Eldar vs Maynark Necrons 1500: Tournament practice 1

In preparation for Council of War I test out one of my possible tournament lists vs the necrons of the Maynark dynasty (forgeworld rules) in a 1500 point game of purge the alien. Who will win this fight to the death? The Ancient mechanical Necrons or the Dying Eldar? Old foes battling once more.

The Armies

I decided to test out my balanced tournament list to see if it will stand a chance in a competitive environment.

Eldar 1494

Farseer – 100 (warlord: re-roll 1’s to hit) w/ guardians

[guide, doom, fortune, eldritch storm],

Spiritseer – 70 w/ dire avengers

[destructor, enhance, conceal]

10 Dire Avengers – 130

Wave Serpent – 120

Twin-linked scatter laser

10 Guardians – 110

Bright lance

3 Jet bikes – 51

8 Warp spiders – 152

6 Swooping Hawks – 96

Crimson hunter – 160

2 War walkers – 140

4x scatter laser

Fire Prism – 125

Wraith Knight- 240

My opponent brings Necrons, it’s a list I have faced before but have always struggled to beat, so it’s a good challenge to face.

Necrons 1500

Overlord (warlord: +1 strength to a weapon per shooting phase) w/ immortals

Warsycthe, mindshackle scarabs, 2+ save

Cryptek w/ warriors

Vail of darkness, flamer that targets leadership

Immortals

Warriors

Warriors

Wraiths

Whip coils

Scarabs

Annihilation barge

Annihilation barge

Doomsday ark

The Mission

As this was tournament practice for an even that will only be using eternal war missions we roll for one of those and get Purge the Alien. Simple objective, destroy the ancient foe, fluffy too. Table set up is rolled for and we get dawn of war.

Rolling off for deployment I win and select to deploy first, I place the fire prism behind cover so hopefully keep it alive long enough to do something, the wraithknight forward ready to attack and the wave serpent in the middle of those 2. On my far left I place the war walkers thinking I can scout them to the right if I need to after he deploys. On the right go the warp spiders, back field Is held by my hawks ready to skyleap and I place the guardians behind some woods.

He counters this by placing the doomsday ark far left where it can see most things, the fast element (wraiths and scarabs) go on the right. His lord and immortals go to the right, the unjoined warrior unit in the middle and the other behind cover far left. The annihilation barges go in the middle and on the left flank.

Night Fight: No

Steal the initiative: No

The Battle

Eldar turn 1

Before they can do too much damage to me I need to destroy some of his vehicles, with this in mind the fire prism moves to the left to target the doomsday ark while the wraithknight and wave serpent move forwards towards the central annihilation barge. On the right the warp spiders warp jump towards the wraiths. The hawks skyleap.

Psychic phase and I manage to cast fortune on the wraithknight but then fail to get off any other powers due to bad rolling.

A bright beam erupts from the fire prisms crystal and hits the doomsday ark but only manages superficial damage, glancing it. The wraithknight fairs no better against the annihilation barge failing to do any damage, desperately the guardians then shoot it but miss. On the right the warp spiders run forwards to get in range of the wraiths then shoots at them, managing to kill a single model. I was hoping to get a penetrating hit on something so the war walkers could glance a vehicle to death but as that wasn’t the case they shoot at the immortals knocking down 5 forcing a moral test but they hold. The wave serpent targets the wraiths with scatter and shield and gets 3 wounds, leaving a single wraith alive but damaged. 3 of the Immortals stand up again.

Assault phase and the warp spiders jump back 6 inches away from the wraith.

Necron turn 1

With all units still operational the necrons have a change to do some serious damage. The left annihilation barge moves up as do the warriors in the middle of the table. With the warp spiders posing such a dangerous threat the cryptek uses its vail of darkness to transport his unit behind the spiders (and locks on) ready to delete them. With the wraithknight so far forward the wraith and immortals go straight for it as the scarabs go straight towards the spiders.

Shooting starts with the stalker targeting the war walkers with its melta weapon, and gets 2 penetrating hits, exploding both of the walkers straight away for first blood. Going for another easy kill the cryptek flames the spiders killing 2, then the warriors add their fire power killing 5 more leaving 1 spider alive. On the left the annihilation barge targets the guardians in the open and firing everything it has kills 2. The warriors in the centre then follow suit but kill 3 and the weapons platform. Now the farseer is dangerously close to the front now, so the other annihilation barge targets the guardians as well killing 2 guardians and the farseer fails a look out sir roll, and suffers instant death as his rune armour fails him. Showing the fire prism how to penetrate a vehicle the dooms day ark (with +1 strength from the warlord traits) hits and penetrates the fire prism, it attempts to jink but fails and gets stunned. A volley from the immortals shoots the wraithknight and manages to deal a single wound to it. End of the phase and I have a number of moral test but all the eldar hold their ground.

