Phase 4 - Game 2

Veiled Oblivion versus the Genestealer Cult

Mission - Assault the Warp Gate

Necrons win the battle, 80-70 (Necrons were Attacker, went 1st).  2 Blackstone fragments from Reap A Tally Agenda. 1 Strategic Point from Assassinate Agenda, 1 Strategic Point from Victory bonus. 2 total Blackstone fragments gained, 2 total Strategic Points gained.

 

Ma'ar the Mourned suffers a Battle Scar, removed for 3 RP

 

Units upgraded 

Deadly Stride Skorpekh Destroyers gains The Will to Serve - Out of Action tests are automatically passed.

X'ull the Tormented (Marked for Greatness) gains Heroic Constitution- Model gains +1 Wound.

 

Overall-

Victory - Veiled Oblivion

Blackstone Fragments - +2 (total = 11)

RP - gain 1, spend 3. Total is 3.

Supply limit - 2000 (using 2000)

Crusade points - Goes from 27 to 29 (+2 Battle Traits)

 

Crusade totals

XP - 315

Kills - 80

Unit with most XP/Kills - X'ull the Tormented (65 XP/20 kills)

Total Blackstone fragments collected - 31

 

Game Overview

Mission - Assault the Warp Gate is an Armageddon mission, so both Unbound Adversaries and Warp Anomalies were in effect- in this case three Greater Daemons (Bloodthirster-equivalents) and Anomalies were rolled for at the begininng of each player turn. The Attacker deployed their entire army first (only one unit from each army allowed to be in Strat Reserves) and then the Defender placed both their army and the three Bloodthirsters. Scoring started at the 2nd battle round, 5VP per objective held, with the Defender getting an extra 5VP for every other objective if they hold their deployment objective (the Warp Gate). An additional rule was the Defender's units started with a Warp Token, and any non-Character unit without a Warp Token would respawn, if they got a d6 roll higher than the round, in Strat Reserves until the start of Round 4.

Agendas - Assassinate (2XP per Character killed, +2XP if it is the Warlord), Reap a Tally (for every 3 enemy units destroyed, pick a unit that destroyed an enemy during the game and it gets 2XP)

Enemy List - 3 units of Aberrants (2 10man w/Abominants, 1 5man w/Biophagius), 2 squads of Genestealers (1 w/Patriarch), 3 Rockgrinders, 1 Sanctus, 1 Kellermorph, 1 squad of flamer Acolytes w/Locus, 4man squad of Jackals w/Quad, 1 Ridgerunner

 

To start off with, I did badly taking pictures in this match, apologies. With all the stuff occurring at the beginning of a round - Unbound turn and Anomalies, I was less focused on the pics and more on getting the rules right.

Round 1

Necron turn 1 - To start, I was able to position units that would either tank the Bloodthirsters (Triarch Stalker) or that I didn't care about losing (Triarch Praetorians), so that the first round of Unbound Adversaries attacks were pretty much wasted. I lost a couple of Praetorians from each squad on the left and middle, but they Reanimated fine and the Stalker on the right was untouched. On my actual turn the Anomaly was -1T for anything with a Warp Token, which would have been much better if I could have managed to get anything into close combat with the GSC, but with three big daemons in my face I decided to concentrate on them. The daemon on the right went down to a charge combo of two Skorpekh units and the Lord, which burned up two plasmacytes for Dev Wounds but I think was worth it to clear at least one of the distractions off the board (as a bonus, they are Characters so got some XP and they wouldn't respawn). The middle Bloodthirster got charged by both the Transcendent C'tan and the Lychguard but they failed to kill it off, while the left Bloodthirster was weakly fought by 4 Praetorians and a Stalker. Shooting at the GSC did little, the Heavy Destroyers all failed to Hit and/or Wound a Rockgrinder and the Deathmarks put a couple of wounds on the Patriarch but couldn't drop him.

