Tau vs Necrons (750pt) II Battle Report (Zorcon's Perspective)

Here is my second attempt at writing a battle report. Even though more time had elapsed between the first battle and writing that report, I had taken better pictures during that game to help remember and show everything that happened.

Battle Report Zorcon (Tau) vs Laertes (Necrons) Round 2
OK, this is our rematch. I was a little unsure of my list, but we decided to keep our lists the same for one more battle (although, Laertes did make a minor wargear change to his lord). I will definitely be revising the list for our next game.

I still do not have my head wrapped around the tau. Too many years with marines, and not enough games are under my belt in the “current” rules environment (3rd-5th edition). In my head during a game, I “convert” my tau units to marine equivalents. For example, in my first couple of games I treated my crisis suits as light dreadnaughts, and in my last couple of games I treated them as terminators. I realize for many reasons this is a really bad idea, and I’m working on that…

Zorcon: 750 points of Tau
1 Shas’o with missile pod, plasma rifle, and multi tracker
9 Warriors and Devilfish with disruption pod
9 Warriors and Devilfish with disruption pod
2 Crisis Suits with burst cannon and fusion blaster
1 Hammerhead with railgun, smart missiles, decoy launchers and disruption pod

Laertes: 750 pts of Necrons
1 Lord with resurrection orb
11 Warriors
10 Warriors
3 Destroyers
1 Heavy Destroyer

After the last game (battle report by <Zorcon> and <Laertes>), I really wanted my crisis suits to perform better. I knew Laertes would be targeting them with his destroyers, but I hadn’t really come up with a plan yet.

Mission: Secure and Control / Deployment: Pitched Battle


Setup:
We rolled a 2 for the Secure and Control mission, so we both had one objective marker to place, and did so in our respective deployment zones. Like the last battle, this was a low point-value game, so we opted for a 4’ x 4’ board. Also like last battle, Laertes won the roll and chose to set up first.

Laertes lined up his forces along the edge of his deployment zone. To his left was a unit of warriors guarding an objective, then his lord with the other unit of warriors in the middle. To his right he placed the destroyers, and far right was the heavy destroyer.

I chose to reserve both units of firewarriors , but only one unit in its transport. I placed the suits and railhead to my far left behind a hill. I seized the initiative and got to go first!

Turn 1:
My first turn was pretty quick. The suits were not in range to jump-shoot-jump at the destroyers (and I was not ready to advance them), so they stayed put. Actually, my plan was to make Laertes come to me. All I did was take a shot at the heavy destroyer with the railhead, and missed.

Laertes advanced his lord and unit of warriors towards my objective. He then slid his destroyers and heavy destroyer to the left. The destroyers caught a glimpse of one of my suits and managed to take it out. The heavy destroyer hit but failed to wound the railhead.


Turn 2:
Most of my reserves showed up – both units of firewarriors and one fish. I placed the fish with troops next to my objective and the unit of warriors to my far right. I decided to make a move for the forest with my suits and get a better position to thwart the destroyers. The railhead took a shot and missed the heavy destroyer.

Laertes unloaded the mighty firepower of his devastators on my suits and took them all out. His heavy destroyer hit and stunned the hammerhead. His lord and warriors advanced but got hung up on a fence mid field.

Turn 3:
No reserves came on board. In hindsight, I made a mistake here. I should have advanced my railhead, but since I couldn’t get to a point to target the heavy destroyer out of cover, at the time, I didn’t see the point. So I didn’t move, shot at, and missed the heavy destroyer. My fish dropped its load of troops and drones at the objective and made a screening advance towards the necon’s front line. I then moved the other unit of warriors up to my objective.

Laertes didn’t move either unit of warriors. The unit by the objective shot at the fish, stunning the crew and taking out the burst cannon. The unint in the middle of the field shot at my warriors holding my objective, scoring a few wounds. He then swung the destroyers towards his front lines. Lastly the heavy destroyer hit, but failed to damage the railhead.


Turn 4:
Again, no reserves showed up. I tightened my units around my objective, and shot at the lead necron unit, causing a wound. The railhead took a shot at, but missed the heavy destroyer.

Laertes returned fire on the railhead, and again failed to cause any damage (seeing a pattern yet?). The destroyers continued towards the middle of the board. The forward unit took out a few more firewarriors guarding my objective.


Turn 5:
Not surprisingly, my last devilfish showed up! I placed it as far forward as I could keeping it between the destroyers and my objective. My forward fish tried to tank shock the necron lord and unit of warriors, and then pushed forward to contest Laertes objective. My hammerhead finally took out the heavy destroyer. I regrouped the remaining firewarriors around thee objective, preparing for a charge by the necrons.

