My List:
Overlord with Mindshackle Scarabs, Warscythe, Sempiternal Weave, Phase Shifter and Resurrection Orb
Destroyer Lord with Sempiternal Weave and Mindshackle Scarabs
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
6 Canoptek Wraiths, 2 with Whip Coils and a Particle Caster
5 Scarabs
5 Scarabs
Warlord Trait: Master of the Vanguard (pfft...)
I've taken this list out once before, against CK's Chaos Marines, and they performed admirably, essentially ending the game in 3 turns. This time round, though I aimed to put the Destroyer Lord's Preferred Enemy USR to good use, letting him hang with the Crimson King and the Warrior blob.
Ian's List:
Chaos Lord on a Bike, with Mark of Slaanesh, Veterans of the Long War, Sigil of Corruption and the Murder Sword (aiming at the Crimson King)
5 Chaos Bikers with Mark of Slaanesh, VotLW, 2 meltaguns and combimelta and powerfist for the Champion
12 Noise Marines with VotLW, Blastmaster, 8 Sonic Blasters
12 Noise Marines with VotLW, Blastmaster, 7 Sonic Blasters
6 Chaos Marines with Mark of Slaanesh, VotLW, 1 meltagun and combimelta and power sword for the Champion, all in a Rhino
3 x Predators with Lascannon sponsons and Twin-linked Lascannon turret
2 x Hell Blade
Warlord Trait: The Dust of a Thousand Worlds
I'd encountered Ian's Chaos Marines twice before. The first time was one of my first outings with my Mechanized Angels, and was a valuable education for me as I learnt just how to move with a mechanized army. The second time I faced them with my Necrons, and the pink marines were lain low by a combination of horrible luck and overwhelming firepower. Now the pink marines were back with a vengeance and, notably 8 twin-linked autocannon shots worth of airborne support. And here I am, caught with not a single flyer! Ah, well. Nothing to deter the Crimson King. To battle, I say!
Mission: The Relic
Deployment: Dawn of War. I won the roll off and deployed first. Night fighting was not active on the first turn.
Nothing fancy about either deployments. My Necrons were arrayed in the usual fashion - The Crimson King and his blob, marching down the centre, flanked by the Ghost Arks and Annihilation Barges, and a team of Scarabs on each flank. I kept the Wraiths and Destroyer Lord close to the centre, so I could send the Destroyer Lord to join the Warriors and put that Preferred Enemy to good use.
Interestingly, Ian opted to face my formation head on with his Noise Marines. Granted, he had a pretty hefty amount of anti-infantry firepower, but nothing to compare with Sean's Dark Eldar, so I wasn't really worried about them posing any real threat to my Warriors. The Predators were clustered in a corner, no doubt looking to start chewing into my vehicles from one end and work their way to the other end.
My plan on seeing our deployments was simple enough. My Warrior blob would engulf the Relic and walk away with it. Anything that came close would get shredded by massed gauss fire. All other elements of my army, notably the Scarabs and the Wraiths, were expendable and were there to draw hostile attention away from the Crimson King and the blob. So, here we go...
Turn One:
Necrons: Ian attempted to steal the initiative, but was unsuccessful.
My whole army moved forward at full speed, the Destroyer Lord notably moving to join the Warriors. I fired away with whatever was in range, but casualties were light. One Noise Marine squad lost 2 members, the other lost 4. The closest biker fell to tesla fire. The Rhino lost 2 hull points, and that was that.
Chaos: At this point I fired my Solar Pulse. Ian knew from bitter experience the threat my Scarabs on my left flank posed to his precious tanks, so the Lord and his biker gang made a beeline for them. In the centre, the Noise Marines leveled their exotic sonic weaponry as one and fired everything they could at the Wraiths, killing all but two. The Chaos Marines in their Rhino moved flat out towards the relic, and it turned out the wretched thing was sitting in a forest full of brainleaf fronds. Lovely.
The Predators tried to bring down the nearest Annihilation Barge, but thanks to the Solar Pulse (Jink + Shrouded, hah!) and Quantum Shielding, they did nothing.
The Lord and his gang charged into the Scarabs, wiping out all but one stand. Curses! A turn of free protection from my guns! Thus ended Turn 1...
