Played a pick-up game at the local game store today. I brought a 2,000 point list, but hacked it down to 1,250 points since that's what my opponent brought. I decided to play around with a couple of units that have been gathering dust this edition, my Warp Spiders and my Wraithlord. We rolled up Chapter Approved 2017's Eternal War Mission 4, Dominate and Destroy, which I found to be a really great mission. Dominate and Destroy grants kill points plus points for holding objectives at the end of every turn, making for a fun game where you rack up points over time. More fun than most of the base rulebook missions.
Decided to run my list as Ulthwe instead of Alaitoc since keeping track of -1 to hit is a lot of effort for a casual game.
My ListBATTALION of ULTHWE
HQ - Autarch Skyrunner with Laser Lance and Banshee Mask (Warlord: Fate Reader)
HQ - Farseer with Singing Spear (Relic: Faolchu's wing)
Troop - 10 Guardians + 1 Shuriken Cannon Platform
Troop - 5 Rangers
Troop - 5 Rangers
Troop - 5 Rangers
Elite - 5 Wraithguard with D-Scythes
Elite - 5 Wraithguard with Wraithcannons
Fast Attack - 5 Warp Spiders, 1 is Exarch with Powerblades, 2 Death Spinners
Fast Attack - 5 Warp Spiders, 1 is Exarch with Powerblades, 2 Death Spinners
Heavy Support - Wraithlord with 1 Flamer, 1 Shuriken Catapult
Necron ListBATTALION of Mephrit
HQ - Overlord with Relic Staff
HQ - Cryptek with save aura item
Troop - 20 Warriors
Troop - 20 Warriors
Troop - 12 Immortals with Tesla
Elite - Triarch Stalker with Heat Gun
Fast Attack - 7 Canoptek Scarabs
DeploymentWe rolled up Long Table Edge deployment. The Necrons player puts his army mostly to one side, with his Destroyers behind a LoS Blocker and Stalker near the middle, with Scarabs far on the other side on an objective. I put most of my non-deepstrikers just across the table from his army, with my Wraithcannon Wraithguard in the center to go after his Triarch Stalker. Overall, I felt pretty good about this. The 6 objectives were evenly spaced around the board, and with almost all of his army on one side, I'd have an advantage moving around.
He won the roll for first turn.
Top of Turn 1 (Necrons)Necron infantry moved up, coming into range to shoot at the Guardians and the Wraithguard. His Destroyers moved to the top of the building to capture the objectives, and his Stalker moved in toward the side where we all were to get into range to shoot at the Wraithguard. Several Guardians, 3 Wraithguard, and 3 Rangers went down to shooting.
Bottom of Turn 1 (Eldar)I moved my infantry towards the Necron blob, and spend a CP to activate Matchless Agility and Advance the D-Scythe Wraithguard into range for their guns. I ran my Autarch out in front of the blob, hoping to get a good charge. Shooting went well, and the Autarch and Wraithlord both managed to get into melee, seriously damaging a unit of Warriors. Unfortunately, just a couple of the Warriors lived, so the unit didn't wipe.
Top of Turn 2 (Necrons)A bunch of Warriors stood back up, and most of my Turn 1 was undone. He had his Warriors unit Fall Back and brought his Triarch Stalker around. He focused his fire and took down my Autarch and my Wraithlord. Things quickly turned from vastly favoring me to significantly disfavoring me just with this exchange.
Bottom of Turn 2 (Eldar)I brought in my Warp Spiders this turn. One squad I brought in on the far side of the board, where 3 objectives were being fought over by a unit of scarabs and 2 units of rangers. The other squad I brought in to help deal with the Necron menace. The Triarch Stalker's meltagun-like weapon was a big threat to my Wraithguard, so I focused all my fire on it and just barely killed it. My Farseer flubbed all his spells this turn, but I used the Runes of Witnessing stratagem as a "poor man's Doom" and it worked out okay.
At this point, I figured the damage output of the Warriors in shooting was too much to deal with, and saw that I could charge them and prevent them from shooting for a turn using my Wraithguard, which I did.
The rest of the gameThe next 2-3 turns were basically a scrum on that side of the board. My opponent didn't want to Fall Back with his Necron Warriors and face the D-Scythes, but it turns out that Warriors are terrifically bad in melee against Wraithguard (not that the Wraithguard were doing much either). He managed to Consolidate into the remains of my Guardians unit and just the extra Necron punches managed to wipe the unit out. The Warp Spiders went down pretty fast to Immortals and Destroyers, but the Wraithguard kept his army tied up for several turns.
Despite him eventually overcoming my main force on that side of the board, he was only sitting on 2 objectives for most of the game. His Destroyers had one, and there was one near the scrum, but the one on my side of that board area was held by me. On the other side of the board, his Scarabs were cleared out pretty quickly by the Warp Spiders, who along with 2 Rangers units were able to farm the other 3 objectives for victory points every turn, while he and I fought fairly evenly over the 3 on the side of the map with most of the armies. This meant that on a typical turn, he got 2 points from objective holding while I got 4.
Though he eventually won out on that side of the board, none of his units had the speed or range to threaten my units on the far side of the board, and I'd gotten too far ahead on victory points for him to catch up before game end.
Result: Eldar victory!--
Overall, I had a great time and really enjoyed the mission. The mixture of progressive objective scoring and kill points made for a good way for the game to progress and added good complexity.
I felt that the Warp Spiders were fun and durable, though for their cost they weren't as good as I'd hoped they'd be. Standing in cover with them is really important, as they need to be more durable vs small arms fire. The 12" range on their guns coupled with the lack of assault phase move makes them harder to use than in previous editions, though. I forgot to use the "shoot then scoot" stratagem with them, which I'll try to remember to do next time. This would allow them to fire at 12" away then back up out of Rapid Fire range of the enemy.
The Wraithlord was impressive and fun, but he went down hard once he started taking anti-tank fire. Great in melee though. I wanted to run 3 of these, and was planning to in my 2k list. I liked him cheap with a focus on the melee.
Wraithguard did a good job tying up a bunch of Warriors, and as always I love the versatility of the D-Scythes. Spending a CP on Matchless Agility on turn 1 is a must-do with them, unless they're inside a transport, though. Otherwise they'll never be in range for their guns.
This was only my second game against Necrons this edition and I'm still getting used to how they play and dealing with their ability to stand back up. I think lack of mobility probably was the thing that hurt my opponent's list the most, but those Warriors just kept on coming.
Thanks for reading!