1000pt. Dark Eldar vs. Newcrons

Went up to my LGC last Friday for a friendly against a Newcron army! I've always despised Necrons so this was supposed to be a chance for me to deal out some pain and learn how they work. I was up against a friendly player who I'd not met before, but was a great sport. Forgive me if I don't recall exactly what each of his units was equipped with. Here's how it went down...

MISSION: Annihilation
DEPLOYMENT: Pitched Battle
TERRAIN: Ruined Imperial City

Newcrons:

Necron Overlord: Oven Glove, Misplaced Sense of Superiority

5 Lychguard: Dispersion Shields, Ennui

10 Necron Warriors: Metal Zombie Complex

10 Necron Warriors: Complete Terminator DVD Boxed Set

Annihilation Barge: Tesla Cannon, Tesla Destructor, 50% Off Tesla Weaponry Voucher (Redeemable at All Good Tomb Worlds)

C'Tan Shard of The Deceiver: Acute Sense of Loss

Kabal of The Screaming Maw

Combat Drugs: Grave Lotus (+1 Strength) - we're off to a good start!

Succubus Lehira Ithilrin: Agoniser
9 Wyches, Hekatrix: Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Agoniser
Raider: Flickerfields, Nightshields, Darklance

Haemonculus Kro Velerax: Liquifier Gun, Casket of Flensing
9 Wyches, Hekatrix: Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Agoniser
Raider: Flickerfields, Nightshields, Darklance

Ravager: Flickerfields, Nightshields, 3 x Darklance
Ravager: Flickerfields, Nightshields, 3 x Disintegrator Cannons

Razorwing: Flickerfields, Nightshields, Twin-Linked Splinter Rifle, 2 x Disintegrator Cannons, 2 x Monoscythe Missiles, 2 x Shatterfield Missiles

+ + + + + + + +

So the Newcrons win the roll to go first, deploying on the far side of the massive, ruined Imperial City that I decided to use for the game. Several spectators remarked that there was a lot of terrain which would make it difficult for me to navigate with my vehicular force, to which I responded, with a suitably maniacal gleam in my eye, "These are Fast Skimmers. Terrain means NOTHING to me."

A batch of warriors sets up on the right flank, providing some bully-boy backup for the Deceiver Shard. Another warrior batch sets up on the far left side by the Annihilation Barge, presumably to stop anything assaulting it properly.

Dead centre, lurching out of a massive tear in the side of a building, is the squad of Lychguard and their Overlord.

+ + + + + Necron Turn 1 + + + + +

The Necrons begin the game by marching everything stolidly forward, unable, I am told by my opponent, to shoot anything due to a combination of their short range and my cunning use of terrain tall enough to hide a Ravager behind.

+ + + + + Dark Eldar Turn 1 + + + + +

A passing spectator (also a Dark Eldar player) stares at my opponent's army, judges the distance between my approaching Raiders and Ravagers and comments on the foolishness of his advance.

I reinforce this by zipping forward with the Succubus' Raider and hopping her out, managing to get a good enough Fleet roll to bring them within assault distance of the leftmost warrior squad.

The Raider's Ravager companion also swings out into the field, landing one glancing shot against the side armour of the Annihilator and stopping the blighter from firing next turn. Good. I don't like the sound of its guns.

Centrefield, the Wych/Haemy Raider darts forward a bit and Kro Velerax hops out by himself, intent on getting into decent cover and causing some havoc with his shiny toys when the Necrons get close enough. He leaves the Wyches in the Raider with the Pain Token. That was nice of him, wasn't it?

The rightmost vehicles, a Dissie Ravager and my Razorwing, shift forward just enough to ensure that the enemy squads are at maximum range and proceed to unleash a hail of Disintegrator fire on the Necron Warriors there, obliterating the last two with a Monoscythe Missile. No Reanimation Protocols there, thank you very much.

Into the assault phase and the part that makes every opponent cringe inwardly: Wych combat!

The Succubus' squad storm into the leftmost Necron Warriors, and in a total departure from my normal dice rolling, wipe them off the table, earning themselves a Pain Token and eliciting a theatrically claw-handed snarl of "Power from Pain!" from me. I make further use of the consolidation move to put some space between the Wyches and the approaching Lychguard squad, however.

+ + + + + Necron Turn 2: + + + + +

My opponent is sportingly pragmatic about having lost his Warriors, commenting that they're always the first to go, and proceeds to do a bit of shuffling. The Deceiver remains at range, moving into position to take a shot at my rightmost Ravager, the Lychguard lumber into Assault range of my Succubus squad, and the Annihilation Barge, deprived of its horrible guns, zips 24" (much to my dismay - Necrons aren't supposed to be that fast, are they?!) into centrefield, readying its next volley for the same Ravager the Deceiver is aiming at.

During his shooting phase, the Deceiver's weird god-zap ranged attack wiffles past the sneering pilot of the rightmost Ravager.

Assault phase! The Lychguard and accompanying Necron Overlord bundle into the Succubus, champing at the bit to use those power weapons. My Succubus goes first and wiffles all but one of her attacks, which fails to wound. Looks like my dice are back to normal, anyway. The Hekatrix manages to murder a Lychguard and the mass of Wych attacks takes out another two Lychguard and a wound off the Overlord.

The Newcrons strike back! The remaining Lychguard manage to cause four wounds, three of which are saved by the dodging Wyches, and then it's the Overlord's turn.

"Okay," begins my opponent, "He'll use the Gauntlet of Fire, so that's a template attack-"
"Wait, what?"
"Yeah, it's a template weapon and he can reroll to hit and to wound."
"Reroll to hit with a tem- let's have a look at the profile there..."

