A Struggle of Titans

I got together with my buddy Justin for a pretty sizeable game of 40k: 3,000 points per side of Necrons versus Ultramarines. This is the tale.

Various battles across the planets' surface had raged for hours, and Ultramarine drop troops had been under persistent fire nearly the entire time. They had suffered relatively few casualties, as it was wave after wave of Necron Warrior that marched in lines from their underground sarcophagi. It got to the point that they had the system down for defeating the predictable robotic foes. 

Yet their arrival on the outskirts of the unmarked city changed the nature of the defenses. Two great towers dominated the horizon. As the vehicles of the Space Marines rumbled forward, bright lights flickered into existence on those pillars. A series of defense lines then lit up, glowing orange screens of energy. And then it seemed like dual suns opened. One came from a vault in the ground--a grand creature that towered above others and seemed like the glowing center of a star itself. Then a second one, similar in shape but entrapped within an unfolding cube, appeared. Around them stirred shadows of other defenders, but it was the near-blinding radiance of the two C'Tan which held the Space Marines' attention. If they could have felt fear, this would have known the blinding panic of the burning reality at the center of space. As it was, they lowered their boltguns and steeled themselves for the battle ahead. 

One half of the Necron battle line. Canoptek Spyder and Wraiths, supported by Scarabs and a Heavy Destroyer. Plus the glowing yellow sun of a C'Tan. 

The other half of the Necron forces: a Tesseract Vault and a Monolith, plus groups of Warriors and Immortals sheltering behind an Aegis Defense Line. 

The stalwart Ultramarines had been joined by an Imperial Titan for their battle, whose thunderous guns had cleaved through scores of the strange metal foes already in the campaign on this planet. A squad of Assault Marines took cover behind the lumbering metal behemoth, while Tactical Marines advanced in a Rhino and a squad of Devastators with lascannons and plasma cannons hugged what elevated areas covered in scrub trees they could find. 

The bulk of the Ultramarine's might came on their right flank, however. A Land Raider containing a terminator squad and two commanders was square in the center, while supporting units of Tactical Marines advanced in their Rhinos in front of two Dreadnoughts. A battery of three whirlwinds hugged the far right flank, ready to rain down destruction at range. 

The Necron Scarab Swarms made quick work of the armor plating of the Rhino, but despite their initial fury could not stand up to the fire and eventual charge of the Tactical Marines. 

Long-range Necron shooting similarly crippled the Land Raider, their Gauss blasts causing sections of the armor to strip out of reality. The Terminator Squad that emerged advanced in stalwart fashion in the face of the Necrons firepower. 

The Space Marines flyer buzzed into the scene, and turned its firepower on the Necrons below. However, abysmal targeting data--no doubt caused by the Necron field of energy being projected--caused it to fire wildly and score few hits throughout the battle. 

The Terminators reached the Necron defense lines, and made short work of the Immortals standing there. The sheer brutality of their attacks was hard for any of the slow-moving robots to face. 

The Assault Marines hit a different point of the line, facing the Necron Warriors and one of the Necron Lords commanding the force. While they caused a few casualties, the Necrons managed to withstand the attack in better fashion thanks to the presence of their scythe-wielding commander. 

One of the C'Tan, its body burning with the heat of the sun, faced off against the firepower of the Knight Titan. As it warped the world around it, it managed to keep the titan at bay--even though its own shooting attacks were unable to touch the Titan's armor. 

The Lord whose unit was battling the Assault Marines used his Veil of Darkness to escape the deadly melee, and leave the Assault Marines in the path of the C'Tan. While it shot and attacked them, they didn't completely crumble against the attacks. 

Meanwhile, a Necron Night Scythe arrived to beam down another unit of Immortals--they unloaded their firepower at the Tactical Marines who were hiding in the swamp. 

