Necron Dynasties

[commander]

Leadership
Necrons have the following Leadership table: 1,2=7, 3-4=8, 5-6=9.
Necrons do not gain a leadership bonus for enemy contacts.

I'm still thinking more of command cores and upgrades to Ld by the presence of necron lords / crypteks.

Inertialess Drive
Minimum distance before turning is reduced by 5cm.
Come to New heading, All Ahead Full and Burn Retros special orders do not half firepower,
instead they reduce the ships armour value to 5+ until the special order is removed.

Inertialess = no momentum. Just make it that. No min movement (for turning and move). Burn retro's = reverse

Living Metal
Critical Hits suffered do not cause extra damage.
Fire, Hull Breach and Bulkhead Collapse critical results are taken but have no effect.
When repairing critical hits you may reroll failed repair rolls.

Let it ignore what it is ignoring in current rules. Repair rolls are tied with scarabs, spyders and wraiths. Repair: roll one extra die. Upgrade to that: + rolls succeed on 4+

Teleporter Attacks
Necron capital ships may make teleporter attacks against any target and have double the number of teleporter attacks against targets with lower remaining hits.

Keep as is in current rules. Maybe small tweak but nothing major.

Weapons

Lightning Arcs
Gunnery Weapon that hits the weakest armour facing.
If hitting the Prow the target counts as closing, the aft counts as moving away and broadsides counts as abeam.
You may only target the closest enemy excluding ordnance in an arc of your choice. 

Where is that advanced targeting system? hitting weakest armour is maybe a bit overpowered, certainly against orks.

Particle Whip
Lance that ignores shields when the targets armour is met or beaten.

Powerful. Maybe tone down a bit

Ordnance

Portals
These are Launch bays that offer only half to the attack craft limit (Per weapon entry rounding down).
Portals allow attack craft including Canoptik Swarms upto the number of portals to relaunch instead moving normally per ordnance phase.

? somewhat lost here.

Scythe
20cm speed Fighter/Assault Boats only when a targets shields are down.

Tomb blades are the only AC mentioned. As a late war development.

Tomb Blades
20cm speed Fighter/Bomber ignores armour only hitting on 6's.

Why 20 cm speed only??? Why only hitting anything on 6+??? Not logical IMO

Canoptik Swarms
10cm speed Orbital mines causing fire criticals instead of damage.
Canoptik swarms don't use the attack craft limit, just like normal mines.

Looks good

No comments on fleet yet. Some battles ahead to try them out.
But no necron would ever willingly introduce the flayer virus. Or the destroyer mentality.

[AndrewChristlieb]

Leadership
Necrons have the following Leadership table: 1,2=7, 3-4=8, 5-6=9.
Necrons do not gain a leadership bonus for enemy contacts.

I'm still thinking more of command cores and upgrades to Ld by the presence of necron lords / crypteks.
I'm still not convinced on the leadership either. I can see the reasoning behind random leadership values, but why the change from standard? This is just another unnecessary chart.

Inertialess Drive
Minimum distance before turning is reduced by 5cm.
Come to New heading, All Ahead Full and Burn Retros special orders do not half firepower,
instead they reduce the ships armour value to 5+ until the special order is removed.

Inertialess = no momentum. Just make it that. No min movement (for turning and move). Burn retro's = reverse
I agree on the no min movement obviously but burn retros should just be removed all together. Why would you want them to not halve their firepower? AAF + full power weapons is a serious matter. Armor reduction is a good one tho.

Living Metal
Critical Hits suffered do not cause extra damage.
Fire, Hull Breach and Bulkhead Collapse critical results are taken but have no effect.
When repairing critical hits you may reroll failed repair rolls.

Let it ignore what it is ignoring in current rules. Repair rolls are tied with scarabs, spyders and wraiths. Repair: roll one extra die. Upgrade to that: + rolls succeed on 4+
If the critical hits do not cause any damage they need to have some effect! A fire on a Necron ship may not be a big deal, but a bulkhead collapse!?! #7 needs to fall under the rule stating that if a critical cannot be applied the next higher critical is applied instead. 11 and 12 maybe apply d3 and d6 hit and run attacks, respectively, with a single +1 modifier; racial or special modifiers to critical hits or hit and run attacks do not apply.

Teleporter Attacks
Necron capital ships may make teleporter attacks against any target and have double the number of teleporter attacks against targets with lower remaining hits.

Keep as is in current rules. Maybe small tweak but nothing major.
This isn't bad at all really.

