Necron on Necron Hate Crime

I'm still in the test phase of developing my Necron army... but I'm not just sitting around reading the book on the toilet - though I'm doing a bit of that...

...or even playtesting variations of the army - thought I'm doing a bit of that...

...or even reading blogs online to see where others are taking their ideas... though I'm doing a bit of that, too.

More than all that, I've been getting a chance to play Tinfoil Hat Tim, the man formerly known as a number.  And before that, Farseer Tim.  And before that, Tim.

And before that, Little Timmy then Baby Timmy - they get the idea.  Move on.

Ya see, I don't have to try out stuff he's already trying.  I'll just see how it performs for him.  To that end, me and THT threw down twice this weekend.  (Also, I played the Mighty Mighty Carlos and the Master Manipulator (every store needs one) over the last week; I'll drop those battle reports here soon.)



Prior to the first game, Tim mentioned he had two lists with him.  I warned him my list sported two Destroyer Lords, by far my favorite HQ in the book.  Given my list is a bit of In Your Face, I wanted him to choose accordingly.  Is an explanation in order?

My feeling is Tim's normal setup suffers a bit against mine - not because it's bad, but because I have some units that punish his weaknesses a bit more than normal.  That's the nature of a 'Dex Mirror Match, sometimes.  Anyway, he wasn't so concerned about all that, so in the end we talked about seeing what the Doomsday Ark was capable of.

My left flank, including the 5-strong Wraiths with two attached Destroyer Lords and 5-strong Destroyers with three Heavy Gauss.

My right flank, including the Mini-Farm and two 5-strong Tesla Immortals.

I was going second.  My whole idea here is seeing if my army can pull off a pincers move, hard off each flank.  In reserve are the two Monoliths and three Necron Warrior Squads.

So, opposite this flank...

...is the Doomsday Barge!  In his turn it doesn't move, then takes aim and blasts away!

Okay, so the Barge may seem a bit anti-climatic.  He shoots, I take a bunch of wounds on my Wraiths+Lords unit, then I blow it away with the Heavy Destroyers.

Except note there is a certain level of luck destroying something with Quantum Shields!  I only had three shots... so the math goes maybe two will hit, maybe one will Penetrate, and maybe that shot will have an effect I like.  Point is, I got lucky destroying it first turn and you'd better believe I was panicking!  It deviated off its first shot and still scared the unlife out of the me!

Here's his strong center, left side, after Turn One.

And the right side.  Here's THT is deviating toward my right, throwing everything at the Scarab Swarms.  Lucky I was in cover.  Lucky I was lucky!  My Farm kicked in and brought the numbers back up.

Here's bottom of One; the Scarabs have had two turns rebuilding and manage to charge through cover to pick up the remaining Destroyers on Tinfoil Hat Tim's flank.  The high toughness will hold the Swarm there, though.

Here's the turn I mentioned previously in the discussion about the Barge.

As sometimes happens, the Swarm jumps ahead of the Farm.  Here, I'm okay, but sometimes its a problem.

THT's counterattack in the center was masterful, especially when you consider he'd set it up the turn prior.  With the Monolith, you have to... anyway, he brings though his Immortals with Tesla then opens up a path for the Ghost Ark.  Everything unloads on the Wraiths/Lords unit!

Tim did it right.  He really did.  It just didn't do near enough damage.

The idea behind the unit is simple enough - the Destroyer Lords have Sempiternal Weave and Toughness 6, so they can't be insta-killed and most allocated shots bounce off.  I allocate as many wounds on the Lords as possible, especially anything that can double the Wraiths out.

Add in my luck - which is substantial, I'll have you know - and poor Tim's valiant effort fell far short of what it needed.

My CronStar has five wounds in the unit but no missing models... I'll let you work out how that happened.  I multi-charged everything.

My reserves start showing up, but the heavy lifting is already done...

...as evidenced by the left flank, where only his Lord is left to challenge me.  (The Mono is wrecked.)

My luck continues; despite needing 6's to hit, I score several and knock the Annihilation Barge out of the sky!

It's all over.

So this game turned out to be a huge mismatch.  There was no point playing it out.  Tinfoil Hat Tim mentioned he'd rather start another game.

And I thought he should roll in my box.

With those two factors, Game Two turned out to be an oil bath!

Get it?  Oil bath?  Like blood... never mind.

TO BE CONTINUED!