[batrep] Warhammer 40k - Dark Angels vs Necrons 1000pts 8th edition

I had the opportunity to play a game of Necrons vs Dark Angels at home and what a wonderful game it was. I love playing against Fred's Marines as each one is painted to great detail. He's still working on his scouts and it was a debut game for so many of them.

Battlefield and mission

+++ Planet Theaduss-XVI +++
+++ Classification: Barren Deathworld +++
The stern expression on Chapter Master Belaphor Giantshard was unreadable even by his closest friends. The sharp green light of the picter unit drew his face in a contrrast of blackness and green haze that made it all the more difficult to read the thoughts of the seasoned Dark Angel. He flexed his gauntleted fingers over the hilt of his namesake sword, Giantshard was just that, a sharded claymore that had been used since the times when the Legions were lead by the Emperor himself. Even with the blade broken the weapon was still as deadly in the hands of an astartes as when it was forged by the mechanicus of mars. Belaphor now relied on the weight of the millennia since its forging and how that would be just a flicker of time compared to the contents displayed on the picter screen. This world was not the barren landscape it claimed to be after all, for a those dark shapes jutting out of the sandblasted rocks bore the marks belonging to the ancient and alien Necrons.

Suffer not the Xenos to live – Belaphor issued to the gathered senior astartes in his presence – we came to this world seeking absolution from our past, but it seems we must absolve the very planet of theirs.

The Chapter master handed the picter over to Sargent Rachon Oreas, who enhanced the brightness and held out the device so all gathered inside the Rhino transport could see the images therein. The glow now illuminated the darkness within the boxy vehicle. The gothic imagery of the veteran squad could belong to the epicness of a chapel, all astartes within fully armored and robed, carrying each trinkets and relics of battles past. These were no mere warriors but veterans of the chapter gathered here in a secret mission only meant for their senior standings within the chapter.

Brothers – it was Federicho, the chapter champion, that mustered the will to voice everyone's concerns – we must deal with this threat here and now before it escalates. We cannot let the truth of this world be spilled for the imperium at large, and if we cannot contain this threat ourselves we all know that in time the might of the entire imperium will be directed at this forsaken land. We are honor bound to this as the blood of the Lion runs in our veins. What transpires here is our duty alone.

Oreas quickly took charge, putting a final close to the brooding moment – Then let's make haste!

The veteran sergeant tapped a command bead on his gorget and activated wide vox comms to the small vanguard – Novitiates, use the Landspeeder storm and take positions and assess the threat at once! We'll be following you on the command Rhino. Proceed with caution my brothers!
+++ +++

Ruse and lists

The set-up is the a sandblasted rocky desert. Enough Line of Sight Blocking terrain keeps the game interesting and we were playing a modified Open War deck of cards. As the astartes approached the battlefield zone we determined that it would be an objective fight with two objectives and the deployment would be tiered into reinforcement waves.

The Ruse we got was Meeting Battle, meaning that our forces would arrive in small patrols over the course of the match.
The Necron army got divided in the following forces:
  • Deployment: 2 Units of Immortals and an Overlord
  • Turn 2 arrival: Tomb Blades, Triarch Stalker and an Overlord
  • Turn 3 arrival: Cryptek, Immortals and a Scarab
The Dark Angels force would be divided into:
  • Deployment: Scouts and a Liteuneant
  • Turn 2 arrival: Rhino with Veterans, Chapter master, Company Champion and a Landspeeder
  • Turn 3 arrival: More scouts and a Plasma Devastator Squad

Deployment

The Dark Angels chose to begin the match and get initiative priority, so the Necrons got to choose the Battlefield edge and start setting up. Necron forces set-up in a way to easily contest their objective trusting that they could use the outflanking Tomb Blades and Stalker reinforcements to pressure the Dark Angels.


The Dark Angels deploy in a very defensive formation using whatever cover they can get and denying line of fire for the approaching Necron Forces.

Start of the Battle




+++ +++
The wheezing of the Landspeeder engine set the undertone to their hurried advance into the uncharted territory of the desert. The monotonous sound was broken by the random pinpricking of gravel debrie lifted by the sandstorm and hitting the fuselage all around the scout squad. Scout Leader Gakiel was elated by having received direct orders from the chaptermaster and his eyes were focused on the triangulation runes on the auspex scanners in his hands. This could be the mission that would put his name forward to induce the transformation into a full fledged astartes and his heart raced at the tought.

