Battle report number one,
Data was fielding Tyranids, including more ‘stealers than you can shake a stick at, a Hive Tyrant, four Warriors and a Trygon.
In response I was fielding two Necron Lords, one on a Destroyer body and equipped with a war scythe, a resurrection orb and a phylactery, the second lord, on foot had a Staff of light, a phase shifter, a phylactery and a second resurrection orb. The lords were supported by twenty Necron Warriors, three heavy destroyers and three destroyers.
I got first go, moving the heavy destroyers into position they fired on the Trygon, despite three S9 AP2 hits they only managed to inflict two wounds on the monster, with nothing else to do this turn, It was over to Data to begin tearing my Necron down. His first act was to move the horde of ‘stealers into position so that they would be able to assault at the end of his turn. The Trygon and the Warriors moved toward the Heavy Destroyers. The Hive Tyrant fired its heavy venom cannon at a squad of Necron Warriors; this bought two down, one from the targeted squad and one from the second squad as a result of scatter. Then came the assault phase, with 6 attacks each and plus one for being on the charge, six warriors fell to rending claws. For my second turn I moved the Heavy Destroyer and their lighter brethren, along with the destroyer lord, into a position where they could bring the full force of their weapons to bear on the Trygon, although the beast was hit with eight out of twelve shots it was only reduced to one wound, with one squad of warriors locked in close combat and the second out of range, I had no choice but to end my turn. Data threw another venom cannon shot in the direction of the second squad of warriors, fortunately this went wide of the mark and scattered away from the squad. The warriors did the same on the destroyers, bringing down a heavy destroyer; hopefully the res orb would bring it back into the fray. A second round of close combat bought down more warriors, curse those rending claws. At the beginning of my third turn I lost a heavy destroyer due to a failed WBB roll. I moved the three destroyers into a better position to take down a squad of Genestealers, Data lost six of them. In his previous turn Data had regenerated the Trygon restoring two wounds. Three shots from the heavy destroyers removed two wounds again from the Trygon, the venom cannon from Data’s warriors bought down a destroyer, then the Trygon moved into close assault. If it wasn’t for the Destroyer lords res orb, the match would have finished a lot sooner. I lost two destroyers to the assault from the Trygon and four more warriors to the ‘stealers. My fourth turn, I was getting desperate, the warriors, now clear of close assault for the moment, fired on the Genestealers. Three were gunned down, but it wouldn’t be enough, they would be all but eradicated in a few moments. On the other side of the table, things weren’t going any better. The Trygon had once again regenerated and was back up to three wounds. Although the venom cannon shots were wasted, the close assaults from the Trygon and a handful of ‘stealers took care of the Destroyer lord and one of the heavy destroyers and that was it. With over 75% of my force gone, the Necrons phased out.
I have to admit, it was a good game, not a close one. I was out matched in close assault and the amount of attacks that stealers have meant that the Necron warriors stood no chance. I may have to review the options I have available in the Necron force and drop in some flayed ones and a couple of wraiths. All in all I was happy with the way the battle went, I may have phased out, but at least I took a few of Data’s stealers on the way.
Battle report #2
Chaos Space Marines v Necrons 750 points
Steve (Smiffy) was fielding a chaos Dreadnought, 2 8 man squads of Chaos Marines, A Terminator lord and a chaos spawn, with a 5 man(?) squad of Plague bearers of Nurgle and a three man squad of Chaos Terminators in reserve.
I was fielding a Necron lord, 20 Necron Warriors, 3 Destroyers and 3 heavy destroyers.
Steve won the roll off and took first turn, His first act was to roll for the dreadnought, he rolled badly and it ended up inactive for the duration of the turn, a squad of 8 marines headed toward the 20 Warriors and the Lord. The other 8 man squad came out from the safety of a ruined building and the spawn did likewise, but from the other side of the same ruin. The squad that had move in closer to the Warriors opened fire, equipped with plasma weapons they would have presented a problem, but having a resurrection orb in play meant that the three fallen warriors could benefit from it and roll a WBB on my first turn. With nothing else to shoot and not quite close enough for close combat, Steve ended his first turn
After a relatively successful WBB roll, I lost one of the three warriors, my first move was to have one of the Heavy Destroyers so that it was in range of the Dreadnought, the two remaining Heavy destroyers and the three Destroyers moved into firing range of the spawn and one of the eight man squads, and the Lord and two squads of Warriors advanced toward the second 8 squad of Chaos Marines.
The Heavy Destroyer that had been sent in for the Dreadnought fired a shot that would have caused a glancing hit, but because the Dread was partly covered by a building it was saved by a 4+ cover save. The other HD’s fired on the spawn, bringing it down to one wound. The Destroyers now had a choice of targets, try to finish off the Spawn or attempt to reduce the numbers of the squad of Chaos Marines, considering that Destroyers fire three shots each, all that fire power for one Spawn would be a waste, however nine shots into a squad of 8 marines could be quite effective, so it was the Marines that took the brunt of the Gauss Cannons, three of the Marines fell. The Lord and the 2 squads of ten Warriors fired on the other squad, but the marines Armour saves negated the wounds.
