I've never wanted mine to break.  

I've always used them as part of a co-ordinated assault plan.  Doesn't work very well when they are broken!

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

Under the old single monolith rules I almost always wanted them to break so they could redeploy easily the next turn. The loss of a few FF attacks was peanuts compared to the ability to teleport in again next turn.

No longer though.

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

All this agreeing is going to give us a good name.  

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author of Syncing Forward and other stories...

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I've got my Milkbone underwear on.

i also agree with mosc and zombo. i lost a game recently because all monolith formations were broken off board.

For almost every other formation in the game being broken is a hindrance.

The withdrawal move on becoming broken may or may not be an advantage on any particular occassion; but it certainly has the potential to be a benefit. (The ability to reposition to launch an assault)

Phasing out also may or may not be an advantage, but again it has the potential to be an advantage. (The ability to teleport in again)

Comparisons with the Eldar Stormserpent are misleading as the EoV is not fearless and doesn't have living metal, so it is vulnerable to hackdown and TK(Dx) weapons.

So the fact that the Necron player doesn't actively want his monolith formations to break doesn't change the fact that when they do it is often far less of a hindrance than almost any other formation in the game.  And can actually produce advantages for the Necron player on occassion.

IMO this turning into more of a gripe about the fearless rule than it is with the portal rule.  The same arguments come up with all fearless formations moving forward to block movement when they should be going backwards, not just Necron Monoliths.  The portal function is built into the cost of the Monoliths and that is their 'main attack'.

If you really think this is a problem I'd bring it to the larger issue of fearless formations breaking.  Although with all this interest in the topic, I'd like to know how many of you who are calling for this change have actually played against the Necron or played with the Necron in the last couple months.  Have you gotten a feel for how the list is playing with the larger/more expensive Monolith formations?  What have the results of yor games been?  Did this problem actually crop up?  

Discussion is fine but I think it is important to distinguish between playtested problems and academic chit chat.

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author of Syncing Forward and other stories...

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I've got my Milkbone underwear on.

Yes, bad things can turn out to yeild a potential advantage.

That's true of any army or situation.  I've had games where getting a formation broken by fire was the only thing that saved it from complete destruction.  Bein able to wring advantage out of bad situations is part of how the game should be played.

Always strive to turn any situation to your advantage.

But regardless of how you see that situation, the issue with the Monoliths repositioning after being broken is NOT a flaw of the Monolith. As such, it is not something that will be addressed in this list.

This is an issue of the basic rules of the game.  This is something that should be brought up to the rules committee, as there is nothing I can do about it.

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

This was the original intent of the thread. It was not whether Portals could be used or not, but rather, if  a broken portal is used, whether there should be an effect on the formation using it.

Rather than build a discussion around the uses of broken formations and the like, perhaps a simple answer of yes or no would assist it? Oh no, not another Poll! "Oh Mr Hart, what a mess!"

(you have to be Australian and 25+ to understand that last quote)

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Frogbear is responsible for...
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So did discussion on this one end?

Was the idea of a formation gaining a BM if using a portal from a broken Monolith such a bad idea?

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Frogbear is responsible for...
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I don't believe it ever gained any traction. The portal issue spans more than just the Necrons but to all the Eldar lists as well so I don't know if we could have gone with this idea regardless.

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author of Syncing Forward and other stories...

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I've got my Milkbone underwear on.

I at least think it should be a discussion. I dare say that there just may be some support for it

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Frogbear is responsible for...
Previous World Eaters
Previous Emperor's Children
Previous Death Guard
Previous Imperial Fists
Previous Chaos Squats

The issue, as you stated early, is the Fearless. But it's not just Fearless or Portal, it's both at the same time.

The Eldar don't have anywhere near the same issue, because the Storm Serpent doesn't have Fearless. Advancing a broken non-fearless formation (Storm Serpents) into the open for a pending assault isn't a concern. An assault, or just plain shooting it, and it dies. And it doesn't disappear in the End Phase, rally easily (3+ vs 4/5+), and teleport back in somewhere new next turn.

It's a combination of all the effects that make this a problem unit for me.

Morgan Vening

I'm pretty sure there was 2 pages of discussion, but if you want to resurrect it, I recommend opening a new thread under the rules forum, referencing this thread. Being that anything with a portal is going to be effected, your going to disclude all but Necron players by having the discussion here.

I understand the Necrons have more staying power than Eldar, but that doesn't diminish the effect on their lists, nor the discontinuity we'll create by making a change to just the Necrons.

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author of Syncing Forward and other stories...

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I've got my Milkbone underwear on.