PRE-GAME ANALYSIS:
Necrons:
This is another competitive necron build that I had wanted to try out.
IMO wraiths are one of the best units in the codex. Thus it would make sense that an army consisting of mostly wraiths would also be one of the most competitive builds in the codex. Then supporting the wraiths are probably the 2nd best units in the codex - scythe overlords in command barges. Finally, I tried to balance out my army with some shooting. Crypteks with Eldritch Lance are good units as well as the annihilation barges. They aren't as spectacular as the doom scythes, but they are more durable and more consistent in performance in the long run.
Now I did not know what Reece was going to bring against my army, but I was glad when he decided to bring his space wolves (
BTW, he also didn't know what I was bringing). Then again, as
TAC tournament lists (Take-All-Comer's), both of us weren't really too concerned about what each other brought.
His army is really dangerous. If he plays it right, night-fight should not be a concern at all. He will have to sacrifice a couple of transports in order to searchlight my wraiths (and perhaps command barges), but the rewards are well worth the risk. He's got an incredible amount of long-ranged dakka - 21 S8 missiles, 4
tl S9 lascannons, 8 S6 assault cannons and 12 S5 heavy bolter shots. He can potentially wipe out 1 squad of wraiths a turn with all those insta-killing shots. And if he deploys correctly, he may get 2 or even 3 turns of shooting at me. The key to a necron victory is how well I can survive his shooting.
While his grey hunters are not that strong in assault, that's why he's got 3 dreads. Dreads are mainly counter-assault units meant to tie up my more assaulty units. I feel I can take out his regular dreads, but Bjorn will be a problem.
One of the pitfalls that Reece has to watch out for is to not play as a pure gunline against me. While his static units - his long fangs - won't be moving much. His grey hunters and dreads need to be advancing. Otherwise, I will have the
Positional Dominance and advantage in this game. With all my lances and annihilation barges, he cannot rely on a last-turn objective contest with his land speeders. His transports need to be advancing at least by turn 2.
Space Wolves: (by Reecius)
I had plenty of weapons capable of taking down Wraiths. With intelligent deployment and use of Searchlights, plus Acute senses, I should be able to take out a unit of Wraiths a turn. If I deployed in such a fashion as to maximize the amount of distance between my opponent and I, I would get at least 3 turns of shooting it I went first, two if I went second.
That means, I should be able to wipe out the Wraiths before they get to me, and if needed, tarpit them with Bjorn.
Once the Wraiths were neutralized, I could send Grey Hunters up the board to take out the
MSU Warrior squads, and carpet bomb them with Fangs.
I felt confident going into this game that I would shoot the Crons off the table so long as I played smart.
While
JotWW doesn't work on Wraiths, it will be great for sniping Crypteks.
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Deployment:
Map of the terrain.
BTW, for those who may be interested, Reece's company
Frontline Gaming actually builds and sells all the terrain you see here in these battle reports. As a matter of fact, they have a very cool product called
Table in a Box that has everything you need terrain-wise to play a game of
40k.
Anyways, back to the game....
Space Wolf deployment to the left (from my perspective)....
....and to the right. He leaves 2 squads of grey hunters in reserves.
Now this is how you deploy against my necrons. Everything spread out and everything as far away from my army as possible. This will guarantee him 3 rounds of shooting unless I can steal the initiative. I think I'm going to have my work cut out for me.
Necron deployment. Unfinished wraiths will represent my whip coils.
Another perspective of my deployment. I deploy all my warriors on the board because I wanted them shooting from Turn 1. Command barges on the outsides. Annihilation barges on the insides. No reserves.
I don't steal the initiative and we begin. Turn 1 will be crucial. How my opponent's shooting fare may well set the tone for the game.
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Space Wolves 1
Night-fight due to Solar Pulse #1.
Right razor (with Rune Priest) and land speeder typhoon advance. Searchlight #1 pops smokes.
Razorback and Bjorn move right up the middle. Searchlight #2.
Finally, to the far left, Searchlight #3 moves up and pops smokes.
He searchlights my left wraiths and 3/5 of his army unloads onto them. Unfortunately for him, he only kills 2 wraiths and put 1W on a 3rd wraith.
My opponent also successfully searchlights my right wraiths. The other 2/5 of his army fires on them and only manage to do a total of 1W!!!
Wow!!! My saves were hot!!! His entire army shot at my wraiths and I only lost a total of 2! That was a great start for me. Now let's see if I can weather another 2 rounds of Space Wolf shooting.
Necrons 1
Left command barge flies over his asscan razorback and immobilize it with my sweep attack.
Right command barge stops just in front of his middle razorback. I didn't have enough movement to fly over it.
Necron movement on the right.
In the middle.
And on the left side.
Lance-teks (crypteks with eldritch lance) immobilize the right speeder.
They also wreck the middle razorback (which was empty).
That is all my shooting was able to do. Right annihilation barge (
AB) did not have a target (because my lance-teks wrecked the middle razor) and left annihilation barge is just out of range of his left, immobilized razor.
