Summary:
Tough, relatively slow infantry supported by Commander abilities with spamming fast relatively fragile vehicles with a greater emphasis on map control than before. Vehicle support either through long range, speed and high damage (Destroyers and Heavy Destroyers) or harvesting dead Necron bodies and getting new squads on the field (Tomb Spyders).
Differences from vanilla Soulstorm:
General
Most Necron infantry now move faster than in vanilla and now like other races it is important to take territory to develop the economy. It now requires an Obelisk to be built for every 2 Plasma Generators so now capturing strategic points is vital to the Necron economy. Upgrading Obelisks also increases the power generation rate and also adds to the Necron time resource giving the player a further incentive to upgrade them fully.
Troops
- Builder Scarabs are no longer free and cost 20 power but now have a melee attack, albeit weak. They also capture and de-capture points at a faster rate than before.
- Necron Warriors are also no longer recruited for free, and cost 30 to build a new squad. However they are faster than before and suffer much less build time penalties per squad. The time penalty per Necron Warrior has also been removed.
- Flayed Ones also move more quickly and in tier 2 can leap into melee combat from a distance. They can now only deep strike from a Greater Summoning Core rather than the dormant Monolith.
- Wraiths can now jump and have a squad size of 3, but their weapons damage and health have been reduced. They also de-capture points at a lower rate than before and their Phase Shift takes longer to recharge.
- Pariahs now move more slowly but now 2 squads of them can be created instead of 1. The health reduction effect of their melee has been reduced by half and does not affect invulnerable units like the Necron Nightbringer or Deceiver or the effects of Imperial Guard Priest Fanaticism, Space Marine Librarian Word of the Emperor, Dark Eldar Combat Drugs, Ork Fightin' Juice Sisters of Battle Lay Hands or Necron Phase Shift abilities.
- Troops with broken morale can no longer teleport away from combat using the Summon ability.
Buildings
- The player can now build a maximum of 5 Monoliths instead of 3. The Summoning Core can now produce Necron Warriors and Immortals, and the Greater Summoning Core can now produce Destroyers and Heavy Destroyers. The Summoning Core and Greater Summoning Core now count as production buildings in the Annihilate win condition.
- Obelisks can now only use the Wailing Terror ability when fully upgraded. Instead, a weaker version of its Gauss Cannon can now fire when it has been upgraded once giving captured points a greater degree of protection. Obelisks that have been upgraded once increase the time resource by +2 and a fully upgraded gives a further +3 meaning a fully upgraded Obelisk can give a +15 time resource bonus. A fully upgraded Obelisk also gives +15 to the Power generation rate.
- Time penalties for Plasma Generators has been reduced but each Monolith can only support 8 Plasma Generators.
Commanders
The Necron Lord abilities are now shared with the Destroyer Lord which is now capped at 1 and treated as a secondary commander unit. Most of the Necron Lord abilities also apply to surrounding units to an extent, e.g. Phylactery will increase the health regeneration rate of units close to the Necron Lord or Necron Destroyer Lord, Chronometron now makes Necron infantry move more quickly as well as slowing enemy units. Veil of Darkness no longer applies to buildings or the Tomb Spyder or Restored Monolith.
Vehicles
Destroyers and Heavy Destroyers are now more fragile, but cost less power and can now use the jump ability. They can also be resurrected using the Necron Lord Resurrection Orb ability similar to most Necron troops by using it near the bodies left behind when they are destroyed.
Scarab Swarms can now attack ground units but their damage as been reduced against buildings.
Restored Monolith
3 Restored Monoliths can now be fielded at once, however the fire power and health of each has been reduced to compensate. Also each Restored Monolith has to be completed before the next one can be produced. The Restored Monolith main weapon the Particle Whip can now target ground causing damage and disruption like an artillery weapon.
New Stuff
Elite Troops
- A new squad has been added, the Deathmarks. These are able to snipe enemy troops from a long range and have abilities to either protect them from harm (Phase Shift) or hunt a specific enemy squad (Mark Target). Marked squads can be seen from anywhere on the map and suffer increased weapon damage. Units hit with the Deathmarks ranged weaponry also suffer increased damage for a short duration.
- An alternative elite melee combat troop is the Lychguard with slow movement speed but very high melee damage and the ability to automatically execute enemy troops low on health in melee.
- The Skorpekh Destroyers are a heavy troop choice that takes up Support Cap, but they are devasting in melee combat with their Hyper-phase Blades, one of which can be upgraded to Hyperphase Reap-blades to be even more effective. They can also boost their attack power with their timed Focus ability.
Vehicles
- Ghost Arks with the ability to transport infantry have been added, buildable from the Energy Core. They are fast and have light weaponry.
- Doomsday Arks are a variant of the Ghost Ark and forgo their troop carrying capacity in favour of a devastating long range doomsday beam.
- The Tomb Blade is new fast attack vehicle option buildable from the Greater Summoning Core. With their quick movement speed and chance to completely negate enemy ranged attacks they are deadly against vehicles, buildings and daemons.
Abilities
The Tachyon Cyclone is a powerful ability used by the Necron Lord to call down pure electrical energy on an area, creating a swathe of destruction in its path.
Researches
In the Summoning Core, new researches: Unholy Power Source and Enhanced Unholy Power Source to increase weapons damage and range of troops, in addition to the already existing Disruption Field researches. Disruption Field and Enhanced Disruption Field have been changed to increase movement speed and health. These researches also affect Flayed Ones and Immortals, not just Necron Warriors.
Also in the Summoning Core are researches to increase squad sizes of Necron troops (Warriors, Flayed Ones and Immortals) and Wraiths.In the Greater Summoning Core there are researches to upgrade the Necron Lord ranged and melee weapons to improve the damage capabilities late game.
Weapon Upgrades
Necron Warriors can now upgrade to Gauss Reapers, increasing their effectiveness against infantry and heavy infantry, dealing heavy morale damage and knockback at the expense of range.
Necron Immortals now upgrade to Tesla Carbines, increasing their effectiveness against infantry and heavy infantry at the expense of anti-vehicle damage.
