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2012/03/11 03:47:42
Subject: Necrons v. Orks/Daemons/Wolves (1500pt Tournament) *ALL Missions Complete! Pictures!*
I attended a 1500pt tournament earlier today hosted by the Battle Barn and Alpha Omega Coffee & Games in Grand Rapids, MI. It was a great event, rife with good people, well painted armies, and um..hot dogs. I brought my Necrons, with some slight modifications from my last tournament list:
As the title suggests, my opponents were Orks (Kan Wall), Daemons (Tzeentch/Slaanesh), and Space Wolves. *EDIT* All batreps are now posted! Sorry for the delay!
Mission 1 (Orks)
Spoiler:
Primary Objective: Kill Points (must be ahead by 2)
Secondary: Control Objectives (scoring units)
Tertiary: Table Quarters (most VPs hold a quarter)
(Brief explanation: This was a W/L tournament, not battle points. If a player wins the primary, they win the match. If it is tied, secondary decides the outcome. If the secondary is tied, then the tertiary decides it. Else, VPs to break the tie. Now, back to more interesting things.)
My opponent wins the roll to go first and deploys like a Kan Wall will. Lootas in terrain in either corner, Kans strung out across the front lines, an infinite number of Boyz behind them, and the Big Mekz positioned to give KFF coverage to all.
My Warriors/Crypteks deploy in cover across my board edge. The Stalker stands in the middle to TL shooting and tar pit Boyz that might get too close. Letting the Orks run straight at me is going to be a losing proposition, so I have a few things to keep them tied up: my Wraiths and CCBs deploy as far as up as possible.
Crucially, I roll a 6 to seize. My opponent dubs this "the roll to win the game." I guess we'll see!
Turn 1: (Necrons) My Wraiths and CCBs rush forward, hiding behind the two Bastions in the table center (with Wraiths trying especially hard to avoid Loota LOS). Warriors inch up a little to make sure their Lances will all be in range. Annihilation Barges inch up as well. Shooting, my Stalker tags the middle unit of Kanz, and between him, 4 Lances, and an Annihilation Barge, I take out 2/3 Kanz and shake the 1 remaining. The other 4 Lances and Annihilation Barge have no LOS on the middle unit, so shoot on the right-most unit of Kanz. Without the Stalker's TL, the Lances whiff and I only Weapon Destroy and Shake two Kanz.
(Orks) Everything but Lootaz move/run straight toward me. Lootaz see through Night Fight and open on an Annihilation Barge. 27 shots, 3 Glances, and 2 Weapon Destroyeds later, they've rendered one Barge useless. At least they didn't get the KP, though. The other Lootaz target my other CCB, see through Night Fight, but thankfully only get one shot each. They only shake it, which I Living Metal away.
KPs - Necrons: 0, Orks: 0
Turn 2: (Necrons) My Wraiths move through the Bastion to confront the unit of Boyz on the outside edge. The nearby CCB flies 12" toward the Lootaz that broke my Annihilation Barge (unfortunately Sweeping no one) and disembarks. My other CCB flies Flat Out over the thus far undamaged unit of Kanz, landing near my opponents board edge. His Sweep explodes one Kan. Shooting, my Triarch Stalker/4 Lances/Annihilation Barge finish off the unit (my opponent made only 1 or 2 of his KFF saves).
In assault, my Overlord charges the Lootaz. They manage to put a wound on him, but I kill 2 Lootaz. They fail morale and break. Nearby, my Wraiths multi-assault a full unit of Boyz and multi-assault 2 Kanz. My idea in dragging the Kanz in is to block off any additional Boyz from the combat. Making the error of assuming Boyz are WS3, I put a few attacks on Kanz (thinking after I easily wipe the Boyz, I'll want the Kanz not fighting at full strength). 8 attacks on Kanz do nothing, and 16 attacks on Boyz only manage to kill 5. The Boyz manage to take out a Wraith and wound another, the Kanz whiff all attacks but one (which I save), and my opponent loses 2 more Boyz to No Retreat. Oof, thought that'd go better.
Board view at the beginning of my opponent's turn:
Note: Top left, my Loota-killing Overlord in terrain. Below him is the Boyz/Kanz/Wraiths CC. Even further down, my Overlord-in-CCB sits behind enemy lines.
Close up on the Wraith/Boyz/Kanz CC:
The Overlord stands nearby. This was at the beginning of my opponent's turn after the Lootaz have run off the board.
(Orks) The Lootaz run off the edge. My opponent moves two units of Boyz and a Big Mek toward the still-embarked Overlord (you can see him beginning to move models toward it in the above photo). His idea is to surround the Barge, punch it out of the sky, and claim two KP when the Overlord is unable to disembark. He WAAAGHs to get extra move distance. This also allows the unengaged Boyz near my Wraiths to run around the combat and get almost within charge distance of the Wraiths, but they're still a little short. Shooting, the Lootaz/lone Kan fail to do anything. In assault, my opponent's plan for the CCB unravels: I find out he thought it was rear armor 10, but being 11, the Boyz can't touch it. I figured he was depending on the Mek and two Nobz' PKs, but with so few attacks, they fail to even hit. Bummer. He does, however, continue to evade the Wraiths killing blow. I kill a few more Boyz, he kills 2 Wraiths, and we tie combat. These Boyz much tougher than I am accustomed to...
