Battle Report #29 - Lahkers vs Orks, Casual Edition

Hey!  I finally got the Necrons onto the tabletop again, this time for a casual game at the friendly local gaming club.  My opponent was Jeff, and he brought Orks.  I decided to try out Trazyn the Infinite for the first time, as well as a new variation on the royal court.

Lahkers

Trazyn the Infinite w/Empathic Obliterator

10x Warriors

15x Warriors

10x Immortals

8x Triarch Praetorians w/voidblades and particle casters

3x Tomb Blades w/gauss and shield vanes

3x Heavy Destroyers

Annihilation Barge

Orks

Nob blob with Warboss w/powa klaw, Warboss w/Mega-nob armor, Painboy, Mekboy, take Battlewagon (all trukks and wagon had 1x rokkit launcha)

3x Boy mobs, 2 with 'eavy Armor, all in Trukks (3 blobs, 3 Trukks)

3x Deffkoptas

Bomma

We got Big Guns Never Tire for mission and Dawn of War for deployment.  Objectives were placed three nearer to my side of the table, one in the center of the table.

Jeff won the initiative and deployed first, put his Trukks (with boyz inside) line abreast, Battlewagon with his bosses and Nobs in the center, and keeping the Deffkoptas in reserve.

Recalling my earliest games with Orks (the most infamous where Ike tabled me turn 1) and my most recent victory (where I played my gunline army like an actual gunline army)  I took special care to deploy my gunline behind my melee troops and any available terrain.  The Annihilation Barge and Destroyers went on my far right (to destroy the Battlewagon and Nobz), and the Praetorians and Royal Court went in front.  This particular court, with the Lords Nahz and Nihkyanh, Overlord Byrahn, and Trazyn and the Cryptek, was built around Trazyn's body-swapping ability and betting heavily that my T5 and 3+ saves would make them an effective tarpit (or speed bump) unit.

I did not choose to steal the initiative, and Turn 1 began as I expected, except faster.  Jeff's Trukks rocketed across the table, as I'd expected, but got much closer to my lines than I was comfortable with.  Then Jeff let loose with his Trukk's rokkit launchas, which I definitely had not expected.  They missed, Ork accuracy being what it is.

My turn 1, I spread my troops out and moved backwards, widening the distance between us as much as I could.  The Destroyers blew up Jeff's right-most Trukk, and the Orks failed their pinning test and went to ground.  The Barge fired at the Battlewagon and didn't do a thing; I had forgotten that Battlewagons are AV14 on the front, to my detriment.  The rest of my shooting was pretty dismal, between crappy to-hit rolls and Jeff having been kunnin' in equipping his boyz with 'eavy Armor for a 4+ save.

Jeff's turn 2, his transports moved closer, and all his Orks jumped out and closed the distance to my troops.  His Deffkoptas came in, and outflanked on my left side.  The Bomma came on, arrived from Jeff's center edge, and headed directly across the table.  His shooting didn't do much other than take a few wounds.  Then he made his charges; his Warbosses and Nobz got into my Praetorians, and one mob of Boyz got to my Royal Court.  The Nobz dealt a pile of wounds to the Praetorians, who then flunked the majority of their saves, and were quickly wiped.  The Royal Court was another story.  I challenged with Trazyn, the local Nob accepted, and Trazyn survived his big choppa to kill him and get the special rule on his Empathic Obliterator off.  It killed a few more Orks, I lost Nahz and Byrahn, and the combat continued.

My turn I, got the Tomb Blades in, and brought them on to shield the Annihilation Barge from charges.  I pushed my 15-man Warrior blob back against the table edge, and pulled my right-most Warriors back further.  Shooting went poorly; Jeff's Orks were running hot with their armor saves, and while I killed a few Nobz and Boyz and one Trukk, I didn't kill as many as I'd wanted.  I made a gamble with my Immortals and sent them in to join the Royal Court in melee, and with their weight in attacks, routed the Orks, and got them in a sweeping advance!  That doesn't happen every day.

Jeff's turn.  His Bomma roared overhead, dropped one of its bombs successfully, and vaporized Lord Nihkyanh.  His Boyz on my right climbed onto the hill and claimed the objective.  The last Trukk got onto the objective on my left.  The Nobz swarmed towards the Royal Court and multi-assaulted them and my Warrior blob.  Trazyn went down swinging, and the Warriors somehow stayed in combat.  The other Boyz, the ones by the Nobz, charged my Immortals, then lost combat and ran away.

I pulled my army away from the Ork-dominated center.  Immortals on the left, Tomb Blades, Destroyers, and the Barge and my last few Warriors on the right.  I had my Blades and Destroyers head for the center of the board, in an attempt to grab or contest objectives.  The Destroyers killed the Battlewagon, the Tomb Blades picked off that lonely Boy, and the Immortals killed the Trukk camping on the left objective.  Inevitably, my Warrior blob was crushed by the Nobz.

However.  Jeff now had only his Warboss-Nob squad, his Deffkoptas, and a Bomma left.  I had numerical superiority.  The Bomma made a run on my Barge, and I jinked it.  The bomb failed to drop anyway (Ork bombing run table screwed it over), and the Nobz had to console themselves by slaughtering my Immortals.  The Deffkoptas jumped on the center objective on my side of the board, and the last Boy mob (on my right) got tangled up with my remaining Warriors.

