Necron Light Cruiser
Like its other contemporaries in the Tomb Fleet, Necron Light Cruisers are extraordinarily powerful ships that seriously stretch the line of the term, 'Light Cruiser'. They are also quite large, being roughly 4-5km long and around 7-8km wide. These are big chonkas for a Light Cruiser and could go one-on-one with most races' Battleships. Despite their size, however, they are strangely under armed, presenting only 3-4 weapon batteries on average.
Class[edit]
Basic[edit]
Cartouche[edit]
The Cartouche-class Light Cruiser or the Cardouche is a Light Cruiser-class vessel of the Necrons.
Bearing a strong resemblance to the Shroud-class, the primary difference between the two ships is that the Cartouche is equipped with both Particle Whip Launchers and Lightning Arc arrays while the Shroud is equipped with solely the latter. This makes the Cartouche a relatively well-balanced and adaptable vessel.
Due to this, the Cartouche is a slightly cheaper and weaker version of the Khopesh, the Cartouche is the cheapest line ship available to the Necrons from their limited pool of selections. Besides having one less turret and 2/3rds of the hit points of the stronger vessel, there isn't anything really special about this vessel compared to the other.
One point of note, if you are unfamiliar with the way the Necron weapons work, the Lightning Arc Batteries have side angles of attack, like Imperial broadside weaponry, however, unlike the Imperials who can only fire the battery facing in that direction, both Lightning Arc batteries can fire in either direction, they just can't fire forward for some reason. This is fine anyways, better than being locked into a 90-degree front arc so the Cartouche, along with the other Light cruisers, can use broadside attack orders to stay on the move and help dodge macro shots.
- Length: 4-5km; approx
- Width: 7-8km; approx
- Mass: 24.5 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: 42,000 crew; approx
- Acceleration: 2.6 gravities max sustainable acceleration
Khopesh[edit]
The more expensive and premium version of the Cartouche.
Acting as a reserve force, fighting with the Scythe-class Harvest Ships, they are more heavily armed than the Shroud-class Light Cruiser, and very effective when used in conjunction with the Shroud, taking more damage before allowing the Shrouds to get in closer. Khopesh class vessels wield 1 Particle Whip Launcher and 3 Lightning Arcs compared to the Cartouche's 2.
As such, the Khopesh is the toughest Light Cruiser, taking 1,200 points of hull into the fight, giving it the most resilience in the long run when combined with its stronger armament than it's little cousin, the Cartouche.
Like it's companion, the Side Arcs for the Lightning Batteries allow all 3 weapons to fire in either direction, so you can get your entire damage and crit output on a single target, as can the other Necron Light Cruisers.
For the pleasure of having higher-end weaponry and extra hull, you'll be paying the most expensive cost for the Necron Light Cruisers, and a pretty expensive price when compared to other similarly sized ships from other factions.
- Length: 4-5km; approx
- Width: 7-8km; approx
- Mass: 27.4 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: 51,000 crew; approx
- Acceleration: 2.5 gravities max sustainable acceleration
Ordnance-boat[edit]
Shroud[edit]
Your quintessential Necron ordnance-boat. The Shroud-class Light Cruiser is equipped with a heavy complement of Lightning Arc Turrets. They were first recorded in 992.M41 during a battle with Battlefleet Pacificus. In the following six years three more incidents ended with the Shroud-class Light Cruisers retreating from battle. It is believed that the ship class or crew were under evaluation.
In 998.M41, five Shroud-class Light Cruisers assaulted the Adeptus Mechanicus facility on Mars. How the proverbial fuck that these guys managed to evade the defences of Sol, we have no idea. Several managed to land on the soil of Mars itself and although they were all destroyed in the end, their hulks were never found. Since the Mars incident, six additional encounters have seen the Shroud acting as the forward eyes and ears of the Necron fleet. They excel in this role because no ship that is capable of catching them has the firepower to engage it. The fact that five of these light ships easily infiltrated the Mechanicus's homeworld, reinforces the danger the Necrons pose to the Imperium.
The Shroud takes the highest raw dps spot and ties with crit output with the Khopesh, but does so without the significant increase to hit points the Khopesh gets. On the plus side, by having all the weapons as turrets, the Shroud benefits from having a full 270-degree firing arc across all its weaponry.
Another additional benefit is the Sensors upgrade unique to the Shroud, which increases its identification range and allows it to work as a spotter for the other 2 light cruisers longer-range Gauss Whips, along with any other larger ships in your fleet with longer-ranged weaponry.
- Length: 4-5km; approx
- Width: 7-8km; approx
- Mass: 25 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: 42,300 crew; approx
- Acceleration: 2.6 gravities max sustainable acceleration
Other[edit]
Sekhem[edit]
A very strange class that defies any normal classification that is more of an area-denial weapon that a conventional warship. The Sekhem is a new Necron Light Cruiser added with the release of Patch 3, along with several other Necron vessels meant to expand upon their very limited navy. While not the only faction to be light on ships to choose from, the fact they are one of the main campaign factions meant they were a focus for some extra attention.
As far as standard weapons go, the Sekhem is a significantly worse damage and crit dealer than the Shroud, considering the limited firing arc and fewer Lightning weapons. The real reason to take the Sekhem, is because of the Starpulse Wave special weapon.
The only ship in its class to field it, the Starpulse Wave is a devastating ability that deals 250 damage to everything in 4500 meters of the vessel while most importantly, destroying all enemy ordnance like torpedoes and fighters. Being able to deny ordnance heavy fleets their primary form of damage dealing can really tilt the scales in your favour.
- Length: 4-5km; approx
- Width: 7-8km; approx
- Mass: 27 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: 39,600 crew; approx
- Acceleration: 2.6 gravities max sustainable acceleration
In Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2[edit]
The Necron Light Cruisers begin the real theme of Necron line ships that all come standard with their special Interceptors, boarding action arcs, high chances to crit and their always 100% accurate weaponry. While the Light Cruisers of the Necrons seem to have lower damage and crit output on paper than a lot of other factions' comparable ships, their real strength come in all the special tricks the Necrons have up their sleeves.
| Vessels of the Necrons | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spaceships | ||
| Space Station | World Engine | |
| Battleships | Tomb Ship | |
| Cruisers | Light Cruiser - Harvest Ship Grand Cruiser | |
| Escorts | Escort | |
| Landships | ||
| War Machines | Tesseract Vault Æonic Orb - Abattoir | |
| Mobile Commands | Megalith | |
| Superheavy Tanks | Doomsday Monolith | |
| Airships | ||
| Flying Fortress | Night Shroud - Obelisk | |