Super Necron Battle Update

What's that you say?
Blog update on Sunday?
Apparently not...  Instead you get a double header today!

First of all, I got a test game in with my 1600 point Straken list against some proxied Necrons.  I didn't take any pictures as I thought it would just be confusing, but here is the enemy list:

Necron Overlord :gauntlet of fire, resurrection orb, phaeron
Tomb Stalker
15 warriors with night scythe
10 warriors with ghost arc
10 warriors with ghost arc
5 scarabs
5 scarabs
5 tomb blades
Annihilation barge
Annihilation barge
Annihilation barge

-->Lord went in the big unit, and their airplane just did shooting stuff.



For a mission we chose one of the adepticon scenarios, which can be viewed in this link.  We did the last one, called Wolves Beyond the Borders.  It was 3 objectives: get 1/2 of the opponents kill points, capture more objective markers, and have the most units in the opposite deployment zone.  Deployment was pitched battle, and I deployed in a fairly central manner.  One artillery piece on each side, then infantry blobs, then the russ in the middle.  I also decided to start with my valk in my deployment zone as it would be pretty good at taking out armour 13 tanks with its missiles and lascannon.
He also deployed in a central manner, turning his ghost arcs sideways in order to give cover to most of his stuff.  One scarab squad was on each flank, and the bikers were also my right.  Everything else was sort of on the center left portion of his zone.


In the first two turns I managed to destroy one annihilation barge and take the weapon off the other one.  I also killed one of the ghost arcs and the night scythe.  My ordnance was ridiculously accurate, which I hope will keep going.  He managed to immobilize and take the lascannon off my valk, but that wasn't too bad as it got to fire everything once and do a bit of damage.  His bikers also killed my basilisk in their second turn.

In the third and fourth turns things started getting better for my opponent.  In some sort of freak communication accident my right hand 20 man blob actually fled from his bikers.  That's a one in thirty six chance!  Also, I took the heat ray off his spider and his scarabs ate my manticore after it shot down the second ghost arc.  His warriors had taken a couple of hits from my ordnance over the course of these turns, but cover from craters combined with the res orb meant that they weren't going anywhere.  I did however manage to take out the scarabs with my flamer squad.


After this my opponent basically just cleaned up the rest of my army between turns five and six.  The scarabs and bikers killed Straken's chimera and my missile squad before Straken punched both squads to death, and I couldn't get through terrain fast enough to get my remaining 21 man unit into combat with the necrons.  At the end he had achieved all three of his objectives while I had only got one.

DEFEATED!!!


Lessons learned:
If you don't miss with your big guns, they will do a LOT of damage.  I was popping two AV13 vehicles a turn when all my tanks were firing.
Veterans need to get up in the fight.  Having their ride taken out turn one left them sitting in my deployment zone for the whole game.  I should have rushed them forward to block charges at my manticore.
Sometimes the commissar fails.  Losing that unit was a shock, but there really isn't any other way I would have approached that.  Hopefully it doesn't happen again.
Mobility is important.  I wasn't really able to even try to get my guys in the enemy deployment zone.  If I had made a run for it with my chimeras and valkyrie I could have maybe got another objective.


Also, these awesome pictures came from here.  Those are some good looking necrons.


Bonus:
We have to put a bit of army fluff in with our list, so here is mine:

+++/Message received, relaying contents:

+++/Thought for the day: A death for the Emperor is a life well lived.

            Lords of the Departmento Munitorum, we believe that there may have been a mistake with the reinforcements to Colonel Straken’s jungle fighter company.  Although the Basilisk, Leman Russ, and Manticore are righteous tools of the Emperor’s wrath, we fear that they may be less than effective in the warzone that we are currently deployed in.  Line of sight is limited at best, and the swampy mire severely hampers their mobility.

            That being said, we are coming quite close to winning this war.  Fifteen years of constant battle on this Emperor forsaken rock have seen this company fighting in a surprisingly large variety of battlegrounds against a staggering variety of enemies.  The three full platoons that we began this campaign with have been whittled down to one, and the squads in it are usually organized into large assault units led by me and commissar Varro.  John Kruger has proved to be a capable platoon commander, if a bit of a pyromaniac, and is recommended for regimental command after this is done.  Additionally, a group of veteran soldiers had become quite adept at tank hunting and the use of improvised explosives. 

            These next two days will decide the fate of both this company and this planet.  I expect that the Colonel’s unique combination of tactical brilliance and unrelenting belligerence will see us through. 

--- Senior Commissar Lucius Paullus

THE EMPEROR PROTECTS

+++/End of message