On the other side of the battlefield, the two Dreadnoughts got into a prolonged combat with the Lychguard. While the Lychguard could not hurt the Dreadnoughts, they also proved to be solidly survivable even against the high strength hits of the mechanics-drive power fists. The Necron Lord ran to assist them, but was instantly crushed by the deadly attacks of the Dreadnoughts when he tried to get involved in the combat. 

A few straggling Warriors managed to destroy one of the Whirlwinds by the end of the game. The Whirlwinds' damage across the entire battle far exceeded that of any other weapon in the Ultramarines' arsenal. 

The hopes of the Necrons were finally crushed when the Knight Titan turned its attention to the newly-arrived squad of Immortals. 

The final tally was close, but the Ultramarines managed to edge out the Necrons by one point: 13 to 12 was the final tally. It was an enormously fun game, with the lead changing multiple times. The two Necron heavy vehicles survived, but very little else of their force managed to not be destroyed. The Ultramarines took some heavy casualties, but had the pieces in place to absorb those losses and remain effective. I'm hoping to get another large-sized game in against the Ultramarines sooner rather than later!


Battles (40k):
Total 2015: 8 (Win/Loss/Tie: 1/7/0)

Necrons:
1 Win (Grey Knights 1)
7 Losses (Ultramarines 2, Eldar 1, Imperial Guard 1, Nurgle Chaos 1, Grey Knights 1, Chaos and Ultramarines team 1)
0 Ties

Urban Extinction

I've been playing way more 40k lately, and I kind of like it. It's a good game, and nicely balanced when the people you play with are great folk (like my foe for this game, Cemllyn). I'll take "Why I don't play pick up games" for $200 Alex. First some painting, then the game (most of which we played in natural lighting during a summer brownout of the borough where Drawbridge Games is opening up).

 Necron Heavy Destroyers

I needed some anti-tank options in my army, and Necron Heavy Destroyers seemed to fit the bill. These are conversions, making the extended barrels from a combination of Immortals' and Tomb Blades' guns and Deathmark heads. I was pretty pleased with how they turned out, and the color scheme really does pop on the models that get a bit more of the green ceramic plating to them.

 Canoptek Spyder and her baby Scarabs

I also added a Canoptek Spyder, and painted up a couple of extra Scarab bases to be the babies that the machine creates during the game. Again, I was really pleased with how the colors came together for this model--it's one of my favorite models in the Necron line, and I'm glad mine turned out nicely. I'm definitely going to add a few more of these to my force.

 Necropolis Billboard doubling as a Comms Relay

I was so pleased with the hex-field barricades produced by Brush 4 Hire studio, that I purchased another one of their pieces: the amazing urban billboard. I'm using it as a Comms Relay, representing a signalling system doing a battlefield heads-up display for arriving forces to coordinate around. It fits with the rest of my Aegis Defense Line look, and works great with the force. The guy at Brush 4 Hire was even nice enough to do the screen in orange (rather than the standard green) at my request to make it work great.

On to the game: I brought 1,850 of Necrons to face off against Cemllyn's 1,850 of Grey Knights. We've clashed before, and Grey Knights are a tough nut to crack, so I hoped that I would be able to struggle to a victory this time.

An Imperial transmission had come through from a guard regiment: they had found a strange obelisk, unlocked it, and found a "flaming daemonesque of stature dire" inside. The unit returned no further reports from the small mining moon where they had been conducting live-fire training regiments. The message, passed across the galaxies to Terra, was noticed by a Ordo Malleus servitor tasked with sweeping Imperial Guard transmissions for words that might be signs of warp incursions. With the disappearance of the Imperials from the world, the Grey Knights were dispatched to the location of the last message from the surface. They landed in force from the orbiting cruiser above, their teleporters crackling with energy. They were curiously paired: two groups of  Interceptors with their shunt-jump backpacks, two groups of Grey Knight brothers in Terminator armor, each led by a capable Psyker, and two Nemesis Dreadknights. The force was supported by a patrolling Stormraven flying low in the atmosphere. 

