BATTLE REPORT: Chaos Space Marines vs Necrons

We had played a couple of games with Gary's Necrons and he was really enjoying the change. He had won one game and drawn another and we both wondered how they would fare against a more competitive Chaos list - I had been experimenting with alternative lists (dropping staple units such as the speed Prince, Obliterators and heavy bolter havocs). This time I picked a list to specifically take out the 'bots.

Points value: 950
Army 1: Chaos Space Marines
Army 2: Necrons
Mission: Recon
Level: Gamma
First turn: Necrons

Chaos Space Marines

• Lieutenant on Bike, Lightning Claw, Daemonic armour
• Lord, Daemonic stature, Daemonic speed, Daemonic resilience, Daemonic armour
  
• 8 Havocs, 2 autocannon, missile launcher
  
• 8 Marines, plasma gun, lascannon
  
• 8 Marines, infiltrate, flamer, plasma pistol, Aspiring champion with powerfist
  
• 6 Furies
  
• 6 Daemonettes

Necrons

• 10 Warriors
• 10 Warriors
• 4 Destroyers
• Heavy Destroyer
• Heavy Destroyer
• Necron Lord with Resurrection Orb and Nightmare veil
• 6 Scarab bases

Terrain and Deployment
This was a heavily terrained board. There were two area three line of sight blockers in the middle of the table - one ruined building on my left and a wood on my right. I also had some level two ruins in my central deployment zone. I refused the right flank, only putting the biker lieutenant out there. I had the las/plas squad and speed prince behind the large ruin and the havoc squad in the smaller ruins. I infiltrated the close combat squad behind the wood.

The destroyers all cowered behind the wood. One warrior squad began on each flank.

The game
The Necrons took first turn. The Lord teleported the warrior squad on my left, way over the board to my extreme right. Their shooting stripped a wound off my biker lieutenant. He charged in and clawed four of them. One stood back up then the Lord teleported them a few inches back. Again they shot the lieutenant and they removed his last wound.

Meanwhile, the destroyers killed three havocs. I pushed the infiltrators through the wood and their meltaguns dropped a heavy destroyer. My Havocs tried to kill the other but failed their target priority test and hit the scarabs instead. That meant the heavy destroyer came back online.

All the time I was pushing the speed prince and las/plas squad through the large ruin. All the destroyers turbo boosted into the far right corner, obviously worried about my advance and the prospect of the daemons. The scarabs formed up in front of the flyers as a screen.

I got my daemonettes. They summoned from the infiltrators and they had just enough movement to hit the scarabs. I continued to push up on the now deserted left flank.

The daemonettes took the scarabs down to a single base. The Necron lord tried to teleport in next to the second warrior squad to rescue them from the advancing daemons but he scattered off the board. The destroyers were now hemmed into the corner.

The daemonettes finished off the scarabs and just contacted the warriors. The Furies were summoned and also hit the warriors. Unsurprisingly the warriors were slaughtered and the two survivors ran. It meant both units of daemons were sitting targets for the destroyers, though.

I passed four out of six saves on the daemonettes and only one fury went down. That sealed the fate of the destroyers. On the last turn the daemonettes assaulted the destroyers, the furies assaulted the heavy destroyers and the speed prince caught the last warriors. The Necrons phased out.

Commendations
Exigators - Daemonettes
Necrons - Lord and teleporting warriors

Turning point
The lord scattering off the table.

Learning points

• This was a much tougher Chaos list, specifically designed to beat the 'bots. Although there were fewer units they could actually project more force onto the Necrons through their speed, weapon range, special deployment and summoning. I also boosted the squads up to eight models so that they could withstand a round of shooting without losing key models.
• The teleporting warrior squad is a powerful but risky unit. It paid off when they killed the lieutenant but backfired when the lord scattered off the table.