Quick Battle Report - "Victory or death" (DA vs Necrons)

[Berzul]

(No pictures on this report, saddly)

 

Last night I faced a Necron opponent on a 1000 point game. We were playing on a terrain heavy ruinous city, on a custom scenario ─part of a narrative campaign I am running in my country (if anyone cares to check it out, it is in spanish, but I can share the .pdf to it if you want).

 

The scenario saw us having to hold objectives across the board. Each one granting a victory point at the end of the turn, to the holder. But, with 2 out of the 6 objectives exploding into D6 S4 AP0 D1 blasts at the beginning of each turn, as well.

 

My opponent ran an army led by a Catacumb Barge and a Cryptek, with 20 Warriors, 2 squads of 5 Immortals, a unit of 3 Tomb Blades, a unit of 6 Scarabs, and a unit of 3 Wraiths.

 

My army was a Ravenwing hunting party, consisting of a Ravenwing Talonmaster with the Heavenfall Blade, leading 6 Ravenwing Black Knights, 5 Ravenwing Bikers with Grav Guns and an Attack Bike with a Heavy Bolter, a Ravenwing Darkshroud with a Heavy Bolter, and a Ravenwing Dark Talon.

 

Deployment was on the short ends of the board, and I got to deploy second. My opponent placed the Warriors and Cryptek in a building up front, both squads of Immortals outside of LoS and over objectives, one on each side of his area, the Wraiths next to one, the Tomb Blades next to the other, with the Scarabs in reserve and the Barge in the middle.

 

My army was deployed with the Bikers in the middle out of LoS and behind a building. The Black Knights on a street to the side, the Shroud behind them, the Talonmaster in the middle, and the Dark Talon in the far back. All of them still as a tight formation.

 

Turn one went to me.

 

I quickly rode up through a street on the left side of the board, placing the Black Knights at 18 inches from the Warriors, with the bikers and the Dark Talon behind at 24 inches. The Talonmaster and Shroud advanced to get into synergy positions. I fired everything, and killed only 5 warriors. It was  horrible.

Then, the Wraiths phased thorugh the terrain, advancing 18 inches, down the same side of the board as my army, with the Tomb Blades moving down the opposite side. Through a Stratagem I didn't know, the Wraiths charged in after advancing, and shredded my Black Knights, with the Barge negating overwatch through its Relic Staff. The combat left the Wraiths tied to my bikes as well, so I started the next turn with the knights gone, the bikes locked in combat, and the enemy advancing fast, with control of 4 out of 6 objectives.

 

Turn two I pulled back, using intractable to fire still. I did realize though, that it would take me too long to clear a path to the objectives, in order to regain momentum of the game. The Wraiths had managed to block any chances of outscoring my opponent on turn 1, and now I only had one way to victory: The complete destruction of the Necron force...

 

Turn two I fired everything at the Wraiths. Their 3++ save allowed them to die just barely by the hailstorm of bolter fire.

 

Then the Barge moved up, and landed 3 wounds on my attack bike, while the Cryptek teleported the Warriors out of the building and to my right side. The scarabs took their place over the objective the Warriors left behind. I countered with another focused round of fire against the barge, and managed to kill it as well, in Turn Three.

 

My opponent closed in on the right side with his warriors, as well as his tomb blades, but kept the immortals and scarabs back. So, his fire power was limited, and it allowed me to focus clearly on one target at a time. After losing just the last wound on the attack bike, I pressed on.

 

My bikes positioned in front of the Warriors, with the Shroud and Talonmaster behind them. The Dark Talon did a bombing run above the Warriors, and with the combined power of the bolters and assault cannons, the entire unit was done. I even had a chance to land some hits of the Dark Talons main gun on the Cryptek, killing it quickly, before having it resurrect on the spot.

 

After that, my opponent started to panic. He moved the scarabs up to engage my bikes, but I managed to outmaneuver them, and took my bikes down the center of the board to hunt down one side of the immortals, while the Dark Talon went for the other and the shroud dispatched some of the Tomb Blades Though, bad rolls all around left each squad of immortals with 1 model. You can see where that is going...

 

My opponent's fifth turn began, and he ressurected all the immortals, then ran his Cryptek close to a building. The scarabs got to my bikes and engaged them, and even though most of them died in close combat, they still took one turn of shooting from me, as I had no CP left at this point.

 

This was the end of turn 5, and had it ended there, I would have lost, but the dice rolled a 5 and we pressed on.