Weapons

Lightning Arcs
Gunnery Weapon that hits the weakest armour facing.
If hitting the Prow the target counts as closing, the aft counts as moving away and broadsides counts as abeam.
You may only target the closest enemy excluding ordnance in an arc of your choice. 

Where is that advanced targeting system? hitting weakest armour is maybe a bit overpowered, certainly against orks.
This only affects a small number of ships over all, but it is pretty fluffy and really just gives people a reason to keep their broadsides facing, ok .

Particle Whip
Lance that ignores shields when the targets armour is met or beaten.

Powerful. Maybe tone down a bit
I agree with commander, definitely more powerful than previously but by how much? Must be tested.

Ordnance

Portals
These are Launch bays that offer only half to the attack craft limit (Per weapon entry rounding down).
Portals allow attack craft including Canoptik Swarms upto the number of portals to relaunch instead moving normally per ordnance phase.

? somewhat lost here.
There is a reason everyone disliked this rule! Its really going to just be a mess with moving attack craft around and makes the mines way too powerful! I'm sorry but I launch what 3 mines a turn every turn as I close then poof! suck all the stragglers up to the front lines when I'm near an enemy!?! No bad idea. Portals=Launch bays that's it!

Scythe
20cm speed Fighter/Assault Boats only when a targets shields are down.

Tomb blades are the only AC mentioned. As a late war development.
A late war development 60k years ago give or take , Seriously tho fighter assault boats ok but if your going to put a nerf like the shield thing in there at least make their speed 30cm http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Night_Scythe#.Tw2dn6WJe5I

Tomb Blades
20cm speed Fighter/Bomber ignores armour only hitting on 6's.

Why 20 cm speed only??? Why only hitting anything on 6+??? Not logical IMO
Worthless as a fighter and a bomber.

ok Fighter Tomb Blade 30cm speed Resilient (they can out maneuver organic pilots) done. Assault Boat Night Scythe 30cm speed Resilient (better armed than most races fighters) done Bomber Doom Scythe 25cm speed Not Resilient but Fighter/Bomber (its fluff supports thishttp://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Doom_Scythe#.Tw2fzqWJe5I)

Canoptik Swarms
10cm speed Orbital mines causing fire criticals instead of damage.
Canoptik swarms don't use the attack craft limit, just like normal mines.

Looks good
Nice

No comments on fleet yet. Some battles ahead to try them out.
But no necron would ever willingly introduce the flayer virus. Or the destroyer mentality.

Tombship
Type: Battleship, Hits: 12, Speed: 25cm, Turns: 45*, Shields: 4, Armour: 6+, Turrets: 4
Dorsal Particle Whip, 6, 45cm, LFR 
Prow Lightning Arc, 8, 30cm, LFR
In addition Choose one of the following sets of broadsides:
Starboard Lightning Arc, 6, 30cm, LFR
Port Lightning Arc, 6, 30cm, LFR
OR
Starboard Portals, 3
Port Portals, 3
Notes: +5D6cm on AAF, The Tombship also posses a Sepulchre.

Port and starboard LFR? maybe LF and FR like Tau? Free Sepulchre and special stuff! are we breaking into the 550 range then?

Reaper
Type: Cruiser, Hits: 8, Speed: 30cm, Turns: 45*, Shields: 2, Armour: 6+, Turrets: 3
Dorsal Particle Whip, 3, 45cm, LFR
Prow Lightning Arc, 4, 30cm, LFR
In addition Choose one of the following sets of broadsides:
Starboard Lightning Arc, 4, 30cm, LFR
Port Lightning Arc, 4, 30cm, LFR
OR
Starboard Portals, 2
Port Portals, 2
Notes: +5D6cm on AAF.

Once again I don't like the port starboard LFR LF or FR should be the option

Shroud
Type: Cruiser, Hits: 6, Speed: 35cm, Turns: 90*, Shields: 1, Armour: 6+, Turrets: 2
Dorsal Portals, 2
Starboard Lightning Arc, 4, 30cm, LFR
Port Lightning Arc, 4, 30cm, LFR
Prow Lightning Arc, 4, 30cm, LFR
Notes: +6D6cm on AAF. May replace it's Dorsal Portals for a Sepulchre.

See above, I like what you have done with the portals/ Sepulchre, but if you do this then the Sepulchre should occupy the Dorsal slot on the Tombship also for critical purposes.