KPs - Necrons: 2 (Kanz, Lootaz), Orks: 0
Turn 3: (Necrons) The CCB flies 12" over the Boyz banging on his doors (I forget to Sweep, not that it would've mattered much) and the Overlord disembarks near the last unit of Lootaz. It went well for the last Overlord, so why not. Shooting, I weaken the outside unit of Boyz that had gone after the CCB. I'm not that worried by them at this point, but my Annihilation Barge can't hit anything else. My Stalker and Lances go after the solo-Kan, but only Immobilize it (my opponent's KFF is working again!) With the Wraith/Kan/Boyz combat dragging on, the other 4 Lances have nothing to shoot at. The Overlord assaults the Lootas as planned, killing one and taking no wounds in return. The Lootaz hold, which is for the best: as they completely surround me, it keeps the nearby Boyz from charging in and finishing me off. My other Overlord joins the Wraith/Kan/Boyz. If the Wraiths are killed this turn or next (seems likely), I don't think my Overlord will be able to escape the Kanz/two units of Boyz shooting, so he wants to at least help finish off the Boyz first. I suppose I could have hidden him and his KP, but no robo-guts, no robo-glory. Unfortunately, that assault will still not go my way. Although the Overlord and Wraiths take the Boyz down to a wounded Nob and one surviving Boy, the Boyz/Kanz do enough damage in return to stop from breaking. Luckily the Kanz can't attack my Overlord, which would of course mash him into a Necron patty.
The Overlord flees from the Boyz and into the loving arms of the Lootaz:
(Orks) Now I must say farewell to the Overlord and Wraiths. I've got a full unit of Boyz + a Big Mek this close:
The Boyz that were previously tied up by the CCB are proceeding toward my Warriors (and objectives), but I don't think they'll make it. As expected, the Boyz/Mek come to the rescue of the wounded Nob and Boy. They charge my Wraiths/Overlord, and wipe them out at I3. That combat went against me in a ridiculous way, but I guess I'm thankful I held up the Boyz and Kanz for awhile. Still, claiming two KP, my opponent has evened the game.
Turn 4: (Necrons) Looks like we're running low on time, so this will be the last turn. Gotta get some kills. The Triarch Stalker, 4 Lances, and an Annihilation Barge all fire on the solo Kan. Easy KP? No, the KFF is in full force. Only shot gets through and it shakes the Kan. Dammit. My other 4 Lances finally get some LOS, however. They fire at the wounded Nob and Boy, apparently find a hole in the KFF, and kill both. Ahead by 1 KP is not enough, however. I need one more. Now for the Overlord to pull his weight: in CC, he kills two more Lootaz. Testing on 5, they still do not break. Argh! We may very well tie on KPs.
(Orks) The Boyz that just killed of my Wraiths/Overlord spread out to try and cover two objectives. Since KPs could tie, and they are in threat range of nothing, this is the best thing they can do. Running, the Boyz move 1" and fall short of the second objective. More bad luck for my opponent. But will it matter? In CC, the Overlord continues to hack at the Lootaz, and kills only one. Thankfully, that is enough: the Lootas finally break and run off the nearby board edge.
The game is called and I've squeaked out a win on KPs. We tie objectives (my opponent would've won this with a better run move) and we tie table quarters. I also win a small margin of VPs.
It was a close game, made closer by a few mistakes on my part. The Overlord really didn't need to join the Wraith/Boyz/Kanz combat, giving up a KP. I should've also focused fire on the solo Kan sooner as that would've been an easy KP. On the other hand, my opponent's own mistakes also hurt him quite a bit. Running after the CCB was exactly what I wanted: if the Boyz had just ignored it and ran into my Warriors, I would've had KPs evaporating on contact. My back up plan was to tarpit forward-moving Boyz with the Stalker, but with a PK in the mix that'll only hold for so long. Luckily it did not come to this and I was able to bait the Boyz away. Not sure if my opponent would've played it differently if he'd not assumed rear AV10, but then, I would've done my Wraith assault differently if I'd known Boyz were WS4!
All in all, it was a very enjoyable, very close game. More so than any game decisions, my biggest regret was not getting better photos of my opponent's army. You can see one of his Rogue Trader Kanz (the solo red Kan) standing around...unfortunately I didn't get any of the third unit of Kanz (consisting of RT-era Space Marine Dreads---they really look perfect for the part too). There were a lot of other OOP models (Lootaz, Boyz, Nobz), all well painted and great to see on the table again.
Mission 2 (Daemons)
Spoiler:
Primary: Table Quarters
Secondary: Kill Points
Tertiary: Control Objectives
Deployment: Dawn of War
My opponent has a very unconventional Daemon list, and overall it presents some interesting threats to my army. I expect 21 Horrors with 3 S4/AP4 shots a piece will do a number on my Warriors. Not to mention Flamers, Heralds, Grinders...thankfully the primary objective is based on VPs, not scoring units, or my Warriors would be sweating hard right about now. The Grinders will be hard for me to touch in shooting at AV13, but I think the CCBs can handle them. There are also luckily few serious threats to my vehicles...enough Breaths could possibly hurt, but my opponent has no Bolts (only S8 shooting being Phlegm) and only one small squad of Screamers.
I win the roll off, but give my opponent first turn. Going first with DOW deployment puts Daemons in a tough spot. If he deploys his first wave to attack my deployed units, my full force can come on positioned to fully concentrate on (and possibly wipe out) half his army. I deploy two squads of Warriors, spread thin along the board edge, to try and tempt my opponent into coming near.
Initial Deployment:
Note: I think I took this part way through my opponent's deployment. The Masque is not pictured, but was directly across from my Warriors in the foreground. Out-of-frame, to the left of the Masque, were Daemonettes. Really wish I'd got a photo of my opponent's Masque model...he'd modeled a yellow coat and green mask onto a Daemonette's body. Much nicer looking than the real model, not to mention a lot funnier.
