Two 1500 games vs Necron (one with transcendent c'tan)

My list for both Cleanse and Control games:

Unit 1: Archon with WWP, Haywire Grenades, and Archangel of Pain
         Fire Dragons x5, one upgraded to exarch with fast shot
         Raider (empty fast attack slot)

Unit 2: Kabalite Warriors x5 with blaster
         Venom with 2 cannons

Unit 3: Kabalite Warriors x5 with blaster
         Venom with 2 cannons

Unit 4: Venom with 2 cannons (bought from the archon selection)

Unit 5: Venom with 2 cannons (empty fast attack slot)

Unit 6: Scourges x5 with 4 haywire blasters

Unit 7: Scourges x5 with 4 haywire blasters

Unit 8: Razorwing Jetfighter

Unit 9: Razorwing Jetfighter

Unit 10: Autarch on jetbike
          Windrider Jetbikes x3

Unit 11: Crimson Skyhunter Exarch


Game 1: Opponent had 2 special characters (one allowing them to deepstrike while on the table and the other died too quickly to find out what he did) with a court of 4 lords wielding warscythes and all having everliving.  He also had two big blobs of necron warriors (one in a ghost ark), two units of scarabs, an annihilation barge (i think?), and a doom scythe.  With Tau allies, he brought a huge blob of fire warriors with a cadre fireblade.

Opponent deployed first along the whole table and I made sure everything was outside of 36" so even if he moved forward he couldn't hit me.  I also clumped up on one side opposite the firewarriors, his HQ unit, and a unit of scarabs so they wouldn't affect anything for a couple turns.

Turn 1 Necron: He moved forward with everything and revealed some objectives but that's about all he was able to do.  He did deepstrike his big HQ unit right in front of my deployed forces hemming me in a good bit.

Turn 1 DE: I decide not to scatter away and try to wipe out his hq unit with concentrated firepower from everything but the scourges who I move into position to knock out the annihilation barge.  The pic below shows the end of my movement phase.  I did leave one venom a bit uncomfortably forward to capture the objective for one of my cards.  My shooting knocks down everyone in the court except his warlord who has 2 wounds left after the smoke clears.  My scourges whiff and only get 2 hullpoints on the barge thanks to missing with 3 shots and rolling several more 1's on the pen roll but he is jinked.  My eldar bikes make a pathetic jump back a few inches in the assault phase but everyone in the court gets back up except the second special character that is a mystery to me.



Turn 2 Necron: My warlord traits prevents his doom scythe from coming in and he takes the scarabs on the far left to a distant objective since they had little other purpose being so far out. His snapshooting barge manages two 6's on my scourges and wipes out most of one unit. The scarabs on the right (hiding behind a building in the pic) make a longish charge into my forward venom and his court makes a 9 or 10 inch charge into my bikes that hadn't been able to make a better jump move.  The combat is a massacre and although the autarch braved the mindshackle scarabs and survived he hastily exited the battlefield to abandon his so-called brothers.

Turn 2 DE: I make all my reserve rolls even without the autarch.  I drop my raider behind his ghost ark and set my jets up to knock out the big blobs with missiles and disintegrators.  My venoms and warriors dedicate their shooting to the 5 scarab swarms that wrecked my venom and getting a few wounds on his court again.  The fire dragons destroy the ghost ark and the archangel kills 4 or 5 warriors from the two squads.  One razorwing wipes out the warrior blob that wasn't in the ghost ark, the other kills most of the fire warrior blob (forcing them to flee), and the crimson skyhunter shoots down a few of the distant scarabs since my scourges finished off the barge.  The raider also shoots across the field into his court and knocks off a wound from his hq but two of his court get back up.



Turn 3 Necron: Fire warriors fail to regroup and run off to safety.  His doom scythe shows up and finishes the one lonely scourge as well as killing 4 from the other unit.  His warriors that were in the ghost ark failed the pin test when the transport died so they were unable to threaten the raider.  His few remaining scarabs huddle into terrain off in the middle of nowhere as he's trying to avoid a tabling at this point.  He doesn't charge the scourge with his court because he wants them to stay locked in combat so he attempts a long multi charge at my disembarked warriors and a venom but fails.

Turn 3 DE:  My Crimson Skyhunter knocks 2 hullpoints off his doom scythe.  My razorwings crisscross and one kills the remaining warriors in the back corner while the other kills one or two more scarabs.  My venoms and warriors shoot down and kill his entire hq unit but every single one gets back up.

Turn 4 Necron: It is announced this will be the last turn and I'm in a bad spot because my maelstrom card draws have been terrible so I have to table him to win.  He moves his doomscythe safely behind my skyhunter and attempts another long charge into my warriors and venom but fails again because I kept moving back to keep him out of a good range.

Turn 4 DE:  I move my raider as close as I can to his doom scythe while still controlling the skyfire objective his warriors had held.  They're outside of melta range but still pull off the killing shots needed.  My skyhunter finishes the last scarab hiding on the far table edge from the action.  My jetfighters both fly off because they can't do anything else.  I push forward with all my venoms and warriors and disembark them.  It takes the shooting from all 3 venoms to put his squad down again, then I run my two warriors squads around to cover as much of his area as possible.  I thought there was just one token placed for the whole unit's res location but he insisted each model had its own spot because of everliving so I couldn't cover all of them.  Game came down to one single reanimation protocol roll on a 4+ for one of the lords and he failed it.

