Another battle Vs 'crons 1500 (Fluff list) - 1/6/2001

So my list:

 

Avatar                                                                         

10 Fire Dragons                                                          

10 Striking Scorpions                                                        

10 Howling Banshees                                             

10 Dire Avengers                                                         

10 Dire Avengers                                                         

6 Warp Spiders                                                            

6 Swooping Hawks                                                            

5 Shining Spears inc Exarch                                                             

5 Dark Reapers

 

Total 1495

 

My opponents’ list was something along the following lines
Necron Lord Warscythe, res orb

Necron Lord Warscythe, Solar Pulse

Pariahs (decent size 6-8)

Immortals (once again decent size 6-8)

10 warriors

10 warriors

10 warriors

3 wraiths

5 or so scarab swarm

5 or so scarab swarm

 

 

Board: 4x4

Mission: Annihilation

Deployment: Dawn of War

 

Deployment:

Winning the roll off I decided to go first deploying my first Dire Avenger squad behind the left building near the centre of the board, my Avatar behind it as well and my second DA squad in the woods.

 

My opponent deployed his res orb lord about centre of his board and 2 warrior squads in a long line; the lord was attached to the squad on my left.

 

Turn 1

My opponent failed to seize the initiative and so the rear of my forces had to leg it to catch up.

My Banshees entered on the left edge inside them was the warp spiders who teleported up behind the small square spire.

My Reapers came in the middle I didn’t want to risk too many turns of bad rolling to try and get them up into a building so they made their way into the crater in the middle (I figure forcing my opponent to make 4+ cover saves from turn 2 is better than risking them not shooting till turn 3 or 4).

On the right side of the Reapers were my Scorpions beside the crater. Next to them the Dragons and flying up behind the building on my right was the Hawks.
he Shining Spears turbo boosted to behind the building middle right.

 

The left Dire Avengers moved and fleeted to the top of the building, the Avatar and right Dire Avengers moved forward and took shots at the left warrior squad downing 3-4.

 

Bottom Turn 1

After WBB I think 1 warrior died.

My opponent turbo boosted his wraiths into the crater middle left and both scarabs across the middle in front of the forest and in front of the Avatar who was between the forest and the left building.

He brought the 3^rd warrior squad in behind the building in his DZ his Pariahs in the middle behind his other lord and warriors. The Immortals came in behind the right Warrior squad.

He cast Solar Pulse then shot at the Avatar the combined shooting took a wound or two off him.

 

Turn 2

My Banshees move up I figure a good fleet roll will see them into combat with the wraiths.

Warp Spiders teleport forward they are now between the spider and the centre-left building.

Scorpions move up keeping close to the Reapers in case the Wraiths survive and attack them.

Dragons stumble into the building.

Hawks fly over the building they are now between the right building and centre-right building.

I’m not sure what to do with the Shining Spears, I’m worried the Scarabs will tie my units up but at the same time I have a big gamble in mind, I fly them over the centre-right building and up in front of the 2 warrior squads in the middle.

 

Spiders and Reapers kill the wraiths.

Both DA squads shoot at the warriors w/ the lord maybe taking down 1-2.

Hawks shoot and assault the scarabs near the forest. I lost the combat but held.

Avatar shoots and assaults the scarabs in front of him. I was oddly worried about these units tying me up and being a hassle so I thought I would assault them on my own terms. I thought the Avatar would clear through them faster than he did and the Hawks role was to hold them up till the Scorpions got there.

Now for the big gamble, I did minimal shooting with the Shining Spears for fear of knocking down too many models to multi assault. This was a fairly big gamble, as I didn’t want to just throw away my Spears for another unit. So I charged both Warrior Squads I figured there was little chance all 5 would die and there’s no way Id lose on combat resolution so even if they didn’t break the warriors they’d prevent 20 odd gauss weapons coming my way. I killed something like 7 Necrons and only lost 2 in return from the Lords warscythe. Obviously winning the combat my opponent failed both Ld tests and the Shining Spears ran them down before flying away as far as the dice roll would let them.

 

Bottom of Turn 2

My opponent moved his remaining warrior squad up into the building in his DZ.

His Immortals and Pariahs who are now centre-right move towards the Shining Spears.

The Warriors shoot at my left Dire Avenger squad inflicting a couple of casualties.

The Immortals shoot at the Dire Avengers in the forest and I opt to go to ground with them – I'm a fluff player I didn’t want them dying! Besides I figure I can relieve the pressure next turn.

