[DCM]
Tilter at Windmills
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Okay, so two more learning games, these ones from July 10th. This time I brought my Blood Angels, again we played 1500 for faster games.
I fielded:
Librarian with Jump Pack; took Divination from the rulebook for both of my rolls. My first opponent opined that Divination is clearly the best psychic discipline.
Priest with Lightning Claw
10 AMs with JPs, 2 melta, Fist (Libby joins)
5 AMs w/melta, Razor w/Las & Plas, dozer, searchlight
5 AMs w/melta, Razor w/Las & Plas, dozer, searchlight
(priest joins one of the above)
8 Death Company with Hammer, Fist
in Land Raider w/multmelta, extra armor, searchlight
2 Attack Bike squadron with multimeltas
Predator with AC turret, Las sponsons, Dozer, searchlight
First game was against Orks, one of the competitive guys at my usual local weekly store. He's been playing Necrons mostly for the last six months or so, but said he'd shelved them, as they're too strong now and most of the locals will not enjoy playing against them anymore. Wowzers. He likes Orks and said he feels like they're quite good in this edition, though it doesn't want to field Nob Bikers as again he worries that they're too good and will also piss people off. His army list is designed for 6th; I don't have the exact list, but it's roughly:
Biker Warboss with Klaw, Attack Squig
leading 12 Warbikers, Nob with Klaw, Bosspole
Mek with KFF and (kombi-?) Scorcha
leading 3 Meganobs (scoring due to Warboss)
in Battlewagon with Deffrolla, Red paint
10 Lootas
20 Shoota Boyz, 2 big shootas, Nob w/Klaw & Bosspole
20 Shoota Boyz, 2 big shootas, Nob w/Klaw & Bosspole
10 Grots w/herder
3 Kannons with a mass of grot crew, including a couple of ammo runts
We played The Emperor's Will, Dawn of War (12" zones) deployment. I got the primary Div power (re-rolls to hit for a unit in 12") and the one which gives the lib himself re-rolls to hit, wound, and armor save. I got 12" Ld radius for my warlord trait. My opponent got FNP within 3" of an objective.
He deployed first, putting his objective pretty far forward, and central, under hills overlooked by his Lootas and Kannons. He Reserved his grots and one unit of Shootas, put the bikes in the middle, the other stuff center-right. I put my objective back/right, Landraider with DC & Predator (hiding behind LR) left, everything else right.
We got Nightfighting turn 1. He only moved the bikes 12" forward, staying within 3" of his objective for FNP, and the Battlewagon around the same distance; I think he wanted to attack with them together, and shot at me a bit. But shooting did basically nothing because of night fight. and my defensive deployment. I responded by moving most of my army a bit forward and up the flanks to shoot side armor on the battlewagon, and eventually exploded it, getting First Blood.
Turn 2 his shootas came in on the right flank and started running toward me, his grots came in more central and starting hoofing it for his own objective. He turbo'd the bikes toward my main army and objective, and shot some more, popping one of my attack bikes (passed morale thanks to warlord trait) and taking a couple of hull points from my Pred. I responded by moving my assault marines and death company to assault the bikers from two different directions, and positioning most of the rest of my army to shoot the bikes (LR at Meganobs, Pred at Lootas). I only moved my assault squad 6" toward the bikes, so I could get the hammer of wraith attacks and assault dice re-rolls, even though this left my squad quite straggled out and most of them would need a high roll to get in. My DC were around 6"-7" from the back bikers, so i didn't want to shoot with them prior to going in, but with the new casualty removal, I could shoot with the rest of my stuff on the right without costing the DC their charge on the left. My opponent rolled really badly for saves and I wound up killing around half of the bikers, which meant instead of being an inch away from the closest bike with my assault marines, it was 4". I then rolled my assaults, declaring the AMs first, because he was about to throw a ton of S5 twin-linked big shoota shots at me, and I didn't want my DC to lose their charge. I only lost 1 or 2 AMs, opening their charge range to ~5". Then BOTH DC and AMs rolled 4" to fail their charges, in part because my AMs had to go through terrain. Thankfully my re-rolls for jump packs got the AMs up to a 5, so they just barely got in. We did some damage to each other and stuck, with my sergeant issued a challenge and traded deaths with the biker nob. The warboss also ate a wound in here somewhere.
Turn 3 he shot up my DC with his lootas and kannons, killing 3-4 of them, and elsewhere shot big shootas at my razors, taking a couple of hull points. In HtH his warboss killed my Librarian (Warlord point) in the challenge, and my AMs broke on Ld8 or so, then got a big 5 ot 6" consolidate to the right, putting them across some difficult terrain and making it extremely unlikely for my DC to reach them. So my DC got back in their ride and headed for my opponent's objective & hopefully the Linebreaker point. I started building walls between my objective and my opponent's stuff- a Razor to block his meganobs (but staying in terrain so he'd need to roll well to reach me), a five man squad between the bikes and the other stuff, stretched between that forward razor and my table edge. My second razor squad with priest disembarked this turn to give FNP and be ready to be sacrificed later if needed. My pred and one razor shot the meganobs, my other stuff on the right shot the bikers. We killed one meganob and did a wound, and bounced off the bikes. Thankfully the meganobs failed morale and fell back!
