Back in the Reaver Saddle

So, it has been several months and my son and I still play. We have moved from the icy cold of Alaska to the humidity of Washington DC. Even so we have kept building our armies and have been playing and painting. I will do my best to keep it updated and will focus on the latest goings on in our wargaming lives.

Below was our latest battle, done over several nights. For those of you who play as a family, we have found that playing a turn a night after diner works very well. It is not a huge time sink and short enough for my youngest to stay engaged and lets up play high points games despite a busy life.

Jetbike Madness in the Canyon of Death

Battle Report #5 2000 points: Necrons vs. DE AKA: Jetbike Madness in the Canyon of Death

 

My son dared me to do a jetbike army, so I used every jetbike I had, and had to proxy for a couple. I made my list thinking I had more eldar bikes than I did. We also decided to use the modular hills that have only received their base coat, but elected  to use them anyway. We put them in a sort of canyon formation with high ground on the corners, middle and middle of each side. Two spires are on either side of the middle hill.

 

This is my first time using this program to map the movements, so forgive if it is a little messy, I am still learning.

 

The armies:

 

DE

 

HQ

Duke Sliscus

Haemonculus: Hexrifle

 

Troops

9 Wyches: RF, HWG in a Raider, Splinter Racks-Haemonculus starts here

5 Wyches: RF HWG in a venom with SC X 2, NS

20 Warriors: SC X 2 Duke starts here

 

Elites

4 Incubi, the Duke will eventually travel with these in a venom with SC X 2, NS

 

Fast

3 reavers with HL

3 reavers with HL

6 Reavers with HL X 2

 

Heavy

Ravager

Ravager

Razorwing, 2 DC, FF

 

ELDAR Allies

HQ

Farseer on jetbike, runes of warding, singing spear, spirit stones 2 cheap powers to roll new ones

 

Troops

3 Guardian jetbikes with a warlock on jetbike. Embolden, singing spear

3 Guardian jetbikes with a warlock on jetbike. Embolden, singing spear

 

 

 

Necrons

 

HQ

Anrakyr the traveler

Harbinger of the storm

Lord with Res Orb, MSS, war scythe

 

Troops

15 Warriors

15 Warriors

 

Elite

10 Lynchguard

 

Fast

5 tomb blades TL tesla carbines

3 Wraiths with whip coils

 

Heavy

Triarch Stalker

Doom Scythe

Doomsday Arc

 

Mission: Big Guns Never tire

Deployment: Dawn of War

Special Issues: Mysterious objectives

Warlord Traits: We both rolled Precepts of Deception

Terrain: As above

Ability rolls: I rolled for psycher powers and got misfortune and puppet master, but traded puppet master of psychic shriek. I then rolled for combat drugs and got to choose between a 1 and 5. No problem, I took the extra attack.

 

 

Deployment: He won the roll off and elected to go first. He was primarily middle focused and clustered around his objectives. It was a wall of necrons. He held his tomb blades and his doom scythe in reserve. I focused to the left side of the board, hugged as far away as I could and keep his big guns out of line of site. I put the duke where he could get on the venom first turn. I held my razorwing, both squads of wyches and both squads of eldar jetbikes in reserve. The Eldar Farseer was with my squad of 6 reavers. He did not use his Precepts of deceit and neither did I. We rolled for mysterious objectives and he got 1: Nothing Special 2: Scatterfield and I got 3: Sabatoge (yeah-right with my 20 warriors) and 4: Gravfield generator.

 

But when you see that, think this:

 

Turn 1 Necron Horde:

He moved units forward six inches except on squad of warrios which was conga lined to the objective 1. His doomsday arc fired at the warriors wounding 4 but only killing one due to cover saves. He fired his tachyon arrow at a ravager who also made its cover save. He had nothing else in range.

 

 

Turn 1 Kabal of the Bloody Claw:

In the movement phase the ravagers moved to get a better LOS on the doomsday arc. The venom moved forward and the reavers all positioned for their turbo-boosts. In the shooting phase the two squads of reavers boosted over the lynchguard (couldn't get an angle on the warriors) causing 9 hits but only killing two, one of which stood back up. The squad of 6 reavers caused 18 hits, killing four warriors and the venom added three more from splinter cannon fire. Only one stood up. The first ravager caused two pens on the arc, but due to entropic armor caused no damage. The second did exactly the same, but that was all four hull points so the arc was wrecked.

