Age of Strife

This is the latest in a series from the Battle Mission expansion that my friend and I are playing through. He plays Necrons and I play Space Marines so we have been working our way through a group of 6 scenarios (3 Necron and 3 Marine).

It's a difficult scenario for the defenders as the attackers can come in from multiple table edges and in the event it proved a very tough fight for the Necrons. It is based on a power point slide show that has been converted to pdf format.

Many thanks to Matt J for setting up the format. His last report looked great and inspired me to try my hand at what he developed. Hope you enjoy!

I fixed the typo in the title

Oops! Thanks Matt! Typos are my bane, I try to check everything but smotimes they'll still get by me!

Good report mate!
I wish I could deal with the vile mechanical fiend Stargod!

cool stuff thanks for the write up

Report things:
I couldn't figure out how to get movement arrows to work for units coming on from the table edge - how do you tell BC which edge and where on the edge te unit is entering play?

The letters allocated to the units gets confusing. I think it's better to have letters or abbreviations which match the units. The Necrons were all letters and the marines were a mix.


The game itself:
The Necrons took a right pounding - how did the cover (saves from most firing surely as it came from outside the terrain perimeter) not save them!?
The Lord "came back with 1 wound again" - did he have the wargear which meant he could come back with more then (phylacracty is it?)?
The Wraiths moved, ran then attempted what looks like a 12" assault. They don't have fleet do they? And can only assault 6"...?

Let's hope the Necrons fare better next time!

mattjgilbert wrote: Report things:
I couldn't figure out how to get movement arrows to work for units coming on from the table edge - how do you tell BC which edge and where on the edge te unit is entering play?

I just position the crosshair for the unit at the point where it is coming on and then use the shortcut keys to adjust its facing. Then you can use the number keypad to move the unit forward. Then it's just a question of a few adjustments. Remember to hold the [ctrl] key down to freeze the unit's facing when you move it with the mouse.

mattjgilbert wrote:The letters allocated to the units gets confusing. I think it's better to have letters or abbreviations which match the units. The Necrons were all letters and the marines were a mix.

That's because of the large number of Marine units. I was already up to letter 'M'. I tried to match the rhino and razorback to the units they were transporting, Rhino (RA) with combat squad (A), Razorback (RB) with combat squad (B). I made up markers with letters on them, visible in some pictures, and assigning them to the units makes note-taking much easier. I am open to suggestion for future reports though.

mattjgilbert wrote:The game itself:
The Necrons took a right pounding - how did the cover (saves from most firing surely as it came from outside the terrain perimeter) not save them!?

There weren't as many cover saves as it might appear in battle chronicler because the units can't be placed as precisely as they are on the gameboard. That plus the fact that Eric failed a record number of saves. For may shots, I manoeuvered my units to fire without the target getting cover saves. Eric also tries to avoid placing some units (Destroyers and Heavy Destroyers) in cover to avoid taking dangerous terrain tests. I think he's beginning to realize that the benefit of cover outways the risk of a failed dangerous terrrain test.

mattjgilbert wrote:The Lord "came back with 1 wound again" - did he have the wargear which meant he could come back with more then (phylacracty is it?)?

No, he only took destroyer body and warscythe. He originally thought to have the Lord run with the Wraiths but for some reason split the unit up (a mistake I made sure to capitalize on! ) and I think he is starting to realize that it is better to have the Lord joined to another unit. That and the fact that he should spend a few points on phylactery and/or res orb.

mattjgilbert wrote:The Wraiths moved, ran then attempted what looks like a 12" assault. They don't have fleet do they? And can only assault 6"...?

They actually moved 12" and then assaulted a few inches. In battle chronicler when you designate a unit as charging, it changes the color of the entire movement arrow. So it looks like they made a 12" or more assault move, but that's not the way it went.

mattjgilbert wrote:Let's hope the Necrons fare better next time!

They might! I rolled very well the first turn and put a real hurt on his army from the start. He failed a bunch of cover saves and since I hit him with high AP weapons even WBB wasn't too much help. He also set up the terrain and I think he could have placed it better. He was concerned with trying to deny 2nd turn movement rather than first turn cover. I had some (quite a few actually) dice rolls and other than that, I just capitalized on every mistake he made and used every opportunity I got to hurt his army to best advantage. Kudos to you again for setting up the powerpoint slides. It only took me a few hours to put this whole report together (about 2 hours on battle chronicler and about the same or a little less on the powerpoint).

@Ruffian-The key to beating the Necrons is to see every chance to deny them WBB and destroy them one unit at a time. Kill what you can, avoid and ignore what you can't kill. Without WBB, they are a very expensive and vulnerable force.

Even with the rather lopsided results, we had a lot of fun playing this out. My friend has a new list in mind for our next game which will be the surprise attack scenario from the battle missions book.