The Pariahs shoot at my Shining Spears killing the Exarch and one other. He’s just out of the Avatars bubble range and falls back outside of the Pariahs assault range and right into Fearless bubble range and he regroups immediately! How fortunate!

 

The Scarabs kill my Swooping Hawks – I think I lost 2 from Fearless wounds last turn. And consolidate.

 

Turn 3

My Banshees move up behind the middle-left building.

Spiders Jump over the building in between middle left building and the building in my opponents DZ in which the remaining warriors are hiding.

Dragons and Scorpions move forward The Shining Spear filled by Khaines’ blood lust heads straight back towards the Immortals.

 

Spiders and Dire Avengers in the building shoot the Warriors (DAs in the forest are still pinned).

Dragons shoot a couple of Scarabs not too many to keep them within range of the Scorpions.

Reapers take out a Pariah or two.

Scorpions charge the Scarabs that killed the Hawks. I think they held.

The Shining Spear shoots and charges the Immortals, winning the combat but they hold.

The Avatar kills his way through the Scarabs and consolidates forward.

 

Bottom of Turn 3

Warriors do some WBB rolls as they weren’t all wiped out, they have lost some numbers now though.

 

Warriors shoot the left Dire Avengers.

Pariahs shoot and charge the Avatar (Back in Feb I managed to buy a Rogue Trader era Avatar so I named him Babatar the baby Avatar) Babatar kills a few Pariahs and takes a wound in return dropping him to 1. High WS + T is good!
The Shining Spear is busy trying to kick Immortals whilst their attacks bounce harmlessly off the Jetbike.

The Scorpions finish off the Scarabs and head towards the Immortals though they are a little ways off.

 

Turn 4
Banshees move and fleet towards the Avatar and his combat.

Scorpions continue towards the Immortals the Dragons following behind.

 

Spiders and both DA squads shoot the Warriors dropping them to two.

The Reapers had no LOS.

 

Only 5 or so Banshees got into range of the combat I managed to kill several Pariahs.

The Immortals and Shining Spear continue to do nothing to each other.

 

Bottom of Turn 4

WBB brings the Warriors up to 6ish who shoot at the Warp Spiders killing 2, they fall back and land on-top of the building next to the left Dire Avengers.

 

The Immortals finally kill the Shining Spear.

Babatar and the girls kill the Pariahs, the Necron Lord makes some 4++ saves and he slays Babatar!

 

Turn 5

Spiders re-group.

Scorpions and Dragons move into range of the Immortals.

 

Dire Avengers and Spiders shoot the warriors dropping them to 1 I think.

Dragons opt to shoot a few shots at the Immortals to make sure the Scorpions are in charge range.

 

Scorpions charge the Immortals and kill them all.

The Necrons fade away….

Not the most interesting battle but the Shining Spears certainly shone brightly.

17/4/10 - Damn Im slow at painting.

So not much been doing and I've totally neglected the blog for a month and a bit. So what have I done since last post?

Ive painted 1 Banshee I have also repainted 2 Wave Serpents, the Fire Dragons is near complete and the Dire Avengers is getting there slowly.

I also played against the new IG codex finally it wasnt that bad really since watching this guy play and playing against him myself (even though his list isnt horribly scary) I have learnt that Straken is a demon and blob guard are hard to remove.

Oh also note to self : model/paint the Wave Serpent bases to match the squad theyre with, use cork board to make the lava bases on the Dragons serpent.

Wish I could get more games in more regularly oh and of course I missed BIV. Maybe next year >.>

I see your humility and raise you my gamer jerk-off over my fav unit.

So I was at the GW yesterday and I encountered something I haven't encountered in some time and that's the guy jerking off over his favorite unit to everyone who'll listen. I was watching one of my friends play his orks against another fellow playing Chaos SM when this other fellow came up to the table and started watching before long he starts commenting on the game such things as 'thats why I love Sisters of Battle they'd do this and that', it didn't take him long till he started saying how he would (and claiming has done to people before) tabled my friend on turn one. I guess he must be so skilled after seeing my friend play for 30 mins or so he's just claimed victory and already started the party, right?

So it's now I notice one of the guys Ive seen in the store both times Ive gone (this guy is new to the hobby) staring wide eyed in wonder at the claims this guy is making listening to stories about how his assassin destroys entire armies like they weren't there and no ones able to touch him in return and how his exorcist bags land raiders all day long. So looking at this new guy reminded me how I used to listen to such boasts people would make about their units, half amazed half in fear at such legendary killing machines and wondering how they could be legal. Now I just nod my head and smile, trying to ignore them whilst seeming polite.

