Some details here of a couple of games, though not proper reports, sorry! Left it a bit long since the first battle and my memory of events is too hazy. Today’s game the battery was flat on my camera and I was playing an old opponent I’d not played in years, so I wanted to enjoy it rather than get slowed down taking notes.

First game was 5k vs Man of Kent, lists as follows:
Tactical
+Hunter
+Supreme
+Razorback    500pts

Devastator
+Razorback    275pts
Whirlwind
+Hunter        375pts

Assault        175pts
Assault
+Chaplain    225pts

Devastator    250pts
Devastator    250pts
Tactical    300pts
Scouts        150pts

Terminator    350pts

Thunderhawk    200pts
Thunderhawk    200pts
Strike Cruiser    200pts

Warlord Titan     850pts
Warhound Titan    275pts
Warhound Titan    275pts
Thunderbolts    150pts
16 activations (17 with spaceship)

Reg HQ + FS    475
Trenchworks    100
Medusa - Trojans    275
Stormsword    200  
Inf Company +Gorgons    425
AA Guns - Trojans, 1 Hydra    125
AA Guns - Trojans, 1 Hydra    125
Death Rider Company    250
Missile Silo    250
Basilisk Company - Trojans    600  
Death Rider Company    250
6 Sponsonless Russ    370
Bombard    350
Death Rider Company    250
Shadowsword    200
Shadowsword    200
Warhound    250
Thunderbolts    150
Marauder    150
Total: 4995, 18 activations

I used Sponsonless Russes with pintle mounted heavy stubbers for -5pts per tank from what they’d normally cost. Means I can play them ‘fluffily’ and gain a little back for it while it not being a very competitive option.

I went for a high activation Krieg army that worked pretty well actually. I spent a lot of the game trying to kill his Warlord, but only managed to do a couple of points of damage to it (I was unlucky at one point to hit it unshielded with a Deathstrike only to cause a single point of damage). The game was pretty light as they go casualty-wise and I think ended with a minor victory to Ryan by one victory condition (we checked VPs anyway to find only 50pts or so in it).

Game 2 was my first game against a good old friend who I’ve not seen much of in years, but who I’ll be hopefully playing regularly again now. It was 3k Krieg vs Necrons, my first time playing Necrons and Steve’s 2nd or 3rd, though he’s not played epic that much.

Reg HQ - Fire Support 475
Death Riders 250
Death Riders 250
Inf Company - Gorgons, Mortars 425

AA Guns - Trojans 125
Quad Launchers - Trenches 200
Bombards 350
AA Guns - Trojans 125
Medusas - Trojans 275

Marauder 150
Warhound 275
Trenches 100
Total 3,000, 11 activations

Tomb Complex – 75
Infantry Phalanx, 2 Immortals -  305
Infantry Phalanx, 2 Immortals -  305
Infantry Phalanx -  225
Velator Maniple – 200
Pylon – 200
Eques Maniple, Necron Lord – 400
Eques Maniple, Necron Lord – 400
3 Monoliths, 2 Obelisks – 375
Aeonic Orb – 750
Total 3235 points, 9 activations. Hmm, methinks Steve added his points up rather wrong there! We used he Necron change document posted up here recently.

Game ended up 2-0 win to the Necrons (They Shall Not Pass and Take and Hold). It was a bloody battle; I had the Regimental HQ mostly untouched and the Bombards never shot at on the very far left, but everything else in my army had been completely wiped out. Necrons had around half their army left or a little more. Steve teleported his Monoliths on my far right flank and battered and killed off my Gorgon mounted infantry over successive waves of assaults then breaking and phasing out. The Warhound joined the fray at one point but lost due to unlucky combat dice roll-off, foolishly I left it not that far in the woods with its shields stripped and the Pylon promptly wasted it. Flayed ones killed my poor Medusas before being taken down by the Regimental HQ. In retrospect I should have concentrated more firepower destroying the Monolith formation (1 monolith survived the game) as this would have cut down of their annoying re-deployments. Fun game though and I understand how the list plays more now. My friend Steve might buy a Necron army now too and was great to play him again.

After a couple of games using experimental 120cm range Bombards they seem ok or possibly a little over-priced at 350. I’d rather have Medusas and the disrupt as well most times or two whole Basilisk formations. I could see me maybe using Bombards occasionally in bigger games, but likely leaving them out of my 3k lists. I’d say a points drop to 325 would be appropriate for these and either way I think they should be included in the list generally.

Random thoughts/musings: Marauders bombers are cheap, decent barrage units that can take a bit of Flak. Take a few of these and your Krieg army need not necessarily be that low activation wise. Trojans will likely always / almost always be taken over gun trenches competitively me/MoK reckon; having a 6 strong formation and the ability to take kills and blast markers is very useful. I really like Death Riders and will probably always take my maximum allocation (think they just suit my playstyle rather than them being overly good or anything). Medusas are also awesome, but then I like using disrupt artillery. Necrons aren't that hard to kill,but they're annoying in that they keep coming back with marshals up to full strength again unless you finish them off properly. They do seem to play how I feel Necrons should.

