Necron NPO's and Reanimation Protocols - mission adjustments?

[firestorm40k]

Hello  So I'm looking at playing through the Deadly Sniper Solo Missions pack, using Necrons as NPO's. I've played a solo mission using Necrons, and (as I thought it would give them some 'flavour' for their faction), I used the Reanimation Protocols rule from the Hierotek Kill Team. In that mission that I played, I used a number of models for the wounds total the rules specified, and when the Reanimation Protocols are incorporated, it did make it tougher - basically, the NPO's kept getting back up 

 

To balance this, I'm wondering if it's worth making a slight reduction in the total wounds amount for the NPO's taken in a mission? Seeing as there's a 2 in 3 chance they'll be able to get back up again for at least another turn. 

 

This also poses the question, how much of a reduction? A third (rounding up)? 

 

For context, the first mission, Sniper's Alley, states to use NPO's totalling 90 wounds, including the sniper. I would be using a Scout Kill Team against the NPO's. If a reduction of a third for the NPO wounds is taken, that leaves 60, so I was thinking of the following for the NPO's:

 

2x Immortals (Heavy Gunners) 

4x Warriors (Marksman) 

 

Which is spot on 60.

 

Given they've each a good chance to reanimate, does the wounds reduction if a third seem a good way to balance that out? Or does 30% sound too much of a reduction? 

 

Thanks for any input! 

[Brother Tyler]

If you're going to use the Hierotek Circle operatives as NPOs, then the Wounds reduction you identify sounds like a decent place to start, but it's probably on the low side. You'll only see a max of 1 Necron reanimate each turning point, and that Necron will only come back one time and with only D3+1 Wounds remaining (vice their full complement of 10+ Wounds, not counting the Plasmacytes). So the ~mancers (1x) will be worth 14-18 Wounds, the Plasmacytes (2x) will be worth 5-9 Wounds, the Apprentek (0-1x) will be worth 12-15 Wounds, the Deathmarks (0-5x) will be worth 11-14 Wounds, the Immortal Despotek (0-1x) will be worth 12-15 Wounds, and the Immortal Guardians (0-5x) will be worth 11-14 Wounds (using the standard Hierotek Circle kill team composition and assuming that each Necron reanimates 1x). Realistically, you're talking about additional Wounds in the range of 8-32 (8x (D3+1)). Since it's random, I'd just go with the mid-range of 2.5, so 8 x 2.5 = 20.

 

Alternately, using your notional kill team of 2x Immortal Despoteks [?] and 4x Deathmarks, you're looking at 2x 12-15 Wounds and 4x 11-14 Wounds. At 6 total models, that gives you 6-24 total additional Wounds; or the mid-range of 15 additional Wounds (6 x 2.5).

 

I'd use 70 as a starting point for playtesting, with a likelihood of increasing that to 75 Wounds. There will be times when the Reanimation Protocols will bring back more Wounds, and times when they will bring back fewer. And if you're lucky, there may be fewer Wounds reanimated (in cases where there are no reanimations during a turning point). So results are going to vary based on the die rolls.

 

To be honest, though, in keeping with the spirit of NPOs being "basic" warriors of their respective factions, I would replace the Immortals with Necron Warriors, using the Deathmarks as the snipers. If you want to include melee specialists, I would use Flayed Ones. Of course, neither Necron Warriors nor Flayed Ones have official datarcards, so you would have to make your own. I'm not sure if that would really solve your problem, though, since you would effectively be increasing the number of Necron operatives on the battlefield since there are fewer Wounds per operative. A Wound reduction might be appropriate with this option, too, and it would depend upon the total number of Necron NPOs there might be on the battlefield (I'd use 2.5 as my initial multiplier, times the total number of models that might be possible in a 90-Wound team).

 

That's just mathhammer, though, and actual results will vary.

[firestorm40k]

Thank you for your input @Brother Tyler!  I'm looking at Necron Warriors as, well, Marksman Warriors   because the NPO profile is closest to the old Compendium Necron warrior profile:

 

Only differences are that the NPO has one less wound, the knife does less damage, but they move further. 

