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Friendly Basement game @ 1520 points - using INAT FAQ 3.2 as law.

My Necrons:
Lord w/ Orb
Warriors x10
Warriors x10
Destroyers x4
Destroyers x4
Destroyers x3
Monolith
Monolith
=1520

His Bugs:
Warrior Prime - Regen (maybe other stuff)
9x Warriors - Basic
20x Termigaunts (basic kit)
21x Termigaunts (basic kit)
Tervigon
Tervigon
11x Gargoyles
10x Gargoyles
2x Zoanthropes
2x Hive Guard
2x Hive Guard
1x Biovore
1x Biovore
1x Biovore

I think that's his whole list. Anyway, when he plays me he's usually not sure if I'll be using my Tau or Necrons, so sometimes his lists aren't optimized as if he knew he'd be fighting one or the other.

The map (from my facing) included an oil refinery in my left corner, a hilly terrain piece with a fort on top big enough for 5 infantry in the middle of my side, a big ruined 3-story building on my right corner, lots of hills and some area terrain in the far left corner, a bridge over a creek that runs from far left to near right, some LOS blocking houses in the far right, and various small ruins scattered in the middle near the creek.

We get the mission where you each have a deployment zone objective and then rolled for table quarters deployment. I picked the right side and put out everything but Warriors, with the Monoliths as far forward to the center as possible. I put my objective in the creek and he put his near some cover but in the open. He puts his whole army except Warriors and the Prime and a unit of Termigaunts in the center of the table, ready to rush. I think he is planning to try to flank with the Warriors and Termigaunts, so I make a mental note to have a monolith positioned to harass him and block movement.

TURN 1:
I go first, and move the Monoliths forward, with one covering my right flank and the other beelining towards the Zoanthropes and his objective. My plan is to kill the Zoanthropes first turn and then have free reign over the board with the 'Liths. My Destroyers line up to shoot at Tervigons and Zoanthropes, but due to bad rolls and bad lines of sight, I end up killing only 1 zoanthrope and 2 Hive Guards, with a couple maller creatures added in for good measure.

He goes next, sporing my Destroyers with spores, killing one, shooting my Monolith and missing or doing no damage with everything else, and moving closer with everything. The Gargoyles are flanking either side, staying behind cover. He sees how much I like killing his medium sized units, so he Catalysts the surviving Zoanthrope and a the sirviving unit of Hive Guard.

Turn 2:
I bring in 1 unit of Warriors near my objective, they spread out and relax. One Monolith gets closer to the Zoanthrope and the objective, shooting and scattering away from it, killing some tiny bugs instead. The other Monolith Particle Whips a Tervigon and a biovore, rolling a 1 for the Tervigon and killing the Biovore. My destroyers put 4 wounds on that same Tervigon and fail to wound the Zoanthrope. My plan to concentrate fire on the Tervigon is hampered by the big giant LOS blocking monolith and the lack of maneuvering room.

He moves closer with most things, moving the wounded Tervigon back to cover behind the bridge and spawning some Termigaunts with it (no doubles). He decides to Catalyst the Tervigons after seeing how much Destroyers spank them. His Zoanthrope gets super lucky and blows up the Monolith... did not expect that to happen. Everything else whittles away at Destroyers or Warriors. 1 Warrior falls. He gets his Gaunts from Reserves as well, so they come up my right flank.

Turn 3:
I cry a little about the Monolith, and then blow his Zoanthrope to hell with Destroyers. I fail to do any Tervigon wounds with another unit of Destroyers, then kill a lot of the closest Gaunts with the 3rd group. The Monolith fluxes, hitting 5 units, doing some light damage to little bugs. No reserves this round.

He gets closer with the healthy Tervigon, gets his Warriors in from the right flank, shoots some stuff, wiggles and repositions and gets closer. He has 2 units of Gaunts that are in threat range now, so I'll have to deal with them soon.

Turn 4:
I blast the bejeesus out of Gaunts, Whip the Warriors, killing 1 outright and putting a wound on the Prime. Warriors near my objective get their first couple of shots, killing 1 tiny bug. His gargoyles are getting too close on my right flank, hiding behind a house, they'll be charging soon, so I kill some more of them with destroyers. There are 6 left in that group now. I have retreated out of 12" range, so safe for another turn.

He has 2 small units of gaunts that pull closer, his Tervigon is close as well. His wounded Tervigon heads for his objective, he drops some hints that he can't lose his objective before the end of turn 5, so I know he's got spawning on his mind. He fails to do much of anything but drop a couple warriors.

Turn 5:
I get some warriors back, then pull them through the portal. They finish off 1 Termigaunt squad, while Destroyers finish the other. I blast his wounded Tervigon to death with destroyers, then mop up a few other little bugs. My Warriors finally come from Reserves and head for my own objective, falling short on a run roll of 2. There is a lone Termigaunt sitting near his objective, way out of synapse. It is really the only chance that he has for winning this round, but it will need to pass Instinctive Behavior (he doesn't think about going to ground until after the game is over). I charge his Tervigon with my Lord, and they each do 2 wounds.

He passes his test, spawns some more bugs from his last Tervigon, moves the extra bugs back towards his objective. His Gargoyles and a unit of gaunts come and assault various things, both losing by a wound or 2. He takes some extra hits with the gaunts and the gargoyles run away back into Warrior synapse. The Tervigon and Lord fight, my Lord dies and does a wond or 2. We roll for another turn.

Turn 6:
The Lord gets back up, shoots and charges the Tervigon, killing it. My Destroyers kill a lot of gaunts, making him decide a few tough decisions (stay in Synapse or be near the objective). He chooses to stay in Synapse, and allows me to target them again, which whittles them down to 4 or 5 bugs. The gargoyles assault again, killing a Destroyer and then dying. The gaunts fight some more, but die after the Tervigon death causes 3d6 wounds and kills 6.

He piddles around with lots of instinctive behavior rolls, the end result being a group of 4 bugs are next to the objective. I have my objective, he has his, but we roll for another turn.

Turn 7:
We decide I have won if I can kill the gaunts near his objective, which I do pretty easily. Good game by all, if it hadn;t lasted so long it would have been much different in the end.



Lessons Learned:
Zoanthropes are better than Hive Guard, especially against Necrons. The Hive guards didn't kill a single thing, and didn't soak up too many shots. I try to convince him the Hive Guard might fare better against my Tau, but he doesn't listen.

Warriors can soak up a lot of damage, bringing them on from reserve denied them their ability to win the game for him. If they had run forward with his horde behind a Gaunt Screen they would have easily won the game for him, even if my Monolith hadn't been destroyed on turn 2.