Astra Militarum vs Necrons, 07.02.2024

My first 2000 points Leviathan game. Kinda late but I've been having fun with narrative play so shut up.

Anyway, it was a deep dive in competitive style play. We played a standard mission (E from the Leviathan Tournament Mission Pool format) resulting in Take and Hold on an angled deployment. The table was absolutely overloaded with ruins. Ruins everywhere. Nothing but ruins. At least I had first turn, although I'm not sure if that was good or not.

Astra Militarum, turn 1

I pulled Area Denial and another one that I threw away. I moved forwards, getting some shooting angles.

I deployed my freshly painted Rogal Dorn alongside the Executioner as far forwards as possible without giving direct line of sight. First turn, they rumbled up into view.

The Catachan detachment (including Sly Marbo) had previously scouted up, taking the objective, standing still for shooting the Licheguard and completing Area Denial.

On my far right, the Ogryns and Gaunt's Ghosts (which I forgot at home and so I scavenged some models from my opponent's collection - big sad) stood still.

I had the Kriegers Move! Move! Move! Into view of the Wraiths, the Kasrkin disembarked from the scouting Chimera, and the Battle Tank moved in behind.

I unleashed all my shooting and it was terribly underwhelming. I killed two Wraiths and some Lycheguard. The 5+ FnP from the Cryptek came in handy.

Necrons, turn 1

They all moved up, advancing into my face. I felt the pressure immediately, having been unable to stand back and shoot due to all the ruins. The table is also smaller and the necrons are fast.

Szarekh shot at my Executioner, but Ablative Plating saved my hide. The Catachans, on the hand, died in droves. Scarabs charged the Kasrkin but they mostly held.

Astra Militarum, turn 2

Brave sons of Krieg arrive from reserves. I placed them there with the plan to kill the Scarabs, then hold down the Skorpekh in a useless corner fight. I did surprisingly well, killing some destroyers.

Cadians and Gaunt arrive from reserves to harass the middle, taking down more destroyers.

I once again unleashed almost two full tanks, and a lot of infantry guns into the Wraiths, barely killing two. At least I took down the jetbikes, but I needed the Bullgryns to charge in.

I charged in the Kriegers, and they held down the Wraiths for quite some time. But no damage done, obviously.

Necrons, turn 2

I had already taken some pretty bad losses, but the necrons, obviously, just began to rise again.

Szarekh moved in to easily clean up the center, including all the infantry, the Bullgryns and the Executioner.

Even reduced in numbers, the destroyers mulched the Krieger squad.

Lycheguard killed Cadian nuns left and right.

Battle round 3

With most units tied down, there was less movement and the game sped up. My entire left flank continued in engaging the Wraiths, to little effect.

I retreated, hoping to keep the melee necrons tied down for another turn.

All the meltas from the Dorn killed off the menhirs.

I also made a play for the necron backfield with the Catachan arriving from reserves, shored up by Gaunt's Ghosts. Shooting went poorly, and I failed charges.

The necrons responded by shredding the Cadians and Ogryns in close combat, and Szarekh charging the Dorn.

Battle round 4 and on

We were very tight in score, with me leading for rounds 1-3 and the necrons advancing just a bit in round 4. Holding them back in their deployment zone for the first couple of turns was crucial. However, I couldn't keep up with their rate of resurrections, and I couldn't dent them enough to make a real difference. Oh, and they also had more Wraiths and Scarabs in strategic reserves. So by the time turn 5 arrived, I had very little on the table. The Dorn died to Szarekh, who was still fine and dandy sitting at 10 wounds or so.

I still had a chance to win, if I killed Szarekh, the Lycheguard, and a Cryptek in the middle, denying a lot of secondary and primary points. Obviously, I couldn't kill anything. We ended the game 58-80, which seems like a runaway, but it really was tight for 4 rounds. I was very sad on having to proxy Gaunt's Ghosts, but even a painted army bonus wouldn't have been enough for the win, given the score above.

Yeah, I forgot to take pictures. I was way too deep into thinking about the game.

There was also a play at my own backfield objective, where the Callidus held off 3 Wraiths who came in from reserves and made the charge at once. The Cadians then came in from behind and bathed the Wraiths in plasma. Still, the Wraiths took the objective for a turn, denying me points.

This was still very different from Gaunt and the Catachans coming in, shooting a couple of warriors who stood back up anyway, charging in but failing to take the objective, and then dying in combat.

Thoughts

It wasn't a bad matchup, and neither list was very competitive, I think. And it was also my first such game. I didn't do that badly. But let me tell you that it was exhausting. Keeping up with the score all the time, constantly weighing moving around vs doing lethal hits due to the super dense table. Always facing high toughness, lots of wounds with good saves (and everything in cover) made every shot count, in theory.

Unlike my previous narrative games, we were both very focused and into it, with way less banter than usual.

So a very different experience than what I encountered so far. And it wasn't bad, but definitely less fun.