 It wasn't long before the Grey Knights' auspexes located movement ahead. Movement and massive energy spikes, but no life signs. It was then that their scouting servo-skulls spotted a massive Necron battle-line forming in the distance. The Obelisk was indeed there, though the being that writhed inside was less daemonic and more living fragment of the sun: a Tesseract Vault. The Necrons had assembled a line of Warriors and Immortals, supported by Heavy Destroyers, Canoptek Scarab Swarms, and a Canoptek Spyder. Ancient generators flickered to life, and defense screens of pure energy formed in front of their lines upon the approach of the Grey Knights. 

 The units of Interceptors were quick to shunt ahead, using their massive range for teleport jumping to get into the thick of the enemy and use their flamers to devastating effect. However, the return fire of the Necrons so close to their lines proved to be all the more devastating: the sheer weight of shots was able to overcome much of the armor of the Interceptors, leaving both squads gunned down in a single turn. 

 The Canoptek Spyder advanced ahead into the rubble where the Interceptors had sought protection, it's great belly a factory spitting out the deadly tiny scarabs onto the battlefield. 

 The Grey Knights marched in solemn fashion toward their objectives, reliant upon their heavy armor to protect them from much of the Necron firepower. It was then that a Monolith materialized, emerging straight out of the ground from where it had been buried for centuries--unleashing a large unit of Tesla Carbine-wielding Immortals right into the face of the Grey Knights. Their firepower was stunning and surprising, but only a single Adeptus warrior fell in the fusillade. The Grey Knights steeled themselves, and cast their Sanctic powers to strengthen their strikes, and charged into the face of the slow-moving foe. While the Necrons failed to fight back effectively, they also proved to be resilient in morale: never flinching from a combat that was steadily killing a few of their number each time. 

 The resolve of the Immortals was likely bolstered by the fact that the Canoptek Spyder had been quite busy producing more Scarab Swarms on its trek across the battlefield. The second line of the Necrons was filled with the tiny, quick beasts. 

 Meanwhile, the Grey Knights had suffered their worst loss at the hands of the Tesseract Vault. It had tank shocked (thunderblitzed) one of the advancing Nemesis Dreadknights. While as a Space Marine, the Dreadknight had "And It Shall Know No Fear", that made it so he automatically regrouped and passed any fear checks--but could certainly run from initial assaults like a massive vehicle seeking to smash it. The Dreadknight fled away from the battlefield however (off the table edge), and thus was lost to the Grey Knights forces. To answer the threat of the Tesseract Vault, the Stormraven Gunship was tasked to destroy the massive vehicle. With lascannons, multi-melta, and missiles, the plane was definitely suited to tank-hunting. Yet on its first pass, it improbably missed with every single shot--even with twin-linked weaponry. As it swung past the Vault, the C'Tan at the center of the vault focused a beam of energy on the plane--even despite it being a snap shot--and destroyed it with a Time's Arrow (D-strength attack). 

 The remaining Nemesis Dreadknight realized that it needed to break into the Necron lines to have a chance, so it charged at the Immortals cowering behind their barrier fields. Improbably, their overwatch fire landed two wounds on the great battlesuit as bolts of Gauss tore into it. Once it reached them, it spent some time slowly cutting down the ancient warriors: their reanimation protocols were over-strained by the sheer amount of damage that the suit managed to land upon them. 

However, it failed to kill all of them--leaving a few remaining. The Necrons answered by sending a massed group of Scarabs into the Dreadknight's flank--their tiny cutting lasers being able to deal out the "death by a thousand cuts" type of attack. The Dreadknight crushed the remaining Immortals and one of the Scarab Swarms, but too many remained and it was sliced into ribbons--the pilot activated his emergency teleport when he realized that both the legs and one of the arms had been disabled by the tiny crawling creatures. 

