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| This is not exactly true anymore but they're still a pain |
The day after yesterday's battle, I played Apprentice Red's Necron army. To get in in before he had to go to work we kept it to 750 points. We also kept the table with the same setup as the previous battle. We decided the narrative was that the Eldar from yesterday were trolling the chaos force by popping in, waking up the Necrons, and popping out, leaving my poor chaos lord to find out what he was sitting on the hard way.
Red came in with a Necron lord, some other Necron HQ thing, 2 20-man warrior squads (!), and a single heavy destroyer. I asked him if he would rather play Orks since he was clearly going for a horde but he insisted he was OK.
I took the same end of the table with a slightly different force:
Chaos Space Marines Army
Unit Name
Chaos Lord (HQ) 150
Fearless; Champion of Chaos; Independent
Character; Terminator Armour; Burning Brand of
Skalathrax; Mark of Nurgle; Power Weapon; Warlord
Chaos Terminators (Elites) 140
Terminator Armour; Mark of Nurgle; Power Weapon
(x2); Combi-Flamer (x2)
Terminator Champion
(character); Champion of Chaos; Terminator
Armour; Mark of Nurgle; Combi-Flamer; Power Fist
(x1)
Chaos Space Marines (Troops) 115
Power Armour; Mark of Nurgle; Bolt Pistol (x4);
Bolter (x3); Plasma Gun; Frag Grenades; Krak
Grenades
Aspiring Champion
(character); Champion of Chaos; Power Armour;
Mark of Nurgle; Bolt Pistol; CCW; Combi-Plasma;
Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades
Chaos Space Marines (Troops) 115
Power Armour; Mark of Nurgle; Bolt Pistol (x4);
Bolter (x3); Plasma Gun; Frag Grenades; Krak
Grenades
Aspiring Champion
(character); Champion of Chaos; Power Armour;
Mark of Nurgle; Bolt Pistol; CCW; Combi-Plasma;
Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades
Chaos Space Marines (Troops) 115
Power Armour; Mark of Nurgle; Bolt Pistol (x4);
Bolter (x3); Plasma Gun; Frag Grenades; Krak
Grenades
Aspiring Champion
(character); Champion of Chaos; Power Armour;
Mark of Nurgle; Bolt Pistol; CCW; Combi-Plasma;
Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades
Chaos Space Marines (Troops) 115
Power Armour; Mark of Nurgle; Bolt Pistol (x4);
Bolter (x3); Plasma Gun; Frag Grenades; Krak
Grenades
Aspiring Champion
(character); Champion of Chaos; Power Armour;
Mark of Nurgle; Bolt Pistol; CCW; Combi-Plasma;
Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades
Total Army Cost: 750
Models in Army: 24
So it's MSU CSM spam! Necrons are hell on vehicles and after yesterday's debacle I had no interest in another wreck-fest. I figured two in the backfield, two up front, and the lord dropping in would net me enough firepower and objectives to pull off a win. Once I saw he was going for a warrior horde I figured I might need to throw in one more of those squads and I was right.
I chose to set up second and move second. He set up one warrior blob on his home objective to my right. The other set up next to them and proceeded to march forward towards the midfield objective. His plan apparently is to hold two objectives and go for the secondaries for the win.
Now it occurs to me if I just sit on my two home objectives (with a squad each) and contest the midfield with my other two squads plus the terminators) I probably have a win here. So that's what I do - two sit, two march forth, and the lord waits in the warp.
For the first two turns not much happens, just a few casualties here and there. The necrons have taken the ruin but are in range of 3 marine squads so are taking some fire and are shooting back at me.
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| Oh look, he brought a book to read while he's waiting to deep strike! (not mine but very nice) |
Then on Turn 3 my Chaos Lord and his retinue deep strike in and end up a couple of inches from the objective ruin full of Necrons - this is better than I hoped! Three combi-flamers and the Burning Brand of Skalathrax open up and take down 14 warriors! Supporting fire from the other marines takes down a few more! Awesome! Then we roll for resurrection and only 4 of them stay dead - nooooooooooo!
The hapless chaos lord knows what's coming now - he is perfectly positioned to be in rapid fire range of most of both necron blobs. Thirty gauss shots (and a disgusting number of 1's on armor saves) later his retinue is blasted into a fine red mist and he is wounded. He only has a few seconds to notice this though as then thirty more gauss shots ring out and manage two more unsaved wounds, just enough to kill him too! He didn't even last a full turn on the table!
Realizing what's at stake the two closest marine squads charge into hand to hand. They do have the higher initiative but they are not kitted out for an extended combat. The champion must challenge the Necron Lord, which he does, but he does not have a power weapon and so does nothing, and is cut down by the machine. Everyone stays locked in combat.
At this point I make a mistake that lost me the game. I have two objectives, he has one, and we are contesting another. He has first blood and slay the warlord. Technically I am up 6-5 and if my two squads in hand to hand can hold on then I will win. For some reason I
It was a meat grinder. My poorly-equipped-for-assault marines against his even less capable warriors dragged through a series of single-casualty assault rounds because I was T5 3+ and he had that !$@$#@$ resurrection orb so that what I did kill had a 50/50 chance of coming back anyway. I fed a total of 3 aspiring champions to the lord who managed to not kill one of them in at least one round so the fight was still going on when the fight finally ended on turn 6.
Necrons 5, Chaos Marines 3.
Lessons Learned:
- Even a small unit of Nurgle Terminators and the Nurgle Lord are pretty tough. It took 60 Gauss shots to kill them. Unfortunately they landed where that could happen in a single shooting phase, but that was still somewhat impressive and it came down to the last save. One more 2+ roll and he's in assault the next turn, putting the hurt on that Necron lord. Chaos is fickle ...
- I should have given each squad a CCW. I also should have given some of the champs power weapons at least. This oversight severely limited them in assault and limited the leaders in that challenge.
- Putting 1/4 of my main force on a back objective felt like a waste. I probably could have used cultists again for that one and then used the points to add the assault upgrades I needed to make the offensive units better.
- Small marine units may be fine for holding objectives in a bigger battle but they do not generate volume of fire. All 5 guys in rapid fire range is still only 10 shots. Against Necrons that nets out to about 1 kill, after toughness, armor saves, and "we'll be back". Sure they can cover more ground but they don't do a whole lot when they get there. This was exacerbated by his massive squads
And probably the biggest lesson: remember the mission! I'm usually better about that but I really dropped it here. Next time!
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