Turn 1:
(Daemons) The Dark Gods decide to give my opponent his non-preferred half, so he's bringing in The Masque, one Herald, two units of 8 Daemonettes and two units of 3 Flamers. A pretty anemic deployment. He does not take the Warrior-bait, and sets up at a distance. The Herald is placed centrally, Flamers hide behind large towers in the center of the table. The Masque attempts to do the same, but scatters far forward, landing across from my Warriors (but out of Pavane range). One unit of Daemonettes scatters onto impassable terrain, mishaps, and goes back into reserve. The other 8 Daemonettes land near the Masque, well out of threat range for now. After no shooting of consequence (Daemon's abysmal range + Night Fight), my turn begins.
(Necrons) I bring my Stalker on in the middle, just as last game, and boost my CCBs up the middle. They have no immediate target, but will be Soulgrinder-hunting as soon as they arrive. The Wraiths also move up fast, but have nothing to do at the moment. They'll stand by to jump on anything mean that gets too close. Warriors spread out across the table...don't want them all getting clobbered at once. In shooting, I put 2 wounds on the Herald with Stalker/Lances. An Annihilation Barge is barely within range of The Masque and puts 3 wounds on her. My opponents fails two 3++s and she's down for the count. Nothing else is in range/LOS, so that's all I can do.
Turn 2:
(Daemons) My opponent gets both Soulgrinders, a squad of Horrors, and the Daemonettes (again). The Grinders deploy close to the center of the table (and, thankfully, close to my CCBs), the Horrors deploy near some Warriors (careful to avoid the Wraiths), and the Daemonettes mishap and go into reserve (...again).
View of the table after my opponent brought in his reserves:
Both units of Flamers jump out of hiding and Breath one CCB (the one in the foreground of the above picture). Ignoring my Flat Out save, they manage a Shake, Stun (I Living Metal out of both) and (IIRC) Weapon Destroyed. But no sweat..! I'm still moving, but that was a close call. Horrors fire on nearby Warriors, killing 4-5. The Herald takes his shots as well and finishes off the unit. My Crypteks don't Ever-Live, and the unit is gone. One Soulgrinder shoots for the Stalker, but scatters off and ineffectually hits side armor. The other fires on the Warriors on my opposite flank and kills a few.
(Necrons) That hurt a little more than I was prepared for, but I think everything is still under control. My CCBs both sweep Flat-Out over the Soulgrinders. I wreck one (background of the above photo), and completely whiff against the other. I'll take it. Wraiths move toward the Herald and Flamers, looking for a multiassault. In shooting, however, I finish off the Herald. Elsewhere, I kill a few Daemonettes and pling the AV13 Grinder to no avail. My Wraiths barely reach the Flamers, crushing them utterly. I consolidate 6" toward the Horrors.
Wraiths advance on the Horrors:
If you can make out a Pink Necron amongst those Horrors, that'd be the Changeling. To his credit, my opponent's army has a lot of genuinely hilarious models.
Turn 3:
(Daemons) All remaining reserves arrive, except for one unit of Horrors: that means Screamers (deployed in a ruin near my Grinder-killing CCB), the Daemonettes again (deploying backfield, near the Screamers), and a unit of Horrors (deploying backfield as well), and the second Herald (deploying directly on my front lines near the Flamers).
View of the table after my opponent brings in reserves:
Moving the Wraiths toward the Horrors means I've exposed them to the surviving Grinder, but I think I can weather his attacks well enough. The Herald shoots up a Warrior squad, killing enough to put the Flamers out of range. They decide to go for the Stalker instead, glance it 3 times, and wreck it. The Warriors proceed to run off the board. Hot damn! My opponent runs with the Grinder to ensure he'll get the charge on Wraiths, fires on the Wraiths with the nearby unit of Horrors (wounding 3), and charges in. Wraiths hit first, but can't get a rend. The Soulgrinder only manages two wounds, both of which I save. I seem to have a lot of anti-climatic assaults like this with Wraiths...
(Necrons) CCB to the rescue! Flying over the Soulgrinder, my Overlord's Warscythe pens twice and the infernal machine explodes. Three Wraiths are killed in the blast, and thus the Grinder has accomplished more in death than in life. The three surviving Wraiths once again head for the nearby Horrors. The other CCB Sweeps Screamers (killing none) and the Overlord disembarks. With all enemy vehicles gone, my Overlords have gone from anti-tank to tarpit mode. Shooting, I winnow down the Daemonettes a bit more (think they're down to 3). I also put some shooting toward the Herald, taking two wounds off for my trouble. In assault, my Wraiths kill a few Horrors, leaving only a couple surviving. My Overlord assaults the Screamers as planned and kills one. Should be able to hold these guys down all game ideally...but Daemonettes are waiting nearby.
Turn 4:
(Daemons) Pink Horrors come in near my last unscathed unit of Warriors, but thankfully I've got cover. Not so for the half-strength squad. They are caught by the Flamers and Herald and killed off. Like the last two pairs of Crypteks, these do not Reanimate either. A squad of 3 Daemonettes and a squad of 8 Daemonettes stand nearby the Overlord/Screamer melee, but thankfully can't join in since the Overlord is completely surrounded (just like with the Lootaz last game). My opponent can't hit much with shooting, but takes out a few Warriors with the newly-arrived Horrors. In assault, the Screamers/Overlord do nothing to one another. The Wraiths are having trouble with the Horrors still...I kill a couple more, but am stuck with the Changeling surviving.
(Necrons) My other CCB Overlord flies around my opponent's backfield and disembarks near a full squad of Horrors. I don't have much to shoot at, putting a few shots into the Horrors near my Warriors (taking them down to 4). My charging Overlord kills two Horrors, then a one more from No Retreat. My other Overlord kills another Screamer...leaving just enough space for a Daemonette to charge in next turn. My Wraiths finish off the Changeling.
