1850pt battle report - nids vs Necrons 'never die Decurion nonsense'

It finally had to happen, I've watched the might of Otty's nids face down the decurion and heard all sorts of horror stories versus PeteB and even Otty's 21 D-weapon Eldar [about the only thing that can touch the Crons]. So I couldn't put it off and it'll be practice for the weekend. I even suggested we randomly see which mission as Kill Points is not something I should avoid, so what did we roll...

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant W Tervigon Plain Tr Zoanthrope Dominion Dominion Dominion Warp Blast Onslaught Warp Blast The Horror Psychic Scream

The low down:

• Purge the alien but based on the Blog Wars 9 rules - Unit Points for killed units, half points for half killed units which then translates to VPs - Hammer and Anvil
• Warlord Trait -3 enemny units must make Pinning Tests
• Night fighting first turn, lost deployment, went second and failed to steal the initiative. 

I set up conservatively, trying to learn from my last game but still put three units of Stealers in the centr ruins but that had allowed the Flayed Ones to deploy in my end. So I put some Stealers in my back field and put Deathleaper in a position to go both forward or back in support.

And this is the mass of living metal I'm facing, I'm so doomed.

I wasn't thinking  too clearly and forgot to put anythhing in the drop pod but I have three Rippers so deployed them inside, they've got deep strike anyway but I can sacrifice 6pts to concentrate my force.

Pinning tests failed to halt the Flayed Ones and the Tomb Blades just passed also, well worth the Warlord Trait.

Everyone was having a jolly time on the trampoline of doom.

So from the off I forgot how fast the 'slow and implacable' Necron force is with Wraiths and Scarabs getting in charges first turn. The Wraiths easily  removed the first unit of Stealer for First Strike, I think I managed a single wound in return thanks to their Invulnerable saves AND Reanimation Protocols.

The Necron Horde targeted the remaining Stealers, pinging off a couple while night fighting helped save a few. Scarabs got into a multi-assault with the remaining Stealers and even Deathleaper. Most of the Stealers diamond tipped rending claws failed to do much damage Deathleaper may have done OK except Reanimation Protocols brought them back. One of the Stealer broods was reduced to a single model who broke and ran.

The Flayed Ones went hunting.

I was lucky and managed in my go to take out one of the Wraiths thanks to a 10" charge and 3 Hammer of Wrath strikes. The other Carnifex took a couple of bases out as did Deathleaper and the Hormagaunts were useful. I considered Hit & Run with the Stealers and Deathleaper but that would have left them exposed in Ben's turn so I kept them embroiled. The Flyrant [just out of shot] managed to rally the Genestealer and shot [and killed] 3 Flayed ones!

 Nemesor managed to get his Praetorians into combat with the Carnifex, so much for slow and purposeful! While the Tomb Blades also moved up.

The centre of the battlefield turned into a massed scrum. More Wraiths assaulted Deathleaper, Hormagaunst and another sole Genestealer.

 Flayed ones faced off against the Genestealers

 and assaulted. The premier close combat unit in the 40k universe managed to kill 1 Flayed One.

Inn return I had to make 10 armour saves, as you can see I made half of them but given my brood was only 5 strong [or should that be weak] that slaughtered the unit.

Ironically the recently rallied lone Genestealer was also assaulted by the whole Flayed One unit and managed to do the same amount of damage as five of his coleagues. We didn't even bother to roll the dice to see if he would survive.

Nemesor and the Praetorians killed the Carnifex, with the rmaining one still locked in combat with the two Wraiths.

The Hormagaunts perished and Deathleaper took a couple of wounds and the Genestealer was largely ignored so the both Hit & Run out of the melee.

I managed to Challenge Nemesor but as if the wealth of rules the Necrons and the Decurion already have Nemesor also gets to borrow/steal special rules from units nearby, like Stealth so even after manifesting Warp Blast without Deny the Witch on my Zoanthrope, hitting AND wounding the fact he had Stealth from Deathleaper JUST sace his sorry a$$. So Deathleapers Challenge ended in him being cut to pieces. He actually did quite well, wounding 4 times [two rends] but the 2+ save and Reanimation Protocols negated everything. Meanwhile the Tyrranofex tried to kill the Spyder, with a couple of wounds taken I think for a wound on the Spyder.

Tomb Blades also Hit & Run out of the assault with the Termagants. They'd lost about 8 of their number and despite Counter Assault they just weren't strong enough to pierce their metal hides.

Nemesor headed for the Skyshiled and my last stronghold.

Slow and steady Wraiths head for the T-fex while Nemesor makes it to the Skyshield.

Tomb Blades reposition to shoot the spawned gaunts under the Skyshield.

In my turn 2 the Tyrannocyte arrived and killed a Warrior, that was actually a big deal for me even if 15 shots from a blind flesh sack resulted in only one kill!

But my glee was cut short in the next turn when it was pulped to bloddy gristle.

Tomb Blades try to assault the spawned Termagants, I get one Overwatch and manage to wound and it fails it's save AND its Reanimation Protocol. With a 5" charge Ben only rolls a 4 so he fails to engage. 

