Necron VS Nurgle Superheavy Battle

Here is a battle report from Sunday the 8th of September 2013. the first attempt at using my new Necron Tesseract Vault. Enjoy!

Nurgle Fluff

The pergola was a favourite place for Thansept in the Garden of Nurgle. It had been formed by carefully teasing blightvines through the ribcage of an enormous skulltaker that had fallen here. The vines had slowly stripped the flesh off the creature but had left the head intact and some special consideration from the garden had kept the huge creature’s brain alive to see the ruin of its body.

The sorcerer was sitting now in the shade of the leaves waiting to be called before the Father, to take his concerns and request to him.

As was his wont, he was reading from an ancient text that was normally housed in a casing inside his terminator armour, paging reverentially through it and carefully brushing the hundreds of flies away as he did so.

A soft gong sounded and he rose, sliding the book back into its housing. Coming to greet him was Guua, a favoured plaguebearer of the Father. He grasped the creature’s talon warmly in his right hand, taking care not to exert too much force. As powerful as the Plagueriddenwas , it was no match for the sorcerer in either strength or will and Thansept did not want to cause undue stress.

They walked in silence to the crumbling grotto where his audience would take place. The Father existed outside of time and space; His mind was far beyond the comprehension of mortals (and most daemons). To communicate directly with Him was impossible. Instead, He manifested but a fraction of His intellect and might in one of the many thousands of grottos built for such a purpose and spread through the garden.

They approached and Guua took his leave. Thansept knelt before the circle of stones and waited, eyes lowered. The grotto took the form of a huge crumbling pool, stone lined, perhaps sixty meters in diameter. The avatar of the Father filled it totally, stretching up half as high above the fungus trees.

Speak. Little.One.

Thansept kept his eyes averted. It was not for him to gaze on the glory of the Father uninvited.

“Paternoster, qui es in hortus, sanctificeturnomentuum” The ritual words of greeting.

“Pater – one of the new gardens is under threat. The world of Gomdurol, ours this last thousand years. We stand to lose it in the next cycle”

What.Dares.Interfere.With.My.Planting

“Pater. The original inhabitants. In statis for several million years they have been, now awoken and seeking to activate a device from the old times. They are called the Necrontyr and they seek to rip up the garden with this thing, this tesseract ark”

There was a long silence. Thansept imagined the great form in front of him accessing its millions of years of memories and experiences to formulate an answer. It would have memories of these things. It has memories of everything.

No.Idle.Threat.This.Is.

Destroy.It.Before.Activation.

“Father. I request the use of the Soroja”

Thansept knew what he was asking. The Soroja was a favourite project of Ku’Gath, one of the greatest of Father’s Children. The Great Unclean One had performed a miracle: engineered a virus capable of infecting one of the minions of the blood god. But not just any minion… one of the mighty war machines called Skorpions. Ku’Gath  had bent the creature to his will and now the Soroja was totally in the thrall of the Father… but untested in battle.

Thansept did not try and explain or motivate his request. The Father knew all and would act in the best interest of His dominion. There was no possibility of changing His mind with argument. You made your request and you got an answer.

The.Soroja.Is.Yours

“Pater Noster. Fiat voluntastua”

He stood and turned to leave. As he did so, the avatar behind him spoke.

Read.To.Me.From.Your.Book

Thansept removed the volume and opened it to a favoured passage.

“The many men, so beautiful!
And they all dead did lie:
And a thousand thousand slimy things
Lived on; and so did I.”

As he moved off, he heard the avatar chuckling.

Necron Fluff

The green planet seemed to emit a foul miasma into the void of space surrounding it. No stars reflected in the background of its canvas, no spacefaring rock in its orbit. It resembled a rotten fruit floating in a black pool of oil, barely revolving on its now defunct course around a long dead sun.

The traveller gazed upon it from the bridge of his Tombship, cold blue orbs regarding it with a robotic loathing. With one thought he could obliterate it, remove this stain from reality, but the after effects of such infestation of warp power might have far reaching effects. His chronomancers had warned against such a path, although to think that he would endanger the relic that lay beneath its wastes seemed to border on insult.