So perhaps I've become so arrogant that I believe I can field a force that can deal with anything my opponent throws at me that I wont get tabled turn 1 and Ill have a good dig and make my opponent work for a win. The only other option is that I've lost so much interest in the hobby that I just don't care if your wild claims will own me but I don't think this is the case 'cause if it were why would I have made a blog?

An interesting thing is whilst listening to him carry on, when he mentioned how his Exorcist always takes out Land Raiders something didn't seem right so I turned and asked him how to which he responded "its ordnance; its direct fire ordnance. 2D6 Armour penetration." Now I know how Ordnance works but it didn't sink in till later that even being Ordnance at best he would still glance so I realized he's treating it like it was a melta weapon. Something still didn't seem right Ive never recalled it being used as Ordnance against me before so I had a brief look in the codex and found nothing to support it.

This Gamer Jerk Off isn't just limited to 40k, Ive heard it from Descent, MtG, Munchkin, D&D and I'm sure many others that Ive just forgotten about or ignored over time.

So whats did I learn this week? That Exorcists  are better than super heavy vehicles and that between 3 Exorcists and a Vindicare assassin they can table over 120 orks on turn one... oh wait.

In other news I have a game lined up with 'the new  guy' I believe his name was Matt and his Dark Angels I'm going to be using a footslogging list in which I test out the effectiveness of fortuned pinning Dire Avengers compared to counter assaulting Dire Avengers lead by an Autarch. You can see more on my discussion about that here.

And lastly off-topic I got some photos of my models I took off my sisters camera they didn't turn out so well but I was able to make a new temporary banner for my blog. I think it sort of looks like it belongs on some old game show really though. And crap.

New plan - Repaint all my wave serpents.

Ok so now I should be asleep but I have an amazing plan and need to write it down before I can sleep. I need an airbrush (and learn to be decent with it) then repaint all my wave serpents. Currently they are metalic green on top and metalic white/pearl underneath and its nowhere near as nice as it sounds and Im rather disappointed in them.

Now I can fix all this in one swift blow, air brushing! Do this for each individual squad for example the Dire Avengers wave serpents will be black undernearth and starting at the front working my way back bright blue to dark blue and on the fins at the front work in a strong wavey pattern receeding back up to the main hull and from there blend as normal. This shouldnt be too hard with a template. Just hope I can seperate the top of the hull from the bottom on all my serpents (and eventually falcons and fire prisms). This does cause a problem with the canopies though do I want to just spray them the same colour as the rest of the serpent, paint them all a uniform colour or try and keep them clear somehow?

Im really liking this idea granted it will mean Ill have 3-4 different coloured grav tanks on the field buuut its not like any of my aspect warriors have any theme that ties them together in the first place so I might as well continue with the bright colours (another option is do them in really bright fluro colours but I think this might just annoy me after the first 30 seconds). Also with the tanks being their respective colours it'll help people be able to identify them instead of having me point to each of the small rune transfers I put on the side. This could be a double edged sword as people will be able to identify my troops easier but I want a nice looking army and atm my grav tanks look like a joke.

With black being a dominant colour Ill be able to spray the weapons black and add a few little gem details and call it a day, oh how I hate painting weapons and gemstones!

Second week.

Ok so now into the second week of my blog and its going strong... its going!

My friend was sick last Thursday so he was unable to drive us into town for a game so no new batreps hopefully this coming Thursday will be different.

Ive had a couple people comment on my Avatar from 40K Online (its the same picture as my Howling Banshee in my previous post) so between this and the thrill of playing in a new store Ive managed to paint 2 more during the last week. I have to say the squad is looking quite nice together, Im not all that happy with the 2 Exarchs or Jain Zar buuut oh well.

I was looking at posting some before photos of my army so next weekend when I visit my sister I could take some more pictures with her camera to show the progress but seems I deleted all the original pics so guess Ill just have to have a WIP shot in a few days/week from now.

In the mean time heres a picture of one of my Fire Dragons the ones Ive painted after him dont have gloss over the fusion gun (see my attempt at painting dragon scales on it? Get it Fire Dragon...dragon scales... yea thats the connection). He also needs to be a bit darker I think, and I need to add more details to his eyes but this is the general look of my Dragons.