Laertes advanced his destroyers and nearly completely wiped out my firewarriors, the few survivors fell back. My devilfish was destroyed by heavy fire from the warriors, freeing up Laertes’ objective. His lord and warriors near the center of the board advance towards my objective.

That was the end of the game. Lucky for me as one more turn would have definitely turned into a loss.


Result: Tactical Draw (Zorcon 1 / Laertes 1)

It wasn’t until the end of the game that I realized a mistake I made before the game even started. When I assembled my hammerhead for the battle (adding all the wargear and weapon loadouts) I accidentally placed burst cannons instead of SMS in the drone sockets. I can’t say this had a major impact on the game, but there were one or two turns I would have been able to fire them.

Once again the destroyers owned my suits. But what bothers me most is that freaking back and fourth with the heavy destroyer. Even though I eventually took him out, I spent the entire game to do it (and the same in game 1). I consider that exchange a loss (in both games).

In a weird way, I consider this game a win for me. In the last two games, comparing our armies, Laertes has the game won on paper:

• 1 necron lord and 21 warriors vs 18 fire warriors and 2 devilfish (Laertes wins)
• 3 destroyers vs 1 crisis suit commander and 2 crisis suits (Laertes wins BIG)
• 1 heavy destroyer vs 1 hammerhead (Laertes wins on point exchange)

So any result that is not a loss for me is a moral vicory!

PHOTO NOTE: I'm not sure what happened, but in a few of the pictures, the lower right corner was black. I copy/pasted a corner from a different shot, and you may notice a double image of the hammerhead.

Tau vs Necrons (750pt) Battle Report (Zorcon's Perspective)

Well, this battle report is a "little" out dated... but it has been sitting in my draft box half complete for $%^& weeks! I finally got it together to finish it…

Battle Report Zorcon (Tau) vs Laertes (Necrons)
This was our first 5th edition game. We had the rules down better then we when we dipped our toes in 4th edition for the first time (IMO anyway). I still need more games under my belt in the same rules set to get a better handle on what units can and cant do (especially mine).

Since 1st edition 40k, I have always been a jar-head (weather playing my custom blend of marines or charging into battle with Khorne). So when we decided to try our hand at playing 40k again a few years back, I decided to try something different and started building a Tau army. I played them in all THREE of our 4th edition battles, and continue with them in our 5th edition games. Laertes switched it up, so rather than facing his Witchhunters, I was facing his Necrons.

Zorcon: 750 points of Tau
1 Shas’o with missile pod, plasma rifle, and multi tracker
9 Warriors and Devilfish with disruption pod
9 Warriors and Devilfish with disruption pod
2 Crisis Suits with burst cannon and fusion blaster
1 Hammerhead with railgun, smart missiles, decoy launchers and disruption pod

Laertes: 750 pts of Necrons
1 Lord with resurrection orb
11 Warriors
10 Warriors
3 Destroyers
1 Heavy Destroyer

Right from the start, I think Laertes has a slight advantage here. This was the first time I have ever faced Necrons (any, not just his). On the flip side, Laertes has seen my Tau across the table top 3 previous times.

Mission: Annihilation / Deployment: Pitched Battle


Setup:
Because of the low point total of out forces, we chose to use a smaller 4’ x 4’ battle board. We will upgrade to a larger board when we increase the point totals. Laertes won initiative, and set up first. He set up everything in his left quarter centered on a dead forest. I set up next, with my forces spread out: Suits, Fish, Railhead, and Fish. All troops were tucked away in their transports. Neither of us had any non-standard deploying units.


Turn 1:
Laertes advanced his destroyers and heavy destroyer, taking advantage of an intervening hill. The heavy destroyer took a shot at the hammerhead with no effect. The warriors and lord remained in/behind the forest.

I sent both fish down opposite flanks, with the suits following the fish on my left. Even though his heavy destroyer didn’t hurt me, I cautiously moved my railhead tight behind a hill, giving up a shot.


Turn 2:
Laertes sent the destroyers across the battlefield after my suits, destroying the commander and wounding and elite. His heavy destroyer again shot at the hammerhead with no effect. One unit of warriors advanced in preparation for on of the fish, and the lord and other unit of warriors stayed in the forest.

I had the fish on the right flank drop its load a turn too early, so the warriors were too far away to unleash all their fire. The fish and suits to the left continued to advance. The suit’s burst cannons were no match for the destroyers, and the fusion blasters were out of range. My railhead took a shot at the heavy destroyer and missed.


