#22: Second Strike Game 2 - Khorne's Concrete Boots

My second game put me up against the only other 20-0 player from round one, one of about eight chaos players. Speaking of which, the spread of armies attending was weirdly uncharacteristic. While there was an abundance of Chaos, there was only a single Eldar player, only two necron players (one of which is myself) and no Tau. 

Here is what I was facing down against. 

Chaos Terminator Lord with Mark of Khorne

20 Nurgle Cultists

10 Chaos Marines with Mark of Khorne, a flamer, a power fist and a plasma pistol

Rhino

Forge fiend with 3 Ectoplasm cannons

The biggest concern for me in the opening turns would be surviving the Strength 8 barrage of plasma from the Fiend. Hopefully, I could draw some heat on it with my overloaded amount of Guass! The only other thing of note from this game is that my opponent, being a little inexperienced, wasn't aware that Marks were mutually exclusive within units, and deployed his Khorne lord with his Nurgle cultists. By the time It clicked in my brain, it was the end of turn four and so I didn't bring it up until after the game, and from his reaction, it was a genuine mistake. I say this purely because I know that one of you, dear readers, will put two and two together while reading and raise the question. 

Scenario! Ok, so this scenario was the classic "table quarters" take and hold-style game, with any given unit only able to hold a single table quarter, even if they are spread out over two or more. This leant to a more aggressive playstyle, having to push my opponents units out of each quarter and then staunchly defending it against attempts to recapture. 

I deployed heavily upon my far-right side, preparing to scramble in order to bring down the forge fiend. My Tomb Blades, being by far the fastest unit in my army, would be given the role of drawing elements of my opponents army away from the bulk of my force, and I was confident that due to being jetbikes and having decent guns, that they would really shine in this match. 

The game began with Chaos pushing hard down the left side of the board, with his rhino moving up as far as it could without exposing its side armour to my Stalker. The mob of cultists marched toward the ruins in the centre of the two-tone board, being aware that cover would be one of the only saves he was going to get. 

I braced myself for the Forge Fiend's onslaught, but despite killing a handful of warriors, it was largely disappointing for my opponent, with one cannon overheating and stripping off a valuable Hull Point.

My turn consisted mostly of movement. My Blades slid smoothly out from behind the ruins and opened fire upon the Rhino, tearing two hull points off, but failing to halt it. I managed to also sneak a crafty shot between two buildings with my Heavy Destroyer (right of picture) on the Forge Fiend, penetrating it and Stunning the mechanical monstrosity. He rolled a one for his Daemonic Possesion, and the hit stuck, leaving him on a single hull point and more importantly, forced to Snap Shot. It offered me a whole turn of sweet reprieve from the crushing salvos that the Fiend could dish out. 

The crazed chaos marines continued to barrel across the board toward my Blades. One of my blades was felled by the Chaos Lord's carefully aimed combi-bolter while his crippled Fiend back-pedalled into the safety of nearby ruins. 

In my turn, the Blades shifted right into the corner. This left my opponent with a difficult choice. To claim a major victory, you had to claim three table quarters. If he ignored my Blades, that was a quarter firmly in my hands (given, of course, that I could clear the midfield). If he committed a unit (presumably the mechanised marines) to seek them out and kill them, he would have to come all the way to the corner to do so, wasting valuable game turns and resources trying to catch a unit that could quite easily boost away to another quarter in a heartbeat, relocating to another, uncontested table quarter. 

It was a basic ploy, but it payed off. My warriors moved into rapid fire range of his cultist blob, and my destroyers moves into such a position that gave them some clean shots at the wounded fiend, while still benefiting from the Stalker's targeting array. 

This turn, I dropped the hammer upon my foes. The warriors killed six cultists who were sulking within the ruins, while the Stalker's Heat Ray used its heavy flamer mode to kill another five. The Tomb blades administered the final blow to the rhino, forcing the rage-fuelled marines inside to pile out toward my warlord and his retinue. To round out the turn, the Destroyers unleashed hell upon the Forgefiend, which erupted in an eldritch explosion. 

Then came "that moment" that comes in every game where events swing deliberately in one player's direction. Declaring a charge on my stalker with the Lord and his cultists, and likewise against my warriors with his marines, I prepared to overwatch. The dispersed Heat Ray slew the three closest cultists, and Illuminor and his warriors mowed down five marines. To add absolute insult to crippling injury, he failed a four inch charge with his cultists and a five inch charge with his marines. Khorne would be ashamed. Talk about the dice going against you... 

In what I was expecting to be the end game, and showing uncharacteristic presence of mind, I shifted my destroyers wholly within the far right table quarter, but still maintaining a view of the doomed marines. The warriors marched forward to maximise their rate of fire, while the stalker skittered into the far quarter, preparing to roast some more cultists or perhaps take a shot at his lord. The Tomb blades remained where they were, prioritising the objective over unnecessary bravado. I fired off a handful of shots at the cultist unit, but to no avail, thanks to some cleverly located terminator armour. The two surviving marines met a predictably bloody end in the face of unrelenting fire power, and the stalker's flamer weapon claimed another two lives. 

In a final gambit, my opponent charged out of the building and entered combat with my towering machine. While I managed to squish two crazed heretics, it was not enough to stop the lord raising his cumbersome power fist and wrecking my walker in one brutal blow. 

Though a satisfying kill, my opponent was in no better situation. The last moments of the game saw both warriors and destroyers unleash wave upon wave of crackling death upon the hapless lord whose terminator armour held off all but the Heavy Destroyers carefully aimed shot, striking him dead instantly. 

I had a good conversation with my opponent afterward, and explained the mutually exclusive nature of marks. He sounded genuinely surprised, and it was unfortunate because with that in mind, he really had nowhere to put the lord. If he joined the Khorne marines, they would not fit in the rhino, and his army would fail to operate as he intended. I honestly can't say how his games (or his unfortunately-marked lord) faired going forward, but i hope he wasn't too disheartened by this new revelation about his army. 

This game once again displayed the synergy that makes necrons so powerful! My destroyers were invaluable in bringing priority targets to their knees, and the Tomb Blades showed off not only their speed and agility, but their flexibility in battlefield roles. Both priceless units in this tournament!

Having secured another 20-0 win, this put me well and truly on top of the leaderboard, having slain his warlord and wiping him out completely to claim secondary and tertiary objectives. And with such a tumultuous first two games, I genuinely did not know what to expect in my third game of the day. 

Thanks for reading!

Gabriel