Hopefully this will be the first installment of a range of NetEpic (Version 3,1) battlerports form the cold north.

It has been some time since I got back to NetEpic. In that period I’ve done some painting and modeling, but very little gaming. Now, as most of my projects are drawing to an end, I’m looking to get some games going. I’ve put together no less than eight 4000 points armies that I’ll be putting through a cup style tournament.

I’ve also fiddled a bit with the rules, and some new units will get their tabletop debut…

The eight armies are as follows:

Necrons
Space Marines
Space Wolves
Tau
IG – battlegroup Gorgon
IG – battlegroup Armageddon
Tech Guard
Eldar (Iyanden)

Tournament set up:
(The first round was drawn, with the following match ups:))

1.) Space Marines VS Necrons
2.) Space Wolves VS Tau
3.) IG VS IG
4.) TG VS Eldar
(The games might not be played in that order)

Semi Finals
a.) Winner Game 1 VS Winner Game 3
b.) Winner Game 2 VS Winner Game 4

Final
Winner Game a VS Winner Game b

So hopefully there will be 7 interesting battlereports coming up over the next X – moths…(I promise pictures). Even if it is a tournament style setup, these are by no means competitive games, thus the armies will probably not be optimized for getting results.


First one out:

NECRONS vs SPACE MARINES 4K

NECRON ARMY LIST



Company:
Necron Raider Cube X 2
Necron Assault Cube

Special:
Anihilator Battle fortress
Necron Numbercruncher

Free:
Necron Mastermind Command Sphere

Support:
Necron Immortals Circuit
Necron Nullify Missile Launcher
Necron Nemesis tank circuit
Necron Cubemaster IFV Circuit
Necron Conquror super heavy tank

Total 4050 pts

These are the Slann Necrons developed by the NetEpic discussion forum back in times far gone. At the time, we did extensive playtesting on these and the other Slann units. But for me, Necrons always felt like a separate army, and I quickly developed it as such. For a period I guess it was my favorite army. However, they have been packed away for far too long gathering the dust of time.

I guess It’s about time to see if they still have some punch in those Gauss weapons!

The models have been recovered (mostly Battletech minis), however the rules and playtesting notes have vanished for all eternity. So I’ve needed to spend some time redeveloping the rules based on the information I’ve been able to retain. I’ve also added a new unit - The Mastermind Command Sphere, which is basically a mandatory command and control hub that adds to the robotic nature of the Necrons, adding certain bonuses (Targeting, Warp Jump, Command and Initiative bonuses) that are lost or turned to penalties if the command sphere is destroyed.

SPACE MARINE ARMY LIST



Company:
Land Raider Company
Battle Company
Tactical Company

Special:
Razorback transport Det.
Fellblade Super Heavy Tank
Reaver Titan
(Gatling Blaster, Turbo Laser Destructor , Multipple Rocket Launcher)

Support:
Terminator Detachment
Land Speeder squadron
Whirlwind Squadron

Total 3985 points

This is one of my newer armies. It was created in a marriage of my old bits box and proxies, mainly from Spartan Games. I’ve added some Fellblades. They are special units, to mimic their rarity in the 41’st millennium. But other than that, it is a straight forward basic space marine army. I’m toying with the chapter name – Warp Rangers…

Anyhow, stay tuned for the action (report wil follow sometime later tonight/tomorrow)

Yes! This sound great! Can't wait to see the reports!

Oh, and nice minis btw!

_________________
Clickable links for more Epic goodness:

Life of Die Channel including Epic Podcasts and Battle Reports

Epic 40K Players Page on Facebook
Net Epic Evolution Rules
Net Epic War! Campaign Rules

TURN ONE

SETUP:

Spacemarines set up along the left side of the table, with the landspeeders on one flank and some landraders and the fellbled supporting the Titan on the other flank. Infantry concentrating in the center where the VP's are concentrated.

Necron placing their armour - Nemesis, Anihilator, Conquror oposite the imperial titan, with the Cubemaster spearheading the advance in the center, Immortals and the Numbercruncher placed on the far end of the other flank.

Necrons won the initaitive, and in a bold move the Numbercruncher and the immortals warp jumped far up the Necrons right flank capturing a objective close to the imperial setup sone. This was a risky and bold move with a hefty -3 penalty to the warpe jump due to the range of the jump. But wit the collective bonuses of the immortals and the numbercruncher no units was lost in the warp.

