Battle Report - 1000pt Necron vs Codex Marines

Managed to get in a quick game last night with my friend Garrett's Codex Marines. He built them back in 3rd Ed when he was a kid and had a few 3rd Ed models including an old school Rhino. He picked up the 5th Ed codex and set on making his list for 1000pts. He was surprised by all the changes and especially that he could fit so many units in 1000pts compared to the old price totals. I figured I'd dust off my Necrons since I've really only been playing my Blood Angels lately.

Marines:

• Captain
• 1x Tactical Squad (Melta-gun)
• 1x Scout Squad (Snipers)
• 1x Sterngaurd
• 1x Dreadnought (Assault Cannon/Arm)
• 1x Attack Bike (Multi-melta)
• 1x Terminator Squad (Assault Cannon)

Necron:

• Destroyer Lord with Solar Pulse
• 5x Destroyers
• 2x10 Warrior squad
• Monolith

This is the first time I fought non-Chaos marines, so I don't know exactly what to expect or how his army will work. We stick to pitched battle for simplicity, but roll for missions and get 5 objective points. He wins roll off and passes 1st turn to me. I set up along the length of the table and he does the same.

 

(Click for larger pics)

 Nothing too amazing happens as I take out his lonely Captain (the guy at the bottom of the picture of marine deployment) with my Destroyers. I move up the Monolith and catch the edge of the tactical squad with my Particle Whip, wounding a few. My Warriors were there to basically hold the line, which would not last. To keep things simple, I kept whittling away his units with shots while his Termies and Dread advanced with guns blazing. He assaulted my left most Warrior group and swept them with the Dread. I took out his tactical squad and scouts, leaving him no troop choices to hold. 

He swung his Termies at my last Warrior squad in the center bunker. They had chainfists that tore open that bunker like a can opener. It ended in a draw: I held one with troops but he contested and he had 0 with no troop choices. Since it was years for him, and like 6 months for me, we were both constantly going "Oh damn it, I shouldn't have done that!" and basically lots of learning happened. I learned I hate terminators when I throw 30 shots from Destroyers and Monolith at 5 dudes and I only take out one from a warrior in the bunker plinking him in the head. Garrett didn't realize the power of assaulting Necron til turn 4 and he said he will be more aggressive next time. I shake my fist at the monolith again for surviving, but not really helping much. His cannon is literally hit or miss, so he doesn't always make his points back that another 4 Destroyers maybe could or another Warrior Squad n' Lord to help hold the line more.

Next time he'll be better prepared, but I also want to play my Blood Angels again. I'm actually a fan of the old 'dex now, even after all the rumors going around. So I want to fit in a couple more games in with the old system. He will also be getting his hands on his armor from back home which will be more Rhinos, a Vindicator, and a single Land Raider. Guess it's time I start building and painting again, lol.

On the Horizon

Just a short update since it's been a while. I'm starting to slowly gear up to play more 40k again. My time off has been spent in the realm of video games like Mass Effect 1 and 2 back to back and Left 4 Dead 2. But as we know, Blood Angels are making their come back soon and also a new Dawn of War 2 expansion in March will help me stick to the 40k universe more. A friend of mine is thinking about offering himself up to the 40k gods and will learn the game as something to do with friends. He doesn't want to invest in an army or paint, but that's okay since I have two armies myself in the works, and my friend's Tau are sitting on my shelves. I'll teach him the basic rules and then get a feel for what sort of army he'd like (Shooty, assaulty, drop pod, etc) and have him play that with the other models as stand ins.
I also ran into the guy I mentioned before that has an army and would like to start playing again from a few year break. He gave me a quick run down, but basically it sounds like a foot-slogging Codex Marine list, built in 3rd or 4th edition. Lots of tacticals, sniper scouts, termies with land raiders, etc, but no Rhinos/Drop Pods to speak of. We'll try to get some games in soon I hope and the battle reports will start to flow again. I haven't taken on Marines before, except of the Chaos variety and I've only ever drawn against them. He is also interested in going to the local independent store for 40k Fridays each week, so that could open things up even more.

