OPtv Battle #3

The Souless March - Vigilus

Points: 1000.
Mission: No Mercy.
Deployment: Search and Destroy.

An unexpected enemy has manifested in the deep deserts of Vigilus - the Necrons of the Mephrit Dynasty. The machines march forward and towards the holdings of the expanding Cult. It was a major engagement considering the forces arrayed against the Cult elsewhere on Vigilus at the time. It would see the Genestealer Cult forces decimated completely and several Cult outposts likewise destroyed within a few days. The Necron forces then faded back into the night leaving flayed bodies and burning wreckage, and a mystery for those who find the remains.

This past week our local club has had several new members brought to us. One new player was Sean and we had a cool game. Sean brought his Necrons to the table and I bought my Genestealer Cult. This was only his fourth game ever so we went for a basic kill mission. I set up first and decided to let my opponent have the first turn. I've not played Necrons with my Cult so while I expected to get hammered, I figured going second would perhaps be more helpful and I could see what Shaun did before I decided finally what unit was which ambush blip.

The Necrons advanced forwards across the table. His immortals claiming cover inside a ruin, while the lychguard marched into the central ruin which oddly halted their advance. At this point I revealed my units, and the machines opened fire. I lost an entire unit of brood brothers and my vehicles both lost a few wounds.

My turn and I drove the rockgrinder towards the immortals but they had inflicted significant damage and weakened it. I was just hoping to get in there and use the appropriate stratagem to detonate the cache of explosives onboard. Most of my fire went into Sean's annihilation barge and although it didn't explode this turn, it would not survive the second. Sure enough, the necrons destroyed my rockgrinder, while it did nothing on the charge. The cache detonated killing a handful models from the immortals and warriors, and knocking two wounds from his lord.

The next couple of turns were quite brutal. The necron shooting was incredible and I lost my leman russ battle tank but not before it destroyed a unity of scarabs and wounded the advancing nightbringer. I used the laying in wait stratagem to bring the hybrids in three inches from the immortals but the hand flamers did nothing, and the immortals then burnt them to the ground. Very ineffective but I didn't really have a better target. On my left flank I brought in my genestealers and patriarch. The idea being to charge into the necron warriors and cryptek but both failed their charges and took heavy casualties from the overwatch.

Sean then used veil of night to shift his lord and immortals closer to my genestealers. Their incoming fire dropped more genestealers though and that flank was beginning to crumble. In return I was able to smite a couple models but again things did not go well, and the souless machines gunned down my unit and the patriarch. Warlord kill went to my opponent.

Turn 5 and all I had left was my primus and one understrengh brood brothers squad. Despite being brave and charging in, the primus died horribly. At this point we agreed that victory was in the hands of the Necrons. Sean won this game 9 victory points to my 2.

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This was just the sort of game that I enjoy. Just the sort of game that Warhammer should be as. There were no twinky lists or aggressive play. This was a straight casual fun game. A big thank you to my opponent for that.

I think that I could have done better but my dice were, as usual, not playing ball. I may have focused too much on the wrong targets but in hindsight, if the dice rolled well, I wouldn't be saying that. I really needed to get the genestealers into combat but it was not to be.

Hopefully we'll get a rematch again soon.
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