Dirge
Type: Escort, Hits: 1, Speed: 35cm, Turns: 90*, Shields: 1, Armour: 6+, Turrets: 2
Lightning Arc, 3, 30cm, LFR
Portal, 1
Notes: +6D6cm on AAF


Jackal
Type: Escort, Hits: 1, Speed: 40cm, Turns: 90*, Shields: 1, Armour: 6+, Turrets: 1
Lightning Arc, 3, 30cm, LFR
Notes: +6D6cm on AAF

The Escorts are too similar to each other now. you might as well make them both the same 40cm speed with 2 turrets and have one with a Particle whip, maybe with the option to swap the whip for a portal @+ 20-30 pts.

Stasis Ship (Transport)
Type: Escort, Hits: 1, Speed: 25cm, Turns: 90*, Shields: 1, Armour: 6+, Turrets: 1
Lightning Arc, 3, 15cm, LFR
Notes: +4D6cm on AAF, counts as 2 Transports, (-1 leadership as normal transports) may not be squadroned.

May be very over powered with that speed, should not be able to AAF at all with 25 cm base, or lower AAF. With lightning arcs being much better than standard weapons batteries it might be a good idea to lower the strength, maybe one LA@30cm instead. Should definitely still have to pay to take these.

Fleet Commander
0-1 Fleet Commander
The most expensive capitalship in your fleet may be captained by a fleet commander.
You must include a fleet commander if your fleet is worth over 750pts.

I would recommend placing the restriction on them that they must have a fleet commander even @ under 750pts.

Phaeron (Ld 9)....50pts
Nemesor (Ld 8 )....25pts

These are extremely cheap for a race that has very limited numbers of people that can actually think, titles make no sense. Having a Phaeron command a fleet is something that should be reserved for very high level campaigns, and Nemesor is the name of a specific Necron Overlord. Besides all of this the Necrons have a very specific command structure that you can take advantage of already http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Necron_Lord#.Tw2lmaWJe5I this is the same structure I used above.

Your fleet commander does not come with a fleet reroll but may purchase up to two Astromancer rerolls that are allocated to specific squadrons during deployment.

One Astromancer reroll.....25pts
Two Astromancer rerolls.....50pts

No re-rolls is fine, but if your wanting them to have a limited number compared to the other races this is not the way to do it! You now have a commander with a re-roll at 50 and 75 pts with an additional @ +50 pts, that's not very rare. The limitation of a specific squadron is extremely harsh, this would be much better done with all ships having a base Ld and you having the ability to purchase up to 5 commanders of varying leaderships each with their own re-roll and having the overall commanders re-rolls only applicable to this own ship. Base ld 7, fleet commander 50pts ld 8 100pts ld 9 may purchase 1 re-roll for 25 or 2 for 75. Additionally they may be accompanied by up to 5 commanders ld8 w/one re-roll 50 pts or ld9 w/one re-roll 75 pts command re-rolls may only be applied to the vessel the commander is embarked upon.

Sepulchre Upgrades
Tombships and Shrouds may take a Sepulchre upgrade each as explained in their notes.
Stealth: All ships within 15cm don't offer a bonus to enemy command checks due to enemy constacts. In addition the Shroud counts as cellestial phenomenon for Necron ships when disengaging.
Sensors: Necrons within 15cm gain +1 Leadership for command checks if any enemy is on special orders. In addition any enemy wishing to disengage within 15cm of the Shroud suffers -3 to its leadership (including the normal -1 for being an enemy ship).
Canoptik Hives: One Canoptik Swarm maybe launched per turn as long as the ship is not braced or crippled. Instead of launching a swarm any ship within 10cm gains D6 repair dice. 

All good, on the Canoptik Hives tho why not just make the "mines" able to move to friendly vessels to add repiar dice instead of having the extra rule, besides its kind of clunky.

Capitalships
Battleships
You may include one Battleship for every 2 Cruisers
Tombship........500pts

0-12 Cruisers
Reaper.......250pts
Shroud........175pts

Escorts
You may have any number of escorts in your fleet.
Jackal.........50pts
Dirge..........50pts

Campaign Rules

Necron Dynasties are a Battlefleet with an Attack Rating of 2

Some points values sound off, but they will just have to be tested.

Necron Promotion Table
1-10 Renown: Overlord (Ld8) 0 rerolls
11-25 Renown: Nemesor (Ld8) 1 reroll
26-50 Renown: Phaeron (Ld9) 1 reroll
51+ Renown: (Ld9) 2 rerolls

This is a very short chart when compared to the other races, and gives very limited bonuses. Players are going to have problems with this when they are not seeing very much change for the amount of Renown they gain.

Ship Experience

Necrons gain and lose experience like any normal fleet but cannot gain crewskills, instead they may gain Cryptek Augments in the same manner.