Turn 3:
Laetes sent the heavy destroyer in for the kill and made a move for the rear armor of the railhead. But again he hit and failed to penetrate the massive armor of my tank! The destroyers shot at my suits but caused no damage. The lord and warriors in the forest returned fire on the warriors to my right and killed a number of firewarriors sending them off running. His other unit of warriors lined up for the impending “fish of fury” maneuver and managed to take out the fish’s burst cannon.

I rallied the remaining firewarriors, and moved the fish into range to pick up the survivors. My railhead spun around, and unleashed all its firepower on the heavy destroyer killing it. My crisis suits pulled off a jump-shoot-jump maneuver taking out a destroyer. For the first time, I was successful in performing the fish of fury and sent a hail of fire at the necron warriors… netting ONE necron!!


Turn 4:
Laertes closes in on my fish and firewarriors on my left with his destroyers and a unit of necron warriors taking out about half. My guys are resolute though and hold their ground. His lord and warriors in the forest stay there.

My remaining firewarriors fired into the necron warriors, but only wounded one (and he came back later). My suits and hammerhead shot at, and closed in on the destroyers, but caused no wounds. I sent the fish with 4 warriors to the left along my deployment zone.


Turn 5:
Laertes continued pushing forward with the destroyers and necron warriors and eliminated every single firewarrior. His lord and warriors in the forest remained in place.

I withdrew my firewarriorless devilfish. My railhead took out a second destroyer. The suits regrouped behind a hill, and the other fish continued along my deployment zone.

At this point I figured the game was over, but the dice said we needed to continue this game one more round.


Turn 6:
Laertes advanced on the empty fish. The destroyer managed to get into LoS with one of the suits behind a hill and took a shot, causing a wound, removing a model. The necrons in the forest sat down and broke out lunch.

I disembarked the gun drones on the empty devilfish purely for KP prevention. My remaining suit withdrew. The railhead parked behind a hill and took a pot shot at and missed the last destroyer. The fish in my deployment zone hid behind a hill.

Again, the dice decided they didn’t want to go back in the box, and forced a seventh turn.


Turn 7:
Laertes moved the destroyer on top of a hill in position to take out the gun drones and did so successfully. His necron warriors tried to blow up the fish, but not surprisingly failed. And the lord and crew in the forest finished up their lunch.

The railhead took out the last destroyer, and my crisis suit managed to wound one necron before the game finally ended.

Result: Laertes Wins (Zorcon 2 KP / Laertes 3 KP)

That’s the nuts and bolts of our first 5th edition battle. Overall, I think I was being too timid with my vehicles, and overreaching with my suits. I also have no idea how to contend with the necrons’ superior toughness, armor and “I’ll be back” rule. Maybe I’ll figure it out for the rematch.

Trying to Tau the Line

For the second round our forces were pretty much the same as the previous game, although this time we rolled the secure and control mission. I knew this was going to be a challenge: how to get a scoring unit of Necron Warriors across the board and then contest the Tau objective in their deployment zone?

I won the roll and set up first, putting my objective on a low hill in the southwest section of my deployment zone. I naturally chose a squad of Necron Warriors to baby-sit the objective (hey, two objectives and two scoring units! I do so much better when I don't really have to think that much!). I deployed the Lord with the other unit of Warriors as far forward as I could, ready to dash across the table towards the Tau. The destroyers and heavy destroyer were deployed more or less as a unit guarding the flank.

However, the Tau seized the initiative and the Hammerhead opened up on the heavy destroyer. Yes, it was going to be this kind of cat-and-mouse kind of game again -- again with heavy destroyer filling the part of the rodent. I should consider painting a series of concentric circles on it and then convincing folks that it was some sort of ancient Necron glyph. There was little other shooting as he had reserved his Troops choices and no others were in range.

The battle unfolded from there: again, the Tau Commander and Crisis Suits were early casualties thanks to the destroyer unit. At this point level, I think it is going to tend to go that way as, with this unit combination, the destroyer unit simply does not have a better target (especially early in the game) than the Crisis suits. They could only glance the Hammerhead or the Devilfish, the Fire Warriors are all safely ensconced aboard their transports, so what's a Necron to do? The destroyers then turned their attention to the Fire Warriors guarding the Tau objective, eventually causing one squad to break (but rallied immediately in the following turn).

