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I personally think that except for the Tesla Destructor (on account of higher strength, better rules, frequently being Tl, and moar dakka ) , its all very gimmicky.

Take for example 10 Immortals with Gauss weapons vs those with Tesla carbines shooting at MEQ in rapid fire range (yes I know that that's ideal for the Blasters, work with me!) and rounding to the nearest hundredth.

Gauss Tesla
Shots: 20 10
Hits: 13.33 6.67 (1 six so 8.67 hits)
Wounds: 8.89 5.78
Unsaved: 2 .96 1.92

As you can see, the blasters kill a whole 1 more marine. Sounds meh I know but if you change the target to say, FIre Warriors/(most)Aspect Warriors, the superiority is even more pronounced with the ap4 of blasters:

Gauss Tesla
Shots: 20 10
Hits: 13.33 6.67 (1 six so 8.67 hits)
Wounds: 11.11 7.22
Unsaved: 11.11 3.61


Again the Gauss Blasters outperform the Tesla Carbines. Now this is disregarding their effectiveness against vehicles, further proving the blasters outperform. The one advantage I can think of is that you can shoot past 12" and still move and that one can still assault,,,

So can one help me see Tesla weapons are worth it?

First off, that non MEQ data is pretty meaningless because you are going it without factoring in cover saves. As cover is everywhere in this edition you should always assume that your target is getting cover, certainly if its against 4+ save or worse infantry (who will always be hugging cover). That brings the Gauss into line with the Teslas.

Anyway, the key difference is their mobility and range basically. Teslas are Assault weapons with 24" range, i.e they have an effective range of 30". Gauss can either stand still (which isn't very often) and fire 24" with half the shot, or move and have an effective range of 18". This range difference and ability to fire at full effect on the move is huge. Firstly and most obviously this means you get at least one more turn of shooting with the Tesla than you do with the Gauss. Secondly Necrons do NOT want to be within 12" of something unless they are 100% sure they can kill it (and from a competitive POV putting yourself in a position where you absolutely have to kill something in a single turn can be a problem), they are incredibly vulnerable in combat so you can't use them like Marines. Finally Necrons are going to be walking 99% of the time, they aren't Marines or Guard with cheap Rhinos and Chimera to get them up close, Ghost Arcs are too expensive (and you use them to restore Warriors around them rather than riding in them) and Night Scythes dump you back into reserve if the transport dies so aren't good delivery platforms. In short its risky for you to get within 12" and its hard for you to get there in the first place, so Tesla does a better job from a safer distance. Gauss becomes better if you take a Phaeron Overlord though, since then you have the same reach with a bit more punch, but obviously you can't do that for all your units.

Its also worth pointing out the differences in their max potential damage. While obviously you can't assume that you are going to get the perfect rolls it is worth knowing what they are, since it gives you an idea on the standard deviation/spread of results you should get. A good example of this is a Disintegrator Raider vs a Venom, they average the same number of kills against MEQ, but you are always going to pick the Venom since with 12 shots you have to roll incredibly badly to not get any kills and could easily get twice the kills as a Disintegrator. In this case the Tesla rule comes into play, the fact that 6's get you more hits means that you you can potentially get more hits than shots fired, and basically keeps your damage output more consistent.

I agree with most of what power guy says about tesla compared to gauss. Though I disagree about the transports. I think both transports are very powerful if used correctly and can definitely be worth their points.

The one thing I do genuinely think you need though is if you chose to go with gauss over tesla, then you need to put them with phearons. Otherwise it's wasted potential.

Just to point out as far as the math is concerned, 10 tesla carbine shots are going to hit an average of 10 times. Half of your hits are normal hits while another sixth generate 3 hits. So five of your rolls hit normally and 1 2/3 of your rolls will generate 3 hits resulting in 5 more hits.

Now lets assume you target is MEQ 20" away from your stationary immortals. Close enough to assault after two rounds of shooting and be in rapid fire range after one round of moving then running.

Gauss / Tesla
Shots: 30 / 20
Hits: 20 / 20
Wounds: 13.33 / 13.33
Unsaved: 4.44 / 4.44

In this case the gauss shots are equal to the teslas shots on average despite a 10 shot headstart for gauss. I'd also like to point out that the immortals with Tesla Carbines could be moving back 6" a turn without diminishing firepower likely resulting in another round of shooting for them.

Shot for shot, Tesla will score more hits than gauss every time. However against more lightly armored opponents where the AP of gauss negates their saves (4+ or worse) gauss will fare better shot for shot.

