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Hey guys,

This is my first battle report. We did start taking some photos of the game, but we got distracted and forgot to take photos from about turn 2 onwards (I think we need a 3rd person to document the game in future). This was our first 2000 battle with the new Necrons, so I don't promise that the Necron list is an excellent one or min/maxed much.

It also later emerged that the Necron list had been added up wrong and actually came out to something like 1930 points, but overall it probably didn't make a huge difference to the result.

I might post some of the photos from the setup and first couple of turns when I figure out how to get them off of this camera...

Armies:

Necron

HQ:
Trazyn the Infinite

Court of the Archon
-Cryptek with Lightning Prism
-Cryptek with Aeon Staff
-Necron Lord with Resurrection Orb

Troops:

20 x Necron Warriors
10 x Necron Immortals

Heavy:

Annihilation Barge
Canoptek Spiders x 1
Canoptek Spiders x 1

Fast:

3 x Wraiths with Coils
3 x Wraiths with Coils
5 x Scarabs

Elite:

C'tan with Entropic Touch and Time's Arrow (as Deceiver)
C'tan with Death Gaze and Writhing Worldscape (as Nightbringer)
5 x Praetorians


Space Marine

HQ:

Captain with Powerfist, Digital Weapons
Librarian in Terminator Armour with Avenger and Vortex of Doom

Troops:

10 x Tactical Marines w/ Meltagun and Multimelta, Sergeant with Power Weapon + Meltabombs. In Rhino
10 x Tactical Marines w/ Meltagun and Missile Launcher, Sergeant with Power Weapon + Meltabombs. In Rhino

Elite:

Dreadnought w/ Assault Cannon & Heavy Flamer, in Drop Pod
Dreadnought w/ Assault Cannon & Heavy Flamer, in Drop Pod
5 x Assault Terminators w/ TH/SS, in Land Raider Redeemer (Extra Armour, Multimelta)

Heavy:

Predator w/ Autocannon and Heavy Bolter Sponsons
Vindicator w/ Siege Shield
Vindicator w/ Siege Shield

Fast:

Land Speeder w/ Multimelta & Heavy Flamer
10 x Assault Marines w/ Flamer/Flamer, Sergeant with Powerfist. In Drop Pod.

Mission: Capture and Control (3 Flags rolled)
Deployment: Dawn of War
Necron player won 1st turn, elected to deploy 2nd. Declined to sieze initiative.

2 Objectives placed relatively close to each player's deployment zone in fairly secure cover, on one side of the board. The other side of the board contained a mid-field objective in the middle of very vehicle-unfriendly "ruins".

In general the board is considerably more than the average game I see, covered in terrain. Very few open corridors for fire, and also very few non-difficult terrain corridors for advancement.

Both sides elected to deploy 0 units to the board in turn 1. Neither side uses reserves aside from Space Marine drop pods.

Space Marine Turn 1:

All non-drop pod units enter the board. One Tac squad positions to secure SM player objective (supported by speeder and one vindicator), the other to contest the mid-field objective (flanked by predator and vindicator). Both Dreadnought drop pods deploy near Necron player objective in preparation for their arrival. Landraider deploys in middle to respond to either side.

Necron Turn 1:

All necron units enter the board. Warriors, Praetorians, Deceiver and 1 Wraiths unit deploy to contest Necron player objective. Spiders and Scarabs deploy middle to try and go after the landraider, and Annihilation Barge, Trazyn, Immortals, Nightbringer and other Wraiths deploy on mid-field objective flank. Trazyn fires his tachyon arrow at the contested flank vindicator, fails to hit. Warriors fire at one of the dreadnoughts and manage to destroy its DCCW.

Score: SM 1, Necron 1

Space Marine Turn 2:

The vast majority of the Space Marine vehicles advance at full speed, with the exception of the predator who fires at Trazyn, who saves everything. The DCCW-destroyed dread moves to assault the warriors, and the other to assault the Wraiths (in both cases after firing at them). 7 warriors go down (5 get back up), and 2 wounds go on the Wraiths. Both close combats are fairly uneventful and lead to draws - interestingly the wraith/dread combat prevents the cryptek in with the warriors (who was at the back) from getting in to melee combat. Geometry of the surrounding terrain and other combats keeps him out of combat for a very long time.

Necron Turn 2:

Annihilation Barge fires at the Vindicator but does not penetrate the armour. The praetorians blow the land speeder out of the water, and the Deceiver charges into the Wraith/Dread combat - passionate arguments ensue about whether a Dreadnought can be "Removed as a casualty" by Time's Arrow. Roll of the dice lands on the SM Player's side. It scarcely ends up mattering as the C'tan promptly blows up the Dreadnought. The Wraiths on the Annihilation Barge flank engage the Vindicator and manage to destroy its weapon.