The game ended with the Necrons pulling ahead in victory points, netting me a 9 to 4 win. Overall it was a great game, as the Necrons did exactly as promised: they took a whole lot of really nasty punches from foes and kept going and they had surprising speed in unexpected spots to grab objectives. They lost pretty much every combat except for the one with the Scarabs, but it was the shots after combat that really did the damage. A "many small units" approach like I tried this time seems like a good strategy for facing an army like Grey Knights--they can totally demolish whatever they set their mind to (unless they're Larry the Cross-Eyed Stormraven Pilot who couldn't hit a barn), but with too many units to stop it got overwhelming fast. Overall a great game, and I'm looking forward to a rematch against Cemllyn's Grey Knights at the Drawbridge Games Grand Opening this weekend.

Battles (40k):
Total 2015: 5 (Win/Loss/Tie: 1/4/0)

Necrons:
1 Win (Grey Knights 1)
4 Losses (Imperial Guard 1, Nurgle Chaos 1, Grey Knights 1, Chaos and Ultramarines team 1)
0 Ties

Feudal Forces and Gothic Crypts

 got together with my friend Craig for a game of 40k between my Necrons and his Imperial Guard. Yes, I am aware that Games Workshop changed the name to Astra Militarium. I'm also aware it was for lame copyright reasons, and I'll be referring to them as Imperial Guard still. We played the game at Phantom of the Attic Games (the Oakland location), and had a great time! But first, the painting progress update:

 The Center of the Tesseract Vault

I like big models and epic games, and thus I wanted to add a large-scale model to my force early on. Given the current rules and Force Organization Chart(s) choices, it's straightforward to add a single Lord of War to any given force. So it was time for the Tesseract Vault (also knowing that Craig has about six Superheavy Vehicles in his massive Imperial Guard army to choose from). I'm pleased with the paint job thus far--still need to do some green touch-ups and lining on the armor sections, and some highlights to the orange eye of the crypt-spyder-minder robot on the top. But it's good progress. Painting the rest of the sections will be some work, but I'm up to the task (I think...).

 Two Canoptek Scarab Swarms

I also completed two more Scarab swarms for my force. I can't help it, I love these models. They're so cute. They're not particularly effective in the game, as even a strong breeze can kill them with ease. But still, I dig them enough to add two more to my force. 

That's it for painting progress. Now on to the battle report. 2,200 points of Necrons against 2,200 points of Craig's Imperial Guard. 

The Necrons awoke to the sound of tromping boots and steel treads. What brought the interlopers to this world was unknown--the Overlord marshaled his forces together regardless of reason. Living creatures were anathema, and their death was certain. Unfortunately for the creatures, this world was a repository of the star-shards: the Overlord brought forth a captive C'tan in a Tesseract Vault, as well as a Transcendant C'tan to do his bidding. His other forces were units of Immortals and Warriors, Canoptek Scarabs, a small group of Lychguard, and a mighty Monolith. Emerging from their crypts, the forces surged out and began leveling their weaponry at the invading living creatures.  

 The Imperial Guard had arrived on the planet as a part of a detachment designed to quell local unrest against the rule of the planetary governor. They had easily subjugated the local tribes, but did not pay attention to their superstitions: stories of the great plains that should not be disturbed were ignored or thought to be diversion. The commanders instructed a battlegroup to explore the area and report back. Given the unknown, the Imperial commander took a mixed force: an Infantry Platoon with supporting heavy weapons and two veteran squads, an Armored Sentinel, and a unit of Stormtroopers. They also brought armor support, in the form of a Baneblade, a Leman Russ Vanquisher, a Leman Russ Executioner, and a Hydra Flakk Tank. 

 The Imperial Guard force sent to the world was from a feudal levee, their forces being composed of peasantry raised up and trained at arms commanded by the nobles of the society. While their uniforms were not as regulation as many other divisions, the force had been very successful at weaponry--being located very close to a Forge World. Their tanks and heavy weapons were in pristine condition, and the troops marched proudly alongside their mighty metal gods of death: especially the company Baneblade. 

