Continuing the Jimulthuan Campaign, I, Pootle, am determined to regain full control of my home planet of Bagot Prime. This time I'm up against the Necrons led by Jhnlk (it's me, hello!).
I played my old school Ultramarines last time against Death Guard piloted by Stylus; although I love the Smurfs, it's been a while since I've played my new White Scars, so it'll be them today:
- Kor'sarro Khan (warlord) leading 6 Bladeguard Veterans riding in an Impulsor
- Chaplain on Bike leading 6 Outriders
- 3 more Outriders
- ATV with Multimelta
- Lt with Combi-weapon
- 5 Assault Intercessors (Thunder Hammer and Plasma Pistol for the Sarge)
- Brutalis Dreadnought
Jhnlk has picked the following from my not-insubstantial Necron collection:
- Skorpekh Lord leading 6 Skorpekh Destroyers
- Chronomancer leading 5 Immortals
- Plasmancer leading 20 Necron Warriors
- Canoptek Doomstalker
- Canoptek Doomstalker
- 3 Canoptek Scarab Swarms
Mission and deployment
We're again playing my favourite mission for relatively simple games: hold-more-kill-more. At the start of each players turn (from round two) that player scores 5VPs for holding an objective, an extra five if they control two objectives and five more if they control more than their opponent at that point. Similarly, at the end of each battle round players score 5VPs if they killed an enemy unit that round, an extra five if they killed two units and five more if they killed more than their opponent.
One additional campaign rule as selected by Kraken is that on Bagot Prime all units have the sticky objectives ability.
Jhnlk spreads his forces out across his deployment zone, with the two Doomstalkers overlooking good portions of the battlefield from either flank.
The Skorpekhs are ready to advance on the right, the Warriors hold the centre and the Immortals are ready to push into the ruined cathedral on the left.
I place the Chaplain and his Outrider escort opposite the Skorpekhs. Kor'sarro Khan and his Bladeguard are aboard the Impulsor and hidden out of sight of the Doomstalkers in the centre.
On my right, the Assault Intercessors and Brutalis lurk outside the cathedral.
Inside the ruins on the left, the Lieutenant with Combi-weapon sits on top of the objective, carefully placed so that if Jhnlk gets first turn, if the Immortals enter the ruins to try to shoot him, he'll be able to use his special rule and move out of sight.
Necrons: turn 1
Game plan: I need to grab what I can score, (which isn't much), kill what I can shoot (which isn't much), and avoid setting up a turn one counter charge (which seems frighteningly possible).
Jhnlk is very wary of my big bike squad charging the Skorpekhs, so moves the Scarabs to screen them on his right. Is this wisdom or have I just set up a counter charge?
On the left, the Doomstalker has no visible targets, so it strides forwards to aim at the Chaplain's unit. Keen to protect this unit, I play the Ride Hard, Ride Fast stratagem so they're -1 to hit and -1 to wound; this helps and no damage is caused at all.
Meanwhile, the Immortals creep forwards to the edge of the ruins.
In the centre, the Warriors tiptoe forwards very slightly - some of them now have range on the ATV, which is just visible round the side of the bushes its lurking behind and they manage to knock a wound off it.
The second Doomstalker can see the Chaplain, but because of the strat I played, Jhnlk switches his attention to the ATV - if he can take that down that'll get him kill points. Unfortunately I manage to make just enough saves and its left alive on a single wound. Kill what you shoot, I said... not almost!
White Scars: turn 1
I decide to put Oath of Moment on the Scarabs. Not a very dangerous unit, but if I can wipe them out that'll score me lots of kill points.
Accordingly, the Chaplain's unit scoots forwards slightly (remaining far enough away from the Skorpekhs that it'd be a 10" charge for them) and unload their bolters into the mechanical creepy-crawlies. Lucky that I did put OoM on them as I score exactly enough wounds to take them down.
Jhnlk has already said that he'll overwatch the ATV if it moves, so part of me is tempted to leave it where it is, however it can't do anything there and if I can make the Necrons use up a CP that's valuable isn't it? And maybe it'd survive the overwatch (even though Doomstalkers hit on 5s)? I go for it, pushing it forwards onto the central objective and aiming its Multimelta at the Doomstalker. Aha, an opportunity again to kill what I shoot! Overwatch comes in, but Jhnlk rolls low for the number of shots and manages to fluff the single wound that comes through so I'm not even troubled with a saving throw! Nevermind...
In response, the Multimelta puts four wounds onto the Doomstalker!
The Brutalis can't get far enough forwards to shoot anything, but the Impulsor and the Outriders unload all their guns into the damaged Doomstalker and manage to take it all the way down to one wound (helped by a lucky six damage from a krak missile).
At the end of the round I've killed one unit (the Scarabs) and that's one more than Jhnlk managed, so that's 10VPs to me.
Score: 10-0 to the White Scars
Necrons: turn 2
Jknlk holds only his home objective at the top of the turn, so that's 5VPs. Time to push forward and shoot... better.
On the left, the Immortals move to be able to shoot into the centre of the table, but the main event is the injured Doomstalker which manages to one-shot the Impulsor (much to Jhnlk's surprise and delight - I fail every saving throw). Kill what you shoot, we're back baby! The Bladeguard Vets stumble out with only minimal damage from their ordeal but take some damage from the Immortals.