Cryptek Augmentation table
1: Psychomancy, (despair) Teleporter attacks may cause -1 leadership until repaired instead of a successful critical. Choose after you have rolled.
2: Plasmancers, (destruction) Roll 3D6 and discard the highest when attempting Lock-on special orders.
3: Chronomancers, (eternity) autopass leadership check, declare before rolling.
4: Ethermancers, (Storm) Lightning arcs maybe aimed at ordnance benefiting from a left shift on the gunnery table. 
5: Geomancers, (transmogrification) Roll 3D6 and discard the highest when attempting BFI special orders. 
6: Flayer Virus, +1 Boarding Value, +1 to teleporter Hit and run attacks, -1 Leadership.

result one would probably be better if hit and run attacks from this ship and boarding actions receive a +1 modifier. result 4 your rule is limited and unclear, do all attacks receive the left shift now? or just against ordnance. When firing you lightning arc you may take a leadership test to target the vessel of your choice, including ordnance. Additionally Lighting Arc attacks receive a left shift on the gunnery table. result 6 is really bad, just wrong. how about One with the ship! The crew have become so adept at controlling the ship and working within its limitations that they can bring it to the very edge in performance, On any movement related special order attempt, AAF, BR, CTNH the ship may roll 3D6 discarding the highest result. 2,3, and 5 are all good options.

Systems and Repair values
After setting up the Subsector map the Necron player only discovers the Necron presence in each system as he secures them.
Once any Necron player takes a system for the first time he must roll on the following table to determine its worth.
1-3: Huskworld. Counts as unihabitated.
4-5: Fringeworld. Counts as Mining.
6: Coreworld. Counts as Civilised.
Starting World: Crownworld. Counts as Forge or Hive.
The First world the Necron Player starts with is a CrownWorld, no matter what it counts as to the other players.
The only exception to this is when the Necron player is capturing a Civilised, Hive or Forge world, in which case it counts as a Slaveworld and only offers half the normal amount of repair points rounding up.

Good. Slave worlds should work like penal tho IMO. There should be an option for the necron player to convert slave worlds into a core or crown world, over a course of several campaign turns and with the expenditure of repair points. Something like turn one Penal if retaken reverts back to previous for other races,turn two Mining permanent change for civilized, hives and forges will revert back if retaken (put the slaves to work), turn three Core civilized becomes uninhabited for other races and hives/forges drop to civilized (begin to absorb the human population and convert production capability to Necron equipment, max limit for a previously civilized world.) turn four Crown counts as uninhabited for other races (complete absorption of the population and conversion of the production to Necron equipment).

Refits
Necrons may use the normal refit table with the following changes:
Ship Refit 1, The ship has +1 Ld.
Weapons Refit 3, Lightning Arcs may target any ship in range after a successful leadership test.
Weapons Refit 6, The ship has an additional Sepulchre upgrade, this cannot be a duplicate of one already possed by this ship.

Hum I think weapons refit 3 and 6 would be best left alone.

[commander]

Inertialess Drive
Minimum distance before turning is reduced by 5cm.
Come to New heading, All Ahead Full and Burn Retros special orders do not half firepower,
instead they reduce the ships armour value to 5+ until the special order is removed.

Inertialess = no momentum. Just make it that. No min movement (for turning and move). Burn retro's = reverse
I agree on the no min movement obviously but burn retros should just be removed all together. Why would you want them to not halve their firepower? AAF + full power weapons is a serious matter. Armor reduction is a good one tho.

I simply like the option of reverse speed. No turning and manoeuvring involved, just backing off and keeping those F weapons trained on the enemy. If I'm not mistaken, they would be the only ones that can do this

[RayB HA]

Sorry Ray, can't make more of it. It all looks like crap to me. 

I have to admit, I laughed out loud at this.

Hi Horizon,

Leadership, if this is static, which fluffwise it doesn't need to be, they'll be boring as hell in campaigns! They have to have random leadership in some manner!

My Lightning Arcs do have a strange mechanic, it maybe too strange. Only Orks get screwed over as INs 6+ prow basically causes a rightshift instead of offering heavier armour. However Orks are worth saving...
The reason I like the mechanic is that it is different (better and worse) than eldar 'closing' batteries. *(I'm definately against ignoring holofields!)
*Having Lightning Arcs as always LFR could fit the need to be better (having to shoot the closest target being the dissadvantage).
 
Living metal as a slight modification to the critical result and a reroll to repair is far easier than having a separate critical table and a 4+ to repair with the possibilty of repairing hits. 

My Portals are launchbays that offer half the amount to the AC limit, in addition you can teleport AC to portals in the ordy phase instead of normal movement.