As for the latest BA Codex floating about, I dunno. I'm not terribly happy with it. Hoping a bunch of that stuff is debunked later on, but who knows. I'll miss the Furioso Venerable Death Company dreads and the Baal Pred is now 10 points more expensive and weaker with the new Over-charged engine rules I think. The new lander is meh. You have a dual-twin-linked Assault Cannon... but one shot and it's bye-bye. 16 capacity, but that means 5-man assault squad and an IC or odd number squads that don't get benefits like double special weapons or combat squads anyway. Can carry a dread, but no assault ramp so he still has to hide a turn before doing anything. All it would do is get around the drop pod rule that we'll get updated to. Anyway, hope some things get polished up more and we don't have so many "FAQ" incidents like the last couple new codexes.

New Blood Angels Rumors - My Opinions

So, I thought before posting a ton on the rumors I'd like the rumor mill churn out a few things and be more refined so I don't get hyped about any one thing and then it get dropped. An example being the new Land Raider pattern for BA, which has stopped getting mentioned or out right said not to be in the new codex leaks. So, after looking at the latest things, I'm still not completely sold on it all. As I said I would be happy with a balancing of points, updating of the HQs that need Eternal Warrior or an Invul, etc and I'd be happy. But it looks like they might make this like a mini-Codex: Space Marines. The rumor is they will have HQs from successor chapters that change certain "Combat Tactics." Not much on Dante except he'd get Honor Guard as troops; no word on Eternal Warrior. :-\ Mephiston looks more bad-ass than ever, but no word on an Invul save...

The one thing that was kind of interesting was the possible change to the Overcharged Engines, one of the defining abilities of the army. One tidbit was that if you went over 12" you'd be counted as Open-topped, so there was a risk of going so fast. Now, if we're fast all the time and that's the only negative, I'd just never go over the 12" and just enjoy the ability to fire as a fast vehicle on the Baal pred. Maybe I'd use the Rhino as a last turn grab, but otherwise you're leaving yourself very vulnerable as an open-topped transport which, I would assume, doesn't get that disembark special rule. Other than that, I don't care for a few of the things. No Razorbacks I heard, which is fine, I never would used them, so no biggie. This "Red Fury" doesn't sound like a bad thing since if you within 12" of an enemy, about 90% of the time you're going after them anyway as an assault army. Also a rumored change to Techmarines and a MC HQ or something; couldn't care less about either. The new lander sounds bad ass, but without a points figure, could be totally worthless or broken-awesome.

Really, all in all, not much can be said yet, but we are a few months away from an actual release. Plenty of time for all of this to be proven wrong. Sorry I didn't have much insight to the rumors, but without concrete confirmations and point values (the most important deciding factor in taking any unit) it can't be said what will be even any good, even if it looks awesome-sauce on paper. The biggest thing I'm looking forward to? The new plastic upgrade sprue to make the marines more unique looking. I've been jealous of the Dark Angels and Black Templars for too long!

STRIKE FROM THE SKIES, BROTHERS!

As anyone that loves the Blood Angels knows, we're starting to gear up for the new 40k releases slated for April, beginning with this Incoming: BA! This will be the jump start to get me back to building and painting my Rhinos and BA dudes. As stated before tho, I'm holding off on making my assault marines and veteran units, as I'm expecting an upgrade sprue as the other special SM factions like the Space Wolves. I want my vets to be particularly awesome and ornate, hopefully resembling the HQ's armor designs found on Dante and Mephiston.

I look forward to seeing what the new rules will be. I hope they keep the Overcharged engines the same, or even eliminate the stall on a roll of 1, since we're talking about artisans and perfectionists working on these Rhinos for generations. I also hope they don't go back to the old ways, that I never myself played but they sounded stupid, where random units or individuals would "go Death Company" mid game and rage out. Sounds stupid, and I like the idea that Chaplains select the susceptible before the battle and put them in the company first. Most of all, I hope Assaulters are still "Troops" and they get a rule to assault from a pod, Rhino, or from Deep Strike. Doesn't have to be all of that or whatever, I just don't want it as it is now, where they are just a Troop choice that come with pistols and swords by default. "Whoopdie-do." They need to stand out somehow. Other than that, fix any out of date stuff, update stats and points, and I'd be happy.

