Battle Report #2 (7/9/12) Necrons/Orks vs. Grey Knights

In this battle I tried one of the new aspects of 6th edition, which is the ability to take an Ally. First, I would like to say that Allies is now a necessary part about 40K . Allies balance the game. It bridges the gap between the older codices and the new. Also, with flyer rules being very new, and the fact that not every codex has them, allies are a must.

So I took some allies. ORKS! Which I borrowed from my brother.

 I changed my list around significantly. For the sake of synergy I favored Warriors over Immortals. I think that with the Ghost Arks ability to replace Warriors it makes the army tough to beat at range. In addition, the Ghost Arks have 4 Hull Points. The Barges all have 3 Hull points. You cannot reliably penetrate Necron vehicles and that works well with Necron quantum shielding. The Orks that I added gave me some more bodies as well as a decent long range threat in the Lootas.



The list looks like this:

Necrons/Orks 1750
Necrons
Overlord: Warscythe, Mindshackle Scarabs, Sempiternal Weave@130
     -Command Barge@80
5 Crypteks w Eldritch Lance, 1 w Solar Pulse@195

10 Immortals@170
8 Warriors@104
8 Warriors@104
8 Warriors@104
7 Warriors@91
Ghost Ark@115
Ghost Ark@115

Annihilation Barge@90
Annihilation Barge@90

Orks
Big Mek w Custom Force Field@85
13 Lootas@195
20 Shoota Boys w 2 Big Shootas and 1 Nob w PK@165

TOTAL 1748

What I faced was a Crowe/Purifier heavy list. My opponent had 3 Large Squads of Purifiers and 2 or 3 squads of GK Terminators as troop choices as well. 2 Autocannon Psi Ammo dreads rounded out the army. No other vehicles so Gauss wouldn't be as much of a factor unlike my first game.

The mission was Vanguard (Diagonal), and Purge the Alien (The new KP version).

My opponent chose not to combat squad and so there were only 8 KP available for me!

Since I don't have pictures for this game I will just simply describe a few things that I took away from it.

1) You cannot just throw allies together. The lootas were nice, but the boys and big mek got shot up so quickly because of their need to get close. I do not think this combination worked any better than an entire necron army would have.

2) Close combat is very unreliable. The random charge distances, especially going through terrain nerfs assault armies. Its the randomness that makes it so bad. If you don't have fleet, at any time a bad roll can lose you the game. There were many times in this battle where I went just about 12 inches to get rapid fire shots with a piece of terrain in front of me (pre-measuring is key).The odds would not be in my opponents favor to attempt a charge. Luckily for me this GK list was very slow and could not keep up with the Necrons mobility.

3) The missions are not very good. I think that the missions are very redundant and almost all play off the same mechanics. I never liked Kill Points for the obvious reasons. There should really have been a difference in this edition on how its scored. Either win by 3 KP or make it a ratio of how many total KPs in your list.

Bottom line- I had too many shots and too much mobility for this GK army. Despite that it was actually a close game! I won 6-5. I drew First Blood.

Result: WIN
Necrons (1-1-0)
Overall (1-1-0)

Battle Report #1 (7/8/12) Necrons vs. Imperial Guard

So onto the first battle report of 6th edition. Unfortunately I don't have pictures for the first few games but I will make do without them.

The game was very rough around the edges, both me and my opponent Dan had not played a game before so it was slow getting started. One thing we both noticed is there is no clear organization in the rule book about starting a game. The index does have a sequence but all the rules seem to be scattered throughout the end of the rules section.

The mission was Dawn of War (Pitched Battle got a new name) and Crusade (Mission 1). We had 5 objectives placed. One in the center of the table and one at the center of each table quarter. Neither army had fortifications but Dan did have some BA allies. Mephiston and 2 assault squads in Las/Plas Razorbacks. This added to his IG list which had something along the lines of 3 vendettas, 2 Manticores, Command Squad and Vets in Chimeras. Very similar to a 5th ed list but utilizing many new rules like the template strength for the Manticores and zooming with the Vendettas.

My force was not designed to handle this too well. It was 2000 points and I had 4 Immortal Squads, crypteks in each. Overlord on a barge, 2 Annihilation Barges, 3 Spyders 2 Squads of Scarabs, Wraiths and 2 Ghost Arks. This was my first take with not really much thought behind it, and it showed. 

Turns 1 and 2 were brutal. I realized how careful you had to be when placing Crypteks. If they were near the front they were easy targets. Normally I screen my infantry or vehicles with ghost arks. The Manticores had a field day on them due to the fact that the shots retain strength 10 even if the blast was not centered on a unit. This was a change from 5th to 6th. So Dan placed templates at the edge of a vehicle and had chances to hit  2 or 3 targets each round!

The only positive thing for me in the first 2 turns was the Wraiths who destroyed some vehicles in close combat and stalled Mephiston as I multi charged on first turn.

Turns 3 and 4 was where I started to figure some stuff out, but it was too late. The vendettas were something I really couldn't handle. Without my own flyers, Necrons have a tough time gunning down vendettas They took a lot of shots hoping for glances. The Annihilation Barges took down one however due to the twin linked shots. Finally, an immortal squad was granted skyfire by a mysterious objective (pretty lucky!).

After turn 4 the game was securely in the IG's hands. I realized that the only reason I was not entirely wiped off the board was because of my Gauss ability. I was able to take down many of his vehicles because of it where other armies basic guns could not. In order to compete my list needs to be totally revamped. 

In the next bat rep I try out Ork Allies for my Necrons.

Result: LOSS

Necrons (0-1-0)

Overall (0-1-0)

Army Intro: Necrons

When I first started playing Warhammer 40K in 2005, my first army was the Necrons. I'll have to admit they have not seen too many games throughout 5th edition but with 6th edition favoring the evil alien robots, I believe they will be my primary tournament army. I have already played 2 of my first four games with them splitting with a win and a loss. 

Below are some pics of just a few models that I have. Since the army was very outdated I have begun to repaint the old and buy the new models. Therefore, these are just some shots at what is up to speed. I do have some more tomb spyders and scarabs as well as warriors, wraiths and crypteks All are built and some are painted. I also have 3 Annihilation/Command barges that can be interchanged, a monolith and 2 ghost arks to round out my vehicles

The biggest struggle for me at this point with the Crons is that  I am using what I have. I am in the process of building up the army for tournaments. Necrons being able to field cheap and reliable flyers is really cool but I don't own any! The Scythes are definitely on my to do list.

The next post will be about my current list and the first two battle reps. The goal for this blog is to keep track of the games I play and hopefully reflect on them and improve. I did this with 5th edition but I had the battles in note books. It was a pain to keep track and so this edition will be online. 

  ^An overview of the army.

^My Overlord until the new one is painted.

   ^Wraiths. I like the new models but I own 6 of the old ones so I dont think I will change over.

 

    ^Tomb Spyder conversion.