My thoughts on how to change Necrons. They need to be changed at the fundamental special rules level.

Necrons
Are know for their tough armour, ability to regenerate infantry and ability to deploy/redeploy using portals. Here are some proposed changes to the fundamental rules currently in place which I believe are fundamentally flawed and should be completely rewritten (right now there are bandages being proposed but I believe they need to be rewritten from the ground up and then units adjusted).

Portal Ability:
At the beginning of a turn, before initiative roles are made, any formation with the Necron ability may deploy (phase in) withing 15cm of a Portal. If the Portal formation being used is broken, then each unit being deployed (phased in) receives a blast marker on a D6 roll of 1.
During the turn, a formation with the Portal ability may be used to disembark a formation with the Necron ability from the Reserve Pool during its activation. The controlling player activates the formation with a portal (must be an action involving movement) and picks an unactivated/unbroken formation with the Necron ability from his reserves and deploys per the standard rules for disembarking similar to a war engine, using any model with a portal as the point of disembarkation.
During the turn, any formation with the Necron ability can use its movement to come into contact with a unit with the Portal ability and be removed from the table and placed in Reserve. If the unit with the Portal ability being used is broken then each unit being removed to reserve (phased out) receives a blast marker on a D6 roll of 1.

These portal rules cut down on the unprecedented mobility Portals afford a necron army currently, while providing a consequence to using portals during the turn and with broken units.

Necron Ability : invulnerable save 6+ and Sautekh Legions rules (Formations can return on previously destroyed Necron unit in the end phase of each turn either on or off the board. In addition, if a formation regroups on board it can use the dice rolls to either return units with the Necron ability to play or to remove blast markers or both) Formations off board are restricted to using their regroup function to remove blast markers only.

Necron infantry in Sautekh Legion have a 5+save which doesn’t really convey the Necrons armor abilities, I think that the 5+save should be kept and an invulnerable save 6+ added, with the Necron ability to bring back previously destroyed units should convey the difficulty in destroying them and be very thematic.

Living Metal : counts as Invulnerable save 6+, no other special rules

units armor saves and point costs should be adjusted and either more DC or bigger units contemplated.

All in all the proposed changes follow the concept of KISS and try not to be to far off the reservation. I tried to ensure that there is a consequence to using the portals as well as keeping Living Metal more toned down and easily understood by opponents (and less of a nerf for opposing armies with macro and titan killer).

I submit these thoughts for consideration.

So the portal ability is simply teleport with the added restrictions of 15cm from a portal?

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In my opinion a gutting of the list back to experimental like that is not necessary.

Yes the portals, LE etc are frustrating but so are the special rules for other races until you get used to them. Tone down living metal and the use of broken portals and I think their ok.

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One thing I've wondered since I don't know much about Necrons in 40K: What in particular drove the design for Necrons being able to move on both directions through portals when Eldar cannot? (And in the raiders list, both in and out in the same turn)?

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Nothing says there cannot be an independent series of lists. Also, it doesn't have to be NetEA.
However you're correct that any list going this route would be experimental if not a fan-list, Steve

I too have wondered that. Kyrt

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Older technology?

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But Eldar gates -are- bidirectional, they just can't be used like that in Epic. Dare I say because, well, Eldar would be hella-overpowered-and-annoying if they could.

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I think the meaning of the question was one of balance not fluff.

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In 40k, a monolith can teleport a unit to its gate (either from reserves or elsewhere on the battlefield) each turn, they don't even need to go through another portal to get there.

I agree completly with this.

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How do eldar webway gates work in 40k?

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Me too. Toning down LM and giving a formation moving in or out of a broken portal a BM would solve the issues and be a smaller change.

I don't think they're actually used by eldar in 40k - dark eldar used to have webway portals that could be placed by a unit, and reserves could move then on from it, but in the latest DE codex I think they're just equipment that lets a unit deep strike. Might be some rules for them in apocalypse etc though?

I have had the opportunity to play Necrons 6 times so far (both old and new lists) and have enjoyed and been frustrated in equal measures by them. Where the frustration stems from is not what they can do but how they do it in synergy with their list. Currently I find the Portal rules and Living Metal rules very binary in that the necron performs averagely and crushes there opponent by saving everything and breaking 2-3 units a turn via unstoppable engagement results or the necrons role poorly for their armor saves and monolith die horribly thereby shutting down there engagement game.

The facts of the matter, as I see it, are the Living Metal in it's current incarnation penalizes opponents that take standard tournament army builds that include marco and titan killer weapons. This should be addressed.

Portals, as they currently stand, allow for superior mobility to any other army with little to no down side. The way I have seen this play out is in engagements, repositioning after an engagement, repositioning in general and in marshaling/rallying. Please keep in mind that this army is supposed to be good at ambushes but slow and plodding in every other respect. They also allow for extremely potent engagement actions with very little in the way of reducing the ability of necrons to dictate the engagement and the odds of winning the engagement. I think the fundamental Portal rules need to be addressed to ensure they are game balance in a tournament setting.

I hear what is being said about not wanting to rock the boat and not wanting to restart a list from scratch. I to would like to see more lists approved for 2015, necrons being one of them (because there are some gorgeous models out there right now for them that I plan on picking up). I just wanted to put my opinions out there because I haven't seen all that many battle reports with feedback on the necrons and I have now played 6 games against them (winning about half with IG).

This is also where I stand.

LM is just a little bit too good. I want to see LM being tough as nails but not so good that it removes all the opponents special rules (there should be a reward for taking MW and TK weapons).

As for broken portals, taking a BM for using a broken portal would make quite a bit of difference to the Necron game and seems a little fairer.

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