After the Overlord's assault on Horrors:
Turn 5:
(Daemons) The Herald moves for the Wraiths, shooting, Breathing, and assaulting. The Herald can't get through the Wraiths 3++ in shooting or assault, takes two wounds from the Wraiths, and dies on a No Retreat save. The 3 Daemonette squad squeezes in to help out the Screamers. He manages to get a rend on the Overlord, but I kill two Daemonettes in return. He loses the last Daemonette to No Retreat as well as a Screamer. Elsewhere, the other Overlord kills a couple Horrors.
An attempt to photograph that mess of an assault:
Note: the Overlord/Daemonettes/Screamers (Gargoyles) at the top. 4 man Pink Horrors straddle his table quarter. My Annihilation Barge is also pictured moving up to put more of my VPs contesting his table quarter.
(Necrons) I have a preponderance of VPs in three table quarters, but think I can claim a 4th...I try shooting up the rest of the 4 Horrors with Barges and Lances, but only take off two. In assault, my Overlord can't finish the Screamers. The other Overlord takes the Horrors down to one man remaining.
Turn 6:
(Daemons) The full squad of Daemonettes charge into the Screamer/Overlord and put the Overlord down. The other Overlord whiffs against the Horrors.
(Necrons) I still can't finish the Horrors with shooting, but the other Horror squad is finally finished by my Overlord in assault. Not that it matters much: losing the Overlord to the Daemonettes means I cannot hold that quarter. Daemonettes and Screamers out-VP my CCB and Annihilation Barge. No matter, I've got 3/4 quarters held...not bad!
The game is called at this point. I've won the primary objective (quarters) 3-1, I'm ahead on the secondary condition (KPs) 11-5, and we tie the tertiary (objectives) 1-1. It was an interesting game...a lot of my opponent's decisions surprised me, to be sure. I expected to have my Wraiths beating back Daemonettes and Horrors left and right, but he played them very conservatively. I think a more aggressive approach (especially in the later turns) was called for, but I assume my opponent wanted to hedge his bets after getting the non-preferred first wave. I think he also underestimated how quickly the CCBs would sort out his Soulgrinders, not that he could've placed them a whole lot better. Once again, my Overlords really shined, quickly taking out two of the biggest threats, tarpitting one unit, and killing off two others. The Warriors died in large numbers as predicted, although I could've been more careful placing them. The Wraiths did their job as always. Annihilation Barges were confused having no vehicles to stun, and I could've use them a lot better. For instance, the 3-Daemonette squad shouldn't have been running around at the end of game, nor the Horrors... But I have no major regrets: my opponent and I had a fun game, plenty of laughs, and I was of course happy to claim another victory for Necrons.
Mission 3 (Wolves)
Spoiler:
Primary: Control Objectives
Secondary: Table Quarters
Tertiary: Kill Points
Opponent: James' Space Wolves
Rune Priest (PA, Jaws, Murderous Hurricane)
5 Wolf Guard Terminators (2x TH/SS, 2x Combi-Plasma/Wolf Claw, 1x Cyclone ML)
+ Land Raider Redeemer
8 Grey Hunters (1x Meltagun, 1x Mark/Wulfen, Wolf Standard) + Wolf Guard (Combi-Melta/Power Fist)
+ Rhino (Dozer)
9 Grey Hunters (1x Meltagun, 1x Mark/Wulfen, Wolf Standard) + Wolf Guard (Combi-Melta/Power Fist)
+ Rhino (Dozer)
Vindicator
6 Long Fangs (2x Las, 3x ML)
+ Razorback (TL Las)
Deployment: Spearhead
I had previously tested my list only once against Space Wolves, but that list had spammed Razorbacks, something I do pretty well against. My opponents list is...different. By chance, I'd had a conversation with this player before the tournament even began. He had mentioned that his list was not in its most competitive form, and that should be pretty plain to see from the Wolf Guard Terminators and a Vindicator. Still, they don't give me warm, fuzzy feelings or make me think this match will be much easier. My shooting just can't handle AV13, let alone AV14. Keeping both off of me will depend largely on the CCBs, I think.
My opponent wins the roll off, and picks a quarter with a tall, multi-level ruin in the backfield. He sets up his vehicles with the Rhinos/Razor/Vindictor all surrounding the Landraider, pointed straight at me behind a plateau. Behind the tanks stand the Long Fangs at the top of the ruin.
I set up across from my opponent, careful to keep my distance with everything but the CCBs. Seeing the Long Fangs isolated, I foresee a great opportunity for my Wraiths. I decide to reserve, and Deep Strike them on. I fail to Seize and my opponent begins his turn.
(Important note: the poker chips represent the 5 objectives we're fighting over here. One's at table center, the other 4 are each at the center of a table quarter.)
Turn 1:
(Wolves) Moving the vehicle block 6" forward, but keeping the LRR in place, he tries to spotlight one CCB with the LRR and Razorback but fails. The Vindicator fires at Warriors but is barely out of range. The Long Fangs are much too far to spot anything through Night Fight. The forward Rhino pops smoke.
The vehicles advance:
(Necrons) Having moved forward, the Rhino and Vindicator are barely within CCB range. One CCB flies over (and lands in front of) the Vindicator but doesn't hit. The other flies over (and lands in front of) the nearest Rhino, and it explodes! In the blast, 6 (SIX!) Grey Hunters are killed. The remaining 4 then break and fall back through Dangerous Terrain. 2 more are killed. The squad is down to the Wolf Guard and Meltagun only. (My mouth hangs open.) The Stalker moves toward the edge of the plateau in the table center. My Warriors spead out toward objectives. The rest of my shooting plings off the front armor of the Vindicator to no effect.
