Prot's 1850 batrep vs. Necron Wraith List- Be Afraid!

[Prot]

So I've been hopping back and forth in games between my Ultramarines and Raven Guard. This is one game I have to say I'm glad I did not take Raven Guard because I think it would have been far worse....

This is not a game for the feint of heart... the Necron list is nasty, and I was more than willing to play it as I know the player to be competitive, and he travels a fair bit to get his tournament experiences under his belt with a wide variety of players. That being said, just be forewarned that I encouraged him to play a no holds barred list, and he did the same for me.

Now I will say that although this guy plays competitively, I don't want to give the wrong impression as he was a very fun opponent, and has great experience with this army so I was looking forward to it, but not quite sure what to take.... since I always make my lists in advance of knowing who I am playing, I thought to heck with it, I'm going with what I originally thought I'd take. So no battle company. Just a Demi-Co, Gladius.... for the honour of Calth I like to stay true.

So My list was something like this:

Ultramarines Demi-Co

10 Tacticals- pod melta/combi melta Pod

10 tacticals - rhino, plasma cannon, plasma gun, combi plasma

5 Tacticals- Missile launcher

Attack Bike

Chaplain - Jump pack (goes w/Vangaurd Vets)

6 Devs- 3 Grav Cannons, Fat Baby Cartman, Drop Pod

+ LibCon

- Tiggy + Staff Libby (WL 2) + Sword Libby (WL 1) (these guys play the field. In this game I had them join Devs.

+ 1st Co (for those that don't know, this is the Auxiliary I chose to make the Gladius legit for my doctrines)

2 x 5 man vanguard Squads (identical load outs): TH/Shield, lots of claws, a fist, another 2 sields, and one red shirt.

1 x 5 Sternguard (I wanted to field more but this is all I had so I went with 2 VV units) In a Pod. C.melta x2, C.plasma x1, Hvy Flamer.

The Necron List:

Lord, flame gauntlet, SoL, the lord was hiding , errr deployed with:

5 Immortals (gauss) in a Croissant

5 Immortals (gauss) in a Croissant

5 Immortals (gauss) in a Croissant

3 units of 6 Wraiths. All w/ whip Coils (yes.... that's right... 18 Wraiths)

3 x Annihilation Barges (seeing a pattern here?)

The Game:

For consistency's sake- here is a shot from the heart of the matter, and yes, this was a LibCon:

+ Is this it for the Librarius Conclave? The psychic might of the last Librarian has been pushed beyond all measures. His brothers have tapped into the warp one too often this battle, and now he stands alone against the cold metallic hatred of 5 Wraiths. +

- We roll off for Maelstrom and get the mission where you each have 3 cards per turn and they are kept secret from your opponent. This is one of my least favorite as I find 'knowing' a big advantage for my army.

- I win first turn, and though hesitating, I do take first turn. My 1st Company formation marks the 'red' Wraiths (the squads all have different squad markings in the form of eye colour) as their 'preferred enemy' for the game....

- Taking first turn was a huge gamble. He deployed in a tiny corner and spread out in such a way there was no way my Drop Pods could get any shots at those Annihilation Barges which consisted of 75% of his army's shooting.... but seeing him huddled up may have changed my mind about taking first turn but I honestly felt my army was built for objective taking and I would have ONE shot at taking a big turn of points to leverage any sort of advantage this game. I needed to take the lead, so I kept first turn.

Opening Turns:

- There aren't many pictures because our first turns were very fast as the cards would dictate the objectives and mine were horrible. Even with the house system we use of a free discard on top of your normal discount (only usable on cards that can never be accomplished even at the beginning of the game) I still found I had no options. Yes, the cards were technically possible, however, they would set me up for certain death. Here's what I mean....

+ This was his deployment: I had no way of reaching Objective IV, without sufffering massive casualties. I really had no answer for Wraiths of this magnitude. Plus the annihilation barges are still fantastic vehicles even after the Tesla nerf and cost bump. +

- I see my cards and realize I have to discard one and the rest would cost me the game. The Ultra's rely on their thorough training background and don't take the unnecessary risks. However, my pods come in and I take very defensive positions with them. Typically I would cherry pick key parts of the map but there was no victory in taking on 18 Wraiths with 3++ T5 and 2 wounds a piece. Again I had no real answer.

+ As a result of the cards, and the immense display of Wraiths, I podded in defensively, but realized I screwed up a bit here by putting the Devs and LibCon too close to the forward placed Sternguard squad.+

- Backing up a bit, I had to do my Psychic choices. Before the game I told my opponent that I was rolling on Telepathy with Tigurius, but that if I got "Invisibility" I would not use it. My opponent argued, insisting I use it to my advantage. I know many people LIVE on that power and I hate a crutch so I stopped using it about 3 months ago. Oddly enough this is the THIRD game where even with Tiggy's re-rolls on Telepathy I would NOT get invis. lol

- What I do get is what I needed but I screwed up a lot on these powers: Telepathy: Psychic Shriek (to combo with my -2 LD from 1st Co rules), Dominate (again to combo with 1st Co), Prescience: remove cover (blah against Wraiths), Prescience, always good; roll full BS Overwatch, and from Biomancy Warp Speed (kept forgetting to use this which was HUGE, and I can't remember the name of it but it was a power that gives the Libby re-rolls on all armour saves.)

