First off, sorry about no pictures. Was going to take some but the battle was over so quick, I didn't think about it. Anyway, away we go...
The forces were as follows;
Space Marines - Death Dealers ChapterHQ: Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike (195 pts)
HQ: Space Marine Librarian (Terminator Armour; Quickening; The Gate of Infinity) (Storm Bolter) (130 pts)
Elite: Terminator Squad 4 Terminators (Cyclone Missile Launcher) 1 Sergeant (230 pts)
Troops: Tactical Squad with Rhino (split into combat squads-1 plasma cannon & 4 bolters and Sgt. + flamer + 3 bolters)
7 Bolter Marines with 1 Flamer 1 Plasma Cannon 1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Chainsword)
1 Rhino (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Dozer Blade; Storm Bolter) (215 pts)
Troops: Tactical Squad with Razorback (split into combat squads-1 plasma cannon & 4 bolters and Sgt. + flamer + 3 bolters)
7 Bolter Marines with 1 Flamer 1 Plasma Cannon 1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Chainsword)
1 Razorback (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Dozer Blade; Twin Linked Heavy Bolter) (220 pts)
Troops: Scout Squad
4 Scout Squad (Camo Cloaks; Sniper Rifle x4) 1 Sergeant (Camo Cloaks; Bolt Pistol; Sniper Rifle) (90 pts)
Elite: Dreadnought with Drop Pod
1 Dreadnought (Plasma Cannon;
CCW with storm bolter)
1 Drop Pod (Locator Beacon; Drop Pod Assault) (160 pts)
Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron
1 Land Speeder (Typhoon Missile Launcher x1) (90 pts)
Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron
1 Land Speeder (Typhoon Missile Launcher x1) (90 pts)
Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron
1 Land Speeder (Typhoon Missile Launcher x1) (90 pts)
Heavy Support: Vindicator with Dozer Blade (120 pts)
Heavy Support: Vindicator with Dozer Blade (120 pts)
Necrons
HQ: Lord (175 pts)
1 Lord (Phylactery; Veil of Darkness)
Troops: 10 Warriors @ 180 pts
Troops: 10 Warriors @ 180 pts
Fast Attack: 5 Destroyers @ 250 pts
Fast Attack: 5 Destroyers @ 250 pts
Heavy Support: 3 Heavy Destroyers @ 195 pts
Heavy Support: 3 Heavy Destroyers @ 195 pts
Elite: 5 Flayed Ones @ 90 pts
Heavy Support:1 Monolith @ 235 pts
The mission was Annihilate with Pitched Battle deployment. The board had a ruined city on one short side and 4 wooded areas and 3 hills on the other.
I won deployment, picked my table edge and choose to deploy first. I deployed the 2 Vindicators near the center of the table for an interlocking field of fire. On my right side, I placed a plasma cannon a 4 bolter marines on the 2nd floor of a ruin for good
LOS and range. The other plasma cannon squad was deployed to the left in an area of woods to cover the flank. The rhino and razorback, each carrying a combat squad that included a sergeant, flamer and 3 bolter marines were set up on the right in the ruined city. The scouts and the terminators with Shrike were waiting to infiltrate. The dread was in the drop pod awaiting drop pod assault and the 3 tornado speeders were held in reserve.
Eric deployed his monolith in the center of the board a little back from the 12" deployment line. Behind the monolith he placed 5 destroyers and 3 heavy destroyers. On his left he had a 10 warrior unit and 5 destroyers and on his right he placed a 10 warrior unit with the lord attached and the other 3 heavy destroyers. He held the flayed ones in reserve.
I then deployed my infiltrators. The scouts were deployed on the top 2 floors of a 3 story building, 18" away from the Necrons. (I realized later that I could have deployed them in a different place and then made a scout move to get them closer to the Necrons, but in the end it didn't matter.) Shrike and the terminators infiltrated (yeah, I know, Eric and I have discussed this and agree with the INAT
FAQ that it's allowed) on the right flank in a position to attack the warriors and the destroyers. He failed the seize initiative roll.
Marine Turn 1I deployed the drop pod with the dreadnought deep striking in the middle of the ruins. No scatter so it stayed where I wanted it. The dread deployed out 2". Then I moved both vindicators up 6" hoping to close the range to the Necron destroyers. I moved the Rhino and Razorback up 12", popped smoke and disembarked the combat squads. Shrike moved 12" towards the warriors ( and out of coherency with the terminators) and the terminators moved 6" up the flank to get
LOS to the destroyers. Both plasma cannon squads and the scouts didn't move to bring their heavy weapons to bear.
