Game #2 - 1750 Tremorcrons vs Mechdar
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Mission: Capture and Control
Deployment: Spearhead
Initiative: Eldar
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Deployment:
Map of the terrain. Here we played the the hilltops and trench bottom as clear terrain. However, the rough area going up the hills or down the trench we played as difficult terrain. The 6 bunkers are area terrain.
My mechdar opponent places his objective here. Obviously, he didn't go to Jy2's School of
40k Objective Placing.
Because over there, this is how we teach you to place objectives.
Eldar deployment. The black wave serpent has the fire dragons and star engines. He leaves the unit of 2 shuri-walkers in reserves to come in from his own board edge. The empty 60mm bases are his Work-in-Progress war walkers. Eldrad is in the red serpent right next to the black one.
My deployment. I deploy my wraiths and tomb blades away form his walkers. As I had thought that my tremor-teks were only 24", I deploy them forwards.
I deploy 1 unit of warriors with my lance-tek on my objective. I leave 1 unit with lance-tek in reserves.
With Eldrad's ability, my opponent re-deploys a couple of units.
I don't bother to seize.
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Eldar 1
I use my Solar Pulse to make it Night-fight.
Eldar movement. He fortunes his units and guides his walkers. I believe all his vehicles go flat-out and his jetbikes turboboost. He was concerned about my tomb blade particle beamer blasts so he moves his seer council back and bides their time.
His fire dragon serpent uses its star engines in the Shooting phase to move on top of the hill. 36"....wow....
No shooting (or he fails to shoot in the dark).
Necrons 1
I take advantage of his trepidation and advance aggressively. Tomb blades turbo 24". We will see next turn just how much firepower they can take.
Wraiths move sneakily along the board edge, trying to stay out of range of both Doom and what will soon be Guided war walkers. I have big plans for these guys.
My surflord (Overlord on command barge) moves 24". This guy is my only answer to his war walkers. If he's done, I'm probably done as well.
My tremor-tek fires at this fire serpent and puts it in difficult terrain (made dangerous by my C'tan).
That is all the shooting I have. Necrons run.
Eldar 2
Eldrad casts Guide on the war walkers and I believe Fortune. Farseer fortunes his seer council.
The 2 shuri-cannon walkers (represented by the 2 empty bases) come in from reserves. They're going to get rear shots at my command barge's unprotected backside.
Now I realize why my opponent didn't outflank them.
Scatter-walkers move. They get out into the open so that they can shoot down my scarabs.
Fire serpent passes its dangerous terrain test and goes to screen out his wraiths. All serpents move at cruising speed.
Because his walkers are most likely out of range of my wraiths, 1 unit fires upon my scarabs.
It turns out that only 4 bases out of 10 are obscured from his view. Thus, no cover and he wipes them out. Ouch!
His other unit of walkers fire 24 twin-linked S6 shots at my tomb blades. Only 1 of them drops. Then I finally remember about Reanimation Protocols, make it and he gets back up.
Focused fire from jetbikes and several serpents put 2W on my wraiths.
Finally, his shuri-walkers fire at the rear of my command barge and immobilize it. But because it is open-topped, it becomes a wreck.
Necrons 2
Necron movement. I'm sooo slooooowwwwww. Omigosh, I miss the mobility of my MTO necrons.
The only thing the wraiths will be able to hit is his serpent.
Overlord foots it over towards his walker. Tomb blades turbo-boost again. At least I'm going to be able to tie up 1 of his units of walkers.
Monolith is finally in range to use its particle whip. I only shake one of the scatter-walkers.
One of my tremor-teks fires and hits his fire serpent again.
Time for some payback!
I roll well and explode all 3 walkers!!!
Wraiths assault his fire serpent but only shakes it.
Eldar 3
Eldrad casts his obligatory powers, including Doom on both my Overlord and my wraiths. And of course, farseer fortunes his own unit.
Walkers move away from my Overlord. 1 serpent climbs on top of the hill (and objective).
