Got a game in with the Podmeister last night. Poddy has been getting his ass whipped by his son's Necrons over Christmas, tonight I hope to carry on that ass whooping as I am using my Necrons.
Necrons 'Mechrons' - 2,000 points
HQ
Necron Overlord w/ Catacomb Command Barge - warscythe & mindshackle scarabs
Royal Court - 3 x Crypteks - 3 x harbinger of destruction & solar pulse
Necron Overlord w/ Catacomb Command Barge - warscythe & mindshackle scarabs
Royal Court - 3 x Crypteks - 3 x harbinger of destruction & solar pulse
Troops
5 x Necron Warriors w/ Ghost Ark
5 x Necron Warriors w/ Ghost Ark
5 x Necron Warriors w/ Ghost Ark
5 x Necron Warriors
Fast Attack
6 x Canoptek Wraiths - 3 x whip coils
6 x Canoptek Wraiths - 3 x whip coils
Heavy Support
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge
Dark Eldar 'Kabal of the Gaping Gash' - 2,000 points
HQ
Haemonculus
Elite
3 x Trueborn w/ Venom - 3 x blasters - Venom w/ splinter cannon
3 x Trueborn w/ Venom - 3 x blasters - Venom w/ splinter cannon
3 x Trueborn w/ Venom - 3 x blasters - Venom w/ splinter cannon
Troops
5 x Warriors w/ Venom - blaster - Venom w/ splinter cannon
5 x Warriors w/ Venom - blaster - Venom w/ splinter cannon
5 x Warriors w/ Venom - blaster - Venom w/ splinter cannon
5 x Warriors w/ Venom - blaster - Venom w/ splinter cannon
5 x Warriors w/ Venom - blaster - Venom w/ splinter cannon
9 x Wyches w/ Raider - shardnet + impaler & haywire grenades - Hekatrix w/ agoniser - Raider w/ flickerfield
Fast Attack
6 x Reavers - 2 x heat lances
6 x Reavers - 2 x heat lances
Heavy Support
Ravager - flickerfield
Ravager - flickerfield
Ravager - flickerfield
Game: Big Guns Never Tire + Dawn of War
Warlord Traits: Necrons - re-roll reserve one - Dark Eldar - stealth & move through cover for ruins
Deployment
I win the roll off for table sides while Poddy wins for deployment, though he lets me go first.
I put one objective my side in a upper floor ruin and Poddy puts the other in the large ruin his side on the upper floor.
I deploy my units in the centre with Wraiths up front, though stabby Wraiths at the front of the units and whip coils behind. Ghost Arks behind turned side ways on and then behind the Arks all Barges, an Annihilation Barge and
CCB on each flank and the final Annihilation Barge in the centre.
Poddy deploys and gives me internal fits by spreading out his D.E along the entire board edge; this is usually a death sentence and will allow me to work on one part of his army. Going from left to right is a Ravager, two Trueborn units, another inside a ruin, several normal Venoms, Reavers, Ravager, Raider and other unit of Reavers.
* Tactical Notes
So yeah, Poddy is doing a 'Poddy-Pose' or aka 'Silly Beatle Geek look', anyway, I'll focus on the left flank and target the Trueborn and Ravagers first. With Trueborn you kill two birds with one stone as you take out the pesky Venom and the annoying triple blaster threat.
Turn 1
Wraiths jump forward 12" with everything else moving behind 12", except the
CCBs who both move 12".
Shooting; Wraiths run 3" each while
CCBs move flat out to gain a 4+ cover, though I do not move far as I do not want to put them in blaster range, so I linger around my wall of av13.
AB on the left flank blasts and takes out a Ravager - first blood to me. Lances and another
AB fires at the other, though I fail to take it down after Poddy does well on flickerfield saves and I do rubbish on scoring damage. I blast a Trueborn Venom, though Poddy again does well with flickerfield.