 The company's Knight commander, who drove the vehicle-busting Leman Russ Vanquisher, called a halt in the battle line--the sensors in his tank were displaying an odd variation of signals coming from the plains ahead. The troops were quickly ordered to assemble entrenchments, and the Knight commander took cover anticipating attack--his radioed message to the rest of the force was "heads up, something is coming."

 The other units in the force stopped and took cover where they could--strange abandoned remnants of structures were scattered on the plains, as if the culture of savages on this planet had once been more industrial. The buildings were clearly built by long-lost Imperial settlers, but why they were abandoned no one knew. Foot soldiers and armored support alike paused and waited. 

 Suddenly, the ground ahead shifted and things began to rise. A set of glowing eyes emerged first, as a huge swarm of tiny beetles seemed to be flowing in the direction of the Imperial Forces. The forward troops consulted their Imperial Primers for an understanding of the foe: the fabled Necrons had scarabs such as these. With a shout, fire from the Imperial side began to decimate the assaulting robots. 

 Self-deploying metal barricades appeared, emitting waves of light energy that protected those behind from attacks. The cracks of laser light energy, in all its varied forms, issued from the Necron forces and their emplacements. More worrisome, perhaps, was that a being that glowed as bright as a sun seemed to be walking alongside the enemy forces. The Imperial Commanders poured their firing into the great beast, hoping that it led the Necrons (they were mistaken on that count--it was merely a slave of the robotic Overlord). Between the hot shot lasguns of the Stormtroopers, the Leman Russ Executioner, and orders to "Bring it Down" from the command to the Heavy Weapons Teams that bore Lascannons, the great burning beast fell before reaching the Imperial lines. 

 The enemy Necrons seemed content to move within range and then exchange fire with the Imperial Guard. While the Imperial plasma shots seemed to penetrate the robots' armor, a surprising number of them simply stood back up and self-repaired as they continued to fire. The answering blasts of Gauss weaponry from the Necrons tore through the Imperial armor and forced them to cling to what little protection they could find in the grooves of the pockmarked battlefield. 

 While many of the Scarabs had been shot down, there were still ample numbers left. They rushed right up to the Leman Russ Executioner and tore it to bits in an instant. Thousands of tiny micro-lasers rendered the armor broken, the weapons inoperable, and the machine wrecked. A nearby unit of Guardsmen and the two Stormtroopers who had survived the withering fire from the Necron lines led a charge against the Scarabs. Their attack was extremely successful, cutting down every single remaining Scarab in a frenzy of bayonet strikes. A cheer went up from the Imperial lines at seeing their fellows successful. 

 The success there prompted other units to advance forward--there was some abandoned debris in no-man's land that formed a critical objective for the Imperials, and their troops rushed to secure it. Taking cover in the treeline and behind the ruins, the Guardsmen proved to be harder for the Necron weapons to strike down. 

 At the same time, the Necrons were suffering a punishing amount of fire. Between all the plasma gun shots and the devastating cannon of the Baneblade, more and more units were falling unable to repair. Even the defense grids were not enough to prevent casualties against the sheer weight of fire being directed at the Warriors. 

 In particular, the Imperial Guard Master of Ordinance was giving them fits. He hid behind the great bulk of the Baneblade with what remained of the Command Squad, and called in coordinates for artillery support. Massed Basilisk units fired from far off, their shots ranging in on the Necron Warriors and rendering their defense lines null thanks to barrage artillery. 

 As the Necron forces thinned, the Imperials continued to advance to their lines in hopes of breaking through. The Necron Overlord and his squad of Immortals were rushing to try and grab an objective in a central ruin, hoping that the Baneblade was otherwise occupied by their Tesseract Vault. However, the tank turned its mighty turret and leveled a massive shell into them--killing every one of the remaining Immortals serving as the Overlord's bodyguard. 

