH40k version) models but there was no certainty if they were going to be Necron or Men of Iron.

[@jackson1471]

Love this series. Would be great to see the Tau featured next!

[@captainweekend5276]

You have it backwards with the fall of cadia and the infinite and the divine, fall of cadia, the fall of cadia happened in gathering storm released in 2017, the infinite and the divine didn't come out until 2020.

[@BoulderAndy]

Old enough to remember getting the white dwarf with the mini and rules I remember playing a mini game with a mate lone neon verses a few blood angels

[@Mugdorna]

I still have a squad of the original hunchbacked robots from 1998 and a necron destroyer (speeder!!)