WARNING!: There are unpainted AND proxy models in this battle report. If you are not prepared to, or capable of, handling the fact that some people play some games with unpainted models, or pretend that certain models are different ones before spending money to buy them in case things don't pan out the way they planned on it working out, then this battle report is not for you. They are my models, not my opponent's. He paints all his models.
In this third round of the Escalation league, I wanted to use this game as a staging point for an upcoming tactics post on summoning. In the league I am playing Heretic Astartes, and if you have read my last 2 reports you'll know I have not been consistent in my Legion choices. Well, I believe that has come to an end. This match pits my army vs Shaun's in...
WORD BEARERS VS NECRONS
I really wanted to ease into the summoning, so I thought I would take a fairly rounded army and only have around 400 points for summoning. For 1500 points that's still a pretty big chunk of army, but I was also facing Necrons, who are kind of on the bottom tier as it is without a codex and no points updates in the Chapter Approved. This was a fairly one sided game but Shaun is a great guy and he stuck it out right til the end, and walked away in good spirits. He is looking forward to getting a Codex and a re-match.
Battalion:Word Bearers
Tzeentch Daemon Prince with axe and Warp Time. He was my warlord and he had the Word Bearer Warlord trait that boosts his aura abilities by 3"
Sorcerer with force sword and plasma pistol and Mark of Tzeentch. I knew I'd be facing some Wraiths so I took Death Hex, and since I had a bunch of Cultists I though the Tzeentch spell that gives the 5++(or adds one to ++ save roll).
20 cultists with brutal weapons and 2 flamers
20 cultists with brutal weapons and 2 flamers
10 cultists with autoguns and heavy stubber
Vanguard: Word Bearers
Dark Apostle with the black mace
5 Terminators, 5 combi-plasma, 3 axes, 2 chainfists
Helbrute, 2 fists, 2 combi-bolters
5 Possessed
Shaun's Necrons list was:
Battalion:
Lord on Command Barge, Veil of Darkness. He was the warlord and had the 6+FNP warlord trait
Cryptec
20 Warriors
10 Immortals
5 Immortals
5 Scarabs
6 Wraiths
Stalker
Doom scythe(flying thing with big ass laser gun)
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| THE RELIC |
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| FRONT-LINE ASSAULT |
I win the roll off to go first, he fails to seize and I push everything forward. Now you can see from my deployment that this is going to leave a big gap in my backfield and I did this on purpose. I even pretended to "debate" it with myself, sorry for the trickery Shaun. I was sacrificing my Sorcerer to do this, but I was hoping that he would Veil his warlord and Immortals into that gap and I could turn around with my Prince and a couple things and summon some stuff to wipe them out. Mainly this would also bring his large unit of Immortals away from the Cryptec so they would not be getting their 4+ RP. That was my plan.
I dropped in my Terminators right in front of that big unit of Immortals and shot them up pretty bad to press the fact he needed to move them. I was even able to make the charge with the Terminators into that unit of Immortals and the Warriors next to them. I killed a handful of Warriors and brought the Immortals down to 2. This left him with a choice to burn 2CP to keep them from fleeing or risk losing them, he chose to burn the CP.
Well, my plan sort of works, and doesn't work. His turn starts off with him getting 5 of the 8 dead Immortals back, he then Veils them out of combat but just over to the right side of the canister behind the second unit of Immortals. He uses his flier to zoom into my backfield and snipe out my Sorcerer. I was a little surprised by this but figured my Prince can still go over and punch that thing out of the sky, or at least do some damage to it. He does a bunch of shooting, but with his Warriors locked up he only takes out about half of the red squad of cultists.
His Wraiths also come out to play and, joined with the Stalker, charge into the Terminators. They fail to make much of an impact and only manage to kill 2. I was expecting more from them.
I proceed pushing everything forward once again, except for the red cultists, who pull the old "Tide of Traitors" coming on the right side of the table. The Daemon Prince holds his ground because the flier landed about 3" away from him. I then use the Word Bearer summoning stratagem to summon 30 Pink Horrors into a nearby building.
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| You were already warned at the beginning. |
They kill off the 5 Immortals that just came back to life, putting that unit back down to 2. My blue cultists, the Helbrute, and the Dark Apostle are all able to charge the Wraiths and tear 4 of them apart in an amazing display of RE-ROLLING EVERYTHING thanks to the DA. This guy is fucking golden and is the main reason I was able to do as much damage as I was able to.
On the other side of the table, my red cultists are able to shoot and assault the Scarabs, who had come around a building on the right side of the table, and kill a couple bases while my Possessed assault the front line of Immortals and do nothing.
Daemon Prince fails to do ANYTHING to the flier...
Shaun promptly flies right the fuck off zapping the Prince for a mighty 4 wounds. The rest of things don't go as well for Shaun as lots of his army is stuck in combat. The Scarabs back away calmly form the cultists in a desperate attempt to score line breaker while the Lord steps up and punks the 3 remaining Possessed, but so too comes the end of the Wraiths, torn down by massed attacks and re-rolls.
My turn sees a Changecaster summoned and put right on the Relic. He boosts the Horrors with flickering fire and they take out the front row of Immortals, leaving an open path for my Helbrute to make it to the second line of them, wiping them out and consolidating into the warlord, who then puts 4 wounds on the Helbrute. The pile of bodies continue to drag down robot after robot, slowly winning that combat.
I also summon some Bloodletters because I had points left but they do nothing.
The bottom of turn 3 sees more of the same, just about everything is caught up in combat and Shaun is losing models faster than he can reanimate them. The scarabs make a break for it and get closer to my deployment zone...
Then they are wiped out by 81 shots from the remaining Pink Horrors. That isn't the only devastation as the Prince, Helbrute, and red cultists flip the Command Barge like a cop car in a riot.
The Stalker falls with the rest of the Warriors and the Cryptec which leaves the flier thing the only Necron unit alive and that is where we call it.
Victory Chaos!
Necrons have a number of pretty strong abilities, but their units are just overpriced. I started with a little over 1100 points of army, and I think I might have been able to beat him if I didn't summon anything. Shaun and I have played multiple times before, and I always enjoy playing him. This win will have an asterisk next to it, and when I beat him after he gets a codex I can tack on a proper victory.
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| KEY FACTORS |
So this game could have gone a lot differently if for a couple critical moments. First, my terminators making the 9" charge was pretty big. It locked down 2 of his largest units which would have done a lot of damage. Second, I don't think that his Wraiths should have gone after the Terminators, I think they should have gone after the blue cultists. They would have done much more damage and the warriors could have held off the terminators alone for a couple turns. The last thing that would have made a huge difference, is if he would have Veiled the Immortals and Lord just back enough, then fell back with the warriors and shot up the terminators. With all the -2AP that the Immortals have they would have done some real damage. As always, hind sight is 20/20.
The league is going strong and there are games being played all through the week and are full every weekend, not to mention the painting seminars that are going on. There was one going on when we played and Shaun brought his son who spent his time painting some models. Kind of a cool babysitting service while dad can get a game in. Although don't use it as a literal babysitting service, that's not cool.
Until next time, keep them dice rollin.
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