The Imperial vox-casters started broadcasting for the forces to continue the push: "Breakthrough, breakthrough, draw them out of position for support elements to finish them" came the order. The Hydra Flakk Tank responded, hitting the engines as fast as it could and tank-shocking through the Necron lines. In a short time, thanks to flat-out speed, it was in the Necron backfield and leaving them behind. It weathered their return fire--the Gauss bolts warping the weaponry with their energy (as good a reason as any to deal with the fact that the Forge World resin for the Flakk Tank pieces was warped... time to grab a hair-dryer and straighten them). Yet the tank held together enough to drive, and disappeared in the distance with the Baneblade and the advancing troops units following the assault against the scattered Necrons. 

It was a great game, but another loss for my Necrons. Objectives were close, but I trailed early in the game. While I managed to tie it at 4 in my fourth turn, the Imperials managed to pick up two late objectives by destroying units and getting the Hydra Flakk Tank into my deployment zone on the bottom of turn five. I've got to work on the flexibility of my forces, as I'm finding that I'm not able to respond to changes in the battlefield as quickly as I should. Time to think about a way to get more maneuverability into the force. The Monolith alone as a mode of repositioning units isn't going to cut it--especially because everyone seems to direct all their fire into the Monolith from the start. I had a lot of fun, though, and there were some really epic moments: the five Lychguard shrugging off a Baneblade Cannon shot with zero casualties was my favorite... not pictured above because the Lychguard are sadly still in a state of being under-painted... I need to change that!

Battles (40k):
Total 2015: 4 (Win/Loss/Tie: 0/4/0)

Necrons:
0 Wins
4 Losses (Imperial Guard 1, Nurgle Chaos 1, Grey Knights 1, Chaos and Ultramarines team 1)
0 Ties

Toughness Test: Rotted Flesh versus Living Metal

Time for some more Warhammer 40k action! A tiny painting update (one whole model finished) and then on to the battle report between my growing Necron army and the crude and pestilence-filled servants of Nurgle (painted and played by my friend Dan). We played the game at Drawbridge Games, a new game store that a friend is opening in Pittsburgh, PA.

 Necron Immortal with Tesla Carbine

I wanted to get a second squad of Necron Immortals going to help flesh out my troops choices--at lower points it's tough to run the Necron detachment effectively, so I'm finding that so far getting objective secured and lots of sturdy troops makes sense with the basic detachment from the main rulebook. This guy was the first test paint of the unit with Tesla Carbines--guns that can pump out some hideous firepower on a turn if I'm really lucky (for each roll of a "6" to hit, they generate two additional hits). I'm enjoying this color scheme, and I think the gun turned out nicely--looks different enough from the Gauss Blasters that the other Immortals carry.

The game was 1,250 points per side, which we fit fairly well onto a 4" by 4" table. With the objective markers placed and forces set up, onward to the battle! Which was more resilient? The rotted flesh of the near-dead superhumans, or the living metal of death itself?

 As always with Necron awakenings, the forces took time to reach their pre-set positions from ages long since past. Shield generators flickered to life, and the great Monolith rose from the dirt where it lay long dormant. The Immortals and Warriors arose from their tombs and formed a solid battle line across the field, while a Necron Lord--the one who had awakened first--brought his captive Transcendent C'tan to slay his foes with the power of a living, walking sun. 

 The forces of Nurgle had arrived on the planet to finish their nefarious dealings with the Ultramarine converts from the prior battle. One such marine had proven to be a most glorious host for the rots of Nurgle, and transformed before the rest of the Chaos Marines' eyes. They had seen transformations into Daemon Princes before, but the process still shocked them at its rapidity. With a gurgling boil, the body expanded and burst--leaving all the garb of Ultramar behind. Instead, there stood a massive, bloated fiend, the last vestiges of his Space Marine training simply the tactical and strategic acumen that made Space Marines such vicious foes. With a roiling belch and a burst of noxious chemicals from the spigots that sprouted from his arm as the flesh grew around his power armor's tubing, the great beast urged his forces into battle against the Necrons. 