The Flayed Ones make it in though and things wiull go downhill for both this unit and the final 5 that were spawned to the right. [Teh Spawn of Cryptus is proxying for my Venomthrope which I left at home].

With all those Wraiths lined up to do unspeakable things to the already engaged Tyrannofex things did not go down well and I think shortly after this we decided to call it a night, even though it was only the beginning of my turn 3

The headline score comes across as very depressing. Ben was able to kill two thirds of my army in 3 turns - 1230pts and my tally was more like 130pts! not even 10%. Now I had some success and some failures but the real question is that if you took away Reanimation Protocols how much would that have added to my score, sadly, but more worryingly I don't think it would have gone beyond 500pts!

So even without Reanimation Protocols I think the units at the Necron's disposal are much better in this sort of scenario. They seem to have rule after rule, making an already good army even better. The only things they seem to lack is a high initiative and Psychic Abilities but as the vaunted 'Psychic Phase' is pretty much a time wasting exercise in futility that's no great loss. They have high strength weapons, they have high AP weapons, units that move 12" - compare a Wraith to a Ravener or a Scarab to a Ripper!

Even the Flayed Ones outperform Genestealers. We ran a test, 10 on 10 with Stealers getting the charge, they were wiped out with the Flayed Ones losing only 3 or 4 in the process. So much for the premier close assault unit in 40k!

Ben's suggested our next game we replay it but without RP to see what difference it makes. Overall this was actually a lot of fun. Sure the result was appalling but we had a good laugh and I think Ben is coming round to the idea that they're overpowered so he can laugh at the ludicrousness too. Still I felt far happier with my list than the previous one I played against Pete so bring on Blog Wars! 

NEcron Nom Nom!

Things have been a bit disrupted this weekend [I know it's now Wednesday but fallout still surrounds me]. On Friday I thought I had a game with Ben but it transpired I'd not actually confirmed so he'd got Otty to fill in. Kindly he said I could pop along and watch so I arrived to witness potentially one of the most painful games ever. As you can see from Otty's deployment he was tooled up, with a Barbed Heirodule, two Fleshborer Hived Tyrannofex, two Tervigons and 30 Termagants [28 Devourers and 2 Spike Rifles] with 5 Dev Warriors and a few Zoanthropes to boot. Essentially he had a ton of firepower.

He lined up against Ben's Decurion detachment with Flayed Ones, a couple of units of Wraiths and Spyders and Scarabs. None of his usual Annihilation Barge shenanigans but instead what do we get 4+ Reanimation Protocols

Essentially Otty threw everything he could at these robots and just couldn't kill them. 5 would die and then 5 would reanimate, admittedly that's beating the odds but there were so many dice being rolled just none of it was ultimately productive.

Even playing the Maelstrom missions became pointless because he became bogged down with the highly mobile elements of the Necron force. It some became apparent that there was not a single element of Ben's army that wasn't useful and also durable, zero fat! Wraiths with their speed, invul saves and killing power, not to mention that gun they have that was only prevented from insta-killing Otty's MCs by some handy Paroxysm rolls stopping them shooting straight!

Even the Heirodule was a little ineffective, although that was more from deploying first and Ben then leaving it slightly out of position to actually making any meaningful effect on proceedings.

His 12 high strength low AP shots were still useless in the face of Reanimation protocol.

This was never going to end well, although it did take a few turns for the inevitable.

And I think it's even clearer where this was going

I found myself wondering if I could have done any different and I'm not sure I could. You can't hide from them, they're more mobile - they'll hunt you down. I haven't got as much firepower as Otty has and it aided him nought. Air superiority is an option but you lose out on securing objectives when you're swooping. You can't assault because you get overwatched and even then there are assault units that can be even more devastating than the Tyranids very own 'premiere assault unit'!

I was literally stunned by the one-sided nature of the whole thing. That's not to say Otty was tabled, far from it, it was just that he loads of stuff that worked really hard for no visible gain. Ultimately the game came to a close at 12:30am and I returned home with a bit of a head ache - lat night I thought. I then spent the entire weekend bed-ridden - nauseous, head aches, joint aches and a variety of other symptoms less appealing to discuss. I was dreaming/hallucinating flashes from the game and also Ingress it was truly horrible. Even today my head is still befuddled and stomach is upset. I had to cancel a short notice game with Ben tonight because I can't manage to stay up passed 10:30 without feeling exhausted. I don't know what it was, whether it was an uber migraine or some viral thing but sadly it's stopped me from any hobby progress. Hopefully there'll be something to follow, although my plan for the month is pretty much out the window - I'll be pleased with just completing the Deathwing or even just one of the characters!

Anyway, hope things return to normal soon, till then if you've faced a Decurion then share your pain. If you haven't you can always share the pain for your most recent illness ;)

GW Southport

When I was at GWSouthport for Armies on Parade I took some pics of the figures in the display cabinet. So I thought I'd share them here because I still don't have much content to keep me going so I'll just have to make do with this for the mo.

 A nice Necron Night Scythe

Space Pixie paper plane.

Some crazy dark Space Wolves

Fab purple metallic Necrons

Yet more of the Crons

And that's your lot.

Blog Wars 8 1850pt battle report game 1 - nids vs Necrons

First up was Josh with a C'Tan shard, Overlord in a command barge, Necron Scarab Swarm and allied Helbrute formation! Josh intoduced himself as only recently returned to the hobby so still very much a 40k newb which boded well for me considering I seem to be regularly beaten by those either new to the game or new to their army. In particular Tyranid noobies seem to beat me without fail!

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant  Tervigon Plain Tr Tervigon Miasma The Horror Warp Blast Catalyst Onslaught Dominion Dominion Dominion

The low down:

• Game 1 - Cleanse the Xenos with Hammer & Anvil deployment
• I won deployment and went first
• Warlord Trait - Deathleaper has Mindeater - +2VP for every IC slain in a challeneg
• Night fighting turn 1.

Having found enough Genestealers to replace those I'd left G.O.D. knows where I  deployed 15 in the ruin in Josh's DZ. The remaining Manufactorum Genestealers occupied the middle ground alongside Deathleaper.

The remaining force spread out in my back field to keep them away from weapons and hopefully prevent the Helbrutes materialising.

And let battle commence.

Hive Tyrant swoops forwards, Genestealers stay put, they can't assault anyway so may as well keep them there. Carnifex advances alongside the Hive Guard.

With so many Scarabs heading my way I repositioned the Tervigons to potentially pump out some bubble wrap.

I unleashed the Flyrant on the C'tan and Brainleech Worms took 2 wounds off it.

Josh spawned more Scarabs, a risky tactic in Purge the Alien as you're just adding more VPs to the table, but he seemed unperturbed.

They skittered forwards and assaulted Deathleaper

He killed a couple but was swarmed asunder giving Josh First Blood and a healthy dose of VPS. Meanwhile the Command Barge assaulted the Genestealers in the centre ruin, killing a couple and the C'tan headed for the Stealers in the DZ ruin and may have killed the brood [or was this Josh's First Blood?]. A unit of Scarabs also assaulted the Stealers, only killing a couple due to the difference in Weapon Skill and strength/toughness.

With the Scarabs exposed the Carnifex peppered them with Brainleech worms, double strength insta-killing 9 bases!

The Flyrant also made use of Brainleech living ammo to shoot the C'tan.

Who promptly exploded, somehow it must have been ground as it only took one wound. Not sure how that happened.

With no other targets the remaining Genestealer assaulted the already engaged Scarabs and wiped them out. Meanwhile some of the Spyders took wounds.

The unengaged Stealers in the centre ruin joined their brood siblings and attacked the barge.

With some heavy duty Rending hits

The Command Barge was gone and thankfully didn't reanimate. A healthy crop of VPs for me.

Some strange smoke erupted from the wrecked vehicle! What? I'm forging a narrative here!

I think that Obyron joining the Warriors there, hoping to take out the wounded Flyrant.

Yet more Scarabs, and they're hungrily looking at all that Bastion to eat because I bubble wrapped the Carnifex.

    

Half the Scarabs assaulted the Hive Guard I think I came out better only losing one Hive Guard but we're all Fearless so we remain locked.

The Scarabs get they're nibblers on the Bastion

 

And reduce it to a sloppy mess, taking the Quad Gun and the Venomthrope with it.

With the Flyrant on the ground everyone assaults and Obyron accepts the Flyrants challenge and gets eaten.

As the ground up pieces of living metal fall to the ground they coalesce back into the Necron hero and his learning protocols remove all challenge acceptance confirmations for a Tyranid bioform of this scale.

Spyders eat through a brood of Genestealers.

Carnifex assaults the other Spyders, does some damage but comes off just as bad with MC Vs MC.

The Flyrant bashes Warriors but still can't get to Obyron, the Spyders head to break the stalemate.

More spawned gaunts join the Hive Guard but they begin to take casualties and the melee remains locked.

Helbrutes finally materialise, they put some damge on a Tervigon but mostly it remains unharmed.

Eventually time is called and we tot up the results 793 +2VP [Line Breaker and Slay the Warlord] to Josh's 919 +3VP. I was actually quite surprised I didn't do more damage and had been lucky as a lot of  my units were not passed the half strength mark so hadn't scored. I know I killed a lot of scarabs, which aren't much points but the Command Barge wasn't cheap. Perhaps the relief I felt not having to tackle the Helbrutes backfired in that essentially those points never got a chance to be secured by me, although I'm not so sure what could have taken them, probably the Carnifex...

Anyway, aside from the super quick deployment [all things considered] this was another typical first game loss but a fun game. Josh was quite apologetic about his list but although Scarab swarms aren't a fun concept I never once felt I wasn't enjoying the game and as I said at the beginning experience is no guarantee for success. Anyway, on to game two.

Josh and I mid game from From the Fang