Another narrative based battle today; all of us players here enjoy that aspect of the game so there’s often some story basis for all our games. I decided to give the Necron fleet its first ever test run after finishing painting the fleet about a month ago. Based on its reputation I and my fellow admirals thought it needed a little bit of a handicap and so this battle developed. So the Tutatamun Dynasty has awoken on the former Tomb world of Cryptus and is slowly pushing the defenders back. Help was requested to save the world from utter ruin and that help has come in the form of the Imperial Fists and Astral Lions Space Marine Chapters. The Chapters aim is to break through the Necron fleet in orbit and provide support for the beleaguered troops on the ground. This is what the Space Marines were created for! The Space Marines would also find help from an unlikely source, a small flotilla of Eldar Corsairs have insisted on helping the Adeptus Astartes in space, with the Eldar wanting to stop the Necron scourge before it really gets going in the system. An alliance of convenience if ever there was one. Set up and objective It was a standard planetary assault set up, with the Necrons defending the world and the Space Marines attacking. The Marines had to get at least three of their ships into orbit. The Eldar were present to disrupt the Necron fleet. The Necron fleet was approximately 2000 points, with the combined Marine and Eldar fleets around the 3500 points. Victory Conditions A tough one for the Necrons, they had to stop the Space Marine capital ships from reaching orbit around the planet of Cryptus. The Space Marines had to get at least three ships into orbit to defend the world from the awaking Necrons tombs and help the defenders on the surface. The Eldar were there to defend and disrupt the Necrons with their aim to make as many Necron ships disengage as possible. If the Marines failed to get the ships into orbit then potentially an Exterminatus would be needed at another muster. Turn 1 So this was a basic set up, the marine and elder players won the right to go first as well. They set up along the table edge with a large bulk of the force looking to exploit the edge and sneak in around the defences. The Sunward edge was behind their combined fleets, so made life a little harder for the elder player. Thank the Silent King for me as the Necron commander. Due to the scenario being a planetary assault, the Necrons had to roll off for each ship to see if they could place them or the enemy. In the end three ships failed and were placed at the back of the table. Although this was hardly an issue for the fast moving Necron vessels! Ha. The combined fleet moved first and rushed ahead at maximum speed, they also released ordinance hoping to inflict some damage due to Necrons not having any ordinance themselves. Nothing was in range at this stage though. The Necrons then moved their fleet around and sped out towards the onrushing combined fleets. They pushed a small continent to the right flank to tie up some of the fleet and then moved the bulk of the fleet towards the left flank to then hopefully wheel around behind the slower ships. Mekeset was sat in the command throne. The regent had been requested by the court to lead the flotilla and provide a simple blockade while more of their warriors were awoken planetside. The pitiful human resistance had been crushed around the main tomb complexes, with them being forced back to their main fortifications. This kept the Necron lords pleased, Cryptus was a minor tomb world but one that had awoken first and it seems that several of the other major tomb worlds had not yet responded to the initiative order. Their King still lay silent as well. So the regents that had awoken had at first squabbled but eventually order had been restored and mission goals set. The Necron regency needed their King and they would go to him to lead them to glory in this new age. The Necron command bridge was relatively quiet but for the chitter of scarabs completing menial tasks interrupting the constant hum of the inertia engines. It would have been unnerving for any living organism; the chatter of the lesser organisms was not needed on a Necron vessel after all. Mekeset commanded the ship through what would be considered thought alone. The Regent sent instructions wordlessly to several warriors and through to the rest of the fleet in high orbit. The Necron vessels had already spotted the signatures of the enemy, they moved the fleet silently around to intercept. Turn 2 Again the combined fleet moved forward at full speed, the Eldar fleet drew first blood too. The full elder fleet rushed in and fired everything they had at the Necron dirges and managed to completely destroy the escort squadron. The cowardly Eldr then turned tail and ran back into hiding behind the Marines. None of the Marine’s ships were within firing range and their ordinance was again just out of range to hit the enemy. The Astral Lions Marine captain pushed along the flank to avoid any action, attempting to bypass being bogged down, a sensible tactic. The Eldar corsair aimed to disrupt and distract the enemy with the hit and run tactics, attempting to goad the Necrons into attacking them rather than the marine fleet which could win the game. The Necrons again moved forward, wheeling one shroud and one scythe towards the bulk of the enemy while the rest of the fleet surged up the left flank. The lack of ordinance for Necrons means that they can be hit pretty hard, but for the various Star pulse generator that the majority of Necron ships have. The Necron lord fired all of these that were in range of the ordinance and destroyed all of them outright, much to the frustration of the marine