My Necrons:
Overlord with Mindshackle Scarabs, Warscythe, Tachyon Arrow, Sempiternal Weave, Phase Shifter and Resurrection Orb
20 Warriors and a Ghost Ark with a Harbinger of Eternity, Chronometron
9 Warriors and a Ghost Ark with a Harbinger of Destruction, Solar Pulse
9 Warriors with a Harbinger of Destruction
10 Immortal with a Lord with Mindshackle Scarabs, Warscythe, and Resurrection Orb
6 Canoptek Wraiths, 2 with Whip Coils and 2 with Particle Casters
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge
I got the Warlord Trait that lets units within 12" roll 2 dice when running then choose the highest result. Pah! Like I wanted to get any closer to those wretched bugs any quicker than a steady walk...
Edwin's Nids*:
(*as far as I could remember...)
Tyrant with Heavy Venom Cannon, Lash whip & Bone Sword
3 Tyrant Guard
Tyranid Prime with Regeneration, Lash whip & Bone Sword
3 Hive Guard
3 Hive Guard
Doom of Malantai in a Mycetic Spore
15 (?) Deathgaunts (Termagants with Devourers) in a Mycetic Spore
Tervigon with Regeneration
Tyrannofex with Regeneration
I forget what Warlord Trait he had and what Psychic Powers were rolled, other than Enfeeble. Not that it mattered, since that was mostly what he used on me...
First thoughts:
This was going to be interesting - an elite Tyranid army with a relatively low model count facing off against swarms of Necron Warriors. My list was built to close slowly and grind away at anything within 24". Vehicles get shredded by the gauss rule and anything else gets it from sheer volume of fire. The Wraiths are there to be nuisance and silence heavy guns or slow down deathstar units. The thing is, there are very few things that can stand up to a fully kitted out Tyrant and his entourage. And those big horrible beasties have Regeneration, making it that much harder for me to whittle away those wounds. All six of them. Each. At T6. This could get ugly...
Mission: Big Guns Never Tire. 4 Objectives.
Deployment: Dawn of War. I won the roll-off and deployed first.
I deployed in a more or less symmetrical way, as shown above. As usual, the blob in the centre, flanked by the Ghost Arks, each with a squad of Warriors and a Harbinger of Destruction inside. The Wraiths sat on the right flank. The Immortals camped in a ruin near the centre of my line, waiting to zap anything that came within reach.
Edwin piled up all his Nids in one corner, to my left, with the Tyrannofex to the front. Doom of Malantai and the Deathgaunts waited in their Mycetic Spores to deep strike...
Turn 1:
Necrons: I swing my line to face the Nid force head on, while the Wraiths scoot behind my line to get in a better position to be useful.
Nids: The Tervigon poops out a swarm of 10 or so Termagants, which spread out in front of the Nid force. Concentrated fire from the Tyrannofex and Hive Guard take down my left Annihilation Barge.
Turn 2:
Necrons: The Immortals shred the Termagants and the Ghost Arks finish the job. Shots from the remainder of the army are split between the Tyrannofex and the Tervigon. BIG MISTAKE! A few wounds are inflicted, but not enough to kill. The Wraiths move up just behind the Blob, waiting to pounce on anything that gets too close. In close combat, the Wraiths did little damage to the Tyrannofex, which didn't manage to land a blow on the Wraiths.
Nids: The Doom and the Deathguants arrive from reserve. This time Edwin's focusing on shredding the Wraiths. The Doom lands just in front of the blob, then the Deathgaunts scatter just behind the Ghost Ark to my left. He then casts Enfeeble with his Tyrant on my Wraiths. The Tyrant and the Hive Guard advanced closer to my line.
The combined firepower of the Nids, most notably the absurd volume of shots from the Deathgaunts, is enough to leave me with just 2 Wraiths. Shooting from the Hive Guard took down my second Annihilation Barge. Meanwhile, the Tervigon poops out another 10 or so Termagants, and heads towards the Blob.
The Termagants and the Tervigon both attempt to shoot and charge the Blob, but deal little damage with shooting, and the Tervigon failed its charge. The Termagants were almost wiped out by overwatch fire, and were easily mopped up by the remaining Warriors.
Turn 3:
Necrons: I decided the depleted unit of Wraiths is probably not going to be enough to kill anything, but it should be enough to engage the Tyrannofex and stop that thing from firing that big horrible gun. I send them charging in. My guns turn on the more immediate threats, wiping out the Doom and its spore with concentrated gauss fire. The Immortals and the left Ghost Ark maul the Deathgaunts, leaving 4.
Nids: I forget what the Tervigon got up to rather than poop out more bugs, but shooting from the Hive Guard took down my second Ghost Ark. Not good. The Tyrantstar and the Tervigon closed in for a charge into the Blob...
... with predictable results. Even though the Overlord handed the Tyrant's ass to him in a challenge (yay mindshackle scarabs!), the carnage wrought on the Warriors ensured the Blob lost the combat, and were promptly overrun in combat resolution.
Turn 4:
Necrons: I don't recall much of this turn. I think somewhere around here I lost a Wraith.
Nids: Yet again the Tervigon poops out another 10 or so Termagants, with no bloody sign of stopping. Also, the Tyrannofex smashed my last Wraith.
Turn 5:
Necrons: Not much left I could do. I concentrated fire on the Tervigon with everything in my army (not much), finally killing it. But with the destruction of my Warrior Blob, I was left with 2 small squads of Warriors and my Immortals. Edwin's Tyrantstar was barely scratched, and that wretched Tyrannofex was cheerfully regenerating its wounds under that 2+ armour. On top of that, the 2 squads of Hive Guard were completely unscathed. Seeing as neither of us could be bothered to roll dice and move models for a foregone conclusion, I conceded and that was that. This is the final board position:
Unfortunately, I didn't track the wounds dealt to the Tyrannofex and the Tervigon, otherwise I'd be able to give a better account. What I do recall is that the Tyrannofex managed to regenerate about 6 wounds over the course of the battle - MOST annoying! Now that I've put together this battle report, I'm not quite sure if my army has anything to reliably deal with something like that. The Tachyon Arrow and the 2 Harbingers of Destruction are there to take potshots at vehicles, but simply aren't enough to take down a Tyrannofex, let alone one accompanied by a Tervigon and a Tyrant.
Is there anything I could have done differently? I'm not sure. The most I could do, given the deployment and mission, would be perhaps to try and focus on one of the big beasties at a time, while trying to avoid the Tyrantstar. This would not be easy, seeing as the Doom and the Deathgaunts are excellent units for disrupting formations. Perhaps another day...
Would I change my list? Right now, Doom Scythes look really, really tempting. I think if I ditched the Immortals and one Annihilation Barge and took 2 Doom Scythes, I'd be on to a seriously solid list: An implacable phalanx of Warriors on the ground, and the mighty DEATH RAYS in the sky. What's not to like?
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