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About a week or so ago, my friend (Zith) and I played a game at scarab's house on his desert table.  Scarab was nice enough to act as official photographer for the game.  We ended up cutting the game short by a turn, but here is the game in its entirety (we'll alternate posts so that we can give our thoughts on the matter):

<edit> we've got broken image links for now because of a ... reversed? language filter.  hopefully this will be fixed soon

The Legion of Amante Odji
Amante Odji (Res Orb, Veil)
Immortals (10)
Warriors (10)
Warriors (10)
Warriors (10)
Heavy Destroyers (2)
Heavy Destroyers (2)
Tomb Spyders (2)
Scarab Swarms (10)

Tau 1st RRF (Rapid Reaction Force)
Shas'el Ri'O (PR, MP, Shield, HW-MT, HW-BSF)
Crisis Suit (Fireknife) (1)
Crisis Suits (Fireknife) (2)
Stealthsuits (5)
FCWs (12 PR) in Devilfish (Decoy Launcher)
FCWs (12 PR) in Devilfish (Decoy Launcher)
FCWs (6 PR, 6 PC) in Devilfish (Decoy Launcher)
Hammerhead (Railgun, 2BC, Decoys, MT)
Hammerhead (Railgun, 2BC, Decoys, MT)
Gun Drones (8)

Mission was cleanse, I won choice of quarters and selected one with some nice cover about 6" away from the center to stage my suits from and a small pyramid to fall back behind.  There was also a nice dearth of terrrain for my opponent until a little over 12" away from the center, which meant I was able to steal the closer setup despite setting up second.

Here is the setup once it was finished




I also won the roll to go first and took it.

Turn 1a
The Tau got the first turn.  They moved and began firing.  The Stealthsuits knocked down a Warrior.  A Hammerhead template took out three bases of Scarabs.  Solid shot from another Hammerhead took down a Heavy Destroyer.  The single Battlesuit fired his missiles at the Immortals knocking one down.  The unit of Battlesuits took out a single Scarab base.  The Necrons made their leadership test and the Tau redeployed. 


</edit>

My plan for this battle was fairly simple. I wanted to box Ryo's forces in as the battle progressed so I could bring concentrated firepower to bear on his units.  The keys to the game for me would be limiting the unsupported targets in my force, while forcing Ryo to deploy his troops all the while keeping the mission objectives in mind.

The deployment had me hiding the two squads of HDestroyers behind the large pyramid with the immortals, 3 squads of warriors and lord in a roughly diagonal line from the top of the pyramid towards my board edge.  One tomb sypder was deployed into the forward grove while the other was taking the longer route along the side of the pyramid. Scarabs where placed behind the warrior line.  The reason I had for the odd second tomb sypder placement was to limit where infiltrators could be deployed on that side.

(see the first post for the deployment image)

Turn 1b

The Necron and Immortal failed to rise.  Unphased, the Necrons advanced, moving quickly through difficult terrain.  The Immortals and Heavy Destroyers shook a Hammerhead.  Two Scarabs were made.

At least one hammerhead won't be firing the next turn. I wasn't so lucky on the WBB roles, oh well.  The scarbs took a beating but that is what they are for.

Turn 2a
The Tau moved into firing position and the Stealthsuits fired on a unit of Warriors, knocking down 3. The squad of Battlesuits opened up on another unit of Warriors, knocking down 4. The individual Battlesuit knocked down a Warrior. The Commander accounted for another. The Hammerhead missed and the Tau redeployed. The Necrons again held their ground.

Turn 2b

Of 7 Warriors and two Immortals, only one Warrior rose.  Gambling, the Lord Veiled the Immortals, moving them behind Tau lines.  A Heavy Destroyer knocked the gun off a Hammerhead.  The other two stunned the other Hammerhead.  The Immortals opened fire on the unit of Battlesuits, killing one and wounding another.  They did not run.  Two more Scarabs were made, but the Tomb Spiders wounded themselves.