Again, the Hammerhead and heavy destroyer each tried to be less effective against each other. In 3 or 4 rounds of shooting, the BS4 heavy destroyer only hit the Hammerhead twice, and failed to glance or penetrate each time. In return, the Hammerhead also only hit the heavy destroyer twice, once failing to wound, and the second time killing the big jetbike.

The unit of Warriors with the Lord never made it across the table -- indeed, they only basically made it in to killing range when the game ended on turn 5. One of the Devilfish attempted to tank shock the squad guarding the Necron objective, but the squad easily passed it's Leadership test and then sprayed the Devilfish with Gauss fire.

Unlike the last game, this time I did not roll so well and the game ended on turn 5, in a complete draw, 1 - 1. The Necrons had only lost a Warrior and the heavy destroyer, while the Tau had lost the Commander, both Crisis Suits, and almost a half dozen Fire Warriors.

I'm not sure what I could have done differently -- wish only two (walking) scoring units my only strategy had been to try and force the Tau off of their objective once the Crisis suits were eliminated, but it would still likely have taken a few more turns of firing to achieve that goal. For the Tau . . . well, I'm not sure what they could have done. With smaller squads of Fire Warriors, they cannot go toe to toe with the Necron Warrior units. The Crisis suits are rarely getting in to range, and I think that's a key factor. I don't think Z is going to bring the Hammerhead with a Railgun again -- it's nice in case I had a Grey Knight Land Raider, but against the Necrons I think he's going to want to outfit it with the Ion Cannon.

Thoughts?

Tau versus Necron Redux

Once again the Necrons will be materializing to take part in another battle. For the second outing, I'm not going to change anything except for some of the wargear that I had purchased for the Necron Lord (mainly as point filler, as buying another Warrior would have put me something like 2 points over the limit). I've been assembling some Wraiths (side rant: in the time it takes to clean up and assemble a single Wraith you could have had an entire squad of Warriors ready to go) but I don't think they'll see action until we up the points cost a bit. I'm hoping to also see a mission OTHER than Annihilation so that I have a chance to see how they'll perform against the more mobile Tau when they have an actual opportunity to get out and run around, as it were.

There are also other difficult decisions to be made. Our last game featured the old standby: beer. For the next game, I'm thinking perhaps of vodka, or perhaps something else? I don't know . . . what goes well with Necrons and 40K?

More to come . . .

Necrons vs Tau 750pt Battle Report (Laertes perspective)

Before the game began:

The list I brought, after some internal debate (okay, not a heck of a lot of internal debate, given that it's kind of tricky at this point level to have very many options with the Necrons):

1 unit of 10 Necron Warriors

1 unit of 11 Necron Warriors

1 unit of 3 Necron Destroyers

1 unit of a single Necron Heavy Destroyer

1 Necron Lord with Res Orb

I knew the Tau forces I would be facing would be highly mobile, so I was somewhat relieved when he rolled "Annihilation" for the mission. I figured that was the only mission that favored my foot troops, as I knew now that he would have to come to me, instead of having the Necrons march across the board and try to contest objectives. I rolled highest and elected to go first, and then subsequently deployed my forces in the far corner of the board, with the larger unit of Warriors and the Lord inside the small forest (area terrain). The Destroyers and the Heavy Destroyer grouped themselves together to the left, and the other unit of Warriors positioned themselves behind the small forest, kind of in a clump ready to move and protect the other flank. The Tau were kind of spread out across the deployment zone, with a Devilfish on either end (containing Firewarriors), with the 'Fish furthest away from the Necrons supported by the Hammerhead and the overall Tau Commander, joined to the unit of Crisis suits.

The first turn was fairly uneventful, as I moved the Destroyer block forward and moved the smaller unit of Warriors out to my right flank. The shooting phase went fairly well, although I was hoping the Heavy Destroyer could do better, it still managed to glance the Hammerheard so it would not be returning fire next turn. The unit of Destroyers reached out to the unit of Crisis suits, as they could just see the Tau Commander beyond the one hill. They managed to cause four wounds to the unit -- this is where things went astray a bit. Z divided the hits in to two on the Crisis suits and two on the Commander, as we were both a little shaky on the rules for dividing up wounds on multi-wound units. While certainly a legal way to do things (allocating the extra wound to the Commander), it was probably less than optimal, as the unsaved wounds end up going through to the Commander and contributes to his early demise. As he was armed similarly to the other Crisis suits, Z tells me he think it wouldn't make much of a difference, but it would still likely have been nice for the Tau to have their Commander around for more of the game.