After a brief explanation wherein I had to tell my opponent that the oven glove's flamer ability was a ranged attack and therefore not useable in close combat, we continued. The Necron lord managed to make all hits and wounds with his rerolls, but the dodgy little Wyches lost only one more model!

Having won the combat by a whole two points, I was resigned to making the Newcrons take armour saves. But as it turns out, they aren't Fearless as I'd mistakenly believed! The 'crons failed their test and were rampaged into the ground by the pursuing Wych squad. This was a delicious precursor to my next act, which was to raise my dice to the sky and roar, "POWER FROM PAIN!" again. I'm glad my fellow LGCers are used to this sort of display.

+ + + + + Dark Eldar Turn 2 + + + + +

How to proceed? I move the leftmost Ravager into a position where it can fire its Darklances at either the Barge or the Deceiver and do a bit of shuffling so that the Raiders have their Darklances pointed straight up the Barge's exhaust pipe. The Succubus squad shuffles cautiously forward, keeping their distance from the Deceiver. The Haemonculus hops up onto the top level of a building, slightly too far away to try using his Casket of Flensing, though.

The Razorwing and rightmost Ravager remain stationary (rookie mistake), preparing a volley of gunfire for the Deceiver.

Sure enough at the start of the shooting phase I level five Disintegrator cannons and a Shatterfield Missile at the C'Tan Shard, rolling the dice in my hand with what I hope is a calculating stare but probably looks like mild constipation.

"Alright, what's that thing's toughness?"
"Seven."
"FUUUU- Er, I mean, FIRE EVERYTHING!"

Seven out of fifteen shots hit. Three wound. Two are saved on a 4+, knocking the thing down to three wounds. It's a start.

The Raider Darklances are aimed squarely at the back of the Annihilation Barge and take their shots. One wiffles, one shot is a penetrating hit! My opponent goes to take his cover save for going Flat Out, when the DE player from earlier sticks his oar in.

"How far did that move?" he asks the Necron player.
"Just under twenty-four inches, it went Flat Out."
"It can't go Flat Out. It's not Fast."
"It's a Skimmer."
"Yeah, but it's not a Fast Skimmer".

I didn't know it wasn't a Fast Skimmer. Being a sporting chap (and well aware that the opponent has two models left while I still have my entire force minus two Wyches) I let the guy take a cover save anyway, just this once. It's passed and the Barge is fine.

Now I have two squads of Wyches capable of Fleeting and a Darklance Ravager pointing at the Deceiver. I really don't like the Deceiver. I unleash the Darklances. One hit, one wound which is saved. I curse and shake my fist like a good little supervillain and Fleet my Wyches closer.

+ + + + + Necron Turn 3 + + + + +

My opponent surprises me by not charging anything with the Deceiver and instead tries another god-zap ranged attack on my Dissie Ravager, which is harmlessly dispersed by Flickerfields. But now it's time to fire the Annihilation Barge.

My opponent is understandably gleeful as the Tesla Destructor shot tears off two of the Ravager's Disintegrator cannon and the Tesla Cannon blast finishes the job, wiping the vehicle off the face of the board - the Arc rule causes a bit of Ward-born squeamishness in me but no sixes are rolled so my Razorwing (which was within 6" of the Ravager) escapes unscathed.

+ + + + + Dark Eldar Turn 3 + + + + +

Right, time to stop mucking about and finish these upstarts!

Five Dark Lances roar into the back of the Annihilation Barge and ruin it with one lucky shot - Rolled a 6 on the Damage Chart, -2 for a Glancing Hit, +1 for Open-Topped: Wrecked!

The first squad of Wyches Fleets towards the Deceiver and gets into charging range - the Razorwing unloads two Dissie cannon at the C'Tan Shard and does nothing - Ultracurses! The Assault Phase rolls around and the Wyches steam in. My opponent seems fairly pleased with this turn out until the Hekatrix and her Agoniser slash another wound off of the impotent Star God.The Deceiver kills two Wyches in return but true to their drug-addled nature, they hold.

+ + + + + Necron Turn 4 + + + + +

Even with the Hekatrix' Agoniser the Wyches can't wound the Deceiver, who only manages to wound two Wyches, both dodged.

+ + + + + Dark Eldar Turn 4 + + + + +

The Succubus and her Wyches caper madly into the combat surrounding the Deceiver and my opponent, who takes some solace from knowing what's about to happen, sees his C'Tan Shard ripped to pieces by the Succubus' Agoniser. Four hits, two wounds, both saves failed. The Deceiver goes down and unleashes a MIGHTY 1" explosion that takes out four Wyches.

It takes all my sportsmanship to shake the chap's hand and say, "Good game!" rather than leap onto the table screaming "SOULS FOR COMMORRAGH! Take that, Ward-scum!"

All in all a fun game, and I became more aware of my opponent's failings as the game went on, inspiring me to agree to rematches in the future. I've always hated Necrons, and what better way to learn to play against an army you hate than by having a cheerful and sporting opponent?

I also felt that the only real tactical error I made during the game was not moving my Ravager out of the Annihilation Barge's line of sight. If I'd known I was going to be up against that Deceiver I would have shuffled some points to get some Kabalite Warriors in there.

So thanks for reading and congratulations if you made it to the bottom of this wall of text!

Raucir

nice report you've done there, enjoyable to read and congratulations

Lucky roller on the c.drugs. Realy nice and i enjoyed reading. I espechially liked the part about souls for Commorragh

Oh I enjoyed reading this so much! I am getting trashed by a necron player at the moment (partly as he insists that line of sight blocking terrain isn't common which in turn makes my raider advance a duck shoot)