Battle Report: Marines V Necrons

Battle report (again). Like busses, you wait ages then 2 turn up at once.

This time I was up against my old sparring partner commandojimbob. He has been out of the hobby for a while and is starting to get back in to it. He has bought the new Necron codex and cards and fixed up his models.

As this was his first game of 7th we kept the points low (1500)

His list (CAD)

Cryptek
Illuminor Szeras
5 Triarch Praetorians
Triarch Stalker
10 Immortals
10 Immortals in a Night Scythe
15 Warriors
3 destroyers
3 destroyers
Spyder
Spyder

For my list I wanted to try out a formation.

Librarian in Term
Tactical Squad in rhino
10 Sniper Scouts
5 scouts (CC) in a storm
Speeder Typhoon
Speeder Typhoon

Formation (Skyspear Assault (I think)
Raven
5 CC terms (all LC)
5 terms with Assault Cannon
Venerable Dread

We did each choose 3 lists and rolled to see which one we played with. You should try it sometime it adds another little dimension to the game.

We rolled for the mission and it was the 3 objectives and they are kept secret during the game until you claim it.

I set up first. This was a bit difficult as over half my list was in reserve. All the units combat squaded and I set up on 3 objectives in my deployment zone. For the second game in a row my opponent stole the initiative scuppering my best laid plans!

Again I am not going to give a turn by turn report, but here are some of the main highlights.

After stealing the initiative the crons immobilise the storm (I suppose it serves me right for using a proxy), but could only kill a few scouts. The thing with necrons is that they only have short range (24” or rapid fire)) weaponry so I had chosen plenty of long range stuff like missile launchers. The typhoons did their job and with 4 krak missiles took out a spider.... first blood.

My main issue during the game was my librarian and close combat terminators. They spent 9 rounds of combat trying to kill 15 warriors and his HQ. FAIL. There was a lot of poor to hit rolls so I could not make good use of the shred rule. Enfeeble proved invaluable as he had buffed them up. (Edit, just doing some quick maths and that is about right! I would have thought they would have been better)

The Necron reanimation is very useful for them as it is basically an additional inv save! He also passed some low morale checks rolls. The game was close throughout.

Here are the scores at the end of each of our turns

Nec1: 0-0
Mar1: 0-3
Nec2: 1-3
Mar2: 1-5
Nec3: 4-5
Mar3: 4-5
Nec4: 5-5
Mar4: 5-7
Nec5: 8-7
Mar5: 8-9

Game continued

Nec6: 11-9
Mar6: 11-13

Game continued

Nec7: 13-13
Mar7: 13-14 then we each got a point for linebreaker

Over all I am not sure how I won. My marines were very poor. No one unit stood out to have done anything useful. The typhoons killing a spyder on turn one was a standout moment. But the terminators (both squads) were poor. The storm was immobilised turn 1 and the scouts couldn’t hit a barn door. The Raven made little impact, but I suppose the versatility of the marines and my great commanding won me the game!

Would I use that formation again? Unlikely as it were a lot of points to commit especially in 1500. The small bonuses it had weren’t really enough to justify it. I rarely run 2 squads of terminators and a venerable dread, so I can’t see it being used regularly

Next is a painting update in a few days and hopefully more games in April.

Pictures:

The Army