What this really means in the end is that choosing Gauss blasters or Tesla carbines depends on your meta. MEQ and better non-vehicle units demand the volume of fire Tesla provides. For worse than MEQ armor you'll want Gauss. Gauss blasters also have a chance of penetrating armor 10, and of glancing anything else making it the choice against Dark Eldar.

This is all not factoring cover which hurts Gauss Blasters more.

Powerguy wrote:First off, that non MEQ data is pretty meaningless because you are going it without factoring in cover saves. As cover is everywhere in this edition you should always assume that your target is getting cover, certainly if its against 4+ save or worse infantry (who will always be hugging cover). That brings the Gauss into line with the Teslas.

I can not believe I forgot to factor in cover saves...

Powerguy wrote:
Anyway, the key difference is their mobility and range basically. Teslas are Assault weapons with 24" range, i.e they have an effective range of 30". Gauss can either stand still (which isn't very often) and fire 24" with half the shot, or move and have an effective range of 18". This range difference and ability to fire at full effect on the move is huge. Firstly and most obviously this means you get at least one more turn of shooting with the Tesla than you do with the Gauss. Secondly Necrons do NOT want to be within 12" of something unless they are 100% sure they can kill it (and from a competitive POV putting yourself in a position where you absolutely have to kill something in a single turn can be a problem), they are incredibly vulnerable in combat so you can't use them like Marines. Finally Necrons are going to be walking 99% of the time, they aren't Marines or Guard with cheap Rhinos and Chimera to get them up close, Ghost Arcs are too expensive (and you use them to restore Warriors around them rather than riding in them) and Night Scythes dump you back into reserve if the transport dies so aren't good delivery platforms. In short its risky for you to get within 12" and its hard for you to get there in the first place, so Tesla does a better job from a safer distance. Gauss becomes better if you take a Phaeron Overlord though, since then you have the same reach with a bit more punch, but obviously you can't do that for all your units.

I realize that the Tesla weapons have an advantage in range, I just don't value that advantage that much. Playing a few more games oughta help me out there. Phaerons I'm not entirely sold on either. Relentless is cool and all but I don't know if the 20pts are worth it. Maybe if I took it in a full 20 man Warrior squad.

if your enemy is 12" within your immotals at the beginning of his turn, the immotals are already died.
You need to keep them at least 12" away from your enemy, and 24" within them, that's the perfect range of tesla weapons--- basicly, they are storm bolters with AP- , you just need to move backward and shoot

Powerguy summed it up really well.

I realize that the Tesla weapons have an advantage in range, I just don't value that advantage that much. Playing a few more games oughta help me out there. Phaerons I'm not entirely sold on either. Relentless is cool and all but I don't know if the 20pts are worth it. Maybe if I took it in a full 20 man Warrior squad.

Range is pretty huge for Necrons, when most basic squads can out CC our Init 2 Troops. Being able to move and shoot, is huge, and the fact that most of our army is 24', getting every inch out of a weapon is important.


Phaeron is really good for 20 man warrior blob squads. Most things cant survive 20-40 Gauss shots.

Tesla is not going to do anything against vehicles and in mech heavy 5th edition that is a big drawback. Gauss is more versatile - at least it can do something against vehicles. Tesla is better ant-infantry. Your immortals aren't going to do well unsupported so it depends on your tactics and your list too.

Are you going to VoD them around to keep them out of combat? Then tesla can still fire at max range while gauss is limited to 12".

Are they going in a night scythe? Then it might get blown up and leave your unit walking on the board. Tesla is much more effective if you need to keep moving each turn to get into position.

Mathammer doesn't take tactics into consideration and especially with necrons your pure statistics are not going to give any accuracy about the effectiveness of either.





Automatically Appended Next Post:

xxBlazinGhostxx wrote:

I realize that the Tesla weapons have an advantage in range, I just don't value that advantage that much. Playing a few more games oughta help me out there. Phaerons I'm not entirely sold on either. Relentless is cool and all but I don't know if the 20pts are worth it. Maybe if I took it in a full 20 man Warrior squad.

Phaeron is easy to see why it's worth it.

13pts for 1 warrior gets 6 shots per game at range 12-24" if he doesn't move.

A 12 man warrior squad while moving can shoot only 12" so you lose 12 shots each turn they move.
If for 1 turn that 20 point pharon lets you move and shoot all 12 guys at something at 12-24", you just got 12 shots you wouldn't otherwise have. For 20 points you got the equivalent of 2 warriors shooting all game.

Except Necrons have plenty of anti-tank elsewhere in their list. They need anti-infantry.

Tesla is devestating against infantry, especially MEQs as it is really good at forcing saves. Its also not too shabby against GEQs because they are getting cover anyway so AP- means nothing.


The other Necron weapons can take out tanks, Tesla kills infantry.