The Matchup
I had a night off and had been ITCHING to try out the new Necron changes from the Nephilim book. Between the points reductions, CP changes, keyword changes, and secondary mission changes I knew it was going to be a ton of fun.
Chandler brought in some Black Legion Chaos Space Marines (CSM) to fight against my custom dynasty (Eternal Expansionists) Necrons. My Dynasty gives me a pregame move of 6″ and makes everything in my army obsec while giving models that had the rule already double!
Chandler’s List (I may miss a few details but the general idea is there)
Abbadon (Warlord), Dark Apostle, Master of Possession
1×10 Legionaries, 1×5 Legionaries, 1×10 Cultists
1×10 Terminators with ALL the things, 1×3 obliterators, 1×6 (Maybe more maybe less) Bikers
Dreadclaw Drop Pod
Secondaries: The Long War, Despoiled Dominion, Assassination
Ben’s List
HQ – The Silent King (Warlord), Chronomancer (Veil of Darkness, Hypermaterial Ablator), Illuminor Szeras, Overlord (Voidreaper and Eternal Madness)
Troops – 3×5 Immortals (2 Blocks with Gauss, 1 with Tesla)
Elites – 2×6 Skorpekh Destroyers, 10 Flayed Ones, C’tan Shard of the Void Dragon
Fast Attack – 6 Ophydian Destroyers, 2×3 Canoptek Scarab Swarms
Secondaries: Ancient Machines, Code of Combat, Treasure of Aeons
The Game
We are playing on mission 11 recover the relics, which plays down the long way of the board. Chandler chose the objectives closest to his deployment zone and one of the ones close to me for the treasure of aeons.
Round 1
I win the roll to go first and I know I am fast enough to score some secondary points quick. Also thanks to my pregame move I am able to be on the critical objectives and get a CP that would’ve been normally unavailable (Side note, I started with 6 CP and Chandler 1. Thanks Silent King) I rush up and get two zones of ancient machineries and start contesting 4 of the six zones. I see an opening to get a cheeky veil of darkness teleported unit of 6 skorpehk destroyers onto the obliterators and I take the chance…Immediately failing the charge roll and reroll. I am now strung out pretty far.
My turn ends with me making a few crucial errors. I have overextended for very little benefit, always need to keep in mind the scenario. By holding my side of the board I would’ve very easily gotten 18 points round one between my primaries and secondaries, been in cover to weather the opponents minimal long range shooting, screened out deep strikers and been poised for a truly brutal counter punch on turn two.
Chandler punches back brutally, getting all buffs off on to the terminators from abbadon and the support psyker and priest. They casually murder all my Skorpekh. While I have a solid footing on the objective, attrition has gone off the rails.
Round 2 – I got the zoomies and now there is a bunch of upstart heretics on my lawn!
We have pretty much met in the middle and spawn swapped here. My ophydians and flayed ones poof into his backline, where his Legionaries and drop pod do the same to mine. Here I had an itching feeling to drop my Ophydians into my own backline to deal with them. I should’ve trusted it! Ophydians can re-deep strike, I just didn’t remember the stratagem. It would’ve denied Chandler a mountain of points (Because fun fact, Ophydians really mow through marines), and allowed me to keep two of my objectives for a few rounds longer (Fun fact, that would’ve won me the game) Trust your guts!
The Silent King and Void Dragon bounce off the terminators, hard. Dice happen but I very much needed to be more aware of the buffs present on them, if I remember correctly they had 1-3 always miss on hit rolls, a 5+ FNP, Rerolls from Abbadon, and -1 to wound. I feel that I am missing one, but suffice it to say, there were much better targets.
Round 3 and End of Game
Attrition has reach well past the tipping point and the Silent King goes around scraping up some code of combat points while the Ophydians Murder some straggling support pieces. Abbadon reaches 2 wounds but does not succumb and Chandler tables me in round 4.
Final Score 81-57 Victory CSM
Closing Thoughts
Honestly this was a fantastic game. I really like my list and I have a few iterations and changes I am going to make but for a first time piloting it, and first time playing with many of the models and rules, I am very pleased to have held my own against a player of such caliber. I learned a lot of valuable positioning lessons, got some great times in with a buddy (I am sure everyone at our game store hates when we play because it gets pretty loud), and got some really valuable practice in against what I am sure is going to be a faction I see again in tournaments.
Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think of the list, gameplay, and write up in the comments. Always happy to get some feedback and iterate to improve.
Thanks for the play by play. I have a budding Necron army (only 600 points) and trying to figure out how to fill it out. A buddy of mine plays with CSM and I can’t figure out how to counter his fight first ability his characters get, especially since much of the Necron troops revolve around melee but don’t have fight first (except charges). Any tips?
Awesome! Necrons are a ton of fun. Two thoughts come to mind. First off. The silent king. He makes everything right last! Secondly. With the most recent update CSM lost armor of contempt and are much more likely to die to shooting. Gauss reaper equipped warriors could do some serious work!