The Battle for Trekian IV - Necrons vs the Imperium (40K)

 +++ASTRA MILITARUM INTELLIGENCE REPORT UPDATE - SEGMENTUM TEMPESTUS+++

*: Regional Intelligence flagged unexplained energy spike in sector, specifically emanating from long abandoned planet, Trekian IV. 

*: Scout units sent to investigate - Initial observations of several large towers. Suspected warp conduits. No further information received - contact lost. 

*: Catachan Commander ordered to divert from Segmentum Solar activities to secure planet Trekian IV.

*: Ordo Malleus investigators en route. Full cooperation expected...

+++TRANSMISSION ENDS+++

The Catachan Commander was almost pleased. His forces had been too long idle and drills and wargames were no substitute for a live deployment. His sub commanders had been quick to organise and prepare for dispatch, with an understandable eagerness. However, there was a very good chance this would be another false alarm. The sector had been quiet for some time with very little activity. That being said, what disquieted the experienced Commander was the interest of the Ordo Malleus. That was never a good sign...

The small fleet left warp space and was soon in orbit around Trekian IV. Initial scans were conflicted and inconsistent. Surface dust storms were hampering data collection from scans and probes. There were certainly strong energy signatures from the area, but no conclusions could be reached. Despite efforts to re-establish communications with the advance scouting detachment, no contact was made on any wavelength. This was unsettling...

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Elsewhere, on the far side of the largest of three moons of Trekian IV, an almost imperceptible warp signature briefly flared, and was immediately dulled... 

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Planetfall was actually quite a smooth affair, given the storms that had been raging in the area. The bulk of the Catachan forces had deployed to the south of a derelict city on the equatorial region of the planet. With a small force left to guard the various troop landers, with very light air support deployed in the area, the main infantry column advanced towards the coordinates relayed by the advance scouts who so mysteriously lost contact.

As the column drew closer to the city, the scout squads were dispatched. Reports quickly arrived, with visual confirmation of four equidistant dark metallic towers, quite different from the local geology, that seemingly had erupted from the very bedrock of the city.

Soon after, signs of battle were found, with fresh scorch marks and shell casings... but no bodies.

As the Commander organised his troops and prepared for a possible engagement, the comms feed erupted with... "Contact! Contact!"... A foreboding green glow lit up the ruins of the city. The Necrons had risen... and they did not take well to uninvited guests!

Catachan forces were suddenly engaged on all fronts. Comms units sent signals back to their landing teams which were relayed back to the orbiting fleet. Unknowingly, someone else was listening in...

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Across the city, several flashes of intense blue light bloomed and faded as quickly as they had appeared... and a crunch of heavily armoured feet pulverised the sands into ever finer dust...

Group photo - taken before the action started - whilst all still friends!!

Background

Team Redshirts have rarely met for anything other than Blood Bowl, and so it was nice for both Darren L (LastTimeLord) and Andrew (Mr_Frodo) to finally be able to field their most recent 40K painted armies. They combined their 1000pt forces to stave off the unwanted interference of the combined Imperial Guard (Darren W - Howlinggriffon) and the Grey Knights (me! - Wotfudboy).

The Necrons were numerous, with some stand out units including Doom Stalker, Void Dragon and Skorpekh Lord along with plenty of Warriors, Immortals, Scarabs, and a dusting of Skorpekh Destroyers and Lokhust Heavy Destroyers.

Darren W's Imperial Guard focussed as much as possible on infantry on this outing, with just a couple of tanks. Most units had a heavy weapon and special weapon.

The Grey Knights were led by a Grand Master in a DreadKnight suit, a Brother Captain, a unit of Paladins, a Terminator squad, a Strike Squad and an Interceptor squad... Just 22 models!

First game of 10th!

Okay, so we had all guiltily removed the cellophane from far too many things for this meet up. There was some last minute rules being read, and some attempts to understand the armies make up... so to be clear, we all felt like complete novices... and indeed, we were novices.

We took our time to set up... The Imperials won the roll to start setting up first... as well as the first turn.

Flashlights at the ready...

The Imperial guard spread their forces fairly evenly across the front line, with the 4 Objective Markers spread evenly across the middle of no-mans land. The tanks took firing positions in the centre with the Ogryns on the left flank.

Guard units a little flustered by the GKs arrival...