Turn Two:
Necrons: I was going to have to be careful about those bikers. I had little doubt they'd make short work of that one measly base of Scarabs, so I maneuvered my army accordingly. Since I couldn't stop them from charging my blob, I made sure the blob was better prepared to receive the charge, shifting the Destroyer Lord to the left, and packing the Warriors closer in the hope that I could do some overwatch grief. The Wraiths moved to intercept the Chaos Marines, while the other squad of Scarabs headed towards the closest squad of Noise Marines, looking to silence their guns, or at least distract them. The rest of the army moved up to bring more firepower to the centre.
Shooting was lackluster. The Rhino was wrecked, and a few more Noise Marines died, but not much else.
The Assault phase, however, was memorably silly. Of course, the Lord and gang obliterated the Scarabs. On the right, however, the Scarabs charged, and though they lost only 1 wound to overwatch fire, the Noise Marines, despite having only 8 attacks, dealt 6 wounds...
... meaning 6 5+ saves for my poor Scarabs. And what do you suppose happened, eh?
 |
| The roll, captured for posterity. 1 in 729 chance of that happening, by my reckoning... |
The Noise Marines were almost as lucky, losing only 1 of their number to my 25 attacks. Meanwhile, the Wraiths failed their charge on the Chaos Marines and continued to be nothing more than fire magnets.
Chaos: One Hell Blade arrived from reserve and a lot of guns turned towards the Crimson King and his Warriors. Ian knew that destroying the blob would break the back of my army and make things suddenly very, very difficult for me. With that in mind, the Hell Blade, the Noise Marines, and the bikers all converged on the Warrior blob...
Shooting from 2 of the Predators finished off the Wraiths. The other lent its firepower to the forces already attacking the blob and when the gunsmoke cleared, 10 Warriors had gone down, with 4 picking themselves up to receive the charge from the bikers. The Chaos Marines made a run for the relic, grabbing it and hoping the bikers would give them a chance to run for it...
Right, this was the do or die moment: Ian's Warlord and his retinue against the Crimson King, the Destroyer Lord and the remaining Warriors. 14 gauss flayers blasted away, and managed a bit more damage than usual, thanks to Preferred Enemy. A biker fell, and the Chaos Lord lost 2 wounds. The Biker Champion issued a challenge, and the Destroyer Lord gladly accepted. With only 2 bikers and the Chaos Lord (who, it must be noted, was NOT in contact with the Crimson King and thus was effectively armed with a mere power sword), the impact of the biker charge was decidedly underwhelming. 3 Warriors fell, and when the Necrons struck back it was quite enough to wipe out the Bikers. The Biker Champion fared no better, and was handily cut down by the Destroyer Lord's warscythe before he could bring his powerfist to bear. After the combat, 1 fallen Warrior reanimated to march alongside his overlord.
Elsewhere, the Scarabs pulled down another Noise Marine at the cost of 1 base.
Turn Three:
Necrons: Things were starting to clearly swing in my favour. With the Chaos Lord out of my way, I could blast aside all opposition and grab the relic with near impunity, and that's exactly what I intended.
The Ghost Arks got to work, and when they were done, the Crimson King had 15 Warriors at his command. The army moved up, and leveled a withering barrage of firepower at the nearby Chaos Marines, erasing them from existence and dropping the relic back among the brainleaf fronds. On the right, a lucky salvo from the Annihilation Barge downed the Hell Blade, sending it crashing into the melee between the Scarabs and the Noise Marines, killing 1 Noise Marine and a Scarab base.
Chaos: The other Hell Blade arrived, but with only the Predators and a Hell Blade to support the severely depleted Noise Marines, there wasn't much Ian could do to stop the Crimson King from claiming the relic. After resolving shooting from the Predators and Hell Blade into the Warrior blob, it was painfully clear that victory was impossible for Ian, so with that, he graciously conceded.
The Crimson King is victorious!
Afterthoughts:
Well, what's there to say? I had a plan, followed it, and it worked. Each element of the army did pretty much exactly what it was meant to, except for the Wraiths, which performed particularly badly on their saves, and were wiped out before they could do anything more useful than attract firepower.
Would I have done anything different? Well, with a clear victory by turn three, no, not really...
Would I change my list in any way? Flyers. I want Flyers in this list. Here's looking forward to a 2013 with Doom Scythe shenanigans, eh?
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