Necron portals are the means by which the Necron can move onto the board, transport around the board, and withraw back into the reserves.  Portals are not used by the units bearing them (indeed, not all portals are IN units), but are used by the formations transiting them.

There are a few ways of using the portals.


1.)Portal in / Withdraw:

The most basic hit and run.  The formation using the portal begins in the Reserves.  They move out via a porta, ending their movement within 5cm of a second portal.  This is used by assaulting formations.  Should they win, their 5cm consolidation move would allow them to move into the portal, and back into the reserves.  If not all units are within movement range of the second portal, they will be destroyed (as per the rules for a unit that finishes its move outside of cohesion).

If they are further than 5cm away, they would only be able to withdraw via portal if they become broken, and may make their retreate move through a portal if they are able.

2.) Move Through:

This use is very easy.  Basically you move your formation into one portal as part of its movement, and then out of another, continuing the formation's move from that point.  It's really not a very efficient way to move most troops.  It was intended as a means by which you could move Wraiths, Destroyers/Heavy Destroyers and Flayed Ones taking an engage action across long distances.

Attached file shows examples, complete with images.

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Necron Army Champion
"Do not come whining to me because you are weaker than your enemy." - Alexander Corvinus

3) Is currently not allowed by the rules currently.

1) Is, as you know, currently allowed for units at any point in their activation.


Why can't a monolith use the 15cm "scoop" to deposit troops offboard rather than to another monolith? Why can't it be used at the end of a move?

If you're going to have the two different portal mechanics there needs to be consistency in their use; personally I'd lose the 15cm thing altogether and just have direct moving in an out of portals. At least there's no confusion then.

Either way, the rule needs rewriting to express these changes and for clarity.

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http://www.troublemakergames.co.uk/
Epic: Hive Development Thread

i second that. it makes more sense and is easier to remember then all the different ways to activate a portal.

I third Zombocom's call for standardisation.

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

Why have all these different ways of operating?  

Why not just have Portal be, in essence, "shortcuts" across the board: move into one and move out of another one, or return to reserves.

1) and 3) are, essentially, the same thing, except 1) gives the Necrons, basically, 15cm bonus "movement".

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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3) Is currently not allowed by the rules currently.

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Necron Army Champion
"Do not come whining to me because you are weaker than your enemy." - Alexander Corvinus

Oh that's easy.

I had it that way to begin with.  But that wasn't good enough for people.  Then the complaint was "why can't it draw units in like it does in 40k?", So I added the mechanic.

I knew that eventually people would be arguing the exact opposite.  Always happens.

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Necron Army Champion
"Do not come whining to me because you are weaker than your enemy." - Alexander Corvinus

Clearly you and I have different definitions of "clearly"...

1) Is, as you know, currently allowed for units at any point in their activation.

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http://www.troublemakergames.co.uk/
Epic: Hive Development Thread

I could understand the "draw units in" if it was during the *Monolith's* action.

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

I think it definitely needs to be simplified in some way.  There are too many "if/then" statements in the current system.  For example, between the way it reads and this recent explanation, it appears that to use the 15cm scoop up from synchronized portals you need to qualify for 3 conditions:  1) the entire formation within 15cm 2) at the beginning of the turn and 3) with an exit portal available.  Then if you qualify, there are 2 changes to the movement - variable distance portal entry and how you measure movement for the portal-using formation.

Portals don't necessarily need to work exactly the same in all cases, but conditional changes should be kept to a minimum - both in terms of the conditions needed and the changes those conditions cause.

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Neal

I don't have a particular problem eliminating the "scoop up" function.

What would be really funny would be if anyone could make use of the Portals...

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Necron Army Champion
"Do not come whining to me because you are weaker than your enemy." - Alexander Corvinus

Heh, that would lead to some really weird games.

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http://www.troublemakergames.co.uk/
Epic: Hive Development Thread

yeah.

They could only do it by going into a Tomb Complex, because every other portal is in a unit with a ZOC, so any portal they came out of, they'd have to assault.

but it would be very funny

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Necron Army Champion
"Do not come whining to me because you are weaker than your enemy." - Alexander Corvinus

*Thinks about having Assault Marines jumping into a Monolith, then popping out of another Monolith the other side of the board to have a fight...

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter