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8th Edition Battle Report, Astra Militarum vs Necrons, Power Level 20

2K views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  darkreever 
#1 ·
Hello everyone; a friend of mine has been looking to get back into 40k after quite a few years. He played Necrons during 4th edition before leaving the hobby, but with the new edition he's decided its time for his Necrons to make a return.

Mission type is Retrieval Mission, where both sides are fighting over four objectives strewn across the battlefield; also in effect are Slay the Warlord, First Blood, and Linebreaker.

Deployment type is Search and Destroy, chosen by him because I won the roll to place objectives.

The Forces:
Necrons



Astra Militarum



The Battlefield

Played on a 4x4 table littered with a bunch of ruins, I placed the first objective which is located in the center, then he placed the one in the top corner. My second placement was the one to the right of the center and his was on the bottom left corner.

Deployment

Because the Necrons placed the fourth objective, they would get choice of deployment type and zone. He chose the search and destroy deployment, taking the top left quarter of the board. The deathmarks would not be starting on the board, meaning that the Necrons only had three units to deploy compared to the Astra Militarums eight. Unfortunately, for me, the Astra Militarum failed to seize the initiative.

Note: We both ended up forgetting that this mission calculates victory points at the end of the game, and instead thought it was at the end of every turn. Overall neither of us thought that would have changed the outcome, but what do you guys think?

Turn 1
Necrons
-Movement-
The Necron lord and warriors slowly make their way towards the center of the board, having only a five inch move. Unlike them though, the tomb blades make full use of their fourteen inch move towards the bottom objective.


-Shooting-
Opening fire goes to the tomb blades, shooting the sentinels with tesla carbines. Despite an impressive 14 of 12 hits and 7 wounds, the sentinels prove resilient and save 5.

The warriors shoot their gauss flayers at the top infantry squad, managing to hit with 6 of their 10 shots and wounding with 4. The rend on those weapons is devestating for the guardsmen, resulting in them only making 1 save.


-Assault-
Taking full advantage of changes in the new edition, the tomb blades declare a charge against the lower infantry squad. Overwatch between the lasguns, grenade launcher, and mortar does cause a few wounds, but only 1 goes through. Unfortunately, for the Necrons, the tomb blades fail the charge with double 1's!


-Morale-
The infantry squad that suffered losses does need to make a leadership test. Guardsmen on their own are leadership 6, but the sergeant in the squad is leadership 7. Unfortunately, the leadership roll is a 5, which becomes an 8 due to the squads losses. 1 guardsman flees the battlefield (or that one that made his save and didn't die succumbed to his wound.)

Astra Militarum
-Movement-
The sentinals move 9 inches through the ruined building towards the lower objective and tomb blades while the infantry squad follows in their wake to get into better firing position with the platoon commander in tow. Looking to cut the warriors off and try to hold of objectives, the battered infantry squad, backed by the platoon commander, reposition themselves.


-Shooting-
The company commander issues his orders, first rank fire, second rank fire to the infantry squad, and then take aim to the heavy weapon squad. Platoon commander also issues first rank fire to the infantry squad he is following.

Weakened infantry squad shoots at the warriors, the grenade launcher managing an impressive 6 shots from a frag grenade, unfortunately only 1 hit but not only did it wound but it took a warrior down. The lasguns and pistol put out 9 shots, with 6 hitting, 2 causing wounds and 1 of those going through. Finally the mortar fired, getting 3 shots, 2 hitting and 1 wounding, taking down another warrior.

The second infantry squad opened up on the tomb blades, first with 29 las shots, getting 13 hits but only 2 wounds. Both wounds went through, forcing a command point reroll (that resulted in a 1.) Sadly, despite getting 6 shots, the mortar failed to do any damage and a krak grenade from the grenade launcher almost failed to wound (command point reroll) but ultimately did and another wound got through.

Next the heavy weapon squad aimed one autocannon at the remaining tomb blade, managing to wound and killing off the squad. The other two autocannons targetted the warriors, managing 2 hits and wounding with both, 1 wound got through in the end.

The master of ordnance and sentinels also shot at the warriors. 6 multi-laser shots hit 3 times, causing 3 wounds, and taking down 2 warriors while the artillery strike got 4 shots, with 3 hits and wounds, but only took down 1 more warrior.


-Morale-
Warriors have a leadership of 10, which is further boosted by the lords warlord trait, making it 11. A roll of 4, even with the addition of the 6 downed warriors, does not cause any other warriors to be removed.

-Astra Militarum score first blood-

Turn 2
Necrons
-Reanimation-
4 Necron Warriors stand back up despite the damage inflicted, effectively negating a majority of the previous turns shooting.

-Movement-
The warriors continue to move on the central objective with the lord advancing with them, at the end of the phase the deathmarks arrive on the battlefield.


-Shooting-
Warriors shoot at the infantry squad before them, 16 flayer shots hitting 7 times and causing 5 wounds; all of which go through. The lord attempts to finish the squad off, but all of the shots from the staff of light miss.

Deathmarks shoot at the company commander, their synaptic disintegrators getting 10 shots at this range. 7 shots hit, 4 wound and all get through, however his warlord trait kicks in and he is able to ignore 2 wounds.


-Assault-
The Necron lord charges at the commander, and everyone fails to do anything. The deathmarks, on the other hand, make a successful charge against the commander; making 5 attacks, hitting with only 1 and causing a wound that is saved. The commander returns with 3 attacks, hitting 2 times and wounding with both, 1 deathmark goes down as a result.


