Although the actual battle happened a little while ago, it was enough fun that I thought I'd write it up ... that, and I haven't posted a battle report in some time.
On this occasion, I used one of my standard Death Guard army lists.
HQ: Daemon Prince with mark of Nurgle, wings and Nurgle's Rot (165 pts)
Elites: Dreadnought with plasma cannon (105 pts)
Troops 1: Plague champion with power fist along with 6 other plague marines (1 melta gun, 1 flamer) in a rhino with a havoc launcher (266 pts)
Troops 2: (Identical to above): Plague champion with power fist along with 6 other plague marines (1 melta gun, 1 flamer) in a rhino with a havoc launcher (266 pts)
Troops 3: Plague champion with power fist along with 6 other plague marines (2 plasma guns) in a rhino with a havoc launcher (281 pts)
Heavy Support 1: Vindicator with daemonic possession (145 pts)
Heavy Support 2: Vindicator with daemonic possession (145 pts)
Heavy Support 3: Predator with autocannon, heavy bolter sponsons, havoc launcher and dozer blade (120 pts)
Total = 1493.
My opponent's necron army list was the following:
HQ: The Nightbringer (360 points)
Elites: 7 Immortals (196 points)
Troops 1: 10 Warriors (180 points)
Troops 2: 10 Warriors (180 points)
Troops 3: 10 Warriors (180 points)
Fast attack: 3 destroyers (150 points)
Heavy Support: Monolith (235 points)
My initial reaction: The Nightbringer and a Monolith...?!? Yikes!
Opponent's initial reaction: Three heavy support tanks...?!? Yikes!
The mission is to be played over 4 objectives with table-quarters set up. The tabletop is a rugged green (Lord of the Rings) style table. There are a number of hills and several woodland areas, coupled with a small ruin toward on side of the playing table. Below, I've used Battle Chronicler to try to depict the situation (along with a compass in the top left corner!). If you've not seen this application before, then check out their web site. It's pretty cool!
The four objectives are placed as follows:
one in each of our deployment corners (necrons choose north west corner, Death Guard in the south east corner), one on top of the central hill, and one in the ruins on the left hand side (west) edge.
Early Turns.
Everything but the monolith deploys on the necron's side. I choose to reserve everything. My opponent wins the die roll and chooses to go first. I think this gives me a bit of an edge personally. His troops move around: one set secures the objective in the corner and another secures the objective in the ruins. The C'Tan Nightbringer starts to cross the table, along side the destroyers. The other troops and the immortals stalk in the centre of the north west corner.
As my troops come on, I start to think through what I need to do. I aim to keep one lot of troops back to secure the south east corner corner objective, use another set to grab the central one and then think about contesting one of the others. Probably the one in the ruins. I don't really care about the one that is deep in their territory. Secondly, I'm going to completely ignore the monolith. Sure, its going to whack me around, but I've better targets to think about. And as for that C'Tan. Well. The aim there is to keep it occupied. So, I'm going to engage it with my dreadnought and possibly my daemon prince. I get two lots of my troops on the board early and one vindicator and the predator.
Despite some shooting in the early turns, nothing of much consequence happens!
Middle Turns.
I start to think that I've mis-calculated. I forgot that the Nightbringer can walk through walls (and hills). He strides toward my troops who are aiming for the central objective on the hill. The rhino transport readily gets smashed up. I manage to get one wound on it from a melta gun shot, but that's it.
The monolith comes on the table in turn 3 and sets about immobilizing my vindicator and blows up my predator. Ouch.
In exchange, my daemon prince deep strikes in near to the ruins on the west edge. After shooting up the necrons in the ruins (who promptly die and then get back up again), he charges in and slays 4 of them. Permanently. Although he does take one wound in return.
The immortals meanwhile whittle down the plague marines whose rhino was wrecked by the Nightbringer.
Late Turns.
By turn 5, it is looking like my daemon prince can hold his own on the ruins, successfully contesting the objective from the necron squad that he is taking on single-handedly. My central plague marines are destroyed and I move my dread in to place to keep the Nightbringer occupied. My second vindicator manages to immobilize the monolith (wow), but gets blown up for its trouble. I roll my third plague marine squad toward the centre, but it gets entangled with the immortals and shot up by my opponents destroyers.
When the game ends at the end of turn 5, we both have 1 objective each (in the corners). The Nightbringer is slaying my dreadnought slowly and the other plague marines are struggling with the immortals and destroyers. All my tanks are gone. My daemon prince wiped out the remaining necrons who were facing him though -- he's been a star!
After-thoughts
Well, I did manage to ignore the monolith for the most part. But it did tear through my tanks in next to no time! My mistake was not remembering that the C'Tan could move through scenery. If this was an annihilation mission, I would have lost by a good margin. As it was, I was lucky to get a draw. Perhaps I should have aimed for a phase-out victory instead?
On this occasion, I used one of my standard Death Guard army lists.
