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Here is another of my battle reports with no pics and all text, so bear with me.

First off The good, the bad, the ugly III was a tournament held in Milwaukee area that has a special format. The Good (All Imperial teams) could not play each other, they could only play the other two teams. The same holds true for the Bad(Deamons, Chaos Marines, Necrons, D. Eldar) and the Ugly (Tyranid, Tau, Ork, Eldar). Also, it was an excellent tournament with 40 people. It went extremely smooth, turnaround between rounds was fast, and the tournament encompassed a lot of differant gaming groups and play styles without incident. I would recommend looking into The Good, The Bad, The Ugly IV for anyone in the midwest area next winter.

That being said on to the tournament.

My List
HQ
Deciever
Lord (warscythe, des. body, phase shifter, res. orb)

Troops
10 warriors
10 warriors

Elite
4 Pariahs

Fast
3 Wraiths
3 Wraiths
4 Destroyers

Heavy
1 Monolith
1 H. Destroyer
1 H. Destroyer
Total 1843 points

First mission was Primary: Kill Points 2ndry: win by 250 victory points Tertiary: Kill all troop choices including transports

Opponent: Mech guard. I hate fighting these lists with crons, its a bit too much firepower for my army to handle but no complaining now time to figure out a way to win.

His list (I am not the most familiar with how the guard list is broke down so bear with me.

HQ
Command Squad w/ missle launcher, medi-pack, plasma gun, body guard.

Elite
Marbo

Troops
Platoon cmd squad w/ plas. pistol.
3 inf squads all w/ auto cannons commisar bunched as super unit.
3 mortar teams

Platton cmd. squad w/ p. fist
1 squad w/ flamer in chimera
1 squad w/ flamer in chimera

Vet squad with 2 meltas in chimera

Fast
1 hellhound flamer
1 hellhound flamer

Heavy
2 Leman Russ Battle Tanks w/ lascannon hulls
1 demolisher w/ h. bolters
1 Basilisk

Note all chimeras were with multilaser and H stubber

Deployment. He wins roll and deploys first (pitched battle)

He puts the 2 LRBT against one edge of the board. Hellhound directly in front of those. Next to them is the blob of inf. with mortar teams and other foot sloggers behind. Next to the inf. was all the chimeras. Behind them was the Basilisk. On the end of the line was the demolisher and other hellhound roughly in the center of the board.

I deploy my Monolith opposite his 2 LRBT. Pariah, Deciever, 2 H. Destroyers behind. Next to the mono is both squads of wraiths with the lord attached to the front. Destroyers behind them for cover. Warriors in reserve. I try to steal initiatve but NO.

Top 1. He shoots all mortars, basilisk, LRBT's at wraiths killing 1 in rear squad and killing the lord and the entire front squad. His hellhounds advance, as does chimera with the flamers.

Bottom 1. I make some WBB on wraiths, pull them through the monolith and get all but 2 and get the Lord back. They emerge and assault the hellhound. H. destroyers shoot and do nothing. Same for destroyers. Mono and deciever advance along board edge staying away from demolisher. I wreck his hellhound.

Top 2. He unloads on the wraiths with everything he can again and I manage to keep 1 wraith alive, which is key so they can WBB. He also kills a destroyer

Bottom 2 Wraiths all WBB as does the lord (with more help from the monolith). Wraiths hit the giant blob squad to essentially hide from fire. I bring the Deciver out in the open to draw fire. Both warrioirs remain in reserve. Shooting nets me a stunned hellhound. Wraiths break a small 5 man platoon command and kill 6 or so guardsmen from the blob squad.

Top 3 His vets advance towards the destroyers, demolisher and rest of army shoot at the deciever and cause a wound. Wraith melee continues killing 5 more guardsmen. Marbo shoows up tosses his charge at the pariah but it kills 0 of them.

Bottom 3. 1 warrior squad squad shows up and shoots at vet chimera, doing nothing. H. detroyers and destroyers dont do much. Deciever assaults blob squad as well. He puts wounds on the commisar so the unit will break so he can shoot the deciever and wraiths.

Top 4 He shoots everything in his army at the Diciever causing 3 more wounds. Unloads 2 chimeras unloads on wraiths killing 3.