My CCBs first strike:
And a wider shot:
Turn 2:
(Wolves) The Hunters regroup. The Vindicator moves to get range on the nearest squad of Warriors. The rear Rhino (with GHs and a Rune Priest) edges up more slowly than I expected. With his only other scoring unit on the ropes, I think he's planning to play more conservatively with these guys. The Landraider attempts to drive straight over the plateau, but is immobilized. (My army breathes a sigh of relief.) The Wolf Guard Terminators disembark and move toward the CCB that whiffed on the Vindicator. Most shooting focuses on the CCB that exploded the Hunters' Rhino. The Hunters' two Melta shots are stopped by cover saves. The Long Fangs, however, do their job well. The CCB wrecks and the Overlord falls out. The Rune Priest casts Jaws, being just within range, and the Overlord is gone. The LRR's AC and MM shoot at the other CCB but fail to affect it. The Terminators take a shot at the same CCB with their Cyclone and combi-Plasma, but also fail to do anything. They then assault it and nothing hits.
(Necrons) Despite losing one CCB-Overlord, things are going really well for me. The Landraider was a major threat until its untimely immobilization. I'll still have to deal with the Terminators, but they now have a long walk to make in front of my Lances. I roll for my Wraiths and they come in without delay. I attempt to place them on the ground floor of the Long Fangs' ruins to prevent the Fangs firing on me. Unfortunately I scatter far outside of the ruin and into the sights of the Rune Priests' Rhino... One of my Annihilation Barges fires on the 2 surviving Grey Hunters, killing them off. The other fires on the Lazorback, shaking it. My Stalker and 6 Lances open up on the Terminators. He makes a few Storm Shield saves, but in the end only one TH/SS Terminator is standing. And he's too far away to immediately threaten anything:
See the lonely Terminator on the plateau? The wrecked Vindicator lies to his right.
Turn 3:
(Wolves) The TH/SS Terminator runs headlong toward my Warriors. The Long Fangs fire on my CCB, but do no serious damage. This turn, I'm most interested to see what he'll do about my Wraiths, though. As I feared, the Rune Priest and friends have disembarked nearby. The Rune Priest's Murderous Hurricane and other Hunter shooting put a few wounds on them. They proceed to go for the assault:
Wow...Grey Hunters can put out a lot of damage! Before I can even hit back, I'm taken down to my 2 Whip Coil Wraiths. They can't put a wound on the Hunters, fail a bunch of No Retreat saves, and are wiped out. Flawless Victory to the Grey Hunters.
(Necrons) Well, something had to go well for my opponent. Although the Wraiths were largely a wasted effort, I'm glad that the only Grey Hunters remaining are now hanging out far from the rest of my army. My Annihilation Barges continue to stun/shake the Lazorback. My Warriors spread out to cover the three "safest" objectives, while the middle unit proceeds toward a 4th objective on the plateau. Warriors don't care if there's a Terminator up there!:
Note: The Stalker was advancing toward the plateau as my Terminator back up plan. He's done pretty well tarpitting Thunderhammers in the past, but I'm glad it didn't come to that...
The advancing Warriors finish off the last Terminator with their Lances. That was no trouble at all. Never been so glad to have brought 9 AP2 weapons..! Elsewhere, my CCB Overlord flies around my opponent's backfield. He Sweeps the Long Fangs, killing the Pack Leader, but otherwise is waiting to see what the Hunters do.
Turn 4:
(Wolves) Grey Hunters and the Priest get back into their Rhino. They then proceed toward the objective I'm holding nearest to them (by the wrecked Vindicator for reference). Long Fangs Immobilize the CCB but I Symbiotically Repair* it. (*I explained to my opponent that this interpretation of Symbiotic Repair is disputed---we diced off on it with no acrimony.)
(Necrons) The CCB Sweeps the Rhino but does nothing. My Stalker and Lances open up on it, but only manage a stun. Good enough, that'll stop them from assaulting my Warriors at least. My Annihilation Barges concentrate their fire on the Lazorback and wreck it. Elsewhere, my other Warriors hunker down on 3 objectives. My opponent will have a hard time shaking them off.
Turn 5:
(Wolves) The Grey Hunters, with no better choice, disembark from their Rhino. The CCB is within Melta range, so they fire, finally managing to wreck it. The Overlord falls out before them. Charging into DT 6", the Hunters manage to reach him. Having previously taken a wound to Symbiotic Repair, he is killed even faster than the Wraiths were. The Hunters consolidate up to contest the objective.
(Necrons) My Stalker, Warriors, and Lances from all over the place fire on the Grey Hunters. I manage to kill the Rune Priest and 5 Hunters, leaving the unit at 4. They pass morale and continue to contest the objective. No big deal, though, I'm holding 3 more!
My opponent rolls to see if the game continues...: 2
Board view at the end of the game:
Note: Bottom-left, the contested objective. Center, I hold an objective. Top-left, I hold an objective. Top-right, I hold an objective. Bottom-right, the ruins holding my opponent's Long Fangs that I never got a picture of.
So I win the primary objective by a wide margin. Table quarters I also win 3:1. On the tertiary objective, kill points, my opponent thought that I had won big time. I added it up after the fact, though, and I only had 6 KPs to his 5. So that should've been a tie. Not that this would've affected the final results any...
I had a plan this game and it worked well...far too well. The Grey Hunters practically getting wiped turn 1 and the LRR immobilizing were two remarkable strokes of luck. Without that craziness, I'm not sure what would've happened. I think I had a great deployment, solid counters to all of his threats, and I probably would've still eked out a smaller victory with more average dice rolls...but it would've been a different game. I had wanted to start Sweeping the Landraider, hitting Terminators with Lances, maybe counter-assaulting them with the Stalker, or DSing the Wraiths near Terminators instead of the Fangs---but all that went out the window when the LRR immobilized. Well, except for the part about the Lances and the Terminators. That did go forward as planned.
