Bat-Rep 02/23/2009, More questions

Yet another exciting battle between the Dark Angels and the Necrons... yeah we really don't have any other local opponents. Both of us have plans on a second army (Matt actually has started gathering models.) Anywho here goes the bat-rep.

2000 Pt Army on a 4'x4' table (god this was small)

Mission: Seize Ground; 3 Objectives

Deployment: Pitched Battle

Necron 2000 Pt Army

Dark Angels 2000 Pt Army

Matt wins roll off for markers, and places one near his side, and his other near my marker on my side (Note the oh so original plastic apoc banners.) I roll a 3 to his 1 for deployment and also elect to go second.

Top of Round 1: DA deploys on the board, except Belial's squad. DA teleports in his termies, using the bikes to prevent scatter. Shooting across the battle field with Las Cannons and Plasma Cannons, he is able to take out 3 models.

Bottom of Round 1: My Destroyers and Heavy Destroyers shoot back, taking out a termie and someone from the heavy squad. Most models get up from WWB

Result, nothing really gained, the DA now control one flag from deploying so close.


Top of Round 2: Las and Plasma Cannons as usual. All misses. Termies Capture the second flag and begin to bunker in.

Bottom of Round 2: Looking for some action, the Destroyer Lord and Wraith leap forward to take on the tank destroying it. Although this was later realized to be a low value target.

Top of Round 3: Belial arrives and the tomb spyder is killed by the termies who shoot the thing to death. The Jetpack troops assault into the destroyer lord (who was unattached.) Result ends up being no loss for the DA and one dead lord.

Bottom of Round 3: Lord succeeds on WWB. Remaining scarabs from Tombspyder leap to contest the middle flag. Shooting from all the surrounding Necrons demolishes the Jetpack squad to 1 soldier. Here is where my rookie mistakes started taking place. I was supposed to jetbike my destroyer and wraith back behind cover. I forgot to do so, which resulted in them being out on their own. I feared that Baliel would assault the squad, and I didn't want to leave the last man time to regroup (cause they do that automatically.) So I assaulted in, kill the last man, then consolidated back a few inches.

Top of Round 4: DA shoots at lord, killing him yet again, then Belial assaults into the wraith, killing both. Belial consolidates back 6".

Bottom of Round 4: Lord gets back up, and quickly retreats behind cover. Destroyers, Heavy destroyers, and warriors shoot into belial's squad killing two, he saves the apothicary wipe for something that never comes.

Top of round 5: Bikers turbo boost up to the third flag. Termies take out the remaing scarabs. DA now controls all three markers. Termies consolidate but don't get fully behind cover.

Bottom of Round 5: I attempt to shoot the termies, but no result. I do shoot the bikers and wipe them off the board. I should have consolidated but even then that would have left me with just 1 marker and DA 2 markers. I had a feeling that if there was a turn 6 that I would have been wiped out had I tried to contest the Termie flag so I didn't. This was probably a bad idea on the whole, but the dice gods were on my side.

Roll for Round 6: Success

Top of Round 6: Termies move out of cover, then assault the nearest squad of warriors, killing over half, but the unit doesn't break. Once again, rookie mistakes. I place the models who are wounded down from the back, when they should have come from the front, the result would have been his termies having to consolidate into my army which would have pulled them away from 3" of the marker, they were already 3".

Bottom of Round 6: I move my Destroyers up to the Termie flag, on the left, then move my right squad of desteroyers, turbo boosted, to the right flag, just reaching contention. My troopers assault the three remaining termies, killing only one.

Result: All three flags are contested.

Roll for Round 7: Fail

Game results in tie: DA - 0 / Nec - 0 Markers

We both felt we did things wrong, and we also had a question about Jetbikes. I read the rules as saying that they can pass over dangerous terrain, and only roll if they stop on dangerous terrain. There for, when using turbo boost, they dont have to worry about going around dangerous terrain, as they never have to worry about it to begin with. Thoughts?

It was a good battle, it was probably won by both of us once or twice, but due to mistakes it ended in a tie. We are still having rules problems, but they are more specific, and are more of the kind that require close examination.

Interesting thought. Matt planned the board to match Fritz's Saim-Hann style. He was able to bring it off for the most part on round 5 and would have won, had there not been a round 6. As a result of these tactics, I countered on round 6 with the same, contesting all and getting a tie and not a loss. The question arises, who was more cheesy. Matt made the comment at the end of the game that I wouldn't have gotten any sportsmanship points at a tourny using my round 6 tactics, which I agree with and didnt complain or counter argue. But I dont see any difference between my use of turbo boosting and his in round 5. Oh well, I have decided that when I go to the competition in March, I will use what tactics will win.

Another question: Cound someone please explain the new line of sight rules clearly. I read the rules and I have to ask, if a model stands above cover, do they get any kind of save (Jetbikes are tall.) If a jetbike is taller than the models in front, can he be shot at? If a squad of immortals are behind a squad of warriors, can the immortals be targeted? And when shooting from behind one squad, does the target get saves? Say the immortals want to return fire, does their wounds allow cover saves because they are behind the necron warriors? I know these seem like newb questions, but we are getting bogged down in the small details now, and cover is so big in 5th edition.

Oh, as an aside, the FTW dice, rolled excellent.

Our Number is Legion

Questions for the community and Battle-Rep 01-26-2009

If you arn't interested in the battle, please go to the end and read the questions I have asked, I am looking for feedback/answers.

