Orkyo Drift: Necrons vs Orks

 I feel the need!

Kraken and Pootle here, going at it all guns blazing in a Maelstrom battle. A thousand points of newly-painted Necrons against a full buggy battalion of Orks. 

Rusty, but still Chrome

Pootle has hand-picked these lists, and is generally avoiding synergistic brutal combos. As lists go, both of these are low-key, non-competitive picks. 

Except mine! I've got an Ork Speedwaargh tonight. Expensive in terms of CPs at this scale, perhaps, but it's got a lot of gunz for this size of battle. Very fast, tougher than it has a right to be (especially given what Pootle is deliberately taking for his shooting, see below) and quite capable in combat too. 

And gorgeous! Just look at this paintwork! Just look at all the cool new Ork buggies! No duplicates here either, it's a proper mismatched convoy o' death! 

I really wanted to field a proper Speed Waaagh! I managed to lose all my larger original Orky vehicles from the early 90s and have been gradually replacing them - this army fields (almost) all the vehicles I currently own (missing one old lead Warbike and one old lead Warbuggy). I can't tell you how keen I am to see how they do!

Evil Sunz Outrider Detachment, 1000 points, 3 CPs

• HQ - Bludteef, Warboss on Warbike, Might is Right trait, Killer Klaw relic
• Troops - 10 Ork Shoota Boyz, upgraded to Trukk Boyz. Nob has a power klaw and choppa, someone brought a Big Shoota, everyone else has Shootaz
• Fast Attack - Kustom Boosta Blasta
• Fast Attack - Megatrakk Scrapjet
• Fast Attack - Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy
• Fast Attack - Shokjump Dragsta
• Fast Attack - 5 Stormboyz, Nob has a power klaw
• Fast Attack - 5 Warbikers, Nob has a power klaw
• Fast Attack - Warbuggy with Twin Big Shoota
• Heavy Support - Deff Dread with four Dread Klaws and Stompamatic Pistons
• Heavy Support - a Bubblechukka
• Dedicated Support - a Trukk with a Big Shoota

A Pain in the Necron

This list is almost entirely comprised of units I’ve painted but not yet fielded in a game (the only exception being Scarabs and Immortals, though there is a statistically good chance that the specific five Scarabs I'm fielding are different ones given I have 15 painted, and this is the second of the two Immortals units I have). The first version of the list was shooty as well as durable, but with a few tweaks (switching the Doomsday Ark for a Ghost Ark even though it’s got no Warriors to transport, and switching anti-vehicle guns for anti-infantry ones on the Command Barge and the Stalker) I’m hoping it’s a list that will make a for good close game against an Ork vehicle list. 

I’ve really decided to double down on durability though. Continuing my plan of cycling around the dynasties, I’m using Nihilakh today: everyone is ObSec (apart from the Triarch Stalker) and will ignore AP -1 if they’re in my own deployment zone (nicely counterpart by Ork Choppas and the army-wide buff from calling a Speed Waaagh!). Almost everyone has more than one wound (apart from the Immortals) so the revamped rules for Command Protocols call for me to pick one protocol that will be in effect throughout the game: I pick Undying Legions so that the Living Metal ability will heal two wounds every turn.

My warlord has the Enduring Will trait (minus one damage) and the Infinity Mantle relic (+1 armour save, taking him to a 2+ and he gains a 6+ feel-no-pain). On top of this his Quantum Shielding gives him a 5++ and means he can only be wounded on a 4+. He won’t kick out much hurt but I’m hoping that I can throw him forwards and he’ll hopefully absorb a fair amount of pain.

Nihilakh Necron Patrol, 1000 points, 6 CPs

• HQ - Catacomb Command Barge, Warlord with Enduring Will trait and Infinity Mantle relic, Doomscythe and Particle Cannon
• HQ - Plasmancer iwth Photonic Transubjector and Plasmic Lance
• Dynastic Advisor - Psychomancer with Abyssal Lance and Cryptogeometric Adjuster
• Troops - 5 Immortals with Gauss Blasters
• Elites - Hexmark Destroyer
• Elites - Triarch Stalker with Particle Shredder
• Fast Attack - 5 Canoptek Scarab Swarms
• Fast Attack - 5 Canoptek Wraiths with Whip Coils
• Heavy Support - 3 Lokhust Destroyers with Gauss Cannon
• Dedicated Transport - Ghost Ark

Mission and Battlefield

We're playing Tempest of War, and the cards give us a Dawn of War deployment. Pootle sets up a lovely Badlands table, covered in overgrown ruins and sprawling woods. 