This put pressure on the Space Marines and forcing their hand. They quickly had to position forces to deal with the potenital threath on their flank.



Meanwhile n the other flank a firefight broke out on the other flank. The Anihilator advance and fired on the Fellblade with it's frightening Coversion beamer Cannon but the shots missed. The Reaver returned fire destroying the Conversion cannon. Supporting Landraiders also hit home damaging the Anihilators engine and in a spectacular BOOM it went up in flames as it nanotech scarabs where unable to repair the damage done by the imperials. The Necrons hit back killing a few LandRaiders.

In the center the Necrons advanced their infantry, cubemasters clearing the way, killing off a detachment of marines and a couple of terminators. Imperials fired back destroying 2 of the cubmasters, only to se them self repair at the end of the turn.





Back on the Necron right flank the combined fire of a Landraider detachment, Razorbacks and IG tacticals killed off all the Immortals and the Numbercruncher, all less one not making the repairroll. Just enough to keep the VP contested.

END OF TURN ONE

NECRONS 20
SPACE MARINES 19

TURN TWO

(and I got caught up in the action forgetting to take pictures...)



Anyhow - Necrons won initiative again, and continued to push on marching their raider infantry up the center of the table, while the Assault Warriors attacked and won 2 more VPs (In the Woods and buildings defended by Devestators in the middle of the board).

Assault marines swooped forward to attack the menacing Cubemasters in the centre - destroying them all! But taking heavy casualities. The Battlecompany broke, but the morale held - so no fallback (puh). The Spacemarines, their lines thinning, quickly moved their landsppeders from the flank and into the centre of the bord to support the defence there.

The lone Immortal caught out of bounds on the Necron right flank surpricingly survived the rain of fire from the Space Marines, actually killing another Land Raider! But it decided to phase out in the end phase (Necron house rule - they do not test for morale when broken, but must make a phase out save in the end phase of the next turn - phasing out on a roll of 1 or 2 on 1d6.)

On the other end the Reaver and its entourage of the Fellblade and Landraiders continued to shoot up the Necron Armour, destroying the Conquror and damaging a Nemesis (But it selfrepaired...)




END OF TURN TWO
NECRONS 34
SPACE MARINES 31

TURN THREE

The Space Marines dug in and braced for impact as the robots marched on. Bringing the firepower of both the Titan and the Fellblade towards the centre, the Imperials hit the oncoming waves of Necrons with everthing they had. The robots wavered under the relentlees downpour of enemy fire, but when the dust setteled they started to repair again... Then rose and marched on again.

Firing back, the Necrons quickly stripped the Titan of its shields, destroying the barrage weapon and nearly hitting the reactor in the process. (That was quite unnerving how quickly they could have killed the Titan)



Even destroying the Necron Mastermind (Thus forcing a phase out test from all broken Necron units) did not stop the Necrons from continuing their attack, pushing home and securing enough VP's to win the day.

Looking at the tabletop, the Imperials have more troops left and could quite easily push the Necrons back, If the game would last for another turn. But the Necrons have secured 6 out of 8 VPs and even though they only hang on to a couple of these with a single stand, it's enough to secure the victory. I guess it is a lesson in keeping an eye on the target...

END OF TURN THREE
NECRONS 47
SPACE MARINES 39

NECRON VICTORY

PUH - the Necrons won the day, but it was quite close. The lighting is a bit poor and the pictures are getting grainy so sorry that there are noe more shots of the battle.Interesting game actually. The Imperials got passified, and let the Necrons dictate the ebb and flow of the battle, thats never a good idea...

Comments are welcome

Interesting report, especially since I don't have any Necrons and haven't seen them in action.

I've found it crucial to keep my eye on objectives, if you don't at least hold on to three the game is very difficult to win.

The one other point I'd raise is about the reactor. You may be interested to know that we've agreed here to remove all front reactors from Titans, replacing them with a leg location. You should find that this will make your Titans a little less brittle.

Thanks for sharing!

_________________
Clickable links for more Epic goodness:

Life of Die Channel including Epic Podcasts and Battle Reports

Epic 40K Players Page on Facebook
Net Epic Evolution Rules
Net Epic War! Campaign Rules

Thank you!

In NetEpic Gold the Necrons have been GW’ified so this list is actually redundant. But I’ve spent too much time playtesting and fiddeling with the rules to let it go.

