WARHAMMER 40,000 Battle Report:

NECRONS vs. BLOOD ANGELS

“Conflict” Regional Tournament, Bristol
29 June 2003

Introduction

This was the second game of three played at the 2003 South-West Region “Conflict” Tournament.

I had justed beaten a force of Salamanders Space Marines with my Necrons in round one with a “massacre” result, and now I new I faced a player who also had achieved a massacre in his first game.

I couldn’t help thinking that chances were that I was just lucky, but this guy was a professional. I quickly realised he was a “competitive” player. He had a very competitive Blood Angels army and he was a Games Workshop staff member, which meant he’d played a lot of games. Uh-oh.

The Armies

See my Necron Army Roster (PDF) for details of the Necron force.

The Blood Angels force consisted of the following:

Death Company in a Rhino (including a Veteran Sergeant with power fist, of course)
Librarian commander with tooled up command squad (lots of power weapons) in another Rhino
Furioso dreadnought
Two land speeders with multi-melta (as separate Fast Attack choices)
Two small squads of basic marines

Now I of course have a Blood Angels army myself and I know how hard it can be as an assault force. This one included all of the tricks, including two land speeders as separate Fast Attack choices for capturing table quarters. I should have known better…

The Terrain and The Scenario

Terrain was the same for all the Warhammer 40,000 tables (universally fair I suppose but a bit boring). It consisted of a brown surface with scattered pieces of ruined building and the like. These counted as Difficult Terrain and gave the normal 5+ cover save.

The standard scenario for all tournament games can be summarised as follows:

The 6’x4’ table is split into quarters and there is 200 VPs for each quarter held at the end of the battle. The game lasts a fixed 6 turns. At the start we dice for Night Fighting. On a 1 the Night Fight rules apply for turn 1, on a 6 they apply for turn 6, otherwise they are not used.

Reserves and Deep Strike rules are used. Any Elites or HQ can be held in reserve and enter by Deep Strike. Inflitrators are also used, being able to set up anywhere within 18” of enemy after the remainder of the armies have set up.

The Game

Deployment and Opening Shots

OK, C’Tan in the middle, Warriors either side, Tomb Spyder close to, Destroyers middle-right positioned so they can hopefully target the dreadnought and Death Company Rhino, Flayed Ones to the extreme right targetting the Blood Angels squad in the ruin.

One of the the Deceiver’s abilities is “Grand Illusion” which grants the ability to redeploy any unit on a 4+. In this case, once all units were placed I didn’t feel that I needed to move anything.

My first mistake was to choose to move first. My second mistake was to close the range with my Necron Warriors. My Destroyers failed to do any damage. On the plus side, my C’Tan cast “Dread” and straight away caused the unit in front to fail its Leadership and run away, rallying at the edge of the table.

That was the end of my turn.

Middle Game

I am writing this section some time after the event and my memory is hazy about the details. What I’m sure about is that it didn’t go well!

My opponent was smart and knew not to waste resources trying to destroy the C’Tan. Instead he stayed out of its way and concentrated instead on killing as many Necron Warriors as possible, which he did very well.

My Flayed Ones didn’t get near the squad in the ruin. Instead the Death Company zoomed up in their supercharged Rhino and assaulted them, led by the Chaplain.

My Warriors on the left were essentially destroyed by an enemy assault squad in another supercharged Rhino that assaulted me in my opponent’s first turn. From memory, my C’Tan did some damage but not enough to stop my Warriors being massacred.

My Warriors on the right are noticeable in the photos by their absence! I think they must have been destroyed by the Death Company once they had finished with the Flayed Ones.

My Destroyers failed to hit and damage the Rhino or dreadnought and instead attracted the fire of the Land Speeder multi-meltas and squad heavy weapons.

End Game

Er, there was no end game. It was all over before I could shout “Phase Ouuuuu…!!”

Victory or Defeat?

Another “Massacre” result. Unfortunately, however, this time I was on the receiving end.

Lessons Learnt

The Necrons are essentially an assault army, but it doesn’t always pay to go all out in assault, especially when facing a dedicated assault army like the Blood Angels. It was a mistake to take the first turn and advance. That meant that the Blood Angels could reach me on their terms in the first turn, using supercharged Rhinos which gives them an enormous reach.

This was a battle where it would be better to hang back with my Warriors to protect them and instead try to hit the Rhinos and land speeders with heavy/long range weapons. My C’Tan of course should always try to close with the toughest and most expensive enemy unit as quickly as possible. However, I think it would always be hard to win against such a competitive army, except perhaps with Tyranids who can out-assault anyone.