Assault phase and the scarabs charge into the lone warp spider and drag him to his death under the sheer number of them. In the middle both the wraith and immortals charge the knight. As the lord is in base to base I have to take a mind shackle scarab test but pass. The wraith attacks first but fails to do anything, but the lord deals an extra wound with its warsycthe. Attacking back the wraithknight attacks the wraith getting 3 wounds but it passes its invulnerable save with ease.

Eldar turn 2

In from reserve come the swooping hawks who land in my deployment zone next to the necron warriors. They drop their grenade pack on them but it scatters greatly so it only clips a single warrior but kills him. Both the bikes and crimson hunter fail to make an appearance. Moving back to support the hawks the wave serpent drops off the dire avengers but still faces the scarabs. The remnants of the guardians move towards the scarabs.

Psychic phase and all I manage to cast is renewer on the wraithknight, healing a single wound.

Avenging the warp spiders the wave serpent targets the scarabs, and manages to destroy every last one of them earning the first eldar victory point. Shooting from the hawks manages to bring down 2 of the warriors, the dire avengers add their firepower and take down an extra 8. 3 of the warriors get back up though.

Assault phase and this time the wraithknight succumbs to the scarabs injuring itself and allowing the lord to deal an extra wound.

Necron turn 2

With not much on their side of the battle field the stalker and annihilation barge move towards the right supported by the centre warriors.

Heatray ready the stalker shoots at the guardians but fails to get past their cover save. The annihilation barge has no such trouble though killing them off. The left annihilation barge targets the fire prism who again tries to jink, but he gets a single penetrating hit, blowing off the shuriken catapults. The doomsday ark is having none of that carry on though hand just explodes the fire prism this turn. With not much else to shoot at the warriors in the centre shoot at the wave serpent who doesn’t try to jink thinking not much will happen. They get 3 glancing hits but the woods obscures their view giving a 5+ cover save, and I pass all 3 (very lucky). The warriors in my deployment zone shoot and flame the dire avengers, managing to kill 3 but they also kill the spiritseer.

Assault phase and again the wraithknight punches himself in the face, but twice this time.

Eldar turn 3

From reserve the crimson hunter and bikes come in. The hunter on the far left, ready to destroy an annihilation barge, and the bikes supporting the eldar attempting to kill the warriors.

Time for the hunter to turn the tide, and shooting into the rear armour of the annihilation barge, it gets a single glancing hit. Wow… anyway on the right the eldar manage to kill off the last of the warriors for a kill point but the cryptek still stands.

Assault and the eldar jump on the cryptek and beat him to the floor (he doesn’t get back up). The wraithknight passes its MSS test this turn but gets killed by the necron lord before he can act.

Necron turn 3

With very little to oppose them, the necron warriors and wraith move towards the wave serpent, while the immortals go after the squishy dire avengers. After getting shot the annihilation barge turns around to see its attacker.

The Doomsday ark targets the hawks but the shot scatters wide off the table. Aiming to the sky the annihilation barge shoots at the crimson hunter, the pilot elects to jink but still gets hit and blown out the sky. Shooting from the immortals targets the dire avengers and kills them all.

Assault phase and the wraith charges into the wave serpent and wrecks it with ease.

Eldar turn 4

The bikes move into the face of the immortals getting ready to attack. They shoot combined with the hawks but fail to take any down.

The bikes assault but the combat is drawn with a loss a side.

Necron turn 4

The wraith moves to the hawks and charges them killing 3 and forcing the rest to run off the table. In the other combat the necron lord kills off the remaining bikes. The Eldar are tabled.

Necron victory

Post-Battle

Well that went really badly, my anti-tank was lacking and I messed up my target priority. The list is definitely lacking in areas and it might be best to revise the list over all. Still a lot of mistakes were made inside of the game and I need to focus on improving that. So what have I learnt?

·         Pushing the wraithknight forward: I placed him too far forward, I let he get charged by the necron lord which cost him dearly. I should have placed in just in range to shoot at first then maybe charge a warrior unit instead of the necron lord.

·         Target priority: The war walkers should have been in a position to target the same as the rest of the force instead of on the flanks. I should have killed the wraiths before moving on, I need to kill a unit at a time instead of weakening two. I was too preoccupied on his tanks, and didn’t pay attention to his infantry which ended it for me. If I had killed a unit of infantry a turn he would have been in a much worse position.

·         Backing into a corner: I let the necrons surround me, I was in trouble and they totally dominated me the entire game. If I had just ploughed down a flank and forced him to react as well maybe I might have stood a chance.

·         List: This list lacks a lot of anti-tank and probably could do with much improvement. I will test out my other list in the future and drop this one for now.

Well I hope you all enjoyed this report, till Tuesday.