Saturday 8 January 2011

244 Necron-ymous Heroes

So...

I got back to the club last night after a long drought and played my first game in ages: 2000pts Vs Necrons. My opponent (let's call him 'Ant') and I were running late but we still figured it'd be fun to see how far we got into the game. This isn't a battle report - just thoughts with pictures.

Both of us had brought generic, non-beardy lists and we'd agreed that it was a game to try stuff out and have a laugh. I'll post my list separately soon.

We rolled 'Capture and Control' with 'Pitched Battle' deployment and I chose to go second. In essence, two of Ant's units (wraiths and an awesome tomb stalker) rolled-up my right flank and took me apart unit-by-unit. My Guardsmen put up a valiant fight but ultimately sthey really struggled to hurt Necrons...who just went a got back up again anyway. We had to wrap up half-way through turn four, and although I would've drawn at the end of turn 4, by turn 5 I'd've been mincemeat.

Photos First:

My left flank and objective - note new HQ Salamander to the rear of the ruins:
My 'sacrificial' right flank - sacrified for fun rather than tactics:
Ant's right flank (my left) with his Destroyer Lord (I love the shiny 'bug' carapace painting!):
Ant's centre:
Ant's left flank sweeping inevitably and inexorably in toward my right:
Here's Ant's fantastic Tomb Stalker:
And here's a very lonely grenadier shocked to discover that he alone of his platoon is still alive ... alive and charging past the Staker to a glorious bayonetty death in the Necron lines:

Post-Game Thoughts (in no particular order):
  • Ant was a shrewd and very sporting opponent - one of those who's really pleasant to play against;
  • I got to field my new Salamander - hooray! It did fine.
  • Ant generously deployed in a very conventional, non-beardy way, and I did my best to mirror this: I didn't play the old Guard trick of castling up solely on my (corner) objective and making his cool units trudge the length of the board: I deliberately spaced units across to make it a bit more fun. I'm glad too - it did!
  • My missile launchers were crap all game...not for the first time;
  • Necron Destroyers are awesomely useful, if surprisingly vulnerable;
  • My mortar team did well...and even pinned a unit of necrons!
  • Marbo's deployment was fun (to Ant's dismay) but I foolishly placed him behind cover, thus affording his demo-charge victims a 4+ cover save: rats!
  • My Platoon command squads aquitted themselves well; as did the autocannon squad;
  • Yet again, my Devil Dog was surprisingly useful;
  • Resurrection Orbs are horrid, horrid devices. I love their rules...except that the (otherwise 'dead') Lord lies there prone on the ground for my entire turn without my troops being allowed to,say, destroy him or tear his body apart for souvenirs...and then he pops up again on a 4+ (and again the next time...). Grrr.
  • My Primaris Psyker did okay;
  • I combined all three squads in one platoon. Not because it made tactical sense, but because it's something I don't often do; it'd make gameplay quicker and it'd be a juicier target for Ant's awesome tomb stalker. I did; it did and they were.
  • Wraiths are good at their job;
  • Ant's army is very nicely painted;
  • My reserve rolls were good;
  • Yet again (see left) my Penal Legionnaires had a good game;
  • My scatter rolls were almost all bang-on: always encouraging!
  • My grenade launchers were less useful than they often are.
  • My Leman Russes did a good job - they were there to die but put up a bit of a fight.

My main conclusions are as follows:

  1. The Tomb Stalker (as well as being an awesome model) is very intimidating and a real monster against squishy guard - predictably it wiped out my combined squad (even though it only killed three!) Essentially I had nothing that could hurt it in close combat apart from my Penal Legionnaires and my Sentinel(!) and they were both busy with higher priorities. Shooting too: str 3 weapons simply cannot wound toughness 7 - full stop.
  2. The game was enjoyable and instructional. I could've taken a far more anti-Necron army, but that's not the game we were after, and it's not my style. We both wanted non-tailored lists, and sadly, I just couldn't kill enough of the blighters comprehensively enough!
  3. Given the army, mission and set-up, I could have deployed more ruthlessly and fought to an eventual draw, but it would've been a very dull game - especially for his tomb stalker, which would've defeated the object of the game somewhat.