His squad was under direct supervision of Liteuneant Thakar, a seasoned line officer that was much instructor and gatekeeper to promotion. They landed on an undescript rocky patch, seemingly random and empty, but the auspex readings were off the charts and he couldn't be wrong.

We have secured the Xenos artifact, sir. – He communicated through the vox to the Chaptermaster and veterans who would be coming in via Rhino transport – It looks like a control panel of sorts. We are getting thermal pict-reads with our auspex scanners and it looks like it connects to a larger, underground structure, we detect another source of power nearby and...

His words cut by a sharp static whizz that cut through the air in a deafening moment, followed by a loud thunder that shook the very rocks around them. Smoke and fire engulfed their Landspeeder escort and transport, trailing off into the sandstorm and vanishing in a large orange explosion against the dusty haze.

We are under attack! – It was Liteuneant Dramil thunderous voice over the squad vox – Necron Forces of unknown origin, assume that we are surrounded and stranded, your lives end today novitiates, be it by the Emperor's service or because you'll be transformed into Astartes by surviving this!
+++ +++

The Liteuneant directs the sniper scouts on top of a vantage point to cover the Necrons approach. Sandstorms make it difficult for even these well trained initiates to find their marks and the threat is of unkown vector.

They open fire on a unit of Immortals making it across open ground. They manage to fell three enemies but helplessly watch as they reanimate from where they fell, streams of fine sand trailing down from their shoulders as they rise again.



Necron Tomb Blades came in at impossible speeds, tracing impossible flight patterns through the air and seemingly ignoring inertia and the bad weather. Their bright emerald lances open up on Gakiel's squad and flayed armor, skin and bones down to their constituent atoms. The horrific ozone smell of their energy weapons quickly overcome by the stench of fresh death as the squad is reduced but by a single member.

+++ +++
Chapter master! – Gakiel's tone voice crackled over the vox with a concerning expression. Urgency – The console lit up just now, this is not a derelict artifact this thing is active!

Chapter Master Belaphor Giantshard watched the battle from within his command Rhino. Speeding up through the sands to reach his scouts he knew he would not have time to save them. Precious moments would determine if his arrival would be a rescue attempt or a vengeance mission. Dark Angels, however, are nothing if not resolute about their tasks and theirs task today was quickly turning grimm.

Belaphor watched the rune signals of his initiates be surrounded by new red blips of the enemy as they encircled their positions. One by one his scouts runes faded in an instant and the astartes punched the ceramite walls of the transport vehicle screaming for the drivers for more speed. He would still promote initiates on this day, they would triumph over the xenos!
+++ +++


A sudden whirlpool of sand formed to the edges of the battlefield as an unseen underground vault opened and sucked all soil inwards, leaving a black dark shape on the desert floor from where enormous claws emerged as if from a trapper-spider's hole. Ominously ponderous but agile and fast in contrast, the Canoptek Crawler rode quickly to the center of the battlefield charging up the terrible particle beamer atop its carapace.


The two surviving warriors from the Tomb Blades onslaught prepared to meet the same fate of their fallen brothers when the thunderous roar of prometheum fueled engines could be heard through the sandstorm.


Storming out of the Transport Rhino came squad Oreas led by Sargent Rachon Oreas himself, a veteran of countless battles. Leading the charge came Federicho, company champion and chapter master Belaphor Giantshard with his relic namesake blade.

They opened fire using their plasma weapons, but not risking the chance of overcharging their shots: The Necron Bikes where fast enough for a skilled marksman to miss and they could not do so with an overcharged gun. They felled two of the bikes with their volley, a devastating tally, considering their targets.


+++ +++
Vengeance! – Screamed Federicho as he charged through the sands towards the last surviving Xenos. His furious charge taking the first down with a shield bash that sent the pilot reeling to the ground. Federicho gave the Necron no honor nor time crushing his grimacing metallic skull with a heavy stomp of his armored boots. Coming on top of the fallen bike he plunged his power sword into the second, splitting him in half and sending the torso flying in a shower of viridan sparks and alien fluids. The bikes were fast but the Champion was fueled by vengeance and hacked apart at the Necrons with total abandon.
+++ +++

However more Federicho would hack at them, the pilots and their craft seemed to recover and rise again, limbs knitting back together from where they had been severed and the riders climbing on top of their alien steeds once more.


Even in their souless resilience the Necrons must have felt the urgency that the arrival of the veterans brought to the battlefield. A third Immortal squad joined the battle under the command of a Necron Lord as all forces advanced against the newly arrived Space Marines.


