This was more of a learning game, not sure if the guy was getting back into 40k after a long absence or just learning. He was running a Tau list with (I think, not familiar with Tau):
2x Hammerhead(?) Tanks with railguns + some of the S5 AP5 guns
1x Tank with seeker missiles, marker lights & some smaller guns
2x Transports with 9x Fire Warriors (BS3, S5, AP5 RF guns) each
1x Transport with 5x Pathfinders (Sgt, heavy weapon of some kind, 3x troops, markerlights)
2x Squads of battle suits, one with the leader, with a variety of gear, lots of flamers, RF weapons, heavier stuff.
My list was trimmed to:
1x Overlord w/ Warscythe in Command Barge (Gauss) (CB)
1x Overlord Phaeron (with the Gauss Immortals for Relentless)
1x Immortals (Gauss) w/ Cryptek of Destruction (Solar Pulse)
1x Immortals (Tesla) w/ Cryptek of Destruction (Solar Pulse)
15x Warriors with Lord w/ Rez Orb
10x Warriors in a Ghost Ark (GA)
9x Scarabs
2x Spyders
2x Hammerhead(?) Tanks with railguns + some of the S5 AP5 guns
1x Tank with seeker missiles, marker lights & some smaller guns
2x Transports with 9x Fire Warriors (BS3, S5, AP5 RF guns) each
1x Transport with 5x Pathfinders (Sgt, heavy weapon of some kind, 3x troops, markerlights)
2x Squads of battle suits, one with the leader, with a variety of gear, lots of flamers, RF weapons, heavier stuff.
My list was trimmed to:
1x Overlord w/ Warscythe in Command Barge (Gauss) (CB)
1x Overlord Phaeron (with the Gauss Immortals for Relentless)
1x Immortals (Gauss) w/ Cryptek of Destruction (Solar Pulse)
1x Immortals (Tesla) w/ Cryptek of Destruction (Solar Pulse)
15x Warriors with Lord w/ Rez Orb
10x Warriors in a Ghost Ark (GA)
9x Scarabs
2x Spyders
Because it was a learning game, simple Pitched Battle + Annihilation. A lot of the terrain was short BLOS, with the major effect of giving cover saves until it got up close & personal. I won the roll and deployed first, fairly basic "phalanx" setup with the 15 Warrior squad in two rank line at front, Ghost Ark (w/ squad embarked) behind them, Tesla Immortals behind the foot Warriors, Scarabs & Spyders on the right, Gauss Immortals on the left.
He deployed one Hammerhead to the right corner, one to the left, with the seeker missile tank in the far right corner with one battlesuit squad with his commander. The two transports with Fire Warriors were in reserve with the other battlesuit squad. He then infiltrated his Pathfinders in cover on his side a bit to the right of center in front of the deployment line with their Transport behind them. The objective was to use his Pathfinders to marker light my units for fire and target his seeker missiles on them. Then he seized the initiative.
First turn I Pulsed him to bring up Night Fighting and he managed to roll low on all of his dice so he got no shots. Everything I had lurched forwards 6", maneuvering around some obstacles. The CB did a flat out to just across the middle of the board and turned to put its AV11 arse up against a bit of impassible terrain. Then some fun dice since I didn't have to deal with Night Fighting, the first was some of my Gauss Immortals plus the Cryptek's Eldritch Lance (all Relentless due to Phaeron) put a few shots into the Hammerhead to my left to no effect, then I targeted his Pathfinder squad with my Tesla Immortals. Only four plus the Cryptek were in range, but I decided it was a good time to play Yahtzee so I rolled five 6s, which translated into thirteen(!) hits at 2+ to wound. Needless to say, he managed to fail all of the 4+ rolls and he lost his forward marker light capability.