- So First Turn comes and goes. I fire a Plasma cannon from a Rhino and strip a wound off of a Wraith. All other shots bounce. There would be no first blood.

- Necrons draw cards and apparently are in the same boat as me. The stalemate continues. He simply says 'go'.

Turns 2-3:

- Of course my reserves come in and I do NOT want them now. The cards are not optimal again. I can get one objective point though and I do, however I use Tiggy's re-roll and put my Vanguard squads with Chaplain back in reserves. But the Pod stays out on the table so I put it deep in my zone and get a bad scatter even deeper in my zone.

- I cause one more wound on a Wraith. I cannot wound anything.... Still failing to get first blood.

- In his Turn 2 he grabs 2 points including first blood, and 2 of his Flyers come in... ouch. The shooting gets heavy, quickly. The Necrons take this as a chance to deploy fully, and the Wraiths shoot up 12", ignoring all terrain. They fan out, using some cover, I can see next turn, like it or not, I am getting hit hard with a huge wave of Wraiths, and I have only one bloody point and not a single kill yet!

- His Flyers make me pay for a very stupid deployment of my Grav Centurion squad with LibCon attached. Both flyers rolled multiple 6's for shooting that turn. This caused a very high wound value on the squad I lost all but 2 of the Dev squad with 2 Grav Cannons going down... I'm in big trouble now as the army is largely T5 and Grav was my easiest volume of wounding shots. This was my fault and I knew it right after I deployed them.

- In turn 3 I have two cards I have to get.... they are kill cards, but I STILL can't kill a single squad. The Wraiths are proving amazingly resilient as they treat a melta/plasma wound they same as a bolter wound. The Psychic phase comes up and I charge up

- He is now in charge Range but one of my Vanguard Squads showed up, but I could not get the other one in even with Re-rolls! By the scorched earth of Calth I needed that other Vanguard squad badly to damage control what would be his obvious primary target: Tigurius and LibCon.

- LibCon fires up Force in anticipation. I roll so poorly for shooting again, I still haven't killed a squad. In close combat as predicted, the LibCon his hit hard. Tigurius takes as many wounds as possible but the squad has no Invuln save and takes Rending Wraith wounds on the chin. Each Librarian takes a wound! But Force hits back, with each failed save resulting in 2 dead Wraiths.

*Here's where I messed up. It was only in the last turn of the game I realized I did not use Warp Speed once...which would have made Tiggy Beast Mode.

- Tigirus does get off "Dominate" on a full sized squad of Wraiths that want to also assault what's left of LibCon and Devastators.... combined with my -2 Leadership rule of 1st Company, he fails the Dominate roll and is forced to sit the squad out of the rest of the turn. Whew... close one. (Every turn I got Dominate off, but that would be the only fail he would roll for the game.)

- Starting in Turn 3 (there was no need prior) I used a Tactical Doctrine, then again in turn 4. Still I hardly did any wounds... then the Sternguard stepped up, I had to get some points.... they declared Poison Rounds, with Prescience and riddled a squad of Wraiths. This would be my best shooting in the game... killing 2 Wraiths with 4 wounds. Kind of pathetic, but at this point I'll take any victory I can.

- Vanguard squad one is reduced to 2 models from combined weight of fire by 2 flyerrs, and an Annihilation barge.

Turn 4:

- I survey the battle: Tiggy is down to a wound. The Wraiths are deep in my lines. The second Vanguard squad with Chaplain can now charge, but the other squad is nearly dead. It looks very bad for me, and I am down by a point. I look at my cards and I realized that to have ANY chance of success I would have to throw my army at Objective points, and cards to get back in the game, and -maybe- if I'm very lucky pull out every card, and get a slim lead. The problem is I realize it would dictate the cost of my army to do this. What would Guilliman do? lol To heck with it... we all die in the end.

- I put the Vanguard up deep and try to ounter punch the forward advance and make room for an objective grab. The Librariand get off the powers they need, and I do kill a few more with Force from the Staves.

- The Sternguard are killed by the Necron HQ Lord and his Immortals which have just landed from a Croissant. I take this as my opportunity with the Vanguard, and slam into the squad killing them all, and getting Warlord.

+ The Vanguard press hard. I get slay the Warlord and 5 Wraiths but at the cost of the Sternguard. Still the kills net me 2 squad kills towards a tactical card, and I press forward. +

- Tirgurius FINALLY remembers to cast Warp Speed. First he gets off the power that lets him re roll saves....Then he DOES get off Warp Speed... but perils! Oh wow... he takes an auto wound killing himself, and taking all those buffs with him.... leaving a lone Librarian in his wake, leading me back to:

+ The last Librarian still would get force off, and kill 2 Wraiths outright after failed 3++ saves to get a 'squad kill', before inevitably falling to weight of attacks. +

End of Turn 4:

- The Ultramarines counter plan in the face of defeat does have reward- I manage to have a 4 point turn taking the lead in the game, but I knew the cost would be very high.