I starting the shooting phase with the vindicators. Since the only thing in range (I thought) was the monolith, I targeted it with the first vindicator. Stupidly, I placed the blast marker over the center of the 'lith only to find I was 1" out of range. I should have placed the marker over the hull at the closest point to the vindicator. Lesson learned. The 2nd vindicator's blast marker was in range over the monolith. I rolled a 'hit' on the scatter die, then rolled a 5 & 6 for
AP resulting in a penetrating hit. To penetrate, I rolled a 6, monolith explodes! With the 'lith gone, my plasma squads opened up on the destroyers that were now in the open, but both cannons scattered off any Necron units. The good news is no gets hot wounds! The dread fired at the destroyer squad but the plasma cannon scattered off target. The dread then fired its stormbolter killing 1. Both flamer squads fired on the warriors with bolter fire causing 1 warrior to go down. The scouts fired at the destroyers but failed to hit, and the terminators fired at the heavy destroyers killing 2 with no
WBB. Shrike ran on a roll of 5 getting close enough to the warrior squad to assault it.
In the assault phase Shrike gets into
CC with the warrior squad. Shrike kills 4 warriors and the warriors inflict 1 wound back on Shrike. The warriors pass their morale check.
So far Marines 1
KP - Necrons 0
Necron Turn 1It went bad for the Necrons right from the start. Eric decided to VoD the Lord and his warrior unit into my deployment area, behind my plasma squad and one of the vindicators. He uses VoD just about every game and has the uncanny ability to always roll a hit on the scatter die. The one time he scattered with a unit of flayed ones, he rolled 12 on the scatter and scattered over my Rhino to the other side of it! This time however the dice gods exacted their revenge. He rolled a scatter pointed right at the edge of the board and rolled 8 on the scatter putting his Lord off the table. He rolled for mishap and rolled a 1 and the Lord and the warriors were gone.
He then moved his heavy destroyers on his left flank forward to get a shot on my vindicator, moved his destroyers out of my vindicator's range, and adjusted his other destroyer unit to fire at my dread.
In his shooting phase he stunned one vindicator, and every other shot either missed or my marines managed to pass their armor saves! He never rolls this bad and I never roll this well!
In the assault phase, Shrike takes down another 3 warriors and they fail to do any damage in return. They pass their morale again (which I wanted them to do to tie them up in
CC).
Marines 3
KP - Necrons 0
Marine Turn 2I rolled for reserves and all 3 land speeder tornados arrived! I deep struck them near the drop pod which had a locator beacon so none scattered. I moved the non-stunned vindicator forward looking for a target, but there were none in range. I moved the dread forward slightly so it could fire at the destroyers or, if necessary, run and assault them. The terminators moved up to fire on the remaining heavy destroyer on the right flank. Both plasma cannon squads had potential targets so they stayed where they were. The scouts stayed put since they had
LOS to the destroyers. Both flamer squads embarked into the rhino and razorback respectively. One moved towards the left flank, one moved left and back to cover the other vindicator because Eric still had a squad of flayed ones in reserve and I didn't know when or where they were going to arrive.
The shooting started! The terminators fired at the last heavy destroyer on my left flank but missed. The vindicator had nothing in range. The speeders unloaded their missile one by one at the destroyers. Net result was 4 destroyers gone, 1 remaining. Rather than chance the dread's plasma cannon scattering, I decided to run the dread into the last destroyer which was a bit over 7" away by my estimate. I rolled a '1'! One plasma cannon squad fired at the unit of heavy destroyers on my left flank but scattered off target.
In my assault phase, Shrike polished off the last 3 warriors so that squad was gone. The dread was 6 and 1/4" away from the destroyer! (I knew it!!) Assault failed.
Now we had a brief discussion. Eric had units of 3 heavy destroyers, 1 heavy destroyer and 1 destroyer left on the table. He asked if the 5 flayed ones he had in reserve counted towards phase out because his phase out was 10 and he only had 5 models on the table. I told him that units in reserve counted until they were destroyed. So away we went.
Marines 5KP - Necrons 0
Necrons Turn 2 Eric rolled for the flayed ones and they arrived from reserves. He deep struck them close to my stunned vindicator hoping to hit it again with his heavy destroyers then bring the flayed ones in to assault next turn. Good idea because it would take me a couple of turns to bring my forces to that side of the table. But as fate would have it, for the second time this game he rolled to scatter and it was directly towards my vindicator. He rolled a 7 for distance which put him within 1" of the tank for another deep strike mishap. To add insult to injury, he again rolled a '1' for mishap and the flayed ones were destroyed! 5 Necrons left on the table triggered phase out, game over.
Necron force wiped out, Marine victory! Not only that, but the Necrons only managed to damage (stunned) 1 vindicator and inflict 1 wound on Shrike.
Post Battle AnalysisAs we always do after a game, we discussed the battle. It was agreed that the dice gods were very good to me the first turn allowing me to take out the monolith with 1 shot. But I pointed out that tactically, Eric's deployment gave me little other option. By placing the Monolith where he did, he left it as a target of opportunity for me. He would have done better to deploy it on my left flank where I was weak rather than in the center where I had set up my vindicators field of fire. We also went over the fact that he could have put more units in reserve and then when they cam in he could have gained tactical superiority where needed.
We already rolled for next battle. It will be out of the Battle Missions book and will be a Necron mission, Ambush and will be 2000 points. I'll make it a point to take pics of the next battle. Maybe the Necrons will prevail, but not if the Death Dealers have anything to say about it!