Nebula Raiders and Birds of Prey

Vs. Necrons

As the other players kept chickening out the entire January, only my good mate and loyal friend with his Necrons finally found time for our first battle in 2010. We fought it out yesterday.

Nebula Raiders
Captain w/ bike, relic blade, artificer armor, combi-plasma
Bike Squad w/ 8 bikes, 2 plasma guns, power fist, attack bike, feel no pain*
Bike Squad w/ 4 bikes, power fist, attack bike
Landspeeder Squadron w/ 2 typhoons
Landspeeder Squadron w/ 2 typhoons
Landspeeder Squadron w/ 1 typhoon
Vindicator
Vindicator
Vindicator

The feel no pain is a benefit granted by previous victories in the campaign. For +3 points a model I can give one of my troops choices this (or another) veteran skill. This is also the reason for taking a full squad and dividing it into combat squads - I would normally not do that with bikes, as biker combat squads are a little too fragile and are relatively useless because of the lack of upgrade weapons.

Necrons
Lord w/ resurrection orb, veil of darkness
Lord w/ destroyer body, phase shifter, warscythe
Warrior Squad w/ 13 warriors
Warrior Squad w/ 10 warriors
Warrior Squad w/ 10 warriors
Destroyer Squad w/ 4 destroyers
Destroyer Squad w/ 4 destroyers
Wraith Wing w/ 3 wraiths

We rolled seize ground, four objectives. I got to place first, so I placed one objective between two ruins so that my opponent could not place any objectives within them (what is usually a problem with my bikes). We ended up having the objectives placed something like this:

(In case the image doesn't show you can view it manually here.)

Again it was a pitched battle. I won the roll-off for the decision who gets to go first. I considered going first in order to advance the vindicators quickly and put the hurt on the enemy before he had time to react while at the same time denying the side with the three objectives, but I wanted to be able to deploy right opposite to his force, thus let him deploy first.

The Necrons picked the side with the three objectives, as I had predicted. He deployed his warrior phalanx to the upper left of the board with the wraiths and destroyer lord guarding their right flank. On the right side of the board he put his destroyers in the hopes of baiting me into going after them as well as in the hopes of getting side armor on my vindicators.
I deployed my entire army opposite to his, the vindicators in a wall at the front, typhoons behind them, bikes (the larger squad split into combat squads) on either side. I then tried to steal the initiative and succeeded, hooray! This totally caught my opponent by surprise and turned out to be devastating as his warriors were not ready for my attack.

Turn 1
I advance my vindicators towards the Necrons, managing to target one warrior squad with one vindicator so that it had no cover save. I turbo-boosted the feel no pain bike combat squads to either side of my tanks and hid my other bike squad among the tanks. The typhoons advanced behind the vindicators. The demolishers and typhoons and the attack bike from the hidden bike squad shot two wraiths (which were out of range of the orb, thus the one killed by the vindicator could not attempt to get back up), put two wounds on the destroyer lord, and downed about twenty-two warriors from the three different squads.
The wraith failed its WBB roll, whereas all but four of the warriors succeeded. Frustrating. The two smaller warriors squads advanced into rapid-firing range to intercept my bikes (putting three wounds from fourteen shots on a bike squad with feel no pain and Sv3+ - I hate dice!), while the large squad with the lord pulled back into thicker cover and spread out. One destroyer squad managed to draw line of sight around a building and through two ruins on my typhoons and two could shoot, luckily only shaking its crew. The destroyer lord and wraiths charge my feel no pain combat squad on the right and kill all but the sergeant and one plasma gunner, who fail to do damage in return.

Turn 2
I advance my wall of vindicators further and pull the typhoons up behind them, not yet going after the destroyers. I kill some more warriors with shooting. My captain then charges six warriors, while the feel no pain combat squad he had previously been joined to charged the single one that remains. Neither of these units does any damage, though, everyone failing epically. My other bike squad charges the destroyer lord and wraith to save the remains of the feel no pain combat squad. They kill the wraith and destroyer lord before my power fists strike, meaning the destroyer land can WBB among my forces.
But he fails. Thank the Emperor and the Dice Gods! Unfortunately, the warriors do very well on their WBB again, and my feel no pain combat squad that charged a single warrior now had to fight eight of them without a power weapon. The warriors that are not engaged try to shoot at my vindicator but turns out just out of range. The destroyer squad have now come into range and one opens fire on a vindicator, shaking it. My captain kills two warriors of the squad he is in combat with, my bikes kill one of theirs, but the Necrons pass morale in both cases.

Turn 3
I try to hide the remains of the bike squads that had been in combat with the destroyer lord, while I advance the vindicators again, taking shots at the large warrior squad and lord, failing to do damage thanks to cover saves and scatter. The typhoons suddenly break formation in order to close in on one of the destroyer squads and annihilate it. My captains kills all but two of the warriors, who fail morale but manage to flee the battle (with I2 versus I5). My other bike squad kills two, the warriors fail morale and are swept.
The Necrons teleport to the far side of the board, the remaining destroyers take shots at my still unharmed bike squad and kill all but two, forcing them to fall back. The two Necrons falling back shoot at my captain but fail to cause a wound.

Turn 4
The remains of my bike squad falling back regroup automatically. My captain rejoins the remains of the feel no pain combat squad and turboboosts towards the other side of the battlefield, while the two other bike squads (reduced to only two models each) turboboost into safety. The vindicators -now useless- advance as a shield for my army toward the objective in the center of the battlefield, typhoons following up behind, shooting at the destroyers but killing only three.
Two destroyers pass WBB, the unit hides with the warriors out of line of sight.

Turn 5
My two-model bike squads each hold on of the two objectives on the left side, the typhoons remain close by in order to make deep-striking here risky. Two vindicators block off the center objective, while my captain and his squad turboboost onto the objective on the right side.
The Necrons -reduced to 12 models, phasing out if they lose one more- are desperate. The lord teleports his squad between the two objectives and the left intends to spread out running to contest them both. He scatters and can not reach the objectives with his run roll. The destroyers contest the objective on the right and kill one feel no pain biker.

The game ends. Nebula Raiders hold 2 objectives versus 0.


This was it. Congratulations if you read all the way through this mess!