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I got this game in against Kase, a newer friend and opponent who is also new to the game. He’s a quick study and his play with Necrons was solid and incredibly challenging. I brought a new list to give the Order of the Bloody Rose a shot; he played Mephrit dynasty and generally avoided the Chrome Tide playstyle and went a little more fast-and-furious.
Kase also gets a nod from cranking out an army incredibly quickly and at a high level of polish. He’s turned around a whole Necron army in just the few months I’ve known him. I was also really pumped to use this table for the first time. The board we played on was built on my salvaged and restored Realms of Battle modular tiles. I built a bunch of terrain to match, much or it scratchbuilt or really fun MDF kits. The whole process of renovating and furnishing that table is in my P&M blog linked in my sig if anyone wants to see it.
We played one of the new Maelstrom missions from CA18 called Strategic Gamble… you draw to three TacOs each turn, and can trade in two for a single additional one that counts double during that turn only. We played on the Search and Destroy map and got in three turns before we called it for time (me with a new Codex, and he new to the game in general; our turns were not fast).
I chose the deployment zone that seemed most favorable regarding objective markers (start with two and quickly grab a third). He deployed first and went first. The CA18 deployment rules saved us 40 minutes.
I’ve played against ‘chrome tide’ gunline Necrons before, and these were not them. The S&D deployment map leaves the armies 18” apart, and I quickly overextended myself with Vanguard moves not knowing these these Necrons would have come for me anyway.
Turn-by-turn details:
Spoiler:
Turn 1: I vanguarded my two Immolators out on one flank (terrible choice; I thought they’d deal with the six Canoptek Wraiths, but they got dealt with themselves) and vanguarded my foot Dominions out on the other flank (brilliant move, probably saved me the game). He took first turn and using the Destroyers, Tomb Blades, and Doomsday Ark took out an Immolator, a few melta Sisters, and a minimum BSS with stormbolters. The second Immolator fell to the Wraiths in melee. Both flame tanks were gone and both melta squads were walking… not an ideal start.
On my turn, I went after objectives but also moved to counter the Wraiths. The stormbolter Dominions made a run for a third objective in addition to the two I had deployed on. The main aura blob moved up the middle of the field for better range and RoF, while the dedicated Bloody Rose blob split off to relieve the violently dismounted melta Dominions. I made a bold move to get the heavy flamers in range of his front ranks of warriors. Sustained shooting took out only 12 of 20 Warriors, with a few more going to Morale, but I had shot myself out of effective range and couldn’t get at the rear of the conga line. The Exorcists erased a unit of Destroyers.
Here’s where I put the Bloody Rose to the test. I sent a Canoness with IP and BoA, a unit of five Celestians with Power Axe, a Preacher, and a Dialogus out to meet the Wraiths who were munching their way through melta Dominions at their pleasure. Celestine and Jacobus had been nearby, but they were buffing the main aura blob and I chose not to commit them… perhaps a mistake. The Passion got me double attacks with the Celestians, but the Wraiths didn’t care about the Power Axe or Blade of Retribution thanks to their awesome invuln saves. I forgot to stack Fire and Fury for some extra wounds, and while he couldn’t seem to fail a save, I couldn’t seem to make one. I basically took out one Wraith in shooting and another in melee, and he snuffed every Bloody Rose model I’d brought in return.
Turn 2: Reanimation Protocols brought back a fistful of warriors (I probably should have used the Exorcists on them to get them close enough for Morale to finish the job, but taking out Destroyers seemed like the right thing at the time). He used a stratagem to stand up the two Wraiths I’d managed to kill. They took out the rest of the melta Doms and gauss fire knocked down the heavy flamer Retributers and most of the Sisters in the main aura blob… the 3+/4++ didn’t do much good. He dropped Deathmarks on a distant objective and pushed his wall of warriors up the middle of the board.
I unloaded two BSS squads with melta guns to join the stormbolter Dominions. Those three squads collectively took down another unit of Destroyers and a squad of Tomb Blades. The Exorcists almost got the second squad of Tomb Blades. The Seraphim arrived and used Burning Descent… I chose to hit the Wraiths instead of the Deathmarks, but they took out only a single model. The melee continued with me adding Celestine, Jacobus, and my Warlord to the fray, but in exchange for a single Wraith, he took down Celestine and the Warlord Canoness.
