Pootle here! Two firsts for me at the weekend (before last): my first visit to Element Games and my first participation in Brapscallion's annual King in the North event!
My list is based entirely on pre-Leviathan models (I'm just starting on painting the first Leviathan plastic now) as I'd "invested" in a few boxes of Nids in the Spring prior to price rises when I saw that 10th edition would be bringing Nids in. I tested it out against Kraken a couple of weeks ago (check out the batrep here) and he decided to lead my Necrons against me, which turned out to be excellent practice as two of the three games on the day were against Crons!
Leading the charge is a Hive Tyrant with an enhancement that gives him a 5+ FNP that increases to a massive 4+ FNP if he's lost wounds at the start of any turn. That should boost his survivability.
Old One Eye will lead a Carnifex to be a distracting wrecking ball hurled at the metallic lines opposite me. They'll both benefit from the Carnifex's ability to move an additional D6+2" towards the enemy if the Carnifex loses any wounds to shooting (that works in Overwatch too), and Old One Eye himself not only has a 5+ FNP but also regenerates D3 wounds in both players' command phases.
Another problem to fling forwards is a Broodlord and ten Genestealers. They're a proper glass cannon these days, but, with an 8" Scout move, I plan to throw them upfield and see what happens: they certainly can't be ignored. The Broodlord has the Alien Cunning enhancement that allows me to redeploy three units prior to starting the first turn so they don't need to be hidden behind a building to start with.
Then there are two units of Gants and a unit of Warriors to grab objectives, and a T-Fex with Acid Spray to round out the list.
Invasion Fleet Detachment
- Hive Tyrant: Heavy Venom Cannon, Monstrous Bonesword & Lash Whip. Warlord with Adaptive Biology enhancement
- Old One Eye
- Broodlord: Alien Cunning enhancement
- 10 Termagants: Devourers
- 10 Termagants: Spine Fists
- 10 Genestealers
- 3 Tyranid Warriors with Ranged Bioweapons: Venom Cannon, 2x Deathspitters
- Carnifex: Bio-plasma, Spine Banks, Carnifex Scything Talons, Carnifex Extra Scything Talons
- Tyrannofex: Acid Spray
1,250 points
Necrons!
My first game was against a tasty Necron list run by Jon (take a look at j.sharpe0608 on Instagram for his lovely purple/blue 'Crons):
- C'Tan Shard of the Void Dragon
- Technomancer; leading
- 6 Wraiths
- Plasmancer; leading
- 10 Immortals: Tesla Carbines
- Annihilation Barge: Gauss Cannon
- Canoptek Spyder
- 6 Canoptek Scarabs
- Canoptek Spyder
- 3 Canoptek Scarabs
- 2 Lokhust Heavy Destroyers
Unsurprisingly given the Canoptek focus, the list used the Canoptek Court detachment, giving full rerolls to hit if he controlled the majority of the objectives in particular thirds of the battlefield (either deployment zone and no-mans-land).
Mission and Deployment
We started the day with a simple mission: all tables had five objectives, one in each corner and one in the middle. 1VP at the end of each round for holding each objective in your own deployment zone, 2VP at the end of each round for holding each objective in your enemy's deployment zone, and 3VP for holding the objective in the centre. That's going to lead to a pretty obvious scrap for the centre, which suits me fine!
I was careful to explain my Broodlord's ability to redeploy and my plan to throw my four aggressive units (Stealers, Tyrant, Carnifexes and T-Fex) forwards to cause problems, but in the end didn't need to redeploy much as I was focussed on overwhelming the centre (whilst holding my home objectives with the Gants).
Jon won the roll-off for first turn. I decided to push the Genestealers forward with their 8" Scout move and then we were off...
Necrons: turn 1
The C'Tan and the blob of Wraiths moved forwards towards the central objective (though neither were quite claiming it as there's a big mob of Genestealers just behind the central tower.
On my left flank, the larger unit of Scarabs piled forwards, supported by one of the Spyders. I know that they're going to be a pain to deal with...
The Heavy Destroyers open up on my Warlord. Fortunately only one shot makes it through and the Tyrant's FNP reduces damage to only 4 wounds (gulp!). The Annihilation Barge lets rip at the Genestealers but I manage to escape a lot of damage due to on-point 5+ invuln saves backed up by spending a CP on giving them a 5+ FNP too from Rapid Regeneration and only one of them loses a wound!
Tyranids: turn 1
My turn now! On my left, the Gants move forwards slightly to stay on the objective but put some shots into the Scarabs. It's kind of pointless given all the regeneration that can be deployed on them, but I thought I'd try. It would probably have been more sensible to retreat and give a harder charge for next turn.