I felt I needed to take a bit of a risk here I was failling my WBB rolls badly(it happens). It paid off though as I was able to destroy the main gun on one hammerhead, and shake the other.  The scarbs where thrown forward to get some of the tau firewarriors to come out and play.

Turn 3a
The Drones arrived to support the Tau cause. Two teams ofFCWs disembarked from their Devilfish. The Battlesuits knocked down one Immortal. The Commander missed. The last Battlesuit knocked another Immortal down. The FCWs knocked down 4 bases of Scarabs. The drones from the Devilfish and Stealthsuits also targeted the Scarabs, finishing them. The other Drones failed to fell a Heavy Destroyer.

Turn 3b

The Necrons continued their steady advance, the Lord again veiling the Immortals.  One unit of Warriors stunned a Devilfish.  Another unit shook the other Devilfish.  The third unit of Warriors destroyed a Stealthsuit.  The Immortals and Lord killed 7 FCWs.  The Heavy Destroyers killed a Battlesuit.  The FCW unit that took the heavy losses fled off the table.

Turn 4a
The Drone unit failed to kill destroyers and the template from the Hammerhead missed the Immortals. The Drones from on of the Devilfish wounded a Scarab. The other unit finished off a base. The Stealth suits finished the Scarabs and Tomb Spider. A Battlesuit knocked down one Warrior. The Commander knocked down another. Another set of Devilfish Drones damaged a Scarab. The Tau redeployed.



I started tossing some of my free 2 gundrone squads in the phlanx's path at this point to slow the advance slightly and force him to waste some shooting on things.... sometimes I love the little guys

Turn 4b
The two felled Warriors rose. The Heavy Destroyers shook a Devilfish. Another Warrior squad destroyed a Devilfish, killing 5 FCWs as they fled the wreckage. Three more were killed by another Warrior Squad. The Tomb spider and Scarabs assaulted on set of drones, while others where killed by a warrior squad, All the drones were destroyed.



So far my orginal plan was going well thanks to the Viel

Turn 5a
The Tau took up new tactical positions and began firing. A solid slug from the Hammerhead took out a Heavy Destroyer. A Warrior fell to fire from the Commander. The Drones knocked another on down. The Stealhsuits knocked still two more down. The Tau redeployed and the Necrons remained resolute.

I tried to keep all four quarters as well contested as possible. The one I was most worried about was the mangled mess in the bottom right of the pic. I had a transport full of guys that I didn't actually move (so that if the transport was destroyed, there would be no extra rerolls to wound on getting out of the wreckage) I also moved the stealthteam to that quarter to give Zith something else to worry about.

Turn 5b
The Tomb Spider cut its way through the wreckage of the Devilfish to reach the remaining FCWs. The remaining Necrons moved into position to get and opened fire. The Warriors stunned the wounded Hammerhead. The Heavy Destroyers stunned the other Hammerhead. Warriors killed two FCWs. Warriors shook another Devilfish. The Immortals opened up on the Stealthsuits, killing only 2. The last two FWCS fled






<iimg src="http://i21.photobucket.com/alassholes/b251/kenouki/comp-Turn5b.jpg">

</iimg>

Post battle report: So. Somehow I eked out a win here (not what I was expecting on that last turn). As the drones held the necron's starting quarter uncontested, and all the other three ended still contested between the two of us, the more significant casualties that I'd taken were negated. I made my own share of errors. Mostly I forgot that you need to drop a unit below 50% to have it no longer be scoring. I should have gotten one of the two Heavy Destroyer squadrons completely gone instead of hurting both and getting points for neither. I always have difficulty against Zith's 'crons. He plays them well, and its often hard to find a unit that is exposed enough that I can remove it with relative safety.

