Thanks, Reece, for your list and pre-game analysis. I will add your analysis here as well.
PRE-GAME ANALYSIS:
Necrons:
I don't think guards will stand a chance! My crons are going to rape them. I'm going to pull out so many shenanigan moves that his guardsmen won't be able to sit down for a week due to all the burt-hutt.
Just kidding. Nothing like a good trash-talking to buildup our friendly rivalry.
Reece's guards is a most unusual army indeed. Then again, so are my necrons. In fact, we are both "anti-meta" armies in that both of our armies make most of the current pre-dominant
AT useless.
But honestly, I think Reece will have his hands full. I've got 7 very fast threats waiting to alpha strike him - 2 lords on command barges, 2 doom scythes, 2 wraiths and my scarabs. Under the cover of 2 turns of Night-fight (3 counting Dawn of War deployment) and he won't be able to shoot me down in time. With only 1 searchlight, he may at most wipeout 1 unit a turn. That just isn't enough. He's going to have to count on tarpitting me with his super tarpit blob-squad, which I suspect is what he will do. However, if anything, I will tarpit his blob squad with my scarabs first, thus giving free reign to my wraiths to wreak havoc on the rest of his army.
My opponent will have an interesting dilemma. Should he spread out his tanks or castle them up? If he castles them up, he can screen them out with his blob squad. If he spreads them out, he won't be able to blob up to protect then. In that case, my guys will just go through his screening units like a hot knife through butter. I suspect he will spread them out to make me chase after them. But honestly, I'd probably just ignore them and go kill his troops.
Sentinels will deploy on the board with the rest of the army. It would be foolish to outflank them because I will already be on his units by Turn 2. The unit I really have to watch out for will be his rough riders. Those sneaky guys will be going after my weaker troops. Bah, let them. They will be able to kill 1 at most before I shoot them down with my other warriors.
To tell the truth, I think
IG will be the underdog this game. They will only get 1 turn of good shooting before my crons are upon them. My army is just too fast and too many.
Now let's see if Reece can make me eat my own words come game day.
Imperial Guards: (by Reecius)
It will come down to who strikes first.
As so often happens with
IG, the first roll to see who goes first is the most important. If I can strike him before he hits me, I will do massive damage.
With Searchlights on my Sentinels, I have a chance to cut through the Solar Pulse on one key unit per turn. So, we'll see!
This is obviously a unique
IG list, means to spoil the meta game, but this will be a great test of its worth, as Scarab Farm lists tend to dominate
IG (I play one myself!)
I think that so long as I can get my searchlights in place to take out key units early game, I will be fine. If not, it will be a tough battle. The Rough Riders will struggle with Wraiths, but they will be great for hunting down the little
MSU scoring units.
If I can not cut through night fight, and Jim pulls off an alpha strike with his Night Scythes, and a charge with Wraiths and Scarabs, I am in deep $#!+!
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Mission: Kill Points (My very 1st
KP game with my necrons!)
Deployment: Pitched Battle
Initiative: Necrons
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Here is a link to the video battle report on Reece's blog. It's got more in-depth commentary and thoughts on the game. Check it out!
http://www.frontlinegaming.org/2011/12/30/video-battle-report-threat-overload-necrons-jy2-vs-imperial-guard-leman-russ-list-reecius/
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Deployment:
Map of the terrain.
My deployment. Anrakyr to the left and Overlord to the right. I leave 3 units of warriors (what Reece would call the "grot squads") in reserves.
1 unit of warriors with both crypteks hide behind the ruins.
Reece's deployment. He blobs up all his infantry and join the Lord Commissar to them. Penal Legions will be outflanking.
Now this is a curious deployment, not at all what I thought he would do. I thought he would spread them out, with demolishers in the middle and the other 2 squadrons on the flanks. Castling up in the corner is just, as 1 poster put it in my other battle report (against Sisters of Battle), "it was his (necron's) whole armies wet dream in fact
lol."
But Reece's reason for deploying as such is twofold. First, we are not playing objectives so he doesn't really need to advance at all.
Secondly, he was playing a refused flank strategy. Basically deploy to one flank and I will lose movement and shooting from the opposite flank. It buys him a little time to focus his entire army on my left flank while my right flank tries to catch up. He also deploys away from Anrakyr so I couldn't make his tanks fire at his own units....at least not for 1 or 2 turns.
Anyways, I think it is a big gamble on his part to deploy in such a fashion.
His rough riders (
BTW they are cavalry) deploy near the middle.