On my right, the other Gants creep forwards in case they can contribute something next turn, whilst the Carnifexes advance forwards.
The centre is where all the action is. The Stealers move to give them a choice of charging the Wraiths or the C'Tan, but then Jon plays a strat to let the Wraiths move back away from them. Well, that simplifies my choice at least (and frankly, I think I'd prefer to charge the C'Tan as lots of little hits are probably the best way through its multi-layered defences).
The Hive Tyrant, T-Fex and Warriors move to at least shoot the Wraiths, but Jon spends a second CP to mean I can't target them unless I'm within 12"...which I'm not. Blast! All the shots go into the C'Tan but it proves as hard to damage as I'd suspected and only loses a couple of wounds.
The Stealers charge the C'Tan and the Annihilation Barge provides overwatch. It's actualy shooting last turn ended up being harmless, however this time Jon rolls far too many sixes (which explode twice) and, without their FNP, I lose half the unit in one go. Whilst I'm still rolling a lot of dice, it's not enough to bring the C'Tan down now and it survives on only 3 wounds. Gaaah!
Nevertheless, I'm holding both my home objectives plus the centre to give me a good start on the VP count.
Necrons: turn 2
Having fallen back from the Stealers, the Wraiths move to take on the Carnifexes. They suffer a couple of casualties when the T-Fex overwatches them as they move, and when they crash into the big bugs they're potent enough to kill the regular Carnifex. Old One Eye drops a couple more in return.
In the centre, the C'Tan falls back from the Stealers and the Immortals emerge from the cover of the ruin to lay waste to the surviving aliens (I thought about giving them a 5+FNP again, but it really wouldn't have helped!). Meanwhile the Heavy Destroyers killed two of the Tyranid Warriors with ease and the third took a couple of wounds from the Annihilation Barge.
On the left, the Scarabs crashed into the Gants, killing three of them but the Spyder failed its (much longer) charge.
Tyranids: turn 2
I spend a bit of timing considering my options. In the end I decide to let Old One Eye deal with the Wraiths (even though I'd love to finish them off so they can't regenerate). One thing I decide to do is launch the Tyranid special ability to make every enemy unit take a battle-shock test. It's not the most impressive thing (battle-shock hasn't really as effective as I'd thought it might be when tenth dropped), but it does cause the Heavy Destroyers to fail, which will mean they can't score VP for holding their home objective, so that's something.
The Hive Tyrant is despatched to deal with the C'Tan. It's a long shot, but I feel I need quite a few dominoes to fall to get back into the game. Meanwhile, the T-Fex unloads his acid spray into the Immortals, melting five of them.
The Immortals do shoot overwatch at the Hive Tyrant as he charges into the C'Tan, taking him down to only three wounds. I'm banking everything on taking the last three wounds off the C'Tan, but my dice aren't quite up to it and he lives...however despite being on only three wounds himself, my Tyrant's 4++ and 4+++ keeps him alive on a solitary wound!
However at the end of the round my T-Fex is controlling the central objective still so I rack up another turn of 5 VPs and Jon only scores the one as the Destroyers are battle-shocked.
Necrons: turn 3
The Heavy Destroyers target the T-Fex and it's only a lucky save of a six that keeps it alive on one wound (though I remember much later that I could have used its once-per-battle ability to change the damage of an incoming shot to zero!)
The C'Tan has regenerated a couple of wounds, but my Hive Tyrant has one last chance to take it out, however once again my dice fail me and the C'Tan doesn't make a mistake this time. Warlord down.
Tyranids: turn 3
At the end of the round it's another 5:2 result, bringing the score to 15:5 to the Nids.
Round 4
We ran out of time at this point, but with so little of my forces on the table it was easy to work out what would happen: the T-Fex would be killed and the C'Tan would take possession of the central objective. The Scarabs and Spyder would kill the Gants in my back left and take possession of that one too. This round would be 7:1 to the Necrons, bringing the score to 16:12 to the Nids.
Round 5
The last round would probably see me retain one of my home objectives, but it would be another 7:1 swing to the Necrons.
Final score: 19:17 to the Necrons
Locker Room
That was great fun! I always love a close game and I really thought I might just have managed to steal that one. If I'd just managed to kill the C'Tan (which I nearly managed twice), or if the Carnifexes had managed to do more against the Wraiths (I rolled atrociously on my saves for them) it's just possible I could have changed the result, but to be honest I think it's unlikely and the actual result is a fair reflection of the fact that the Necrons well and truly controlled the battle. I've never played against a C'Tan before and they are SCARY!
Thank you Jon for a great game, the best thing about these events is that even when losing the atmosphere is great.
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