 

Turn 2 Necron Horde:

The doom scythe cam in aiming for a ravager and the tomb blades came in right next to the reavers at the base of the hill. The lynchguard turned and headed towards the squad of 6 reavers with the farseer. The wraiths turned around and came back towards the reavers on the middle hill top. In the shooting phase the doom scythe's death ray immobilized the ravager on the hill and the tesla destructor took another HP with a glance. The warriors on the right side fired into the reavers on the hill killing one, as did the warriors on the left side of the hill. Yeah 3+ jink save. The tomb blades fired their twin linked tesla carbines into the three reavers at the base of the hill fired their five weapons and caused 7 hits, killing two. The cryptec fired his something I don’t know the name of, killing one reaver. In assault phase the lynchguard charged the squad of 6 reavers, the tomb blades the squad of reavers at the base of the hill and the wraiths the reavers on the hill. The reavers and farseer caused two wounds which he saved. The lynchguard then killed three reavers. The wraiths killed the single reaver they charged. The tomb blades killed theirs with the hammer of wrath.

 

Turn 2 Kabal of the Bloody Claw:

The razorwing came on the board 18 inches. The venom with the wyches came on near the other venom. The two eldar jetbike units came in on the left side. Ravager 2 moved to the hill near objective four. The raider with the wyches and haemonculus used thier deep strike to come in near the warriors and stalker. In the shooting phase the immobilized ravager could only see the doom scythe so snap shot at it, getting one hit. He evaded but failed his jink roll. The pen hit caused a weapon destroyed-the tesla destructor. The second ravager fired at the stalker, causeing a glance and a pen. The pen caused a crew stunned. He failed his living armor roll.  The Razorwing fired two monoscythe missles into the warriors causing 14 hits and 4 hits on the tomb blades. 6 Warriors fell and two tomb blades. The dissie cannons then killed all but one of the remaing warriors which was killed by the far venom. The near venom fired at the tomb blades causing two wounds, but saves were made. Neither tomb blade stood back up. Finally the wyches in the raider fired into the warriors killing two, but one stood back up. The jetbikes turbo-boosted to the far corner. In assault, his lynchguard took out the last two reavers and put a wound on the farseer, but he stayed alive and made his leadership roll.  My sabatoged objective did not blow up.

 

The board at the end of turn 2:

 

 

Turn 3 Necron Horde:

He moved his wraiths towards the raider and jetbikes, his tomb blades close enough to get a shot at my venoms and his triarch stalker out of line of site of my ravager.  His doom scythe moved 18 inches ending up almost nose to wingtip on my jet fighter. In the shooting phase his warriors fired at my raider and with 28 shots he ended up with one glance-yeah jink! His stalker could not shoot this turn. His doom scythe then fired its death ray at my razorwing and it reached venom 2, but did not reach the warriors. The razorwing failed its flickerfield save and then exploded-scattering to the south west causing no damage. The venom made its flickerfield. Two of the tomb blades were in range of venom 2 and caused two hits, one was a glance and the other was saved-taking it to one hull point. In the assault phase his wraiths were exactly 12 inches from the jetbikes and about 10 from the raider so he elected not to charge. He kept his warriors around the objective. He challenged my farseer with the traveller. He wanted to keep in combat this turn so my venoms could not drop all their splinter shots into him in my half of the turn. The farseer caused a wound, he failed the save, but used his "go get 'em, boss" reroll to then save it. He ended up causing one wound on the farseer taking him to one. Perfect for him to kill him next turn-after my shooting phase.

 

Turn 3 Kabal of the Bloody Claw

The wyches disembarked and then the raider moved off towards the stalker and away from the wraiths. The venoms moved forward. Ravager moved over next to the objective. In the shooting phase the ravagers shot at the razorwing, but did nothing. The wyches fired into the warriors killing two but one stood up. The jetbikes turbo-boosted away to keep the three plus save and stay away from the wraiths and stalker. In assault the farseer survived again. The wyches only lost one to overwatch and one to combat killing three. The wyches won combat and the warriors ran...and the failed the sweeping advance-the warriors rolled a six and the wyches a one.

