Space Wolves vs Necrons 1000 pts Battle Report (SW Victory)

[Kasper_Hawser]

Battle Report 23/12/2017

Overview: This is my first battle against the Necrons in 8^th Edition. I was very nervous as the last time I faced Necrons was in 7^th during their infamous Decurion days, but I finally felt ready and mature enough to handle whatever happens and treat it as a necessary learning curve. My game plan was fairly simple: focus fire and kill off troops before marching forward, as I thought from experience that if I try to grind them down in combat, they will outlast me unless I’m absolutely outnumber him in combat. For this game, we both utilized new points cost for Chapter Approved, but I declined to use the new Wolf Strategems and relic as wasn't really fitting my list. For my opponent, he would be using the new strategem and relic which allows him to reroll Reanimation again, and also teleport him to wherever he wants to be.

Space Wolves Army List:

Battalion Detachment:

1^st battalion:

Wolf Lord on bike with Thunderhammer and master crafted boltgun

Rune Priest on Bike with Runic Sword (storm caller)

5 Blood Claws with power axe

5 Blood Claws with power fist

6 Grey Hunters (including Wolf Guard Pack Leader with combi Plasma), 1 plasma gun

Razorback with Twin Assault Cannon

Predator with Autocannon and Heavy Bolters

Venerable Dreadnought with Assault cannon and Wolf Claw

Total CP: 3 + 3 = 6 CP

Necrons

Battalion Detachment:

1 Necron Overlord with Voidblade and Veil of Darkness relic

1 Cryptek with Staff of Light

10 Warriors

12 Warriors

10 Immortals with Gauss Blaster

Ghost Ark

Triarch Stalker

Total CP: 3+3 = 6 CP

Mission type : Retrieval with 4 objectives

Deployment type: The one along long table edges

Game plan: Let him come to me and whittle down his large blob of infantry, as I wasn’t confident that I could beat him in combat with very few power weapons and close combat characters. Until at least one of the infantry blobs were dealt with, I was staying in my base.

Deployment : 4 Objectives, one on his side, two at the middle on the longer table edges, and one near my deployment zone. Objectives are those round badges.

Turn 1: Necrons

Movement : His warriors began their (somewhat) inexorable march forward. Most of his Immortal line went to my right flank to destroy the Dreadnought hiding in ruins. Triarch Stalker also moved to get a shot at the Dreadnought. His Ghost ark moved forward to begin shooting my line.

Psychic phase : None

Shooting Phase : Quite damaging, the Dreadnought was nearly killed by combined shooting of the immortals and the Triarch Stalker but lived to shoot another turn. The Ghost Ark took some shots at the Razorback but only landed 1 wound.

Assault phase : no assault happened.

Turn 1: Space Wolves

Movement : Predator moved out to start killing his warriors, while wolf Lord moved to boost shooting. Razorback and Rhino stayed put for now.

Psychic phase : Casted Stormcaller to boost survivability a little. Smited a couple of wounds off the Ghost ark too.

Shooting phase : Shot as much as I could at the Necron warrior blob, nearly killed off the lot about 8 out of 12. Sadly he later resurrected at least half of them. Damn the Ghost ark. Dreadnought took some potshots at the Immortals but not enough went down.

Assault : No assault yet.

Turn 2: Necrons

Movement : Ghost Ark disembarked 10 warriors in front of Razorback. It then moved closer to the middle near the other gang of warriors and immortals marching to other side on to objective and to finish off dreadnought. Triarch moved to aim its cannon down the middle towards the Razorback. But it would mostly sit at same place to camp on objective.

Shooting phase : Immortals finished off the Dreadnought. Triarch stalker nearly killed the Rhino which it could see in a tiny gap but thankfully didn’t kill it completely. The warriors and ghost ark then attempted to kill the Razorback but thanks to Stormcaller, the shooting was mostly ineffectual

Assault phase : None

Turn 2: Space Wolves

Movement : Two blood claws squads came out of the Rhino, prepared to assault either the Ghost Ark or the Warrior squad. I wasn’t quite confident on killing off the warriors with just my shooting and smite, but wanted to back both up.

Psychic phase : Didn’t get the stormcaller off but smited a couple of warriors.

