1500pt battle report - nids Vs Necrons

My gaming buddy Ben has been doing a lot of charity work recently. Having regularly mullered Liam, Otty and myself with his Necrons he decided to throw us all a bone for a bit with his Orks. Chalking up a few loses he's back from the dead with his crons, I'd say throwing us a bone but maybe that's a pun too far. Again this was his Throne of Skulls list and it was my second game in two days.

Here's the low down:

• Big Guns Never Tire (5 objectives - in front of the ruin below, behind the benign mysterious forest, just to the centre of the board, behind the meteor crater field and the far left out of shot next to the ghost ark).
• Vanguard strike, but you could tell that
• I ran two Tervigons, one as a HQ [my Tervigon Prime as I called it] with Toxin Sacs/Adrenal Glands, Iron Arm and Warp Speed. It also got the Warlord trait of being a scoring unit.
• Second Tervigon got Haemorrage and Enfeeble, but also had Regeneration
• Broodlord got two powers - Iron Arm and Enfeeble
• Ymgarl were hiding in the crashed debris crater with the green blob in it.

Hormagaunts and Stealers were in the woods to capitalise on their 'move through cover' with the Tervigon for support. Hive Guard Zoan Tervigon Prime and Trygon out of range behind the ruin.

Two Annihilation Barges, Command Barge, Ghost Ark [next to the objective] Immortals in the crater field and Spyders and scarabs on my right flank. Ben went first, I elected not to steal the initiative. I think a couple of Hormagaunts bit the dust but mostly I remained unharmed. The Spyders spawned but one took a wound for his efforts.

Tervigon Prime spawned 12 and everything went forwards, the Trygon through the ruins and the Hive Guard to get in range of the Spyders next to the wrecked Necron Monolith. The Zoanthrope discovered the nearest objective was a Grav Wave generator [units charging the controlling unit halve their charge range]

The vanilla Tervigon pooped out spawning twelve termagants who discovered a sabotaged objective but managed to leave it undisturbed. It also tried to Enfeeble the Spyders but was denied, the Broodlord however succeeded.

 The Hive Guard capitalised on the weakened Spyders and managed to shoot down one of them.

 Turn two - the Scarabs swarmed forward, their progenitor Spyder unfazed by the Enfeebled 'difficult terrain test'.

The sky was rent asunder by the sonic boom of Necron night Scythe, disgorging a squad of Immortals into the forest in an iridescent flash of lime green.

The Command Barge skirted round the Monolith with an Annihilation Barge following closely.

The Ghost Ark moved to broadside the advancing Termagants and a unit of warriors disembarked into the ruins of a crashed Imperial Lander, unawares the reason for it's destruction lay dormant under their feet. Their combined fire kill all but one of the Termagants. A Tomb Blade shot on from the board edge intent on destruction.

The combined Cryptek's Abyssal Staff and the Immortals Tesla fire destroyed all but one of the Genestealers and some of the Hormagaunts and put two wounds on the Broodlord.

The Spyder and two units of Scarabs assaulted the remaining Hormagaunts and despite taking a couple of scarab bases First Blood finally went to Ben with their demise.

In my turn two the warriors move to take on the Immortals, Termagants shifted to all shoot at them also. The Scarabs were Enfeebled by the Tervigon and the Broodlord Iron Armed up to take on the Spyder

The Tervigon Prime Iron Armed and spawned eleven Termagants to replace the eleven dead. The sole survivor moved back to the objective allowing the Zoanthrope to float in search of the Command Barge. The Ymgarl Genestealers awoke from dormancy, 18 attacks, 15 [or 13] hits, only 1 rend which ended up shaking the barge only for it's living metal to shrug of the effects. The Ymgarls totally botched that one! Eight of the eleven termagants survived the overwatch fusilade to assault the warriors

Back on the right the wounds had started to rack up on the Monstrous Creatures, 5 on the Tervigon [but Regeneration brought one back]. The remaining Genestealer was dead but the Broodlord continued to fight on. The scarabs couldn't damage the Tervigon and a war of attrition ensued keeping it locked in combat for most of the game. The Zoanthrope fired on the Command Barge, hit but failed to penetrate or was denied, either way it was spawny. The Hive Guard failed to damage too and the Trygon assaulted, failed it's Leadership and promptly put two wounds on itself, thankfully it manage to hold itself back from being sucked into the pocket universe of a Tesseract Labyrinth

The Warriors got to the Immortals, the Prime challenged the Cryptek who fled to the back of his unit. The Prime vented it's anger on the Warriors once again hitting with unerring accuracy only for it's deadly blade to fail to wound anyone! However the Warriors more than made up for his impotence and the unit broke and were cut down.