The first Tau turn is largely movement, with the Devilfish sweeping around the flanks and the Hammerhead moving out near the center of the table. The Crisis suit unit slinks around behind the one 'Fish, but is now within easy sight of the Destroyers. Most of the Tau weapons are out of range, but a few of the burst cannon shells bounce off of the Destroyers.

On my second turn I admit to succumbing to target fixation. The big tempting target of the Hammerhead in the middle of the table is too much for me, and I have the Heavy Destroyer break off from the pack of Destroyers and work in to position to take a shot with the Heavy Gauss Cannon . . . only to a roll a one to hit. The Destroyers stay after the unit of the Crisis suits, and manage to wound one and finish off the Commander this turn. I've mixed feelings, as I've killed the Tau commander but left myself wide open in the middle of the table. The Crisis suits break and start to run, but they're a long way from the table edge so I think they will likely rally.

The second Tau turn has the Hammerhead turn and take a shot at the Heavy Destroyer . . . only to miss with the massive railgun. The Crisis suits, after rallying predictably, turn on the Destroyers and manage to down one . . . but he stands up at the beginning of the next Necron turn. The Devilfish on my left finally discharges the Fire Warriors, but most end up slightly out of range and so only a few shots get through to the unit of Warriors taking cover in the forest.

The third Necron turn saw the unit in the forest finally returning fire, albeit in a somewhat limited capacity, as not all could get a line of sight to the Fire Warriors. They manage to do fairly well, though, killing 3-4 of the Tau. In the center, I attempt to maneuver the Heavy Destroyer to gain a shot at the rear armor of the Hammerhead. I don't take advantage of all of the jetbike rules, and then look it up to my chagrin, as I am only in the side arc. Z offers to let me re-make the move, but I figured I will try the side shot . . . and the Heavy Destroyer misses again, making the point fairly moot. More shooting on the left takes down a few Fire Warriors.

The next Tau turn sees the Devilfish on my right flank finally disgorge the Fire Warrior unit, this time a bit more in range, and the unit of Necron Warriors on my right flank takes the brunt of the fire, downing three. The Hammerhead decides to stop playing with the Heavy Destroyer and holes the ancient machine with a point blank railgun shot. The Crisis suits return fire on the Destroyers, downing one.

The Necron turn starts with all but one of the Warriors standing back up (the Destroyer stays down). The Destroyers move back to within range of the Lord's Res Orb, and the unit of Warriors move forward to get the Fire Warriors within Rapid Fire range. In the Shooting phase, the fusillade from the Warriors almost wipes out that unit, even with cover behind the 'Fish. The Destroyers add to the fire, and kill off the unit.

I'm not quite as sure on the last few turns (I'd had a few beverages by then) -- basically, the Tau on my left flank embark on the Devilfish and move out of range. The burst cannon (from the second Devilfish) and the Hammerhead finish off the unit of Destroyers, but return fire from the unit of Necron Warriors destroys the burst cannon then immobilizes the Devilfish. The Gun Drones are also shot to pieces. The last Crisis suit chooses to move out of range, and the game doesn't end until turn 7, with the Necron forces prevailing by a 3-2 margin in kill points (Tau kill the unit of Destroyers and Heavy Destroyers, Necrons kill the Commander, a unit of Fire Warriors, and the unit of Gun Drones).

In retrospect the "target fixation" did not hurt me too much, as you ended up with a Hammerhead also essentially fixated upon a Heavy Destroyer that was less than half of it's point total. I was also so paranoid with regards to cover saves that the unit of Warriors with the Necron Lord never moved out of the forest, and their shooting only served to whittle down the one unit of Fire Warriors a little (and a few of the models never got to fire they Gauss weapons in anger). In hindsight, the Tau weren't really carrying that many AP3 weapons, a Lord with a Res Orb was standing in their midst . . . clinging to a 4+ cover save may NOT have been the most useful thing they could have done.

I thought the luck was kind of average -- in three turns of shooting I could only get the Heavy Destroyer to hit the Hammerhead once (and could not score a penetrating hit), but I did roll fairly well on the "We'll Be Back" rolls and I thought the unit of Warriors on my right flank rolled well against the Devilfish and the unit of Fire Warriors (then again, just rolling 18-20 dice might also have something to do with that!).

We'll need a few more games to get things to go more smoothly (and doubtless discover more), but I did like that, every time we seemed to have a rules question, we could look it up quickly and the answer was pretty much there. That is, there was not the ambiguity that sometimes accompanied our games of 4th edition.

And now . . . who knows? Perhaps I'll paint more Necrons!.