One big thing, having double his troop choices, I was able to get to 4/5 objectives by mid-game. By that time he had nothing to force that many Warriors off. Someone earlier commented that Warriors seem like filler in my list, but for their cost, they pack a solid amount of firepower and make great objective holders. That really shined in this match-up. While my opponent got entangled with CCBs, Wraiths, Annihilation Barges, the Warriors/Crypteks just operated freely in the background, taking objectives, shooting two Dev squads worth of TL-ed, high-powered shots, all while getting ignored. And that's usually how it goes with them.
The Wraiths dying so easily was a disappointment, but I had taken a gamble Deep Striking them. If they hadn't scattered, I think there would've been a bunch of dead Long Fangs. If neutralizing his last scoring unit for a turn was the worst case scenario...eh, I'd do it again given the chance.
Results and Final Thoughts
Spoiler:
I was one of only two players to go 3-0, but I came up short on my secondary and tertiary conditions. 1st went to a Blood Angels player (I don't know much about his list unfortunately) and I took 2nd. I could kick myself for not paying better attention to the other objectives (as I'm sure I could've claimed a couple more..), but I'm satisfied with my performance over all. I enjoyed all of my games a lot, my opponents were all great people, and in the end it felt like half-a-day well spent.
I'm still happy with my list (it's gone 5-1 for me in tournament play so far), but I think I will be making some modifications for future games. Mostly, I want the second squad of Wraiths from my 1750+ lists, and I'm willing to make some drastic cuts to fit them in. The Stalker and Lances are good fun, but I think over all more Wraiths will do more for me. Wraiths and CCBs synergize so well (and are so much fun to use) that I really want to play up that combo. Right now I'm thinking something like this:
I'll miss my 9 AP2 shots, but Wraiths add a huge threat and can deal with a lot of the things my Lances previously handled. I might not be shooting up full units of Terminators with this list, but I could sure pin them down with Wraiths. I lose a troop choice, but gain a more solid objective-taker than Warriors with a full Immortal squad (not to mention better anti-infantry fire). I think it would improve my performance especially against CC-heavy armies like the Ork list I faced round one (or BAs, Nids, Fatecrusher, Battlewagon Orks, etc.). Those are the match-ups I struggle with most, and I think this list would balance that out a good deal.
All reports complete. I appreciate any and all feedback. Thanks for reading!
This message was edited 21 times. Last update was at 2012/03/14 15:14:13
2012/03/11 04:08:21
Subject: Necrons v. Orks/Daemons/Wolves (1500pt Tournament)
Look forward to seeing how that Daemon list works. It is different than anything I have run, but uses a lot of breaths which could shine against a mostly non-mech army like yours.
I really think some larger units of Daemonettes would be better (or Seekers to put down a lot of attacks!)
I'm kind of curious myself on how well a daemon list can shoot. Mine has always been very choppy but I might need more dakka in the future. What's the Masqe main role for that kind of list? drag things out of cover for the horrors?
+ Thought of the day + Not even in death does duty end.
2012/03/11 14:23:34
Subject: Necrons v. Orks/Daemons/Wolves (1500pt Tournament)
calypso2ts wrote:The Masque seems like it is there for the gimmicky 'drag into a template shaped formation.'
ahh you are probably right. I never use her or even pavane much nor flamers or soul grinders lol, I totally forgot about that tempalte thing. I might try that with a blue scribe next time in my list and have breath from daemon princes or something to see.
+ Thought of the day + Not even in death does duty end.
2012/03/11 15:47:48
Subject: Necrons v. Orks/Daemons/Wolves (1500pt Tournament)
Which is why it is gimmicky I regularly use The Masque, but I have not tried to pull an enemy into a template more than a handful of times. She is more effective extending the range of your Fiends/Crushers (30" potential threat range on some fiend can be sick) or moving that screening unit to setup a brutal multi-assault
Zid wrote:people have yet to learn that Daemons cannot pull off those shenanigans like Chaos Marines -_-
Heh, even Chaos can barely pull it off these days!
calypso2ts wrote:Look forward to seeing how that Daemon list works. It is different than anything I have run, but uses a lot of breaths which could shine against a mostly non-mech army like yours.
Besides the Breaths, the scariest thing in that list to me was Warpfire. Each Horror brings 3 AP4 shots against my army of mostly 4+ saves...and there were 21 of them! But Daemons will be coming next!
For now I've posted the Mission 1 batrep. Time concerns mean I didn't get photos of every turn, but I think it should be easy enough to follow. Stay tuned, I should have Mission 2 up tonight (tomorrow at the latest), and Mission 3 up tomorrow (...tomorrow at the latest!)
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2012/03/11 19:35:40
2012/03/11 21:11:11
Subject: Necrons v. Orks/Daemons/Wolves (1500pt Tournament) *Mission 1 Complete*
Hrm.. interesting lessons learned. I never used flamers before but I guess you can certainly glance vehicles to death with enough weapon destroyed/immobilized results.
Also didn't know you can sweep attack things locked in combat. Good lessons for future games.
+ Thought of the day + Not even in death does duty end.
sudojoe wrote:Hrm.. interesting lessons learned. I never used flamers before but I guess you can certainly glance vehicles to death with enough weapon destroyed/immobilized results.
I should have been a little clearer there, sorry. They rolled a '6' on their Glancing result, -2 for glancing, +1 for my vehicle being open-topped = one wrecked Necron vehicle.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/03/12 21:46:18
Although an immobilized result would have been good enough to wreck it in that case as well. (ignoring the debate about whether the Symbiotic repair can or cannot be used to prevent the wreck).
This one went about how I figured it would, with a 36" range I am surprised he kept the SG so close to you, I would have been inclined to DS them further back to isolate them from the rest of your army.
