Hey folks! My buddy Josh and I had another game, pitting his Necrons against the Masque of Midnight Sorrow. We played another one of the Chapter Approved Maelstrom of war missions. This one was called Recon, and it was probably the weirdest one of the bunch. There was no special rules in scoring tactical cards, or generating cards (draw to a hand of three each turn). But, your army was divided.
You divided your army into three equal parts, and then rolled a D3 to determine which group deployed on the table. End of your turn 1 movement phase, your extra units arrived on a 3+, and then turn 2 the rest came on. The tricky thing is, when units arrive on the board as reserves, they have to be placed within 6” of your deployment zone, and that’s their move for the turn.
So, the lists.
Masque of the Midnight Sorrow
Battalion ‘Cegorach’s Jest’ 1218pts
Shadowseer ‘Tanriel’ Twighlight Pathways
Troupe Master ‘Arlon’ Harlequins Kiss, Warlord (Laughing God’s Luck), Mask of Secrets.
Troupe ‘The Laughing Hunt’ x9 players, x4 Caress, x2 Kiss, x3 Blades
Troupe ‘Twilight’s Fate’ x5 players, x3 Kiss, x1 Caress, x1 Blade
Troupe ‘Sons of Sorrow’ x5 players, x3 Kiss, x1 Caress, x1 Blade
Troupe ‘Time’s Lament’ x5 players, x3 Kiss, x2 Embrace
Voidweaver ‘Void Ghost’ Haywire Cannon
Dedicated Transports
X4 Starweavers ‘The Serpents Brood’
Outrider Detachment ‘Faolchu’s Blade’
Troupe Master ‘Olaran’ power sword, Fusion Pistol
Skyweaver Jetbikes ‘Blades of Fate’ x2 skyweaver, x2 Haywire Cannon, x2 zephyr glave
Skyweaver Jetbikes ‘Needle of Chance x2 skyweaver, x2 Haywire Cannon, x2 zephyr glave
Skyweaver Jetbikes ‘The Fall of Stars x2 skyweaver, x2 Haywire Cannon, x2 zephyr glave
Vanguard Detachment ‘Heroes Path’
Troupe Master ‘Lenrith’ caress, Fusion Pistol
Death Jester ‘Inrahms Spectre’
Death Jester ‘Death’s Spite’
Death Jester ‘Kildarn’s Shade’
‘Midnight’s Solitaire’ Solitaire
Necrons
Battalion
Necron Overlord with Veil of Darkness
Orikan the Diviner Warlord w/ Tenacious survivor
Illuminator Szeras
Nightbringer
Deceiver
Warriors x20
Warriors x19
Immortals x10
Ghost Arc
Scarabs x5
Scarabs x5
Triarch Stalker
Table was pretty dense, with some good LoS blocking terrain. Most of objectives were on the left hand of the table. 3 and 2 roughly in the middle, 4 top left, 1 bottom left, 5 bottom center/left, and 6 middle right.
For deployment, Josh had the Deceiver, Night Bringer and both scarab blobs. I had ‘The Laughing Hunt’, Twighlights Fate, a starweaver, Troupe Master Olaran, Blade of Fate and the Shadowseer. He deployed each C’tan surrounded by scarabs. I deployed the Laughing Hunt and the shadowseer in the webway, and the other troupe and troupe master in the starweaver. The bikes deployed next to them. I kept back, so the deceiver couldn’t deploy anything behind me.
I won the roll to go first, but he stole the initiative. The deceiver redeployed the Nightbringer and scarabs just above my deployed units.
Turn 1
He drew Hold the Line, Area Denial (which is the best T1 draw), and secure 1 (which his nightbringer was sitting on).
He didn’t move anything, and his Immortals, and both heroes came in in the back of his deployment. By virtue of not needing to do anything, he claimed objective 1 and area denial.
I drew Supremacy, Secure 3 and assassinate.
