Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Awakening of Fringeworld Hutnesut

The weight of ages hung silent around Anrakyr as he gazed with unblinking eyes at the hololith before him.  The Necrons of this world were slowly reclaiming their world from the human trespassers.  There was one foe that could destroy all their work.  Anrakyr gazed at the icons representing an armored column belonging to the barbaric humans known as Space Wolves.  They were currently on a vector to strike deep into the necron lines.  "Prepare my legions for transport"  commanded Anrakyr in his sepulchral voice.

So this was my first game with the new Necron dex and I must admit I was very impressed with the firepower they can put out.  I built my force at 1500 as my local store has been running most of the tournaments at this level.
My opponent is Rick of Hamster Cage Studios he has brought some puppies for my necrons to flay.  He is as excited to play against the new necrons as I am to try them out.  This will definitely be an enjoyable game.

Necrons

Anrakyr
1 harbinger of transmogrification with crucible and harp
3 harbingers of destruction one with solar pulse
5 Immortals
5 Immortals
10 warriors
10 warriors
10 scarabs
4 wraiths with whip coils
monolith
2 annihilation barges

Space wolves (approximate)

Njal
2 rune priests
10 greyhunters 2 specials and a fist rhino
10 greyhunters 2 specials and a fist rhino
10 greyhunters 2 specials and a fist droppod
5 longfangs plasma, missile, lascannon, and h. bolter  lasplas razorback
vindicator

So the game was to be kill points with spearhead deployment.  I elect to go first and I deploy in a corner with the buildings.  Mainly to make it difficult for his vehicles to get cover. 

So he rolls to seize initiative... and he does.  I have had the initiative stolen 3 times out of the last 4 games that I got the roll to go first.  So needless to say I wasn't entirely surprised :P

Turn one


Wolves
One of my crypteks slams his staff in the ground firing off his solar pulse putting night fight into effect for the wolves first turn.  One of Rick's rhinos darts forward trying to impede my los.  The vindicator drives forward and shoots the monolith but fails to do any lasting damage.  The long fangs peer against the blinding light and are able to make out the spectral forms of the wraiths.  A whithering barrage drops 2 of the wraiths and an immortal.

Necrons
My entire army lurches forward.  The Monoliths shot lands square onto the hunters, two flux arcs also manage two score a couple of wounds.  And they ALL saved.  Both annihilation barges shoot at the wolves and account for a single wound.  Ricks armor save dice are on fire.  At this point I am a little worried about his long fangs and I was unable to hit his vindicator with any ether lances or the tachyon arrow.  I run the wraiths over to keep my immortals in cover behind them.  The scarabs fleet forward and then assault the rhino crumbling it into a rusting hulk.  My first turn is really bad with only two models killed, but the fortunes of the necrons would soon shift.

Turn two

So Rick totally forgot about his Pod hunters so I told him just to bring them down this turn and don't worry about rolling reserves for it.  (the venoms are stand ins for the annihilation barges which my lgs sold out of before I could buy some)

Wolves
So his pod slams into the ground behind my lines, and his grey hunter unit containing njal moves forward.  The long fangs split fire plasma and heavy bolter into the wraiths and the lascannon and missile into the monolith failing to damage it.  Then Njal summons the jaws of the world wolf  killing two scarabs, and the wraith makes his init test before I realize that since he is jump infantry he is immune. the remaining grey hunters kill another base of scarabs plus 2 more wounds.  The hunters behind my line shoot the warriors, but after 2 get back up they have only killed 3.

Necrons

The Immortals, warriors, and barges turn to face the threat behind them.  The fire from the barges, warriors, and two flux arcs kills all the greyhunters.  Anrakyr charges forward into the dropod, detonating its power source with 3 swings of his warscythe.
The combination of scarabs and remaining wraith assault the vindicator as it remains a threat to the monolith and my foot units.  The vindicator's armor is reduced  by 5 allowing scarabs to glance it on 2s.  It explodes lighting up the evening sky.

Turn 3
Wolves
In a surprising move the wolves pull back from the main battleline.  In awe of their supreme ability to nom-nom almost all of Rick's army fires into the scarabs and the wraith reducing them to piles of scrap.  The razorback and the AT portion of the longfangs shoot the monolith shaking the crew, but living metal saves the day.

Necrons

The Monolith pulls Arakyr's unit through its portal then the monolith moves up and to the right.  For the third turn in a row the monolith decides that it is adverse to the taking of life.(nearby cryptek immediately begins rewriting faulty code).  The harbinger of Transmogrification uses his tremorstaff to slow Njal's unit down his accompaniment of immortals are unable to penetrate the armor of the greyhunters.  The rest of the Necrons fire at the greyhunters on the left flank killing 5.  One lone cryptek levels his eldritch lance at the rune priest that had just left the safety of the longfang unit, reducing him to a smoking pair of armored boots.

Turn 4

Wolves
Rick's army singles out Anrakyr and his Immortals.  The 4 Immortals and Harbinger are killed Anrakyr is reduced to 1 wound.
Necrons
The squad on the left is reduced to the Librarian.  Njals unit is finally hit by the monolith and suffers 4 casualties.

Turn 5

Wolves
Njal and the remnants of his unit charge forward in a last ditch effort, 3 necron warriors are put down by the furious bolter fire by the greyhunters and support from the longfangs.  The 2 AT longfangs continue to hammer at the monolith I believe that I yet again make a living metal save to keep the monolith firing.

Necrons
The monolith moves forward and sucks one greyhunter through its portal, the particle whip strikes out at the longfangs.  The rest of the Necrons whittle down the greyhunter unit until Njal stands alone.  Njal roars his defiance as the necrons charge the lone space wolf.  Njal swings at the unit killing a warrior and Anrakyr manages to slip a wound onto Njal killing him.

At this point Rick decides to call the game since all he has remaining is a razorback and some longfangs.

Postgame
I was really happy with the way the Necrons performed.  The amount of fire power they can put out is nice.  The monolith really earned its points in the late game as it continued to draw fire and hurt stuff with its particle whip.  However my MVP is going to have to be the annihilation barges as they just consistently made Rick take lots of saves.  In hindsight Rick mentioned that he should have played aggressive since it let me engage him in a duel of firepower which favored my army.  I also felt that not deploying in his vehicles allowed my anti infantry guns to get into the game from the first shot.

It was a fun game and I look forward to trying my list against Rick's blood angels this coming Friday.

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