Bottom 4 I assault the LRBT with deciever destroying both. Wraiths and lord WBB assaulting one unit of guardsmen and the demolisher, stunning the demolisher. Guardsmen stick around. Pariah break another squad with shooting. I wreck his chimera with the vets and kill all but 4. H. Destroyer finally hits the chimera and blows the main gun off. My other warrioirs arrive.

Top 5. He shoots what he can at the deciever but does no damage. I kill off his guardsmen with my wraiths.

Bottom 5 I make his mortar team run with deciever ability. I kill a chimera with the wraiths. I only need to kill a 5 man platoon command and all his troops and transports are dead.

Top 6 More shooting at deciever and some H bolters at wraiths but little damage done.

Bottom 6 Deciever assaults 5 man squad and kills 1!!! He passes morale. We see if game ends and it does.

I get primary and 2ndry but those 4 troops mean I dont get terrtiary. 36/48 is my final tally.

I think the key to this game was the turn my 1 wraith survived letting the squad WBB and really cause him havoc. The lord coming back 3 times also did a lot of damage. I hate the Mech guard fight though. Take 2-3 turns of fire hoping to survive to start killing things in melee or be hopelessly outgunned across the board.

Next round I will fight.....Mech Guard!!!! Dam. Well take it one turn at a time. Ill post the results later.

Thanks for the write-up Norbu. Looks like you managed to do as well you could against the IG.

I like your list, as I often do. But I do wonder, did you feel this list had adequate firepower? My gut tels me you'd need more Destroyers... Still, you have a lot of fun units to play with: Deceiver+Pariah, DestrLord+Wraiths, Destroyers and HDestroyers and a back-up Monolith. Fun!

Cilithan

Dont get me wrong I love Destroyers. I find against extremely shooty lists (mech guard, D eldar, Tau) I get outshot and slowly but surely my destroyers are shot up. Granted I can WBB but that is no guarantee. Usually what happens against mech guard if I take say 3 units of 4 destroyers is I quiet 2 Long range threats, but only for a turn. They return fire and obliterate one suad and damage another. I WBB some but not all. Now I have 2 units of 4. I quiet a couple more tanks but now when they return fire they obliteratew a squad and damage a couple more, I WBB into a unit. Now I can only target one item. Your hands become very tied late in the game.

Also, you are depending an awful lot on "6's" to quiet vehicles. I have found the Wraiths can take a little more damage with the 3+ invul, and they hit vehicles in the rear armour with their S6. I still take a unit of destroyers for their shoting, but I dont rely on the Destroyers to do all my damage. I also took the Heavy Destroyers for some needed range and fire output. Destroyers are not a bad bet, they just have a hard time vs armour 12 and higher vehicles, and that is what the Guard are entirely composed of, so Ive had to figure a new way knock them out.

Round 2

Opponent as I said earlier was another mech guard build.

His list (roughly)

HQ
Commander with all advisors in chimera
Techpriest w/ 3 servitors all w/ powerclaws

Elite
Inquisitor w/ psycannon and 2 mystics

Fast
1 Hellhound flamer variant
3 sentinals w/ autocannons

Troops
10 guardssmen w/ lascannon and plas. gun
10 guardsmen w/ lascannon and plas. gun
10 vets w/ 3 meltas in chimera
10 vets w/ 3 meltas in chimera
10 vets w/ 3 flamer in chimera

Hvy
1 punisher w/ h. bolters
1 demolisher w/ h. bolters
1 executioner w/ plasma cannon side sponsons


Mission Primary: random determined on turn 4 either table quarters, terrain grab, or most scoring units w/in 12" of center. 2ndry: Outscore opponent by 500 victory points. Terrtiary: Eliminate opponents highest point HQ unit.

Deployment Modified Dawn of War.

I win initiative and have him go first. He deploys his two naked squads of inf. w/ lascannons on one edge 18" forward. Puts everything in reserve. I put my Deciever 12" in front of those squads (you could be w/in 12" in this style of Dawn of war). My warriors are in reserve.

Top 1 He shoots both squads at deciever and does no wounds.

Bottom 1 I turbo boost everything on that I can on the same side of the board as his units and my deciever. Mono wanders in near center of the board w/ pariahs behind. Deciever kills first squad.

Top 2 All his big tanks come in as well as the Inquisitor and a couple of chimeras. He unloads on the wraiths and kills 2 from the front squad and 1 from the rear. Psycannon puts 1 wound on the deciever.

