The main tower was protected by a Void Shield (free strategem for the mission). This was also boosted by a Power Generator (reroll failed wounds) and was Sacred Ground (granted the Fearless USR to closest friendly unit). Atop the central tower was also a Communications Array in assisting with the reserve rolls which for the Defender were at a -2 modifier.
My army was split into two halves. All things equal but one half had The Deceiver and the other half had all the Destroyers. My opponent chose The Deceiver half.
I deployed 5 Scarab Swarms in one tower, 10 Warriors in the other. And a Lord with 13 Warriors in the main objective. To the left was placed a Monolith with The Deceiver behind it. You can see a Flayed One on the hill at the bottom, this was the Ground Observer (reroll Deep Strike scatter) for the attacking Necrons.
TURN 1 ATTACKER
The Firestorm wrecks the tower containing the Scarabs (which also destroys the Missile Silo). A Monolith, Warriors, the two Destroyer and Scarab units, and the Silver Surfer Lord with Wraiths arrive. The Monolith scatters back despite the Ground Observer and takes a hit from my automated lascannon but is not damaged. The enemy Warriors run triggering my Mine Field and a few are blown apart. The attacking Necron's shooting Shakes the tower but little else is done.
TURN 1 DEFENDER
Despite the reroll on reserves I only get two things. The Destroyer Lord and the Heavy Destroyers (who remove the Ground Observer). All fire is concentrated on the unit of attacking Warriors killing all but 1.
A single destroyer attempts to snipe the last Warrior preventing them from making any We'll Be Back rolls but rolls a 1 to hit.
TURN 2 ATTACKER
Only 2 Warriors stand back up so the failure of the Heavy Destoyers isn't all that bad. The rest of the Army of Darkness arrives except a Lord leading 4 Pariahs and a pair of Tomb Spiders. Shooting Shakes the other tower again while the Silver Surfer trys to carve his way into the main objective with his WarScythe to no avail.
The Nightbringer deep strikes behind the Indomitable Fortress. What's he up too? (Off camera there is also a Monolith and unit of Warriors who have also deep struck.)
Scarab Swarms attack my Heavy Destroyers and kill one for no wounds in return. Morale is failed and my Heavy Destroyers flee off the table. A failure of epic proportions...
TURN 2 DEFENDER
Reserve rolls are much better. A Monolith, Warriors and my 5 Destroyers appear behind the enemy.
A Warrior squad of mine also arrives and walks on behind the enemy Monolith and shoots down a few enemy Warriors while my Destroyer Lord assaults and chops down a few with his WarScythe but the enemy Necrons hold on.
Concentrated fire kills more enemy Warriors which forces them to flee, leaving the fallen Warriors unable to make any We'll Be Back rolls. My Destroyers assault the fleeing enemy Warriors to hopefully avoid being shot next turn and knock another one down. The Deceiver assaults a unit of 3 Destroyers but only kills 2.
The fire power unleashed from the main tower destroyers all enemy Wraiths but the Silver Surfer passes morale and brings the central tower tumbling down in the assault phase!
TURN 3 ATTACKER
Necron Lord with Pariahs Deep Strike down and avoid a mishap by 1" from my Destoyer Lord. While the Warriors my Destroyer Lord was in combat with are teleported to safety through the nearby Monolith as well as the single Destroyer that was still engaged with The Deceiver.
The Army of the Nightbringer plays it's hand with Darken the Skies. This makes it Night Fight rules for a turn and also gives all my units -1LD. This combined with the Pariah's Soulless ability means any unit within 12" of them is now a LD6 for the turn. The enemy Lord then uses the Nightmare Shroud to force my Destroyer Lord and a unit of Necrons to take a morale check on LD6 or flee! My Warriors roll a 6 and the Destroyer Lord rolls a 3. This is huge.
Out front, concentrated fire downs a few of my Necrons who were guarding the recently ruined objective. They are assaulted by Scarabs and the Silver Surfer who drops the ball and flees combat leaving the Scarabs to tie me up. meanwhile the Nightbringer assaults the remaining tower and despite penetrating it 5 times cannot roll anything over a 3 on any of the damage results. This bit of the fortress is truly indomitable.
TURN 3 DEFENDER
It should be noted that the Minefield and Night Fight didn't really do anything significant from here on out.
I teleport the Destoyers out of the combat with the few remaining enemy Warriors and along with a unit of my own Warriors (who rolled the big 6 on morale) shoot down the Pariahs and Lord with the Nightmare Shroud.
The Nightbringer finally explodes the final tower. The Deceiver points (as he does)... "There you are!" after wrecking a Tomb Spider. At this point we remove the Necron fortress and replace it with building ruins and craters...
TURN 4 ATTACKER
The Deceiver is shot in the back and wounded twice by the 5 remaining enemy Warriors.
The Nightbringer assaults and crushes a unit of my Warriors running them down in combat and consolidating onto the main objective which is only contested by a unit of my Scarabs (don't think they can actually hold an objective). In the background you may notice the Nightmare Lord has come back to life, assaulted a unit of 12 Warriors and routed them in a single phase... yes I lost 22 Warriors in one turn. You can also partially see a Tomb Spider smashing one of my Destroyers on the right but they live to teleport out.
TURN 4 DEFENDER
Out front there were various melees and teleportations too numerous to list and even more things shot by Gauss Flux Arcs as has happened for the last few turns. A single Scarab base with 1 wound left is still tying up my large unit of Necrons led by my Lord.
Defying the odds of still being alive (functional)... my Destroyer Lord continues to harass the enemy Warriors chopping down three! Things are looking dire for the Army of the Nightbringer.
THE FINAL ACT
The Deceiver would be hard pressed to defeat Nightbringer in a straight up fight...even more so with 2 wounds. It turns it's attention to the small unit of slaves that have somehow managed to stay functional in this madness and obliterates them. This triggered the Army of the Nightbringer to phase out at the beginning of Turn 5.
Well, my plan was to concentrate on killing enemy Warriors before the Nightbringer ate my army and it worked. After my poor reserve rolls and the utter failure of my Heavy Destroyers I thought it was gonna be one of those games. But then a few huge things happened. One was that the Nightbringer didn't arrive on turn 1 and the Nightmare Lord with Pariahs didn't arrive until turn 3. In Planetstrike games the early turns are the biggest ones and every turn your heavy hitters are off the table it can hurt.
The other big thing was passing all my morale checks on Leadership 6. If my Destroyer Lord and that unit of Warriors had run off the table in Turn 3 it would have been an entirely different game.
I must say this was an enjoyable set of games. I had never played or witnessed a Necron on Necron battle and adding in the fact it was PlanetStrike made it even more interesting. Thanks to my opponent Nick for the two fun games. And also to Lee of the Ordo Fraternitas who organized the PlanetStrike league. I'm glad the Necron vs Necron showdown was able to happen without breaking the game structure of the league.
Cheers!