HQ: Daemon Prince with mark of Nurgle, wings and Nurgle's Rot (165 pts)
Elites: Dreadnought with plasma cannon (105 pts)
Troops 1: Plague champion with power fist along with 6 other plague marines (1 melta gun, 1 flamer) in a rhino with a havoc launcher (266 pts)
Troops 2: (Identical to above): Plague champion with power fist along with 6 other plague marines (1 melta gun, 1 flamer) in a rhino with a havoc launcher (266 pts)
Troops 3: Plague champion with power fist along with 6 other plague marines (2 plasma guns) in a rhino with a havoc launcher (281 pts)
Heavy Support 1: Vindicator with daemonic possession (145 pts)
Heavy Support 2: Vindicator with daemonic possession (145 pts)
Heavy Support 3: Predator with autocannon, heavy bolter sponsons, havoc launcher and dozer blade (120 pts)
Total = 1493.
My opponent's necron army list was the following:
HQ: The Nightbringer (360 points)
Elites: 7 Immortals (196 points)
Troops 1: 10 Warriors (180 points)
Troops 2: 10 Warriors (180 points)
Troops 3: 10 Warriors (180 points)
Fast attack: 3 destroyers (150 points)
Heavy Support: Monolith (235 points)
My initial reaction: The Nightbringer and a Monolith...?!? Yikes!
Opponent's initial reaction: Three heavy support tanks...?!? Yikes!
The mission is to be played over 4 objectives with table-quarters set up. The tabletop is a rugged green (Lord of the Rings) style table. There are a number of hills and several woodland areas, coupled with a small ruin toward on side of the playing table. Below, I've used Battle Chronicler to try to depict the situation (along with a compass in the top left corner!). If you've not seen this application before, then check out their web site. It's pretty cool!
The four objectives are placed as follows:one in each of our deployment corners (necrons choose north west corner, Death Guard in the south east corner), one on top of the central hill, and one in the ruins on the left hand side (west) edge.
Early Turns.
Everything but the monolith deploys on the necron's side. I choose to reserve everything. My opponent wins the die roll and chooses to go first. I think this gives me a bit of an edge personally. His troops move around: one set secures the objective in the corner and another secures the objective in the ruins. The C'Tan Nightbringer starts to cross the table, along side the destroyers. The other troops and the immortals stalk in the centre of the north west corner.
As my troops come on, I start to think through what I need to do. I aim to keep one lot of troops back to secure the south east corner corner objective, use another set to grab the central one and then think about contesting one of the others. Probably the one in the ruins. I don't really care about the one that is deep in their territory. Secondly, I'm going to completely ignore the monolith. Sure, its going to whack me around, but I've better targets to think about. And as for that C'Tan. Well. The aim there is to keep it occupied. So, I'm going to engage it with my dreadnought and possibly my daemon prince. I get two lots of my troops on the board early and one vindicator and the predator.
Despite some shooting in the early turns, nothing of much consequence happens!
Middle Turns.
I start to think that I've mis-calculated. I forgot that the Nightbringer can walk through walls (and hills). He strides toward my troops who are aiming for the central objective on the hill. The rhino transport readily gets smashed up. I manage to get one wound on it from a melta gun shot, but that's it.
The monolith comes on the table in turn 3 and sets about immobilizing my vindicator and blows up my predator. Ouch.
In exchange, my daemon prince deep strikes in near to the ruins on the west edge. After shooting up the necrons in the ruins (who promptly die and then get back up again), he charges in and slays 4 of them. Permanently. Although he does take one wound in return.
The immortals meanwhile whittle down the plague marines whose rhino was wrecked by the Nightbringer.
Late Turns.
By turn 5, it is looking like my daemon prince can hold his own on the ruins, successfully contesting the objective from the necron squad that he is taking on single-handedly. My central plague marines are destroyed and I move my dread in to place to keep the Nightbringer occupied. My second vindicator manages to immobilize the monolith (wow), but gets blown up for its trouble. I roll my third plague marine squad toward the centre, but it gets entangled with the immortals and shot up by my opponents destroyers.
When the game ends at the end of turn 5, we both have 1 objective each (in the corners). The Nightbringer is slaying my dreadnought slowly and the other plague marines are struggling with the immortals and destroyers. All my tanks are gone. My daemon prince wiped out the remaining necrons who were facing him though -- he's been a star!
After-thoughts
Well, I did manage to ignore the monolith for the most part. But it did tear through my tanks in next to no time! My mistake was not remembering that the C'Tan could move through scenery. If this was an annihilation mission, I would have lost by a good margin. As it was, I was lucky to get a draw. Perhaps I should have aimed for a phase-out victory instead?
As a necron player, I would recommend phaseout almost 90% of the time. It is almost always easier than the mission.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, and flies in the face of opinion that necrons cannot win.
ReplyDeleteHi Lach: yes - that should have been my primary target in hindsight! I guess that is also why my opponent kept his warriors toward the rear of the board, knowing that I probably couldn't reach all of them by the end of the game.
ReplyDeleteHi John - yes, I totally agree with you.