GSC turn 1 - GSC got lucky with an Anomaly that gave them all +1 Movement, so they pushed out hard. Avoiding the Bloodthirsters the Patriarch's Genestealer squad wiped out the Scorpekh without X'ull (who came back) and then lost 8 stealers to X'ull and his crew when the stealers consolidated into the unit (done to avoid giving the Skorpekh the charge re-roll bonus, but that turned out to be a bad idea). Shooting for the GSC was good, with the two Rockgrinders on the right and the Ridgerunner taking down the Stalker on the right. 

 

Round 2

Necron turn 2 - More fighting from the Bloodthirsters, as the middle one tried to kill the C'tan but failed to do any real damage while the one on the left killed off more Praetorians, who then came back. Necron shooting was better this turn, with the tesla Immortals on the left doing quite a bit of damage to the Genestealer squad coming at them and eventually finished them off, while the respawned Skorpekh unit was placed over near that location to attempt a charge, which failed against the Rockgrinder. In the middle the slap fight against the Bloodthirster continued, with the C'tan doing damage but not enough to kill off the daemon and the Lychguard/Overlord whaling away but accomplishing little. On the right, X'ull lost some of his Skorpekh bodyguard to the Patriarch and his two remaining minions, but was able to wipe them out in turn (who respawned due to GSC stuff). Heavy Destroyers managed to kill the Ridgerunner and wound the Rockgrinder near the Skorpekh, while the respawned Stalker charged the third Rockgrinder who was hanging out in the upper right but didn't do much. 

GSC turn 2 - Acolytes popped up in the Necron backfield, shooting the Deathmarks off their objective (though they respawned). Shooting and charging, the Rockgrinder on the left wore down the Skorpekh squad there, but couldn't kill them off. Jackals charged the Immortals and mutually killed each other until only the Plasmancer and Wolfquad were left. The Aberrants on the right charged and killed off the remaining Skorpekh bodyguard of X'ull, but he was able to fight back and kill off the squad. 

 

Round 3

Necron turn 3 - More lackluster fighting by the Bloodthirsters, who did manage to kill off the Stalker on the left (respawned) and kill some Lychguard in the middle. Shooting was good this round, as the Heavy Destroyers put some major damage on the Rockgrinder on the right and the Bloodthirster in the middle. Middle Bloodthirster finally went down to the C'tan, while the Praetorians on the left managed to somewhat wound that Bloodthirster. Respawned Skorpekh and Deathmarks attempted to shoot/charge the Acolytes on the lower left objective, but failed. Hexmark Destroyer and respawned Stalker came down in the enemy's backfield to shoot the Biophagus' Aberrant squad on the warp gate but failed to do much damage. 

GSC turn 3 - Acolytes shot and charged the skorpekh near them, doing some damage but not enough to kill off the squad. Random fights with the Rockgrinders against the Stalker on the right and the Skorpekh on the left don't do anything impressive. 

 

Round 4

Necron turn 4 - Last Bloodthirster kills off the Praetorians on the left and tags the Plasmancer to keep him in place. Necrons move around a little but nothing much happens. 

GSC turn 4 - Rockgrinder kill off the Stalker on the right, and the Skorpekh on the lower left area are finally finished off by the Acolytes, but they aren't able to remove the Deathmarks from tagging the objective. Not much remains of the GSC army, but they respawn their last genestealer squad and had it appear in the lower right, threatening the Tomb Blades/Heavy Destroyers near that objective. Aberrant squad in back attempts to kill off the Hexmark Destroyer but leaves it on one wound due to only being able to stretch two models into combat and remain on the objective. 

 

Round 5

Necron turn 5 - Last Bloodthirster kills off the Plasmancer and reigns supreme over that objective, with one wound remaining after getting hit by all Heavy Destroyers. C'tan and Stalker charge and kill off the Abberant squad on the warp gate, but not before the Hexmark Destroyer fails both a Battleshock test and a Desperate Escape test and kills himself trying to get away from the scary mutants. 