Arcing over the Champion at an impossible angle, the Tomb Blades prepared to open fire on the back of their nemesis. The Champion was flayed by a fussiliade of emerald green beams that torn apart layer upon layer of his ceramite armor until it drained the very life from within in choking screams of anger.

The Veterans did not fare better when arcs of blue tesla fire rained on them, cooking the brave warriors within their armor with the terrible technology of the Xenos. The whole squad was lost.



+++ +++
Makkus had seen much horrors as a marine of the Dark Angels, trained by both their chapter tactics and by the adeptus mechanicus of Mars to drive and tend for the war machines of the chapter. Makkus had seen much death and destruction, but the weight of watching his beloved veterans burn alive in front of his eyes was something that stirred new emotions within him. He could feel his co-pilot and gunner Charron felt the same, he had just delivered those warriors to their death, inside his guts, a hot and primal rage festered and erupted over as he drove the vehicle ramming through the remains of his squad in the direction of the enemy.

FIRE AT THE XENOS CHARRON, DELIVER THEM FROM THIS WORLD! – His mission was now simple: the utter annihilation of the enemy, at all costs. He would drive over the Xenos if he had to. The tactical side of his brain would be giving Chapter Master Belaphor a chance at retribution as the xenos attention shifted from him to the tank, but his emotions ran wild in sight of such forlon horror as witnessed.
Belaphor Giantshard saw the opening as the armored vehicle sped past him – The emperor protects – he uttered in a prayer as he activated the power field of his broken sword-shard. The relic blade had been shatered in a previous battle of the chapter and the energy field that resulted from it was chaotic and wild, but under the trained hands of the Chapter Master it could be turned into a weapon of limitless possibilities, striking from impossible angles and taking his opponents by surprize.

The arcing chaotic beams of energy first where wielded as an axe, splitting the first Necron bike in the midsection before the forcefield would cleave the two reamining riders in a circular, whip-like motion that sent gouges of blue lightning away from the warrior. Nothing remained of his enemies after a final circular sweep of his blade created a bladed crescent of energy that burnt the very air around him. As their shattered forms phased away from the battlefield around the Chaptermaster he could feel his breath coming in short pants as a testament to the righteous fury he had delivered, fueled by the vindication of his initiates.
+++ +++

At last, more scout reinforcements arrived on the far side of the battle ambushing an approaching swarm of hungry Scarabs.

The scouts aimed at cutting their path towards the final reinforcements: Two devastator squads emerged from the edges of the Battlefield, dropping out of their drop-pods as the Battle Barge on orbit provided support for their forces. They would lend their fire support for the dwinling Dark Angel forces present.


The ruse of the charging Rhino did little to lure the Necrons in focusing it, instead the Cryptek revealed his Veil of Darkness. The Tesla-wielding Immortals vanished from their position and reappeared behind the Dark Angel lines opening fire at the newly arrived devastator squad and reducing it to two Plasma Gunners and a Sargeant.



+++ +++
Belaphor saw his opponent from across the crater. A green, ragged cloack was an insult to the chapter colors and his emerald alien eyes an afront to the Imperium itself. This Necron was taller than the rest, even the elite Immortal warriors, as they were called, did not have such a gait. He strode across the battlefield with a superiority of a noble warrior, if souless xenos could be said to possess such qualities. It was clear he would be a formidable foe, armed with a long-shafted spear-scythe of a sort, the Xenos right hand also possessed long sharp bladed fingers.

The two measured each other as they moved in, but it was the Astartes who initiated the charge, not having the time nor the will of a proper duel against the xenos, his goal was to simply cleave through the creature.

The Necron Lord sweapt his arms open as he charged and, with lightning quick reflexes transitioned the taunting gesture into a wide one-handed swipe of his Warscythe that caught Belaphor by surprise. Had not he had the momentum he built he would have been cut low across the ankles, but his armoured mass and grim determination enabled the astartes to simply shoulder slam his opponent on the chest.

The creature seemed dazed and, to a degree, dissapointed at the lack of finesse of the astartes warriors, but he was of no mind for games and held his sword in a one-handed stance while he drew his bolt pistol from the mag-lock on his tigh. If the Necron Lord was expecting a noble sparring duel, the chapter master was driven by urgence and rage with a hard pressed bolt-pistol against the xenos forehead.

Belaphor squeezed the trigger as the two warriors collapsed to the sandy ground, the Xenos cranium exploding as a point-blank shot deprived him of any elegance in death.
+++ +++


+++ +++
At the very outset of battle a new voice chimes in the Vox – Chaptermaster, sir, we have received an encrypted message from orbit – It was brother Caphen, a skilled Landspeeder pilot who had trailed after them and only now engaged in battle – Necron forces are converging to this site en masse, it's the whole damn world hungry for your lives brother!