So Matt and I have been trying to get in a game for the last two weeks, but with work and shift change, things have been difficult. For today's game we decided to up the Pts to 1500. The battle was capture and control and was spearhead. After choosing corners, I chose a tower and Matt chose a bunker as our objectives.



I went first, choosing to fully deploy. Matt went with a full reserve/deep-strike.

Round 1 and Round 2: Going first I had my first round and second to move before Matt could even show up.



Bottom of round 2: Matt's only gets one squad, the tanks fail reserves. His first move was to deep-strike a 5-man termie squad into my rear. At first he was hesitant, I have become good in bunkering my troops in, I hate his assault ability, and I now try my best to force him to come at me and not get into a cross fire situation. But I had left a small, 6"x"4 space behind the tower, and didn't occupy the tower (all my squads where 10 man squads, and wouldn't fit.) So Matt decides to chance his troops and land on the tower, but before he has to worry about dangerous, he scatters 4" and lands safely to one side. He shoots at a squad of warriors, inflicting 1 kill, but WBB saves him.

Round 3: At this point, if you have followed my battle posts or Matt's, you would know that I have bad luck with termies. Their 2+ reg. saves are grating and I don't have any power weapons that force him to use the 5+. So Matt's squad lands, and he has cover from his left but none in front. At this point I decided to just move some men back and then lay into him. Total shots, 62, of those 62, 42 hit, which resulted in 24 wounds. Matt had 5 models and failed 6 saves over all. It felt good to actually do some damage for once. But that was only the top of round three.

Bottom Round 3: Matt's tanks arrive, bringing Belial in the LRC and another squad in the LR. Matt takes a few shots at the monolith but for the most part round 3 is finished.



Round 4: Here is where the action starts. I fire a few rounds back but mostly keep my troopers boxed up. Matt cruises his tanks up to my troops and unloads Belial. Belial's squad assaults my Lord who I had left carelessly by himself. The lord is quickly dispatched.

Top of Round 5: There wasn't much to shoot at, most of Matt's models were either in cover or still inside a tank. So I decided my best bet would be to use the Necron Gauss rule and shoot at the tanks. I ended up taking out a few weapons but that was about it. Those troops that had shots on Belial failed to deal any damage.

Bottom Round 5: Matt turns Belial onto my Monolith. The 'lith had been stunned, so he got to have his way with it. at 23 total hits, 22 hit, with 7 weapon destroyed penetrations. The mono only has 6 eligible weapons, so the 7th pen became immobilized. Matt smelled blood but realized that this could be the last round, so he had moved his second LR back to his objective so he could claim it.

Round 6: Rolled and succeeded.

Top of Round 6: This round felt like a repeat. I had nothing else to do, so I shot at the LRC again, destroying all weapons. I just needed two more hits to stop it and destroy it, but alas, this was not going to happen. The 'lith was going no where, and the troops where stuck where they were.

Bottom of Round 6: Matt moves his LRC just in case there is a round 7, and then finishes off the 'lith with another 6 weapon pen's. That was more than enough to destroy it. Belial gains a huge 6" consolidation and moves into my squad of warriors. His other LR shoots into my destroyers taking 1 out.



Round 7: Rolled and failed.

Battle was a Tactical Draw.

We added up Victory Pts, and they came out 245 DA and 480 Necs. Had I been just a little more lucky , the LRC would have put Matt at 495. But once again neither Matt nor I will concede with Victory Pts, so the battle remains a draw.



What did I learn? This was my first time using destroyers. They were alot of fun, BS-7 to hit, all my units hit on 3's and the str of a regular destroyer meant I was wounding on 2's twelve shots was alot of wounds, I can see myself taking alot more destroyers. I also noticed that having more warriors and a full squad of immortals meant I was dealing alot of damage. As I noted before, killing off an entire squad was great to moral, but sense Necrons are almost soulless, it was just pleasing for me.

I think Matt and I both realized that we have along way to go in understanding the rules before the tourney in March. Its always the little things that end up slowing down a game that become frustrating.

Last thing, I have a few questions for the blogging community. Recently Jawaballs posted a comment/question regarding Lash and moving jump-pack troops in difficult terrain. Here is my ruling on this (which means spit but its how I see it.) jump-packs are only used when going more than 6". There, the end. If you arn't going more than 6" then you wouldn't turn on your jump-pack. Now that I have answered someone else's question, I have a few of my own.

In the Necron Codex, it states Gauss weapons penetrate armour on a 6 regardless of armour value. It counts as a glancing hit and you roll on the penetration table. Matt and I have decided (although I don't think he is fully convinced,) that the rule means you roll on the armour penetration table in the 5th edition book, you suffer a -1 for glancing and a -2 for non-AP weapon. that means that you need a 6 to destroy a weapon. Does anyone else do it like this? If not, do you use a different rule? And if so what. Also if you havn't thought about it and would like to comment, I would like to hear what you have to say. Just to give you a heads up, the armor tables and comments are on page 61 in the rule book. I would also like to state, that the rulebook specifically states that Codex's supersede the rulebook, so if its in the codex, then it comes first.

The reason I am asking this, is when we go to the tourney in March, I need to know if I need to bring heavy destroyers to deal with armor, or if I can rely on getting a ton of glancing shots. I know if I concentrate my firepower I can do it, so its not a matter of "if."

So please let me know what you think, any comments are welcome, but if your just going to hate on Nec's then keep it to yourself.

Our Number is Legion