Bottom 2 I wbb 1 wraith. I turboboost again with the wraiths because I am too far away to catch anything. I stop at point blank in front of the demolisher. Deciever assaults the other naked squad and wipes thm out due to combat res. Destroyers stun the executioner. Mono moves through terrain and "1" immobilized about 9" onto the board. That sucks, it cant help me WBB or meneauver my army where it is. H. Destroyers kill the two mystics firing at the inquisitor.

Top 3 Rest of his hellhounds and chimeras come in, sentinals stay in reserve. He stays tight to his edge due to the deciever and wraiths being only 9" away or so. Executioner pops smoke. Punisher with all the chimeras kill all my wraiths and my lord. Deciever takes a wound. 1 H. Destroyer is killed by demolisher negating WBB. All my destroyers fall to multilasers as well. Not looking good.

Bottom 3 1 warrior unit comes in. I get the lord to WBB. That helps, a lot. Pariah move up and shoot all weapons at the executioner. They glance it and immobilize it. Deciever assaults it and blows it up. Lord blows up demolisher.

Top 4 Deciever takes almost every shot in the army leaving it with 1 left. We roll for objective and it is table quarters. His sentinals show up and shoot the lord to death. He begins advancing as I have little on the board with teeth.

Bottom 4 Deciever assaults command chimera and destroys it. Unit has to emergency disembark and my opponent says he can act normally in his phase because it only lasts until the end of the game turn, meaning the end of my turn since Im going 2nd. I disagree but do not fight it. I didnt think the squad would do much. My mono takes a long shot at a chimera w/ vets, destroy it and the units routes due to the pariah nearby. Unit has 7 die so they cant regroup. Other warrior squad shows up and I put them in table quarter my opponent is nowhre near. Pariah shoot at the punisher, glancing it and knock the main gun off of it.

Top 5 He starts running techpriest and servitors towards my table quarter. His last chimera moves towards the table quarter with my mono. His punisher lumbers forward to contest as well. Psycannon finishes off Deciever. Long range shooting finishes off my last H. destroyer.

Bottom 5. I start advancing warriors to get rapid fire next turn if priest moves into my table quarter. Pariah shoot up punisher and keep it from moving, firing. Roll to see if game ends and it continues.

Top 6. He moves into my table quarter w/ the techpriest. Some shots at the pariah but nothing w/ ap3 so they make all but 1 saves.

Bottom 6. Pariah assault the punisher to contest his table quarter. I rapid fire both squads into the techpriest unit. He goes to ground but still is wiped out. We roll to see if the game ends and it does.

Primary I have a table quarter he has 0. We draw 2ndry. He outcores me but not by 500. He gets terrtiary killing my highest HQ. I knew it was risky putting the Deciever out front, but you have to put pressure on guard early so late game they either have to move flat out or shoot saving your late game army. Deciever did die but not before killing an executioner, a chimera, half the command squad, and two squads w/ lascannons.

I score 27/48 He scores 18/48

The pariah were my true heroes this round. The took the fight to the guard late game and he had no answer other than try shooting me to death. One more turn they would have assaulted his Inquisitor and the rest of the command squad wiping them out. I was fairly fortunate with my saves on my deciever, but I had horrible saves on my wraiths, so it evens out. The mono would have been much more help if it hadnt gotten immobilized but I cant complain too much, two straight mech guard fights and walking away with 64/96 points wasnt too bad with the Necron codex. Another turn in each game and it could very easily have been 84/96. On to the final round. I see my opponent and I am excited. It is one of the most unique army builds I have ever seen at a tournament. I had no idea how to approach it so it should be a good learning experience. Also, it is one of the best painted armies I have seen. Not saying what it is until my next report

Nice work with the crons man! It's good to see someone winning games with them, surprised to see the pariah do well, most tacticas I have seen really don't like them. (along with Heavy Destroyers...but if it works)

Can't wait to see what your next opponent had!

For my final round I had to fight Eldar. But there was a twist. His entire army was essentially Harlequins. It was a buetiful painted army and during his movement phase I could take some time to look at all the details on all his miniatures. That being said, I knew I needed some big points to have a shot at winning the tournament so I had to figure out how to approach this army.

