This is a really good game of identifying a game plan for a mission and then forgetting it. Anyway, game is a modification of Total Domination with Vanguard Strike in place of Pitched Battle deployment. The objectives here are spread out in a box and Jared has Necron flyers plus a Heldrake. That’s a lot of points off the table (490) at 1500 points but also gives Jared a lot of mobility on those objectives which aren’t close. Jared’s army isn’t great in combat nor is mine but Strike Knights, Coteaz and a Riptide are generally better than some Marines and Immortals. So the idea here is to put a lot of pressure on Jared early game whilst he has a lot of points off the table and then take over a table half to control two objectives and either whittle down the rest of what Jared has available (i.e. the flyers) or win on secondary if Jared gets the perfect drop.

Jared’s list btw:

Overlord w/MSS, Warscythe, 2+/3++

Chronotek

2x7x Immortals

2x5x Warriors w/Night Scythe

3x Annihilation Barge

Sorcerer

5x CSM w/flamer

Heldrake

Mine:

GK + Tau –

Coteaz

2x10x Strikes w/2x Psycannons, Rhino

6x Acolytes, 2x Plasma Servitors

2x Psyfledread

Commander w/2x Missile Pods, Target Lock, PENchip, Iridium Armor

Riptide w/EWO, Ion, Fusion

6x Fire Warriors

2x Broadsides w/HRR, SMS, Velocity Tracker

Deployment

I won roll-off and elected to go first – this allows me to pressure Jared early and then get back inside my Rhinos so the Heldrake doesn’t fry a squad. Again, my plan is to push Jared early and end up on that side of the board with those objectives particularly since Jared rolled the Outflank Warlord ability (and therefore may use it). However, I deploy my Fire Warriors!? on the far left side of the board. These should have been in reserve to come in on the right side whenever possible. A Dread + the Riptide deployed with them as they can move across/through the board otherwise the Rhinos deployed where they were very likely to get be in range of Jared unless he pushed well back (Night Fight btw) with the Broadsides chilling in the ruins with the rest of the army.

Jared placed his Barges forward with his infantry behind (Warlord is outflanking). Putting the Barges so far forward but given their height, they are having difficulty finding cover since I have the Riptide/Dread covering from the left. CSM with Sorc are placed far back just to make sure Jared stays on the table.

GK + Tau Turn 1

The Rhinos move forward and dump the Strike Knights out to shoot as much of the Immortals as possible – these really should have been deployed out of range of me, I was going to come that way regardless and would have simply meant I was shooting at Barges. Barges could also have been deployed further away to play a waiting game with the flyers but I do have long ranged shooting with Dreads, Broads and Riptide. Fire Warriors move up behind their pillar (should have started running them towards centre), Riptide and Dread move along left flank and we get ready to shoot.

BTW – the Broadsides are on top of the ruins but we didn’t want them falling and breaking so they are pictured inside the ruins at all times.

Searchlights + Blacksun filters ftw. Shooting sees one Barge explode, one take two hull points of damage and gets shaken and the other one remains undamaged. A handful of Immortals also roll up and die.

Necron + CSM Turn 1

The two Barges move up whilst the Immortals + CSM still hang back to protect that 6th edition tabling. The two Barges manage to drop four Marines with those damned 6’s and we head straight into Turn 2 quickly.

GK + Tau Turn 2

I gave out an early punch with the Strikes and lost more in return from the Barges – frustrating but that’s the way it happens! I could have simply left them inside and shot at the Barges with the Psycannons but that would have meant Jared would have been forced to shoot the Rhinos rather than make the choice. He should have shot the Rhinos so if the Heldrake came in, it could torch some Marines. Anyway, they load up in the Rhinos to stop against that and use their Psycannons this turn with some re-mobilising. The Dread and Riptide on the left flank advanced again.

Shooting saw both remaining Barges Wrecked (hence their remaining on the board for the rest of the pictures) and another couple of Immortals are dropped and then flee. They unfortunately rally in their turn however.

Necrons + CSM Turn 2

Some more stuff starts to happen! Two flyers, an Immortal squad and Heldrake come in. The Heldrake zooms straight towards my fire base at the back and in range of the Rhinos in case they pop open. It really should have zoomed over the lead Rhino as I didn’t block the space behind the Rhino to stop vector strikes on it. The Necron flyers come in from the right flank and both point themselves “at” Dreadnoughts whilst the outflanking Immortals come in behind the Fire Warriors. The other Immortals + CSM move up.