He knew that to ignore the portents would be a mistake; that to leave the device held within the planet to the whims of the Plague-God would have far reaching ramifications. He also knew that he would not be able to secure the Vault alone.

He could feel a stir of irritation, logic coils in his circuitry firing at the time wasted as he awaited his ally. Typical of the old fool to take his time; typical too that he would not give up the chance to have The traveller owe him a favour. Perhaps he even wished to seize control of the device himself.

At last Anrakyr felt the signals ping throughout the ship as the other Overlord entered orbit. Canoptek bypasses exchange data blurts, and acknowledgements were made. Telemetry, plans of attack and strategies were shared in split seconds. A course of action was decided, and Anrakyr the Traveller gave his signal to deploy.

The Stormlord had arrived, and the Tesseract Vault that lay beneath this sickened world would soon return to the fold….

Nurgle Intro and army list

Darryn and I agreed beforehand to fight a thematic battle. It centred around his tesseract vault. The idea was that the necrons were awakening it and nurgle was trying to stop them but unfortunately (being slow and purposeful and all that) they arrived just too late. We agreed beforehand on this:

·         2500pts

·         Super-heavies allowed

·         The mission would be The Scouring (6 objectives, fast attack are scoring)

·         +2 VP if you kill the enemy superheavy, +2 if your own survives

My goal was to play with as much of my Nurgle stuff as I could as I cannot remember the last time it got some table time. Years ago.

My army list was basically this:

Primary Detachment

·         Great unclean one

·         3 squads of plaguebearers (14,13,11) with icons

·         3 blight drones

·         Daemon prince

This gave me a good core of 2 tough guys, 3 squads to hold objectives and 3 flyers that could also hold objectives as they were fast attack

Allied Detachment

·         Chaos sorcerer in terminator armour

·         7 nurgle terminators

·         7 plague marines in a rhino

The plague marines gave me another troops choice to contest objectives plus they had a melta and meltabombs to maybe go after the tesseract vault. The terminators lead by the sorcerer were intended to deep strike right next to the vault and try and melta it (they had 2 combimeltas). Didn’t happen that way but that was the plan.

Superheavy detachment

·         Plague Scorpion (The Soroja) This was using the rules for the greater brass scorpion of khorne.

Necron Intro and Army List

In keeping to the theme of sending in a force to awaken the Tesseract Vault, I figured I’d take the two most knowledgeable characters in the Necron army and let them form a temporary truce in order to use their combined forces and retrieve it  from enemy territory. I took Anrakyr, purely because it was more likely that he would discover a Vault on a Daemonworld than any other Overlord, and Imhotek, because only he could amass the resources to resurrect it.

In thinking that the idea was to send in a force to reanimate the device, and then get out as soon as possible, later on erasing the world with their Tombship’s star killing powers I figured that each lord would take smaller, less expensive units, ones that could be left behind to cover their backsides if and when they retreated to safety.  Once the children of Nurgle had been warned however, they needed a rapid response to fend the pestilential tide off.

This led me to field the following army:

·         Anrakyr the Traveller, and Imhotek the Stormlord. Imhotek being the warlord.

·         3 units of Warriors, ten strong each

·         1 unit of immortals, ten models (Pyrrhian Eternals)

·         2 units of tomb blades, armed with particle beamers

·         Four Necron lords in Imhotek’s Royal court all with Res Orbs and Staves of Light

·         Four Crypteks from Anrakyr’s Royal Court, (2 Despair, 1 chrono, 1 storm)

·         Two doomscythes

The intention was to give every unit the benefit of a Res Orb, and some form of different ranged attack. On second thought I should have added form voltaic staff wielding ‘Teks. But more on that later. On that note, I should never have taken Imhotek.

Superheavy detachment

·         Tesseract Vault. Seismic Assault and Transdimensional Maelstrom powers given.

Nurgle Deployment

I deployed 1 squad of plaguebearers in cover on the left flank, the plage scorpion in cover in the middle and another squad of plague bearers in cover on the right flank.

Everything else was in reserve

Necron  Deployment

I had won the roll of but elected to let Neal deply and play first, hoping that imhotek would let me seize the initiative. I set the Vault in the middle of the field, letting it get maximum cover of the battlefield with its very long range weapons. Next to it, to the right I placed Anrakyr and his Immortals, intending to make use of his ability to control the Scorpion during my shooting phase. To the right of the central pillar of terrain I put two squads of warriors, Crypteks and lords, the furthest supported by Imhotek and a squad of Tomb Blades. The other tomb Blades joined Anrakyr’s side, as well as the last Warrior unit.  Imhotek then proceeded to fail me, and the initiative was not seized. Neal went first.

Nurgle Turn 1

Nightfight was in effect.

The scorpion charged up the centre towards the vault. The plaguemarines  drove their rhino forward and popped smoke but stayed behind the scorpion. In fact everything tried  to stay a little bit behind the scorpion. This was because Darryn had cunningly taken Anrakyr the  Traveller and I knew he was going to be able to take control of the scorpion in his turn, letting him  shoot with all its guns. Nooooo thanks.

In my shooting turn we got to roll on the warp storm table for the first time. My warlord trait was the ability to reroll this roll if I wanted. The first roll was a 7 – no effect. Bah! The reroll was 8 – The dark prince thirsts. Now that is more like it!

“The Dark Prince Thirsts: Roll d6 for all enemies and Khorne units. On a roll of 6 the unit suffers D6 hits with S6, Ap- Type: Ignores Cover, Rending. Vehicles are hit on their side armour.”

This was more like it. I rolled three or four sixes and the necrons were bathed in fountains of blood erupting from the surface of the planet. This inflicted almost all my casualties for the turn.

The scorpion fired everything at Anrakyr’s squad hoping to wipe them out but after all the resurrection rolls, ended up only killing 4 immortals.

Necron Turn1

Nothing too complex. The Warp Storm had taken a toll amongst the warriors and tomb blades to my left of the board and the unrepaired bodies of immortals lay on the rotting soil. The Necrons wanted blood, or whatever passed for blood with Nurgle worshippers. Everything moved forward and opened fire.

Imhotek’s lightning did very little damage, so the rest of the army took their shots. The plaguebearers hiding in the swamps had a 2+ cover save, thanks to Imhotek’snightfighting rules, their own shrouding and the terrain they were in, which left them impervious to particle beamers, gauss flayers and even a S9 Ap3 Apocalyptic Blast from the Vault. One Plaguebearer succumbed though and faded into the warp. The imprisoned C’Tan let rip with a Seismic Assault on the Soroja, getting 27 S8 Ap3 shots, but only taking off one hull point. Even Anrakyr, taking control of the NurgleSuperheavy’s Gatling Cannon only managed to immobilise the rhino nearby. Perhaps the polluted code within its shell resisted his full control.

Nurgle Turn 2  

All praise to Pappa Nurgle. I could not believe I got off so lightly in that shooting phase. Plaguebearers are cheaper and weaker than in the last codex but they do get the Shrouded special rule and this saved them from being utterly obliterated by the awesome power of the Vault.

I made every single reserve roll this turn and so was spoilt for choice. On was coming the blight drones, another squad of plague bearers, the terminators, the great unclean one and the daemon prince.

The plaguebearers were dropped right behind Darryn to try and distract him and to maybe go after one of the objectives in his DZ. The GUO and the Daemon Prince both made use of the icon in the exisiting unit of plaguebearers to enter without scattering. They came in near the tesseract, ready to challenge on my right flank.

The terminators were supposed to come down right next to the Vault to melta it but there were just too many models to risk the scatter and so they came down in a position to threaten either the Stormlord’s squad or Anrakyr squad (which was also deep behind enemy lines).

In the shooting phase, the warp storm again did me a favour. I rolled a 6:

“Rot, Glorious Rot: Roll D6 for all enemies and Tzeentch units, on 6 the unit suffers D6 hits with S4 Ap3 Type: Poison (4+), Ignores Cover. Vehicles are hit on their side armour.”

The blight drones shot forward as flyers and used their flamers to badly maul a squad of warriors. The Soroja again fired everything at Anrakyr’s squad but even when combined with the fire from the terminators, could not wipe them out, their resurrection protocols being just too effective.

Darryn had moved the Vault forward into charge range of the Soroja – it was time.

