catalyst2 | Battle #37

Tonight was 1000 points against Willie's Necrons. He took 3 squads of ten warriors, 1 squad of ten Immortals, one tomb spider, 1 scarab swarm and A Lord with res orb and war scythe. I took a PF captain, 3 tactical squads (all HB/melta), Predator Destructor, Whirlwind and Ironclad in Drop Pod.

The mission was Seize Ground with 5 objectives and deployment was pitched battle. I abandoned any hope of two objectives a long way away and concentrated on the three on the right that were fairly closely grouped together. Consequently. I deployed with combat squad on the left, a tactical squad then another combat squad in front of the Whirlwind, then the Predator then the final tactical squad. Willie decided that he'd make for those same three objectives too so both armies were compressed into half the board.

Turn 1: I stood still and fired, he moved and fired and we each lost one or two. The Ironclad DP'ed in but then scattered 11" away so it was not in a great position. One squad of warriors did stay behind to face it so that helped my front line with numbers. Only his Immortals (with Lord) were in clear terrain (it was a jungle board) so they make the most rapid progress towards my lines.

Turn 2: My firing was a little more effective and took out a few warriors on the right but the Immortals continued in their implacable way. The Ironclad moved and shot, killing two warriors - not that significant but it did change his mind about an important move. The Dread was in assault range for next turn. Because of what the Dread had done, he started getting worried about its effects so he turned the Tomb Spider and scarab swarm around towards the Dread. His shooting was quite effective this turn, reducing the combat squad in the centre to two and stunning the Predator. And still he kept coming.

Turn 3: The Dread did what it should and assaulted, reducing his warrior squad to four but they held their ground. Because he had kept rolling on forward, his warrior squad on the right was in rapid fire range so they also got reduced to four but they also held their ground. I moved the the combat squad on the right forward about 4 inches to get ready for the charge of the Immortals and Lord next turn. His shooting was largely ineffective, the last two marines in the centre combat squad surviving the fire of the entire Immortals squad and the only other effect was that the Predator was stunned again. By this time, every objective was either contested or abandoned by both of us. His advance hadn't even hesitated and he had taken very few casualties. I had taken more and this was even before he got into rapid fire range with most of his army.

Turn 4: This was the make or break turn and I had to cause him significant casualties now if I was going to win at all. At the end of the previous turn, he had separated his Lord out of the Immortals, presumably to he could tie up two of my squads in CC. Just on an off chance, I had a go at shooting the Lord with my combat squad on the left. They shot perfectly (9 hits) and wounded perfectly (9 wounds) and promptly killed the Lord! I tooled up on the Immortals, killed enough to cause a morale check and they ran, a full 12" back. My Dread killed a few more in the warrior squad but the Tomb Spider arrived and killed the dread in response, consolidating back towards my lines. The rest of my shooting was good causing two or three wounds in each squad. However, he failed almost every WBB role this turn so it actually had an effect just for once! The loss of his Immortals put a major dent in his center so he pulled all three warrior squads in a little closer. his shooting finally killed of the last two marines in the centre combat squad but otherwise didn't do much.

Turn 5: This could still go either way so I decided to make a bold move - all of my squads moved off their objectives and towards his units. Just for once, I remembered to use the pistols before assaulting and was stunned by the effect. His squad on the right was reduced to three which the subsequent assault killed off. The Predator finally got a round off into the centre squad and reduced that to three as well. The squad on the left also got pistol-ed and down to six which the subsequent assault reduced to three. A "lucky" scatter from a whirlwind round saw the scarb swarm reduced to one wound and the Tomb Spider also down to one. In his round, the assault went just as bad with the center squad down the one and the left squad down to two. The Immortals kept running, 11" this time and off the board! His phase out point was 10 models so this relied on his WBB rolls and they were awful - he only had nine Necrons left on the field so out he went!

Final result: Victory to me by annihilation of his army. WOOHOO!

What I learned tonight:
1) Get into assault with Necrons - they die quick
2) I love tactical squads - no tricks, no exotic combos - straight honest bolter fire did almost all the damage tonight again.

My W-L-D record:
40K: 25-8-0
Apocalypse: 2-0-1
Planetstrike: 0-1-0