The second thing to help me get back in gear would be finding more regular opponents. :-\ Still not looking forward to going to the local gaming club. But I'm still into 40k as a passive hobby in the modeling aspects, so no reason I shouldn't keep building my army.

Happy New Year & Update

Hey-o it's been forever since my last post, but it's also been forever since the last time I worked on my army too. As I said, my regular opponent wanted a break from 40k so I thought I'd take one too. Nothing really new since my last update with the magnetized Rhino's, except I finished all their doors so I have 4 Rhinos ready to go at a moments notice. I also primed the remainder of my 40k tokens so they are ready to paint at a moment's notice as well. On an up note, I think I've found another person I might be able to play regularly thru a mutual friend. I believe he runs Guard and Space Marines, neither of which I have faced before, so this should be entertaining, haha!

Oh, I did go out and buy some "stone texture" spray paint that I tested out on my buildings to give them more detail. It works to a point, since again, if you put too much, it starts to eat away at the styrofoam and reveal white spots, but if you get the perfect amount and distance away from the object, it gets a good coat that's realistic. Just seems to be like a fine sand is mixed in with the paint already. Not as pronounced as some mixes that used ground down foam, but it's just one of those things you can add for your own benefit as a modeler more than as a gamer.

To ring in the new year I'll be hosting a LAN party at my place, which actually makes this the 2nd annual event. Mostly playing L4D2, TF2, and the always classic Quake 3, doing some file sharing, and drinking some booze to ring in the New Year, geek style! Hope everyone else has a Happy New Year as well! With that I leave you with an image I found showing maybe there can be peace in the galaxy:

A different kind of hobby

Well, I was all poised to start working on models again this week after some down time for video games, but another opportunity came up. Some friends of mine who have a 2-hour radio show on the local university station asked me to guest-DJ with them this week. So I had to come up with a music mix and a bunch of singles to fill about an hour of the time. For those that don't know (i.e. most of you) another hobby of mine is mixing music, mostly different sorts of electronica together. It's on the smallest and furthest back burner of my time, but it's just as enjoyable as the rest, and one of the cheapest! So, I spent all week after work finding these songs and managed to make a 4 song mix really quickly.

If anyone is interested in listening to the broadcast online, you can go to www.wiux.org and check out the high quality stream from 8-10pm tonight, Nov 12th. Also, a portion of my mix and my first mix ever are posted at http://www.thesixtyone.com/#/djhaunter/. And yes, I took the name Haunter from the Primarch of the Night Lords, lol... I'm such a geek.

Break time

Nothing new this week. I've taken a break from 40k and modeling to hit up some new video games. Top of the list is Borderlands on PC. Plan on some friends buying it and we all co-op from start to finish. Also Gratuitous Space Battles. It's like a space-strategy turret defense game. You load out each ship and put it on the field of battle with your choice of weapons, defenses, ship class, etc and then click "Fight". The battle takes place without your input, you just have to have the sense to equip the ships correctly and then place them on the map before the battle in a way that they work together. Sort of like training on how to deploy your 40k forces to respond to the enemy's deployment, if it were pitched battle each time, hehe.

Also, after the last defeat of my Tau friend he will be taking a break from 40k to focus on more nerdy endeavors like DnD, while all my other friends think 40k is too nerdy for them to get into, tho they play WoW, DnD, or Magic. I'm the odd man out that's into science fiction or what some call 40k, science fantasy. I hate elves, magic spells, and everything wooden and ancient. Give me space-age alloys, crossing the galaxy in the blink of an eye, and super heated plasma. We'll see which one wins in a fight, lol.

Anyway, I'll get back to painting and building models next week or so. Stay tuned.