We need some colour!

So my blog looks rather dull atm so Ive asked one of my friends to help me make a fancy banner Im thinking a picture of my Farseer on the left and my Autarch on the right with different shades of green swirls and in the middle in white 'The Swordwind'.

Also in colour news I finished my first 6 man Fire Dragon squad they look fairly alright I suppose. Oh note to self I need to add more details to their eyes actually. Ill try and nick off with my friends camera and take some photos to add more colour to this place.

1500pts Vs Necrons 11-2-10

1500pts Vs. Necrons

Nightbringer
Necron Lord, Destroyer Body, War scythe, Resurrection Orb, Phylactery, 
10 Warriors
10 Warriors
4 Destroyers
4 Destroyers
2 Heavy Destroyers
Tomb Spyder

The board was 4x4 with 3 large L shaped ruined buildings, two in the centre and one on my left in my opponents’ deployment zone and there was two hills on opposite (diagonal) table edges.

Scenario – Annihilation, pitched battle.

I won the roll for first turn and decided to take it.

Deployment:
I deployed my Banshee/Farseer Serpent in the middle flanked by the Fire Dragon Serpent and the Shuriken Cannon Dire Avengers and I placed my two Lance Serpents on the hill to my right, due to the two buildings near the middle my whole force was relatively protected.

My opponent castled up to my left behind the ruined building in his DZ he had his Heavy Destroyers at the board edge next to them towards the middle was one squad of Destroyers towards the centre of the board, in front of those was his twenty warriors in-between them the Nightbringer the Lord was placed near the centre in front of the Destroyers. Off to my right a little isolated was the other squad of Destroyers and in front of them was the Tomb Spyder.

My opponent failed to seize the imitative and I went first.

Eldar Turn 1
I fortuned my Banshee Serpent and went flat out towards the very centre of the board in between the two buildings and behind that I went flat out with my Dragons and following that my Shuriken Dire Avengers. On my right I moved my Lance Serpents out 12” gaining LoS to the Tomb Spyder

Both Lance Serpents fired at the Spyder my opponent failed his cover save and it was killed off.

Necron Turn 1
The Lord moved out to intercept my Banshee Serpent the Nightbringer shuffled closer to the centre of the board as well.

Lots of shots were fired and I was forced to take 5 cover saves on my Banshee Serpent which thanks for Fortune I made them all.

The Necron Lord assaulted my Banshee Serpent but failed to hit it.

Eldar – 1 Necrons – 0

Eldar Turn 2
Currently looking at the board my opponent had a strong castle in the corner and with his warrior squad near the centre I wouldn’t have been able to move in close enough with my Aspects and feel safe at taking enough out in one blow without being destroyed in a counter attack so I decided to be bold and play risky.
I Doomed the Necron Warriors and I fortuned my Banshees who got out and moved up whilst their serpent with the Farseer still inside flew off to my left so he was behind the ruined building that was guarding his castle. My Dragons flew 12” and they piled out now within range to the Necron Lord whilst my Shuriken Dire Avengers went flat out to my left in case he tried to flank me. My two Lance Serpents both flew up 12”.

My Banshees were a long way out so I decided to Fleet them first, if I didn’t end up with a good enough roll I could always turn them around to assault the Necron Lord, thankfully they rolled a 6. Now with them in charge range I was able to proceed with the rest of my shooting phase. My eight Dragons unloaded onto the Necron Lord knocking him down. All my serpents that were able to shoot fired upon the Destroyers that were positioned to my right downing three.

My Banshees weren’t out of hot water yet, I didn’t really take into account how close the Nightbringer was, my girls charged in only just managing to keep from bringing the Nightbringer into CC (it was less than 1cm). He did his defenders react and found himself 2cm out of res orb range. Needless to say my Banshees decimated the Necron Warriors killing them all. Opps now they’re in the open with a Nightbringer, 10 Warriors and lots of AP 4 guns right next to them. I feel though this was the right thing to do there was no way my Dire Avengers would be able to put out enough shots to wipe the squad or even if they did they’d get WBB from the squad next to them I also didn’t want to get too close to all those gauss weapons. Not to mention it brought him 10 deaths closer to Phase Out. Looking back on this turn I had ridiculous amounts of luck first with the fleet, then not bringing the Nightbringer into the combat (he really was that close) and finally having all the Necron Warriors 2cm away from the Res Orb. I feel if any of these things had gone against me then the game would’ve played out differently.