-Morale-
With no sergeant left, the lone guardsman tests on leadership 6 and rolls a 3, fleeing the battlefield.

Astra Militarum
-Movement-
Sentinels continue to move on the bottom objective and everyone else stays put.

-Shooting-
Platoon commander gives take aim order to the heavy weapon squad and they immediately fire autocannons on the warriors. This causes 4 hits of 6, and 3 of those wound; however only 1 wound goes through.

The sentinels and infantry squad open up on the warriors as well, the infantry squad failing to do any damage and the sentinels felling another 2 warriors.

Finally the commander shoots his plasma pistol at the deathmarks; a hot ball of plasma melting one of the mechanical monsters but not stopping it.


-Assault-
Commander attacks the deathmarks, managing to take down another machine while they also cause a wound of their own on him. Though the commanders warlord trait does take effect, it is unable to negate the damage this time.


-Morale-
Though the warriors took losses, they did not take enough where a leadership test would cause any to flee.


Turn 3
Necrons
-Reanimation-
Another 2 warriors get back up, and 1 deathmark also gets back up

-Movement-
The warriors cluster around the central objective and the lord advances on the heavy weapon team


-Shooting-
Warriors fire the gauss flayers at the sentinels, getting 5 of the 8 shots to hit, with 3 causing wounds and 2 getting through.

The lord fires its staff of light, this time getting all hits and causing 2 wounds, killing off one team.


-Assault-
The lord charges the heavy weapon team, the autocannon overwatch causes a hit, which does wound and go through. If not for command points, the lords charge would be a failure, however the reroll results in a successful charge*

Necron lord attacks the heavy weapon squad, managing to hit 3 times, and then wound all 3 times. The rend of the staff of light goes right through the armour of the guardsmen, killing another team and putting a wound on the last team. The last heavy weapon team attacks back, failing to hit.

The deathmarks strike at the commander again, all 4 attacks hit and 2 wound both go through though a reroll turns it into 1. The warlord trait is unable to negate the damage.

-Necrons get warlord kill-


Astra Militarum
-Movement-
Master of Ordnance advances around the ongoing combat towards the deathmarks.


-Shooting-
Platoon commander orders the infantry squad to take aim and they fire on the deathmarks. Combined fire from the lasguns, mortar, and a frag grenade cause 3 warriors to go down.

The sentinals fire their multi lasers on the deathmarks, hitting 2 times and causing a wound but it does not fell anything.


-Assault-
The heavy weapons team attacks the Necron lord, managing to hit it 2 times and cause 1 wound that goes through. In return the lord wipes out the last team.


Turn 4
Necrons
-Reanimation-
2 Deathmarks get back up and the lord regains a wound from living metal

-Movement-
Warriors shamble forward a little, getting more into better range while the lord moves towards the master of ordnance. The deathmarks move towards the platoon commander.


-Shooting-
Warriors fire on the sentinels, causing 8 hits and wounding 3 times; 2 wounds go through and finally down a sentinel.

The deathmarks shoot at the platoon commander getting 4 hits and wounding all 4 times, with 3 of those going through and not even the final command point reroll is able to save him.

Finally the lord shoots at the master of ordnance, hitting all 3 times with the staff but only getting 1 wound that goes right through his armour.


-Assault-
Lord declares a charge against the master of ordnance, who misses with his laspistol. Hitting 3 times, at first the lord only causes 1 wound, but a reroll from the last command point turns that into 2 and kills the master of ordnance.

The deathmarks declare a charge on the infantry squad, overwatch failing to do anything and the charge itself is successful. Deathmarks make 3 attacks and hit 2 times, only 1 of those causes a wound that gets through. The infantry squad attacks back, hitting 6 times and causing 1 wound that is stopped.


Its at this point that I conceded the game. At this point the Necrons have a firm grasp on the central objective and right now hold a second one with the lord. With no guarantee that I can kill off the warriors or kill the lord the best I can hope to do is move the sentinels into his deployment in order to contest linebreaker or charge them into the warriors.

*After concluding the game we both realized that the lord could not charge the heavy weapon team because he advanced in that turn. While there is no guarantee that he would have been able to survive both a turn of shooting and then a round of overwatch, we rolled a round of shooting just to see and the lord did indeed survive.


Overall, despite a few errors, it was a very close game that could have gone either way. Probably the biggest thing that hurt me was taking mortars instead of autocannons or heavy bolters. I took them with the idea of keeping the squads still and always in cover, but ultimately that was not what happened. On the other side of things, he took the deathmarks specifically to go after my commanders; they have a special rule that allows them to target characters even if they are not the closest target, making them especially deadly.


If you got this far than thanks, let me know what you guys think as I look to get more games up for you all.
 
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#2 ·
Lovely little batt rep, I haven't got 8th ed yet and am not much of a player so can't really comment on the battle. That being said, I wholly agree with you about the mortars, I think Heavy Bolters would have bean a better choice, a great force multiplier and underrated weapon in my opinion
 
#3 ·
Thanks Old Man, in this case the greater strength of the heavy bolters might have made more if a difference than the potential for a lot of shots the mortars got.

That being said, I do want to praise the power level system. From a point perspective both of these lists are under 500 points, with the Necrons having 100 more points than the Guard did despite having significantly fewer units (almost double in fact.) The mahor deciding factor ultimately came down to weapin choices with those mortars hurting me the most (Though having guardsmen caught in the open against gauss weapons also did not help.)
 
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