My Necrons:
Overlord with Mindshackle Scarabs, Warscythe, Sempiternal Weave, Phase Shifter and Resurrection Orb
20 Warriors (the Crimson Guard) and a Ghost Ark with a Harbinger of Eternity, Chronometron
9 Warriors and a Ghost Ark with a Harbinger of Destruction, Solar Pulse
8 Warriors with a Harbinger of Destruction
Doom Scythe
Doom Scythe
6 Canoptek Wraiths, 2 with Whip Coils
4 Canoptek Scarabs
4 Canoptek Scarabs
Warlord Trait: Strategic Genius (reroll reserve rolls!)
What can I say? Same old list which hasn't been changed for months.
CK's Iron Warriors:
Chaos Lord with jump pack, Mark of Khorne, Sigil of Corruption, Axe of Blind Fury and plasma pistol
Hellbrute with plasma cannon and powerfist with combibolter
10 Chaos Marines with bolters, 2 with plasmaguns in a Rhino
10 Chaos Marines with extra CCWs, 2 with plasmaguns in a Rhino
Helldrake with Hades Autocannon
10 Raptors with 2 meltagun, the Mark of Khorne, Icon of Wrath and Lightning Claw for the Champion
Forgefiend with 2 Hades Autocannons
Defiler
3 Obliterators with Mark of Nurgle and Veterans of the Long War
Warlord Trait: Master of Deception (CK let the Raptors and both unites of Chaos Marines have Infiltrate)
I don't remember the details exactly, but it was a list very similar to this one that laid my own Black Legion low not very long ago. Big horrible daemon engines all over and some pretty mean guns for all occasions.
Mission: The Scouring
Deployment: Vanguard Strike. CK won the roll off and had me go first. Night Fighting was active on the first turn.
The Necrons deployed in the usual phalanx formation, with Wraiths to the left. CK deployed way out of gauss range. Previous experiences fighting the Necrons had no doubt left quite an impression regarding the effects of the Crimson Guard on unwary vehicles. The Raptors and Chaos Marine squads all Outflanked.
My plan was the standard plan for this formation when I clearly outgun the enemy. March forward, guns blazing. Wraiths and Scarabs are to dart ahead and either destroy or tie up anything that could threaten the phalanx. The Doom Scythes were to lay down extra pain where necessary. Simple, really, though in fact, things went a bit more interestingly than I'd predicted...
Turn 1:
Necrons: Nothing interesting here. Just moved forward, took some potshots where possible, but no kills.
Iron Warriors: CK moved up and attempted to unleash big honking blasty burny death. The Forgefiend and Obliterators targeted the incoming Wraiths, killing 2. The Defiler blasted away at the Crimson Guard, felling 3 and taking a hull point off a Ghost Ark caught in the blast (despite its 2+ cover save. With a reroll. Dammit.). 2 Warriors got back up after that. The Hellbrute tried to add some more burning plasma death, but the weapon backfired, taking a hull point off a now very angry Hellbrute.
N: Both Doom Scythes arrived. One headed for the Forgefiend, the other for the Defiler and Hellbrute. The rest of the army moved up. The Wraiths made a beeline for the Forgefiend, just in case the Doom Scythe didn't get the job done. The Crimson Guard swarmed into the ruins. Each Scarab swarm headed for a Rhino, and the Ghost Arks moved to support the Guard.
Shooting was quite spectacular, with the right Ghost Ark wrecking the nearby Rhino in one salvo and the right Doom Scythe exploding both the Defiler and the Hellbrute in one sweep of its Death Ray. The left Doom Scythe wasn't so lucky, and only managed to take off a hull point from the Forgefiend.
In assault, the Wraiths failed their charge, and the Scarabs on the left tore the left Rhino to pieces, losing 2 wounds in the resulting exposion.
Iron Warriors: This turn, my Harbinger of Destruction turned on its Solar Pulse.
The Raptors and Chaos Marines with bolters arrived on the right flank. The Helldrake came in most spectacular fashion, vector striking one Doom Scythe and taking 2 hull points and its Tesla Annihilator. It then turned its Hades autocannon on the other Doom Scythe and blew it up in one salvo!
The Forgefiend backed up and turned its guns on the Wraiths, killing another. On the right, the Raptors came in, guns blazing, and a melta shot nuked the nearby Ghost Ark, despite needing 6's to penetrate! 2 Warriors were lost in the explosion, and the rest came under fire from the bolter-armed Chaos Marines just behind the Raptors. Fortunately, they took no casualties. Meanwhile, the Obliterators fired on the remaining Ghost Ark, but were thwarted by the cover affording by Jinking and Night Fighting.
The Forgefiend regenerated one hull point at the end of the turn.
