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.
Edit: images are now proper size.
Extra Pics:
What I found interesting about those last few lines is that I've heard Nathaniel say something similar. If he's sure one of his units/tactics/builds is a sure thing, it does nothing but flounder and disappoint him when he's counting on it most. When he feels that defeat and failure are certain but fights on without hope, he meets with unexpected success. I suppose its a common enough playing experience, but I wanted to point it out because its more or less the mirror image of how I feel during my games. At the start I dread the possibility that I missed some key element during deployment/setup and clench in anticipation of some turn 1 alpha strike cheese machine or losing some critical unit to potshots. At the midpoint I start to see that XYZ isn't so tough or that my opponent's prized murder-machine can be made vulnerable with just a bit of clever maneuvering on my part to give me the edge I need. Around turn 5-6 I can see the path to victory and what I must do to assure it.
ReplyDeleteI suppose the lesson here is to plan for the worst and know what to do with whatever you have when the unexpected occurs, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on the subject.
I remind myself to play the long game and play to the mission. This game was objective-based, and we got points for killing Heavy Support choices, so I kept my HS units away from the action, and put my Tomb Blades and Destroyers–both good units for late-game objective takers–in a position where they could grab the appropriate objectives.
ReplyDeleteAs for dealing with my "oh crap it's all going to the Warp" feelings, I remind myself it's like painting a painting: I love it at first, then I hate it, then I'm indifferent, and finally I kind of like it.
Or maybe it's just Cegorach messing with us. I don't know.