Would they...

The dark eldar feed from pain, they fight to feed from there enemys but what about necrons, Do necrons feel pain, would dark eldar go out of there way to fight necrons?

I think an ambitious Archon would go out of his way to prove his Kabal's prowess by proving his mettle by taking on the Necrons. I don't think a Wych would get the same sense of blood letting and glee by cutting a Necron to ribbons as there is no soul to escape and no emotion of pain, I also don't think there would be much in the way of slaves either. I haven't read the new Necron codex in detail enough, whether they still phase out or not so whether they would be able to capture Wraiths etc for the arenas is another matter entirely.

The Wyches certainly would like to have lets say the skull of a Necron Lord as a trophy (they love them), the rest of the Dark Eldar rather not fight fight the Crons.

Sky Serpent wrote:

I think an ambitious Archon would go out of his way to prove his Kabal's prowess by proving his mettle by taking on the Necrons. I don't think a Wych would get the same sense of blood letting and glee by cutting a Necron to ribbons as there is no soul to escape and no emotion of pain, I also don't think there would be much in the way of slaves either. I haven't read the new Necron codex in detail enough, whether they still phase out or not so whether they would be able to capture Wraiths etc for the arenas is another matter entirely.

Wraiths wouldn't work, as they're grouped in with Scarabs and Tomb Spiders (now called Canoptek Spiders/Scarabs and Canoptek Wraiths), in that they aren't Necrons, but rather part of the maintenance/defense programs of the Tomb Worlds. However, I do think Necrons would feel pain, or at least an approximation of it, as they need some way to know that their body has been damaged. I don't think the Dark Eldar would gain any benefit from it though, as their feeling would be "mechanical", rather than felt, if that makes sense. Secondly, the Necrons no longer have souls, so I don't think there'd be anything for the Dark Eldar to feed off.

Before people start, the Tau do have souls, just not powerful ones. The Necrons, however, are indirectly stated to no longer have souls whatsoever now.

So rulewise, We shouldnt get Power From Pain against crons?

Only trophies, nothing else. There just ain't much reason for the Dark Eldar to not to avoid the Crons.

The way i see it a smart Archon would avoid fighting them to keep losses to his Kabal down to a minimum

They probably shouldn't, no.

Necrons do indeed have souls, in-fact their whole existance is due to soul transference (both Oldcrons and Newcrons) In fact the Newcrons are looking for a sutible race to place their souls into. So in fact DE would get power from pain when fighting Necrons. Actually I would think ripping them to shreds like we do, I highly doubt all the Crons would be quick enough to get away through their phasing out (still exists, but instead of always happening, it just happens sometimes now) Also now they are like any other race in that they trade and so forth, so all that means is there are valuable supply lines that DE can raid and do their piratey things

Not to mention, in many ways the DE are probably one of the scarier prospects for the crons, as they can actually really cause them final death via making off with the soul. There's not many things that can cause a Necron fear, but I like to think we're one of them.

Weren't the Newcron souls get devoured by C'tan while they were happily engaging the bio-transference? I recall that being the turning point for Silent King's loyalty towards C'tan. Many of the Necrons may have retained their personalities, yes, but their souls are gone.

Atleast in the old fluff C'tan wouldn't have been able to eat souls since soul in 40k is just another name for Warp presense and the C'tan have no power over Warp. They used to eat some vaquely defined "life-force".

Shadows Revenge wrote:

Necrons do indeed have souls, in-fact their whole existance is due to soul transference (both Oldcrons and Newcrons) In fact the Newcrons are looking for a sutible race to place their souls into. So in fact DE would get power from pain when fighting Necrons. Actually I would think ripping them to shreds like we do, I highly doubt all the Crons would be quick enough to get away through their phasing out (still exists, but instead of always happening, it just happens sometimes now) Also now they are like any other race in that they trade and so forth, so all that means is there are valuable supply lines that DE can raid and do their piratey things

[quote= Newcron codex, page 7]
In that moment, he knew with cold certainty that the price of physical immortality had been the loss of his soul... the Necrontyr were now but a memory, and the soulless Necrons reborn in their place.[/quote]

Page 17 then goes on to state that the Necrons are trying to move their consciousness back to flesh-bodies, no mention of souls is made. Page 37 then goes on to yet again state that the Necrons lost their souls, stating that they "bartered away our souls for technological baubles", that "our minds, then, are all that remains for us to lose".

The Oldcron codex made no mention of it, although given the C'Tan's lack of interest and knowledge regarding souls, it could be argued that they didn't think to transfer them over. Under the new codex, however, they certainly did lose their souls. It's pretty much the main reason they rebelled against the C'Tan.

From a purely fluff perspective - and trying to violently sideswipe the slide into tangential theories of self vs soul, mind animus etc, that I feel my post having the potential to devolve into - if the Necrons have minds to lose and specifically fear the loss of their minds (I'm probably assuming that only the higher-ups actually have enough of a sentient mind to lose/fear losing as I'm bereft of access to a necron codex at the mo) then couldn't Haemonculi and or the Dark Eldar in general gain power from the torturing of said mind? One of the most destructive aspects of torture is the effect it has on the mind of the victim - generally in the long term, but I'm pretty sure the Covens are skilled enough to speed it's progression - and psychological pain is possibly still something we can harvest, no? (putting this topic down now as I avoid one stream of my flailing mind-stream to dive into another... that and I need to go)

In fact the fluff behind my first battle with the necrons was my Coven specifically wishing to test their theory...

The Dark Eldar might want to fight the Necrons to remove them from a world with access to the webway, or from an area that offers easier routes to other races that do have delicious, yummy souls. As for Pain Tokens, keep in mind we can generate a Pain Token from pain caused to us as well as the pain of others. Just because we win an assult, doesn't mean we won't have our own (minor) wounds to enjoy.

I would say it varies from Kabal to Kabal, some would strike if the Necrons were attacking a favoured raiding location. With the more 'unhinged' Archons, it may be to extend their egos further and to have successfully annihilated such a powerful opponent and come back to tell the tale. Most frequent I would say however, is in the wrong place at the wrong time, i.e. Perhaps the Kabal and its allies raid a world in the midst of a Necron invasion, or perhaps vice versa, or perhaps the Dark Eldar accidentally awake a Tomb World colonised by a lesser race. Then again its just speculation

I think DE would avoid Necrons wherever possible but since there are several necron fleet hiding in the webway (can't remember the source) the Necrons are a serious threat to the DE and as such they would fight them.

I could also imagine that some of the more unorthodox heamonculi would find it an interesting challenge to figure out how you can "hurt" a necron...

There would be no point, as Necrons have no soul and do not feel pain or anything whatsoever, so there would be no true benefit or gain from fighting them.

Haemonculi seem to be capable of gaining pain power from mere torture. It's one of the ways they revive fallen warriors. Necrons have minds, even the warriors can let off "death screams" when they die. So maybe the DE can get off on that. Torturing Necrons is fun, because given their machine (and hence easily adaptable) status the DE could just plug in a pain receptor.

Alternatively they could always install the Necrons with windows vista.

So lets say a Necron fleet find a way into Commorragh? The DE race would be able to repel them and take their souls in the process?