 

My Dark Talon repositioned between both Immortal squads, and took one out entirely, while the other survived. The Bikes dispached the Scarabs, and the speeders took the final tomb blade.

At the bottom of turn 6, my opponent tried to shoot down my Dark Talon to no effect, and managed to hide the Cryptek in a nearby ruin.

 

Having started with my Black Knights wiped out and my army pressed against a corner, I had managed to come back into the fight with only 4 wounds taken, and all but 4 immortals and the Cryptek of my enemy gone from the board. All I needed was one turn to turn the entire battle around, and finish my hunt.

 

Saddly, the die rolled a 1, at the end of turn 6, and the battle was done... My enemy has accrued about 20 points through the course of the game, and had managed to survive with 5 models on the table.

 

Still... great game. Great freaking game...

[sneakybamsen]

Quite the comeback, Berzul, well done not caving in to the Xenos after such a horrible start.

[Hantheman]

Great report. I love Ravenwing. The mobility is so much fun to play with. You have to make so many more decisions because there are more options.

[Brother Abbot]

Hey Berzul! I'd love to read the campaign, if could share it with me!

[MaxB]

Nice report! Sounds like a fun game.

 

I often loose my Black Knights early (people are scared of them or I rush them up too quick), but similar to you I have found that if you can hang around the mobility and firepower of the Ravenwing can keep you in the game.

[Berzul]

Hey Berzul! I'd love to read the campaign, if could share it with me!

 

It is in spanish. Haven't had the time to translate it yet, but sure. Its a .pdf in google drive. You can find it following this link. Not sure if posting the link goes against forum rules? If it is against the rules, I am sorry in advance and will immediately take it down, and send you the link direct instead

[Berzul]

Thanks for the comments, guys. I'm happy it was a fun read.

 

The game itself was quite exciting. When I got crushed by the Wraiths turn one, and saw the state of the board, I had to pause for like 2 full minutes. I even told my opponent I might had to concede, because there was just NO way I could outscore him. That much was clear, even at turn 1. But, after evaluating my options for a moment, I decided to press on, and as you can read, I almost managed to win it despite the horrible start.

 

It was a lot of fun. Specially how my opponent started out so confident after his first turn. The way he started to become anxious as I took out his units one at a time, almost without a scratch on me... it was incredible. An amazing game.

 

We had a blast.

[Berzul]

By the way, I did find 2 pictures of the game. Not much, but its something.

One was of my army, that I sent my opponent before the match to explain the list:

 

Hidden Content

 

Also, I did have to use my RW Command Squad to fill up the 6 black knights, as I didn't have 6 at hand for a regular squad.

 

And the other was a picture of the battle field, I sent him to agree on its distribution of ruins. I was deployed behind the manufactorum, on the right side of the street, with my black knights to the left of the bikes, on the open street. Darkshroud behind the black knights, talon master behind the bikes, past the second building. Dark talon behind the talon master, almost at the edge of the map.

 

The necrons had 5 inmortals inside the Shrine of the Aquila to the farmost left side of the picture, 5 more on the opposite side in the small ruined building. Tomb Blades next to thoise, wraiths in the shrine of the aquila with the first imortals. Warriors up the central building, next to the Shrine of the Aquila.

Hidden Content

[Brother Abbot]

The campaign and the documentation is AMAZING!!! As I am reading through it,  I wish Chile was closer!!

 

Please keep  updating the progress, I am really intrigued how it develops.

[Kasper_Hawser]

Well done dude. guess it's a good learning game about the Necrons. Haven't faced them with their new codex, but target priority is usually the same:

 

1) Wraiths or other fast stuff like those funny robot floating bikes ... TOMB blades, yes that's their called.

2) Ghost Arks

3) anyone who can resurrect or improve RP.

 

After that, everything can be dealt with much easier. Of course they still will have RP regardless, and warriors and immortals are no slouches but still better to deal with the buff monsters or those that can tie your shooting units like Wraiths  which are insanely hard to kill.

 

Also regarding wraiths, be aware that there is a strategem that can give them RP which they usually don't come with. It's expensive at 2CP, but will much up your efforts to kill them if he rolls high.

 

Adios.

[Berzul]

Kasper_Hawser, thanks! Yeah, it was quite the learning experience. All prior Necron battles I has had, had been against Index armies. Stratagems made a huge difference.

 

Brother Abbot, wow, thanks!! I'm glad you have enjoyed reading it. Let me know when you are done. Didn't know for sure if the lenguage would be a problem.

 

This is my third campaign here in Chile.

