The Return of my Gaming Crew

Last month I had a bit of an 'Old Ba$tards Reunion' with many of my Old Gaming Crew and got to chatting with one of the guys, Ben, who lives but a few minutes away (bottom left in the pic from the early 90's). Well he sent me a text the other day and asked if I wanted to nip round for a game? Taking into account last year he entered a tournament at Warhammer World and came 6th out of 200! How could I refuse?

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures last night, maybe next time but it was a very interesting match-up. He'd given me fair warning he was going to use Necrons but I was thinking old-school - Warriors, Destroyers, Wraiths, Scarabs maybe a new Command Barge... Wrong!

For his 1,500pts he had

• Command Barge with The Traveller Dude [with a Tachyon Arrow]
• 3 [or was it 4] Annihilation Barges
• Triarch Stalker
• Ghost Ark
• 10 Warriors
• 5 Flayed ones
• 2 Units of immortals [at least 10 in each unit] Tesla Carbines
• At least 8 or 9 scarabs
• Cryptek

Which I think covers most of it. Of course if you've been a long time reader, first time commenter you'll know our Tyranids aren't completely comfortable with mech, I have a healthy fear of it and we don't have the recommended figures to deal with it. If you recall the problems I had with Guard AV11 Leman Russes in assault, well this is the same deal but with the shooting side of things their AV goes up to 13 [yeah I suppose the Russes do to]. Oh and it was Annihilation and you know how I love that mission type!

Anyway, without pictures there's not a great deal I can share without it just being a series of disconnected 'what I did next was...'.
However I'll try to cover some highlights. Necrons:

• The Tachyon Arrow, ha, ha! It hit and could wound my Trygon Prime on a 2+, yeah you know it - a 1.
• Tesla weapons just ate my units, arcing everywhere and with quite a few 6's which give another 2 hits they were total Tyranid killers.
• The Crypteks Tremor Stave was also handy in slowing down my advance, especially when used against Gargoyles - if I wanted to move 12" they were already in difficult terrain so I'd have to roll a terrain test. So they crept along instead of flapping. They made an effective wall of cover though. 
• The Immortals were just solid and I think for every 3 I killed 1 ended up getting back up.

And my highlights. Tyranids:

• My Hive Guard continued their 50% deal, 2 out of 4 hits, 1 out of 2 penetrates. However Ben pointed out that they were in fact 100% effective in that they Destroyed an Annihilation Barge and the Command Barge in their two rounds of shooting. They held The Traveller in combat for two turns, caused a wound and suffered 1, then the Tervigon arrived and flattened him so good he didn't ever get back up! So I'm definitely getting the next two of the Hive Guard converted.
• The Trygon took out the Flayed ones, Warriors and blew up the Ghost Ark 7 times over, although those first two combats took 2-3 turns to resolve before I could take the Ark.
• Genestealers were a bust, the Broodlords survived for quite a while but got mashed by the Immortals and the Adrenal one attacked the Triarch but just couldn't penetrate and was stepped on and danced over. If I'd gone for a Barge I may have had some joy... Not one single basic Stealer got into combat!
• Meanwhile the Warriors were held in combat with the Scarabs for a long time, but it took two broods of Termagants and a bundle of Hormagaunts combined to finally whittle away the many little metal bugs nipping at their heels. I think only the prime was left after this concluded.
• Oh, and the Mycetic Spore was assaulted! And he killed someone before he was killed in return.

The game was much closer than expected even if by turn 5 I had just 3 termagants left on the field and they were running away. In the middle of the game it was quite close but the Tervigon and Trygon had all taken significant wounds and the Hive Guard were tied up with the Traveller - I realised too late I should have charged the Biovore into him to keep him occupied and ensure the Hive Guard got another turn of shooting at the mech.

But it was a great game. Ben's army is really well painted and to prevent arguments he employs the 'rolling dice in a game box system' I try to employ with the kids. It's formality certainly fits with the Necron aesthetic. I did much better than I expected and the mech was a challenge and I know this list is in no way appropriate but I think just a few small changes might have been able to tip possibilities a bit further in my direction. However, I make my list based on objective missions which account for ⅔ of the missions so I hope changes I make don't make them less versatile for those matches. Anyway, we'll probably play again and he's suggested I think about the doubles tournament in Warhammer World in October so we'll see. I promise I'll get pictures next time, it's a good set up and well worth your viewing pleasure.