Games with my BA so far

I finally got to play a couple of games with my DoA BA list this week after months of collecting and painting (months to paint 15 models that is...). I must say that it is generally a very convenient army to carry around and use on the tabletop and since you don't do much in the first 3 player round and then you only have to move a round a few models, games are pretty quick. I am happy with how the army plays as well but the real test will be this Saturday when I am going to use them for a mini tournament.

Last week we got a challenge (me and my mate Stefanos AKA Lakaidemon from the Imperial Seals guild who is a regular opponent against my IG) from our Necron playing friend (i.e. children of a lesser god) Talos and DIY. We accepted of course and pitted against them in a 3500 point battle with 2 FOC armies on each side. We played on a normal sized table and we rolled for a normal mission from the book (although I am not sure how balanced the whole thing was but it sounded like fun). Here are some pics (courtesy of Rothinzil) for your viewing pleasure:

The can of Coke is strategically placed on the frame in order to balanced the red of the Razorback.

One thing I can say about this battle is that we weren't thinking much (at least for our side). The plan was to stick my guys behind Stefano's vehicles so they would remain out of LoS but in the end I kept everything in reserve. Derp! We didn't get to play much (only four turns) and the game ended in a draw. Didn't really learn much from the game but still it was good fun. I just remember my Vanguard totally botching their charge and losing the battle to 3 destroyers. Go figure...

Today I got to play another game against DIY's Necrons. He was using the Deceiver, Lord with Veil of Darkness, 8 Immortals, 2 x 10 Warriors, 3 x 3 Destroyers and a Monolith (this is the legendary Talo's winning list). We played on a board with loads of terrain and we rolled for Kill Points in a Dawn of War setup.

Labros (DIY's real name) won the dice roll but he,unfortunatel,(for him!) let me go first. This was a obviously a huge mistake since this gave the the chance to deployed my 2 Assault Squads 24'' from my table edge along with the Honour Guard. That proves once more how awesome the HG is since you can start them on the table on DoW thus giving your troops a FnP bubble from the start. He opted to walk everything from his table edge.

I moved my guys forward and also run them. Just made sure I was around 13'' from his table edge so that the Deceiver couldn't charge them. In retrospect I could have holded them a little bit further away to avoid some of the shooting.  Rest of my guys would be arriving via Deep Strike. He moved the Deceiver and the Monolith fairly central (across my stuff) with the Lord + Immortals flanking his left and the Warriors flanking on the right. The Destroyers arrived on the far left of the table. Fortunately the Monolith's blast scattered (I didn't spread the models out too much so everyone could benefit from FnP) and I avoided most of it (though 2 guys from the Honour Guard died) and the rest of the shooting didn't do much (either not close enough for Nightfight and I also passed most of my armour and FnP saves). 

In my second turn everything but the Sanguinary Guard (and the Priest attached) arrived. One Vanguard squad deep striked close to the Warriors on the far right of the board and the other one inside area terrain (thank goodness I got those 3++ saves from the Storm Shields since I rolled two "1"s for the dangerous terrain test) to charge the Immortals. The other priest landed on the right side to give Furious Charge to the Vanguard squad and the assault squad. The latter charged on the warriors and cut them down in brutal combat. The other assault squad charged the Immortals together with the Vanguard and cut them down to a man with the Lord dying in the sweeping advance. Amusingly the other Vanguard squad (the painted one) botched the assault again and didn't manage to kill anythin!. To add insult to injury, the Necron Warriors killed the Power Fist guy so I lost combat by one but still stayed in Combat.

In his following turn, Labros took the remaining warriors from close combat with his Monolith and placed them in relative safety. His shooting was more effective this time and managed to finish off the Honour Guard ( I think he really started to hate the Sanguinary Novitiate at that point) and cause a few casualties amongst the other squads. He also charged the Deceiver on the assault squad on the left killing only one though (failed 4 to hit rolls). 

The Sanguinary Guard arrived close to the Destoyer units and killed two with their melta pistols and the rest of my units moved towards his remaining Warrior unit. A brutal charge by 2 units of Vanguard and a depleted (but still strong) assault squad meant that these 'Crons wouldn't be coming back. At the beginning of his next turn he failed two bring these 2 Destroyers back so he phased out (as I had jokingly predicted).

I guess I should be happy with how my little dudes performed but then again Labros never faced this type of army before so he was taken by surprise if nothing else. Mainly, giving me the first turn was a grave error and what cost him the game. Necrons have huge difficulties against jumper BA lists since they got no sacrificial units to bubble wrap their important stuff with. It is an uneven match I think but then again what army can Necrons fair against well? The real test would be on Saturday anyway.

I would also like to thank Labros for his generous gift (the 40K markets set) which is going to be extremely useful since I tend to forget things while playing. Cheers mate!