Wraiths run.
Space Wolves 2
Overview of the top of Turn 2. Night-fight due to Solar Pulse #2. 1 unit of grey hunters come in from reserves and embark onto an empty razorback.
Right razor advances. Rune Priest (who is actually in the transport) fails to cast Stormcaller due to
and takes 1W from Perils.
Left grey hunters disembark and move towards my wraiths.
Old man Bjorn advances.
His immobilized razor searchlights my command barge. Long fangs then blow it up, killing 1 grey hunter in the explosion.
Bjorn searchlights my other command barge. I believe it is a lascannon that blows it up this time.
The rest of his shooting kills another 1 wraith on the left.
His razor searchlights my right wraiths and missiles down another 2 wraiths only.
His shooting is much better this turn as he takes out both command barges and 3 wraiths.
The Old Man then assaults my Overlord....
....and knocks him down. My Overlord doesn't get back up again.
Finally, his grey hunters assault my wraiths. I kill 2 and he kills 1. Hunters stick around.
Necrons 2
Overlord advances. It's all about putting pressure on your opponent.
Warriors shuffle around.
AB moves forwards.
Necron movement on the right. Wraiths ignore the
RP's razor and advance instead. Reece was trying to bait my wraiths with it but I wasn't falling for it. My lance-teks will take care of his
HQ's razor.
Middle wraiths go after Bjorn. Now I could have sent my wraiths after his long fangs, but then I didn't want Bjorn running loose in my deployment zone. Besides, I have a plan. My plan is to hopefully kill Bjorn and then use the middle warriors to claim his body as an objective.
Lance-teks blow up his razorback. 4 grey hunters die in the explosion!!!
On the left, my crypteks blow up 1 typhoon speeder.
Wraiths run.
Middle wraiths assault Bjorn.
I only manage to stun/shake him thanks to his venerableness. In return, Bjorn only insta-kills 1 wraith.
Finally on the left, my wraiths kill 1 hunter and he breaks. I was hoping that he would survive 1 more turn. Now my wraiths are left out in the open for all his missiles to shoot down.
Space Wolves 3
Top of Turn 3. His other unit of grey hunters come in from reserves and embark onto another empty razorback.
Dreadnought and grey hunters go up to greet my right wraiths. Reece is taking a big gamble here by throwing his hunters at my wraiths.
His left dread goes up to greet my Overlord.
In his Shooting phase, he downs the 2 left wraiths with just 1 unit of long fangs.
Rune Priest jaws 1 cryptek and 1 warrior. The right immobilized typhoon then shoots down another 3 warriors. However, 2 warriors get right back up due to Reanimation Protocols.
On the left, the asscan razorback and typhoon (both without cover) focus on 1 unit of warriors. I am lucky to only lose 3 warriors and a cryptek rather than the whole squad.
The warriors fail to get back up but fortunately for me, the cryptek does.
On the right, the combination of 1 squad of long fangs, his lazorback, dreadnought and grey hunters only manage to shoot down 1 wraith. Dread and hunters then assault. I pile into his grey hunters.
Left dread assaults. Overlord passes his invuln to avoid getting squashed. He then takes out the dread's
DCCW as well as stun it.
Reece's gambit fails as his dread cannot cause an unsaved wound to my wraiths. In turn, my wraiths kill 2 grey hunters and break the squad. They only fall back 4" but cannot regroup next turn.
Finally, the b*tch slaps continue with my wraiths getting the better of Bjorn with a stun result.
Necrons 3
Necron movement.
Weakened warrior unit gets back into area terrain.
AB inches closer to the
SW objective and prepares to contest on Turn 5.
AB puts an astounding 10 hits on the left razorback (I rolled 3 6's to hit). I then proceed to glance 4 times and pen 4 times....and Reece fails every single cover save!!!
I actually make a mistake here. I forgot that the tesla destructors were
AP- and so should have subtracted 1 from the damage charts. However, I didn't even bother rolling for the glancing hits. The pens were enough to reduce it to an immobilized, weaponless box at worst and a wreck at best.
Also, the tesla destructor arcs onto 1 squad of long fangs but I fail to hurt any of them.
The other annihilation barge weapon destroys and immobilizes the right razorback. It should have been a weapon destroyed and stunned result instead had we factored in
AP-.
Oops. Sorry, Reece.
Lance-teks blow off the assault cannon from the left razor.
In assault, I re-stun Bjorn and he b*tch slaps another wraith to death.
Finally, my Overlord whiffs against his left dread.
Space Wolves 4
Overview of the top of Turn 4. I've succeeded in stopping Reece's mobility, though he still has all his long fangs and 1 typhoon as well.
Grey hunters disembark.
His right long fangs move to form a roadblock to his retreating grey hunters. He is trying to redirect their fall back such that they can hopefully get more than 6" away from my wraiths and regroup next turn. Smart play as his hunters fall back about 7".
Left hunters run towards his objective.
