Today, I’m sharing a battle report, 1000 points, involving my chaos marines and the girlfriend’s Necrons (now with added reinforcements). The mission involves one objective in each player’s deployment.
THOUSAND SONS
Trait-infiltrate (10 cultists)
HQ-Sorcerer-Force Axe, Mastery two, mark of Tzeentch, Disc of Tzeentch, Spell familiar
HQ-Warpsmith-Burning Brand of Skalathrax
ELITES-Chaos Contemptor-Dreadnought combat weapon, Havoc Launcher, Butcher Cannon,
TROOPS-6 Thousand Sons
TROOPS-20 cultists, 2 heavy stubbers, 17 autoguns
TROOPS-10 cultists, Flamer
HEAVY-Vindicator
NECRONS
Trait-move through cover
HQ-Overlord-Phaeron, Warscythe, Sempiternal weave, Phase Shifter, Resurrection Orb
Cryptek-Harbinger of Eternity, Chronometron
ELITES-5 Flayed Ones
TROOPS-8 Warriors
TROOPS-5 Immortals (Gauss)
TROOPS-5 Immortals (Tesla)
FAST ATTACK-7 Scarab swarms
HEAVY-Tomb Stalker (proxied by the forgefiend)
HEAVY-Annihilation barge, gauss cannon
TURN ONE
The Thousand Sons take the first turn, and proceed to move up the board. The vindicator and lord eye up the scarabs. The vindicator’s cannon wipes out four bases of scarabs. The sorcerer fails to remove any more bases. The Contemptor lines up the annihilation barge, but the Butcher Cannon fails to get past the machine’s quantum shielding. The cultists spray the warriors with heavy stubber fire, downing two. One machine rises back up. The Thousand Sons squad takes down a tesla immortal.
TURN TWO
The second turn sees the small cultist squad arrive, flanking next to the gauss immortals. Their shooting fails to cause any damage. They charge, with the cultist champion foolishly challenging the attached Cryptek. Despite the odds, the champion wins, and is rewarded by the gods.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) the gods are fickle, and transform the cultist into a lumbering grotesque spawn. The cultists take out another three warriors. Despite the casualties, the immortals hold, and all but one rise up again.
Elsewhere, the Warpsmith fries three warriors with his burning brand (a fourth at the end of the turn thanks to soul blaze). One returns. The Contemptor again fails to damage the barge, and rolls just short of a charge. The Vindicator also fails to damage it. The sorcerer deals a few more wounds to the scarabs.
The mighty Tomb Stalker (proxied by a forgefield) arrives in the middle of the board, and promptly attacks the Contemptor. Mass rapid-fire gauss fire from the construct sees the last two hull-points removed, destroying the venerable machine in a flurry of green energy. The barge attacks the vindicator to no avail. The lightning feedback clips the scarabs, causing two wounds. The scarabs cause a wound to the sorcerer, before being finished off. The spawn in combat crushes an immortal, but they finish off the cultists and are locked in with the spawn.
TURN THREE
The sons are panicked by the arrival of the stalker. The vindicator pulls back out of charge range, and the sorcerer loops around behind it. The warpsmith joins the Thousand Sons. Combined fire from the vindicator, Warpsmith, Thousand Sons and sorcerer sees the construct loose three wounds. The autogun cultists fire on the tesla immortals, taking two down, with one returning. The spawn loses a wound in combat to the gauss immortals.
In the necrons third turn, the flayed ones are not to be seen. The barge turns around, and with all its weapons, finishes off the sorcerer, earning the undead legions another point. The tesla immortals fail to cause any damage. The Tomb Stalker charges the thousand sons, taking a wound from the mass fire, bringing it down to one. Combat sees two thousand sons sliced up, and no further damage to the stalker.
TURN FOUR
The Thousand Sons are on the back foot right now. The vindicator fires on the barge, but cover saves the shot. The cultists kill the last tesla immortal. The stalker kills another Thousand Son, and again takes no damage.
The necrons advance. With their route blocked by the stalker, the warriors and lord move around the burnt out Manticore to assault on the other side. The flayed ones arrive and advance on the cultists under the cover of hills. The barge blasts a hull-point from the vindicator with its tesla cannon. The gauss immortals finish off the spawn, and advance. The stalker’s luck changes drastically. Not only does it fluff all of its attacks, the Warpsmith gets a lucky attack through, decapitating the beast with his power axe.
TURN FIVE
With the big scary creature done with, things improve. The vindicator finally blasts apart the barge, nobody is caught in the blast. After whittling down the warriors, the few remaining sons charge the warriors and overlord. The sorcerer takes the challenge, doing no damage, but surviving the heavy warscythe blows. The warpsmith takes down a warrior. The cultists manage to shoot down two flayed ones.
Turn five is short for the necrons. Gauss fire sees a few cultists downed. The flayed ones try to charge, but the return fire is too great, and the cultists finish them off. In combat, the overlord scythes down the sorcerer, and after a warrior is killed by the Warpsmith, combat is drawn.
GAME ENDS
Necrons: no objective, fist blood (1), kill the warlord (1)-2 points
Thousand Sons: objective secured (3)-3 points
That was a very close game. If the warriors had stayed back, I most certainly would have lost. Also, tomb stalkers are scary. I expect to see it reappear in more future games.