The mighty war engine barrelled forward into the Vault, rust and pus-ridden claws sinking deep into the sides of the mighty structure and ripping free huge components of arcane machinery. With a hole opened, it punched again, this time reaching deep inside to puncture the alien heart and touch the essence of the bound star god itself. A massive annihilation explosion engulfed it and the squads nearby. The Soroja rocked back on its legs in shock, pain and anger. But when its senses returned, the device from the lost stars was no more.

Necron Turn 2  

Things were not looking good at all. With the Tesseract down and no Anti-C’Tan Protocols to fall back on, the Necron forces were experiencing a large amount of misfiring circuits and synapses. Imhotek forgot to check his lightning (I blame him, not me) although nightfighting continued. The entire army moved to bring as much pain as possible to the Nurgle force but to no avail. The arrival of only one Doom Scythe helped to thin the terminator squad, but very little else fell. Anrakyr made another attempt at controlling the hulking Nurgle superheavy but only succeeded in bringing down a plague marine or two. Still the Necrons failed to make an impact.

Nurgle Turn 3

The terminators had been badly mauled by the doom scythe but each was a veteran of thousands of years and still had much to offer.

The blight drones switched to hover mode and positioned themselves to use their pus flamers on the stormlord’s squad.

In the shooting phase, we found that what Pappa Nurgle giveth, he also taketh away. I rolled no effect and so chose to reroll and the result was a 5:

“Storm of Fire: Roll D6 for all enemies and Nurgle units, on a 6 hit by a large blast template centered over any model in the unit, it then scatters. Each model (friend or foe) under the template is hit S4, AP5 Type: Barrage, Ignores Cover”

Hoist by my own petard! Fortunately the effects were minimal.

The stormlord’s squad was bunched up and so took a horrific number of hits from the Str6 Ap4 flamers on the blight drones and was wiped out totally.

The assault phase saw the rest of the hammer blow fall on the Necrontyr as the Soroja charged Anrakyr’s squad and the remaining plague marines plus the great unclean one charged the other remaining squad of warriors.

Anrakyr’s squad was wiped out by the mighty daemon engine as it avenged the indignities of having the Necron Lord inside its brain. The GUO and the plague marines finished off the other squad.

Necron Turn 3

All looked dismal for the unloving horde. Anrakyr was forced to phase out, Imhotek was left standing with a cryptek and minor lord, all the tomb blades were dead, and every troops choice had failed to resurrect. With the final Doom Scythe entering the fray, the blight drones found the wrong end of a death ray and were removed from the board, but unfortunately it was too little, too late. A few more hull points were scored off of the scorpion, and Imhotek’s  lightning failed to damage anything. After looking at the few models I had left I decided to simply return to the tomb ships orbiting above. The battle had been lost, the Tesseract Vault destroyed; there was nothing left to do but retreat and perhaps return later to remove the stain upon the galactic plane.

Post battle notes- Neal

Two fully painted WYSIWYG armies on a thematic table in a cinematic game against a great opponent. A Sunday well spent.

Everything in the nurgle army worked pretty well. The blight drones are great. They have had their points adjusted upwards in the new IA Apoc book and I think this is correct. The ability to deliver a heavy flame template just about anywhere on the table can be potentially devastating.

The clash of the titans was epic. Darryn was unlucky to not do more damage with the Vault before it was destroyed but that was just the fortunes of war. If we replayed that game with the same models but without night fighting, things would go very differently.

Thanks to Darryn for an excellent game and wow.. that Vault is a huge model. Next up we need an apocalypse game.

Post battle notes- Darryn

Note to self: avoid nightfighting when using the Vault. The potential to let rip with huge amounts of devastating firepower is vast when using superheavies, and considering this was my first use of one ever, I should never have included Imhotek into my force. Hell, Anrakyr and a plain old overlord would have done a better job. Also, keep the Vault back and avoid close combat with large Superheavy walkers. The vault would’ve survived better against the meltas than the Scorpion. Next time however, taking the large D-Weapon hellstorm template might be a fun idea. And a helluva lot more immortals to screen Anrakyr

An awesome game, much fun, and given me a lot to think about. Thanks Neal! An Apocalypse game is a definite future plan!