- 2 Pods are blown up. A mass of Wraiths have slammed into two partial Tactical Squads. Luckily one of my squads fails moral and runs away to regroup. A Flyer blows a rhino sky high. The second flyer rips into the plasma tacticals there and half die.... no good saves.... I keep failing so many it's unbelievable.

- There are 2 simultaneous close combats going on and although he fails to rend I simply cannot kill anything. I roll a lot of '2's' for armour saves, an unbelievable amount this game.

- He still fails to kill enough but he does get one point for my deaths that turn.

Turn 5:

- I fail to kill anything. After sticking my neck out to take a huge risk on gaining the lead, I am regrouping and trying to prevent getting tabled. Only the Vanguard have any offensive possiblity at this time:

- My Missile Tacts fire and miss, plasma Cannon overheats, I re-roll (Tactical Doctrine), I over heat again... I roll a 2 for an armour save! That causes a break check on my squad.... when it rains, it pours. lol

- I have nothing left but decide to push the Vanguard squad forward into certain death -just in case- he fails to kill them, I see a 5 man immortal squad I can hit and then get 'Line Breaker'. PLUS if he stays to kill me with Barges I know he can't get line breaker.... a Guilliman play if I ever saw one... of course the Vanguard have to live... yea right.

+ Remember that time? That time when I said the Vanguard have to live? .... +

- As seen above, the 2 Barges and the Croissant open up on the Vanguard. He causes 3 wounds from each barge, but get this.... for each barge I would roll snake eyes, killing the squad. At this point my opponent says he even can't believe how badly I'm rolling.

- The Chaplain is finally gunned down by third Annihilation barge. (I couldn't touch those things all game with quantum shielding and Wraith bubble wrap.)

- We roll for end of game... it is over! Adding up points I manage a narrow win with a score of 10-8 in favour of Ultra's.

End / Post Game:

Things of note:

- My opponent is well versed with his army. I learned a few key things. I should not have taken first turn. My reserves were horrible even with re-rolls (Tiggy), but that's no excuse.

- The number one blunder I had was putting the Grav Devs and LibCon too close to the action. I know better, but I took too much risk to secure a map position I never even needed.

- Psychic phase. I know I never rolled Invis (three games in a row) but I should have taken it if I did. This was friendly but no holds barred. That cron list is absolutely nasty.Force was huge, and I failed so badly at remembering my powers. It was only in turn 5 I would have used my best power in close combat on Tiggy, and it killed him instead... literally.

- Vanguard did zippo. Absolutely zippo. Necrons don't care if you hit them with a fist, or a brick to the forehead... it's all 3++. That felt like a lot of points for very little RoI. I'm glad I didn't take out Raven Guard for this one... poor matchup.

- I won't hold back on list building next time. I should have went full battle Co, but in fairness I wanted to test myself. As usual with marines I never feel like my wins are... decisive. It is nearly always a game of hit and fade, with my greatest victories always by a hair.

- I do not know if it is conveyed in my garbled write up, but this was an extremely close game, and my opponent was a ton of fun, and a great sportsman to play against. This proves my point you can be a competitive player and still be and have a lot of fun.

Thank you for reading.

[Flint13]

Amazing write up, as always ^_^

 

You're timing couldn't have better better, either. I'm facing a similar Wraith-tide list (15 instead of 18 at least) this weekend with my new Solar Auxilia. I appreciate the first hand combat experience!

[Prot]

Thanks. My problem was I couldn't put a good deal of wounds on him so he was just rolling 2-3 dive at a time which won't cut it. The only thing I had going was force since he only other thing is S10 that would insta gib. Which I did manage to get through 9 of th wraiths. I ignored the flyers.

 

If you are playing against less wraiths your opponent might be taking canoptek harvests which is less effective. Always go after the spider first to kill the formation.

[Flint13]

Ah strength 10 you say... Think three demolisher cannons bubble wrapped with fearless cultists would help? :D

[derLumpi]

Nice batrep as always. :)

Never played against Necrons I think you did as good as it was possible. Tiggy killing himself - pretty bad :(

[markham82]

Sounds like a great victory for us. Guillimans teaching shines trough again, we win even when we get slaughtered and overrun.

 

I agree with being competitively fun. My gaming group regularly have things like eldar titans, but almost everyones fun guys.

[Prot]

Thanks for the kind words but it was a wholesale slaughter. 

 

It was in turn three.... I saw there was a breach in the Titanic. I knew it was going down, the question was how fast and would it be a glorious death? lol

 

My opponent said the number one factor is he hadn't seen anyone roll that bad in a long time. Someone a table over yelled, 'Yea he hasn't rolled like that in at least a week.' Which got a laugh. I think 3 times I picked up 3 dice and rolled snake eyes out of them in very important circumstances.

 

I never got angry but in turn 4 I did say after my opponent mentioned it that typically I don't mind that kind of result because 'math' kicks in at some time during the game. It did not. :)

 

But my pod deployment was my second error. This is a tested tournament list he's played for a long time. I should have known he'd smash into me easily and losing my Dev squad so stupidly is what really crushed me. There's just no room for error in a tight game like that.