40K Friday - 40K Football! with the Crimson Fists!

The second battle in our 40K weekend fun saw Apprentice Red's Necrons taking on my Crmson Fists - a very different army in what turned out to be a very different game. My force:


1 Chapter Master Pedro Kantor (HQ) @ 175 Pts
     #Dorn's Arrow; #Iron Halo; Power Armour; Power Fist; Frag Grenades; Krak
     Grenades; Warlord

4 Sternguard Veteran Squad (Elites) @ 210 Pts
     Power Armour; Special Issue Ammunition; Bolt Pistol (x4); Combi-Melta
     (x4); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades

     1 Space Marine Sergeant @ [50] Pts
          Power Armour; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Melta Bombs; Combi-Melta
          (x1); Lightning Claw

     1 Razorback @ [40] Pts
          #Searchlight; #Smoke Launchers; TL Heavy Bolters

9 Tactical Squad (Troops) @ 220 Pts
     Combat Squads; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol (x9); Bolter (x7); Missile
     Launcher; Flamer; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades

     1 Space Marine Sergeant @ [41] Pts
          Power Armour; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Weapon (x1); Bolter

     1 Rhino @ [35] Pts
          Vehicle (Tank, Transport); Capacity: 10; Fire Points: 2; Access
          Points: 3; Repair; #Searchlight; #Smoke Launchers; Repair; Storm
          Bolter

9 Tactical Squad (Troops) @ 220 Pts
     Combat Squads; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol (x9); Bolter (x7); Multi-Melta;
     Flamer; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades

     1 Space Marine Sergeant @ [41] Pts
          Power Armour; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Weapon (x1); Bolter

     1 Rhino @ [35] Pts
          Vehicle (Tank, Transport); Capacity: 10; Fire Points: 2; Access
          Points: 3; Repair; #Searchlight; #Smoke Launchers; Repair; Storm
          Bolter

4 Scout Squad (Troops) @ 90 Pts
     Scout Armour; Bolt Pistol (x4); Sniper Rifle (x3); Heavy Bolter w/Hellfire
     Rounds; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades

     1 Scout Sergeant @ [28] Pts
          Scout Armour; Bolt Pistol; Sniper Rifle; Frag Grenades; Krak
          Grenades; Melta Bombs

1 Predator (Heavy Support) @ 85 Pts
     #Searchlight; #Smoke Launchers; 2 Spons. Hvy Bolters; Turret Autocannon

1 Predator (Heavy Support) @ 165 Pts
     #Searchlight; #Smoke Launchers; 2 Sponson Lascannon; Turret TL Lascannons

1 Whirlwind (Heavy Support) @ 85 Pts
     #Searchlight; #Smoke Launchers; Whirlwind Multiple ML

Models in Army: 37

Total Army Cost: 1250

Almost twice as many models as the previous battle and a bunch of vehicles! Now I may regret taking a mechanized force against Necrons but I wanted to get a decent chunk of my Fists on the table for a game in at least a somewhat similar fashion to the way I intend to field them at higher point levels, so that's what I did. The core concept of this army is Tacs in Rhinos + Pedro & scoring Sterngard in either Razorbacks or Drop Pods with Predators/Vindicators/Whirlwinds as heavy support. Termies or Dreads fill out the elites. Fast attack at the moment is a speeder - yeah we're a little light there after donating the assault squad to the new Blood Angels army across the room.

The Setup

We ended up with "The Relic", probably the most controversial mission in 40K 6E as it's a single objective that is movable, and some armies are far more mobile than others (hello Eldar jet bikes!), giving them an instant advantage. Neither of us had an especially mobile army so we went with it as-is. We had the diagonal setup too, which is fine for variation but it's a pain to figure over a terrain-filled board.

Speaking of terrain we are working on a themed-terrain setup and I wanted to get some prototypes on the table so those Mountain Dew cans showed up. Hopefully in their next appearance they will be fully dressed as "fuel storage tanks". I also wanted some LOS blocking terrain on the table for a change, especially since I had that Whirlwind.

The plan was to use the sterngard and tac marines as my retrieval force, possibly sacrificing one of them to protect another. The whirlwind, scouts, razorback, and dakka pred would concentrate on thinning the warrior squads while the annihilator pred would focus on blowing up the monolith when it arrived. I was really worried about how to deal with it as it's tough, deadly, and can teleport his troops around the board.  The sterngard had combi-meltas especially for dealing with it, as did the one tac squad with the multi-melta, and the other sergeants had melta bombs if things got desperate. Between these and the lascannon pred I hoped I had enough to handle it.

End of Turn 1

Turn 1 was fairly quiet as we both closed in on the Relic. With no monolith to shoot the laser predator shot up the destroyers and the last one was killed by a storm bolter shot from the rhino - first blood to the marines. Marines and the dakka pred shot up the wraiths, cutting them down to one. Red took a hull point off of the rhino and that was about it.

End of Turn 2

 Turn 2 - enter the monolith! My rhino and the combat squad are blown away. The other rhino is blown up and the tac squad inside dismounts with no casualties. The warriors move up to surround the objective.

The Necrons move in

I was not terribly concerned yet but I realized most of my melta was on the opposite side of the field from the monolith and out of range, so the predator was going to have to do the heavy lifting. Also the whirlwind wasn't hitting !#$@ after two shots. The sterngard can't get into the ruins so they park on the edge and shoot what they can.

Turn 3

Turn 3 continued the slow amping up of tension. I blew a hull point of the monolith and shot up the warrior squad on the objective.

Turn 4

Turn 4 the necrons shoot up my missile launcher combat squad who break and flee the woods. They also take a hull point off of the predator, while I take another one off of the monolith.

However, the warriors on the Relic are looking mighty thin ...

Turn 5

Turn 5 is one of mixed emotions - his secondary leader charges in and destroys my laser predator while his other unit of warriors move into the woods vacated by the missile squad and then shoot them off of the table. The monolith teleports his 3rd unit of warriors in front of the dakka predator and they blow it away with gauss fire. But ...

...my tac squad and sterngard move in on the objective after wiping out the last of the warriors holding it. So it's a rough turn, but now I'm holding the only objective AND if he wants to come park that monolith next to a bunch of melta shots I'm happy to accommodate him!

End of game die roll is high and the game continues.

Turn 6

He only has one unit close enough to intervene and I charge them with Pedro and the sterngard while the tac squad moves off with their prize.

Pedro shouts "remember the mission" as he beats down multiple necrons. The rest of the sterngard are lost but the tactical marines move safely away and the game ends! Crimson Fists win with objective + first blood vs. nothing!

Conclusions
The main difference here is that I remembered the victory conditions and Red started acting like we were playing for killpoints about halfway through the game. Sidetracked with blowing up my tanks, he didn't have enough units in the right place to pull out a win. More than any skill issues or army list issues that's what really determined the outcome here. Sometimes that's all it is.

The whirlwind did very little but I'm not giving up on it yet. I did like the ability to get tac marines into the center of the field by turn 2 so I think there is still a place for the mechanized marine force in 6th edition, despite the lessening of vehicles. I also really like scoring sterngard, so Pedro has found a home.