The battle is Priority Targets, so fairly standard primary objectives (5 points for holding one, 5 points for holding more), but also 5 points at the end of the last turn for each of the four objectives you're still holding. The twist today is a Scatter Field, so it's harder to bring in reinforcements when and where you want them. Not being able to set up in No Man's Land doesn't bother either of us, but our deep strikers can't set up within range of Objectives, which makes Objective Secured even more important. 

CPs - we're playing the older rules, so we both start with more, get one only on our own turns and got free relics and traits, which is why my otherwise illegal list has any points to spend!

Deployment

The roll-off goes to me, and I pick to be Attacker. Mostly because it's Orky, but also because I know it will paralyse Pootle as he tries to work out all the variables of the game in advance!

For my part, I know I can redeploy pretty quickly with the extreme speed in my force. So I stick most of the buggies slightly off-centre towards the right, but keep the Stormboyz, Dragsta and Bubblechukka over on the left flank, trusting in either heavy cover or thick ork warplate to keep me alive long enough to get a turn in. 

I put my Overlord in the centre of my lines, flanked by the Triarch Stalker and Ghost Ark (which is carrying the Plasmancer).

The Wraiths and Psychomancer deploy on the left, planning to move onto the leftmost objective.

The Lokhust Destroyers hug the cover of the burning Ork building (we think that they have set off some kind of booby trap that alerts the Orks to the Necron presence) and the Scarabs hide behind the stone wall in the centre.

The Immortals hold my right flank, intending to move forwards towards the righthand objective.

As it happens, I'll be going second. Off we go! 

Necrons Turn 1

My first objectives are No Prisoners (kill 15 wounds-worth of Orks), Blood & Guts (kill two Ork units in combat) and Storm Hostile Objective (take the Orks' home objective or one that they controlled at the start of the turn). I can crack on with the first but the second is out of reach this turn and the third isn't possible yet, though should be achievable next turn given how many ObSec units I have compared to Kraken. To battle! 

First off I advance the Psychomancer towards my lefthand objective. I adore the model for this fellow, but the profile is all but hopeless against this Ork list, so he's just going to be bait next turn. Meanwhile the Command Barge and Triarch Stalker edge forwards to shoot at the Warbuggy, which doesn't last long under the barrage of fire. 

On my right, the Immortals move forwards to claim the objective and the Ghost Ark floats gently forwards too. The Lokhust Destroyers come out of cover and start shooting at the Bubble Chukka, but even the combination of all the guns leaves the Gun just alive on a solitary wound at the end of the turn.

Yeah, the gretchin crew clearly know which side of the gun to stand on!

Orks Turn 1

I mean, if your opponent is going to kindly leave a rather vulnerable character out in front of his army, then you draw the Assassination objective card, it would be rude not to rush headlong into his obvious trap, wouldn't it? 

Pushing him forwards was a mistake. Hopefully I won't come to regret the lack of a fear-inducing character later (spoiler alert: I will).

I also get Overwhelming Firepower (kill stuff with guns) and Blood and Guts (kill stuff with sticks). It's all nice and simple Orky, a level of tactical nicety that I am definitely on. 

So! All the bikes and buggies zoom forwards, led by the Kustom Boosta Blasta. The Deff Dred has a 9" charge to the Catacomb Barge after this, and if I'm daunted by the resilience it clearly has, Pootle is clearly daunted by the fact he might have to put it to the test so soon. 

At the back, the Rukkatrukk nips off in the other direction, driving parallel to the trees to back up the Dragsta and Bubblechukka. The Stormboyz do what they do best and leap forward towards the Immortals.

Shooting has some rude surprises for us both. For me, it's just the sheer volume! So many dice! And I don't even mind all the misses, because I always have those. In fact, I roll pretty hot through the phase, which leads to the second surprise - between a hail of shoota fire, some hefty missile barrages from the Skrapjet, some long bomb throws from the Rukkatrukk and some doleful saving throws, Pootle loses his Triarch Stalker!

And obviously the Psychomancer as well, who chows down on a hot exhaust breakfast before I even have to charge him. 

After all that, it's pretty quiet. The Bubblechukka and Scrapjet together gently pry a single wound off the Ghost Ark, I get the Stormboys into the Immortals where they each kill a couple of their opposites, and the Deff Dred just fails his charge (twice). But I've scored two of my objectives for a solid first turn, and taken out one of the larger threats before it could get going. Now to weather the counter-punch!