Dreadnought/Warrior combat - 0 casualty draw

Score: SM 1, Necron 0

Space Marine Turn 3:

The Landraider moves towards the Immortals, but does not quite reach Assault range for the terminators. A couple of casualties caused on the Immortals from its shooting but they all get back up. 3rd Drop Pod full of Assault Marines (plus the Captain) arrives and drops in front of the scarabs. Assault marines manage to put 7 wounds on the scarab bases from their shooting. The Vindicator with its weapons remaining fires the template at the C'tan and Wraiths, but scatters and only hits the C'Tan (which takes a wound). The weapon-destroyed vindicator announces a Ramming action and manages to drive a full 12" (almost on the dot) into the Annihilation barge - scoring a stunned result. Tac Squad in Rhino braves the 2+ dangerous terrain to sit on top of the mid-field objective.

Dreadnought/Warrior combat - 0 casualty draw

Necron Turn 3:

On the other flank, the Wraiths manage to engage the Predator and destroy the Autocannon and one sponson, as well as stunning it. The Deceiver and Praetorians move to chase down the Vindicator, and the Wraiths charge into the back of the Dreadnought (again preventing the Cryptek from finally getting into melee) - they fail to do anything. Immortals unload on Landraider but fail to score results. Trazyn tries to take control of the Landraider but fails. The Scarabs and the spiders run away from the Space Marines, and try to run. The spiders get 6" each but the scarabs only get 1".

Dreadnought/Warrior combat - 0 casualty draw...are you seeing a pattern here?

Score: SM 2, Necron 0

Space Marine Turn 4:

The Deceiver-threatened vindicator drives backwards out of assault range and drops a dead-accurate large blast on the Nightbringer and the Praetorians. The Praetorians roll 5 1s on their saves, and are wiped out. Tactical Marines on the SM player's objective fire their multimelta at the Nightbringer but fail to wound (this particular multimelta has, in 10 games, only ever rolled something other than a 1 to wound 3 times total - SM player cries). Other tactical marines fire a frag missile at the scarabs but they save all the wounds. Assault marines torch and charge the scarabs, wipe them out. Consolidate towards the spiders. Assault Terminators charge the immortals and the Librarian casts the Avenger as they charge in. In total they kill 9 of the Immortals, leaving the Cryptek+1, and they fail morale but are not overrun.

Dreadnought/Warrior combat - 0 casualty draw

Necron Turn 4:

The deceiver continues to move towards the Vindicator. Annihilation barge fires at the Assault Terminators and hits, but all pass their save. Trazyn takes control of the Landraider, and promptly unloads into the Terminators, 2 of whom die and the Librarian takes a wound. Necron player cackles maniacally. Attempts to charge the spiders into the Assault terminators but figures they can't reach and runs. Nightbringer charges the terminators. Wraiths on both sides of the board do sweet nothing except stun the predator.In the Nightbringer combat, they manage to do him 2 wounds but take 1 in return, and Nightbringer then takes 1 from No Retreat. Dread Gaze does 2 wounds to the player's own spiders, healing the Nightbringer to 1 wound.

Dreadnought/Warrior combat - 0 casualty draw

Score: SM 2, Necron 0

Space Marine Turn 5:

Vindicator backs up as far as it can go to avoid the Deceiver by less than 1/2". Fires at the C'tan and does 1 wound. Tactical marines shoot at the Nightbringer with Multimelta again and...another 1 to wound! Landraider shoots at the Annihilation barge and fails to penetrate. Assault Marines ping their shooting and multi-charge the two spiders. Vindicator tank shocks Trazyn out of the way and tries to prevent him getting LOS. Tactical marines fire a krak missise into the Barge and score a Vehicle stunned, but it ignores it. Assault Marine vs Spider fight ends in SM player's favour 2:1, and both of the spiders take a wound from No Retreat (killing one of them). Assault Terminators and Nightbringer trade blows, ends 1:0 in SM player's favour and Nightbringer takes another wound - but Dread Gaze kills 2 Assault Marines in the nearby combat AND the remaining Spider, healing back to full.

Dreadnought/Warrior combat - finally, a glance from the wraiths! Leading to...vehicle shaken.

Necron Turn 5:

Wraiths finally manage to blag the Predator, and consolidate back towards the mid-field objective. Annihilation barge fires at the Vindicator...not only do the shots arc majorly, but the Vindicator explodes, hitting virtually everything in the area. The net result is disappointingly nothing except 1 dead assault marine, but both players liked to imagine it looked spectacular at least. Trazyn fails to take control of the landraider. Deceiver pursues Vindicator but more disappointing run rolls. The Nightbringer/Assault Terminator combat results in no casualties for either side. The dreadnought/warrior combat results in another glance with vehicle shaken.

Score: SM 2, Necron 0
Game continues on 3+, roll of 3.

