Indeed let's talk airplanes. I've been happy seeing that there's been a lot of movement, discussion and interest in the necrons in general lately and in the Sautekh list in particular.
When I first published the list after initial discussion between me, Ulrik and Lord Aaron, then I asked in particular for feedback on the planes. I didn't get any answers. Several people have now started to test and comment on the planes. I would therefore like to ask again for your feedback and thoughts.
First of all. A goal of a new list, as has been discussed in the Sautekh thread a lot, is to make an army that's more fun to play against. But I would also like for the necron player themselves to have more available strategies to make the list more fun to play as well. I feel raiders can be somewhat limited in that regard. I see the airplanes as a means to this end. Now we need to iron out their stats.
Below are stats I'd like to suggest for the next version of the list, the 0.4. Please give me your thoughts and feedback.
ScythesBasically this airplane comes in two shapes in 40k. Either armed with a very potent gun or a "portal-light" with the possibility to transport 10 inf.
Armour. From the 40k stats and comparing them to other epic planes puts them at 5+ in my opinion. This is what they have in Sautekh 0.3. But they also have living metal in 40k, which could be used to argue for a 4+ save.
I want to push them to 4+ in the next version. see discussion below on the night scythe for reasons.
I propose no changes as of now to the
Twin Tesla Destructor.
Night ScythesThe current version (0.3) was given a portal I think was a bad design. It's more powerful than most armies air assaults for several reasons and goes into the realm of necrons ignore all your counters territory. (for reason outlined
here)
I would therefore like for us to try transport on them instead. 2 planes with
transport (3) inf each or 3 planes with
transport (2) inf each.
This is the main reason why I want to up the save from 5+ to 4+. I think they will be a poor choice as a transport with only 5+ and would need a better save.
Suggested new stats:
Night Scythe, fighter, 4+, CC -, FF 6+, twin tessla destructor, 15cm, 2x AP4+/AT5+/AA5+, FFA,
notes: may tranport any 3 none mounted infantry units.
150pts for 2. More? Doom ScythesThis airplanes has an attack, the
Death Ray, that can hit several targets along a line. This attack is very powerful with maximum strength and lowest possible AP value in 40k.
I didn't want the gun to have multiple attacks in epic even though it can hit several units in 40k, so opted for a good to hit value (3+) instead. I'd like to lower it to a MW attack to limit the amount of TK in the list and to keep the price of the plane down. Other suggestions
Suggested new stats:
Doom Scythe, fighter, 4+, CC -, FF -, twin tessla destructor, 15cm, 2x AP4+/AT5+/AA5+, FFA,
Death Ray, 15cm, 3+ MW, FFA
225 pts for 2?Night Shroud Bomber.I want to tweak it a bit. From a fluff point of view and 40k rules they should really have a MW barrage for the Death spheres (see page 3, 4 and 5 of the
sautekh thread for my expanded reasoning), but I also know many will have a hard time with accepting that in epic. Suggestions for alternatives? I will lower this to 2BP per plane as several have suggested.
Looking through imperial armour aeronautica I realized this plane has the same armour as a thunderhawk and on top of that also living metal. The thunderhawk has 4 structure points which roughly equates to 12 hull points, compared to 4 hull points of the night shroud. The hunderhawk has a 4+ Reinforced save and DC 2 in epic. With this in mind and to separate them from the scythes I want move them to 5+ reinforced armour.
This is actually a very small boost as almost no AA attacks are MW. 5+ RA will save 55,5% of regular AA attacks. An increase of only 5,5% compared to the current 4+ save.Suggested new stats:
Night Shroud, Bomber, 5+, CC -, FF -, twin tessla destructor, 15cm, 2x AP4+/AT5+/AA5+, FFA,
Death Spheres, 15cm, 2BP, MW, disrupt
notes: Reinforced armour
375 pts for 2?Please give me your feedback on these suggested stats.
EDIT: Amended typo.