He is going for the kill. Fire serpent makes its
DT test and move back on top of the hill. Fire dragons disembark. Seer council gets ready to assault my wraiths.
After shooting with his seer council, fire dragons, and serpents, he only manages to kill 1 wraith.
I believe 1 serpent shoots at and puts 1W on my C'tan.
Scatter-walkers (1 was shaken) shoot at my Overlord and fails to penetrate his armor .
Shuri-walkers fire at my tomb blades and drop 1. I then make my
RP roll and he gets back up again.
Then it's off to assault.
Damn fortune and damn eldar resiliency! He passes every single fortuned save and reduces my wraiths to just 2 models.
Necrons 3
My warriors with lance-tek comes in from reserves. Guess who I'm going after?
My tomb blades turbo behind his objective. My Overlord goes after his scatter walkers.
Necron movement. Not much happening here, though my monolith is actually moving backwards. I am anticipating his last turn rush towards my objective, but that thing is just sooo sloooowwwwwwwww.
If you guessed that my warriors were going after his fire dragons, then you've guessed wrong. My single lance shot wrecks his serpent with the star engines. Yes!!!
My C'tan and troops actually head back towards my objective.
My Overlord then assaults his walkers.
He only manages to kill 1 walker.
In the wraith-seer-council melee, I can't get past his fortuned saves and he whiffs against me this time. Neither of us is able to cause a successful unsaved wound.
Eldar 4
Mechdar goes back to defend his objective.
Serpent finally makes a move for my objective.
Fire dragons shoot down 4 warriors. 2 then get back up.
His serpents fail to get past my tomb blades' 2+ cover. His shuri-walkers have no target that they can see and so they run back towards his deployment zone.
Fire dragons then assault my warriors.
I actually win combat 2-1. Fire dragons pass morale.
I catch a big break here. Despite Fortune, I insta-kill his farseer, he does no damage in return and I break his unit. I then consolidate to make sure he keeps falling back.
I forget that dangerous terrain tests are failed on a 1-2 here because of my C'tan as he fell back into the serpent wreck.
Necrons 4
My units continue to fall back towards my objective.
Tomb blade turbo-boosts away from his objective.
Wraiths advance towards his objective. I make sure to be within 6" of his seer council so that they will keep falling back.
I'm not sure whether it was my lance or particle whip, but I shake his serpent on its way to contest.
In combat, my Overlord kills another walker, and the warriors and fire dragons fail to kill each other.
Eldar 5
Overview of the top of Turn 5.
Seer council continues fleeing.
Eldrad disembarks. His serpent then climbs on top of the hill to cover his objective.
His serpent makes his
DT test, goes flat-out again and tank shocks 2 of my units. He needs 1 more turn in order to be able to contest.
Eldrad tries to Mind War my wraith but fails. His seer council, along with 1 or 2 wave serpents, then leave a parting gift to my Doomed wraiths in the form of a shuriken meal that gives them indigestion and diarrhea.
On the bright side, his shuri-walkers fire at my tomb blades and take down 1. I then make my 3rd consecutive
RP test for him. These guys eat their Wheaties!
He finally causes 1W to my Overlord in assault. I only manage to shake his last walker.
Necrons 5
I'm going in for the win as I turbo my tomb blades to contest his objective.
Here we have a little bit of a debate. My eldar opponent was under the impression that I could not move there as I would be underneath his skimmers. I told him that in a multi-level terrain, just like multi-level ruins, you could only occupy 1 level with just 1 model, not both. But because we really didn't discuss this at the beginning, I offered to roll off for it. He was cool with that.
So I rolled and won. My tomb blades are contesting.
I go to gang up on his skimmer, with my C'tan ready to assault in case my shooting fails.
1 lance, a particle whip and a bunch of gauss weaponry and I couldn't wreck it. I only manage to blow off its main gun and then shake it.
BTW, here I forget to fire my tremor-tek to put him in difficult terrain.
