[After Action Report] A Jolly Day Out for the Aristocracy | Eleventh Edition | Strike Force | Necrons vs. Ultramarines

Ultramarines. Loathe 'em or hate 'em, you can't ignore 'em. The "Space Marines, but better" option has long been a hard-to-reach pimple in a difficult crevice, whether it's Matt the Kraken gleefully chunking two Redemptor Dreadnoughts down my gob or Spike's Land Raider driving over the smoking giblets that used to be the Void Dragon.

This week's Bestest Boi in Blue Battle Booties was Sean, my previous doubles associate, running Blades of Ultramar, i.e. Gladius Task Force, but better. I was field testing the new Hand of the Dynasty detachment, underwriting my old flame Obeisance Phalanx with solid, reliable objective play instead of the Disruption jiggery-pokery it's been saddled with for some reason.

This 2000 point bundle of fun is a return to some of my old standbys, but with an Overlord for every infantry unit and the newly ennobled Catacomb Command Barge flying around beside. The triumphant return of the Monolith is down to Phalanx offering a little protection for vehicles, and also the opportunity to work the primary objective a little. See, those Warriors can Scout move, which means I can body them onto my expansion objective turn one, Secure it with the new strategem, and then pull them back into the centre where their staying power will be more useful. The Immortals can Secure my home objective and then trot off to do as they please elsewhere. 

It also features the extremely stealthy and totally real second Doomsday Ark, a model which I do not in fact own. I was counting on losing the first Doomsday Ark by round three so I could bring another on from reserve. This would also force me to play the Ark aggressively rather than park it in a corner and have it uselessly do donuts as the last Necron unit with any battlefield presence.

Step one going very well, as my Warriors move out and seize control of the right flank. The left, I confess, I'd decided to refuse, especially after Sean's Aggressors went down over there.

Step two, suboptimal - I had a Shroud Overlord leading my Immortals and a Scythe Overlord leading the Lychguard, and I should probably have those the other way around since the Lychguard only just made it onto the left of centre objective.

Step three, keep the Monolith alive long enough to move anything around. Parking it at the back, safe behind the fog of war, and then bullying it forward once the infantry were staged and I knew where the threats were, was going to really pay off. Sean elected to treat the Monolith like a Knight - ignoring it and trying to score in places where it wasn't - and I'm very grateful to him for that, as the big pyramid-shaped deathbox did sterling work here.

This Triarch Stalker overextended somewhat, making optimistic attempts on the life of the Redemptor Dreadnought, thwarted by ice-cold rolls to wound. Its counterpart on the other flank was an absolute trooper though - with the -1 damage stratagem available to Obeisance Phalanx on its side, it managed to hold up six Terminators, three Aggressors and an Apothecary Biologis for two turns, and deal with the most unnecessary amount of guns ever packed into a single mobile breeze block...

A Repulsor Executioner, and ten Intercessors just for fun. These put out an inordinate amount of shots, which forced my Lychguard and Immortals to tap out their Resurrection Orbs early on, and kept the Immortals functionally out of the game as they needed to hide in the corner, get over their Battleshock, and slowly reanimate models. The Orbs were dynamite in this game, nursing damaged units through the firestorm. Neither of my detachments has a "reanimate out of sequence" stratagem but Obeisance doesn't need one - the strong incentive to field an Overlord in every infantry unit ensures you have the Orbs on standby to do the same job.

Bottom of the second round, my Immortals are dead, I've lost a Stalker, my Warriors are way out of position and I have Assault Terminators and Vanguard Veterans in my deployment zone. My secondary objectives are Defend Stronghold (currently held by a "sticky" token from the Immortals before their death experience), Assassination (Calgar and his Eradicator mates behind Sean's home objective, an Apothecary and Terminator Captain on the far left, or the Chaplain who's landed behind me), and Bring It Down (I've taken chunks out of El Redempto on the right and the Repulsor in the middle but my Doomsday Ark can't see either of them).

What followed was the absolutely textbook "go turn" I'd envisaged for this army, missing only a Lychguard charge (because Sean scooted his Helblasters back off the central objective rather than score one VP and then perish).

The Monolith drifted left, picked up the Warriors with its Eternity Gate and casually emitted them onto my home objective, securing at least some points for Defend Stronghold, then blasted nine out of ten Intercessors into the middle of next week and killed a brace of Assault Terminators to boot. The second Doomsday Ark arrived on the right and blew up El Redempto, while the first nosed through Sean's home objective, killed the Eradicators and took out the last cowering Helblaster. Finally, and most spectacularly, the Triarch Stalker popped off, destroying the Repulsor Executioner and charging the last Intercessor to polish him off as well.

All of that left me in good stead for the final, unphotographed round of the game. Sean gave a solid counterpunch, torching the foremost Doomsday Ark with his two Infernus Marine squads and eventually tackling the Stalker with his very last attack (the Apothecary Biologis removing its robo-nards for later analysis). His Vanguard Veterans made an opportunistic run for my Command Barge, but scratching the paintwork only annoyed the Warlord on top, who chopped three of them up before scooting away to perform vital Cleanse duties on the recently vacated objective ahead of him. The last Ultramarines reinforcements, a unit of Inceptors, dropped in on the centre right objective to do their own Cleansing and pull Sean's primary score up for a round, but it was too little too late.

Drifting the Monolith back into the centre let me pick up the Vanguard Veterans (with the particle whip) and the Inceptors (with death rays). Another Doomsday Cannon blast sank seven shots into Calgar and very efficiently removed him from play. Another good round of secondary scoring (Assassinate, Secure No Man's Land and a big Cleanse) put me well ahead on points when last orders was called, and thus -

69 - 52 Victory for the Necrons!

I really enjoyed this one. Sean's a great guy, with a lovely looking modern force that has a lot of solid plays going for it. It wasn't completely one-sided, as I did lose my Immortals, both Stalkers and a Doomsday Ark getting to where I got, but it was a strong game for me too - the right tools in the right places. 

I genuinely think Obeisance Phalanx is back. Any of the single point detachments pair well with it for Strike Force Matched Play, giving it a better set of primary objectives than the fussy Disruption. Take and Hold with infantry bricks, like I tried this time, or Recon with the fast and shooty Tomb Blades and Lokhust Destroyers, or fast and dangerous architectural features doing Priority Assets in Phaeron's Armoury.  Phalanx has the resilience and the stratagem economy it takes to pull off any of those dispositions, and those detachments all boost units that complement the restricted palate available to the discerning Overlord. 

In Narrative Incursion, the other use to which I'm putting my Necrons at the moment, disposition doesn't matter, and Phalanx is free to pursue its worthy opponents and dispatch them with honour, according to the protocols.

Further testing is of course required, but I'm very optimistic.