Thanx for the quick batreps. I find it interesting that you have taken what I would consider a fairly mobile Krieg list, eschewing the higher saves on a lot of your artillery for the ability to absorb blast markers.

To date, I've taken the opposite approach, but will test out your concept in some of my upcoming games.

The first Krieg battle report that I read featured Asaura's Krieg vs. Hena. In that game, Asaura decided to vigorously defend his half of the board and punish anything that crossed that line. He was successful doing that and since that approach made sense to me, not thinking the Krieg are super mobile, I've been playing my games that way.

The challenge has been scraping up enough mobile units to also get on the opponent's side of the board as I tend to field more infantry companies for a big concentrated push.

Would you mind summarizing your pre-game strategy for your games? Also, I've mentioned to E&C that I think that the artillery company ought to be a core choice (maybe even a 0-1 choice), thoughts on whether or not that would have impacted your list selection?

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Honda

"Remember Taros? We do"

- 23rd Elysian Drop Regiment

Thanks for posting the batrep.  I know this is all about the DKoK, but could you give some feedback on how the Necron played?  How did the new Necron rule (operating as void shields) feel?  Did it makes things tougher for the Necrons?  Easier?  No change?  How about the Pylon?  Any thoughts?

While 235 points over doesn't seem like a lot, IMO it would have made a big difference in this game.  The Necron army would have had to gotten rid of one of the reinforced Phalanx, one of the Eques, or cut the Orb out and replaced it with a Warbarque or other unit.  That would have been a huge drop in firepower no matter what and could have resulted in 8 activations - three less than DKoK.

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author of Syncing Forward and other stories...

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I've got my Milkbone underwear on.

Excellent batreps.

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

My initial impression was also to go with gun emplacements, but when I properly thought it through I changed my position and think the benefits of trojans are better, Ryan/Man of Kent is of the same opinion too. Counter-artillery can often kill one a 3 unit formation and therefore break it, but if you have a 6 strong formation that gets harder. Plus, as much as it's totally not what makes sense for the units to be doing background or realism-wise, late game dashes with them may get them into the opponents half or possibly contest/capture objectives. AA platforms also benefit from being able to 'flak rush'.

I was playing Marines and Necrons, both who could appear at will and choose their targets. I haven't really worked out best tactics against that sort of thing and didn't have much more of a plan that to try and arrange decent defensive positions, sit back, artillery and react to stuff. I screwed up deployment in the 5k game though; I'd not thought out where things would go and left spaces and so by the end was having to put things in inopportune places as there was no deployment zone not within 5cm of friends left and I think I did actually have to intermingle 1-2 formations.


I may take an artillery company in a 5k game, I'd consider it as perhaps a possibility in a 4k game, but it'd probably be unlikely, never in a 3k game; I'd rather spend the points elsewhere and/or have more activations.

Having recently realised Stormswords can be taken in a company I may try out that; as many BPs for cheaper and tougher with disrupt, ignore cover and secondary weapons to boot

I'll likely always max out on Death Rider formations too for a bit more mobile assault punch, but I know you don't use them so much yourself. Hopefully the sign of a good list is that it can be played in different directions as individual's preferences prefer, rather than there being just one competitive build style that stands out and generally used.

This was my first game against Necrons, ever, so I can't compare or comment that well really sorry. My opponent had played 1-2 games with card cut out Necrons, but I his grasp of rules and competitive strategies is somewhat shaky e.g. he's been playing that if a model assaults it has to charge into base contact with it's target formation if possible. No wonder his IG had been getting mauled by his opponents ground based SMs!  

The Pylon change did make a difference in that my Marauder (the Krieg list has a single 2DC WE version rather than a formation of 2 weaker ones) was damaged but not killed as it likely would have been before. I was also much more cavalier with it in that first strike than I would otherwise have been. As I've said previously I'm against taking the Pylon down to TK1 and think TK(D2) would be a better compromise, but this is based on theorising and background rather than game experience really.

Agreed. Just to make sure I only actually picked up on it after the game when I was typing the list up to post here. I didn't actually fully check all the individual costs fully but adding up the points he listed for all the units revealed the total he'd written was incorrect. He must have added it up wrong by mistake; I know he wouldn't have gone over deliberately. I left him to his own devices making the list - I'm not that familiar with it myself, but he did have a bit of a lowish number of activations for my liking. Not sure if he's appreciated the full benefits of high activation lists yet.



Well... I have done proper battle reports in the past with detail and photos and these weren't that    

Hopefully of some little use/interest anyway though and I will do more proper reports in time.

I actually tend to trust the "after game thoughts" rather than a direct play-by-play of a game, as rather than having a single example to draw some conclusions from, you have more hollisitic opinions.

Thus, this "report" is useful.

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter