Necronian Metrics

Okay, fiddling around with three lists to see what happens with the metrics.  The lists are probably not the greatest, they have the sole advantage of being what I could field right now with what is in my house, including doing some conversion (20 NW on sprue into 20 NI using the extra weapons in the Immortal;/Deathmark boxes).  I don't like some of what I see, but then I'm not claiming to be fielding a competition list.

Ground Rules:

• Part of the AT capability of the army is the Gauss rule for auto-glancing.  Simulated by dividing by 4 for DRPG and 5 for DLRPG.  For the Rhinos, that is an extra "glance" requirement, but I'm trying to err on the low side.  First number is the actual penetration rating and second number in parentheses is the total with the glance divisor figured for Gauss weapons.
  
• Tesla weapons have AP-, so to simulate the fact that they have a -1 on the Vehicle damage table, I'm cutting their DRPG rating in half since they only have a 1/6 chance to kill instead of 1/3.
• Tesla weapons at BS4 have a 2/6 chance to miss, 3/6 chance to score 1 hit and 1/6 chance to score 3 hits, which averages out to 6/6 hits, so I simply ignore rolling to hit with them.  This means my numbers for the Annihilation Barge's TL Tesla Destructor are low because I didn't feel like fiddling with the rerolled misses.  Easier to just assume it hit 4 times.
• Secondary effects of the Tesla Destructor are ignored (Arc rule).  Imotekh's lightning call and his once per game Staff of the Destroyer shot is also ignored.
• Scarabs DRPG & DLRPG stats are based totally on reducing AV to 0.  So I just figured the hits, divided by 2 (4+ to entropic strike) and then divided by 10 for the Rhino and 14 for the Land Raider.  Totals including this will be in parentheses after the actual penetration rating.
  
• The third list includes an Annihilation Barge, so it has double numbers based on whether or not it has a Tesla or Gauss secondary weapon.

Some initial observations:

1. Flayed Ones really and truly blow.  Five of them cannot do anything but CC 1.667 MEQ down per Assault phase.  If they take no casualties themselves.  If you get 20 of them, you maybe could survive the I4 strikes to finish off a MEQ MSU.  Or you can buy 20 Warriors who perform exactly half as well on the charge (40 attacks vs 80 attacks), can almost wipe a MSU in shooting and actually have a chance (Gauss glancing) of suppressing and killing vehicles reliably.
   
2. I think Scarabs are not best employed in totally destroying armor (although that is good!), but if you can get them in range first, rip down several vehicles in a multi assault so that next turn your opponent has two Rhinos with AV 4/4/3 or two Land Raiders with AV 8/8/8. 
   
3. If you have Scarabs, you have to have the Spiders.  I think a Scarab list can cause some serious issues if properly supported.  However, Scarabs are not great MEQ killers except in vast numbers.
4. Warriors & Immortals are going to be tough to shift off an objective, especially by shooting.  Assault could do it, but it might be costly.
5. All of these lists do fine in DMSS, DMC & DLRPG.  Weak in DRPG to the point where the last one actually falls into the same DRPG bracket as the 0-4 Adepticon 2011 lists, even with the Gauss glance rule.  OTOH, with the massive amounts of glancing potential from the core troop units it might be considered that Necrons are more designed to suppress armored vehicles more than kill them outright, but, the 12/24" range issues means a lot of close up suppression.
   
6. Another thought: Turn this more into "Herohammer" and buy an extra Overlord choice, then cherry pick some Crypteks for their Royal Court to provide more AT firepower.  Imotekh, Overlord, Crypteks (2xStorm, 2xDespair, 2xDestruction), 3x Annihilation Barges, 4-5 Troop choices.  I'll have to fiddle with that one, but 515 points in HQ choices with just Imotekh & the Crypteks, without picking the second Overlord...Ouch.  
7. WTH?!  Why does going from 3+ to 2+ AS cost as much as a Storm Shield?  Why does a Storm Shield equivalent (3++) cost 45 points!
8. Just to make sure: Flayed Ones blow. 
   

This post is a bit weak, but I'm going to stick it up anyway since the main reason it is "weak" comes from me being unhappy with getting a decently balanced list so far.  I dislike that every last one I've figured out depends on Imotekh the Stormlord himself to give it that extra little edge.  Oh well, back to the grind.