 

 

Turn 4 Necron Horde:

His warriors regrouped-no suprise with a leadership of 10. He moved his wraiths forward and to the side of his warriors so he could charge my wyches if they survived the shooting phase or my raider if they didn't. His doom scythe moved exactly 18 inches coming to rest basically over the objective next to my warriors. His stalker repositioned to get a good shot at the raider since he could not quite get in range of the ravagers. In shooting phase his warriors 20 shots into the wyches killed them all. His stalker fired its heat ray into the raider, taking a hull point and immobilizing it. The jink saved the other pen hit. The doom scythe then fired it's death ray killing four warriors. In the assault phase the wraiths wrecked the raider and the haemonculus escaped three inches to the edge of the hill. The farseer wounded, but the traveller made the save. He then hit the farseer three times but failed to wound, he then rerolled two of the too wounds and failed them again. The wyches died because they won combat the turn before but failed to make the sweeping advance on the only roll that could make that happen. Could be the cause of a loss.

 

 

Turn 4 Bloody Claw:

My venoms moved forward, the ravager moved to the top of the hill. The Haemonculus continued to move away. My venoms fired into his warriors killing 5 with all 24 splinter shots, with one standing back up. As my rolls continued to be poor, I fired 6 shots from my Ravagers into the wraiths doing nothing. The gaurdian jetbikes turbo-boosted again. The haeme fired at the wraiths failing to hit. In the assault phase the traveller finally killed the farseer.

 

 

Turn 5 Necron Horde:

In the movement phase he move his lynchguard toward my Incubi venom, his wraiths to the middle of the central hill and he didn't move his stalker. He forgot-but couldn't get it close enough to kill anything anyway. He left his warriors in place to try and keep one objective. In shooting his warriors failed to kill the haemonculus so the stalker used its heat ray and finished the job. His wraiths tried to assault the venom with one HP left, but fell short and lost a wound to overwatch (amazing ain't it). The cryptecs one shot did nothing.

 

Turn 5 Bloody Claw:

In the movement phase the Incubi and Duke disembarked. The venoms then moved forward 6 inches and the wyches disembarked about 9-10 inches from the warriors. The warriors had moved a bit to recover around the objective getting them just close enough....the jetbikes turbo-boosted to the two objectives. In the shooting phase The ravagers managed to kill two of the wraiths. The Venoms and wyches killed four warriors, two of which stood back up. In the Assault phase the Incubi and Duke Sliscus rolled an 11 to reach the lynchguard and promptly lost one Incubi to the cryptecs lighting shield or whatever it is called. The Duke killed two lynchguard and the Incubi only one more after getting 10 hits and only one wound (and all they needed were fours). They lynchguard horde, the lord, the traveller and the crypted combined to kill the remaining three incubi but after 6 or 7 wounds on the Duke, he was still going (gotta love the shadowfield-until you roll a one). Lost combat but made the leadership. On the wyche side they rolled just enough to get into combat and ended up with a tied combat each side losing two.

 

 

Rolling for continuation we got a one: Game over Dark Eldar 12, Necron 2

 

Dark Eldar: 3 objectives, First blood, linebreaker, one heavy unit destroyed

Necron: 2 Heavy units destroyed.

 

Some things here that we would not have done if playing competitively. We would not have sent the lynchguard and Incubi against one another, but we love that battle, so do it whenever the opportunity presents itself. He left his stalker almost completely out of the game due to my ravagers sitting there and knowing I would aim both at it at the first opportunity.  I should have gone after his doom scythe with my razorwing and left the infantry to my venoms and maybe it would have survived. I was impressed with his managment of his doomscythe, which he kept right in the fight until the fifth turn. I wasted the jetbikes with poor positioning after my first turbo boost, but I never expected him to go after them as agressively as he did. I think that to be effective as a major portion of a force they need to be in larger groups than three.

Overall, a very fun, if poorly played game.