It's been, like, a month since I picked up a tape measure. This state of affairs can't continue. Neither can my current pace. But let's shove that all to one side, as I played another game with Chaos. This time, 'Scape's Necrons took to the stage in a battle waged at our 'classic' size of 1250.
Summary after the jump. It's pretty darn devious.
Before I get to that, I owe you lists. Mine isn't at all based on the 1750 from earlier, it's different.
Master Bryss' Chaos- 1250
Sorceror- Mastery 2, Mark of Tzeentch
5 Thousand Sons in a Rhino
10 Chaos Marines with Veterans, two plasma guns in a Rhino
10 Chaos Marines with Veterans, autocannon
10 Cultists with heavy stubber
Heldrake
6 Havocs- 2x heavy bolter, 2x flakk missiles
Obliterator- Mark of Nurgle
Obliterator- Mark of Nurgle
Bryssnotes: Well now. The Sorceror goes with the Ksons for double Firestorm/Doombeam/both, the plasma Marines support them. At this level I can't really afford 4 flakk and don't own enough autocannon models, so heavy bolters it was. As for the solo Oblits, I've seen these in some lists and am wondering what the point is, so let's experiment.
Cyberscape7's Necrons- 1250
Overlord- semp weave, warscythe, res orb
15 Warriors in a Night Scythe
15 Warriors in a Night Scythe
5 Warriors
C'tan Shard- Transdimensional Thunderbolt, Writhing Worldscape
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge
Bryssnotes: The Over goes with the 5 as there's nowhere else for him to go. I question the Scythe over the Staff at this level, personally. 'Scape hasn't used his Shard under 6th so thought 'aww, what the heck' and did it. The Barges do evil tesladeath as ever.
We rolled Purge The Alien, Dawn of War. I got Black Crusader as my Warlord Trait, 'Scape got Night Attacker, which he employed to ensure Turn 1 night. Powers-wise, I rolled on Tzeentch and Pyromancy for the Sorceror, getting Fire Shield and Breath of Chaos, which I swapped for Firestorm. The Aspiring Sorceror got Boon, which I also swapped for Firestorm.
'Scape went first and reserved his two Night Scythes. I reserved the Cultists and the Heldrake. 'Scape set his Barges close to each other at one end of the board, with the Shard behind them and the Warriors behind it. I spread my units in round about the same area with the Havocs on far left and the Rhinos far right.
- Turn 1 for 'Scape was a general advancey-type thingy. Crucially, his Barges killed one Obliterator (First Blood) and wounded the other once. My Turn 1 was spent shooting at the Barges, which went well as I killed one back. I also moved my Rhinos up on the right hand board side.
- Turn 2 began with one of the Night Scythes coming in. Now, by 'coming in,' what I mean is it entered at such an angle that when it went Supersonic in the Shooting Phase it went off the board and back into Ongoing Reserve. This is what 'Scape did with his Scythes until I tell you otherwise.
- The rest of 'Scape's shooting revolved around trying and failing to kill my Obliterator and knocking one Hull Point off a Rhino with Transbolt.
- At this point, the game fell into a nice routine. I got the Cultists in Turn 2 and they hid a lot while I shot at the Barge with the net effect of one HP damage. 'Scape then ineffectually sprayed me with the little shooting he had.
- I got the Drake Turn 3 and it totally smote the Shard to one Wound then torrented all the Warriors. I then put it in Hover in Turn 4 to bring it back round. Big mistake. At least the plasma guns of my Chaos Marines managed to down the Overlord.
- After a few rounds of back-and-forth, we reached Turn 5. At this point 'Scape put his devious plan into motion and attacked my base with both Warrior squads and Scythes that I never got the chance to shoot at all game. I lost the Drake and the Obliterator, and failed to completely wipe either squad, although I made a good go of it and reduced each squad to 4 or less.
- The game ended at this point.
Bryss: 5 VPs plus Slay the Warlord
'Scape: 3 VPs plus First Blood
6-4 Bryss
I've managed to win with Chaos! The Heldrake made an excellent debut until I ruined it for the poor thing, and it's very much worth the points, Daemonforge ensuring a complete wipe of the Warrior squad with the mighty Baleflamer, which I cannot type properly. Keeps ending up as Blameflamer or Blamflamer or Balmflamer.
I didn't use either of the Flakk missiles all game. But then, I really wanted the Warriors gone and I felt it was more realistic than eliminating the Scythes.
The Thousand Son squad, augmented with a cheap enough Sorceror, actually makes an excellent firebase. With Beams or Inferno the damage racks up nicely, so you don't really need as many of the actual Ksons that make the squad so darn expensive, which is a nice place to be in. I probably didn't even need Mastery 2, so that could go to an extra Son or the Burning Brand to give some nice Overwatch.
That's all for now. I'll be back when I can.