This battle really showcases how critical the correct squad size can be for Daemons (and how important it can be to plan your DS's appropriately). In DoW I actually almost always take Turn 1 so Night Fight can protect me. I also run 12x Seekers, 12x Fiends and a brick of 8 crushers as well in my primary wave so that I can 'reach out and touch' someone.
calypso2ts wrote:Although an immobilized result would have been good enough to wreck it in that case as well. (ignoring the debate about whether the Symbiotic repair can or cannot be used to prevent the wreck).
Well, it was the Stalker that got Breathed to death. The CCBs luckily made it out relatively unscathed despite getting hit by 6 Breaths at once. I won't take them so lightly next time, however.
This one went about how I figured it would, with a 36" range I am surprised he kept the SG so close to you, I would have been inclined to DS them further back to isolate them from the rest of your army.
The Soulgrinders were in a bit of a bind. Since I had moved my CCBs up 24", I had the reach to Sweep Attack most of the board. For the Grinders to hit anything, I don't think they had any choice but to get within CCB-range. They were only a little over 30" from the rest of my army when they landed.
I think my opponent would have been best off DSing the Grinders even closer to me, actually. My shooting couldn't effectively deal with them, and their CC profile is a lot scarier to my army than their blast template. Like I said before, I think my opponent just needed to play this one more aggressively. The Daemonettes and Horrors would've been a lot scarier if he'd been dropping them all near my Warriors and vehicles instead of in his own backfield...although I agree Seekers/Fiends would probably be a better unit for that job. Now 8 Bloodcrushers...that would really give my Wraiths a run for their money.
I'm kind of curious what would have happened if he used shooty daemon princes instead of the soulgrinders. Also, would the strat in that case to just run in and melee or stand and shoot?
+ Thought of the day + Not even in death does duty end.
sudojoe wrote:I'm kind of curious what would have happened if he used shooty daemon princes instead of the soulgrinders. Also, would the strat in that case to just run in and melee or stand and shoot?
I thought the daemons list was actually pretty terrible. It wasnt durable enough to weather ANY kind of shooting, and that left if flatfooted in assault as it had no numbers. Daemon prince heavy support would have been MUCH more difficult to handle, with them being toughness 5 (or 6 if you like the nurgle... I do), and with wings and iron hide, they would have easily caught the CCBs in Assault and smashed them. The flamers are cheap enough to have just been suicide units, and I didnt notice if the daemons had NY icons. Instead of the masque, two icons MINIMUM should have been in that list. And the flamers should have just been thrown at the CCB's to stop them as early as possible, that one threat removal would have left our incredibly talented op in BIG trouble with the way this game played out
When your wife suggests roleplay as a result of your table top gaming... life just seems right
I took my wife thru the BRB for fantasy and 40k, the first thing she said was "AWESOME"... codex: Chaos Daemons Nurgle..... to all those who says God aint real....
I think Kabal is right that the Prices would've been more threatening to me (and I agree that the Flamers could've been used more aggressively, although note that they did go for one CCB as early as possible). Although the Princes won't be very much more effective attacking CCBs than a Grinder (S10+D6 v. S5+2D6), they will survive the CCBs much better. Really, without the Grinders, my CCBs are of very limited effectiveness against Daemons. With EW, multiple wounds, and an invuln save, I can only expect to put a wound, maybe two, on a Prince (or any other Daemon for that matter). The Grinder, as we saw, I can somewhat reliably take out in one pass. OTOH, Grinders are more threatening to my Wraiths. DPs they can handle quite well.
My opponent would have needed to drop a few things to make room for Princes in any case. Soulgrinders are a lot easier to shoehorn into a 1500 point list. In my opinion, 1500 is just a difficult point level for Daemons. I have a hard time writing any Daemons list I'm happy with at 1500... It's very hard to balance objective-holders, sacrificial units, and still be able to present multiple credible threats early on (which I think is critical to winning with Daemons). Then, you have much less margin-of-error with your Deep Strikes. Every mishap, every misplacement hurts twice as much--my opponent not getting his favored wave is a great example of this. He had so little out on turn 1 that going aggressive became a much bigger risk than it would normally be. Then the Masque scattered into my range and LOS, then a mishap on the Daemonettes, and a bad deployment became simply awful.
Also, kabal, there were indeed no Icons. I think my opponent's idea was to get by with many min sized squads and just take the risk. I think this was pretty reasonable considering he had so few high value units (you know, no 8 Bloodcrusher block or Greater Daemons for example). But mishaps will happen...
Sorry for the delay on mission 3--it will definitely be up at some point today.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2012/03/13 12:36:44
Good stuff so far. I do my daemon army like I do my necrons - minimum troop units and maximum killiness on the other FOC slots. The only exception is that with necrons, my killing power is in the FA slots and with daemons, the Elite slots. Also, good job against the orks. That's a pretty strong ork list.
Looking forwards to the rest of your tournament reports.
Mission three has been completed! Let me know what you think.
And thanks again to everyone for your comments, I do appreciate you taking the time to read through all of this.
jy2 wrote:I do my daemon army like I do my necrons - minimum troop units and maximum killiness on the other FOC slots. The only exception is that with necrons, my killing power is in the FA slots and with daemons, the Elite slots. Also, good job against the orks. That's a pretty strong ork list.
Elites drive my Daemon lists as well. Fiends and Crushers all the way. I'll admit I've done some self-play, so I know first hand that Fiends/Crushers give my Necrons fits.
Thanks about the Orks, that match-up did give me a scare. I think my opponent could give me a much tougher game now that he's better familiarized with Necrons.