Steve’s second turn, he tried to deep strike his Chaos Terminators on but they scattered off the table, the resulting mishap roll they were delayed. Smiffy’s dreadnought moved toward the Heavy Destroyer that tried to gun it down, the Squad of Marines that lost ranks to the Destroyers moved toward them and the Spawn advanced on the same Destroyer squad. The Terminator Lord remained hidden in the safety of a ruin. The Dreadnought fire it’s Multi-melta, scoring a hit but failing to wound. The Marine squad that had been fired on by the warriors moved closer, and then fired on the warriors, no losses due to a really bad roll. The other Marines attempted to bring down the destroyers, they managed to bring one down and since they were too far from the res orb there wouldn’t be a WBB. The other squad moved into close assault, lots of attacks meant that I lost another two warriors. The Warriors didn’t fare so well, only cutting down one marine, since the marines won the combat the warriors had to make a morale test, fortunately they passed and remained in combat. The dreadnought moved into close assault with the Heavy destroyer, the dread won and I lost a unit.
A WBB roll at the start of my second turn bought back one of the Warriors lost to a close assault, one of the two remaining HD’s moved to a better vantage point where it could endeavour to take out the spawn, the other one moved to a position between two ruins in order to get LOS on the Dreadnought. The destroyers fired on the squad of marines, bringing down another two, a Heavy destroyer made short work of the spawn reducing it to 0 wounds, the other fired on the Dread, a successful to hit followed by a roll of five meant that I’d scored a penetrating hit on the Dreadnought and it lost its multi melta. Close assault from the Warriors hacked into the other marines, removing two of them; this was followed by 4 attacks from the Necron Lord which killed another two. The Chaos Marines lost both assaults but although they passed the morale test from the warriors assault they failed the one from the Lord and ran, unfortunately the Lord did not roll high enough for a sweeping advance.
Smiffy tried again to bring in his terminators, this time they came down into a squad of Necron Warriors and the mishap roll enabled me to put them where I chose, so they ended up as far away from the battle as possible. He also bought in the Plague Bearers. The Dread moved toward the Heavy Destroyer and since it was now only armed with bolters, there was no point in a ranged attack from it. The squad that had suffered losses in close assault continued to retreat and the other squad of marines remained stationary and fired at the Destroyers. The shots from the plasma weapons were Smiffy’s only chance of inflicting any real damage. His dice rolls let him down; he missed with one and rolled a one with the other destroying the marine in the process.
Six shots from the Destroyers Gauss Cannons took out the remainder of a Marine squad, and 15 shots from Gauss flayers took out the Plague bearers. The Necron Lords Staff of Light took down the retreating marines and a penetrating hit from a Heavy Destroyer wrecked the Chaos Dreadnought.
The Terminators moved closer and the terminator lord came out of hiding, he was close enough to enter into close assault with the destroyers, it went well for Chaos and not so well for the Necrons, I lost both of the Destroyers.
I moved a heavy destroyer into range of the terminator lord and moved a squad of Warriors in the direction of the terminator lord. I also moved the Necron Lord and, the somewhat depleted, second squad of warriors towards the termie lord. I attempted to bring the Mighty Chaos lord down with gauss flayer fire but a 2+ armour save was more than a match.
Turn six for Smiffy and his Terminators were now in range of of the heavy destroyers and melta gun fire from combi-weapons bought then down. The chaos Terminator Lord now turned his attention to my Warriors, Fortunately 3+ saves saw off his gun fire.
Turn six for me saw the opportunity to bring the Necron Lords Staff of Light to bear on the Terminators, this time the 2+ saves were of no use and the terminators fell, the warriors fired on the terminator lord causing 2 wounds. The Necron Lord Moved into close assault with the Terminator Lord, luckily the Terminator Lords power fist caused him to react slowly. My Necron Lord was on the charge, and that meant 4 attacks, all four hit and three of those wounded, it was now down to armour saves. Out of three saves Smiffy only needed to fail one and victory would be mine, luck was on my side for this battle and the terminator lord failed one of the three armour saves.
So I now had a loss and a win, both of the battles were very close and I thought I was heading toward a second loss, if Smiffy had made those last three saves he would have taken out my Necron Lord on the next turn and the Necrons would have phased out.
Every time I play Smiffy I have a really good game, but it also gives us a chance to evaluate our forces, I’m fairly certain that the next time I go up against Smiffy, he will have a surprise or two for me and I will have to re-assess my Necron force. I’m trying really hard not to get any new models until the release of the new codex and redesign of certain units. So I hope Smiffy doesn’t throw anything too nasty at me.