Imperial Guards try to steal the initiative but fail.
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Necrons 1
Overlord moves flat-out. Spyders spawn 3 scarabs and one of the spyders take 1W.
One doom scythe (on my left) moves 12" and prepares to fire. The other doom scythe (to my right) moves 36" to prepare for a Turn 2 Death ray. The rest of my army advances.
Anrakyr moves flat-out as well. Necrons run.
My only shooting is 1 Death ray. I roll 9" for it but that is out of range of any of the
IG units.
Imperial Guards 1
My cryptek envokes his Solar Pulse. It is now Night-fighting.
Rough riders advance.
Demolishers and sentinels move.
His blob squad fires 5 lascannons at my Overlord's command barge. Only 1 hits and then he rolls a 1 to penentrate its armor.
His sentinels use their searchlights and fire 4 autocannon shots at my doom scythe that had just fired (thus no cover). He fails to do anything to it.
His demolishers and normal russes fire at my wraiths as they both successfully pass their Night-fight tests. One of the battle cannon shots (or was it demolisher?) scatters onto my doom scythe (the one his sentinels failed to take out) and wrecks it. I lose 1 wraith and another wraith takes 1W I believe to his heavy bolters (and maybe 1 executioner plasma cannon scatter).
IG: 1, Necrons: 0
He then fires his plasmacutioners at my wraiths (once again, he sees them) and ends up killing 1 wraith. His plasma cannons also hit my scarabs 12 times. Basically, each save I fail will kill 2 scarab bases. Out of 12 hits, 8 wounds....and I only fail 1 3+ cover, thus only killing 2 scarabs.
Wow...not a good shooting phase for Reece at all.
Rough riders then charge my unit of 4 wraiths.
I do lose 1 wraith but send them packing after I kill 5 riders.
IG: 1, Necrons: 0
Necrons 2
2 units of warriors come in from reserves. They come in from the middle of my deployment zone and move into the crater.
Warriors with crypteks move up to the top level. (My converted crypteks are still waiting for the deathmark heads.)
Spyders spawn another 3 scarabs and the whole army advances.
Command barge cruises over one of the sentinels and back. Its sweeping attack explodes one of the sentinels. Overlord disembarks.
Wraiths get ready to pounce and my doom scythe gets ready to put the smackdown on his 3 tanks nicely lined up.
Anrakyr's barge only moves 12". He tries to commandeer one of the demolishers but fails his test to control it (rolled a 1).
I make a mistake here, which I didn't realize until writing this report. I fire my Tachyon Arrow at his demolisher and blow it up. However, this is illegal as passengers inside a transport cannot fire if the transport moves faster than combat speed.
So Reece, I apologize for this mistake.
Ok, here comes the real hurt....the doom scythe! Its Death ray goes through 3 tanks and glances all 3 of them. His regular russ makes its cover, so I immobilize 1 executioner, which then becomes a wreck as it is a squadron, and weapon destroy the other.
Finally, wraiths assault the sentinels and my Overlord his executioner.
I kill his sentinel....
IG: 1, Necrons: 1
....and wreck his executioner.
IG: 1, Necrons: 2
Imperial Guards 2
Overview of the bottom of Turn 2.
Penal legionnaires come in.
BTW, they get rending and +1A.
Rough riders run off the board.
PCS (platoon command squad) hides behind the demolisher.
IG: 1, Necrons: 3
Blob squad moves forwards.
Demolisher fires at my doom scythe. He also places the large blast such that it covers 2 wraiths. He immobilizes my doom scythe but fails to kill a wraith.
2 leman russes then also fire at doom scythe, covering 4 wraiths as well. Both are direct hits, but he only gets 2 weapon destroyed results! The doom scythe still lives! Also, my wraiths pass all 4 saves against his insta-killing battle cannon shots.
Reece just cannot get a break with his shooting.
A pistol shot puts 1W on a wraith.
Legionnaires charge my Overlord. He actually passes his mindshackle test, but only manages to put 1 rending wound on my Overlord, of which I successfully save against. I then whiff against his unit and only kill 1. He passes morale.
Now for the bloodbath.
Guardsmen beat my wraiths in combat. I kill 6 guardsmen and insta-gib his Lord Commissar. He kills 5 wraiths (though 2 of them only had 1W each).
Actually, I won combat. I forgot to factor in his 3-Wound
HQ into combat resolution. Oh well. Fortunately, wraiths pass their No Retreat saves.