So it's off to assault. My C'tan just cannot hit such a fast vehicle.
Finally, my Overlord finally manages to blow up his last scatter-walker.
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So currently I have my own objective....
....and am contesting his.
If the game ends now, I win.
We
to see if the game continues....
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....and it does.
Eldar 6
His serpent moves flat-out to contest my objective.
Here we have another controversial play. He tankshocks my lance unit. I opt to Death & Glory and succeed in penning his serpent. He then proceeds to roll for his flat-out cover save. I told him that this wasn't actually a shooting attack, that D&G was a special attack and thus, no cover. So we decide to ask a 3rd party. That 3rd party person also thought that he should get cover, so I give it to him. He then passes and I lose my lance-tek.
Afterwards when I got back home, I checked the
BRB FAQ's. It turns out that I was correct - that you don't get cover from a D&G "attack". Oh well, it was just a casual game so it really didn't matter too much. I will let him know next time I see him.
His jetbikes continue to fall back because last turn, I made sure to keep my tomb blades within 6" of them. However, now they are blocking the path of my Overlord to his objective (they're actually on the hill but we left them on the bottom because they won't stay on).
Shuri-walkers advance. Their guns are just barely out of range of my tomblades. Woooo <* breathes a sigh of relief *>.
Eldrad moves towards my tomb blades. He is dangerously close. He then tries to Mind War them but fails.
Now for assault. If Eldrad makes the assault, he could well pull me out of contesting range. We measure his assault and it turns out that he is out by a fraction of an inch. Woooohoooo <* breathes another sigh of relief *>.
Necrons 6
I move my tomb blades out of Eldrad's possible assault range.
My Overlord moves up the hill.
I get ready for a last hurrah against his contesting serpent. It's going to be tough to get rid of his serpent and the avengers inside. I've lost my lance-tek and my C'tan is out of assault range.
I fail to do anything to his serpent after cover saves.
So I have no choice but to assault in order to contest the objective (they did not fire). So my objective is contested.
As is my opponent's objective.
We roll to see if the game will go to a Turn 7 but it doesn't.
Draw!!!
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POST-GAME ANALYSIS:
Necrons:
For my post-game analysis, I'm just going to focus on my necrons and the overall games.
I'll start off first with my opponents. For both of them, this was their first games against the new necrons. Because of that, I think this gave me an advantage. Both were playing too cautiously, especially my eldar opponent. Both were not sure of the right target priorities. While shooting down my
CCB was the right move, they should have tried to take out my wraiths as well. My Imperial Fists opponent did attempt to do so by dedicating a substantial portion of his army. Alas, it just wasn't enough. My eldar opponent, however, didn't until I forced his hand and backed him into a corner. If he had redeployed his 2 war walkers closer to my wraiths with Eldrad's ability and focused on them, I don't think I would have been able to win or even draw that game. But this is typically what happens when you play against a new army that you just aren't familiar with. These types of things happen and you just learn from them. No biggie.
Reserving one's army without a way to bring it in quickly is never a good idea
IMO, no matter what army you go up against. The battle against the Space Marines just shows what can happen if your army comes in piecemeal. Now I don't hold it against my opponent for reserving his army due to our miscommunication (as I think he would have played it the "right way" had he known), but you are just taking a big risk when you fight your opponent's entire army with just a portion of yours. If my army had more fast units or even a modicum of shooting (in order word, if I brought a better army), I think the results would have been even more disparaging. Only a very few armies can accomplish this (i.e. daemons, some drop pod armies) successfully. Unfortunately,
MSU shooty armies are not one of them. But he was a good sport and chose to have a more challenging game for himself. And this is not really a knock on my opponent, but my opinion on reserve armies in general.