Here, Reece makes a mistake. He wanted to assault my warriors, however, Jaws and shooting from his immobilized speeder wipes them all out! I even go-to-ground for the 3+ cover but still fail all my saves. Now his
HQ is out in the open to get shot at by my lance-teks next turn.
In combat, I take off Bjorn's
DCCW and he puts 1W on my wraiths. Good thing Reece didn't have me re-roll because the 2nd result would have been an explosion!
My Overlord still cannot finish off his dread. I only manage to shake him.
Finally, my right wraiths finish off his dread and consolidates to make sure his grey hunters keep falling back (not that it mattered as I was going to assault them next turn anyways).
Necrons 4
Warriors shuffle around slightly. Mainly I spread my warriors to minimize the effects of any frag blasts.
Wraiths get ready for a multi-charge.
Warriors and crypteks wipe out his Rune Priest and lone grey hunter.
Wraiths wipe out the grey hunters and kill 4 long fangs after No Retreat saves.
Space Wolves 5
Typhoon makes a play for the objectives and moves flat-out.
It takes the focus-fire of 2 long fangs just to immobilize my
AB. Reece needed to stop it from contesting his objective.
Wraiths wipe out his long fangs.
Bjorn causes another 1W to my wraiths.
Finally, my Overlord destroys another weapon on his dread. I just can't kill him!
Necrons 5
Overview of the bottom of Turn 5. This will most likely be the last turn. If I can stop his typhoon from contesting, then he can't win.
My other
AB moves 12" towards his objective.
Immobilized
AB kills 1-2 grey hunters. They pass morale.
My lance-teks then wreck his typhoon to dash all hopes for a draw.
Wraiths assault his middle long fangs and kill 4.
We call the game here. I've got 2 objectives. He's only got 1. He can't get to my objectives and next turn, there's a chance that my wraiths will get to his grey hunters or objective.
Victory to the Metallic Dead - Necrons!!!
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POST-GAME ANALYSIS:
Necrons:
I really like this necron build. I feel that the additional component of lance crypteks and annihilation barges may perhaps make this list a little more well rounded (and thereby, more balanced) than my Maximum Threat Overload necrons. Although I made a mistake with the
AB's, they did soak up a lot of firepower that could have otherwise been directed towards my troops. The wraiths were solid as usual. They killed their share and soaked up a huge amount of firepower (and actually lived!). Their saves were much, much better than normal but even if it wasn't, that wouldn't have diminished their impact on the game at all. The only thing I regretted doing was assaulting Bjorn, but honestly, I felt that I really didn't have much of a choice. Had I ignored him, I think Reece would have sent Bjorn towards my troops and that, I didn't want. Overlords on command barges under-performed this game. Then again, I kind of expected that because of the amount of
AT Reece has in his army. I really wasn't expecting them (the command barges) to live past Turn 2. Overlords themselves also under-performed. One got owned by Bjorn before he could even strike, and the other got stuck in combat with a dreadnought for the entire game. Finally, the crypteks did well this game. Their shooting helped a lot to stave off units trying to contest.
My opponent played a great game and had a solid strategy. By advancing 2 troops on the flanks, he was trying to accomplish several things. He put his transports in range to searchlight my wraiths, he was making a play for my objectives and he was also trying to split up my wraiths. It didn't really work as well as he'd like though because I had enough shooting to deal with just 2 transports. By deploying his long fangs (and most of his army) on his board edge, he was able to maximize the shooting in his army. He should have been able to take down my wraiths, if not wipe them out then to reduce them to a much more manageable threat level. Too bad for him I was making my saves, but that was no fault of his. Finally, he set up his counter-assault units - his dreads - perfectly. I couldn't avoid them and 2 of them did their job...Bjorn tying up my wraiths and a dread tying up my Overlord.
Overall, it was a great game with not too many mistakes made strategy-wise. This time, I got the better of my opponent due to some good dice on my part. However, I do think that Reece's Space Wolves is still a very dangerous army that can consistently do better against my necrons than this game would otherwise indicate. I also have confidence that necrons can without a doubt stand up to some of the best tournament armies out there.
Space Wolves: (by Reecius)
Ah Jy2, you and your damn saves! hahaha
He just wasn't dying, the dice took a big dump on me and all that firepower just bounced off of him, turn after turn. I was getting really frustrated as it seems like every time we play the dice just hate me!
I should have been wasting those Wraiths and Command Barges but nothing would do any damage. I shot at a Command barge with literally 20 missiles and did NOTHING to it, it was just one of those games.
But, it is a dice game and that is the way it goes. I find that when two good players with good lists play one another, it often comes down to who makes a mistake or who has better luck. Neither of us made a major mistake and Jim's dice were hotter than mine.
Well played Jy2, as always a very challenging and enjoyable game.
.....Bay Area Open GT 2013 - Best Tyranids 
.....LVO GT 2014 Team Tournament - Best Generals
as is Bjorn!
Chaos daemons 1850
2250+
(
-and for something silly below-
Night Lords (40k): 3500pts
Klan Zaw Klan: 4000pts