I droped the Laughing hunt on objective 6 (with the shadowseer), just so I could try to go for Supremacy. Otherwise, I kept 24” away from the NightBringer and Scarabs. I had pretty much my whole army come on, besides on squad in a starweaver, the voidweaver and a squad of bikes. I basically spent all my shooting mowing down scarabs and dropped the unit down to one base. I got 2vp for supremacy, 1 for objective 3 and I discarded my other objective.
Necrons 2vp Harlequins 3vp
Turn 2
He drew No Prisoners, Witch Hunter, and Blood and Guts.
The nightbringer and scarabs stayed where they were on the objective, knowing he couldn’t charge me this turn. The rest of his force came on, filling up both edges of his deployment zone. Assorted shooting took down one of my starweavers. One of his warrior blobs deployed close to the Lauighing Hunt, and their shooting took out half the troupe, even with the shadowseer nearby. He also used a stratagem to give the scarabs reanimation protocols, but thankfully only recovering one.
He scored 3 vp this turn. 1 for hold the line, First Blood and No Prisoners.
I drew Hold the Line, Secure 3, and Psychic Mastery.
This turn I needed to kill the Nightbringer. I unloaded two starweavers of their troupes and troupe masters, and brought in two bike squads to surround the nighbringer. My reserves deployed right behind the Nightbringer and scarabs. Shooting took out the two bases, and a few wounds on the C’tan. Harlequin Kisses did the rest. Assorted other shooting killed come scarabs in the bases around the deceiver.
The laughing Hunt and their shadowseer fell back behind cover to hide from the warrior blob.
I scored 3vp this turn, claiming all my objectives.
Necrons 5vp to Harlequins 5vp.
Turn 3
Playing to his usual MO, Josh didn’t move anything, so he could just shoot. He drew Advance and Secure 3. He did move his last unit of scarabs on objective 3. In shooting, he dropped another starweaver.
He scored 1 VP for objective 3
My turn was mostly spent in regrouping from killing the Nightbringer, so I could start dealing with the rest of his force. I loaded back into transports, and dropped the Death Jesters and Solitaire out of a starweaver.
I drew Kingslayer, Overwhelming Firepower, and no prisoners. I mostly just shot scarabs and didn’t kill enough. I discarded kingslayer
Scoring me no points this round.
Necrons 6 to Harlequins 5
Turn 4
Josh drew ‘score 5’ this turn, which was in my back field, so he teleported his Overlord and the 19 strong unit of warriors on it. Their shooting dropped another one of my starweavers. Otherwise, his shooting wasn’t to effective.
He scored 1 Vp for capturing 5.
With his forces separated, I decided to try and pounce on him to weaken his forces. I charged the shadowseer, a troupe, troupe master and voidweaver into the overlord and 19 warriors, killing a slew of warriors and the overlord. Three bike squads, a blitzing solitaire, troupe and troop master went into the Deceiver, Immortals and Orikan. I dropped orikan to 2 wounds (he is empowered), the Deceiver to 1 wound and killed all the immortals.
I scored 2 VP’s, for firepower and no prisoners. I drew Domination this turn..
Necrons 7 Harlequins 7
The Necrons need to capture objectives 2 and 4 this turn, and drew phycological warfare.
Turn 5
I don’t remember what cards were drawn this turn for this turn.
Orikan and the deciver both fell in combat, and most of the 19 man warrior squad fell. By this point, it was getting late, and he had lost a large chunk of his force, so he called it. Having just the stalker, ghost arc and a unit of 20 warriors left.
End score was 11 Harlequins to 10 Necrons. A very close game.
A few learnings for me.
Haywire Cannons are complete garbage. My skyweavers shooting was completely useless this game because I wanted to try those guns out.
Also, Dropping my large troupe so early in the game was a mistake, as they then got isolated and picked off unit they were useless. I should have bitten the bullet in not scoring those 2vp turn 1, and dropped that unit in later where they could actually make an impact.
Here are the notes from my battle journal], as well as a drawing of where the objectives were placed.