My turn, I moved the Barge onto the right objective, got the Destroyers to the center objective on the other side of the board (thank you jet pack move) and the Tomb Blades shot down two Deffkoptas and assaulted the last one, contesting the objective.

The game ended there.  I held 2 objectives (6VP) and had First Blood (1VP) for a total of 7VP.  Jeff had 1 objective (3VP), Slay the Warlord for killing Trazyn (1VP), and Line Breaker (1VP) for a total of 5VP.

7-5 victory points, my favor.  Lahkers won for the second time in a row!

I was surprised, just like my last game.  I had been confident turn 1, concerned turn 2, and resigned from turn 3 onward, expecting a defeat...and then it turned out I'd killed just enough, and Jeff had gone all-in to such an extent, that he couldn't grab the key other objective, and I could.

Props to Jeff for being a chill Ork player (is there any other kind?) and to Trazyn and the Praetorians for dying so the gunline could live just long enough.  It's good to Warhammer again.

Edit: images are now proper size.

Extra Pics:

 

Russ Punisher/Executioner Turret Magnetized

I stopped procrastinating and magnetized the turret for my Leman Russ Punisher/Executioner.  Now I can swap the Punisher's ammo bins and gatling cannon out with the Executioner's heat vents and its plasma cannon (once I get a loose plasma cannon, that is).

Magnets on the turret bustle.

With the gun mantlet magnetized, I can magnetize any compatible gun and swap it out when I need to.

My next project will be another one I've put off for months: turn this Reaper Miniatures "Colossal Skeleton" into a C'tan Shard for the Lahkers Dynasty.

Tempestus Scions Finished

This squad of Militarum Tempestus Scions was a gift from a friend.  They are done, painted up in the colors of the Psian Jackals, a Scion regiment that specializes in fighting Eldar.  Their homeworld was conquered by Eldar, and they have held a collective grudge against the space elves ever since.

 The bases were made with a mix of rough and fine model railroad ballast and cut-up bits of spare sprue.  The sprue bits I superglued on first, and then spread Elmer's glue on the base and poured the ballast mix over the bases.

I primed the Scions black, and then slowly worked up to lighter colors in layers with Vallejo Game Color paints.  For the subtle lighting on the black armor plates, I mixed black with gray and a touch of blue, adding more gray in the later layers.  I used the same method for the other colors: dark first layer, light second layer.  This method is more exact than painting flats and washes, but it takes a while, even on a 5-man squad.  I use it on my "star" miniatures.  The regular line troops get the quick-and-dirty painting method.

Can't wait to field these guys, especially against my friend's Eldar army.

Las-man #1.

Las-man #2.

Plasma gunner.

Hot-shot volley gun trooper.

Tempestor (fancy sergeant).

Lahkers Break 13-Game Losing Streak

Orikan the Diviner bends the Chapter Smasher over his knee and claims my second Warlord kill of the battle.

After a string of dreary defeats, I slapped together a list consisting of a Lychstar with Imotekh, Orikan, and a lonely Lord with nothing but the Veil of Darkness, two 20-man blobs of Flayed Ones, two troops squads, the Legolith, and a Destroyer Cult, and battled it out with Nathaniel and Ike.  They brought a Raven Guard Talons Strike Force (Nathaniel) and an Iron Hands Fist of Medusa Strike Force (Ike), the nasty points of which were Ike's Chapter Master with the Teeth of Terra and Gorgon's Chain on a bike, and Nathaniel's Captain with Swiftstrike and Murder, two relic Lightning Claws (I think).
He also had the Raven skull of Korrivad and the Ravens Fury relics equipped. -Ike

Ike's Sergeant holding an objective in his deployment zone.

Long story short, I finally played the Necrons like they should be played.  Destroyers and shooting units back against my board edge (Dawn of War deployment), Flayed Ones forward in a hasty and what I thought would be an ill-advised blocking action, and the Legolith hanging out in the center.  The Raven Guard and Iron Hands came at me fast and hard, and the Flayed Ones did die, but not before they cushioned the impacts, took the hits, and killed a few Vanguard Veterans.

Even a Venerable Dreadnought can't stop Orikan!

Both Nathaniel and Ike's Warlords ended up in my left flank, only about 6 inches from each other.  I ported the Lychstar through the Monolith and cut their retreat off.  They murdered my nearby Destroyer Lord, but stayed in the area, and this meant  that when my turn 2 rolled around (I went second) I brought my Heavy Destroyers in from reserve and one-volleyed Nathaniel's warlord.  Then Orikan got the stars just right, transformed into his super-powerful form, and beat Ike's Chapter Smasher to a pulp.

Cleaning up the enemy stragglers.

The rest of the game was hopping around with Destroyers and gradually picking the enemy squads off their objectives.  I won, 9-8 VP.  Orikan's turn 2 power-up, the sacrifice of the Flayed Ones, the Legolith redeploying my forces with its Eternity Gate, and the mobility of the Destroyers won me that game.  Ike admitted he got cocky with his Chapter Smasher.  I was surprised I'd won, but happy.  It was a good battle.

The Legolith lurches onto the center objective, and I claim victory.