The saddest thing was this: at the end of the game, Ant helpfully advised me that a useful anti-Cron tactic is to force a Phase-Out. I didn't have the heart to tell him that that's actually what I was trying to do as best I could with the weapons I had in range...I just utterly, utterly failed to achieve it! I couldn't even stop the buggers from WBB-ing!

Looks like my lads' lasguns may finally have met their match...

Thanks for your time, readers,

- Drax.

PS: Heres another pic of James's awesome Ork army - here in action against Daemons on the next table:

7 comments:

  1. Hey Drax,

    Great to see your getting in 'fun' games with what sounds like a truely terrific opponent in Ant.

    I wouldn't worry about being trounced by Necrons, my Marines used to be regularly shown the door by one of my old regulars. Its the WBB rule that does it, especially if your opponent has luck (dice gods) on his side and passes 9 out of 10 of his rolls. Even then though, these games tend to be fun for the novelty of the 'will they/won't they' nature of WBB. Phase out is definately the aim of gaming against Necrons.

    I met a new lad at my local last week and he has agreed to a game on Tuesday with either his valiant guard (a 100% metal mordian army - couldn't believe it when I first saw it), or maybe his Necrons (maybe both if we have the time for 2 games). Its good to start the year off with 'non-competitive' games against new friends.

    Keep it up Admiral.

    Pom

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  2. Hi Admiral, glad you had fun in your game - I always find that as long as me and my opponent enjoyed the game, I don't care if I win or lose!

    I've a game against my regular Necron opponent this Tuesday - he tends to favour 3 units of 3 wraiths as a flanking force, then puts a Destroyer Lord in one of the units with the Resurrection Orb in there, meaning, for the majority, the lord benefits from the 3+ invul of his unit.

    I always find that melta-guns in a veteran unit, with a missile launcher gets rid of the WBB save, and then pop a demo charge in there for good measure ;)

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  3. Sounds like a fun time. It's always nice to have a game where winning is second to having fun.

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  4. I've always struggled against Necrons with Guard. My Tau have always eaten them for breakfast ... but guardsmen need more guns ... lots more! With necrons its all about the weaponry. I love grenade launchers just like you fella, but when the chips are down, melta is a must against WWB.

    I've not faced the Tomb Stalker - but it looks evil. Battle Cannons, and (surprisingly) flamers are a good way of facing down Necrons. A flamer kitted special weapon team can thin them out with 24+ hits, and then finish them off with FRFSRF (fire by rank)...

    Marbo is fun, but a points sink really - Ratlings are essential, as 10 rats'll give you 7 hits with a 4+ to wound on Tomb Spiders and stalkers...

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  5. Thanks, Guys.

    >Pom: I love the idea of an all-metal Mordian force! I've a tournament coming up next month, for which I may just take an (almost) all-metal; all mid-90s army - winning is for losers, right?

    Good luck with it.

    >Capt Harris and Suneokun

    Yeah, I know, but I deliberately didn't tailor the force, and I generally try to avoid les meltas trois-fromage as it's become such a cliché - especially in chimeras. You're right about the snipers though, Suneokun: this would've been a rare gem of a game for 'em!

    >Geek: Yup! :)

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  6. I had a rare tactical epiphany earlier... the ones that make you let out an audible groan of how foolish you were not to think of it before...

    A Bane Wolf can travel 12" and still fire its chem cannon... its a defensive weapon (S1)... *cue maniacal laughter*

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  7. Sounds like a fun game! Over here in opposite land my fortunes against my Necron opponent were the exact opposite - mainly because the poor fella wasn't able to roll a successfull WBB until the 3rd turn!

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Thanks for taking the time to comment!