Blog Wars Battle Report Game 2- Necrons

Game two was against Ben’s Necrons in a Decurion detachment on table 8. I have not played Necrons since the new codex came out, but had read all about the durability of the Decurion detachment, so was expecting a tough match.

The mission was a modification of The Relic. There were 3 objectives; one in the centre of the table and one in each of our deployment zones. Your own objective was worth 5 points, the centre was worth 10 points and your opponents was worth 15.

Trouble comes this way.

Ben’s army consisted of:
2 units of wraiths (W1 and W2)
two units of flayed ones (FO1 and FO2)
a unit of necron warriors (NW)
two tomb spiders (TS1 and TS2)
two units of scarabs (S1 and S2)
two units of immortals (I1 and I2)
a unit of destroyers (D)
a unit of Lynchguard (L) and Nemesor (N).
Seeing them arrayed, that was a whole heap of necrons to try and kill.

Ben won the roll for table side and chose the side with the line of sight blocking terrain and ruins, leaving me with very little in the way of cover. Amusingly, we had to roll six times to pick deployment zones, we rolled the same number 5 times in a row.

The Battlefield.

Representation of the battlefield. The shields indicate the placement of the objectives.

He also won the roll for deployment and first turn.

He deployed his army fairly evenly; a unit of wraiths and scarabs at the front to quickly advance, supported by tomb spiders. The warriors held the back objective, supported by the immortals. Nemesor, the destroyers and the lynchguard backed them up. One unit of flayed ones chose to infiltrate, while the other deployed near the warriors at the back.

The Necrons arrayed for battle.

My view from across the table.

I deployed as far away from the Necrons as possible, not wanting to get charged first turn (I knew how fast the wraiths and scarabs were). One bike squad went on each flank, Khan in one, the Chapter Master in the other. The Devastators held the objective, while the centurions deployed forward, ready to fire from first turn. I held a unit of bikes back in reserve to outflank for some late game objective seizing.

My deployment, keeping away as far as possible.

 

Deployment. That's a lot of Necrons!

My warlord trait was Night Fighting (which turned out to be pretty useless).
 

I failed to seize and Ben got the first turn.

TURN 1

Turn 1 Necrons.

Ben advanced and ran with just about everything, eager to seize the objectives. There was absolutely no shooting (hence the useless night fighting). If the rest of the game went like this, I would have no trouble!

Wraiths advance.

They're coming right for us!

 

Turn 1 White Scars.

In my first turn, the drop pod arrived at the ruins in Ben’s deployment zone and I advanced with the bikers to the closest wraith unit. I fired at the warriors with my tactical squad. Out of the 9 rapid firing bolters, I swear I scored about 5 hits. I then only got one wound, which was promptly saved. The drop pod fired at the scarabs, wounding several, but all saves and reanimation saves were made. Everything else in the army fired at the advancing wraiths. Between poor to hit rolls (seriously, my Centurions only hit with about 6 shots out of 15) and amazing saves from Ben, I only killed one wraith and one scarab base. My entire army managed to cause 5 wounds in the entire first turn, this was not going well. I charged the bikes into the wraiths and killed 2 more for the loss of some bikers. I hit and run out to get away from the rest of the army.

TURN 2

Turn 2 Necrons

Again, Ben advanced with the front half of his army, while the back half turned on the unfortunate tactical marines.

The White Scar's line is broken.

 

Scarabs eye up their next meal.

The shooting phase saw the drop pod destroyed, along with several bikes.

In the assault phase, one wraith unit assaulted the devastators, easily wiping them out. The scarabs charged the Centurions, essentially taking them out of the game. A unit of flayed ones charged the tactical marines. I caused 5 wounds, all of which were saved. He killed 9 marines and the survivor fled. The other unit of flayed ones charge the Chapter Master’s bike squad and killed 4 bikers for no wounds in return (the 5+ reanimation rolls saved all the Chapter Master’s wounds).

The tactical marines face the enemy.....

.....and are quickly cut down.

The Wraiths attack the Devastators.

 

Turn 2 White Scars.

In my turn, I quickly rethought my battle strategy. There was no way I could destroy enough of the enemy army to even the odds, I just had to hope that some of my army survived to the end of the game. I moved Khan’s bike squad to one corner of the board, and the attack bikes away from the wraiths. The lone tactical marine tried to kill the tomb spider who was on 1 wound (Ben had wounded it twice trying to create new scarabs, I was unable to touch it). He shot with the meltagun, but missed, then charged, but was easily cut down. The Chapter Master and lone survivor charged the destroyers and I managed to kill 3. I stayed in combat to prevent shooting at them.

Running away is a valuable tactic!

 

The Chapter Master advances on the Destroyers.

 

The Centurions are swamped.

TURN 3

Turn 3 Necrons.

Ben continued to advance a lot of the army. I forget what the shooting phase did, maybe killed a biker or two. He also blew up the Landspeeder storm.

The enemy army advances on the Chapter Master.

 

The flayed ones target the Landspeeder for destruction.

In the assault phase, the wraiths charged the rhino and destroyed it. The other wraiths charged the centurions locked in combat with the scarabs and reduced the unit to one model. The scarabs and tomb spider charged the attack bikes, killing one, while the other hit and run away towards Ben’s deployment zone. The Lynchguard and Nemesor charged the Chapter Master, killing the other biker. I challenged Nemesor, and wounded him 3 times, but every Reanimation save was made. Fortunately, I only suffered one wound in return from all the attacks against me. I hit and ran out of combat.

The Wraiths easily pick apart the Rhino.

Nemesor attacks the Chapter Master.

The attack bikes are assaulted.



The Wraiths aid the Scarabs.

