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Hello there

Last night I got a game in against a chaos player at the new 40k club i've recently started attending. My opponent was using an Alpha Legion army from the new Traitor Legions book, which was interesting as I hadn't played against any of the new Chaos formations so far.

My army was as follows:

CAD -
obyron
Immortals
Immortals
10 Praetorians, rods
5 Praetorians, rods
Spider, twin linked particle Beamer
Dcult -
Dlord, solar staff, rezorb
Destroyers
Destroyers
Destroyers
Retribution Phalanx -
Overlord, hyperphase sword, rezorb, phlactery, The Nightmare Shroud
Warriors
Stalker
Scarabs

Opponents list something along the lines of:

Alpha Legion Warband-
Lord, Alpha Legion daemon sword
Dark apostle, relic that enables him and squad to move 3d6
Daemon Prince of Nurgle, Black Mace, wings, Level 3 psyker
5 CSM, plasma gun, Rhino
5 CSM, plasma gun, Rhino
5 Chosen, 4 melta guns, Rhino
Helbrute, multimelta powerfist
Warp talons
3 bikers, 2 meltaguns, meltabomb
Cultists, flamer
Cultists, flamer
Cultists, flamer
Cultists, flamer
Cultists, flamer
Cultists, flamer
Cultists, flamer

So the Alpha Legion special rules where that whenever a uniynof cultists gets wiped out, the CSM player can roll 2D6 and for each dice that's 4+ a unit of cultists comes onto the board next turn. Via outflank if preferred. So again, you can get two units of cultists potentially from one squad dying. Also, all Alpha Legion infantry can infiltrate and get shrouded first turn.

Onto the parameters -

Mission: Tactical Escalation (increase maelstrom number of cards according to turn number)
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil
Warlord Trait - Necrons: Draw one more tactical objective card on your first turn than is normally allowed
Warlord Trait - Alpha Legion: It will not Die
Daemon Prince powers: Smite, Haemorraghe, Life Leech
Night Fighting: no
First Turn: Alpha Legion

So my opponent sets up his lord and dark apostle in a squad with each other on my right flank, with the idea of marching forward and joining an infiltrating unit in his first turn. Sets up the helbrute in close support to them, the CSM bikers middle of the board and the Nurgle Prince on my left flank. Then a swarm of cultists all over the place.
My set up, and destroyers get a liberal distribution around my stalker for the +1 BS boost, whilst one squad of immortals occupy a ruin on my left flank near an objective. Ret Phalanx warriors are deployed as far forward as possible in the middle right, with the big Praetorian squad with all the characters directly behind. Spyder sits in a ruin next to the scarabs supported by second squad of immortals. Small praetorian squad in deep strike reserve.
NOTE: this is my 5th game in a row of Hammer and Anvil deployment - I hate it!
opponent then infiltrates with rhino meched up CSM squads and chosen, plus 5 squads of cultists. They can't get too close to me as I've deployed a lot of stuff towards the edge of my DZ, but I suppose they are 18" instead of 24" for his first turn. Two further squads of cultists occupy the objectives in ruins at the far end of the board from me, quite a bit behind the very forward-deployed rest of the Chaos army.

I roll to seize the initiative - and it's a 6!! Woo!


Early Game

I position two squads of destroyers to target the Chosen rhino so that it won't get a cover save, whilst manouvring immortals and warriors around to take pot shots at the other two rhinos. Takes both units of destroyers to do it, but I wreck the chosen's rhino [FIRST BLOOD] to leave the melta guys a long walk. Other two rhinos take a hull point each. And that's about it first turn. I manage to score a tactical objective that I can't remember. I discard the Kingkiller card, as a) the nurgle prince is extremely difficult to kill, with It Will not Die and a 2+ jink and b) Alpha Legion rules state that each time the warlord is killed you immediatley pick the next character who is now the warlord.
My opponent shuffles about with his remaining rhinos, trying to grab the objective from my left flank immortals by moving forward and disembarking a CSM unit, but he's not in 3" of it. Kills two immortals. Cultist swarm moves and runs forward, Lord and Apostle use their 3d6 movement relic to keep pace with right flank rhino and keep out of LOS behind it, whilst daemon prince moves forward. Shooting kills a Warrior on my right flank. Opponent doesn't score any objectives.
Second turn, reserve doesn't arrive. I devise a plan that I can hopefully negate the daemon prince as i reckon he's going to cause me problems - if I can get the stalker in combat with it, it will only have the one smash attack which if it wiffs it will mean its held up in combat for a turn or so. Therefore, I move the Warriors forward towards all the cultists, hopefully tempting a big charge next turn where I can draw in the cultists and daemon prince. Left flank destroyers mulch the disembarked CSM squad on my flank, whilst right flank destroyers wreck the right flank rhino, and the scarabs - now 5 bases strong after spawning them from my spyder - assault and kill the disembarked CSM. Spyder kills half of a cultist squad with particle beamer, whilst warriors and immortals take the Chosen down to 2. I score two tactical objectives
Opponent's second turn, and a bit of shooting at the warriors only kills one. Moves up towards me with a mass of cultists, shooting and combat from right flank cultists plus lord and apostle kill all the scarabs. Then he does what I hoped he was going to do - charges into the warriors with daemon prince and cultists. After all is done, there is one warrior left, who remains in combat. Damn! I wanted him to get destroyed or run down, as he could have popped back up next turn. Think my opponent scores a couple of tactical objectives here.