Shooting Phase : In the end, thanks to my Wolf Lord, my Twin Assault Cannon performed beautifully. It alone nearly killed off the 10 man warrior squad which was then finished off by the blood claws pistols. This left my Predator free to fire at the Ghost Ark. Unfortunately it was then I learned how Quantum shielding worked against multi damage weapons. Ironically despite deflecting most of my 3 damage shots, it was my heavy bolters that took down the Ghost Ark to its second wound bracket. All in all very good shooting but it did mean my two blood claws were out in the open, when I had meant for them to charge the warriors, but didn’t expect the shooting to be so good that the entire warrior squad was wiped out.

Assault Phase : with little choice, the Blood claws charged the Ghost Ark. There was no hope of pinning it down due to its “Fly” keyword, but hopefully I could further damage it to prevent it from healing itself back to full capability. Sadly only got a wound off with the power fist but better than nothing.

Turn 3: Necrons

Movement : Ghost Ark floated away from the Blood Claw combat to block the nearest gap to an objective. Remaining warrior blob and Immortals started to bubblewrap the objective nearerst them behind terrain.

Shooting Phase : Shooting from the Ghost Ark, warriors and immortals managed to kill just one of the blood claws squad. Triarch tried to shoot predator but was unable to damage it.

Assault phase : None

Turn 3: Space Wolves

Movement : Grey Hunters with plasma and combi plasma moved out of razorback to start shooting. The surviving blood claw gang moved quickly into the razorback as I wasn’t quite convinced I could move near enough to charge the warriors.

Psychic phase : Dismal casting, nothing went off.

Shooting phase : Due to the ghost ark blocking LOS to the warriors, my Predator and Razorback could only shoot at the ghost Ark. Sadly the Ark proved its resilience to the autocannon again, but still a few wounds were taken. Grey Hunters were a bit more successful, bringing down half of the warriors thanks to Wolf Lord buffing their

Assault : Grey Hunters assault the Ghost Ark but couldn’t make a dent in it.

Turn 4: Necrons

Movement : Ghost Ark moved away and gave a clear line of sight for the warriors and immortals to aim at the Grey hunters.

Shooting phase : not much happened apart from the Grey Hunters being killed. The Triarch Stalker proved quite unlucky in blowing up either the Predator or Razorback.

Turn 4: Space wolves

Movement : By this time I realised to my horror I was on Turn 4 and could only reliably get one objective with a troop choice via the blood claws. I had my two HQs on bikes, but he also had the relic that can teleport him and one other unit, potentially a troop squad, to one of the other objectives to camp on, with the immortals and remaining troops still camping on the other. So I frantically deployed my blood claw gang to the objective while my Wolf Lord and Rune Priest zoomed to deal with the Warriors and immortals. The Razorback also move forward to reach for objective.

Psychic phase : Can’t remember but may have smited the warriors a bit.

Shooting : Quite fruitful, managed to kill his warriors and much of his immortals between the Predator and the Razorback despite the razorback moving.

Assault phase : The Rune Priest made the charge but Wolf Lord didn’t into the immortals. The old guy made a good fight but couldn’t kill the immortals completely.

Turn 5: Necrons

Movement : Using the Veil of Darknesss Relic, the Lord and the Cryptek teleported all the way to the other side of the table to grab an objective there. His immortals continued the combat and his Ghost Ark moved forward to take potshots at the Blood Claws holding my objective.

Shooting phase : Ghost Ark shot some of the blood claws, killed one I think. Triarch Stalker continued to whiff at the Predator.

Assault phase: Immortals couldn’t wound my rune priest, but the rune priest only killed one. This time though there was no Crytek to help with reanimation protocols. Ghost Ark charged the Rune Priest too but didn’t do anything.

Turn 5: Space Wolves

Movement : Razorback frantically tried to advance to the objective with the immortals but it wouldn’t be near enough. Moved forward a bit to shoot the Triarch Stalker. Wolf Lord moved towards the immortals but in a way that was not near the Ghost Ark so that if I killed the Immortals, the Wolf Lord wouldn’t be considered locked with the Wolf Lord.

Psychic phase : Smited the Immortals a bit.

Shooting Phase : Predator did very badly against the Triarch Stalker.

Assault Phase : Wolf Lord made it to assault. But sadly between the Rune priest and the Lord, they failed to kill off the Immortals, meaning if the game ended, he would have controlled two objectives to my one, never mind that I had first blood.

However, the game continued to Turn 6!!!

Turn 6: Necrons

Movement : Well there wasn’t much he could do except hold on to the objective with his Ghost Ark and Immortals. A couple of them came back in this turn.

Shooting Phase : Triarch Stalker whiffed yet again this time against either the Blood Claws or the Razorback.

