12.12.4 1500 Necrons vs Eldar (school yard beating)

Had a great game with Shawn last night.  Yeah it was a school yard beating.  There were few highlights for the Necrons.  The pic below being one of them.  Other than that my Necron army was the ball Shawn's Eldar kicked up and down the school yard.

Ah, all those familiar places.  Avatar and Eldrad in the middle of another mosh pit.

Met Shawn at Fantasy Flight.  Planned to be on time however the fates and my own poor choices played against me.

Wore my black handcuff stockroom.com t-shirt.

It was a week night Shawn wanted to take it light.  After the first turn he said it was going to be a fast game and he was right.

Deployment: Hammer and Anvil.  Mission: Crusade, 5 Objectives.  Five objectives.  Damn, it's going to be a tough game.  Shawn won roll off.  He decided to deploy and go first.  I didn't attempt to seize.

Shawn's 1500 pts.

Avatar, Eldrad and 1 Warlock (one HQ squad)
3 Wraithguard (with HQ)
3x 3 Guardian Jetbikes
3x Vipers Shuriken Catapults and Bright Lance
2x Wraithlord with Bright Lances and Wraithblade
1x 3 War Walkers with Scatter Lasers

Our theatre of mass destruction.  Night Fight is in effect for first turn.

Eldar deployment.  Good ole' fashion Eldar Alpha strike.  Wade wanted to get into the pic.  Hey, Wade!  Three Guardian Jetbike squads in reserves.

Necron deployment.  Wraiths up tight against terrain ready to use it to block line of sight and launching platform for assault on the Avatar.  I know its going to come straight at me and I've learned my lesson from two games ago.  No splitting Wraiths against Shawn's Avatar and friends.  Deploy Orikan with a squad of warriors in terrain on left objective.  Second Warrior squad is behind far rock they will run up to objective.  One Warrior squad and two Night Scythes are in reserves.

Eldrad redeploys two Vipers to the right side of the field. Top of first.  Eldar don't move because of wonder twins powers.  Eldar take out one Wraith.  It is at this point Shawn says it's going to be a fast game.  It was pretty fast for how we usually play.

Bottom of first.  Wraiths and C'tan move into the middle piece to be out of sight to avoid Eldar shooting.

Top of second.  Eldar shooting take out two more Wraiths.  Other Wraith squad takes a wound.

Bottom of second.  Destroyer Lord only has three Wraiths left with him.  Orikan's Lord of Time allows both Night Scythes to appear.  They remove Shuriken Cannon from one Viper.  Rest of the hits are saved by Jink 40k6 pg 38.  Destroyer Lord and Wraiths fail to assault Avatar.

Close up of H2H, hand-to-hand, top of third.  Avatar and friends assault Destroyer Lord.  After some Look Out, Sir's!  Lord takes a wound and has one Wraith left with him.  Mindshackled Scarabs on Avatar, wounds are saved.

Top of third.  War Walkers with Guide take out one Night Scythe by removing hull points.  First Blood 1 VP Eldar.  All the Guardian Jetbikes arrive from reserves.  They speed down the field to take Warriors off objectives and secure them for themselves.

Close up of H2H bottom of third.  One of the few high points for the Necrons this game.  C'tan and second Wraith squad jump in.  Love that Hammer of Wrath special rule.  Avatar shrugs off mindshackle scarabs this turn.

Bottom of third.  Two Wraithguard are removed.  Last Wraith from Destroyer Lord squad is removed.  Night Scythe immobilizes one War Walker.

Top of fourth.  War Walkers without Guide takes down second Night Scythe.  Guardian Jetbikes shoot at near Warriors.  They go to ground for a 3+ cover save in area terrain.  Same happens with far Warriors.  Except I fail enough saves that all 5 Warriors are removed.  One squad of Jetbikes move back to secure the far field Eldar objective.  Wraithlords jump in on the mosh pit.  What looked like waning Eldar strength, has strengthened with those two monsters coming into the battle.  Destroyer is killed.  Reanimation Protocols comes into effect.  C'tan removes Eldrad from assault.  Slay the Warlord 1 VP Necrons.

Bottom of fourth.  Say you have a Destroyer Lord with Mindshackle Scarabs.  What would you prefer to use them on: Avatar or Wraithlord?  After a couple of rounds of Avatar saving his own wounds with 4+ Invulnerable with fortune it wasn't looking good for Necrons.  Now Mindshackle Scarabs on Wraithlord who only attacks himself with AP2 Smash ignoring its armour save.  That is juicy!  Again, one of the few highlights for Necrons.  Shawn is not a fan of Mindshackle Scarabs.

Close up of top of fifth shooting.  Orikan is Empowered.  Due to his enhanced Toughness he takes a wound.  Another and he's down when the stars unaligned.

Close up of H2H top of fifth.  Wraithlord is Mindshackled Scarabed again and removes itself from assault.  Go Mindshackle Scarabs!  I'll take my victories where I can.  Avatar has a single wound left.  The H2H that started a few turns ago is coming to an end.  As 40k buddy Simon said when he looked at this turns assault "What looked like one-sided fight turned around."  I was also amazed.  Necrons are on the winning side of this fight.  Winning the battle, losing the war.

Top of fifth.  Guardian Jetbike squad turbo-boost back to second objective.  Another squad ready to take Orikan off his objective.  Avatar is destroyed.  Right now its 7-4 Eldar.

Close up of H2H bottom fifth.  Wraithlord resists Mindshackle Scarabs.  C'tan deals two wounds.  Destroyer Lord takes last.  Third and last positive moment for Necrons.

Bottom of fifth.  Necrons are finally free from H2H and consolidate towards War Walker line.  War Walkers are prepared to Scatter Laser whomever they want.

Roll the die and game is done.

We agree that Orikan would've been removed from shooting and Guardian Jetbikes would've grabbed that objective.  With Line Breaker for Eldar and Necrons we agree and damn it was fun.

Lose 4-11 Eldar.

Shawn played a tight and solid game.  He had a plan he stuck to it and was very confident in his ability to follow through.  I plan on making a post about how to defeat Necron Wraithwing with Eldar.

Dave was talking to us about our last three games.  He mentioned codex creep is BS and that people who whine about don't know what they are doing.  In the case of Shawn.  Shawn knows what he is doing with his Eldar.  Even with his tremendously bad dice rolling he still pulls off a win simply by out playing me.

Shawn was very kind and picked me up some Grey Knights for painting his Eldar.  These will be part a Strike squad.  My new, new, new Grey Knight army list.  Now won't have to magnetize weapons for different Grey Knight squads.

Shawn picked up his Phoenix Lords and dropped off Dark Reapers and Striking Scorpions.  Very touched by him wanting me to paint more of his Eldar.  Thanks, Shawn.

slainte mhath