Matt came over on Saturday and we managed to get 2 games of Epic in with our new armies.
Matt's trialling the Necrons for the campaign and this is my 3rd (and 4th) game with the new Iron Warriors list.
I used the same army list for both games (the 2nd game was a little rushed and it was easier to stick with the same list).
Matt used 2 different builds (I'll let him post his armies).
My list:
The board for the first game (showing the simple deployment for the Necrons). I had the higher Strategy Rating so I picked corners (as far away as possible from the Abattoir).
Iron Warrior deployment (castle of doom in readiness for the teleporting army of
more doom).
Here's what we left off the table to teleport in during the game.
The 3 Monolith formation teleport in before turn 1 behind trees for cover. I kept my Terminators off-board to use in a later turn.
I won the strategy roll and put the Ravager and Armoured company on overwatch.
The attack begins as the Necrons try to remove the scout screen around the main force. Monoliths double move and shoot at the Chosen Chaos marines, preparing them for an engagment. Matt retained and an Infantry Phalanx pours out of a portal to conduct a firefight engament. The Chosen marines fire their overwatch (they garrisoned at the beginning of the game).
After the engagement, the Infantry Phalanx exited through an unused Monolith portal.
The chaos force placed an Iron Warrior company on overwatch. My hope was to hit the assaulting infantry phalanxes as hard as possible on turn one and then try and take the Monoliths out on turn 2.
With the scout screen almost gone, the next Monolith formation glided over the trees and finished it off. An Infantry Phalanx entered the board through a Monolith and attacked the intermingled Decimators. The armoured company fires it's overwatch but the Necrons armour saves were too good.
The reinforced armour of the super-heavy tanks holds true (one one point of damage got through from 8 hits) and the tanks win the fire fight. The Infantry Phalanx breaks and heads back through a Monolith portal.
The damaged Decimator sustains fire on the nearest Monolith formation.
The last Monolith formation heads into the fight and shoots at an Iron Warrior company, placing a blast marker. Retaining, a large Infantry Phalanx emerge from a Monolith and engage the Decimator and an Iron Warriors company in an intermingled assault. The Ravager fired it's Overwatch and took a chunk out of the Phalanx.The Chaos force would proably have won the engagment except for a critical hit on the Decimator which took it out and killed another couple of units from the Iron Warriors company. It ended up being a big win for the Necrons and a single stand of Chaos marines was all that was left.
The Necron Abattoir moved as fast as it could towards the enemy and the Pylon goes on overwatch.
End of turn 1 - The Iron Warriors rally everything.
I think (not sure though) that 2 of the Necron Infantry phalanxes failed to rally.
Turn 2.
No teleports.
Necrons win the stategy roll.
A Monolith formation sustains fire on the Iron Warrior company and places a blast marker. Matt retains and sends the only unbroken Infantry phalanx to engage the same company.
The reinforced armour of the Land Raiders is too strong and the Necron attack is beaten. The Necron phalanx retreats back into a Monolith portal.
The Iron Warrior company engages a Monolith formation in a firefight and wins, killing a Monolith and an Obelisk.
Retaining, the Ravager titan moves forward to fire on the broken Monoliths and wipes them out.
A monolith formation engages the Decimator but is beaten by the super-heavy tank.
The Armoured company of Predators doubles around the last unbroken Monolith formation and fires killing a Monolith and an Obelisk - breaking them.
The Decimator advances and attacks a broken Monolith phalanx for no damage.
The lone surving Chaos Marine stand from the other Iron Warrior compnay marches forward to help claim objectives in the 3rd turn.
The Abattoir doubles forward again and is nearly into the action!
End of turn 2 - the Necrons rally a Monolith Phalanx and have 2 Infantry Phalanxes usable for turn 3.
The Iron Warriors clear all their blast markers.
Turn 3.
Matt teleported in a Monolith formation.
I teleported in my Terminators near Matt's blitz and Pylon (rolling 3 6's on 7 dice to give them 3 blast markers...D'oh!).
*edit - seems we've been playing this wrong for years, it's supposed to be 1's not 6's that give blast markers!
Strategy roll goes to the Necrons.
First up, the Monolith formation rose up over the trees and shot at the Armoured company Predators. They followed this up with a fire fight engagement from one of the 2 unbroken Infantry Phalanxes. The Necrons also brought in the remaining Iron Warrior stand from the formation that was broken in the first turn (they were just intermingled). The Necrons won the engagement, killing the chaos Marine stand and wiping out the Predators.
My Terminators assault the Pylon and destroy it, losing the Obliterator stand in the process. They consolidate onto the Necron Blitz objective and are 1 blast marker off breaking.
I retained the initiative and marched the Iron Warriors company to claim the 2 Take and Hold objectives in the Necron half of the board. I couldn't transport all 7 infantry stands so I had to leave 1 behind (it's removed from the game and the formation takes an extra blast marker).
Matt marshalled his remaining Infantry phalanx onto the board to contest one of the Take and Hold objectives. Using the Necron special ability, they were able to bring 3 stands of infantry back from the dead!
The Decimator advanced and fired at the contesting Necron Infantry phalanx, killing 3 stands and breaking them. There were no portals available so they moved into the trees.
I had a bit of a problem at this point. I had my ravager titan left and Matt had his Abattoir. The Abattoir was claiming 2 objectives on my half of the board (giving Matt a Take and Hold victory goal) whilst I had 2 victory goals (Blitz & Take and Hold). Matt could easily move the Abattoir to deny me the Take and Hold victory goal. I could move the Ravager to try and block the Necron war engine of doom from doing that but I'd have to march to do it. In the end, I decided to double the Ravager towards the Abattoir and shoot at it, placing a blast marker. This would give Matt a 1/6 chance of failling to activate the Abattoir and also make it a little harder for the Necron engine to win an engagement.
Of course, what this really did was give Matt a great chance to not only claim the Take and Hold victory Goal but also destroy my titan giving him the Break Their Spirit Victory Goal aswell... D'oh!
The Abattoir made it's activation roll and charged into the Ravager. The Abattoir has 8 normal close combat attacks plus a handful of extra attacks, some of which are Titan Killing all hitting on 2's...
This wasn't going to be pretty.
The dice were rolled and after all the damage was worked out, the Ravager still had 1 point of Damage Capacity left...
Being a Fearless war engine, the outcome of the engagment made no difference at that point (fearless formations are immune to hack-down). Matt won the engagement and sent the Ravager running away. The Abattoir consolidated back onto the 2 objectives and secured the Take and Hold victory goal.
I'd love to say my plan worked but I wasn't thinking straight when I moved the Ravager.
This left the Iron Warriors with a 2-1 win, woo hoo!
Another great game with a good friend.
I'll add a write-up for the second game as soon as I can.
Cheers,
Steve.