At this stage things sped up which is why we lack some intervening pics. The Tervigon Prime was killed by the Necron Overlord in combat [Slay the Warlord], but not before spawning another 11 Termagants to replace the single one that had been picked off. The Trygon too had bit the dust [Big Gun VP]. The Broodlord had finished the Spyder off and went and took out an Annihilation Barge giving me 2 VPs   for heavy Support kills. The Spore pod came in perfectly back field [linebreaker] and shot up the Immortals taking 3 but denying them the objective. So I was 9VPs to Ben's 3VP's

Seeing the left flank crumbling I started to reposition and secure my Deployment Zone

The Termagants headed to bolster their bretheren, the Warriors taking their place in the still unexploded objective. the Tervigon finished off the scarabs and had regenerated to just 2 wounds. The Broodlord moved to intercept the other Annihilation Barge.  While the Command Barge overran the Termagants. The Night Scythe left the board and the Immortals killed the Devgaunts and Mycetic Spore. I think at this stage I had realised I'd let victory slip from my fingers once again thanks to the tenacity of my foe. 

It was midnight and I wanted to call it at this point as I didn't think I could win, but we carried on with the Annihilation Barge taking responsibility for the Command Barge objective and the Warriors in the centres VP's were 12 to Ben and 5 to me. My only chance lay in the Tervigon assaulting the Annihilation Barge on the bottom most objective. It would gain me 4 VPs, and lose Ben 3 securing a draw. It was within 5" and had to go through cover, 3D6 - 1, 4, and 6. Taking the lowest numbers 1 and 4 = 5 yes! 

BUT if you remember way back at the start of the game we discovered this objective was a Grav Wave Generator, meaning units charging the controlling unit halve their charge range. So I fell short by two inches and the game was lost at 12:30am. Part of me wished we hadn't gone on but equally the drama on the last dice rolls was perhaps worth it. So close and once again so far.

Terrain is everything - ancient Skyshield Landing Pad

Taking into account I really should be sharing the love of other blogs I stumble across and community spirit it engenders I thought I'd share this truly awesome ancient Skyshield Landing Pad at Cinders of War.

As you can see  C!nder has made something quite unique for his mate Ben's Thousand Son's force but the amazing thing is that the Pad doesn't end with the image above, it's a truly modular piece that has a variety of configurations:

or even turned upside down!

There's loads more at Cinders of War, not to mention some very effective Tyranid Spires, scratchbuilt Jump Packs and a number of army boards. There may not be a blog post every day from him but that means you can just add it to your blog rolls/feeds safe in the knowledge you're not going to be overwhelmed with yet another blog to read as I know I feel sometimes - so much cool stuff to read.

Warhammer World ToS Brad Glover's Necrorks

I really like Brad Glover's Necrorks. I was amazed he didn't get nominated for best army and could only presume he hadn't painted them himself, which he informed me he had. Neither of us could figure it out but I can only assume the judges are looking for clear cut armies that represent a Codex. Mix and match, however cool may fail to meet the criteria. That's the only reason I can imagine because I thought the conversions were cool and the painting was ace.

The Ghost Ark/Trukk was very impressive.

I liked the maroon bases too.

All the figures were finished to the same high standard and I'm pretty certain they all had conversion work on them, certainly worthy of a nomination in my book.

Even ogres got in on the action.

There was also a bit of humour with the likes of this spotlight headed character.

His award winning Necrork Quad Gun and Aegis Defence line [which I voted for].

His large monster and collecting his award for the Fortification!

 

Also here's a couple of pics of my mate Liam's Dark Eldar awaiting their next battle.

His pain and wound token's have just as much attention as the rest of his army!

Also here are some Necrons, I believe this was the best Necron Army over the weekend. Pete Ganderton was the owner I think and he came over a couple of times to see how I was getting on and to say how great he thought my Nids were. He was very modest about his won efforts which I really liked, particularly the airbrushing effects he did on the flyer.

Here's Pete winning the best Necron player award.

1000pt battle report - nids Vs Grey Knights [Again!]

