Necrons vs Dark Angels (dual-wing)

1,500pts (seize ground – 4 objectives, DOW)

Necrons:

- Overlord (Tachyon Arrow, Resurrection Orb)
- Cryptek (Veil of Darkness – that’s the one allowing him and his unit to teleport yes?) – proxied with an Immortal
- 30 Immortals (all Tesla carbines) – all proxied with Necron Warriors
- 5 Scarabs bases
- 1 Spyder
- 2 Stalkers (Heat Ray) – one proxied with a FW Tomb Stalker
- 2 Doomsday Arks – proxied with Ghost Arks

Dark Angels:

- Sammael on Landspeeder
- 2 Ravenwing Attack Squadron (sergeant w/ power weapon, two plasma guns, AB w/ multi-melta, Landspeeder w/ heavy bolter & assault cannon) – 2 of 4 plasma guns proxied with melta-gun & flamer. Since I only have 10 bikes painted (3rd edition allowed squadron of 5 bikers) we agreed each squadron essentially had an 'extra' wound
- Deathwing Terminators (storm bolters, assault cannon, chain-fist)
- Deathwing Terminators (THSS, LCs, CML)

Deployment:

One unit of Ravenwing deploys on my west flank while Sammael took up position along the center, rest stayed in reserve.  My opponent decided to bring his whole army to the table on turn one.  Ravenwing squad scouted 12” towards the middle.

Turn One:

Ravenwing bikers activated their teleport homer and the DW assault unit arrived, taking cover behind a pillar supporting the bridge which led to the landing pad.  The Landspeeder moved flat-out towards the landing pad while Sammael also moved flat-out but towards the eastern flank preparing to hold down any Xeno thread that will soon be arriving.  In unison, the entire Necron army entered the board with the Doomsday Ark and a Stalker directly opposite the Ravenwing master while two units of Immortals along with the Overlord spread out within a ruined building.  Meanwhile, in the centre another Doomsday Ark, a Stalker as well as a Spyder took up position and swarms upon swarms of scuttling scarabs entered the fray.  In the north-western quadrant, a third unit of Immortals along w/ the Cryptek took cover behind another ruined building.  A combination of night-fighting along with movement prevented most of the Necrons from any effective firing.

Turn Two:

My second Ravenwing squadron and the DW tactical unit arrived and using the outflank special rule, the bikers entered the table in the north-western quadrant charging towards the lone Immortals unit with engines roaring and their TL-bolters locked and loaded and plasma-guns activated (after the game, I checked to see if in fact I am allowed to outflank the whole squadron and turns out that I’m not allowed.  If the unit consisted of only bikes and attack bike, then I could have.  Given it was a friendly game, we didn’t care too much but good to know for the future).  My DW tacticals teleported in front of the central Doomsday Ark, scattered backwards and they ended up with two terminators having to deploy beneath the landing pad (at the start of the game, we agreed that Terminators can deep-strike onto the landing pad, and if they don’t scatter in such a way that the unit becomes partially on & partially off the pad, they are fine).  However, we decided to roll a D6 to see if they are okay and turns out they were not.  I held my breath and rolled on mishap table and luckily they were simply put back in reserve.  A lot of drama in the movement phase before anything really even moved.  Here goes: one Landspeeder flew onto the landing pad while Sammael took up a better firing position and the DW assault squad moved onto the bridge with the CML-armed Terminator activating his internal guidance system for the krak missiles he will soon fire into the advancing aliens.  The other Ravenwing squadron sped forward to join the outflanking unit surrounding the Immortals taking refuge behind the building.  The shooting phase was pretty spectacular as the combined fire of the two Ravenwing bike squadrons reduced the unit down to one Immortal plus the Cryptek and my opponent sadly only managed to reanimated one Immortal (I raised the point post-mortem that if we knew the squadron couldn’t have outflanked if a Landspeeder was in it then the Immortals would’ve fared much better).  Two krak missiles cork-screwed in the sky and landed bang on target at the Spyder and reduced the monstrous machinery down to a single wound.  The combined fire of Sammael and the other Landspeeder saw five more Immortals fall, but this time their Reanimation Protocol worked extremely well and three got back to their feet.