Turn 3:
N: Well, that was a blow to raise my eyebrows... I even forgot to take a picture at the end of the turn! I did NOT expect to lose a Doom Scythe, a Ghost Ark and 2 hull points off the other Doom Scythe in one turn! No matter. The Crimson King is not so easily shaken!
The Wraiths ignored the Forgefiend and headed straight for the Obliterators. I'd had quite enough of their guns and it was time the Wraiths got in to tie them up for a bit. The Wraiths charged, killing one Obliterator and taking one casualty in return. The Scarabs to the left headed over to the Forgefiend, charging it and easily tearing it apart.
The remaining Doom Scythe headed over to the Raptors to make use of that Death Ray one more time. First the other Ghost Ark and its passengers fired a salvo, then the survivors of the exploded Ghost Ark. CK's dice were crazy hot, though, and he only lost the 2 meltagun-bearing Raptors to the front and 1 wound off the Chaos Lord who was standing directly behind them. The Doom Scythe sorted him out, though, and with a sweep of the dreaded Death Ray, the Chaos Lord, 3 Raptors and 2 Chaos Marines in the squad behind were neatly cut in two.
The Crimson Guard fired on the bothersome Helldrake, and managed to take one hull point off.
IW: The other squad of Chaos Marines arrived from reserve, also on the right flank.
The wretched Helldrake flew over the Ghost Ark, but failed to Vector Strike off another hull point. In shooting, it managed to finish off my remaining Doom Scythe.
The Chaos Marines and Raptors moved up, blasting away at the nearest squad of Warriors. In the end, only 4 remained to face the Raptors' inevitable charge. The few remaining Raptors charged the now-depleted squad of Warriors. No challenges were made, however, as all the characters in the Raptor squad lay in halves on the battlefield, thanks to the Doom Scythe. By some stroke of luck, the Warriors managed to win this combat, slaying 2 and losing 1.
Over on the left, 1 Obliterator and 1 Wraith fell. Combat continued, and the Obliterator guns were silent, which was the whole point of this combat.
The Helldrake regenerated one hull point at the end of the turn.
Turn 4:
N: Well, with the Doom Scythe gone, and CK's scoring units all on the wrong side of the board while the Crimson King happily sat on an objective, there wasn't much for me to do but to sit tight and shoot every poor sucker who came within range. So that's what I did. The Crimson Guard fired on the bolter-armed Chaos Marines, reducing them to 5 members and, luckily, killing the plasma gunner. The Ghost Ark and its contents managed to nick another hull point off the Helldrake.
In assault, no casualties happened at all.
IW: The Helldrake decided this was a do or die moment, so hovered behind the Ghost Ark to get at its rear armour. Both squads of Chaos Marines advanced.
The Helldrake fired and wrecked the Ghost Ark. At this point I'm getting mildly annoyed by my total lack of Jink saves throughout the game.
The bolter Chaos Marines charged in support of the Raptors and wiped out the Warrior squad. The lone Obliterator and Wraith swung at each other ineffectually.
The Helldrake regenerated one hull point at the end of the turn. The bastard.
Turn 5:
N: The Crimson Guard finished off the Raptors in an absurd deluge of gauss flayer shots. The other Warrior squad fired on that blasted Helldrake, taking 2 hull points.
A Scarab swarm, ignored until now, made for the now-hovering Helldrake, and managed to charge it, ending the daemon engine's killing spree once and for all.
To the left, the lone Obliterator and Wraith swung at each other ineffectually, again.
IW: Not much left on the board now. CK needed a small miracle here, i.e. he needed to charge the Crimson Guard and defeat them in close combat. This is known to be the best and quickest way to take down the Crimson Guard, and has been done before. The thing was: CK only had 4 Chaos Marines and their Aspiring Champion to do it. And the Chaos Marines weren't even kitted out with extra close combat weapons. Could he do it?
They moved, shot, took a wound off the Crimson King, who had moved to the front to meet these upstarts head on. The Iron Warriors charged, the Crimson Guard opened up with 40 gauss shots. The Aspiring Champion and one Chaos Marine were shredded to atoms. The remaining Chaos Marines crashed into combat, but their blows were utterly ineffective against the Crimson King. The Crimson King, eyes blazing, towering over his foes, cut one down contemptuously with a mighty sweep of his warscythe, the very picture of Death incarnate... And that was that.
Afterthoughts:
As I always tell my students, always have a plan. Had one. Used it. And life was good. The Helldrake really surprised me, though, single-handedly wiping out my air force like that! As those who know me understand, I'm a big fan of the Baleflamer, but after seeing this, well, I'm impressed!
Anyhoo, it's kind late, so I'm going to sign off here for now. Might add on to this section at a later date, should the mood take me. Until then, happy wargaming...
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