Playing on a Sunday night, what next! Ah well if I hadn't have postponed the family ironing then PeteB would have been without his gaming fix due to four consecutive night shifts - OUCH! So we had quite a cool little game in his cleared out 'man cave' - the garage. Certain advantages to having a newly found dedicated space but maybe we'll think differently come the Winter and not in a Game of Thrones fashion either.

So a 1000pts each, I got first turn, Dawn of War/Relic intimidating presence and PeteB got the overwatch on full BS. Oh, and note the TWO! Nemesis Dread Knights. As if one wasn't bad enough last time. This is after my first move. The Genestealers were able to secure the relic[the tiny yellow tyre valve cap!] thanks to infiltrate. The Hive Guard fired on the black NDK and he saved with ease. Tervigon spawned 8, that's about it.

BOOM! The grey NDK pops a large blast on the Termagants and does some damage. Funnily enough the Razorback fails it's difficult terrain test on the anaemic hedge, something we will be bringing up in many future matches no doubt ;) The black NDK fires it's flamer, I forgot it has a rang of 12" and it incinerates the stealers and a couple of Hormagaunts leaving the Broodlord safe with the relic. First Blood to PeteB!

The Devgaunts take a couple of casualties but the rubble help with saves.

The Tyranids are looking slightly less secure thanks to their dwindling numbers.

My turn two. Another 8 Termagants are spawned and they conga back to my half. The Broodlord heads back to take the Relic further away from the Grey Knights. Hive Guard fire again on the NDK and again it does nothing. Ymgarl Genestealers come from the pillars and my Momstrous Creatures charge forwards.

Devgaunts and Tyranid Prime take cover behind the ruins preparing to trade fire with the five man squad opposite. He takes a casualty. Hormagaunts assault the NDK to tarpit him and prevent anymore flamer shots but suffer 3 dead from wall of flame. In the assault four die but he stays locked. At this point I wish I'd attempted to get the Prime in there too. Rending claws and twin boneswords - one unsaved wound he could be instakilled!

Broodlord offloads the Relic and heads back to the fight.

After much deliberation I decide to assault the NDK with the Trygon alone, no point having challenge shenanigans like last time. The Tervigon assaults the GK squad and shrugs off overwatch fire. The Ymgarls charge in for extra support.

The Trygon smashes the NDK to pieces, it failing four out of the six wounds, it then consolidates 6". The other melee leaves four knights left and they flee.

Everyone consolidates a few inches. The squad in the Razorback comes out at some point and gets eaten but not sure when or by whom but the Ymgarls don't appear after this pic so something went wrong for both of us.

The four man squad facing the Devgaunts 'shunts' into my deployment zone They flame the perfectly aligned Termagants and the Relic is left among the charred remains.

The Tervigon advanced to the back of the Razorback to assault it [which it did] and also keep the GK squad fleeing. I think the Trygon ate the Inquisitor squad following it's destruction of the Ymgarls [I think], Slay the Warlord to me. The Black NDK advanced and I assaulted it with the Prime. I managed to put a wound on it and then he used his force sword  [unnecessarily] failed Shadows of the Warp and took a wound but I also took a wound and being St10 the Prime was Insta-killed. Slay the Warlord to PeteB.

He consolidates, ready to shoot the Devgaunts who had previously killed three of the four GK's in my deployment zone, the last one broke and fled, you can see it next to the ruins. I think the Devgaunts were then flamed.

I failed my Instinctive behaviour for the Hive guard in the previous turn and in my eagerness to do my Tervigon assault forgot to shoot the NDK, not that they'd done anything to it that night. The NDK therefore took advantage and flamed and then sliced them with it's sword. Meanwhile my Trygon tried to race back to help the Broodlord, the Tervigon staying where it was for Linebreaker. The NDK somehow ends up in combat with the Broodlord after this pic is taken putting a wound on it with it's flamer.

But thanks to Iron Arm I hit first, causing two rending wounds and two normal ones and we call it. 

PeteB is hoping for a win next time, I think the first NDK was a lucky kill for me but I think for the first time the advance delivered and I think it was because the Ymgarls, Tervigon and Trygon had a lot of support for each other. He pulled some really neat tricks and the NDKs are still difficult to kill but I think it's early days for his force and given time when he knows exactly how to peal me apart I'm going to suffer. Terminators next time I think.