Mid Game

I get my stalker in position to charge in to melee against the daemon prince. The small squad of praetorians arrive and deep strike behind the chaos lines towards the left flank rear objective with some cultists on it, whilst the big squad of Praets with the characters uses Obyron's Ghostwalk Mantle to deep strike towards the rear and right cultist held objective. Destroyers shuffle around, but kill the CSM bikers outright, whilst the warp talons pass 4/5 invulnerable saves of a 5+ (!). Scarabs pop back into reality and spyder adds a base to them, and then the spyder misses the cultists approaching it with its shooting. I kill most of the cultists with shooting from the big praetorian squad but the cultists hold. Immortals finish off the chosen that have done nothing all game, but are still a threat with their two melta guns. Combat, and I charge the stalker into the daemon prince, who hits it with a smash attack and explodes the walker in one go. Damn! So much for that plan! Stalker did wound the prince with it's hammer of wrath hit though. Explosion kills 6/8 cultists, and necron warrior kills another so they flee. Daemon Prince and the one necron warrior remain in combat!
Opponent's turn and he shoots and kills some scarabs with cultists, charges in and scarabs and cultists stay locked in CC for next 3 turns. Warp Talons get off a jammy charge against one of my destroyer units and kill one and wound another, destroyers hold. Left flank cultists charge smaller squad of Praetorians and are killed for their foolishness with no casaulties taken by the Praets. But opponent rolls well and gets two squads of cultists next turn! Daemon Prince kills the warrior obviously.
Necrons, and I draw a lot of fortuitious maelstrom objective cards. The Praetorians and characters move in and wipe out right flank cultists, scoring me one of my objectives by the numbered objective they hold plus Obyron smashing some cultist dude in a challenge. On my side of the board the destroyers and immortals try to take down the daemon prince, but I only wound it once. I actually forgot to put the warriors back on the table after being wiped out - whats the point of bringing the Retribution Phalanx if I don't remember the rules! The tomb spyder charges in and kills two warp talons in combat, but not before the talons wipe out the destroyer unit they were fighting. I score a ton of tactical objectives this round.
Chaos turn and loads more cultists show up outflanking to replace dead ones. Two squads on my left flank and one on my right. A squad of cultists tries to charge my right flank immortals but is blasted by 6 hits out of 6 on overwatch, and they run away instead from the subsequent casaulties. Cultists on the left flank shoot at a destroyer unit but their feeble weapons can't scratch the T5 destroyers. Daemon Prince charges in and gives the tomb spyder a country-style beating, killing it. Opponent scores 1 tactical objective I think.

Late game


In turn 5 I detach my overlord to hold the fort on an objective by himself as there are no threats near him aside from a squad of cultists, and with IWND, a 2+ save, an unused rezorb and a power sword I'm sure he'll be fine. The big Praetorian squad plus obyron and Dlord make for a fleeing unit of cultists so they can kill them and use the consolidate to bounce towards another objective, which they do with ease. On my side of the board, the remaining Immortals anda unit of Destroyers finally take down the daemon prince with a mass volley, much to my opponent's dismay as he was the only unit really getting anything done. Second unit of destroyers murder half of a cultist squad that run before I can assault them. I score another bucket load of maelstrom points.
Opponent's turn, more cultists come on for dead squads. The apostle and lord have joined a cultist squad, and they as well as a second squad of cultists charge the big praetorian squad in combat. Obyron dispatches the Chaos lord in a challenge after passing one reanimation save from a rending hit, and the praetorians kill everyone else aside from the dark apostle, who remains due to fearless. Warp talons charge right flank immortals and kill two, whilst last one punches a talon in the face, killing it.

We roll the dice and the game can go on, but opponent decides to call it there.

I think the final score was about 11-4 to the Necrons.

Summary: Well, that certainly is a lot of cultists! My plan was to try and ignore them as much as possible whilst focusing on the Prince and CSM units, which are more scary. Once they were mostly gone the cultists can't really deal with my elite units - their shooting and combat attacks only wound Praetorians and Destroyers on a 6, whilst they can't take the return hits at all. I felt a bit of pride tugging at me when I Ghostwalked my scary 10 man unit of Praets across the board away from the prince and warp talons, but in the end it won me the game by quite a margin as they scored a ton of maelstrom points at the far end of the board which was only lightly held by two cultist units.

As regards the charge by the stalker into the prince - I think on the odds it was still a decent tactic. It didn't work this time, but in general it's very unlikely the prince will kill it straight up, and end up being tarpitted for at least a couple of turns. Which gives me the time to clearout the rest of his problematic units. Alas it didn't work here, but it's something I'd probably do again if I had to.

My force - too many praetorians here. I love them, what can I say. Need to not forget my respawning warriors!

nice batrep thx for sharing