Assault Phase : Thankfully, the Rune Priest and the Wolf Lord managed to kill off all the immortals, leaving both Lord and RP near objective. Lord was free to move, but RP remained locked with the Ghost Ark.

Turn 6 Space Wolves

Movement : Predator rushed forward to cover the last 3 Blood Claws holding on to the objective and block them from the Cryptek’s staff of Light, just in case the game extended to Turn 7. The Wolf Lord raced towards the Triarch Stalker in an attempt to contest the last objective and possibly get line breaker. Razorback advanced to sit on the objective with the Rune Priest.

Psychic phase : Tried to smite the Ghost Ark but failed test.

Shooting Phase : Nothing much beyond bolt pistol to Ghost ark, and the Lord’s twin bolter at the Triarch Stalker. Neither did much.

Assault phase : Wolf Lord charged at the Triarch Stalker. I intended to try get the objective on the Triarch’s side, but sadly, the footprint of the Triarch was HUGE and I couldn’t get my charge high enough to get close enough. Nevertheless, I now had two objectives at this point, which combined with my earlier First Blood, would enable me to win. In the meantime, I smacked the Triarch Stalker with 3 Hammer shots, but once again, his Quantum Shielding saved his stalker from all but one of my hammer hits. Damn, it was more annoying than powerful.

We roll if the game ends, and thankfully, it ends on Turn 6. VICTORY FOR THE SPACE WOLVES!

Game Analysis

During 7^th Edition, I felt that Necrons were blatantly indestructible, with their effectively 4+ FNP rerollable 1s, and AV13 shields. This round, I felt they were much more manageable, still tough as nails with annoying get up ability, but at least it happens in the following turn instead of effectively shrugging off lascannon and plasma shots. The Ghost arks I realised was surprisingly not tough at T6 meaning I should have pointed my 1 damage weapons like Assault cannon and heavy bolters at it for a better chance of whittling it down instead of the Autocannon.

To be honest, I think I should have lost as I hadn’t realised how close it was to Turn 5 and didn’t push out with my troops and bike HQs until it was almost too late. Thankfully it went to Turn 6 and also thankfully I had first blood.

All in all, I’m happy to say the despite being only a 1000 point game, I like the new Necrons and think they are more manageable. I still have nightmares facing the Wraiths, but from what I hear, they’re not as killy as before although still just as tough. And if I face Wraiths in bigger games, I’ll most certainly be bringing my Wulfen.

Hope you enjoy the battle report. Comments, feedback and advice on improving gameplay is greatly appreciated.

Edited January 7, 2018 by Kasper_Hawser

[Berzul]

Great report!! I like the play by play description of the turns, made it great to follow the action along.

 

I agree with your summary. Necrons can be deceiving in terms of durability. I had a battle against necrons in a Cities of Death mission a week ago, and I quickly realized you have two types of vehicles to face off against. Either they are T7+ without quantum shielding, or T6- with quantum shielding. I would not think of bringing lascannons or melta weapons against necrons, but rather, Assault Cannons, Autocannons, Heavy Bolters, Plasma and Frag Missile Launchers. Nothing that hurts at a D3 or higher, if possible.

 

Also, focus fire, So much focus fire. Pretty much you have to aim at wiping out one squad per turn, minimum. If you choose a target, you need to damn well make sure it goes away before the turn ends.

[Kasper_Hawser]

Great report!! I like the play by play description of the turns, made it great to follow the action along.

 

I agree with your summary. Necrons can be deceiving in terms of durability. I had a battle against necrons in a Cities of Death mission a week ago, and I quickly realized you have two types of vehicles to face off against. Either they are T7+ without quantum shielding, or T6- with quantum shielding. I would not think of bringing lascannons or melta weapons against necrons, but rather, Assault Cannons, Autocannons, Heavy Bolters, Plasma and Frag Missile Launchers. Nothing that hurts at a D3 or higher, if possible.

 

Also, focus fire, So much focus fire. Pretty much you have to aim at wiping out one squad per turn, minimum. If you choose a target, you need to damn well make sure it goes away before the turn ends.

 

Thanks mate. Yeah weird, best focus the multi wound weapons on the heavy infantry like Wraiths, Destroyers and Characters when available, while saving the medium arms for the T6 & T7 stuff. Or use the missile's frag mode instead on vehicles.

 

And focus fire. Twin Assault Cannon for the win. Next time make sure I got lieutenant/battle leader for wound reroll.