 

They work on an online format, much similar to Fate of Konor when 8th was released (in fact, the campaigns started after a local store that was running events for FoK had to cancel the support for the campaign halfway through due to unforseen company issues).

 

I just write the story, plan the scenarios, run the plot and subplots, and motivate players. Then I get the reports and track the progress of the campaign to conpletion.

 

This is probably the one I've done most work for, though.

 

I have plans on making a complementary document that instructs on what my process for running it has been, so anyone can pick it up and run it locally... then translate it to english and maybe publish it online in some way. Might even see if GW would be willing to take a look. They HAVE been more open to talk with their players, so maybe I can manage to get them to atleast receive a copy. Who knows.

 

Would be cool to know they read it.

 

In any case, yes, I'll send you the updates as the chapters of the campaign progress. And please, please, PLEASE feel free to give any feedback.

 

I am quite un-knowledgeable in many things, specially in terms of the general game's lore, so I am always looking for input on these kind of things, to correct them and improve.

 

Be it lore, setting, plot, rules, scenarios... heck, even prose and writting style, aesthetics and theme, all that!!

[Kasper_Hawser]

Ah don't worry about your Dark Angel lore. Your records are always misleading even to your own chapter command as they constantly filter knowledge of the hidden Fallen TRAITORS WHO HAVE NO CONNECTION TO THE DARK ANGELS. 

 

LOL sorry. Wish I could read spanish, the structure of the campaign look s awesome, I wonder how you manage to do all the nice pictures inside. right now I', just admiring all the pretty pictures.

 

Nevertheless, anytime someone dares raise up the Dark Angel being closet traitors Meme, send them to the Fang. I'll feed them balls first to a Thunderwolf.

[Berzul]

Hahahaha!! Thanks!! I'll be sending them your way, should it come to that.

As for the campaign, since the lenguage is a barrier, ill sum it up here. I AM planning a translation later on, though.

The plot is that at the north of the Charadon Sector, on the edge of Sautekh space and near the Rift Corridor, is a system called Bergorod.

Bergorod has two worlds. A Cementwry world called Braebor, and a Hive Planet called Krazniv.

During the year 44.M42, the Death Guard sieged Krazniv and released a deadly plague on its inhabitants. The Inquisition, by way of the Ordo Sepulturum, sent an Inquisitor at the command of a Fleet to defeat the Death Guard (which they did) and to purge Krazniv (which they also did).

After 50 years of orbital bombardment, the planet is a flaming ruin, and the system is abandoned. The corpses of Krazniv entombed in Braebor, in ginat communal graves, that were later sealed off by the Inquisition.

A few years after that, an Eldar ship of an unknown Craftworld landed on Braebor to scavange something from the tombs. The Inquisitor returned to deal with the Eldar, and at the end of the battle both her ship and the Eldar main ship, crashed in Krazniv.

Presumed dead, 10 years passed, before a rescue signal dating back those 10 years was received. Some forces were scrambled for a recon and salvage op on Krazniv, figuring the ship was still operational although mostly wrecked.

A small Ultramarine contingent that was near the system was tasked with aiding an Ad Mech recon force that landed on Krazniv. These armies quickly found themselves pitted against a rather large Necron force, as well as heavy Eldar opposition, both in their own right allied with other Xenos forces. The Necrons had recruited the aid of the T'au, and the Eldar had managed to unleash a Tyranid force onto the planet to serve as a forward force to erradicate all life on the ruinous hive world.

 

Also, the armies present found that both the Eldar Autarch and the Inquisitor had survived their battle and been hunting each other for 10 years in the planet. Whichever knowledge the Eldar had found in Braebor they had now brought with them to KRazniv, and the Inquisition would not suffer that lightly.

Through a series of battles, the Imperium was defeated. The Necrons then captured the Eldar Autarch for questioning, as the world of Braebor had once been a Tomb World and Necropolis of the Sautekh, and this xenos foe seemed to have found a secret from Braebor precious to them. The inquisitor, on her part, was saved by a group of Grey Knights that had landed on Krazniv even before anyone else had come, and had dedicated themselves to aiding the Inquisiton, as they feared that the Eldar's findings were actually tied to the Chaos Gods, the end of the Plague Wars, and (they feared) the return of the plague that had one forced the Imperium to destroy the system itself.

 

Now armies all over have come to aid and reinforce the original armies that landed on Krazniv. New alliances have been formed, and the Death Guard itself has returned to the system, sensing the opportunity the Eldar have provided to release the doom of this planet once again.