All three lists are below, they are fairly similar.  In general, Imotekh does his Night Fighting thing, everything moves forward and eliminates everything.  The Crypteks can be swapped between the Immortal squads.  The biggest difference between the first & second list is that for the second I mounted the third NW squad in a Ghost Ark and lost the Flayed Ones + the Cryptek of Storm.  The Spyders go forward as fast as possible to keep the Scarab's numbers up, the Scarabs eat vehicles, the Warriors & Immortals shoot infantry.  The Destroyer pack does its bit.  Simple and easy.

The third list is about the same, but trades in the Scarabs, Spyders & Heavy Destroyers for Lychguard (with 4++ shield), Praetorians, Deathmarks & an Annihilation Barge.  In this case it would go fairly similarly except the dismounted Warriors would stay near the Barge to screen it.

I'll probably be fielding one of these variants in a couple of weeks if I can get enough time to do my conversions, more to get a feel for how the army works, but right now, I'm not a real happy camper.  It is trivial to make the bodies hit the floor (potential to kill 45-50 MEQ per turn on average), but vehicles (without a Scarab/Spyder list which would be 900 points full blown) are a problem to deal with.  Oh, I can see solutions to every objection I have, but the balancing act is tricky in points and, even worse, some of the solutions are hyper-expensive in real money. 

A squad of 5 plain Lords with a VoD Cryptek only costs 235, which maybe isn't so bad for 15 12" S5 AP3 shots, except it is vulnerable to Power Weapons.  A squad of 5 Destruction Crypteks costs 175 with Eldritch Lances has 5 36" S8 AP2 shots, which isn't shabby at all, oh, except for the Power Weapons.  In both cases though, they have the "Ever-Living" rule, which means they can potentially come back from a wipe. 

List 1
Imotekh the Stormlord (attached to the Gauss Immortals to confer Relentless USR) [225]
3x: Necron Warriorsx10 [390]
2x  Ghost Ark [230]
1x  Necron Immortalsx10 (Tesla Carbines) w/ Cryptek (Despair, Abyssal Staff, VoD) [230]
1x  Necron Immortalsx10 (Gauss Blasters) w/ Cryptek (Storm, Voltaic Staff, Lightning Field) [205]
2x  Scarabsx10 [300]
1x  Necron Destroyersx5 (3xD, 2xHD) [240]
2x  Spyder [100]
1x  Flayed Onesx5 [65]
Total: 1985
DMS: 26.666
DMCC:  19.556
DRPG(S):  11.111 (31.182)
DRPG(A):  18.334 (30.834)
DLRPG(S):  2.666 (16.498)
DLRPG(A):  2.5 (11.428)

List 2
Imotekh the Stormlord (attached to the Gauss Immortals to confer Relentless USR) [225]
3x: Necron Warriorsx10 [390]
3x  Ghost Ark [345]
1x  Necron Immortalsx10 (Tesla Carbines) w/ Cryptek (Despair, Abyssal Staff, VoD) [230]
1x  Necron Immortalsx10 (Gauss Blasters)  [170]
2x  Scarabsx10 [300]
1x  Necron Destroyersx5 (3xD, 2xHD) [240]
2x  Spyder [100]
Total: 2000
DMS: 28.221
DMC:  17.772
DRPG(S):  8.889 (25.904)
DRPG(A):  18.334 (30.834)
DLRPG(S):  0.444 (14.276)
DLRPG(A):  2.5 (11.428)

List 3:
Imotekh the Stormlord (attached to the Gauss Immortals to confer Relentless USR) [225]
3x: Necron Warriorsx10 [390]
2x  Ghost Ark [345]
1x  Necron Immortalsx10 (Tesla Carbines) w/ Cryptek (Despair, Abyssal Staff, VoD) [230]
1x  Necron Immortalsx10 (Gauss Blasters)  w/ Cryptek (Storm, Voltaic Staff, Lightning Field) [205]
1x Lychguardx5 (Sword & Board) [215]
1x Praetorians (Rod) [200]
1x Deathmarksx5 [95]
1x  Necron Destroyersx3 (3xD) [120]
1x Annihilation Barge (Gauss secondary weapon, minor difference in numbers) [90]
Total:  2000
DMS: 30.858
DMC:  19.391
DRPG(S):  7.406 (24.977)
DRPG(A):  14.584
DLRPG(S):  2.222 (16.276)
DLRPG(A):  0.0 (0.0)