[Battle Report] All Worlds Must Burn | Tenth Edition | Chapter Approved | Strike Force | Necrons & Space Marines vs. Chaos Space Marines & Adeptus Mechanicus

 

And in the second cycle, the gaze of the Supreme Overlord fell upon a valley in which two heads of great Krork had been erected, and in which many battles had been fought. A green place it was, laden with the tumbled wrecks of engines of all lesser species. And in that valley the servants of the formless horror raised up their prayers and their slaves of false machinery raised up theirs also. And through that valley came seekers after vengeance. Alive was the sub-aether with cries of vengeance for this world and that. All worlds must be taken. All worlds must burn. Thus the Supreme Overlord commanded. Thus was it done.

A hasty scramble around life circumstances brought the Cursed Legion to battle in another doubles game, this time in common cause with the Greatest Of Them All, the Ultra Marines (TM) against the crimson horror of the Word Bearers and their Mechanicum associates. Supporting the outnumbered Blue Ones against the Red Ones, then turning on the Blue Ones once the field was more clear, appeared to be the order of the day.

Vengeance for Monarchia!

Pactbound Zealots detachment: Kravek Morne leading Obliterators (Deep Strike), 10 Legionaries (boltguns, two heavy melee weapons, heavy bolter, missile launcher) in Rhino, 10 Legionaries (chainswords, two plasma pistols, two heavy melee weapons) in Rhino, Forgefiend (three ectoplasma cannons).

Rad-Zone Corps detachment: Enginseer, 10 Sicarians, 3 Kataphron servitors, 2 Kastelan robots with Data-Smith, Skorpius Disintegrator, Ironstrider Ballistus, Onager Dunecrawler. (I'm a bit hazy on the weapons here - despite several hundred hours in the Mechanicus titles I still can't recognise AdMech guns under pressure.)

Vengeance for Calth!

Gladius Task Force detachment: Apothecary Biologis leading 3 Aggressors (boltstorm gauntlets), 5 Helblaster Marines, 5 Infernus Marines, 5 Terminators (storm bolters, power fists, Deep Strike), Vindicator, Repulsor Executioner (super-duper Primaris-brand heavy plasma gun, all the trimmings).

Cursed Legion detachment: Catacomb Command Barge (Destroyer Ankh, Tesla cannon, Overlord's glaive, Resurrection Orb), Skorpekh Lord (Mark of the Nekrosor) leading 6 Skorpekh Destroyers, Technomancer (Murdermind) leading 6 Canoptek Wraiths, 2 Lokhust Heavy Destroyers (gauss extrafinapolators), Night Scythe (carrying the Skorpekhs).

(This was all the fun stuff from my 2000 point army. Nothing subtle or sophisticated here. Big melee bricks. Anti-tank guns. Souped up chariot. After dinner croissant.)

Take and Hold mission on Dawn of War deployment and player placed terrain, mainly Battlefield Debris, except the Ork heads - impassable LOS blockers they be. Tactical secondary objectives all round.

Round One: we're going first

As is normally the way with doubles play, the field kind of split down the middle, with the majority of the Mechanicus forces facing down the Ultramarines on the right, and the Word Bearers squarely in my sights on the left. Crossed wires, maybe? That said, the Mechanicus Ballistari was pointing at me early on, and may even have killed something with its farty little autocannon.

I slung my Wraiths up onto the closest objective, did a Cleanse action (you can take the janitorial constructs out of the tomb, but you can't stop them janiting), and had the Barge nuzzle up to provide support and threaten a Heroic Intervention. Two Wraiths died to Overwatch from the Forgefiend, and one Wraith came back thanks to the Resurrection Orb and Technomancer.

For the Ultramarines' part, two small Marine units ran up to Cleanse and Sabotage the other two objectives, giving us a nice juicy lead on secondary points. Shooting was largely ineffective - mine certainly didn't do anything, the Lokhusts apparently couldn't see the Forgefiend let alone hit it.

The Chaos counter-attack was delightfully aggressive, with the Legionaires nearest the Wraiths disembarking to charge - the objective they held was the Tempting Target for their secondary score - and the others roaring into the centre to claim and Cleanse the objective there. I did clock a bit of a mipslay here: the Rhino should have been doing the Action, a lot of firepower was forfeited and could have gone into clearing off the Infernus Marines and picking up points. As it was their Overwatch warmed some Chaos cockles and that was about it.

As it was, ten Legionaries with a -1 to hit penalty on their shooting (thank you Visage of Death) and no chainswords struggled to do the necessary, downing two Wraiths but not enough to claim the point. My Barge Intervened, as was the plan, but itself got charged by the Rhino - that could have been a nasty Tank Shock if it had shown more than one 5+ on nine dice. The Rhino endured my counterattack on a single wound, and the Wraiths did a lot of sound and fury.