 

I think your suggestion with regards to 70 wounds makes sense - it's right that a Necron can only come back with an average of 3 wounds, which could easily be taken out in one round of shooting. 

 

I'll try it with 70 wounds - currently I'm deliberating 9 Necron Warriors (72 wounds), or 5 Necron Warriors and 2 Immortals (68 wounds).  I might go with the former as it'll make the mission a bit more of a challenge, and maybe a bit more balanced too 

 

 

[firestorm40k]

Following up on this, I was finally able to play through the first Sniper mission, and try my idea for incorporating Necron rules. 

 

My take-away is there's probably not a need to reduce the number of Necron NPO wounds - it didn't help that I forgot the Living Metal rules (to regenerate wounds), but using stats and gambits my Scouts had some effective shooting. Even if I'd have remembered the living metal, I think it may have only saved one Necron Warrior for an additional turn - others that were already wounded would have still been taken out by the follow up fire that they fell to, even after regenerating 2-3 extra wounds. 

 

Also, I think someone with a better grasp of the rules will tell me I've interpreted them wrong, but I did take out the Necron/NPO sniper thanks to the Scout Sniper's special ability to make it so the opposing operative it's targeting can't be obscured. It took 3 turns of shooting (including a successful reanimation), but it was quite the 'snipe-off' 

 

To be honest, even if I got the rules wrong, I was playing for a 'narrative' experience, and the way the game played out certainly achieved that 

 

Some in-game pics; deployment:

 

The Sniper NPO in their 'nest':

 

I forgot to get a pic of the end of the first turn, here's the second turn - as you can see, Scout shooting had been effective, lots of reanimation tokens..! 

 

The objective is to get the counter (I used the dead Marine from the Apothecary base representing a 'wounded' officer) off the board from the player's edge. The Scout Hunter grabbed the objective in the second turn, but was then gunned down by Necrons with vantage point! 

 

 

Third turn the Necrons took out one Scout that was poised to make a run for the objective, but thankfully there was another nearby to make for it. Thanks to the Sergeant with his ability to give a Scout another Action, this Scout was able to dash, grab the objective, then make it to cover. 

 

 

Fourth and final turn - thankfully the Scouts won the priority roll, so the Neophyte with the objective was able to leg it off the board - a victory! 

 

There were 5 of the Scouts left; my plan is to play the next Sniper mission using Hunter Clade Kill Team, then combine the survivors from that and the Scouts from this mission for the final one - giving it a sense of story. 

 

So back to the main subject of the thread - for the next mission I won't reduce the number of NPO's, and (hopefully!) I'll remember the Living Metal rule. Also, the mission rules allow for the NPO's to add reinforcements if they get below half strength - I'm not sure how to integrate that with the Reanimation rules. I didn't use Reinforcements this time, I think it'd have helped the Necrons, and seeing as only one can reanimate per turning point, it shouldn't create too much imbalance. 

 

I'll post a report of how the second mission goes, when I'm able to do it 

 

Edited February 11 by firestorm40k

[firestorm40k]

So I played the next mission, 'Flank the Sniper'. I reread the mission rules, and it actually requires you to use the same Kill Team as the first mission, deploying the surviving operatives first - the rest come on from the player board edge during the first turn.  The objective is to get more than half your Team off the board at the opposite edge, so this would be a mission if advancing straight into enemy guns! 

 

I deployed the 5 survivors on against the bottom and left side of the ruin in the bottom left corner, then started advancing everyone up. In the first turn the Necron sniper took the Scout Sniper to 4 health, leaving him wounded.

 

 

Second and third turns I began advancing my Operatives up, under fire from the Necron Warriors, but a charge from the Sergeant and some Bolter fire took out a few of the NPO's (even if the Sarge was targeted in return and cut down over two NPO activations). 

 

 

Third turn I was in a good position to get some of my Operatives off the board, I chose to clear away a few more Necrons first, which in hindsight I shouldn't have bothered too much with - when the Necron Sniper was able to fire, it took out a Scout with ease (hitting on all dice including two crits!). 

 

Final turn, I knew I could get the Scout Hunter off, but needed to kill at least one Necron to be able to get another two past, leaving the wounded sniper to provide the clearing fire. 