I would say that it was a technical Necron victory. The SM really hurt them in the last turn, but they made the necessary repair/phase out saves clinging on to a couple of VP’s by a single stand.

The reactor miss was a side shot actually, as the reaver turned to pour fire into the centre of the battlefield it exposed its flank to the Nemesis tanks on the Necron left. A risky move, but it had all its shields up. However, a squad of Necron Raiders with five 4+/-1 attacks kan down those shields rather quickly...

Now the Necrons will face an IG army next, that will be a diffrent challenge.

You can go an eternity without getting an opportunity to hit the tabletop, then, just like the bus, two comes along (almost) at once… Go figure?

Anyways, here is the second installment of the Winter War of 2014/15

An Iyanden strike-force has appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, on a knightworld in the Ultima Segmentum, and the local Baron has mustered his forces to face this potent alien threat. Who will remain victorious when the last die has been cast?

TG vs ELDAR 4K

TECH GUARD



Company:
Paladin household X 2
Mechanized Company

Special:
Adeptus Mechanicus
Baron
Warlord Titan
(Turbolaser X 2, Gatling Gun, Volcanocannon)

Support:
Crusader detachment
Castellan detachment
Basilisk battery

Total

Total 3960 points

This is one of my oldest Armies. It has not been fielded in eons. Back in the day, when minis was scarce and proxies both hard to come by and expensive for a student, I turned to WH40K for minis when I wanted to expand my Epic collection. BTW I still believe that WH40k terminators make excellent Knight proxies.

The desire to create a knight army was born reading an excellent battle-report on the old NetEpic site. I think it was part of a larger chaos uprising series of reports. But it had just a splendid narrative and I remember reading it over, and over, and over again. 

So now it’s time to bring the might Knights of the Imperium back from their long hiatus, I (literary) had to dust of the Warlord titan, and do some necessary repairs to get it ready for action. 





ELDAR



Company
Eldar Warhost
Wind Rider Host
Spirit Host*

Free
Avatar
Iyanden Ghost Warriors

Special
Warlock w Falcon

Support
Dark Reapers
Cobra
Scorpion
Storm Serpent
Warp Hunter
Wave Serpent
Howling Banshees
Dire Avengers
War Walkers
Vibro Cannons

Total 3975 points

Eldar. The very best there is. When you absolutely, positively got to kill every MF on the table, accept no substitutes.

Well that’s at least how I feel about the Eldar. Whenever I really want to win a game they are my weapon of choice. They do however have a steep learning curve as I found out back in the day. However, in the end it was they who put a stop to the winning streak of those pesky Slann 

The list above is based on an army that was recently put to the test against the Tau and came out victorious. It’s not a particularly strong list (Too many support cards), and as the only army in the winter war setup without any praetorians or titans. It’ll be interesting to see how this affects them, if I had any revenant scout titans I would probably have put them in there somewhere. (Getting Revenants is on my shortlist  ).

Now, let us see how this unfolds…
(More will follow tomorrow, and with daylight hopefully some better quality shots from my Iphone)

TURN ONE

Setup

It was decided to play along, rather than across the table - which in hindsight probably was quite unlucky for the... Woops, almost spoild the result there - lets say one side probably did not benefit from this change.

Here are the armies set up ready to go:



Eldar placed most of the windrider host on their right, with the spirit host and guardians made up the center, the left was sparsley populated. The knight on the other hand packed theri army across the field. With the Titan and a Paladin household making up the center and tech guard infantry and the other paladins on the flanks. The Crusaders and Castellans was placed behind the Paladins and the Basilisks towards the back. (An error was made with regards to the TG infantry command structure (I did not remeber that it applied to TG aswell ) Anyhow, the TG was allowed to reposition the command unit as to keep within the rules.

TG won the initiative, and an all out order to avance was given.The knights marched forward, but they lacked space for manouvrability and sort of got caught in traffic. The Eldar on the other hand had space, but was carefull when moving forward making sure to take advantage of the terrain.

at the end of the movement phase this was the situation on the board:



Then the ruckus began, The TG opened fire with thweir artillery. Eldar replied with a couple of carefully placed Eldritch storms both disrupting the TG line and adding more cover. The Titan was none the less able to dig into the eldar army, killing 2 warwalkers, 2 Wypers and 3 Guardian stands. The knights also hit the Eldar Storm Serpent, but the engine of vaul escaped by the means of both holofield and solid armour. The other eldar superheavies found that they were placed to far back to make any influence on the battle, and would need to move forvard in the next turn.In all it was quite uneventfull, with thw armies manuvering for best position in the next turn.

