I'm currently working on a long campaign centering around the Necrons in the Jerico Reach, there's a lot of Dead Worlds I could use for missions and many ways in which I can make the players lives that little bit more interesting, I've run into a few issues though.

My players are currently in the Canis Salient and Ebongrave will rear his ugly mug towards the end of their current mission and will act as a protagonist for the next campaign (I plan on keeping them in the Canis Salient and possibly a cease fire with the Tau) along with the Necrons and their goals although they will act as more of a catalyst for interactions with Ebongrave. I'll be using his household gaurd, the 14th Mortressan Highlanders, to act as his agents: interupting missions, starting firefights, sabotaging equipment in an attempt to bring the ceasefire to an end in addition to Ebongrave issuing unrealistic orders to the Kill-team. The problem is figuring out an escalation and a way to test the players patience with an individual they're unable to just kill.

I'm also having trouble coming up with a way to defeat the Necrons, currently I'm working with an Inquisitor on the planet Regulos inadvertently activating them and the Regulos Tomb-World being a hub of some sort which if destroyed will stop more Necrons being awakened, but I don't know much about Necrons so was wondering it's feasibility.

Any help would be appreciated.

Archvonbaron said:

Considering all the fire power that's been gathered by the Kill-ships present in the Reach, of I'm not mistaken, so an Exterminatus of some sort should be able to sort out any tomb world that needs to go.

But then the players are flying around of a space ship making things go boom which I believe would be a little boring. I was thinking demo charges on column supports to collapse the cavern but not entirely certain if it would work.

One world might awaken completely and have its workers create some type of communications tower.
The towers might be complete soon and the Imperium still needs to evacuate vital staff and artefacts.
So the players have to destroy the towers.

Not 100% on point, but if you want to bring Necrons in as a long-term story seed or adversary, I would recommend you use Necrons as presented by the new GW 5e Necrons codex as opposed to the old 4e one. Named characters with actual agendas vs. mindless killer robots. Sure, killer robots are cool, but there's already an established "soulless killing machine you can't interact with except to fight it" race - the nids.

I have compiled a printable Necron enemy sheet to keep in my MOX book, with necrons from the emperor protects and the Black crusade core book-havent updated it with hand of corruption yet. If you want it let me know.

Have the kill team infiltrate the cavern only to encounter these seeminly unstoppable Killer Robots From Space . Engage in a couple of gunfights, smash a couple to bits in close combat... and have the enemy just get up again. Really emphasise that these are truly unstoppable. It might help to have a gunfight occur in a narrow, insanely tall corridor at least a kilometer tall, lined with slowly reactivating Necron Warriors. Gauss flayers are stipping their armour down to nothingness, swarms of tiny mechanical scarabs are only just being held at bay by flamers. You want the group to feel like they have no chance of victory, only a withdrawal back to their pick up point.

Then hit them with somthing out of place. A set of xenos hieroglyphs carved into a wall. Not Necrontyr geometries, maybe Eldar or something of that antiquity. Let teh group make their forbidden lore (xenos) rolls, and those that succeed realise that the hieroglyphs are a pictoral reference by the last fools that got trapped down here, of a structure that is leading the reanimation protocols... a large device the group fought past on their way out of this thrice damned cavern. Destroying that structure will destroy the Necrontyr threat in this region of space - at least until heavier ordinance is brought back to destroy the world completely.

Add in a duel with an Overlord on top of the reanimation device, if you want. I know I would

Themes I'd be emphasising here are; the antiquity of the Necrontyr, the wrongness of their machinery, and their unstoppable and numberless ranks. I personally favour a mix of the 4e and 5e stuff. Even known I love the ideas of the named characters of the Necrons, I don't think kill-teams really need to meet them, and the eldrict chthonic horror of the Necrons in the 4e book was just too good to let go forever. Certainly, the astartes know no fear, but how will they face the legions of death itself?

Tunnelhckrat said:

Thanks that would be useful,

And thanks for the help so far, I am planning on using 4e because as Proff Kylan says having the players fight death itself would be more intimidating then tomb kings in space (at least in my opinion). But I only really plan on using them as a catalyst for the real protagonists, the war with the Necrons forcing the players to form ceasefires and treaties with Xenos species each with their own agenda and even Imperial commanders trying to break the agreements with their own methods. The campaign will involve a lot more diplomacy then the players will probably expect, although there will still be lots of shooting things.

Gurkhal said:

I think sending a fleet to deal with a Tomb World is, unless the world is fast asleep, really sorely underestimating the Necrons. These Tomb Worlds supposedly have survived against combined might of Old One and Eldar fleets in ancient times and according to Battlefleet Gothic their fleets are supposedly able to sweep aside any Imperial ships with frightening ease. In Codex: Space Marines a whole sectorial fleet is destroyed by a Necron Tomb World and fianlly defeating the said world required sacrificing a whole Space Marine chapter.

Instead, I think there is plenty of room for Kill Teams sneaking into ancient ruins to sabotage and destroy vital infrastructure to weaken Tomb Worlds defences. For examples of possible anti-necron small-unit actions:

- Shoot a Necron Warrior with psychically imprinted ammunition untill it phases out. Follow the psychic trail to repair and assembly area. Plant a huge plasma-bombs there and fight your way out (from Codex: Necrons, 3rd edition)

- Assault the leader of a huge army of Necrons in order to break their command structure (from novel Fall of Damnos)

- Use Necron portals to sneak into Tomb World to steal an Imperial artefact Necrons have captured and stored there (from novel Hammer and Anvil)

- Find and awaken the problematic Necron Lords worst enemies... The other dynasty lords and/or Preatorians who don't like what this lord is doing and let them do the dirty job (I actually ran a scenario along these lines as the final adventure of a long-time Dark Heresy campaign)

Was thinking of having the players find a few Archeotech explosives and using them to destroy a tomb or 2 after locating it and fighting their way in, then while the timer ticks down have them either blocked by a large force of Necron Warriors or a Necron Lord which they will have to fight to escape before they're buried along with the Necrons.

I agree that just declaring 'Exterminatus' would make for a very boring campaign. The solution is to have the Necron's true Tomb Worlds hidden undiscovered within the Expanse; the dead worlds the DW find Necrons on are just outposts...

One suggestion: instead of a formal cease-fire with the Tau, what if the Crusade forces noticed that the Tau are commiting fewer and fewer troops to fight the Imperials. The DW PCs are sent to find out why, and discover that the Tau in the Canis Salient are fighting for their lives against a newely awakend Necron army, potentially a much greater threat to the Crusade than the Tau themselves. The goal of the campaign would be for the DW to 'use' the Tau to catch the Necrons in a 'pincer' move and eliminate the greater threat, without 'sullying their honour' by forming a true alliance with 'xeno scum'. What do you think?

From the fluff in the book Ebongrave seemed obsessed with destroying the Tau almost to the exclusion of all other threats. Maybe the cease-fire with the Tau won't be his idea, someone will suggest it and he'll fly into a rage. Off with the traitor's head, so on so forth.

I like that idea Adeptus-B but it will require me to rethink what I was planning, the Necrons aren't the main protagonist in the game I was just using them to create a situation in which a ceasefire with the Tau could be formed. The main protagonist will be Ebongrave who hates the Tau to the point of insanity and as such when he's forced to stop all military operations against them he will start trying to find out why leading him to the Deathwatch and the players. The players can't move against him directly due to his rank and without proof their isn't much they can do but as the campaign goes on he gets more and more unstable resulting in making mistakes in an attempt to break the ceasefire, this damages the players ability to fight the Necrons and generally complicates their missions.

Maybe Ebongrave thinks he can use the necrons against the Tau.

I hadn't thought of that, I was just going to use his insane hatred of the Tau as the main reason. I think I will work that in, thanks.

I think this will probably be a bit easier if I lay out what I'm thinking in regards to the campaign so you know what I'm thinking:

The players are currently on a mission in which they're waiting for reinforcements to arrive to prevent a planet from falling to the enemy, when that fleet arrives they will be extracted for reasons they don't know. When aboard their frigate they will receive a message from the battleship leading the reiforcing fleet relaying orders from Ebongrave to the effect of stay and assist in clean up operations or this ship will open fire on you, this will be dealt with after a little bit by the Chaplin commandeering the ship under the Deathwatch's authority. He will then take a small detachment of serfs, Navigators and Astropaths on board and that the battleship to Erioch.

The players will divert to another planet before heading to Erioch to pick up a Kill-Team on an extended research mission led by an Inquisitor. When they arrive an make contact they will find the Marines are under heavy fire but have taken cover in a crater large enough for a Thunderhawk to land in so the players land and extract them, but they will not gain much insight into who they're fighting other then the wounds, damage to armour and the sound of perfectly instep marching.

Once back at Erioch they will be taken into a debriefing with Chapter Masters and representatives of every SM chapter currently deployed in the Reach, I haven't figured the exact tone yet but the players reactions and answers will play heavily into it. The Watch Commander will leave half way through, this will aggravate the representatives, he won't tell them why but will be heading to the Omega Vault which will of opened (I can't remember if there's a Klaxon or alarm atm). He will eventually return with a map of the Reach with a number of worlds marked (including the one the players were on as well as several uncharted worlds) and the players will be sent to another of these worlds to scout it. This world is marked differently to the others for an unknown reason.

They will have support from a handful of Kill-Teams joining them and confirm the presence of the same Xenos from their previous mission validating the map but as they withdraw they will spot unknown vehicles moving into position around them, forcing them into a position where they have their backs to the wall and can't retreat or extract. As they watch the vehicles will send wave after wave of enemy soldiers at them until they're pretty beat up and expecting to die at which point the vehicles will start to explode and the soldiers attacking them start to be cut down by an unknown party. When the last enemy is dead an Eldar Farseer will approach the players with a small bodyguard of Banshees, before she starts talking she will motion for the players to look up to the top of the ridge they're under is lined with Warp Spiders and Guardians so the Chaplin leading the mission will order the players not to shoot (if they do anyway it will be a short fight ), the Farseer will then offer an alliance to fight the enemy which the Chaplin will accept. This will then be followed by ex positionon of the Necrons and how screwed the Reach actually is.

From here it will be agreed by most chapters that the only way to win against what is coming is to form a truce with the Tau to free up enough soldiers to contain the Necrons. Tetrachus will be informed and agree but Ebongrave will be left out of the loop, he will be ordered to stop attacking the Tau and will be deprived reinforcements so they can be deployed to contain the Tyranids and Necrons. He will start off investigating what's going on by using the 14th Mortressan Highlanders and quickly find out about a meeting of some kind to which he will send a ship with some soldiers on to crash. The players will be the diplomats escort and have to deal with mistrusting the Tau and an attack by unknown soldiers while in the middle of the negotiation. When the enemy are dead they will find out that they belong to the 14th Mortressan Highlanders but further inquiry will reveal the ship is a reported pirate vessel and the soldiers reported traitor.

Similar events will occur during missions in which Tau forces are either on planet or aiding the Kill-Team but there will never be concrete evidence of Ebongrave's involvement so they can't do anything about him.

The players will work alongside Tau and Eldar forces to try and find a way to stop the Necrons over a umber of missions eventually locating the central tomb world. I was also thinking of making the Hadex Anomaly suddenly collapsing to reveal a huge number of Necrons and their ships ready to pour out leading the mission to the Central Tomb world to be a Hail Mary in a desperate attempt to prevent the Necrons wiping out all life in the Reach.

I've also been thinking of working the last locks of the Omega Vault into the game eventually opening the last lock when the Hadex Anomaly collapses to reveal one of the forgotten legions, complete with Primarch.

Is it terrible or workable?