IG: 1, Necrons: 4
Guardsmen pile in.
Necrons 3
Last unit of warriors come in from reserves.
Spyders spawn another 3 scarabs. They get ready to assault the blob squad.
Anrakyr moves 24" and flies over his demolisher. I sweep attack and explode it. The explosion kills 1 from his platoon command squad.
IG: 1, Necrons: 5
I forget to use Anrakyr's Mind Over Machine power to take control his leman russ.
I've got no shooting this turn.
Scarabs assault. Tarpit versus tarpit. They both probably will stay locked in combat for the rest of the game.
1 legionnaire kills himself after getting mindshackled, and my Overlord kills another 2 legionnaires. They stay locked in combat.
IG: 1, Necrons: 5
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Right now, I've got a sizeable lead in Kill Points (5-1), with several more coming up (his
PCS, the legionnaires and his leman russes). At best, he'll probably kill my 2 squads of wraiths and the immobilized, weaponless doom scythe for another 3
KP's. He can't win so my opponent decides to concede this game.
Victory to the Metallic Dead - Necrons!!!
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POST-GAME ANALYSIS:
Necrons:
For the most part, the game turned out kind of how I expected. I was able to apply a huge amount of pressure and I could tell during Reece's deployment that he was affected by it. I was expecting him to spread out, which was why I put my really fast units - my 2 barge lords and the 2 doom scythes - on the outside to threaten his flanking units (and also because they could react the fastest should he castle up to one flank).
IMO, him deploying to my left flank actually benefitted me, as I really didn't have any shooting. This also prevented him from firing at my weaker troop units as I believe the terrain would have blocked his
LOS. And then I think I surprised him when my far doom scythe went supersonic, moving 36" to take away his deployment advantage. Overall, his deployment really didn't do anything for him as I was still able to threaten him with my entire army on Turn 2 as I had originally planned.
What made this game different was, once again, the dice. While I don't think Reece rolled too poorly (
IMO he rolled about average for the most part), I was rolling well for my armor/cover saves and also on the damage charts when I hurt his tanks. Overall, that helped to speed up the end of the game greatly. Otherwise, I think Reece would still be in the game and fighting til Turn 5 and maybe even beyond.
Once again, the doom scythes are proving their worth. Although I did lose 1 doom scythe because it failed to hit his tanks on Turn 1, the 2nd scythe helped to make up for this by basically disabling both executioners (which my Overlord then finished off). Dying was to be expected as long as they got something back in return, but the threat that they presented made them a positive net contribution overall. They are definitely proving that they belong in my
Maximum Threat Overload strategy, even after just 2 games.
I'm really liking Anrakyr, especially for the threat that he represents. He just has so many ways to kill tanks - sweeping attack with his barge and disembark, use Mind Over Machine to control another tank to fire upon their own, fire his Tachyon Arrow and then assault. Under ideal conditions, he could potentially take out 3 tanks in 1 turn! I think he fits in really well in my list.
My necrons are tough, however, they have yet to face Reece's toughest army....his Bjorn missile-wolves. Perhaps sometime in the future, along with a rematch of his guards now that he's personally experienced playing against my army.
Imperial Guards: (by Reecius)
Haha, the luck was nowhere near even! Jim made 11/12 saves on his Scarabs that would have killed 2 bases per shot. In the first few rounds of combat, he literally failed nearly no saves. I either missed, or he made a save, it was very frustrating.
And my night fight roles didn't have to be good, Jim advanced to within the average distance I needed to spot him. The average night fight roll is 21", we were closer than that in nearly every case.
With Jim rolling as hot with his saves as he was, there wasn't much I could do. Had I spread out, it may have gone better, but I assumed with averages, I would have been able to fight back, giving as good as I got. I assumed I would have been able to take out several of his units in this first turn, but it was just painful to see the dice go against me every single roll! Haha
My plan was to take out as many easy kill points as I could and rely on the resilience of my Blob to tie up some of his units. It just didn't work out that way, unfortunately.
But hey, it's a dice game.
Congratz to you, Jim! I look forward to a rematch.
.....Bay Area Open GT 2013 - Best Tyranids 
.....LVO GT 2014 Team Tournament - Best Generals
7,000 pts
Thousand Sons 4000+
"If you're the last one alive, you're not fighting hard enough!" 
Make War, Not Trollcraft 
But as I seem to recall in my battle against Reece last time, the dice was crazy for both of us. I'm hoping this time the dice will be a little more sane.