The Inertialess drive allows a ship to move faster, slower or allows it make sharper turns without being a massive drain to power systems as the overall relative mass has been reduced. The side effect of this is that the ship suffers impacts more violently as is has become more structually frail.

Why should Necron teleport attacks be different to anyone elses?

Introducing Necron AC is pretty jarring, it seems weird somehow. I suspect this is only because they haven't had any until now. In general though they should be predominantly fighters, filling the role of the SPG and NMF.

The Current Necrons aren't fine! NMF, SPG, Special victory points, have to go at the very least. Shields, AC and commanders, campaign rules have to be added at the very least.


Hi Plaxor,

Having no AC does add an element of interest to the fleets rules, however you can achieve the same by having very few AC. Necrons will cost over the norm to get as many AC on the table, so that aspect will always remain.


Hi Zelnik. 

Hi Commander,

I'd rather not lose minimum movement, the inertialess drive shouldn't be considered active or fully activated all the time. This gives you a reason to actually want to use the inertialess drive for special orders.

Scarabs and wraiths don't/can't reapair, only spyders can that's why I didn't want it to be a 'heal mine'.

The Particle whip is just a lance with a special rule that barely ever comes into play. Only going through shields on a 6+ means that 1 in 3 hits goes through shields. Against a cruiser that's 2 shields down and a direct hit (the same as normal lances). Against a BB it's okay, but then you've struck it a hard blow and aren't going to follow up with anything else, unlikely... Against escorts this is good, basically counts as an extra hit, unless you're unlucky enough to hit an escort who already has it's shields down. So only noticeable against escorts really, kinda crap.
Also keep in mind that the number of particle whips would be reduced. Think of them as the Necrons lance and torp equivs.

The reason why the AC is so slow is because they can teleport to portals instaed of moving. The Necrons AC is basically only good for CAP and weak attacks, they're AC is primarily defensive, the escorts need it.

Cheers,

RayB HA

[RayB HA]

Hi AndrewChristlieb,

Okay, I'm only gonna comment on things I haven't in the last post.

Ignoring damage only criticals isn't terrible, think of it as an automatic save. 11 and 12 happen rarely so that won't come into it so much (avg of 1 in every 72 hits, I think).

Racial H&R bonus shouldn't be ignored (the fire critical) but it's not so bad, I can live with it rather than adding a rule to cover it. 

Teleporting mines isn't as bad as you're making out How is it different from a Devastation off loading 4 orbital mines right in your face?
You can only have a few of them, 1 per Sepulchre, and that's instead of a leadership bonus/shroud. Even if you went with a fleet of Shrouds and a Scythe I don't see it working just BFI the Scythe. You also have to be in base contact to get the mines to hit in the turn of teleport. This is not unbalanced IMO.

I visited the Lexicanum links you offered up, sadly alot of it is wrong (as in contridicts the new Necron Codex). Or in the case of Scythes is a bit of a leap of logic to say they're capable of intersteller travel (well at slower than light speed I suppose this would be true). They're quoting from publications predating the retcon and so a few things get a little weird when you have concepts from before and after side by side.

The Tomblades are fighter bombers, but can actually cause damage to targets with medium-high turret values like normal bombers. Only hitting on a 6 is to do with their armour ignoring weaponary, and them only being fighter bombers.

LFR is basically a special rule for lightning arcs. Having LFR weaponary seems more 'advanced' aswell (Ironclad vs wooden frigate).

Sepulchres ignore criticals as they are so vital a 'weapon', they are burried inside the ship.

I agree the escorts are quite similar, the Jackal should have an extra turret. The Jackal is basically an upgrade to ordnance defence. I wouldn't want to put a particle whip in there though, it seems like too power hungry a weapon for such a small ship.

Necron Transports should obviously be better than the norm. I have it set up so that you get 1 Necron transport instead of 2 for the other races. Destroying 1 counts as destroying 2 so having less than twice the firepower isn't a problem. The speed might be an issue. Maybe only speed 20cm. (keep in mind if they want to AAF their armour will drop to 5+).

Nemesor is a rank of leader.

I really don't want static leadership, and that's what you get when you have numerous captains with set leadership. Having multiple +1 Ld's would still be an issue as it would effectively increase the basic leadership value beyond what it should be.

Squadron specific rerolls further highlights the Necrons lack of initiative. Keep in mind that these are allocated during deployment and so can be there to bump up your low leadership squadrons (or ensure your highier leadership ones).

The Necron Promotion table is intentionally limited. This represents the little that the Necron Admiral can change in a campaign.