Necron Turn 2
Res Orb + Phylactery brought the Necron Lord back to 3 wounds and one Destroyer made his WBB roll bringing the squad that was on my right back up to two models.

A little shuffling of his troops here and there not much moving.

Rapid Fire from the Necron Warriors only killed four Howling Banshees (after Fortune) a squad of Destroyers fired I went to ground and took one of the shots on my Exarch so in the end I lost another two. The rest of his shooting managed to shake one Serpent.

He assaulted my Banshees with his Nightbringer and my Dragons with his Lord. The Banshees failed their leadership roll for counter attack and the Exarch failed to wound they were all quickly eliminated.
The Necron Lord on the other hand took a fair few wounds but made all his saves though he only managed to kill two or so Fire Dragons who held their ground.

Eldar – 2 Necrons – 1

Eldar Turn 3
Now with the centre of the board opened up I was able to plan and execute my crippling blow. I doomed the large squad of Destroyers and then backed the Farseers Serpent out a bit to allow room for the Shuriken Dire Avengers to get closer (also it was the Farseers Serpent that got shaken).
So I moved my 2 Lance Serpents right up 12” and jumped one squad of Dire Avengers out the back (I couldn’t get the other squad out without exposing my Serpents rear armour so I opted against it). I moved my Shuriken Dire Avengers up so they were poking around the edge of the ruined building in my opponents DZ and I intended to move my now empty Dragons Serpent up to block the Nightbringers approach till I remembered he can move through things, so I just moved it closer to offer supporting fire.

In my shooting phase I let lose two Blade Storms onto the larger squad of Destroyers taking them all out, I fired all my shuriken serpents onto the smaller squad of Destroyers taking them all out as well. This opened a clear firing lane from my 2 lance Serpents onto the Heavy Destroyers, which killed both of them.

In the Assault phase the Fire Dragons lost another one or two but continued to fight on.

Necron Turn 3
The only things he had left on the field now were a squad of Necron Warriors the Nightbringer and the Lord. He decided to move and run the Warriors around the corner of the building to hide them whilst with the Nightbringer he flew through the ruined building and assaulted the Dire Avengers who had no way of hurting the Nightbringer so needless to say they lost the combat, they failed their moral test and fell back. The Fire Dragons once again held their ground!

Eldar - 5 Necrons – 2

Eldar Turn 4
Not much happened this turn I Doomed the Lord and Fortuned my Serpent and moved several Serpents Flat Out to gain better firing positions next turn. I had 2 Lance Serpents at the top and the Fire Dragon serpent up there as well and I moved my Farseer and my empty Shuriken Dire Avenger Serpent to the left.

Fired some Shuriken Cannons and a Lance at the Warriors who he elected to go to ground with to try and keep the Lance from whittling him down. I think he made all his saves but he was now pinned either way.

The Fire Dragons now with Doom on their side failed to do anything and were eventually killed.

Necron Turn 4
The Nightbringer follows after the Dire Avengers and he charges them they rally to meet the charge but are killed soon after.

Eldar – 5 Necrons – 3

Eldar Turn 5
This was more or less hammering the last nail into the coffin. I Doomed the Warrior squad and pummelled them with Bright Lances, Shuriken Cannons and a Blade Storm wiping the squad down to 1 guy

Necron Turn 5
If my opponent lost 3 or more models after WBB it would have phased him out, he was unable to make enough rolls and Phased Out.

I felt brimming with confidence after this battle until I started thinking deeper into it. On the table it looked very dominating for me on the last turn I still had 5 serpents 3 of which had something inside them but using kill points my opponent was only 2 kills behind so it was a lot closer than it seemed. Also as I mentioned in the Battle Report if the Banshees hadn’t have been so lucky, had the Warriors been in Res Orb range or if the Banshees didn’t make the fleet roll or worse still if the Nightbringer had been brought into the combat and used his AoE ability to knock all the girls out of CC before they managed to land any blows. If any of these things had happened it would’ve been a lot different I think.

Also my opponent said before the game that he left his box that he stores his Monoliths in at home and thus was unable to field his normal list I asked him what he normally took in 1500 and he said he drops the Nightbringer for a Monolith and spends a few more points here and there. Hopefully Ill be able to play him again another day when he’s fielding his optimum list J

Also this was my first time playing at a new store it was great to play new people and hear the bustle of lots of gamers together I'm looking forward to going out and playing again next week.