His list

HQ
Farseer w/ doom, guide, fortune
Farseer w/ doom, guide

Troops
3 Guardians on jetbikes
3 Guardians on jetbikes
3 Guardians on jetbikes

Elite
10 Harlequins w/ deathjester, 2 kisses, 2 power weapons. (approx.)
10 Harlequins (same)
10 Harlequins (same)

Fast
3 Warwalkers all w/ scatterlasers
3 Warwalkers all w/ scatter lasers

Heavy
1 wraithlord missile launcher, brightlance

So lots of melee, lots of shooting, and fast little squads of inf for objective grabbing. I needed to approach this army with caution because of the "night fight" tye of power on the Harlequins making it hard to shoot at range. Once I closed I figured I would be swarmed.

Mission: Primary 4 objectives placed so none are within 12" of each other or edges. Each objective is 5 points. 2ndry: Win by 750 points. Terrtiary: have a unit (any unit) in each of the table quarters. Table quarters deployment.

He wins initiative and chooses to go first. He sets up with both squads of walkers as far forward and to the center as possible. The wraithlord was directly behind. The 3 Harlequin squads w/ the farseers were spread out behind them but more or less as close to the center as possible to close quickly. All his troops stayed in reserves.

I see a large church that blocks LOS in the center of the board but just outside my deployment zone. I decide to put my monolith as far forward and towards the center as I can essentially making a wall. If those war walkers get guided and shoot my units they would certainly destroy them. Now that my "wall" was up I had to hide my units. I put every unit as far forward as possible and from the center to the far right side of the board. Pariah near the mono, destroyers in a conga line behind them, the wraiths strung out behind that. My H. destroyers I put in the back corner. If he shoots them up, no big deal, I dont see much use for them in this battle, but it will save my other units. I am also about 40" away so his walkers would have to commit to my H. Destroyers. Deciever hides behind mono as well.

He scout moves his walkers past the center line to get some shots on my deciever. He asks if I would give him LOS on the Deciever before the game starts, I look and say yeah. I then immediately say "well let me re-deploy him". I move the Deciever back so there is no way he can be seen. A bit of a dink move, but he asked so I moved him.

Turn 1 His walkers side step and are guided. They take the bait with the Heavies and the first squad has only 1 walker in range. He does no wounds. His harlequins advance. Wraithlord has no target but the mono and does no damage.

Bottom 1 My Destroyers and H. Destroyers move to eliminate the walkers, I figured If I can get these out of the way early it will make killing the harlequins much easier. I wipe 1 squad completely out. I use the mono and kill 1 from the other squad. Rest of my army breaks from conga formation and takes a turn to get into place to be effective next turn.

Top 2 One squad of his shows up and turboboosts into no mans land to avoid taking part in the battle. Walkers unload on my destroyers causing 9 wounds. I fail 4 of my 3+'s so they are wiped out with no WBB. His wraithlord fires on a H. Destroyer but is just short of range. Harlequins advance and will be on me next turn.

Bottom 2 Mono "side steps" to let deciever out. 3 wraiths and a Deciever hit one Harlequin squad and wipe them out completely. Since all combat was simultaneus he puts all hit into my wraiths and wipes them out. I measure wbb range and I am just short by about 1". My H. Destroyrs and mono wipe out the last 2 walkers.

Top 3 Another squad of his turboboosts on and now both squads are zipping around in the backround. Another Harlequin squad ignores deciever and runs around him and the mono to hit the Lord with the other wraiths. I lose 2 wraiths but kill 3 Harlequins. He rolls well and sticks around.

Bottom 3 My first squad of warriors arrives and sits in the center 6" in. Mono pulls wraiths out of melee and I wbb both wraiths (thanks to the mono). I move the Pariah up to point blank shoot and then assault the squad with the wratihs and lord. I wipe them and the farseer out. I make another mistake and assault the other Harlequin squad with my Deciever. He losses but I didnt know Harlequins have Hit and run. They bounce out and move 12" towards my troops.

Top 4 His harlequins assault my troops and wipe out the whole unit. ( I am a little pissed I didnt read his list closer and made such a mistake but nothing I can do about it now.) His last unit turbo boosts on and they are hugging objectives on his side of the table.