We didn't roll any Secondary Objectives. Time was not going to be our friend here... we were playing just to understand the fundamentals of the game and try to learn from mistakes with our own armies. This wasn't about the winning... not today at least!

Just the sheer numbers of models to move was going to be a challenge... well for the other 3 players anyway...

The Grey Knights were allowed to put 2 units on an orbiting battle cruiser (a Strike Squad and Paladin Squad). So I deployed the DreadKnight in cover, accompanied by the Terminators, and had the Interceptors stashed in a nearby building to cover off the most eastern objective.

The Necrons deployed, with Andrew taking the left of the board facing us, and Darren L the right.

The Necron Overlords... AKA Xenos filth! :)

Eventually all the models were positioned, and we were ready to roll some dice.

Here's a table walk around video of the completed deployment... Trust me, this felt like an achievement in itself!

I'm not going to go in to great detail here, as everything is from a rather sketchy memory, but I'll try to cover some highlights...

A turn of whiffs for the Imperial Guard earmarked their introduction to the game... with a Plasma weapon exploding in the hands of a hapless trooper. The Grand Master rushed out of hiding to bear weapons on the Void Dragon, and the Terminators darted round the corner with the building wall shielding them from sight of most of the Necrons. The Interceptors zipped towards Objective Marker 4 on the furthest right of the board, supported by a squad of troopers.

Despite picking off a few Necrons, the combination of zero Armour Penetration (AP) from the Storm Bolters and pretty woeful aim from the Guard meant the Necrons were largely intact... and refreshed by their Reanimation Protocols.

A Thunderhawk's view of the battle field

In hindsight, the Imperials should have concentrated on wiping out the front line of Scarabs, as their 4 wounds per model was deeply annoying... and they had a special suicide bomber type rule to worry about too! Instead, we tried to take down the Void Dragon, and the combination of damage reduction combined with recovering health meant most of our hits were pointless.

The Imperials did however challenge/cover/threaten all 4 Objective Markers.

The Necrons realised that many of their warriors and Immortals were held back by either deploying too deep or were in buildings... with half on the top floor and the other behind impassable brick. This meant that they couldn't lay down a great deal of fire. Indeed by the end of the game, the Imperial Guard commander was quite pleased with the volume of manpower still alive on the board.

The Necron centre

The Grand Master took a lot of incoming fire and only avoided being taken out completely by some lucky (or unlucky, if you were the Necrons taking aim) dice. He quickly ran back and used a strategem so that he couldn't be targeted by enemy fire over 12 " away. He later charged back in once the Terminators engaged the Necron infantry.

The battle for the middle ground

The Guard on the left flank engaged with the Necrons over the 1st marker. The 2nd marker was more open, and a bunch of crab-like Necrons and a Destroyer were quickly removed from controlling it.

The 3rd marker fell within the domain of the Void Dragon with a line of Scarabs infront of it, and the Leman Russ couldn't find enough hits to take it down, or the Guard unit in front of it to take down the Scarabs. Eventually, after reinforcing the 2nd OM, the Strike Squad engaged the Void Dragon with a long charge, but they were soon sandwiched between the VD and a unit of Warriors, and despite a valiant fight, were wiped out.

The 4th marker was a different story as the Guard unit took aim on the Immortals and Scarabs, and the Interceptors engaged to secure it. They were then reinforced by a unit of Paladins that teleported in and ran around to assist. The 2+ saves helped a great deal, and the punch of the Nemesis weapons quickly added up.

Just before the end of the game, the Leman Russ eventually succumbed to sheer weight of fire.

Plasma-toting tank warms up for firing.

Eventually, after the bulk of a day going at it, we completed 3 full turns, and the Imperials were ahead 3 vs 2... and looked very strong to pick up a lot of points in turn 4.... so we called it.

Learnings

It didn't help that the Necron Data cards that Andrew had were out of date and the App was a little small on the eyes on the phone. I think we will probably bring tablets next time, and ensure we all had made physical biro updates to our Data cards in advance. We also found the dice tray useful, just because trying to roll that many dice amongst that many troops was a slow process... although finding a place to put the dice tray down was actually a challenge in itself.

Next time, we should be far better/quicker... We know our armies a little better, and have a much better grasp of the game mechanics.

Thanks for a day of fun to Andrew, Darren and Darren! And to 4TK for playing host.