Hi Squiddy, welcome to the Crons
It should be pretty easy to get you a list you can use for friendly games, depending on your definition of "friendly". That is, Crons have so many units available, we can pretty much deal with any "friendly" opponents armies.
So, in respect of your plan, some comments.
First, for Praetorians - cool models. Caution, the whole squad needs to change to
VB/
PC, not just a couple. So, what can they do? Praetorians are JI, and Rods of Covenant are AP2, both in shooting and
CC. So, they probably slot best into a counter assault role, where you shoot (
RoC only have a 6" range unfortunately) then assault and clean up the remnants. You'll have to use them carefully, because they are quite fragile - cover and speed will be your friends here. Praetorians work really well with a Destroyer Lord with Orb, weave and
MSS. the Destro Lord brings a 2+save, better reanimation odds plus
MSS and a warscythe. BIG thing is giving them Preferred Enemy. I strongly suggest you consider getting one for your Praetorian based army.
Re your list:
10 warriors is too few. At the moment you have 2 x 5 which gives you min troops, but warriors are kind of fragile. Think about what you want to supplement - Immortals are tougher. As a general guide Crons aren't objective sitters - troops are generally too fragile. Much better to plan to move onto objectives late game. In fact, with what you have proposed, I'd suggest that you reserve at least one squad.
Scarabs are one of my favourite units. 3 is too few so you'll want to jump onto Ebay or somewhere to grab some more. They are awesome vehicle killers and excellent tarpit units. If you take Zandrekh and give them furious charge they become really nasty. However, keep them away from blast templates.
Imotekh - Lightning and night fight would be perfect for your list. Best take a chronometron so you can reroll to keep lightning etc going. He needs a unit to go into - he can't really go with the Praetorians, because he will slow them down too much (
Imo isn't JI). So warriors for him. Here again, more warriors (a blob of 20 with
Imo is a powerful thing as he gives them relentless).
Moar Praetorians - sure - if you have a squad of 10, definitely take a destroyer lord.
Spyders are excellent. Despite how good Anni Barges are I always keep a slot open for 3 spyders to buff scarabs. It's pretty rare I don't have scarabs and spyders in my lists.
Stalkers. Cool model, but very situational. In your list, one of the main benefits (twin linking) isn't realised. You simply don't have enough shooting. Still for a friendly game, having a stalker on the table is cool. I personally use them with the Heavy Gauss Cannon rather than the heat ray.
Some things to think about - in your list your
AV is basically from gauss shots from the warriors plus the stalker. Your main alternative is
CC.
With your proposed list, mobile lists with a lot of shooting will stomp you. Your list is essentially a
CC list. I recommend that you get two anni barges. They are cool and hugely versatile, because the model is designed to switch between
AB and
CCB. Best thing is that you get an overlord with the
AB (for free! with a stand and everything!) which you can use as overlords or just normal lords.
As you are just starting, a battleforce would make a lot of sense. You can then get more warriors, make immortals and deathmarks (by using some of the warrior legs and chests) but - best bit - you can make your own crypteks!! Use warrior legs, but use the spare bits from the lychguard, with shields as backs, kitbash some staffs etc.
You'll then get 5 more scarab bases, say 12 warriors (after you use some legs for deathmarks, crypteks), 5 immortals, 5 deathmarks and a Ghost Ark/Doomsday Ark.
That would give you a lot more flexibility in the lists you put together.
hth!
: 2000pts