In this first battle report we saw Ali and his Salamanders face off against Tim and his Necrons in round 2 of the Gobstyks Karnage Kup 2021
The game was Mission 21 Surround and Destroy with the traditional Dawn of War set up.
Ali rolled to set up
Lining up the Marines in a pretty standard gun line, Ali knew that it was going to be tough to take out so many scoring units with the fire power available. As Ali had gone Melta heavy in this list with some flamers, against a high armour/toughness elite list he would have been happier, but with a relative small amount of shots compared to other marine lists, the Crons could absorb the mass fire power with little concern.
Time on the other hand has been fearing this list and the damage out put that it had, he lined his units up to make the most of the objectives knowing that with so many Obj Sec units that he could dominate the field.
Ali finally placed his two Invictor Warsuits within flamer range with their set up meaning they could start the game 9" away from the enemy deployment zone. A great tactical advantage if Ali got the first turn, but a potential disaster if he lost the roll off.
Round 1
Tim rolls to go first and it's bad news for the Invictor Warsuits as they are immediately targeted (Ali took the picture before remembering to deploy them! But on was by the building at the top of the picture and the other inside the ruin in the middle)
Tim started off targeting the warsuits and hitting them with a mass of firepower while whittling them down with the Plasmancers ability to add mortal wounds with Living Lightning.
The warsuits held strong, even when faced by the Nightbringers C'Tan nastiness.
The a move by Tim that really swung the game in the early stage, knowing the damage output of the 6 Eradicators, Tim used the Veil of Darkness to pop a unit of 10 Lychguard 9" away hoping for that charge that could put them up close and personal. But Tim started on the far flank using the Nightbringer and the Immortals to charge the warsuit at the far end, then the Lychgard and Plasmancers in the middle to hunt the second suit. Time almost forgot about his important charge, even using the command point reroll on the Nightbringers charge, but was very fortunate to get exactly 9 on the charge roll, breathing a sigh of relief the Lychguard got in to attack.
Ali's round 1 was looking a little dire even this early in the game, his plans out of the window he had to make some choices, the two hammerheads dashed forward, with one taking down a couple of Skorpek Destroyers, but not enough to wipe out the unit, the other moved to shoot the Lychguard by the Nightbringer, supported by the Sicaran Punisher, but the invulnerable saves were plenty and the automitons stayed resolute. With much still on the board and the Eradicators tied in combat the shooting phase was disappointing, but the Chaplin he called Vulkan (as it's the Forge World Vulkan Miniature) managed to get a charge off against the Nightbringer, followed by his Bladeguard and the Librarian whom had managed to smite a few wounds. The Nightbringer was left with a single wound after combat and was able to dish out the death on his attack round, due to the C'Tan ignoring invulnerable saves, Ali had taken the gamble to cast Null Zone to remove the Nightbringers save also, but this had failed, so it was down to the wing of a hammer and power sword.
Round 2
With round 2 Tim knew that he had gotten Ali pinned in, and while a few thing had gone against the plan, having the dominance of the Objectives meant he could relax a bit while targeting the other units. The Nightbringer withdrew from combat to make way for the Lychguard and left the characters to attack the surprising resilient Impulsor. The Lychguard towards the bottom of the table continued to chew through the Eradicators who were managing to hold on, but not doing enough damage on the return, so it was a matter of when they died not if.
The Hammerhead at the bottom also soon fell to fire and finally the charge from the Skorpek and for each Marine that fell, Ali's chances were slipping away, and each time a Necron fell, they got back up, or had the numbers to not worry.
On to Ali's turn and the Nightbringer was finished off and the hammerhead targeted 5 immortals sat on an objective, but only 4 fell and the 1's to wound started to show their ugly face. Ali was managing to rack up a few more points but was it going to be enough to turn things around. The short answer was no, by the end of battle round 2 Tim was building quite a healthy lead and we moved into turn 3
Round 3
The round the game was won. With only 1 Eradicator left the Lychguard turned thier attention to the Assault Intercessors holding on to an objective, while the other unit finished off the Bladeguard and Vulkan, but the mighty hero rose from the ashes to fight still, but Ali's dead pile was mounting and while there wasn't many miniatures in the pile, each miniature was an expensive loss. The Impulsor still refused to die though and continued to hold true. But the points difference was now at the point of no return and the final few turns when swiftly Tim's way with the Assault Intercessors falling, the last Eradicator and the Apothecary going the same way, Ali was left with a single hammerhead trying to pick up the points at the back of the table sniping Plasmancers when the Impulsor finally fell it refused to blow up which would have been really helpful at this point.
With the game over Ali and Tim talked through the final two turns as to what would have happened and the final result was
After the game Ali said
"I think no prisoners was a bit of a mistake, it looked good, but I just didn't have the right fire power to maximise the points which looked to be their against a Horde. I also had a poor first turn, as this is very much an Alpha Strike list going first is really important, I think I could have picked my targets better"
And Tim
"That went much better than I expected, I was worried about the firepower of this list, but I was happy to get the charge off on the Eradicators and maybe a bit lucky to do so, but I was always comfortable with the objectives, and managed to pin his strong units back. I maybe should have kept the Nightbringer in combat for another turn, but in the end I got the result I needed"
So well done to Tim, a tactical master class, and Ali it's time to pick your feet up for the next round and play for some pride. Keep a look out for more Battle Reports in the future
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