Conclusion Necrons

My orginal plan went fairly well. I was worried about the losses I was taken in turns 1 and 2 but it evened out. While I wish I could say because we ended early I didn't get to do the moverments that would have happend on turn 6 to contest table quarters, the simple fact is I made the very basic error of forgetting the mission objectives. Specifically I didn't remember that not contesting your deployment zone, hands your opponent1/2 the total points of the game (750 in this case) in victory points.

Still it was a very tactical game which I enjoyed, and I'm not likely to make the same mistake again in the near future.

Thanks for the great batrep guys!

I hate those metal crons!

What a cool batrep. Love the pics, love the little icons. It really helped follow the flow of the battle.

Congratulations ryo on winning against necrons with mech tau. That is truely one of the greatest uphill battles you can face.

Posted By Jayden63 on 02/13/2006 12:08 AM
What a cool batrep. Love the pics, love the little icons. It really helped follow the flow of the battle.

Thanks!  It was both fun and at times frustrating finding appropriate pics that could be resized to fit the icons.  Still, now that I have them, it will make modifying later games (if necessary) a bit easier. 

Cool report! We want more.

[quote="">

Posted By Fabulous on 02/12/2006 4:44 PM
Thanks for the great batrep guys!

I hate those metal crons!

Come on, necrons are not evil just misunderstood!  Ryo I remember now how the last small squad of drones died.  The necron lord showed his combat "might" by assulting them and then fleeing back near a unit of warriors in the consolidation move.

Zith

posted="" by="" fabulous="" on="" 02/12/2006="" 4:44="" pm=""><br"></span">

*edit messed some stuff up trying to fix a typo..

GREAT REPORT!!!

And nice terrain Scarab!  Congrats on the win Ryo.

It is a pleasure to play on

Yes, scarab has a whole host of very cool tables. The cityfight board he's working on looks pretty awesome already, and its not even painted yet. I'm looking forward to doing battle on the finished product (especially with both my new Tau codex and the cityfight codex due soon) . Perhaps we'll be able to get a batrep or two on it when he's done. As for more batreps, well we've no more pics to post at the moment. Perhaps next time we play (which may be a few weeks if I remember correct) we'll get another set of pics. A lot depends on who shows up to play on the 40k nights (and when... getting nice pics takes a little more time. I suppose failing all else I can use my own crappy digicam for blurry substitutes ).

Awesome Battle Report guys. Very well done.

Im jealous of scarabs table....damn I gotta get my table looking that good.

Wow.... *is really wanting to ditch his DE and start Necrons now!*

Thanks for the battle report! A lot!

Posted By Blackclaw on 02/15/2006 12:32 AM
Wow.... *is really wanting to ditch his DE and start Necrons now!*

Thanks for the battle report! A lot!

Hey... shouldn't that be "wanting to ditch his DE in favour of the mighty Tau"?  Heh.

Posted By Blackclaw on 02/15/2006 12:32 AM
Wow.... *is really wanting to ditch his DE and start Necrons now!*

Thanks for the battle report! A lot!

No I think this how it should be! Join the collective

Wowsers, nice job on the graphics Ryo and to you and Zith both for adding some color to my basic fact record!  Very cool indeed.  We'll have to that again.  Don't want to disappoint the Migster, after all.  Thanks for the kind words, Russ.

Excellent report!

 <?

I?m looking forward to coming down for some games.

Posted By Ryo on 02/13/2006 3:12 PM
...As for more batreps, well we've no more pics to post at the moment....

Dude, how did you do the pics with the cool unit icons? Do pls put up a tutorial or sthg. I signed here just so I could post this question - no kidding.

Note, if there is already a thread somewhere, or if I'm asking a dumb Q, pls bear with me. I am quite illiterate when it comes to things computerese.

Gahhh.... I'll answer this later. I just had 30 minutes of typing eaten by the void >_<

The short answer, aanemesis, is "Thank you for the compliments. I will certainly explain to the best of my ability. I just now have to retype the thing (read as: type somewhere else, and paste into Dakka)"