In the centre, the Warriors put ALL their firepower into the injured ATV to make absolutely sure it goes down (it does).
On the right flank, the Skorpekh Destroyers face a choice between receiving a charge from the Bikers or risking a 10" charge - they obviously choose the latter, but (not unsurprisingly) fail the charge. Beforehand, the second Doomstalker managed to put three wounds onto one of the bikes.
White Scars: turn 2
The Immortals stealing the lefthand objective means I only score my own home objective for 5VPs at the start of the turn. However, I'm poised for a big turn with almost all units able to charge. Oath of Moment goes onto the Skorpekhs. I kick things off by pouring all the bikes' Bolter fire into them and manage to take two down!
That's a great start, but Jhnlk spends a CP to enact reanimation protocols immediately, and one of them gets right back up again.
The smaller Outrider unit have moved forwards with a view to charging the injured Doomstalker if the Brutalis's guns can't put it down. Fortunately the Dreadnought has no trouble, though its Multimelta does hit a fuel cell, which explodes, killing three Immortals and injuring a Bike.
On my right the Assault Intercessors move to follow the Lt in charging the Immortals, however the casualties suffered from the exploding Doomstalker lengthen my charge such that I fail! I spend a CP to reroll but still don't make it. The Lt does make it in and kills the remaining two Immortals, leaving just the Chronomancer.
The Bladeguard run past the centre of the table and eye up a charge on the Necron Warriors. I've spent my CP so can't fail, however they don't let me down and crash into the metallic bodies, tearing apart most of them. Kor'sarro Khan adds to the tally by assassinating the Plasmancer leading the unit.
The main event is the Chaplain and the Skorpekhs. Despite Oath being in place my dice don't cooperate and I leave a couple of Destroyers alive (Jhnlk bolsters their number again with another CP spent to reanimate again). The Necron counterstrike is hard and takes four bikes down.
At the end of the round I've killed three units (Immortals, Plasmancer, Doomstalker) to Jhnlk's two (ATV, Impulsor), so that's 15:10 for kill points.
Score: 30:15 to the White Scars
I'm holding my home and the left-midfield objective at the start of the turn (courtesy of the Assault Intercessors failing their charge), so that's 10VPs.
Necrons: turn 3
Jhnlk is in a tricky spot now. Still only holding his home objective, the Chronomancer falls back, trying to avoid attention by lurking in a dark corner of the ruins (I put him on top so we could see where he was). If Necrons listened to music, this Chronomancer would be muttering Cher's "if I could turn back time, if I could find a way"...
The remaining Warriors (reanimated to be 11-strong so they don't need to take a Battleshock test at least) fall back in a cunning way to get onto the central objective.
The Skorpekhs stay in combat, confident of weathering the Bikers' attacks...
...justifiably. Although they lose a couple of their number, the Chaplain and his escort all fall.
White Scars: turn 3
I'm holding my home and the left-midfield objective at the start of the turn (courtesy of the Assault Intercessors failing their charge), so that's 10VPs.
It's going to be a short turn however (and I forgot to take pics). The Assault Intercessors charge the Chronomancer and make short work of him. It did not turn back time or find a way.
The Bladeguard Vets crash back into the Warriors and nail the lot of them.
The Brutalis shoots its Multimeltas into the (Oath-of-Moment) Doomstalker and the Outriders crash into melee with it, but they can't quite bring it down. However it's crippled and locked in combat.
Even though there's a decent chance that the Skorpekhs can crash into the Brutalis next turn (possibly killing it) and the Bladeguard could fall to a round of shooting from the injured Doomstalker, there's just too big a VP gap to close and only the Skorpekhs available to do it
Final score: 50-30 Victory to the White Scars
Locker room
That was disappointingly one-sided. I'd adjusted my army to remove a very powerful enhancement from the Chaplain that would have dramatically improved his ability to cut through the Skorpekhs, but when I lined the armies up beforehand it just seemed like a bit of a mismatch. GW work very hard to keep points balanced, and overall it works, but I think there's something odd going on with this list - the unit of Necron Warriors and their Plasmancer leader cost 255 points in total, but they were significantly less effective than Kor'sarro Khan and the Bladeguard (230 points) or the Chaplain and six Outriders (225 points). As Jhnlk observed afterwards, the Marines seemed to have everything - they moved quickly, they could shoot (the Brutalis never got into melee but used its Multimelta effectively twice against Doomstalkers) and they could fight in melee. In contrast, the Necron units seem to have only one speciality, aside from their longevity of course. And even then the Warrior unit crumbled after (just) managing to take one wound off the ATV - hardly a good return on investment.
It's important to note that I had a really fun game! Despite the loss I felt like I had something going for me until Pootle's turn 3. This may be telling of my naivety, because it's also important to note I've not fielded Necrons before. I picked some cool models and as Pootle has already said, it may well be that Necrons just tooled up for a blasé approach to unit selections.
Nevertheless I enjoyed taking the White Scars out for a spin for the first time in nearly a year. Thank you to Jhnlk for being a good sport (and same to you!), hopefully our next game will be closer.
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