Monday, August 20, 2012

2000 BA vs Necrons

Our local 40k store, Orbits, has been running escalation tournaments every month.  Since I have been playing for a while, and I have a group of people I already play with, I have not been attending these.  They have recently added monthly 2k tournaments the last Saturday of each month.  I decided to start going to these (prize is store credit, which is always cool).

I ran some training games against one of my normal opponents and, for the first time in a while, got my ass handed to me (I have, obviously lost before, but rarely do I get to turn 4 and agree that there is no point in continuing further).

So I tried some new things in this list:
8 Bikes, with melta attack bike.  (2 Meltaguns, powersword and melta bomb on SGT)
Librarian Epistolary on Bike
Sanguinary Priest on Bike
2 units of Tac Squads in Rhinos (flamer and MM, SGT had PS and Melta Bombs)
1 unit of 10 death company in rhinos (3 guys with power axes and pistols, rest had bolters)
2 units of 10 assault marines (2 flamers, SGT had PS, combat shield, and melta bombs)
2 Whirlwinds

I don't remember all he had, but it was something like
2 units of troops (not immortals) with gaus
2 death mark companies (with characters with some STR 8, AP 1, Instant death flamer template)
2 Transports
1 Death Ray plane
1 Defense Bastion with quad-gun
Other stuff (including HQ) that were irrelevent.
BA Forces
BA Reserves + Stuff in Rhinos

Necron Forces
Necron Reserves.  The transports are wire with lights that turn on and off.
                                                                              
My plan had been to rush everything forward, using the bikes to give my Rhinos cover saves.  Then I was going to unload all 3 rhinos, and shoot 60 bolter shots into an enemy unit.  I really didn't think about what was going to happen next, which is unusual for me.  I didn't even finish the mathhammer to determine how many kills I would get with those 60 bolter shots against different types of armies - maybe I had gotten cocky.  Well, this game  humbled me some, because I made several bad choices, starting with the list.  I know that the tournament, while rolling for set up, only plays "purge the alien" mission.  As I was making my list, I was thinking about strategies for relic, and how many scoring units I could fit - none of which should have been relevant to the list I was supposed to be building (low kill count, awesome kill power).  My second mistake is that, thinking the MSU would give me more fire control, I combat squaded everything - almost doubling the kill points available to my enemy.

Turn 1 BA.  It was night fighting, because of his orb.  I moved bikes up.  My melta attack bike hit his bastion and glanced it (best I could do at 13").  My whirlwinds hit a few guys, all but one of which stood back up.
Turn 1 Necron.  His lightning killed a whirlwind.  He hit my bikes with several ap 1 staff attacks, but they either made the cover save or the feel no pain save every time (I rolled 5+ on 4 of 6 rolls).
BA End of Turn 2

Turn 2 - BA.  I moved my other melta bikes up and shot the building again.  2 hits, no penetrating (even in melta range).  I decided not to assault it, because there was cover, and I didn't want to be groups around the building (at this point, my bikes were invincible, so I didn't want to commit them to taking out a building).  Two combat squads (other 2 failed even with DoA re-roll) of my assault marines drop down and flame some stuff, most of which gets back up (he had a res orb)
Turn 2 - BA. Game ends (not officially, but pretty much).  My warlord power made him subtract one from his reserve rolls, so only 1 death mark unit comes in.  It lands next to my bikes, marks them, and then flames them with something that ignores cover, is AP 1, and causes instant death - they are also str 8 vs leadership, but the deathmark makes them wound on a 2+ anyway - so most of my bikes melt away.  His lightning pops the other red rhino, and both Combat squads fail their leadership and become pinned.  His shooting also killed some bikes and some assault marines.

Turn 3 - BA.   Since I can't engage his deathmarks because my tactical marines are pinned (and I wasn't going to charge with the bikes - I assumed they would still get their overwatch of instant doom). I hold my bikes back (just my librarian and 2 bikes, and only because they were out of flamer template range).  My other jump marines come down and flame some troops, all but one of which gets back up.  I also move my death company up and unload them - shooting into the death marks.
Turn 3 - Necrons.  The Deathray flyer comes on, the transport that delivered the deathmarks flies off the board.  The death ray kills 2 bikes, and some death company, and some tactical marines.  He starts to pull one of his units of troops around the bastion.

Turn 4 - BA.  Moved my librarian around bastion to team up with lone jump marine in that squad.  At this point, the only way I can not lose is to clear the table, so there is no point in playing conservative and trying to save points.   In assault I kill the death marks, and some necrons that came out of the bastion.
Just before assault of BA turn 4.

Turn 4 Necrons.  His other death marks came on, killed the librarian, the assault marine, the death company, and a bunch of tactical marines, and we called the game.
Start of Necron turn 4, before shooting phase.

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