Turn 4, he only had one unit immediately threatening my forces on my objective, and with the DC threatening his objective, he needed more substantial stuff there than grots. He sent his central unit of Boys toward my landraider, and his meganobs to back them up, since they had fallen back anyway. His far-right shoota boyz kept heading toward my objective in case the game went long, and his bikes shot and assaulted my 5 man squad, who thanks to FNP held up for a turn, with the sgt eating all of the warboss' attacks thanks to the challenge rules. He blew up my closer razor with kannons, and my predator with lootas. His central shoota boyz charged my LR, and the nob got three hits, one 6 to penetrate, and a 5 to explode it thanks to klaws/fists being AP2. My remaining 5 DC piled out in the wreck. We played that they could still assault as it's an assault vehicle, figuring the phrasing in the rulebook is an editing error. On my turn I moved my other 5 man squad back toward my objective, and charged my attack bike into the bikers to hold them for another turn. My DC shot and charged the shoota boys and took revenge for the landraider, killing around half of them, including the nob thanks to closest casualty removal and a failed LOS. His warboss finished my small squad but the attack bike stuck.
Turn 5 his meganobs couldn't reach my DC due to surrounding boyz. His bikes/boss were stuck killing my attack bike. His shoota boys on the right kept running. My DC finished off the central shoota boys, killing several, breaking and running them down, though I was down to one DC. On my five my squad and priest tried to set up on the objective in a way that they might be able to hold it while keeping the bikes from being within 3", depending on casualties. Then they and the razor shot the warboss (Warlord) and the last bike or two, and managed to finish them off! My last DC charged the Grots, positioning to hopefully stay within 3" of the objective if he survived the round of combat, but died to Overwatch! Now both of us had nothing immediately threatening the other's objective, and nothing in each other's DZs. We rolled and it went to six.
T6 he shot at me, blowing up my remaining razor, and Ran the remaining shoota squad at me, not quite getting into my DZ. I hunkered down and shot a little and hoped for game end, as the shootas would contest or take my objective if we went to 7. The game ended.
I won 5/4, each of us holding our objectives, him having Warlord, me having both Warlord and First Blood.
Orks can definitely be strong in this edition. Bikers are definitely better, and anything which throws lots of dice in shooting (especially twin-linked) makes better use of the Snap Shot rules than other shooting which throws fewer shots and is based on better BS. I was fortunate that one of the Shoota squads was in reserve, or I might have been tabled. As it was I had very little left when I eked out the narrow win.
Next game was against my buddy Jamie again, using (roughly):
Overlord on CCB with Warscythe, Mindshackle, 2+/3++
2 Lords w/MSS, Scythes, 2 Lanceteks with 1 Pulse
Destroyer Lord with Scythe, MSS, 2+ save (Overlord)
leading 5 or 6 wraiths with 2 coils
10 Immortals with Guass
5-7 Warriors
10 Warriors
3 Scarabs
4 Scarabs
2 Spyders w/prism
2 Spyders w/prism
He hasn't played Necrons much since 3rd, so didn't realize he couldn't double-up Court models in a unit when he only had one court. So the non-pulse lancetek was on his own.
We played The Relic, with Vanguard deployment (triangles). I got the default power from Divination, and the Malediction where I can make an enemy unit re-roll their saves. I got the warlord power which makes him use his worst LD if within 12" of my warlord (useless against necrons); he got one which gave him re-rolls to hit against a unit within 3" of an objective, IIRC.
There was a very large ruin/building in the middle, which we agreed to play as difficult/cover from the walls, but not actual area terrain as it was so big. We both lined up on our forward lines, mostly, him more spread out. My deployment, left to right, was land raider, predator in a small ruin (both a bit left of central, with clear lines of fire to left of the ruins), assault marines, razor, razor (central), then attack bikes right. His deployment, my left to right was basically- CCB trying to get cover from a wood, ten immortals in a line with a lord, warriors in a wood with the pulsetek, and the solo lancetek behind them, then spiders and scarabs and wraiths all central, clustered mostly behind the ruin, then the larger warrior squad to the right, with a lord, opposite my attack bikes.
He failed to seize, and he popped his solar pulse. I was able to shift mostly laterally to shoot all my lascannons at the CCB, most of them without cover. One razor (without priest) went directly forward into the big ruin-thing, both getting a clear shot and getting closer to the objective. I figured it would probably die on his turn, but my squad could hopefully move to grab the objective; unless he went straight ahead turn 1 with his wraiths, but then I could charge them with my assault marines with re-rolls, or my Malediction. My Attack bikes moved up right a little, shot the warriors on the right flank while keeping a model within 6" of the razor with priest. My Landraider shot first- well within 36" of the CCB, so illuminating with searchlight. My shooting managed to explode the CCB. First Blood. My Pred wasn't needed, and killed a couple of scarab bases instead. He spawned some scarabs, taking a wound, and moved up a bit in response, shooting bounced off my attack bikes. Overlord joined the Immortals, and they did two hull points to my land raider. Assaulty stuff mostly lurked behind the ruin, building scarabs and positioning a bit closer, but he sent one unit of scarabs in to kill my center razor. It did; not a big problem, but then my stupid AM squad blew their pinning test, so they wouldn't be able to grab the objective.