2012/03/14 12:41:13
Subject: Re:Necrons v. Orks/Daemons/Wolves (1500pt Tournament) *ALL Missions Complete!*
Nice reps. Easy to read and follow. Grats on the wins. Necrons really are a good codex now at least on par with GK as far as I'm concerned since people are learning how to use them and they are hard to counter without messing up vs the other mech heavy metas.
command barges and their sweeping is really quite deadly. All that armor, cover saves, (so much armor that the things like hydras just don't work well vs them) , and 6's to hit in CC makes them really hard to kill. Very deadly if left alone too. Not alot of hard counters vs that guy especially with repairs to keep it moving and chugging along. (frankly I don't know of anything that's a solid counter to it, flame storm cannon from the rear?) One of the deadlier threats in the codex along with wraiths and lancetecs. Scarab farm and storm lord is another nice combo along side the difficult/dangerous terrain quake staff craziness. Necron airforce also probably viable but I haven't seen it in action much.
So much variety out of the codex, it's hard to hate the writers despite fluff objections.
+ Thought of the day + Not even in death does duty end.
2012/03/14 14:50:51
Subject: Necrons v. Orks/Daemons/Wolves (1500pt Tournament) *ALL Missions Complete!*
Very well done, just one question on the final game. You stated that you exploded the Rhino and killed several models. They failed morale and fell back (but it looks like the Rhino is still on the board). If they lost 2 to Dangerous Terrain it suggests to me that you Destroyed-Wreck the Rhino, since the crater that you place for an explosion is just difficult area terrain.
Thoughts?
It is a bummer that you won primary on all your missions and lost to someone with a'worse' overall record.
calypso2ts wrote:Very well done, just one question on the final game. You stated that you exploded the Rhino and killed several models. They failed morale and fell back (but it looks like the Rhino is still on the board). If they lost 2 to Dangerous Terrain it suggests to me that you Destroyed-Wreck the Rhino, since the crater that you place for an explosion is just difficult area terrain.
You know, I'm not really sure how that came about. My opponent made the determination that they were taking Dangerous tests, I was mostly just standing there in stunned silence after he failed the 6 (of I think 8) saves on his Hunters. I'm guessing in the excitement, he mixed up how to treat Wrecked vs. Explodes, but I can't say for certain. I know I would've been pretty flustered losing over half a unit like that.
Thanks for pointing this out though. I don't think it affected the game much (my Annihilation Barges and two Lances were starved for targets all game, and those 2 additional Hunters would've gone down to one of them sooner than later.)
calypso2ts wrote:It is a bummer that you won primary on all your missions and lost to someone with a'worse' overall record.
Well, the tournament winner had also gone 3-0 on primary objectives. He also took more secondary/tertiary conditions in addition to tying me on primaries, so it was a clean win on his part.
Also, I'm really glad to see comments saying things were fairly readable. I think that's the hardest thing about putting a batrep together...it's hard to know if you're making sense to anyone but yourself!
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2012/03/14 16:06:00
2012/03/14 16:19:09
Subject: Necrons v. Orks/Daemons/Wolves (1500pt Tournament) *ALL Missions Complete! Pictures!*
Yeah, your opponent played the explosion wrong. An exploded vehicle is just difficult terrain, not dangerous.
I can't believe your wraiths bit it just like that against the grey hunters. Maybe you need 1-2 more whip coils. My wraiths never really had any problems against power-armoured foes (except 1 game against plaguemarines where my opponent was passing his FNP's like a boss).
Congrats on a very successful tournament. 2nd is still awesome.
jy2 wrote:I can't believe your wraiths bit it just like that against the grey hunters. Maybe you need 1-2 more whip coils. My wraiths never really had any problems against power-armoured foes (except 1 game against plaguemarines where my opponent was passing his FNP's like a boss).
Mine usually do alright with power armor too, but the volume of attacks coming from the Hunters was just too much. Between the shooting/Murderous Hurricane, MotW, and the Wolf Standard re-rolls shoring up numbers, he forced me to make well over 20 saves (haven't run the numbers, but I think that's pretty average). With only two Wraiths surviving to hit him back, that was all it took. This was not totally unexpected to me as I've had similar encounters with Berzerkers (tons of attacks, hitting/wounding easily). Then again, I've also had games where a single squad of Wraiths ground through two full squads of Berzerkers... It's a dice game, as they say, but I prefer not to have to roll quite so many.
Congrats on a very successful tournament. 2nd is still awesome.
Thanks, but I think I'm due for first soon! I have another tourney (1750) coming in two short weeks.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/03/14 17:31:38
2012/03/14 17:40:33
Subject: Necrons v. Orks/Daemons/Wolves (1500pt Tournament) *ALL Missions Complete! Pictures!*
whigwam wrote:... opponent made the determination that they were taking Dangerous tests, I was mostly just standing there in stunned silence after he failed the 6 (of I think 8) saves on his Hunters. I'm guessing in the excitement, he mixed up how to treat Wrecked vs. Explodes, but I can't say for certain. I know I would've been pretty flustered losing over half a unit like that.
I know how he feels. I was at a GT 2 years ago - I was 3-1 coming out of Day 1 and starting the first game of Day 2. My opponent shoots my Sisters Rhino exploding it (this is KP's). He wounds 9 of 10, I failed every armor save and all that is left is a Heavy Flamer. I then fail my LD 10 pinning test (used a nearby Canoness) and failed the Canonesses 2+ save from Shrapnel. Welcome to day 2!
Yeouch. My luck has yet to turn that sour, but I really do hate to see it happen to an opponent. Dice will roll high, dice will roll low, but when dice make Something That Should Not Happen happen, I start to wish 40k had a Mulligan rule.
"Surrender and Die." 
I regularly use The Masque, but I have not tried to pull an enemy into a template more than a handful of times. She is more effective extending the range of your Fiends/Crushers (30" potential threat range on some fiend can be sick) or moving that screening unit to setup a brutal multi-assault
.....LVO GT 2014 Team Tournament - Best Generals