The Fire Warriors die – this is why they should have been in reserve, whilst the Heldrake BBQs some henchmen. The Riptide loses a wound from a Night Scythe and the lead Rhino goes down to one hull point – a Vector strike would have been valuable to try and make those Marines come out! Oh and the Riptide tried to Intercept the Immortals. It overheated. And then failed its save. I do this so often…

GK + Tau Turn 3

The Riptide moves to where it can pop in and out of LoS to the Immortals so is safe from charging. He’s not however doing much and should have kept moving towards the right flank whilst dropping a big blast wherever he can. The damaged Rhino trundles up to the top right objective and I make a mistake here as I forget the base of the Barge isn’t actually providing cover and thus push it too far forward. The other Rhino moves behind the central ruins whilst the Dread on the left looks up the Heldrake’s tailpipe and the Dread on the right advances forward.

The Broadsides shoot at the Heldrake and shake it and drop it to one Hull Point. The Dread tries to finish the job but fails whilst the Psycannons force both Night Scythes to jink. One loses a Hull Point. At this point I’m sitting okay other than the lose of the Fire Warriors (when they shouldn’t have) and the Riptide being out of position.

Necrons + CSM Turn 3

The Heldrake flies off the board naturally (but doesn’t Vector Strike on his way), whilst the Night Scythes both cross paths and line up at the Dreadnoughts again. The Immortals advance up on the left to get onto the board more and start impacting the game in a meaningful way (which they shouldn’t have done yet but they had the Fire Warriors to kill). The Immortals + CSM on the right flank move up steadily as well.

The Night Scythes open up with their jinking Tesla and naturally destroy both Dreadnoughts. Ouch! The Immortals also drop the Rhino with a single glance (which ironically I rolled the cover save before until it was kindly pointed out to me that the base was a crater, not the massive terrain piece I thought =D!) and the Knights spill out. The Immortals are unable to do anything so run further onto the table.

GK + Tau Turn 4

That hurt but it was my own fault with at least one Dread – it should have been inside the movement arc/out of LoS of both Night Scythes. The other one was in poor positioning after not moving it through midfield. Anyway, Riptide keeps the popping out and shoot at the Immortals to no effect shenangians rather than moving to the right flank whilst the remaining Rhino + Strike Knights move back to the left flank to shoot at the Immortals. This is going completely against what I needed and planned to do and…there’s a Heldrake still. WHAT ARE YOU DOING? The other Strike Knights line up the few Immortals remaining who just vanquished them from their Rhino.

These same Strike Knights do no damage and the Broadsides only manage a couple of Hull Points against a Night Scythe. The Riptide misses again against the Immortals but the full Strike Knights drop about half of the Immortal squad which flees despite Chrono. They rally next turn.

Necrons + CSM Turn 4

I kindly remind Jared of his Heldrake. The Immortals rally towards the Strike Knights whilst both Night Scythes drop off their Warriors. One zooms off the table whilst the other zooms closer to the top left objective to make sure the Warriors are on target. The Heldrake comes on over the Riptide and stops in front of the bunched up Strike Knights. To compound my errors, the Heldrake Vectors the Riptide to death (which didn’t intercept the one remaining Hull Point off the Heldrake) whilst the Immortals + CSM on the right keep on plodding up the field.

The Heldrake crisps six of the Strike Knights and blows up the Rhino whilst the combined Warrior + Immortal firepower drops the Strike Knights near the top right objective. This leaves me four Strike Knights + two scoring Acolytes left.

Turns 5 – 6

The rest of the game is mop-up for Jared – I do take down the Heldrake and a Night Scythe in revenge and the Broadsides/Coteaz manage to nearly clear an objective but they are all that ends up being left as the Commander, Strike Knights and Acolytes are wiped out in turn.

Conclusion

This is a classic example of where dice can do things that you could have stopped. I.e. using terrain to minimise shooting, moving inside of Night Scythe movement arcs, etc. would have stopped Dreadnoughts dying even when Night Scythes were snap shooting. However, the reason I lost this game is I lost the concept of how I was going to win. I had an idea at the beginning and started making mistakes in the beginning. The first was not reserving the Fire Warriors. The second was not moving the Riptide to the right side of the board. The third was moving the full Strike Knights back to the left. Compounding all this was forgetting the Heldrake and not using my movement properly. A 0+ save where you cannot be seen is better than any amount of any other save you can concoct. Remember this and it’s why movement has always won games.

Once I continued with these mistakes and Jared capitalised on them, it was just a point and click scenario for Jared. Aim unit, kill out of place unit. Rinse. Repeat. This is despite having lost so much initially and certainly helped along by dropping both Dreadnoughts in the same turn but not a 1 in 2,000,000 chance that many make out extreme dice to be. Again, if Jared couldn’t shoot at those units (and there was scope for that to be happening, jamming up against flyers without Hover or forcing their movment denies them a lot of their strengths) those dice couldn’t physically happen. This is why a lot of people will say armies are point and click and 40k is boring tactically – they make mistakes and it’s easy for their opponent, particularly if it’s a semi-good or good list.

Anyway, mistakes made and plan lost = lost game when your opponent capitalises on them. Well done to Jared :). He did paint most of the models on the table so I guess he does deserve it…