... in which the Necrons give SeerK a run for his money!

Damn! So close to victory, yet so far away.

Yesterday I took on SeerK's Dark Eldar Webway list out at the FLGS. I ran the exact configuration that I talked about in my last post, but let me recap it real quick:

10 Warriors (Reserve)
10 Warriors (Reserve)
2 Monoliths
5 Pariahs
2 Heavy Destroyers
5 Immortals w/ Necron Lord, loaded with a Res Orb and VoD
The Nightbringer

Where things went wrong for me, was the mission type... Capture and Control, coupled with a deployment of Dawn of War.

SeerK had Initiative, so let's delve into the game:

I chose to keep all my troops off the board, and walk them on during turn 1.

Turn 1: SeerK moves his 2 Raiders across the board and deploys a squad of Wracks, and opens the webway portal close to my edge of the board.

I move my army onto the board, leaving my 2 units of Warriors in reserve. Directly in front the Raider that deployed the Wracks, the Nightbringer and the squad of Pariahs come on and open fire, wiping out most of the squad and sending them fleeing. Monoliths flank them to the right, while the other Raider gets to deal with the Lord and his Bodyguard of Immortals and 2 Heavy Destroyers. The Heavy Destroyers open up on the Raider and wreck it.

Necrons move on the board

Wracks get the warscythe welcome

Ohhh.... where did all your fiends go? So sad.

Turn 2:
SeerK gets 2 squads of Wytches and his Beastmaster and pack to come thru the center webway. One squad of Wytches goes into the difficult terrain to control the objective. I found this a little lame, because, yes they were within 3 inches of the object, but there was a wall of impassable terrain inbetween them! Oh well, rules are rules. The Beastmaster pack runs for my Lord/Immortal squad. The other squad of Wytches opens fire on the Nightbringer, landing 3 wounds with their poisoned weapons.... The remaining squad of Wracks forgets to open the second webway... Assaults!: The Beastmaster pack hits my Lord/Immortals, taking down 4 immortals. The Wytches assault the Nightbringer and Pariahs failing to even inflict 1 wound. In return, they cut down 5 Wytches, Insta-death style. Now, the Soulless Pariahs do their thing. Wytches leadership is reduced to 7, minus the five casualties... SeerK needs snake eyes to stay in the fight. The Wytches break, and the Nightbringer cuts them down.

Beast pack attack!

What Wytches?

My Turn 2:
Move the Pariahs closer to the remaining Wytch squad and open fire, killing 2. 2 Immortals get back up, and the Lord uses the VoD to warp away to his objective, opening fire on the Wrack squad that has only 2 men remaining. The Heavy Destroyers bug out (Turbo Boost) to the other side of the Raider. Monoliths drop particle whips on the Beastpack, inflicting only a couple of wounds. Nightbringer makes a beeline for the Beastpack. The Pariahs assault the Wytches in difficult terrain, and thier powered/poisoned weapons take out the 5 Pariahs.

 

Whats left after the Nightbringer's demise

Turn 3:
 The last squad of Wytches and the Talos pain engine emerge from the webway. The beastpack turn on the Nightbringer. The Wytches also move in on the Nightbringer, laying in some heavy fire. The Nightbringer takes his last two wounds and explodes with a S6 AP2 5" radius, taking the bulk of the 3 squads that were surrounding him. The squad of two wracks fire on and then assault the Lord/Immortals with no effect, but losing another Wrack. The Wytches assault and take down one of the Monoliths.

Bottom of 3:
Reserves unit of 10 warriors come in, entering from the edge of the board. The Heavy Destroyers lob some fire at the Raider with no effect. The warriors fire on the Wytches, taking one or two out. The monolith continues to move toward the other objective, dropping a particle whip on the Talos pain engine. The Lord/Immortals finish off the remaining Wrack.

Turn 4:
The pain engine lays into the Warriors. The full squad of Wracks move in on the Heavy Destoryers, firing, but not doing any damage. The Raider moves in on the 2nd objective, blocking the Monolith's path. The Wytches move in with the remainder of the beast pack to secure the 1st objective. The Wracks assault the Heavy Destroyers, killing both. The Talos pain engine assaults the warriors, taking 5 down.

The monolith continues around the Raider. Three warriors rise, and they remain locked in combat with the Talos, making no progress. The Immortals fire into the Wracks.

Turn 5:
SeerK's Wracks consolidate and move towards the 2nd objective. The raider parks in front of the 2nd objective. The Talos takes 2 warriors down during the assault phase, while the rest of his troops hold.

And here is how I lost:

At this point, I honestly thought I had SeerK. It was a gamble, but I thought for sure I could pull it off. Alas, the dice disagreed.

The last reserve of 10 Warriors emerge from the portal on the Monolith, surrounding the 2nd objective, contesting it. They open fire on the Raider with 20 shots, getting only 2 glances by the time everything is said and done. I needed that Raider gone to not contest the objective, so the Monolith unleashes a particle whip on it. Direct hit. Pens. Flicker Fields reject the hit. Damn. 21 shots into the Raider, and it is still there. That is where victory died.  The best I could hope for now is  tie. The Lord/Immortals use the VoD to teleport over to the 1st objective. Unfortunately, I could not get close enough to the objective because of the 1" rule. I literally was 3 1/8" away. They fire are the beastpack, but I don't remember if they did anything, as I had mentally conceded at this point.

SeerK rolled to see if we go to turn 6, and no. Game Over.

So close! I learned a lot during this game. I feel pretty good that I didn't phase out, and I wiped out more than 50% of his army while keeping more than 50% of his. I believe I would have been ahead in kill points, but I can't say for sure, since we weren't really paying attention because it was a capture/control. SeerK has put a lot of time and play testing into his webway list, and I feel like my Necrons went the distance against it.

If this is any indicator, I think my list will hold up well at the tourney on Saturday. I have no illusions of winning (I am running Necrons after all), but I think I have a solid and competitive team that will be fun to play.

That's it for now, kids. Report on Saturday's tourney to come next!