I had a weird scenario come up not once, but twice during a playtest game this weekend (we're on turn 4, so results are forthcoming).

I tried bringing out my Destroyers during turn two by doing a Retain Advance from a Monolith portal.   Now, keep in mind, they're still phased out and have never entered the board.  I failed to retain with them, and so I assumed I received a Blast Marker, even though they're phased out and off the board.  I didn't feel like bringing them out at that point, so I regrouped to clear the blast marker.  Since I'm off the board, is this allowed?

Following that up, turn three I had a Necron Phalanx phased out and down to a Pariah and two Necron Warriors.  They had rallied in the previous turn, and again, I tried retaining with them, and failed to retain.  As a result of the Hold action, I decided to bulk them up for Turn 4 and regroup, rolling a 6 and bringing them back to full strength, all while off the board.  I got a "I'm not pleased" look from my opponent.

As far as I can tell, by letter of the rule, I'm allowed to do this.  This seems to go against the intent of the list, since Necrons lose all blast markers when rallying to prevent just a thing from occurring.  Or did I do this wrong, and if you fail to retain the initiative you just sit there in Phase Out Land, twiddling your thumbs?

Speaking of Phase Out Land, the new Necron rule states "Formations can return one previously killed unit in the end phase of each turn."  Does this include Necron formations that have phased out, or only units that successfully remain on the table?  We played it "Necrons in play only", but I'm not clear what you can/cannot do while in reserves.

To summarize, while Phased Out, can a formation regain one lost Necron in the end phase?  Also, what happens to a Phased Out formation that fails to retain the initiative, and what are its options?  Maybe I should be asking, while Phased Out, what can a formation do/not do?

My take so far is the rule is easier to work out, however the amount of regeneration felt a tad higher.  That was just one game though.

If it is, then an option would be for the end phase regeneration only applies to unbroken formations.

I'm not following you Hena. Yes the Necron rule is now mimicing the void shield rule, however Necrons still shed all their BM when they rally in the end phase due to Phase Out.

If Phase Out didn't remove all BMs then formations would be entering the board with BMs, thus when you regroup you would have to choose between removing those BMs or regenerating units.

I agree that was the original intent, but nobody ever explicitly stated it and it never made it to the change doc.  The way MNB was playing it was with the void shield rule plus removing all BMs.  

I'll make the appropriate changes tonight and re-post the change doc.

Although I do have a question: if you were in turn 4 and you were off board and failed to activate, why wouldn't you move out onto the board?  Sure you can bulk up your formation but formations off board count as destroyed for victory points and they certainly can't hold objectives.  Regenerating your formations off the board is a dubious move at best that late in the game and shouldn't have worried your opponent.

You're right -- I was trying to recall from memory, and that's what I get for writing at 5 in the morning.  The Warriors failed on Turn 2 also, so I had them regroup Turn 3 so they could come back Turn 4.  I'm still not sure it was the best move, but I was kind of flustered by that point.