Space Marine Turn 6:

Landraider decides to turn around and intercept the Deceiver, moves flat out and fails to put a wound on him in shooting. Vindicator shoots at Deceiver and fails to wound. Assault Marines try to go after Trazyn but turn out not to be able to make it. SM Player forgets about multimelta tac marines (not that it would have mattered, with that MM). Nightbringer combat results in another 1:0 SM win, and a failed No Retreat wound.

Dreadnought/Warrior combat returns to normal, with 0:0 draw.

Necron Turn 6:

Annihilation barge shoots at Assault Marines but they are surprisingly lucky with their saves - shot arcs into the rallied immortal/cryptek remaining and kills them. Deceiver moves away from Vindicator towards MM Tactical Marines. Trazyn manages to take control of the Landraider and blows the Vindicator off the board. Deceiver manages to get within 3 inches of the SM objective! Free Wraiths also manage to get into the other tactical marines, denying both SM objectives. Should the game end at this point the result hinges on the results of the Dreadnought/Warrior combat...SM Player smugly confident of holding until Wraiths roll 7 penetrating hits...but manage only 1 weapon destroyed, 1 immobilized, and 5 stun/shaken results.

Score: SM 0, Necron 0
Game continues on 5+, roll of 1

Game ends in Draw.

Concluding Thoughts:

Space Marine Player's MVP for Space Marines: Vindicators - "...one kept the Deceiver occupied for the entire match by driving backwards and shooting, the other still managed to contribute despite losing its weapon before ever firing."

Space Marine Player's MVP for Necrons: Trazyn - "...really disrupted my plans with his over-powered special abilities, which with a bit more luck could have been game-winning. I run 3 drop pods, -I'm- supposed to be the one disrupting plans, dangit!"

Necron Player's MVP for Space Marines: Assault Marines - "...kept the scarabs and the spiders from having much effect. I thought I could outmanuevere them without their jump packs but they managed to make it count."

Necron Player's MVP for Necrons: Nightbringer (C'tan with Dread Gaze, Writhing Worldscape) - "...he kept the Assault Terminators occupied for most of the game, which was good - excellent tarpit. He just keeps healing himself back to full too...killing my own spiders was a disappointing outcome but it was pretty hilarious at the time and seems unlikely in general."

Good report, engaging and interesting. I would include those few initial pictures, it gives me something to picture as you describe the scene emerge.

Maybe I am misremembering, I would reread Dread Gaze, I think it only restore one wound per use regardless of how many are inflicted but I might have misinterpreted it. I would check but my codex is out on loan...

Great report thanks for putting it up. Would love to see the pics.

The fact that this battle report is in third person really bugs me, I don't know why. "SM Player smugly confident"
"Necron Player's MVP for Space Marines" Are you trying to hide what side you are? Do you not know your opponents name? Do you not know your own? What army are you? I know this seems really knit-picky but when I read a battle report I like to think I'm being told by a 40k playing friend about a past battle, not by an independent observer who's apathetic about the games outcome. Try the word "MY" it changes the whole feeling of the report.



Automatically Appended Next Post:

Wow I feel like a douche typing that out and not saying anything else. Good game. Nice details. Go Crons.

Actually it was pretty intentionally written like that. I wonder if you can guess which player I was (okay, I was the Space Marines...). Funnily enough the reason that I wrote it in the 3rd person was that my opponent had just complained about battle reports where they talk about players by name because he always forgets which is which. I suppose he likes them for their dispassionate detail. Each to their own. If I did a video battle report that would be a different matter.

Re calypso2ts: That may be the case, but as this was the first time my opponent had fielded a C'Tan with it I suppose I was careless in not looking up the rule and taking him at face value.

All in all, after turn 2 or so I was actually looking at the battle wondering how on earth I was going to beat the Necrons, but somewhere in the middle the luck changed slightly and we had a pretty even match up. There are some things in the new Necron codex I think are stupidly overpowered, but the codex isn't -too- bad. It's certainly beatable, but I get the feeling if the stars align for the Necrons they will table most opponents, and that they will align thusly slightly more often than other armies might.

I got the feeling the C'tans dread gaze mainly killed necrons? Guess he's taking revenge for being reduced to a shard creature

Nice rep, all in all, would have loved some pictures though

Sorry but marines put an assault squad in a drop pod. To the best of my knowledge, models with jump packs cannot select a drop pod.

C:SM Assault guys can drop their packs in exchange for a Rhino or Drop pod for free.

Also, Trazyn cannot seize control of vehicle's firing systems. It is another SC, "A-something" the Traveler. I forget his name, obviously. Lol.

If that's the case, I miswrote which special character it was. I was writing the battle report from memory at work so I didn't have the codex to refer to. Whichever special it was, it was the one that takes control of vehicles.

And yeah, the Assault Marines dropped their jump packs for a free drop pod. I've found it to be a fairly effective strategy in general.