 

 

****

 

 

This campaign has a series of custom scenarios, subplots for specific factions, and the plot itself has been formed and has progressed as the players have joined and fought over the course of the days. We had a small tournament to act as prelude to the battle, and we are now entering the final weekend of the first out of four chapters. In the prelude the events I have just described took place, from the arrival of the Imperium to find the downed ship, to the victory of the Necrons and the capture of the Eldar Autarch.

 

Now on the first chapter, reinforces have come from all over the fight over the system. The next chapter might even see the first new outbreaks of the doom of Krazniv, as well as a more direct confrontration between the Eldar and the Necrons.

 

In total there are 54 players, spread over 4 cities here in Chile, and the whole thing is played remotely. PLayers have access to the custom scenarios and rules, the lore and player roster. We have a fb group to organize PLayers coordinate, battle, and then report back to me the results, and the plot moves forward.

[Berzul]

The campaign and the documentation is AMAZING!!! As I am reading through it,  I wish Chile was closer!!

 

Please keep  updating the progress, I am really intrigued how it develops.

 

Brother!

 

Since you asked, I come with updates on the campaign.

 

First chapter closed with the Imperium armies getting into the ruins of the oldest part of the Hive World, as the Eldar and T'au Alliance gained almost total control of the Space Ports, now controlling the traffic around the planet (and perhaps, ensuring that noone can escape but them, when the time comes).

 

Now, inside the new areas the Imperium has gained control over, rest a strain of an old virus created by Nurgle and given to the Death Guard to siege the planet almost a century ago. The sickness has latched on to the human warriors, unbeknownst to them. For the following week, armies shall show no sign of the sickness, and anyone who fights them and looses shall catch it on as well.

 

But, once the week is done, the sickness will begin to manifest symptoms. Giving them unexpected resiliance to damage at first, and showing itself as a boon to all but the Grey Knights, who know of the true demonic nature of the condition. Then, on the third chapter of the campaign, the sickness shall show its true face, and start consuming the armies afflicted.

 

It will be an interesing turn of events, and Im looking forward to see how this "contagion" works out mechanically inside the campaign. I hope atleast some of the 50 players I have can actually see the hints in the Campaign document to figure it out.

 

Also, i had a battle yesterday as part of the campaign. I posted a narrative battle report here. A battle against tyranids in one of the urban districts of the hive world, and a match that I had long awaited against an opponent that, to this day, has given me the most total and absolute defeat I have ever have had to endure.

[Brother Abbot]

I really like where this is heading, weon!

 

I have to catch up with the other narrative you uploaded (the one with the nids). 

 

Though a little late to read them, I really enjoy them! Once agrain, contrats for the great work!

[Berzul]

Gracias, weon!

Hahahaha!! I am glad its a fun read. I did have a third battle in the campaign against some Death Guard, but I'm not sure about posting a narrative report on it. Feels like I might be posting too many in too short a time span.

 

In any case, next monday we go into the third chapter (there are four in total), which is where the decease (which has been spreading slowly but surely so far) will begin to wreak havoc across the planet.

[Indefragable]

As a (newer) Necron player, I am wracking my brain to figure out how a Cryptek teleported a unit across the board.

[Berzul]

As a (newer) Necron player, I am wracking my brain to figure out how a Cryptek teleported a unit across the board.

 

With a relic that allows him to pick a unit and himself and re-deploy as per deep strike rules, somewhere else on the board, once the battle has started. It is quite a powerful relic

[Berzul]

I really like where this is heading, weon!

 

I have to catch up with the other narrative you uploaded (the one with the nids). 

 

Though a little late to read them, I really enjoy them! Once agrain, contrats for the great work!

 

Btw, now I have a rule coming up that will be quite interesting.

 

For what is left of th week, armies that have been exposed to the plague will start showing unnatural vitality, in the form of an ary wide FnP rule of 6+

But, from next week on, a ne w rule will take place.

 

Each time a unit with the plague is wounded, or a unit is wounded by another with the plague, the players will have to add a mark to said unit. Each turn players roll 2D6 for each unit in their army, adding +1 for each marker they have. Then consult a table.

 

1 - 8 : no effect

9 - 11 : the unit suffers D3 automatic S3 AP-4 D1 automatic hits

12 - 14 : the unit suffers D6 S3 AP-4 D1 automatic hits

15 - 16 : the unit suffers 2D6 S3 AP-4 D1 automatic hits

17+ : the unit suffers D3+1 mortal wounds