D.E first turn; D.E move about a bit, but nothing major really - just adjust to get better
LOS. On the right flank Reavers come shooting down as does the Wych Raider, though Wyches bail out and move forward. A Venom also supports them.
Shooting; lances, blasters and splinter cannons nail my Wraiths and I lose both units first turn; yikes that's never happened before! Remaining lances go into my warlord's
CCB and it goes boom!
* Tactical Notes
Ok, first turn didn't go exactly the way I wanted and in fact things are a little worse off for me. I was hoping to tackle both Ravagers and a Trueborn Venom, though I lucked out and only took out a Ravager.
Poddy has hit me back hard and took out all my Wraiths and my warlord's CCB - no sweeping :(. The Wraiths make a big part of my army and I think I will suffer without them.
Next turn I'll press up the centre and attack the right flank.
Turn 2
Warriors on foot walk in from reserve and sit in the ruin where the objective is.
With the Reavers sitting in terrain on the right flank, I move a Ghost Ark over that direction with support from an
AB. Rest pushes up the table while my warlord embarks on the Ghost Ark on the right flank.
Shooting; I dakka the Ravager on the right flank, though it survives. Trueborn go down though after their ride is wrecked. A Trueborn Venom in the centre gets blown up and only a single survivor remains. On the right flank I dakka the Reavers, they get +2 cover save thanks to skilled ride warlord stealth in ruins asset - only two remain though and squad fails morale and falls back.
D.E turn; Ravager on the right flank shifts over a little bit but that's about it while surviing Trueborn along with a Venom move up to get
LOS on the reminaing
CCB which I had landed in terrain by an objective. Reavers continue to fall back while the other unit pops from behind a building with heat lances ready.
Shooting; my
CCB takes some damage, though I use wounds from the Overlord to forget the immobilised results. Ghost Ark in the centre and right flank get both blown up - entire squad is destroyed on the right flank by splinter cannons while just Warriors go in the centre. Annihilation Barge in the centre loses a hull point thanks to the Ravager on the right flank.
* Tactical Notes
Looks like Poddy is whipping my ass this game. Everytime I deal some damage on him he causes more on me in return. Thanks to my lack of tactical genius, I left the Ghost Ark on the right flank to it's own and I suffered for it - I didn't even keep them close to regen Warriors. I should have just moved up the centre like I wanted, after all skimmers can move over ruins.
Poddy is doing really well; the right flank of the board is his and he only has to come past an Annihilation Barge in order to get the objective my side. He has plenty of units to hold the objective his side.
Turn 3
CCB sweeps the Ravager and it is wrecked - thank god that has been taken out. Ghost Ark moves up while Annihilation Barge moves behind for extra fire support. Lone
AB in the centre moves up 1" to get jink save.
Shooting;
AB on the right flank blasts the Venom in the terrain where the falling back Reavers were, I only manage to score immobilised on the Venom, bah. Crypteks and central
AB blast a Venom in terrain inside the ruin where the objective is; it blows up and only one Warrior remains who falls back off the board.
AB on the right flank takes out the last Trueborn Venom while gauss from the Ghost Ark on the right flank finishes the Trueborn on foot.
D.E turn; Reavers falling back go off the table. A Warrior squad disembark from a Venom and move towards the ruin. Wyches come forward while the Warrior squad bail out from the immobilised Venom on the right flank for support.
Shooting; Crypteks in the centre get wasted by splinter cannons while the supporting
AB gets taken out by a blaster shot.
AB on the right flank gets taken out by lances from the Raider and Ravager. Wyches and Warriors on foot run forward.
In the assault phase the Reavers move up and land in the ruin perhaps to block my Warriors advancement to the objective and to support Warriors already by the objecitve.
* Tactical Notes
I think Poddy has firmly got his hands on this game. He has hit me hard each turn and this turn has been the nail in the coffin. I cannot recover from the damage he has caused. All he needs is Warriors and Wyches to move up and assault/shoot my Warriors and he has my objective.
