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So a friend of mine had some spare time on our hands and wanted to play some 40k. Rather than play a handful of larger games(1.5k-2k)
we decided to try playing a bunch of small 500 Point games. to make it really interesting, we each made 2 lists for each army we had and threw them all together. This is what went into the fray:

Necrons list 1:
Lord, destroyers body, warscythe

10 warriors
10 warriors

Necron List 2:
Lord, res orb
10 warriors
10 warriors

CSM list 1
Ahriman
5 khorne berzerkers, rhino
5 khorne berzerkers, rhino

CSM list 2:
Daemon prince, Wings, Mok
5 Berzerkers
5 Berzerkers
Defiler

Daemons List 1
skulltaker on chariot
5 bloodletters
5 bloodletters
Daemon Prince, MoT, Daemonic gaze, bolt of tzeench, unholy might

Daemons List 2:
GUO
5 bloodletters
5 bloodletters
Daemon Prince, MoT, Daemonic gaze, bolt of tzeench, unholy might

Now to my friends Lists, These are estimates, as I do not play the following armies.


Black Templars List 1:
Marshal, Terminator armor, Lightning claws, 4 man terminator command squad
5 crusaders, plasma cannon
5 crusaders, plasma cannon

Black Templar List 2:
Emperor's Champion, preferred enemy vow
5 crusaders, plasma cannon
10 crusaders, 5 initiates, champ PF

Imperial Guard list 1:
Lord Commissar
Tons of Gaurdsman, all with auto cannon
vets with flamers

Imperial Gaurd List 2:
Comapny command squad, 4 flamers, chimera
10 gaurdsman, flamer, auto cannon, chimera, hull heavy flamer
veterans, 4 melta guns, chimera hull heavy flamer
Sentinel, hunter killer missile

Daemon Hunters List 1:
inquisitor, 3 gun servitors, heavy bolters
6 gray knight, justicar
6 gray knight, justicar

Daemon Hunters, list 2:
brother captain, psycannon
8 gray knight, Justicar
8 gray knight, Justicar

We managed to play 18 games of my lists versus his over a grueling 12 hour period. It was very fun and some of the most fun I have had playing 40k. With each game only averaging 30 min, the games never seemed to drag.
We played a 3 seize ground on a 4 by 4 table. After playing 18 games, we noticed several things. first of all, my friend won 14 games, I won 2 games and we tied on 2 games. Hist lists were much better thought out than mine. So how did the armies do?

Necrons: only won a 1 or two games. they are very weak at 500. Big surprise.

CSM: the daemon prince and defiler list lost ever game. Two big guys cant get the job done. Ahirman and his berzerkers of change rolled armor saver like terminators and tied a game, lost a game and won a game. Big surprise for such a zany list.

Daemons: FAIL! 2 big ramboing units FAILS! ontop of that I lost a MC on the deeptrike every game. managed to win one game because a GUO came it and killed 10 gray knights in 1 turn, insane luck.

Black templars: the terminator list faired well, crushing necrons and chaos. the horde list somehow went un defeated. How, I do not know. Probably because my friend's generalship is out of control good.

Gray knight: FAIL! lost most of their games. Managed to beat daemons once when a GUO scattered and died on turn 1.

IG: OWNED! slaughtered everything! 4 verhicles at 500 points demolished EVERYTHING! However do to insane rolls with berzerkers of change and Ahiriman, IG almost got tabled on one of their games.

Gernal observations: armor=win. It was unprecedented the advantage the mechanized lists had. Big baddies are too easy to avoid, and multiple small units are a pain to deal with. All in all I learned a lot from these short and fast games and hope to apply this to larger and more diverse games.

Chimera's are very tough in small games w/ av 12 on the front.......tough to break from shooting.
Sounds like a fun day of gaming though.

Rick

Lots of 500 point games sounds really fun

Those games...so many dice...

My head still hurts from all those games...

I think when we do this at 750 points, the extra wiggle room will minimize the weaknesses the Necrons suffered from so badly during those games. Next time, I'll be smart and not take footslogging Templars against a DP and a Defiler...I'm still amazed you didn't table me that game.