Turn 3: He used the stratagem again to stand up more Wraiths, as they were clearly the MVPs at this point. Without his heavy AT, he poured small arms fire into an Exorcist to finish it off. Gauss and tesla fire basically made sure that there was nobody left in my center to extend an aura to, and the Wraiths had effectively turned my left flank.
My right flank was holding strong with two objectives delivering VPs and plenty of damage output from a critical mass of stormbolters and meltas, but I had no characters over there to offer aura buffs. My plan was to use two healthy Rhinos to evacuate the characters from the messy melee and try to win on points while the remaining Exorcist proritized his faster elements. I had a rearguard to bring up and a gun battle shaping up between Deathmarks and Seraphim, but we called after three turns: Sororitas 11, Necrons 7.
I have to call this game a draw at best. In the moment, we called this a win for me on points alone, but he had what it took to table me… I didn’t have a answer for the Wraiths and he had the bodies for full board control given enough time. If we had played it out, especially to six or seven turns, he’d have had enough cards go his way to win on points. I give Kase the nod for a game well played and a fearsome army.
The main message here: Stratagems are way more potent than AoFs. Burning Descent didn’t do much for me this game, but Blessed Bolts and Holy Trinity both served up satisfying results, and I missed a key application of Faith and Fury. If they could streamline the use of AoFs and make them synergize better with stratagems, they’d really have something. MVPs on my side were the Exorcists, who rolled really well, the stormbolter Dominions who were excellent objective campers and dished out some damage while doing it, and the humble melta BSS, mounted two to a Rhino, who covered more ground and inflicted more casualties than the melta Doms.
Tactical errors on my part: going out to meet the Wraiths (the Immos and Doms never got their chance to shine because I sent them too soon into rapid fire and charge range), extending beyond my aura bubbles (too eager to use Holy Trinity on the heavy flamers, sending objective campers out without aura support), ignoring rule zero of fighting Necrons (should’ve ignored the Destroyers for a turn to take out a Warrior squad, or the other way around).
All in all, two great games… my inexperience with Necrons tempered my ability to really test the Sisters. I’ll try the Bloody Rose detachment again tio see where they can shine… it wasn’t in this game. Wraiths are pretty much our natural perfect enemy: S6 wounds us on 2+, a 3+ invuln ignores melta saturation, T5 makes them tough to wound, and W3 makes them hard to drown in dice. The RP stratagem takes them from challenging to impossible.
Photos of the battle:
Spoiler:
A Necron's-eye view of the Sororitas engagement force rolling over the hill.
Initial deployment.
A really cool moment in Turn 2: on my left flank, Canoptek Wraiths have just shredded an Immolator and a Celestian squad, and are about to overwhelm two units of Dominions and turn the flank, but in the center my Retributers have disembarked from their Rhino and used heavy flamers and Holy Trinity to take down more than half of a 20-string unit of Warriors... their smoking shells are piled near the bridge pilings.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2018/12/31 05:28:59
Great report, well done on pulling out a narrow win against the Crons. Out of curiosity, how well do you think some of the Sisters' close combat stuff (I am thinking specifically of Arcos, Repentias and Penitent Engines) would have fared against those Wraiths? Also, how are you finding the Celestians?
Lord of Nonsensical Crap wrote: Great report, well done on pulling out a narrow win against the Crons. Out of curiosity, how well do you think some of the Sisters' close combat stuff (I am thinking specifically of Arcos, Repentias and Penitent Engines) would have fared against those Wraiths? Also, how are you finding the Celestians?
Thanks! I don't have most of those units, just a single Pentitent Engine, so I'm not really sure. I think either the Retributers with heavy flamers and Holy Trinity (4d6 hits, wounding on 3s) or the Dominions with stormbolters, Divine Guidance, and Blessed Bolts (20 shots hitting on 2s, wounding on 4s, dealing 2D each) might have given me the edge, but those resources were too far away. I tasked two units of melta Dominions to deal with the Wraiths and they just came up short in the dice.
Celestians are kind of meh... lots of attacks, but looking for the right target. I haven't seen their Bodyguard ability yet, as everyone died quickly in melee with the Wraiths and in the mortal wound explosion against the Knight in the DA game. I'm going to try a bigger unit mounted up for greater range and security and use them as a T2-T3 counterattack. I'm also going to try to scrounge a few extra bodies and try a Bloody Rose battalion.