Bottom 4 Deciever assaults the wraithlord killing it. Heavies turboboost towards his objectives to contest next turn. I pull the wraiths through the mono to assault the last Harlequin unit. I wipe them out due to combat res. and chase them down.

Top 5 He moves to grab 2 objectives with his 3 troop units. Thats all he has left.

Bottom 5 Deciever moves towardss one squad and attempts to make them run but they pass morale. Pariah shoot one squad and break them leaving just the two on objectives. Heavies turbobosst to contest one objective but they have to go into terrain to do it. I fail one of my dangerous checks and lose a Heavy permanantly. One unit of warriors runs to grab an objective. My wraiths turbo boost to be in each quarter.

We roll to see if the game ends and ......it does!!!!. Well crap, another turn and I could have wiped out his last 6 jetbikes. Not a guarantee but a good chance. At the minimum he would have had to have left the objectives to avoid assault. Oh well.

We each have an objective for 5 points. I have 2ndry and terttiary. This gives me 32/48. He gets 7/48.

Not enough for a truly dominate win but it is a win. I dont know where exactly I finished in the tournament. A couple of "bad" players outscored me by 10 points or so so I know they beat me but I dont know where I stacked up overall. I would guess somewhere in the top 5 or 6 out of 40. I was happy with how all my games turned out, but I made a few mistakes in my last one killing some of my valuable destroyers, wraiths, and warriors. I was happy to beat two Mech guard with my crons in a competetive environment though. The wraiths were a gamble and they paid off. I really needed them that last mission and they did a lot in the first two as well.

Pariah were heroes as well. Deciever also did well but that usually goes without saying. The guy I beat 2nd round ended up having the highest of the "good" scores. The other guard player I faced won both of his other games, so both were good tests for my army.

Overall team "bad" took the prize and we each recieved plaques as well as a box of minis to take home. I took a box of eldar so my little brother can paint them and build more of his army. The tournament was awesome and I would recommend checking it out. Next year they are hoping to have 10 more people making it 50 people strong. I know I will attend.

Excellent battle reports. Sounds like a really fun tournament. Very impressive results for a "low tier" army. Good generalship can make up for many codex deficiencies.

Very exciting battle report. My only question is about deployment for the Dawn of War mission. My general preference is to go first on Dawn of War, deploy two units of Warriors way out as far as possible to keep my opponent back, and then use the Grand Illusion to redeploy my Warriors to safety.

Not a bad idea, but if you dont get to redeploy more than one unit, the other is hung out to dry. Also, I wanted them off the board as long as possible with large IG tanks on the board. I also didnt know the mission until turn 4 so I wanted to keep them back. I wanted to go first so I could see where his tanks were going to come in since it would be nightfight. He put everything in reserve minus two units to deny me seeing where he deployed, but it delayed his offensive punch. The Deciever does add an element to deployment though I do agree.

You can always pull the second unit back through the Monolith when it enters the board. The Monolith moves six inches and the Necrons need to be within 18", so 24" deployment should put them in range of being pulled back through.

I think the Grand Illusion is a huge advantage here because your objectives all revolved around positioning of units. Deploying the warriors in such a way that forces your opponent's entire army to start in the back makes it very difficult for him to claim the back table quarters or advance into your deployment zone. At the same time you get to move your warriors back into cover and position them in a way that lets them hold your own quarters by putting them 12~14" from the center line on either side to Rapid Fire at anything crossing the line. In the meantime your Wraiths and Destroyers all turbo boost their way into the opposing side quickly and keep your opponent from claiming any quarters.

This deployment strategy gives you a huge advantage for Table Quarters and units within 12" of the center. It probably gives you an advantage for Terrain Grab as well.

Yeah thats a good point, I never thought of the mono. I think there are some good redeploy strategies with the warrioirs like you said, but in general I am too much of a fraidy cat to leave my warriors on the table for any more than is necessary. I generaly keep them in reserve because they are too much of a liability. Warriors have one job, grab objectives, in my army lists so they arent needed until turn 5 or later. I like it when someone gives me a -1 to reserve rolls, as it helps keep the warrioirs on the sideline.

IF we ever get a new codex I might be more inclined to use warriors but for now they are minimum taken and used.

Really like your final army setup. It is nice to see a Necron player that can wield a non-Destroyer Spam army successfully and at the same time display the power a C'tan is capable of!