Cryptek augmentation table
The Flayer virus is a downgrade, a result 1. It might be a little weird to have a downgrade in the crewskills but I wanted the flayer virus to be present in the campaign rules somewhere.
If result 1 was changed to be just like result 6 they'd be no point. But result 1 does need improving. What if it were a 'hex' crewskill, so a single enemy ship/squadron within 15cm has to roll 3D6 discard the lowest for a command check.

System and repair rules
The penal colonly instead of civ/hive is a great idea!
You should never change what a world is beyond exterminatus, it just screws campaigns over! 

Refits 3 and 6 need to be changed because they have no effect on Necron ships.

Cheers,

RayB HA

[commander]

Scarabs and wraiths don't/can't reapair, only spyders can that's why I didn't want it to be a 'heal mine'.

You should check the codex about that 

[commander]

I'd rather not lose minimum movement, the inertialess drive shouldn't be considered active or fully activated all the time. This gives you a reason to actually want to use the inertialess drive for special orders.

And let have the toy of no movement to the Eldar WITHOUT those having no momentum??? I don't think so. If one race should have zero movement, it's the necrons. Their drive IS the inertialess drive.

The reason why the AC is so slow is because they can teleport to portals instaed of moving. The Necrons AC is basically only good for CAP and weak attacks, they're AC is primarily defensive, the escorts need it.

Codex strongly indicates otherwise.

[commander]

Also, as already said, no necron would introduce the flayer virus because noone of them is immune to it. They don't want to degenerate, they aim for apotheosis.

[AndrewChristlieb]

Hi AndrewChristlieb,

Okay, I'm only gonna comment on things I haven't in the last post.

Ignoring damage only criticals isn't terrible, think of it as an automatic save. 11 and 12 happen rarely so that won't come into it so much (avg of 1 in every 72 hits, I think).

Its not about how rare it is, its a matter of an 11 or 12 on 2 d6 SHOULD be awesome not the one thing you never want to roll. Criticals are hard enough to come by they dont need to be nerfed!

Racial H&R bonus shouldn't be ignored (the fire critical) but it's not so bad, I can live with it rather than adding a rule to cover it. 

Teleporting mines isn't as bad as you're making out How is it different from a Devastation off loading 4 orbital mines right in your face?
You can only have a few of them, 1 per Sepulchre, and that's instead of a leadership bonus/shroud. Even if you went with a fleet of Shrouds and a Scythe I don't see it working just BFI the Scythe. You also have to be in base contact to get the mines to hit in the turn of teleport. This is not unbalanced IMO.

But its not a dev its a Tombship, you don't even need to bring the Shrouds off the table edge just have them min move in circles @ the table edge the whole game and let tougher ships portal in all the bombs its worse than nova spam

I visited the Lexicanum links you offered up, sadly alot of it is wrong (as in contridicts the new Necron Codex). Or in the case of Scythes is a bit of a leap of logic to say they're capable of intersteller travel (well at slower than light speed I suppose this would be true). They're quoting from publications predating the retcon and so a few things get a little weird when you have concepts from before and after side by side.

Maybe so, but then the new dex is crap too so

The Tomblades are fighter bombers, but can actually cause damage to targets with medium-high turret values like normal bombers. Only hitting on a 6 is to do with their armour ignoring weaponary, and them only being fighter bombers.

Only hits on a 6= crap, im sorry but why would I ever take this over assault boats? I do like that they get a "boost" over standard FB tho

LFR is basically a special rule for lightning arcs. Having LFR weaponary seems more 'advanced' aswell (Ironclad vs wooden frigate).

I agree but its still an awkward concept to shoot what? over? the center of the ship? maybe put all of them on prow/dorsal and put the whips on the broadside option with a LF and FR arc

Sepulchres ignore criticals as they are so vital a 'weapon', they are burried inside the ship.

But not on shrouds? They very clearly take the Dorsal slot on the Shroud 

Shroud
Type: Cruiser, Hits: 6, Speed: 35cm, Turns: 90*, Shields: 1, Armour: 6+, Turrets: 2
Dorsal Portals, 2
Starboard Lightning Arc, 4, 30cm, LFR
Port Lightning Arc, 4, 30cm, LFR
Prow Lightning Arc, 4, 30cm, LFR
Notes: +6D6cm on AAF. May replace it's Dorsal Portals for a Sepulchre.

[/color]

I agree the escorts are quite similar, the Jackal should have an extra turret. The Jackal is basically an upgrade to ordnance defence. I wouldn't want to put a particle whip in there though, it seems like too power hungry a weapon for such a small ship.

Add 1 portal back in then, just to one. Make Portals add ac @ a ratio of 1/2 rounded down. So escorts cannot add any, but can portal ordnance in.

