The mission was multiple objectives and the deployment was dawn of war, the battlefield was a runied city which afforded plenty of cover to both armies and the 4 objectives were evenly spaced in the middle of the table.
Notable additions to my army today were a Valkyrie with missile pods and a multilaser, sent by the inquisition to aid the valiant Praetorians against the mechanical menace.and the Salamander!
The necrons had two big units of immortals, two of warriors, 10 scarabs, a doomsday ark, two annihilation barges, 3 heavy destroyers, 3 wraiths, destroyer lord and a C'tan. Also possibly some other stuff, nontheless there were a lot of robots!!!
As per the deployment I had 2 troops and a HQ deploying, the vets taking cover in the middle of the table, 1st platoon on the right by the cathedral, heavy weapon squad in the building on the left of my table edge and the Command HQ in their chimera supporting the heavy weapon squad at the base of the building.
The necrons foregoing the HQ choice put a troop to the extreme right and left of their deployment in cover. Due to the C'tan the were then redeployed focusing to the right of his table edge (being a god has its perks...). I was due to go first but he stole the initiative.
His entire army bar one squad of warrior (which come on on his left) arrived en masse castling the buldings in that corner. The other exception was the 10 scarabs occupying the ruins opposite the chimeras. After his shooting and with a roar of engines the mainstay of the Praetorians turned up (rough riders and hellhound being kept in reserve), the exterminator and salamander on the left, valkyrie on the right and leman russ and medusa in the centre (keeping out of sight of the doomsday ark). Both of our shooting phases were largely ineffective, he stunned a chimera and I killed a couple of scarabs warms and a warrior or two.
The necron castle...
In turn two there was little manouvering from the two armies with only his assault minded destroyer lord accompanied by nigh on indestructable wraiths (he hates everyone so who can blame him) advancing towards my exterminator and salamander on my left, other units just moved slowly though cover to get a better firing position. Shooting was a far more deadly affair, the medusa was destroyer-ed (sorry for the pun), the Highlanders chimera was wrecked and a few of them succumbed to enemy fire. The doomsday ark fired hit three chimera under its blast, glanced one not under the centre and failed to even glance the targeted tank! Result was shaken for the glanced tank, I'll certainly take that! My shooting wasn't anything to write home about, a couple of wraiths and scarabs were killed, a few warriors and immortals were destroyed and that was about it.
The necron advance...
The destroyer lord closes on his prey...
Turn three saw the first assaults of the game, my Exterminator was destroyed by the destroyer lord, and the highland vets were killed by the combined efforts of the C'tan and scarabs. Shooting led to the demise of the ineffectual heavy weapon squad and the destruction of the autcannon infantry squad's chimera. Casualties were mounting!
The battle rages on...
A highlander prepares for the scarab assault...
With the scarabs now in striking distance of many tanks the hellhound turned up and promptly roasted the lot of them! 6 dead swarms, result! The roughriders remained in reserve but sly marbo did turn up in cover amongst the necrons and kill a mighty... 2 necrons with his demo charge. The only movement was the two remaining chimeras of first platoon advancing towards the objective on the right and a unit of immortals heading towards the central objective. Other than the hellhound my shooting was only managing to chip away at various squads killing a destroyer, a few warriors and a couple of immortals and an annihilation barge no decisive blows had yet been struck by the guardsman but they were still in the fight!
In turn 4 the Praetorians went on the offensive, in a bold move Col. Winterborne disembarked and assaulted a unit of immortals sheltering in a building. What followed was a casualty-less combat, who knew a necron guard combat could be so brutal! The Destroyer lord eliminated yet another tank in combat (the salamander and the C'tan advanced ominously towards the Leman Russ. The rough riders arrived this turn with their intended target being the immortals occupying the central objective, however a mighty roll of a 1 for fleet ended any hope of getting there.
The Colonel engages the robotic foe...
The cavalry arrives...
The Leman Russ' demise is only a matter of time...
So at the end of turn 4 the scores were 2-1 to the Praetorians with both objectives on my right flank occupied by troops and chimera of the 1st platoon, the central objective held by immortals and the final objective on my right contested by the command squad. Random game length, a three was rolled so the fight continued!
Turn 5 saw Colonel Winterborne and his command squad emerge victorious, the Colonel personally slaying two of the souless machines, with the immortals fleeing and the command squad consolodating into cover and contesting the objective. The Leman Russ was in the unenviable position of destroyer lord on one side and C'tan on the other, unsurprisingly the tank was wrecked several times over. More necrons fell to the persistant shooting of the remaining chimeras and valkyrie; the heavy destroyers were reduced to one, the warriors on my right were also reduced to one, and the central immortal unit took a couple more casualties. In the tradition of foolhardy cavalry charges the Rough Riders lowered their lances and engaged the C'tan, knowing killing it was nigh on impossible the brave cavalrymen would buy my scoring units time to secure objectives. As the monster is T7 (and 4++) I could only injure it on the charge with my hunting lances, as luck would have it one wound was caused a piece and the rough riders were rewarded for the valiance with a drawn combat.
For Praetoria!
Turn 6 would be the last turn of the game and turned out to be an incredbly bloody one. While the necrons tried their best to clear some of my units from objectives, a combination of poor rolls and the (there was a lot of 6s to glance that never materialised) ultimate wooden spoon winner the doomsday ark complete failure to really kill anything meant that little was achieved. My guardsmen's reply was brutal. Two warrior squads the last heavy destroyer and a squad of immortals were entirely wiped out. This left me with 2 objectives to my opponents 0 (2 were contested with no troop choices there).
The Command HQ take cover from the annihilation barge...
The valkyrie stands overwatch over the objective...
The last few rough riders sell their lives dearly...
It was a thoroughly entertaining game and went right down to the wire with plenty of madness, mayhem and carnage all over the board. A big thanks go to my opponent who was truely sporting and shared my philosophy of trying to make the game as fun and cinematic as possible! Wooden spoon as I mentioned has to go to the doomsday ark while the real matchwinner for me was my hellhound who accounted for an entire warrior squad and most of the scarabs!
Ooh, lovely battle report, old boy! Good to see the Emperor's men vanquishing the vile machines. :-D
ReplyDeleteBrilliant! And very well done for the win - Necrons are a real bugger.
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