Codex: Necromancers- Discussion

[Unseen Lurker]

What you have already looks pretty good to me, I don't really know what to say- if I knew anything about writing, I'd have done it myself. No offense to you, but I usually make my stories a lot more detailed- which is why they always turn into epics, I guess. If you want something to go on, here's the story outline I thought up and posted back on page 37.

Intro; explains how the planet was colonised by Tau, invaded by Imp Guard, and that the Tau fought them off. Then bizarre murders/disappearances started happening, and before the Tau realised it they were under siege again; this time by what they discovered was an army of the walking dead.

Tau intro; combat seen through the eyes of a Fire Warrior as he fights in a ruined city besiged by the Undead, he recollects on his role during the early parts of the conflict; he and his squad were sent to a reaseach center which high command had lost contact with. In the forest outside, they were attacked by a Carrion Swarm, in the form of a pack of flayed dogs, who killed one FW and chased the survivors into the center, where they came under seige by the Undead (including a few Tau zombies). All of the others died, except the Tau protagonist, who escaped after setting a self-destruct mechanism. He'd thought he'd curtailed the Undead threat. He was wrong (obviously).

Necro intro; a look through the campaign via the eyes of Khalgar; we find out why the Necro's came there, get his take on the personalities of the other Necromancers and find out that this one city is all that remains of the Tau forces; the Necromancers have conquered everywhere else on the planet.

Story body; Vau'N discovers Khalgar, Lucius and Samael planning their next assault, having just wiped out a squad of FWs and a group of Kroot. Vau'N snipes at Khalgar, getting a single clean shot with his weapon that punches a hole straight through Khalgar's chest. His elation is cut short when Khalgar simply staggers back a few steps, then turns and looks right at him, hurling a Death Bolt that smashes the spot where he was just a few seconds ago. Vau'N flees, Lucius and Samael start after him but Khalgar orders them elsewhere; Lucius is to find and smash any remaining communications tech and Samael is to hunt down and kill the Ethereal, thus shattering the will of any Tau survivors. Still fleeing blindly, Vau'N stumbles across a batch of Tau Ghouls feeding on the pilot of a battlesuit. One running battle later, he heads for the space port, simply hoping to meet up with reinforcements there. We cut to Sameal, as he sneaks into the Ethereal's compound and massacres the occupants (graphic or implicit violence? it's your choice). A few more 'jumps' in PoV as we witness a group of Fire Warriors being chased away from their post by Ghosts, the last remaining pack of Kroot being overwhelmed and eaten by zombies and an Undead Beast (Carnifex) smash its way through a cluster of Hammerheads. We then cut back to Vau'N at the space port; wounded and exhausted both mentally and physically he is attacked by Lisbeth, who knocks him unconcious. With his last ounce of strength, he hurls an iron spike at her, piercing her heart just as she prepares to use her psychic powers; shocked by the impact she loses control and is consumed by warp energy; engulfed in witch-fire she burns away to ashes and is scattered on the wind.

End; at the space port, Lucius asks Khalgar if he's going to join the others in 'carving up the spoils', in dividing the dead and the survivors of Lisbeth's forces (she is permanently dead now) into their own forces. Khalgar says later, and waves Lucius off. After Lucius leaves the scene he examines the dying body of Vau'N, and decides to turn him into a Harrowed as a mark of 'respect' for his prowess in battle and his skill in surviving. Vau'N wakes up extremely confused, as Khalgar welcomes him into Undeath.

That's all I can offer you, except for some insight into the natures of the Necros; Khalgar is old and jaded, Lucius is like a stereotypical teenager- hating everything and everyone, including himself and Lisbeth combines the stereotypes of the Goth and the newly-turned vampire- drunk on her power and in love with what she's become. None of the other Necromancers like her, so they don't shed any tears when Vau'N kills her. Samael is almost as old as Khalgar, and like most Phagi has completely lost his mind; he's little better than a blood-crazed carnivourous animal, running entirely on instinct.

[Pierced53]

After being told not to post in the data topic, I come here.
Unseen Lurker, I'm sure LO would host it and make the codex a downloadable text file if you asked.

[Unseen Lurker]

Who would I ask? And how would others get to it? Plus I don't want to annoy them by constantly needing them to replace it with the newest improved version.

[{I}ron {M}an]

ok...i really like the execution kin....i might make some of those buried alive ones....man, this codex has more options than the nids...anyways about the deadites:

Some undead have better wits then most, some even being able to use the same weapons they had in life. You may equip up to 3 deadites with one special weapon from the following list: Special Weapon (St.7 Ap.2 Heavy 1 Blast) at 35 points, Anti-Infantry Gun (St.5 Ap.5 Heavy 3) at 30 points, Anti-Armour Gun (St.9 Ap.2 Heavy 1) at 25 points.

i couldnt think up a better name for the weapon with the plasma gun stats, and im not too sure on the stats for a heavy bolter

[Unseen Lurker]

You like my Execution-Kin upgrade? Do you think it's balanced? This Codex has more options than Tyranids? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? As for a generic name for the Plasma Cannon, how about Anti-Vehicle Gun? Cause (as far as I know) it's used for fragging tanks and the like. I've added the two new upgrades for the Wights and your new take on the Deadites Weapons options to the 'dex, hopefully people will let me know whethere or not my Execution-Kin upgrade is balanced or not, if it isn't I'll delete it.

Could I ask a favour of you who've helped me through this? Could you take a look at the online 'dex and report anything that looks unbalanced and/or could be cheesy? Because I want to make this army as cheeseless as possible.

[SPACMARINE]

Hello all, been busy I see. I like these execution guys they are pretty cool and seem pretty well balanced. I assume these upgrades are 30 points a squad not per model right?

The plasma cannon is more traditionally used to kill well armoured troops such as space marines, necrons and especially terminators (and it does it's job very efficiently!)

Don't worry nothing happened to me, I've just been busy is all.

[Unseen Lurker]

Heya Spacmarine! Glad to see yer back! Anyway, yes, Execution-Kin's +30 point cost is added to the total cost of the unit (do you think I should get rid of the 0-1 Execution-Kin unit per army rule?) and it says so in the rules for it. Do you really think the various options it allows are balanced? Anyway, good to see nothing unfortunate happened to you, you've been a huge help to me with this project.

[chaos munk]

Can any of you guys think of a good GW model I could use as a feral Horde necrophage? Iron Man suggested I use an Ogre gorger, but they are relatively expensive I think.

Maybe you could use a Strigoi vampire. They even have the story of living with ghouls and drinking blood from dead people.

[Scuba T]

Ya, I checked out the models but i don't really like them. They're cool, but they're just not for me. The Vamp counts do have some awesome models tho. They have ghouls that you could easily use as ghouls or something else. I did find a KickASS!!! model for a necromagus: ringwraith on fell beast. It is 65$ tho, so that kinda sucks...

[Phalanx]

WOO, interesting beginning.

The reson they pyromancers are 0-1 is because imagine seeing the enemy with 6 sm captains armed with Inferno cannons.... Not very pretty or fun for either players. As for the execution kin, I like the idea, but just not for wights. They are supposed to be dead heros of whom probably wouldn't choose to be executed, so the fluff behind execution kin doesn't fit. While its a cool idea, it would work better as a upgrade to ghosts or deadites. I'd go for deadites, except maybe have some extra rules like better saves... Also, each type should have their own point costs per model. If this idea is ok, I'll see what I can do to change the rules. If you still want to keep them as wights, I'll go figure out some good point costs. Maybe they can be a new unit or something.... Or maybe a special unit that you need a certain character for.....

As for the weapons thing, you should type down the ranges or say they all have 36" range or something.