BATTLE REPORT: Chaos Space Marines vs Necrons

After a couple of 'of the cuff' games against Gary's Dark Eldar I decided to sit down and write a decent army list to take on the pointy-ears. Unfortunately, on the day I didn't have enough time to play a 1500 point game so Gary suggested we play a smaller game using his Necrons. He used everything he had and the army totalled 820 points. I used loads of my units plucked out of my original lists as I didn't want to be too 'cheesy' and pick units especially good against the 'bots.

Points value: 820
Army 1: Chaos Space Marines
Army 2: Necrons
Mission: Recon
Level: Gamma
First turn: Chaos

Chaos Space Marines

• Lieutenant on Bike, Lightning Claw
• 5 Marines, meltagun, heavy bolter
  
• 5 Marines, plasma gun, heavy bolter
• 5 Marines, plasma gun, lascannon
  
• 6 Marines, flamer, plasma pistol, Aspiring champion with powerfist
  
• 5 Marines, plasma gun, missile launcher
• 6 Daemonettes
  
• Dreadnought, twin lascannon
  

Necrons

• 10 Warriors
• 10 Warriors
• 2 Destroyers
• 2 Destroyers
• Necron Lord with Resurrection Orb and Nightmare veil
• 6 Scarab bases

Terrain and Deployment
We played on a 6x4 foot table. Gary had laid out the terrain in advance. We had two low hills in the centre, rocky columns and a ruined shrine on the right, and some rubble and a wood on the left. Both Warrior units began in and behind the wood with the Lord amongst them. The Scarabs started in the middle and both Destroyer units were on my wide right.

I deployed my Chaos army predominantly in the centre and left, refusing the right flank.

The Game
I won first turn. My Dreadnought rolled fire frenzy. I had a nervous moment until I realised I could just see two Warriors deep in the wood, otherwise I would have been targeting my own troops! My shooting came to nothing anyway but I managed to move four squads forward.

Both Destroyers units stayed tight on my right flank and shot at the Dread but failed to hurt it. One Warrior squad walked up through the wood but the other used the Veil to deep strike on the right flank. They deviated close to my lines. They slaughtered a las/plas squad with rapid firing.

My Daemonettes were summoned from the other las/plas squad in prime assault range of the Lord and Warriors. They charged, as did the Dreadnought. I killed eight models and the two survivors were run down by the daemons. A twenty minute discussion then ensued regarding the Resurrection Orb and whether it allowed units to re-animate outside of 6" of a similar model. In the end we said the squad was dead. The Dreadnought moved into the Lord.

I pushed the models forward on the left again and scattered fire took out a couple of Warriors in the wood. I zoomed the biker lieutenant from the left to right to help out against the Scarabs and Destroyers.

The Scarabs charged the Daemonettes, killing three for the loss of a base. The las/plas squad charged in. The biker lord tried to crash the party but fell short. The Lord teleported out of combat with the Dread over to the left flank. The Destroyers felled the Dreadnought. Awesome Necron shooting and some appalling armour saves meant I lost my assault squad with the aspiring champion, too.

Moving from the ridiculous to the sublime I passed six armour saves on my lord. That allowed him to contact the Scarabs who were overwhelmed and destroyed, though they did take the Daemonettes out with them.

On the left the Lord and Warriors won a war of attrition with my last squad and I was short of phasing the 'bots out by two models. I couldn't catch the Destroyers or shoot them due to dusk falling, so I threw a las/plas squad into the Necron deployment zone. Both Destroyer units made it into the Chaos deployment zone.

Result: Loss

Commendations

• Chaos - Daemonettes
  
• Necrons - Destroyers
  

Turning point
Failing the armour saves on the squad with the powerfist. If I had achieved combat the Necrons would almost certainly have phased out.

Learning points

• This Necron army is quick. On a large board with a small armies I just couldn't get anywhere near the Destroyers. It's another example of why I think 40k is now a game of mobile firepower.
• Have the FAQ for your codex to hand at all times. We wasted 20 minutes while we argued about the Veil during the game. Afterwards we checked the FAQ on the website and it clarified the rules (we had played it right). If we'd had the rules at the time then we could have moved on more quickly.
• Gary made some noises about playing a campaign. It's something I'm really interested in doing to get a bit more depth from out games. The only problem is the extra time and effort it takes to run one. Still, I'll start mulling things over...