Necrons: Time for an update?

[Zelnik]

While I love the old look and rules for the necrons, times certainly have changed for our favorite robotic monstrosities. When they were created back in the day, they were slaves of the C'tan and effectively little more then Terminators IIIINNNN SPAAAACE..


Now...we have dynasties, phaerons, unique characters and individual looks and feels between the different groups of Necrons.

I think we should consider changing the necron fleets to accomodate this change in fluff, along with the new information that has come out in some of the more recent reading materials.


Some new things:

Different dynasties with different feels.

New possible rules like canoptic constructs to aid in boarding

Escort craft using singularity cannons like torpedos

Possibility of unique rules involving different faction's flagships.


Now what does this ultimately mean for the rules?

Thankfully, not too much. The ultimate rules of particle whips and lightning arcs, not to mention portals can remain as they are, though we may want to change the wording on some of the weapons and powers.  This also gives us a chance to create rules for a weapon described in cannon materials that isn't currently being used.


My suggestion is we go back to basics and go from there, remove all fan made material and start from scratch. Create new variants of the shrowd and scythe (that don't require new minis) and new versions of the jackal that permit ordnance or bombardment cannon like weapons.


Here is my suggestion for the Singularity weapon:


Singularity Cannon: This weapon is one of the necron's most devistating weapons, capable of smashing through the hull of primitive space faring craft or rival necron vessels with contemptuous ease. Once the tightly controlled singularities impact their targets, the gravitational matrix that controls them breaks, allowing them to dissolve explosively inside their targets, causing spectacular damage considering the relative size of the weapon. The only respite that one might have from these nightmarish weapons is that the containment field has a short range, and thus, is equipped on smaller and more agile craft.

Singularity cannons function like bombardment cannons with the following differences: The range of a Singularity cannon can never exceed 15 cm, never suffers column shifts from blast markers or gas clouds, and can be fired through asteroid fields.

[Bessemer]

Sorry to but in, Ray of the HA posted some experimental rules based on the newer Necron fluff, don't know if you ever knew about these, may be worth a look!

http://www.forum.specialist-arms.com/index.php?topic=4014.0

[Zelnik]

I did actually read through it... and I am not really impressed by it. Way too much of his changes are based on his own 'feelings' about the Necron fleet and very little on the balancing factors.

To be clear-I do not like changing things from the original setup GW has made. BFG is a VERY well balanced game, and changing it to the extent that he has throws the balance in the blender.


I am looking for more nuanced, subtle changes that keep the original feel of the game.

[horizon]

Nothhing much with dynasties for me. No mayor overhaul needed in my opinion. Add a class or so.

If dynasties are wanted then the path of marks like chaos has.

[Seahawk]

The thing is: If Dynasties, then also [chapter tactics for any given race].

That is a LOT to add to the game, which of course ain't a bad thing per say, but I don't think it's what you're looking for.

Personally, I'd like to see something actually simple, like "add attack craft". Since the Necrons gained the Nightscythe/Doomscythe and Tomb Blades, I'd like to think the Necrons have Fighters, like add 2 LB to all capital ships, and they can only launch fighters, that kinda thing.

[Lotus]

Personally, I'd like to see something actually simple, like "add attack craft".

There are rules for necron attack craft. Unoficial, of course.

Edit: Here (beware, its in french, use google translate or something similar):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B53pbNbLETwvbnNaZ2l2bFdIa2c/view

[Zelnik]

I will defer to you, Horizon. thanks for the input

[Thinking Stone]

I must admit, I wasn’t (personally) originally so keen on rethinking Necrons, and especially in a direction that moves a lot towards the new background (I much prefer the 3E 40K material —for me that’s always been the seminal work).

But looking around at old threads and interacting with other BFGers on Facebook has changed my mind! I think there are some interesting holes that could be filled in the original GW Necron fleet (and I think it’s fair to say the original fleet rules were quite disruptive to BFG, so it’s not a bad thing to ponder how they might be done differently…).

It seems the trickiest thing is to keep Necrons unique as a fleet in such a tightly constrained system as BFG. If they have shields, standard armour, standard ordnance, are they much more than an über-gunned, über-speedy elite fleet? And if they are too different from the norm, will they be impossible to fit in and balance?

I had a look at HA Ray’s ideas (linked earlier) and I think some of them do look interesting—especially since they have the benefit of being actually used by people! The simplification (and toning down) of several Necron abilities is appealing. I do also like the idea of scarab swarms functioning like mines (with heal-y bits)! The launch bay idea seems to be an interesting twist, too.

I think some of the elements cut, though (like starpulse generators and nightmare fields) don’t necessarily need to be removed because they’re not in 40K, though—we don’t really have many examples of Necron space warfare. I’m also not entirely convinced that Ray’s proposed Portals mechanism makes more sense than the old teleport attacks system (will have to think some more on that).

Alas, though I my dislike many of the new ‘innovations’ of 40K Necrons, I find Tomblades particularly strange. Let’s take a Necron, stick them to a jetbike, and use them for interceptor spacecraft duties! But wait… don’t we already have Necrons stuck to bikes (Destroyers)? And why are jetbikes so good at fighter jobs all of a sudden when everybody else uses big planes? At least I take comfort in the fact that it makes somebody happy. I can always imagine BFG Tomblades as sleek interceptor craft in the same vein as Doomscythes (or, perhaps, even looking the same—but without seeing the Necron pilot).

The Singularity Cannon idea is interesting, too. I’ll need to think more on it.