VPs: 10-0 to the Orks

Necrons Turn 2

We're both on two objectives at the top of turn 2, so that's 5 Primary VPs to me. I ditched Blood & Guts last turn and draw Raise Banners this turn; that's good - the Immortals can do that easily.

The Plasmancer disembarks from the Ghost Ark and moves so that the Deff Dred is the closest unit he can see, but he only manages to put one mortal wound on it with his psychic-alike special ability. Meanwhile the Ghost Ark puts all its fire into the Mek Gun and does manage to kill it.

Despite being confident in his ability to take damage, I fall the Command Barge back slightly and aim his guns at the Dred too, but whiff completely. However I do cause a scattering of mortal wounds on nearby Orks with a stratagem from his Tesla weapon. I play a 2CP strat on the Lokhust Destroyers to allow them to reroll wound rolls against the Deff Dred but still manage to not cause any damage at all. 

I am going to have to delay the Dred, so throw the Scarabs forward to tangle it up for a turn or two while the Wraiths leap onto the Kustom Boosta Blasta and try to scratch holes in its tyres...unsuccessfully. 

Meanwhile, the Hexmark destroyer teleports into the woods in the centre with all six eyes fixed on the remaining Stormboyz. Predictably, his many guns are almost perfectly designed for taking out Ork Boyz.

At the end of the turn I've achieved all my secondary objectives so score 15 VPs for that.

VPs: 20-10 to the Necrons

Orks Turn 2

Just the 5VPs at the start of the turn for controlling my home objective, then new missions - I have to Storm an Objective, which looks tempting in a couple of places given that the Necrons have just nicked one off me, I have to get Behind Enemy Lines, which is tricky but feasible, and I still have Blood and Guts from earlier, which I reckon I can get whilst attempting the other two. 

But first of all, I have to scream "Speedwaaaaaaaaaaargh" as loudly as I can, before entirely forgetting all the benefits it gives me for the next two turns. 

Actually, I think the main benefit is an additional -1 AP, and the main beneficiary of this are the Warbikers, whose target will benefit take advantage of the Nihilakh ability to ignore AP-1 when they're in their own deployment zone. So a score-draw?

Well, yes, but they also could have been getting a fair few extra shots as well (one extra per dakka weapon, which stacks up fast on those bikers), but I'm clearly running quite a laid-back Speedwaargh. Easy Riders, all.

The main thing is all the extreme speed, of course, and that I don't forget about. Some of my moves are obvious - sending the Dragsta round the back to shoot at the Immortals, or zooming into the Necron deployment zone with the Bikers. 

Pootle isn't expecting what I do in the middle, though, which is to switch Bludteef back to deal with the Hexmark and Ghost Ark. With him goes the Trukk, right into the trees in the middle, switching out with the Rukkatrukk on back line objective holding. Then the Trukkboyz leap out, heading right for the back lines and the Destroyers. My right flank is all tied up with the Canoptik stuff, and the Megatrakk is stuck behind them, but it can still shoot at the meaty command stuff at the back, and I'm happy enough with that. 

Then my shooting continues to impress - I kill off two of the Destroyers with another pounding storm of mismatched bullets. The Trukkboyz charge in after that, killing the last one and ending up locked in combat with the Command Barge, which is clearly pretty annoyed at having to do close combat duty. But I weather the sweeps of its scythe, and have enough Boyz left to steal the rear objective through weight of numbers. 

The Dred kills off the Scarabs in a rather absent-minded way, and wanders over to watch the Wraiths and Burna slowly chip away at each other. Bludteef obliterates the Hexmark, although it shoots a wound off him in Overwatch, then follows into the Ghost Ark, joined by the Trukk. 

The Dragsta does nothing at all - it fails to teleport, hit anything or charge in, so I'm marking it down as spare parts to repair that Warbuggy when we get back to base. 

Two more objectives achieved, plus five on primaries. This seems too good to last...

VPs: 25-20 to the Orks

Necrons Turn 3

Only 5 Primary VPs this turn - it might have been 10 if my Command Barge had killed more Boyz, but they've nicked my home objective, though I control both midfield ones. 

My secondaries this turn are Extend Battle Lines (hold my home objective and one in midfield - this should be easy as I should be able to kill the remaining seven Boyz easily), Overwhelming Firepower (very hard with limited shooting now) and Deploy Teleport Homers (going to be extremely tricky to get into Kraken's deployment zone).