GSC turn 5 - GSC is mathematically unable to win or tie, due to needing to be on all five non-Warp Gate objectives or the Warp Gate and two others, and they just don't have the units to do so. Still they are able to charge and kill the Deathmarks on the left with the Acolyte squad and the final genestealer squad on the right kills off the Tomb Blades and a Heavy Destroyer to take that objective. Game ends.

 

Thoughts

It was a good game. Aside from the first round, the Anomalies didn't have too much of an effect on the game, which is the reason I didn't mention them, basically just helping the GSC with a couple of things and not really ever hurting them. What did help were those Bloodthirsters and my lack of ability to kill them off. Given that the Bloodthirsters didn't do too much damage themselves, it was pretty much a wash, but they did tie down a large portion of my army for a lot of the game. What saved me was the GSC not being able to get off the charges they needed at first and the respawn mechanic- I was super aggressive with my "throw-away" squads that I didn't care about because I had a good chance of bringing them back turn 1 and 2. That allowed me to sit on some objectives with stuff like the Deathmarks/Tomb Blades all game and use my Skorpekh/Stalkers like battering rams.

 

The game was fun and the Armageddon crusade stuff it interesting, but I think it is also a lot to remember/use in a crusade game. I think having either the Unbound Adversaries or the Warp Anomalies would be a decent addition; having both together stretches out the game longer than it needs to be and could be confusing to newer players. 

 

Crusade Final Thoughts

The overall crusade was a good one. I really enjoyed the Necron rules, as they are super easy to understand and if you can accomplish three of their Agendas in the first few games you just have bonuses down the line. I don't think using the Necron "super" abilities were ever really something that I considered, as you lose 1d3 of your regular bonus abilities and have to do further agendas to get them back- which in a campaign in which you are part of an alliance hampers the alliance as you are doing personal agendas instead of ones that benefit the alliance. So I picked the three bonuses that I thought would be most useful (re-roll Reanimate once per round, get +1 on Reanimate rolls if below half strength, and give 3 Infantry units Scout 6") and just kept them all crusade. Other than that, the Necron rules are overall ok but not great, as their battle traits/relics can be iffy (except for the Infantry The Will to Serve trait, which makes Out of Action rolls auto-pass), and nothing really stood out as an auto-pick to me. My best options for upgrades generally came from the campaign upgrade options rather than faction-specific, so I think you definitely need work out the theme of the campaign you are playing and go full-bore into that theme.

 

Last crusade was Nachmund, so all about Deep Striking and I found the best way to score was small msu objective/action monkeys. This was a split between Pariah/Armageddon, but mostly Pariah, so I used Central Position as a main agenda and formed an Infiltrating/Stealthy/FNP Lychguard brick that would be able to get onto the center objective first thing and then just sit there all game and weather all attacks. It worked well, as I had only one game where the Overlord with the Lychguard was killed and even then the squad still survived to annoy the enemy more. That Lychguard squad was my anvil and the Skorpekh Lord squad the hammer, roving out with the Scout 6" to smash into the enemy and tie them up or wipe them out while the rest of the army moved up to take objectives. It really worked well in this crusade, as seen with the undefeated run, I'm pretty happy with my play in each game.

 

The only real downside is that because of how I head-canon my Necrons, I don't really have much lore/story to go along with the crusade. They are unfeeling automatons like the old, pre-5th edition Necrons, with only the Master Program itself and the C'tan really having any sort emotions/character. So looking forward to having a more lore-friendly faction next time.

 

Next crusade won't be for a while, probably after the holidays, and I'm looking at doing my Riven Primaris Space Marines, unless I happen to get a lot more Votann than I have currently. Hopefully I can get up a Votann blog where I work on both the paint scheme and lore for them, which may be the next bit of stuff you see from me. Anyway, thanks for looking, see you next time!