Though, I do have my ace in the hole and that is my warlord Overlord sitting in the Ghost Ark which I think Poddy has forgot about. I will bail him out and send him after the Reavers while Ghost Ark and Warriors tackle Ravager and Venoms.
Turn 4
Annihilation Barge takes shelter in the shrine ruin on the left flank as I do not want Poddy getting any more points for taking out my heavy support; it can draw limited
LOS through the doorway. Ghost Ark moves up while the Overlord bails out ready to assault Reavers.
Shooting; Warriors blast the Ravager and I think I take a hull point of it. Annihilation Barge blasts a Venom mid field by the tower ruin and it goes down; squad passes pinning.
Assault; Overlord charges the Reavers, Overlord fails to wound and takes a wound himself! Luckily passes morale test.
Poddy moves a Venom, Wyches and Warriors up towards my objective while Warriors in the ruin his table side claim the objective. Remaining Ravager and Raider shift about a bit.
My Ghost Ark gets shot up by lances and goes boom; squad inside comes under fire and three Necron Warriors go down, though two get back up after along with a Cryptek. My Warriors on the objective get shot up by splinter cannons, three remain.
Assault; Overlord kills a single Reaver - Reavers hold in combat.
* Tactical Notes
It's looking grim is all I can say, but that's not looking at the bigger picture. Sure I am about to lose the objective my side, however I have put a lot of pressure on Poddy and I am in his face on his table side.
Turn 5
Ok, possibly last turn. I just hope I can hold on! I move Warriors forward to get into range of the Ravager and hopefully bag myself a point. Because of low terrain movement there's no chance I could come close to the objective the Kabalite Warriors hold.
Shooting; Warriors on the objective my side blast the oncoming and strip a hull point. Warriors and Crypteks blast the Ravager, it loses a hull point after I score two glances and flickerfield saves one - grrr!
Assault; Reavers get battered in combat and run off the board. Overlord consolidates the other side of the ruin so no pesky D.E can draw
LOS to him.
D.E turn; Venom moves up to the objective my side. Wyches and Warriors on foot move up for support.
Shooting; Warriors on my objective are destroyed, even though I went to ground for +1 cover save. Remaining Warriors and Crypteks get shot at and entire squad is wiped out.
We roll for it and game on!
* Tactical Notes
Well, it has all gone a bit pete tong. Pretty much all my Necrons are dead and all vehicles are smoked. I really don't stand much chance of winning this one now. Hopefully my Overlord can tackle some Warriors in assault.
Turn 6
Overlord moves up to assault the Warriors, they don't overwatch as they cannot draw
LOS, but really the Overlord shouldn't have assaulted because couldn't draw
LOS to the unit. Anyway, in combat the Overlord slays some Warriors, though they remain in combat.
In D.E turn Venom by my objective moves up and squad bails out, gets a poor terrain roll and is short of capturing my objective.
In assault the Overlord beats up the Warriors and they fall back leaving that objective unclaimed.
The game ends here. Necrons have got 4 points (first blood, linebreaker & two heavies) and Dark Eldar have got 4 points (three heavies and linebreaker). Game ends in a draw.
However, victory really should go to Poddy because I illegal charged when I shouldn't have and that would have left that objective firmly in D.E hands.
Summary
A proper bloodbath this game and I got totalled owned :(. Poddy just nailed me from turn 1 and kept putting the damage total up. I just couldn't get the damage down on his units, but it is a dice game and what happens happens.
We got quite a few things wrong this game, most of them were my fault. I thought the objectives were D3+1, we rolled a 2, but really it is D3+2. So we was an objective down that game.
I also got the assault wrong. I denied Poddy overwatch because he couldn't draw
LOS, yet I charged even though I shouldn't have. Big fail on this part. This shouldn't have happened which meant Poddy definitely would have won the game.
Poddy did forget his Reavers had re-roll to wound thanks to combat drugs.
Cracking game over all, looks like Poddy's winning streak has just begun!