Turn two, I again Pulsed him with my second Cryptek, so he came closer to get better shots and positioning. His two transports made their reserve rolls and came on the back of the board, one in the center and on to my right (which dropped its squad to take some shots at my Scarabs, doing some wounds). He dropped a template from on Hammerhead on my Scarabs (I had forgot to run them to get them under cover of a BLOS a couple of inches high) and after cover saves I lost all but six. The left Hammerhead took a shot at my CB and failed to penetrate. The seeker tank started up the edge of the right side of the board. He killed a few of foot Warriors but between WBB & the GA, I replace them all. On my turn two, for the movement phase I was debating turning my Gauss Immortals towards the left Hammerhead, but remembered to first have my CB do a flat out move across it since it was by itself. Again, a bit of luck, I managed to hit it and explode it with the Overlord's Warscythe, so I started shifting everything to my right. The Scarabs got close enough with a decent run to slam into the right Hammerhead, but only netted a -6AV on it. The rest of my shooting was either out of range or ineffective.
Turn three, no more pulses, but he was in trouble with his setup. His battlesuit squad came in by Deep Strike and dropped in a nice spot to toss three flamers and some rifle shots on my Tesla Immortals, I failed four of five WBB rolls. He blasted down my Scarabs with everything he had, killing them all and dropped the large blast on my foot Warriors, killing several, but after WBB & GA rebuild, I was only down one Warrior. He also killed one of my Spyders. In my half, I shifted my CB 12" towards the right and along the back of the board to get a rear shot on his still loaded transport, which did nothing. Everything else shambled diagonally to the right around terrain to close with the rest of his troops. My Gauss Immortals punched through the now AV6 side armor of the second Hammerhead and exploded it (five inches), which killed my last Scarab and one of his Fire Warriors. Returning fire on his DSing squad I managed to kill one and wound another.
Turn four ended up being the last turn as he tried to kill my Tesla Immortal squad and failed (the WBB turned and instead of only one surviving, only one stayed down), did some more damage to the foot Warriors. In return I shot both Fire Warrior squads down and picked off one of the Transports with Gauss. My last Spyder charged the seeker missile tank and ... missed. My Tesla squad killed the last of the deep striking battle suits.
Analysis: For the Tau player, it was a learning game. He recognized he should not have tried the double flanking move with his Hammerheads and concentrated on one side. For me, I see that the vaunted Tau dakka still requires concentration, at least initially. One immediate consequence vs Necrons, you want to be able to slag (or try hard to slag) any CB that comes barreling into you lines smashing tanks. His loss of his Pathfinders on the first turn, even though it was by an enormous fluke of luck was deadly. It showed me what I needed to do.
For myself as a Necron player:
He deployed one Hammerhead to the right corner, one to the left, with the seeker missile tank in the far right corner with one battlesuit squad with his commander. The two transports with Fire Warriors were in reserve with the other battlesuit squad. He then infiltrated his Pathfinders in cover on his side a bit to the right of center in front of the deployment line with their Transport behind them. The objective was to use his Pathfinders to marker light my units for fire and target his seeker missiles on them. Then he seized the initiative.
First turn I Pulsed him to bring up Night Fighting and he managed to roll low on all of his dice so he got no shots. Everything I had lurched forwards 6", maneuvering around some obstacles. The CB did a flat out to just across the middle of the board and turned to put its AV11 arse up against a bit of impassible terrain. Then some fun dice since I didn't have to deal with Night Fighting, the first was some of my Gauss Immortals plus the Cryptek's Eldritch Lance (all Relentless due to Phaeron) put a few shots into the Hammerhead to my left to no effect, then I targeted his Pathfinder squad with my Tesla Immortals. Only four plus the Cryptek were in range, but I decided it was a good time to play Yahtzee so I rolled five 6s, which translated into thirteen(!) hits at 2+ to wound. Needless to say, he managed to fail all of the 4+ rolls and he lost his forward marker light capability.
Turn two, I again Pulsed him with my second Cryptek, so he came closer to get better shots and positioning. His two transports made their reserve rolls and came on the back of the board, one in the center and on to my right (which dropped its squad to take some shots at my Scarabs, doing some wounds). He dropped a template from on Hammerhead on my Scarabs (I had forgot to run them to get them under cover of a BLOS a couple of inches high) and after cover saves I lost all but six. The left Hammerhead took a shot at my CB and failed to penetrate. The seeker tank started up the edge of the right side of the board. He killed a few of foot Warriors but between WBB & the GA, I replace them all. On my turn two, for the movement phase I was debating turning my Gauss Immortals towards the left Hammerhead, but remembered to first have my CB do a flat out move across it since it was by itself. Again, a bit of luck, I managed to hit it and explode it with the Overlord's Warscythe, so I started shifting everything to my right. The Scarabs got close enough with a decent run to slam into the right Hammerhead, but only netted a -6AV on it. The rest of my shooting was either out of range or ineffective.
Turn three, no more pulses, but he was in trouble with his setup. His battlesuit squad came in by Deep Strike and dropped in a nice spot to toss three flamers and some rifle shots on my Tesla Immortals, I failed four of five WBB rolls. He blasted down my Scarabs with everything he had, killing them all and dropped the large blast on my foot Warriors, killing several, but after WBB & GA rebuild, I was only down one Warrior. He also killed one of my Spyders. In my half, I shifted my CB 12" towards the right and along the back of the board to get a rear shot on his still loaded transport, which did nothing. Everything else shambled diagonally to the right around terrain to close with the rest of his troops. My Gauss Immortals punched through the now AV6 side armor of the second Hammerhead and exploded it (five inches), which killed my last Scarab and one of his Fire Warriors. Returning fire on his DSing squad I managed to kill one and wound another.
Turn four ended up being the last turn as he tried to kill my Tesla Immortal squad and failed (the WBB turned and instead of only one surviving, only one stayed down), did some more damage to the foot Warriors. In return I shot both Fire Warrior squads down and picked off one of the Transports with Gauss. My last Spyder charged the seeker missile tank and ... missed. My Tesla squad killed the last of the deep striking battle suits.
Analysis: For the Tau player, it was a learning game. He recognized he should not have tried the double flanking move with his Hammerheads and concentrated on one side. For me, I see that the vaunted Tau dakka still requires concentration, at least initially. One immediate consequence vs Necrons, you want to be able to slag (or try hard to slag) any CB that comes barreling into you lines smashing tanks. His loss of his Pathfinders on the first turn, even though it was by an enormous fluke of luck was deadly. It showed me what I needed to do.
For myself as a Necron player:
- The dual Solar Pulse worked fine and IMO will do the job most of the time, giving you two turns of a blinded enemy to close up to the 24" range mark. I'm not writing off Imotekh, although he is more expendable now after replacing him with a 110 point Phaeron Overlord. I do know that if I had used him in this game, I'd have given up the initiative and deployed more in concentration on my right flank, then attempted to seize with his 4+ roll.
- I need to work more on tactics with the Command Barge. I did pretty good with the one off, but I might need to throw away the thought of using the silly little gun it mounts and just keep zipping around flat out.
- I have to watch my Scarabs better or think about their deployment. I've not been unhappy with them yet since they draw a lot of fire and they have always drawn blood. Admittedly, the failure in this game to run on turn 1 into cover was stupid. I have several issues with them, which IMO boil down to Algesan needs to play with them more. Maybe split them into two groups of 4-5 Scarab bases + 1 Spyder.
- IMO, the argument over Ghost Ark numbers is settled for now. Deploy one GA for every two squads of Warriors, one to go inside the GA, one to walk in front of it. Maybe two GA for three Warriors, especially with a 20 model squad with Rez Orb Lord in it. For a "phalanx" deployment, that could be cool, especially if I interfile the two GA with a pair of Annihilation Barges and the CB.
- Nobody is used to WBB yet, even those who think they are. The simple fact that it is a 5+ FNP that pretty much doesn't care about the cause of death simply cuts the casualties taken by 1/3. Period. I've watched squads get shot up and smashed up, but then instead of having to deal with reduced firepower on the next shot back, even more than you thought is pouring back into you.
EDIT: You know, reading this over again, I really need to get my SD card back from my wife and start taking my camera again. For this stuff, a
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