CK

Man i did somethinglike this with like 4 of my mates good fun.

Here's a precise rundown of what I fielded for those who are curious:

Black Templars List 1:
Emperor's Champion w/ "Accept Any Challenge"
Crusader Squad (10 Initiates, 5 Neophytes) w/ Power Fist, Meltagun
Crusader Squad (6 Initiates) w/ Plasma Gun, Plasma Cannon

Black Templars List 2:
Castellan w/ Terminator Armor, Lightning Claw Pair
Terminator Command Squad (4) w/ Assault Cannons (2)
Crusader Squad (5) w/ Plasma Cannon
Crusader Squad (5) w/ Plasma Cannon

Imperial Guard List 1:
Company Command Squad w/ Meltaguns (4), Chimera (Hull HF)
Veteran Squad w/ Autocannon, Flamers (3), Chimera (Hull HF)
Veteran Squad w/ Autocannon, Flamers (3), Chimera (Hull HF)
Scout Sentinel w/ Multilaser, HK Missile

Imperial Guard List 2:
Company Command Squad w/ Autocannon
Company Command Squad w/ Autocannon
Platoon Command Squad w/ Autocannon, Flamers (2)
Infantry Squad w/ Autocannon, Flamer
Infantry Squad w/ Autocannon, Flamer
Platoon Command Squad w/ Autocannon, Flamers (2)
Infantry Squad w/ Autocannon, Flamer
Infantry Squad w/ Autocannon, Flamer

Daemonhunters List 1:
Inquisitor Lord w/ Bolter, Power Weapon
Gun Servitors (3) w/ Hvy Bolters (3)
Mystic
Grey Knight Squad (5) w/ Psycannon
Grey Knight Squad (5) w/ Psycannon

Daemonhunters List 2:
Brother-Captain w/ Psycannon
Grey Knight Squad (7)
Grey Knight Squad (7)

* * * * *

My analysis is along the same lines as Extrenm(54).

The BT lists both succeeded tremendously, where I felt only the second, shooty one should have had any chance at victory (the footslogging list lost the Plasma-packing squad to a RZ check of 11 and an off-table fallback in turn one against Daemons List 1, but the Crusader Squad and Emperor's Champion proceeded to chase down and kill all four units -- which all warped in by Turn 2 -- while only sustaining 6 casualties!). Having a pair of Assault Cannons and a pair of Plasma Cannons made short work of everything that they went up against.

The IG lists were both gold. The Mechanized list was too fast and too tough for anything to take them down at 500 -- CSM List 1 capitalized very well on a brutal loss of initiative when I immobilized one of my Chimeras traversing a rough patch of terrain. It almost cost me the game! The infantry horde list was worrisome for me at first, but when I realized that 8 Autocannons and 8 Flamers will scour the table in a couple of turns (as demonstrated in their first few games), they became the rock solid choice amongst my 6 lists for being the toughest one I could field -- even enemy armor had nowhere to hide!

The DH lists performed as I expected them to. Despite some sorry luck in one game and a gross tactical error in another, the lists simply weren't robust enough to engage in a shootout, and didn't have the numbers or weren't geared to go into an assault posture. In fact, the best I did with them was against Daemons where they castled up on a small rise and pummeled everything on the field with their mass of Storm Bolter and Psycannon fire. They seem to be similar to Deathwing, in that they are a great Assault deterrent army.

I think the most unnerving lists to play were the GUO/DP Daemon List 2, and the DLord Necron List 1. The GUO and DP put NINE T6 wounds on the table, and had me sweating every time they deep-struck! To be fair, I don't think their games should be representative of what those lists are capable of. The DLord scared me because of the damnable Res Orb and how unpredictably resilient the Lord becomes!

I had to kill him twice in a couple of games, and there were others where I was worried he'd sweep through my Terminator Command Squad or slice and dice a Chimera without trying. Maybe that's just my knee-jerk reaction to fearing anything allowing you to roll additional dice, as your ability to roll 6s when it counts surpasses even my own innate gift of rolling 1s!

All in all, a solid day/night of games. We need to break up our next session into 6-game Heats, and need to start before 8pm so that we don't sleep the entire following weekend.

CK