 The cloven and split warriors of Nurgle mounted their transports, their eyes brimming with lust for battle and destruction. The Necron foes were a particular annoyance to them: no flesh to corrupt, no organs to disease, no skin to pox. Hails of boltgun and plasma gun fire rang out from their side--yet few Necrons fell to the onslaught as their self-repair protocol engaged. 

 The Necrons answered back, their gauss weaponry shredding a Rhino's external armor. The squad of Plaguemarines piled out of their wrecked vehicle and hunkered down, preferring to exchange ranged bolter fire against their foes. 

 The Daemon Prince surged forward, his massive bulk miraculously suspended in the air from accumulation of toxic gasses inside. The Necrons adjusted their lines, summoning a unit of Immortals from one side of the board to the other with the Eternity Gate of the Monolith. Their fire combined with that of the other Immortals to savagely wound the Daemonic leader of the Chaos forces. 

 The Transcendent C'tan doggedly moved forward, summoning terrible upheavals of earth and sky to demolish his foes. Yet the attacks did little, slaying only a couple of the Plaguemarines with their fury. 

 Meanwhile another unit of Plaguemarines leaped out of their Rhino to join the fray. As with the other squads, a hail of Plasma Gun and Boltgun fire took a slow toll on the Necrons facing them. Yet the toll was starting to add up as the ranks of Immortals were thinning. 

 The great Daemon Prince reached the lines of the Necrons and burst forth with a torrent of corrosive acid. It burned the metal of the Immortals, leaving a number of them dead and the rest burning from the corrosive chemicals that remained upon them. 

 The battle bean to turn when the Obliterators joined the fray by teleporting into the battle. They landed in the back of the Necron lines, and immediately turned their sights to the Monolith. Producing strange heat-weapons from their ever-shifting arms, the bolts struck the Monolith true and blew it up in a heartbeat. 

 The Plaguemarines managed to catch the unit of Warriors containing the Necron Lord in a combat, and because of the size of the unit and his location within his force, the Lord was unable to wade into the fight himself. With only a few casualties, the Necrons nonetheless fell back in the face of the Plaguemarine assault and the full 20 of them and the Lord were wiped out in an instant. 

The Transcendent C'tan was the lone model left to survive. The Necrons had completed a great number more of their tactical objectives, and needed to merely have a single model survive the game. With time winding down, that meant the C'tan had to live--yet it only had a single wound remaining. While it had survived small arms fire from numerous angles, it was unable to survive the Obliterators. With a rush of energy, three shots--equivalent in strength to Lascannons--struck the towering C'tan. With a flash of energy the creature was extinguished, its fire gone out. As its ashes crumbled to the ground, the forces of Nurgle had won the day. 

It was a fun game, even if another loss for my Necrons. I had out-scored my opponent on objectives handily (8 to 5), but the casualties had mounted too quickly for the Necrons. Losing a huge unit and my Warlord to a silly combat was a bad blow, but otherwise it was acceptable. Necrons are sturdy, but they're hard pressed to break enough Rhinos early on to survive a Rhino-rush style Space Marine force. I'll have to think about how to add in ways to slow foes, as well as melee combat capable units to get in the way and buy my ranged forces time to shoot and re-position. 

We had drawn names from a hat for who would face who, as a fair number of folks showed up at Drawbridge Games with 1,250 point lists. I took two other highlight shots from other tables, as there were some great paint jobs to be seen. A good day of gaming was had by all (as far as I could see).

 An army composed of a single Knight Household. Three great-looking Knight Titans, with a variety of weapon options. 

Another Knight Titan, from a different Household, supporting Ultramarines--and their Whirlwinds of death!

Battles (40k):
Total 2015: 3 (Win/Loss/Tie: 0/3/0)

Necrons:
0 Wins
3 Losses (Nurgle Chaos 1, Grey Knights 1, Chaos and Ultramarines team 1)
0 Ties