White Scars Turn 3.

The Stormtalon arrived on my board edge and the bike squad came in on Ben’s board edge. I put them in the opposite corner to Khan’s unit, out of harm’s way as much as possible. The attack bike moved to join them.
My shooting phase was ineffective, not killing a single model. The Chapter Master charged a unit of immortals, killing two. In return, the immortals caused two wounds on him and I promptly failed both 2+ saves, leaving him on one wound.

The last Centurion is dispatched.

 

The foolhardy scouts charge in.

 

The Chapter Master goes for the Immortals.

At the end of turn 3, I had lost a lot of my army and Ben had yet to lose a single unit. I had very little hope at this point and thought I was due for a tabling.

TURN 4

Turn 4 Necrons.

The squads in Ben’s deployment zone advance on the newly arrived bikers, the flayed ones advanced on Khan’s unit and the Lynchguard advanced on the Chapter Master. The shooting phase did little damage, mostly as I had kept everything out of range.

The Necrons advance on the newly arrived bikes.

 

The attack bike escapes the scarabs.

 

The army advances yet again.

In the assault phase, one Wraith unit killed the remaining Centurion and consolidated towards the bike squad in Ben’s deployment zone. The other Wraith unit wiped out the 5 tactical marines that were in the Rhino. The Lynchguard charged the Chapter Master and easily killed him. The lone destroyer charged Khan’s unit and was cut down by overwatch fire. This allowed the other flayed one unit to charged them without harm. Despite needing 3’s to hit, Khan managed to miss 3 of his 4 attacks. I ended up causing no wounds and lost three bikers in return. Fortunately, I passed my morale.

Turn 4 White Scars

At the start of my 4th turn, all I had remaining were 4 bikers and an attack bike on one side of the board, Khan and 2 bikers on the other side of the board and a Stormtalon. I had a crazy plan in mind. The Stormtalon moved to the centre object. The bikers and attack bike turboboosted to Ben’s board edge. They were in range of the warriors and flayed ones, but could not be charged by the Scarabs, tomb spiders or wraiths. Khan stayed in combat with the other flayed ones. If I could somehow survive until turn 5, I could hopefully grab the objectives as my units were Objective Secured and the Decurion detachment was not. A lot would have to go right for this insane plan to work.

The Stormtalon moves to the objective.

 

The bikers hope they can weather the coming storm.

TURN 5

Turn 5 Necrons.

Ben moved a unit of flayed ones towards the Bikers and attack bike in his deployment zone and moved his immortals up to target the Stormtalon. In the shooting phase, both units of immortals and the warriors fired at the flyer, but through a combination of poor rolling of 6’s on his part and good jink saves on my part, the Stormtalon remained unscathed. In the assault phase, the flayed ones performed a disordered charge on the bikers and attack bike. I killed one of the flayed ones before he got to strike, but the remaining nine attacked the bikers and attack bike. Amazingly, I made all but one of my saves from the many, many wounds I took (finally, my luck was turning around). The three bikers and the attack bike successfully hit and ran out of combat towards Ben’s objective.

Khan managed to miss with 3 of his 4 attacks once again, the flayed ones were no so unlucky and killed the remaining 2 bikers and wounded Khan. I passed my morale check and one of the most crucial die rolls of the game came up. On anything but a 6, I would be able to escape combat and claim another objective. I rolled and got a 3, success! I moved Khan towards the objective in my deployment zone.



Turn 5 White Scars.

In my turn, the Stormtalon went into hover mode to contest the middle objective. Khan turboboosted onto my home objective to claim it (the special character gets Objective Secured in this mission). The bikers and attack bikes moved up to the Necron warriors guarding Ben’s objective. I shot at them, killing two. I then assaulted the warriors with both units. I was able to kill 4 of the warriors for no loss in return. The Necrons failed their morale check and were caught and wiped out. I was able to consolidate onto the objective.

The bikers assault the Necron warriors.

 

And wipe them out, claiming the objective.

 

Khan claims the other objective in my deployment zone.

 

The hovering Stormtalon contests the final objective.

The game ended there as we ran out of time. I had claimed my objective and Ben’s objective for 20 pts and contested the middle objective, meaning a win for me.

That was an unbelievable result given how the game was going. I had 6 models left on the table and had only managed to remove two of Ben’s units (the destroyers and one unit of warriors). Had this been the first or the third mission, I would have been massacred, but as this was the objective based mission, I managed to win through an amazing amount of luck in the last turn (I thought for sure the flayed ones would wipe out Khan and the bikers) and thanks to Objective Secured.

I felt a bit bad snatching the victory from Ben on the last turn. Had we played another turn, I would have been tabled and he would have got full points. As it was, my desperate strategy paid off, I was able to hide my units from the massed firepower and assault and grab the objectives on the last turn. A bit of a cheap victory on my part, but there was no way I could go toe to toe with the Decurion detachment, I simply didn’t have the firepower to put any wounds on them thanks to some amazing saves and reanimation saves from Ben. 

All the horror stories I have been hearing about the Decurion detachment are true. It was almost impossible to put a wound on anything in the army. The Wraiths were incredibly strong. With fast movement, invulnerable saves, high toughness and rending, they are an incredible threat from turn 1. Also, I have plenty of experience of Scarabs taking down elite troops through sheer number of attacks they have and the wounds they can soak up. Unless you have strength 6, ignores armour attacks, they take a lot to bring down (assuming you can get past the Reanimation saves). The one saving grace is that they do not get Objective Secured. If they got this, they would be nigh-on unstoppable.

Thanks to Ben for a great game, against a fantastic looking army. My army was easily dispatched, but I managed to hold on with enough to scrape a win in the end.