Most of the Necrons force re-positioned a bit to take up better firing position while the Scarabs advanced to attempt to bog down the Ravenwing bikers and strip them bear with their entropic strike.  The badly battered Immortals unit along w/ the Cryptek teleported and re-entered the battle behind Sammael, trying to capture one of the objectives on the south-eastern flank.  The Stalker shot at Sammael and although both hit, the heat ray was unable to find a weak spot in Sammael’s force-field.  However, the true intention was reviewed when the Doomsday Ark targeted Sammael again (granting him a ‘twin-linked’ Doomsday shot – rerolling the scatter), but the Shield of Night proved too much even for the advanced Necron technology.  The second Stalker fired at the DW assault unit taking cover on top of the bridge but their storm-shields protected the veterans from the melta weapon.  The second Doomsday fired, it landed bang on target and wounded four of the elite Astartes.  I casually said, “each of the SS Termies to take one wound each and the LC will take a cover save”.  I rolled for the LC guy first, made his 4+ cover while a rolled 1,1,2 for my THSS terminators (one of which had the CML also).  The overlord then shot his Tachyon Arrow (If I recall, it’s a one-shot upgrade that has unlimited range and profile is Str 10, AP 1) at the Landspeeder atop the landing pad and wrecked the flying papier mache.

Turn Three:

The Ravenwing squadron which molested a unit of Immortals earlier advanced past the ruin and continued their sweep across the Necrons’ firing line.  Meanwhile the other bike squadron moved towards the center of the battlefield to intercept the Necrons’ inevitable advance.  Sammael and his gunner turned their speeder around to finish off the freshly teleported Immortals & Cryptek.  The DW tactical squad decided not to mess around any longer and teleported onto the battlefield taking advantage of their Ravenwing brothers’ homing devices.  A multi-melta shot from one of the attack bikes managed to break through the Doomsday Ark’s quantum shielding and immobilized the floating weapon platform (I would’ve preferred to either wreck it or destroy the weapon - I rolled a two on the damage table, which s/b a three because of melta, but my opponent reminded me its open-top so an extra 1 was added).  Sammael wiped out the Immortals & Cryptek while the DW tacticals finished off the Spyder with the assault cannon.

Seeing how most of his targets are concentrated on the north-western flank of the battle field, the Necrons advanced where possible and shifted their position to take aim at the mobile Ravenwing bike squadrons.  The Scarabs scuttled towards the attack bike and the cold metallic crawlers made a distinct tac-tac-tac sound as they prepared to overwhelm the two Ravenwing Astartes.  A Stalker targeted the DW tacticals but their 5+ invulnerable saved them from harm but three in turn were vaporized by the Doomsday cannon that followed.  Mass tesla-carbine fire zapped one of the bikers and the electrified Astarte propelled off his bike landing on the ground in complete spasm.  Two Ravenwing brothers suddenly found themselves in the heart of a cybernetic infestation problem as they were being overrun by swarms of robotic critters and the multi-melta gunner on the attack bike quickly pulled out his bolt pistol and blasted a couple that were getting a little too close for comfort.  Surprisingly, the five Scarab bases dealt out 25 attacks with an average amount of hits but was unable to even score one 6 to wound.  The little buggers suffered an extra fearless wound and the combat continued.

Turn Four & Five (key highlights):

-          Scarab manages to wound the attack bike five times but they managed all their 3+ save (one failed save would mean instant death thanks to Entropic Strike)
-          Remaining DW assault terminators engages the critters in melee, dealing six wounds while the scarabs failed to penetrate the 2+ saves and getting wiped out by subsequent fearless wounds
-          DW tactical terminators engages one Stalker, ripping it apart with it’s chainfist/powerfist
-          One unit of Immortals manages to climb to the landing pad to contest the central objective (one Ravenwing bike squadron drove ‘up’ to claim)
-          Doomsday Ark tried to blast Sammael out of the sky but the master performed admirably well and either made it’s cover save, the cannon scattered or his force-field protected him from harm
-          Third Immortal squad held one objective

Verdict:

The xeno scum managed to roll a 2 at the end of turn five and pulled off a win by holding an objective while contesting another.  Meanwhile the Dark Angels were only able to contest the objective on top the landing pad.

Overall it was a fantastically fun game, the board was set up quite nicely and it was exciting to see in action how the Necrons are now like in 5th edition.

I learned quite a bit, such as not fielding Landspeeders with attack squadrons if you want to outflank and scout.  Also, I think next time I may run 4 small squadrons of three bikes each (allowing me field 8 plasma guns and 4 attack bikes).  It’s always fun fielding plasma even if it means blowing your own guys up every now and then….


Hope you enjoyed the read.