The Ghost Ark stays in combat with Bludteef and unloads with its 20 Gauss shots. Surprisingly, it manages to knock Bludteef all the way down to a solitary wound, which could be interesting next turn.

The Wraiths carefully fall back from the Kustom Boosta Blasta and then charge back in the far side from the Deff Dred.

Meanwhile the Plasmancer only manages to fry one Ork with his non-pyschic abilities, the Command Barge manages to miss at point-blank range with his guns and also rolls an unfeasible number of ones in combat and in the end I only manage to kill four Boyz in the whole turn. They go on to pass morale easily and keep hold of the objective! 

This means that I've not scored any secondaries and, in addition to my rapidly diminishing tabletop presence is going to be a major problem...

VPs: 25-25 draw

Orks Turn 3

For some reason, the Boss now wants me to survey the centre of the board. I get some pesky 'deploy scanners' malarky that I discard, but the new draw is even worse. We're both still tied on primaries, but there aren't so many Necrons about now, and I think I'm looking pretty safe. 

All the same - got to play the missions. So the Trukk falls back towards the rear objective, letting the Rukkatrukk zoom into the centre and get surveying (detailed chartered analysis being a little-known secondary skill of Ork Trukk Drivers). The Bikers head for the Command Barge as their Shoota Boy pals fall back behind a wall, and the Dragsta zips in towards the Immortals.

And continues to disappoint - again, it fails to connect with shooting, and when it makes the charge, we're both a bit surprised to find it doesn't do ram damage. Even though the model has lots of saw blades up front! So it's another slow slog developing over there, and I can't take the objective off the ObSec Necrons. 

Their opposite flank collapses, however, with the Deff Dred finally weighing into the Wraiths and clobbering them handily. But that's all I've got - the Command Barge and Ghost Ark are both ludicrously hard to remove, thanks to a combination of resilience, good saves and complicated technology. If Bludteef's Killa Klaw can't kill a humble transport in two turns of fighting, I'm confident it's not going anywhere!

VPs: 35-25 to the Orks

Necrons Turn 4

I take a look at the next objectives coming my way, but they're not achievable so the Ghost Ark skips back and away from Bludteef to pick up the Plasmancer and, leaving the Immortals to their fate, heads back to base with the Command Barge.

The Orks are going to go on an maximise their primary VPs for the next couple of turns so it ends up quite a big loss on points.

Result: Orky Win! Waaagh!

(L)Ork(er) Room

Is it possible, Pootle, that you were possible too careful not to take any anti-vehicle weapons against the Speedwaargh that you over-balanced?

Perhaps: this was without doubt the least synergistic list I've ever designed (taking a dedicated transport without the thing that it's designed to transport gave me quite a warm, cosy feeling) and I think I'd forgotten how much dakka the Orks can kick out. I wonder what might have happened if I'd taken the Doomsday Ark instead of the Ghost Ark.

Well, I'd have lost, obviously! All the same, a good romp of a game. Those buggies are a great mix of silly and effective, very Orky. My first turn gave me a nice surprise, and that probably tipped the scales early. But the speed with which I could redeploy, nab objectives and pick off exposed enemies was the real killer. 

Absolutely, I did enjoy the fact that when you were asking if the Bikers (or someone) had enough move to get close to a particular place, I rarely had to measure - they have a seriously long threat range. And I absolutely loved seeing all my buggies in action the table - I really can't tell you how much fun that was! I've pretty much decided that a variant on this army will be going to the Wild West event in Cardiff in a couple of months.

Given that this was a heavy, slow defensive army against a light, fast aggressive one, I think we both played our hands pretty well. If I'd had to go first, I'd have been struggling to get to grips quite so quickly, I'd probably have tried to hold back as long as possible. Maybe the Necrons might have been able to do that here? The objectives were closer to their lines, their firepower was (generally) more effective, they could have either thinned me out a bit or let me close before charging and taking out the most dangerous targets. Hey ho - easy to win a fight in hindsight!

I think I was wrong to send the Psychomancer forward in turn 1 - there was no real need to do that and I could really have used his powers against the Boyz who stormed my home objective later. I think I discounted his abilities so much that I just didn't even try to use him. There was a point where if you'd failed morale for those Boyz and lost even one of them then I would have held the objective which would have achieved one of my secondaries and denied you primary points the following turn. Hey ho indeed!

Good game and a great opponent as ever. Cheers, Pootle!