Second turn I moved up a bit more, attack bikes pressing less than 12" from his right warriors, my other razor 12" into the ruin as well, on the right so keeping the ABs in radius. Pred and LR didn't have very good targets, so just put some shots into scarabs and immortals. The Razor in the building killed some scarabs in the middle. The attack bikes knocked down a warrior. Jamie's turn 2 he made a few more scarabs (took another wound or two) sent his left scarabs forward toward my pred, positioned his Immortals so all were easily in range to shoot the Land Raider but I'd need an 11 or 12 on the assault roll for the DC to get them if the LR lived, and moved his warriors on the right a little to rapidfire at my attack bikes. And then pressed hard in the middle- wraiths and destroyer lord right up the center, closer than I had realized/hoped to my assault marines, spyders following behind, aiming for a long charge at my formerly-pinned 5 man squad. His immortals knocked the other two points off my LR, so it was wrecked. This time we decided to play RAW, so my DC would not be able to charge. His warriors on the right killed one AB, and the other ran. His Spyders made an 8" charge into my middle assault marines, despite the crater, killed some but not all of them. The last couple broke and got away. His middle scarabs easily destroyed the razor with my priest in it. So neither unit would be able to assault on my turn. His wraiths made their charge on my big assault squad; his DL and my Libby had a challenge, in which I failed to roll the needed 6 to wound, so couldn't Force Weapon him, and but he only put 1W on my Librarian. We do some damage to each other, both thinning out each other's units a little, but stick.
T3. Okay, that hurt. I have no charges. My DC move over a bit, to hopefully get in on the wraith action next turn, and meanwhile shoot the scarabs in front of them. My squad of 5AMs with the priest retreat, again hoping to consolidate my remaining stuff behind the building, focus on the wraiths and try to recover next turn. On the plus side I'm up one point, and his scoring units are not close to the objective. My two man squad who escaped the spyders consolidate, then move into the building, and manage to grab the objective. They'll probably die, but I can shift the objective a couple of inches closer to my side even by dying and dropping it. I kill a couple of scarabs with shooting, and my assault marines do a little more damage to the wraiths. I lose my Librarian (Warlord point), but stick again. (I cannot for the life of me remember what happend to my attack bike; I think he may have tried to help in the middle and gotten killed by spyders). He starts moving forward with the rest of his stuff, but has a little bit of bad luck on terrain. His immortals & lance-teks shoot at my DC but only kill a couple. His stuff in the middle wipes my two model squad (maybe the attack bike too?) and they drop the objective back toward me. In assault, though I do a little more damage to the wraiths, he does more to my AMs; they break and run off the table. Damn. He consolidates deeper toward my table edge, into the little ruin, to draw the death company farther from the objective, get fully into my zone (helping secure Linebreaker, if he lives), and force me to assault into difficult.
T4, My other 5 AMs and priest go into the ruin, after the unit of scarabs who are sitting on the objective. I can't grab it now, but if I can survive a turn against the spyders I might grab it in my next movement phase, and probably drop it again toward my stuff; have to get really lucky to keep it, against spyders, but FNP working against them gives me a small chance. My priest and friends kill scarabs, but can't get onto the objective yet. My DC go after the wraiths & DL. Between shooting and assault (thankfully we make it) we kill the wraiths down to one or two models, but that last model makes like five 3+ saves against my eight TH & PF attacks. On his turn he moves forward with his scoring units, but still isn't getting there. His spyders get into my AMs and priest and they take casualites but hold on. My DC bounce off the DL and last wraith, between some bad hits and more 3+ invulnerables. I only lose a couple of models.
T5 will be last turn, as the store's closing. His scoring units are still a bit over 6" from the objective, so he can't take it, and even if my priest's squad lived, neither can I, as I don't have another movement phase. It comes down to whether I can finish off the Wraith and DL. If no, he wins by one- Linebreaker and Warlord to my First Blood. If yes, we both have Warlord, no one's got Linebreaker, and I still have First Blood. In assault his spyders finish off my priest and friends. But my DC manage to kill the wraith at I4 (the coils died earlier), and my PF & TH get the three wounds they need on the DL with their 4 attacks. Whew. Another win by 1pt.
Necrons are nasty. Super durable, deadly, and not really phased by the changed to vehicles. Gauss is brutal on expensive, high-AV vehicles. I need to try a Stormraven next time; make use of the flyer rules. I think if Jamie had consolidated his wraiths into the center rather than deeper into my zone, he might have won because then his spyders would have been able to help him kill my DC.
In both of these games, casualty removal from the closest models mattered, occasionally impacting charge ranges, sometimes causing important models to die earlier than they would have in 5th (like the whip coils in game 5, and the shootaboy nob in game 4).
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