Necron Transports should obviously be better than the norm. I have it set up so that you get 1 Necron transport instead of 2 for the other races. Destroying 1 counts as destroying 2 so having less than twice the firepower isn't a problem. The speed might be an issue. Maybe only speed 20cm. (keep in mind if they want to AAF their armour will drop to 5+).

The speed is the real issue here.

Nemesor is a rank of leader.

Its a very obscure reference, the only time it has been used in other than an off had fashion is in reference to a specific Overlord, that is unless there's something in the new dex to contradict this?

I really don't want static leadership, and that's what you get when you have numerous captains with set leadership. Having multiple +1 Ld's would still be an issue as it would effectively increase the basic leadership value beyond what it should be.

Then just give them the standard 6-9

Squadron specific rerolls further highlights the Necrons lack of initiative. Keep in mind that these are allocated during deployment and so can be there to bump up your low leadership squadrons (or ensure your highier leadership ones).

Thats fine

The Necron Promotion table is intentionally limited. This represents the little that the Necron Admiral can change in a campaign.

But why? its not like they're not going to be learning and expanding, at least give them some kind of boost @ each of the standard levels, even if it isn't a leadership or re-roll boost.

Cryptek augmentation table
The Flayer virus is a downgrade, a result 1. It might be a little weird to have a downgrade in the crewskills but I wanted the flayer virus to be present in the campaign rules somewhere.
If result 1 was changed to be just like result 6 they'd be no point. But result 1 does need improving. What if it were a 'hex' crewskill, so a single enemy ship/squadron within 15cm has to roll 3D6 discard the lowest for a command check.

why have it at all? if it must be there why not put it that ships that fall to 6 or less are subject to the virus.
you could do a really cool rule where the ship performs as normal unless it fails a leadership test, if a ld test is failed the ship cannot take any special orders other than movement or use any special weapons. Then have them double their boarding value. At the beginning of each subsequent Necron movement phase the ship may make a leadership test to regain control. (just an idea.)   

System and repair rules
The penal colonly instead of civ/hive is a great idea!
You should never change what a world is beyond exterminatus, it just screws campaigns over! 

Indeed special rules can be a pain, maybe have the Hive/Forge gain 2d6+ whatever instead of 1d6+ to represent the increased slave labor etc.

Refits 3 and 6 need to be changed because they have no effect on Necron ships.

Lightning arc doesn't benefit from column shifts? and their shields cannot benefit from being tougher?

Cheers,

RayB HA

[RayB HA]

Hi Commander,

All Canoptek constructs can indeed repair or fabricate. Looks like the 'heal mine' really does have a place. 

The Inertialess drive does give the movement you desire, but at a cost to armour (and having to be on special orders).

I don't get any sense from the codex that Scythes or tomblades are super fast. I wouldn't be against 'normalising' them to straight fighters and bombers respectively just too keep things simple and because alot depends on the 'size' of a squadron. The assualt boat abilty of the scythe is a little iffy, perhaps just having squadrons of Night scythes as assualt boats. (Back to the basics!)

The introduction of the flayer virus is supposed to be an 'accident'. The risk of getting a Cryptek upgrade.


I've done an extremely limited amount of playtesting but the following changes should be made:
Sepulchre shoud be both Shroud and Sensors but you pick at the start of each turn for each Sepulchre. It became quite clear that +1 Ld was more desireable except in specific circumstances. 
The price of the Reaper should be aimed at 250pts. (Tweaks of strength will have to be done)
Portals are too weak to have the rules I've given them. Instead they should be launch bays that are not loaded to begin with, when you reload you must launch that turn. In addition you can reload AC on the field without having to use reload special orders, including canoptek swarms.
Canoptek Hives/Swarms need to be a weapon of their own, not a Sepulchre or upgrade for a Portal.

For those that want to go ahead and say 'I told you so'.

Cheers,

RayB HA

[commander]

A nemesor is the necron overall commander of a warzone; the number 1.

[commander]

Hi Commander,

All Canoptek constructs can indeed repair or fabricate. Looks like the 'heal mine' really does have a place. 

Dual purpose; Mine or repair.

The Inertialess drive does give the movement you desire, but at a cost to armour (and having to be on special orders).

Eldar with NO inertia get move 0 FOR FREE; necron WITH inertia don't. Some contradiction here! Inacceptable.

I don't get any sense from the codex that Scythes or tomblades are super fast. I wouldn't be against 'normalising' them to straight fighters and bombers respectively just too keep things simple and because alot depends on the 'size' of a squadron. The assualt boat abilty of the scythe is a little iffy, perhaps just having squadrons of Night scythes as assualt boats. (Back to the basics!)