As for my army and gameplay, it was subpar. My list just lacks overall mobility of troops and more importantly, shooting. Whereas in my wraithwing or MTO necrons, I compensate for the lack of shooting with speed from a lot of dangerous units, I just don't have that here. My shooting was poor, my mobility so-so and my assault really isn't that scary (only to
MSU-type armies). I couldn't even take on the seer council without a little bit of luck (his farseer failing 2 invulns from my rending insta-killing wound). But this is an experimental list. You won't see me take this list when I'm taking my
TAC (Take-All-Comer's) army.
I also made my share of mistakes in these games. I thought that my tremorstaves were only 24" in range when they were actually 36". I forgot about Reanimation Protocols for my tomb blades in the 1st game of this report (and all the games preceding that actually). I didn't protect my monolith against drop pod melta (didn't even know he had a drop pod melta in his army). I left my scarabs out in the open to get shot down by the war walkers without cover. I misplayed my monolith and should have considered deepstriking it, especially in the game against mechdar (though I was concerned about his fire dragons). I was just lucky that my opponents' unfamiliarity with my army (and also the mistakes they made) helped to overcome all the mistakes I made.
Now, let's get to the units:
Overlord on Command Barge: A. A very dangerous unit that my opponents just couldn't ignore. Killed an ironclad, 1 unit of attack bikes and 2 units of 3 war walkers. This unit consistently performs and performs well.
Orikan: D. Not enough info. I usually give this grade to a unit that doesn't really do anything. His abilities were never really tested. I may give him another try in the future, though I'm most likely not going to use him for the long haul.
Lance Cryptek: B-. Decent shooting. Could have used more of them. Immobilized 1 land speeder and wrecked the star engine wave serpent.
Tremorstave Cryptek: D. The only thing they did was contribute to the immobilization of 1 predator, though in all fairness, I played them wrong. I will definitely give them another try.
C'tan: C-. Was just too slow to go anywhere. Both of my opponents ignored him and were not really bothered by his Writhing Worldscape. Killed the drop pod. I will definitely give him another try as I want to give the tremorcrons another go.
Triarch Stalker: D. Not enough info. His shooting didn't do much, though that is partially because my opponent was making his cover saves against it. I see this unit with a lot of potential in the right list. This just wasn't it. Will definitely give him a try again in the future.
Warriors: C. Ignored like usual. It was funny to actually see them win combat (against the fire dragons).
Scarabs: B. Another huge threat to my opponents. My mechdar opponent knew to take them out quickly. Scarabs took out 1 transport before we called it. These guys do well consistently and I like the fact that they are a huge psychological threat to my mech opponents.
Wraiths: A. Another all-star performance by them. Took out a razorback, 1 land speeder, 2-3 combat squads, the librarian, a farseer and a seer council and withstood a ton of firepower in the process. More importantly, they really affected my opponent's play, forcing my eldar opponent to play a defensive game. They have shined in almost every game I've played.
Tomb Blades: B. They only killed 1 speeder the whole game, but they redeemed themselves in game #2 without firing a single shot.
Lol. Another threat, though more psychological than physical, and my primary means of contesting in objectives-based games. Surviving to be able to contest in game #2 makes them worthwhile
IMO, though I'd be hard pressed to fit them into my
TAC list over my wraiths and scarabs.
Monolith: C. I felt that I could have better utilized the monolith in these games, but then again, this is my very first 2 games with it ever. I didn't really get to gauge how well it actually did, at least not to my satisfaction. I will be using this lugging behemoth in the future.
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MVP's: Wraiths, Overlord. In game #1, I give it to my wraiths for getting the most
KP's and actually surviving.
In game #2, it's a lot closer. Wraiths wiped out his seer council and forced my opponent to play a different game. Tomb blades survived to contest the enemy objective. But at last, I gave it to my Overlord on command barge for stopping my opponent's main offense, his 2 scatter walker units. If those 2 units had been allowed to survive and fire, both my wraiths and tomb blades probably wouldn't have survived to do what they did.
.....Bay Area Open GT 2013 - Best Tyranids 
.....LVO GT 2014 Team Tournament - Best Generals
