Astra Militarum vs Necrons, 10.04.2024

I finished some more guard units - probably the last ones for a while, given that the Chaos Marine codex is over the horizon. I decided to have one last go with them, lining up once more against the necrons in this Sites of Power scenario. Notice the two Cyclops demolition vehicles...

And the Scout Sentinels.

Battle round 1

The Necrons went first, so I scouted my Sentinels into cover. The necrons immediately moved up to put pressure everywhere. Look at the Overlord visible in the bottom left corner, running up with his 10 Lychguard.

I shot down the Lychguard - lucky and efficient. However, the Rough Riders failed miserably against the Overlord.

My left flank was light, as I was afraid of the Heavy Destroyers. That also meant that I could not effectively answer the C'tan teleporting up into my face.

Battle round 2

The Necrons executed their classic pinning maneuvers. Of course nobody expects the scarabs to make their 9" charge... but they did. Gaunt's Ghosts died, and the C'tan consolidated into my tank.

More scarabs killed the riders. The necrons had all 3 no man's land objectives, all with characters on them.

So I was on the backfoot, and had threats up in my face. I decided to handle them first. 

Retreat the Cadian nuns, and let the Kriegers stay put.

Shoot down the Overlord for Assassination. I tried to shoot the scarabs as well to then charge the ressurrected lord, but couldn't. So I sent in the Bullgryns anyway.

I try not to blame the dice (usually). And I rolled a lot, and I mean a lot, of 6-s this game. However, most of them on flak armor saves. Which are no help, when the Oppressor cannon rolls like this.

And so the C'tan survived one more round at 1 wound.

Battle round 3

At this point, the Necrons were clearly winning. We were close on secondaries, but primaries were going their way. And I had the second wave to hold against now.

Small victories, with the sentinels tank shocking the lord into oblivion.

I tried to cut into the necron points by denying defend stronghold, but of course 1 warrior survived.

Battle round 4

With the wraiths inside my base, killing my dudettes, it was a losing battle.

Through some miracle, the characters survived, and the cadians were coming back as reserves.

Battle round 5

I fought tooth-and-nail, but not even the painted army bonus could help me out of this one.

I might have scored another 3-point secondary with some struggle, but I couldn't bring myself to waste 10-15 more minutes on a done deal. Necrons win 73-55.

Aftermath

I noticed some time ago that whoever gets first turn is still very important, but not because of killing your opponent, but to take up board position. Last time I had first turn and won. This time I got second turn and I was pinned inside my zone, unable to score.

Necrons were resilient as always, but I did make a dent in their forces.

Sentinels did great, but the Cyclops were... very random. Of course I brought them as cheap zoning action monkeys, but I saw their ideal target in the C'tan. Both did a solid 1 MW on exploding.

And now I look forward to playing Chaos Marines, and to have some units that are actually capable of taking objectives by force and then holding them.