Codex: Royal Necrons

Because I usually take long daily hikes that last an hour or so, I have a lot of time to ruminate on things and stave off crippling suicidal bouts of depression. Today I started thinking, as Necron players do, of how to make the old war-horse better and more fun to play. In terms of what it offers in terms of sheer gameplay, Codex: Necrons is dry, simplistic, boring, and easily misunderstood by the thick and unwary. You have a couple of good builds, but are hamstrung from using many of the things in the book by sheer cost and practicality, not to mention the appalling lack of variety for all the cool-ass fluff they wrote. An enormous, star-spanning (and devouring) empire built on.... a bunch of skeletons and some spiders? Meh. 


So, as you do when you trudge for miles surrounded by nature, I started to think aloud. What follows is a listing of my vocal notes, with more things added later as I thought of them:



Necrons: are Relentless and have FnP
Gauss Weapons: are Lance weapons autowound on a 6, ignoring invulnerable saves; vs vehicles they ignore cover/obscurement saves and autoglance on a 6.


Gauss weapons are a tough nut because they need to be effective against vehicles without mowing down troops and such willy-nilly. I thought about giving them the Melta ability but then no Necron packing one could successfully wound an Eldar Avatar, and the Eldar are really who they were made to give fits to. Plus, they're supposed to be the army that inspired the creation of the rest of the other races in the galaxy so the list, as a whole, should be hard.



HQ
C’tan: Nightbringer, Deciever, Outsider. 
Wraith Lord- Wraiths may be bought as troops; +1 to FNP for
             Wraiths and Ghasts
Destroyer Lord: Destroyers maybe be bought as troops; Heavy 
            Destroyers get twin-linking; both types get +1 to FNP
Flayed Lord: may buy a retinue of Pariahs that can deploy with it;
             Flayed ones have +1 to FnP

Std Lord: may buy a retinue of Immortals that don’t count on ToE;

          Necron Warriors +1 to FnP

There. Now you have an additional C'Tan, plus a variety of Lord choices that empower different selection of other things. They're expensive, so you really shouldn't buy more than 1 or 2 Lords for the entire army, and certainly not more than one C'tan. 

Elites
Pariahs: for 36pts, they are now T5, have 2 wounds, Fleet,
         Move thru Cover, Stealth and the Necron Stat
Immortals: are T5 and 2W, but otherwise unchanged
Poltergeists: expensive shooty creatures armed with a 
              Gauss Destroyer, are ethereal (3++ and MtC) like
              Wraiths (but have normal mvt), have Etheric Tempest 
              ability as per Nightbringer. 
Gate Spiders; a big tough MC that allows other Necrons to be
              reserved and DS as per Monoliths

Now we're seeing more constructs (with decent WS/BS), not to mention carrying forward the "undead army" theme that was half-assed by the 1st book. Also, finally, some anti-tank in the Elite slot.

Troops
Necron Warriors; are T5, and have Immortals as sergeants for
                 upgrade cost, Tomb Spiders are cheaper, and now 
                 bought as upgrades, are treated as part of the
                 squad, and allow a reroll of FnP within 12”
Flayed Ones; Pariahs as sergeants; have fleet, stealth, and MtC;
             may assault after DS
Ghosts: assault troops that are T3, ethereal/move/save as per Wraiths

We don't entirely suck in assault anymore, and get a little more bang for our 18pts/model cost. Spiders no longer generate Scarabs, but who cares? Now they make Necron Warriors much, much tougher. Flayed ones are now worth playing with.

War Barque: Dedicated transport; cheap with tiny anti-infantry guns.

You didn't think this army was just going to walk or plod around in Monoliths, did you?

Fast Attack
Banshee: tough shooty MC that moves like a jetbike
Destroyers: squad max size of 8, are 2 wound models; for every 5,
            1 destroyer may be upgraded to a Heavy
Wraiths: are still Ethereal, but now 2 wounds, T5 and bought in 
         squads of 6. +D6 attacks on charge. 
Scarabs: May be upgraded to include Scarab Queen (1 higher S/T/WS,
         W, generates scarabs as TS used to)

Now Wraiths are tougher and worth buying (as they should be) and Destroyers reward you for buying 5 of them without punishing you for not saving points for heavies. Yes, you can still put all of your points into scarabs, but honestly, they're there so you can buy them as a screen for your legions of other guys.

Heavy Support
Monolith: as per codex
Tomb Stalker: is really fighty, but has disappointing guns
Cyclopean Annhilator: a shooty monster that has a big gun or three

               and some minor melee ability, should it get rushed. 
Heavy Destroyers: as per codex

Though the Heavy Destroyer listing is unchanged, buying a Destroyer Lord gives your snipers twin-linking, which is huge for the Necrons. The other creatures are there as big tough distractions to draw fire alternatives to boring old Monoliths.

Lastly, if this list looks a little Tyranid-y  at first glance, that's because it is. I wanted a Necron list that used my Tyracron models, so there. No, it's not balanced. These are just notes, not something you should bring to a table as of yet. I have a few too many side projects to go writing rules and codexes, but if I did, this is a nice jumping off point.

Thoughts? Criticisms?