 

Unfortunately I forgot myself  and got the Missile Launcher Scout to take a shot at the remaining Necrons - when I should have repositioned and dashed him off the board

 

I got the Hunter and Heavy Bolter Scouts off, the Missile Launcher Scout was gunned down by the Necrons, and finally the Sniper managed to survive with a spectacular final saving roll - but he'd activated and fired so I wasn't able to move him off the board. So with only 4 Scouts off (I needed 5) I lost the game!

 

Further thoughts on Necrons as NPO's:

- I remembered the Living Metal regeneration rules, which did benefit a couple of them.

- Reanimation Protocols really can only benefit 2-3 per game, so reducing the number of wounds for Necron NPO's isn't necessary at all

- This rule also had the Reinforcements rule, again because of the Reanimation markers on the board I didn't 'recycle' any of the Necrons; I'm thinking that the way to make it work is that if the rule would apply, remove half of the Reanimation markers from the board, then bring that many Necrons back on. 

 

Also, I'd say this as a general observation - these solo/co-op missions where you have to escape off the opposite board edge can be made a lot more challenging for the Player(s) if more Heavy Brawler type NPO's are selected - if they can tie up the player operatives with charges and melee, then it would slow the operatives down more effectively than NPO gunners do. 

 

I'll hopefully play the final mission this weekend, I'll write up how that goes! 

Edited February 14 by firestorm40k

[firestorm40k]

The other night I played the final of the three Sniper missions - in this one the player has to storm the central terrain piece, and at the end of the game have operatives with a higher APL than the NPO's. Again, it follows from the previous mission, the survivors (escapees!) from the previous game are deployed on the right hand side of the board, the rest in the other. The NPO's are all deployed in the central terrain piece. 

 

 

In the first turn my sniper straight away went for the Necron sniper, they shot back - the scout did the most damage. The rest of my operatives moved to storm the central building. 

 

 

The second and third turns were carnage - my Scout sniper took out the Necron sniper, and the rest of my operatives continued to storm the building. With their strategic ploy 'Gunfire Ambush', I've got to say Scout shooting can be horrifically efficient for an opponent! By the end of the third turn there were few Necrons left (forgot to get a picture of that, this is the second turn):

 

So I continued using the Hierotek Circle Reanimation Protocols and Livine Metal rules - as well as that, I used a 'Necron flavoured' version of the reinforcements rule (ironically, this mission doesn't give the NPO's reinforcements unlike the other two missions, but the Necron NPO's were dropping quickly!). Basically, at the start of the third and fourth turns, after doing Living Metal and Reanimation Protocols, I brought back a number of Necrons equivalent to half the Reanimation markers on the board. I did so with 1 wound each, as per the Reanimation Protocols rules. I guess if I really wanted a challenge I could have brought them back with full wounds. But it felt thematic! 

 

Final turn, the Scouts overwhelmed the remaining Necrons, the Scout Sniper had finally eliminated the Necron sniper (after they kept reanimating!) - the only loss to the Scouts was the Heavy Bolter Gunner. 

 

So, final lessons about Necron NPO's:

 

- using Reanimation Protocols and Living Metal rules doesn't seem to imbalance solo/co-op missions, there's no need to adjust the number of NPO's used for the mission. 

- missions that use a reinforcements rule still needs some working out to incorporate the Necron rules - Reanimating half the Necron markers is a start, but I still think it needs further work. 

- the Warrior Gunner NPO archetype makes for good 'disposable mook' type enemies for these games, but they're not the most challenging of opposing troops. These missions would have been tougher, I think if I'd have incorporated a couple of heavy Brawler NPO types. 

- Solo Kill Team is a lot of fun, I can highly recommend this mode of playing the game! 

[Ace Debonair]

This is all fantastic stuff; I've got a bunch of Necron warriors for my nephews to fight, plus a couple of the big three-legged guys I've forgotten the name of who would make great heavy brawlers.  This looks like it'd be a fun challenge for them! 

 

Also I like the colour you've used for your terrain, as an aside.  I'm currently thinking something in Space Wolf Grey contrast for my ones, but the reddy-orange looks good too.