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Post by Peter on Mar 8, 2009 17:17:29 GMT -5
The Necron fleet list for BFG is pretty notorious for being vastly overpowered - at the moment their weapon list, for example, amounts to Lightning Arcs (incredily high firepower, always Closing and ignore holofields and shadowfields), Gauss Particle Whips (strength-based weapons with a chance to ignore holofields, shields and shadowfields) and a variety of other nasty weapons. In addition, the Necrons get complete immunity to basically anything that isn't an ordnance or shooting attack, an insane d6x10 All Ahead Full ability and a saving throw against any hits they take. So, long story short, they need a lot of work. At the moment I have a couple of ideas for a fix, and I'd like to see how well they would work. - Firstly, cut the reactive hull saving throw. I was thinking of changing it to be more like shields. Effectively, you would be able to save a few hits from every attack directed at your ships. Blast markers would reduce the number of attempts you could make. It would then be possible to take a hit and pick up a blast marker, or to block a hit with no blast marker. You would also be able to self-repair ordnance hits, but Necron ships would have no turrets.
- Cut basic armour for Cap ships down to 4+ (same as they have when braced). Necron Raiders would keep a 6+ armour value, and would also ignore lances. The capships would be able to do the same thing, as long as they weren't on special orders or within 30cm of the enemy. Necron ships are described as being really sneaky and hard to hit, but I don't want to give them holofields, and I don't see their largest ships sneaking into the most heavily defended star system in the Imperium. The Necrons will not have anything with a range of over 30cm, so they have to be sneaky and actually fight like hit-and-run raiders, rather than just go in and destroy the enemy fleet.
- Lightning arcs will ignore all column shifts, but lose the Always Closing ability. They will also gain a limit to the amount of firepower they can target at any given ship.
- I'm thinking of changing the particle whips to work like bombardment cannon - that makes them really dangerous, but they don't slaughter Eldar any more.
Any thoughts?
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Post by Adam on Mar 10, 2009 12:09:00 GMT -5
Firstly, cut the reactive hull saving throw. I was thinking of changing it to be more like shields. Effectively, you would be able to save a few hits from every attack directed at your ships. Blast markers would reduce the number of attempts you could make. It would then be possible to take a hit and pick up a blast marker, or to block a hit with no blast marker. You would also be able to self-repair ordnance hits, but Necron ships would have no turrets. I reckon reactive hull should stay, it's a neat idea. A 4+ save for Cairns and a 5+ for Shrouds and escorts (I believe those are the current stats) should do the job. No normal shields or turrets though. Blast markers in base contact reduce the reactive hull save by one point per marker (which is what they don't do now, Necrons are utterly unaffected by 'em). Bracing for impact should make Necrons temporarily phase out - they disappear from the battlefield and reappear at the beginning of the following enemy turn, having 'moved' half their Speed forward. If they reappear on ordnance, terrain or something, they suffer the effects without being able to brace (as it damages the ship while it's still phasing in), but after that can brace normally. If a Necron ship phases in in base contact (or on) another ship, move the Necron ship the shortest distance possible to get it out from under the enemy. The enemy ship counts as having rammed the Necron, and both ships use the armour value of the side facing the other. May need a couple of other exceptions. Necron ships don't explode, they phase out when destroyed, but when a capital ship dies all Necron ships within 15cm must pass a reactive hull save or take a point of damage (when a Cairn dies the radius is 20cm and it causes two reactive hull save attempts). Cut basic armour for Cap ships down to 4+ (same as they have when braced). Necron Raiders would keep a 6+ armour value, and would also ignore lances. The capships would be able to do the same thing, as long as they weren't on special orders or within 30cm of the enemy. Necron ships are described as being really sneaky and hard to hit, but I don't want to give them holofields, and I don't see their largest ships sneaking into the most heavily defended star system in the Imperium. The Necrons will not have anything with a range of over 30cm, so they have to be sneaky and actually fight like hit-and-run raiders, rather than just go in and destroy the enemy fleet. See comments on bracing above (<- pretentious self-reference there). The sneaky idea is intriguing. I don't know if it'd work though. I think Shrouds and escorts should have something like that, but not the capital ships, they're way too big and stately. So the fleet would use the capital ships as core and support elements, with the Shrouds and escorts harrying the enemy from the sides. I think maybe the Shrouds should provide the stealth - they can be squadroned with escorts, and give it to all members of the squadron. A squadron of escorts with a Shroud only have to make one save against dying capital ships - you can choose to take it on the Shroud or on one of the escorts. Lightning arcs will ignore all column shifts, but lose the Always Closing ability. They will also gain a limit to the amount of firepower they can target at any given ship. I think the firepower is fine as it is, but I'm with you on the ignoring column shifts rather than being always closing - it's different from the Eldar batteries and it's not quite as punishing. It also means they maintain the 'ignore holofields' trick without actually saying they 'ignore holofields', making things better for everyone (and an Eldar ship can mitigate the incoming doom by flying abeam or whatever). I'm thinking of changing the particle whips to work like bombardment cannon - that makes them really dangerous, but they don't slaughter Eldar any more. Nah, particle whips are fine (bombardment cannons slaughter everything that *isn't* Eldar, so it's fair). A 6 ignoring shields/holofields isn't too big a deal. What other weapons do they have?... Oh yeah, portals and sepulchres. And that weird solar flare thing. Some of that may well need changing, but I can't remember what any of them do precisely (haven't read the 'Cron rules in a while). |
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Post by Peter on Mar 10, 2009 12:46:57 GMT -5
Nah, particle whips are fine (bombardment cannons slaughter everything that *isn't* Eldar, so it's fair). A 6 ignoring shields/holofields isn't too big a deal. I'm still not too keen on Gauss Particle Whips having a chance to bypass holofields, even though they are basically just concentrated lightning arcs. With the star pulse generator, I guess it might be worth just saying "all ships within 15cm are struck as if by a Solar Flare, treating the Necron ship as the sunward edge where relevant" - it then takes on a much more tactical use against Eldar - you can use it to blast eldar ships backwards, possibly getting them into some nasty situation like "Closing against four Cairn Class Tombships". Against other factions, you have a chance of blowing out one of their shields and so on. That is actually more powerful, but less of a giganuke against Eldar escorts (it currently attacks every ship in range once, and guess what happens to holofields...) - and it will also pick up a commensurate increase in points cost. As for the sepulchre... I'm not really sure how to fix that. Granting the Necron ship leadership 10 is fine, but the current rules (prevents the enemy going on special orders and debuffs their leadership for the rest of the game) are too powerful - and they synergise ridiculously well with a Firepower 20 Lightning Arc to the face with no chance to brace for impact. Portals are just about OK - they don't ignore holofields, so trying to use them against Eldar will just result in several hundred necron warriors disappearing into the void (don't remind GW of this - they'd probably errata it so that holofields don't work against portals either). They would actually make an interesting addition to the woefully underrepresented Dark Eldar faction - the Dark Eldar are portrayed as having almost complete mastery of the Webway. |
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Post by Adam on Mar 22, 2009 6:53:09 GMT -5
Solar flares maul Eldar ships as well, don't they? I thought they could also cause damage. Still, if it's 15cm range it shouldn't be too bad, as a clever Eldar player will be able to set up a situation where he's never going to be within 15cm of that Cairn.
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