Closing Thoughts:  That damn court was incredibly difficult to keep down.  I wasn't having much trouble wiping out his army, but I was getting terrible draws on the objective cards which hurt me score-wise.  Usually I rack up points at excessive levels. I don't like my 1500 list because too much of my stuff feels barebones.  I like what my scourges did, but I can definitely tell I shouldn't count on one unit wiping out a vehicle so I should keep them at max range as best I can and keep them close to support each other if one fails a vital kill.

Game 2: Opponent had a Transcendent C'Tan, doomscythe, 6 immortals, 3 destroyers, and a small warrior squad with what I think was a standard overlord wielding mindshackle scarabs.  Ended up playing on the same table again (not by my choice) so terrain will look similar.

Hammer and Anvil deployment this time, and he placed everything pretty far forward on the edge since he won first deployment roll (although I would have gone second anyway).  My scourges will be dedicated objective grabbers because his only armor value is a flyer.  I place everything along my back edge or huddled along a wall out of sight to dodge the 48" threat range of his c'tan.  I end up winning the seize the initiative roll.

Turn 1 DE: I jump my squad of venoms up the minimum to engage his destroyers and score an easy first blood.  I also sacrifice one unit of scourges to grab an objective in the middle of the field for a quick point.  The rest hangs back to let the turn numbers accumulate and get my flyers in before I engage the c'tan.

Turn 1 Necron:  He flames the scourges but 2 survive and flee away to later regroup.  His other weapon obliterates one of my venoms that had to fire at the destroyers and was unable to flat out back out of range.

Turn 2 DE:  One razorwing fails to show up.  Since I'm already going to end the tournament in 1st place win or lose, I decide to start playing more recklessly and drop my raider right between all of his units and open the archangel.  It kills most of the immortals and a couple warriors but does nothing to the c'tan.  The fire dragons pull of a wound, the crimson skyhunter does 1, as does the jetbike squad, and the venoms do one more taking him down to 2 wounds remaining.  The razorwing fired 4 necrotoxin missiles at him but they all missed.

Turn 2 Necron:  The c'tan moves up to the objective in the middle and can't roast my fire dragon squad because the template would cover his units too.  The warriors and immortals that got back up aren't able to knock out the raider itself though so his c'tan does it with the 6d6 weapon.  His doomscythe also shows up and manages to down my jetfighter.  The pic is after his movement but before shooting I believe.



Turn 3 DE: Other jetfighter fails to show up again.  Firedragons and jetbikes fail to get a wound on the c'tan.  All 3 venoms manage to get one wound on him so he's down to his last.  Skyhunter puts 2 hullpoints on his doom scythe and the scourges miss with their shots.

Turn 3 Necron:  C'tan moves over to another objective in the midfield and shoots down my skyhunter.  The doomscythe fails to damage the venoms but the immortals shoot into and kill a lot of the fire dragons while the hq and warrior unit charge the few survivors.  Archon kills himself and the 1 remaining fire dragon after the combat flees for greener pastures.

Turn 4 DE:  Jetfighter finally shows up and wipes out the immortals.  Scourges force a jink on the doomscythe and the venoms finally finish off the c'tan allowing the jetbikes to boost across and claim the objective he was on.



Turn 4 Necron:  Remaining warriors and hq try to find cover and the doom scythe just tries to stay on the board to avoid a tabling.

Turn 5: DE:  Scourges all miss the doom scythe.  Jetbikes can't get in range to shoot so go for linebreaker.  Venoms kill the warriors but only get the hq down to 1 wound.

Turn 5 Necron:  Hq stays on the objective in cover, doomscythe still scrambling to stay on the board.

Turn 6: DE:  I finally get 3 pen rolls on the doom scythe and he saves all 3 with jink.  HQ takes some 18 wounds and dies spectacularly.

Turn 6 Necron:  Doomscythe keeps spinning around and the game ends leaving one doomscythe with 1 hull point as his sole model.

The results of the game are a bit in the air.  I believed the escalation rules were still in effect for getting a victory point when you deal 3 wounds to a gargantuan creature, but several of the players are claiming those rules are no longer part of the game with 7th edition.  I'm a bit skeptical of that, but let him have it anyway since it didn't matter if I won the game for standings since I still took first place in the tournament.  If anyone knows anything about how to use escalation rules now, then please reply for next time.  He brings the c'tan in every game over 1250, so I know I'll see it plenty of more times.

Conclusion:  The scourges were pretty ineffective in this game too, but I still consider it a small tax to pay for ease of mind against vehicles.  I like the blasters option, but even the 18" range makes it harder for them to fit in with most of my army playing the long range and mobility game to reduce damage by staying out of range and los.  They also cost more with blasters.  Again, I prefer 1750 or 1850 games to get more toys.  I especially missed my deepstriking medusae unit to complement my deepstriking fire dragons.  It was a fun tournament though and this was actually the first game I've lost with dark eldar in their last 12ish matches (and I still want to double check on the escalation rules) so I'm still quite happy with their rules.  I think these two games had my worst luck with maelstrom cards, but even ignoring them I was pretty well able to dominate the battlefield.