Tomb blades: If they swarm over their target, they must have enough speed to keep up with it. And with the speed of their prime enemies ...

The introduction of the flayer virus is supposed to be an 'accident'. The risk of getting a Cryptek upgrade.

No cryptek is going to accidentally introduce it. However, the virus can have spread to the fleet as it is contagious (reread the dex). IMO it must not be an upgrade but a special rule and a dice roll before deployment to acertain which ship(s) is(are) contaminated. OR simply a reduction in point cost.

I've done an extremely limited amount of playtesting but the following changes should be made:
Sepulchre shoud be both Shroud and Sensors but you pick at the start of each turn for each Sepulchre. It became quite clear that +1 Ld was more desireable except in specific circumstances. 
The price of the Reaper should be aimed at 250pts. (Tweaks of strength will have to be done)
Portals are too weak to have the rules I've given them. Instead they should be launch bays that are not loaded to begin with, when you reload you must launch that turn. In addition you can reload AC on the field without having to use reload special orders, including canoptek swarms.
Canoptek Hives/Swarms need to be a weapon of their own, not a Sepulchre or upgrade for a Portal.

I've some battles next week against an inquisitor fleet. I'll try these out if my opponent allows me to.
However, I would keep the portals as teleport attacks and call the launchbays simply 'gates'. A small addition and not a change to an established 'weapon'

For those that want to go ahead and say 'I told you so'.

Cheers,

RayB HA

[Sigoroth]

Eldar with NO inertialess drive get move 0 FOR FREE; necron WITH inertialess drive don't. Some contradiction here! IUnacceptable.

Fixed.

Tomb blades: If they swarm over their target, they must have enough speed to keep up with it. And with the speed of their prime enemies ...

Is this a reference to the Eldar? If so, then you're wrong. Necron tech could not possibly be adapted towards defeating the Eldar. All they know of present day Eldar is what they've learned since awakening. In their pre-sleep encounters the Eldar were not technologically advanced. They fought the Necrons shoulder to shoulder with their gods, back when they were immortal. Any "technology" the Eldar had at the time was God wrought, or magic. Eldar technology has developed while the Necrons have been asleep. Therefore it is possible (likely) that Eldar tech is anti-Necron, but it couldn't be the other way around. It has always annoyed me that the ABSF ignore holofields, which they clearly shouldn't, but don't ignore the Necron 2+ brace save, which they clearly should. They were created by Vaul specifically to destroy the Necrons. Not much chance of that with a 2+ save. Holofields were specifically designed to spoof direct fire attacks, the more pinpoint the more effective. ABSFs basically fire lances.

[AndrewChristlieb]

Along the same line of thought why does every necron weapon ignore holo fields? Some make sense as they are area effect weapons but what about the particle whip? That should not ignore holofields, and altho I agree that lightning doesn't need to "see" to hit it does require to be released in the right area or there would be increased dissipation of the energy as it arcs towards ground.

[Sigoroth]

I think that lightning arcs would most likely cover a smaller area than typical area saturation bombardment, so they should suffer more to holofields.

As for the topic of the inertialess drive, well it's pretty naff. I mean, if we're talking a true inertialess drive then the Necron ships should be slower, not faster. This is because it would take a good deal more power to keep them going. Without inertia to keep ships moving they'd stop dead. So you'd need a constant supply of thrust to maintain speed. Achieving near light speed for such massive ships without the aid of inertia would be impossible (well, more impossible  ). On the other hand, without inertia to keep them going in a straight line they'd be super manoeuvrable, able to manoeuvre like a fighter or bomber.

The Necron drive functions more like a mass reduction drive. This would allow higher speeds at lower thrust. Having lower mass would make it easier to manoeuvre, except that the distance covered would likely be great (due to moving so fast). This pretty much sums up the current ruleset of +1d6 x 10cm on AAF with a turn every 20cm. It would also make faster than light travel possible, assuming mass can be reduced to zero.

With such a drive one would not expect the Necrons to be able to halt their movement as they pleased (having a lower mass does make it easier to stop, but if you suddenly engage the drive to lower the mass to make it easier to stop you'll increase your speed due to the conservation of momentum, thus increasing the thrust needed to stop, therefore gaining no net benefit). As this also fits with their current ruleset and modus operandi (i.e., non-warp FTL capability) I submit that the Necron drive is not an inertialess drive but really a relative mass reduction drive. Therefore we should abandon any notion of allowing the Necrons to forego minimum movement requirements.