I wasn't really following what happened on the right hand side, but here's the senior partner of Team Crimson Horrors identifying what's holding an objective and needs to die. It didn't.

Round Two: 8 to Us, 2 to Them

The best efforts of the Chaos crew had only dislodged us from one objective of the four we held, so that's a full 15 Victory Points for us. Control of the flanks, but needing to push back in the centre. This was not, unfortunately, what we did.

My mipslay of the day: zooming my Night Scythe on horizontally rather than vertically alongside the Vindicator. These Skorpekhs ended up way too far back and didn't so much as swing a blade in anger. Compounding the error, I could have picked them up at the end of the Fight phase but decided to leave them there "just in case." In case of what? That's 290 points I may as well have spent down the chip shop. The Wraiths and Barge cleared up their objective, and the Night Scythe and Lokhusts picked off both the Chaos Rhinos.

The Sons of Macragge did sterling work in the middle, swearing their Oath of Moment and picking up Overwhelming Force for clearing the middle objective. I believe Deep Striking Terminators were involved. We'd burned Assassinate because Kravek hadn't arrived and the perfidious tech-adepts were hiding behind their Kastelans and tanks, and had Defend Stronghold instead: a nice safe three Victory Points.

Of course, the Chaos crew had their own plans. They also had Marked for Death and Defend Stronghold in their Tactical draw: that meant the Wraiths, the Aggressors and the Vindicator were all worth "big points" if destroyed.

Kravek Morne, on loan from the Iron Warriors apparently, and his brace of spiteful hefty bois teleported in.

The Kastelan Robots advanced around that chunk of wraithbone rubbish, keeping well clear of the Skorpekhs and pointing themselves at the Aggressors.

And the Forgefiend rendered it all moot by opening its yap and demolishing the Vindicator holding our home objective. That's an eight Victory Point swing right there, costing our Defend Stronghold and scoring a full fat Marked for Death.

Round Three: 28 to Us, 17 to Them

Things were starting to fall apart, but we had Recover Assets and A Tempting Target, and a crack at achieving at least one of those. The all-enduring Wraiths stayed where they were to Recover Assets (mipslay horn sounded - they could and should have moved to the back edge to make Kravek's charge longer) while the Barge and Skorpekhs swept around.

Failed charge from the Skorpekhs into the Kastelan Robots - it needed 11", so it was always going to be a long shot - and no Tempting Target this turn. Successful charge from the Command Barge into the Obliterators, figuring I'd rather get one round of striking first in before I got to see what Kravek could do, and one Obliterator died and the other was left on one wound. He would then go on to pass all his Dark Pact checks, and rather unsportingly refuse to sacrifice himself to whichever of the Powers is responsible for Sustained Hits. (I can't complain too much, after some of the saving throws my Wraiths put up.)

The Night Scythe couldn't go anywhere relevant, so it flew over here and tried to pick off the last of the Sicarians who were inconveniencing my colleague on the right flank. It did not achieve this simple goal. 

Time was ticking and I did not, alas, retain reliable imagery of the Chaos turn. Kravek's Obliterators did a Big Guns Never Tire on my Barge, killing it in the shooting phase and scoring Assassinate, and then charged into the Wraiths: they killed one, but not enough to secure Storm Hostile Objective. The nest of Chaos Cultists and Adeptus Mechanicus tanks had done a better job of Defending Stronghold than we had, which put some more points on the board, and the club closed at the bottom of round three...

Final Score: 36 to Us, 35 to Them

That was a good 'un! Plenty of back and forth, clear lessons to learn, and three very nice chaps added to the Lexicon of Friendship. My side of the board took an early lead with that aggressive, high-scoring first turn and proceeded to trickle it away over the next two rounds.

I still haven't quite worked out the tempo for the Night Scythe dropping off its first passengers. I think the power move is to bring it on in turn one, because I can do that and other aircraft cannot, and ensure that I'm blepping the contents onto an objective or into a position where they can threaten an objective. I also think the Skorpekh Lord can afford to lead a smaller unit to avoid locking so many points up in the plane, and treat the big unit as more of a distraction piece.

I am quite impressed with the Command Barge, though. That Destroyer Ankh pushing its Movement and Attacks up, on top of the Strength bonus from Cursed Legion, elevates the Overlord's blade to the kind of numbers where it can really do work, and reliably pop off Cold Fervour so the rest of my melee Necrons get their Strength bonus. The Wraiths continue to be superstars, soaking entirely too much firepower even if it takes them forever to kill anything by themselves.

We're essentially there. I have one more club game, same time next week, and then Molten Crown V the weekend after. I also have a Lokhust, a Scarab base, and fully half my Ophydians that need pinning back together... and it's probably for the best that I paint those Wraiths. They've definitely earned it.