End of Turn One

TG 17
ELDAR 20

TURN TWO

The Knights won initative again in the second turn.

However, the Eldar opened the orders phace by fiering the Waveserpents shields at the center of the Knights line, and chaos ensued. THen the Eldar sprung their trap, from out of cover jet bikes swooped forward swarming on the disrupted Knights. New Eldrich storms appeared wrecking further chaos, from the Storm Serpent on the Eldar flank, Vibro Cannons and Dire Avengers advanced beeing able to target the entire lenght of the TG line. The Eldar avatar marched on, throwing its spear at the Baron, but missing. Howling Banshees joined the fray in the centre of the board, killing some dazed and confused knights.



The Titan tried to retaliate, but was sadly unsucsessfull. However it got the attention of the Eldar. The Dark Reapers opened up scoring 6 hits, stripping the shields of the titan. Then the rapid fiering scorpion first blew of the right weapon of the titan damaging the reactor in the process, it's second shot penetrating the reacto, makinf the Titan go BOOM .

It was a slaughter - even though the Knights was able to break the Windriders and several detachments decided to fall back the Knights was in shambles at the end of the turn.

The Baron had to call retreat ant the remaining knights (Not many) fled the field in disarray and disgrace.

END OF TURN TWO
TG 24
ELDAR 50

Some shots:

Forgot this



Eldar Vibro Cannons and Dire Avengers exiting the Storm Serpent on the flank, staring down the lenght of the Knight Line.

I've been contemplating what went wrong for the knights, and it was ha whole lot. I think I need to go back and revisit this game at a later point. Between 6 quake cannons, the score no hits, mainly due to poor positioning.

Well, perhaps I should do some sort of loosers playoff also...

Am I the only one thinking those terminators look good as knights?

Well,

We had a little sidetreck here. I’ve been trying to introduce a colleague of mine to NetEpic and yesterday we had a little practice run.

Chaos (Khorne) vs IG (Battlegroup Gorgon) 3000 pts

Chaos Army list
Angron Primarch of the World Eaters (Reaper minis proxy)
Lord of Battles Daemon Engine (Cryx Warjack Proxy)
World Eaters Legion
Rhino Sqd
Predator Sqd
Vidicator Sqd
Whirlwind Battery
Beastmen Warband X 3
Chaos Dreadnought Sqd. X 3




Rules question – We have always considered the chaos marine legion as a company card eligible to its own support and special cards in addition to Angron’s support and special cards. Is this correct?

This chaos Army is under construction – I have kind of fallen in love with privateer press Cryx minis and will be using them to add to this force at a later date.

Anyhow here are the Hearons of the Empire for the day


Battlegroup Gorgon

Gorgon Assault group
Bike Company
Storm Hammer Super heavy company
Gorgon Assault Sqd
Basilisk Battery
Shadow Sword Super Heavy Tank
Leviatan
Warhound Titans (Twin Turbo Laser destructors and Twin Vulcan Mega Bolter)
Inquisitor
3x Commisars



This is a scaled down list of what will be used against the Battlegroup Armageddon later on in the winter wars series.


To save time, I had set up the table and the armies beforehand.
Looking from the Chaos end of the board they had to their left a small forest close to their end, before the terrain opened up at the IG’s end of the table. In the center there were two small towns close to the Chaos line with some hills towards the IG’s end and finally on the Chaos right there were another forest and more hills on the IG’s side.



We did a walkthrough of the rules and decided to learn as we went along. My colleague chose Chaos, picked his reward cards and we were ready to go!

TURN 1
Chaos won initiative and his forces moved forward in a careful unKhornelike manner, keeping almost all his troops behind cover, even moving the Lord of battles behind some terrain to keep him safe! IG started up its heavy armour, and gorgons supported by Stormhammers rolled forward ever so slowly towards the Towns in the center. Warhounds and Leviathan rolling forward on the IG right, and bikes taking up cover in forward positions, ready to strike at the hart of the Chaos in the next turn. Some Chaos Marines actually struck into IG territory securing an objective deep on the IG’s end of the board. Not many targets presented itself to the IG, but they started pounding whatever they could, nibbling at the carefully hidden Chaos forces. Since Chaos had so effectively hidden their forces they were also unable to return fire effectively. Their few attempts was unsuccessful and at the end of the first turn IG had not lost any stands.