captains. Mekeset felt the surge of code feed back into his mind from the destroyed squadron ‘no matter, he pondered, there are many more of those shells available to me’. The Regent focused his energies on destroying the pitiful attack craft attempting to make attack runs on his ships. They were all quickly dispatched, the Necron lord then sent encoded messages to all his fleet to engage and destroy as their leisure. The blockage would do as much damage as possible before disengaging. ‘Let these primitives believe this world is important…’ If the Regent had still his flesh face he might even have smiled. Turn 3 A surge forward by the Marine captains and this time their guns would be in range of the Necron vessels. The Eldar fleet pushed towards the now exposed shroud and scythe on the left flank also hoping to assist in the destruction of those two ships to ensure a clear run towards the planet. The Marine and Eldar combined fleets guns fired into both these cruisers, with the savvy Necron lord bracing both ships. This prevented the combined fleet’s guns crippling both the cruisers, much to the scorn of the other captains; they are a tough nut to crack. The remainder of the Necron fleet was left alone on the right side and the Marine fleet attempted to surge towards the planet but failed the All Ahead Full Rolls. On an Imperial Ship the captain would have been shot by the commissar, I wonder what happens on a Marine ship? The Necron turn was next and it was time to see how powerful these ships could be. Wheeling the the fleet around on the right flank, with some dodgy sailing head long through asteroids to make it (they all passed leadership) resulted in the Necron fleet easily being in range for all their guns. It would prove to be a huge shooting round as one by one the Necron fleet poured fire into the four lead strike cruisers of the Imperial Fist Chapter. The ships didn’t stand a chance against the sheer firepower sent towards them, with two strike cruisers destroyed utterly and the other two crippled. The two lead Necron ships in the centre also pushed forward, ignoring their potential destruction (we are cold machines after all), these two vessels crippled another strike cruiser, blew up a Marine escort squadron and then blew up the Eldar Hellbores. They sold themselves well in the end. Jalus Tyrian slammed his power armed fist down into the command console in fury, ‘they just won’t die!’ The captain of the strike cruiser ‘Indomitable’ watched in utter consternation as the Nercon vessels seemed to repair themselves of the damage caused. He had to admit these foul xenos had technology far beyond even the Eldar. ‘Captain, theres a huge energy spike coming from the lead craft!’ Tyrian didn’t have time to respond before his vessel was struck by the thundercrack of the gauss whips, the ‘Indomitable’ was annihilated outright. Turn 4
Again moving forward and firing all their guns the combined fleet’s guns eventually crippled both the Necron cruisers in the centre of the formation, taking revenge for their brethren. The Eldar fleet attempted to engage the Tombship as well but the mighty battleship shrugged off even the pulsar lances, making their saves. The newly released ordinance that was now in range could also not do any major damage to any of the Necron ships; this was without bracing as well. Lucky for the Marine commanders though, they had managed to get two cruisers into striking distance of the planet. The Necron turn was next and the two crippled ships automatically attempted to disengage and did so without any problems. That left a gaping hole on that flank and middle but now putting the majority of the ships on Lock On Orders the Necron ships tore holes into the Marine fleet. The Imperial Fist Battlebarge was crippled and the previously crippled strike cruisers blown to smithereens. Another Eldar escort squadron was taken out as well. All in all, the Necron guns did very well. Victory/Defeat Ultimately we thought the final outcome was a draw, the Necron fleet punished the Space Marine fleet killing escorts, and several strike cruisers and crippling the Imperial Fists battlebarge. They also destroyed a number of the Eldar ships before the Eldar disengaged. The Necrons didn’t have it all their own way though, the Space Marines managed to get two ships into orbit and cripple one scythe and one shroud ship, with these ships both disengaging. However, with the positioning of the fleets come Turn 5 the Necrons were ready to wheel around and be on the Space Marines aft, so would likely have caused more damage. We felt that within a turn the combined fleets would have been destroyed and so ended the game in a draw to get into another game. I have to admit as the Necron commander I pushed the two ships out to the flank to see how they would fair in the midst of an enemy fleet. Pretty well in the end, they tanked the combined shots from two Marine fleets and Eldar corsair fleet, so overall I think they did their job. The remainder of the fleet I kept back a bit and didn’t try to use their speed at first, wanted to see how they combined together for mutual fire and man do they hit hard. It was a worthwhile experiment for the centre ships I felt and think these ships live up to their reputation; however, I do think mass ordinance is the way forward against them.
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AboutThis blog is a record of an ongoing, interactive narrative-based games set in Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 universe. The Turbidious Sector is a sector of the Ultima Segmentum region of the Milky Way galaxy that I came up with for my models/stories to be based. Archives
June 2018
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