Morning guys,
I had my first practice game last night (And club escalation league game) vs a Necron Decurion list, commanded by a tournament regular, so I was expecting a tough game.
My opponents list:
Overlord - Flamer thingy
3x10 Warriors in Ghostarks
5 Immortals in Nightscythe
3x3 Tomb Blades - 3+ Save, Ignore cover and str6 blast weapon
3x5 Deathmarks
We played Dawn of War, Big Guns (4 objectives)
I won the roll for sides, deploying on the side with 2 objectives on, the other 2 objectives were in the centre of the table.
Chris won the roll for choice of turns, and set about deploying in a line with 3 Ghostarks and 3 units of Tomb Blades. Deathmarks in deep strike reserve, the Immortals and Overlord in the flyer.
I deployed in a blob just of centre towards the right flank (where 3/4 were placed) with the 2 Black Knights out front, the rest behind the screen of 3+ re-roll jink!
scouts in reserve.
Turn1:
I didn't bother to seize or scout, I wanted the jump on objectives and I think I can weather the fire, Necrons have pretty limited shooting, so didn't scout to try for a turn1 charge...
Chris then starts to unload the str6 blasts with ignore cover into the Wolfstar.. my saves are pretty hot it takes all the Tomb Blades to kill them (I spaced out pretty well.. but totally forgot they had ignore cover!! lucky escape!), the Warriors and Arks did little, maybe a wound on Azrael and the Wolf Guard Battle Leader (WGBL).
My turn and the Wolf Star moves into midfield, casts Invisibility, Iron Arm and Prescience. I'm 11" away, thanks to the +3 charge Warlord Trait, I only need an 8 on the dice to assault the Ghostark in front of me, but only get a 7...
Turn2:
Chris gets all his reserves on, I've left a gap behind the Wolfstar with Tiggy towards he back, with the Banner bearer left behind him, this is bait.. Chris doesn't take it and tries to land all 3 squads of Deathmarks on my left, 1 scatters up towards his deployment zone, another goes down towards mine and the final squad lands where he wanted, the Nightscythe comes on using clever positioning so that it can only hit a Librarian from the conclave.
Invisibility is clutch, I take a wound on an Iron Priest and that was about it..
My turn and both the scout squads come on from reserve, I put them bottom right, away from Chris's forces and near an objective.
The Wolf Star moves up, casts the same powers as last time then, lines up a multi charge of 2 units of Deathmarks, a unit of Tomb Blades and the Ghostark infront of the squad, the Star smashes them all!!! In a hail of Str9 AP1/2 and Str5 Ap2 Axe, Hammer and Servo Arm attacks. Brutal.
Turn3:
Chris continue to skirt around the edges of the table turbo boosting the tomb blades behind the star, near the scout squads, the surviving Deathmark squad kills a couple of Scouts from one squad. The rest of the shooting is at max range from the Arks and Warriors and Nightscythe, they do little again, I think Tiggy takes a wound from clever positioning to get around the tanking WGBL.
My turn3 and I need to wipe out the tomb blades before them become too much of problem, so the Wolf Star strings from the Warriors that fell out the Ghostark last turn in Chris's deployment zone and string all the way across to one unit of Tomb Blades on my board edge, after casting the same powers are before, the multi charge is pulled off, both squads are wiped out to man.
Turn4:
Chris moves his remaining forces in such away to target the scouts, while staying out of range as much as possible to the Wolfstar. Shooting sees both Scout squads dead, which could cause an issue in the final turns when it comes down to objectives. Tiggy also takes a wound as the Star is so stretched I cannot protect him enough!
My turn 4 and I need to kill what I can before positioning for objectives, moving up two levels of ruin goes a Iron Priest with a few Cyberwolves going after Deathmarks, chasing the Tomb Blades go a few more models from the star, but I use this turn to mainly bunch up the star, I could have tried a risky 8" charge to a Ghostark (5" after the warlord trait) but elected to stay safe.
The multi charge goes a little wrong, I roll an 11 on the dice, so have to move 14" this pulls most of the infantry characters in the star up a level on a ruin, which could seriously hamper chances of getting them near objectives next turn... both the Deathmarks and Tomb Blades are killed! I get a 2" on the consolidation.. so the infantry cannot get down the level..
Turn5:
Chris moves up with both remaining Ghostarks onto objectives and jumps the Warriors out, the Warriors then circle the Arks, meaning if the game ends, he's either got both of those objectives, or they will at least be contested I assault the Warrior squads. The Immortals and Overlord jump out the Nightscythe and separate, so I have to charge effectively two different units!
I'm currently not on any objectives, so they have to be priority, there is one objective thats not under Chris's command, so the DA libby splits and grabs that, the Star then gets a 4" move for the infantry which is enough to get them down the lvl in the ruin, so the Star spreads, I only get Invis off on 2/5 casting on a 2+... and Chris denies it with 3 dice haha!! Luckily.. that didn't happen earlier in the game!
I have to do a weird charge around the Immortal block to the Overlord with 2 Cyberwolves, the rest of the Star moves into Warriors and the Immortals a second and tertiary targets. The charge goes well. Cyberwolves engage the Overlord and the rest of the squad gets into there intended targets. All but the Overlord is killed, it does run however and gets away!
So if the game ends, I'm in control of 2 objectives, 1 is contested and Chris has the 4th.
The game goes to turn6 and Chris calls it, we roll to see if there is a turn7 at which point Chris calls it a tabling which matters for the league, but it doesn't. We say the Star splits up and kills the Overlord and Ghostark, I could argue I would go for the Warriors on the other objective as well, but there is no point, I've won, 3-1 on objectives and I have all 3 secondaries (Warlord, Line Breaker and Firstblood).
Key points:
Invisibility is everything to this star! Without it, against certain armies, the Star will just fall over.. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about this.. Tiggy is a must!
The Inquisitor was clutch, Rad Grenades were dirty, reducing the toughness of Necrons allowing Tiggy and Azrael to also reduce the reanimation protocols of the decurion was pivotal at times. Psychotroke grenades were fun.. but not the army to test them against as Necrons were folding in combat without them. Against combat armies and Invisible Deathstars, the Psychotroke could be epic!
The Infantry Characters were slow, they do slow my Star down, I does take game management to stop them from bogging the Star down in cover etc, luckily I'm used to playing around this with the Beastpack, however I would love a few more Cyberwolves to string back to the slower parts of the Star, but cannot find a reasonable way of doing this at 1500pts.
Keeping the Conclave within 12" is also a lot more difficult than I imagined, I wanted the Axe/Staff attacks from the Librarians/Tiggy, but ended up having to use them to bridge silly gaps between charges just to keep coherency and within 12". This leaves them vulnerable to sniping in the enemies next turn.. Something to be watchful about.
Scouts are nothing short of a tax.. I think most opponents will be removing them as soon as they step on the table. Wish I had the points for a Rhino and Tac Marines.. at 1500pts, points are too tight!
Being stuck up a level on a ruin with the infantry part of the Star was something to try to avoid in future.. I could have moved them in a difference direction, but the thought hadn't even crossed my mind..
More of a note to self.. look out for Ignore cover.. not sure what else I could have done however, but the tanking part of the Ravenwing Command squad was hung out to dry in that game against ignore cover Tomb Blades...
I'm hoping I'll have one more game before the GT on saturday.. I'll be facing off against a Cent Star with 2 Dreadknights I believe..
No list changes from the list above! At this stage, I cannot think of a way to improve it!
Oh and this is 3 wins out of 3 games in the league!
Last game to go in a couple of weeks!