VP:
Chaos: 25
IG: 12

TURN 2
IG won Initiative, whit Chaos leading on points I was expecting the Lord of Battles to come storming forward. I was also expecting the full force of the Chaos Beastmen to storm forward and attack the IG in the center. But it did not happen. The Chaos continued its careful approach. I chose a more aggressive tactic and rolled the Gorgons into the center of town, engaging the forward positioned Marines. 2 detachments of bikes swarmed out from my left flank attacking the far right of the chaos line. Wherever some chaos force showed its face it was hit with imperial fire. The close combat in the city was a draw. End of turn two the tide was turning.



VP:
Chaos: 15
IG: 29

TURN3
Chaos won initiative. Sensing that the tide of the battle was turning against them, Chaos came roaring forward led by both Angron and the Lord of Battle. They hit the IG line hard, but this is where I think IG often excels, taking on assaults like this. They have the numbers, and defensive fire can be murder… Still most IG units were broken at the end of the turn, but their morale held!!! Chaos was exhausted and when Angron went down in a hail of Vulcan Megabolter fire. They lost their hart for battle and fled the field.



VP:
Chaos: 25
IG: 43

Nice game. The mechanics was a bit too much for my colleague to digest over a single session. Still I think he enjoyed our afternoon, and hopefulle we can get him back for more at a later stage. (Although, I problably must play some LotR with him first ).

Time for a new installment in the Winter War saga, gaming opportunities do not come along too often these days so one need to grab those that do, even though the armies might still be kind of WIP’ish.

This time it is Tau vs Space wolves, two of my favorite armies – one form back in the day, one new.

Now, when I drew this matchup, my first thought was that this would be the most uneven game in the first round of the series. The Tau has not performed well in our first attempts, and the Wolves has a near perfect record here, so to be honest I thought that this would be a walk in the park for the sons of Russ.

Let’s see how it turned out shall we?

ARMIES:

Tau 4050 pts

Battlesuit Cadre 650
Recon Cadre 500
Hammerhead Cadre 600
Tau Hunter Cadre 750

Manta Missile Destroyer 550
Shas'o commander 150

Stingray Gunships 200
Riptide Battlesuits 350
Stealtsuits *2 300



Back in the day when GW released Tau for WH40K, I was one of the first attempting to write NetEpic rules for the Tau. They never became official though, and as you know when the nefarious 4th edition revision happened we took a step back from the official rules staying put - to this day, with the 3rd ed.

So when I picked up Tau again it was natural for me to continue developing the rules along the lines of those early attempts rather than picking up the gold version. Thus there are some differences.

The force organization of these Tau is basically the same as for Eldar, with 6 rather than 4 stands in the basic infantry formation and corresponding 3 rather than 2 transports. Battlesuits are 4 stands per unit though. Company cards are the usual 3 rather than 4 detachments + battlesuit command. Kroot are organized exactly as orks.

The stats are also somewhat different, with focus on range and TSM over Attack Dice and To Hit Roll (THR). On average THR is one worse, than in the NetEpic gold – as the combination of marker lights and above average THR stats seemed excessive to us. The goal has been to create a long- to midrange hard hitting army. For instance - the basic Firewarrior has 1 attack at 75 cm, hitting 5+ with a TSM of -1. Also the Crisis suits have been armed to fulfill more specific combat roles than the ones in NetEpic gold.


The battlesuit cadre consists of 1 Broadside and 2 crisis suit detachments of any type.

We have 3 types;
Soulstorms; Designed for an assault role and equipped with a burst cannon and a flamer.
Fireknife: The default configurations of Plasma Rifle and Missile pod.
Ionthunder: Close support Battlesuits, with rapid firing Cycling Ion Blasters and a barrage weapon.
I’ve chosen Soulstorms and Fireknifes for this battle.

For the Hammerheads I’ve chosen 1 detachment armed with railguns and 2 detachments with ion canons.

As for tactics, the Tau has not performed well in the games we have had with them so far. I’ve been contemplating why, and decided that I’ve been to offensive with them. They are quite brittle, and one must not waste their resources in vain. Also I’ve been spreading their limited forces over a too wide area. So concentration of force and fire trying to whittle away as much as possible of the oncoming Space Puppies before they are able to engage us in close combat.