| abstract
| - Whatever personal eccentricities they might individually favour, all Necron Overlords hold an absolute belief in victory through overwhelming firepower. Some of the Necron‘s bitterest enemies have claimed this is simply due to the Necron’s android forms being somewhat less than impressive in swirling melee. However, the truth of the matter is that as flesh and as machine, the Necrons have ever won their wars through the unrelenting application of superior technology. As such victories are invariably won at a distance, all Necron battle codicils emphasise ranged superiority. Nowhere is this more evident in the Doomsday Ark; amongst the most feared of all weapons In the Necron arsenal. The Doomsday Ark shares a basic appearance with the Necron Ghost Ark, but whereas the latter’s primary purpose is to transport and effect repairs for the Necron soldiery, the Doomsday Ark exists only to bring ruination on the Necrons’ enemies. In aspect, a Doomsday Ark appears deceptively fragile; its structure is skeletal and lacks the armour plates of more conventional battle vehicles. But to obsess on this apparent fragility is to overlook a Doomsday Ark’s true purpose and potential. It is not a battle tank intended to sit in the midst of a battle line, to give and receive punishing blows. Rather, the Doomsday Ark is nothing less than an enormous self-propelled Doomsday Cannon -- a weapon that can win a battle with a single shot. As overwhelming as the Doomsday Cannon is, those who face a Doomsday Ark may find small relief in the fact that its weapon draws on the same power reserves as the repulsor engines of the vehicle. Any systems not directly pertaining to the Doomsday Ark’s main armament are part of the motive units that power its anti-gravitic engines and propel it into position, or the shielding arrays that give it some measure of protection from enemy fire. Each of these secondary systems draws power from the same source as the Doomsday Cannon, and much of the pilot’s concentration is taken up ensuring that the energy distribution is appropriate to the tasks at hand. As a result, a Doomsday Cannon is somewhat less effective when fired during or immediately following any significant movement of the craft. Then again, even a low power blast from a Doomsday Cannon rival the most hallowed of Adeptus Astartes Plasma Cannons for destructive potential. Unlike other vehicles, a Doomsday Ark relies little on either evasion or resilience for survival. Rather, its pilot’s entire defensive strategy is one of pre-emptive strike -- after all, enemies are infinitely less threatening once reduced to an expanding cloud of superheated energy. Thus does anything less than an overwhelming frontal assault on a Doomsday Ark inevitably end in disaster; the attacks vaporised long before their own weapons come into range. Nor do attempts to outflank serve any better. While those experienced in combating heavy vehicles may think to attack from the rear, typically the most vulnerable approach for Imperial and Xenos vehicles, this tactic is only of minor effectiveness against a Doomsday Ark. Due to its living metal hull and extra-dimensional armour, a Doomsday Ark is in fact no more vulnerable to damage from the rear than from any other direction. While it is true that the rear is the one facing of a Doomsday Ark not brandishing weaponry, a mere few degrees of pivoting by the vehicle’s pilot brings a broadside of linked Gauss Flayers to bear, ending all but the most determined assault. Though ponderous in advancing, a Doomsday Ark can be brought around to a new heading with surprising speed; emerald energy beams lancing out to slaughter its would-be attackers. Further, all Nemesors realise the potential of a Doomsday Cannon to turn the tide of battle, meaning that the weapon is almost invariably defended by Necron Warriors or even more potent Necron units.
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