Orders are to prevent the Xenos from securing the artifacts on this sector at all costs – synchronously, every astartes with a helmet overlay could see the red target reticules over two objectives on the battlefield – they are something to do with their communication's or repair ability sir, from the fact they are all coming here it looks like it's the right place to strike! If this intel is right, we could hurt them good here sir!
+++ +++


As if offended by the forlon of his death, the Necron Lord rose again from the mortal injury inflicted upon him by the Chaptermaster. Bolter fired rained on him from the transport Rhino, but every shot only scraped his armor and was of no consequence for the infuriated noble.

+++ +++
Breaking through the sandstorm after dealing with the Necron Lord, Belaphor encountered an even larger Necron, an Overlord. His armor ornate and covered by an emerald green forcefield that made him look somewhat displaced from reality.

Knowing his new opponent would not fall for the same trick, the chaptermaster held the sword Giantshard in a two handed grip and triggered the overload on its force projectors, turning the blade in a large torch that resembled the pilot light of a flamer, but with the power of a caged star and the height of a grown man. That blue fiery blade would be the undoing of the xenos.

From the cliff face behind the Xenos, Belaphor could see the last survivors of a scout squad dragging themselves out of a fight against hordes of scarab constructs. Their faces not of horror but of determination at the sight of their leader. Trailing after them and providing fire support was Caphen's landspeeder that opened fire with it's underslung assault cannon on the Necron Overlord. A hail of heavy caliber bullets scored a dozen hits on the creature, but it's bronze-inlaid arcane armor seemed unscathed, ripples of energy running across the forcefield that displaced it from realspace.

The fussiliade bought Belaphor the time he needed to charge the enemy with a two-handed overhand lunge that could cleave cleanly through any armor. The Necron Overlord skillfully deflected the blow towards his left with his staff, circling it about for a counter-blow that the chaptermaster barely dodged, placing himself between the Xenos leader and what seemed like a power outlet or an antenae of alien design protruding from the ground.

Belaphor glanced towards the incoming scouts and let his voice be enhanced by his helmet's vox caster – Novitiates, place melta-charges on that artifact on a 10 second fuse. I will hold off this Xenos  scum!
+++ +++ 



+++ +++
The chapter master did not look for a confirmation, knowing his orders had been given and would be achieved with the resolve only the Dark Angels could. Against all odds and at the maws of oblivion, they would neutralize this threat. Sudden pain overtook his senses as the energized green head of the alien staff dug deep on his right leg, cutting through the ceramite armor with alien ease and leaving a large bleeding laceration on his thigh that would have crippled a normal warrior.

5 seconds now

Belaphor was not a normal warrior, the blood of the lion coursed through his veins and the steel of the emperor supported his will. Wielding Giantshard one-handed he held the shaft of the alien weapon with his left hand and sheared it away from the wound and pressing the Xenos back from his dive. The weight of the creature was immense, taller and made of an alien metallic alloy, it moved with unnatural speed and dexterity. The Overlord found its footing and swung its staff high overhead and arced downward with both hands where the energized bladed head was blocked by Belaphor's relic blade, an energy blast sending a spherical cloud of sand outwards that would have pierced exposed skin and scratched the paint of the chaptermaster's armour. The pair exchanged a furious set of blows where the space marine found himself on his knees.

2 seconds now

Would the Necron Overlord's golden mask capable of giving out emotion, Belaphor would probabbly have seen his wide open eyes at the realization of what was about to happen. The Xenos let go of the relentless attack and tried to rush towards the relic, but it was too late and the Dark Angel could as well be a mountain on his path, unmovable.

1 second now

The scouts would be already flying away in tow in Caphen's landspeeder. The Melta-charges would destroy whatever it was that the Necrons would value so highly as to bring their entire force on its location. Whatever it was, it would have costed the Dark Angels a mighty toll.

0 seconds
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Dark Angels Victory

+++ Theaduss-XVI post action report +++
Tactical deployment of melta-charge destruction of omega-level critical objective.
Global Xenos retreat triggered via unknown teleport technology
Current threat level: Neutralized
Heavy Astartes Novitiates casualties
Heavy Astartes Veteran Casualties
Chapter-master status: Interned in Dreadnought armor
Relic Blade: Recovered
Theaduss-XVI: Exterminatus
+++ +++

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