Syward's Deathwatch Battle Reports

[Syward]

As promised, here's my battle report for my 1st game using Deathwatch and my spectacular loss! LOL.

 

Deathwatch vs. Necrons

Game Type: Matched: 1000 points.

Mission: Secure & Control

Battlefield size: 5’x3’ (Dining room table)

Game Date: Nov 25, 2018

 

Deathwatch Army

Primaris Watch Captain w/Power Sword, Master Crafted Auto-Bolt Rifle & Bolt Pistol w/Lord of Hidden Knowledge & Tome of the Ectoclades (Warlord)

Primaris Librarian w/Force Sword & Bolt Pistol & The Beacon Angelis Powers: Psychic Scourge & Null Zone

2x 10 man Kill Teams (KT 1 & KT 2)

• 1x Intercessor Sgt w/Bolt Rifle, Bolt Pistol & Chain Sword
• 4x Intercessor w/Bolt Rifle & Bolt Pistol
• 4x Hellblasters w/Plasma Incenerator
• 1x Inceptor w/2x Plasma Exterminator

2x 5 man Kill Teams (KT 3 & KT 4)

• 1x Intercessor Sgt w/Auto-Bolt Rifle, Bolt Pistol & Chain Sword
• 4x Intercessor w/Auto-Bolt Rifle & Bolt Pistol

 

Necron Army

Dynasty: Mephrit (Increases AP by 1 when shooting within half weapon range)

Overlord w/Veil of Darkness, Voidscythe & Eternal Madness (Warlord)

Cryptek w/Staff of Light & Canoptek Cloak

Lord w/Voidreaper & Resurrection Orb

 

1x 5 man Imortals w/Gauss Blaster

2x 12 man Necron Warriors (NW 1 & NW 2)

3 Canoptek Wraiths w/Transdimensional Beamer

3x Tomb Blades w/Nebuloscope, Shieldvanes & Gauss Blasters

 

Deathwatch wins roll for first turn.

 

Turn # 1

DW: 8” Advance Librarian & KT 3 & 4 towards objectives 1 & 5 (Librarian behind KT # 3). Failed psychic test for Null Zone, Watch Captain & KT 1 & 2 in reserve. No objectives claimed. Not in range to shoot.

N: Warlord Viel of Darkness to teleport in DW deployment zone 9” behind librarian w/Immortals. Moved remaining units towards objectives. Tomb Blades captured objective # 4. Wraith captured objective # 2. Immortals shot librarian reduced to 2 wounds. Tomb blades shot at KT 4 and inflicted 1 wound.

 

Turn # 2

DW: Moved Librarian and KT 3 to capture objective # 1. Moved KT 4 to capture objective # 5. Brought Watch Captain & KT 1 in from reserves on objective # 3. Successful Psychic Scourge cast and killed 1 immortal. Failed psychic test for Smite. KT 1 eliminated Tomb blades. KT 3 & KT 4 eliminated remaining immortals in shooting phase.

N: Moved Overlord towards objective # 1. Moved remaining units forward towards objective 6. Moved Wraiths away from objective # 2 behind librarian & killed librarian during shooting phase. Both NW 1 & 2 shot at KT 1 from rapid fire range and killed 5 intercessors & 2 hellblasters using stratagem Solar Pulse (removes cover benefit) – failed moral test & unit removed from game. Wraiths charged KT 3 and killed 2 intercessors. KT 3 killed 1 wraith in fight phase.

 

Turn # 3

DW: KT fell back from Wraiths losing objective # 1. Brought KT 2 in from reserves behind Overlord. KT 2 shot plasma at Overlord reducing to 2 wounds & shot bolter rounds at Wraiths. KT 4 shot at wraiths reducing 1 to 1 wound.

N: Used Stratagem Repair subroutines to use reanimation protocol on Wraiths. DW used stratagem Overkill – reanimation protocol was successful and restored 1 wraith to unit. Overlord used living metal & gained a wound. Wraiths moved towards KT 2. NW 1 & 2, Lord & Cryptek moved forward towards DW deployment zone capturing objective # 6. Wraiths shot remaining intercessors from KT 3 and killed unit. Warriors shot at Watch Captain. Lord charged Watch Captain and killed during first part of fight phase & capturing objective # 3. Wraiths & Overlord charged KT 2. KT 2 killed 1 wraith firing overwatch & killed Overlord firing overwatch. Used stratagem resurrection protocols & Overlord came back w/1 wound at end of charge phase. Wraith killed 2 intercessors.

 

Turn # 4

DW: KT 2 fell back away from wraiths and shot at wraiths. Killed both remaining wraiths in shooting phase. KT 4 team shot and killed Overlord KT 4 kill team charged lord, lost 3 intercessors in fight phase against the lord.

N: Moved NW 1 & 2 forward and shot at KT 2 killing all but 5 Intercessors & 1 Hellblaster. Lord killed 1 intercessor from KT 4 in fight phase.

 

Turn # 5

DW: KT 2 overcharged plasma shooting at NW 1 squad, killed 2 hellblasters to failed overcharge hit rolls.

N: Moved both NW 1 & 2 squads forward into rapid fire range of KT 2 – NW 1 & 2 killed eliminated KT 2 during shooting phase. Lord killed remaining single intercessor from KT 4 winning the game.

 

Total Victory Points: [DW:  14pts / N: 16pts] (VP from capturing objectives & completing Tactical Objective cards)

 

 

 

I know I made several mistakes during the battle, I think my biggest mistakes were underestimating how dangerous Necron Warriors can be in the shooting phase and the keeping KT 2 in reserve and focusing fire from KT 1 on the Tomblades. I think the battle would have gone much more in my favor had I brought in KT 2 in the same turn as KT 1 & the Watch Captain and split fire from KT 1 between the Tomb Blades (Plasma) and NW 1 (SIA Bolters) using KT 2 to either focus fire the remaining warriors or split fire between NW 1 & NW. Then I think I should have used the Captain to charge any remaining NW or the Cryptek/Lord if I was successful in clearing out the warrior squads.

 

I plan to have a rematch this weekend and see if I can do better. Although, my son wants to start a Dark Eldar army for his birthday/Christmas, so I may be fighting DE instead.  

[Vel'Cona]

Interesting batrep!  Do you feel that your Librarian carried his weight with the failed psychic tests?  What about your Helblasters?  That sounds like rough luck on the Overcharge losses

[Syward]

Interesting batrep!  Do you feel that your Librarian carried his weight with the failed psychic tests?  What about your Helblasters?  That sounds like rough luck on the Overcharge losses

 

Really it's tough to tell with the librarian - He did inflict a mortal wound and kill a model from the Immortals before KT 3 & KT 4 shot and finished them off, so it made it easier to take out that unit. I've used a librarian in normal SM games & had better luck with him. My biggest gripe with the Librarian is the lack of an inv save for when he gets targeted which happens in every game (my son loves killing my librarians - he's scared to death of the Null Zone which make his necron inv saves worthless) I think I need to do a better job protecting/positioning the Librarian so he lives longer & has more chances to use his abilities. I think this time was really just bad luck from the dice gods. I only had the chance to try Null Zone once which wouldn't have been useful b/c he kept his wraiths out of range and the failed smite would have only killed 1 other model in a unit which died to the KT bolter shots anyway.

 

As for my hellblasters carrying their weight, I'd say they definitely did, I just used them poorly and left them vunerable and let them get killed before they could have done more damage. I really think that if I had brought both hellblaster KTs in on turn 2 and split fire between the Tomb Blades and one of the necron warriors units, I could have wiped out a total of 3 units on turn # 2 and had a very different outcome for the game overall. I really underestimated how strong his Warriors were with the Mephrit dynasty and rapid fire range.  

 

The overcharged plasma fail was a suicide run TBH I knew they were dead next turn to my son's warriors, so I decided to overcharge & try to do as much damage as possible - only later realizing that b/c I was firing against the warriors, that overcharging was pointless as they only have 1 wound and couldn't roll a save against the AP of the normal plasma shot (which is the same as overcharged). So in reality, overcharging them was a dumb move on my part. 

 

I have this nasty habit of rolling like total :. LOL. Not just in WH40K, but any game we play. My wife & son tease me about it all the time. Another example of my "talent" to spectacularly fail a dice roll is the advance rolls I made for the Librarian & KT 3 in Turn # 1 - I rolled a 2 for both units... which is why I only advanced 8"