Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I've currently made it through Triarch Praetorians (skipped the HQs, though) on my Necron Codex Rewrite. You can find it here.

The idea behind it is that Necrons are masters of all sorts of wacky-tacky technology. Why do they have so few options? Especially on basic troops.

The various "Constructions" are which C'Tan had the most influence on their personal biotransference-generic Necrons were late comers, who just got the sme ol' rigmarole, but earlier Necrons were specifically crafted (if in mass) by the C'Tan, giving them different traits. The Silent King's Chosen were Necrons who were made with all the C'Tan working together, for the Silent King himself.

Why did you give the traits price points but there's no rules for them?

Overall the Necron codex doesn't really need any fixes for the most part. Gauss needs maybe some tweaking as flaying something atom by atom should do more than give an armor save when wounding on a six, and the vehicles need a bit of price fixing. Then just fix the CTan and bam done.

The various Nightbringer, Frozen Void, etc.? They do have traits-check under Technoarcana.

I've skipped over the weapon profile for now. Here's my feedback on the rest of it so far:

Reanimation Protocols: The current rules for reanimation protocols make necrons problematically durable and very non-interactive. In previous incarnations (5th edition and the original book's We'll Be Back rule), models did not "reanimate" until the end of the phase and only did so if they were within range of another model from the unit. This meant you could focus fire or sweep a unit to bypass the necrons' layered saved. In the current version, you don't really have any way to mitigate their durability other than doubling out their toughness. What I'm getting at is that necrons are arguably too durable as is, so opening opportunities for them to become even more durable isn't something I'd welcome.

Consumptive Field: A little wordy, but this seems fine. It's easy to resolve, it has a good chance of reviving an extra model, and it isn't game-breakingly powerful.

Icy Aura: I'm less fond of this one. As mentioned above, necrons can be problematic to remove from the table. Units that would normally be able to win combat against 'crons can struggle to do so due to their turbo-charged FNP equivalent. Basically, dedicated melee combatants can lose combat to necron warriors and immortals because they simply bounce off of them. Icy Aura means that, after bouncing off ineffectually, the necrons will proceed to more than double their effective number of hits (because it's not hard to get a smallish warrior squad into base to base, and you don't have to roll to hit), and then proceed to ignore the armor of enemies whose armor they weren't ignoring previously. Melee with necrons can already be more annoying than it should be, and this potentially makes that problem worse.

Technological Mastery: This is basically a 2 point upgrade to increase the killing power of a warrior by 50% (in rapid fire range) or 100% (at a distance). I know those two points per model will add up pretty quickly, but I'm not sure I'd be comfortable facing that much extra fire power at a relatively low price on a very durable (for its points) model.

Mirage: As previously mentioned, necrons are already problematically durable. Making them even more durable probably isn't a good thing.

Unnatural Strength: Like icy aura, this makes it even more annoying to try to get through a wall of necrons in melee. It also doubles the number of glancing/penetrating hits they'll get against vehicles in melee.

Silver Tide: I realize this is a lot of points for one unit, but it's also a unit that is pretty much completely non-interactive. If you take less than 50 models, you're probably wasting points because a large warrior blob or two will be similarly impossible to shoot to death, and you'll simply lose more points than normal when your opponent manages to sweep you with a melee deathstar of some sort. If you take enough bodies to becomes fearless, then the melee deathstar will either never sweep you or else they'll spend most of the game killing cheap(ish) bodies slowly and not making their points back effectively. So at best, they're a poor decision to take, and at worst, they're a unit you can't really interact with. Either your opponent can't deal with them and you just roll through him unopposed or your opponent *can* sweep or tarpit you well enough to result in a massive clog of bodies.

The reason orks can get away with things like the green tide is that orks are relatively easy to remove from the table. Even if you get rolled by the tide, you can take satisfaction in the pile of dead orks you've probably created. Against a huge pile of warriors, there's no such satisfaction. It's a unit that either beats you single-handedly, costs your opponent half of his army when you sweep it, or else causes a long-term tarpit that involves lots of dice rolling and little satisfying progress/model removal all game. None of these outcomes is particularly pleasant. At least in my eyes.

Overall, I like the idea of reflecting different C'Tan influences and giving necrons more technological versatility. I'm just not sure I like this particular execution.

On a related note, I've recently found myself missing the 5th edition options Crypteks had available. They were very fluffy and interesting (if not always competitive). Perhaps consider tying some of your ideas to a cryptek so that your opponent has a chance to snipe him out and negate the advantage? Note that Look Out Sir and the ability to sit out of challenges can make it difficult to remove a crypteks from 'cron units.

Another rambling thought: Giving options and buffs to necrons can be difficult. Like eldar, necrons are pretty inherently potent these days. Any option you give them will make them even more powerful by virtue of expanding the options they have available. Perhaps consider building drawbacks into some of your options in order to balance out the advantage of a given type of construction? For instance...

*Models with icy aura don't get their RP rule against wounds inflicted by flamer or melta weapons. Acclimating to extreme cold has made them less adept at compensating for extreme heat.

* Consumptive aura restores one model per point by which the unit won combat, but the unit's RP save is always 1 worse than normal. The entropic energies that allow them to steal life from others also weakens their own regenerative properties when not fueled by fresh life force.

* Models with mirage worsen their armor saves by 1. The materials that allow them to bend light and absorb shadows are simply less durable than those used in other constructs.

Drawbacks like these probably make necrons less competitive powerful than official necrons, but they also provide disadvantages that your opponent can exploit in exchange for adding to the versatility of your 'crons.

You might see that I've actually increased the cost of most models. Warriors, for instance, are around 20% more expensive BEFORE upgrades.

Technological Mastery is also once per game-so it doubles their firepower at 24" for one phase. Does that change how you feel?

 JNAProductions wrote:
You might see that I've actually increased the cost of most models. Warriors, for instance, are around 20% more expensive BEFORE upgrades.

Technological Mastery is also once per game-so it doubles their firepower at 24" for one phase. Does that change how you feel?

That does make me feel better about Technological Mastery. I'm still wary of anything that boosts durability or makes necrons better at assault (which is the closest thing they have to a vulnerability at the moment).

Up to Doom Scythes now.