Last week I put a 2000pt Space Wolf force up against 2 1000pt Necron armies. The main conclusion I have drawn from this first combat is that Necrons are still very powerful at range, even more so than in their last incarnation, and while still slightly more durable thanks to the removal of the phasing out rule, are still relatively weak on the close combat side if you ignore the C'Tan shard that floated around the place.
As a new layout for this element of the blog, I am going to only comment on what I think worked during the battle and what can/should be removed and/or improved for the next game.
Space Wolves
Wolf Priest - Runic Armour, Wolf Tooth Necklace
Rune Priest - Runic Armour, Wolf Tooth Necklace
Wolf Guard - 8 men with Wolf Claws, Land Raider Redeemer (Wolf Priest attached)
1 man TDA with Cyclone Missile Launcher (attached to Long Fangs 1)
1 man TDA with Assault Cannnon
Grey Hunters - 2 squads with 9 men, Standard, Meltagun, Rhino (one had the Rune Priest attached)
1 squad with 8 men, Standard, Plasma Gun, Rhino
1 squad with 6 men, Standard, Plasma Gun, Plasma Pistol, Razorback
Land Speeders - 2 with Heavy Flamer and Multimelta
Long Fangs 1 - 6 men, 3 x Missile Launchers, 2 x Lascannon
Long Fangs 2 - 6 men, 5 x Heavy Bolter
Necrons (Using two Force Organisation Charts)
Imotekh the Stormlord
Nemessor Zahndrekh with Cryptek Royal Court
C'Tan Shard of the Nightbringer
Lychguard
Immortals
Warriors - 1 squad of 10
2 squads of 5 (one with Imotekh attached)
Ghost Ark
Annihilation Barges - 2
Destroyers
Having little to no cover on the Wolves side and going second was always going to leave me open to the potential of taking a first turn pounding, but due to the night fighting rule in place and being able to stay out of range in the majority for the first turn of Necron shooting, meant most my army remained unharmed. One unit that took a huge bash however, was the Long Fang squad which had missiles launchers in it. This was quickly whittled down to just one lascannon Long Fang and the Cyclone Missile Launcher Wolf Guard. Deployment was relatively successful as none of the mech had been damaged.
Thanks to the remains of the Long Fangs squad decimated in the opening turn, their sharp shooting through the game removed an Annihilation Barge and the Ghost Ark from play in consecutive turns. Luck rather than tactics I think had a huge role to play in that, as AV 13 all round should be relatively optimistic of surviving against one lascannon shot and two krak missiles a turn for only two rounds.
The heavy bolters on the other Fangs and Razorback made light work of Necron Warriors, I was unaware their armour had been downgraded to 4+, leading to all wounds killing Necron Warriors left, right and centre. This initially lead to Imotekhs squad being reduced to 2 men and himself and trying to flee the board at the start of the second turn. Thankfully for the Necrons, the Ghost Ark swung into range and repaired one Warrior and allowed them to regroup just in time, given they were no more than 2" from the table edge.
The destroyers were taken apart initially by the plasma gun and pistol in the squad from the Razorback, with eventual assistance from the Assault Cannon TDA (once his squad had been wiped out), a Land Speeder and the Razorback itself. The destroyers kept on getting back up and were the only really persistent unit that really refused to die. Eventually a couple of rending shots from the Assault Cannon put an end to their existence.
Now for a quick report on the hammer unit of the army - Wolf Priest, 8 Wolf Guard all with Wolf Claws in a Land Raider Reedemer. 24 power weapon attacks on the charge from the WG with re-rolls on both the hits and wounds thanks to the Wolf Priests Preferred Enemy rule. The LRR got immobilised 10" from a squad of Immortals and Warriors who had tried to get out of charge range, but it wasn't enough for them. Within one round of combat the Wolf Guard and Priest had assaulted both units simultaneously, wiping out the Immortals completely and leaving four Warriors to be swept away in a 16-0 victory for the Wolves.
The consolidation move put the squad into terrain, but didn't stop it being assaulted the next turn by the C'Tan shard and Lychguard. I am sure that if it were a straight up battle Wolf Guard v Lychguard that I would've come out on top, but the C'Tan was pretty much unstoppable with what I had in that squad and as such the unit was wiped out in two rounds of combat, only claiming 3 Lychguard in return. Thunderhammer and Storm Shields are in order as you now also get invulnerable saves against the C'Tan. Alternatively you can just stay away from it and shoot it with high power weaponry.
Finally, Imotekh did fall in this battle to the Rune Priest and his squad of Grey Hunters. The Rune Priest had had quite an abysmal battle up to the last round of combat. Up to this point he had failed the psychic test twice (rolling 11 both times - very weird) and not really been involved in much. Then his squad dove into action against Imotekh and his remaining squad, killing the three warriors and forcing Imotekh into a leadership test that he once again failed and swept away in the process. Again in this combat no Wolves were hurt.
So, after my first skirmish with the new Necrons, I can definitely say that they are now a lot more competitive than they used to be. There is a lot in that Codex I did not come up against. For instance, if there were Scarabs on the table I would've feared a lot more for my tanks. As it was, the tank options helped to get me a lot closer more safely than if I had not had them. The C'Tan is still an obvious hard element in the Necron armoury and my army really had no possible reply to it outside of luck, which meant it went the game unscathed.
Based on kill points the game ended 9 - 9. Not a bad result and I enjoyed the game (which is what its all about really!).
