Totengräber's Workpläce

Fred acquired a bunch of Necrons from a friend and has been wanting to learn the game. He asked me on Saturday to teach him. Well, having not played in a long time myself, we got a lot of help from folks in the store last night. Dave, Mike and Jeff were quite helpful with many of the rules I’d forgotten and didn’t want to take the time to look up, which kept the game going and hopefully, Fred learning.

Since I had no idea exactly how many models Fred had, I estimated he’d have 20 or so Warriors, 3 Destroyers, 3 or so Scarab Swarms and the Lord. Turns out he has 70+ Warriors and probably 10+ Scarab Swarms. It also turns out he has a Necron Destroyer Lord as well. In either case, I thought an 800 point game would work well for learning the game and for me to learn the new Tyranid codex, not to mention 800 points is just below what I have painted.

Here’s the list Fred ran:

• Necron Lord (War Scythe, Resurrection Orb, Veil of Darkness)
• Necron Warriors x11
• Necron Warriors x11
• Scarab Swarms x3
• Necron Destroyers x3

I ran:

• Hive Tyrant (Stranglethron Cannon, Bone Sword, Lash Whip, Armored Shell, Paroxysm, Leech Essence)
• Carnifex (Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs, Bio-Plasma)
• Tyranid Warriors x3 (Deathspitters, Venom Cannon)
• Tyranid Warriors x3 (Deathspitters, Barbed Strangler)
• Genestealers x8 (Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs)
• Termagants x20

We played the Capture and Control scenario with Pitched Battle deployment. I won the roll and decided to deploy and go first.

In the first turn or two, my shooting did pretty much nothing. His Scarab Swarms ended up assaulting the Termagants and the Gaunts won combat a few times until the little buggers were finally gone. None of my shooting managed to do anything until the later turns and his “We’ll Be Back!” rule kept whatever I did wound on the table. His destroyers nearly wiped out a unit of Tyranid Warriors and the Carnifex didn’t get into combat until much later. The Genestealers, which I’d forgotten about until probably the third or fourth turn showed up on the table edge nearest his Necron Warriors squad who’d just been Veiled there by the Lord. The Genestealers ended up wiping the unit and the Lord with them. The following turn the Carnifex finally assaulted a Warrior unit, destroying it and then we called the game since all he had left were the three Destroyers and so would Phase Out anyway.

It was a really good game and even though Fred lost, he’s still interested in playing again and at a higher point value. I lent him my 40K book to read up on the rules and he gave me some models to take home and repair for him. I finished what I could of the Destroyers this morning and started working on some Scarab bases. Some bits will need to be ordered to get everything where it needs to be, but that shouldn’t take too much money or time.